Show and Tell Tuesday: My "Arranged" Marriage

Hey folks!  I am so excited to share my story of how I met my husband.  It is a story I love to tell because I LOVE the reactions!!!  I am excited to link up with Andrea.
Please note that there will not be any pictures- we didn't have iPhones or digital cameras back in the "old days".  What pictures I do have I can't get on my computer because my stupid scanner will not cooperate!

Picture it: Knoxville.  September 1999. {Go back and read that in your Sophia from the Golden Girls tone of voice.}

I had just moved to Knoxville to begin graduate school- as in, I graduate from UTC one day and move into an apartment in Knoxville the next.  I lived with a girl whose aunt was a mutual friend of my mom's.  School began and I immersed myself into my studies.  I was sort of dating a guy back home but looking back, we were over before I realized it.  I think he cheated on me, but can't prove it and don't really care about that now.

The week of the first Vols football game arrived and my Daddy asked me if I was going to the game.  I told him I had gotten my ticket but wasn't sure I would go because I didn't want to go alone.  I hadn't really made enough friends by that point to want to hang out with them; besides, I wasn't a college partier so going to a tailgate and getting hammered wasn't my definition of fun.

My daddy suggested that HIS BOSS, Chad, come down and show my roommate ,Christy, and I where to park for the game.  My dad was an inspector for TDOT, and Chad was his boss.  Chad and his parents had season tickets to the games.  Once Christy and I decided to go to the game, we told Daddy that it would be ok for Chad to meet us at our apartment and show us where to park.  That Saturday, September 4, 1999, Chad knocked on our door for the first time.  Now, let me point out that neither one of us- Christy or I- had ever laid eyes on this person- for all we know, he could have been a complete goon.  We loaded up into his red Jeep Cherokee and went to the game.  We sat in the student section (I think Chad may have sat with us).  I don't remember much about that day other than the fact that I ended up setting Chad and Christy up on a DATE!!!

Chad and Christy went out maybe once or twice while I was still trying to hang onto the relationship with the guy back home.  Chad nor Christy didn't feel sparks with one another but a friendship was formed between the three of us.  Chad would come to Knoxville for both football and basketball games and we would end up hanging out together.  Looking back during that time, I realized that Chad was making an effort to spend time with us- something said boyfriend back home wasn't even doing.  Things officially ended between me and said boyfriend at some point during football season- I don't remember exactly when because it was basically over anyway.  Chad and I starting spending time together at the games, going on hikes, and going to eat.  He made an effort to get to know me.  Oh, I failed to mention that Chad was living here in our current hometown, two hours from Knoxville.  He kept coming around.  Now, by this point, I was still doing my single girl thing- my guilty pleasure of going line dancing at the Cotton Eyed Joe in Knoxville EVERY.SINGLE.WEEKEND.  I never drank because I wanted to stay in control but man, I burnt a lot of calories on that dance floor!!!!!!!!!

Chad and I started dating officially in March 2000.  One of our first dates was to Atlanta for the SEC basketball tournament.  We rode down with his parents and stayed at his brother's house.  Talk about a  nervous wreck!  I had been seeing this guy no time and I was going out of town with him??!!  Keep in mind that Chad is still my Daddy's boss.  My dad was completely cool with me seeing Chad because he knew he was a man of good character.  I am not sure how Chad felt about the situation but I did know that he didn't want to work for TDOT forever, so he began the job search in Knoxville.  He moved to Knoxville that summer and I realized that things were getting real.  I was busy with school and my job at a long term care pharmacy and Chad landed a job in Oak Ridge.  We managed to see each other quite a bit.

Fast forward time to August 31, 2001.  Chad and I had gone out to eat.  He asked if I wanted to ride up to the Vol Navy and walk along Volunteer Landing.  This was the night before Tennessee's home opener versus Syracuse.  We stopped at the top of this tower like thing at Volunteer landing and he asked me to be his wife.  I don't remember the exact words but I remember he was a nervous wreck and I was so happy.  We had discussed marriage but I had no idea a proposal was coming so quickly.  We told our families we wanted an October wedding.  They thought we meant October 2002; however, we had other plans.  We were married on October 7, 2001.  NO, I wasn't pregnant!  I was a teaching intern at a school that was on a year round calendar and we had two weeks off.  We honeymooned in Hawaii the first week and I moved into his house the second!

My dad probably had no idea I would marry Chad.  On our wedding day, as the door opened for me to walk down the aisle, my daddy said, "Let's go!"  I still think he likes Chad better than me!  And I wouldn't have it any other way!  ;)

I am going to link up and start reading everyone else's stories!!!!!!!