Well my wonderful fiancee Kristin has asked me to take a moment out of my ever so busy day to provide a summary of the events preceding our recent engagement. You see it all started when I was born in a little town called Detroit, Michigan in the year 1984. Kristin followed soon thereafter in April of the following year (same hospital) and I must say sparks flew from the get-go. The way she spit up all over the place as if to say "I'm an independent woman, I do as I please," the way she cried when she was hungry or needed a nap...absolute magic! Later on as we attended preschool together her flawless performance as April O'Neill during our daily renditions of TMNT captivated my young heart. I knew from those early years that we were meant to be together; now if only she had felt even an inkling of what I did growing up we probably would have hit it off a lot sooner;)
Ok now to more recent events, specifically the engagement. For those who keep up with Jenny's blog, I don't know that I could do much better to explain how things went down and certainly not as poetically but I'll do my best! A couple weeks back, Memorial Day weekend, Kristin came out to visit me in Georgia. Boy was it good to see her even though it had really only been a few weeks since I had last been in Utah. It's funny how just a few short weeks apart can seem like an eternity! Coming in to her visit we had already discussed our feelings about being married and had pretty much come to the conclusion that it's what we both really wanted and felt so right about. With that in mind we went to look at rings while she was here to give me an idea of what she would like when the time came. It became apparent as we were browsing (from my perspective) that it would be so much easier to just pick out the exact ring that she liked right then and there. From the moment we were there and especially when I picked it up the following week my mind was racing trying to come up with how I would one day present it to her.
Throughout my many brainstorming sessions the one thing that kept coming to my head was that if I waited until the end of June (when she will be moving out to Georgia) I would be at a couple disadvantages. The first being that for the first almost 2 weeks that she'll be here we will have all kinds of family around...all my siblings and all my nieces and nephews as well as her parents and her best friend so a nice set-up for just the two of us would be less likely to occur. The second disadvantage I saw was the element of surprise. I knew that Kristin did not want or expect anything flashy or public for a proposal, so after a bit I decided that the only way to surprise her would be to fly out and see her without her knowing. It was doubly appealing because it was (and is currently) extremely difficult to be away from her!
Ok I realize this is going to be quite a long story so I will try to cut to the chase on certain things. Those who know me know how difficult it is for me to not talk about things so keeping this from Kristin and not letting on in any way was one of the toughest things I've ever done! My original plan was to fly out the weekend of June 13th on a buddy pass that I received from a friend who flies for Delta. It got harder to keep the secret as we were constantly talking about the possibility of me flying out for a visit. As Kristin would say "oh look I found such and such deal, maybe we could split the cost of a ticket" I would respond as non-suspiciously as possible that I didn't think it would be feasible and there was too much I needed to save money for to make it happen. It was really hard for me because I could hear the disappointment in her voice and of course I knew what was going to happen but I felt terrible about her feeling like I didn't care enough to make the sacrifice to come out there! Of course I didn't feel bad enough to not have a little fun with it as I told her one day that I bought a Nintendo Wii and some games for it. Her reaction was exactly what I was looking for "Are you kidding me? You bought a Wii and not a plane ticket?" But I finally decided that I couldn't wait any longer and that June 6th (Friday) I would fly out to surprise her.
I'll take a moment to give a shout out to Jenny and Aaron; their help in this matter was invaluable! Also to practically the entire Kohl family it seems for keeping things on the DL. Remarkable job! Brother Kohl even went as far as to ask her when he would actually be getting a call from me requesting permission to marry his daughter. This of course was after I had already made said call! Everything going into it went perfectly...she had no idea what was going on.
Ok so I got to the airport on Friday hoping to get on a plane flying standby (bad idea on a Friday) The first flight i was looking for was full with like 13 standby passengers; of course I was last on the list. They also told me the next two flights out were completely full and the best chance would be a 9:20 flight that night. I even tried to take a flight that connected in Oklahoma City that would've put me in Salt Lake at 7 PM but I was the last person left off that one. The plan that I had set with Jenny and Aaron for that night was for them to take Kristin to a restaurant called The Roof for an 8 o'clock reservation. I even coordinated with the staff at the restaurant for them to deliver a note to her telling her to come out to the lobby where I would be waiting with flowers of course. After dinner I had a plan to take her to a spot overlooking the valley and propose to her. I know...perfect right? Well that was until I realized I wasn't going to make it out there that night. In comes mi padre to the rescue. After talking to me in one of the most depressed states I've ever been in he used his Skymiles to get me a seat on the 9:20 flight. Better than nothing I said to myself as I altered my plan and hung out at the airport for 10 hours (that flight didn't actually leave until 10:15)
The tricky part of this was to keep Kristin unaware of what was going on. While I'm at work and even when I get home we talk on Gmail or Facebook chat. I had to come up with legit reasons why I wouldn't be available for basically the whole day. I used everything I could think of from getting off work early and taking a nap at home to doing homework to spending time with my best friend and his wife to playing Halo with some buddies. Jenny and Aaron again were amazing as they kept Kristin busy all night, especially while I was on the plane. I landed a little after midnight, dropped my dad off at his house and proceeded down to Provo for the big surprise. I called Kristin as per our nightly tradition with my apologies for taking so long to "play Halo." She told me how it was just a silly game and didn't understand how I could get so into it. So we talked up until the time I arrived at her place where I asked her if I could call her back after I had gotten settled in at my place for the night. As I waited at her door I texted her and asked her if she would do me a favor and come open the front door. She responded that she was confused and I asked her to just trust me. As she opened the door I was so relieved after such a long day to see the face of the woman I love so much....until she slammed the door in my face. Ha! Wasn't quite the reaction I was expecting but she has since assured me that it was a good, happy slam! We had a great time talking and I just really tried to soak in the wonderful feeling that was there. It was exactly what we needed and I knew yet again that what I was there to do was the right thing. I waited for what I felt was the right moment and then I asked her to be my wife. She said of course and the rest is history.
This has been a long time coming and I promise you that you could not find a happier man in the world. I'm so excited to be marrying Kristin and can't wait to get our life together started! She's everything I have ever wanted and hoped for in an eternal companion and I only hope that I can be the same to her. If anybody has stuck around to read the end of this we appreciate all the love and support we've received from you all! Talk to you later!
