life is short.. do something: 2009

This weekend I proposed to my girlfriend! Usually I am the one taking pictures of the people who are getting proposed to...Its nice to finally be on the other side of it! Here it is...

There are a lot of little details that I won't include in this because frankly not many of you probably care thaaat much about all the little things, but I'll do my best to tell you the story. The idea of proposing happened at the beginning of this last week. My ultimate goal was to surprise Kristen with the proposal. I wanted that more than anything else so I decided to keep simplicity in mind while also adding a little elegance as well.

Since she loves volleyball I snagged some sweet courtside tickets to the Huskers/Texas game at 1:00. It was funny because she came over to my place around 11:00 AM and said, "Did you know the Huskers are playing today against Texas? Its on TV". I then asked her who she said was playing and a bunch of other ridiculous questions about the game as if I didn't know anything. After she went on about all the details I then stopped her and pulled out the tickets for the game and she went nuts! Good thing I told her to wear her huskers shirt so that we could be in the "husker spirit" for the game day cuz we ended up being on TV several times since we were basically on the court! After the game she went back to her place to get ready for a night on the town. I told her that we were going to Omaha and that I wanted us to finally dress up really nice and really go out for once. She got back to my place around 5:30 and we too off for Omaha. I brought my cameras and camcorder along (obviously to take pictures of our proposal) and told Kristen that I needed to drop them off at Justin's place because he needed to document some stuff with his son and that we'd pick it back up on the way home. lol. She bought it. We got to V.Merts around 6:30. This place was L.E.g.I.T! I have never eaten at a place so nice in my life. We both ordered salmon. I really liked the place and would love to go there again some time in my life! The food was amazing, but my mind was already thinking about the proposal the entire time. I had to try really hard to keep conversation normal and not look like I was spacing out the whole time! Everything seemed pretty normal up to this point. While we were eating I asked her what she wanted to do (as if I really cared or would have changed my plan lol). She didnt' care.. I pretended like I just thought up the idea of going to the area behind Con Agra where there is a huge lake with a beautiful fountain. haha.. I am so sneaky.. or so I thought. This is when I seriously was about ready to have a heart attack. On the walk over to the park I acted like I didn't know how far it was so I texted Justin and Jared (really saying that we were heading over) "asking them how far it was". I was sooo nervous. When we got to the spot I was getting ready to take out a note that I wrote for her, but suddenly she was like, "Oh hey... this is a sweet bench! Look at all the engravings on it. We should write something on it!" Sweeeeet timing... Not only that, but she literally took about 10 minutes to etch a heart with our initials in it. Yes its a sweet idea and I love it now, but at that point I was about ready to freak out cuz I just wanted to propose!! After she finally finished her art work I pulled out the note and read it to her. After that I got down on my knee and proposed. Here's the kicker... at the end of my note I wrote "will you marry me" (not sure why...maybe I thought I'd get so nervous that I'd forget to ask or something..idk?), well she saw it at the end of the paper and was basically just waiting the entire time I was ready the paper to ask it.. I kinda lost the surprise factor there haha... but when all was said and done she said..."of course!". I guess that is just as good as a yes ;)

V.Mertz

Best meal of my entire life

Another picture inside V.Mertz

Last picture before we left for the park. My stomach was upside down this moment!

"Oh hey... this is a sweet bench! Look at all the engravings on it. We should write something on it!" - Kristen

This honestly took what seemed to be around 10 minutes to etch into the table.

"Oh hey... I was going to propose right now! Are we seriously etching stuff into a table?! I am going to throw up because I am so nervous...PLEASE stop etching and get the clue that I am going to propose" - Jason's mind