Josh and I met the summer of 2015 at World of Beer. You see, Derek (my brother) and Josh worked together and were friends. It was a trivia night and all I thought was "crap, this dude is smart. I kinda want to know his story" But Derek and I had to get the boys so the idea of becoming friends was postponed. Fast forward to my 2 week Christmas trip to Texas. Derek, a few of his friends (including Josh), and I were going out to celebrate the New Year. It was a short night as one of the friends got a wee shmammered. The rest of us continued to talk and have a great time at Bar 1919 until I got a text from Derek... “at home, continue the party, tell Josh” Perfect, close tabs, get home, and continue the fun. Josh offered to drive me home but another friend insisted he’d take me. Josh thought that meant there was more going on between that friend and I, so he didn’t come to Derek’s. That miscommunication caused us to postpone another opportunity to get to know each other better, Happy 2016... Fast forward again to my 2 weeks in Texas for Christmas 2016. We didn’t have the boys on Christmas day which made the day sound bleak and boring. But we were saved! Josh invited Derek, which meant he also invited me, to spend Christmas Day at his house with people they worked with. A relaxed atmosphere to visit and get to know new people, including Josh? Yeah, I was game! The conversation of me moving to Texas was brought up, as it always did when Derek had a say in it. Josh chimed in “I have a spare room. You can just move into my house. I’ll be retired soon and the new job I’m hoping to get is in Russia every other month! It’ll be perfect!” Blah, blah, blah I agreed to look into applying and see what would happen. We played games, talked, laughed and had a great time. Friends at last.

Our conversation continued that night, even after we left. Gotta give it up for Facebook Messenger for making it easier for Kyla to actually talk to people, especially boys! But life happened and we talked less and less. Didn’t think much of it as I was still living in Kansas and wasn’t 100% sure about moving to Texas. Spring 2017 was when I finally knew I needed a change and Texas was a safe move for me. So instead of a 2 week visit in the summer, I moved into Derek’s house. I lived in his house while he was deployed for a year. I hadn’t talked to Josh in months, even after moving to TX. Our lives had gone in different directions. I had fun going on dates during that first year. I learned more about myself & what I thought I wanted. I had even found a guy that I thought could possibly be serious. Nope, just got burned instead. At this point it seemed the thing to do was to just give up on the whole dating/finding someone to do life with. I was good at being independently owned & operated, why change? This was about the time Josh put out an SOS on Facebook. He needed a roommate to keep his cats alive & his house safe while he was away every other month for work. After lots of contemplating I agreed. It was free rent for crying out loud! Before I moved in Josh planned an outing with some friends. We attempted an escape room but sadly failed. Then we went on a night river float with his kids & friends. It was on that day that I knew we at least didn’t hate each other. And I knew we would probably be able to survive living together for at least a year. Over the summer I lived at both houses while Derek and Josh worked. I kept animals alive, painted my room, and moved my things. When I finally moved in for good Josh was in Russia. I decided that that was a blessing in disguise.I hadn’t had a roommate in over 10 years and I was a little nervous about sharing a living space. So getting settled and acquainted with my new home was much easier while he was gone.

Josh’s first month home we did a lot of talking. Authentic talking. The honest, ugly, I don’t care what you think about my beliefs, I’m not trying to impress you kind of talking. I’d come home from work, vent, share ridiculous stories from school, complain about men, or brag about my gym victories. Josh would make dinner most nights (“I have to cook for myself, it’s easy to feed you too”) and I’d clean the kitchen afterwards. We watched random Netflix shows, ran errands, & gave each other hell. Yep, it was happening, Joshua Emmanuel was becoming my best friend. Then it was time for him to leave for Russia. I surprised myself because I was actually a little sad. Don’t get me wrong, I was going to enjoy the peace and quiet but I was also going to miss having him around. But even with him on the other side of the world we continued to talk. In fact we talked everyday through Facebook Messenger (our communication lifesaver). We continued our talks about random stuff but we added a daily mail call report. I now felt like I had a fake husband, I mean that’s what it felt like when I was opening his mail and all. It was perfect. We were fake husband and wife, which is like a real husband and wife but minus the feelings part. He was home a month later & again I was truly shocked with myself. When I agreed to live with him I figured I’d be counting down the days until he left and dreading when he was coming back but it was becoming the complete opposite! Then Josh’s parents came to visit in Nov to help fix up parts of the house. There was lots of storytelling, laughing, & of course eating. We had such a great time they even invited me to come to North Carolina over Christmas break. I thought it was such a nice gesture but then when Josh was buying tickets he was actually serious & said he’d love for me to go. I thought, why not? Spending time with my best friend, his kids and family, sounds like a great way to spend my break. We left the day after Christmas.

I met his beautiful sister, her awesome family, his extremely clever brother, & his loving grandmother. They all made me feel so welcomed & at home. While in NC his family helped me get caught up on some classic movies I had never seen & I kicked some major booty in a game of bowling (got my first ever turkey!!!) One day we were all in the kitchen talking & laughing before dinner. I was across the island from Josh & someone was telling a story of some kind. We made eye contact & he gave me a smirk. He’s alway given that smirk but this smirk was different. His eyes sparkled a little which made my heart flutter with this weird kind of pressure. I didn’t know what was happening! At first I thought I was having a heart attack, I was almost sure that's what it was. I was about to tell Josh he needed to take me to the hospital when it dawned on me...my Grinch heart grew 3 sizes that night. I was shocked, yet again. Was this real? Was my heart really capable of having feelings? We ended up staying up late watching a movie one night and *gasp* we kissed! I was supposed to leave the next day (I can’t remember the dates exactly) but Josh talked me into staying for the New Year. Of course I made him swear he wouldn’t tell anyone we kissed so we had to wait until everyone went to bed before we shared *gasp* our New Year’s kiss! I went home the next day while Josh & the kids stayed a few days longer. While he was still in NC we talked everyday & he even built me an entryway shelf that I really wanted. I was so unsure about what was happening. I didn't want this whole thing to be a fluke & take the chance of hurting my best friend. He came home for a total of 4 hours before he left for Russia. So here we were, sharing a few kisses & he was off to Russia before we could even try to figure out what was happening between us. But we were saved by Facebook Messenger. We talked daily & made an agreement. We were together but we were not telling anyone until I was sure it was real.

We continued our secret relationship and enjoyed every moment. We did little things together like a weekend trip to Austin and took the kids to the beach for Easter. Finally in May we decided to be open about it all. But when we did come clean no one was surprised, “oh we knew it was happening.” We planned a full summer including another beach trip with his parents, deck building, my family reunion and a trip with the kids to hunt some diamonds. We also did some engagement diamond shopping too! It was when I got my Bubi’s ring fixed and sized “you know you can’t bring me to a diamond store without letting me look!” Apparently he was perfectly fine with it and even took me to a bigger stare to really browse what they had. The gentleman helping us was keeping rings I like on a little tray thing but wouldn't let me have more than 3. All I could think was “dude we are just looking, if I want 8 favorites I should be allowed!” But he didnt let me. I had 2 I really liked but really wanted them to be combined for the perfect Kyla ring. Josh was way ahead of me and hollered “come look!” Here he is rushing me! Did he not realize I had 4 cases to browse before I got to him?!!? “Babe, you won’t like any of those just come here!” He was right he found the perfect ring! I said “yep, when you wanna you know what ring to get!” But I guess he was ready and we bought it right then. And then life went on like normal, the ring was sent off to be made and sadly Josh went back to Russia. There was no talk of when the proposal would happen, I just knew it would and it would be small, “Josh, seriously, I don't want anything big. Just the two of us and you asking me to marry you. That’s all I’ve ever wanted.” Josh replied with a sly remark of just throwing the ring at me or something and me thinking, perfect we are on the same page...

One night we talked about getting married and the proposal. Josh told me he planned to propose on an island. I was thinking, well that takes away the whole surprise of things because when we go to an island I’ll know it’s coming. But then again I wasn't going to turn down an island get away someday. In September my parents made a plan to come visit us. Josh had a great idea of having his parents come too, “Well if we are going to make this a forever thing they should eventually meet and preferably before the wedding.” I thought this was an awesome idea & didn’t think anything of it. As the weekend drew near Josh mentioned a scavenger hunt. He explained he really wanted something for us to do that was different, fun, & engaging. I was so impressed he came up with this idea. I was game! We started off at Hemisfair Park where we got our challenges and I received The Golden Ticket which meant an ice cream stop and a bag of goodies part way through the hunt. One of our other stops was about a ghost story and then it turned out to be a quick story about Josh and I. We went around to a few more stops before cashing in my Golden Ticket. While getting ice cream we were serenaded by a sweet girl singing “Do You Wanna Build A Snowman?” which was another memory from our past. I started getting suspicious of the whole hunt and started to become very self-conscious of everything that was happening. We had our EPIC ENDING at the Love Lock Bridge. I really thought this was it but when we only added our love lock, Kyla being the center of attention was over! Time to go home, right? Wrong! There was a bonus stop at “Wishing Island.” Once we got there I knew this was the actual epic ending. After a quick story about the “wishing Island”(actually Marriage Island), a scratcher card that Josh made, and a wish, Josh proposed. We got cheers from our family along with a boat full of strangers passing by on the Riverwalk. Guess he held up his “I’ll propose on an island” promise...sneaky guy!