Memory Monday: Engaged

This post is a shout-out to my cute sister, Lex, who just got engaged on her birthday two days ago!  YAHOO!!

Lex and Chris

After years of drama, of him liking me, of me not being ready, of us flirting and trying to leave each other alone but not able to, of us being best friends and then even enemies, Pete and I finally got our act together and started dating.  Sure, it was long distance, but dating nonetheless.

We started dating in October of 2001, and really weren't sure where it was going, or how fast.  We would chat online till all hours of the night, every night.  After one trip down to visit Pete in January, I felt all squirmy inside-just... really uneasy.  Until that point, I kept holding Pete at arm's length, not ready for the next step.  I liked where we were at, and I wasn't quite ready to move forward.  But we were at the "fish or cut bait" point-we either needed to commit all the way to our relationship (marriage), or say goodbye and part ways.

I thought, and prayed, and realized, I don't ever want Pete out of my life.  I felt the most like myself when I was around him.  He took care of me, and I took care of him.  I could talk to him for hours.  When I was with him, I felt like I was home.  You know?

So, the next time Pete and I were talking on the phone, I basically told him that I needed to get proposed to.  I think it took him a bit by surprise, especially since a couple of weeks before that I was telling him how I wanted to take a road trip and live back east all summer.  But he had been ready for the marriage step of our relationship for a long time.

Anyway, we started looking at rings.  It took about two seconds to find the one for me, but Pete was a little more picky.  Pete came up one weekend to talk to my dad.  It ended up kind of being a group talk (my dad, my mom, Pete, and me).  Pretty much my dad asked how Pete was going to take care of me (what his major was in school, what the plans are, etc.). 

The next week was Valentine's.  Pete sent me a dozen long-stemmed red roses.  They were SO pretty!  I love getting flowers.  Two days after that I went down to visit Pete.  He was going to school at USU (I had graduated the year before).  On Saturday, February 16, we had plans to go down to his parents' house.  I hadn't had anything to eat that day.  After Pete was done with work, we headed down.  I told him to stop and get something to eat on the way out, and he insisted we stop at a gas station about an hour down the road.  I was so hungry, but all they really had were some nasty hot dogs, with even nastier buns.  Seriously, the bun tasted like sawdust.  Blech.  Pete kept saying, "Oh, we'll eat with my family when we get there."

When we got to his parents' house, they had already eaten and cleaned up.  I was like, "Pete, let's go get something!"  And he's all, "No, no, we'll get something pretty soon."  I was STARVING at this point.  He went upstairs, came back down, and blindfolded me.  He put me in the car, drove around for about 10 minutes (like I knew where he was going in the town that I had been to all of twice before-he could have driven straight to our destination and I wouldn't have known where we were), and then we got out and walked into his brother's house.  He had a candlelight dinner all set up, and his brother Jim was our waiter.  His other brother (Pete has 5 brothers, and 2 sisters) Jeff had made a menu for us.  We ordered the chicken (I think his mom cooked), and the meal was topped with sparkling apple juice.  Jim had also made a romantic songs CD that played while we ate.  It was awesome.

At the end of dinner, Jim brought out two little boxes-one for each of us-that contained an after dinner chocolate.  I suspected the ring was in there.  Sure enough, when I opened my little chocolate box, there was my engagement ring!  I went "Awww, awww," a few times.  Pete and I stood up, and he asked me to marry him.  I said, "Of course!" 

And the rest, as they say, is history.