Guess what?!

I'm engaged!!!



Craig is definitely the type of guy that once he decides to do something, he focuses on it with a Rainman type intensity and gets it accomplished. Apparently, he woke up this morning, which was a typical Thursday, and decided that today was the day that he would propose.



We went to school, gave some finals, ate some lunch with the staff, had a faculty meeting and parted ways around 2:00. He off to "take his mom to Home Depot" and I had to flag down our busy principal to break the not-so-secret news that Coach Nelson and myself are dating.



After an excrutiatingly nervewracking meeting with my principal discussing my options were Craig and I to get engaged and then married, I left to lesson plan the next six weeks with my cohorts in 6th grade World Geography.



Upon leaving school around 5:15, I noticed a missed phone call from Craig's mom as well as a message. Ignoring the message, I just called Craig to see what was going on; I assumed dinner plans had something to do with the mysterious call. My female intuition was correct and I was informed that I would be attending dinner with Craig, his mom and MeMa...and I needed to figure out what I wanted to eat. "Ooooookay...see you at home honey. We'll talk then" I told him. After three hours of watching kids painstakingly take Geography finals, hand grading those finals, meeting tete a tete with my principal to discuss my relationship status AND reliving a particularly nasty interaction with a prickly coworker earlier this week...I was mentally exhausted and frankly, just looking forward to a nice glass (or two) of wine.



Craig was pulling into the driveway just as I was inching into the garage, careful not to drive PAST the strategically placed string that hangs from the ceiling. As he walked into the kitchen, I blurted out in a slightly verbal diarrhea way about my conversation with Mr. Taggart about our relationship. Craig seemed a little surprised and bemused by my earnest and anxious tale of the day. Soon after, I followed him upstairs to change into something more appropriate for dinner. In the midst of rifling through my overloaded t-shirt drawer, Craig came up and started asking some questions.

Craig: "Do you think things happen for a reason?"

Laura (slightly confused, but yet intrigued): "Umm...like us meeting? Do you?"

Craig: shrugs and says "Yeah. I do."

Laura (still trying to process this mysterious conversation): "Do you believe in soul mates to?"

Craig (with a smirk): "Yeah."

Laura (figuring I might as well milk this stange mood for all it's worth): "Do you think that I'm yours?"

Craig (confidently): "Yes. I definitely do."

Then he sat me on the edge of the bed and started digging into the pocket of his favorite navy Adidas athletic pants and pulled out a little black box. Which was promptly followed by the most important question of my life... "Well, then will you marry me?"

Alright. Let's freeze frame on this little movie I'm describing for you. At this point I was completely in shock. I tunnel visioned in on that little box and barely heard what he had asked. Of course I knew what I wanted to answer, but I couldn't believe that it was really happening. But...the first words out of my mouth were:

"No way! Are you serious? This isn't a joke? You're...like...for real. For real, for real?" (Somehow this experience reverted me back to the vocabulary of my 8th grade athletes)

He's standing there with the ring box open and repeating that he was indeed serious, not playing a joke and that it was all real. Finally, after some screeching and jumping up and down, I allowed him to put the gorgeous ring on my finger. I screamed yes and jumped on him in a big hug.

Sooo...the moral of the engagement story? Craig will always be able to absolutely surprise me.