Not only is she engaged, she's also getting married.

The above title is an example of the non-reinforceability of semantic entailments. Not that you care.

Anyway. Okay, friendos. I've been asked a few times about wedding-related topics, and I figure now if I get asked in the future I can calmly say "see blog for details" (hm, do I sense a t-shirt idea?) and go on with my day.

So I'll take this opportunity to immortalize The Engagement Story right here on the internets, because I'm (not going to lie) kind of tired of telling it and as I'm sure Kevin could attest, I'm kind of a pro by now. I've got the 3-second version (It was on Christmas! yeah, exciting!), the 30-second version (It was early Christmas morning at my house, and . . .), and the 3-minute version (expanded to include inevitable audience feedback). In actuality though I'm a terribly unimaginative storyteller, so I apologize in advance. Here's some, mostly true version of what went down.

As I said, it was very early on Christmas Day. We had had a lot of people over to my parents' house for Christmas eve, including Kevin's parents, who live in the same town. Everyone eventually went home by about 11:30. Kevin stayed behind, though, which meant I'd have to drive him home soon, but we had a few minutes together in the living room after my family went upstairs to bed. The house was quiet and we only had on the white Christmas lights around the room and on the tree. A lovely, peaceful scene.

I kept expecting Kevin to ask to go home any minute. We were tired. All of a sudden Kevin noticed it was after midnight and wished me a merry Christmas. I looked back to see the clock and noticed it was 12:12. My sisters have this thing where when the numbers on the clock are all the same (usually at 11:11), they make a wish. Just to be silly, I said "Make a wish!" and Kevin played along. I asked him what he wished for, and he (following the rules of wishes) said he couldn't tell me. Then he asked me what I wished for. I refused to tell him, but he kept insisting. I kept refusing, saying it was silly, but finally I said, "Okay, I guess I wished that we could get married."

Now I knew he'd have to tell me, so I asked him again what he wished for. He said, "I wished that you would say yes." I kinda just stared at him for a second, not sure what that meant, and said, "Of course I'd say yes." So Kevin said, "What if I happened to have something in my pocket? Let's see. . . ." He pulled out a little red velvet bag and, saying some more words, proceeded to pull out something shiny.

Yes, this is where my story gets lame. See, by this point I realized what was happening, and I suppose at momentous life occasions, my internal monologue turns up the volume and drowns out the important things other people happen to be saying. All I know is that he got down on one knee, the words "I love you" were somewhere in there, and finally I snapped back to reality and babbled the most ridiculous thing of all: "So what are you saying?"

Now if I were him I probably would have rolled my eyes and said "oh forget it," but no: "Will you marry me?" said Kevin. What a sport.

And then of course I said yes and he put the ring on my finger. It was beautiful in the glow of the Christmas tree, let me tell you. It's beautiful anyway, but I mostly love it for reasons that have nothing to do with aesthetics.

I'm glad it was so quiet and secluded, so we had a couple minutes to sort of bask in the moment. Then, after some debate, I decided we should tell my parents before Kevin went home. So we somewhat awkwardly broke the news to my parents (in bed and in their pajamas) and they somewhat awkwardly but enthusiastically congratulated us. We told Kevin's parents the next day, and later the rest of Kevin's family, all of whom were thrilled. The end.

That's it - I get to be married to Kevin, God willing, in less than 8 months. :] The tentative (do not hold me to ANYTHING) plan/hope is a smallish wedding on September 12, 2009

with a ceremony here (Biola)

and a reception here (the Cook family home).

And that, along with the fact that I have a crazy small budget (no problem!), is really about all I know so far. I can't even decide on colors. As Antonio Banderas as Zorro once said, "I am a [wo]man in search of a vision." Ashely Young, help? No blue and I'm not crazy about brown, that's all I ask.