The Proposal

Charlie proposed to me on November 21st, 2006 while he was in Phoenix for Thanksgiving with my family. We went on a walk in the park the night he got there. We stopped to sit on a bench and the next thing I know, Charlie in down on one knee. He had typed up this full page proposal and had his father Bruce make my engagement ring (See above photo, he is a VERY talented silversmith). Charlie had to switch knees while reading, but I hardly noticed. Me being the idiot I am, started crying.

I knew he was going to propose, we had talked about it, even talked about rings and other wedding plans, but still I cried. Of course I said YES. We told the families, His already knew of course, and mine knew because Charlie had called my Step-father Wayne and asked for my hand. Wayne was thrilled and gave his blessing. He also told me "Don't screw this up." Thanks for the support. :-P Just Kidding!

We decided that we would live in Texas together until Charlie finished college so Charlie flew back out to Phoenix one more time on January 20th, 2007, to help me load my stuff into a U-haul and drive to Lubbock. We had quite the experience. We did the trip in about 16 hours I think. We spent the first night in a dive motel on a back road off the highway somewhere in Texas, where the walls were paper thin and the residents lived there. We saw several scary guys sitting on chairs in front of their rooms watching T.V. and the place was crawling with stray cats. The room was nasty, but the sheets were clean and the door had three dead-blots, so we showered and went to bed.

Then the second day, the keys got locked in the cab of the truck at a small general gas station in the middle of BFE. We waited about an hour before a lady truck driver and her teenage son pulled up to the fuel pumps. Twenty minutes later and one metal coat hanger sacrificed to the cause, the boy was able to unlock the door with the hanger from the inside. As payment, he only wanted two small cans of Red Bull. In the end, we totally got lucky. The kid saved us hours of time waiting for the tow-truck driver to come jimmie the lock, and at least $50.00 in fees. Not a bad deal.

We arrived in Lubbock about 9:30 that night. Charlies twin Brother Tim, and their brother -in-law Red, and a friend Chewy, helped us move Charlies stuff from their house into the U-haul and then from the U-haul into our new apartment. We had dinner at about 11:30 that night and were in bed around 2:00a.m. We still live in that same apartment, two years later.