January 10, 2006 will be the second happiest day of my life. The happiest day is coming soon to a church near us!
The story behind the picture is that on our first date, which was a walk on the Goleta Beach, we ran into a sand snowman that somebody had made. We both thought it was pretty cleaver. That was December 18th, 2004. On December 31, 2005, at 8:15PM, is when I finally got the courage to pop the question. Noni and I are looking forward to many happy years together.
The story of how I got lured into this little escapade is quite humourous.
I was working at home on some consulting projects. I got a call at about 3 pm from Noni. That was a little surprising, since she generally won't call me while I am working, and she is generally fairly busy at about the same time as well...but still...I did not tumble that anything was up.
Noni wanted to know if I wanted to walk the dogs with her. Again, this was not all that unusual. I have helped her walk the dogs on several occasions. It is relaxing, and gives us a chance to talk to each other. Noni then suggested that we meet down at Goleta Beach. Now, this was unusual...and I realized that right away. In fact, the first thing that popped out of my mind was that we hadn't walked the dogs on the beach, really, since our first date. But still...I did not tumble that anything was up.
I agreed to show up at 4:45 pm. The traffic can be heavy at that time of day, so, I allowed 20 minutes of travel time. Turns out, the traffic was pretty lite, and I arrived 10 minutes early. Now, at the time I did not know this, but Noni had anticipated that I would arrive early...so the place at the Goleta Beach park that she said we would meet was well away from the spot where they were preparing for me. Meenwhile...I was sitting in my car, awaiting 4:45. At about 4:40, I was getting anxious, so I got out of the car and was walking around a bit, looking at the clock on my cell phone perhaps..oh say, every 30 seconds, wondering where Noni was. I walked down to the beach...to look at all the debri that was washed up by the last storm...it was when I turned around, I saw Noni's car...but, it was coming from the wrong direction...But still...I did not tumble that anything was up.
And then we started walking down the beach.
As Noni and I were walking Su-su (on the left) and Lucy (on the right), I spotted Noni's parents sitting in lawn chairs on the beach first. Although, I did not recognize them right away. Noni and I continued talking as we walked down the beach...then I finally recoginized Noni's parents. I said something to the effect of "Oh...is this why you had me come down to the beach?" Noni either said something or gestured...maybe both, and I saw the sign being held up by the sand-snowman....there was a little bit of shock, at first..on my part...but that wore of fairly quickly. Well, and the rest now is...history...and Noni and I only now have the future to look forward to.
And this is me...with my new future Mother InLaw. The blue sweater, by the way, was a Christmas gift from her.
And this is the sunset as Noni and I were departing from Goleta Beach...
And this is the reaction we got from my cats when we got to our future home...Homer looks just a little shocked..."You mean I am going to have to share the house...with a dog now as well?"