A SECRET

Another rainy day. Only about 40 degrees today, cloudy.


My days seems to be merging all together. Everyday the contractor is here and everyday I have to clean the kitchen top to bottom and mop the dinning room and kitchen floor and the foyer floor with vinegar and water to break down the sheet rock dust and they have not even begun to sand the areas where they had to tape and goop as my husband would call it.


So I talked to my cousin today and we decided on what I would bring to Easter dinner. I am going to make scalloped pototoes, a receipe I found with Guyre cheese. I am also making prucitto wrapped roasted asparagus and a dessert which will consist of a couple of dozen of cupcakes decorated with marshmellow peeps, green coconut and jelly beans.


I went out today to get a few of the things for Easter, Walmart of course. I had to buy a new muffin tin for the cupcakes and cupcake papers. I have a muffin tin that makes a dozen, and one that makes a half of a dozen but the smaller of the two does not make an evenly cooked muffin. I also got the peeps and jelly beans.


I am making a little basket of some Easter candy and a gift card for my son and her boyfriend. A Starbuck's card for her and a Wendy's for him.


So the secret is this. He bought an engagement ring. That's right, please keep the secret. I don't want to tell anyone until he actually proposes. He also is going to come and talk to my husband about asking for her hand, can you believe that. They called me last night to tell me. Yes she knows because he wanted her to have the style she wanted. They have strugglilng for a couple of weeks now trying to figure out a way for him to get the money together for the ring. He is not the type to use a credit card on a big ticket item and the first ring they looked at was $6,200. So........I had a ring that was given to my by my husband's mother when his grandmother died. It had a ruby and a diamond set side by side. I told her she could have the diamond if she wanted to put it in her ring. They hemmed and hawed about it and finally decided to take it. She texted me the picture. The diamond I gave her wasn't in the setting, but it is called a halo setting. My diamond will go in the middle and then there are diamonds all around the big stone and diamonds on the band of the engagement ring. The wedding band will also have diamonds on it and will wrap around the engagement ring. I am pleased she is using her great grandmother's diamond. She wanted to surprise me and present me with the ruby side of that ring in a pendant, but she told me about it because on second thought she wasn't sure if I would like that idea. I did so she thought maybe I would have it for Easter.
We don't know when he will propose. But I am stunned now to realize that my daughter is technically engaged.
The first thought that crossed my mind was. Oh my God, I can't tell anyone. But I could not help myself. I called my very close cousin. She is like a sister to me. If my brother was still alive I would have called him first or even my mother and father if they were alive. I told her he bought the ring but they were not engaged yet. My husband was pissed off. He didn't think I should tell anyone. But I just had to tell my cousins, she is my closest friend.
I have no idea how to plan a wedding. I didn't even plan one for myself. My husband and I eloped. I was 27 and he was 32 and I just thought that the two of us were too old for a big fat wedding. He had like four relatives he could invite and I had like a million. It just wasn't right. I could not afford a big wedding and I knew my parents couldn't either. So we had dinner with my parents on a Thursday evening and told them that on Friday we were going off to get married by a JP and going away for a long weekend. About a month or so later my parents threw a sort of reception for us. Just a big party really. At the Italian Community Center where they were members. It was a very nice party. And I didn't have to spend a thousand dollars on a wedding dress.