In this new day and age, its not unheard of to hear "we met online". Josh and Auddy met through Square Enix's Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn, a massive multiplayer online game (MMO) and started out like many others, as friends and gaming buddies. They met on the same gaming server and Auddy joined the same Free Company during a game related event...a beach party! (Shout out to The Pirate Bay <BOOTY>!) Time passed and starting in July of 2017, Josh and Auddy made it official (Ironically enough at another in game event...this time a wedding!). That August, they met in person. A vacation to Las Vegas with two other gaming friends, Chris and Liz, sealed the deal. Auddy moved to Minnesota in June of 2018, adopted two kitties named Ame and Cinder, and they were engaged Christmas Eve that same year! They have now added a puppy by the name of Rinoa, so don't be too surprised if there is pet related registry items.

My first Christmas in Minnesota was a busy one. First time being away from family for all the holidays...first time seeing how different the traditions are... There was a lot of cookies made and consumed during this time. We had talked about marriage already and there was a joke going around from Grandma Marie about us getting married in Vegas on a whim (we didn't, don't worry.). It was just a thought in the back of our minds. We ended up having Christmas Eve breakfast at Jason and Alicia's house with Matt, Brandi, Becky, and all the kids..after hanging out for a while, Jason and Alicia had another engagement to head out to and Josh and I had ordered prints that we were giving out as gifts for Christmas. We said our goodbyes, got some furry love from Kona and Bella, their gorgeous huskies, and last minute baby Jet cuddles before we headed off to Forest Lake. Everything was normal...I was fretting about the prints...are the frames okay... so on, so forth. We reach the intersection just down the way from our destination and Josh reaches over, grabs my hand, and says "I love you." A little suspicious, but okay. I love you too. He just chuckled and squeezed my hand. We're turning in the intersection now and he catches my eye as we get moving again. "Will... You... M--" . I didn't even let him finish. I slapped him on the arm and called him a little sh-t before saying yes...as we sail right by the place we needed to go. He didn't have a ring. It wasn't a special place..it was in his car..on the road. We searched up open jewelers and ended up a half hour away from our original destination to pick out a ring. We celebrated in the Maplewood Mall food court over cheese fries and fried rice. We still had to pick up those darn pictures in Forest Lake... at 9pm that night. Totally worth it.