Engagement Continued . . .

Katie and I commandeered Kim's car to try again after we dropped my truck off at a repair shop. We had reservations at the Dockside Restaurant in Coeur d'Alene and I had planed to have asked Katie to marry me before we ate - to throw her off, but because of our little mishap (that set us behind 1 � hours) we were only a few minutes late for brunch.

"I thought it was weird that we were only a few minutes late for brunch and was wondering why Dan had picked the outfit that he had," Katie said of a purple v-neck and jeans.

I'm quite fond of the clothes I picked out and they were part of a color theme I had going.

After we ate we took a walk on the boardwalk to finally do the thing we'd both been waiting for for a long time. When we got to the farthest point on the dock we stopped and talked. I took out a purple plastic egg out of my coat and said, "I've got something for you."

She opened it to find a little starfish charm for a bracelet - not a ring. I had been giving her charms for about two years to mark special occations and ideas.

"I have something else for you too, wanna see," I said holding pulling out a purple ring box from Pounder's Jewlery and getting down on one knee.

I had a whole long speech prepared to try and tell her how much I love her and what she means to me, but nothing came out through my tears.

"Will you marry me," I said, because it was the only thing that I could make come out.

She of course said "yes."

As we ran off the dock we had two guys snap our picture - as the black clouds started to roll in and it started raining. You can see that photo to the right.

As we came back to Spokane I convinced Katie that we needed to go to the apartment to change our clothes before we visited with the new "in-laws." From the street you could see the huge "JUST ENGAGED" sign in the picture window. Inside the apartment was just as good. I had told the parents to deck the place out - with balloons, banners, whatever they wanted. And they did - O'Boy they did.

There was confetti, balloons, signs, sparkling cider and a little kitty. Katie had wanted a cat and I thought this would be a great time to get her one so I had them put "Proposal" in the bathroom to wait for us to get home. As soon as I opened the door she ran right to Katie.

But that's not all.

I hadn't asked the parents to do anything to the bedroom and the door was closed. Inside we found our bed perfectly made-up, but covered in red rose petals and silver Hershey Kisses, along with a purple nighty for Katie and a pair of black silk boxers for me. They also put a red fire extinguisher on the bed because we were "such hot stuff." (It was only a little magnet one.)

We found confetti and popped balloons around the apartment for months to follow.

We went and met the parents and made this thing official.

While I had a good plan for the engagement, I think the adversity we went through adds a lot to the story. One thing is for sure - it is our story and ours alone.

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