Wake up in the morning feeling like P. Diddy....
Well, ok not really. I actually woke up to Brian coming in and telling me I had to be at dance in ten minutes (he comes over right before he goes to work and I go to dance so we can walk to the school together. Best part of my morning sometimes). I actually kinda snapped at him because the dream I was having was kinda crazy and I was mad at him for some weird reason there, so naturally I thought I was mad at him still when I woke up. Anyway...I went on my way to dance while he walked on down to work, and as I was sitting there in the Tap Studio with my team whilest putting on our shoes at 6 am, Cindy walks in holding a single red rose. First thought? "What? Why's Cindy here? She's not in this dance." Second thought? "Hey look. Someone has a secret admirer. Oh...looks like it's me!"
I read the note on the rose that said:
Do you remember when we first met? It was Feb. 19, right after the institute dance ended. Cindy left us together and you started a conversation. Later we went to a bonfire and talked the entire time. We went to drop you off but instead came inside for some banana bread and I ended up staying till 3:00 a.m. I just had so much fun being around you.
Interesting that the friend there when it all began that special day is the one that began the activity for THIS special day. I think my facial expression moved quickly from sleepy confusion to sheer panic. When my teammates saw this reaction, one of them said "That's usually not the look you should have when you're getting roses first thing in the morning." Although he had a point, all I could think or say was "Uh...I think I'm getting proposed to today." Then I started shaking and let my mind wonder on the possibility of this. As practice went on, I kept wondering about the rose and if it was what I thought it was or if Brian was just doing something sweet because he felt like it (which wouldn't be out of the ordinary for him). Then I felt really really guilty for snapping at him that morning when I woke up. The "awful girlfriend" thought was pretty predominant at that point. As I met up with Brian to head to our Institute class for the morning, I asked him what was up and all he said was that he realized it had been a while since he had done anything nice for me and he wanted to let me know I was on his mind. While that was a ridiculously cute answer and pretty plausible, I still had my suspicions, but tried to ignore them. I told him that I felt like this wasn't the only rose I was going to get today. You know what he said? "Don't get your hopes up..." Last time I trust him! Ha ha. Two minutes later, at about 8:30 am, the Institute Secretary knocked on the door and asked if an Ariel Young was present. Once I realized that was, in fact, my name, I got up and followed her into the hallway where she presented me with a second red rose.
Do you remember our first date? You were about to go out of town for ballroom and I wanted to take you on a date before then. So I decided to take you out to breakfast at IHOP. My plan was to only miss one class, but once again I was having so much fun with you I missed both classes that day.
Super cute, right? Yep. I definitely blushed coming back in to the classroom (did I mention the class' title is Preparing for an Eternal Marriage?) because Brother Pace stopped mid-thought to say "Another one?! What's going on?!" I told him to ask Brian, who of course said nothing. And the shaking and panic had returned. After class, I walked Brian to his Accounting class and ran home in the rain with my two pretty roses. At 9 am I hopped in the shower, and as I got upstairs to my room afterward, I heard the front door open and Dan calling me from the stairway, asking if I was dressed yet because he had a delivery for me. I told him I wasn't, so he awkwardly reached his arm around the wall to hand it to me and then promptly left. I read the third red rose in my towel, still dripping wet from my shower.
Do you remember the good times in Spanish 3210? We flirted a bunch after we met and one time I had this brilliant idea to draw on your arm. The flower I drew was huge and most awesome. Matias saw the whole thing and just laughed at us.
And the cute continues. It was pouring rain, and I considered not going to my second Institute class, but was overruled by the thought that I might miss a rose. I sat in class, and would quickly look up every time the door opened. Amanda finally showed up for class at about 10:30 am, and as she passed me to get to one of the only open seats, she leaned over, rose in hand, and said "Ariel, will you accept this rose?" I would have busted up laughing at the Bachelor reference, but we were in the middle of a discussion on same-gender attraction, so I didn't think it would be very appropriate.
Do you remember our first kiss? I had to take you on 5 dates before I could kiss you. So naturally I took you on a date almost every night of the week. We were in your house in front of the fireplace cuddling and you were deciding if swinging counted as a date. You decided it did and kissed me right then. The best last first kiss ever!
Please, ladies, stop being so ridiculously jealous of how cute my man is. You'll just get exhausted. ;) I walked to my ballroom technique class, getting some questioning looks by people I passed due to the rose. When I arrived at 11 am, Erin had a fifth rose waiting for me on top of the piano.
Do you remember when you told me you loved me? It was at my house, quite late at night. We were just talking but I knew you had something to tell me, and when you finally said that to me I felt like the most special guy ever.
It was here that we realized I was getting a rose pretty much every hour. And all were being delivered by mutual friends of ours. One of the girls in my class brought to my attention that if I got a rose every hour until our date at 7 that evening, I would have a dozen. Coincidence? Doubtful. Although it seemed almost obvious that a proposal would follow this, I kept second-guessing my thoughts because I knew Brian wouldn't propose until I was least expecting it. And this was making me very much expect it. Don't worry, I kept flipping back and forth between those two ideas for the rest of the day. I then came home and promptly at 12 pm, Miss Iron County (Brian's sister, Aimee) knocked on my door, completely decked out with her crown, sash, and even black silk gloves. "On behalf of Iron County and Brian Peterson, I ask that you take this rose." Yeah, she really went all-out for this!
Do you remember when I gave you a blessing? You were having rehearsal for your ballroom concert and while dancing you hurt your foot really bad. You trusted me enough to ask me to give you a blessing. I came and gave it to the best of my abilities and I felt like it was directed by the spirit. That night as I stayed there with you I realized just how much I cared about you.
Feeling a little teary-eyed? Yep. I know what that's like. I continued studying and anxiously awaited the one o'clock hour. As it passed, I think I actually got a little disappointed. One of my roommates walked in, accompanied by Jason, the bearer of my seventh red rose.
Do you remember when I told you that I loved you? After giving you a blessing I knew I loved you. I had to tell you soon. The night after you finished your concert performance we watched a movie. I believe it was Hercules...anyway, you told me you loved me while we were cuddling like you normally did and I knew it was right to tell you I loved you back.
Mmmhmmm. Yep. Didn't want to leave my kitchen table for fear I might not hear my eighth rose arrive. But I had to start making some serious progress in the getting cute for my date department. Not to mention, I seriously needed a break from all my Spanish studying. It's a good thing Tay Tay knocks really hard...I didn't have to guess that it was 2 pm nor that I had a visitor at the door.
Do you remember when we went to General Conference together? We spent just about every second together and had a ton of fun with movies, joking around, and listening to the prophet. Then I dropped you off at home and all I wanted was to still be with you. Luckily for me you left some rolls in my jeep so I brought them back to you and we continued to spend the day together.
I have never been so anxious to go to a math class in my whole life. Granted, the anxiety had nothing to do with Statistics, but rather waiting to read the next awesome memory Brian was going to deliver. But nothing came. The whole class hour I sat there, inconspicuously staring at the door, waiting for someone to walk in with a rose. Nope. Never happened. But don't you worry, I booked it out of there right at 3:50 pm and found Josh waiting in the hallway with rose number nine.
Do you remember when we went to the Owl City concert? At first I wasn't going to go, but at the last minute I bought a ticket. We listened to Owl City the entire time and got super excited. The concert was amazing and so much fun! Ever since then, the spaces between my fingers is right where yours fit perfectly.
Oh, how I kissed Brian when he came over during his break from work. I didn't know what exactly he was up to (course, I knew what I was HOPING he was up to), but all I could think about was how much I love him. I decided that if this WAS just him being nice, I'd probably be pretty bummed that I wasn't his fiancee at the end of the night after all the serious re-falling in love that had been going down all day. Not to mention, if it wasn't then, I had no idea how he'd EVER top this to actually propose to me. Kayla just "happened" to drop by at about 4:45 pm. Oh, and look at that...she has a rose too! Shocker. Ha ha.
Do you remember how I give you my ring every time you go out of town? You had a decent amount of ballroom tours and every time you left I wanted you to wear my ring so you would remember that you had someone back in Cedar that cared about you and wanted you to be back here.
It worked too. I stayed in Cedar over the summer because of that very fact. It's amazing how much you want to be somewhere when you know that someone else wants you there, too. Kayla came in to read the other memories that I'd been saving throughout the day. I told her my confused and conflicting thoughts, and she asked if she could tell me what Brian said to her when he dropped off the rose to her the night before. Uh...of COURSE you can! "All he said was that he realized he hadn't done anything super nice for you in a while because he's been so stressed with his 2 jobs and school and everything. He felt really bad and thought this would be something you'd really appreciate. I really don't think he's going to propose. He would have mentioned something like that." And...bought it. Totally bought it. Definitely started leaning more toward the "just having a super nice boyfriend" idea rather than the "will be a fiance in a couple hours" one. Ashley dropped off my eleventh rose at about 5:30 pm, and delivered my mail with it. Ha ha. That girl is just always looking out for me.
Do you remember how during this summer you and I would spend as much time as possible at the reservoir? We had so much fun skimboarding, talking, getting tan, and enjoying each other's company. Even though water isn't your favorite thing, you came because I loved it.
Well, yeah. I am pretty awesome like that. :) I was so stoked for our dinner date. I got ready super quick and then text-begged Brian to pick me up fifteen minutes early because I just wanted to see him and be with him. What? Oh yeah no that one didn't happen. He ended up being 5 minutes late instead. I almost died from the anxiety. He took me to the Garden House (a pretty expensive restaurant here in Cedar for those of you wondering), and looked pretty pleased when he announced "I have a reservation. It's under Brian Peterson." I think he just felt super cool being able to say that. They showed us to our table on the second floor of the house, to a private booth near a mini balcony type-opening. He had brought a book full of questions for couples and we took turns asking and answering them with each other while we ate. For some reason, I couldn't eat more that about 10 bites. And I had hardly eaten anything else at all that day. I'm chalking that one up to the nerves. Brian, however, looked completely content and comfortable. Just going to town on his food and making conversation. It was at that point I decided that he wasn't asking me to marry him that night. He really was just wanting to take me out and make me feel special. The waiter brought us boxes for the remainders of our entrees and asked if he could get anything else. Brian had told me earlier to save room for dessert because "we always go out to eat but we never have enough room for dessert! We're getting it this time!" I'm not gonna fight him on that one. I thought it strange that the waiter hadn't asked us if we wanted dessert yet, since we always do that at Chili's. I just ignored that and figured that he just thought we were done for the night and ready to leave. Hence, Brian asked if we could get some dessert, and the waiter nodded and said he'd be right back with it. He came back a few minutes later and set down our dessert plate, and then a white rose next to it. I read the first part carefully:
Ariel do you remember October 4, 2010?
And I sat there and thought about that for a while, kinda skim-reading the rest of it. I remember thinking "Yeah, today is Oct. 4th. What's significant about today? It's not our anniversary. It's not my birthday...I think. Nope, it's not. It's not his birthday. I'm lost. What's Oct. 4th?" And then a significant word toward the bottom of the note caught my attention. I read the whole thing carefully this time, with Brian just watching me from across the table.
Ariel do you remember October 4, 2010? Throughout the day you received 12 roses with memories of you and I attached. I worked, but you were constantly on my mind. I took you out for dinner at the garden house and I asked you to marry me for time and all eternity. I LOVE YOU!
I looked up at him and all I could say was "Are you serious?" Apparently, the answer was yes because he got up, walked over to the side of my bench, and got down on one knee. This is when I started crying and shaking. He held out my ring and said "Ariel Young, will you marry me?" I remembered having a conversation earlier with Becka about how I would say my answer. I tried really hard to think of the funny things and cute things I had thought of previously, but I just couldn't think of anything but YES!! ...So that's what I told him. A few times for sure. You know...just in case he didn't hear me or something. And then I hugged him. I didn't even let him put the ring on my finger first. I just hugged him super tight for a while and just cried. And then I decided I could let go for a second so he could put it on...which was semi-interesting because I was shaking so much still. But he managed. And then I just hugged him and kissed him. I reported that I couldn't breathe and then just kept kissing him (What? I couldn't help myself!) so he laughed at me and informed me that kissing usually didn't help with that. Wow he's smart. I'm totally marrying him for his brains. :)
