She Said, She Said

Yes!



Let me take you back to June, 2007...

I had just taken my current position at work and was getting into the groove of working full time in an office, no longer hiking and teaching kids. Happy for the benefits, sad about the change (and frankly, that's still the case). This was also the beginning of the first summer in our new house! We'd been there for just over 2 months, settling in, adjusting, all that fun stuff and makes you wonder...are we really sure about this?

But we were sure. We were in it for the long haul. We both knew it, nonetheless, we were still just "dating" technically. Boyfriend and girlfriend, nothing more.

It was all about to change.

I had gone to work that day and after work, I went out with my mom to pick up some supplies for Danny, who was going to the Bonnaroo music festival the next day with friends. I was making sure he had important things I wasn't sure he'd consider like first aid stuff, sunblock, not-quite-so-unhealthy snacks, etc. This was essentially 4 days of camping with thousands of other people, listening to music in the blistering heat of Tennessee. So I get home and Danny wasn't there, I'm not sure where he said he was, but he was actually pacing around his parents house with an engagement ring, nervous as all get out.

So I settle in at home, probably had some dinner or something and got all set to watch a program I had DVR'd about the race horse Barbaro...remember that story? Won the Kentucky Derby, broke his leg in the Preakness, eventually had to be euthanized, very sad. Anyway, I was about 45 minutes into an hour long documentary about this and Danny came home. I told him I had picked up some supplies for his trip and he said thanks and ran upstairs. So I go back to watching. Then he comes down and asks me to go upstairs with him. Now, my first reaction was less than stellar. I was really annoyed that I was going to have to PAUSE the program I was almost finished with to go upstairs and probably do some chore for him like help him pack. But I noticed he was all smiley and when he made me close my eyes, I figured something was up.

We got to the top of the stairs and when I'm told to open my eyes, Danny is down on one knee holding a ring and simply asks "Will you marry me?"

And after a moment of pure dumbfoundedness (pretty sure that's not a word), I said yes!

I made the phone calls to family and friends and everyone seemed to already know, but it was a pretty wild Wednesday night in our house. He was going to propose on my birthday that year, a mere month away, but he couldn't wait any longer and so he went for it.

The next day Danny left for Tenneesee and I went to Chicago. So we essentially celebrated our first weekend as an engaged couple in different states...and Danny got 2nd degree sunburns on his legs. But we still went for it anyway and it seems to be working out alright!

erin