And the Truth Shall Set You Free

So it has been about 2 weeks since Ashley asked me to write my perspective of the engagement on this, but being ignorant to blogging I had no clue how to actually write on it. So I had to humble myself to ask her how to post a blog, but don't expect any colors in my text or videos because that is still way out of my league.

So my devious plan started early November when Ashley showed me a few rings that she really liked. There was one in particular that she was eying on the internet that was on sale but only had 3 left in stock. I told her that the ring was a little out of my price range so maybe later I could maybe buy it. She left the room and I secretly put it in a shopping cart and saved the link in a Facebook message so I could get it without her knowing. It was about 3 or 4 days after that I actually bought it and began waiting for the ring to arrive at my door.

Now being a man I thought that once she had told me what ring she liked she would stop looking at rings. Boy was I ever wrong. It so happened that the ring that I bought was pretty popular and was gone two days after we had looked at it so Ashley was on the hunt for another one. This started my string of lies that I had to start saying as to throw her off track that I was going to pop the question. What I didn't know was that my lies were good...really good. At times she even thought that I decided to just stop thinking about getting married all together.

OK so back to my devious plan. She had been looking at more rings, even though she had told me the one she already wanted- not knowing that I had already bought it. I had to think of a way to get her mind off of rings so she wouldn't get her heart set on another. That wouldn't be very good at all. I had to act like a very stupid male and show her some rings that I thought were "nice". In reality these rings were hideous, I don't even know anyone in their right mind who would even consider buying these. Anyway, it would fluster her and she would just go back and show me rings she liked and say, "Does that ring look anything like this ring?" and then leave the computer in frustration. Mission Accomplished... twice.

Ashley had wanted me to talk to my parents, telling them that I was getting ready to ask her to marry me. I kept delaying this to make it an even bigger surprise when I actually proposed. I kept feeding her lies about being scared and it not being the right time, when in reality I had already talked to them. Now I was going to have to be even sneakier talking to her parents without her being suspicious. Luckily, she chose to be in a choir that would practice for hours upon hours every Sunday. Thus giving me the perfect opportunity to call and set a time to talk to them and ask them for their daughter's hand in marriage. Mission Accomplished... twice.

After that was taken care of, I just had to worry about setting up the perfect proposal. It had been a couple of months previous and Ashley had talked about wanting to go to the snow. And I knew that she loved the mountains after working in them for the past 4 summers. So what would be more perfect than Shaver Lake... OK, Yosemite might have been better, but Shaver was closer. So it was Christmas Eve's Eve and I told Ashley that I wanted Christmas Eve to be special since it was our first together and we had to do something "fun". Here's how it went:

Me: What can we do in Fresno?
Ashley: There's nothing to do in Fresno.
Me: How about we go to the snow?
Ashley: (gasp) How about Shaver Lake?
Me: Yeah! (feigned surprise) How about Shaver Lake?!?

She played right into my hands. Mission Accomplished... twice... OK, once.

So we drove up to Shaver that day, looked around the stores for a bit, and I was getting really nervous so I wanted to get something to eat to calm my nerves. So I suggested the pizza place that I heard was good. Which it was, just in case you were wondering. After pizza I suggested we go down to the lake to enjoy the view of the snowy lake. As we got there, I told Ashley that we should go onto the snow and look at the lake. She told me that the view was fine from the parking lot. I told her that she needed to come out. As we were walking through the snow I was trying to find the perfect spot, all the while she is frustrated about her shoes in the snow. We were trekking all over looking for the perfect spot, and I could feel her getting more and more confused/frustrated/cold. So I quickly arrived at the perfect spot, dropped to my knee, told her all my lies, and popped the question.

And the rest is history.
-Kevin