Journey to Pridemore Pastures : Blast from the Past

So 5 years ago today, Ronnie made me the happiest girl in the world when he asked me to marry him. I thought I would spend a little time reminiscing today and post our engagement story!

At this time Ronnie was in his 2nd year of Medical School at the University of Louisville and I was in my senior year at Western Kentucky University. Ronnie was living in an apartment with his BFF Nic Winters and I was living at mom and dad’s house, commuting to school.

On Wednesday, October 12, 2005, Ronnie called me in the middle of the afternoon. It was rare for us to talk in the middle of the day. I don’t remember what phone plans we had at the time but we didn’t have many “daytime” minutes, plus I was usually in class or working and Ronnie was always, always studying. I remember being pleasantly surprised to hear from him, and only later found out that he called me to make sure I wasn’t at mom and dad’s house because he didn’t want me to intercept a phone call he was about to make to dad. At the time I was at home, in between class and work at the YMCA. So once he knew I would be gone to work he called to talk to dad. At that time my dad was working a weird shift – 4 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. He often took a nap when he got home from work, and on this particular day that’s what he was doing. So Ronnie called and woke him up. Dad said he was only half awake when Ronnie asked if he would be home that night, because he wanted to talk to him about something. Dad told him that he had to leave in about 3 hours to take Jamie to Club K in Nashville for pitching lessons. Ronnie said ok and that he would be there as quickly as he could. Dad said he laid back down, then flew up out of bed 30 seconds later when he realized what was going on, and what he had done. So Ronnie drove like a mad man 2 hours from Louisville to Scottsville. He said he walked in the door and Jamie and Travis welcomed him with sly grins and snickers, knowing what was coming, and not attempting to ease his comfort level. Everyone was eating dinner and they just stood up and walked out of the room. Ronnie said he knew they had to be standing on the other side of the wall listening. So he asked for permission to propose, and of course they said yes, and of course Dad apologized for being so oblivious and said that he could have just asked over the phone given the circumstances! I am still amazed that when I got home from work a couple of hours later than no one gave it away or even acted weird, that I could tell.

Two days later, on Friday, I drove up to Louisville for the “Cadaver Ball”…the annual Medical School dance. We got all fancied up and had a great time at the dance. I had no idea what had happened earlier. While I was on my way to Louisville, Ronnie was in a panic because my ring hadn’t arrived. It had been ordered and was supposed to arrive the day before, but hadn’t. So now it was supposedly on its way, and so was I. He was so afraid that the ring was going to arrive after I did….or not until the weekend was over! The ring ended up arriving literally minutes before I did. Whew! So on Friday before we left for the Cadaver Ball, he told me that he had a surprise for me the next day, but he wouldn’t tell me anything else. I’ll admit, this wasn’t at all like Ronnie, so I did wonder if something was up. Not that he’s not romantic, but when he was in Med School it was all study all the time. When we spent weekends together it consisted of us studying together, or him and Nic studying while Toni and I hung out. So the next morning he left to go to Steve Warrick’s house to “work on a project for school.” What did I do? I cleaned his bathroom. Then Toni (who knew what was up) and I went to Burger King and grabbed lunch. So we got back and I got dressed for our adventure. I had no idea what to wear, so he said just something casual, we would be outside. So I put on jeans and a t-shirt. When he got home I had to stay out of his room because he had to pack some stuff. We finally left, and as we neared our location I was told to close my eyes. When we parked I got out of the car to find Steve dressed in a suit standing by a plane. We were going flying! I had never flown before and Steve had just gotten his pilot’s license. I had been begging for him to take me up. I had to close my eyes again so Ronnie could put some stuff on the plane. Then away we went! I was sitting up front next to Steve and Ronnie was sitting behind me. We were up in the air for about 10 minutes and the motion sickness set in. They said I was jabbering a million miles a minute, then became completely silent. It got bad quick. I never threw up, but I think I was as close as you can possibly come to throwing up without actually throwing up. I took my headphones off (which allowed them to discuss the agenda for the rest of the day without me hearing), closed my eyes, and tried to go to sleep. I have no idea how long the flight was, but when we finally landed I basically fell out of the plane and laid on the runway for a good 10 minutes, recuperating. It worked out perfectly, because I was collapsed on the side opposite the back door so they were able to unload things without me seeing. When I finally got up I realized that we weren’t where we started, then panic set in because I realized that I would have to fly back home! Ronnie told me not to worry and that we would work something out. So we went to Steve’s grandma’s house and hung out while Steve got a boat ready. The plan was, as I was told, Steve had to fly home to Lake Cumberland to take care of some things for his Grandma. They thought it would be a great opportunity for me to fly and we could all hang out on the lake. So Steve got a boat ready and Ronnie and I set out…Steve supposedly was staying back to try to fix his jet ski and then was going to meet up with us. After we got out on the water I realized that there was a picnic basket – Ronnie had packed lunch! So we found a dock and had a nice romantic lunch on the gorgeous lake. Then Steve called and, darn it, the jet ski wouldn’t work so we wouldn’t get to play on the lake. Ok by me, it was kind of chilly. So Ronnie said that he wanted to show me this pretty place he had seen a couple of weeks ago. He had recently gone to Lake Cumberland with Steve…I thought just to play on the lake, but I found out later that it was also to do some scouting out and planning for this weekend. So we drive around and he finds the dock that leads to this place. At this point I had one thing on my mind. I had too much pink lemonade at our lunch and I needed to pee…bad. I am NOT the type of girl who will just squat and go, but I was desperate and there’s not an abundance of porta-potties on the lake. So I did what I had to do. Ronnie was begging me to hold it, and looking around like crazy to make sure no one saw me. He told me later that Steve was nearby and he was afraid that Steve was going to see me, ha ha! So yes, I squatted in the grass by the lake and peed about 5 minutes before I was proposed to. By this time it was getting dark and we were walking up a hill. It was next to an old corn mill and a waterfall, and was gorgeous. He’s leading me through this narrow path where you could see the waterfall. Suddenly I see light ahead. I was like, “Who did this?” Ronnie told me that the people who live behind the corn mill put the candles up every night. Did I believe him? Yep. We got closer and the scene is gorgeous – candles everywhere, roses everywhere, netting up in the trees, on a cliff by a waterfall overlooking the lake (Steve had been setting this up, which is why Ronnie was afraid he was going to see me). I quickly realized that the locals didn’t do this. So then Ronnie got on one knee, pulled out a beautiful ring, said some sweet stuff (I honestly can’t remember what…my head was spinning!) and asked me to marry him. Of course I said yes! We hung out at our beautiful little spot for awhile, then he said we should go because some friends were waiting for us. Along with Steve, our friends Brent and Jenn Duncan had driven down to celebrate with us! We were so excited…and I was even more excited to find out that Brent and Jenn were going to fly back with Steve so we could drive their car back…whew!!

Let the wedding planning begin! We got married on June 10, 2006, and then on June 8, 2007 we found out we were expecting our first little bundle of joy – surprise!! Five years later we couldn’t be happier – we are so thankful that God placed us together and for all the blessings he has continued to pour upon us. We have a wonderful marriage and two beautiful, healthy children. We can't wait to see what else our future holds!

At the Cadaver Ball