Today is the day: Preparation to Pop the Question!

Today is the day. The day that I will ask Girl to marry me. I just woke up from sleeping in. I was going to get up early, but I really needed the sleep. I’m about to go out and get the cabin ready. I have to do a little sweeping and a few other things. However, how Girl gets to the cabin is still up in the air.

Originally, I had thought that my mom could take Girl back to the woods to check the Maple Trees. However, it is quite muddy here and we have to use an ATV to get out to the cabin. The ATV has a cab, so girl wouldn’t get muddy, but that’ll throw an interesting factor into the mix. Last night, my mom had a great idea. Her idea was that my brothers could do a “Girl relay.” Going from youngest to oldest, my brothers would take her from one brother to the next, until she ended with me. I like this idea because it give my brothers a chance to be involved.

I’m sure there are a few more minor things that could change throughout the day. However, the only thing that matters by the end of the night, is that she knows that I love her and that I want to spend the rest of my life with her.

1 day… Tomorrow.

Tomorrow I propose to Girl. It doesn’t even seem real. This is something I’ve been anticipating for a long time. In under 24 hours, I could be engaged.

After a long trip, I got home today around 5 pm. It was good to see my family and tell my little bros the news. I think we’ve decided not to tell the 7 year old bro until after the proposal, in case of a slip up. I’m pretty excited and have been busy getting things around.

Tonight, me and my 14 year old brother went out to the cabin and started cleaning it up. It is quite rustic, to say the least, and I have my work cut out for me tomorrow. I’m not sure if I will do the fireplace. We tried the one already in the cabin and it smoked us out. I think I’m just gonna stick with candles and a lantern.

For the dessert, I have decided it would be best to eat that back at the house since there is no electricity in the cabin. Instead I have readied some chocolates to have on a little plate for girl and I to share. I also have some bubbly juice for us to drink.

Tonight I was able to have dinner and go shopping with my mom. It was good to get to talk with her and brainstorm about logistics. I had  a lot of fun.

Tomorrow I have to finish cleaning the cabin, bring out a table and chairs, set up the candles, set up the pictures, organize logistics, and a whole lot more. I am exhausted and can’t wait to head to bed. I need the sleep, so I can be up late tomorrow night celebrating!

2 days!!! Friday’s coming fast!

I just got done packing and am about to go pick up my brother. He’s going to spend the night and we’re leaving at about 4:30 or 5 tomorrow morning. I’m so excited and can’t wait to be home. I haven’t even told my other brothers that I’m coming home.

Tonight it was really hard to keep the secret. I’m afraid that I might slip up and mention being home in the next two days before I see her.  I had a couple of close calls tonight and had to come up with a couple quick fibs. I feel bad telling her little lies, but I know she’ll understand when I propose.

I have some particular strategies that I’m putting in place to make girl believe I’m still at school. I will write about them later but am still super nervous girl will find me out. Really, being nervous about her finding out is the only nervous I’m experiencing right now, so I guess that’s a good thing. People are still asking me if I’m nervous about asking her and I’m really not that nervous. I imagine I’ll probably be shaking and holding back tears when I ask her, but I’ll cross that bridge when I get to it.

Tomorrow is going to be a long day in the car. A long day to not slip up and hint that I’ll be home. I’m so excited and jittery. God has truly blessed me with a beautiful wonderful girl. I don’t deserve her and I want this moment to be the best moment of her life so far.

It’s 11:11 and I wished for you… I have wished for you for a long time.

Love you girl…

3 days!

I know I missed the countdown with 4 days left but it has been such a busy week with school. I think I’m finally nearing the end of the madness for this week. Tomorrow I will be preparing for the trip home.

Today Girl asked me if I had any crazy plans for the weekend. How do I answer that? I told her no, but I still think this weekend is going to be crazy. The next time I see girl in person will be when I pop the question… phew!

Girl and I haven’t been able to talk to each other a whole lot the past couple of days. I’ve been busy with school and work. Usually when I get off work, Girl is starting to get tired and wanting to go to bed. This is fine, but I feel bad because I don’t want work to get in the way of us communicating. On the other hand, it’s probably good that we’re not communicating as much the past couple days because I would probably end up spoiling her surprise. I’m so nervous that I’ve already spoiled it. However, the fact is, I won’t know whether she knew ahead of time until we’re engaged. All I can do is hope and pray for the best.

I still need to call people and plan out when they need to come… I better get on that. I tried to get in contact with my mom all day, but she was working. I want to find out when the musical is over so that I can tell everyone when to be there. I want people to be there about an hour before the play ends so that we have time to hide their vehicles and their bodies.

5 days…

I called my Grandparents tonight and told them about my plans. They were very happy. They told me how much they love girl and how they are sure she’ll say yes. I hope they’re right!

I sent a text message to a good friend of mine the other day and asked him to call me when he got a chance. He called this morning and I told him the news. This friend and his wife have been great mentors and role models since I was in Junior High. One of the hardest things about being hours from home is not being able to see these friends. This guy has done a lot for me and taught me a lot. He is part of why I am who I am today. His wife has also given me valuable advice in my career field. I miss hanging out with these friends often.

Today was kind of crazy at one point…

Today I went to Wal-Mart to print off some pictures. I had saved a bunch of pictures of Girl and I on an SD card. I parked and made my way into the store. When I arrived at the photo kiosk, I couldn’t find the SD card. I started freaking out. It wasn’t in my pockets and I knew I had it when I left my car. So I retraced my steps and couldn’t find the card anywhere. After checking my car thoroughly, I headed back towards the store. Then I saw my SD card sitting on the pavement, in perfect condition.

After walking towards the store and realizing I had forgot my wallet, I went back to my car. Then I returned to the Kiosk, only to find that the one I printed at was 10 cents more expensive than the other one. So I had the clerk cancel my order and reordered the pictures at the cheaper price. While I was doing so, the clerk handed me my keys which I had forgotten at the other kiosk.

With all this said, I hope I am a lot less scatterbrained while going through with the rest of my plans. There is a lot to remember and I want to make sure I remember it all.

6 days!

I just got done saving a bunch of pictures of Girl and I from Facebook. It was a lot of fun to go back in time and see all the fun times we’ve had that I had almost forgotten about. I think I’m going to go tomorrow and print off the pictures. I need to get candles too. Sorry, I’ll try not to make a shopping list on my blog.

I got to talk to girl for a few minutes tonight. She told me about her visiting her dad. She also talked about how confident he was that she was going to move near me. He also talked about how he had gotten a real good deal on some cruise tickets. I asked her if he could hook us up. Then added a few words to avoid saying, “for our honeymoon.” I keep having to hold my tongue.

I’m sure I have mentioned this before, but girl does not know that I am going to be home on Thursday. She’s not expecting me til Sunday. I had originally told her that I would have to work this weekend. Tonight, we were talking about me coming home and getting work off. I kept having to keep myself from accidentally telling her I’d be home Thursday.

Tomorrow I am calling my grandparents. I’m real excited to tell them about my proposal. I’m also going to call or Facebook everyone who is going to be at my house that night to give them directions and a time to be there. I still haven’t decided when to tell the rest of my brothers. I’m not too worried about the 17 year old and the 14 year old telling anything or leaking the secret. However, I’m afraid that my 7 year old brother will hear everyone talking and spill the beans. I guess I’ll probably talk to Mom tomorrow and talk out some options.

7 days…

My mom just invited Girl to the show next Friday. Girl accepted, and I’m happy. They are going to go to our house after the show for dessert. Everything’s starting to come together, but there’s still a lot of work to be done. I still have to print off the pictures, call a couple more friends, tell my grandparents, and make the 12 hour drive home.

In one of my previous posts, I said that the day’s were going by slow. Now it’s just the opposite. I am now finding that I have so much to do, that I cannot fit everything I need to in my days. I don’t think it will be long before I let one of my other brothers know what’s going on. I think I may have them get a head start on cleaning the cabin.

Based on what I’m planning on now, I will get home Thursday around 4:30-5pm. Then I will head on out to the cabin and give it a good clean and see what I need to do Friday. Friday morning, I will head back out to the cabin and make sure the fireplace is in working condition, followed by a little bit more cleaning. At some point, I will bring the lanterns and candles out. I’ll also need a table and two chairs.Then I’ll have to make the dessert (I still don’t know what I’m making), and make sure it stays hot or cold or whatever it needs to be.

Now, that doesn’t sound like too much work. However, the cabin that I’m working with is a bit dirty. It’s been used as a deer blind for a while and we got it from a church camp or something. There’s no knowing what kind of a cleaning job I’m getting myself into, but I guess that’s part of the adventure. I know that plans change and things don’t always go how we envision them. But that’s what makes life so exciting, right?

8 days… and some comments from Girl’s best friend.

8 days…. wow. The days keep going slower and slower. I can hardly stand it. I want to be home and preparing right now and I can hardly stand it. So, I’m trying to think of things I can do before I go home. One thing I think I’m going to do is print all the pictures I can find of Girl and I off at Wal-Mart or Staples. I need to have enough pictures to make at least one of the walls in the cabin covered with pictures of us.

Right now, Facebook is showing 240 pictures of us together. I would really like to print the original files because Facebook compresses them and takes away some of the quality. However, I can’t really ask Girl to email me all the photos that she has of us. That might be a little suspicious, so Facebook will have to do. I think the most time consuming thing is going to be downloading all of the photos. But hopefully it will all be worth it.

So, remember Girl’s best friend that I wrote about yesterday? She is the one who set Girl and I up. She commented on last night’s post and I thought that it would be fun for everyone to read. Because the comments don’t always show up sometimes, I’ve decided to include her comment in this post. In the comment she talks about a recent night when Girl hung out with her. She also talks about her struggle to contain the secret. Enjoy!

“Hello, friend. Girl and I had some great girl time last night! We curled each others hair like we were 10. hehe. Anyway, I would like for you to know of the STRUGGLES I faced upon her first arriving.

For starters, I haven’t seen her since before her trip out to see you! So she was talking about that… telling me things I already knew about because you told me! It was so funny! I had to just nod or say “mmhmm” or “that’s funny” instead of “Yeah, ____ told me that!” I must say it was harder than I thought! After dinner, Girl went to my computer to show me something and my heart stopped. Although I KNEW that I had deleted all history of being on this blog, the site link, the link on my FB, and e-mail account, I was still nervous that MAYBE, just MAYBE I had missed something! She didn’t find anything, thank goodness… I had gone a sufficient job of cleaning up my tracks! Success! I almost wrote it in my planner for next weekend, but then I thought, “NO, what if Girl sees it?” hahaha… you are making this difficult! j/k.

AND… I didn’t know that she didn’t know about the show!! I mean, I generalized… here’s our convo.
Me: Are you going to see the show?
Girl: Oh, I don’t know. When is it playing?
Me (covering my butt): I don’t know the exact dates, all I know is that it’s on the director’s FB ’cause she’s my friend and she keeps putting ticket sale numbers as her FB status. I think it’s in the next few weeks. My other friend is lead in it.
Girl: hm. I don’t know. If it’s in the next couple of weeks, Boy will want to see it because his bro is in it. Is it 2 weekends?
Me: I don’t know. I can look online.. (here, I questioned the clearing of my website history again)
Girl: ‘Cause Boy gets in on Monday, so we will have to go the next weekend. We could all go together?
Me: Oh yeah, that’d be fun! I don’t know when my Love works, but we can try!

HAHA! Isn’t this funny? The whole time I was thinking, “You are going next Friday! It’s already been decided for you! And afterward, you are going to get engaged to the love of your life!!” But I only thought it. I also thought about standing on my dining room chair or table and exclaiming it right to her face… but I didn’t do that either. (Don’t worry, Boy. It wasn’t REALLY an idea I had. I just wanted to freak you out a little.)

Later, while we were doing our hair and watching a very chicky chick flick that contained a wedding scene, the topic of weddings came up. She was talking about the veil the girl chose… the wrong style for the dress or something. I wanted SO badly to talk weddings, about what she’d plan for colors or reception or bridesmaid or SOMETHING and because I didn’t want to lead her anywhere, but I didn’t. I just agreed and moved on! Proud of me, aren’t ya??

Good thing this is happening next weekend… I don’t know how long I can STAND it!

Well, Girl will TOTALLY love looking back on this! SOO much fun!
Love ya, dude. xo”

That’s good stuff right there.

9 days…

Today I told Girl’s best friend about my plans to propose to Girl. She just happens to be married to one of my best friends. She was actually the one who set us up around three years ago. She said I was going to marry Girl. I denied it. Until I met girl. Since then, this couple has spent a lot of time with Girl and I. The first time Girl and I met, we were at a Festival of Lights. Every year, we go back around Christmas time to look at the lights.

It was pretty fun to listen to Girl’s best friend’s reaction. I invited her and her hubby to come to the special night and told them all of my plans. I can’t wait to get to celebrate with them.

So I told girl today that my mom had mentioned inviting Girl and her family to my brother’s play a week from this Friday. I’m starting to set things up. I believe my mom reserved tickets today. I will call her tomorrow and confirm this before telling girl it’s a for sure. She sounded a little hesitant to go without me there, since the play will still be on when I get back. However, I plan on telling her to go have fun and we can watch the play together later.

Another thing I haven’t thought too much about is what I’m going to wear. Now, I’m a guy and I usually don’t give this much thought. However, all I can think about is the future proposal and every detail about it. I can’t decide whether I want to dress up or keep it somewhat semi-casual. I guess I have some time to finish thinking this through. I just want every little aspect to be perfect.

It’s kind of crazy, but a week from now, I will be all packed up and ready to go home. I plan on leaving early Thursday morning, arriving early Thursday evening, and then working hard to clean up the cabin, fix the dessert, and set up everything  before Friday night. Time’s a closin in!

The Countdown Starts… 11 days…

Okay, so I almost blew it last night. I had lost my keys and girl was helping me look for them. I went to the bathroom and when I came out, she was looking for my keys in my room. Just as we were about to leave she flipped open the lid of a shoebox that contained the gift box, which contained the ring box, which contained the ring. She suddenly flipped the shoebox closed and went downstairs.

At this point, I was pretty frustrated because I thought that she had seen the ring gift box. I asked her what she was thinking as we were on our way home from Pizza Hut. She then asked me how my money situation was, and if I was doing alright? Devastated, I thought that she had definitely noticed the ring box and was trying to get clues out of me.

After a little brainstorming with my roommate, I decided to take a trip to Target this morning. While at Target, I picked up a necklace and some earrings. Then I replaced the ring box inside the gift box with the jewelry I got at Target. Then I gave her the gift box and said, “I was going to wait until you left town tomorrow to give you this, but I’m pretty sure you saw it last night. So I figured I’d give it to you now.”

Then she told me she had not noticed the gift box. So, I went to all that trouble to save the secret. She ended up really liking the jewelry and it worked out well in the end anyways.

Now onto the planning… So I have talked to Girl’s cousin, mother, my parents, one of my best friends, and one of my brothers. Girl is leaving tomorrow morning to go back home after two grueling weeks of interviews. After she leaves, I plan on calling her best friend and her best friend’s husband, who happens to be one of my best friends, my grandparents, Girl’s dad, and anyone else who might want to know the details. I plan on having a lot of those people back at my parent’s house after girl and I return from the cabin.

Hopefully, she will first be surprised by my proposal, and then by all the family and friends waiting to meet her back at the house.

Currently, my plan is this. Once Girl arrives at the cabin she will walk in to the first room and see the pictures of her and I. There will be candles and lanterns lighting the cabin. Then, in the second room. There will be a table and two chairs set in the middle of the room. On the table will be a single rose and the dessert. (I am currently working at a gourmet restaurant. One of the chefs I cook with is going to give me a recipe for delicious chocolate dessert to give Girl in the cabin.) In one corner of the room, wood will be burning in a home-made fireplace. In another corner my guitar will be sitting. When Girl enters the room, I will be down on one knee in front of the table. Then after the mushy lines and hopefully a yes, I will play a song that I wrote for girl a couple years ago. We will then eat dessert and head back to my house.

Basically, at this point I’m just typing my thoughts. I hope I have organized my thoughts well enough that this blog makes since. My head is pretty much spinning and I’m trying to think of every possible thing I can do to make this awesome occasion as special as possible.

The next few days are going to be super busy, and I’m looking forward to perfecting my plans.