You are currently browsing the daily archive for January 7th, 2007.
Seems I’ve been seeing lots of “100 things about” posts lately. . .and evidently you’re supposed to write one when you’ve done your 100th post? I’m way on past that. . .so in keeping with my request of you, I give you 100 things about my engagement/wedding/honeymoon. I thought I would do it in a couple of sittings, but it sort of all poured out, so pace yourself.
1. I met Tony through our friend Bryan.
2. If you follow the thread back to my freshmen year at Harding, I actually met him because of another friend named Steve. . .
3. . . .and through Steve I met Mark and Don. . .
4. . . .and Bryan and Don were roommates the 1st semester of my sophomore year. . .
5. . . .and Tony and Bryan met at church when Bryan came to Houston. . .
6. . . .from NEBRASKA. . .
7. . . .to go to Rice.
8. They struck up a conversation at church because Bryan noticed Tony wearing an Eagle Scout tie tack at church one Sunday morning.
9. I thought I wanted to marry Bryan.
10. I knew Tony’s name, address, and phone number by December of 1988.
11. He was Bryan’s contact info, because Bryan was staying with them before he left to study in Chile for a year.
12. I regularly spoke to either Tony, his brother, his sister, or his parents asking to speak to Bryan for about two years before Tony and I became friends.
13. This is incredibly funny, because during this time–during all of college–I was the girl every guy wanted to marry but no guy wanted to date.
14. I LOOOOOOOOOOOOOONGED for God to show me a glimpse of who I might one day marry.
15. God had done better–He had given me his name, address, and phone number too.
16. God’s fingerprints are ALL over my marriage. I think God spent a lot of time laughing at me.
17. I met Tony for the first time February of my sophomore year when he came with Bryan for a visit.
18. He barely acknowledged me.
19. I thought he was a jerk.
20. He was.
21. He came to be roommates with Bryan’s brother, Aaron, the 2nd semester of my Senior year at Harding.
22. Bryan spent one semester at Harding.
23. Tony spent one semester at Harding.
24. What was the likelihood of me marrying either one of them?
25. Bryan told me to take care of Tony.
26. He did NOT intend for me to marry him.
27. Tony thought I was a little “out there” personality wise.
28. I was.
29. Tony sent me roses for Valentine’s day as a “thank you” for giving him rides places, etc.
30. He had never had a girl for a friend before and didn’t quite know what to do with me.
31. I thought the roses were for my roommate Kim whose fiance was in the Gulf war.
32. When I read that they were from Tony I called Sarah in Abilene IMMEDIATELY and said,
33. “TONYSENTMEROSESGROSS!!!!!!!!! GGGGGGGGRRRRRRROOOOOOOSSSSSSSS!!!!!!! GROSS.”
34. Tony and I did not date. . .ever.
35. We made out for four days at the beginning of May, then I graduated and he went back to Houston.
36. Then he left to go to Minnesota to work at a High Adventure Base as a canoe guide for the scouts.
37. He was gone on Treks in the wilds of Minnesota and Canada for days at a time.
38. He would call me when he came back. . .
39. . . .from a phone attached to a light pole in the middle of a field. . .
40. . . .with 20 other canoe guides lined up behind him.
41. It was the most miserable summer of my life.
42. I taught in Abilene for one year then moved to Houston.
43. We got engaged that December.
44. If it had rained too hard for us to take a carriage ride after dinner the night Tony proposed, he would not have proposed.
45. He likes things to be “just so.”
46. Have I ever mentioned that before?
47. For the first anniversary of our engagement, I suggested we turn our hazard lights on and drive the carriage route at 10 miles per hour in my little brown Honda Civic to reenact our Night ‘O Magic. We didn’t do it, but we still laugh about it.
48. He asked my Daddy for my hand over Thanksgiving break.
49. They went fishing that day and were in the boat together for 8 hours.
50. He didn’t ask Daddy until they turned down our road on their way back. . .
51. . . .which was a quarter mile from our house.
52. He was a little nervous.
53. There are LOTS of firearms in my parents’ house.
54. And Daddy celebrated my engagement by giving Tony one of them.
55. It was a .22 caliber rifle. . .a good, old-fashioned southern dowry.
56. We were married June 12, 1993.
57. Sarah was my maid of honor.
58. Mary Linda, Stephanie, Becky, and Robin were my bride’s maids.
59. I remember, very clearly, watching Tony and his groom’s men playing football in my parents’ pasture. . .
60. . . .while Sarah and Momma and I worked ourselves to death.
61. My Daddy was not interested in wedding plans IN THE LEAST until I arrived 10 minutes late for the rehearsal–with Sarah.
62. He decided right then and there outside the church building that he needed to be filled in on all of the particulars.
63. My Daddy is alive today thanks to Sarah–plus when he saw me in my dress for the first time, my crusty old Daddy said, “Well, you look like Sleeping Beauty awake.”
64. One of our teachers, Timms, was also outside the building with Daddy.
65. He was one of my favorite teachers, and his wife, Katrina, sang in the wedding.
66. Troy, Sarah’s husband also sang.
67. My parents do not drink anything stronger than black coffee. I don’t even drink black coffee. Tony’s dad also does not drink anything stronger than black coffee.
68. Tony’s mom thought it would be funny to make it “look” like a champagne toast was being served at the rehearsal dinner.
69. I did not.
70. But it was too late since she was already serving it. It was sparkling apple juice.
71. I was HORRIFIED. Tony was too. Neither of us had any idea that was coming.
72. My sister and my cousin spelled out “Here comes the Bride” in Oreos on my car windows in the wee hours of the morning the day of my wedding.
73. It was June in Lousiana, so I awoke to flies buzzing all around my car.
74. Nice.
75. My roses were supposed to be pink but the florist had gone out of town and had made my bouquet on Thursday, so several of them had turned gray.
76. I cried and cried and cried.
77. I wish I hadn’t.
78. Several people drove a really long way to come to my wedding–another teacher, David, friends, Lee and Lisa, parents of one of my bride’s maids who had watched me grow up, Sarah’s parents and grandparents, Max and Maxine, my friend Carolyn and her husband, and the dear Bible teacher who had known Sarah and me since we were in Jr. High performed our ceremony.
79. It was a very, very special day.
80. The air conditioner was not cooling the B & B where we had the reception.
81. I was wearing more clothes than anyone else.
82. The air vents were in the floor, so I found one that was working and stood over it and let the air blow up my skirt.
83. My dress was so poofy that Tony had to ram his arms up my skirt to his elbows to locate my garter.
84. We have pictures.
85. After we left the reception, we went across the street where I put flowers on my grandparents’ graves–my Granny that I write about so often and my Papaw.
86. It never occurred to me that someone in a wedding dress would look really out of place in a cemetery.
87. We spent our first night at a lovely B & B in Vicksburg.
88. No one should ever do this.
89. We were late for breakfast much to the amusement of the three middle-aged couples also staying there.
90. The maid who was cooking our breakfast was NOT amused.
91. A tour of the antibellum home was included in our stay.
92. Tony assured me that the rooms of the guests would not be a part of the tour.
93. He was wrong.
94. The mild amusement of the middle aged couples turned to out and out indisguisable laughter when they saw the state of our room.
95. It looked like we had a wonderfully raucous time becoming man and wife.
96. The truth was we were exhausted slobs and didn’t care where we threw the coverlet for our bed or our clothing.
97. The proprietor of the B & B wouldn’t let us leave until he had washed our car windows for us. He was worried we couldn’t see through all of the shoe polish. I forgave him for showing my room on the tour.
98. We spent the rest of hour honeymoon in Pensacola at the FiveFlagsMotelCheapestRatesGulfSide where Sarah and I had gone after I graduated from college.
99. And then we spent one night in New Orleans on our way back to our tiny apartment in Houston where we began our Grand Adventure.
100. And unlike the admant 36% and the uncertain 22%, I would marry him again and again and again and again. . .
