The Proposal

Amanda and I looked at quite a few rings, but none seemed to be “the one”. But one ring would set the marriage off on the right foot; a ring that was a gift from Becky’s Uncle to her Aunt - married for over 65 years. Becky, Amanda's mom, had already planned to come to Texas a few weeks later and offered to bring the ring.

I called Amanda and told her that I had a surprise for her, but it wouldn't arrive for a couple of weeks. Since Amanda is one to struggle with not knowing what a surprise is, she naturally started asking questions. I limited her to one clue per day. Clues like: I ordered it, but not over the Internet. I have never seen the item in question before. I don’t know what color it is.

The weeks went by and Becky and Heff came to town and so did the ring. One night I met them at Amanda's house to do some house projects. When I got there I told Amanda that her surprise had finally arrived and we needed to pick it up.

We worked on her kitchen for a bit when Amanda asked, "It's getting late. What time does this place close where we pick up my surprise?" I said, "9pm. We need to go." She thought the surprise was probably something like a kitchen faucet from Home Depot. I figured 9pm was as a good a time as ever, so off we went.

We got in the car and started driving to the destination. She was bound and determined to figure out what the surprise was before we got there. She asked me, “Can you eat it?” “Is it a puppy?” “Are we going to the airport?”

We arrived at Southlake Town Square a few minutes later after truthfully fending off her questions and I parked next to the fountain in the park where we went on our first date. It was cold and wet and I made up an excuse that I had parked on the wrong side of the park from where we needed to be so that we would have to walk through the park. She was confused.

We had walked through half the square when I went down on one knee, pulled out the ring and said, “So will you marry me?” She practically tackled me. “Yes, I will,” she said. We were both incredibly happy. It took her a few minutes to realize that the ring was the family heirloom. “All this time you were in cahoots with my mom!” She was right. She was very surprised. It was a moment I will never forget.