We were both regulars at the same gym. Jeff would occasionally strike up conversation with me. At first I wasn't quite sure if he was interested in me or if he was just a friendly guy...despite the fact that he let me borrow his wireless head phones for as long as I wanted so I could decide if I wanted to step up my headphone game and gave me a sunshield for my car when I complained about my hot leather seats. Then, our mutual gym friend, Pete, started putting a bug in my ear that Jeff and I should date. From there it was just a waiting game to see if he'd ask me out. One day while chit chatting, he challenged me to a game of tennis. I won't say who won...but you know ;-) After our tennis match we went to ROAK and shared a flight of beer out on the patio. Anyone who knows me knows that this is an absolutely ideal date for me! I guess you can say the rest is history!

For Christmas last year, we hung stockings on the wall in our little condo. I decided to do little "12 Days of Christmas" stocking stuffers for Jeff. I'd put a little note on his stocking like "I brought some corn for popping" with a bag of popcorn or "Baby, it's cold outside" with a packet of hot chocolate. You get the idea. Well, Jeff started joining in with little notes and gifts of his own. On Christmas Eve we were getting ready to go to his parents house and he asked me to check my stocking. I pulled out a little white box with 3 notes on it. They read "Santa baby", "Forgot to mention one little thing...", "A Ring! (Turn around beautiful)". There he was down on one knee, with...you guessed it! The ring! :-D

I dont know when I first heard it. Neither of us remember the moment when I shared with Jeff how much I loved it...but when I played it for him the first time, he had never heard it before. A couple of days later, we were pulling into the Meijer parking lot and it came on the radio. Jeff started singing every...single...word. My jaw dropped! I looked over at him with a shocked look on my face and he just looked back at me with a little grin on his face while he continued to belt out every lyric. Apparently Jeff had taken it upon himself to play the song on loop during a work road trip to and from Saginaw, until he knew it like it was HIS favorite song. My heart melted that day and Beyond has been our song ever since. Yes, he still serenades me every time it comes on. :-D