He Said / She Said

Matt's Take on the Engagement Story:
Yeah, I've been engaged for 10 days and probably should have already written this, but I've been busy, so I'm just now getting to it. Here's the long-winded version (you've been warned) of how I proposed to Teri.

On Saturday, October 18th Teri and I were meeting our Bible study group at the church to head out for Circle S Farm. I showed up around 9:20 that morning because I knew we'd have some phone calls to make before heading out. I put the ring (in the box) and my camera in my jacket pocket to camouflage the fact that the ring was there. When I got to Teri's she was predictably not ready yet. I knew that would be the case, as I was getting there early. She headed into her bathroom to finish curling her hair, and I set about clipping my fingernails.

I then put Sparky in his cage so he wouldn't be jumping all over me and I got the ring out of my jacket pocket. As I walked over to the bathroom where Teri was, I said "I have a question". It was at this point that I, for whatever reason, assumed that she'd pause with what she was doing and stick her head out of the bathroom inquisitively. Of course, that's not how it worked, and Teri kept curling away. At that point I said "Maybe you should turn around". She did.

When she turned around, I was on my knee with the ring out and I asked her if she would marry me. She was very happy and said "yes", which was followed up shortly by her asking if it all was real. I assured her it was. After she quickly wrapped up getting her hair ready, we called her parents to let them know that we were engaged. Then we called my parents, who were out of town riding horses. I left a voicemail message, and my parents didn't actually find out that we were engaged for a little over 24 hours. Oh well, I did what I could. I then called my siblings to let them know, and we headed off to the church to meet everyone.

I'm glad that I proposed when I did because Teri got to show off the ring to a bunch of people right away, she wasn't going to sleep well that night with running her first marathon the next day anyway and it gave her something to think about during the marathon to distract her from the task at hand.

We've already started some of the wedding planning, and if you check out the links on the right side of my blog, you'll see the link for our wedding blog that will have updates and whatnot on it.

I love you Teri.

Teri's Take on the Engagement Story:
I thought the weekend of October 17 would be memorable due to the fact I would be running my first marathon. But, as it turns out, that is only 1 reason it was memorable.

To distract myself Saturday from stressing out about the race, we had planned to go to Circle S Farms with our young adult group. I was almost ready when I heard Matt's familiar knock on the door, & let him in as usual. We only had about 25 minutes before we were meeting others, so I went back to finish getting ready. Matt lollygagged in the other room, & he meandered back to see how much longer I was going to be. I let him know I was almost ready, but not quite. He said that maybe I should turn around because he had a question. At that moment, I knew what he was up to. :)

When I turned around, he had gotten down on one knee & had the ring out. He asked me to marry him, & I said YES! Mr. Matt is quite sneaky ... I figured he would propose Oct/Nov, but I had no clue it would be Saturday. He had the talk with my dad on Friday, & my dad gave his blessing. My dad prayed with Matt too (melting!). Matt had planned to propose Nov 1, but the ring was ready early, and he is kinda impatient. ;-) We immediately began making the calls to let everyone know.

We went to my parents later that day to watch the game, & my mom had hung balloons & posters congratulating us. My grandparents (coming to visit for the marathon) were in the driveway at the same time we arrived, so they got to hear the news firsthand too.

All I can say about the weekend is wow. I am so blessed to have Matt in my life, and cannot wait to spend the rest of our lives together. God's timing and plan are perfect.