our engagement story

(btw - the very last paragraph is a "cliffs notes version" of our engagement story, for those of  you ORB readers who don't have time to read the whole post. Also, this post has been edited recently, because the fiance reminded me of a few minor details that were not included in the first go around!)

05 // 10 // 13

I woke up early (okay, only-kinda-early-for-me) on Friday morning, and thought of how inevitably it would be my twenty-fourth birthday the next day, sighed over the fact that I probably wouldn't be able to celebrate my birthday at all, and then went about getting dressed and ready to go into work for the afternoon. After getting ready I chit-chatted with my momma and sister for a bit . . . and then I headed into the kitchen to fix myself an early lunch. 

I finished eating lunch, and then checked my cell phone again for probably the hundredth time that day to see if Jared had texted me. I mean, I knew he had an appointment in the morning and that he would be working a half day at work, so I figured texting would be very hit-and-miss that day, but I thought surely he'd at least have texted me by lunch time! Shortly after I finished eating I checked my phone for messages, again. There was a text after all. I got a tiny so-unlike-him message from Jared saying that work was going really well, but was "busy, busy." Now. I don't know about you, but when a man - my man in particular - says "busy, busy" its either for one of two reasons: #1 - plain silliness or #2 - he's covering up something. So, yes . . . that was an odd "busy, busy" text, but I quickly dismissed it and wrote it off as the former probability.

Directly after I got that tiny text my momma walks through the kitchen, stops, looks at me quizzically and asked me if I going to wear any makeup to work that day, which I thought was rather odd, as I don't normally wear makeup to work on most days (gasp!), but I didn't think anything more of her request other than that it was just plain odd. And I didn't argue with her either. I ended up spending a good ten-to-fifteen minutes in the bathroom prettying myself up for the day and desperately trying to convince myself that nothing was "up," and that momma really just did want me to conceal my ghastly-pale face under a layer of pretty makeup to enhance my own natural beauty. ;)

And then I thought some more . . . cue serious suspicions arising.

After I got a few light layers of makeup on my face I went back to my room to put on my shoes, grab my fossil bag, my water bottle, car keys and my purple work apron. I threw the apron loop over my head and tightened the loose strings around my waist - then found my cell phone, still devoid of any text messages from Jared, and slipped it into my apron pocket and took off for my car.



On the twenty to twenty-five minute drive to work I listened to Plumb's new album softly in the background as I ran through every possible "suspicious scenario" in my mind.  I kept on thinking "Why on earth did momma want me to freshen my face up with some makeup sooo badly today? What if Jared is coming up here to surprise me this weekend for my birthday? Or what if Rachelle is driving up here and Meghan will be flying in to surprise me for my birthday? And. Or. And. But." Um, I'm sure you get the picture. After that I quickly dismissed any and every scenario I had played through my mind from just moments before, if not only to reclaim enough sanity so as to make it through my workday without driving myself into the nobody-will-be-here-for-my-birthday-pit-of-despair. And then I cried silently and prayed - and slowly began to forcefully forget every crazed, silly, wild-wandering thought, and prepared myself to walk into the bookstore with a smile plastered on my face.

Work went by pretty quickly, overall. We sold a bazillion cards - seriously! Thank you Mother's Day for that! And because it was so busy, and there were a few extra hours to work, my manager asked if I'd be willing to stay, at first only just for an extra thirty minutes, which quickly became another extra hour at the store. I said that I would be willing to stay until 4:30pm, and then I shot off a text to Jared telling him that I'd be staying an extra hour at work. Then I finally got a text back from my guy! Jared's text reply was: "I thought today was 3:30 for ya. It'll be 4:30 for me today. Gotta make up for missing the morning. ;)

Again, I thought it was sort of suspicious that Jared hadn't texted me until later in the afternoon, but I just didn't really think he'd actually drive all the way up here and miss work and an important appointment just to surprise me for my birthday. So, I quickly let that ESP INFJ Intuition/Feeling or dream, or whatever else you wanna call it, die a slow and painful death.

I finished up at work around 4:30pm and quickly dashed to my car so I could call Jared. Jared acted like it was any other day, really - and I suspected nothing, at least not anymore at this point. I quickly told him about how busy it was at the store, and about how many tons of cards we'd sold and about how hungry I was, and I mean I was HUNGRY! Like ready-to-devour-the-entire-kitchen hungry! Then I asked him about his day real fast, and he said that his appointment kinda fell through because the person he was supposed to see got violently ill that morning and didn't show and then he went on to say that his half day at work was busy but had gone pretty well overall. As I got closer to home, five minutes out to be precise, Jared said that he'd have to call me back later that night because him and his dad and brother were going out to buy his mother Mother's Day presents. 


Once I turned onto our long winding mountain country road I started to relax a bit more, as I knew that my yoga pants, a whole fridge of food and Netflix were calling my name. I quickly gathered my personal affects together from my car and headed inside the house. Momma was standing in the kitchen and said that I had gotten a few birthday cards in the mail and that they were on my bed waiting to be read. And then she said I should go read them. (Suspicious much?) So I walked into my room and saw a golden envelope lying on my bed that was from Jared's family and then sticking out just beneath that card was a white quarter-folded piece of paper. I picked up the card and went straight for the folded piece of paper underneath. At first when I opened the folded piece of paper it was upside down - then I flipped it over and recognized the handwriting and signature immediately as Jared's. 

And that's when my heart started literally pounding out of my chest!

The white paper held a "mystery poem" scrawled upon it and the last line read: "Should you remember but one of these, you know where I am, amidst the trees." I freaked and started saying ohmygosh ohmyGosh OhMyGosh over and over again and ran as fast as I could into the kitchen and started to pace around where my mother was standing keeping herself occupied. I asked momma if she knew what was going on and she said she knew nothing about the "mystery poem" and that she guessed that I had better solve it already. Then I asked her: "HE'S HERE ISN'T HE!?!?!" and she just told me to read the poem again and turned away with a small smirk-of-a-smile on her face. So I read the poem again. 


And then I really, really, really freaked out again because there are a ginormous amount of trees around here, people! But there were only two places where that mystery poem could have lead me to and I was about to trudge onward as fast as humanly possible to the first place I thought Jared might be hidden. I raced out of the door, still wearing my black dress pants, my black and white striped dress shirt and my purple work apron, and headed towards the treeline at the front of our property. I didn't see Jared anywhere in sight, so I broke through the treeline and stumbled into a scraggly pile of thorns which got caught in my dress pants for a moment, and then I started tripping over foliage and branches and all sorts of woodsy junk, so I grabbed at the tree closest to me which was right beside a deep muddy ravine in the thick of the woods. I was deathly silent all throughout my entire poetic-hide-and-seek-adventure, so Jared didn't know I was even out there! I didn't even think to call out for Jared! I mean, honestly, its like I forgot how to think or communicate or something - and then I spotted my love through the trees! Somehow I got untangled from all that woodsy stuff and I burst out of those trees faster than lightning and made my way towards him.

As soon as I rounded the tree line I ran over to Jared and threw my arms around his neck . . . and then he suddenly pulled away from me, which kind of caught me by surprise. Then Jared dropped down onto one knee . . . and happy tears started pooling on my eyelids and I started to fan myself with my shaking-like-a-leaf hands and then he asked me THE QUESTION: "Would you accompany me through life - and write our two stories as one?" Without hesitation I exclaimed: "Yes, yes, yes - with all my heart yes, a million times yes!!!"

And that's wraps up the end of "our engagement story" post . . . thankfully though, our story together has just begun!

But before I go . . . I bet you want to see the ring, don't ya? ;)

(isn't my garnet wuthering-heights-quote-inscribed ring lovely!?)

// The Cliffs Notes Version //

Last week was *seriously* the best week of my entire life!

// May 8th //
Jared & I celebrated our 3 1/2 year dating anniversary!

// May 9th //
Jared calls me & tells me that he got hired on full time by the company he works for!

// May 10th // 
Jared drives up to surprise me for my birthday & asks me to marry him!!

// May 11th // 
We celebrated my twenty-fourth birthday . . . yes, you read that right - 24!

// May 12th //
We got to celebrate my wonderful momma, & I got to take engagement photos with my fiancé thanks to my awesome sister, Mary! 

29 comments:

  1. CONGRATULATIONS, girl! That story just made me smile. I am so excited for you! :) <333

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  2. Awwwwwww!!! Congratulations to you and Jared!! :) Those pictures are beautiful, and that ring is amazing! Sounds like a wonderful, memorable beginning to me. :) God bless you two - your engagement and marriage and life together!

    ~Amber

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    1. Thank you, Amber! It has been such an immensely wonderful and memorable beginning for us! :)

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  3. I didn't tear up with happiness at all. Nope, not at all.
    *sniff* :')

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    1. As we say in the Southern Mountain Country: BLESS YER HEART, DARLIN'! <3

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  4. ohgoodnessgracious, wasn't that just so cute!!!! So happy for you, dear!!!:) For both of you. Jared is blessed to have won your heart.

    ::hugs::
    <3

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    1. Thanks, girl! He sure did win my heart!!! =)

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  5. Wow!! Congratulations! God bless you both <3

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  6. This made me cry! I love this sooooo much! Of course, you already know this. ;) I wish I could come to your wedding. Do yall have a date yet?

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    1. No date yet - we'll be discussing that this weekend! ;)

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  7. Congratulations! I'm so happy for you. :) And your ring is lovely!

    ~Kristin

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    1. Thank you, Kristin! I am so in love with my ring - it is so vintage-y and me its unreal! All I have to say is that he did REALLY good! <3

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  8. so, so happy for you both. congratulations!

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  9. *squee*

    Makes me so happy!! Beautiful, beautiful, beautiful girl! (And I spy some engagement photos I haven't seen yet -- guess I'll have to check your Facebook for the bazillionth time!)

    Best week of your life, love it! (And I noticed you didn't mention the busy-busy. Hilarious. Still chuckling about that one.)

    So blessed to know you and to have gotten to watch your love story unfold. :) <3

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    1. D'aww! Hmmm. I thought you had seen all of the photos on FB already? hehe

      I just went back into the draft of the post and edited in the busy-busy bit. I had to because both you and Jared reminded me that there was indeed a *second text!* Facepalm.

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  10. Ah!!! SO SO SO happy for you!!! Your smiles are pure happiness! :-D God bless you two! (Sorry for all the !!! haha)

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    1. That's okay!!!!!!!!!!! haha And thank you, Gabriela! ;)

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  11. Congrats!! I'm happy for you both! I wish you both blessings!! ;D

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  12. Congrats!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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  13. Awww . . . That is just marvelous! I'm SO happy for you. Blessings to you both!:)

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  14. Oh, Sarah. This makes me so happy! Your sweet and steadfast love for Jared blesses my heart. I LOVE your ring and the inscription on it is so awesome! Wuthering Heights is one of my favorite books. :)
    Super-big mega congratulations to you, sweet friend! :-)

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  15. Awe...seriously gave me goose bumps and made me teary eyes. So excited for you!! :)

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  16. AnonymousMay 26, 2013

    Soooo happy for you!! :D Such a sweet post, thank you tons for sharing! ^_^

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  17. Congrats! I love that he made your birthday so special and you got to celebrate with your family. The ring is gorgeous! My fiancé and I are also newly engaged. We both love a good love story and believe these special moments should be shared. I think your story is amazing and would love for you to share it on our website http://ourengagementstory.com

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  18. AWWWW! What a precious engagement story! SO happy for you. <3

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