a sa-weeeet love story between chris & sarah...wait...WHO?

in february, of 2008, we were getting ready to have our annual valentines banquet at church. my oldest son, landon was ready to propose to his girlfriend, kirstin, and i thought (and i made my thoughts known to him) what would be a more perfect time than at the valentines banquet? in front of all (well, alot) of our friends. how romantic. and how much more romantic it would be if it was a surprise to her! so, mama put her thinking cap on and came up with what i thought would be such a unique way to propose, and at the same time, entertain people at the banquet and allow them to be involved in the proposal. (sometimes mama comes up with some good ideas. other times, not so much.) we just had one small problem. the ring he had ordered specially made, was not due to arrive until the following week. so... i made a little trip to party city and picked out the most perfect "stand in" until the real thing arrived.

everyone was in place. the dinner had been served, a rousing game of "the newlywed game" had been played. there had been some special music, and my trusty little camera and video camera were placed in strategic places. (i'm a scrapbooker and have to have pictures of every single thing that goes on in the lives of my family) as people began filing in i walked around and gave random people a picture that i had cut out of different magazines. i asked them to place the picture, face down, and not to look at it until i called their name. (how many do you think "cheated" and looked?) mmmm hmmmm... i think so too.

when the time was right to play this little "game" i told everyone that pastor donnie would pick up his picture, show everyone, and then he would begin to tell a love story about a couple named chris and sarah. he could say anything he wanted, but it had to pertain to the picture he was holding, and when i said stop, he would then sit down and i would call the next persons name, and they would show their picture and continue with the story. at the end of the story, landon would be the last name i would call and he would end the story by proposing to kirstin. only my family, and the pastor were in on this whole scheme...and i must say it turned out sooooo much better than i even imagined it would. i have written out the love story, the way it was told, and have included each person, telling "the story" of chris and sarah. i love the ending and i hope you will enjoy this little story as well as we all did!

chris and sarah...a love story.....

donnie: (picture of a train) once upon a time there was boy named chris and a girl named sarah. they had met on a blind date and took a shinin' to one another. chris was an engineer down at the train station and sarah was a school teacher. chris had to be gone sometimes for weeks at a time and didn't get to see sarah every day.

diane:(picture of two cell phones) after that first date, chris and sarah were always on their cell phones, whispering sweet nothings in each others ears.

susan: (picture of a bouquet of roses) one day sarah was at home and she received these beautiful flowers and she found out they were from chris. and he wrote on the card that he missed her, and asked her to meet him at the train station. (oops, no picture of this one)

faye: (picture of a sewing machine) after they had gotten to know each other awhile, chris wanted sarah to make him some clothes to wear, but she said that he looked alot nicer in his sweat shirt and his baggy jeans with the hole in the knee.

warren: (picture of a roll of pink toilet paper) one day sarah had made a whole bunch of pies. chris ate one of the pies, and uh, where he had to eat it was over at sarah's place. she was making the pies for the valentines day banquet at church, but he thought it was for him and he ate soooo much of it. he excused himself to go to the restroom, where he saw that even sarah's toilet paper was pink.

frank: (picture of OTC pink-eye drops) and after chris had stared so viligantly at the pink toilet paper, he needed some relief, so he rushed over to the drugstore to get some pink-eye relief for the love he felt for sarah and from the pie that was rushing through his system.

miriam: (picture of a bag of dixie crystals sugar) when he got back to sarah's house from the store, chris saw this bag of dixie crystals sugar sitting on the counter and he said "darlin' you are sweeter than this bag of sugar."

genell: (picture of a sofa) after this long day with sarah, running around, riding on the train, eating pie, running to the store, all chris wanted to do was fall out on the sofa.

wayne: (picture of a car crashed into a tree) and while he was laying on the sofa, sarah ran out and jumped in her car to go the store to get some more stuff for her pies and someone ran her off the road and into a tree and she ended up in the hospital.

aubrey: (picture of a money tree ) chris and sarah, they just loved the train ride. They had done ridden on it together, ate pie, and chris felt bad that while he was at sarah's house, layed out on the sofa, sarah was in the hospital and would probably be there for a very loooooong time. so chris decided to sue and in the lawsuit that would follow hoped they would win bunches of money.

david : (picture of a puppy) since sarah had wrecked the car, and was in the hospital, sarah wanted a puppy to keep her company while chris was away on the train. so, chris bought her one and took the puppy to the hospital and sarah cherished it.

landon: (picture of an engagement ring) so, after all these wonderful times together, chris realized that he was in love with sarah.

 she was always going to be the one for him and he wanted to marry her, so he got down on his knees and he said "KIRSTIN, we haven't been together very long but, i've enjoyed every minute of it. YOU make me happier than anyone ever has and i want to spend the rest of my life with you. WILL YOU MARRY ME?"

and of course, she said YES!!

and everyone wanted to see the HUMOUNGOUS DIAMOND that landon had given her (it even blinked)...

 
 here...is the happy couple...
 
 

and here is kirstin, calling her mom in Chicago and letting her in on the news that SHE WAS GETTING MARRIED!!!!

to my baby boy.

and it wasn't the end...it only got better from here. on june 7, 2008, landon and kirstin tied the knot!...will share the wedding pics at a later time.