I said YES!!!!

I have created this blog to keep everyone up-to-date on the road to becoming Mr. and Mrs. Mack Ingram. I will be posting about what is going on in our lives and all of our wedding planning details. I thought this would be a great way to keep all our family and friend informed. Before I can start posting about this journey we are on, I better tell you how it all started... I give you our Engagement Story. 

Mack and I had been dating for 2 1/2 years when he popped the question. Mack had been on vacation from UAB for a few weeks so every minute that we could, we spent it together. We spent some time in Birmingham, Huntsville, and Albertville visiting with our parents and siblings. We love to be with family. On this particular day we were in Huntsville. The day before we had planned on helping Mack's mother Jan (Jana as we like to call her) move some boxes into her new classroom. Unfortunately, we were not able to do very much that day so we ended up running other errands. The next day we planned on working up at the school for a few hours and running some more errands. 

It was now Thursday and we had plans of working at the school with Jana, running some errands around town, and then meeting up with my parents that night for dinner at Carrabbas. For the majority of the day it was Mack, Jana, and I. At one point Mack needed to run to the mall to pick up something he had holding for him. Jana and I took that opportunity to run some errands ourselves and meet Mack later at the house. Little did I know that Mack was up to something and his mom was in on it too. 

Jana and I went on to the Dollar Tree looking for things for the upcoming school year. If you are a teacher, you need to realize that you must go to Dollar Tree to get some awesome things for your classroom that don't cost you much! So I believe we spent at least an hour or so in there. We finally headed back to the Ingrams' House and found Mack outside washing his jeep. Since Mack obviously had gotten a little hot from washing his jeep, he needed to shower before we went to eat dinner. So he went upstairs to shower and get ready while I was relaxing downstairs in the living room with Jana and DB. Eventually Mack asked me if I wanted to freshen up a little bit before we had dinner so of course I figured I would. During this time, Mack's parents said they had to drop off a graduation present they never had a chance to give to someone and said they would meet us at Carrabbas around 6:30. When I was close to being ready for dinner, Mack yelled upstairs to me and said when I was finished to come downstairs because he had something for me. Okay so now it gets to the good part.

I came downstairs to find a scrapbook sitting on the coffee table. At first I thought it was one that I had made Mack before, but I realized quickly that it wasn't. Mack told me since I always made him a scrapbook he wanted to give me one too. He said he had planned on giving it to me on June 10th, which was our 2 1/2 year mark, but with a lot going on, he just wasn't able to give it to me then. So we both sat down and started looking through it. I was so impressed. He had so many little details in it. I was just smiling from ear to ear. I felt so special that he had put some much time in effort into this when he had so little time with his busy schedule. It meant so much to me. We looked at the entire scrapbook from beginning to the end. On the very last page had two words written on the paper and a quarter taped to it. I had no idea what this was. Mack took the quarter out of the scrapbook and told me since he is always telling me that he would find my engagement ring in a gumball machine that he wanted that quarter to represent the ring I would get one day. He knew I have had a lot of friends getting married and engaged and knew I was probably wondering when my time was coming. He told me to keep the quarter in my pocket and it was a promise that our time was coming and when it did, I could give him the quarter back in exchange for my ring. I thought it was super sweet.

To get to the car, we would normally go through the garage, but Mack wanted to take me through the backdoor so we could stop and see the new hydrangeas that his dad had plated in the backyard since they are my favorite. As we walked out, I noticed this thing on the deck to the left. I looked at Mack and said, "Mack, why does your dad have a gumball machine on the deck?” Of course Mack answered with, "I really don't know Lauren, let's go check it out." So I go along with it as oblivious as could be until we started getting closer and I noticed flowers going up the machine. On the front of the gumball machine was a drawing of a girl and guy with question marks all around it with the diamond ring at the top. It finally hits me what is about to happen. Mack said we should try it out and if I still had that quarter in my back pocket. As I am crying, I take the quarter out of my pocket and put it in the machine. As I turned the knob, my ring popped out in one of those plastic capsules. Mack dropped to one knee and said, "Lauren Ashley Medders, I love you, Will you marry me????" And obviously I said YES!!!!!! It was the happiest day of my life. 

Oh but wait, there is more. Not only did he surprise me with an engagement, but he also had my parents, my sister Andrea, his parents, his brothers Rob and Lance, his sister in law Brooke, my three best friends: Stephanie, Mallory, and Megan, Megan's Husband Greg, Mallory's Mom Dedra, and Mallory's precious baby girl Molly. It was so perfect. 

The Lord has truly blessed me. I have prayed for a long time for God to send me a Christian man to marry one day and my prayers have been answered. Mack puts the Lord first in his life. You can see the love of the Lord around him, because he shines for Jesus everyday. He is such a caring person. He always has a huge smile on his face and has to be one of the most positive people I know. He is a great encourager to me and those around him. I just can't say enough about him. All I know is I can't wait to be Mrs. Mack Ingram. :) I will keep you all up-to-date on all the wedding planning and festivities. Below are some pictures from our Engagement! Enjoy!!! :)