Austin and I likely met when we were too young to even read, but never truly knew each other until he was in 8th grade and I was a freshman at Minnewaska. Austin was feeling rather confident after making the C-squad basketball team and decided to ask me to be his girlfriend. Well that ended about four months later—about on par as junior high relationships go. Living in a small town it was inevitable we had similar friend groups and remained friends throughout high school and into college. Fast forward to summer of 2014, Austin had just finished his freshman year at the University of Jamestown and I finished my sophomore year at UND and we were hanging out with friends at my house. Some flirtatious banter was exchanged and the next day Austin texted me "I think we should hang out". He invited me over to the Giese's for a game of horse and naturally kicked my butt. Clearly he knew if he had challenged me to a wrestling match he might have ended our "date" in a tight head lock with a bruised ego. Instead he bought me pity DQ and we sat up talking until we realized it was near 4 AM. Meanwhile my dad was at home about to have an aneurysm wondering where I was. Shortly after our first "date" Austin and I made things official. Six years and counting worth of memories later we have cut too many rugs at the Corner Bar to count, mastered a long-distant relationship for about 4 1/2 of those years, both made it through graduate school, attended numerous trips/special occasions with all of our friends and family and added a fur child to make our family of three.

Everything fell into place that weekend for it to happen, but before I get to that, let’s go back to when I got the ring. Lindsay had been sending me subtle hints for the past year of rings she likes. In fact, she sent so many hints that I knew exactly what I was looking for when I went to the jewelry store. This was fine with me because I knew that I wanted to marry her before the hints began. I was able to pick out a custom ring which was awesome. Lindsay made sure I knew that her best friend, Brooke’s wedding ring fits her perfectly, so I should ask her for her ring size when the time comes. When I texted Brooke she asked me if I was looking at rings (of course). I made sure she knew that there was absolutely no possible way I would be looking at rings right now. I told her I wanted to know so that I could buy one as soon as I could following school. This was enough to convince Brooke and that was that. Things became funnier for me because Lindsay would often jokingly ask me if I wanted to go to jewelry stores to looks at rings; meanwhile I had the ring hiding in a cardboard box in my closet. I always said we could start looking after graduation. She was half-joking and half-serious when she’d ask me. I showed our roommate Jake after I bought it, so he knew I had the ring. Conversations would come up about Lindsay and I getting married and I’d paint the picture that it would at least be 2021 before we would get engaged. Lindsay would smack me and Jake and I would laugh because we both knew I was going to ask soon. I never had a set plan of when I was going to ask Lindsay. I knew that I would know when the right moment presented itself.

Lindsay’s dad is a beekeeper and travels South to work every Spring. We found out that this was going to be in the middle of February this year (2020). The Braatens planned a trip to visit Lindsay's brother, Jacob his wife Erin, and their son Courtland the weekend before Lee was supposed to leave. I knew this would be a great opportunity to ask Lindsay. I hid the ring in my backpack while packing for the trip. Lindsay saw a jewelry store on the way out of Fargo and jokingly asked if we should stop in (if only she knew). I kept the ring in my bag until Saturday morning when I stuck it into my jeans pocket. I was hoping we would go for a walk in Canal Park in Duluth so that I could ask Lindsay during the day. This plan didn’t work out for me because of the weather. Jacob and Erin had asked us to go ice skating later that night and I thought that might be the time to ask. The only problem was Lindsay and I didn’t have any skates. Jacob, Lindsay and I ventured out to Play-It-Again Sports. We almost didn’t pull the trigger on buying skates because they weren't the cheapest. Lindsay's impulsive buying came in handy at this point-- we got the skates and went on our way. The ring had been in my jeans for around 6-7 hours at this point and the nerves were starting to set in. The four of us ended up going to a little ice rink in Superior. We were the only ones there so I knew this would be the perfect time to ask her. I think I checked my pocket for the ring every minute. I told Lindsay that I wanted to send a picture of us to my mom when we were done skating. After Jacob snapped a couple photos I turned around, got on one knee and asked Lindsay to marry me. She was extremely surprised and loved that I asked her while we spent time with her family. February 22nd couldn’t have worked out any better!