The Beginning

It was four years ago today that Carrie and I tied the knot and made this blog possible.  It’s been nothing but smooth sailing since that day, hardly a single bump in the road.  We met nearly six years ago.  I, being so shy could hardly muscle up the courage to speak with her outside of a short introduction.  She was an attractive, successful business woman intimidating with those looks.  After that fateful encounter I orchestrated a trip that I thought imperative a woman of Carrie’s caliber needed to attend to close a deal in Alabama.  Since airports are scarce it provided a one-way two hour car drive that I hoped would buy me the needed time to win her over.  By the time that trip was over it was clear that I had a chance and we would have an opportunity to pursue a romance.

Fast forward to 2005 and I continued to use my powers of persuasion and somehow convinced her Florida was better than Iowa.  She took the plunge and decided to move down to Gainesville, Florida, even allowing me to pick out an apartment for her.  Living in sin was not an option with this classy gal. After that kind of commitment it was squarely up to me to man-up and make the commitment myself.  That October I took a trip home to Wisconsin and employed my father to help me buy a ring.  In his business dealings he had a friend that was a successful jewelry store owner and he put me in touch with this gentleman, Ira. 

We met in my Dad’s office, while closed on a Saturday.  Ira comes in happy as a clam to see a young man, such as myself so in love.  He lays down a black velvet towel and proceeds to pull out a small black bag and simply pours out 8-10 diamond stones.  That one there is worth about $25,000, he says.  Right, okay, well, maybe now is time to cut to the chase.  He pulls out his loupe and provides it for me so I, too, can appreciate the quality cut of the diamond.  I, as gracefully as possible, decided upon a stone (one more in line with my just entering the work force salary) and provided him with an idea of the ring I asked him to create.  I knew I had a one a million girl and I wanted a ring to match.  A few weeks later I was able to have the ring in my possession.

I think finding the backbone to propose with the flare that I thought I needed was the most difficult part.  I planned and I planned.  While we were dating we frequently visited St. Augustine beach so I wanted to propose there.  Carrie cancelled on me three times.  Three times! You can imagine the roller coaster ride of nerves as you dig deep to gear up for such an event only to field a phone call cancelling.  In the mean time the ring sat and sat.  My mother was growing impatient with me.   It’s now April of 2006 and I still haven’t popped the question.  I finally decide I am going to do it on Easter.

I called her father the day before because I know once I place that call I can’t back out so I would either be getting a turn down and be the proud owner of one very expensive man-earring or on board the marriage express.  It didn’t go as expected.  I think calling someone’s father asking permission to propose was equally unnerving to proposing itself. I made the call and my soon to be father-in-law picks up so I introduce myself, which was met with, “Josh who?  Um, Spiegelhoff.”  There was still confusion on the other end of the line.  Profusely sweating on my end I say, “You know the Josh dating your daughter…”  I really hoped that cleared it up, because if not I was really in over my head.  He finally recognized who I was and then I just spit it out.  “Well, I was just calling, you know, to ask you, you know, if it would be okay and stuff, if I proposed to your daughter tomorrow.”  I think his exact reply was, “Okay, good luck!  Alrighty then.  Thanks! Good-bye.”  I’m not really sure how those things are supposed to go but it didn’t appear that went well.  At any rate I was officially committed.

The next day was Easter so I dropped by Carrie’s place to hide the Easter eggs we had decorated the day before while she was getting ready to attend church.  I’m dying because I know I can’t ask until after church so I have to hang out with this behemoth secret nestled somewhere between nausea and nervous excitement.  Of course the Easter Sunday sermon is twice as long as a normal Sunday service so I am just sweating bullets until it ends.  We get back to her place to have our Easter dinner and I turn her loose on the Easter egg hunt.  She found the dozen eggs I had hidden and I told her there was one more.  She eventually found it. The first dozen eggs were real and the last one was a plastic egg.  Inside was my and hopefully her future.  She opened it up and I popped down on a knee and fortunately for me she said yes.  And today here we are; a family of four with a fat pooch named Lucky.  I think I’m the lucky one.