Jon and Michele met in the summer of 2014. Michele had completed her last hitch on an oil rig, and was excited about the prospect of resuming a "normal" lifestyle. One of the first things she did was find the Space City Novice Hockey League, where she played her first season on the Houston Goons with Jon. They were both intrigued by each other, but it wasn't until summer of 2015 that the sparks began to fly, and in September of 2015, Jon asked Michele on a date. At the time, Michele was still recovering from shoulder surgery, and was score keeping for the hockey league. He skated over to the scorekeeper's box before the game, where Michele was hanging out in her sling and sweatpants. When he asked her to dinner, she promptly told him that she'd be out of state for the next 3 weekends. So he was pleasantly surprised 3 weeks later when she called him to take him up on his offer, realizing that she actually was out of state and not just coming up with a lame excuse to brush him off! :) And that is how their first date materialized, on 10.02.2015!

In December 2017, Jon and Michele went on a trip to Japan. It was Michele’s first trip to Japan, and Jon had prepared a surprise for her. On Christmas Day, Jon and Michele went to the Meiji Shrine in Tokyo. The Meiji Shrine is Tokyo's grandest Shinto shrine located in densely forested Yoyogi Park, which seems to make the biggest city in the world melt away when you walk through it. The proposal was a complete surprise to Michele, who had no idea that Jon had been researching rings for the past 6 months. Jon had taken the jeweler recommendation for the ring-sizing, and, subsequently, it ended up being a little too big. However, they decided it would be "safer" on her hand. And this may have been true, until they walked into an onsen (Japanese spa) in Hakone. In an onsen, you need to remove all your clothes to enter the hot baths per Japanese tradition, and washing thoroughly beforehand is a must. With her focus on... other things... Michele sat on a tiny stool and washed her hair in the dimly lit shower area before getting into the baths. She didn't notice until she met up with Jon after enjoying the many outdoor baths that her ring was missing. Panic!! They immediately suspected that she lost the ring in one of the outdoor baths, and Michele and the female onsen employees began frantically searching for the missing ring in the woman’s section of the onsen. After 40 minutes of waiting, Jon had decided that, if the ring was not found, he would purchase Michele a plastic ring with a whistle, but, thankfully, the ring was found lying in the shadows on the floor near the aforementioned tiny stool in the shower. And so our engagement began and our Japanese adventure continued!!

Jon and Michele will be hitched in the presence of their immediate family members in Southold, New York, on June 1, 2019.