Alek and I had been looking at rings for about a month, and he eventually let the cat out of the bag and told me he had already
bought me one, but was waiting to give it to me so that he could "
embarrass" me. So I had a feeling he would do it at school...
(skip this paragraph to get to the actual proposal)
November 13
th started off as a pretty normal day for me. However, in the afternoon around 1:30, a coworker, Kim, came bounding into the
art room and seemed to be out of breath. She asked me if I could make her a painting of some sunflowers, and she also asked me where my students were. I told her I didn't have class until 2:00, so I quickly got started on the
painting. I had it done within 10-15 minutes, and I decided to run it over to her office. As I walked into the main school's office, I saw the middle school principal. He looked down at my hand, smiled, and said "Did a visitor come today?" I look confused, and the office girls made no eye contact with me and just stared straight ahead at their computer screens. I thought to myself, "oh no,
Alek is going to
embarrass me today," so I just chuckled and said, "ah, I hope not." (I must have been nervous to say that) Anyway, I walked back into Kim's office to give her the painting and I said, "Kim! Something is going on! Ken just asked me if I had a visitor. Do you think
Alek is going to
propose to me today?" She seemed genuinely unaware of anything and talked me out of it. So I walked back to the art room feeling a little bit more at ease. But then, about 5 minutes later, Kim came bounding in, out of breath again and asked me if I could make her another painting because she didn't really like the first one. I thought it was weird, but I said
ok. As I looked up at her, my eyes glanced out the window, and she said in a panicked voice, "What are you looking at?" Again confused by her odd behavior, I said, "Ah, nothing. I am just looking out the window. Is that
ok?" She said, "oh,
ok." Then she began to walk out and I said to her, "Kim, I am going to be walking outside in about 5 minutes to go teach gym. Is that
ok with you?" She just looked at me funny and said, "I don't know."
By this time I knew something really strange was going on. My coworkers were acting extremely funny! So I began to get very, very nervous, like I am about ready to puke nervous! 2:00 came and I got up the nerve to walk to the gym. Everyone in the hallway seemed to be acting normal. They weren't looking at me and were just doing their normal day-to-day routine. So I began to feel a bit better. I walked into the gym and a few minutes later, I saw my kindergartners coming down the hall. Just after they entered, when I was telling them to sit down,
Alek walked in! Everything around me went fuzzy, and all I could see was him. It felt like I was in a dream. He strolled over to me and said (and I will never forget it), "Excuse me, Excuse me Ms. Roe. I have a question for you. You see, I love you very much, and I was wondering if you would marry me?" He got down on one knee and showed me the ring. I looked up at the gym door and saw about 10 women peeking their heads in, I smiled and looked back at
Alek and said, "Of course I will marry you!" We hugged and he put the ring on my finger. The kids didn't really know what was going on. Half of them were watching us and the other half were off running around like wild turkeys, while the aid chased after them .
LOL. Then Mr.
Chromy covered the class for a few minutes while
Alek and I went out into the hall with the staff that had been in on it. Everyone was laughing and smiling and congratulating us. It was truly a memorable moment!
Turns out Alek got there around 1:30 and went to the art room, but peeked his head in and saw that I did not have any students. That is why Kim was acting so weird. She was trying to figure out my schedule and preoccupy me. He then left so that he could come back around 2:00. Meanwhile the news was spreading around the school like wild fire. By the time he got back, he said he had a flock of women following him everywhere, and he even had to be trapped in a small room with a bunch of them while I walked into the gym. Ooohhh, too funny! I love every minute of it!