Saturday, February 24, 2007

Engaged!

So in case you didn't know... I'm usually not so good with secrets. It was quite hard for me not to tell Sophie that the whole photo shoot thing was a ruse.

The past couple weeks since I got the rock I've been telling sophie that she can't have it until it gets warmer... hence the facebook posts regarding the weather. The original reason being that I had planned to ask on our four year anniversary (April 25th). However, I really could not wait to ask and so I made a new plan to ask on Feb. 25th. Unfortunately for me, a winter storm watch created the need to change the date to the 24th. So here I had to come up with a reasonable excuse to get outside and take pictures.

Mind you, I figured she'd have no idea since it clearly is not WARM outside. However, that's beside the point. The proposal is all about surprise and I really wanted to try and keep it that way. So I told her on Friday that we needed to go out and take pictures today. Of course she didn't want to go out in the frosty weather but she obliged in the end.

So with promises of McDonald's fries dancing in her head, we took off for Logan Elementary School. The bitter cold made me acutely aware that perhaps this was not the best weather for a proposal. However... I carried on. With tripod in hand and timer settings on the camera, the photo shoot commenced.

Several photos later, we decided to head over to Gallup Park. At this point I think Sophie was a bit annoyed and starting to get hungry... not to mention that her nose had turned a little pinker.

We arrived on the back end of Gallup and took several photos along the river, on the trail, and next to the bridge. From the photos you can tell by her expression that she clearly thought I was out of my mind to be doing this on a such a wonderful day.

The last photos from gallup were to be taken on a bench that overlooked the small lake. For the first one I asked her to just sit there and clicked the timer.... ran over and took our picture. Then I said: "for this next one... how about we do a funny pose. You close your eyes and I'll be behind you like I'm going to suprise you."

...

I got a funny look from her and she didn't close her eyes. so i said again, "oh... just close your eyes..."
she sighed and closed her eyes... clearly dreaming of some golden french fries from McD's.

When she opened her eyes, she found me kneeling in front of her holding that oh so famous little blue box.


"Sophie, (voice shaking)... oh my god I can't believe I'm shaking... I love you so much... mrf mrfm mumble mumble.. 4 years... can't imagine living without you.. mumble mumble... Will You Marry Me?"

"YES YES YES! OF course Yes!"

Needless to say, she was suddenly oblivious to the cold weather even with a GIANT piece of ice on her finger.

After gallup I called my mom to tell her and then we headed off to her mom's house.

Before we went in, sophie turned the diamond upside down and yelled out.
"Mom! My hand is cold and numb... I can't feel it! something's wrong~" (
[Sophie's mom runs upstairs from the basement, I'm standing to the side so she doesn't see me right away]
"Oh no... what's wrong?" [Sophie's mom starts rubbing sophie's arm/hand vigorously... then she looks at me inquisitively as if I was to blame for this phantom hand pain]

slowly sophie turns the diamond around and sophie's mom breathes a sigh of relief then says OH My GOD!
Giddy spinning and hugging ensues. I hear the first of many times: "So, when are you going to get married?"


Eventually we head out and start calling everyone to let them know the happy news.
Dinner is at Chop House and we have a delicious Creme Brulee to finish off the wonderful day.

How sweet.



Click below to see some of the pictures of our day!


Friday, February 23, 2007

Photoshoot extravaganza

So it turns out that my recent escapades involving compressed carbon rings has reached my relatives in the old country. Needless to say, they're quite curious as to which lovely little lady has snagged my "oh so squinty" eyes.

Solution? Lights... Camera... ACTION! We're gonna have a photo shoot of sorts.

I figured that we may as well take a couple nice pictures around our wonderful hamlet of ann arbor touching on all the important spots... though I'm still debating the final locations.

Potential Locations:
1. Logan Elem School
2. Gallup Park
3. U of M campus

Now all that's left is to convince sophie this is a good idea for tomorrow rather than Sunday, although that shouldn't be too hard considering the weekend forecast!

Thursday, February 22, 2007

Updates


Looks like I'll be starting fresh in this blog since my old posts are all either deleted/lost/or forgotten on purpose.

Let's see what's newish:

1. No more WoW - Got banned for using a certain 3rd party program
2. Graduated from EMU - Got my masters in TESOL BUT... The crappy certificate/diploma says only "Master of Arts".... no information on my specific field. What the crap?
3. Got an engagement ring - Yep... the price of several used cars, but oh so much shinier.
4. Bought a Wii - Well what else will fill my World of Warcraft void?
5. Working on procuring a property for my business - Speaking of which... I have a registered company!

I'm sure there are a ton of other things but that'll have to wait.