Monday, February 1, 2010

The Biggest Surprise of My Life


Over the last two days, and finishing today, I have been teaching my students to respond to a writing prompt in lieu of preparation for the ISTEP test. The prompt they had this time was to write about the biggest surprised they have ever faced; positive or negative. As I teach this to my students, I modeled for them how to write using of the biggest surprise of my life; the day Mr. Hoosier asked me to marry him. Now, of course I gave them the version that allows to know the basics, but the details are too personal for fourth and fifth graders.

As I have been writing this in my classroom, I have been thinking about it even more. My mom always tells me to write these things down when they are fresh so that I can always look back on them. However, its not as "fresh" as it once used to be, I still remember darn near ever detail of the day. Tonight, as I rested on the couch watching one of my all time favorite movies, P.S. I Love You, I again thought about that perfect day, June 18, 2009. So, I have decided what better thing to do than to write about; I will now always have the story of that day to share with other may it be children, new friends I meet, or just so that Mr. Hoosier and I can reminisce. So, here it goes...

"It was a Thursday evening. I was working an absolute dreadful summer job at a camp. We had plans to meet the Morgan's at the Nickel Plate for dinner that evening. This meeting was not an unusual occurance as the Nickel Plate is within walking distance from our home, we meet the Morgan's on a weekly or bi weekly basis, and we love the Nickel Plate as it was the destination of our first date.

So, I was driving home from work, swearing at traffic I am sure because I needed to get home quickly so I would have time to clean the house before we went to dinner. I decided to call my sister on the way home to see what she was doing. Again, not unusual. She said, "oh nothing, just straightening my hair, why?" Well geesh, I was just curious. Then, I asked why she was straightening her hair, and she said she was bored. Hmmm, again not unusual. I finally got home after traffic listened to my inappropriate language and moved out of the way so I could get home and clean the house before going to dinner. My wonderful, but neat-freak aunt was coming to stay with us so we could take her to the airport the next day and I had to have the house clean for her. So, Mr. Hoosier and I cleaned the house, and he kept telling me to "hurry up". I then replied with,"don't worry I will just wear my hair curly and throw on a pair of jeans and a tee shirt." His response, "no, you have time to straighten your hair and put on something cute, maybe like that cute new sun dress you just bought." "Really?" I thought to myself why does he care about that. I was certain it was just beacause he knows I don't really like my curly hair when we are going out, and my obsession with sun dresses. Little did I know it was because he knew I would have been furious if my pictures from our engagement would have been with my curly messy hair and my jeans with holes in the knees; oh, he knows me oh too well!

So, I hurried and got into the shower. When I got out, Mr. Hoosier was no where to be found. All I saw was a pink note on the bed with my name written on the envelope. The note said that he wasn't here and there was no use trying to find him. It told me to continue to get ready, and "look beautiful as always". When I was finished getting ready to go to the exercise park near the trail where we run and look under the balance beam for the next note. I was to also take the headphones he left because I needed them.

At this point, I had a feeling what might be happening, but I still wasn't sure. Afterall, he wouldn't propose without my family near and when I talked to my sister she was still at home and they live two hours a way. So, I continued to get ready. I hurried as fast as I could... all i wanted to do was run to the next note with my hair soaking wet, not make up, and my cami and shorts on, but I knew I needed to get ready "just in case". I snooped around the house a few times, but there were no signs. If you know me, you would know that this snooping isn't unusual.

I was finally ready, and went to my second note under the balance beam. I found it immediately. I opened it up and in it was a sweet note about how when we were at the IU game in February of 2008 he knew that the girl he had prayed for was sitting right next to him. In the note, also contained the IU ticket from that day. It directed me to turn continue on the trail and look under the slide for the next note. Well, this is where I was confused. There were many slides in the backyards of people living along the trail in our neighborhood; I didn't know which slide he was talking about. I started to get confused and frustrated, but it suddenly came to me.

I finally found the slide and the third envelope. In it was a nice/ sweet note about the role of music plays into our relationship, and how he swears I fell in love with him after his rendition of Dean Martin's Let it Snow on our first date as we were sitting at the bar enjoying a drink. In the envelope was also an ipod. The note told me to put in the headphones and select the playlist with my name because he had finally picked the perfect "song" for us. It said to then, walk back home and he would be waiting for me. So, I did this. The ipod played Tim McGraw's You're My Best Friend. I walked home crying uncontrolably with tears running down my face; I knew what was happening and I couldn't even believe it! When I entered our driveway there were rose petals leading to the door with a final note on the door. I opened it, read it, ran into the house and just hugged him. He was there, with candles and my favorite flowers surrounding the living room, waiting on one knee. He said many sweet words that I don't even remember, and I replied with a "YES, of course!" I couldn't believe it, it was the most perfect proposal. I of course had a million questions to ask him: where were you this whole time, who all knew about this, and how long have you been planning this. He told me we had one more thing to do and then he would answer the questions.

We then still proceeded to meet the Morgan's at the Nickel Plate for dinner. They knew what was going on and were waiting there to celebrate with us. As we walked to dinner, I tried to call my mom, my brother, my dad, my step dad, but no one answered their phone. I was furious! We walked into the Nickel Plate, the same place where 6 months prior we had our very first date, and there awaited my family, his family, the Morgan's, and our other friends Chad & Lauren to celebrate with us!

They ALL knew what was happening. My family had driven two hours on a week night to be there to celebrate the wonderful news. Mr. Hoosier had gone back home to ask both my mom and dad (since they are divorced) for their blessing to marry me. When he did this, he then told my mom about his plans and if she could come down to join us in the celebration.

We all celebrated the wonderful news. When dinner was over, we returned to our house with the Morgan's and enjoyed a bottle of champagne on our deck, made many phone calls, and sent a million text messages. I couldn't believe I was getting married to such an amazing man. My mom says it best, "we couldn't have made a better match for our daughter." The evening was truly spectacular and I knew that if our engagement was any sign to how the rest of our lives would be, it wouldn't be short of amazing!"

Twenty months, and an amazing wedding later, I still remember that day like it was yesterday. I am so blessed to wake up to my best friend each and every morning and to share my life with someone as patient, understanding, and caring as him. He TRULY brings out the absolute best in me. He makes me the happiest girl in the world!

Oh, and for those of you that are wondering... Mr. Hoosier was "hiding" in our neighbor's house the whole time while I was getting ready and watching for me. As soon as I walked out of the house, he came back to our house and got the flowers, candles, and ring ready. He is one sneaky guy; especially to be able to surprise a "snoop" like me!

Here is Mr. Hoosier @ the Nickel Plate, sitting in the exact place we had our first date, on the day we were engaged.



Until next time,
H =)

2 comments:

  1. Very sweet, Mr. Hoosier! I'm not a romantic, so my proposal was an Easter egg hunt in C's old apartment -- 4 days after Easter. Fit me perfectly. :D

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  2. Great, great, great true, amazing engagement writing!!! I absolutely love it! Hopefully you make a hard copy of it (LoL says your old fashioned mother) You should enter it into a proposal contest since it is getting clost to Valentines Day

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