lots of photos and words. but important photos and words.

Oh my oh my. This was quite a whirlwind weekend so I suppose I'll start at the beginning. Friday I had court trials, and both M and my dad came to watch. We had 2 of the most unusual trials we've ever had so it was fun for them to not only see me try a case, but see some quirks as well. Basically one guy was trying to enter motions pro se and bombing, and this other woman was a hilarious ball of sass. All around, a good day in court.

I got done relatively early, and M had the day off, so we decided to go to a nearby restaurant in a shopping district and enjoy happy hour on the patio. His mom got ahold of us and we ended up deciding to go over there for dinner. We had some time to kill though, so we wandered around the shopping area and I found a dress I loved for graduation!

I think it has the perfect amount of sophistication and spunk. :) I asked M if it says "I'm a lawyer!" and he said it did..so that was enough for me.

Saturday we slept in a bit, and then M decided to go golf with his best friend, so I cuddled up with this little guy all morning:

Let me take this time to back up a bit. Earlier in the week M had asked if we had plans Saturday, and I said no, so he said he wanted to go out to dinner at a place we hadn't been before that his coworkers were talking about. I said sure, I love an impromptu date night!

Thursday my brother offered M and I hockey tickets for Saturday night. M reminded me of our date so I turned them down. Saturday rolls around and before he leaves for golf he's telling me he has to call to see about reservations because the last time he tried they were "full"... he then leaves the room to make a phone call, comes back, and says he got them for 5:30. I thought "well what the hell, we totally could've made it to the hockey game at 7..." but didn't say anything.

I start getting ready for dinner, and after he told me he was wearing a button down and nice jeans, I decided that was a green light for me to dress up a bit. So I curled my hair, and wore the same dress I wore to law school prom the weekend before, and put on some "fancy" makeup (aka more than just mascara and eyeliner). Before leaving M told me to "grab my camera" because there was a statue in front of the restaurant that people like to take pictures in front of. I thought this was strange because a) I ALWAYS have my camera on me and b) my phone (my nice new phone) has a pretty solid camera and lastly c) he's a boy, and boys never make it a point to direct girls to bring cameras places.

So we hop in the car and head downtown.. M's picking at his nails a bit in the car but this really isn't anything new. We get off a particular exit and my spidey senses are piqued even more because we start heading towards the part of downtown where we first met. (I then also recall that it was 2 years ago on Easter that I first told him I loved him and he said it back...) We take a left in front of The Depot- the indoor ice rink where we went on our first date. I see a restaurant with 2 huge fat naked man statues and said "Oh! are we going there?!"...."nope." he says. We pull around the corner and park at a meter, at which point I ask where we're going. He said, "I parked here so you can't see the restaurant." Well, I thought, that eliminates the other possible place I thought we were going, and as we round the corner and he stops me in front of The Depot it was like I was in a soundproof booth and everything was in slow motion. He points down at the sidewalk kitty corner from The Depot and asks, "do you know what this spot is?"... At this point I have the following thoughts, OMG he's about to propose but OMG if he doesn't and I just burst into tears I'm going to look like a LUNATIC, so I do what comes naturally to me: start babbling INCOHERENTLY. I LITERALLY looked down at the "spot" he pointed to and I said "umm, that's a dead worm?" (pointing to the next slab over, yes, I'm that smooth), and he replies, "this is the first place I saw you. I parked over there and it was when I was standing right here I saw you walk into the Depot in your white coat for our first date"....

again, true to form, I start rambling about how I parked over at the ramp across the street and couldn't find the front door, and blah blah blah, and finally he just gives up trying to say anything, drops to one knee, and whips out the ring box, and I'm in tears. I think I squeaked out "omg" and "Yeeeee" (which must've meant yes, because I don't think I actually ever said 'yes'..") and I vaguely recall him asking "will you marry me.".... I had so many visions of how that moment would go, and I sort of wish I'd shut up and let him talk and let it feel more sentimental but it was as if a bumbling idiot had taken over my body and I had no control over myself. I also imagined my reaction being way more dramatic (falling to the ground, sobbing incoherently, etc.) and I was a bit surprised by my reaction. Not disappointed, just surprised. Anyway, the way it actually went down was true-blue-US.

SO, after 4 minutes of freaking out, strangers on the street congratulating us, we round the corner to go to the car (at which point he tells me there is no dinner downtown and we were going to eat at the place we had our 2nd date) and there's a meter-maid writing him a ticket. We couldn't have been there more than 5 minutes. M tried to get him to stop/not issue it but he claimed it was already in the system..He asked the dude to cut him a break because he'd just proposed, and I could tell the guy was agonizing over it, but it was "too late".. at which point M told him "oh, okay. you're really going to do this? this makes you a bad person. what's your name? okay thanks." and gets in the car. I couldn't help but laugh because those 5 minutes summed us up in a nutshell: I'm an awkward, anxious, bumbling person, and M is the guy who can go from calm and composed to an unparalleled level of "annoyed" at people in no time at all. We laughed, he realized he probably was a bit hard on the dude, and said "well, at least we have a time, date, and location stamped piece of paper of when we got engaged!?" SO we're going to try to pay the ticket online and frame it. Makes for a good story, right??

After the engagement, we went to dinner and both were so anxious to go tell people that I barely ate my salad, M wolfed down his meal, and it felt like we were only there for 10 minutes. Not before getting the man at dinner to take our picture (which is still on my camera). I'm sure it was longer. We zipped over to my parents, having just missed my brother (who was going to the hockey game M turned down... NOW it was all making sense!) and surprised them. I didn't say anything, instead I just pulled my hand up in front of my face. My dad and mom both said variations of "oh wow! congrats!" and gave us hugs.. my mom cried, and then we proceeded to have a beer with my dad and call/text everybody else. My best friend Tori's parents were in the area and my dad called them and told them to stop over for some "news".. the minute Tori's mom saw me she said "show me your left hand.".... I guess I'm transparent? haha.

I had always wanted to tell SOME of my "important people" in person first, if possible, so I texted my good friend Leah and asked if she was home. I played it off like I just wanted to see her cats/her and chat since we were in the area. I walked up to her apartment and she asked where we went to dinner. I figured if I told her where she'd know what happened and I wanted to wait until we were upstairs, but I kind of fumbled on where we were and she finally just says, "show me your hand. now." so I pull it out and she's spitting out, "omg. is that real? omg. shut up. OH wow. okay, OH that's for real!?" and I'm cracking up. M hadn't even locked the car yet. So we went upstairs and told her the whole story.

After a long, happy, exhausting day, we crashed hard. This morning we headed to my parents for easter mass where my dad took inordinate amounts of joy out of telling everybody he knew at mass. We stopped back at the house and played with Squish (above- those are my brothers hands, haha) before we headed to my dad's friend's house for Easter brunch at 1:00. My mom's entire family was meeting at 11:30 at my Grandma's, and while the 2 houses are about 45 minutes apart in opposite directions, we really wanted to go over and surprise everyone to tell them. None of them knew we were coming, so when we walked in they all looked a bit confused. They said "we thought you were going to your dad's friend's house?" and I told them "oh we are, but we wanted to come share some news with you guys" and flashed the ring.

There was a collective "OMG, AHHH! CONGRATS!" from the group, and M and I sat down for a mini-brunch (we were starving and I'd had coffee on an empty stomach... combine that with my nerves and I was a hot mess) and told them the story too. My grandma rustled up a bottle of champagne so...

we had a champagne toast to celebrate.

and my uncle Michael made a speech. I'm so unbelievably happy we got to go over and surprise them and share that moment with them all at once. It just so happened one of our special historical moments was a holiday so I'm even more glad M chose to do it around that time again so my family was able to be together.

The rest of the day was spent at my dad's friend's house, and then over at M's mom's, where we showed off the ring and had dessert and coffee. Finally sitting on the couch in sweats with the kitty and M relaxing. I'm anxious but excited to start the week, as no doubt I'll have some more storytelling to be doing. It's still SO surreal. I'll be sitting in normal conversation throughout the day and then wonder "why does 'normal' feel weird? why do I feel so excited?" and glance down and see the shiny rock on my finger and think "OMG that happened. that's real." 'Normal' feels weird because I want to run around SCREAMING 75% of the time" and there's a constant undertone of me beaming with excitement.

SO I suppose some of this space will be dedicated to wedding planning from here on out!? (OMG. wedding planning. wow.)

Hope you had a good Easter weekend as well :)

-Kelly