I'm Engaged!!!

Hello all! So, it is official! I’m engaged!! Exciting, right? I wish I could tell you all about it in person, but I guess blogging about it is just going to have to work this time…

Last Thursday, Briana and I had planned on having one last sister’s night before I moved to California. I had to work until five, and she planned on being at my apartment around then. Right before Briana showed up, my Dad called and asked if I could home to Soda to meet some guy about the Van Gina. Feeling a little annoyed, I agreed to go to Soda and made sure Briana went with me. The drive was going well when all of a sudden I had a need to stop and use a bathroom. (For those of you who don’t know…I have a very small bladder…) Anyway, Briana and I made the stop in Lava and then continued on to Soda.

As we were driving up to the house, I saw that the garage door was open. I was a little confused and asked Briana about it, but she didn’t seem to care, so I brushed it off as well. We parked the car, grabbed the key to the house and opened the door. As soon as the door swung open, my heart stopped. Slowly, my purse slid off my shoulder and landed on the floor as I stared in disbelief at the decorations in front of me.

The house was lit with candles, and a path of rose petals and pictures of Brett and I scattered the floor. Looking down, I saw two posters with pictures of California and Idaho on each side, an ipod and a letter. The posters instructed me to 1) Compose myself 2) Put on the earphones and select the playlist “I have a question” and 3) Read the letter. Excited about what was happening, I tore open the envelope, put on the headphones and sat down to read the letter. (Brett and I met years ago through a letter, so it was fitting that he wrote me one). After finishing the letter, I followed the path of rose petals through the house and out to the deck.

Christmas lights illuminated the railing on the upper deck, but Brett was nowhere to be found. I kept walking, and as I headed down the stairs, there he was…dressed in a suit. Next to him was a table with two place settings, but instead of real food, he had brought my favorite candy, cookies and gum. (He knows me all too well!) I met Brett on the lower deck where he proceeded to get down on one knee and asked me to marry him. I felt my eyes start to tear up, (yes, I am NOT dead inside!!) and I, of course, said yes!

So, there you have it! My engagement! (Which wouldn’t have been possible without all the lies and betrayals from my sister and Dad…haha) Brett did such a great job at decorating the house, and he picked the perfect way to do it. I have been telling him that our house in Soda is my favorite place to be in the entire world and getting engaged there was the icing on the cake. It was great, and I wouldn’t have wanted it any other way.

In search of answers...

This blog posting is going to be a bit different from others that I have posted. I usually enjoy making simple situations extremely dramatic, but this week, I have a more serious mentality…

I have reached that point in my life where summer is coming to a close, and I must make a decision about where I am going from here. I have officially decided against law school, so I won’t be returning to school this fall. As a backup plan, I applied to be a nanny through TSN months ago. I went the whole summer with hardly any communication from TSN, so I had figured that they just weren’t interested in me anymore.

About a week ago, a family from Connecticut contacted me. Throughout the process of interviewing with this family, I came to realize that they are wonderful people. Their children are extremely polite, active and smart. The parents are caring individuals who strive to be involved in their children’s lives. My roommate had already interviewed with two different families and didn’t end up being chosen for their nanny positions, so I didn’t think much of my interview. I didn’t want to get my hopes up about something that wasn’t a sure thing. But, it turns out that they like me and want me to work for them. This all sounds great, right?

Well, it is great. I finally have a plan…something to do for the next year. The only problem is that recent events have helped me realize that I don’t want to be moving to the east coast. Moving away would be considered a setback in certain areas…but how do I just tell this family that I changed my mind? How do I tell them that they spent countless amounts of time looking for their next nanny, found her…and now I don’t want to work for them? How do I do it?