Shem proposed on December 17th of 2007. Shem and I had been talking about getting married and we had been ring shopping for the past few weeks, so I had a feeling he was going to propose but I didn't really know when. We had just finished the semester and were now officially graduates from the BYU Nursing Program, where we had met.
Our classmates had been really excited about the two of us dating but they didn't get to see the proposal. We were probably one of the few couples to meet their significant other while attending the nursing program.
This December, I had invited Shem to come to spend Christmas with my family in Texas, and he had invited me to spend New Year's with his family in Hawaii. I thought he would probably plan to propose either in Texas or Hawaii. However, the night before we left to go to Texas, he called me and invited me to have dinner at one of our favorite restaurants here in Provo. That restaurant was the Thai Ruby and it is special to us because we had been there on our first date. I accepted the invitation and the thought of anything happening that night didn't even cross my mind at this point.
That night, when he picked me up, he brought a red rose for me and then we left to the restaurant. To our surprise, the restaurant was closed. It had closed for the holidays. I could see that Shem was a little bit shocked and didn't know what to do. So, I suggested we could go to this other Thai restaurant in town. We got to this other restaurant and as we walked in, some of Shem's good friends were having dinner there. It is a really small restaurant, so we ended up sitting by them and having dinner together. I didn't know that Shem had been planning to propose at the restaurant, but this had obviously not worked out very well so far.
We had a really good dinner and after that we decided to go to my house, so I could finish doing laundry and packing my bags for the next day's trip. As I was trying to work on those things, Shem suggested he and I took a little break to just "talk about us"... I thought that was so funny!
Even though I had a lot to do, I agreed to take a little break. Shem started talking about us and about his feelings for me. He told me that the time we had been dating, had been a special time and that I was everything he ever dreamed of. After talking about us and the many experiences we had shared so far, he knelt down on his knee and reached for his pocket as he took out the ring and asked me to marry him. I was so surprised and so happy and I said yes. He put the ring on my finger and it was a beautiful ring. We couldn't believe we were now engaged. We were so excited to let everyone in our family know when we went to Texas and Hawaii.
