How they met .... Again!

By: Rodd Newhouse

We would like to introduce ourselves as the future Mr. and Mrs. Roddrick and Cicily (Richardson) Newhouse. Our wedding is scheduled to take place on July 2, 2005, in Dallas, Texas. We would like the opportunity to share our wedding story with you and your viewers, because we feel that we have a fun, unique, and loving story that recaptures the true essence of childhood crushes, friendship, and ultimately true love. To help set the tone, Cicily and I grew up in the same elementary school district, attended the same junior high school and high school, and although attended separate colleges, through the good graces of God, fate lead us back together at the perfect time in our lives.

Background

Cicily is currently in her 7th year of teaching and her second at Connolly Middle School in Tempe, AZ. She began her teaching career in Dallas, Texas, where she taught for 5 years before moving to Phoenix, Arizona.

Born April 5, 1973, Cicily is a graduate of Texas Wesleyan University in Fort Worth, Texas, where she was an upstanding student-athlete for the university basketball team. After graduating with a degree in education, she was soon to embark on her challenging mission of inspiring the youth of the future.

I recently completed my sixth season with the Cardinals as the clubs pro personnel assistant, responsible for overseeing the teams evaluation of professional players, providing input into the clubs personnel evaluation and decision-making process, handling matters involving the waiver procedure and free agent signings, and advance scouting of future opponents.

Following my collegiate football career as a running back at Rice University where I earned degrees in economics, managerial studies, and sports management. I signed briefly as a free agent with the Baltimore Ravens in 1998.

I was born May 21, 1975 in Dallas, and was selected to the under-16 U.S. National regional soccer team as a teenager, while attending Lake Highlands High School in Dallas. My father, Robert, a former standout running back for the Dallas Cowboys from 1972-83 and was a member of three Super Bowl teams. My brother, Reggie, Baylors career receiving leader, signed with the Cardinals as a free agent following the 2003 NFL Draft. I also have two younger twin sisters who were standout track athletes at Abilene Christian University and both won a National Championship.

How They Met

Cicily and I have known each other for over 17 years, a loving story that began in junior high school in Dallas, Texas, in 1987. Cicily was in 9th grade and I was in 7th. Of course, at that tender young age a 2-year age difference is taboo in the eyes of a teenager. I must admit that I had a crush on her from the moment I laid eyes on her, but I would have to postpone my pursuit of Cicily and wait many more years before I would finally have my chance and my true love.

Cicily and I dated briefly over the summer of 1993 after Rodds senior year of high school (after Cicilys sophomore year at Texas Wesleyan) while working at an adjoining Gap and Gap Kids clothing store at North Park Mall in Dallas, Texas. Later that summer, I entered Rice University in 1993, on a football scholarship, and as we all know, college football players have a lot of testosterone" in their bodies and I was not mature enough to handle such a classy and sophisticated woman such as Cicily at that time of my life! As the years passed, I would often think and wonder what happened to Cicily and how she may be progressing with her life.

How They Met Again!

Surprisingly, Cicily and I lost contact with one another for over 8 years before a twist of fate brought them back together in 2002. One day while passing through the mall Cicily ran into an old high school friend with whom I had been casually exchanging email correspondence with recently. After spending the night with this friend, Cicily decided to phone me at my current residence in Chandler, Arizona; ironically Cicily had lived there as well in 1997. The day before I was scheduled to leave the country for summer vacation I received a phone call from Cicily that brought a feeling to my stomach that made me feel as awkward and innocent as I did on that first day in 1987 when I first laid eyes on her. A full 10 days would pass before Rodd would return from vacation to resume that moment of happiness again.

Upon my return, I phoned Cicily with my heart beating fast with anticipation as to where her life had taken her in our absence from one another. Whom did she marry? How many kids did she have? Where was she living? Much to my surprise and utter SHOCK, I could not believe that a woman with all that she has to offer would not have found the man of her dreams by now and the American dream of every little girls fantasy the white picket fence surrounding a well-manicured yard, on a sunny Spring day, accented by the sounds of laughing children coupled with the rumble of pitter-patter on the soft rye grass.

We were to meet again face-to-face for the first time in over 8 years when I traveled to Dallas for business for my employer, the Arizona Cardinals of the National Football League.

It was as if it were love at first sight all over again! We tried to hide our strong feelings for one another over dinner later that evening, but there was no ocean too deep nor any galaxy far enough away that could suppress the magnetism and gleam in our eyes.

It did not take long before Cicily and I began seeing each other every month, and by the following summer of 2003, she had packed up her belongings and moved back to Phoenix, Arizona, taking the first step to rekindling the love she once shared with a young boy who had an undying crush on her, and who now was a young man ready to share his life with the woman he dreamed of marrying when he was in junior high.

The Engagement

Cicily and I were engaged on July 3, 2004 in Lamesa, Texas, at her annual family reunion. Little did she know at the time, but I had asked my family (parents and siblings) to drive 6 hours across the barren landscape of Texas from Dallas, to witness this monumental event. Without any of Cicily's family having any knowledge of my engagement plans, I managed to have my family arrive in town and sleep 5 doors down in a local motel without being seen. On the next day, in front of her entire family, as I usually stand strong and resounding I nervously and intimately stumbled through a tearfully joyous proposal that ended in tears and cheers, embarking on the first official step of a childhood crush now becoming a reality.

We hope that this brief introduction into our lives has gained your interest enough to appreciate our love story as much as we do. We are a couple that genuinely loves and respects one another and are committed to each other as an inspiration to ourselves first and foremost, which we fill will serve as inspiration to all. I told myself a long time ago that the woman I was to marry would not only be my truest love, but also my truest of friends. And unlike so many of today's reality television shows, we believe the morals and values set forth in our lives and parental upbringing, has led us to believe you cannot find true love in 6 weeks after picking through a litter of 20 potential candidates. That love has to be earned, respected, and cherished, and there is no amount of time or material goods that will ever take the place of all that has gone into the love and respect we share for one another today and each day to come.

We look forward to speaking with you soon as we continue our wedding preparations to be shared the viewers of this site.

Sincerely,

Rodd & Cicily (Newhouse)