A boat and a goat (and a ring too).

Walter proposed to me on one of our favorite lakes from his boat. He had my ring designed especially for me and then tied it to the end of a fishing line feigning that he was changing my bait (you'll want to read my earlier post about marrying the first man who asked me to go fishing,  if you don't see the romance in this). Afterwards he said my parents were waiting for us to stop over because they knew what he had planned. 

When we arrived to their house they had champagne waiting, I had barely sat down to enjoy my first glass when my father anxiously pulled me up and said, "Want to see what I got in exchange for your hand?".  He was insistent that I follow him into the garage where of all things ... was a small goat (understand that my parents are suburbanites ... so a goat was hardly a normal animal spotted in their neighborhood). "Dad! Why do you have a goat?" He kept repeating that it's what he'd gotten in exchange for my hand in marriage. Then he put a photo album into my hands. In it were pictures of just about everyone in my family petting and playing and posing with this goat. I still didn't get it and in fact was simply upset with him that he hadn't called me earlier to come and see the goat (I'm a huge animal lover). 

Then they explained it, Walter had heard the story of how my brother-in-law Greg (now ex) had jokingly asked my dad what he wanted in exchange for my sister Leslie's hand in marriage and dad, being an old farmer, said, "Just bring me a couple chickens, a pig and a cow." So when Greg came over to officially seek their permission, he brought with him some frozen chicken breasts, some pork and some beef (or something like that). When my other brother-in-law, Michael asked for my other sister's hand in marriage (Alison), he brought dad his favorite whiskey and mom her favorite box of chocolates. 

Walter loved the stories but wanted to top them both. So earlier in the week of our engagement, he stopped by my parents house with that same favorite kind of whiskey and box of chocolates ... and a goat. First of all, seeing W. at their house in the middle of a work day was odd enough, and that he came carrying a goat (and was as white as the shirt he was wearing) shocked them even more. So no one really remembers his exact words but it was something like, "I figure if Leslie is worth some chickens, a pig and a cow, then Sharon is worth at least a goat." Somewhere in there he must have asked their permission to marry me. 

Then he asked my father to hang onto the goat for a couple of days because he knew that I'd want to see it. So when this story finally sank in, my first thought was, "Oh my gosh, where will we keep this goat?" thinking that it was now ours. Seeing as we live in the city, the idea was a little worrisome (although the goat was awfully cute and hard to resist!). 

But it turns out that my very creative fiance' had in fact rented the goat. He knew of this little farm and nursery that he'd seen goats at. So one day he stopped and asked the owner, who was cutting his lawn at the time, if he could tell him where he could rent a goat. Upon explanation of the reason why he needed to do such a thing, the farmer (who that the idea hysterical) gave him the name of a place. Eventually Walt took me to meet that farmer. 

So all of our engagement photos, taken on my parents deck on August 26th, 2004 are of us and a goat. We never thought to snap any photos without the goat, but if you know us, you'll find it all makes perfect sense.