I didn't know he was that romantic!!

So the day before Thanksgiving Paul called me and told me to come pick him up from work because he had just quit his job. I was dumbfounded. I replied,"Are you just messing with me, or did you REALLY quit." He said,"I really quit, come and get me." Well, I did some fast thinking on the way over to his business. Trying to think of what to say so that I wouldn't blow up at him.

When I drove up in the parking lot, Paul was waiting for me at the door. He got in the car and said, "Should I stay to the end of the day?" I replied, "Do what ever you want to do, I will take you home now if you would like or you can stay." He opted to stay the day.

When I got to work that afternoon, I was still pretty hot about the whole thing. I ranted to everyone that would listen about how Paul drove me insane about quitting his job and how he had made me come pick him up and then ended up staying. All of my co-workers were getting charge out of me spewing my complaints.

That night when I walked in the front door, Paul met me with roses. Now this was a big deal because this was THE first time he had gotten me flowers..EVER. I said,"Um, what have you DONE? You MUST have done something wrong for me to get these." He apologized for being a jerk and said he got me one rose for ever year we had been together...there were five of them, a red one, a pink one, a yellow one, a coral one and a white one. I put them in a vase and turned around and noticed that Paul had every candle I owned burning in the livingroom. He also had a nice bottle of wine and two glasses...not to mention he had rented "Sleepless in Seattle" for me to watch. He had asked me earlier if I had ever seen it. I hadn't.

So, we sat down and watched the movie and drank the wine. To my amazement, Paul didn't fall asleep and here it was darn close to 2:00 am. He kept telling me how much he loves me. So, I asked him once again, "What have you done???" He just laughed.

In the morning he made me breakfast. He had asked me earlier in the week what my favorite breakfast food was. I had told him waffles. I was laughing about him asking me that because he had bought me a cheap waffle iron last year that was HORRIBLE to make waffles on. Well, I guess he anticipated that because he had bought a nice expensive model (the one I originally wanted) to make me breakfast. There were strawberries, whipped cream, REAL maple syrup and Champagne. I asked," Are we celebrating something?" Paul replied, "Just wanted to let you know I love you." Now I was REALLY suspicious that he had done something bad.

He then started to talk about a plasma TV he had seen in an ad for Black Friday. He began to tell me how much room we would gain by getting rid of the entertainment center. I blew up,"IF YOU BRING THAT HOME YOU WILL BE LIVING WITH YOUR PARENTS!!!" I then began to think he was buttering me up so he could bring home the stupid TV.

We drove to his parents' house for Thanksgiving dinner and I started asking all of the family if they knew what he had done and why would he be doing all these sweet things for me. I knew it must be bad, whatever it was. He was listening in the other room and poked his head in the door and said," I can't wait to buy that TV." "Is the back bedroom clean upstairs???" I asked his mother, "because he will need it when he brings home that TV." She laughed and told me she would start cleaning it.

After dinner, Paul told me he wanted to walk off some of the turkey from dinner. I got my coat and started out to the car. All the while Paul was making comments about buying the plasma TV. I was getting really steamed. "Do you REALLY want to go for a walk? It's freezing and you didn't bring your hat." I said. Paul just said he wanted to go to Hoopes Park, which is a lovely little park in the city. Loads of people get their wedding pictures and prom pictures taken there. Anyway, he assured me that he wanted to walk.

I parked the car and we got out. As we walked around the path, Paul said," I need to call Jimmy O'Grady and thank him for introducing us." I thought that was a little odd that he would bring that up, but I agreed with him. "You are the best thing that ever happened to me. Where would we be if we hadn't gone to that baseball game?" I thought about the night we met and how I was dragged to the game by my daughter-in-law. She said if she had to go, so did I. Jimmy was an old friend of mine and coincidentally an old friend of Paul's. They were standing together just inside the gate. "I had so much fun at the game," I said. I was glad I had met him, even though he was going to buy that stupid TV.

We walked the perimeter of the park and Paul stopped and said,"This is the season for commitment." I turned around and he was on his knees with a diamond ring!!! I couldn't believe it! He said, "Heidi Howe, will you marry me?" I could barely speak. "Yes, I absolutely will!!" I sobbed. I felt my head just spinning and I was crying. He hugged me and kissed me. Then he burned up the cell phone lines calling everyone he knew to tell them I had said yes.

So, that was the story of how he proposed. He had been planning this for awhile. He drummed up the plasma TV thing to throw me off the trail. The quitting work was to cover for the roses and he had everyone we knew in on it. I am still in disbelief that he cares that much for me. It's nice to know.