1. Have the ring
2. Have a date or at least a general idea of the actual date in mind.
Well, we (as far as I know) have neither of those things figured out yet. Although January would have been fun and great and I really did want it... it wasn't realistic. I want to have a nice wedding with lots of DIY touches. January makes it impossible.
In the month of November, I was home 1 weekend - and that was the weekend I had my family visiting for Thanksgiving (the whole weekend at my house). The month of December, I have had no weekends at home. In fact, I spent a week in Orange County, then flew home for two days, but really flew directly to Seattle. Drove home and the next day I went to Boston for 2 days.
So why aren't we engaged? I don't know but until a few weeks ago, i didn't know what requirements Dr. M had in his head :).
The Ring: We worked with a girl named Sarah. She was really nervous and it was weird. It turns out, that the ring store that Dr. M had a connection to, doesn't really specialize in special designs for rings. They contract that out. so, after about 6 weeks of going back and forth with Sarah and many misunderstandings (i.e. appointments made but she wasn't there and thought they were for different days)... she finally gave us the name of the place they contract out with and told us to work directly with them.
So, on the first weekend of December, Dr. M and I had a real nice date in downtown Seattle. We went to the recommended ring store and I loved it! They specialize in antique/estate jewelry. The owner understood exactly what I wanted. Crazy-ly, because my Grandma's ring was two-tone Gold/silver and diamonds, I knew that I was going to go with diamonds when I said I wouldn't in the past. But working with my Grandma's ring, that is what works best. using my grandma's ring doesn't in anyway save us any money and I walked out of that store, kind of shocked and on air that Dr. M wanted to spoil me that much and that I would have such a ring. It's going to be beautiful and fun.
After visiting the ring store, we went to dinner and then to the musical, "The Christmas Story". It was cute. It's based on the movie. I've never been able to watch the movie, mostly because of the cinematography of being filmed in the 70s I think. Anyway, my favorite song was "it's a sticky situation" which the kid sings while his tongue is stuck to the poll.
It was great to have a date night that weekend.
The following weekend, I had flown in directly from Orange County and my work Christmas party. That Saturday, we had a 3 year old's bday party to attend and help out at. It was fun but crazy. Then, Dr. M and I hung out with his brother's family and picked up his car (which we decided to fix instead of sell and go into debt to buy a new one).
This last weekend, we did house stuff. Dr. M and I had met with a realtor, also named Sarah, about what we needed to do to sell his condo. We have a list of about 40 things. So, this weekend, we worked on getting the things we needed to do the cleaning up/redecorating. For example, his couch was free and while hidden, it is held together by additional batting and duct tape. The realtor wants that gone (DARN!!!! said sarcastically). Also, his dining room has been his office. We have to turn it into a dining room. I have a table in my garage, since I am a collector of STUFF, and many other decorative items.
Little things like replace the shower curtain and reposition the bed in the bedroom area also on the list.
I'm hoping we can get his condo on the market by the middle of January. That's assuming that his brother helps us replace the vinyl flooring in the kitchen before that.
It's crazy and been a crazy last few months. Up until our date to the Christmas Story, I felt like Dr. M and i were always running and didn't have time to just enjoy and be dating.
So, I do joke about how he hasn't proposed to me yet and I might not say yes... Although, we just bought a new couch and other things, so I'm pretty sure I'm going to say yet :). At the same time, I do wonder when we'll get married. It seems like we have a huge list of things we need to accomplish first and it just seems insurmountable. And financially scary - since we have to figure out how to sell his place, buy a place and then sell mine.
One of my lessons in patience came with the list of things we have to do. I learned that Dr. M really does move on things... just quietly and has to process them and then he makes a plan and he's way better at getting things done than I am after that... he has a plan and if it is on his list, he will work to cross it off. I need to have a list instead of 100 lists and actually get things done.
