As we approach September, my hubby is looking forward to vacation.  (Not the going-away kind of vacation; just the taking-off-work kind of vacation.)  His birthday (which he gets a day off for) falls shortly after Labor Day, so he can take a whole week off of work for only a few days’ vacation time.  Which is really cool, as our anniversary is only a few days away from his birthday.  Which has me thinking about our anniversary…

(By the way, you just got a little glimpse of my crazy thought process, which my husband is subject to regularly! 🙂 )  We will have been married for eleven years.  Eleven years!  Where did all that time go?  The timing gets me reminiscing about things from our courtship.  Like my engagement ring.

A lot of people buy their diamond engagement rings from mass jewelers, or online.   We were blessed to have a small, local, family-owned jeweler nearby.  Michael’s family even knew/knows the jeweler, so that’s where he got my ring.  There was such a delay between my parents giving him permission to marry me, and his proposal, that my mom had my dad take him aside and be sure he’d understood correctly that he had their permission!  The delay?  He was waiting on the perfect diamond.

See, when he first went to look for a ring, and learned all about the “4 C’s,” the jeweler didn’t have what Michael had in mind – but he could order it.  Michael explained to me later that, when it came down to it, he was choosing between two diamonds.  One was a little larger, but not quite as clear.  He chose the one that was both smaller and purer because he felt it “matched” me.  (He’s so sweet.)

I hope you enjoyed getting a little glimpse of the blogger behind the blog.   I now return you to your regularly-scheduled “useful stuff” posts. 😉