Ok, ok, you pulled my arm!!!

I can't stand keeping good secrets like this. I'm going to spill it, even though I don't have a picture because the item in question is getting resized.

Ok, I must go back two years to the sad day that I realized our wedding rings were really and truly gone, along with several items from our van. I was hoping I had not been so stupid as to leave the little pouch with my ring in the van. I hoped that for months. (It's called denial.) It was my fault; I should know better, but a day hasn't gone by that I haven't thought about my empty hand with a touch of sadness. I'm not one to wallow deeply in my pit of self pity, but I felt BAD about this.

So on Valentine's Day this year, my husband asked me to make a picnic lunch, and he drug out the picnic basket I used the day he asked me to marry him-he said the kids would think it was fun, or something. We piled into the van, and he said that since it was Valentines Day, he thought it would would be a good idea to show the kids "the place" where he proposed, since we were in the area. This was a good idea-even though it looked like rain, we set out to the redwood grove, where a little stream rushed near the road.

I love the redwoods. I love the clean, wet smell, and the feeling of being so small surrounded by straight, dark posts of the trees. No rain reached the floor where we walked, and I was just delighted that the kids could enjoy this too. When we reached the stream, and the small gravel bank where I accepted my husband's proposal, he started to tell the kids how it had happened. They were more excited by the running water, and plunk of the rocks they were throwing into it.

You've guessed what was next, I'm sure, but I was taken completely by surprize! When he got to the point in the story where he gave me the ring, he got down on one knee and gave me a ring!!! (Please pardon my overuse of exclamation points. I can't help myself.) Then I squealed, and jumped around, and hugged my sweet husband while the kids threw more rocks in the water. Someday they are going to say to themselves, "Wow, I was there when Dad gave Mom her ring! That's cool!"

I'm so thankful for my husband, for his love, and for his care of me. This action turned something that hurt just a little every day into something that makes me smile every time I think about it.

Oh, and I LOVE IT. (Sorry for yelling, I can't help myself!!!!!)