indeed

quite quickly brendan and i identified that we are better together, and that we would get married. we decided that we'd have our wedding in january of 2011. but during the month of march we started to realize that we have nothing stopping us from getting married earlier than that, no barriers, no money issues, no school, no doubts. so we decided to spend a month seriously considering that, praying about it, figuring things out. i was left feeling that we could marry tomorrow and be fully confident that we'd live a good life together. b felt the same way. we decided that we could wait til january, or just get married before going to cambodia and make that our honeymoon. so we looked at our schedules, and decided to get married the saturday before our already planned trip. however, it was our secret. we told no one. needless to say, i was BUSTING at the seams to tell people, but quickly learned to hold my tongue. that being said, i was quite obnoxious with brendan about it and regularly asked him "is there anything you'd like to ask me today??" to that he'd say "not today..." or "just trust me" or "soon", and eventually he began saying "suck it up". i secretly wondered if it would be on april 4th, that was exactly one month from when we decided to consider getting married in june. i waited, i belly ached, i desperately wanted to tell people and start planning! but i waited nonetheless.

this morning brendan, shannon, and i gathered with a group of nexters and the local spanish church down by murney's tower for a sunrise service. when i first woke up i thought to myself "maybe this will be the day!", but after the lovely, beautiful, and symbolic service was over, we headed back to the car and drove shannon home. i left feeling a little disappointed because it had turned out to not be the day, yet again. but after shannon got out of the car b said "can we go back to the water? because i forgot something." i knew in that moment, but tried to keep calm. i was tempted to play a long and pretend that i didn't know, but thought i shouldn't give him a hard time about it. then i tried to not smile by making awkward small talk in the car. we arrived and he asked that i park the car and come with him to get the thing, so i did. we walked down to the waters edge, and found a flat limestone rock to stand on. he made me close my eyes while he started into a spiel in a determined and self-conscious tone similar to when he told me that he had feelings for me. as i stood with my eyes closed i could hear his voice go from above me to below me, then he told me to open my eyes. he was kneeling, presenting the ring, then asked me to marry him. i said yes, and waited patiently for him to give me the ring (i wanted to just take it). my eyes watered and i cried a little bit. it was funny because he reached for my right hand instead of my left, so i had to tell him "this one" – which provided some comic relief :) afterwards we sat talking by the shore for a while, then headed home again.

before going over to next we stopped by the house famous, and i told shannon. she and andrew got engaged on friday, and actually brendan's brother ben and his girlfriend got engaged on thursday. it's been a weekend of proposals. anyways, i told shannon, and she flipped out with happiness. i told her that we weren't going to tell anyone until brendan announced it at church. so we went over to the breakfast at next. i told no one. i had to hide my hand from everyone, just in case – i didn't want someone to accidentally notice it, then the news spread. shanno and i spent a lot of time talking about their engagement and wedding with people, but i didn't say anything :D after the first song at church there was a kid's story, then garry did a responsive reading where we all had to say "that's amazing news!". before the next song, brendan said "speaking of amazing news... les and i got engaged this morning". there were delayed responses all around the church, confusion, excitement, etc. after a little while garry had to stop everything and say "are you serious?" and when b said yes, everyone erupted in excitement. then garry asked "did anyone else get engaged recently?" by way of segwaying into andrew and shannon's announcement. so we were the two engaged girls sitting together.

after that we went to my mom's place for lunch and we were able to tell them. they were all very excited, which was great.

i really like the shock factor, so it was worth holding it in for a month. here's the photo we posted on facebook today.


that's pretty much it. like i said, we'll get married on june 26. it'll be a casual wedding and bbq at next, short, sweet, original. after the wedding, brendan will move in here with me.

let me tell you a bit about my ring. when i was around 17 i found my mom's old engagement ring in her drawer. she'd stopped wearing it because it didn't really fit and it was impractical. we decided then that i would use it for my engagement ring. it's gold, and not really my style because it's so shiny and danty, but i like that it was free and that it's the same ring i saw on my mom's finger when i was little. brendan got it from my mom about two weeks ago and had it cleaned. i think it might actually have two different kinds of gold in it, because there are two different shades. anyways, i'll probably just wear it til we're married, but it's nice to have a ring, that makes it special.

well, it's been a busy and big day. i'm gonna log out now, and just veg for the rest of the night. i hope you're well.

happy easter!

the rule has been disproved,
the stone has been moved,
the grave is now a groove,
all debts are removed.