~ my husband rocks! Friday ~ Our Engagement Story

Welcome to week 3 of ~my husband rocks! Fridays~ I'm so glad you are joining us.

My post for this week is a little trip down memory lane. Well, it wasn't really long enough ago to warrant a lane, so we'll call it a walk around memory block. :)

On the afternoon of Friday, February 16, 2007, I was sitting at work, minding my own business when Austin came through the front door. He asked me a few random questions and then out of the blue said, "You need to come with me." I kind of looked at him in disbelief before I said, "It's only three o'clock, I can't come with you, I work until 5!" He calmly repeated, "I know, but you need to come with me right now." I was having trouble wrapping my mind around the situation, so I said, "OK, let me ask my boss." At this point, Austin was laughing a little bit as he replied, "I already asked her, but you need to come with me." I quickly shut down my computer, gathered my things and followed him outside to his truck.

In the front seat was a dry-cleaning bag which contained his suit. He took me back to my apartment, and as he dropped me off said, "You have 30 minutes, dress to match this suit! And bring some warm clothes to change into later."

I ran up to my apartment, and hastily prepared for something fancy (although I had no idea what we were going to do). I was ready in record time, and he whisked me away to Des Moines (which is about an hour drive).


When we arrived, he made his way to downtown through the snow that had started to fall on our way there, and as he was carefully weaving through the one-way streets, he told me to close my eyes. We parked the truck and entered the Hotel Fort Des Moines. He walked through the lobby, leading me to the restaurant on the ground floor. There we enjoyed the most delicious meal I have ever had in my life. I had the salmon, and Austin ordered the New York strip. Both meals were absolutely wonderful!


As we were sitting at dinner, several other couples came in and were seated at tables near ours. Each of these couples mentioned to the waitress that they had tickets to "The Phantom of the Opera," and could they please have their food in time to eat and make it to the show.

The first time we overheard this comment, I looked at Austin in surprise and said, "Phantom, I didn't even know that was in town!" (Being totally honest.) Austin looked back at me, appearing for all the world to be as surprised as I was, and said, "Neither did I, we should see if they have any tickets available at the door!" At that, I launched into a fifteen minute protest about how ridiculously expensive the tickets would be and how we should just drive back home and rent a movie. Austin let the subject drop for the rest of the meal, and after we had finished and paid we got back in the truck and headed (I thought) for home.


Not being terribly familiar with downtown Des Moines, I didn't realize that Austin was headed for the Civic Center (where the Phantom of the Opera just happened to be taking place). He pulled up to the valet parking section and told me to get out of the truck. Again, I began to protest about how expensive tickets would be if we bought them at the door. To which he responded "How about we just use these tickets that I bought in October?" as he pulled a packet of tickets out of his coat pocket. Needless to say, I was surprised (again) and speechless (which does not happen often)! Because he had purchased the tickets so early, we had the most amazing seats! About 10 rows back from the front and off to the side just a little bit. We could see EVERYTHING in spectacular detail! Our seats were so close that we could feel the heat of the pyrotechnics! It was ABSOLUTELY FANTASTIC!!! After the show we headed back out to the truck, and I thought that the evening was over - what a wonderful, romantic surprise! Right?


WRONG! We drove a few more blocks when the GPS unit announced that "you have reached your destination." I looked at Austin and incredulously asked "There's ANOTHER destination?!!?!" He just smiled at me and began to gather up the warm clothes that he had wisely reminded me to bring along ("Just in case we want to go shopping or something while we're up there!"). We had just arrived at the Brenton Skating Plaza

which is an outdoor skating rink. We changed into our warm clothes and borrowed some skates. The front lobby area had seemed rather empty, but it wasn't until I reached the ice that I realized that we were the only two people in the whole place! It was a cold night, so I thought that maybe it was just a coincidence that no one else had decided to come skating, but I asked Austin "When do they close?" and he answered that they close at 10:00 pm. Well, it was already well after 10:30 pm, so I gave him an "are you serious" look, and he laughed and said, "Yeah, they're open just for us!" I thought he was being silly, so I asked him about three or four times if he was serious. He just laughed and we skated around a little bit more. It was a little bit cold at the outdoor rink, and it had started to snow again, and Austin asked if I was ready to go. I told him sure, and we started to skate towards the exit. He grabbed my hand and said "Well, there was one more thing!" and he (very carefully) knelt down on the ice, and as the snow was gently falling on us, he asked me if I would marry him.

I said yes!

As he was standing back up, he kissed me and then said, "And if you'll look over my right shoulder, my parents have been over there taking pictures!"

No, this is not the closing scene to an Oscar-winning drama, this actually happened in my real life! It was without a doubt the most romantic, wonderful night of my entire life!

This is just another reason why my husband rocks! And this was before he was even my husband!

Thanks for reading everybody! Be sure to check in with all the ladies in the list to the right to hear about more husbands who rock!

And remember, on Fridays From*me Tees will refund your shipping on any order of two or more items if you mention the great adventure and ~my husband rocks! Fridays~ in the "how did you hear about us?" section of your order form, so run on over there and check them out, too! Thank you From*me Tees!

If you'd like to find out more about why I started MHR Fridays, either click the top button on the right hand side (if you would like the code to add it to your sidebar, use this code

<a href="http://honestandlasting.blogspot.com/2008/06/my-husband-rocks-friday.html"><img src="http://i303.photobucket.com/albums/nn135/katylinvw/mosaicmhrf.jpg"/></a>

) or this! If you'd like to join in the fun, leave a comment with a link to your post, and I'll add you to my list (also on the right hand sidebar) If you're not a blogger, but still want the world to know about your amazing husband (or wife, or husband to be, or wife to be, etc.) leave a shout-out in the form of a comment! If you're unable to comment, e-mail me at katylinvw [at] yahoo [dot] com and I'll add your shout out to this post!

EDITED: Sorry to everybody who already commented or signed the mister linky - my blog is being contankerous this morning, and we're trying to fix it!


Have a great weekend!