Congratulations to Mike and Arla Kvanvig - the winners of the Tribune’s annual Valentine’s Day Contest!
They received the Ultimate Mullen Date Package, courtesy of the Tribune.
•Two 1-hour massages by Rebecca Wingebach of Sandhills Horizon Massage ($140 value)
•$30 gift certificate to their choice of Chuckwagon ’n Jug or Red’s Cafe
•$30 gift certificate to Kwik Stop
•$10 gift certificate to Coffee To Go-Go Here is their story:
Here is their story:
by Arla Kvanvig
It was a wonderful night for football on Sept. 25, 1992, at Dunning, Nebraska. The Mullen Broncos had defeated the Sandhills Panthers and with urging from my friends and with courage I don’t know where I mustered from, I Arla Ridenour decided I was going to walk Mike Kvanvig off the football field like all the other girlfriends did with their boyfriends. There was just one hitch, he was not my boyfriend... yet.
After weeks of I dare say chasing him with the help of many friends speaking in his ear in my favor, this was the night where our life together truly began. We had known each other since grade school and had been thrown together in different instances and activities throughout the years but really did not know each other closely at this time.
But with the hope that that would change, I walked right out onto that football field next to him and told him good job. What happened next still makes me smile. He handed his football helmet to his sister and mom, took my hand and asked me out right there on the football field in front of all of his family. I was floating on air. He recalls that he didn’t really mean to ask me out then but he had had such a good game and was so happy he just did it.
My mother-in-law Nellie McCarty’s favorite memory of that night is when I stepped onto the volleyball bus and announced that Mike Kvanvig had just asked me out. All of the girlish squeals from my friends and I that preceded the announcement she says just tickled her pink.
After we arrived back in Mullen, Mike and I took a ride on his motorcycle to the Rus tic to hang out and play pool, one of the favorite and few spots for teenagers to congregate at back then. As the night wound down we had our first kiss by the high school and I left in my brown station wagon to go home to my family’s ranch.
I was driving up the north side of the Middle Loup River hill and I hit a deer. I had to pull the car to the side of the road and walk to Baldwin’s house in the dark so I could call my parents. No cell phones back then. My dad, Leonard, called the local sheriff to report it - who just happened to be Mike’s dad, Rich. Talk about embarrassing.
Rich’s favorite joke after that was to tell everyone that I was so blinded by love that I never saw that deer. Mike always reveled in that when his dad would bring that up.
So here we are, married 23 years and together for 28. We have been together since Mike’s sophomore year and my junior year of high school - “high school sweethearts.” We were married Aug. 15, 1997, just two days after Mike’s 21st birthday and eight days before my 22nd. We have 4 children: Ty - 19, Tel - 16, Tate - 13 and Ava - 9.
We made our way back to Mullen 11 years ago now, where Mike has taken over the job of Principal at the very school where we had our first kiss and our romance began.
There is never a time when I drive by the Dunning football field that I don’t look over and smile and remember that night. The night my new life began and Mike likes to jokingly say his ended. Thank you to all who played a part in our match-making and memories, we love you all. Happy Valentine’s Day.