"Wait...you said 'yes' right?"

Okay, so I didn't post yesterday about the proposal like I said I would, but I'm doing it today so that's cool because it was the weekend and you have things to do and people to see and you might not be reading this until Monday anyway so anyhoo...

A and I are ENGAGED!!!! That's right. Gonna get hitched! Tying the knot. Taking the plunge. Insert your own overused phrase about getting married.

So, without further ado, here's the story...

I knew I wanted to marry A a long time ago. She recalls a time that her and my brother were talking and he told her that I must really like her because he's never heard me say anyone was smarter than I was. That's how he knew she was the one for me. How did I know? I guess it's just a feeling. Not so much a hunch, but more of a you don't want to ever picture yourself without her. Type thing. So...

Fast forward through the trials and tribulations of our year and some months together to...ring shopping. We had been talking marriage for a bit, but one day I started to buckle down and hunt diamonds. I, like most people, started my search the online route. Kay Jewelers, Robbin's Brothers, The Diamond Doctor, Diamonds R' Us, Diamond in the Box, McDiamonds, etc, etc...to get an idea of what was out there. FYI, there's a bunch. Too many. Craziness.

(Oh, I knew what I was looking for the whole time. Princess cut solitaire diamond with a white gold band. A made sure I knew - in the off chance that I was in the market - what kinda rock she wanted to rock.)

It was when and where that I was searching for. And I even kinda knew the where. 'Twas the "when" that was the tricky part.

The "where" was easy. Surrounded by the kiddos. That's it. Didn't necessarily matter where, but they were gonna be involved somehow...

...so I got the ring. Ordered it from Los Angeles. Exactly what she was looking for. Then I played the waiting game. Kinda felt like an expecting dad in the hospital sitting around for UPS to delivery the "baby." And then it came...

...while A and I were shopping. I knew it was gonna go down like that. So we come home and both roll up to the door to see that white and brown sticker saying "we really didn't miss you, you missed us...now you have to wait longer for your package" from UPS. Gimme a big ol' Charlie Brown "uuuggggghhhh!!!"

Luckily, since my middle name is Brennan and I share a first name with my dad, I played off this mystery package as something he had shipped to our house for whatever reason. And, as the Man upstairs would have it, A was super busy with work that evening so - darn the luck! - I had to go to UPS and fetch it all by my lonesome. And while we don't condone lying and trickery in our relationship, this one, in the end, was given a pass.

So I waited in line at UPS for an hour to get the ring. Yep, an hour. A was like, "You waited in line for over an hour for your dad's thing? That's crazy." Crazy's right. Crazy as a fox!

The next day my dad was supposed to come by to get "his" package. A thought he did. Ha. Nope. He was in cahoots with me the whole time. Even better? The ring was sitting in it's box in my desk drawer. For like...weeks! And A sits at my desk proofreading these blog posts and my other writing all the time. The thing was right under her nose - literally! - and she was never any the wiser. Talk about hidden in plain sight.

Speaking of which...this leads me to the "when" part of the story. For making it a possibility, I have to give credit to three birthdays: Lil' B, G, and Jesus.

Jingle all the way because Christmas time is here. As such, we have decorated accordingly. Perhaps we did so a tad earlier...but who cares, right? And since that tree has gone up and the presents have gone out, the kiddos have been asking to open "just one" every time I see them. Of course, this time of year, the default answer is, "You can open one on Christmas Eve."

And that was totally my plan, for them to open my "special gifts" on Christmas Eve...but God aligned for something better to happen. But let's back up to the set up before the actual proposal...

A black napkin. Thin paper dyed black, then folded over into square layers. Used once it's entire life to maybe hold a cupcake or act as a coaster for your mixed beverage. Nothing glamorous...to you. But to A and I, it is the beginning of it all.

The very first thing I ever gave her was a black napkin. I was a prop guy for a TV show and she was the featured waitress. I think I gave her some hors d'eouvres on a tray as well, but the napkin was the thing. And that thing has been the thing since...

So I had to incorporate it in the proposal. There are seven words in using her three legal names plus "will you marry me?" We had seven kiddos. Paint each of those words separately on seven separate black napkins and you have something. Wrap each napkin in white tissue paper and put it inside a box, then you're on the right track. Wrap each box with white wrapping paper and top it off with a white bow, you're almost done. Then add each kiddos name randomly, one per gift, with scrolly font printed on white labels and place them discretely under the Christmas tree and you're home free.

Those were to be the presents opened up by the kiddos on Christmas Eve. (Yes, I would've allowed them to open a second gift after the fact. I'm not a monster...)

But, as I said, God intervened. The day before I popped the question, A got to asking me about marriage. And if I knew I was ready and all the things that go into that realm of thought and line of questioning. We were sitting in my office. Her in her chair. Me at my desk. The ring literally a foot away from me. Tucked in the drawer. She was feeling anxious about why I hadn't asked yet...I was feeling, well, good. I had the ring. The 24th was fast approaching. My plan was moving along nicely. Until...

The conversation was over and A was finishing up getting ready so we could go celebrate a friend's birthday. She came into the living room and immediately began to apologize for asking me about an impending proposal. A, if you didn't know, talks with God on a regular basis. And not like "I'm a loon and think I'm talking to God but I'm really talking to a ficus tree." I mean God. She's that in tune to His personal radio station if you feel what I'm sayin.'

She said she was embarrassed. She said God was being sarcastic in His answer to her question that she asked Him while getting ready. She had asked Him if I was ready to marry her and if she was wrong for thinking that He has previously told her that I was. He gave her one name as his answer: Beverly.

It took some prying, but she told me what he said. Beverly. I didn't know a Beverly. She didn't either. She said I better not run off an marry someone named Beverly, I joked that all I know is that "I like the Beverly Hillbillies." However...

                 As I got to the door, it hit me...

                                                            ...but, hang on.

Back up. Earlier I had been wrestling with the idea in my mind whether all these Christian things - the charity, my 180-degree life spin, church, reading the Bible - that I'm doing were done because I know it's the right thing to do and it's for show, or that I feel in my heart that it's the right thing to do and it's for real. I was struggling with not being able to see the changes in me because I'm too close to, well, me. Hard to see the forest for the trees type thing. I asked God for a sign...

And he gave A the name "Beverly." When I was opening the front door to leave, it dawned on me...Beverly Diamonds. That's where I bought the ring. Whoa. I had to laugh at God's sense of humor. There was my sign.

And right there I knew my "when." Now to set things in motion on the fly...

On the way to meet our friend, I was telling A how the little ones - namely E - don't quite yet understand why they don't get presents for other people's birthdays. And in the interest of not hurting E's feelings, I felt all the kiddos should get to open one gift the night before the party so to make the whole house happy and warm and fuzzy. She was a little on the fence about it, so I told her to pray about it.

The next day, God told her it was cool. I knew he would! So as A was going to pick up the kiddos for their weekend with us, I called my mom and told her I was gonna propose. She got excited, I suddenly got nervous. It's not that I thought A was gonna say "no," I just didn't want to make the proposal anything less than perfect. I must've counted and checked up on those 7 white gifts under that tree three times a day for weeks. The very same gifts that A said she never noticed the whole time they were there. Remember when I said, "hidden in plain sight." There ya go.

So when A and the kiddos got back, I was ready. Pretty much. Yea...I was good. I guess. Nervous, but ready. Of course I knew I wanted to spend the rest of my life with her, but, you know...jitters. I had to of been acting weird because later, M said she noticed something was up because I was smiling a lot and acting too happy. Yikes...

I gathered all the kids in the living room and had them sit around the couch. I told them we were gonna let them open one present superearly and I passed out the white gifts. They were obviously lightweight - being filled with tissue paper and a napkin - and the kids were shouting stuff like "it's empty" as they tried to foretell the inner contents.

And once they all had their boxes, I told them to "go!" And they went. "Will" was the first word A said she saw. When M opened hers up and saw "marry" she remarked that she got "the best one!"

It didn't take long for A to see what was going on with the black napkins. She said she couldn't breathe as the mystery sentence was pieced together. The boys were smiling. The girls were "ahhing." And I took a knee. She walked over. I pulled out the black box and opened it...revealing her ring...

                    "Will you marry me?"

                                            "Yes!"

Success!!! We hugged and kissed. In all the commotion and the kiddos "oohing" and "ahhing" I had to stop and ask, "Wait...you said 'yes' right?"

It was so surreal. And like a whirlwind. That whipped us up and took us to Cici's Pizza where we took the kiddos because I felt bad they really didn't get a present. And it's their fave restaurant. And A likes it a whole bunch, too.

While we were there, M dared me to stand up and tell the whole place that her mom and I just got engaged. So I did.