Yes.

Yes to real love.
Yes to living happily ever after.
Yes to the happiest of times.
Yes to the most difficult times.
Yes to our big blended family.
Yes to sharing all of it with him.
Yes to his fresh squeezed made just for me margaritas for the rest of my life.

I said yes.

 Seth got down on one knee on new years eve and asked me to spend the rest of our days making each other shake our heads at one another while trying to figure out who's more weird than the other. My sweetheart, oh how I love him.

 Back in November last year we were in Texas visiting his family for the Thanksgiving holiday. On one of our days there we got to sneak away for a date! With 6 kids living at home, that's not something we do often. Ours 'dates' are usually 3 uninterrupted seconds passing each other in the hallway asking if each other is hungry. Needless to say, I was so excited to sneak away and stare at him without someone asking for fruit snacks.

 I knew he was taking me to a nice steakhouse and that was it really.. and maybe coffee. We always need coffee. But.. we were leaving kinda early. I didn't really think anything of it because we are both kinda freaks about being too early. If you're not early, you're late! So, he asked me if I wanted to go to the mall and get something new to wear to dinner.. and that's when I was utterly confused. Mall... dude.. it was black Friday! So, after questioning his sanity, we went to the mall. Or, at least I did. He met up with me basically to pay. The mall was so crowded and it took him like 30 minutes to park and get to Nordstrom, which is where I was. I was quick and grabbed what I wanted and just waited for him to meet up with me to try it on.

 Did I mention I whined at him about not wanting to shop? Yeah.. I am usually all over buying all the things, but I just did my hair and makeup, my boots were a pain in the ass to take on and off, and trying on clothes messing myself up just sounded.. well.. annoying. So yeah.. I just grabbed whatever. The shirt I got was loose fitting and it could be a maternity shirt for all I know. 

 Because the mall was so crowded and he kept poking at me to hurry because we were running out of time (again, confused.. we still had nearly two hours before our reservation!) I just told him I would get dressed in my new outfit at the restaurant. He didn't like that idea, but by this time he was just trying to get my butt moving! 

 This is when it got real fun. He parked at the top of the parking garage. Mr. Fitness boyfriend of mine said we should just take the stairs 'real quick'. Fine.. I could burn some calories before a big dinner. But.. HELL NO it wasn't 'real quick'. This guy is dragging me up a few flights of stairs. By the time I reached the top my legs were burning, I couldn't breathe, I was sweating a bit, and I was officially in 'I'm a princess and I don't want to move another inch' mode. I got in the car and I was ticked. He started driving towards 'the restaurant' and said he would find somewhere for me to change. So then starts the whole, "Are you SERIOUS?! Why can't I change at the restaurant bathroom?!" He gave me all sorts of excuses and I wasn't having it.

Then it got even better.. "I am going to park in this empty lot, just jump in the back and change!"

*blink-blink*

 Honey, you've done lost your damn mind. 

 He basically told me to stop being a pain. So, I changed in the back seat.. well, I tried to. I had to jump out of the car and do a few little jumps and a wiggle to continue to shake my fat butt into my skinny pants. He got out of the car, looks at me over the top of the car and says, "I love you.. smile.. let's go" and comes to grab my hand as we start walking to a row of stores. I kept asking him to tell me what we were doing.. there were no places to eat around us.. so what was REALLY going on?! He was quiet.. We headed up to an area with a nail salon. I said, "I JUST got my nails done.. this is a waste of money". He just looked at me and we kept walking.. right past the nail salon and headed around the corner. 

Around that corner was the Dallas Diamonds Direct store. I didn't think too much of it, until we turned to walk inside. I immediately freaked out and hollered "Oh my god!! Are we going to look at rings?!". There we were.. inside what I always referred to as "the sparkle store!". The rest of the evening was a blur, but I remember being speechless and shaking a lot! Then drinking a lot of wine at dinner!

 Several weeks of asking about 'my' sparkle followed our date. I couldn't stop thinking about it. He actually flew back to Texas the weekend after we got back for work so I was DYING to know if he went and bought me a ring while there. He kept messing with me.. or pretending he didn't know what I was talking about just to bug me. 

 Fast forward to new years eve. I was dead set on thinking he wouldn't propose because well.. we were home. I am not sure why, but I just figured he would take me out somewhere. So here we are at like 10:30/11pm and I start whining about being tired. Staying up on new years eve wasn't really my thing.. and him and I didn't stay up the year prior. So why THIS year was this man set on making me stay awake? So.. guess who got annoyed? Me. Of course. He could tell I was starting to get kinda pouty and dozing off (could I make myself sound any more exciting? Like seriously, who wouldn't want to marry this?) so he wandered off to the bedroom for a bit and came back.

 He sat next to me on the couch and started some small talk about us. I knew something was off immediately. We don't normally plop down and have relationship talk at 11:15pm.. and the rest is history! He whipped out that beautiful ring and I didn't even know what the heck was going on! It's exactly what I dreamed of.. but slightly bigger. I'm not gonna complain!

 I'm so lucky to have this wonderful man in my life. Doing life with him will be pretty special. As I go on with this blog I will share more of our story. 

I'm happy.