A couple months before he proposed, Shane and I sat on the front porch enjoying some bourbon and a cigar.  He began telling me that he wanted ring ideas.  I was shocked! I didn't realize that's where his thoughts and heart were.  I quickly rounded up the gals and went to go look.  

     Both of us got busy with work and/or school and time passed quickly.  We went to on our mini-vacation to Gatlinburg the first weekend of November.  That Saturday, 3 November, we did a couple activities he had never done...horseback riding, ziplining, proposing...  We started a hike to a waterfall, but the sun was setting quickly, so we stopped at the most beautiful outlook.  

     As we sit and talk, he's getting so upset that a group of 4 guys would not stop taking selfies and go away.  He's usually so patient.  They eventually left, and as we're talking, he drops to one knee, pulls out a ring, and asks me to marry him.  I honestly thought it was a joke!  I thought he was offering me a fake ring because when did he have the time to go pick one out?!  When he removed my glove and saw that the ring fit perfectly, I know he was serious!  And with the happiest tears in my eyes I said something similar to, "Hell Yeah"!

 I might have proposed with a ring on a hill overlooking the Great Smokey Mountains during a perfect sunset, but I knew who I was looking at the day we rode our motorcycles through a nighttime thunderstorm, and Courtney said that the only thing that kept her going was knowing that I was right behind her. 

     I told her that night how strongly I really felt for her which was a continuation of a conversation we've had dozens of times. I just had never told her that I wanted to marry her before. When I told my Uncle Jeff this part of the story he chuckled and said congratulations, I said well, I haven't proposed yet... he laughed again and said it sounds like you just did. He was probably right but there was more to it for me of course. 

     One of the first conversations Courtney and I had about our feelings for each other ended with my stupid comment about not wanting to start a new relationship that already had an expiration date. She's active duty in the Army and at the time the expectation was she would move within the next 18 months, way too short (for me) to have strong feelings like these. At the time I was also pretty torn about getting too heavy especially because I had just exited a relationship that lasted 5 years, and Courtney was recently divorced and truthfully, she was obviously, and quickly becoming the girl of my dreams. So, to say it already had an expiration date was pretty crummy of me to say, and of course, naive. 

     When the day down there in Gatlinburg finally came, I honestly had no idea how I would propose. I was so worried about keeping the ring a secret and not making my plans looks obvious that I completely forgot to actually plan the proposal. Which was probably for the best because it was natural. All I had to do was wait for this quartet of guys to leave and stop taking selfies with the sunset for their lonely Tinder profile page, and then Courtney and I could talk, just like we always do. We killed about half of a bottle of Raspberry moonshine and shared a cigar before I finally found the right moment in the conversation to present her with my secret. I think I must have done too good a job at keeping it a secret because I was really worried she would swat the ring out of my hand. She was under the impression with my busy work schedule and with Landon visitations that I never had the time to go shopping for the ring. Wrrrrong. 

     I showed her the engraving on the inside.... "No EXP date" and reminded her of that conversation we had when I said I didn't want to start a relationship that already had an expiration date.

I was partially right.

This one is forever.