Happy 12-12-12

Only happens once every hundred years, so we'd like to wish you a blessed day. Though today is numerically special, so is every other day. Make the most of it.

Proposal Story 10-27-12

Once I had selected the ring, the actual planning for how I was going to pop the question began.  I knew I wanted to involve our friends and family and also bring in some places that were significant to us. Therefore idea for a scavenger hunt proposal had always been in the back of my mind as an idea.
On Friday, Oct 26, the weather was perfect before Hurricane Sandy blew past the coast. There was a light breeze and the rain held off, so I took Johanna to eat at Burky's Burgers and to play putt-putt at Treasure Island Golf.  This was one of our first dates together.  Johanna kicked my butt with a strong back nine performance.

Typically on a Saturday morning, Dakota gets up like clock work at 7:30. Today was no exception. After I walked him, I tied a note around his neck that told Johanna to look what daddy left on the table for you.  I went to Target leaving Johanna asleep. Nick and Nicole called her a short time later and told her to get up that she was to have breakfast with her mom.  When she followed Dakota she found 11 roses and a card on the dinning room table.  At each stop or phone call throughout the day, Johanna was asked a trivia question and got a letter for each right answer. This ultimately was a word scrabble that spelled Brookgreen. Wasn't very difficult, but again I wanted our families to have an excuse to call her throughout the day.
After breakfast with her mom, she was instructed to go to Market Common where she meet Brian and Nancy at Barnes & Nobles. They read the following three passages to her:

“Once upon a time there was a boy who loved a girl, and her laughter was a question he wanted to spend his whole life answering.”

--- The History of Love by Nicole Krauss

When he looked into her eyes, he learned the most important part of the
language that all the world spoke – the language that everyone on earth
was capable of understanding in their heart. It was love. Something
older than humanity, more ancient than the desert. What the boy felt at
that moment was that he was in the presence of the only woman in his
life, and that, with no need for words, she recognized the same thing.
Because when you know the language, it’s easy to understand that someone
in the world awaits you, whether it’s in the middle of the desert or in
some great city. And when two such people encounter each other, the past
and the future become unimportant. There is only that moment, and the
incredible certainty that everything under the sun has been written by
one hand only. It is the hand that evokes love, and creates a twin soul
for every person in the world. Without such love, one’s dreams would
have no meaning.
---Paulo Coehlo "The Alchemist" 

“What is REAL?” asked the Rabbit one day, when they were lying side by side near the nursery fender, before Nana came to tidy the room. “Does it mean having things that buzz inside you and a stick-out handle?”
“Real isn’t how you are made,” said the Skin Horse. “It’s a thing that happens to you. When a child loves you for a long, long time, not just to play with, but REALLY loves you, then you become Real.”
“Does it hurt?” asked the Rabbit.
“Sometimes,” said the Skin Horse, for he was always truthful. “When you are Real you don’t mind being hurt.”
“Does it happen all at once, like being wound up,” he asked, “or bit by bit?”
“It doesn’t happen all at once,” said the Skin Horse. “You become. It takes a long time. That’s why it doesn’t happen often to people who break easily, or have sharp edges, or who have to be carefully kept. Generally, by the time you are Real, most of your hair has been loved off, and your eyes drop out and you get loose in the joints and very shabby. But these things don’t matter at all, because once you are Real you can’t be ugly, except to people who don’t understand.”
---“The Velveteen Rabbit ” by Margery Williams
Then she went to Pottery Barn to meet Kaci and she read the following passages to Johanna:

“Home. Few words in mankind’s existence hold such power. The word itself conjures memories of all the senses. The smell of Christmas morning, the feel of the each door knob, or the sound of each creaking floor board.  The Greeks first born goddess was Hestia, Goddess of the Hearth and Home. Her name means “the essence”.  As you and Ben form a life together remember the essential role home will always play. It is the place you two will always have together.

Johanna then went and had a drink with Tommy and Joan at Gordon Biersch which was the site of our first official date. After that she went to Tommy Bahama for lunch and was surprised by Elizabeth, Larkin, Sarah, and Nancy waiting for her.

After lunch the girls traveled south to Pawleys Island and drove by the new house.  Then they went and had manicures or pedicures done. At this point Nancy had Johanna's dress and made her change into it for "dinner plans." By this time though Johanna had unscrambled Brookgreen and was suspicious something was up.  I had arrived at Brookgreen an hour before they did. Fortunately the threat of Hurricane Sandy had postponed a planned event at Brookgreen and kept all of the visitors away.  After a very nervous wait at the end of the Alley of Oaks, I saw the group of girls coming through the garden entrance. They stopped at the gate and sent Johanna down the oak path.  It seemed like eternity for her to walk down the path and take my hand.  I asked how she had enjoyed her day and that I wanted to bring her a place I thought had meaning and beauty.  I had the 12th rose in my hand.  After she said yes, we were joined by her friends and walked through the gardens, enjoying the peacefulness of having the place to ourselves.  We then meet up with a large group of people at Salt Water Creek for a special dinner.