Getting Engaged to My Best Friend (with my best friends)

The most important, fascinating, and beautiful moment of my life thus far is definitely the first event I would like to put down in the memory books.

Talking about 9 easy steps to increase your creativity… maybe we should take a lesson from my fiance. He showed me a new side to his creative planning with – our engagement.

April 13th, 2013

Leading up to the Moment:

My parents were in San Diego to watch the dogs while we were away. Nick took advantage of this fact, by giving his dad the task to have my parents over Saturday afternoon so they could all celebrate together. Nick gave Alex the responsibility of hiding the ring in his camping bag and then tasked him to carry it in his pocket to get into the festival (Alex said this was the most nerve wrecking part ever!). Apparently they handed off the ring at the merchandise tent while I was off trying to find my Coachella 2013 tank top – figures.

Then everyone headed to the ferris wheel, except Colin, Sarah and Eli who went to the beer garden instead. In line, I asked Nick if he was okay because he was stiff as a board and quiet. He made me believe he was just hot and didn’t feel very good (right – more like nerves). Des and Joey rode in one car, Brandon, Tiffany and Karl in another and Bailey, Alex, Nick and I were in our own. Right when Nick and I sat down, Karl shouted our names then snapped a photo – the last photo before the moment.

The Moment:

The view from the top of the ferris wheel was beautiful. You could see the entire park, camping, tons of land and palm trees. Nick pointed out what looked to be a lake and as Bailey and I sat in awe taking in the scenery, he took hold of my hand and said, “Kayla Noelle Smith.” I turned to look at him and there was the GORGEOUS ring. I couldn’t help myself I immediately began to shake and said, “Are you kidding me?” He looked me in the eyes, with the sweetest most caring eyes I’ve ever seen and said “I want to spend the rest of my life with you” I said, “Me too.” His voice trembled as he asked, “will you marry me?” and I replied, “yes, of course.” We kissed, hugged and both cried as he placed the ring on my finger. Perfectly enough, Alex was there to take pictures of this amazing moment.

Moments after:

When everyone got off of the ride they ran over to congratulate the two of us, every one was so happy. I could feel each and every one of my friend’s smiles through their hugs. In the beer garden, all twelve of us stood in a circle while Nick thanked everyone for being there and for being apart of our engagement. Then Nick handed me his phone, which was already calling his parents. I broke away from the group so I could hear and noticed our parents were together on speakerphone. They hollered with joy and popped champagne. Being at Coachella, you can’t call every single person you want so of course the next and last person on my list was my brother. Just as I knew he would be, he was so happy for us and almost couldn’t believe it.

For the icing on the cake (since we didn’t have cake) we all took celebratory tequila shots and went to experience the rest of Coachella with a completely different level of love.

– Nick Shumate – I love you. I’m so happy that I’ve found my perfect partner, my best friend. Being engaged to you – is AWESOME and so is the ring 😉 

Engaged on a Ferris Wheel and Bought a Record Player

Hello Readers!

A couple of months ago, while sitting at my parents house on the porch with the two of them and Nick, I flipped through an album that my dad brought home from Ohio after attending my grandpa’s funeral. I found a hand full of letters that my grandma kept from my dad while he was in the service. I proceeded to read two of them aloud. My young father talked about the first car he purchased, missing his parents while in the service, people he met and even… my mom. One letter was specifically about how they recently started dating and how he knew she “really liked him”. The feeling that came over me when reading that was overwhelming. I felt joy, yet sadness. Sadness, because I realized when I’m older there won’t be similar letters for my children to read. I don’t write my parents letters – I call them on the phone. I don’t write my friends letters – I type quick messages on a social media site or send a text. I used to write in a journal, in hopes of looking back on those memories later, but I stopped years ago.

This made me think about blogging again. That way I at least have a blog to look back on ideas of the time and life events. In the days and weeks to come I also felt the need of finding a new hobby or way to express myself, but that need was pushed to the side by busy days at work and whatever other excuse I gave myself.

Yesterday, I read an article on LinkedIn, “How to Increase Your Creativity in 9 Easy Steps” by Dr. Kavetha, and it gave me that last bit of inspiration I needed to start writing again – the key word Easy – having so many other things going on in our lives, easy can be nice. In the article, two quotes stood out to me that made me start this blog:

#4 Be a Child: “Every child is an artist, the problem is staying an artist when you grow up.” –Pablo Picasso

#9 Rebel: “Accept no one’s definition of your life; define yourself.” ~Robert Frost

Extract your meaning from them and feel free to join me in following the 9 steps to creativity. Starting with the two mentioned above.

This blog will be a little something about this thing called life – in the form of hobbies, travel, ideas and events. Enjoy.