Where it all began

So I was reading one of my friends blogs and noticed that on her anniversary she had decided to write down the story of their engagement. With tomorrow being my ten year anniversary, I thought that this might be fun. Here goes.
Ten years ago I was in the Utah National Guard and Rick was in the Ohio National Guard. I had gone to a normal weekend drill in January. While there it was annonced that one of the other member in the communications section had broken his leg so badly that he was unable to go to an electronics repair school that he had been scheduled to attend. Because the unit had already paid for the school and it was very hard to get into at that particular time they had to send someone. They looked around the room and stopped at me. I was to leave in one week for three months, pack my bags. Back in Ohio a few months earlier, Rick had his bags packed and had deffered a semester and quit his job so that he could attend an electronics repair school. At the last minute they called him and said that the class had been overbooked and he would have to wait until February.
On February first both of us spent our first day at Army Reserve Electronics School in Sacramento California. As is custom of most military schools, when you get there you have to weigh in. I found this to be a horrible ordeal. It was not that I was ever found to be overweight, I just didn't like it. I always felt self conscious. There was one other female in the class and we were standing together in line. I became very aware that the most handsome soldier in the class was standing right behind me in line. This made me even more nervous than before. I spent most of the time trying not to make eye contact. These are my first memories of Rick. Rick will tell you that he noticed me the night before. Guess I wasn't that observant. Later that day we were in class and it came to the time of introducing ourselves. I was plesantly surprised to find out that the handsome soldier in line was from my home state of Ohio. During break I approached him and started up a conversation. We were inseperable from this time on.
After we had known each other for two whole weeks we went to a romantic dinner in the city. Afterwards, we were standing outside for the train to come. I really loved Sacramento. They had a train for public transportation that was very conveinient, and downtown where it stopped there were cobblestone sidewalks with overhead lighting and quaint benches. They even had music playing. This evening there were very few people out and we were listening to the music as we waited for the train. Very romantic! Rick leans over and says "I love you!" Now before I tell you what my response was I must defend myself saying that we were in a military school and I had met many disreputable people in the military who will say anything to get what they want. My response was "Thank you!" At least I was polite. I am pleased to report though, that within a week I was sure that he meant what he had said and I returned the sentiment.
After seven weeks of knowing each other I needed to go back to Utah for the weekend to do some business at my Unit. I didn't want to drive back by myself so Rick volunteered to come with me. Our conversations as of late had drifted toward marriage so I knew that we were thinking about it. On our way back to Sacramento from Utah we were driving across I-80. If you have ever been that way you will know that it is quite barren. I was really tired so Rick volunteered to drive. While I was sleeping he decided that he wanted to see how fast the truck would go. Very soon after that we were stranded on the side of the road, my truck dead. He had thrown a rod. I can't blame him for everything, I had neglected some things in the previous months that led to this catastrophe. Luckily we had just enough battery and signal on the cell phone to call for help. Upon returning to Salt Lake we had to get a flight back to Sacramento. We spent the next four hours in the airport waiting for our flight.
While riding the moving walkways through the airport Rick suddenly turned and got on one knee and asked me to marry him. For some reason this surprised me, but I readily accepted. I guess he had to do something to make up for breaking my truck:) Although it was an expensive weekend, it turned out pretty good.
We spent the next week at school as usual. On Friday we found out that they had overbooked the last section of the class and that half of us would be returning to our units. I was one of those people. Rick would be lucky enough to finish out the course. That evening we were discussing what would happen when I left on Monday. It had already been decided that I would move back to Ohio. As we were discussing details it came out that we could just get married. We were only two hours from Reno! We decided to flip a coin. Heads we were getting married, tails we would wait till some later date in Ohio. The coin came up heads! We began to make plans and on Sunday, March 28th, we went to Reno and got married. We were engaged for a total of one week and had know each other for all of eight weeks. I wish I could say here that we had Elvis marry us in the drive through or something fun like that, but the truth is that we just went to the Justice of the Peace. We did purchase our wedding bands in pawn shops for less than $30 dollars total (neither of which do we still have), and Rick used the quarter that we flipped in a slot machine after lunch and won the money that paid for the wedding. I will say here that I do not condone gambling. The best part was that as we were standing in line to get married, Rick realized that he had to use the bathroom. There were none that he could use there so he had to quickly run across the street. As he bolted out the door and across the street, everyone in the room got a worried look on their faces and asked me "Is he coming back?" My response was "I hope so!" He did return and we were married. Twelve hours later I left him to return to Utah. Four weeks after that we met up again in Ohio. Ten years and six children later we are still going stong and as much in love!