Anniversary Countdown: Will You Marry Me?

A short 7 months after we began dating, Scott took me to his hometown where his mom and dad live. Jason and Shanna and Grace were also going to "The Gas-house" (Gastonia).

Shanna, my favorite person to play Hand and Foot with, came to me and told me one night that we were going to have a "Girl's Day Out" and "Boys Day Out" and then we'd meet back in the afternoon so we could all go on dates.

So Debbie, Shanna and I went to the mall and went shopping, we went to a cute tea house etc etc etc and the boys said they were going to race Go Carts.

Um, liars! While Debbie, Shanna and I were having a very fun girly day, Scott and Jason were not racing go carts, but going into Charlotte to pick up an engagement ring! I didn't have a clue.

So around 5 o'clock we all met back up at the house and we all went our separate ways to have our dates. Scott first took me to play miniature golf. Halfway through, I was waiting for Scott to putt and I noticed a big pink piece of paper crumpled up in the hole. Scott told me to pick it up and what in the world? My name was on the outside! I opened it up and it had in huge block letters "SOMETHING". I was so bewildered- I pestered Scott endlessly to tell me who put it there or what it meant... he just smiled and shook his head and said "I don't know!" with a huge grin on his face.

Did I have any idea what he was up to? Not one bit. Why? Because Scott did things like this the entire time we dated. One time I hurt my foot and was on crutches and we couldn't do much so he made up a Wal Mart scavenger hunt for me and pushed me around in a wheel chair helping me find things!

So after we went to play putt-putt, we went to a beautiful steak-house that was sitting on a lake. We ordered and chit chatted... Scott was unusually quiet, but I didn't think anything of it. After a while, the waitress comes up out of nowhere and gives me another pink piece of paper with my name written on it. ??? Scott has a huge grin. Inside it says "I". By now, I was thinking that maybe my mom had something to do with this. She is also known for sneaking in notes and letters... but Scott still wouldn't tell me who these notes were from.

We finished dinner and went to an ice-cream shop. You can see where this is going, right? You guessed it- the guy scooped our ice-cream and then handed me another note with my name on it. (by the way, I'm still clueless as to what this is leading to) Inside it said "have to". By now I realize that these letters are making some sort of sentence so I sat in the car eating my ice cream saying "Something I have to.... do? Something I have to....what? What could it be?" and so on.

Well, our date night had come to a close. Now we were going to meet Jason and Shanna at the Ballards house to play pool for a while. But we pull up to their house and there isn't a light on in the house.... nor are there any cars in the driveway. "Jason and Shanna will be here in a few minutes" Scott quickly explained.

But NOW I had the feeling like something was going on. Sure enough, we through the garage to the basement, opened the door to a room glowing with over 200 candles. Holy COW my heart was beating so fast. I couldn't believe it. Scott lead me through a walkway of candles to one big candle in the center of the room, and there he handed me my last note. It said "tell you". Something I have to tell you.... What did he have to tell me?

We had agreed when we began dating that those three little words had been wasted before, and that we would only say them to each other if and when we decided to get married. Scott told me "I have to tell you that I love you." *gulp* I knew what was coming next! He pulled out that little black box and showed me the diamond and then bent down on his knee and said with tears in his eyes: "Christine, will you marry me?"

I don't think I could have said YES fast enough! I was so shocked by how fast this all was, but when it came down to it- how could I not know what a treasure this man was? He put the diamond on my hand and then he gave me a great big kiss right on the mouth! Right after that, we realized that the candles had burned pretty low and we got a little worried. We turned on the light and then saw the mess of candle wax (sorry Kathy!) and in a hurry blew them all out. We snuggled on the couch and then started calling every one. I was SO excited to call my mom and dad and even more excited that they already knew that Scott was going to ask!

We went back to Scott's house where a small party was waiting for us. Howard, Debbie,Jason and Shanna and Grace, Kathy and Larry Ballard and Will Holland were all waiting for us! Shanna told me how all these notes and the candles already lit were made possible (they were puppets in this crafty play). I get exhilarated all over again thinking about that night. Scott and I went to get some pizza and when the guy asked "How are you?" I blurted "WE'RE ENGAGED!" It was funny to see his face- it looked like he was thinking you came to get pizza to celebrate? haha

A fun fact about this day: At the mall that day, I had a cookie cake made that said "I like you" to give to Scott, having no idea that just hours from then I could have gotten one that said "I love you!"

Another fun fact: We weren't saying "I love you" to each other's face before this day, but for a few weeks already I had been whispering it below my breath when we said goodbye! hee hee!!

Fun Fact about the ice cream dude: It didn't go quite as smoothly as indicated earlier. After he served the ice cream, Scott didn't immediately leave for the car, but stood there awkwardly as if he was waiting for something. He looked at the 15 year old pimple faced ice cream dude and finally the dude goes "uh. Oh yeah. Are you Christie?" (I say "Yes! How did you know?") and he gives Scott this give-away grin and hands me the note and then says "uhh, good luck man". WOW he was smoooth.