Today marks one year from the day hubby asked me to marry him. When we first started dating, he had me thoroughly convinced that this day would never happen. I accepted him at face value, and never pushed him for anything more. He was a 'confirmed bachelor' you know.

Every so often, he'd bump up the relationship status- always surprising me with each step. Then the biggie happened. He asked me to move in with him (we lived about 1.5 hours apart from each other, making it difficult to see each other often.)

I think my reaction surprised him. He was expecting the 'rush into his arms tearfully saying yes' scene. What he got was the "I have to think about it, I'm going to go for a drive." ......"By myself", scene.

I was raised in a very conservative religion. Although I formally gave that religion up about four years ago, my parents didn't. I knew that my living with someone before marriage would absolutely kill them and even though I have issues with my parents religious 'zeal', I still respected their right to feel the way they do.

So, I came up with a compromise during that drive. I told him that I would only consider moving in with him if it was a precursor to marriage and that we had to have a wedding date set within a year. He agreed to that. This was the first and last time I ever brought up that topic. I moved in with him the first weekend in September 2003.

I'd had two fake outs in the weeks leading up to the day he asked me to marry him. One of them was a beautiful weekend getaway in a wonderful posh hotel. He'd reserved the honeymoon suite with rose petals on the floor leading up to the bed. I just *knew* he was going to pop the question. I even poked around his suit and suitcase trying to find the ring while he was getting ready for dinner. Yeah, I'm nosy like that. Dinner came and went. Nothing. The waiter asked if we wanted dessert. Aha! I thought. He's going to have the ring brought out with dessert! Ummm, no. When we went back to the room, there were new items; an ice bucket containing champagne and a silver platter with a cover on it. "There it is!", I thought. I didn't want to seem eager so I let him lift the lid. Damned chocolate covered strawberries.

The next fake out was the day before the actual proposal. He told me to get all dolled up because he was going to take me to a swanky restaurant. There were classical guitars playing in the background and candlelight at the table. Suddenly he grabbed my hand and looked at me with tears in his eyes and told me that he can't remember when he'd ever been this happy. He went on to tell me that he loves every minute we spend together and how it all feels so right. I just *knew* that this was the moment. It was so perfect, well except there was no proposal.

The following day, we decided to just lay around the house in our sweats and watch movies all day. I don't even remember what we were watching when he paused the TiVo, got down on one knee and asked me to marry him. I thought he was joking so I told him to shut up and put the TiVo back on play. I suppose he didn't quite get the reaction he expected out of the proposal either. I'm funny that way. He continued trying to convince me that he was serious. I continued to not believe him. I mean, come on.... where were the candles? Where was the music?

Even on to the next morning, I still didn't believe him so I decided to not bring it up when we woke up. He rolled over and said, "hey, did we discuss anything of importance last night? I had a little too much to drink, you know." Then he started laughing. I wanted to slug him. I probably did.

So, that was my marriage proposal. Less than three months from the day we moved in together, just over a year from the day we met. I'm really quite glad it happened that way because it proved to me that he took me to all those wonderful places because he wanted to pamper me. Nothing more. He proposed to me when I couldn't have looked ANY WORSE. That, in a nutshell says it all.

So, today is a special day for me. The day that the confirmed bachelor was a confirmed bachelor no more. I haven't regretted saying yes for even a minute.