I got to see Kaycee occasionally when she would come visit her sister in San Luis Obispo, who was a good friend of mine. I always had my eye on Kaycee and made sure her sister would tell me everything about her. It was at a Taylor Swift concert in LA that I had my first shot at spending time with Kaycee, at least I was hoping so. Except she chose to sit the farthest away from me and had our friends sit in-between us. A few months later she moved to San Luis Obispo where we had more opportunities to ‘hang out’ and get to know each other. After taking her on a hike and getting her white shoes dirty because she wasn't prepared, she sure made me work hard to win her over. Her response every time I asked to take her out on a date was “I guess so” or “no”. It turns out she’s very sarcastic. After I literally went to the moon and back for this girl, showed off my cooking skills, and made sure she knew how important she was to me I finally got her to admit she liked me. And through the journey that followed I had a front row seat to see how she follows Jesus and love on me.

My mom always told me that I couldn’t date, let alone marry, someone who wanted to be the “Star” because I like to be the Star. However, anyone who knows Kyler, knows that I clearly did not listen to my mother. (Sorry, Mom.) After visiting SLO a couple of times and meeting my sister’s friends, I started getting likes, comments, and messages from Kyler. He would ask Kara for information about me then she would tell me, and we would always joke saying, “It’s because Kyler loves me”. (Little did we know.) Kyler sent me a message one day asking if I wanted to go to a Taylor Swift concert with a group of friends. I said no, but he was so persistent. I ended up going because...if you know me, you know I won’t turn down seeing T.Swift. When I moved to SLO for work, Kyler was always around — at game nights...movies...all the social gatherings. One night he asked if I wanted to go on an adventure and I said no. He wouldn’t stop asking, so eventually I said yes. (Do you see a pattern here?) As this cycle continued, I learned that Kyler is really sassy, kind of weird, and extremely thoughtful. He’s a great listener and has the biggest heart for Jesus and His people. He always gives me a hard time for giving him a hard time, but at least I said yes when it really counted.