Almost two years after we started dating, in May of 2008, Ryan proposed. If anyone is curious as to how he did it, here is the story. We had been looking at rings for awhile and lovely Mandi at Helzberg diamonds convinced him to buy the ring Emily liked. (Thanks!!!!!!!) Emily at this point was pretty sure he bought it, but had no clue when he would get it, much less give it to her.

Only about a week later, Ryan had several "surprises" for Emily. These surprises were not real surprises and were obviously intended to irritate Emily (his kids were good today, he turned in a job application, etc.)

Finally, he said "I picked something up today..." Emily was about to faint and demanded to know where it was. He told her it was in the dirtiest part of the house. After a small question and answer session (bathtub? microwave?), she figured out that he buried it in her closet. For those of you who aren't familiar with this closet, it is a 7'X9' walk in closet that is covered in clothes, about 2 feet deep. Emily threw out every item in that closet (taking more than 15 minutes) and eventually found the box at the very bottom.

Then the normal, sweet stuff came. He got down on one knee, talked about how we have had so many good times together and how we make each other better people, and learn from each other. Then he proposed. We laughed, cried, kissed - and then proceeded to call everyone on the planet.