Valentines Day is just around the corner

So some friends and I were sharing our engagement stories... It's always fun to look back and remember those times. :)

Rich and I started dating very reluctantly. We got set up on dates twice - once through a church activity where we got paired together and then proceded to ditch each other at the dance at the end of the night, and again through a friend of mine that was looking for someone to go on a double date with him and another girl and I told him to find me a date and I'd go. This was at the end of February. So... after those two dates Rich still wanted to date me, and I had relegated him to the "lets be friends" category.

After the first date I went out with him about once a week, and I just happened to be getting dates with other guys about 2-3 other nights each week. (And I wonder why my grades took a nose dive that semester??? Too much playing??) As I kept going on dates with him, the other guys in our Ward stopped asking me out and after 2 months we were pretty much exclusively dating, but I really didn't see it as serious or anything.

I moved out of the apartment complex we both lived in and out of the ward and to another area near campus, and tried to back off and "free" myself to date other guys too- while still wanting to date Rich. I took off on a vacation with my roomates and came back and realized I did want to date Rich exclusively. Now it was the beginning of May and we started seeing each other on a daily basis after work I would go to his apartment and we would hang out and spend time together until after dinner and then he would walk me home (about 3 miles).

In June I went on another trip with my mom and sister to visit my granny in Nashville. On the trip Rich and I talked daily and he sent me 2 dozen roses at my Granny's house. I got back from the trip on a Saturday, and the next day I went with him to his Grandparents house for the traditional Sunday taco dinner... his cousins and aunt and another relative just happened to be visiting that weekend, along with the family members that lived closeby- so there were a bunch of us sitting outside eating taco's when his 3rd cousin (or something) asked him something in spanish. Rich blushed deep red and then muttered something back to her and she laughed along with his cousin who knew spanish. I nudged him and asked him what that was all about and he told me he would tell me later.

That night we went back to his apartment and were sitting at the table eating dessert and I asked him what his cousin had said... he told me that she had asked him "when are you going to marry that girl?" and then just waited for my reaction. I asked him what he had told her, and he said "When she decides she wants to." I think asked him if he was asking me to marry him? He said "I guess I am". I was honestly completely surprised... I knew I wanted to marry him- we had stopped in Nauvoo on my trip and I had gotten him a "nail ring" which the LDS pioneers used as "intended" rings for a while because they didn't have anything else- and even had it in my pocket ready to give to him, but was so shocked I told the poor boy that I would have to think about it.

I drove back to my apartment and sat in my room for a while and then called all my friends and told them I was going to get married... and then realized that I hadn't told him yet... So I called him and asked him when he wanted to get married... The poor guy thought I was going to say no and had called his mom heartbroken that I was going to reject him...
We went and picked out my ring together and when the ring was sized and ready to be picked up, Rich took my up the canyon for a picnic dinner and asked me to marry him again and gave me the ring.