Proposal memory from Angela

Note from Rachael: This response was for the May prompt and arrived to me today via snail mail. Another totally acceptable way to share a submission. I thought this story was cute. I had never heard it before.

At first I thought that Darrin was going to ask me to marry him at this restaurant called Coppermill (after he did propose he told me that had been his plan, but the ring wasn't ready). A few days later he told me that we were going to go roller skating, but instead he surprised me by taking me to the Logan temple (in front of the gate anyway) and parked. The next thing he did was give me a fortune cookie. I thought that was weird, so I just decided to pull out the fortune. I don't remember what it said; I didn't keep it or write it down, but then I broke the cookie some more because I could tell there was something else inside. It was the engagement ring and I asked if he wanted to put it on me, so he got out of the car and opened my door and took me in front of the gate of the temple, got down on one knee and said, "Will you marry me?" Of course I said yes. :)

From our very own Mother Teresa ;)

Note from Rachael: This is May's prompt. I've always loved this story. It just cracks me up! All of the kids have heard it I think, but I don't know that our spouses (or the grandkids) have. Enjoy!

 Ray came to Provo in a little blue vw from California to see me and I had worried it would be so awkward--should I hug him?  shake his hand?  just look at him?  He came and I think it was just NOTHING and then I must have fed him something after his long drive and then we talked on my apartment couch all night.  Then I went to work and he went to a friend's house and slept.  The next night we went swimming and then he drove me over to a little park by where Raymond and Julie used to live and started talking about my boy friends etc. like he wanted to break up and I thought about helping him out and then the thought came to me "no, I'll just let him do this on his own". I have to interject here: growing up the story was that as dad was just talking with no assistance from mom she was looking out the car window either crying or trying not to. HAHA Can you imagine? Her body language should have scared off a proposal! hahaha Then he said, "Well, I'm just trying to say if you'll marry me?"  Well, after all that, I said, "when?"  He said he thought about Dec or Jan.  My response was, "Well, ask me in Nov or Dec."  I figured if he was just testing the water and wasn't sure, I was going to keep dating.  But he said, "Well, when do you want to get married?"  I said, "August".  Well, I guess he had to make up his mind fast, didn't he?  This was July 7, 1970.  We were married August 28--his dad's birthday.  We had to hurry so we didn't back out.

The question is, did mom actually ever say yes? Just, "When?" hahaha I'm sorry I just really find the story terribly funny.

Engaged!

Just like our photos, our story is a little cheesy :) Like Rachael, I had pretty much given my answer two weeks before Mike officially asked. In January he walked me around the Provo temple and told me about a conversation he had with his dad and his dad told him to think about "What if I were to marry, April." So on Valentine's Day when he told me to think about if I wanted to get married I thought he was a little slow. If I was going to be scared away that would have happened at the temple the month before. So I looked at him and said I had been thinking about it, "But you still haven't asked, but when you do I know my answer."
About a week later he joked that it would be funny to plan a big date that felt like it should be a proposal and then not propose. I didn't think much of his sense of humor (still wonder sometimes).
On March 3rd there was a dance on campus. We went out to dinner (T.G.I. Friday's) and then to the dance and he was kind of silly all night and kept bursting into a big grin (so I was suspicious). But when the dance was over about 11 at night and he still hadn't asked I was tired and decided he was following through on his joke idea. But he took me back to my apartment and asked me to change into something warmer and go for a walk. He took me down to south campus where we had our first walk together in September and then behind the President's house in the garden where he sang to me (Wonderful Tonight by Eric Clapton) and then asked me to marry him. Funny thing is neither of us remember me actually speaking my answer. I was so tired by the time I got back that I think I fell asleep on my roommate's bed. She had stayed up to hear the story.

BTW I got in trouble having to write this story because I couldn't remember the details. Including the date!

I am the Luckiest . . .

When Dave proposed to me we had been unofficially engaged for three weeks. He wanted to make his proposal a complete surprise, but I had already told him my decision (we had been praying about it) and he hadn't told me his . . . I was impatient and insecure not knowing exactly where he was at (especially after I had revealed where I was at), so I basically teased it out of him. We were both really busy with school and work - Dave had a hard time finding a minute to go ring shopping, and then finding a little bit of time to get together for him to propose was also hard. As my story makes pretty clear - between my memory and my schedule it was HARD to get it officially done. Just to explain some of the conflicts, I was involved in a dance project, and being a guest performer for a piece in a different dance company. The names mentioned were the directors of those things (Pat's a man, just to be clear). This post is taken almost verbatim from my journal, dated 12 November 2004:

We [Dave and I] were supposed to meet at 2:30 yesterday and I thought that I had until 5 when I have rehearsal with Caroline. But I had forgotten until 11 a.m. yesterday that I had showings for Dancensemble [that afternoon, too]. Pat insisted on going in show order, and the piece I'm in is in the second half of the show. Dave and I met at 2:30 and I told him [the situation] and he seemed more distressed than he usually is by that kind of info, so I knew something was up. [I did try to get Pat to change things up after I'd met up with Dave and observed his unusual reaction to my schedule change, but I couldn't explicitly tell Pat that I thought my boyfriend was going to propose. What if I was wrong? Not sure that Pat would have been sympathetic, anyway.]

Anyway, so since I had at least forty minutes until I had to go [for showings], Dave and I drove around for awhile just talking, and wishing we had more uninterrupted time. I felt so bad - he let me know that he had planned a picnic or something and I was just like, "Can you consolidate your plans into an hour?" So Dave dropped me back off, I performed my piece and I finally got to leave at 4. We went to Wendy's for some food . . . we took the food to Rock Canyon Park and found a picnic table. Dave had a CD player with him and he played The Last of the Mohicans soundtrack (which was not his original intention, but the CD he wanted wasn't with him). I thought it was good. So we were just eating and talking by ourselves there.

Then this cute little family showed up with their model airplanes and soccer ball. They were cute. I totally suspected a proposal was coming at that point and so I wondered how that was going to work with the family there. [Kinda wondered if Dave would just abandon his plans] They left eventually though.

Dave changed the CD to play a song . . . called The Luckiest by Ben Folds. He just held me and looked at me sweetly during the song. It was tender. Then when the song was finished he fished in his coat pocket and got down on his knee and said, "Will you marry me?" and I said, "Yes!" then he put the ring on my finger, a ring that he chose himself.

I needed to go to rehearsal, but had to call the parents before I went so they could be the first to hear the official news. I was subsequently late for rehearsal, but it was super fun to make the announcement. All of the dancers seriously swarmed me for a group hug. :) Also, I specifically chose to post my entry today because it marks the anniversary of mine and Dave's first kiss - not only with each other, but ever for both of us. Eleven years ago. Angela's birthday helped me remember. haha Happy birthday, Angela!