The Predicament

So I used to think I had a normal van. Yeah... even after all our Otie adventures, that's what I used to think. But I was wrong. My van is not a normal van. My van is alive.

I was driving away from J's house one day when I realized I had a book in my car I forgot to give him. Sometimes my van, Otie, doesn't like to turn on in the cold, so I left him running while I brought the book to J inside his house. When I came back out, I found out that Otie has a mind of his own, and he thought it would be funny to lock me out! My purse, my keys, my spare key, everything was locked inside except my phone which was in my pocket.

I ran back inside to tell J, and we turned to - what else? - YouTube. Who hasn't gotten locked out of their car before? People like to document that kind of stuff. We found a bunch of companies who unlock cars professionally but they used real wedge tools... we didn't have any real tools like that, but we did have a garage full of potentially helpful stuff, so J & I went on a little treasure hunt.

Armed with 2 wire coat hangers, 3 paint scrapers, a hammer, and two door stoppers, we marched back out to Otie.
J shoved the door stopper into the top corner of the passenger door and wedged it in deep with the hammer.
The paint scrapers were useless. J had cut & bent the hangers and they worked alright except they weren't strong enough to put force on the manual lock - we had to hook it over the lip of the lock and pull back. Not easy!!

J remembered a stronger wire wound up in a red spool and man, that really did the trick! It even had a ready-made hook on the end. It took a LOT of tries.

J maneuvered the wire while I held the flashlight (an app on my phone) and gave him verbal directions - he couldn't see the inside of the latch from where he was standing.
  
We didn't give up, and suddenly - boom! - we'd flipped the latch! We opened the door ASAP so it couldn't re-lock, and Otie was free. Through teamwork, we did it!! :)

 Yeah, I don't know what Otie thought he would gain by locking me out - he really does like me - but I don't think it will happen again! :)

- Kay

The Big Day

Jason and I went snowboarding yesterday. Little did I know that it would be day that changed my life forever.

My first run down Sugar Slope (the easy, "learning" slope) went well, and I felt like I was starting to get the hang of turning from "heel side" to "toe side." For our second run, J suggested we ride towards the left side because it was less crowded. I started out toward that side but ended up inching into the middle as I tried, unsuccessfully each time, to make that half-spin turn.

"Kay, come over on this side by me," J encouraged, still further up behind me on the hill. "No, I'm GOING to make this stupid turn!! I'll lose half the mountain by the time I get over there, it's just gonna be a waste." Little did I know that J was whispering, "Oh, no, it won't!" to himself. :)

In spite of my words, I did steer all the way to the left, losing very little of the hill. Then I tried again in vain to do my spin, fell, and sat down in the snow, discouraged. "I can't do it! I keep catching my back edge," I pouted to J. I was actually getting VERY frustrated, feeling like I was just getting worse. Poor J. He took off his board and walked over to me, then knelt down in front of me. I thought he was going to say, "Kay, it's ok, I love you, you're amazing and you can do anything," as he usually would, but instead he just sat there with a look on his face I couldn't read. Then he unzipped his jacket and reached into his inside pocket. I thought he was going to pull out a tissue so I could wipe my nose, or take out his phone to show me something encouraging. What he pulled out, however, was a blue ring box! I briefly wondered if this was a joke, not wanting to get my hopes up. But then he opened the box - slowly and significantly - and there inside was a real diamond ring!!!!

"Oh my gosh!!!" I said, TOTALLY surprised. "I love you, Kay," he told me, tears in his eyes. "Will you marry me?"

"I will!" I said, now crying myself. He slipped the ring on my finger and I kissed him, so full of joy I could hardly contain myself. He was even more emotional than I was (which is usually the case with us).

We spent about ten minutes composing ourselves from all the emotion and then boarded the rest of the way down the hill - now I felt like I could conquer the world! Then J took me to the fancy new Red Tail Lodge restaurant which was a lovely atmosphere and we called our friends and family and had a wonderfully romantic little lunch.

It was such an amazing day! There were several times in the day where I'd suddenly get more of a realization of what just happened and say, "Whoa! We're engaged!" or look down at my ring in awe that it was really real! We both wanted it to be a surprise, and it so totally was!! It's an extremely difficult thing for J to keep anything a secret from me, but he did, and I was so proud of him.

After we finished at Mountain Creek, we had a lovely little engagement party with both of our immediate families and played music until late into the evening. It was the perfect day.

I'm soooo happy.

I love you, Jason Roe!! :)

- Kay