October 1, 1993

That was the date. It was a Friday.

I knew something was up because Ed was taking me to the Beltline Bar (it’s a Mexican restaurant, not an actual bar) for dinner. For real food. Our normal dates consisted of going to Chi-Chi’s, eating tons of free chips and salsa, sharing a bottomless Coke, and then sharing fried ice cream (which we have yet to find any that compare). So if we were actually going to spend more than $10 on dinner, I knew something was up.

Since I knew something was up, I had my roommates take our picture before we went out for dinner.

Does Ed look nervous to you? I think he was nervous.

Because that’s the night he proposed to me!

There was nothing wild or extravagant about his proposal, but if there had been, it wouldn’t have come from Ed, and I wanted it to come from Ed. He had worked all summer to buy me a ring, which, by the way, he designed and had made just for me. Really. My ring is one of a kind, designed by my beloved.

And I still love my ring as much as I did on that day when he proposed. And I love my beloved even more. 16 years later.

And just for your viewing enjoyment:

My brother took our engagement picture on Calvin’s nature preserve a couple of weeks later. Oh, how I love fall photographs. Thanks, Randy!

Change of subject:

 

Katie-bug spent Monday morning with us. We had a good time. The whole in and out of the box thing was pretty popular, as was climbing on the box. I wish she could have spent the whole day, but I was grateful that she could nap at another friend’s house so that I could run the errands I needed to run for GEMS that night. Thanks, Lea and John & Dee for being flexible and helping me out!

One quick funny story about her visit with us: On our way home from picking her up and dropping the girls off at school, I decided to run through the car wash. The van was filthy. I had all sorts of hearts and names written with little fingers in the muck on the side. It was time. Elise was sure Katie would be scared. When the sprayers passed by Katie’s window the first time, she kind of squirmed and looked a little scared and tried to get out of her car seat. She didn’t cry, though. I gave her some toys to distract her and she seemed fine. When the sprayers came past her window the second time, she threw the toys into her lap and covered her eyes with her hands. As soon as the sprayer was gone, she picked up the toys and was fine. The next time the sprayer came, the same thing. Throw the toys down, cover the eyes, then pick the toys back up when the sprayer was gone. I think she did it all 6 times! It was so funny. Elise thought Katie was hysterically funny. As soon as we drove out, Katie thought it was funny too, and they both giggled for the next 5 minutes. So cute.