The Fishtank Proposal, from Sarah

Josh and I really like fish. The kind you keep in tanks, not the eating kind, although that can be nice, too. Anyway, we decided in August to set up a saltwater fishtank together at his parents' house. Saltwater tanks are very tempermental; you can only add one thing at a time or the entire ecosystem gets out of whack.

First, we put in the sand and rock. This wouldn't seem like a big deal, but the rock we used was "live rock". No, it doesn't move, but it contains bacteria and things that a saltwater reef rock would have, and it helps to maintain the tank on a microscopic level. Plus, it's pretty. Not at first, but now it's covered with purple coraline, and is quite pretty.

A month after the rock, we bought hermit crabs and snails to take care of our growing algae problem. They are affectionately referred to as "the cleanup crew". If only I had such a crew for our future house - they make short work of getting all the algae off the glass and cleaning up the rocks and sand!

About a month after the cleanup crew brings us to Columbus Day weekend in October, and why was I so excited? We were finally going to get our first fish! We headed to Fairmount Aquarium early Saturday afternoon and picked out the perfect fish. He was a Firefish, and he was beautiful. The front half was white, the other half orange. He had purple around his eyes and green on his fins. He was very cute, and we were very excited to be bringing him home.

I have to admit, other than the fish, I was not having a great day. I had been frustrated by some other things that were going on in my life, and I was also frustrated because I knew that Josh and I were trying to have a nice day together, and I was pretty grumpy. My first clue, however, should have been when I told him how I was feeling, that I was afraid that I was going to ruin our day, and he said, "Honey, I promise, that will not happen".

We got back to the house, and began to make preparations to acclimate the Firefish to his new home. When everything was set up, we just had to wait for a while until we could actually move the fish from the small bucket into the tank. I was standing near the tank, looking at it fondly, when Josh came up next to me and put his arm around me.

"I'm so glad that we chose to work on this project together," he said, "I really enjoy spending time with you."

At this point, I should have gotten it... but I didn't. I smiled at him and said, "I like spending time with you, too, honey".

He turned to face me. "And I'd be honored if you would be willing to spend the rest of your life with me." He went down on one knee, and held up a small ivory box with something shiny inside.

Even though we had been talking about marriage for months to the point of going to pre-engagement counseling, I felt my jaw drop as the butterflies swarmed in my stomach. My hands covered my mouth as I smiled the biggest smile I can ever remember having, and squealing "YES!" I took hold of his hands and helped him up and into a hug. Eventually I actually looked at the ring. :) It was the most beautiful thing I had ever seen. As he slipped the ring onto my finger, I couldn't stop looking at it, then up at him, then back at the ring.

The aftermath was kind of funny. First, I asked him if he had been nervous. "You couldn't tell?" he said. "Well," I said, "you were talking pretty fast, and did you hurt your knee when you went down hard like that?" It was funny because he knew I would say yes, but it was cute that he was still nervous about actually popping the question. Then his sisters showed up, and there was hugging, screaming, laughing, and crying. That's when I found out that basically his entire family, the fire station, and the people he works with all knew that this was happening.

That night, we went with Kailyn to a Great Bear Trio concert where Noah and Andrew VanNorstrand along with their mother Kim were playing. Noah had known that Josh was proposing that weekend, but hadn't confirmed that it had actually taken place yet, so he warned his family to not say anything. When we got there, however, we saw Andrew and shared the good news. Halfway through their set, Andrew decided to announce our engagement and dedicate a song to us. He began the announcement. Noah realized what he was doing, and tried to stop him, because he didn't know. This ended up being a very comic scene, with the color draining from Noah's face as he thought "Josh will kill me" while Andrew announced our engagement. All was made better when I held up my hand for all, including a very nervous Noah, to see. It was the perfect weekend. Our engagement was also announced in the Eleven30 service by Warren Pfohl on Sunday morning.

So that's our story. We laughed, we cried, we got engaged! Thanks for reading. :)