It was the beginning of the second semester of Mr. Neptune's art class, and Jessica had an empty seat beside her. Then walked in a little chubby freshman boy named Ryan. Mr. Neptune said, "Have a seat there beside Jessica." Ryan's face instantly turned red. Jessica was happy to have a new friend at her art table, while Ryan was completely mortified to have to sit with such a pretty upperclassmen. He was too shy to make eye contact, let alone talk to her. Mr. Neptune had them working on a graphite drawing at that time in which they would use all different types of pencils to get different shades. Ryan was too embarrassed to get up and pick out different pencils for his project, so he was just using a mechanical pencil. He didn't want to get up and do something embarrassing in front of her because in his mind that would be the worst thing that ever happened. Jessica said, "You know you don't have to use that pencil, right?" Ryan blushed and said, "yeah, I know." Those few short words were the beginning of a never ending conversation: short conversations in class turned into longer conversations at lunch time, and then even longer conversations on AIM after school.

It's Ben's weekend in WV (Ryan's friend from NC, and groomsman). We get up casually getting ready to explore Seneca for Ben's first time. He tells me to look cute so that Ben can get a nice picture of us. So I get my hair and make up looking cute. I kinda thought it was fishy, but then I was like no way this is Ben weekend. (We were going to spend time showing Ben some things we love about our state!) So we get there and have an awesome hike up Seneca. The weather was kinda cloudy and in the 70s so it was perfect. We hike past the overlook to the top where the rock climbers go. Ben takes a nice photo of us. Then Ryan reaches in his pocket and gets down on his knee, looking up at me with big watery eyes and he's shaking, and he says you're my best friend, will you marry me? And I am clenching my hands together until it hurts with my mouth open in shock. He felt like I took forever to answer but I felt like I didn't want to move so the moment wouldn't end. I finally said yes! And then he got up and kissed me. We hugged and kissed and smiled and laughed. As soon as he put the ring on my hand I felt relief and peace. I just felt calm and happy. After dinner at the Front Porch Restaurant we headed up to Spruce Knob. Ben brought his guitar and played some songs for us and this family. It was in the 50s up there so I had on my new hoodie and a scarf. So cool after sweating our guts out on Seneca. We walked down to the trail after hanging out on the overlook with that family. It took us to other over looks and picnic areas and all these rocks where it looked like the edge of the earth. Inside the trees it was foggy and eerie and whimsical like the Hobbit or Alice in Wonderland. It was so gorgeous. We didn't want to leave.

We wanted to share with everyone that we will be celebrating our honeymoon in Universal Studios! We look forward to experiencing all of the Harry Potter World attractions they offer as well as all the other rides and experiences (with the express pass of course!)