John had told me all week that we were going to go out to eat on my birthday. I therefore suspected that it was at this dinner that he would propose. Instead, I went to bed on the 21st and was awoken by loud music at 12:01 on the morning of May 22nd. Ticked off at my roommates, I meandered out of my room. It wasn't unusual for them to party into the morning, and I thought they were bringing the party home with them. Instead, I found rose petals leading into the living room. However, I was still half-asleep so I had no idea what this meant, until I followed the rose petals into the living room and found a card with a Bible verse and a quarter taped to it.
Every couple has their own quirky "inside" jokes and ours was that John would give me a quarter when he asked me to marry him. I am not sure exactly where this originated. At some point we had given each other a penny, nickel, and dime, and we joked that this was the next "step".
John had one of our favorite songs playing and got on one knee to propose. He would have slipped the ring onto my finger if it wasn't too small. Oh well. You have to have a funny story or how fun will the story be to tell?
Here is a picture I must have taken right after JB proposed. On the far left was his roommate and former Art Institute classmate, Shawn Stewart, who was in on the evening. JB's other partner-in-crime was my roommate Leah who is pictured in the back right.
We were married one year later but sometime after our engagement, we had engagement photos taken. I have not really shown this photo before because both JB and I are honestly appalled by it. I have no idea what we were thinking wearing matching denim. Egads!
