Pumpkins and Chinese Food

I very often accuse my girl friends of dropping off of the face of the planet when they meet a boy... now I understand why. Life gets so busy with a man around. Mine is also a little high maintenance. This is by his own admission so this doesn't count as bad mouthing. I do love him... even if he is high maintenance.

So many of you know he has recently moved from boyfriend to fiance status, and I don't feel like I've gotten to tell the proposal story much. What better place to blab then on a blog right? (P.S. still weird to use fiance)

In order to really tell the story of the proposal, you have to know the story of our first date. Steven and I met in our singles ward, which I hate to admit but don't know why. He was a little bit of a jerk when I first met him, and it was mostly because he was busy flirting with other girls. I was a little bugged that I was the new girl in the ward and he was NOT offering any attention so I just shrugged him off. Then he gave a talk in church. It was funny and interesting and had a really good message. "This Steve guy is pretty dynamic... why is he such a jerk?" So I decided the next night at FHE that I would give him another chance and pay him a compliment. I told him I liked his talk, and we chatted for a bit. We talked again at stake volleyball that week, maybe flirted a little. He razzed me a little for leaving early, but when I told him I had to be up early for court he seemed impressed. Then next day was a text fest. He, very smoothly, wished me luck in court (as if I'm really important at court) and it was non-stop flirting via text message for the entire day. He even asked me out on a date VIA TEXT, which he claims he has never done before. I wiggled my way into a double, and convinced my friend Ashley to find a date. There were numbers exchanged, and we planned a date for the next night.

Steve's version of the story includes how awkward the other guy was while trying to set up the date. We believed at first that he was really young and SUPER excited to be dating (ie: fresh off the mish). The other guy wanted to carve pumpkins and eat dinner at his brother's house. He was house sitting and really wanted to show off this nice house up in Draper.

I'll admit that I spent longer than normal getting ready. The guy had been a jerk but it'd been awhile since I had a legitimate date. We met up with the other guy and my friend and picked out pumpkins and... went to Panda Express? When we got back to the brother's fancy house the other guy shooed us girls into the FORMAL DINING ROOM and soon the guys were serving us Panda Express on fine china... a la high school dance date. In the eyes of the other guy, Steve was a total failure. He put the wrong food on the wrong plate, didn't fill up my water glass, and was generally loud and contentious (a la Steve). Despite what sounds like a disaster of a date, Steve and I hit it off! We discovered that we had the same sense of humor when it came to the other guy, and joined in making things as awkward as possible. We ate Chinese and carved pumpkins, and ended up talking in Steve's truck for a few hours after the date. We joked that the other guy was probably proposing at the door step, and Steve let me down easy by telling me that he wasn't going to propose tonight (sorry). We laughed and talked and called it a night... not before he set up another date. We started dating more and more, things got serious, we started talking marriage, and I started waiting...

A few weekends ago Steve told me that his friends wanted to carve pumpkins at their house. I spent the day sewing a Halloween costume and being totally grumpy for lack of food. He told me to cheer up and we drove to Lehi. As is customary with Jesse and Kiersten, they were providing dinner. We got to their house and Kiersten explained that she'd been craving Chinese as they unloaded bags of Panda Express. I did some quick math and got excited that we were reliving our first date exactly one year later! Poor slow Jessica had no clue that it wasn't coincidence. Despite many clues and hints, I had no idea what was coming. I took my sweet time carving a pumpkin, and happily sat and chatted with Kiersten while the guys "got the pumpkins ready" for some pictures outside. Yay happy pictures, and there goes Steve wandering off into the dark backyard. I followed him a bit and asked where he was going as he slowly lead me backwards. It wasn't until I tripped and looked back and caught a glimpse...

I'm not going to lie.... I panicked. I was NOT prepared for this. For weeks Steve had claimed that he was still saving for a ring, and I just went on waiting. I hadn't planned how to react or what to say and all of the sudden it was happening. He reminded me that on out first date we ate Chinese food and carved pumpkins, and he told me not expect a proposal at the end of the night. He told me that we at Chinese food and carved  Pumpkins one year later, turned me around, got down on one knee and asked me to marry him! I said of course I would, and here were are happily engaged and waiting until later tonight to introduce our parents to each other!

I couldn't be happier and MAN AM I A LUCKY GAL!