Our story began in Houston, long before we even met. Stone attended St. Thomas More (STM) and Emma (that’s me!) attended St. Vincent de Paul (SVdP) for elementary and middle school. Both STM and SVdP were the Tigers, which resulted in a long standing “rivalry” between the schools, especially in basketball. Both Stone and I played basketball and the SVdP girls always beat the STM girls, but the STM boys always beat the SVdP boys. Neither Stone nor I lost a single basketball game during our times at STM and SVdP.… Maybe God knew how competitive we both are and figured it was best that way so our future marriage wouldn’t have the strain of one of us flaunting all the wins. Fast forward to senior year of high school, Stone was my best guy friend. Stone's mother, Susan, loves to share a story about the first time she met me. It was the Strake Jesuit homecoming game and Susan was working the spirit stand. She did not meet Stone's homecoming date that night, but she did meet Stone's "friend", Emma. Stone and I officially started dating on December 15, 2015. Senior year was full of sports events, concerts, graduation parties, and prom and then it was off to college. I went to the University of Texas at Austin to study chemical engineering and Stone went to Colorado School of Mines to study electrical engineering. Long distance was not always easy, but we both loved planning visits to see each other. We became friends with each other's new friends, and we are so grateful to all of those people who supported us during our college years. In 2020, we both graduated from college. I accepted a job as an engineer in Austin and Stone went off to law school at Baylor. I like to say we went from "long distance" to "mid distance" since Waco is just a short 1.5-hour drive from Austin. During COVID, Stone got our dog, Marley, and she has been such a wonderful addition to our lives. On June 2, 2023, Stone proposed to me on the porch of Villa Marie (the Hansen family lake house). We are overjoyed to start this next chapter of our lives together and cannot wait to get married where it all began. We hope to see all of you in Houston on June 1, 2024!!