I only have eyes for you

Well, folks... Some of you may have known this was coming... but... (fanfare, please) Stephen and I are engaged! Crazy, I know... but good crazy. : )

So here's the story of how it went down:

I got to Jacksonville around 7:45 and Stephen had mentioned going to the beach. I was hungry but he said there were cute restaurants at the beach so we could go and get food there. I agreed and we headed out. We took this picture first because Stephen said I looked cute. : )



When we got to the beach, Stephen wanted to go to the beach first "before the daylight was gone" and I said okay... although I was thinking "but, what about dinner? I'm hungry?!" He took along a guitar and the djembe drum I gave him from Uganda because he said he wanted to have a singalong and I was okay... but I was thinking "but, what about dinner? I'M HUNGRY?!?" hehe.

So, when we got to the beach, it was pretty cold, but Stephen in his preparedness had sweaters. It was fun! Then as we were walking along, I was thinking "where are we going? why can't we just stop here???" but I kept going and then we happened along this lovely scene. I wasn't sure it was for us (cause Stephen didn't say anything and just stood there looking goofy!) until I saw the heart in the sand with the L and the S in it. Inside the picnic basket were a ton of foods that Stephen knew I liked, like a Green Goodness smoothie, pita and hummus, bruschetta, Gruyere cheese, etc... It was so fun and so tasty!

Towards the end of dinner, I decided to try and tie a Cherry stem in a knot in my mouth (I used to be able do it easily) and Stephen was cracking on me that it was taking me so long... I was so certain I could do it eventually, that I made him promise he would give me a present when I accomplished my silly feat. So after dinner, he got out his guitar and sang me a song and tried to pass that off as his present... and then he was like "no, no... I have another present for you" and he made this big production and took out a box. I was pretty keyed up, until he shook the box and it rattled. And in my head I was thinking, "WHAT?!?!?!?!" Then he made this big production of opening it to reveal: a pair of my earrings that I had left at my parent's house a few weeks ago. Needless to say I was a bit letdown. We make a lot of jokes about re-gifting (especially things like when Stephen leaves his toothpaste at my house and tells me it was a present) but this was too much! You can totally tell in the picture that I was less than impressed, but trying to be nice about it. Hahaha.

Then after a few minutes, he got kinda quiet and then told me he had one more present for me. At this point, I started to catch on. : ) He stood me up, and knelt down and told me he loved me and asked if I would be his wife. And I said yes. Actually, I think my words were "you know I will!" Hehehe. Hooray! I was relieved that my earrings were just a fake and that we were getting engaged. After I said yes, he put the ring on my finger and it fit just perfectly!

So, here are some pictures of the ring. It was hard to get ones that came out clear... I don't really know why, but these ones are the best of what we have right now. It's a beautiful ring, Stephen did a great job!

In addition to the center stone there are little diamonds in the top of the band as well as on the sides. I tell you what, for a low-key kinda girl, I am blinged OUT! : D

But more importantly, I am going to marry an awesome man. God is pretty good. I'll keep yall updated as we get more planning stuff decided. But I wanted to share the news with my dot.comrades. (as awesome as I think that term is, I can't take credit... I got it from TLC and she got it from one of her friends...) Anyways, thanks for celebrating with us!