The Proposal

Wrigley, August 2007 - The first date and first kiss, both under the sign

On August 28, 2007, I picked up Cheese from his hotel during his Chicago work deployment. It was the first time we met face-to-face, and I was nervous. I had to wear my black cami because I knew I would be sweating my ass off from nerves.

But he was amazing - he did most of the talking because, even after the 20+ phone hours we had logged in the three days before this, I was stuck for words.

I figured that any red-blooded male that has never been to Chicago would want to see Wrigley Field, so I got tickets for their game against the Brewers - both teams were in first place at this time, and it was a HUGE series. Needless to say, he loved it. And (though he may tell it different), I think he started to love me.

It was a good night.

Fast forward to October 10, 2008. Cheese's family arrived that morning at 4AM. He still had to work, so I spent the day with his mom, sister, neice and nephew. We had fun, but it was a really long day. After picking his dad up from the airport, Cheese was INSISTANT that we drive to Wrigley Field to show his dad (who apparently has seen it 8 times before, but this was all part of the plan).

One hour, two screaming kids, some really worn out adults - we tumble up to Wrigley. It was 730, and I was tired, dirty, and bleeidng from ears from all the child-whining I endured for the last ten hours. We walked around the stadium until we were in front of the sign, just like a year ago.

As we stood there, I noticed Cheese kept turing his head around as if he was looking for something. After I took pictures of his parents under the sign, I turned my head and noticed my family standing across the street.

I looked at him, looked at them, and asked, "What's my family doing across the street?"

And then it started to come together......

As they crossed the street, I looked back to Cheese, who, in front of the Wrigley sign, was bent on knee, white box in hand.

His eyes were wet. He croacked out, "Meg, will you marry me?"

For a few seconds I was stunned, and couldn't speak (to him, on bended knee, this felt like hours). I just kept covering my face, laughing, looking at my family (or so I was told - this part gets a little blurry).

Finally I nodded and said, "Yes."

As he hugged me and kissed me and told me he loved me, he told me that he had a speech, but he started to choke up and couldn't get it out.

My family (and all the random strangers that stood there cheering and taking pictures) milled around, hugging and kissing and crying.

Despite my posture here, this will not be a shot gun wedding.

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I should mention that Cheese has spent the last three weeks organizing this whole thing - emails, phne calls, plans, scheming - he did it all, and my whole family was in on it. He called both sisters, my brother and my mom for their blessing, all of whom gave it. Like I mentioned in the last post, this whole thing could not have gone down with out my sisters and my mom. And they did an AMAZING job of lying through their teeth at me when I started to suspect something was up.

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Well done, Liars Liars Pants on Fire!

I tried really hard to get a decent picture of the ring - it's weird because it sits high - not flat on the band, and I wanted a picture that got a feel for it - this was the best I could do.

This one is blurry, but you get a sense of the height.

So after the proposal, Cheese herded us all across the street to Harry Carey's Tavern, where my mom conitnued to cry, and everyone stuffed their faces. The above picture is Devin and Patrick.

My mom. The following night (which I will get to later), she cooked the MASSIVE past dinner, conplete with meatballs and sausage, and brownies and peach crisp for dessert, for Devin's marathon run. She was the bestest mom ever.

My brohter in law, Nat, and Devin's friend Dave, who would be running the marathon with her.

My sister Ellen (who started her own blog of fabulousness - she's like a really cute version of me, but with tons more style [versus my none], lots of biting wit, and a beautiful kid to finish the package. Check it out and give her some love as she starts to built it!)

Odd, there are almost no pictures of us from that night. I took this one from my crappy camera.

90 minutes after all this went down, we were walking back to the car, and Momma Cheese took my arm, asking:

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"So can we start thinking about when you going to have kids?"

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Uh, no.

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We can't.

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Oh, and lest I forget - as if reading my mind - he thought ahead and got us this swank ass hotel room for the night, so that we could have a break from the air matress and the screaming kids.

Like I mentioned, the next night my mom cooked a pre-marathon feast for both families. This was all of us - can you imagine?

Me and my BFF Anne-Marie. How cute is she? MAWWWAAAA! (that's me giving a big kiss!)

As I mentioned, the following day was marathon day - this is me and Ellie on the train down to ChinaTown to see my sister Devin, who was running her 672nd marathon. Just kidding, but seriously, that girl loves to run this one! She ran with her friend Dave, who struggled a bit, but they stuck it all out together, finishing in 4:47. The heat again hit the upper 80s yesterday, but I guess it was less of an issue than last year.

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So there you have it - the whole story. Cheese's family left this morning, and then we took a really long nap. I have toyed with the idea of going to the gym, but that may have to wait one more day.

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A huge thanks again to Stronger for that awesome post! And thanks so so so so much for all the awesome congrats from the blogger world - If it wasn't for this whole blogging thing, my life would not look like it does today. As my little brother told Cheese when he called for the blessing, "I never thought I would see the day that my sister would get married."

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Now, about that Vegas elopement...