We’re getting married!

It all started with a swipe. We matched! After a couple of weeks of talking, I set aside my initial hesitation and we went on our first date. Southlake’s Oktoberfest. We quickly realized it wasnt really our scene, so we walked around the square were we found a place to eat. We got to know eachother over some burgers, then we decided to see what movies were playing soon at a theater near by. Boxtrolls it was! I assued him that kids movies are always the best. Still something we live by. My initial hesitation just seemed so silly as the evening went on. This was fun, it was nice. The following week he insisted that I needed to watch one of his favorite shows, American Horror Story. Despite not being into scary stuff, I obliged. It was a date! It became our weekly date. Every wednesday, without a fail. We would have dinner and then watch what is now one of our favorite shows to watch together. After couple of months of seeing eachother i was off to Italy. I was super excited for my trip and we had one last date before I headed over seas. Brad made sure to warn me about all the terrible men that would be abroad so I should just be cautious. I knew exactly what he was getting at. I was only away for a week and a half and even with the time differance and lack of direct contact, we still managed to talk to eachother everyday. I quickly realized, I missed him way more than I thought I would. I couldn’t wait to get back and see where this feeling would take us. That feeling took us on many adventures and led us through lots of growth. It gave us so many laughs, several tears, it built a family and a home. Now it’s giving us forever.

I was getting ready for a girls trip to New Orleans to celebrate my sister’s birthday. Jasper was a little over a year old and I wasn’t sure I could find anyone to watch him while I was away. Brad, being the dog lover that he is, offered to watch him for me. I was a little hesitant since even though they had interacted, we all know Jasper is very particular with who he is willing to get along with. I finally took him up on his offer. He had to go pick him up from my mom’s and lug all the things that I packed for him over to his appartment. I texed him frequently trying to make sure everything was going smoothly, to my surprise they were doing just fine. I was so glad they were getting along so well and I took comfort in knowing my baby was in good hands. Coming back from that trip was the first time I came home to my boys and it was such a great feeling. Jasper must have known then, this was his family.

We were coming up on a year of being together and we wanted to do something fun to celebrate. So we decided on a cruise! I had never been on one but wanted to see what it was about. It was our first big vacation together, so it was a new experience for everyone. I think this is where we learned how good of a team we make. Planning vacations can be crazy but we seemed to get through it pretty painless. We drove down to Galveston and off we were! We had such an amazing time. Being out in the ocean just enjoying eachothers company. We had some fun adventures and some much needed relaxation. It was sad to have to go back to reality after 7 days of being together, enjoying life, but we made it a goal to become cruise people. And we have! The drive back was a little rough but I think realizing we weren’t gonna be together 24/7 like we had been the last week encouraged Brad to ask me to live with him. I was a little surprised, but I couldn’t think of a better way to end the trip and start a new chapter in out relationship.

After living from my suitcase coming back from our cruise we were finally able go move to a place to call ours. We found a house that was perfect for our little family. It was exciting to have a place that was ours. A place that was new to both of us and that we could set up together. We settled into the house and we started making so many memories and creating a home. We spent a few years in that house and we quickly realized it didnt matter where we were as long as we were all together, we are home.

We had been planning on buying a house after renting for a few years. We were finally in a possition to start looking and taking the next steps. One saturday we set out to see as many houses as possible. We just wanted to get an idea of what we liked and what we disliked. To our surprise, after a long day of looking, we found the house that was perfect for us. Despite us not having any intensions of finding anything, we couldnt deny that this was the house of our dreams. We bought it! It is such an amazing feeling to know that we worked together to achieve our goals. Something we constantly still strive for.

It was the morning of our 5th anniversary. We had decided to just have a nice dinner at home since it was a weeknight and we both had pretty big work loads that week. We started the morning like with out usual routine. While Brad and Jasper were off for their morning walk, I headed off to work. Or so I thought. I’m ready to leave and my car wouldnt start. So I called Brad to rescue me. Like he always does. He cut the walk short and gave my car a jump and I was off. Once at work I relized my car wasnt gonna start again. I really wanted to make it home on time to make this fancy dinner I planned for us, but it looked like that wasnt gonna happen. Still hopefull, I figured I’d go get my battery changed and taken care of as soon as I got out of work and then head home and only be a little behind schedule. That didnt happen. It ended up taking several hours and Brad ended up having to come to my rescue again, because I was pretty defeated at that point. We finaly were able to head home and I hurried to get dinner ready. I wasn’t able do prepare everything the way I had planned but I got it on the table. We enjoyed our dinner and hung out for a bit but after the day I had I was ready to call it a night. We had plans to celebrate that weekend by taking a family hike so I had hopes that that would make up for the day. He had mentioned early that week that he got his shipping scheduling off so my anniversary gift wouldnt make it in time. Not a big deal. I gave him his gift and card then off to bed I went. There I laid in bed when I hear him say “So you know how im bad at surprises?”. He is. I sense him on the side of the bed my back is facing, as I turn around I see him down on one knee. He expressed all the same feeling I had about spending the rest of our lives together. He asked me to marry him and there was no other answer but yes! Now we cant wait to celebrate our love in the best way possible, surrounded by our family and friends. Forever begins at Fossil Rim, 9/26/20.