I'm going to be way more "Whoo hoo" once I'm conscious, I promise!

Good afternoon!

Peaches is engaged.

Like all mothers, I'm excited, nervous, scared, happy, tearful, reflective, and filled with joy.

I'm also very, very tired.

See here's how this all went down.

Two weeks ago, right before Easter, The Boy...and let's just go ahead and give him a blog name, how about Junior...anyway, Junior sent a letter addressed to Hubby, Skippy, and me.  This letter contained, among other things, a diamond ring. Now, the first thing we all wondered was...would Junior really have mailed an actual ring just to prove he was serious about marrying our daughter?

A couple of texts later we found out, yes, he would, he did, and it was very real.

Junior is a quiet young man, He's Skippy's age so he's a bit older than Peaches, who is, yes, still not quite 20.   Junior has worked very hard to put his life in the right order and he's going to school right now to pursue a career he's very passionate about.  He moved from Wisconsin to points further south and he and Peaches realized that a long distance relationship is not easy.  They figured that out pretty quickly...like a week.

Now most people would plow through the time apart. Hubby and I did prior to our short engagement and marriage.  We had phone bills that rivaled the Gross National Product of some small European countries.  (This was back in the day when long distance charges went down after 8 PM.)  But Junior is a bit different from most people, instead he got himself a ring and mailed it to us with a letter than ended, and I'm not making this up, with two boxes.  We were to check yes...or no...

George Strait lyrics and an early scene from "Pretty in Pink" aside. the letter was sweet, thoughtful, and completely disarming.  Oh, and it was to be kept a complete secret from Peaches and everyone else who wasn't names Hubby, Sarah, or Skippy.

All this right before a big holiday weekend with church people and relatives and MY MOTHER all buzzing around the house and Peaches too.  This is when we realized that Junior is not great at keeping secrets because Peaches spent a lot of time asking us questions like, "Did you get a letter from Junior, he said he mailed one." and "What are you doing next weekend?  Where are you?  Who were you just texting?"

Nope, Easter was very weird.

Anyway, clearly Junior wanted to do the right thing and ask for Peaches' hand, but time and distance and the fact that he's in school all the time made it difficult.  So the weekend after Easter, Hubby drove down to see Junior and talk about life and marriage and how he'd better treat our daughter like an absolute queen for the rest of her life and never, ever, EVER think about divorce because this is forever, like forever. forever.  It was a productive chat. Of course that left me at home to pretty much lie my face off about where Hubby was.  Sure, work takes him out of town once in a while, but I'm just not a good liar. Probably why I don't do it often.  

But we had to get this conversation done because Peaches was on her way down to see Junior this past week and we knew Junior was eager to ask her but probably wouldn't simply because we hadn't actually answered him.  So Hubby drove down on Friday, returned on Saturday and Peaches left on Monday.

And then we waited. 

We waited Monday.  We waited Tuesday. We waited Wednesday and Thursday and all day Friday. And I kept asking Hubby..."You don't think he got cold feet, do you?"

Then, Friday night....or should I say Saturday morning...I got the text.  In the middle of the night.  after midnight.

Normally I'm up, I don't sleep well. But this was one of those rare nights  I was in a deep, warm, cozy sleep, exhausted from waiting for Junior to pop the question during daylight hours for an entire week. 

So it took me a minute.  And her text said, "So Junior asked me marry him."

Oh...oh I see.  I'd forgotten that she probably didn't know we'd known about this for TWO SOLID WEEKS.  so I pried open my eyes and texted:

And.....?

Peaches:  "I said yes!"

Since  is a group chat, Hubby's phone was buzzing and chirping and whatever it is his phone does when she and I text back and forth, so he woke up and joined in the conversation.  Looking at our texting, I'm surprised I was as coherent as I was.  I probably should have been more "whoo hoo" (I got all that out of my system in the previous two weeks and I'll be super whoo hoo when she comes home and shows me the ring in person in a few days.)

Anyway, this got me to thinking about my own engagement to Hubby. I was living in Michigan, teaching and he was in Wisconsin. He'd asked for my hand TWO MONTHS earlier and told my parents he was going to ask me at Christmas.  I flew to Milwaukee, and then he drove me two hours north to my parents, with a pit stop at our favorite willow tree over looking Lake Michigan.By the time we got there it had crossed from Christmas Eve to Christmas Day and by the time we got to my parents they were exhausted too.

We spent the next two weeks telling all the relatives (because we went to see everyone on both sides of the family that years. Lots of miles in a Jeep Wrangler) and then nailing down our wedding date and our reception hall for that following summer because I was done living apart from Hubby. Yes, you can plan a wedding for 200 in less than seven months.

Anyway my point is is that we kept my parents waiting for two months and kept them up late that night as well. I guess when it comes to engagements, that's how that goes. The couple is in the blissful dizziness of those first engaged moments, you know, the ones before you realize that planning a wedding is a gigantic pain in the rump and by the time you get to the wedding you're not so sure you like any of your friends, relatives, or your fiancee.    Yeah, before all that, there's that dizzy love.  And while that's going on, the parents of the bride are happy, joyful, excited...

And very, very tired.

Personally, I'm eager to see how it works from the other side, you know, when Skippy decides to propose to a girl I'm just going to start calling Missy right now just so things are easier down the road. That'll be that great moment when we are in the dark until a week later when he remembers to tell us.

But that's a ways away.

This is a thing?  I must have this!

For now, we are so happy to welcome Junior into the family and I just can't even wait to see what kind of blog posts I'm going to get from this new little development.