Happy Campers: Our Story

Where it all began....

I would like to tell the story of how Craig and I met and how it all finally led to our marriage. It is really quite funny looking back now. We first met when I was a freshman and he was a junior in high school. Craig now says that he had a big crush on me back then, but I wouldn't give him the time of day. (I have been 5'10'' since 8th grade and I think Craig was about 5'7'' until he was a senior...I have never been able to date a shorter guy). I just always saw him as a really good friend.
We were both in FFA and he used to come over to my house to help me get my hogs ready for the stock show. He would help me so much. I thought he was just being nice, but it was actually because he had a crush on me. My mom thought he was the greatest kid ever and would always tell me I needed to date him, because as she would say "he just likes you so much." It is so funny now!
Well my sophomore year when Craig was a senior he asked me to prom. My parents had always said I could not date until I was 16, but regardless they let me go to prom with him. I guess that would technically be our first date, even though we weren't dating. I wish I had a picture of this on my computer because it is so funny to see how much we have changed!
Then my junior year we dated for about a week, but I broke things off and really "broke his heart" as he says now. Once when we were on a trip for FFA he told me how much he liked me and told me he wanted me to be his girlfriend, but I told him I just wanted to be friends. Then he wouldn't talk to me at all, or even look at me for about two weeks. Later we became friends again.
Then my senior year, I don't know what it was, but something happened. Craig grew about six inches and I thought he was cuter than ever! I had always secretly had a crush on him, but had just never really given him a chance. Well, then I began to kind of chase him, and he wouldn't give me the time of day! He was playing hard to get. I guess I just had to prove I was serious :) We started dating in April of 2004, and the rest is history...
We dated all through college with one mini break up that was probably the best thing that ever happened to us. I really feel ever since that time that we appreciate each other more and do not take each other forgranted, which is easy to do when you have been together for a long time.

The Proposal:

On August 18, 2007 Craig finally popped the question. He completely surprised me. I should have known something was up though because he came into town and was being overly nice. (At this time he had already graduated college and was living in San Angelo for work). He even brought me lunch to work. Things got a little suspicious when after I had finished up everything at work my manager wouldn't let me leave. She told me that she needed my help with a few things, which she had never done before. I was ready to get home because I knew Craig was there, so the whole situation was making me a little upset. I didn't know, but Craig had talked with my manager and asked her to keep me at work until exactly 9pm and not to let me leave a minute earlier so that he could have everything set up before I got home.

When I finally arrived at my house. All my roommates were gone, which again is "suspicious". Craig met me at my car, gave me a card, told me before I enter my bedroom to close my eyes, and took off running back into my house. The card told me I had a scavenger hunt set up and gave me my first clue. He had set up about five stations. When I finally arrived at the bedroom, I closed my eyes and opened the door. I could feel the heat from all the candles. He had spelled out "will you marry me" in rose petals on my bed. He then got down on one knee and proposed. Of course I said yes.

My family has always had a rule that I had to be out of college before I could get married, which is completely understandable. Because I still had a year of school left we put off setting a specific date. In the mean time, Craig was transferred to Houston for work and we bought a house together. When I finally graduated college we decided we didn't want to have a big wedding, because we now had other ways of investing our money and I did not want to spend a lot of money on a wedding. We had decided to just go to the court house because we had dated for 5.5 years and it was really no big deal to us. When I told my family this they were very upset, so we opted instead for a small outdoor wedding at my aunt's house. I would not change the way we got married for the world! It was perfect for us. We had our family there and nothing more. We pulled it off for super cheap too. I still got to have a wedding and it turned out very pretty. I am now married to the love of my life. We finally made everything official!