And the Winner Is......

Vicki Anderson, Linda Cate, Leila Aldrich, and Marie Mallach we thank you whole-heartedly for your participation in our How You Met Your Husband/How He proposed contest. Believe me when I say we laughed and cried. We are truly grateful for you allowing us to take a trip down memory lane with you. We appreciate the fact that you are willing to let the rest of this blog's readers partake in the joy that these memories must bring. All the stories were great. They were well-written and as unique as the people writing them. It was hard to select a grand "prize winner", but we said we would so we must.

Vicki Anderson gets her choice of Passionate Housewives Desperate for God or Passion and Purity.

As well as that, Vicki, Linda, Leila and Marie all are invited for a "girls night out" at Betsy Aldrich's house for dinner and a movie, chick flick of course, to show our deep appreciation for your stories and your friendship.

For our readers, enjoy.....

Vicki wrote:

I was 18 years old and fresh out of high school. I joined the Navy in Sept 1981 with four very important goals. First I wanted a good paying job, a car that ran, an apartment I could call my own, and I wanted to travel. The first place I wanted to live...............California.......... Sept 17th 1981 I left my home in the small town of Sumter, South Carolina for Navy boot camp in sunny Orlando,Florida. After several weeks of basic training and rethinking my goals IE.... wondering if I was crazy for joining the Navy, the Navy brought me to Great Lakes Naval Base for another 10 weeks of Hospital Corp school. I had only been at Great Lakes about two weeks when one evening myself and my roommates Tammy & Faye went to the chow hall for some of that fine Navy chow as we so affectionately referred to it then. We got our food and sat down at our little table. As God would have it I was sitting facing the chow line ( line filled with hungry people). As we sat there I noticed a cute red headed guy a ways back in the line.(or according to him strawberry blond) Anyway I thought he looked like one of my older sisters boyfriends who had also joined the Navy. (who I also had had a huge crush on in the past) So I naturally got up and walked down the line right to where he was,crossed in front of him to get a glass of soda and saw that he wasn't my sister's old boyfriend so I returned to my table with my roommates. We preceded to eat our fine Navy chow and the chow line continued moving past our table. As this cute strawberry blond guy got closer to our table I began to notice he was looking right at me. I mean he was not taking his eyes off me to the point where I was feeling a little embarrassed. Finally as he got close to our table he walked straight over to me leaned over and said to me, " want to go to a movie sometime?" to which I said sure. A few minutes later after he had gotten his food tray he comes back over to my table and says to me, by the way, my name is John but my friends call me Opie then he went and sat down with a bunch of other girls............. In my mind I was thinking that guys got a alot of nerve asking me out then going and sitting down with a table full of girls. Mean while my roommates were pitching a fit because I had just agreed to go to a movie with a complete stranger.... Anyway the next day after classes John came and asked me to go to a movie that night, which we did. Since we were students & living in the barracks (mine was an all women's barracks. No guys allowed). John literally had to ring a door bell and the duty watch girl would have to come to my room on the 3rd floor to tell me I had a visitor. Then we walked to the base theater and saw our first movie, "ENDLESS LOVE". The next four weeks we spent having that fine free Navy Chow together, nights at the movies, breaks between classes, studing for tests, shoveling snow for the Navy and walking out on the ice of Lake Michigan. (John spent much time and energy trying to convince me that (1) walking on the ice of Lake Michigan was safe.....and (2) That I should forget California and ask to go to Newport, Rhode Island so we would be stationed together. Being a little more daring in those days I did venture out on the ice But no way was I giving up my dream of living in California. John was not happy about this but my thinking was that if we were meant to be no matter what I put on my dream sheet God would have His way..........(God did have His way but that's another story) Anyway after a lot of tears and discussion we continued on seeing each other. We were now into the middle of December, John was graduating and heading home to Michigan for Christmas leave in a few days then on to Marine training in North Carolina in January. I was preparing to go home for Christmas but returning in January to finish Hospital Corp school sometime in February. Anyway as our time together was coming to an end early Saturday morning December 19th I was awaken by girl friends living across the hall from me saying ,GET UP YOU HAVE GOT TO COME AND SEE THIS, so I did. I went over to my friends room because there room faced the field between my barracks & the barracks John lived in. When I looked out the window and down at the field I saw John standing there Proudly with a very red face and a big smile pointing at something in the snow. With his own feet in big clear letters he had managed to write in the snow ," I love you and will you marry me". I was speechless and 3 floors up. When I came down and saw John I knew I loved him But getting married was not in my plan and we had only known each other 4 weeks. For the next several days prior to him leaving Great lakes he kept trying to convince me that only knowing each other 4 weeks didn't matter. But I wasn't budging. Finally 5:30 pm December 22nd John came to say good-bye. He was leaving But my man was so persistent. Now he had a rose in his hand and he was on one knee. It was truely one of the most beautiful winter nights I have ever seen, the snow was falling like rain and there we were. I budged a little and said I have to think about it............His response," Maybe a definite yes".............Then he said every letter I write you I'm going to keep asking until you say yes.... I went home for Christmas for 2 weeks told my family about this crazy guy who wanted to get engaged. And said no way am I getting married............ Back at school January 2nd 1982, School was a different and so was I. Suddenly I knew what I wanted and I just knew it was was too late... Two days later we had our first mail call and I got 2 long letters from John reminding me how much he loved me and wanted to marry me. I wasted no time writing him back and telling him How much I loved him and twenty-six years later its all history..............................

Marie wrote:

I met Tim about 15 years ago. I worked with his sister Laura and she was getting married. I saw him at her wedding and thought he was cute and shy, we did not meet then. So I asked her to ask him if he would like to meet for coffee. We met it was nice, he was very shy, we both liked the outdoors, hiking ect. He met my dog and fell in love with her (Snuffles), He always said that he married me for my dog (he called her his step-dog)

We just decided to get married, had an outdoor wedding with friends and family.

Linda wrote:
It was Easter Sunday 1991. Rick and I had been attending both our churches together. On this Sunday he was acting a little strange, but I didn't know him well enough to suspect anything. After the service he urged me to go help Ruth Aldrich. Ruth was acting strange, too. She asked me to help her go around the church property to pick up any stray toys or Easter eggs that she had put out for the children to hunt but that they had overlooked. We had somewhere to be after church, either a celebration with his family or mine, so I couldn't understand Rick's prodding, but I finally acquiesced. Ruth insisted that we go out the seldom-used east door of the north side of the church. In the meantime, Rick had disappeared and was nowhere to be found. I grudgingly ((yes, I was still very self-centered!) followed Ruth out the door, which put us directly in front of the church sign on 52nd St. There to my complete surprise stood Rick, beside the CHURCH sign which read, "LINDA, WILL YOU MARRY ME? RICK"! Well, I was utterly shocked and honestly, somewhat embarrassed. I felt that it was totally inappropriate, but we all know what my answer was. Praise God that the Lord led Matt to our Body and we have received true, good teaching since then. :)

Lelia wrote:
So, here goes the story of how Randy proposed. It all started more than 12 years ago. I was attending Northwestern College in Orange City, IA. When I came home on breaks and for the summer, I would attend Temple with my cousin Judy Love. At the time Temple had "cell groups" and Judy invited me to her group, which Randy was a member of. At the time Randy was dating someone else, but our mutual love for tennis and volleyball led us to become friends. I had just graduated from college and was now back in Kenosha for good, and as the Lord would have it Randy was now single. We began hanging out more often, getting to know each other better and better. As our friendship grew there was one thing keeping us from moving on to something more, I was not saved. Randy being a wise Christian man new he could not marry a woman who was not also a Christian. The Lord saw fit to save me and I was baptized. This opened the door to take our relationship from just friends to possibly something more. It appeared we were "dating" as Pastor Matt was not at Temple yet and we were not educated on "courting". Several months go by and I am unsure of where we stand, are we just friends hanging out a lot or are we looking to have a future together. One night I asked him where we stood, were we "dating" or were we just friends? Were we exclusive or should I keep my options open so to speak? At the time I just wanted to be Randy's "girlfriend", and the Lord saw fit to make it official. So, it's official, now comes all the helpful people talking about marriage and kids. Randy was not going to be pressured into a proposal, he was waiting for God's timing. A year or so goes by and people, myself included, have pretty much given up on a proposal coming anytime soon, well Randy surprises us all. It is New Year's Eve and we our celebrating with Randy's family at his parents house. As the clock strikes midnight Randy gets down on one knee and asks me to marry him. As I say yes and he slips the ring on my finger, we are covered with silly string. As we our about to celebrate our 10 year anniversary, I thank the Lord for giving me wonderful husband unlike any other.