We're getting married!

Alyssa's Perspective: When we first met, I was "in charge" of the Lieutenants that were waiting to start training. I was pretty bad at remembering names even when they were on the person's chest. Erik walked in on his first day with a group of others and he said "Hi, I'm Lt Hammer" and I remember thinking that's a pretty cool name. Later that day a tasker came up and the only name I could remember of the group of people in the room was Hammer. I didn't think much of it at the time but as the month's passed whenever I saw him he was always so nice and easy to talk to. In September, with football approaching I caught him in a conversation about fantasy football and decided to join in. He ended up asking me if I wanted to be a part of his fantasy football league. I agreed to it and suggested doing a draft party and from there on out we were inseparable. It doesn't surprise me that I met the man I want to spend the rest of my life with through football. Erik's Perspective: There's been a few nerve-wracking days in my life, but one of the most was my first day on active duty. It was early in the morning on 17 February 2017 and I was anxious about checking into our leadership for the first time and getting my career started. If you saw the picture of me that first day, you would see the fear on my face. I went down to the building where I was supposed to check in, eventually found the room, and the first person I met was Alyssa. I introduced myself as Lt Hammer and started the check in process. Not long after mingling around the room, meeting all the other new Lieutenants, I heard my name being shouted across the room. My first thought was, "oh shit, I'm already in trouble". Alyssa was calling my name because she had a job she needed all the Lieutenants to work on, and I happened to be the one she called on to round up everyone (it wasn't until later I found out my name was the only one she could remember at the time).

Alyssa: We had already talked multiple times about getting married but at the time I still wasn't sure if Erik had asked for my parents blessing. I knew he had multiple opportunities to do so and ironically enough I asked my mom the night before he proposed if he had asked and she fibbed and told me no. Just before dinner, Erik made an announcement to the family to thank everyone for bringing him in to the family to celebrate Christmas. I secretly was hoping he wouldn't embarrass himself making a speech cause we don't really do speeches lol. But then I heard my name and I looked over and saw there was a big box in his back pocket. Everything felt like slow motion at that point. My grandma realized what was going on and exclaimed "oh it's happening!" He got down on one knee and said everything so smoothly and then asked me to marry him. And of course, I said yes! Erik: I told my parents my plan when they visited for Thanksgiving and when Alyssa and I went to Disney, she decided to take a quick nap after the making the trip so I decided that would be a perfect time to ask for her parents blessing. I told them my plan of asking Alyssa in front of her immediate family on Christmas Eve and they were all for it. So we made the trip to California on Dec. 19th, I had the ring in the truck with us, wrapped in about 3 shirts so Alyssa wouldn't accidentally see it. Between the 19th and 24th, I must have moved it around in my bag 3 different times from being paranoid she would find it. Luckily she didn't and the night of the 24th rolled around. Colleen gave me the signal that "dinner was almost ready", which was my cue. I ran back to the room to get the ring and put it in my back pocket, came back to the kitchen and wanted to thank her family for welcoming me in the way they had. I then proceeded to call Alyssa's name, told her I loved her and wanted to spend the rest of my life and got down on my knee. She said yes (YAY! :D) and only then I realized how much I was sweating.