Engagement, Part 1

First, just let me warn you this post might be quite long; however, sit back & enjoy reading how Rhett popped "THE" question. It was on Saturday, September 11, 2010. I had so far a relaxing Saturday cleaning house, doing my chores that I've been doing since like middle school, school work, and catching up on my yoga sessions. Rhett had told me that Heather & Jason were coming home from Auburn to come and visit and Heather also had a Willow House party on that Saturday.Before that day I got a babysitting offer to babysit for one of my professors in college on "that" Saturday. I had told Rhett if we were just going out to eat with Heather & Jason and then watching football for the rest of the night then I was just going to babysit and make a little money. Oh no, Rhett insisted on me going on a double date with them. Oh yeah, the reason I had no idea that he had the RING is because we went down to Auburn the weekend before for the first Auburn game and we had went to Wares Jewelers and looked at rings.

Auburn's 1st game

 Anyways, I just thought maybe it was just me being selfish and wanting a little bit of spending money then to watch football. I ended up turning down the babysitting offer. Well I was getting ready to go to Heather's Willow House party because I haven't been to a party since I have started doing it and I thought I could learn some things from her. For some reason that day it felt like it took hours for me to get ready. I mean, I had to re-wet my hair twice because it had already dried wavy twice and I needed it to be straight. I had my mother who had been shopping that morning, come home and wanted to show me her new clothes that she had bought. Finally, I ended up getting out the door an hour later then I thought I would have. I drove up to Centre to Heather's Willow House party and it was a fun, come and go party. After the party was over Heather and I was going to to go over to Mr. Hyche's (Rhett's former principle)lake house because Rhett had went water skiing with him. Heather's husband, Jason, had been on a dove hunt all morning and he was suppose to meet us over there so we could all combine into one car and drive to Sumo's. (That's where I thought we were going that night, anyways.) I get out of my car and it was sprinkling and I am already worried because I had straightened my hair and if rain hits it then it looks just horrible. Luckily, Rhett had replaced my broken umbrella with a huge red&white one the following week before because I was in desperate need of one if it rained while walking to class. Rhett gets the umbrella out of my car and he told me he needed to show me something he had done.

My mind automatically thinks the worst and I thought he skied into the pier and broke something. I was wrong. He told me to face the lake and I couldn't turn around so still nothing goes through my mind about this is it or anything. He asked me to turn around and he had made me a picture out of an old window pane.

Will (wagonwheel) You (Jessica) Marry (rings) Me(Rhett)?

I was thought well I have been looking for just the right thing to hang up above my bed and that this was the perfect size. He asked me, "Jessica, whats is the left hand corner?"... I said, "Well a wagon wheel." At this point, I am still clueless. He said, "okay, what about the lower left hand corner." I studied the picture pretty hard and then it hit me. My heart started racing, I was like oh my goodness, this is where I had always wish Rhett would purposed to me at because that is where we first met. After I noticed that in that picture, it was a picture of rings, I turned and looked at Rhett and there he was down on one knee.

I still get the butterflies when I think about this. He asked me, JESSICA POPE to marry him. I can't tell you what amazing feeling this is. I mean it's a.... praise report, an answered prayer,..etc,. this is who I am going to spend the rest of my life with. He is an all-around ,amazing guy. Of course, I am balling my eyes out and trying to let the words, Y-E-S to come out of my mouth. 

I just love this picture! Rhett did such a great job with designing the ring. I was highly impressed. Thank you so much for my beautiful ring, Rhett. I love you! Wow I can't believe I actually have a finance' and no longer a boyfriend. It sounds weird when I tell people that I have a finance'... It sounds so growny and  I LOVE it.

Heather, the whole time I thought was sitting in her car waiting on her husband, Jason, but he was being little miss paparazzi. He came down the the pier and congratulated us and then she wanted to take more pictures. I am so thankful to have such a great future sister-in-law who has a magnificent camera and was willing to take tons and tons of pictures and actually captured my whole engagement process.

The Other Story

 Okay, so there is a whole other story to how Rhett and I met or shall I say end up together.
I was working at Belk, in Gadsden, in the Women's Department that carried Nine West, Karen Kane, Sophie Max, and more... but its called Better Sportswear. Anyways, Rhett's mother was shopping and I was  trying to be a good employee to Belk and I tried to help out my customer or at least speak to them and ask if they needed help with anything. I was at my counter, check out station, and Rhett's mother came up to the check out counter to ask me a question. I still remember what that question was. She had asked me which capri's I liked better, it was between a simple pair of capri's or a pair of zebra striped ones. I, of course, picked the zebra striped ones. Mrs. Cathi, Rhett's mother, decides to get the ones I picked out. As I was checking her out we had a causal talk about things. I have casual conversations with most customers because I like to get to know who they are and where there from. She had asked me questions, like where was at going to school at and so forth. She mentioned that her son was attending Southern Union but was moving back to go to Gadsden State Community College that upcoming year.She told me she was going to send her son to come back up to meet me. After she had left I never thought nothing else about her. Many women have said that to me but not do anything about it so I didn't think twice about having Mrs. Cathi as my customer that day. Needless to say Mrs. Cathi came back when I wasn't at work and asked other employee, who worked where I did, my name so she could get her son to meet me. ha ha! I laugh because this story is just so sweet. :) This whole time Mrs. Cathi didn't mention her sons name. So few months past and I end up on the lake with Rhett and meeting him for the first time and so on... he found out I worked at Belk in Gadsden and he pulled me up on facebook and asked his mother if I was the Jessica she had mentioned to go down to meet. Doesn't God work in so many ways. I love it. So when I went to meet Rhett's parents for the first time I automatically recognized Mrs. Cathi and new that it was that lady from Belk who wanted her son to meet me. Such a small world. So now Mrs. Cathi takes credit for hooking Rhett and I up, but Rhett just tells her that he found me first. I love it.

Flashback

All the way back to April 2008. I would've never thought that day I would be meeting the man I would be marrying. It was on a Saturday morning. I was at the gym, working out, when my best friend from high school called and asked me to go out on Weiss Lake with her and some friends. By the way, when I go to the gym I don't look so fresh...which means no make-up and oily hair. She told me a specific time to meet her in Centre. I had barely enough time to go by my house and grab a swim suit and a towel. When I was headed to Centre, I wasn't so concerned about meeting a new guy because at that time I had been trying to date this guy so other guys were out of the picture. I arrived in Centre, followed Lyndsey over to the lake lot which belonged to a former principal from Centre. We got on the boat and there was some people on the boat, guys that is, who I didn't really seem to be interested in. We ride around for a couple of hours then we were headed back to the lake lot, to pick up some more people. Long and behold in the mixture of those people was Rhett, my future husband. Wow! I can actually say that now and it be for real. Anyways, Rhett and his three guy friends were home from college and decided to go out on the lake to ski and have some fun. This was when I was thankful for my huge, RayBan, sunglasses which hid the no make-up look I had going on. All the guys were pretty good-looking but Rhett just stood out. He was unique, I think it was just a sign from the good Lord above. Anyways it was time to go, the sun was setting and we had to wrap things up. Rhett and his friends had asked me and Lyndsey to go eat in town. I, of course, said no because I really was concerned with another guy at the time. So I didn't think much about that Rhett guy I met at the lake. A couple weeks went by and I got a text message one day and it was Rhett. He had gotten my number from Lyndsey. I had ended the other fling I thought was something but it was just a friendship. I invited Rhett to come over to a slip-n-slide party at my friend, Lyndsey's house. He and some friends ended up coming and we all had a blast. That night he and his friend asked me and my friend on a double date to the Drive-Ins. Want to know what movie we went and watched? Don't ask me...ha ha, because Rhett and I just talked for hours. We just connected so well and it seemed like we were raised the same way and we had to the same religious beliefs, which is very important to me. Finding a guy who loves the Lord as much as you do is hard to find these days, and I found one. But to finish the story up...that night he asked me to come and celebrate Memorial Day, May 31st at his house with his WHOLE family. That day he came and picked me up, met my parents, and then I got to meet his(that is a whole other story). We had such a great time. That night after he took me home he asked me to become his girlfriend. At that time I thought that moment was the happiest moment of my life. Who knew this past Saturday would've topped it. Meeting Rhett's family is a whole other story. It's a very small world and God has his all mighty hand in it too.

               This is a picture during the first month we were together. We loved the lake and still do!

A Good Reason

I love reading blogs and I have been looking for a reason to create one.  Heather, my future sister-in-law, has an amazing one and I read so many others. I became a Willow House Design Consultant and I thought that would be a good reason for me to create a blog. A business blog, why not? But I seem to keep wanting that very own "personal" blog that everyone had. I thought maybe by next Spring I could finally have one because I wanted to wait till Rhett and I got engaged to start one. I never knew it would be this soon. Which I am so ecstatic about!!! I hope that my blog will be a hobby of mine, I'm pretty sure it will be since I am so concrete sequential. I will be entertaining you all with writing about the path that leads up to marrying my best friend, also the guy who I've prayed for, for so many years. I can't wait to tell you the story; therefore, I will first have to tell you how we met. It's coming soon....