The Proposal

The day before Thanksgiving one of Ethan's good friends, Dax, got married to a lovely girl named Kylie. Their wedding reception was later that night and we'd planned to go to it together, then head out to Wyoming to meet up with his family at his aunt's house the next day. But during the day, he would come to Rexburg and we'd spend all of Wednesday together since there were no classes.
A few days beforehand he texted me saying that his sister, Brienna, was going to be coming with him because she wanted to go to Dax & Kylie's reception too. I figured that would be okay because then I'd get to know her a bit before I met the rest of their family. That way I wouldn't feel so out of place or something.

Little did I know that that wasn't the main reason Brienna was coming with him.
Little did I know that the ring Ethan had ordered had come in that Monday.

The night before the day before Thanksgiving, I had put on my roommate's fake engagement ring to tease Ethan and to see what it felt like to have a ring on my finger all the time. I joked with him about wearing it to the reception.

Little did I know he was trying with almost all his might to keep his lips sealed about the real thing.

When he arrived Wednesday afternoon, I answered the door brushing my teeth. Goodness, if I'd know what was in store later, I would have maybe been wearing make up and a cuter outfit. But, brushing my teeth seems like an okay thing to do while answering the door, right? Ha. Anyways, he kept fidgeting with his pocket and at first I was a bit confused because it was weird, but then I wrote it off as twisted garments or being OCD about making sure he had his car keys or something, anything not engagement ring related. After about 20 minutes, he pulls out a brand new deck of cards, saying his parents said he could bring them to play with Brienna and me while we were here. I remember sassing him because I had a deck of cards. A cool deck of cards with Disney Cruise ships on them. He just shrugged and told me, "Oh well. I forgot."

He asked me THREE different times to play cards, but I turned him down every time. Meanwhile, Brienna was just sitting on the other couch playing on her iPod. I thought that was a bit weird, but I wrote it off as her feeling awkward or like a third wheel.

Little did I know she was prepping to take pictures.

Finally, I gave in and played cards with him. He suggested War, but then decided against it because it "would take too long." I had half a mind to remind him that we had hours before the reception, but somehow I kept my sass to myself.

Little did I know that he was just worried a special card would be played face down instead of face up.

He settled on Slap Jack because he had previously been "scarred" from playing Egyptian Rat Screw with my friend, Alyssa, at her birthday gathering.

Here is where I remind you that the deck was brand new, as in never been opened before and sealed in shrink wrap.

He unwrapped the cards and dealt them. We played for a bit and I kept losing because I wasn't paying attention. (I really wasn't in the mood for playing Slap Jack...) Then all of a sudden this Queen showed up. It had writing on it, which confused me because I watched him unwrap the deck of cards. I feel like I took forever to try and figure out how it had writing on it, but it was probably only a millisecond or two. Once I got over the fact that it was a new deck, I tried to read the message. Still in a confused "how in the world is there writing on a new card?!" daze, I read: You are the queen of my heart. Will you marry me?

I'm pretty sure I sat there forever, just staring at the card, trying to figure out what was going on. The idea that he was teasing me because we both knew he was going to propose to me and that the ring was on its way, passed through my mind. After a few more years, okay, probably milliseconds again, it hit me. I was being proposed to! This was it. It was happening right then. Right here in my apartment living room.

 I looked over at him as he got up, got down on one knee and verbally asked me to marry him. Again, I was still in a daze, this time it was a "but the ring isn't even here yet!!!" daze, so when he pulled the little white gold treasure out of his pocket, I immediately reached for it. I mean, actually tried to take it out of his hand to look at it. I guess, to make sure it was really there, really real, and that I wasn't going crazy? Thankfully, he held that baby with a tight grip. He looked at me and that's when I realized I was supposed to say something. Then it really hit me. The word, "Yes!" flew out of my mouth... apparently so fast that I actually don't remember even saying ANYTHING AT ALL. But he tells me every time I ask, that I did say "yes." Phew! Haha.

Then he put the ring on my finger and suggested we go celebrate with Jamba Juice.
And... Arby's. He was hungry.