I noticed the white jewelry box right away, my stomach dropped a little bit..then I immediately dismissed the notion. I didn't want to get my hopes up and be disappointed if my imagination ran away with me. Probably a chocolate or something, I told myself. I honestly got nervous thinking "what if", what if this is really it...I opened the box and see a huge, cherry red ring pop sitting inside! I was able to exhale and relax a little bit, and Tarl says to me, "I love you and I want you to marry me." I put the ring on my hand held it out with my chin in the air and said, "I accept!" He said,"Good" and pulled out a small burgundy jewelry box. Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhh there is a real ring in there!! Now I'm a deer in the head lights. I should cry or scream, but all I can do is stare at the ring in its little wooden home. 
"Try it on, " Tarl told me.. Duh put the ring on, act excited, do something to let him know how happy you are... I slid the ring on and it fit perfectly!! Now I'm really shocked. My hands are pretty small and I never expected a ring to fit on the first try. "It fits!!" I told him(still looking like a deer) "Yeah, size 4, remember I asked you what size ring you wore while we were in Zion?" No, I don't remember that..how could I not remember that? Turns out Tarl has had this in the works since May, he asked for my dad's blessing in August when we were back there for my cousin's wedding and he's been in the process of having the ring made since then. He had inherited four rubies from his maternal great-grandmother's ring.
His maternal grandfather had left a collection of Australian opals to Tarl's dad. The opals were originally his dad's brother's, who found a rare rock while posted in Australia and traded for a jar of opals. (That is a story of its own...)
Tarl was also born in Australia. Knowing what he had to work with, he went online and found some ring styles he liked and let his sister Tana know what he was thinking for the ring. From there Tana, Jay(Tarl's dad) and Uncle Boyer (who is a jeweler) sat around and picked the opal that would best complement the rubies.Uncle Boyer set the ring, Tarl's dad mailed it with a decoy, we picked up the package Friday, and Tarl proposed Saturday, September 27. It's taken about a week for everything to sink in....the shock has worn off and now it's time to get in touch with my inner bridezilla.
