The Real Engagement

I have shared many fake engagement stories (see "relationships" label), so now it is time I share the real story.

It was June 15th, 2002 and we happened to be visiting Ross' family over in Panama City. His sister, Shelby, was also home that weekend (it was Father's Day weekend) so all seemed normal. I had been faked out so many times through the duration of knowing we were going to get engaged relatively soon (we had a wedding date in mind for after graduation the following December). 

At this point, besides all the fake engagement stories I have shared before, there were many more times I suspected it was "the time",  but then another day passed. That weekend I honestly had put the idea out of my head because I didn't want to get my hopes up, or ruin the surprise of it all. 

On Friday Ross decided to tell Shelby his plans- good thing! He planned a REAL FAKE Engagement! That's right- he was going to be mean and fake me out the night before to "throw me off". He planned to take me on a romantic date over to Seaside (where Truman Show was filmed) and get down on one knee and all and not actually propose, just set it up to fake me out. In the words of Stephanie Tanner "How Rude!". LUCKILY Shelby told him that was a very Stupid Idea, so he decided not to do it.

So Saturday morning comes around. We got up early because Ross told me he had to "run his dad's boat out for a little while to make sure the engine is running good for Father's Day". I believed him so I just threw on a bathing suit and and got ready to go (no shower or make up or anything like that, cause it was just going to be a quick boat ride, right). Meanwhile, Ross' family all knew what was up so his mom packed a fancy lunch for us. 

I totally didn't see this one coming! We go out to an island called Shell Island that we usually went by boat to the beach for. Everything seemed normal until I noticed Ross kept looking up in the sky. I kept asking him what he was looking for and he just said he was watching for those boat-plane things. By the way, there was NO one out there with us, it was like our own private island that day- pretty cool.

So all of a sudden this random guy on a jet ski pull up next to us and says "I have a delivery for Amy Hoch." What??!! We are out on an island... what is going on? He hands me a Walmart bag with a postal box in it and says "there you go". We get up on the boat and I open the box. My heart begins racing...

I open the postal box and all these notes fall out... I had an idea what was going on at that point, but Ross thought it'd be funny to act like it was a box from a stalker so the notes were to "throw me off again" and they said stuff like "I've been watching you... etc" (I didn't fall for it, but I didn't care, I saw a little jewelry box at the bottom!)

So I pull out the ring box and open it... BLING! BLING! The ring box alone was awesome... it had a spotlight that shined on the fat diamond! Ross gets down on one knee and says some romantic stuff that I can't quite remember (sorry, I was distracted by a fat ring!), but I did hear the "will you marry me?" "YES of Course!" I scream back! After enjoying the moment for a couple hours we started calling everyone we knew... then went to a romantic dinner (after getting all dolled up at home) at THE Capt. Anderson's in PC. And the rest is history...

But there was a catch.... Ross told me why he kept looking in the sky. The guy who came on the jet ski ended up calling a little while later and explained why he came by jet ski... Ross hired him to deliver the ring by boat plane, then we were supposed to go on a little ride after the proposal, but of course that day he went to start it and it wouldn't start. After calling several other friends and people with boat plans, all having engine trouble for some reason, he resulted in delivering it by jet ski. ha! I didn't mind... I still got it! 

Ross was funny, he wrapped it in several layers of floatable stuff and in a walmart bag so if it accidently fell out of the boat plane it would float. haha. 

Anywho- that's the story. I love my man and his creativeness. I would say YES to him a million times over!