There are so many things that I absolutely love about Dusty, but a few highlights are his incredibly tenacious work ethic, his laughter when he really gets tickled about something, his hilarious and aggressive focus when we play family sports (think sibling volleyball, kick football, or football matches), when I come into our room at night and see him reading the Bible before bed, how cute he is when he plays with our niece and nephews, how cute he is when he plays Michael Jackson Experience on the Wii (he always thinks he gets robbed of points, but of the two of us, I'm just a better dancer, HAHA!), and a million other things! He's just an all-around great guy and I still can't believe he picked me out of all the women he could have had. I hope that feeling never, ever goes away.
Since Dusty seriously NEVER writes things and rarely goes online (he legitimately has never even had a facebook account - I know, right!?!?!?), I felt it could be awesome to share the ONE thing he's ever written himself for online content. This is our proposal story, written by Dusty (with punctuation corrections by me) for the website we put together for our wedding guests:
When It Happened - Tuesday, August 30, 2011
I had already decided that Caitlin was the one when she showed up to the restaurant on our blind date with a gift certificate to that restaurant - any woman that wants to save you money is a woman you should marry!At some point in the first several months of our relationship, I learned that Caitlin's Grandma wanted to give her the diamond that Caitlin's PaPa had given to her. In February of this year, I got Caitlin's Grandma's phone number from Caitlin's little sister, Ashton, and the next day, I called Grandma asked her if I could use that diamond to put in a ring for Caitlin. I told her not to worry and that if Caitlin said "no" I would give it back to her. Grandma said she would be honored for me to have it, and that she'd bring it with her the next time she came to town.
A month later, a shopping trip to Kohl's was organized for Caitlin, Ashton, Deloris (Caitlin and Ashton's mom), and Grandma, and I met them over at the store. Grandma gave me the diamond while Caitlin, Ashton, and Deloris were trying on clothes in the dressing room. I held on to the diamond for about four months and in the meantime, I went to three different stores and lots of different websites searching for the perfect setting to put it in. I had to do this gorgeous diamond justice, after all!
I ended up finding the perfect setting online and it happened to be carried in a store that we have here in our city, so I went to the store and asked to see it in person. It was a brand new Neil Lane setting (and I knew who he was because Caitlin had explained to me one time that he was a big time celebrity jeweler). When I actually got to hold it in my hands, I knew it was the one.
The people at the jewelry store said it had to be special ordered to fit a size four-and-a-quarter (which I remembered from a long time ago when I asked Caitlin once) from their standard size of seven. I had to send the diamond with the setting to California to get it sized to fit Caitlin's tiny finger and also to make a whole new prong setup for the ring to ensure the diamond would stay put. I knew if we didn't secure the diamond, Grandma was going to get me.
It took about a month and a half for the whole process to take place, but I got the call that the ring was in on the morning of August 30th which was barely in time for the time when I wanted to give the ring to Caitlin - September 1, 2011 - the one-year anniversary of our first date. I ended up getting too excited to wait, so I had to do it that day. I told Caitlin that one of her presents came in late (her birthday had just passed) and that I needed to blindfold her with a scarf because I didn't have time to wrap it.
I led the blindfolded Caitlin to my car, and got her buckled in and drove her to Shakers restaurant - the site of our first date. I had the couple who set us up there to take pictures of the big moment, and I had asked my friend Eric to play the guitar when Caitlin took her blindfold off. I said some sweet things (which you can ask Caitlin about), and then asked her to be my wife.
And praise the Lord, she said yes!
