The Engagement

Okay, so on to the good part. . .
So, the summer of '96, Mark moves to Illinois. He was working in Illinois for the summer and had plans to move to Wisconsin for the upcoming school year. I was working at Kroger's and we both had different schedules that summer. We barely saw each other.
It happened one week that I got Thursday through Sunday off; that rarely happened, so we planned to go out on Thursday night. I was super excited!
Mark picked me up that night, and as we were getting ready to pull out of my driveway, he stops and says he has to give my mom a baby shower invitation from his mother (Later, I found out that Mark had told them he was going to ask me to marry him that night).
Well, we were on our way. Mark was planning to take to me to this place called Gill's; we love to try new places and we love little "mom and pop" little places. We started driving out in the boondocks and I thought we were lost. I asked if he knew where he was going and he said he would have to pull over at the next farm house to get directions. We stop at the farm house and there is a horse drawn carriage in front. I remember thinking that it was pretty cool. Soon, Mark gets out of the truck and opens my door. And I'm thinking what in the world in going on? All of the sudden, the carriage driver comes over to me and asks me if I'm going to Gill's. I nodded yes, and he says that he is our ride for the night. At this point I still have no clue I'm going to get proposed to, but I'm thinking what a great opportuinity for Mark. We head to the restaurant, eat, and head back to the carriage. The whole night, Mark is cool as a cucumber. He never let on that anyhting special was going to happen. On the way back to the truck, Mark pulls out a dozen roses. I'm shocked and excited and then I notice him counting the roses. He yells at the driver, "Stop! There are supossed to be 12 roses, there are only 11 here." I was a little nervous because I certainly did not want to get the guy mad and have to walk back to the truck. I told Mark that it was okay, and he said that it was not okay! The guy, hands me a flower box, which I opened and there was a single rose with my ring in the middle of the rose. Mark got down on his knee and asked me to marry him. I was so surprised. The driver had a camera and he had been taking pictures of the whole scene. So, there I am crying and then smiling for the camera. It was fun. We went back to my house and celebrated with my family and his family. That was on July 11, 1996.
We got married on June 14, 1997. It is hard to believe it will be 10 years this summer. Time flies when you're having fun!!