A ring on my finger and bells on my toes!!

I now have a ring!! This picture is not exactly what it looks like but I figured that this would be better than you not seeing anything. The only difference is that the main diamond is a princess cut instead of a round one. So if you kind of squint a little bit then it looks just like my ring:) I will add more pictures later once I get batteries in my camera.
This is Eric's perspective on proposing to me. I had to change a few things because he remembered them a little bit wrong. But here is the story...

Sarah and I were honest about pretty much everything when we first started dating. I must say, honesty and communication can go a long way in a relationship. It wasn’t too long after we met that we started dating; and it wasn’t too long after we started dating that we were talking about marriage. It began with just casual talk about marriage in general, a conceptual idea really. Slowly, it turned into “if we got married, then…” type statements.

Then one Sunday night, we were driving from my house to hers. I looked at her and could tell she was worried or concerned about something. We decided to pull over and discuss it rather than small talk it while driving. Once again, honesty and communication are two things you cannot do without.

As we sat in the car, I looked at her and said, “Sarah, I want to marry you, I really do. Will you marry me?”

She wrapped her arms around me and gave me a big hug. After about ten seconds of silence I said, "Well will you?" She laughed and pulled away and said "yes".

Over the next week or three I looked and looked at rings. She wanted it to be a surprise, but had four requirements: yellow gold, no colored stones, princess cut, and not a three stone ring. I kept reminding her over and over, again and again, that due to my unemployment, she wouldn’t be getting her engagement ring for a few months. All the while, I had every intention of buying it and surprising her before then. (But don’t tell her that).

Last week, we were at Arundel Mills mall feeding her Chili’s desert addiction, when we decided to go look at a jewelry store. She didn’t know that I had already purchased her ring and it was being sized and customized to have a princess cut center stone rather than a round stone.

Morty, the salesman at the jewelry store, was pulling out all of the tricks he could muster. She tried on a few rings and finally picked one she loved. The one that looked exactly like the one I picked out was not the one she loved, it was her second choice though. The one she loved was a marquise cut stone. I know, tough luck for me right?

I sat on the bench waiting for her to come out of the bathroom. She came out and sat on my lap. “Sarah,” I said, “I have a confession.”

“What is it?”

“I already bought your ring; it is being sized right now and should be here in three to five weeks. However, it isn’t the one you picked because it is a princess cut, not a marquise.”

She hugged me tightly and said, “That’s ok babe! I will love whatever you get me, I promise.”

“Really? Ok good.” Then we left. Little did she know, it would be arriving in two days. I made sure to remind her a few more times it wouldn’t be here for three to five weeks.

I got up at nine on Saturday morning to be sure I wouldn’t miss the FedEx delivery of the ring. Sure enough, at ten-thirty it came. By that point my mom and sister were sitting on the couch with me, the doorbell woke them up. They were just as excited as I was when I opened it. Both of them tried it on and loved how it sparkled. I couldn’t wait to see Sarah later that afternoon.

Later that afternoon, I was planning on going to Sarah’s house. My plan, since I started looking at rings, was to knock on her door as usual, but be on one knee with the ring when she answered. I imagined it working out rather well. When I called her, she thought it would be good to meet in the middle again and go to my house before we left to the basketball game we were attending. That ruled out my plan.

Back up: we will go to the park down the street from my house and I would drop to my knee as we walked around the path. She loved the idea of walking, but not in the park. We ended up driving to Westminster, parked by the Pour House, walked two blocks before freezing, and got back into the car. There went another plan.

We decided to go to the Starbucks and get some hot cocoa. While pulling up to an intersection, I told her to go left. “You know,” she said, “it would be a lot easier to remember which way is left if I had ring on my finger.”

“Oh really, you think that might help do you?” I considered pulling out the ring then, by this point it was burning a hole in my coat pocket. “Well, you’ll just have to wait three to six weeks.”

“Three to six? I thought you said three to five.”

“It needs to be a surprise. Now that you know I bought it, I need to have a good window of time to surprise you with it.”

Reluctantly, she made the turn and drove into the strip mall with the Starbucks and parked.

“So….” I hesitated to say anything. I already proposed once in the car, I didn’t want the real proposal to be in the car too.

“Shoot, I was going to ask you something, but I can’t remember.”

“I do. It was ‘Will.’”

“Will,” I repeated.

“‘You.’”

“You.”

“‘Marry.’”

“Marry,” I repeated again.

“‘Me.’”

“Me. ‘Will you marry me?’ Are you sure that was it?”

“Yep, it was,” she replied

“Oh yeah, you are right.” I reached into my pocket, and I opened the little velvet box. “Sarah, will you marry me?”

“Are you serious? You lied to me!” She hit me, she pulled out the ring, and handed it to me to put on her finger, and then she wrapped her arms around me and said, “Heck yes I will!”