She said, "Are you sure?!" and then she said, "YES!!!"

BACKGROUND:

In March 2007, Jason's Mom, Lynette, had t-shirts printed up for herself, Jason's Dad, Dave, and Jason and his brothers; they say, "Trostle University." As she handed one to Jason, she turned to me and asked, "Well, Chris, when can we get you a Trostle University t-shirt of your own?" To which I replied, pointing to Jason, "I don't know; ask the Dean of Admissions over here. I've been applying for nearly a year already!" That Jason was the Dean of Admissions to Trostle University, and that I was a tireless applicant, became the running joke among the family. Until one day....

THE PROPOSAL:

We had planned to go to dinner at Hemingway's Island Grill on the boardwalk at Quietwaters Beach one Saturday night for dinner. We got all gussied-up for a nice dinner out, and during dinner, noticed a wedding reception happening on the patio. We began whimsically discussing what our plans would be when we would eventually get married (we knew right from the start that we were meant to be together, so we both knew it was just a matter of time before we'd be dodging fistfuls of rice ourselves). I asked Jason during dinner what he wanted to do afterwards -- maybe hit the bars on the boardwalk? He said we'd just play it by ear, so I thought it particularly odd when he kept urging me to finish my glass of wine because we were "burning daylight" ("Pound it!" he told me). Once I finished, we went for a walk on the dock, which we do every time we return to the boardwalk; the dock is where we'd shared our first kiss, so it's a very special place to us. Because it's common for us to do, I didn't think anything of it. As we stood beneath a lamp and shared a kiss, he took an envelope out of his pocket, handed it to me, and said, "I have something I want you to read." I opened the envelope, and I pulled out a beautiful paper with the Trostle family crest watermarked on the background... and shook like a leaf as I read the "acceptance letter" (click on the thumbnail image below to see the letter).

After I finished reading the letter aloud, Jason got down on one knee, pulled the ring out of his pocket, and asked me to be his wife.

Just to make sure he knew what he was in for, the first thing I blurted out was, "ARE YOU SURE?!" He laughed and assured me he was absolutely certain he knew what he was getting into, and I emphatically replied, "YES!"

We hugged and kissed and I did a lot of jumping up and down and screaming, and then we called our Parents, who presumably also did a lot of jumping up and down and screaming (rumor has it that at least one bottle of champagne was involved).

The very next morning, Jason and I took the "Acceptance Letter" --envelope and all -- to a local framing shop, and had it double--matted and custom-framed. I told him it was for display purposes, but really, it's just because I wanted his signed offer of admission under glass, where he can't get at it should he ever change his mind. :-P

I'm finally done kissing frogs, and Dean Trostle is no longer accepting applications.