Our Engagement Story
After graduating UCF with my bachelors degree in Electrical Engineering, working for a little while, and having dated about 5 years at that point, I was seriously considering marrying Amanda.  It was kind of scary though, making a decision that will last me the rest of my life.  At one point of feeling jittery, my best friend (next to Amanda) Frank gave me these words of advice to straighten me up (loosely paraphrased) "You've been dating her for 5 years now and have no intention of breaking up with her, right?  So getting married is like having your best friend as a roommate, and you also get to have sex with her."  Which seemed to make perfect sense to me.

So I began plotting the engagement procedure.  I have always liked motorcycles and thought they were both manly and romantic at the same time.  In fact, one year for Valentines Day Amanda and I rented a Harley and rode it to Tampa, where we stayed with my sister and brother-in-law for the weekend and went to Busch Gardens and Clearwater Beach.  I even obtained my official motorcycle license for the event.  Well, since Amanda seemed to enjoy the motorcycle experience too, I went ahead and purchased one for $730 without telling her about it.  I even picked it up and rode it home across town on the coldest day of that year.  Between when I purchased it and the day I had planned to propose, I began fixing it up, spending way too much time and money on it in the process.  I also had a ring custom made using the diamond from another ring that once belonged to one of my great aunts, which my Grandmother had given me.  

On Valentines Day of 2000, I received permission to take the day off of work, as well as permission from Amanda's boss (without her knowing) to give her the rest of the day off after lunch.  So arranging to spend a Valentines Day lunch with her during the work day, I picked her up on my motorcycle, which she was of course surprised about.  I then gave let her choose what to eat for lunch, to which she picked Publix subs.  After picking them up, we rode to Downey park (at the corner of Dean and Colonial), where we had taken one of our first dates and also where I had scoped out a secluded spot by the lake to eat and to perform the proposal.  After eating the subs, I pulled out my Valentines Day present to her, which was wrapped in an approximately 8 inch heart shaped box that I had in my backpack.  As she opened the box, I got on one knee and asked her "Would you be with me forever.  Will you love me forever."  She said yes (of course), after which I informed her that she had the rest of the day off of work to spend with me.  Later, we went to see Cirque de Soleil at Downtown Disney to complete the evening.

Thoughts About Marriage
Amanda and I were married on August 19th, 2000 at St. Paul's Lutheran church, which is on the top (18th) floor of Lutheran Towers, located in the middle of downtown Orlando.  We had 6 bridesmaids and 6 groomspeople (5 men and my sister).  Our reception was at Lee's Lakeside, which is adjacent to Lake Eola, also in the heart of downtown Orlando.

Marriage is sometimes more difficult than I thought it would be, especially because I've known my wife for 5 1/2 years prior to getting married.  You'd think after all those years we'd understand each other completely.  Such is not always the case though. I've talked to people who have even lived together for a while before marriage having to deal with difficult adjustments to the relationship.

The biggest adjustment for me at first was having less control over my resources, especially time and money.  There were times when I would get pretty frustrated with having to consult with my wife about things that I'd previously been used to just doing or buying when I felt like it.  I also missed being able to freely spend as much time with my family and friends as I used to, dividing my time now between her, maintaining our house, occasional time alone and her family and friends too.  As I get older though, more of my friends are getting married too, and we're making more friends with other couples and spending more time as a group.

Yes, there have been times when I actually thought "I hate being married" and wonder how much I can take of the frustrating feelings that I was experiencing.  But thank God Amanda is so easy to communicate with, even if it takes us a little while to cool down enough to be able to talk civilly.  Even though I occasionally long for the days of freedom that singleness was, I honestly believe that God put us together and that "what God has joined together, let man not separate." (Matthew 19:6).

Oddly enough, I find that watching dating shows like "Elimidate", or "The 5th Wheel" makes me more and more grateful for my wife and the wonderful companionship that I have with her.  There are so many dorks, whores, catty brats, and spoiled sorority wenches out there to make me realize that I'm really not missing a thing from the old dating life.  It's also amazing and pretty pathetic how many people, men and women, focus their conversations and/or lives around sex.

My thoughts about married sex are included with the rest of my thought on the subject of sex,  You can get there from my "Thoughts" page, or you can click on these words to get there quicker

While the purpose of this page isn't to spend numerous paragraphs bragging about my wife, I can't complete this page in good conscience without at least saying a little bit about how wonderful Amanda is.  She's fun, flirty, sexual, funny, understanding, and altogether my favorite person in the world to spend time with.  She is also great at expressing and displaying her affections for me, showering me with far more love and respect than I really deserve.  Truly, I have been blessed with a wonderful wife.