Put A Ring On It

Six years ago today, Shane asked me to marry him. It wasn't a proposal under the Eiffel Tower or one where a skywriter posed the question for him, but it was so perfectly US.

It was a Sunday. Shane invited me over to his (now our) house for dinner. I don't remember what the main course was, but he made chocolate dipped strawberries for dessert. He surely knew the way to my heart.
After dinner, he handed me a card that simply said, "Will you...?" on the inside. When I looked up, he was down on one knee. I started shaking and said, YES. He opened the ring box and inside was the UGLIEST RING I HAVE EVER SEEN. It was bright gold and had a tiny diamond and it was hideous. I mustered an, "It's....beautiful" before Shane burst out laughing and pulled the real ring from his pocket, a white gold round cut diamond that was so perfectly me. The first ring? He got out of a gumball machine, and oh, I wish I could tell you that I still had it, but it's gotten lost over the years.

A proposal like that is just so definitive of who we are. We tease, laugh, joke, call each other names ALL the time. We're rarely serious, and for that, I am so glad. Almost as glad as I am that I said yes, so strong in my conviction that yes was right that I was even willing to wear the ugliest ring ever on my finger. And you know? I would have worn it proudly.

Back then. We were BABIES.

(Except that this was actually about six months after we got engaged because Indiana in December is stupid cold and not pretty and green.)

Edit: I have to share this, but if ANYONE TELLS SHANE I WILL STAB YOU. I kind of sort of knew I'd be getting engaged because I kind of sort of found the receipt for the ring in a drawer a few months prior. Totally by accident. Okay, I was rifling through drawers, but STILL. In my excitement, I totally forgot that I knew the ring details and actually thought the uggo gumball machine ring was it. Oh, and I've never told him because my nosiness drives him crazy. I'll tell him someday. Like, when he's deaf. Get it? I'll be all, "Honey, I found the receipt for my ring three months before you gave it to me." And he'll be all, "WHAT? SPEAK UP, I CAN'T HEAR YOU." And I'll be all, "I said, I LOVE YOU, NOW GO MAKE ME COOKIES," but it will still technically count as telling him. And I'll get cookies. I am SO SMART.

Edit x2: This is our formal engagement photo. BABIES.