the rest of the story

many of you have emailed me asking how the engagement went down...so, here goes...

frank and i both lead a slightly busy life and tend to fill our days (and weekends) with work and church. as we both looked at our calendars to the many events scheduled ahead, we realized we didn't have a free weekend until....well...may. so, we tried to plan to take a day trip to the beach on the last free saturday that we both had available (march 24)...or so we thought. despite his efforts to take the day off from work, frank was still scheduled to work on saturday (the day he proposed). he was frustrated because he knew he wanted to propose that day, and i was frustrated because i was SO looking forward to the break away from our busy lives.

i quickly repented of my bitterness and not knowing the true cause of his frustrations couldn't understand why he kept insisting on trying to find someone to take his place at work on saturday. his efforts led him to switch shifts with a man that was to work the overnight shift, meaning frank would work a 6:30AM-3:30PM shift on friday immediately followed by a 10:30PM-6:30AM shift friday night into saturday morning. the craziest thing is that he didn't find out he could do this switch until 9:30 friday night...meaning no rest for the weary. i told him he was crazy and he just shook it off saying he would sleep two hours in the car on the way to the beach. yeah, ok.

[btw...my first clue of the upcoming proposal came when he received the call during our dinner together from the co-worker with whom he was requesting to switch shifts. he not only walked out of the room but also out the door to talk to him. hmmm, nothing suspicious there, right?]

ok, so after i drove a slumbering frank two hours to wilmington, we toured the beautiful and historic bellamy mansion in the historic district. then we ate lunch on the river at a great restaurant called the george. following lunch, we walked along the river and stepped into a few shops to window shop.

frank, being an avid swimmer and lover of the water, wanted to then see the real water at wrightsville beach. so, going completely on memory from my couple of trips to wilmington, i directed us safely to the beach without taking any wrong turns (amazing, i know).

[2nd clue of something about to come came when i asked frank how he was feeling as we drove to the beach--referring to how tired was he feeling since he was running on two hours of sleep--and he replied that he felt "nervous." puzzled by this reply, i questioned him further and he covered by saying he was nervous about finding the beach with no problems.]

well, it was nearly sunset at this time, so we took a short stroll along the beach, stuck our feet in the freezing water, and then sat down together to watch the water and just chat. it wasn't long before frank asked me if i knew what was special about today. i couldn't remember anything significant, so i said "no." he then reminded me that it was one year ago to the day that we had met. he shared a lot of other great things which i'll just title "the mushy stuff that caused us both to tear up" for the sake of weaker stomaches, but it was all nice.

then, after waiting for the deafening plane overhead to fly away and for the people that appeared out of nowhere on the almost deserted beach to keep walking...he squatted down in front of me (obviously grasping something in one hand as he held both of mine)...and said he wanted to give me something to mark this one-year anniversary, but in order to do so, i would have to stand up. he pulled me to my feet and dropped the ring in my hand. however, i didn't look down until he went down on both knees. that's when i saw the gorgeous ring (as pictured below) and began to cry. it was really happening...he then asked the big question: "will you please marry me?" i paused, staring at the gorgeous ring, how it glittered, how it sparkled...still obviously in shock that this was truly happening to me...and after i realized i hadn't answered him yet and he was just staring at me, waiting...i said, "yes of course". then we drove home off into the sunset...

...and that's the rest of the story.