the sparkling device.

So, it’s probably about time I put this into writing since it’s been a few weeks by now.

The night of October 19, 2008, Andrei and I got engaged at around midnight, so that makes it technically the morning of the 20th.

That Sunday, the 19th, after church, Andrei and I went to McDonald’s for breakfast. It was yum. Then, Andrei decided we were going to go to the mall since he wanted to find himself a new pair of jeans. Once we got to the mall, we started shopping. However, the sparkly jewelry stores were a bit of a distraction. We went into one, they were not very helpful or talkative and let us just look on our own. There wasn’t anything special there anyway. Then we got back on track and looked for denim again. He ended up finding a pair of jeans in identical style and fit, just a bit of a different wash as a pair he already had and also bought himself a nice black blazer. Then, we decided to wander through the rest of the jewelry stores in the mall. All but the first one were very helpful and had me trying rings on and what not. That helped figure out what I liked and didn’t like. Then, at one of the stores, we came across a really simple, three stone ring. We got pretty close to getting that one, but we decided to leave it and keep it in mind while we go to one more store that was not in the mall. That store had a ton more options. And yes, I found more there that I liked, so the decision was a bit tougher. After I tried on just about every diamond ring I found appealing in their display cases, I had three final choices. Each were a variation of a three stone ring. Turns out, Andrei and I and even the lady helping us all favored the same ring. So that ended up being the one he got for me. One amusing point was that the outer, gift box and the bag they put it in matched the nail polish I had on pretty much exactly. Weird, eh?
So then, he stashed the box somewhere and we went on with our day.
Mind you, I was shaking and pretty much had butterflies the whole time we were shopping, so it wasn’t particularly easy to go along with the rest of the day normally.
Andrei and I made dinner, since my mom had called me and asked if we would mind doing so earlier in the day.
So dinner was good.
Then after dinner, we all (Viktorija, Algiukas, Andrei, and me) decided to watch a movie. Tokyo Drift. Then just a few minutes into the movie, Andrei got up and walked away, after him being gone more than ten minutes, I knew exactly what he was up to… he was having a chat with my dad.
During the movie, after Andrei had come back to it… perhaps an hour later, my mom poked into the room to ask if I had seen the movie before (I hadn’t) and said we need to talk. The tone of her voice kind of scared me… I had no idea how she’d react to the situation.
So, after the movie, I walked into the kitchen, and my mom promptly asked ‘so do you have a date yet?’ I was like… ummm what?! Apparently I seemed as if I had no idea what was going on, but soon found out I did. Soon afterwards, my mom, dad, Andrei and I sat down in the living room and chatted for a while. They were surprisingly quite happy and excited for us. That was really cool to see. After he showed them the ring, they asked why I wasn’t wearing it and he said that he hadn’t actually technically asked me yet. So clearly, they implied it would be done that night, and I think they even made mention of the library.
So that night, Andrei and I drove over to the New Lenox Commons – my favorite place in the area… large pond, water fountain, terrace, performing arts pavilion, lots of grass and plants and trees… and we walked over to the terrace, so I was facing the water- I love to just stand there and look and listen to the water splash and wave.... and he got down on one knee and asked me to marry him. Obviously, I agreed, and ever since that oh so eventful bunch of hours, I have been wearing my absolutely lovely, shiny engagement ring.

<3