It seems like those words would never be said, but yes, it’s true! Josh proposed to me on Saturday evening (yes, Valentine’s Day) and we’re officially official! I know many people thought this day would never come (myself included) but yes, Josh has finally decided to make an honest woman out of me, and as Josh’s mother so descriptively said, “I guess your father can put away his shotgun now.”

This past weekend Josh’s entire family came to visit: his mom, dad, Patrick and Uncle Bill & Aunt Pam from Kentucky. Liz couldn’t join us, but she was certainly there in spirit. When they arrived on Saturday morning, we spent the day doing typical Austin things. Since the weather was bad, we didn’t do some of the outdoor things we had planned, but we went to Pluckers for lunch and toured the LBJ museum. It was a really nice afternoon.

Around 4pm, everyone was ready for a little break. Josh and I took Patrick back to our apartment to hang out for a bit (well, really Patrick took a nap on the couch) while Josh and I packed up the cooler for our trip out to SaltLick. The rest of the family went to check into the hotel and unwind for a bit. Around 430 or Josh, Patrick and I headed out to meet the rest of the family for happy hour at their hotel.

While we were walking through the door to the hotel, Josh gets a call. It’s very obviously not good news. Josh tells me that one of their servers has crashed, and he has to go fix the problem, or offers.com isn’t going to make money…and if offers.com isn’t making money that’s not good for anyone. Josh grabs my keys and heads off to the office (or so I thought). I hang out with his family, have a few cocktails and snacks and everyone just relaxes for a bit before dinner.

Josh gets back around 615 and we make the scenic drive down to Saltlick for what I have determined is some of the best BBQ in Texas. Their sides leave something to be desired, but I really do love their meat. We have to wait a half hour or so to get a table, but after cracking open some wine, it’s really not all that bad, despite being cold.

After dinner everyone comes back to our apartment for some dessert and some drinks, including some pink drinks especially suited to valentine’s celebrations. We hang out for a whilel, but I think all the eating, walking around, and let’s not forget all the drinking, has definitely tired everyone out. After we say goodnight, Josh and I start the process of cleaning up all the dishes and putting away the food.

We finished clearning everything away, and Josh says it’s now time to give me my Valentine’s present. Yay! He locks himself in the bedroom for a few minutes, and I hear him rustling away in there. Then he goes into the office, for what he claims are the final stages of present wrapping. I’m sitting on the couch, and he comes out with a white gift bag. He pulls what could only be a ring box out of the bag, and all of a sudden it’s, “will you marry me?” following by me jumping on him, screaming and putting the ring on my finger all very much at the same time. It’s amazing he didn’t get a black eye, or at least temporary hearing loss.

After reflecting at how great my hand looks with an engagement ring on it, we call my parents, my sister and Ashley & Emily to tell them the good (some might say fabulous) news.

The rest of the evening was spent dreaming of floral arrangements and wedding dresses and doing a happy dance in the living room while I should have been sleeping.

The next morning, Josh’s family headed over to our apartment to meet up for the rest of the activities for the day. Of course, I could hardly contain myself I was so excited to tell them all we had gotten engaged. Of course, as soon as they walked in there was much screaming, jumping and hugging all around. It was such a fabulous way to start my day!

After we’d all collected ourselves, we headed out to Mt. Bonnell to see the beautiful view from Austin’s most scenic point. It was so peaceful and perfect up there, it made the climb up the stairs totally worth it. We headed to The Oasis for lunch and to further soak up some sun. Unfortunately for us, we sat outside in the shade…so most of us shivered all the way through lunch. The food was great, and of course we had to continue calling out of town relatives to tell them the good news.

We had to say goodbye after lunch so the family could head back to Houston before dinner. It was so sad for everyone to leave! We had a great time seeing everyone, I really headed to say goodbye, but I know we’ll all get together again soon and we have vacation to look forward to.

Later, I found out that Josh’s entire “oh, my servers are broken” problem on Saturday afternoon was really just an excuse to slip away for an hour or so to go pick up my ring from the jewelry store! I totally had no idea what was going on! It was such a fabulous surprise to find out he really had a plan all along. It turns out that he had told his mom about his intentions the night before, and she was in on the plan, but she certainly did a great job keeping the secret to herself. I was totally blown away!

And now for your viewing pleasure, this is my beautiful ring! It was definitely worth the wait, and I’m glad no servers had to be harmed in the acquisition of this ring!

I will admit, that I am not a great saver and that I probably spend more than I should on certain things, but I am just completely unaware of where all my money goes! I know I should be grateful that I don’t have any debt…not even a dollar on my credit card…but I need to be more careful about putting away money for a rainy day. It seems like the money I just added to my savings account is barely a drop in the bucket. It’s not entirely reassuring that the news, Internet and even my Real Simple magazine are all talking about how tough the economy is. We’re all aware that things are tanking in some industries, but since I don’t have any money invested anywhere that doesn’t really effect me.

So, from this point on, I really need to be better about putting a little money away every month. Not much, but just enough to make me feel like I’m contributing to my future. My goal is to double what I have in savings by the end of the year. I think that’s pretty realistic, considering we’re not dealing with large sums of money here!

My Dear Reader(s), I am so happy to announce that the website that has been consuming Josh’s life for the last many months has finally been launched. I swear I was probably just has happy when he told me it was uploaded as all the people that have been sacrificing weekends, evenings, sleep and snuggle time with their girlfriends to get it completed.

So now, with all of that being said, can everyone please immediately go to offers.com and buy lots and lots of stuff? Now, I’m not sure if Josh has listened to my suggestions, but there should now be a link to donate all of your proceeds from purchases on offers.com to the Kathryn Present Fund. But even if it’s not there, it’s still a pretty great website. I’m extremely proud of my Josh for being on the team that created it. They’ve come a long way from coffee-cravings.com