The Proposal

This is definitely a story I don't want to forget...

On Sunday afternoon, I helped Riley to load his car to head back to Manhattan for the week. I watched him drive off, thinking he was headed back so he could work the next day. Little did I know, he had surprise plans for the following day. Instead of going to Manhattan, he went back to his parents’ house.

The next day, I was staying after school to help students with missing homework assignments. At about 4:00, I turned on my phone and saw a text message from Riley saying, "Do you have a warm coat with you?" Needless to say, I was confused so I text back saying "At school? Yes." Riley sent a text saying "Well put it on and lets go!" More text messages were exchanged with me questioning what they heck was going on and Riley not giving any details. I knew something was up, so I got my things ready to go and rushed my last student out by 4:30.

When I reached the school parking lot, Riley was there waiting for me. He asked for my GPS and put in an address, but wouldn't let me see where we were going. I started looking around the car to try to figure out where they were going. In the backseat of the car were several of my coats, a pair of jeans, tennis shoes, boots, and gloves.

Riley drove me to Kansas City. I requested that we eat at Taco Bell on the way because I was starving to death. (We laugh a lot about this choice now, because Riley took me to Taco Bell for our 5 year anniversary last year.) I really had no idea where we were going the entire time as I'm not familiar with Kansas City. He ended up taking me to The Plaza. The drive was rainy, but he was hoping it would turn to snow so they could take a horse carriage ride and he could propose then. Instead, we walked around The Plaza looking at the Christmas lights in the rain. I had an umbrella so I was quiet content, but Riley did not. Eventually after a cold and wet walk, we stopped in front of a fountain. Riley got down on one knee in the pouring rain and asked (twice!) if I would marry him. I said YES!

Perfection--Yes!!!
(My best friend proposed with a gorgeous ring in the pouring rain.)


Chaos--Yes!!!
(The rain ruined his snowy carriage ride plans.

The check engine light came on in his car and we had to stop at a gas station in the ghetto so he could get a quart of oil.

Nobody would answer my phone calls to tell our news.

The weather back home was getting bad, so the drive home was a bit stressful and very long.)