Lisa writes:
This is a long and truly sweet story:
We went to South Beach on Thursday, November 8, 2007. His mother & step dad had invited us to join them month’s prior. Up to that point I had never met them, I had only talked to them a couple times on the telephone.

That night after dinner we're in his parents room and we're just talking away. The conversation is maneuvered to the subject of engagements as only a mother could do. Valerie is talking about ring selection and brings up the fact that we should consider speaking to her jeweler up in Brooklyn. She has after all trusted him for something like 20 years. I remember laughing and Mike saying, "some how I knew this conversation would take us to New York."

Mike mentions our plan to head over to Downtown Miami's, Diamond District possibly on Saturday. Which we all agreed was a good place to go scope out ideas.

Friday morning we get up and head shopping after breakfast. Since big Mike stayed behind it was just three of us. This part of the story I learn later but I’m gonna share things with you just as they happened.

I remember walking into Aldo and during our browsing I find an engagement like ring. In mock excitement I show it to Valerie who jokes and says something like, "hey, that’ll hold you over." We both laugh and I show it to Mike and say, "Look baby, I'll just use this," to which he chuckles and rolls his eyes. Unbeknownst to anyone is the fact that he has a ring right there with him. It’s actually been in his pocket since we left Naples.

We keep going from store to store and in retrospect, I must say Mike was quite the trooper (then again he was probably on a natural high). Anyway, we head down to yet another shop; this time Urban Outfitters. Valerie gets tied up with customer service and I wander off to some far off corner of the store. This is another part I learn later; while I'm off ever so temporarily alone, Mike manages to let his mother know he has the ring and shows it to her. From this point on the ring is now in Valerie’s purse. I assume this will allow big Mike to sneak a peek later in the day.

As you can imagine, after a long day of shopping we're running low on fumes but we have reservations later at Joe's Stone Crab, (BTW: I highly recommend dinner there). Later that night as we’re walking out of Joe’s, Valerie has to make a stop in the ladies room and asks me to hold her purse. I’m holding it, looking it over admiring it and I’m incredibly tempted to open it to see who the designer is but decide it’s far too bold a move to open another woman’s purse without her permission. I find out later the ring was in the very purse I was carrying!

As you might imagine the later it gets the more tired we are...well all except Mike. We head back to the hotel and sit in the lobby for a quick break. Next thing I know Mike wants to paint the town red. I was beyond pooped and just looked over at his mom and step-dad and we’re all thinking, “are you serious?”

Before you know it, we’re up and walking to a Starbucks that’s miles away and right on the beach. I remember it being a really chilly night and each couple walked hand in hand taking in the architecture and the nights’ events surrounding us. We eventually make it to the Starbucks and after ordering we sit outside in a patio area sipping our drinks.

At some point, Mike points out towards the very sidewalk we had just been walking on and wonders where it leads. My tired, crabby @ss says to him something like, “I’m pretty sure it wraps around and goes towards the beach,” or something like that. Maybe I wasn’t completely nasty but I’m sure I was pretty clear about how I wasn’t planning on getting up unless it was to go back to the hotel.

I actually sensed his annoyance, which was surprising to me but I was just THAT tired and that was that.

We eventually head back to the hotel and I quickly change into my completely unattractive wintry pajamas. By that time my busted up back is hurting so bad that I ask him to rub it a little, which he thankfully does.

After thanking him and before I roll over to go to bed, I apologized for being such a tired lump on the log.

If you know Mike at all you know my baby likes to sleep. Come Saturday morning I stalled in bed for a little bit then eventually get up to take my shower. Much to my surprise he grabs my wrist and asks me where I was going and asks me to cuddle.

The cuddling lasts all of 60 seconds because he says he has to go to the bathroom. After another 60 seconds…yeah, you read that right…he was in there all of 60 seconds…but he comes out with a master plan.

“I was thinking, when we go over to the diamond district we could get ideas.” he said as he’s walking out of the bathroom and towards the center of the room.

“Umm, that’s the idea baby. You don’t have to buy anything, just get ideas,” I replied with a “DUH –ish” attitude.

By now, he’s in the closet and emerges saying something like, “the thing is, I have an idea and I brought it with me.”

Keep in mind that I’m still in bed in those “sexy” wintry pajamas and really have NO idea what’s about to happen.

He approaches the bed and hands me a white box. In keeping with the clueless theme; I have no idea what I expected to come out of there because my reaction was of complete and utter shock.

I open the white box and I find a super cute little red box with a snap on it. When I open the red box I see this AMAZING rock staring back at me. At this point Mike is talking and I have no clue what he’s saying.

I was stuttering saying, “This is it? Is this the ring? This is it. This is the ring. Is this it?”

I remember him saying something about how, you can never really know when the right time is or where the right place is so, “this is the time and this is the place.”

Tears are involuntarily streaming out of my eyes and he leans over to hug me. There we are hugging when much to his dismay I say, “I have to call my mother!”

As I write this I laugh thinking back at that. I was SO shocked. His face appears to say, “umm, we’re kind of in the middle of something here” but he only verbalizes, “my father told me to make sure no matter what that I get an answer.”