May 23, 2004...

As promised, I am finally getting around to posting about the day Randy and I got engaged. It took me a long time to get to the point of catching up because I worked all last week at Chick-fil-A for the Premier Week of the Spicy Chicken Sandwich (but, that is a totally different story...) This is a long one, just so you know! I really wanted to do this post on the 6th Anniversary of the day, but the video wasn't in a format that I could upload it. So, I did a little ghetto pirating of it and now I am able to share it :)

May 23, 2004 started out like any other Sunday. Randy, TW, and I went to church that morning like we had been doing for a while. Then, we decided (me, with a little resistance because I was starving and ready to eat) that we would get dressed and go for a quick run before doing a late lunch. We all met back up at the Minges Collesium parking lot to run the loop that we had run several times with cheerleading (and also on our own for exercise, so it wasn't out of the blue for us to do it that day). The loop is close to 2 miles long and goes around the baseball and football fields for ECU. As we took off for our run, I noticed that 1) I was starving and so ready to get the run over with, 2) TW was running REALLY fast and took off ahead of us in a flash, and 3) Randy was stalling WAY too much with his stupid shoes that "kept coming untied"! I guess I should have known something was up, but really I was just annoyed. I remember watching TW turn the corner way ahead of us and saying to Randy, "is he really going to run that fast the whole way...he is going to die?!" But, I just thought he was pushing himself extra hard that day...truth be told, he ALWAYS ran faster than everyone else, so it wasn't too out of the ordinary. Fast forward to when Randy and I approached the football stadium. Randy insisted that we take a detour towards the stadium instead of going around. I was, once again, annoyed because I was convinced he wanted to cheat and cut our run short. But, I went along with it. That was until he then insisted we go into the stadium. At that point, I was, you guessed it, even more ANNOYED! I couldn't believe he thought it would be OK to go into the stadium (little did I know, he had special permission). So, he got me into the stadium, and somehow coaxed me to the field. I don't remember exactly how he did it because I pretty much just remember being annoyed (do you think I was annoyed?! hehe) When we were standing in the endzone, I was so far beyond being annoyed, actually to the point of being furious, because now, he was trying to get me to "race him to the 50 yard-line". Really, Randy? We already knew they were re-sodding the field for football season, so I couldn't imagine why on earth he thought it would be alright for us to be running on the field. After saying a few choice words to him and exclaiming that I would absolutely NOT be going out there, Randy said, "just trust me." My response to that was, "if I run to the 50 yard-line with you, can we please get OFF OF THIS FIELD?!" And, yes, I yelled at him! My thinking was, at that point, I will do anything to get him off the field and get us out of the stadium, as far away from trouble as possible! We took off running and as we got close, I suddenly noticed there were pictures and a rose on the 50 yard-line (the reason TW had run so fast ahead of us was to get everything set up and start video taping) and I immediately knew that something was up, but I didn't think proposal. I was actually thinking it might be something special for my birthday which was the following day (not sure exactly what I thought it could be, but that was where my head went). Then, I saw a little sparkle around the rose stem and I fell to my knees at the realization that it was an engagement ring! I was so floored. I couldn't even tell you who won the race, but I would guess he did since I fell to the ground before actually making it there! Randy had to make me get up, so that he could take me closer to get on his knee and say all of the sweet things he said (that, of course, I can't really remember). I, of course, said "YES!" That is, after asking him if he had talked to my Dad first. No worries, he had! I still to this day can't believe I had no clue it was coming. We had talked about rings, talked about one day getting married and about our future life together. But, I honestly, thought it would be the following summer before we were looking at engagement. I couldn't believe it was happening at all. So, to have it happen after running in 95 degree heat and being all hot and sweaty was certainly a huge shock! And, I certainly didn't make things easy for him, that is for sure! It is funny to me how difficult I was being with him. Poor guy!

A few things to note about the video:
1) The quality of this video is pretty bad...even the "un-pirated" version is pretty bad, so me copying it didn't actually do anything to make it any worse, but it certainly didn't help either, it is just how it is...
2) TW was extremely out of breath and to hear him throughout the video just cracks me up. (T was just commenting recently that he didn't understand why they decided for him to run the loop with us instead of just being there and having everything set up and ready to go with the camera...I guess they just didn't think that part through too good, huh?)
3) At the beginning, you can see us way down on the field and it looks like we are just standing there. Well, I am actually pleading with Randy to, "GET OFF THE FIELD!"
4) A cute part that I love is hearing TW say, "Atta boy, Randall!" when Randy got on his knee! I love the friendship they have :)
5) TW's comments are hysterical!
6) Poor T couldn't figure out the zoom on the camera, so the first part is pretty far away. But, you can see us running onto the field and then stopping before reaching the 50 yard-line
7) If you listen closely, you can hear me crying and you can also hear me say, "YES" (but, you really have to listen closely...it is only after watching it so many times that I realized you can hear it)
8) When TW decided he wanted to get a little closer to us, he forgot to stop the camera, so it gets quite shaky for a moment as he is running down...it may make you sick to watch, so I suggest looking away ;)
9) For some reason, I said something along the lines of "was TW going to run that far (instead of "fast")the whole way?" I guess I was still so in shock, I was fumbling my words
10) Again, if you listen closely, you can hear me asking Randy for probably the millionth time in that short span if he had asked my Dad! That is comical to me because I can't really understand why I didn't believe him the 1st time he told me he had. Maybe I thought I would have "known" that he had asked so I didn't believe that he could've actually done it? Who knows?

And, without further ado (because I know you are dying...hehe), here it is...