On Sunday morning September 18, 2005 at the crack of dawn, I asked Eula Strickland to marry me and she said yes!!!
So I am officially engaged and off the market.
We are having a destination wedding in Negril Jamaica on January 19, 2008!! Yeah, mon!
For those of you who don't know, Eula is the woman I went on the date with on "A Dating Story" 8 years ago on the Learning Channel.
Check out the episode again to see how our courtship started.
For those of you who care about such things here's how the proposal went:
I had already planned a special weekend away for us about a month prior.
I ordered a ring from a great online diamond jeweler, diamond.com.
They told me that the ring would take 2-4 weeks to come in.
Since I had ordered it a week before our trip, I knew that I wouldn't be able to propose to her on our special weekend.
I had resigned myself to the fact that I had at least a couple of weeks to plan my proposal.
So, I called my sweetheart and told her that I had ordered the ring, but that it wouldn't be in by next weekend and
she was OK with that.
The weekend came and passed and on Monday at work I was greeted by Carlos with a large box from UPS.
I wondered what it could be because the only thing I had ordered was a ring.
I figured the ring would come in a large box fooling me into thinking that I had won a television, but I still didn't think that this was it.
I opened the box and I saw some papers and a small blue box. I knew instantly that it was Eula's ring.
At that moment, I was a little panicked because I only had 6 days to plan the proposal.
About a month ago, we had stayed awake most of the night and watched the sun come up over Lake Michigan.
I have to recommend this because it is an absolutely beautiful sight.
The last time we watched the sun come up, I realized that I was in love with her.
Or else I fell in love at that moment. I'm not sure which one.
So, I knew that this would be the perfect setting for my proposal.
We had spent the night in Gurnee at Adventure Inns in the "Signs of the Zodiac" room.
We got to bed early so it was pretty easy to get up and make our way to the beach.
We went to Illinois Beach State Park and found a nice spot on the beach.
We scared some deer away who didn't seem to be too happy that we had disturbed their spot on the shoreline.
We put down a blanket and sat on the beach and waited to see the first tip of the sun over the water.
After about 10 minutes, the sun peeked its head over the horizon. We both giggled with excitement like kids seeing fireworks for the first time.
It was beautiful!! After the sun came completely up, I started pouring my heart out to her.
Eula and I frequently tell each other how we feel and how we want to spend our lives together.
So when I started telling her these things, she started echoing my sentiments.
I really wanted to tell her to hush for a moment so I could get through what I wanted to say.
After I said everything that I wanted to say, I started to get up on one knee. Eula was looking at me like "What are you doing?"
I pulled the ring from my pocket and asked her to marry me.
She said, " I thought you didn't have the ring?" I said, "It came early...Will you marry me?"
And she said, "YES!"
I placed the ring on her finger and took a picture of us and the ring on her finger.
We sat on the beach for a while longer and then went back to the hotel room to consummate our engagement.
It was a beautiful morning. I am truly blessed to be in love with such a wonderful woman.
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