"This is my fiance"

December 26, 2011 was a wonderful, life-changing, forever memorable day =D A great great great day. In fact, one of the best days of my life! That day Aldean Wayne Arciaga Pablo asked me to marry him! I absolutely said yes. So, I am the soon-to-be Mrs. Aldean Wayne Pablo. Ahh I love it! After that day, Aldean began introducing me to his friends as "this is my fiance". That new phrase became one of my favorite things to hear :) When he was in a funny mood (which is almost always), he would sometimes introduce me as his ex-girlfriend. When he got odd looks he would say "she's my fiance so she's no longer my girlfriend" and I would just giggle.

So, for all who are interested, here's the story <3

Wayne woke me up at 6:30am before breakfast to music outside my window. (I love it when he came to my room to wake me up!) Actually I woke up a few seconds before he came in, but was confused by the music. Two of his friends were playing romantic music outside my window - a classical guitar and a violin. They played one of "our" songs - La Via En Rose by Louis Armstrong. The funny thing is I joked and told them "tawad" which is what you say to Christmas carolers to go away. Haha, I only said it loud enough for Wayne to hear :)


After lunch we went to Luneta Park (zero kilometer). It's a historical park and a common dating place. I knew something was up because he was pretty tense. The funny thing is that he got pulled over (which happened the last time we went to that part of town) for something he didn't really do, and the traffic enforcer was a jerk :/ Which made Aldean more tense so then we got lost, haha. We took one lap around the park and then relaxed at the flag pole for a minute before the Magsaysay choir came up to us one-by-one. (Aldean's brother works at Magsaysay and Aldean' has worked with the choir through leadership camps and devotions for four years. We both attended their leadership camp last June. This is also the same choir wherein a taught a few members things about the US before they came and toured here last summer). There were probably 10-12 members and they sang around 10-12 songs. It was a lot of fun and a joy to see them (so talented) again. They sang some romantic songs (You by the Carpenters), some classic love songs, and some funny songs (Mahal Kita Kasi by Nicole Hyala) in both English and Filipino.

Then we went to dinner at a really romantic restaurant - Vieuz Chalet, a swiss restaurant. We had pasta and pizza and a delicious lemon-grass tea. The view was beautiful, the table was candle-lit, and the server was really hospitable. I just loved the quality time sitting with my boy and soaking up the special moment.

After dinner we went to our favorite dating place  - Cloud 9! It's a restaurant and resort at the top of the city. At night the view is gorgeous because you can look down the mountain and see the city lights as far as you can see. We sat on the viewing deck of the resort for over and hour and just talked. Then Aldean had the band from the restaurant come sing to us, which was serenade #3 :) It was funny because they weren't technically allowed to come to where we were, but they did anyways. They were out of breath from carrying their big instruments up the hill to us, but after taking a couple minutes to catch their breath they sang two more wonderful love songs to us. I loved it. It was romantic and its our place.

I was getting tired so it was time to leave. Aldean had other plans, but changed them to accommodate me, aww how sweet ;) On the way to his brother's (where we were spending the night) we came to one of the trees with my favorite Christmas lights. (They are white & blue LED lights in the shape of ice-cycles, and the lights fall down like it's dripping). He pulled over and suggested we go under the tree. So, we parked and walked around it once then he told me I had one more present to open. I said "what" (fully knowing by then what it was), and he pulled out the box and said "Will you marry me?". I was speechless at first, so he said "does that mean yes?". I said "Yes! Of course! Absolutely!" The ring was gorgeous, everything was perfect. I could not have even dreamed he would come up with a plan that was so special! He made makes me the happiest girl in the world! My smile was so big, and still is as I write this blog post :D

A week later we had our engagement pictures taken by a dear friend and fellow district pastor - Stanley Rabago. First we went to Paco Park. Then, we went to MOA (Mall of Asia), which was one of the places where 'it all started' as a group date.