The story begins on Tinder of all places. Alyssa was in Fargo with her mom getting surgery on her jaw. Caleb was living in Wahpeton, but had one foot out the door and was ready to move back to Becker area. Alyssa was swiping through Tinder to pass the time before they wheeled her back for surgery. Caleb had just gotten off work after working a 12 hour over night shift at the jail. They both swiped right and were a "match." Caleb messaged her right away. Alyssa replied but the convo was short as he told her he needed some sleep but would message her when he woke up. The surgery went great and Alyssa returned to Roseau the next day and removed many of the matches she had made in Fargo because obviously none of them would work out 3 or more hours away. Caleb remained on her matches list though. They messaged back and forth and soon Alyssa found herself hoping when her phone would buzz that it'd be another check in from Caleb. He was very attentive and constantly asked how the healing was going and how the pain was. The messages became very frequent. They were finding they had much in common and had each other laughing and smiling quite often. Messages quickly turned into phone calls. A week later she was set to return to Fargo for a checkup on her jaw. This time she flew solo for the trip because she very boldly asked him to meet up for "coffee or something." To her surprise, he had been thinking they should surely meet up when she returned for that check up appointment. At 3 in the afternoon they met at HuHot Mongolian Grill. Side note - who takes a girl to buffet on the first date?! Alyssa was late as always and Caleb was laid back and easy going even with her tardiness. They talked each others ear off and soon it was time to part ways so he could make it to another shift at the jail. They left each other with plans to meet again sometime.... And that folks is how Alyssa and Caleb met. They each made many trips back forth from Wahpeton and Roseau. Soon the distance became too much and they decided to close the gap. Alyssa and her dog Gus joined Caleb and his dogs Avery and Gunner in Wahpeton.

In early November Alyssa helped Caleb pick out a beautiful ring to be her engagement ring. She didn't know when he would actually buy it or how long it would take to come in and get resized so there was still a bit of unknowns. All of November passed with no sign of the ring. Then December came and half way thru she was beginning to think he hadn't even ordered it yet. Then on December 18th Caleb had the day off and Alyssa was at work. When she walked in the door at the end of the day, the dogs and Caleb met her. They were barking and rambunctious and Caleb was telling her about their day then mentioned something was wrong with Gus's collar and he tried to fix it but couldn't. She said she would take a look but first she needed to get her coat hung up. Then Gussy walked up to her and she bent down to check on his "broken" collar. There dangling from his collar by a clip was that gorgeous ring she had been wondering about. She shrieked and looked up to see Caleb down on a knee asking her the most important question. She said yes and then said now get that ring off Gus please!! 💍