He wants it so he put a ring on

I am looking at my engagement ring right now and it is in dire need of a cleaning. It's beautiful, but dirty.

I don't really care for jewelry. It bothers me to wear it so it would be a waste of money if my Fiance bought  me jewelry for any of the mandated jewelry buying holidays. You know, anniversaries, Valentines day, Christmas, Birthdays, He said my dress made my butt look big and now I won't talk to him, those kind of holidays. It was really important to me that he did a good job and put a lot of thought into my engagement ring because it is probably the only jewelry I will ever wear besides my wedding band.

I hear quite a few women say that "it doesn't matter about the size or cost of the ring, it's the fact that he wants to marry me" If that works for them, great. I didn't want something that was so tiny I had to use a magnifying glass and squint in order to see it. I also didn't want something that would snag on my clothes or scratch Belle's cheeks when I am getting her dressed in the mornings. I didn't want a diamond that was so far off of the color scale as to be canary yellow or one filled with fractures. I wanted it to be small and quality. It may seem like I am a gold digger. That is not the case.

Even though it is 2011, I have old fashioned values. I want to be barefoot and pregnant, taking care of my husband and I want my husband to be able to take care of his family. I told myself that if a man wasn't able to buy me a decent engagement ring, how would he be able to provide for our family. In my eyes, an engagement ring is tradition. I want to stand on tradition now because that is one of the things that I want to carry throughout our marriage.

I don't like jewelry. It bothers me to wear it so it would be a waste of money if my Fiance bought  me jewelry for any of the mandated jewelry buying holidays. You know, anniversaries, Valentines day, Christmas, Birthdays, He said my dress made my butt look big and now I won't talk to him, those kind of holidays. I needed him to do a good job and put a lot of thought into my engagement ring because it is probably the only jewelry I will ever wear besides my wedding band. It was incredibly important that I fall in love with my engagement ring because it wasn't just a ring. It was a new start. It was the beginning of the rest of my life. It was my future.

He did good. I am in love with the ring. I am in love with him. I am in love with the brightness of both the ring and my family's future.

Like I said,  it's beautiful, but dirty. I could take it back to the jeweler to have it cleaned but I would really like to find a way to just clean it at home. I have read so many different ways to keep your ring shiny. Toothpaste, soap and warm water, vodka, jewelry cleaning solution...

I tried the toothpaste. It shines but I don't know how clean it is or if I got the small bits of sediment off. I will keep looking for new methods that keep it clean and don't scratch the stone.