Rich and I decided to go to Sunset Beach to celebrate New Years this year. We drove there that afternoon, went to dinner, then went to an unexpectedly very underwhelming laser light show (it was supposed to be Trans Siberian Orchestra)… Afterwards, we grabbed an appetizer to snack on and headed back to the house, settling in for the night. Rich always fixes Dorothy and I ice cream cones for dessert and he’s known for spicing it up by adding a special little treat in the bottom of our cones. So when he brought out my ice cream that night and it was a huge bowl of whipped cream, I just knew that’s how he was going to propose. I stuck my spoon into the whipped cream mountain and sure enough, there was a box hidden underneath. I pulled out the box… opened it up… and there was an egg inside of it y’all. An egg. A quail egg apparently, to be exact. So then in my head I’m like oh, cute… I’ll crack the egg open and my ring will be in there. I cracked the egg open and… there was a rolled up piece of paper. So THEN I’m thinking… clearly the paper will say “Will you marry me?” and that’ll be it. I open the paper… “I want to crack up with you forever”. What. The. Heck. So then he explains to me that he knew I was kind of expecting him to propose this weekend but he didn’t get a chance to talk to my parents and the ring hadn’t come in yet so he wanted it to be that weekend but it wasn’t going to happen. Totally fine. I’ve waited 36.75 years, what’s another few weeks. So I keep eating my ice cream and I get to the bottom of the cone and… there’s a ring! I pull it out, clean it off… put it on my finger… and I notice it’s not quite exactly like the one I picked out. So he starts laughing and is like “Haha! That’s a fake ring! I thought it would be funny to tease you.” As you can imagine, I did not think this was super funny so I got sassy and was like “No prob, actually I like this ring and I’m keeping it, jokes on you…” I’m totally over the shenanigans at this point. Y’all. Then he pulls out a ring box and goes “Oh okay so you won’t mind if I return this one then?”

"I send pictures of all the desserts you make me to my cousin" I tend to put a surprise at the bottom of Dorothy's ice cream cone, which became a tradition. Once Meagan became a staple in our house, I began to do the same thing for her. Once she said she sends pictures to her cousin, I knew that had to be part of the proposal. "Not before the holidays", she said. So I decided it would be a New Year's Eve proposal. I played it cool that it wasn't going to happen that weekend. In the car ride to Sunset Beach, I asked what her parents might ask if/when I ask them for permission to marry her. (And of course I would never propose without their approval.) Little did she know that the day before we left for the trip I had lunch with her parents, asking for their permission. They said yes, by the way. I could tell she had her hopes up that I would propose that weekend, but I wanted to knock that idea out of her head. "Maybe January or February", I told her. The night we got to the beach on New Year's Eve when it was dessert time, the stage was set. I created this beautiful mountain of whipped cream with an ice cream cone next to it. In the whipped cream mountain there was a box with a little surprise in it. When I brought the plate to her she was waiting with a smile on her face. She then took note of the preposterous amount of whipped cream. "I think he is about to propose to me", her eyes giving voice to her thoughts. She shoveled away the whipped cream to reveal a simple brown box. With a big smile on her face, she opened the box which revealed a small egg in a nest of brown shredded paper. "Is the ring in the egg?", she must have pondered with a mix of excitement and curiosity. The box lid said "Crack me". Once cracked, she discovered a small roll of paper, which read "I want to crack up with you forever." I won't say she looked disappointed, but... "I know you thought I was going to propose tonight, but I wanted to let you know how much I love you and honor how special you are to me." She seemed resolved to believe my story. I played it cool while she continued to eat her dessert, especially when she got to the bottom of the ice cream cone, where she found a ring. "Is this it?", she likely thought. "Don't be mad, but it's a fake ring. I wanted to play a trick on you but now I feel bad.", I insisted, selling it with a tail between my legs look on my face. She had ridden the roller coaster enough and was a little bit peeved, insisting that she wanted the fake ring. "I'm not mad", she said. She might as well have said "I'm fine. I'm fine.", words we all know when spoken indicate quite the opposite. "I thought you'd be mad, but since you aren't, I guess I'll return this". This was the moment that brought a handmade wooden box out of my pocket, which when opened revealed a glistening solitaire diamond. The box spins the ring when it opens to make the sparkles even more dramatic. I don't remember everything I said after that point... that I loved her so very much and couldn't imagine not spending the rest of my life with her. I wasn't nervous, I was just excited to be with her. Meagan cried. I put the ring on her finger and then we embraced. She started processing everything that happened. "I thought you hadn't asked my parents". I walked her through my whole day prior, driving around the neighborhood looking for the FedEx truck, as the ring was a week late. Then every word her parents and I spoke. How her mom cried the moment I said "I love your daughter and...". She knew where I was headed. Her dad may have had a little water in his eyes that he fought to hold in place. Then she talked about how I was saying January or February. We spoke loving words to each other while in each others arms, when she finally asked me, "Did I even say yes yet?", "No", "Then yes, yes, yes I will marry you!"