We're Getting Married!

We met in kindergarten believe it or not! We remained close friends throughout our teens and finally in December 2013, Jon took me to Atlanta for a day trip and I heard him refer to me as his "girlfriend" while we were on the way... I almost swerved off the road! To this day, I still joke that Jon waited until after Christmas to ask me out, so he wouldn't have to get me a gift that year.

Proposing wasn't as easy as the girlfriend piece. I wasn't able to just claim that Kim was my girlfriend and have it happen - I actually had to ask her to be my wife. I wanted to propose for years, but...love takes time, and so does saving up for rings. After acquiring the ring (thanks Pinterest) I wanted to do something fun to propose. We planned a ski trip and gathered a few friends to head out to Vail, CO. I knew that even if she said no, the slopes would only be a few steps away. -- just kidding, I was confident she'd say yes -- Carrying a ring on a plane is a bit scary, and trying to carry it around in your jacket every day waiting on the right moment to propose is even scarier. I knew we had one fancy(ier?) date night coming up about halfway through our ski trip, but I had also googled every proposal line I could find in regards to snow, skiing, and cute girls in red pants on the slopes. Not knowing when the right time would be, I carried the ring around for days *SHREDDING* pow. My overwhelming manliness got the best of me and I decided to wait until the big night - The shoe-in. The obvious choice. The "we only brought 1 nice pair of clothes" night. This was it. I suited up, put this (very bulky) box* in my jacket, and we were off to dinner. I was at dinner with the ring sitting beside the girl I waited forever to ask if I could spend forever with. I had hyped myself up and was surely tired of worrying about this ring getting lost. As dinner went on, I pondered the best time to ask the question - In the snow outside? Under the covered bridge? On the Gondola? After all the hype, nerves got the best of me and I became filled with laughter towards the end of this dinner. I knew the proposal would have to live on for another day. The big night, the great story - Anddd we just went home. *I had to bring the box because it had this cool light that I wanted to use. Really cool, despite me having an obvious box shaped item in my jacket.

`Okay, seriously...what were you thinking? You're probably going to end up proposing at the local pizza joint now...good job Jon, high fives all around...` ----------------------------- Our last full day in CO, we went to dinner at a pizza restaurant in the heart of Vail. It was by the Ice skating rink with beautiful lights and a great atmosphere. So, naturally, I waited until we were far away from that area - Actually, I waited until the evening of our last full day, on our last walk home, and at the end of that walk to decide there was truly no more time to waste. I asked her to take a picture with me, and mid-picture got down on one knee. Asking Kim to marry me was pretty terrifying, but it was only made worse when she wouldn't answer me. Luckily, in a similar fashion to claiming to the mayor of Podunkville, Georgia that she was my girlfriend, I told her to say "yes" to receive the Fiance promotion. We shook the hand of random strangers congratulating us, and I proceeded to call her my fiance. Technically, I believe I'm still waiting on her to say yes - but that's a minor detail we can work out later.