May 9, 1986
OK, so I haven't talked about this, but there was something afoot this week.
I was supposed to go to a "meeting", but there was kind of a dress code and it was going to be a nice place for dinner...I kind of nosed around about it, but didn't get very far.
Seemed odd to me...
we were going talk about the Christmas Program, but at a nice restaurant...
and have folders (of all things)...at the table...
while eating...
at the fancy restaurant.
???????
Couldn't picture it...but "Point of the Blade" Pastor Norman has many times made things work where I saw no way...so I went with it.
Not sure who was coming besides Norman, his wife Denise, and me...
and Hester, I thought.
Hester (the admin.asst/general superhero)had been sick for a long time. And I felt that making her put together a bunch of folders with whatever else she had going was unnecessary. So...I offered to help.
She turned me down.
I worried that I might not be dressed appropriately.
And worried and worried...all week.
Poor Greg (my husband)...but he was a good sport. Let me get new shoes, some jewelry, etc. What a guy.
So the day before the Big Day comes...and I get an email (with some names of others) about the meeting.
"This is great!" I think to myself. "I will just be really junior high and see what some of them are wearing..."
So I email two of them (Suzy and Sarah) and get a response...nice...but they don't ask what I am wearing...
The Big Fancy Eating Place Meeting Day comes...I pretty much designate the day to Getting Ready...
That evening, Norman and Denise come to fetch me to the BFEP...I guess they are aware of my directional sense...
All along the way there is chatter chatter chatter about Christmas Plan 2006. Norman even has me get into his briefcase and get out "The Folders"...each labeled with a name...I give Denise to her and place mine on my lap.
Chatter Chatter....
When we arrive at the restaurant, Norman looks for a place to park...
(This restaurant, BTW, is not your standard "Thanks for Working With the Worship Ministry Dinner" place. It is fan-SAY. I wonder if I am dressed up enough. I think I am more dressed up than Norman and Denise so I decide I must be OK.)
Norman says, "I'm just going to let you girls out at the door", to which I think, "Well, good, because my hair won't make it in this wind".
Denise gets out, complains about her purse being too big to mess with and turns to put it back in the car. It was about the size of a tote that a teacher might take to school with her planner, graded papers etc, and don't get on to me about this reference because I used to carry one of those very bags but not to a BFEP...
So I wait for her. And I open the restaurant door. She walks in and I get the other door...she says, "After you..."
So I walk in. And she stays in the breezeway. So here I am, with a folder in my hand, standing in a fancy eating place and I see her standing in the breezeway through the frosted glass.
The hostess asked me if I have a reservation. "Well, I guess," I say. "But I'm actually with those people" and I gesture my head to the door. And I look over there and I no longer see a blurry form of Denise.
I see...
nothing.
The hostess stands there a minute and lets me stand there a minute (I am just figuring that Norman forgot his briefcase or something) and then she pulls out a HUGE bouquet of roses...and tells me that she will lead me to my table.
So she takes me through the labyrinth of rooms to a secluded table. And my sweet Greg is sitting there....
"What's going on here?" I say sweetly, feeling a little conspicuous with my folder and rose tree... (BTW, I was not holding said "rose tree"...the hostess was...I was holding my purse and a folder for a Christmas music planning meeting.) The hostess offers to take the HUGE Miss America type bouquet back to the front. I see no alternative, since there would be no room for food on the table...
He gestures me to sit, which I do.
"Are Norman and Denise coming?" I ask.
"I hope not" he says.
"What is going on?" I ask again.
"I just thought this might be a good time to reflect on our last 20 years together." he says.
Now here are two points of interest...
1. It is not our anniversary.
2. Before the birth of our first child (actually the night before my mother was coming to be here for the birth of our first child) I said to Greg (as we were watching TV)
"You know, this is our last night as a couple...tomorrow my mom will be here...then the baby will be here...we won't ever be "just us" again..."
You know...kind of reflecting...
Then he says, "Yeah...I guess you're right."
The end.
No "Oh, let's go out to dinner or a movie, because this will be our last opportunity as a couple..."
No "Well, what could we do that would make this final night special?"
Nothing... "Yeah, I guess you're right."
Sheesh.
So you can bet I brought that up a few hundred times.
So this was going to be a "time of reflection..." hmmmm
Greg says, "I would kind of like to go through each year and talk about what were the significant points."
Greg knows I can hardly remember last week, much less 1998...and I remind him of that little endearing quality of mine.
"It's OK, I made a list" says he.
A list of the high points of the last 20 years...wow.
So we eat dinner...work through the list...
At dessert (yes I had dessert...it was a special occasion:-)) we are at about 1988, then 1987...then at 1986 I think "May 1986...what was that????"
And I figured it out!
I was getting ready to go on a college Music Ministry trip for the summer. And before I left, Greg proposed...
"This is the day your proposed!" I blurt out.
"The happiest day of my life" he says...
I know...so sweet.
But THEN he pulls out a box. From BC Clark. And inside was a ring...but not just any ring...
See, about 5-6 years after we got married, I lost my engagement ring...I don't even know where or when. Why I took it off, I don't know.
I probably left it on the dresser and knocked it off and vacuumed it up the one time I vacuumed while we were in San Antonio...I just don't know. But it was gone. Good and gone.
I beat myself up about that alot.
Even as late as last week...
You know, he had got the diamond and put the ring together himself with a setting that he bought (he was kind of a jewelry maker in high school).
Anyway, I was thinking about it AGAIN last week.
Inside the box was a ring that bore a striking resemblance to my engagement ring. A yellow gold setting with an emerald cut diamond. Not exactly the same, but similar. This one has a couple of tapered diamonds flanking the sides of the main one, but it's very similar. And it makes me think of when we were 19 and 20, not even out of college, never been on our own, Greg not even started in medical school yet. We were babies...so young.
An evening to reflect on our married life together...and the 20th anniversary of our engagement.
So, you schemers, here's my thanks in order (I believe) of your involvement:-)
Norman
Denise
Hester
Tim-Sarah-Suzy
Thanks for helping Greg to pull it off...it was incredibly fun and such a surprise. You're the best.:-) Well, Greg's the best...you're the second best.
I was supposed to go to a "meeting", but there was kind of a dress code and it was going to be a nice place for dinner...I kind of nosed around about it, but didn't get very far.
Seemed odd to me...
we were going talk about the Christmas Program, but at a nice restaurant...
and have folders (of all things)...at the table...
while eating...
at the fancy restaurant.
???????
Couldn't picture it...but "Point of the Blade" Pastor Norman has many times made things work where I saw no way...so I went with it.
Not sure who was coming besides Norman, his wife Denise, and me...
and Hester, I thought.
Hester (the admin.asst/general superhero)had been sick for a long time. And I felt that making her put together a bunch of folders with whatever else she had going was unnecessary. So...I offered to help.
She turned me down.
I worried that I might not be dressed appropriately.
And worried and worried...all week.
Poor Greg (my husband)...but he was a good sport. Let me get new shoes, some jewelry, etc. What a guy.
So the day before the Big Day comes...and I get an email (with some names of others) about the meeting.
"This is great!" I think to myself. "I will just be really junior high and see what some of them are wearing..."
So I email two of them (Suzy and Sarah) and get a response...nice...but they don't ask what I am wearing...
The Big Fancy Eating Place Meeting Day comes...I pretty much designate the day to Getting Ready...
That evening, Norman and Denise come to fetch me to the BFEP...I guess they are aware of my directional sense...
All along the way there is chatter chatter chatter about Christmas Plan 2006. Norman even has me get into his briefcase and get out "The Folders"...each labeled with a name...I give Denise to her and place mine on my lap.
Chatter Chatter....
When we arrive at the restaurant, Norman looks for a place to park...
(This restaurant, BTW, is not your standard "Thanks for Working With the Worship Ministry Dinner" place. It is fan-SAY. I wonder if I am dressed up enough. I think I am more dressed up than Norman and Denise so I decide I must be OK.)
Norman says, "I'm just going to let you girls out at the door", to which I think, "Well, good, because my hair won't make it in this wind".
Denise gets out, complains about her purse being too big to mess with and turns to put it back in the car. It was about the size of a tote that a teacher might take to school with her planner, graded papers etc, and don't get on to me about this reference because I used to carry one of those very bags but not to a BFEP...
So I wait for her. And I open the restaurant door. She walks in and I get the other door...she says, "After you..."
So I walk in. And she stays in the breezeway. So here I am, with a folder in my hand, standing in a fancy eating place and I see her standing in the breezeway through the frosted glass.
The hostess asked me if I have a reservation. "Well, I guess," I say. "But I'm actually with those people" and I gesture my head to the door. And I look over there and I no longer see a blurry form of Denise.
I see...
nothing.
The hostess stands there a minute and lets me stand there a minute (I am just figuring that Norman forgot his briefcase or something) and then she pulls out a HUGE bouquet of roses...and tells me that she will lead me to my table.
So she takes me through the labyrinth of rooms to a secluded table. And my sweet Greg is sitting there....
"What's going on here?" I say sweetly, feeling a little conspicuous with my folder and rose tree... (BTW, I was not holding said "rose tree"...the hostess was...I was holding my purse and a folder for a Christmas music planning meeting.) The hostess offers to take the HUGE Miss America type bouquet back to the front. I see no alternative, since there would be no room for food on the table...
He gestures me to sit, which I do.
"Are Norman and Denise coming?" I ask.
"I hope not" he says.
"What is going on?" I ask again.
"I just thought this might be a good time to reflect on our last 20 years together." he says.
Now here are two points of interest...
1. It is not our anniversary.
2. Before the birth of our first child (actually the night before my mother was coming to be here for the birth of our first child) I said to Greg (as we were watching TV)
"You know, this is our last night as a couple...tomorrow my mom will be here...then the baby will be here...we won't ever be "just us" again..."
You know...kind of reflecting...
Then he says, "Yeah...I guess you're right."
The end.
No "Oh, let's go out to dinner or a movie, because this will be our last opportunity as a couple..."
No "Well, what could we do that would make this final night special?"
Nothing... "Yeah, I guess you're right."
Sheesh.
So you can bet I brought that up a few hundred times.
So this was going to be a "time of reflection..." hmmmm
Greg says, "I would kind of like to go through each year and talk about what were the significant points."
Greg knows I can hardly remember last week, much less 1998...and I remind him of that little endearing quality of mine.
"It's OK, I made a list" says he.
A list of the high points of the last 20 years...wow.
So we eat dinner...work through the list...
At dessert (yes I had dessert...it was a special occasion:-)) we are at about 1988, then 1987...then at 1986 I think "May 1986...what was that????"
And I figured it out!
I was getting ready to go on a college Music Ministry trip for the summer. And before I left, Greg proposed...
"This is the day your proposed!" I blurt out.
"The happiest day of my life" he says...
I know...so sweet.
But THEN he pulls out a box. From BC Clark. And inside was a ring...but not just any ring...
See, about 5-6 years after we got married, I lost my engagement ring...I don't even know where or when. Why I took it off, I don't know.
I probably left it on the dresser and knocked it off and vacuumed it up the one time I vacuumed while we were in San Antonio...I just don't know. But it was gone. Good and gone.
I beat myself up about that alot.
Even as late as last week...
You know, he had got the diamond and put the ring together himself with a setting that he bought (he was kind of a jewelry maker in high school).
Anyway, I was thinking about it AGAIN last week.
Inside the box was a ring that bore a striking resemblance to my engagement ring. A yellow gold setting with an emerald cut diamond. Not exactly the same, but similar. This one has a couple of tapered diamonds flanking the sides of the main one, but it's very similar. And it makes me think of when we were 19 and 20, not even out of college, never been on our own, Greg not even started in medical school yet. We were babies...so young.
An evening to reflect on our married life together...and the 20th anniversary of our engagement.
So, you schemers, here's my thanks in order (I believe) of your involvement:-)
Norman
Denise
Hester
Tim-Sarah-Suzy
Thanks for helping Greg to pull it off...it was incredibly fun and such a surprise. You're the best.:-) Well, Greg's the best...you're the second best.
posted by angela at 9:26 AM
2 Comments:
Oh what a wonderful post. How romantic!!!!!!
Oh, that's sweet. I had tears in my eyes over the ring. I lost mine a few years ago. I would dearly love a new one, but it just hasn't happened. We are going on 17 years here. Very happily, even if sans-wedding ring.
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