Engagement!!

Hey friends…

Just wanted to let you guys know Mark proposed this weekend while I was in Amarillo.

It was a great time with the kids and being on his turf. Lots of information to take in all at once….meeting Addison (3 yr old daughter), seeing his house for the first time, getting to know Amarillo, met his church friends, etc. oh yeah, and a good ‘ole ice storm. Woohoo!

No, the weekend went really well. Addison was a little leery of me initially but after a few hours and reading a few books to her….no problems. I enjoyed getting to spend time with her. It was definitely different being a family with them. So different…I suppose it will get better and easier with time.

Saturday Mark took us all to the Nutcracker in downtown Amarillo. It was really well done. The kids loved it. Seeing the nutcracker with a 3 yr old on your lap makes it so much more entertaining. I was really impressed with the kids and their attention span during the show. Needless to say, they were exhausted by the time we went to dinner and headed home afterward.

After the kids were fast asleep Mark and I were watching tv and he began to talk about the snowmen figurines on the window sill. There were several of them and they had “special” meaning to Andrea, Mark’s former wife. (Later, I found out this was all made up). He said there was a snowman just for me…uniquely for me on the sill and that I needed to go and figure out what it was. Me, being the logical rule-follower that I am..looked only at the snowmen on the sill. Mark stood back and laughed at me and kept saying “it’s so obvious!”. Because I was just following the directions to look at snowmen….i had overlooked a silver jewelry box right in the middle. I guess I just thought it was part of Andrea’s collection somehow…but out of desperation in this little game I picked it up. It was engraved to me: “Robyn, I love the way you love me! Mark”…really sweet and romantic…

Then I opened the box and found a silver rhinestone-studded fortune cookie. Yes, I said fortune cookie. Ultimate in randomness. I open the cookie and found a little engraved fortune that says “will you marry me?”. I look up and Mark is on his knee with the ring…and he asks me himself. I said yes!!

Now, what you don’t know is that I found all the gushy romance a little much throughout our relationship... and Mark knew it. He also knows that I don’t really like figurines and little sentimental stuff. I’m a purger at heart. He knows all this….so he knew I was cringing the whole time as the gifts kept a’comin. I didn’t want to spoil his efforts and really wanted to relish the time…so I didn’t say anything. About 30 minutes later Mark tells me that the whole thing was planned to make me cringe and to create a little joke between us as he knew I would never be able to purge these gifts. Now, I’m laughing out loud. So funny. He did a great job!

Oh yeah, the ring is amazing. Perfect…I love it. Wish I could get a decent picture to post …but it just hasn’t happened yet.

Thanks for celebrating with us!

Save the date--- June 1, 2008…the wedding will be in North Richland Hills, Texas. More info to come.

Love you guys!