This is the story of how Becky and I got to where we are now...
Becky and I met for the first time our freshman year (1996-1997) at college in Platteville, WI. My roommate, Mark Broker, went to high school with Becky, so she came over to visit a couple weeks into the year. I didn't see too much more of Becky that year, but we did email each other every once in a while to say hi.
Our sophomore year (1997-1998) is when it really all began. We began to see more of each other and got to know each other. Mark, who now lived next door to me, was helping Becky with one of her classes, and after she got done there, she'd come over to my room and shoot the breeze. Also, I was tutoring a girl that lived on her wing in her hall, so I'd stop by and talk to to Becky after I got done with that. We were often at the front desk, where she worked as the Desk Services Manager. Otherwise, we'd talk in her room, sometimes with her roommate Liane.
Becky liked me at this time, but I had a long distance relationship with someone else. She was dying on the inside to be able to date me. Then came Thanksgiving. I broke up with the person I was seeing, and Becky just about screamed (to herself, of course) when I told her when we got back from Thanksgiving break. So we started spending even more time together, and we both wanted to date the other. I knew Becky liked me, but I decided it was in our best interests to wait until after Christmas break.
When we got back to school we started hanging out again, but I got the flu the first week of school. Finally I got better on the Sunday of that weekend. (January 19, 1998) We decided to hang out that night in my room and watch a movie. So she and Liane came over and we watched "The Shawshank Redemption". After that Liane left and Becky and I started to watch another movie. (Joe's Apartment, one of the dumbest movies ever) I tried to work up the nerve to ask her out the whole time, but couldn't. Finally, around 2:30 AM, she asked me if I was thinking anything, so then I asked her if she wanted to be going out with me, and she said "I suppose." Not exactly the answer I was looking for, but close enough! :)
Over the next 1 1/2 years, we spent a lot of time together, talking, hanging out, and having fun. In August 1999 I decided that she was the one for me, and that I would ask her to marry me. I decided that I would ask sometime between Thanksgiving and Christmas. There were a few reasons for this time: we wouldn't have to deal with it over Thanksgiving; my parents always come to Milwaukee a week before Christmas for a party, so that would be a good time for our parents to meet; and we would know how to better plan our future when trying to get jobs the next semester. The only people who knew of my plans were my best friends Scott and Dan. (Dan, by the way, had predicted I would marry Becky in the summer of 1998, when we had only been going out 7 months. He said he could just tell.)
I came back to Platteville the Friday after Thanksgiving, citing the need to do homework. (Which was partially true) What I really came back early for was to get an engagement ring. Becky and I had gone looking on a couple occasions before, so I knew what she wanted. So I went to the mall in Dubuque and picked out a ring. My plan was to propose the following Friday, so I had to hold onto it for a week. How difficult that was!
At that point I really wasn't sure how to propose, but I had a few ideas. Most of them involved being outside, and to my dismay, that Friday (December 3, 1999) turned out to be rainy and overcast. Fortunately, it cleared for a few hours in the afternoon. When I got back from my classes at two, I called Becky's room to leave a message for her to call me. When she got back at three, she called me. I told her I was feeling romantic and had a surprise for her and that I would be picking her up. So I drove to her hall and picked her up and headed toward Dubuque. Becky had no idea what was going on. (Afterward, she told me she thought this may be it, but when we didn't turn to go to the mall, she thought it was not it. She didn't think I had the ring yet, and that we'd go get it at the mall.) I drove up to Eagle Point Park, which is on a large bluff overlooking the Mississippi River. When we got up there and started walking around, I said "Surprise!" to indicate that the park was the surprise. This ended her suspicions about being proposed to. We walked around a little more, and we finally got to a place where there was a little overlook. We were looking over the river, and I pulled out the ring and got behind her. When she turned around, I was on my knee with the ring. She said "You are not!" At that point I went into my little speech I had planned and asked her to marry me. She was crying and didn't answer me. I asked her if she was going to say yes, and she said "Yes, of course!" Then we sat on a bench nearby and talked for a few minutes.
The next day we got up early and left for Milwaukee and Green Bay on a relative-telling mission. First we went to Becky's parent's house in Milwaukee. We told her mom first, and she wasn't too surprised. Then we went to tell her grandma, and got the biggest reaction of the day. We went out to lunch with her, and then we went back to her parent's house. Her mom had told her dad, and he congratulated us and was happy. Then we left for Green Bay. We got to my parent's house around 5 PM. We got inside, and I told my parents. My mom wasn't surprised; she figured it was coming soon and she pretty much knew when we pulled in the driveway unexpected. My dad was totally surprised, and he jokingly started rolling around on the floor. Then we went to tell my grandparents, and they were surprised and excited as well. All of us then went out for supper. Then we left and went back to Platteville. It was a busy day, but it was one of the funnest of my life.
We spent our last semester at school engaged, and tried to get as much planned for the wedding. We decided that we would live in Milwaukee, so we both got jobs there. During the summer of 2000, we just about got everything planned for the wedding. There are just odds and ends to do now. I live in a two-bedroom apartment in Waukesha, which Becky will move into when we get married.