22 February 2012

The History of My Valentine & Me ~ Part 4

I promise that this is the final post about how Jake and I met and finally got engaged. Of course then there's what happened on our honeymoon. Not that! Ok, well that happened too, but I was talking about how we lost our one ATM card, had no cash, phone got blocked and traveling in general...Maybe I'll tell that story around our anniversary!

So, check out Part 1, Part 2, & Part 3 and here's the story of how he proposed.

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I'd been living in Saint Louis for a couple weeks, had found a job, and was starting adjust. Jake was getting more and more frustrated by having to introduce me to people and explain that while the wedding date was set, deposits paid, and everything reserved, we were not officially engaged.

We'd been talking for awhile about enjoying the fall weather and wanting to go on a picnic before the weather turned cold. We'd talked about how we love playing board games an how neither of us had been able to find a decent chess partner in a long time. We actually went out at one point a bought a chess set, but it sat in the car unopened and untouched.

So it wasn't a huge surprise when Jake asked me to go to the park for a picnic. What was a little weird was that he asked a day in advance; we weren't exactly advance planners. I said ok and I'd see him at the house when I got off work.

So the next day I got off work and things got interesting. I drove to the house and changed clothes and waited. And waited. I finally called and asked where he was. His answer "I'm here." I replied that I was sitting out in front of the house and didn't see him. That was when we figured out that "the house" was supposed to be his house and I had understood it to be my house. Oops.

I headed north and when I arrived Jake came rushing out of the house. It was odd because he wasn't normally watching for me, but I figured he was just hungry. We ran through the KFC drive-thru and went to the park.

We spread out the blanket and sat down to eat, only to realize that KFC had forgotten to include any flatware or napkins in the bag. FUN! So we ate the chicken and fished out green beans with our fingers and used the chicken bones to scoop out mashed potatoes, laughing the whole time.

After we finished, or just got tired of eating like cavemen. Jake pulled out the chess set and we started to set up. As always I'm white and open my brand new bag of pieces and begin to set up. That's when I realize that the queen was missing. I was slightly frustrated that something else had gone wrong, but it was a pretty cheap set (I had a nice one that I was bringing up from my parents house, so we didn't want to spend a ton for a temporary set.) so I started to look around for a rock or something to stand in.

Jake reached in his pocket and pulled out a leather pouch and told me "Here, you can just use this." I was a little bit amused, I thought the pouch probably held some Dungeons & Dragons figurine, I knew he'd played casually a few years before in Florida, but I didn't realize he'd carry a figure around with him still.

Well, it wasn't a D&D figurine. It was my missing queen with a ring around her!

He asked me to be his wife and of course I said YES! So we played chess.

Jake had taken the game in the night before and had sliced open the bag to remove the queen, then he glued the bag back together. He'd been so nervous about me figuring everything out and that I'd noticed the bag. I was clueless.

My ring was just a simple band, we would go later to pick out a stone and bridal band. But it gave him something to offer me and I was just thrilled he asked!

We were married April 26, 2008 in Florida. Everything didn't go perfectly, but it was us. And it was beautiful.

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