We’re getting married! Let’s celebrate!

I saw Caden on Facebook under my friend suggestions, so of course I had to Facebook stalk him! I found out that he actually was friends with some of my friends that I graduated high school with. I thought he was super cute, and he knew some people that I graduated with, so I figured there would be no harm done in messaging him. So I sent him a simple message that said "Hey! What’s up?", and we hit it off immediately! At the beginning I was a little wary, not because of who he was but because I had never met him prior to talking online, so I never agreed to meet with him. Then one night he randomly told me he “was loyal to me" and it completely changed my outlook toward him. I finally allowed him to take me out on a date, and when I met him face-to-face I felt comfortable right away, like this was right. And, as they say, “the rest was history.”

Emilee added me as a friend on Facebook and subsequently messaged me. I thought she was cute so I messaged her back. Emilee talked to me for a while but she stopped messaging me as frequently as I would've liked. I continued to message her even though she didn't seem completely interested. Emilee eventually came around and after a month of my bothering she decided to go on a date with me. Emilee told me over the phone that she had a geographical tongue so I believe my first words to her were "Show me that tongue!". Emilee was apparently okay with my jokes because she enjoyed our date and agreed to continue seeing me. The highlights of our first date included singing radio songs together on the way to the resturant and slow dancing in my dining room before she had to leave.

I had a feeling Caden was going to propose either for my birthday or for Christmas, but I couldn't figure out which one. He asked for two weeks off of work for hunting, and one of his days off happened to land on my birthday. My birthday weekend came and he asked to take me to Asian Buffett since we hadn't seen each other all week. So we met there and he asked me if he could take me to Des Moines for my birthday on Monday (Dec 3rd), I told him I didn't think it was a good idea because I had a quiz on Tuesday and needed to study. He was pretty persistent about taking me out on Monday, so I agreed to go up with him. Monday after class I came home, I threw on a dress, and Caden picked me up. As we drove up Caden had a brilliant idea that we could go to the Women Strength Bridge (this is the bridge we would walk on almost every night I visited while dating) to see if it was decorated in Christmas lights. Since I love Christmas lights, I agreed. When we got there Caden explained to me that he wanted to take me to the new restaurant that they just built on the other side of the bridge so he figured we could just walk across it. It was like 10 degrees out, and I was in a dress, so that idea did not sound very appealing. Again, he was very persistent, so we started to walk. We got half way over the bridge and he stopped right in the middle and started to look at the water, in my head I was like "I’m freezing. Why are we stopping,” but then he said "Isnt this a pretty view?" I agreed with him. Then he said "Well, I know something that's prettier,” and he started to reach into his pocket for something. My heart dropped, and I looked at him. He got on his knee and all I could remember was he was just smiling at me! I said "Say something!" and he finally said "Will you marry me?" I said "YES!" He planned it perfectly!

Emilee was upset with me leading up to the proposal. I had taken the week off of work to go hunting and her birthday fell within that time-frame. I made it seem like I didn't have anything planned for her birthday so that she wouldn't expect anything. At the last minute, I asked her to go up to Des Moines for a birthday dinner. Emilee didn't seem excited because she believed that I hadn't put any thought into the night but in reality I had worked hard leading up to that night. I ordered the ring on November 15th so that it would be in by the 29th. The ring did not get to me by the 29th, However. The ring arrived at FedEx in Des Moines on her birthday, December 3rd. This made for a busy day but eventually we made it up to Des Moines for our date. I took Emilee to the bridge over the Des Moines river that we went to every time she came up to see me. I was nervous and it was cold but as soon as I took a knee all of those thoughts flew out of my head. Emilee's reaction was that of astonishment and it is a moment that I will always remember.