Living in my Mother's Basement: Surprise! Engaged and jobless

Me and Bailee, visiting Logan, her beauty makes me look bad

I am engaged!  I would say that most of you are surprised.  I am still surprised myself, I often wake up now thinking "did I really ask a girl to marry me."  Then I think, freak I need a job.  Then I think about who I am and whether I can be the person that I need to be for Bailee.  For those who don't know, Bailee is the girl's name.  I first met her before my mission as I was visiting the girl I liked at the time at BYU that was a roomate with Bailee.  At that time, I remember thinking two things, 1 that is a cute girl and 2 Where is she now?  I only saw her briefly that day, I think that she was hiding from me because she did not want to fall in love yet.  I was a 19 year old pre-missionary at the time, I can understand her thinking.  So I went on a mission and then afterwards went to Utah State.  While at Utah State I had lots of good times, meeting lots of cool people,  dated various girls, and yelled a lot at basketball games.  During this time of my life, my good friend Tyler married Cami.  Cami is not just really cool, but she is also a good friend of Bailee's.  Cami would mention Bailee here and there and of course I remembered Bailee from when I saw her back back in the day. I did not want to overplay it but in the back of my mind I hoped that I would have the chance to take her on a date.  So essentially, the time arrived and I willingly agreed with Cami when she suggested that I take her good friend Bailee on a date.  So in March of 2010, I did just that.  She came up to Logan and we hiked the wind caves trail and then we had curry with Tyler and Cami.  We hung out a couple of times after that but then I blew her off.  I just had to do it at that time which stunk because when I called her that last time she was making Indian food and I thought, "dang it I am not going to be able to try any of that."   

So fast forward with me now to May of 2011.  As I prepared to move back home with my mom and live in the basement I spent a lot of time pondering my life and what I what I ought to do to be happy with my new situation.  When I thought about dating Bailee instantly entered my mind as someone that I had to ask on a date.  within the first couple of weeks of moving home I called her.  She did not answer of course, ( if you call Bailee and she answers the phone it is a miracle, if you text her and she responds she must really really like you and not just that it must be your lucky day) but she did quickly call me back and I asked her if she was dating someone and she said no and thought good and then I asked her on a date.  We went to Salt Lake City to a cultural festival.  I think she liked it,  I don't think that I won her over with the date though.  I should have thought of some jokes to tell her or something.  speaking of jokes, why is the ocean happy?  Because it waves.  Okay I am not so good at jokes.  Anymays, after the first date Bailee started to avoid me for awhile, I think it was the lack of jokes or the lack of breath mints I am not sure which.  She did not avoid me forever though, I was able to take her on a couple more dates before she left to China for the month of July.  My goal in dating Bailee was to get to know her the best I could and then if it works it works and if not then oh well.  So that is what I did and then Bailee went to China. I did not have an email for her, I did not think that she liked me really, I did not expect anything to happen when she returned, and so my search for the one moved forward when she left and I had a good month of getting to know a lot of people, go on blind dates, etc..

I really had the intent to just move forward, but I often wondered if she would talk to me when she got back.  One day I got a post card from her near the end of July and I was surprised somewhat with the tone of the postcard and also discovered that she had not arrived back home from China yet.  I had no idea when she was returning.  After receiveing the post card I thought that maybe my interpretation of what she thought of me was wrong.   One Sunday, I came home from ward prayer and a familiar car was parked in front of my house,  to my surprise, it was Bailee bearing gifts. I like gifts, and It was good to see her again.   I soon asked her on a date and she said yes.  I soon took her on another date and she said yes again.  Now,  I felt that she did like me and that made all the difference for me.  thereafter, I started spending more and more time with her and her family.  She has a great family, they are all a bit corky in there own way but I think it is great.  Father likes chickens,
alive ones that chirp. Nate the younger brother calls me nosaj ( jason backwards)  and always stares at me oddly and says things that just confuse me.  Melissa is always cooking food, cleaning(well sometimes cleaning), or chillin in her basketball shorts.  The dog chases me out the door every night, and mother is very prestigous as she sews, cleans, cooks, teaches piano, and everything else and she is good humored, I do not think she likes my jokes though.  They are not funny enough for her.  Bailee also has a sister and brother that are both married and out of the house and out of the basement, congratulations to them.   I like them all.  I almost forgot, my favorite of the the whole family is grandma, every time I see her it makes me happy.  She always makes me laugh.

This is the spot, kinda looks like a memorial for someone that died but that was not the case.

Okay, proposal story and then I am done.  Bailee really likes to spend time walking, hiking, and pondering in nature.  One of her favorite places is Jensen Park in Syracuse.  knowing this  and knowing that I had a ring that I would prefer she had rather than me, I decided that it would be the place to propose to her.  My criteria was that I wanted it to be special and I wanted her to be surprised.  I bought a bunch of roses including pink her favorite color and also candles because I knew that I would be proposing at night time.  I found a spot behind one of the ponds and with the help of my friend Matt set up the candles on the ground and placed the flower around the area.  It was a Friday night, Bailee was at a sewing class until 9.  So I showed up at her house a little before that time.  When she arrived I just acted normal and casually asked her if she was still up for doing something.  She said yes and so I suggested that we go hang with Tyler, Cami, and some friends at a house in the Clearfield/Syracuse area.   As we were driving, Bailee started pointing out that my brother lived around where we were and then she said that Jensen park was this direction also.  I told her that she was confused and then she really was confused.  as we neared Jensen Park she again emphasized that we were nearing the park.  I acted confused and said no I don't think so.  She then pointed to all the landmarks near the park and clearly stated that we had arrived at the park, I then said yep sure have.  So I successfully got her to the park without her even thinking that I might be proposing to her, in fact she even thought that we were going to join the sweet 16 party going on at the park.  There were bouncers and everything, it was legit.  anyways, I took her hand and walked with her past the party and over the bridge and around the pond.  As we neared the spot, she saw a flickering of light. (but not directly above her head) As she did so she tried to point out the phenomenon to me as I then tried to block her view.  As we neared the spot, she accused me of perhaps being the cause of this phenomenon, I said maybe, then walked her to the spot and got down on one knee and asked to her to marry me.  She was excited and said yes and then she kissed me.  Now we are engaged.  My days in the basement are numbered thanks to my sugar mama Bailee.  I feel a lot of pressure to find a job now.  I feel a lot of pressure in general now, but I am excited and look forward to this new adventure with Bailee.  So now you all know the story and if you have questions, ask Bailee she would be glad to answer them.  Life sometimes really is like a box of chocolates.

Until next week!