I'm Engaged...PLUS 14 years!

WOW! That's the only way to start this blog off! With the Valentine's Weekend wrapping up, I've been taking a trip down memory lane of my own Valentine's story over the past 14 years. And what a ride it's been! I got engaged on the 13th of February in 1995. Dale and I were both in college at the time and the tradition at the college we attended was instead of a traditional Valentine's Banquet, we had a "Sadie Hawkins" Banquet...which is basically just the girl getting to ask a guy out instead of vice-versa. Dale and I had been dating since October of '94 and had talked about getting married. He had already asked my dad for my hand in marriage over the Christmas holidays, so I knew a proposal was coming, but I didn't know exactly 'when'.

We went to the banquet that night and when it was over, we drove out to our "special place" to "chat"...and...well, kiss and stuff!! :) We had nicknamed the place we always went to "The Lane". I could take you to the place today, except instead of a quiet, secluded, romantic quiet place, it's been replaced by big hotel complex. Maybe we'll go back there one day and stay for old times sake.

Anyway, I digress...we had gone to "The Lane" and were listening to our favorite "tape" of a country group called "Shenandoah", and he just started talking to me telling me he didn't know of anyone else he wanted to spend the rest of his life with than me and he opened the door to his truck, got down on his knee beside the truck and proposed to me. It was so sweet and we were both just sobbing and of course I said, "YES!"

We had 5 months to prepare and plan the wedding of my dreams and on the 29th of July, we made it official and I became Mrs. Dale Rutland, for better or for worse.

I look back over the years we've shared together and especially those early years and think, "My God, we were such BABIES!" We knew NOTHING about life and how to delve into carving out a life for ourselves as a family unit, but dive we did headlong into the journey of a lifetime.

Sometimes I look back at those young pictures of the two of us and see two kids who were fearless and unintimidated by the challenges of creating a life together. We should have been scared to death, but we had each other and we knew that was all we needed. We were uncertain of what we would face, but we felt that together we could make our dreams come true.

Over the years, we've had triumph & tragedy, but no matter what season we found ourselves in, at the end of the day we always had each other's back. Our love has deepened through it all and I have to say, I'm still glad I said "I DO" some 14 years ago to that blue-eyed country boy from Jayess, Mississippi.