Fear the Ring! My Precious!

I’m writing the blog you aren’t supposed to write, but for anyone else out there who may have gotten recently engaged it will be most appreciated.  From that first moment you say yes, you are on some cloud outside earth and it’s literally the only thing you can think about, blissfully, while even ignoring your new fiancé (sorry babe) due to the fact that it really happened. I mean you are really engaged, no seriously, he really got down on one knee, no, he really, really loves you and you really, really love him, and you are really getting married, for real,…no, seriously. And after thinking for years you would be an old maid forever, you have this big shiny ring on your finger is blinking at you like a beautiful star in the solar system that has your name on it. 

 I literally stared at my ring for a week straight. Immediately, I was distracted by this foreign glimmer on my left hand and I had to look at it even while driving, which is by far more distracting than texting behind the wheel, I just had to see it, over and over and over again. I also began meticulously figuring out which angles make it sparkle more and extending my fingers to train myself how to show others while not trying to get the best view of it myself.  

 Don’t even get me started when I had to take it off to swim in the ocean on vacation, I could only stay in the water for five minutes before I had to leave my new fiancé to go check to make sure the ring wasn’t stolen from my bag, even though my friends were watching it from less than a foot away. Yes, I had no idea that my ring would become my new baby, puppy or other semi-precious something that I must watch over continuously or my entire world would implode. 

 But what no one told me is that I would be constantly fearful about this ring.  I agonize that if I leave it on while doing dishes, showering or washing my hands it might get dinged, scratched or a rock might even fall out. At the same time, I am crazy that when it’s off it will somehow roll across the counter, onto the floor, bounce across the tile, open the door, stumble outside and fall into a storm drain disappearing forever.

I know that I can’t let my ring down and now that my pre-ring nail polish now looks absolutely awful, I am left contemplating whether or not I should I shell out the cash to keep getting my fingers pampered for my new shiny, sparkly, newborn baby-angel diamond ring or if I should save the money for my wedding and take off the polish, and go au naturale?  I would like to remind my readers that I have had maybe ten manicures in my entire life and am typically a frugal diva, however, the pressure to give my ring what it wants is undeniable.  

What is this ring and how has it taken over my life? Even so, I love this ring and want to give it everything it deserves. Hey, you only get an engagement ring once, right? Fast forward ten years and I’m sure I will be all brittle nails and bleeding cuticles, so I better treat my ring like the only-child while I still can, right? 

Thank you all for enjoying my pre-wedding OCD and my blog. Many more Mandi moments to come  : ) 

My Precious

The Blog Every 30 and Single Girl Dreams of Writing …Shines Like a Diamond

 Every little girl dreams of the day when she can write a blog to tell the world of the day she got engaged…ok, maybe that's just me, and technically blogs weren't really around when I was a kid, but you get the picture.

Now if you are a Facebook follower you may have noticed that my relationship was not publicly posted, the first reason is he is no longer on Facebook and I, myself,  think that that little relationship status change is cursed for me, so now that things are looking as solid as a diamond ring, it's time to share our story.

Chris and I have known each other for two years, although he asked me out a few times before, the timing was never right. This past October he asked me out again and at first I said no, but then I changed my mind and said yes!

A photo from a year before we started dating

On our first date, we met at Ditkas because he lives in Washington, PA, where I had some scrumptious pork chops. From there we were supposed to go to the drive in to see Carrie because it was Halloween. When we drove up to the field in the middle of the woods and to our surprise there was no one around and the screen was black. So here we are in the middle of a dark field on Halloween, trying to watch a horror movie…There was a split second where I thought this was a setup for a gruesome halloween murder (jk), we realized that the show was cancelled and decided to go to the nearest theater to catch it.

I can't remember why we went on the first date, because the original date he had asked me to was at a Penguins game. So, the next night we cheered the Pens on to victory! Let's go Pens!

And then he sent flowers to work:

And then flowers and chocolate and wine: 

The holidays came right around the corner and we both love Christmas and putting up the tree, so we decided to do it together (even his train). So altogether we put together three trees and Chris put the stars on the two biggest, I put my sloth angel on the smallest.  Chris mentioned that his family really didn't do much for Christmas, which made me sympathize and break my rule of not meeting each others families too soon. Not to mention, I definitely wanted to spend Christmas with him, so I met his family on Christmas Eve (no pressure) and he met mine on Christmas. He would have met some of mine on Christmas eve as well, but due to the Flu-Tuna's (Fortuna's) stomach virus, we decided to skip the party.  It was genuinely the calmest, most relaxing Chris-tmas.

For New Years, we decided to hit the slopes at Seven Springs!  Our only issue was a blinding white out on the north face where we were the only two people in sight within 100ft to the degree that you couldn't see the trees or posted signs ahead of you, luckily after twenty minutes we were able to jet back through the woods to catch a trail back to safety.  Other than that, we had a fabulous time, although I have gotten old and scared of skiing black diamonds (sans alcohol).

I even found it particularly hilarious to take photos with our tiny mallard!

Due to the inclement weather the winter months were spent basically hibernating with lots of video games and movies. Yes, I know, I have an awful car! That darn Miata! Our biggest thrill was trips ice skating followed up with some Bob Evan's and a lil Target shopping. I think, I knew I was in love when shopping for Kitty Litter was a delight.

Yup, winter pictures are so exciting!

With spring comes Chris's birthday. A picture from Dinner!

He loves camping, and I don't want to say I'm an indoor girl, but hiking really…really isn't my thing because I literally hiked up hills everyday in the woods growing up and consider that life*, not fun, but I decided to take him anyway cause that's what you do for the one you love.

*Note: red marker is where I lived. Intersection of Route 908 was my bus stop in high school. Not cool.

 I opted for the rustic cabins, as opposed to the modern cabin, but when we got there it totally had showers and running water, personally I was thrilled. We built a fire, but it was too cold, played some scrabble, but it was too boring and went to bed at 9:30pm. What a birthday! The next day we went hiking and ok, I did like seeing this pretty cool frozen waterfall and crawling through the muck, but don't tell him that. He really enjoyed himself until he got bitten by someone pit bull in the woods. No joke, dog just ran up and chomped his hand, not hard enough to break the skin, but hard enough to bruise. No bueno!

Oh and I let him dress me!

And more flowers: 

Back in January, my friend Michelle's sister Rachel contacted me about filming her wedding in Florida in April. I visit my old stomping grounds each year in April, so of course I was excited to go! Especially because I love my gingas! Chris got very excited at the idea of a vacation and so I invited him along for the ride. Being Chris's first time in Florida I set-up a tour de South Florida for him and in six nights we were to visit Deerfield Beach, Key West, Fort Lauderdale and Boynton.

Ahhh Florida! 

On our first full day we were destined for Key West, Florida! The shot above was where we made a stop along the way to see the beautiful waters!

Double Selfie! 

We got into Key West around 5pm and our goal was to see the sunset. In all of my times visiting, I had never made it to see the view and we ran super close to missing it again, but we made it!

Sunset!

This is his I made it face!

This is his sunset face

This is me looking at his sunset face. 

After the sunset he planned a special dinner at Latitudes where we got to take a boat to the private Sunset Key island. Latitudes by far had the best steak and caesar (with white anchovies…mmm) I had ever had! Seriously what ever was in that sauce, should be bottled and shipped across the country! 

I'm on a boat!

After dinner, he took me on a stroll along the beach where we pointed out constellations and smooched under the stars. Feeling so full from eating I decided to sit down on a beach lounger and he came and joined me.  After a couple minutes he turned to me and told me "I love you very much and I want to be with you forever". Then he stood me up and got down on one knee and asked me to marry him! I, of course, started balling my eyes out unable to utter out a word, so I just shook my head up and down for what seemed to be an appropriate amount of time for a yes. Then he mumbled something about the ring, but I was half in shock and he brought it out and put it on my finger. Then I began to run around in circles crying and saying "I can't see it, I can't see the ring half" crying and laughing. Finally, we made our way up to someone's porch and I got to see it. Kisses and hugs ensued and we went out to celebrate in Key West. 

There were no pictures during this so I have created this re-enactment. 

Seriously, it looked exactly like this.

And he was all...

I was all….

And that's the story folks. I would tell you more, but that is left for him and I. I am so happy to have found the most loving, caring and wonderful man that I get to spend the rest of my life with! He really is the zen to my crazy life and couldn't ask for anything more!

Two days later…. Eating chicken wings in bed.

And that's amore! 

Oh yeah…and one more thing! 

The ring!

So now my blog will take on a new life chapter. Hope you come with me on the ride : )
P.S.  I guess I'll find out who actually reads my blog when I change my status!