Dear Everyone,

I'M ENGAGED!!!

(january 21, 2011, a night to never forget)

Here's how the story goes. My parents wanted to get to know Ryan's parents a little better, so they all decided to plan a dinner. Ryan and I have been talking about marriage for quite some time, and we knew things were happening even before anything became official.

I thought Ryan was going out of town last weekend for tennis, since that's what he told me. My parents told me to dress up since Ruth's Chris is a nice restaurant. I wasn't all that excited to go to be honest.

We got to the restaurant, and Jane, Ryan's mom disappeared for about 20 minutes. She came back with this long story saying, "Sorry, that was Brett (her other son)... I asked him how the dog was doing, and he was at a friends house, so I had to try and find neighbors who where home and explain to them where the key was on how to get into the house and to let the dog out." ... I totally believed her... it was a big lie... And then my dad disappeared for a few minutes. I asked him where he went, and he said that he told the waiter to bring us a few salads. We had been sitting there at Ruth's Chris for about 30 to 40 minutes... and no waiters had been by to take orders... I was getting upset and more hungry by the minute, half wondering why. Then the waiters finally game out with our salads. Mine came last, of course. I didn't really look up at my waiter since he was behind me, I sort of turned my head to him without looking at him and said, "thanks." Then. I stared and stared at my plate. a whole 3 or 4 seconds later, I realized what was happening. There was a little black box right next to my salad, with a diamond ring in it!!!!!! I gasped, and then looked up at my waiter, and it was RYAN!!!! and I was sort of saying, "RYAN!!!!!" loud... and then all the parents were laughing, clapping, and cheering, along with the rest of the restaurant. Then Ryan gave me a boquet of flowers, and we hugged. The waiters let him borrow a tie, a vest, and they even made a name tag for him!!! He got to sit down and eat dinner with us. The ring is better than I had ever hoped. Thank you so much, everyone, for making this happen! I'm so excited about life!

The wedding plans have already begun...