Dustin and I had a long history already at this point that was full of mischief, spontaneity, romance & adventure that I might possibly share bits and pieces of eventually. The short version is that we were high school friends & he showed up again later in my life & swept me and my son Nick off our feet over 5 years prior to this day and had been nothing short of a father and husband from day one.
So back to Christmas morning 2004... I get to the bottom of my stocking to avoid anymore of his eye balling nudges, you see my burly studmuffin is actually just a giddy kid himself & my thinking was, lets ride this out and take our time but I guessed he was dying to tear into some gifts, so fine...
I 've emptied my stocking... give him a bug eyed "happy?" face and all that is left is a sticker or something wadded up from Christmas past, but before I toss it in the trash pile I feel something hard in it so I mindlessly investigate. I realize it's masking tape and not a sticker so I pick at it while I watch the kids play and munch more chocolates. Eventually I get it out of it's sticky tape wad and inside is a ring.... a beautiful diamond ring!?!? I'm like "what the... huh....?" Shocked (and clueless) I hold it up to share my findings with Dustin as if I have found an ancient lost treasure. Why is he smiling and crawling towards me??? Then it hits me and my mind starts racing! HE put this in there!?! But how?? WHEN? Why was it in masking tape? How did he get this past me? I just paid bills.. when and how did he buy this??? I don't know what I was thinking but for some reason I was skeptical & let's just stop there to state the fact that I am terrible with surprises! I don't know why, I am truly an excitable and grateful person but when you shock me, it takes a minute for facts of reality to sink in... so surprises are usually not as storybook as they should be with me.. I think he laughed or something... yes it was all on video but I've only seen it once or twice... forever ago & I've tried to block it out of my memory. The jest of the video is I am sprawled on the floor like an orangutan cud chewing one chocolate after another while Dustin side-eyes me with a giggly glow about him. This goes on for a good 15-20 minutes up to the point of my mouth gaping Simba raise of the ring and then appearing skeptical that he knew about this prize in my stocking trash. He must of asked me to marry him but my memory goes blank from shock... Of course I said yes, I had secretly (ok, maybe it wasn't THAT big of a secret) wanted nothing more for several years but we in fact already lived a "married life". I guess he dismissed my lack of tact & for soiling the moment (in all fairness, this was not our first rodeo of him giving me a jaw dropping (wonderful) surprise and me behaving like an electrocuted cat) because 10 days later we were sitting at a blackjack table in Vegas. I think we had been there 2 days and this was our last day to get married & the clock was ticking before the courthouse closed... we cashed in and bolted at the last minute, flustered and maybe even a tad frustrated (hey, we were having a good run!) So here we are standing in Chapel By The Courthouse which happens to be where my dad and older brother both married their current wives. It was not a romantic setting, stains on the carpet & chairs, years of dust on the tacky fake flowered walls.... & inside I began to panic. I LOVE this man, why are we at this filthy place in this filthy city?! We were raising 2 sweet boys and had wonderful families, we should be having a proper wedding, not wishing we were carrying hand sanitizer!?!? But then the lady!?! I think it was a lady???.... came out and called us to the front and asked us to face each other.. (too late I think) and I looked into his eyes planning to beg we make a run for it with my saucer eyed stare. Instead I got all warm & fuzzy, I instantly calmed and the room disappeared around me as I looked into those mesmerizing green eyes & I realized that as long as we were together, everything would be right in my world! By the end of our vows my heart felt like it would burst. I was wearing slacks and a sweater, none of our friends or family was there, I didn't hold a bouquet of flowers, nobody took pictures.. it was just for the two of us and nobody else. Since that day God has grown something so deep in me for that man that the word "love" pales to how I feel. He never ceases to amaze me, surprise me and inspire me and I am in fact the luckiest girl in the world as far as I can tell! Happy 11th Wedding Anniversary Babe! Officially Mr & Mrs. Berry since 1/04/05
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