big news.

like, big BIG news. Like, biggest-news-of-my-life-news.

Friends, family, strangers-- I'm engaged!

I have a beautiful picture of my beautiful ring, but alas, I have not uploaded it to my computer yet. In fact, there's a lot that I need to do that I have yet to do. For as little as I sleep these days, you'd think I'd get a lot accomplished in my extra hours, but it's mostly tossing and tumbling and dreaming that the cake falls or tornados rip thru the reception. Other times, I shine my cell phone on my ring in the dark, just to make sure IT's not the dream.

Saturday, after hiking all day at the State Park, I jumped in the shower and then put my pajamas on, thinking we would be settling in for an afternoon of football-watching on the couch. Just moments after I had settled in with my wet hair and my Pinterest account, my dad called me up and asked me to come down to the church to practice music for the next day as someone had backed out at the last minute. Oh, and could I be there in 20 minutes? Put out, I started throwing on jeans and drying my hair, muttering along the way.

When we got to the church, I was a whirlwind of complaint: no clean clothes, no make-up, hair was a mess. And why on Earth is that camera set up? Are we going to critique our practice later?? I hadn't even warmed up-- there's no way I'm singing on camera.

When he was unusually silent, I whirled on Alex, who just smiled and told me to rant on. I think that's the moment I realized I'd been had. As the ceiling fell in on me and my bad behavior, Alex pointed out that we were standing at the altar, in the church that we'd be married in, in the Church that would be the center of our lives. He got down on bended knee-- making him approximately eye level with me-- and pulled out a ring.

And the rest, as they say, is history. But really-- the ring itself has two pieces of very special history in the form of both of Alex's grandmother's diamonds from their engagement rings. Their diamonds flank "our" diamond, making it pretty much perfect in every way.

The moms and dads met the next day over orange rolls at All Steak, and they make about as cute a couple as we do. So all is right in the world, it seems. And now that my entire world is consumed with wedding planning, I hope that theme carries over.