Day 5

My favorite memory of all time is the night we got engaged, 8-26-05. Cody put so much thought and effort into this night and it was absolutely perfect. I lived in Tyler and he lived in Nacogdoches and we had done the long distance thing the whole time we dated. He would come home every weekend to see me and we would spend it in Van. He brought me back to my country roots and would dress me up in camo and take me hunting and I would drag him to Tyler and get pedicures, so we were both happy! Most of the time was spent out at Nannie and Dado's house hanging with family and going spotlighting till 3:00 a.m every morning or playing in the mud on the 4-wheelers and just acting like kids again. There is a pasture we all call the North Meadow that is special to a few of us. It's the best place to look at the stars and a pretty romantic pasture! Cody also had game camera's out all over the place to see what kind of animal was roaming around at night or during the day that we would check often.



The night we got engaged was the last Friday before we both had to go back to school and we had planned for a few weeks to go to Dallas for date night. Cody's whole family was in for "birthday's" so I thought, and I kept asking Cody why we were going to Dallas while his family was in. He said it wasn't a biggie to them that we could go on our date then come back to Nannies' for birthdays. After I got off work that Friday I went home and got dressed then headed to Nannie's to meet Cody. By the time I got there his whole family was already there. It was very awkward when I got there because everyone was all about me and I was center of attention. I HATE being center of attention and I had no idea why everyone was acting weird! Mark and Sheila lived in Houston at the time and had come in and I still didn't know Sheila that well and she was being the weirdest to me. She was sitting at the bar at Nannie's smiling ear to ear and staring at me the whole time people were talking to me and she would chime in with a random question too:) After we left to go to Dallas I made the comment to Cody that his family was acting really weird and was way to excited about us going to Dallas for date night. I told him I bet they were really upset we were leaving while the whole family was down and they were trying to hide the fact that they were probably annoyed they would have to wait for us to do birthdays. He reassured me they weren't acting weird and t was fine that we left and we went on our way.



We had an amazing dinner! Everyone should go eat at the YO Ranch Steakhouse at least once. During dinner the thought of him proposing crossed my mind. He was a little fidgety and I still couldn't help but wonder why his family was being weird. After dinner, the check came and still no proposal so I put that thought in the back of my mind and realized it wasn't going to happen. We were close to the West End when we left and they have carriage rides you can take around Downtown. I asked Cody if we could take a ride and he said he didn't have any cash. I said I did and he said his family was waiting for us. I was thinking we needed to redo date night again so we wouldn't be so rushed and why on earth if we were going to be SO rushed did he want to come to Dallas so bad. Of course I didn't say anything but I was thinking some things:)



When we get back to Van I asked if we could stop by his house so I could grab some comfy clothes. I was just going to change at his house but he insisted I just grab them and change at Nannies so I did. A proposal crossed my mind again. I was wondering if he had a ring in his pocket or if I was just imagining things. As we are walking out the door I reach around his waist close to his pocket and he immediately turns around so my hand won't touch his pocket and kisses me. I just smiled and went with it.



We pull into Nannie and Dado's driveway and Cody grabs his spotlight. He says lets make a round and see if we see anything. Of course, I said sure but I am thinking, "You have been in a hurry ALL night because we had to get back to your family and now you want tot go spotlighting!" Then the whole proposal thing went back out of my mind. I'm not paying attention to where he is shining this huge spotlight he has but he says, "hmm what is that?" I look and he has the spotlight on this tree with a huge bag of long stem roses hanging from it. We stop and he says, "Go get it." I am in stiletto heels and not sure if I can walk through the pasture to get my roses so I ask him to help. He gets them down for me and says there are 29 roses for the 29 months we have known each other. My heart melts. We get back in the truck and continue to spotlight. I tell him this would be easier if I had changed clothes and took off my heels:) He makes the comment, "let's see what else we will find tonight!" So I start paying attention to where he is shining the light. We go a little ways down the road and hanging from a corn feeder is another present. It's a picture of us together that he had framed. We get back in the truck and continue spotlighting and there is another present hanging from a game camera. We get out and walk around the camera to not set it off and I grab the present. I open it and it's a poem he had written me sometime in the first year we dated. He rewrote it on pretty paper and framed it. I was confused because I had already read this poem before. He tells me to read it out loud. I'm still confused because I know what it already says. I start reading it and the closer I get to the bottom of the poem the closer he is guiding me into the view of the game camera. On the old poem who wrote me the last line read, "Hopefully one day soon you will be my wife!" on this poem he changed it to "Karen, will you please be my wife?" As I read the bottom line he got down on one knee and gave me the most beautiful ring ever! He was so nervous that he didn't walk me far enough in the camera view so it didn't take a picture the first time. So after we dried our tears we reenacted it so the camera would go off while he was down on one knee. I CAN'T FIND THAT PIC :( Here is the other pic it took.
It was the best night. We get back to Nannie's to celebrate and to show off my bling! I was then finally able to change into my comfy clothes:)

And we had the most beautiful wedding ever!