I Don’t Need Socks Anymore

The title’s for you H&F Heather.

For those of you who are questioning what that means, let me break down for you:

I got engaged Tuesday afternoon.

Here, you might need to see that again: Kari and I are engaged. Actually I needed to see that again because it hasn’t fully sunk in yet. Before I go into all the details, here’s a little background information for you.

Background: When we started dating last year, we agreed that we would do so with the idea of getting married. After hearing Tommy Nelson’s “you date the adult and marry the child” philosophy, we thought it would be best to have a more forthcoming, real, and open relationship instead of trying to be someone we aren’t for the other person or just playing games. Let me just say that having that mindset has given us a wonderful, God-centered relationship where honestly is the best policy and love was a choice, not just some warm fuzzy feeling.

I should also mention that we’ve had this water theme in our relationship. We started dating in a pool, our first kiss was in a fountain at FSU, and the night I told her that I loved her…right afterwards a sprinkler system came on drenched us. So obliviously if I was to propose to Kari, I would have to include the water theme.

Kari’s only stipulation was that it had to be raining. That girl loves the rain.

I got permission to engage from her parents over Memorial Day weekend and I’ve been waiting ever since to pop the question. I was originally going to propose to Kari using various assortments of midgets, fireworks, and a bus full of nuns, but none of that included rain. So I waited…and waited…and waited for a day when it would rain when we were together. I could have done it during the tropical storm a few weeks ago but I couldn’t bring myself to ask my woman to marry me during something like that. And, as my luck would have it, we were experiencing a freakin’ drought.

Seriously, do you realize how difficult it is to plan something this big based on when its going to rain…in the South?

I’ve been shaking the fist at Mother Nature for a while now.

The Proposal: Earlier this week all the weather reports were saying we were going to get rain. Oh boy, oh boy, oh boy, boy… And what happens? If floods the Northeast area and we get a slight drizzle. I was mad. I was talking to Kari online Tuesday afternoon and she said, “Yay! It’s raining!” Oh, I was pissed. Finally, after a month of waiting, it was raining in Tallahassee and I wasn’t there. To make matters worse, it was 2:15 PM and Kari was supposed to get a hair cut around 4:00 PM and meet me at my place around 5:15 PM. There’s no way it could rain for at least three hours!!!

Against the odds, I rushed home to try and get things ready. On the way home Kari called me and said that she couldn’t get a hair cut and was going home. She was bummed and I was excited. I told her that I would come over and cheer her up. As I pulled up in my driveway, it started raining again. I was, “Crap, crap, crap, crap, crap gotta hurry and get over there before it stops raining.” I rush in the house, pull the ring from my secret hiding spot and make haste to her house. On the way over, she pulls out in front of me…driving kinda slow. Between trying not to hyperventilate and have a heart attack, I was wishing she would drive a little faster.

Before I go any further, let me say this: by the time we got to her place I was a little high strung from all the excitement, nervousness, and being rushed. She gets out of the car and walks over to mine at on the cul-de-sac. She has this look in her eye that says, “I’ve had a bad day and I want to make out in the rain.” Again, she loves the rain.

The whole time I’m thinking, “I can’t do it here on the street.” So the first thing that spills out my mouth is, “It’s raining, let’s go.” Not exactly what I had in mind. She walks over the mail box to get her mail and tell her, “Just get the mail later, I don’t want to get it wet.” I later found out that she didn’t hear me at all and is even more confused. When I stopped her in the middle of the yard, she gave me a WTF look.

That look didn’t get any better when I pulled the ring box out. She looked an me…then at the box…and back at me again. At that point a took a knee, told her how much I loved her, how much she meant to me, and that I wanted to spend the rest of my life with her. I opened the box and asked her to marry me in the pouring down rain.

Oh, BTW, she said yes!!

It ended up working out very well because my parents were having dinner with her parents that night and we got to tell them in person at the same time.

The Ring: When I decided I was going to ask Kari to marry me, I knew I needed a very special ring. Because, hey, she’s a special woman and deserves nothing but the best. I remembered Mom had said once upon a time that she would like to have a heirloom-type dodad in the family. So I called her to see if she had anything she would be willing to part with to go into making Kari a ring. She knew right away what to use: my grandmother’s wedding ring that Mom had remade into earrings

I ran up to Climax one day, got the earrings from Mom, and drove back to Tallahassee to Robert’s Jewelry. The owner is a friend of Kari’s family and we sat down and talked about options. I told him what I was looking for in a solitaire diamond (size, color, etc…) and he found the perfect one. Then we looked at different designs for a center solitaire diamond and the smaller diamonds from the earrings. Based on that, I decided to go with this design and Robbie did the rest! The remaining diamonds were used on the wedding band but I’m not allowed to post anything on that yet.

Needless to say, Robbie did a wonderful job and Kari is very happy with her wedding bling. Plus its something I helped to create using stuff from both sides of our family. And what better way to honor the memory of my grandmother than to have an awesome, sweet, loving, and wonderful woman like Kari wear her wedding ring.

Sweetheart, why do you think I took you to see the Family Stone when it came out?

Ok, I think that’s about it…at least what I can recall for now. I’m sure I forgot something. This is a monster post and I believe I got most of it. Thanks to everyone who encouraged us every step of the way and thanks for the all the prayers.

PS – We’re still gonna need’em!!