The little girl dreams of being a princess one day. She dreams of her knight rescuing her from all of the dragons in the land. Somehow he does after she travels along the broken roads and the hills of horror. Oh, the journey is never over, it's only just begun.
The date was December 22, 2012. I woke up with a cold coughing and wheezing. I knew I had a big date that night so I had to work out and get beautiful. Nick tells me what time to be ready and just to look cute for the first event. He takes me to the new Ross Perot Museum. The exhibits wind and lurch as you touch each exhibit and it springs to life. We are both amazed at everything we are learning throughout the museum. After this he lets me go home and get dressed ready for tonight's adventure. He takes me to Bob's Steak and Chop House. Knowing I do not like steak, he promises me some scrumptious seafood. The atmosphere is perfect as we eat our meals. He has prime rib and I have Chilean sea bass. He keeps telling me we are going far out of town so my mind is wandering. Finally as we leave we travel down the streets of historic Grapevine downtown. The magic of Christmas whips around me and I am smiling. We arrive at the Gaylord Texan.
We walk through the middle of the Gaylord looking at everything and Nick is leading me to Gaylord Ice. I ask him how he knows where it is as he has never been before. He tells me he went many years ago. I find out this is one of the first "lies" of the night. We get down to it, but he decides since I am sick it won't be a good idea so I say, "Let's go take pictures." I love pictures so if I am ever down, just pose in a picture with me and all is well again. We find a fun sleigh we had seen before. Nick tells me that my camera isn't "good enough" and he is going to get a professional. I wait for about 15 minutes wondering what the heck he is doing. Finally he has a girl in tow with him. We get in the sleigh posing and smiling.
He jumps over me to get out which I thought nothing of. As I step down the stairs, he gets on his knee. "What are you doing?" "Julie, you know you're the love of my life. Will you spend the rest of your life with me?" I think I said yes. All I know is I saw a sparkling ring and quickly slipped it on my own finger! The photographer is snapping away at this point. I am laughing and turning bright red. People are clapping. Nick is hugging me. I am shaking. I don't cry, I shake. It's just me! As we follow the photographer to retrieve our photos, Nick says, "Do you see the middle of the ring? It is your mother's diamond?" He specially designed the ring with his godfather who is a jeweler in Dallas.
He tells me of all of the behind-the-scenes stories as we stand in line. I called Dad and Brenda first. I said, "Well, I got my ring." Dad says, "Oh, you did, what ring?" I know he knows. He says he is very happy for us and he loves me dearly. Then I call my best friend, Chandra. I send out a million texts, my phone dies so I cannot call anyone else. Nick asks me if I remember my sister in law asking me about my ring size for a "jewelry party" she was having. Lie! Andrea asked me what rings I liked and where I pinned them on Pinterest because Nick had her on a special assignment I found out. Nick and his buddies had been to Gaylord scouting it all out the week before! Nick called my dad one night late to ask him when it just hit him, maybe God told him to, we don't know. Many of our families and best friends were in on it and I am quite surprised no one slipped.
Surreal to say the least, the princess slips on her ring.
