I just want to be home...

I'm a home body...there is no question about that. Everyone that knows me well, knows that I would enjoy being at home over pretty much anything. Even as a very young child I was known to utter the words, "I just want to be home," every time we were on a trip.

But every once in a while, it is time to suit up and leave the house for a special occasion. This time it was for Ashley & Josh's holiday party on December 15, 2007. Cocktail attire was required, so the sweat pants were replaced by a dress, and Josh had an excuse to wear his three piece suit. Doesn't he look fancy? I thought he looked like Justin Timberlake in the vest, but not because of his dancing. Anyway, I digress.

At some point during the evening I confessed to Josh that I was sorry for being such a crabby %@#!* lately, but that I was just coming to terms with the fact that we wouldn't be engaged before the end of the holidays. I told him I would get over it and be fine after the holidays, but just needed some time to get over it. Josh then proceeded to tell me how he has tried a few test runs on the whole engagement thing to see how I would handle it, and I failed miserably at each test. Apparently every test involved him saying "Let's go downtown to the ___________. You can really fill that "blank" in with anything, and my answer was always "No, I just want to be home." I called b.s. on him and his supposed tests because I knew he didn't have a ring and this was just another excuse to buy him more time. But he asked, "how am I ever supposed to surprise you with an engagement when you shoot me down with every spontaneous thing I attempt?" I said, "well, when you finally do it, maybe it just needs to be at home with Lucy since that's where I like to be most."

That was pretty much the end of that conversation, and the evening continued with more dancing and holiday festivities. And by about midnight, I was, of course, ready to go home. I begged and pleaded and said "I just want to be home..." I finally won the battle and we proceeded back home to Issaquah.

Now, this is how bad I wanted to be home. I made Josh take out Lucy while I put on my jammies, turned out the lights and jumped in bed before Josh was even back in the house. Ten minutes later Lucy and Josh came to bed and turned on the TV. Josh was trying to get Lucy to give me kisses which I was kind of getting annoyed with because I was trying to go to sleep, but then I realized Lucy had what looked like a hankerchief around her neck. I said, "Why is Lucy is wearing a hankerchief?" I then grabbed her and realized this was no hankerchief, it was a ribbon and attached to the ribbon was a ring sparkling in the light of the TV. I started screaming because I was completely shocked, and that scared Lucy who then jumped off the bed, so then I had to chase Lucy in the dark to come back to get my ring. At some point during this chaotic moment, Josh finally proposed the way I had told him to just hours ago! Yeah!!!!We're engaged!

Look how pretty and sparkly it is!

So, after all of my whining and complaining I learned that Josh has been carrying this ring around in his wallet for a month! All of those test runs that I failed at were actually proposal attempts gone bad. Well, it finally happened and I couldn't be more excited. However, I don't know when, what, or how we will get married, but I'll be sure to update you all in the near future when the decisions are made. For now, we're going to enjoy being engaged for a while.

Here are some more photos from the evening prior to the engagement. The actual engagement occurred on December 16, 2007 at 1:01 a.m.

Ashley already new at this point that it was about to happen.

I was still clueless and had lost all hope.

Ashley, thanks for making the evening of our engagement so much fun and memorable! I guess I'm glad now that the ocassion was cocktail attire. The story would not have been as sweet if we had been in ugly Christmas sweaters for the photos.

Merry Christmas everyone!