We’re getting married!!

I honestly have to give my Mom all the credit for this one. If my mom had not decided to get a personal trainer then who knows if I would have met Jake or not! At the time I was still in school at Harding Unversity working on my undergrad. I came home for break and decided to go to the gym for two reasons: 1. To work out with my mom, and 2. To meet this trainer my mom was spending so much time with. I know it sounds cliché but there was an instant connection between us. From this point we talked here and there as we were both dating other people. However, when i graduated I moved back home and we were both single ... and the rest is history!

This took me by surprise. For those of you who are advid Friends fans you’ll understand when I say ... Jake pulled a Chandler. We had discussed marriage for awhile and me, not wanting to push Jake to hard, backed off occassionally from approaching this topic. A few months leading up to the proposal I tried discussing marriage and getting engaged. However, most of the responses I got from Jake were: “whats the rush?” Or “we should wait until you graduate!”. Needless to say I thought we would get engaged after I graduated with my Master in May 2020. He tricked me! (One of the best tricks though!) The day of the proposal Jake had planned for us to go to Longwood Gardens to see the Christmas Light Show. It was sweet because he made plans at least a month in advance since we were unable to see fireworks, go apple picking, or pumpking picking and carving together. (I figured he was trying to make it up to me haha). The entire day Jake seemed off. He was quiet, oddly jittery ... and he barely sang along to Disney songs with me in the car. When we arrived at Longwood Gardens I was so excited. I wanted to go every which way to see all the lights. Since Jake had other plans he kept pulling me and pushing me through all the lights and gardens super quick. Finally Jake takes me to a spot where we werent rushed. We were on this beautiful little bridge when Jake became emotional. He stopped me and started talking about our future and how he had planned this entire speech that he was too nervous to remember. This entire time I thought he was being sweet and romantic ... then he got down on one knee, with tears in his eyes, and asked me to marry him, spend the rest of my life with him, and to be his wife!! At that exact moment the balcony full of people cheered and the bells in the Garden went off! I was crying and of course I said YES!!