Home home home, home sweet home...

And we're back! During our travels I posted infrequently over at kontamination, the little shared blog I have for adventures with Konrad. (I say shared, but the man has yet to post!)...and we're about to embark on another adventure!

Yep, while we were on our trip, Konrad proposed!

We're so excited to be planning a wedding, and I am so happy to share our story below. If you've already seen it on kontamination, check it out again if you'd like as I will add photos this time. (addendum - I was able to add one photo before the photo uploading starting giving me trouble...so will try later)...

An engaging drive

After much discussion and negotiation as well as an honest look at finances and a nod to recent career opportunities, Konrad and I decided that we would forego the much talked of month-long trip to Paris for a trip home for a family wedding, and then a quick jaunt to Montreal.

We have both had the sort of month where you feel like you're a damp rag, recently put through the wash and wringer, and while you should have been thrown in the dryer or at least laid out on a sun-drenched clothesline, you were just dropped on the floor in haste and left there to half dry, half rot.

We decided we'd drive home rather than fly - we both enjoy road trips and 12 hours in the car with only each other and good music as companions, would give us time to chill out, come down from the talk of promotions and salary and titles and office space, and reconnect.

And my, oh my...did we ever reconnect.

The distance from Vancouver to Edmonton is about 1244 km and Mt. Robson has always been a stopping point for us, whether Edmonton or Vancouver is our destination. I've never seen the mountain though, as it's always been too clouded over or stormy up top. The wonderful and majestic mountain is, at 3,954 metres, the highest peak in the Canadian Rockies.

As we approached, but still could not see it as it was around another bend or two, Konrad grew more and more excited. There's a special place in his heart for this mountain...there are for many mountains but he has a fascination with and reverence for Robson, and has spent time up close and personal with it, having climbed on it with his climbing partner and best friend Kalle.

He guessed that it was going to be clear and we would get to see the entire mountain. Konrad was positively gleeful! "I haven't seen it in 10 years!" he said. "This is a rare day..."

Glad to get out of the car after six or more hours of chatting, listening to Jack Johnson, and gripping the "holy shit" handles when Konrad accelerated to 160km to pass lines of vehicles, I stiffly walked to the grassy area at the base of the mountain, gingerly working out all of the kinks.

Konrad couldn't get over how beautiful it was, how rare it was, and how lucky we were to be here on this clear day. He snapped a few pictures, sat down on the grass, and asked me if I wanted to join him.

I carefully considered all of my options and I, wearing a black skirt, must have had a concerned look on my face to sit on the grass and flowers because Konrad gallantly removed his outer t-shirt and laid it on the ground for me. What a gent.

I sat down beside him, and enjoyed his lesson about how best to climb this beast - which approach to take and why, where the hut is, where he and Kalle made it to, and then we carefully scanned for anyone on the mountain right then. He also reminded me that the first man to climb this mountain was also named Konrad...Conrad Kain.

I thought this was all very well and good, and a perfectly pleasant warm and sunny afternoon. As we sat on the grass, smelling the chamomile and sweet clover flowers (K picked me a teeny tiny bouquet), Konrad said he wished he could take a picture of the mountain and send it to Kalle. He asked me if I had my cell phone (with its camera) with me, and I said no, it was in the car.

He exhaled as if slightly put out that he had to return to the car to get it and said okay, he'd be right back.

I sat, contemplating the mountain in all its glory, the strength of the late summer sun, the flies, the flowers, and life.

When Konrad got back to me, he knelt behind me and asked me how to take a picture with my phone. He handed it around to the front of me, and I said I'd have to erase some pictures first as I was sure it was full.

As I fiddled with the phone, he laid on the grass beside me. I was intent on making space and wasn't even really aware of what he was doing, or paying any attention to him really. Then, in a slightly shaky and nervous voice, he said...

"Tamara, will you marry me?"

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I remember it this way...Konrad might have a different recollection as, upon sharing later, we agreed that at that instant, we were both enveloped individually in bubbles, with a larger one around us shutting us out from the rest of the world.

I remember pausing, trying to catch...something...my breath, my thoughts...and then I remember saying, almost inquisitively, "Yes??" and then, "Are you really asking me??"

When he smiled, and said yes with his kind and eager expression, I melted. We wrapped our arms around each other, and while it didn't escape me that he had a small bamboo box in his hands, now around my back, I was too busy in the moment to even wonder (yet) what was in it.

I was stunned. I was, weirdly, emotionless. I held on for dear life, thinking, I should be weeping with joy...so I pulled back, looked at him and I don't remember exactly what the words were, but at the time I needed to make sure that he really WAS ready, really WAS asking me, that it was all really happening.

When I was assured, and sure, then I melted for real, and had a small sob into his neck.

THEN I wondered what was in the box that had found its way into my hands...

I mean, we had looked at rings and I had, against my better judgement, set my heart on one in particular. It was the ring that was an absolutely perfect symbol of Konrad and Tamara...a perfect piece that balanced strong and delicate, and fit my finger and my personality like it was made just for me.

Did I dare hope that it was this ring that was in the box? Probably, deep inside...but I wasn't really even thinking at that moment.

I looked down at the box, and carefully opened it up just a bit. I quickly snapped it shut and with wide eyes and mouth agape, stared at Konrad. I am not sure if I said anything - if I did, it was likely, "NOOOOOOOO!" but certainly NOT as in, "no I don't want this"...rather, "no, I can't believe this!!!"

In it lay my perfect ring, but it was even more perfect than before.

Insert pic here

As Konrad took it out of its box he explained to me that designed it with a very personal and meaningful symbol inside. I wish I could describe it well, and blogger isn't letting me upload pics right now...I will do my best. The ring features a channel set Canadian diamond and the diamond is held on two sides, and otherwise exposed. The bottom of it is clear to see...the sharp point fully on view.

Drawing inspiration from the pyramids at the Louvre...in my favourite city, Konrad had the jeweler insert a tiny diamond with its point up, just about to meet the point of the bottom of the large diamond. He explained that it was like an iceberg - what you see on the surface is just the tip; that it was a sign of bigger and better things to come, together.

I love the sound of that...bigger and better...together.

It has been a few days now, and I have had time to get used to the weight of the ring on my finger, and the idea that we left boyfriend and girlfriend at Mt. Robson and we're now on our way to husband and wife.

I honestly couldn't be any happier.