new last names are pretty cool...

I have held off posting about this for a while because I wanted to make sure that my mom & dad didn't find out via the world wide web. (They were the first people I called, incidentally)

Basically, the best thing that has ever happened to me happened a week ago on the 4th day of February in the 2007th year of our Lord.

I'm engaged ya'll!!

That's right, Kevin to tha Michael Howard asked me to spend the rest of my life with him. Isn't it awesome and crazy and wonderful? *le sigh*

We had taken a trip to New York recently to visit my friend Julie and my other friend Marti (who are now also friends with one another) and apparently Special K was planning on asking me then, but we didn't have a whole lot of alone time together and Kevin didn't feel like the timing was right, so he waited. Apparently a lot of our friends knew about this and were planning on meeting us at the airport when we got back, so Kevin was sending out covert text messages reading, "Abort! Abort!"

So what does Kevin do? This sweet man just carries the ring he got me around in his jacket pocket for about 2.5 weeks! Waiting for the perfect moment. Reflecting back, I did noticed that he had been wearing the same jacket every day. Hmm....

So Sunday, Feb. 4th comes along, and it also happens to be our official 1 year anniversary. At this point, he's still not planning on proposing that night, and we didn't really have any plans for the evening other than wanting to hang out together. So after church I have a rehearsal and when I'm coming back from that rehearsal, he suggests that we go to the Mandalay Canal in Las Colinas...

Sidebar - this is where I took Kevin on his birthday last year and where/when we said those magical little words ("I love you," not to be confused with "Abracadabra") to one another for the first time - End of sidebar

...So I say that it's a wonderful idea and we can eat at a restaurant down there and then walk by the water, etc. So we get down there around 7ish on Sunday, and all the restaurants are closed except for a deli. So Kevin suggests that we go somewhere else, and I'm all, "Hey, don't you want to walk by the water and stuff, since we're here and it'd be all romantic?" and he's all, "Yeah, on a full stomach," and I'm all, "Let's just do it anyway for a minute and then we can go eat since we're never over here," and he all concedes and stuff.

So we walk over there and we're standing by the water and hugging and just talking about what a great year it's been and everything mushy, and I start gettin' a little misty and emotional. Then he said some wonderful stuff to me, stuff about loving me, and never getting tired of looking at my face, and that I'm perfect for him, and about how I don't have anything to worry about, (and all this other stuff that is probably way more interesting and meaningful to me than those that Kevin didn't propose to) and then he steps back, pulls the ring out of his pocket and gets down on one knee and asks me to marry him.

And let me tell you, I wasn't sure if I would be a cryer or not...



I was a cryer.



Then we wanted to go eat after we had called the families, but as it was the Lord's day, lots of places were closing, so we decided to go to our old fallback....the International House of Pancakes. We had been sitting down for all of a minute and a half when this truck driver, "Rick," who was sitting in the booth across from us says, "Is that an engagement ring?" And from then on, he talked to us for the next 2 hours, and we didn't leave until about 11:30. He was a truck driver for stage equipment for mega-famous stars such as Cher and Elton John, por ejémple, and he also had a daughter who was 23 and engaged, so he was fun to talk to. He even ended up paying for our meal! Woop woop!!

Oh yeah, and my ring is ridiculously awesome! There was this antique shop in Dallas and at the back of it, there was an estate jewelry shop where they make their own rings, but they also have a collection of rings from the late 1800s to the 1940s. AWESOME! The one Kevin chose for me is from 1910, and we're really excited that in 3 years it will be 100. Really excited.

It was the best night of my life to date. It's truly like Kevin was custom made for me, and I can't express in words how much I love him. Thank you God and thank you Kevin.