Our first real date was a concert at the House of Blues almost one year ago. Israel mentioned that he wanted to see the Gavin DeGraw and Rachel Yamagata concert and I was dying to go on another date with him, so I ended up buying the tickets for $80 from a ticket broker. I remember trekking out to the far East side to pick up the tickets and getting my nails done the day of the concert. It was one of the best dates in the history of dates. I have to give a shout out to "Dee," a woman in the crowd with us who had driven from some distant place to see the concert only days before her brain surgery. She saw the way we looked at one another and asked if we were married. When we said no, she told Israel that he would marry me and that he should never let such a special lady go. The next time we went to the House of Blues for Daniel Powter, another woman told us the very same thing. We've had an attachment to the House of Blues and their intimate concert setting ever since.

Today Brandi Carlile came to the House of Blues. Yep, the Brandi Carlile who sings our song "The Story." We saw her in L.A. last year and Israel has been a fan for a long time. In fact, she was on the first mix c.d. that Israel ever gave me. Of course we had to be there. I gave Israel two tickets for his birthday back in April and of all the concerts we were looking forward to, this was the one we were looking forward to the most. The concert was amazing! If you haven't had the opportunity to see Brandi live, I would recommend watching for tickets in your area.

She played a few songs that we really enjoy and during "Closer to You" Izzy caught a guitar pick that she tossed into the audience:

Izzy caught Brandi Carlile's Pick

Finally, after so many songs that we love, the chords to our song "The Story" rang out of the guitar...

As Brandi began singing the lyrics that have been so close to our hearts these past few months, Izzy leaned over and said "Would you share all of your stories with me?" In his hand was ... a beautiful engagement ring. He was proposing marriage, in such a romantic way, during our song in the place where I first fell in love with him.

My (perfect) engagement ring (on my finger!)

Of course, between tears and gasps of excitement, I said YES. We listened to the rest of the song and it meant so much more to me standing next to my fiancee and future husband - "These stories don't mean anything, without someone to tell them to - it's true, I was made for you." I can't wait to share all my stories with Israel, and I cant wait to see what stories we make together.

Just after he asked me to marry him (and after I wiped my eyes and stopped crying)

SO - did you guess that we got engaged?
(Bet you didn't...BUT WE DID!)