Now presenting...the future Mrs. Sarah Blazier!!!!

If you haven't heard already, I am finally engaged. It seems like it took forever for the blessed event to come about, but nonetheless it is here and I am so excited. So let's start from the beginning of how it all started.

Andy and I have been dating since we were freshman in high school. We met on the 8th grade Washington D.C. trip in a Disney Store in the mall. After we met there, we discovered we were in band together and shared several classes in high school. The rest was history. He never asked me out, we just sort of happened! I guess you could say that it was kismet. We literally met and were best friends from that point on. Attached at the hip as my friends like to say.

Now, six years later, we are planning our engagement. We had discussed it a few times and occationally looked at rings online for the fun of it, but I had no idea what his plans were. He said soon, but in Andy's terms, that could still mean a year from now. I was definately getting restless and sick of calling him my boyfriend, which I was so completely set on the fact that he was NOT my boyfriend. But what do you call a guy who is not your fiance, but not your boyfriend?

Andy was the perfect gentleman. He asked my father if he could ask for my hand. His methods maybe a little unorthodox, but still he did it. It has been a joke between him and my father that Andy should bring my dad chicken since my dad loves chicken and Andy worked at Popeyes. Andy never did bring him chicken, so the joke was that in order to ask for my hand, he had to bring my dad a box of fried chicken! Andy turned up on my doorstep with a box of chicken and my ring in his pocket. My dad opens the door, looks down and says, "You aren't going to ask her to marry you are you?"

Andy responds, "Well actually," he flips the ring out of his pocket, "yes!" My parents were thrilled! They of course proceeded to call everyone and then took pictures. So sweet. I love him for doing that for me.

When he prepared to ask me, he texted Linley and Sophie for their help. Linley texted me at work and asked if I wanted to go to ACU to walk around. Since she is leaving for Uruguay for the fall semester, I really wanted to hang out with her. I asked if Katy could join us, but she said that she would prefer if it was just the two of us. Little did I know, she was trying to figure out a way to fit Katy into the plan. So we walked around ACU, and then we decided that Katy should eat dinner with us. So Katy was instructed to meet us by the tennis courts at ACU, and in the mean time, Linley and I would just walk around. We drove over in that direction and as we were driving I made the comment about how I didn't think Andy would ever propose. I truly could not understand how he could wait any longer whether or not we were going to wait to get married until after I graduated. He said that he felt the same way I did about proclaiming each other boyfriend and girlfriend, and yet he still waited! Linley later tells me that she was trying so hard not to laugh at this point. We walk over to the ACU amputheatre where I proceed to check the 5 texts messages from Andy saying "where are you?" "do you want to hang out?" "why aren't you answering me?" "Are you ignoring me?" and finally "I guess you're hanging out with Linley tonight." I decided to call him and appologize for not getting back to him while Linley kept watch out for Katy. Andy was talking to me saying it was ok and not to worry. Then I heard wind in the background. I asked him, "where are you? are you outside?"

He answers, "Yeah, I'm letting Joey (his dog) outside."

This made perfect sense to me because Joey doesn't like to go outside by himself.

Meanwhile, Linley calls back to me and yells, "she's here!" So we run down to the parking lot and meet Katy by her truck. While standing there, I look at the far end of the parking lot at a car and a girl who looks just like my friend and coworker Sophie. I ask, "is that Sophie?!"

Linley immediately answers, "who? oh, no, probably not."

Linley suggests we start walking over towards Jacob's Dream, the big statue behind the Bible Building of Jacob's ladder, to decide where we want to go eat. Once at Jacob's Dream, Katy and I sit down on the stone wall that lines the statue and Linley says to wait there while she goes to the bathroom. I ask if I can go with her, and she says no. I ask why not and she says "because it won't smell very good." This is actually, as Katy says, the best on the spot cover story ever because I loathe being in the same room as someone when they are pooping. So of course I was going to refuse to go with her. We sit there for maybe a minute, and she comes back and says, "oh, um...it was just gas." HAHA...so we start walking back to our cars to "seriously" decide what we're going to eat. Except this time we take the sidewalk that goes directly by the Bible building.

Once we reach a clearing that is almost completely surrounded by crapemertles and bushes, I feel a tap on my shoulder. I thought it was a tree branch so I look at my shoulder and I see a hand. I spin around on the spot and I see Andy standing there. I start studdering, "What are you doing here!?" and he drops to one knee and starts to propose. I heard what he said, but honestly I didn't process all of it.

Here's the gist of what I heard:

"We have spent about 6 years together and you are my best friend. I know that it can be hard to put up with me sometimes and the past few years have been tough being apart, but I know you are the one I want to spend the rest of my life with.....will you marry me?"

Of course I said yes. I was laughing the entire time. I couldn't help it. I was so excited and I didn't know what to do. I wanted to cry to badly because I was so happy, and I could feel it in the pit of my stomach, but it wouldn't come. I just kept laughing! We stood in our little tree fenced in area and kissed for a while. It was so funny cause he was ready to go walk off, but I had to pull him back and say calm down, let's enjoy this for a minute. The feeling was so surreal. It almost felt like we were pretending. Certainly this couldn't be real, but in fact it is. And I'm getting married!

We met back with my friends, Katy, Linley and Sophie (that was her by the car). Sophie had packed us a picnic dinner complete with picnic blanket, picnic basket and chocolate cheesecake. It was so wonderful and so romantic. I loved it. I am so thankful for all that my friends did to help Andy out, and even more thankful for Andy and all that he went through to make this experience special for me. I love him so much and I know that I am incredibly blessed to be with him. I can't wait to see what our life has in store for the two of us. Difficult though it may be at times, I know that this is going to be a fun ride and I can't wait to jump on. Let the wedding planning begin!!!!

Oh I forgot to mention when we want to get married. The preliminary date that we are looking at is May 28, 2011. That could change, but right now that's what we are looking at.

The amazing ladies who made this whole thing happen: Right to left Sophie, Katy and Linley

The In-law Trauma

So if it isn't obvious to everyone by now, Andy and I are getting married. Still yet to be official, but it's gonna happen so those of you who deny it, get over it. Just kidding. Anyway, one of the things that has been disturbing me the most lately is how much it seems that I was put into a family (the in-law family) that is completely wrong for me. Andy's parents drive me nuts. Andy's brother seems to despise the very ground that I walk on. And my could be sister-in-law (Nick's girlfriend) won't talk to me at all! So throughout this summer my question for God is, "WHY?"

I later realized that maybe my question was all wrong. Maybe God's plan was actually right. So then I decided to reword my question. This time I asked, "Give me the opportunity to get to know these people, especially Kaylee." I knew that if I were to ever truly be happy within the family, I would have to make a true effort to at least get to know her. I didn't have to like her, but I can't not like someone I don't know.

This past weekend Andy, Nick and Rich were working the Boy's Chrysallis. Kaylee just got back from her's a week earlier, so when candlelight came around, I figured I should invite her to come along. I thought we would be carpooling with Andy's mom, Liz, but she decided to bail on us in order to catch up on rest. This was the first time in I don't know how long that she had the house entirely to herself. Since she wasn't going, Kaylee and I decided to carpool together. Truthfully, I was super excited to ride with her. I knew this was the opportunity I was looking for. Just one on one, no Nick to distract her or insult me, and we were trapped in a car together. You're pretty much forced to talk.

To my surprise, however, Kaylee carried on a pretty long conversation with me. In the 40 minute drive together, there wasn't a time of silence at all. What's more, talking to her came so natural. I was having a good time! We talked about school, our career plans, church, our families, until finally, we ended up at our destination. The minute we got in the building and met up with Andy and Nick she was silent. Didn't say a word to me. I was thinking, "I knew it. I knew it was too good to be true." I couldn't understand why she would be all friendly in the car and then barely look at me when the guys were with us.

The candlelight ended and I told her that I would meet her back at the car so that Andy and I could have a minute alone. (I figured she wanted the same with Nick) What happened on the ride home, though, was truly a work of God. I, the most intellegent woman ever, got us lost. I missed one of the turns heading toward Abilene, and we somehow ended up in Anson. Luckily I knew how to get home from Anson, so it wasn't a big deal, just several miles extra. However, if we had not spent that extra time in the car, what happened I don't think would have happened. Kaylee and I bonded.

I decided to appologize to her. I told her that I was sorry I had never tried very hard to get to know her and that if she thought I didn't like her, it wasn't true. She told me that the feeling was mutual. She was sorry she never talked to me either, and she said that she never did talk because she was afraid that she would be taking up the time between me and Andy. I couldn't believe it. All this time I thought she was snubbing me, and in reality she was trying to be courteous! We continued to talk and the subject changed to our guys. Now, if you don't know the two brothers, then you wouldn't know that these guys are so different, you don't know how they possibly ended up in the same family. One is macho and quick witted, the other is sweet, sensitive and a bit awkward. Their differences are the main reason why the four of us don't hang out. One thing she mentioned was how Nick in fact likes me. I never would have guessed it. She said that she has asked him many times why he doesn't like me so much, and she said he would respond, "I do like her!"

Kaylee started telling me about how Nick yells at her when she's driving and he drives like a grandpa. I exclaim, "Andy too!" I tell her about how Andy freaks out at little things and gets panicky in certain situations. She exclaims, "Nick too!" We then begin to share stories back and forth about the two brothers and discover that they're exactly alike. One just isn't afraid to show emotion and the other bottles it in. Who knew?

What this tells me? I've discovered that I really enjoy being with Kaylee. She's fun to talk to and the two of us have a lot in common. But more than that, since we've discovered that Nick and Andy are so miraculously similar, I expect that when both of them mature into full grown men, they will be friends. Therefore, if the brothers get along, and I do enjoy Kaylee, family get togethers will not be the horror I thought they would be. And what's more, I would have never realized this if we had not gotten lost. Thank you God. My fears are gone.