The proposal was wonderful! I couldn't have asked for anything sweeter, more thoughtful, or more loving. He did an amazing job. The day started with us just hanging out. We had plans to go to the Alabama Theater with some friends of ours that night. He had put it on my calender a couple months before and had been excited about it from day one, but I really didn't think much of it at the time. We went to our friends house, and they fixed us a great dinner, we hung out there for a little while, then we headed down town. The show started at 7, and we found us some seats and got ready to enjoy the show. We were seeing "It's a Wonderful Life". I had an inkling that Jake was up to something, but I had spent the whole day not asking a single question, and I just went with the flow all day long. I had a thought that he might pop the question once we got into the theater, because it dawned on me that when we came to the show last year, a couple got engaged after the boyfriend had them put up a "Will you marry me?" up on the big screen. I told him last year that "I would hate it if someone did that to me!" So, to ease my anxiety about him asking me the same way, when the big screen lit up with big "Happy 50th Birthday Mike!" I asked him if he thought it was a good time to go to the restroom, since he had been down there a little earlier and would probably know if there was a long line or not. He smiled and said, "yeah, I think it would be fine to go now!' I was so relieved! HaHa! We watched the great, but really long movie! When it was over, we planned on leaving the theater and going to Linn Park downtown. We had gone there the year before and taken pictures of each other and Jake wanted to do that again this year. So we said good-bye to our friends, which I thought it was odd that they weren't coming with us, but again, I didn't ask questions. We headed over to the park, and we took some pictures. Jake ran back to the car to get something and he came back with a bag. I was not surprised at all when he told me that he had an early Christmas present. The boy can't keep a secret or a present for very long!! (Although he bought the ring in October, and I have to say he did an outstanding job keeping that a secret for 2 months!!) He told me that I needed to find a place to sit because I had to take the gift out and lay it down to look at it! We found a dry spot under a gazebo at the park that was lit and had chairs for me to sit down. He then pulled out a scrapbook out of the bag and handed it to me. I opened the book and that's when the tears started! The first page had our names and the date we started dating. The following pages we pictures he had gotten from our moms that he used to create a timeline of pictures of us at similar ages and points in our lives. He had pictures of our families at around the same times, pictures of our grandparents, and so on until you got to the pictures of us when we started dating. The pictures continued, some made me laugh, others made me smile and cry. At the end he wrote me a wonderful letter that told me how much he loved me, and how truly blessed he felt knowing that the Lord had given me to him to love. His words melted my heart as always, and his closing statement had me hooked! He wrote, "I know that most books end with 'The End', but this book ends with a new beginning..." I turned the page to a picture of an ornament...I was a little confused, but then he handed me a red box with a bow. I opened the box to find the exact ornament that was in the picture. It was a giant Santa Claus ornament with a hollow belly that you could open. I opened the ornament to find my ring box inside and looked up to see Jake on his knee in front of me!! I was ecstatic at this point, and Jake was teary now! He smiled and cried his way through saying "I hope you know that you're my world....And I love you with all my heart!" Will You Marry Me?" And as you all know, my answer was a big YES!!!! And the rest will be history!
