We did it!

We met online in June 2011. We talked on the phone for hours and texted constantly for weeks until we decided to meet in person for the first time. We met at Satellite Coffee in Albuquerque and immediately hit it off. Jolene was so nervous though that she spilled her drink all over both of us, twice. (That wasn't enough to scare Lee off apparently). We bonded over our mutual love of reading, board games, traveling, video games, and terrible puns. After that first meeting we became inseparable. Once Jolene moved to Albuquerque to go to UNM we started spending ever day together. We alternated nights at each other's places for 8 months and then decided to move in together. It was a big risk but it has seemingly paid off. From then, we have had the chance to travel the world together and experience new things with each other. Through the years we've had our trials and tribulations and have always come through them ok because we have each other.

After a long 5 months apart while Jolene was studying in Russia, we decided to meet up in Germany to celebrate Christmas together and then head to Iceland to ring in the New Year. After an amazing trip filled with Christmas markets, museums, and LOTS of snow Lee proposed while we were in Iceland for New Year's Eve. We bought some fireworks to celebrate and after lighting a few Lee got down on one knee and asked Jolene to marry him. It was a romantic, snowy, moonlit path with fireworks overhead.

On October 15, 2018 in Ucluelet, B.C., Canada we solidified our long-lasting commitment to each other. It was a beautiful, sunny day with the sound of waves crashing in the distance as we finally spoke our vows. One of our readings was from Captain Corelli's Mandolin: "Love is a temporary madness, it erupts like volcanoes and then subsides. And when it subsides, you have to make a decision. You have to work out whether your roots have so entwined together that it is inconceivable that you should ever part. Because this is what love is. Love is not breathlessness, it is not excitement, it is not the promulgation of promises of eternal passion, it is not the desire to mate every second minute of the day, it is not lying awake at night imagining that he is kissing every cranny of your body. No, don’t blush, I am telling you some truths. That is just being ‘in love’, which any fool can do. Love itself is what is left over when being in love has burned away, and this is both an art and a fortunate accident."- Louis de Bernières