It's a good thing

Eddie proposed to me at sunset on December 12, 2009. This is a recap of our trip to Islamorada, FL that weekend.

We started our drive down to FL from SC on the Wednesday night before. The septic system had conched out at the house and when I got home from work, he said, "Well, let's start and see how far we can get." So we ended up in Walterboro, SC that night and headed to FL the next morning. Plans were to meet up with my parents, brother, sister inlaw and their girls for dinner and then to stay with my cousin Ryan on Thurs night. We went to my parents and ended up riding together - meeting Tony & Ang up at Enzas. He had already talked with Tony & Angela to work out a plan and to be sure both my parents were in town. After dinner and Allie came and asked me to ride back to Nana's house with her. Of course! How could Aunt Neecy turn down Allie!?! So I rode with Angela and Tony rode in our car with Eddie, Mom & Dad. I was a little nervous since he had never been with just them without me around and I didn't want him to be uncomfortable. Well, Angela had to stop at the grocery store for some paper products for an office Christmas party - little did I know this was already plotted out and there wasn't an office party. (stinkers!!) So while we were at the store, Eddie was talking with mom and dad and getting their blessing to ask me to marry him. Mom apparently jumped up and started hugging him and daddy was as happy as can be. Then the really hard part for them... they had to act as though nothing was going on when Angela and I got to the house. They did a good job, because I never had an inkling anything had happened. He told them he had planned to do it either sunrise Saturday morning or sunset Saturday night. It was all riding on the weather.
So, we went back to Ryan's to stay the night.
Friday we headed the rest of the trip down to Islamorada in the northern Keys. And it was raining .... Grrrr but thankfully cleared up shortly after arriving to our home away from home.

The place we stayed at was wonderful. Ocean Dawn Suites. (google it if you'd like - the pictures are just as it really is) And we stayed in the Ocean Dawn suite - oceanside. :) We watched the sunset down at the little beach behind out place.

Saturday we got up - he had already checked out the weather and was disappointed because it was cloudy. I had no clue he did this. We found this great place for breakfast - Mangrove Mike's - and ate there every day. HA! We stopped at Anne's Beach to watch kite surfers and get our toes in the sand.

We ended up driving and found ourselves down in Key West. Again, reminding us why we didn't go down that far. Wow, it's sad how commercialized it has become. So we headed back up and he was scoping out where we could watch the sunset. Again, I am clueless about what is in his head. His phone had also been buzzing in his pocket from his mom and sister trying to find out if he had done it yet.

We headed back to our place and I ventured out to take pictures around the suites.

He came up and said let's go watch the sunset. Okay, twist my arm! He said hang on let me run back up to the room and grab a couple of beach towels since it is chilly out. I wasn't sure why it was taking him so long to get a towel since they were right on the luggage rack. But thought maybe he had to run to the bathroom. He came back out and said "I have an early Christmas present for you" and hands me this scrapbook. He said you're not the only one who scrapbooks. HAHA which I instantly well up with tears because it is so sweet. It is made up of pictures from things we have done and pictures of us. Then it goes into the pictures we had on eHarmony and he wrote this real sweet note on the next to last page. Which was cliped to the last page where I couldn't see it. He then had me stand up and he got down on his right knee and asked me to marry him. The last page said "Let's start a life together. Will she say yes?" Of course I said yes and you know I was crying.

We watched the rest of the sunset and then started the phone calls. His sister, Staci, was the first one we called and then we called Tony & Angela followed by our parents. Funny thing is that everyone was waiting on our phone call trying to figure out why it was taking so long for us to call. He didn't do it until about 6:30pm. I scooped up sand from where he was kneeling and from where I was standing.

Sunday morning we got up early and watched the sunrise and sunset over water. Which is something some of you know I have wanted to do for a very long time. I guess I wasn't supposed to do that with anyone else but him. :) And that night there was also a meteor shower.

It was an absolutely perfect start to our dreams come true.

Paalom!!

Lots of hugs, smiles, and sunshine!