yes, we know...it’s about damn time!

We officially met at a mutual friend's birthday dinner in May 2007, but he loves to remind me that we actually met briefly prior to that at St. Columban church (although I honestly don't remember the encounter, but he did say that I ran off afterwards to go get McDonald's and I really can't argue with that because, well, he was right). When I arrived at the restaurant for the birthday dinner, I sat across from him and he said hello in a manner as if he knew me, but my facial expression basically told him "who the hell are you?" So he reintroduced himself and during the dinner, he sang "She Bangs" by Ricky Martin to me because apparently I "looked upset" (that's just my face, dude) and he wanted to "talk to me" by singing the line. Oh, and he also purposely called me by the wrong name THREE times during the dinner. He says it was his way of making himself memorable (yeah right). Well I guess it worked, because after a handful of late night phone calls and three dates later, we made our relationship official on June 28, 2007.

On June 22nd, 2018, in our newly remodeled home, I was hard at work cleaning in preparation for our housewarming party the very next day. He decided to come home from work with a bag of red and white balloons, explaining that he wanted to spruce up the photo booth that my sister (thanks Sheena!) had set up the night before for the housewarming. Instead of helping me clean, he decided he needed to blow the balloons up and (attempt to) hang them along the top of the photo booth. Unfortunately, it did not match the theme of the party and I had to warn my sister that he was adding to the photo booth that she had worked long and hard on (boy, was she not happy). But I insisted that he is putting forth the effort towards our party so I allowed it (when he's determined at doing something, there's really no stopping him anyway). As always, I need music while I clean, so he decided to play the song "Let Me" by Zayn (as you can see, music is a big part of our relationship). He asked me to help him mop the house and all I thought was "why can't you do it yourself?!" But I digressed and helped him. While doing it, I noticed a red towel (he still likes to say it was a "red carpet" 'til this day) in front of the photo booth. I asked why it was there and he said he wasn't sure and asked me to go pick it up. After I picked it up, I turned around to hand it to him and he placed it back on the ground and went down on one knee. And there you have it ladies and gentlemen, our proposal. To sum it up: Zayn singing in the background, us in our new home in front of the beautiful photo booth, balloons all over the ground, me in rubber gloves looking like a hot mess from all the cleaning, and him on one knee with a red TOWEL. All I remember saying right after he knelt down was "you can't do this to me right now!" But of course I zipped it after he pulled out the ring. Man, diamonds really are a girl's best friend... ______ We're so happy to be sharing the next chapter of our lives with you!