We're Engaged!!!

Jeff and I are engaged!! Yesterday Jeff, his mom Debra, his sister Julie and I all went to Monterey for Debra's birthday, which was on Thursday. We drove up there and decided to walk around on Fisherman's Wharf. That was a lot of fun. Julie followed behind Jeff and I all day long taking pictures of us. (It was great, we have SO many pictures of the day!) After we walked around there for about an hour or two, we got back in the car and started driving around looking for a nice spot to take our picnic lunch. Julie drove us and Jeff was helping pick out nice spots for us to stop at. We ended up stopping at a cute little area that overlooked the ocean. We were kind of on top of a rocky hill, but we were easily able to walk down to where the water was. It was very beautiful. We ate our picnic lunch, and spent some time talking. After lunch, Julie said, "Okay, C'mon you two, let's go down to the water and get some more pictures. You guys can pose for me." (Like I said, she had been taking pictures ALL day long, we were her models and she was really enjoying taking pictures of us.) So Jeff and I headed down to the water. We got down there and we were just hugging each other and sweet talking to each other. Jeff was talking about how amazing it is that we both know that the Lord is calling us to marriage and how he's been so awesome in our relationship, ect. ect. (This is a common conversation, as we've known for some time that the Lord is calling us to be married at some point in the future. It was just a matter of when.) So this talk went on for a few minutes, and I kept thinking to myself about how cute Jeff was and how amazing he is and things like that. Then he turned to face me and said, "Well let's make this right." My first thought was, "Oh no...what does that mean?" (Don't ask why that was my first thought, since there is no reason I should have been scared!) Then he unzipped his jacket and reached into his sweatshirt pocket. I was thinking, "What is he doing?" Once he pulled out a small box it started dawning on me. (I'm so slow.) He got down on one knee and opened the box and said, "Shyloh...Shyloh Ranell...will you marry me." I almost started crying as I said "yes" and threw my arms around him. We hugged for a minute or two (as our first kiss is going to be on our wedding day, hugging was all that we could do) before Jeff finally said, "Um...do you want to put this on?" I was like, "Oh! Yeah!" I had completely forgotten about the ring! It's absolutely beautiful, he did a great job picking it out. We stood there and hugged and talked for several minutes while Julie stood near by and took a million pictures of every single second, she did a great job capturing the big moment. After we were done talking we went back up the hill and talked with Debra and Julie, both of who are very excited and happy for us. Then I called my mom and he called his dad. We cleaned our picnic stuff up and went back up to the car, where Julie had a bottle opener on her key chain. We all had a glass of sparkling cider to celebrate. It was an absolutely perfect set up, as the ocean has been the theme of our relationship pretty much from day one. (That's where our feelings towards each other developed, and since then we've gone there several times together with family and the College and Career group.) When we first realized that the Lord was telling us that we were going to be married to each other some day, Jeff took a "proposal request." My main request was that I didn't want to know when he was going to pop the question. Basically that meant, he couldn't ask me out on a date. (The reason for that, was because we rarely go out together alone, so if he asked me to go to Mimi's with him, I'd suspect something.) Needless to say I was completely shocked and surprised, I had absolutely no clue he was going to propose to me yesterday! Looking back on it now, I realize how stupid I was to not have picked up certain clues that could have hinted at what was going to happen. Lol. Sweet guy he is, also ordered a dozen roses and had them sent to the house, so that when we got home again, they were already there and wating for me. He's a hopeless romantic, and I love it! Anyways, so now we are engaged and planning our wedding! We already set the date: September 19, 2009. I'm sure I'll be posting all about our wedding details as we start the planning process!!