I Am Engaged.

So much has happened in the past 4 months. Both personally and professionally. Today's blog will focus on the more important of the two, my personal life. A little under a year ago I started dating my best friend. Well, let's rewind a little bit father than that, a little under a year ago, I went to Europe with my best friend and had the most amazing time.  I kissed her at the base of the Swiss alps, and we had our first date in a little cafe in Paris.  I told her no guy would ever be able to top either of those things.  She concurred.  With that kind of beginning, the rest was just meant to happen.....

This is place where we mushed faces for the first time.  Switzerland (I look very accomplished):

And this city was where we had our first date (Paris):

So, a little over two weeks ago, I proposed to earlier mentioned best friend.  That was probably one of the most stressful but fun weeks of my life.

As for the night of the actual engagement, Brittany wrote it on her blog and you can read it here www.brittanyblackburn.com. It's a great description of what happened through her eyes that night.  She's a much better story teller than I.

What went through my mind that night? Stress Excitement Scared (good scare, like, what if she said no?  well...that's not really a good scare either.) More excitement.

I had had two ways that I knew I was going to ask her.  One of those ways was with a little french bulldog puppy.  I won't mention the other way in case I want to use it to surprise her for her birthday or for Christmas.

"So why did you choose a french bulldog puppy for the engagement Merek?"

Don't fret readers, answer below.

When Brittany and I started dating, (days after we started dating actually) we went and purchased a French bulldog and named him 'The Rufus.' (I changed his name from just Rufus, to The Rufus.  So regal.)  He frequents mention in our blogs as he has been a part of our "couple" life since the beginning.  He's my sidekick and has been such a great addition to our little family.  He makes us laugh every day with his faces, peculiar behaviors and his ADD personality, just like dad.

Brittany has wanted another frenchy puppy for quite a while, and that want had escalated into a "need."   It became borderline obsessive.  I'd catch her on her phone at 1 in the morning watching youtube videos of french bulldog puppies, I'd find pictures saved in her phone of french bulldogs....it was out of hand.  (None of those things actually happened.) I kept shooting the idea down saying it's too expensive and now just wasn't a good time for one in our life.

Well, that was all just a fat lie because I had been looking for them for quite sometime. I found a local breeder a month or so before this.  The Rufus and I visited her a few times meeting the puppies..  I wanted Rufus to have a say in the decision making process since this new little bundle would be taking up his much loved independence, personal space and time. We both narrowed it down to two different puppies, nicknamed pickles and spunky but I couldn't decide which one.  The stress of not being able to choose one, realizing that I was picking up the ring I had selected, and asking her father permission in that week was terrifying to me.  SO MANY DECISIONS.

I ended up getting the one named spunky because she was more fat and had a lot more rolls than the other puppies. I know that's not a basis of choosing a puppy, but she also came up and snuggled on me the moment I sat on the ground.

(This picture is not the actual moment she snuggled up on me.)

Again I'll refer you to go read her blog for how I actually proposed, but when I did, and she said yes, it was one of the top most happiest moments in my life. It was one of those moments where I was down on one knee and it hit me. "wow, Ive thought about this moment for years and years and years. And here i am, kneeling in a pile of rocks, With puppy breath licks all over my hands and face, and I'm looking up at the most beautiful girl in the world and asking her to spend the rest of her life with me."

I cannot think of or remember any moment in my life that even comes close to that happiness.

I'm marrying my best friend.

Here's the video that my brother and his wife filmed of the proposal: