WE'RE ENGAGED!!!

Britt's entry -

Our proposal

It was Halloween night and after a long day at work and an evening at the gym I arrived home in my sweaty workout clothes and pulled into the garage. Sean met me at my car door and said, "Here, put your things down." I asked him if I could put them down inside and he said to just set down all my bags right there on the garage floor. With a slight sigh, I followed instructions. He handed me a glass of Chardonnay, smiled and said, "This is your goblet of courage," then handed me a small flashlight, "and this is your torch."

"These are your instructions," he added, giving me a Halloween napkin which read: Welcome to the Chamber of Doom! A very dangerous journey lies ahead…collect all the clues along the way to complete the key.

"Hidden in the house, at eye level, are clues to help you complete the key, which will get you into the treasure chamber, " he continued.

I thought to myself, "Man, Sean must have been really bored waiting for trick-or-treaters to show up. But I'll play along." I opened the door and was greeted by the "Demon Dog" and the "Cat that steals your soul". The lights were all out and every candle in the house was lit, and playing on the stereo was some not so scary Halloween music, which, he assured me, was very scary music a minute before.

A Halloween napkin was taped along each wall, every few feet, with a letter written on it. As I pulled each one down we kept getting interrupted by kids at the door and had to stop what we were doing, set down everything in our hands, Sean grabbed the dog by his collar, I grabbed the bowl of candy, and we gave them their treats. We were probably interrupted 5 times.

Finally, I got all the "clues" together and laid them out on the coffee table. Based on the letters themselves, I had a pretty good idea of what it would say, and sure enough, it spelled out "I LOVE YOU MOST," which we all know isn't true since I obviously love him the most. (Note: Yes, we're goofy like that. We say this to each other all the time. And yes, we know its nauseating, which is why you probably haven't heard us do it much in front of other people.)

Anyway, I filled in the hangman squares on the napkin "key" I found on the guest bedroom door, opened it up (because the key was correct, mind you) and saw a bouquet of flowers and a card sitting on a storage container. It was really sweet of him, and not at all out of character to get me flowers just because or to make a show out of it. I smiled and thanked him and went to give him a hug, but he told me to read the card first. I turned the flashlight onto the card.

On the front was a jack-o-lantern that said, "Thinking of you…" and on the inside read, "…gives me a warm glow inside. Happy Halloween!" and hand-written at the bottom was, "And will you marry me?" I stopped smiling, shocked, and turned around to flash my light at him. Sean was down on one knee with the ring box open in his hand. "Willyoumarryme?" he said at the speed of light.

I paused for a minute, frowned, and told him I'd need a few days to think about it. No, I Didn't!! Jeez! Of course I immediately said yes and threw my arms around him!

We went out in the light so I could get a look at my new engagement ring and we could call friends and family to let them know immediately.

At one point some kids saw us kissing and turned back down the driveway before knocking. FYI - apparently that's the most effective method keep them away if you've run out of candy.

So now Sean and I are engaged and starting to plan our wedding! That is so cool to type out! Wedding, wedding, fiancee, wedding, engaged, husband-to-be, wife-to-be, engaged, married! Whoo! Trying to get it out of my system.

Crazy Cooter: My personal memoirsChapter four: My Training Begins

I wasn't always a champion fighter. I know that sounds difficult to believe, but biting and clawing my way to the top didn't come naturally to me. Since I started so young, it did appear to be second nature, and I never bothered to correct the people who called me "Evil Kitty" or "Troublemaker", so the reputation stuck and helped instill fear into the hearts of my enemies and eventually the giants.

I started off small, the way many champion fighters did. When the male giant reached to pick me up, I would bare my teeth and whip my head forward so my little jaw landed on his finger or wrist. It took several weeks of practice before I could get him to recoil in surprise at the sudden pain. He called it, "Jeez!" and I felt that was an appropriate term. Once I was more mobile, I could hide in the folds of covers and Jeez! their noses in their sleep, or under the bedskirt and Jeez! their ankles. I was an attack cat learning the trade and Jeez! was my specialty.

After mastering Jeez!, I moved on to hand-to-hand combat skills. My paws weren't even as big as a piece of the Roscoe's food when I began learning how to do the "Ow! Dammit!" The essence of this move is to impale your victim with your claws as many times as possible before they say, "Ow! Dammit!" But the particulars of how to accomplish this are far more complicated than can be described in writing. It involved everything from becoming one with your environment to the art of deception. In fact, deception was one of my strong points. Especially as a kitten, I was able to transform my appearance so as to seem, as the female giant called me, "a cutie-patootie". This would inevitably put me in close proximity to a vulnerable place - shoulder, face, hand, it didn't matter. The longer I held up the charade, the more vulnerable they became, until, at a planned, precise moment, my razor talons (sharpened on my climbing tree, a matter for a different story) would instantly torpedo into their skin. Palms were more difficult, but wrists and chests were like pulling a hot knife through butter.

At a certain point, the giants came up with what they probably thought was a deterrent to the Jeez! Ow! Dammit! combination - they would toss me into a pile of clothes, blankets or pillows to get me away from them as quickly as possible. Well, if I could have shouted "Whee!" I would have. Those trips soaring through the air were some of the most fun a kitten could have! It only enticed me to practice my tactics on them further.

However, the older I got, the more the giants began to learn my giveaways - the butt wiggle, the ears back, the huge eyes - and prepare themselves for attack. It got so that I could only get in brief moments of combat before the day was through. Luckily, the Roscoe rarely defended himself past walking away… which helped with my target training.