The first day of our summer vacation to Pigeon Forge, Tenessee was designated our "date night" since our friends woulnd't be joining us until the next afternoon. Tom was in charge of planning it and shortly after we arrived he whisked me off to a local winery. We did a tasting and were enjoying some wine slushies on the back patio when I saw a hot air balloon go up not too far from us. I mentioned that it looked like fun, and completely out of characater, Tom exclaimed "Let's go do it now." Tom is not exactly one of those get up and go type of people, but I didn't think too much of it.

As we waited in line for our turn, he asked if I was nervous, which I wasn't. After all, the balloon was tethered to the ground. To my surprise, he seemed and admitted to being quite nervous.

The hot air ballon was rising, I was taking silly selfies with him, and as we both settled in taking a look at the view Tom turned to me and said, "I'm actually nervous for a different reason," as he got down on one knee. Now, Tom is a joker. He knew that I was ready to take the next step, but kept telling me "probably within a year or so," so I was positve that he was joking and mortifed he would pull such a prank in public. At this thought my knee jerk reaction as he bent down one was knee was to exclaim, "Noooooo." Whoops!

As he took out a ring box and began telling me why he loved me and wanted to spend the rest of his life with me I quickly realized it was not a joke and Mr. Graphman had played me with his talk of " so he could make it a perfect surprise. Perfect. That's a good word to use to sum up the proposal. Perfect.