My new ring

Most of you already know by now, but for those of you who don't. . . Mark gave me a shiny new ring the other day :). I know most of you are hoping this is the proposal story and more information on Mark, but I hate to tell you it is not that blog. That is coming soon, I promise, but I am trying to find the right way to condense the story so in the meantime. . . my ring.

(This is actually a picture of the ring with the band too. Mark still has the band and

I've only been allowed to try on once or twice-mostly just long enough to briefly admire it and snap a picture)

It is kind of funny how quickly one becomes used to something. I feel naked without my ring now and I've only had it for just over a week. It is way too big for me and has this tape/paper blob on the back to keep it from falling off and I take it off to get ready in the morning but then I keep finding myself frantically thinking "ugh where's my ring? Oh there it is." Then literally 10 seconds later the exact same thing again "{gasp} where's my ring? Oh there it is" right where I left it, imagine that :). It feels so safe and comforting to put it back on again.

I find myself waking up in the middle of the night making sure it was still there and smiling when it still is. I then find myself flashing my hand out as if to look at my ring, then realizing that it is too dark to see it I then roll over and go back to sleep. This happens continuously throughout the night. Silly, I know-somehow it all feels like a dream and I get so excited when I realize it is not a dream and I really am engaged to be married to Mark.

I also find it funny how I used to be slightly annoyed with a girl, who was newly engaged, who kept showing her ring. It also bothered me how the first thing that someone did when they found out that a person was engaged was to grab for the girls hand and look at the ring. Unfortunately I find myself being that girl-too quickly showing my ring when I excitedly pronounce "I'm engaged!" and loving when people grab my hand to look at my beautiful ring. (I even showed a member of our stake presidency when we had a YW meeting this week before embarrassingly realizing that he didn't care to see my ring, but by then it was too late. He told me congratulations anyways and then told me what I already knew: that men didn't care about those things-seeing the ring-as much as women did-ahh . . .). I'd much rather be showing off Mark but he often is not with me so the next best thing, I guess, is the ring he gave me.

It is kind of a strange idea to have chosen someone I want to spend the rest of my life with. I have waited my whole life for this and now that it is here is just seems so normal. Does that make any sense? I don't know how to explain it. Being engaged to Mark makes me feel like I'm wearing my favorite pair of socks, curled up with my favorite quilt in my red leather chair. It makes me feel all cozy, safe, happy and at home. I think I'm in love with that boy! :)