The Proposal.

18,046 miles traveled. 

Two road trips across six states and 16 boarding passes later, 

I somehow snagged myself a fiancé!

I’ve never been engaged before (thankfully) so I didn’t really know how this all worked. Every girl imagines it in her head, but somehow you still just have no idea what to think or where to start. I’ve had my phone blow up with people asking for details, so I decided just to write it up and put it on here! Plus I forgot my journal (LAME) so this counts for that.

The story starts Christmas day. We had such a wonderful morning, with me and Jordan going to wake up Kasey like little kids on, well...Christmas morning...and then we all surrounded the tree to open presents and be together in our PJs. 

Christmas morning at the Hess Home

Well, the usual Christmas happened, and it was so peaceful. But the story you really want to hear starts Christmas night. Kasey’s brother and sister-in-law had just left and I went into the kitchen to get something to eat. He followed me into the kitchen, wrapped himself up in me, and started heckling the heck out of me about my feelings of possibly being an engaged woman. Since heckling is his best talent, I really didn’t think anything of it…for the first half hour at least. He said stuff like, “Mon, I bet you really wish I would propose to you on Christmas. I’m sorry, there’s only an hour and a half left, so just don’t think anything okay? You wouldn’t want to marry me anyway.” Of course there was (play) slapping and hitting and me trying to drop the subject…but he kept saying, “MONICA what do you want for Christmas?” I kept on saying, “Kasey how many times do I have to say this. You are all I want!” And since I already was dating him, I was content and everything was great. I knew it wasn’t going to happen because it was just way too obvious.

The half hour went by and by this time I was thinking that he wouldn’t be doing this for just anything. After laughing and heckling, it did cross my mind a time or two that tonight might be the night, but then he grabbed my shoulders and said, “In all seriousness, I’m just tight on money. Can’t do it right now. I’m sorry, babe.” I smiled, kissed him, said that was okay, and went back to eating whatever I was eating, fully knowing that in order for him to succeed I had to be at least a little bit ticked. So, of course he wasn’t happy with my content answer, so of course…more heckling. “Mon, don’t you want to go for a walk? I don’t have anything, but don’t you just want to go? Just me and you?” I said, no, it’s okay…but he kept asking and so I just let him succeed. He mostly loved that he had to make me ask if we were going anywhere. He pulled out this white box, shook it, and said, “let’s go for a walk.” Of course I went.

We started on this walk around the neighborhood with this white box obviously in the front pocket of his sweatshirt. Kasey did not let me even anywhere near it, so I just decided to let it go and just enjoy the walk. About every five steps he kissed me, and kept squeezing my hand. Not that normal, but okay! (The only reason I didn’t catch on to this obvious hint is because this guy is smarter than smart, and he knows exactly what I would read into and what I wouldn’t. I honestly didn’t think anything was going to happen…I thought he was just going to trick me by going for a walk with this box in his pocket and not mention it once the whole time.) We kept walking around and as we got to a little open spot with just one street lamp he stopped and grabbed both hands. He looked at me and told me seriously that he knew what I was thinking, and he felt bad it just wasn’t going to be at this time. Money really was tight (he just bought new “socks and shoes” for his truck) and he probably would propose over my birthday when he could afford a ring that I wanted. Kasey did tell me he wanted to get me something, that it wasn’t much and not very big, but it was an expression of his love. He slowly pulled out the white box from his front pocket, put it in my hands, and asked me to open it. Remember, there was just one street lamp and so I couldn’t really see anything anyway. I opened it while looking at him skeptically and out of the corner my eye saw something really shiny. I opened it quicker and inside revealed…

A Hershey kiss.

Monica: “KASEY I’M GOING TO KILL YOU!”

Kasey: “WHAT, IT’S A KISS! Don’t you love me?! You can have a real one if you want!!”

I was laughing so hard. He played dumb, asked why I was laughing and said, “What, you weren’t expecting anything else were you?” He looked so confused that I was laughing and was “offended” that I didn’t want that piece of chocolate. We walked a few more steps when he grabbed both of my hands and again said, “Ok, Mon. In ALL seriousness. I’m just not going to give you what you really wanted. And I know what you wanted. You wanted me to propose to you on Christmas night because it’s all cute.” After me saying, “are you being serious right now?” about fifty times, and me still laughing, he whispered into my ear that he wanted to be with me forever. Then he just kept talking gibberish knowing full well that I would say after the forever comment, “WAIT. Wait…what did you say? Did you just say you wanted to be with me forever?” Well, of course I said exactly that.

Right after I did, I hear a big, “OUCH! Agh! Ouch!” He bent down to check out the problem. “There are ants in my boot!” (Legit though…there are crazy stinging ants in Florida. Hurts for weeks.) But he wasn’t taking his foot out of his boot! I was still laughing uncontrollably and as I threw my head back, he took my hand and slowly put one knee on the pavement. He said some cute stuff like he wanted me to be his wife, and again that he wanted to be with me forever…and I STILL didn’t believe him! He took the other hand to open another box, one that I hadn’t seen before.

Like I said, there was only one street lamp. Everything else was pitch black. When that box opened, I swear to you that box was glowing. It was only out of the corner of my eye, because again, I did not want that to be a figment of my imagination. I stopped laughing, and so did he. The next thing I heard were the words I was hoping for. And so sweet out of his mouth was,

“Will you marry me?”

“Wait, baby, are you still kidding?” At this point, I could see the seriousness in his face, and I just lost it. I didn’t even dare look at the ring because I was scared it was going to disappear and this moment would go away. I kept looking straight into his eyes, said yes, and just cried. (Oh yeah, and we kissed a lot. Of course.) It was longer than usual before he asked me if I wanted to even see the ring! I looked at it and definitely gasped…I couldn’t have designed it better myself. I still didn’t believe it was mine, so I asked through my tears, “Is this for me??” He laughed at me while I asked him if he would put it on my finger. I was still in shock walking back to the house to tell everyone…and slapping his arm on the way back because he tricked me so bad! I’m so glad he proposed the way he did because I wanted it to be just me and him, and the fact that it was so simple just down the street was that much more romantic. This is a perfect example of something I really like about our relationship; we are able to be best friends playing around one second and then immediately pull out the romance card.

Kasey also knows how much I like pictures, so he pulled out his phone and took one right after we were made official. 10:50 p.m., Christmas night.

After we went back to tell the family and of course the whole Facebook/Instagram thing, we just sat on the couch staring at the ring, yes, but mostly each other. I can’t believe I’m engaged to such a hard working, family wanting, God loving man that will always live up to his priesthood duties. I’ve always wanted to know what my husband will look like, and now all I have to do is look at my screensaver to see who that is!

Well, as Kasey could tell you, he is all I asked for. And I got exactly what I want. Forever.

-The future Mrs. Hess