Finally...I Get to the Damn Point!

I feel like I've been slamming you all with big news, lately: a new job, vacation, and now this. But this news, this news is actually relevant to this blog. It's actually what this whole blog has been about from the beginning...A.P. and I are engaged! Yay! It happened on our trip to Tennessee, specifically this past Friday. We are very, very excited! And because A.P. is a man with a plan, the moment was documented, and now I'm sharing (including actual pictures of us! Wow...weird.). We're still in the process of telling people, so not everybody knows. We're hoping to have that all taken care of by the end of the week, but man alive, I get tired of being on the phone and telling the same story over and over again. Geesh.

So, here's the story...with pictures!

We were driving through the Smoky National Park, specifically on Newfound Gap Road, which connects North Carolina to Tennessee through the park. We got to Newfound Gap and it was, ahem, too "Smoky" to see a damn thing, so we drove back. Along the way there are all kinds of little places to stop, park, get out, and hike around and check things out. So we kept stopping at these little streams and taking pictures. We stopped at this one stream and A.P. said, "Let's set the camera up and take a picture of both of us." I kind of knew something was up...why you ask? Because my dumb ass accidentally found the ring before we even left on vacation. Oops. But honestly, I didn't know if he was for sure going to ask. I thought he was kind of winging it, but turns out, everyone knew except me: my family, my friends, his family, his coworkers. So, we set the camera up and take one picture:


Not too pretty. It looks like we're fighting, but actually I thought the camera went off, and then I realized it hadn't, so I was trying to get A.P. back in position. Then we took another picture:


Much better. But A.P. didn't like it. He wanted to take another:


Much, MUCH better. I loved this one, so I thought we were done. But he goes, "Let's take one more." So I set up the camera again, and this happened:


In record time (because he wanted to get it in the picture), he got down on one knee, shoved the ring on my finger and blurted out, "Marty, will you marry me?" The joke is, he said it so fast, I don't really know what I agreed to. Of course the camera went off while he was in the middle of getting down on one knee, so it looks like he's falling or I'm helping him up the rock, or who knows what, but WE know what this picture is all about.

Then we hugged and kissed and were happy. Then we took post-happiness pictures. I like this picture because it was after we left the "engagement site" and had moved on to another little stream. In a quick moment, I whipped out the camera and snapped off this picture as I told A.P., "One more...it's all about the ring." He's laughing, which is a rarity in a lot of our pictures (he's usually got his "I'm a serious man" face on).


Then as we were driving away, and stopped at yet another park and take pictures site, we saw a rainbow! Because when you're engaged, everything comes up puppies and rainbows! (Seriously, on the drive back home we saw a puggle puppy!)


We haven't set a date, we haven't talked about anything yet, so please don't bombard me with questions about all that wedding business quite yet (ironic on a wedding planning blog, I know), because I'll look stupid with my lack of answers. For now, A.P. and I are having a great time making jokes about future husbands and wives, and what I really agreed to when I said yes. (Burping for life!! Dog poop on the carpet!!!) I'm happy I was in a pretty place, and wearing plaid (which if you know me at all, you know I love) and jeans. I'm happy that we get to share the rest of our lives together and that we get to keep having fun (hopefully). Yay!