A hot summer day brought Ava and I to a town function that Dennis' family held every year. A function I was actually invited to by another family member whom I worked with. Ava spent countless hours in the bounce house while Dennis helped with the party and mingled with his friends. Friends who were all too familiar to me. See, Dennis and I attended the same high school, only a year apart. One of his best friends was actually an old co-worker of mine and another was one I shared a hand full of classes with. The stories we have of the "almost" run in's are pretty hilarious. But it wasn't them who brought us together, it was actually his family member. See, his middle brother was in the process of planning a proposal to his now, wife. Of course I couldn't keep a secret and ran over to tell another co-worker of mine the plans he had. Low and behold, someone couldn't keep their nose out of our business and I was grabbed by the arm and brought to the side of the yard where we spent the remainder of my night talking about marriage, life and the small world we live in. At the time, we both were getting out of toxic relationships. Something that had taken a lot out of us but the friendship that came from it all was out of a movie. It was simple. We brought the light back into each others lives and our relationship progressed from there.

The day Dennis and Ava met would be a day of immense nervousness. A year and a half had flown by and I had contemplated this meet for sometime and realized not too long before this he was someone I wanted in my life for the long haul. After much discussion we agreed to have the two meet while we spent the evening looking at Christmas lights at the Morton Arboretum. That night was filled with lots of fun! She was quite hesitant at first but she would later come to realize he was the best friend she had been missing. These two, together, are everything I could have imagined, and more! They are two peas in a pod. The love they share for one another is something I have only wished for. We truly prayed for a good man to enter our lives and he had completely exceeded all visions. As our story continues we couldn’t be happier to have him be apart of our next chapter in life.

As many of you who know me are aware..surprises don't come easy. I had spent many weeks of the last couple months digging around to find anything I could because Dennis and I had vaguely talked about this day. Well, not everything happened as planned. We had visited Starved Rock, a place that holds many memories to us, back in August and that's when he realized that was the place to pop the question. Unfortunately, weather got in the way and the forecast called for thunderstorms all over IL that special weekend. After going back and fourth the week following up to it, we agreed to find an indoor activity (because staying home was NOT an option for him) and settled on the Milwaukee Public Museum (which we HIGHLY recommend). We packed the three of us in the truck, picked up our two close friends and started our drive. We stopped for brunch where my best friend was able to meet us and we all had a great time! After breakfast we drove to the museum. A new place is always exciting for us! Ava was amazed with all the things she could see and touch. The coolest thing was their butterfly garden, we walked in and immediately I knew something was up. He explained briefly how upset he was that our plans didn't work out but at the end of the day he didn't care because we were only there for one reason. He pulled out OUR rings and the rest is history!