Here's the story y'all have been waiting for.

Let me just preface this by a few things:

1. Ben cannot hide things from me. He may not give me the entire truth all the time, but he can't keep everything a secret. I knew he had the ring, and I knew he had talked to my dad.
2. Lot's of things happened so this could all happen the way it did: the Clark's were out of town for the weekend, Emily and Preston had asked me to babysit weeks earlier, and Dad can keep a secret pretty well.
3. Ben and I never get to spend time together thanks to work and school, so I never turn down an opportunity to be with him.

So, here's the rest of the story.

The week of February 7th, was a fairly busy week for both Ben and I. Ben had meetings on top of classes and getting the first draft of his appellate brief ready to be turned in and I had work, helping out the missionaries, and the usual day to day things. I worked Saturday morning, and was looking forward to a somewhat quiet and long weekend where I could get some things done that I had been putting off for a few weeks. After work, I was "running errands" when Ben texted me asking if I wanted to hang out with him after babysitting or if he could come over then. Of course, I said yes.

When Ben arrived he banished me from my room and and immediate vicinity of my room while he decorated it special for Valentine's Day. I knew, at that very moment, that Ben was going to propose that day. So, I happily let him decorate my room. When he finished, I had to hurry up and leave to make it to Emily and Preston's on time to babysit. Ben said he needed to run by his place to get some books to study, so we took seperate cars.

Babysitting Lauren was a joy.

After Emily and Preston got home and as Ben and I were leaving, he told me to call or text him when I got home. We both left and both headed back to the Clark's. I had forgotten that I knew Ben was going to propose, so I started taking my time driving home. While I was at the gas station I remembered there was a surprise for me waiting at home and that Ben was most likely on his way over, so I booked it the rest of the way home. Luckily, my driving skills surpassed Ben's that night, and I beat him back home.

Once I was home, I went down to my room to find it decorated very Valentine's-y. There on my bed was a little box. In my mind, I thought, Ben better be showing up any minute now. As I opened the box, I found it was empty, so I read the letter that accompanied all the decorations. I called Ben (like the letter said and as he requested before we parted), and HE DIDN'T ANSWER HIS PHONE!!!!! So, I ran upstairs because I knew he had to be outside waiting. When I opened the front door, Ben was down on one knee and asked me to marry him. I told him of course, I'd marry him.

So, that's the story. Yes, we are still trying to figure out WHEN we can finally get married, so we'll keep y'all informed about it.

Work, work, work

The best thing about work is that when you are in the drive through you can surf the net. So, after checking my email, facebook, and fellow blog sites, I have been looking at these:

And also these:

Isn't great that I get paid to do this?

My Valentine

I love Ben muchos!

Last night he asked me to marry him, and now everyone will know how much Ben loves me after seeing this.

Arizona (like I promised)

One month ago today, Ben and I flew to Arizona to spend a little time with his family. Ben's parents picked us up from the airport. Since it was 70 degrees and sunny, Ben and I took the opportunity to enjoy the nice weather since it was -14 degrees when we left. We took his nephew, Asher, to the park twice. Sunday, after church, we had a family dinner with everyone who lived in Phoenix. It was similar to family get togethers with my family: good food, lots of people, funny stories from the past. Monday, Ben and I took off for Tucson to meet his family there. We had fun with his 88 year old neighbor who took us and his brother's family to dinner, went to the Sonoran Desert Museum with his sister's family (it was cool. I liked the hummingbirds the best), and stopped by the University of Arizona. We headed back to Ben's parents' Tuesday afternoon and spent the rest of the time chilling (which was really nice and I'm ready to do it again), playing Heroscape (something I'm going to have to get used to playing at least once in a while), going to the Mesa Temple with his parents and brother and sister-in-law (which is a gorgeous temple and a lot bigger than the St. Paul Temple), and meeting up with my last companion (we took Sister Hartman out for ice cream since it was her birthday). Thursday, Ben and I came back to the frozen tundra land. Neither of us were too excited about that since it also meant a return to work and school and not spending lots of time together, but we were glad that we could go to Arizona. We'll have to do it again soon...

What's in a name?

Names are important. Names are even more important when given to inanimate objects that you spend lots of time with (like Roger). On our first date, I informed Ben of my relationship with Jimmy, my car. Ben was completely impressed with the fact that I love my car so much and had given him an actual name and used it that he practically pleaded with me to name his car for him. I told him it would be hard, since I didn't really have much of a connection with his car, but I would try my best. Over the past couple of months, Ben kept asking me over and over if I had discovered the perfect name for his car, and sadly, the results were not good. Little did Ben understand that the process of naming such an important part of your life was such a tedious process.

Yesterday it happened. Ben's car finally received her proper name of Silvia Diamante. We both agree that it is the perfect name for his car. Now if only he'll let me name his computer......

The Traffic Report

Now that I actually have to drive more than 10 minutes on actual highways, I have taken to following the traffic report. In the morning, I check out the traffic on the mndot.gov website and at night I listen intently for Moon and Stacey (the radio djs) to let me know that my highway is moving along fine and dandy.

I never thought I'd be a commuter.