MEGAN'S STORY
The Engagement! To Loove is to Fly
Once a penguin finds its mate they stay together forever. Justin is my penguin!
Despite what he might think, Justin usually isn't very good at keeping secrets / surprises... or I'm just a FABULOUS detective :P (probably the later). We've known for a long time that we were the only one's for each other... SOULMATES! I have never met anyone that is sooo loving and understands me as well as he does and can make my heart skip a beat with a simple look. ☺ When I am with him I cannot stop smiling! He is the only person that can turn a horrible day into a great day or calm me down when I start freaking out like the world is ending :P When I was younger I made a list of all the characteristics I would want in a man... surprisingly he met and exceeded most of my expectations... one of the biggest being that I wanted to marry my BEST friend... hurray! :) Words cannot describe how ecstatic I am! ... I am WAY above cloud 9!
Before I continue, I wanted to give a MAJOR thanks to Jennie and Mark who introduced us! If Jennie didn't force me to go to Chili's that random night in September, I would never have been set on the journey of love... cheesy I know :) For me, it wasn’t love at first sight… but I knew I definitely wanted to get to know this guy. As usual, the main topic of our convo @ Chili’s was about surfing (surprise surprise with Justin :P) I mentioned that I had a board and wanted to get back into it and so I took his # down in my phone… THAT was completely out of character because I NEVER call guys, I make them call me. After about a week or so when I hadn’t heard from him, I facebook “chatted” him to see what was up and found out that he didn’t have my #. And so the story goes, we started flirting and talking and he would come over for the infamous Tau Beta parties, which is when I took him to look at my board and discovered that there was a monstrous hole in the tail ☹ but Justin said he could fix it. It was there, in the Tau Beta back yard, (while showing him my surfboard of course) that I threw my phone and we had our first kiss! Precious I know… ☺ Soon after, we had our first date on Mt. Soledad and finally became official the night before Halloween.
Skipping ahead, Justin got pretty serious fast, and declared his undying love for me on my couch early in December ☺ It was amazing but overwhelming at the same time. I had never been in love and still didn’t exactly understand what it meant. As we kept hanging out doing our couple thang, it occurred to me that I was somehow falling for this guy. Feb 1, 2009, Superbowl Sunday, we were lying on my bed and I knew I had to tell him but I tried to be sly about it… I don’t remember what we were talking about, but my answer to him was, “Anything for the man I love”… of course he had been waiting to hear those words forever so he caught on in .01 seconds ☺ After that, everything turned into a whirlwind of events that sealed the fact that we were made for each other and would be there through thick and thin…but the main test was passing with flying colors while being interrogated by my entire Boston family! We spent our 1 year anniversary in an undisclosed location! :P which looking back was kinda crazy. All of my girls kept telling us that we were going to elope and get married while we were there (I guess they must have seen this coming for awhile), so we decided to play a trick on them and act like we had. Little did we know at the time that a few months later it would actually be true…
FINALLY the story! Let me give you a little background first. Justin had been dropping clues accidently for about a month before such as: telling me he was looking at rings, showing me ones he liked to see if I liked them too, constantly calling me by my full name, and saying that having Valentine's day off would be perfect for him to get “ready” etc. He threw me totally off the path when he said that he ordered my Valentine’s gift. I decided to be extra annoying that week to find out what it was (I found out my Valentine’s day gift out last year) and constantly asked him what it was, etc. I was like the annoying kid that won't stop asking, "Are we there yet?" hahaha The Friday before Valentine’s Day, he threw me off his path for what I thought would be a long long time by saying that he had gone in to try to get a ring but just couldn’t afford one for awhile, because of other bills and expenses. On the actual day, I had to work (blah) and made him come visit me around 3pm (he had JUST found out 30 min prior that he could get the ring), and hung out with me until closing AND closed for me so I could get ready! He was COMPLETELY cool the whole time, not acting werid or any different than normal (I have NO idea how he did that). When he first arrived, I took a break and went walking along the beach in OB amidst the 100,000 other people that had decided to do the same thing. Jokingly, I asked him one final time, “what did you get me? A ring? Hahahah” and he just said no coolly and that I would find out later that night. I ran off to home to get ready after my shift was over, and he arrived at my place at 7pm holding a perfect single red rose, a red bag with my gift and 2 bottles of champagne. To my dismay, when he hands me the gift he tells me I can NOT open it until we get back after dinner. Ugh. I still make him open his while we have some champagne and then hurray off to make it to our reservation at The Butcher Shop for an AMAZING "Sweetheart Meal for 2". All the while, Justin is still totally cool. He had told me during dinner that he was taking us somewhere after, and knowing him, Mr, Romantic, I guessed Mt. Soledad where we had our first date. On the way to the mountain, I told him that we should just go home and enjoy some more champagne instead since it was cold outside. He convinced me that we wouldn’t be there long and just wanted to see San Diego and that seeing the city had something to do with the gift I had waiting patiently for me back at my place in PB. Surprisingly, everyone else had the same idea so we ended up having to circle a few times before deciding to park in a handicapped spot only after saying that we would move immediately if someone actually needed it to avoid “bad karma”. I was still cold and looking forward to opening my gift back home and wanting to take off my heels, so I wanted to make the visit as short as possible...I had NO idea of what was about to happen. He proceeded to walk me to the edge and say, “Remember when I took you here on our first date? It was amazing!” I slowly scan the city and sarcastically say, “Ya, it’s pretty, but I’m still cold!” Still in his own world, he continues to say, “Want to know the only thing that would make this night better?” and I turn around still completely oblivious to all the signs of what was happening, and see him on 1 knee asking if I would make him the happiest man in the world and be his fiancé! Completely in shock, I throw my hands over my mouth and repeat, “Really?! Is this happening??!” and then I jump up and down a million times and ask him again if it was really happening (I still hadn’t said yes). So he stands up and says, “I am going to take that as a yes, and this is REALLY happening!” The I proceed to yell “Yes” over and over again, stop, smile at him and then scream “IM ENGAGED!!” to which the entire mountain responds by clapping and cheering for us! It was perfect! Wait… MORE than perfect… better than anything I could have ever imagined AND the best part is... We are just getting started!!! To infinity and beyond!! 5366 00
p.s the gift that was waiting ever so patiently to be opened, really was a gift! It was this beautiful block of glass with the definition of a SOULMATE written inside of it and personalized for us!! It's perfect! :)
JUSTIN'S STORY
To start things off, I'm not the writer that the Loove of My Life Megan is, but here's my shot at telling our story... enjoy and thank you so much everyone for all your love and support!
It all started as a simple dinner at Chili’s with some friends. A pretty face across the table turned into friendly conversation and a phone number being given but no official plans being made. As I left Chili’s that night I wondered (hoped a LOT) that I would see this beautiful blonde named Megan again. And as luck and a little facebook flirting would have it, I ended up at her house for a kickback. Bummer was that the one I wanted to see was out of town on a camping trip. Oh well there would be other times. The next week I went back for another kickback and she was there, looking gorgeous as ever… there was just something about Megan that intrigued me. A few drinks later and the convo got to surfing and how she wanted to go but her board needed repair. No problem, I work for a surf company and I’ll fix it.. where is it? And it was there in her backyard when we were alone that we had our first kiss. After that we began to see each other a lot more, and a little over a week later we went on our first date to Laser Tag and Mount Soledad after to enjoy the amazing view of SD and watch some fireworks. The dates became more frequent, and on the night before Halloween, after we had been dating for several weeks, I asked her if she wanted to become exclusive, with the official facebook title and all. Little did I know that this would be the start of the rest of my life.
Being official was great, we have so much in common, and always had a great time together, and around the beginning of December, I felt like I was really falling in Love with this girl. Even though we had only been together a little over a month, I knew she was something special and had to tell her. She thought it was cute, but wasn’t sure she felt the same way quite yet, although she assured me she felt strongly for me. We kept things going great through all of Christmas Break where we saw each other almost every day that we didn’t work, and things just seemed to get better and better. New Years came around and we went to Disneyland, which was probably the most fun thing we had done to date, and shortly after a snowboard trip to mammoth was in order. But the event that stands out most in my mind was super bowl Sunday in February. We went to a friends house for a party and had a blast, but it was after that she finally told me the words I had been wanting to hear since I said them a couple months earlier, “I Love You.” That put me above cloud 9 for a while, and when Valentines Day rolled around, I took her on a Harbor Cruise where we danced the night away. She was my first (and last ) real Valentine, as I had never had a date on Valentines Day before. With school in full swing, we didn’t have much time to see each other except for the weekend, but once Fridays came around, we were pretty much inseparable until Monday, when we would sadly have to leave the comfort of each other for class and work. April rolled around before we knew it, and to Megan that meant getting me to try something I had never anticipated doing EVER… going to one of the largest country shows in California, Stagecoach. It was there amidst the debauchery and partying that we found how much we loved each other, and how far we were willing to go to be together. A few people know of this, but I’ll leave the rest up to your imagination.
The next week we were off to Boston for Megan’s cousin’s wedding. It was a whirlwind trip where I got to meet the family and get grilled by her interrogator Uncle’s. But it was all fun and games and the trip was entirely too short, but we promised we’d be back soon. The next order of business was summer, and that meant turning 21 for both of us. At this point, we had been dating a little over 8 months and I could still never get enough of her smiling face and bright eyes as she looks at me and says she loves me. Summer went by way too quickly ending with a Cruise to Mexico for the both of us. Definitely one of the best trips ever! We had so much fun just being together and living a completely stress free life for a couple days. By this time in the relationship, I knew that this girl was extremely special and I wanted to share my life with her forever. We never really fought, and both of us could always make each other smile, no matter what the circumstances. Around October, we went on the infamous kayaking trip, and after a day of school and all night driving up toward Hoover Dam, we made it to willow beach and launched the kayaks for a 10 mile paddle up the Colorado river. The trip was amazing and at the end of all the madness we were still happy as ever, between flipping kayaks and drinking beer in the sauna caves, life was perfect.
Shortly after the Kayaking Trip came the Holy Grail in our relationship so far, our one year anniversary. We made it! And still I felt that as every day that passed by, our love grew deeper and we understood each other better and better. At this point we both new that we are soul mates, and are gonna be together forever. Christmas rolled around, and I learned what my present was… a trip to New York for a week! Could not believe it was happening, just us two, all by ourselves in the big apple for a whole week. I had never had that much Megan time to myself and it was the greatest trip ever. We came out of it loving each other more than ever before and had a taste of what it was like living together and doing everything together. Hard to believe that was only a month and a half ago. After that I was broke, so had to lay low on any crazy trips or anything, and by late January, Valentines day was fast approaching. I knew that Megan McClay was the most special girl I had ever met and I wanted her to be a part of my life forever, and I knew she felt the same way about me. Plans started formulating in my head to make this happen, and to make a long story short, I got a ring, and prepared for the biggest moment of my life. Proposing to Megan. Just 3 short days ago, I was sweating bullets all day and when I went to visit her just hours before the question was going to be popped, I was afraid she’d find out somehow. I wanted it to be a surprise, and somehow I kept my cool all the way through the day and into our date. Halfway through an exquisite dinner, I informed her that there was another place we were going this evening, she guessed somehow that I was taking her to Mt Soledad, the spot where our first date ended, but she had no idea what was coming next. As we got to the top of the mountain, it was pretty chilly so she just wanted to see what I wanted to do up there and take off. It was then as we were walking around enjoying the view, that I asked her if she knew any way that would make the night more perfect. She had a puzzled look on her face and turned around to look around one more time to see if we could leave. It was as she turned back around to face me that I got on me knee and opened a little box with a beautiful engagement ring and asked her to spend the rest of her life with me. What happened next was the happiest moment of our lives so far! Yes I said “our lives.” Because as she jumped up and down for joy after covering her eyes and asking if it was really happening, that she said “yes.” We are no longer simply boyfriend and girlfriend but an engaged couple, and that’s when she screamed to the whole mountain “I’m getting married!!!” and everyone up there started clapping and cheering for us. And as I was slipping the ring on her finger and looking at the tears of joy in her eyes, I knew I had made the best decision of my life. I LOOVE you Megan! Couldn’t imagine myself with anyone else, I have the perfect fiancé, someone who is as excited to share her life with me as I with her…. It’s only the beginning.
