During the summer of 2011 on a Saturday, my step-dad, Jack, had Joe's dad and Joe, do a maintenance check on the cranes. I had just spent the night at my best friend's house and came up to mow the yard at the shop. Jack introduced me as I walked up to the shop since they were all talking outside and proceeded to walk in with them. Shortly after, my mom arrived to see Jack for a quick second since she was out and about. I remember telling her how cute Joe was and being all giddy. Once Jack finished his conversation with them, he came back and informed me that Joe would be working there soon. A couple weeks went by and Joe finally started working. We started talking a little bit more each day. One day, he asked me if I wanted to go grab lunch with him. So we drove to Arby's on Hill Rd and had our first unofficial date. But things became a little slow and Jack had to let Joe go for a bit (we always joke about him letting Joe go because him and I were starting to talk more). But Jack stated that he had some lockers that needed to be put together soon and was going to have Joe work on those. I asked him if I could work with Joe when the job came along and he said I could. So you can bet I was asking Jack quite often as to when that job was going to start. During the process of building 300 lockers together, which took a couple weeks, we started to become close. He would flirt and joke around about me wanting to hold his hand when I would accidentally touch his when putting the lockers together. I tried to be cool and not show him how interested I was since we didn't know each other for that long but he stated he could tell by the look in my eyes. I remember the first compliment he gave me was saying that my eyes were beautiful. He was (and still is) very charming. After the first week, we started hanging out more every day after work and eventually, became boyfriend and girlfriend. <3

Spring break was approaching and we had not gone on a vacation for a couple years so we decided to make plans. We tried taking a cruise and seeing my brother, which didn't work out due to work. So then we opted to go to Chicago but same thing, work needed Joe. Haha. So instead, we decided to go up for an extended weekend up north to our house and go up and see the blue ice by the Mackinac Bridge. The day came for us to go see it. As we got in the car, Joe mentioned that he had forgotten his wallet. But what he was really doing was getting the engagement ring that he had hid. I was truly surprised I didn't see it since it was in his coat pocket when driving up north and to the Mackinac Bridge. Once we arrived, there were a lot of ice mountains far out that I wanted to go see and since the lake was frozen, we were able to go on Lake Michigan. The blue ice was really neat to see. It was a beautiful winter day to go see it; it wasn't too cold and the wind wasn't crazy either. It took us some time to get out to the huge mountain of ice but we finally had made it. It was well over a story high and once we got up there, the view was breathtaking. I had Joe come stand next to me so we could get a picture together with the Mackinac Bridge in the background but I was having a hard time. A younger girl followed us up there and asked if we wanted her to take our picture. As she was finishing up, Joe asked her if she could take one more picture, which I thought was sweet considering he doesn't like his picture taken. But once she said yes, he got down on one knee, took the box out of his pocket, opened it, and said,"You know I love you more than anything, right? Will you marry me?" I, of course, said yes! I was in such disbelief; I was so excited and happy! The moment was even more special to me since he asked on the lake we had my dad's ashes spread. Now, after that amazing day, the Mackinaw Bridge is more than just a symbol of Michigan to us. <3