How It Happened!

I was a guest blogger on Sunday, July 4, 2010, and used my guest post to annouce "How it Happened!" The original post, in its entirety, can be found over at Flip Flops & Combat Boots. The shortened version of the post, which just shares how Frank and I became engaged, is below.

Frank took leave this past week because we had planned a vacay to visit my parents, in Waxhaw, over the Fourth of July holiday. We were going to leave on Wednesday morning, so on Tuesday, before I went to work, I left him a To-Do list.

He was sitting on the couch, watching television, when I got home from work. I was exhausted and melting in my scrubs with the 100 plus degree heat index and admittedly, looked pretty much like the walking dead. We chit-chatted as I looked through the mail, threw his mail at him, unpacked my lunch and asked him about the To-Do list.


Me: "Babe, did you finish your list?"
Frank: "What all did I have to do?"
Me: "Cut the grass."
Frank: "Check."
Me: "Go to the bank and cash the savings bond and rebate check and activate your new, unscratched, debit card."
Frank: "Put this [the cash] in your purse. And I forgot to activate the card, we can do it tonight online. What else?"
Me: "Put the wash into the dryer."

Side note: When you walk in our front door, you can tell if our dryer is running, as the vent from the back of the dryer "ends" there.

Frank: "I think I forgot. I'm sorry."
Me: "I think you did, I'm pretty sure the dryer was running when I came in."
Frank: "I'm not sure that I did, go check for me."

At this point, I knew the dryer was on, but I also knew that I wasn't winning this battle, so I begrudgingly shuffled off to the garage, where I was just going to crack the door and yell, "Yep, it's on."

I opened the door and sure enough, the dryer was running and there, on top of the washer, was the most precious ring box with a bow on top of it.

I panicked. I was pretty sure the ring had been purchased and I hate to admit it, we were already planning the wedding, but he totally surprised me. I was not expecting to find a ring, on our washer, on Tuesday afternoon, when I got home from work and was still in scrubs.

I picked up the box and walked back into the family room and he just smiled. As I crawled on the sofa next to him, he asked me if I had opened it and when I told him that I had not, he told me to do so. As I took off my promise ring, bought before his most recent deployment to Afghanistan, and replaced it with the gorgeous new bling, I looked at him and asked, "Are you going to ask me or just assume?" And after he kissed me, he grinned and replied, "Do I assume correctly?"

Why yes babe, yes you do.