He Shared His Big Day with Me!!!!!!!!!!!

That's right folks, it was his big day, but he selflessly decided to share it with me!!!  and I am now the proud FIANCE of Mr. Fabrice Claude Saint-Elie JD!!!! Saturday was an exciting day.  I started the day ironing Fab's graduation regalia.  He was sooooo excited that he got dressed about an hour and a half early.  I tried to get him to take off his shirt until it was time to go so he wouldn't get it dirty but he refused...LOL.  He was just so anxious... so I let him be while he shaved, brushed his teeth, and ate leftover spaghetti with his black collared shirt on.  Fortunately, he didn't spill anything...phew!

While I was ironing and getting ready for the day Fab walked into his bedroom and pretends to grab something from under the bed.  He gets on one knee and pretends to ask me me to marry him.  Of course, this was a joke and I brushed it off with a "yeah right" and he says "Is that what I'm supposed to do? Do guys still get down on one knee or is that corny?"  I replied "noooo, that's corny.  I wouldn't want you to do that because that's not you.  I wouldn't want you to ask me in a way that's not you.  That wouldn't be your style."  He goes "yeah, you're right.  That's not me at all."  Now, I never would have imagined that he was fishing for information.  I totally thought that was just a random question.  We have random conversations about marriage all the time (he'd probably say they're not random because I always bring it up...hmmm...maybe. LOL).  I had NO CLUE whatsoever that he was planning on asking me to marry him later that day.

Now, let's rewind back to Friday evening.  Fab's family arrived to Jax around 5 o'clock and we all headed over to the Florida Coastal campus for a Graduation Open House put on by the school that allowed graduates to give their family a tour, talk to the alumni association, and take pics in graduation regalia with family.  Here is one of our pics...

As we are walking to the car after the Open House, Fab gets a mysterious phone call.  He answers the phone "This is he" and walks off to take the call away from me and his family.  It was really weird, but I assumed it was work or school related.  I asked him who it was when we got in the car, and he said to just trust him but he couldn't tell me.  I was confused, but determined not to make a big deal out of it so I left it alone.  I now know that that mysterious phone call was from my Dad!!!  He had called my dad to ask for my hand and my dad was returning the call.  Can you believe it! How incredibly amazing and charming is that! it is not every day that you run into a 28 year old with good old fashioned values (at least not in CA).

Now back to graduation day.  My mom called to congratulate Fab on his big day. He grabs Nala, the family dog, and "takes her on a walk" while he's talking to my mom.  Turns out he was also revealing his plans to my mom!  At this point, I am frantically running around trying to get dressed so we can head over to the arena for graduation.  I still have no idea that within the next 4 hours Fab would not only officially be a lawyer, but he'd also become my fiance!  Here is a pic of my future hubby crossing the stage for his big moment after being hooded, and a couple pics from after graduation with his family and friends.  I am still completely clueless that my own big moment is less than an hour away...

Now, the next picture captures the moment just after the discreet ring pass off... Fab and his mom slipped off into the arena (or so I thought). I noticed them walk off and I assumed there were just going to the restroom.  Hehe...sure fooled me!  He's got my ring tucked safely in his pocket with his beloved blackberry...(side note: Doesn't mom look proud!)

 

So graduation was over, and we were all floating on cloud 9!  It was time to go celebrate!!! but Fab had even more excitement planned for me in the next hour or so.  The graduation ceremony was much shorter than anticipated so we pushed our dinner reservation up from 7:30 to 6.  Fab's family and friends headed over to the restaurant but Fab insisted on stopping at the house first to change.  When we got there, I ironed his shirt, and he changed. We were on our way out the door (so I thought) and I grabbed my purse to refresh my lip gloss.  I was on my way to the bathroom, gloss in hand, when Fab walked up to me and said "This is weird. I've never done this before." I'm thinking to myself, what is he talking about? So I said, "Honey, we gotta go. I'm trying to put my lip gloss on." So I walked past him to the bathroom and he followed behind me and grabbed my arm.  When I turned around, he whipped out the ring and looked me dead in the eye....

"Noooooooooooo..."

That's right folks, in shock, the first thing that came out of my mouth was "noooooooo" as in "no way"  followed by "are you serious? oh my God? are you serious?"  to which he replied "are you telling me no?"  "oh no, I mean yes! YES!!! of course!" Lol.  It was all pretty surreal, and I'm smiling at the screen as I type this.  So, he goes to put the ring on my finger, and he goes for the right hand, so I say "no, no, wrong hand, its the left" Lol.  So my fiance slipped my engagement ring on my finger and gave me a big kiss, and I literally skipped around the living room in circles giggling! smh.  I was (am) so elated... Well, I'm not sure how, but we managed to get out of the house and on our way to the graduation dinner after snapping a couple pics of the ring, which I promptly mass texted to my friends and family from my slowly dying iphone which was already below 20% battery life.  As you can probably imagine my phone was dead before I finished my salad at dinner...

Fabrice, I LOVE YOU!!!! Thank you for making what was supposed to be your special day, our special day! I can't wait to spend the rest of my life you!!! *smooches*

After Dinner, all the young folks went out to celebrate at the Ritz bar! Shout out to my new sister, Audrey, and to Fabrice's childhood best friends (from left to right) Kashel, Kandis, and Kristin! Thanks for coming out to celebrate our special night! We love you all!  And shout out to Audrey's boyfriend, Trevor also known as "Bro" in the 2nd picture below, where you'll also see Fab comforting me in my "I'm so happy" tears of joy moment in the middle of the bar... smh.

Fab's Big Day...

...not to be confused with "our" big day *wink wink* (he's gonna kill me..Lol)  Okay, the day that my boyfriend has been working toward for the past three years is finally within reach.  I can't tell you how many times I had to remind him how close he was to the end over this past year.  I think the time went by so incredibly fast.  I guess I think of time in terms our our relationship, and I can't believe that its been almost a year since Fab and I first began to form a friendship on Twitter.  AN ENTIRE Almost a YEAR! (Fab informed me that I was lying exaggerating on the timeline)  Today, I officially started preparing for my semi-annual conference at work.  It made me think of a conversation I had with Fab on Twitter from the conference last July. By then we had become pretty good friends on Twitter.  He had just returned home from an internship with Congress in DC (a time he describes as the most horrible and wonderful experience of his life).  One month later, he entered into his LAST year of law school and a new relationship with a girl he met on twitter...Me!  Throughout this year, our relationship has grown and I find myself loving Fab more and more.  I came into his life at the end of his law school journey but I feel like I've walked these last few steps right by his side, and I AM SO PROUD OF HIM! 

So, for Fab, the excitement of graduation has kind of been tempered by finals and a 25 page paper (the AWLR). To be honest, he's been more stressed than excited over the last couple weeks, but he turned in his AWLR and knocked out 2 finals this week! So he's beginning to really taste it now! Every morning, Fab sends me a good morning email with a witty subject line --- "Good Morning (XXX edition)." He's 3 hours ahead and its usually about noon for him by the time I get settled into things at work. He usually just gives me the run down of his day and says something silly to make me smile. The subject line of this morning's email was "Good Morning (I accidentally murdered my sports law final edition)" and for the 1st time in the last couple weeks I could hear the excitement kicking in. In the email he told me that he received his cap and gown today and the "doctoral hood made him happy as hell." Well it apparently made me happy as hell too, because I was smiling at the computer screen reading the email. haha! Here are some pics of his cap and gown and his invitations (which he ordered late and just received last week... smh.. he is going to kill me)

I'll be heading to Jax next Thursday to watch Mr. Fabrice Claude Saint-Elie Esquire walk across that state and accept his Juris Doctorate and I am so very excited... excited for him because I know how hard he's worked and the sacrifices he's made during this time. It's been a long road...a fun road, but a long road. I have to admit that I am also excited for what this means for US. #SelfishPlug Lol. Now that law school is over, we can begin planning our future. I'm crossing my fingers that the days of "loving long distance" will be coming to an end soon. Granted, he's still gotta pass the bar and all but we are so much closer than we were!!! and that is something to be excited about!

I LOVE YOU!!! AND I'M SO PROUD!!!  SEE YOU NEXT WEEK!!!

p.s. Next week, I'll be needing some help picking out my outfit for the graduation.  Fab's sister Audrey is something like a paparazzo (Fab loves to remind me that paparazzi is plural.  I hope this makes him proud) so I have to be picture perfect on Fab's big day!  I'll be posting pics on my "fashion" blog, frugal FASHIONISTA so folks can vote!