We met through Devin. Devin is Kody's good friend and was my roommate/landlord, at the “Clearwater house.” It was a Friday night and I had just moved in and didn't have much to do. so, Devin invited me to a bonfire at kody’s. That night Kody and I talked, added each other on Facebook, night was over, we moved on.. so I thought… turns out after that night I started seeing a lot of Kody. Devin and Kody’s roommate John both worked nights. Kody worked days. We only lived 5 maybe 10 minutes away from each other. So in the evenings when he was waiting for someone to get off work he would come over to play Xbox, do homework or watch tv as we had better internet and Devin didn’t care.. Unfortunately for me I worked days and I didn’t have any friends to hang out with so I was always home… Which led to us talking, subway and the grocery store runs. Which turned into me watching Buddy when kody went to work longer shifts or if he had to be gone for the day. Fun fact: my parents met Buddy before they met kody. Which finally led to our first date. The taco night. Kody asked me to come over for tacos. Now, when I think of tacos I think of the shell, meat, cheese, lettuce, tomato, sour cream. Etc. I was excited.. Turns out Kody and I have a different idea of tacos. It was meat, cheese, and taco sauce. Whatever he did to the taco sauce it must have worked because here we are almost 7 years later.

Lets start with summer of 2022. My mother and I were having a girls weekend. The subject of marriage came up… Long story short Mom and I start talking through wedding plans.... when I got home that Sunday I told Kody you have 1 year to propose. I don't remember Kody's exact words but it went along the lines of “I guess.” After a weekend at Anthony’s house Kody told me that he asked my brother for permission. End of August he met up with Ban and Jazmine with a ring that I wear every day to a secret location.. we are getting closer… Mid September I booked a tour at a venue that I fell in love with. After touring the venue Kody looked at me and said "that is the place I want to get married." September 30th Kody, Anthony, Mayla and I + 4 dogs.. Went out to Wisconsin to visit Ban and to celebrate Ban and Mayla's birthday. I guess there were a lot of secret conversations going on between the 5 of them that I was oblivious to. October 1st THE DAY WE HAVE ALL BEEN WAITING FOR- We were eating breakfast planning out our day we wanted to go walk around down town by the river, we wanted to go hiking at Interstate State Park, and we wanted to go the dirt track races. First stop shop downtown by the river. As we were getting ready to leave something fell out of the truck and rolled underneath. As Kody got down to pick it up his sweatshirt crinkled. Hearing the noise I asked if he brought chips with him. "Ugh yeah incase I get hungry.." nothing new we moved on. Fast forward Few hours later I think we were taking pictures by the river and I heard the same noise and I commented " you still carrying around chips" " ugh yeah not hungry yet" still didn’t think anything of it. Side notes looking back at the pictures you can see the ring box in his sweatshirt pocket. HOW DID I NOT SEE THAT?! We finish up down town and head home for lunch and to get ready for our hike. At this point in the day I am ready to just sit and relax and hang out until the races. However, everyone else is ready for this hike.. still didn’t have a clue on what was going on.. Time for the awaited hike.. Ban and Mitch in one car with one dog. Anthony, Mayla, Kody, and I plus the 4 dogs in another car... We get to the park and drive forever to get to this beach area that was PACKED. We get out of the car and prepare for this hike awhile the dogs are going nuts.. New place. New people. New things. Straight chaos. I asked Ban if we really want to do this 5 dogs 2 of which have never been outside of South Haven.. She looks at me and says YUP and walks away.. So, we start our hike. Ban, Mitch, and Kody take off.. Leaving Anthony Mayla and I behind with Lacy and Thumper, who are just freaking out at this point because again they have never been outside of South Haven. Anthony obviously knowing what was about to happen was stressed out about the dogs. He wants to take them home but doesn’t want to miss the big event.. He calls Ban and explains the situation. Ban comes back and says let’s just try and get Lacy and Thumper up the hill once we get up there they will be fine. So.. we went for it.. Two things. First I still have no idea what is going on.. second at that point in time I was not working out I was very out of shape. I was not okay after climbing that freaking hill. So I make it up this hill and I just stand there trying to catch my breath and figure out my life. Kody… despite all the things that just went down he decided NOW is the time… He pulls out two ring pops (the chips from earlier) and pops the question. Don’t ask what he said because I honestly have no idea… Please check out our gallery you can watch me process the whole proposal through my facial expressions.