...engagement story: hers...

i know i have been a complete slacker when it came to blogging about how we got engaged! forgive me please. bry's version of this story is much better than me seeing as there is a little background information about events i had no idea about before the engagement. i'll have him blog about it to. and don't worry it will be a great deal shorter than what i write (girl vs. guy).

it was august 13th. about 2:00 pm. the fourth day of the kindergarten year. mary our secretary comes in the room. we are in the middle of a math lesson on using unifix cubes as math tools. i'm teaching one to one correspondence (one cube to one letter in our name). mary nicely let's me that marianne (our principal) would like to see me. apparently i am needed in the office for a parent emergency. she let's me know that it must be solved before the end of the day.

i'm thinking... OMGosh (that's for you bry) what could have possibly gone wrong. its only the fourth day of school and i'm already having parental problems?!?!? i'm new at this school. did i do something wrong? did i yell at someone? did i forget something in the beginning of the year packets?!? AH! "ok kids, play with the unifix cubes. i'll be right back. listen to mrs. mary. and if you are good i will give you class points when i get back."

*****%%*$#$ this is me trying not to freak out on my way to the office. i'm going through every minute of the last four days in my head. i'm telling myself it's really nothing. i'm fine. i haven't done anything wrong. what could this parent possibly be that upset about that it couldn't wait until after school? is marianne just giving me a heads up so when i take the kids out i don't get eaten alive? going through the kids that go to parent pick up. nope no issues yet....

... enter the office. wow that was the longest walk to the office i have ever had. when i get there i'm directed to patty's office. phew, at least its only the assistant principal's office. can't be that bad right? patty is on the phone. i can hear the operator on the other end letting her know that the number she just dialed is no longer in service and to hang up and try again. she let's me know that there has been an issue with the little ones that have heart conditions in our school and that she'll be with me shortly.

i continue to go through every scenario i can in my head. the office seems to be in a hustle every where i look. grace is answering the phones which seem to be ringing off the hook. patty is coming in and out of the office with lorriane the school nurse tracking down emergency cards and health records. i'm not sure what is going on but i'm sweating and getting hot.

after what seemed like forever... mary came back in. she let me know that she is having management problems in my room. knowing my class, i'm not surprised at this point. once again it's only the fourth day of kindergarten. they still get out of their chairs whenever they want, talk out like they are the only other person in the room besides me, amongst many other things. sigh. "i'm coming. patty i'll be back in just a sec."

as we walk back to my room, mary hands me a big blue note and says that i'm going to need this as i walk back. "what?" read the note. duh jen. so i read the note as i walk to my room (i'll have to add a picture of the note later):

"As you return to class, Miss Lee,
Don't be surprised to see,
All your students lined up in a queue,
They have important question for you!"

uh, still confused. i finished the note as i got to the door way. at this point i'm thinking that this is some sort of initiation for the school. they are "family" like so i was thinking that this was something they do to new teacher. boy was i wrong!

when i looked up i saw all my kids holding these giant letters above their heads:

bryan and his family had constructed all these lovely letters during the week. during the week bry had been making excuses about not hanging out. i wasn't sure what was up but i was bugged at the time. he said he was getting stuff for his mom's birthday. i kept offering to help, but he nicely refused all my offers. humph. fine. there was a point during the week in which the surprise was almost blown when i ran into his sister and brother in law at joann's while they were on the hunt for all the supplies to make the letters. i had no idea but bry and his mom were also in the store. they had seen me and hid behind fabric until they could escape unseen.

... back to my room. the little ones were so cute. i saw court standing there helping the little one hold up the "MRS." and there was bry holding the question mark. in the corner was his mom holding the video camera. yes, there is video. at first i had no idea what it said. all i could say was "that is so cute, how cute. oh my gosh how cute." i re-read what they said and i shouted out "YES!" ...about 3 times! haha. feeling really sheepish i realized that bryan hadn't asked me anything yet. way to go jen.

Then bry came over with the question mark and pulled the ring box out of the dot of the questions mark. he asked me if i would marry him and opened up the ring box. there inside was the most perfect ring i have ever seen. he had taken the pictures i had shown him and designed my ring and had it custom made. it was perfect!!!!!!! i said yes of course! how could i refuse such a great guy and the perfect ring? hello. we hugged. i almost cried. i remember being really hot and kind of flustered because everyone was watching.

my kids were so excited! robyn (my mother-in-law) video taped all the kids and asked them some questions. we'll have to post that as soon as we get a chance to breath. it was cute. bry also got all the kids a pair of zoo animal scissors for helping him ask me to marry him. best quote from that part "i've always wanted a collection of scissors." love it. the kids LOVED their scissors.

after bry read them a story and we packed up to go home. perfect way to start the year.

that night we celebrated robyn's birthday at Nick's. yummy italian food. we got engaged on robyn's birthday. courtney and austin (bry's sister and brother-in-law) had gotten engaged on steve's (my father-in-laws) birthday. so it seemed fitting. to be honest it just happened to work out that way. and were happy it did!