Our Happily Ever After

After constant let down by internet men, Malynda had given up! She was going to be the fun cool aunt and that was truly good enough! She had deleted all the dating apps from her phone and figured God knew what he was doing by keeping her single! Nathan, was searching for that person he had been missing and longing for. Companionship, love, and most of all, friendship. They had both gone on more bad dates than good. Nathan, after searching the interwebs in the Twin Cities, then the whole state of Minnesota, with no luck, decided to open his search to the surrounding states with not much hope. One day, he stumbled upon the most beautiful woman he had ever seen! He read her profile and thought she was absolutely the best thing since sliced bread! He decided to send her a message because what did he have to loose? Malynda, annoyed with multiple emails she kept getting saying she had messages on the app, logged in to delete her account entirely! She decided, for the fun of it, to read the messages! She read one from a guy in MN. She read his profile and thought, wow! If this guy is half as good as his profile says, he is absolutely worth this! (P.s. he is above and beyond what she could have ever dreamt!) Malynda replied to Nathan and that is where it all began! They talked about their families, their jobs, their past relationships, life, hobbies, oh yeah, and their shared love of 90’s country music! Malynda sent him pictures of her cats, Mushu and Pua and told Nathan, if you can tell me where their names originated, I might just have to marry you! (Foreshadowing much?!) Nathan asked her if he can take her out to dinner, then realized, she was 5 1/2 hours away from him! They made plans to meet at The China Buffet (barf) in Council Bluffs, then go out to Karaoke at Malynda’s bar!

When the day came, Malynda wasn’t convinced he was actually going to show! What person, other than a serial killer, travels nearly 6 hours to take out a less than ordinary girl? It was January, and Iowa had a massive snow storm the night before! Malynda decided to go get groceries before meeting him, if he actually shows! Sure enough, Nathan texts Malynda and says, “I’m here!” Malynda still had to check out, load the car, and drive to the restaurant! She tells him she is running late (ha!) but will be there shortly! She heads to the restaurant and sees him! She is PLEASANTLY surprised that his selfie taking skills don’t show the true Nathan! They ate dinner (at the worst chinese buffet known to man!) and talked and laughed and smiled! Malynda was getting giddy but didn’t want to admit it! Nathan was completely smitten and didn’t hide it at all! After dinner, Malynda, still not convinced he wasn’t going to murder her, said, “Follow me to the bar!” Now, Malynda had told all of her friends she was meeting a crazy person from Minneapolis and to be ready if she needed them! They got to the bar, got their names on the karaoke list, and sat with some friends and started talking! Who knows what Malynda sang, it was probably Gunpowder and Lead by Miranda Lambert! Nathan’s turn! He sings John Michael Montgomery, I Can Love You Like That. Shelly, the bartender, came up to Malynda (who mind you is grinning from ear to ear) and says, honey, I don’t think you have anything to worry about. From that day forward, every two weeks, Nathan drove the highway of nothingness through Iowa to show how much he had completely fallen for Malynda, and Malynda, eagerly awaited his arrival, and fought him leaving every time! There is no doubt in their minds that God had made them for each other! Their love was going to make all the romance movies jealous!

Grab a snack because this is a good one! A few weeks before it finally happened, Nathan and Malynda were sitting on the couch. Malynda noticed out of the corner of her eye, that Nathan had pulled out his credit card and was typing the number into his cell phone. She glanced at him and asked, “Whatcha doing?”. Nathan quickly hid his phone so she couldn’t see and said “Nothin!” (Yeah ok she believes you!) About a week or so later, Nathan said, “ I want Dairy Queen! Do you want to come?” Malynda was busy working on a craft project (another one???) at the time, and Maleesha, visiting from Missouri, was being a teenager and declined the invite. Nathan left. A few minutes later, Nathan sent Malynda a text and said “I decided to stop at Best Buy and look around” to which Malynda replied, “ok, for what?” Nathan then responded, rather suspiciously mind you, “ nothing, you know how I like to look at stuff” Of course, Malynda says to herself, “ok, yeah right… what is he up to?” A week later, They are getting ready to go to Leisure Lake, Malynda’s grandparents lake house, for 4th of July with her family and Nathan’s phone rings. He answers it and responds, “This is him… ok… thank you… perfect… thanks…” and hangs up. Malynda, already suspicious of his weirdness asks who it was. Nathan replies, “No one!” (It was obviously SOMEONE Nate!) A few minutes later, Malynda says, “before we leave town today, lets stop and get some Tii Cup so Maleesha can have it once more before she goes home.” Nathan makes it very known that he is worried about what time they get out of town! (Why? Is it because your bromance with Malynda’s uncle Josh is waiting???) He then says, “I will go get it now, text me what you want!” and he books it out the door! Malynda runs upstairs and says to Maleesha, “Nate is being weird….” And proceeds to tell her all of these details and ways that he is up to something!

While Nathan was gone getting Tii Cup, Malynda decides she needs the opinion of her friend Kim on the situation. She records a video to send to Kim of all the details she spewed off to Maleesha, including, “Is my boyfriend going to propose to me? Did he buy a ring? Stay tuned” Nathan, while at Tii Cup, texts her and asks her to move the mouse of his computer, since he isnt signed off for the day yet! She opens the text message to read it, but then goes back to finish sending the video to Kim. Here is where it gets good! Malynda sends the video, then realizes she sent it to Nate! All she can think of is hurry, turn on airplane mode so it cannot send! Then delete the video! Malynda flips out! She tells Maleesha over and over again that she is going to be sick! Maleesha, always full of excellent advice, tells her to just act natural, don’t talk to Nate when he gets home, but dont be too suspicious! Well, Nathan walks in and says,” who did you mean to send that video too?” DARN IT! It did send! Everyone just laughs it off and doesn’t talk about Nathan’s weirdness again. Does Nathan explain what he was doing being weird? Nope! Malynda figures she is probably right, but if he was planning in proposing, it isnt happening this weekend at the lake!

“We want to buy a house so I can not carry a balance on our credit cards before we buy.” “Malynda is working a contract position and can be let go at any time.” “If she hints one more time that she is ready for a proposal, I’m shipping her to Iowa, or better yet Missouri!” These thoughts have been running through Nathan’s head over and over for awhile now. Of course, Scarlett saying, “Nate, you better give Minda Mae a ring right now, she really wants to marry you!” doesn’t help! Malynda has sent Nathan ring ideas and talked about what she wants. He could go in blind and just feel a ring and know if she would like it or not at this point. Nathan has been looking online but can not commit to one just yet. Being the responsible and levelheaded one in the relationship, things have to line up just perfectly before he can make the buy. Malynda was recently informed that her contract was ending early and has been interviewing for a permanent position but there is nothing set in stone yet. Until… there is! Malynda got the job as bookkeeper/accountant for Kremer Services! Nathan gets on the jewelers website and sees the ring Malynda wants is on sale- better yet, a bigger ring is on sale! Score!!! Nathan puts it in his online cart. But, Malynda is sitting next to him on the couch- ok, “Don’t be suspicious, don’t be suspicious” Crap! She saw him! Ok, Nate be cool! Malynda says, “whatcha doing?” Quick… uhhh.. “Nothin!” Phew! Good one! Threw her off the scent! A few days later Nate recieved an email that says the ring is in and he can go pick it up. But, Malynda and Nate are NEVER apart. Both of them working from home means they are together ALL the time! Nate thinks about how he can get to the store to pick it up 1) by himself and 2) without Malynda asking too many questions! With Maleesha in town visiting, maybe he can come up with something!

Malynda has been working on a craft project for Brandie for sometime. With the 4th of July trip to the cabin, it was really important that she got it done! Nathan knew it was his chance to get out of the house without her! He decided to ask Maleesha if she wanted to go with him and take Kepler to the dog park! He will tell her that he is going to propose, leave her and Kepler at the dog park and run to the mall to get the ring! Of course, Maleesha being a teenager says she doesn’t want to go to the park! So Nate decides the next best thing is to go get ice cream! “I really want Dairy Queen!” Nathan says! Malynda replies, “Ok! Do you want to take Kep so he can have a pupcup?” Nathan thinks ‘if I take Kep, I can’t go into the mall’ “No, I will go by myself, Text me what you want!” He got out, alone! Ok, now he has to go to Mall of America, run inside to the jewelers, get the ring, get DQ, and come home in a reasonable amount of time! He decides, to buy himself some time, to text Malynda “I am going to look at Best Buy before I go to Dairy Queen”. That should buy him some time! Malynda knows he loves his technology! Malynda replies, “ok, what are you looking at?” Uhhhh… “nothing specific, you know how i like to look at things.” Another good one! Nathan is POSITIVE she has NO idea whats going on! (Sorry buddy, she is on to you! You aren’t very good at lying and hiding things!) When he arrives at the jeweler they inform him the email was sent on accident and the ring is not there! Nathan is disappointed! He knows how much Malynda’s family means to her and a proposal with her family is the ONLY way to do it! He texts Malynda’s sister MaKayla to ask her opinion, she says he should buy a temporary ring and propose this weekend at the lake, then when the real ring ACTUALLY comes in, he can give it to her! Nathan agrees, but maybe he can find one in Jamesport at some of the Amish Markets! Nathan goes to DQ and takes ice cream back home.

Its the day they are heading to the cabin. Malynda and Nathan are “working” a half day so they can get to the cabin in good time. While in the kitchen packing Kepler’s things Nathan’s phone rings. Nathan assumes its another spam call, but its not! Its the jeweler, the ring is in! Nathan again has to be casual, he answers the phone has only short one word responses so Malynda won’t catch on. She asks who was calling. “No one.” Now all he is worried about is figuring out how to get there and get the ring! He is loading up the car, taking trash out, but mostly thinking! He can not come up with any ideas! Its 10:30am, they are working until 12pm qnd then plan on getting lunch and heading to the cabin. Nathan comes back upstairs and Malynda says, “Hey, can we get TiiCup before lunch so Maleesha can have it one more time before we leave?” Nathan immediately says, “How? we don’t have time!” But, then thinks to himself, this is it! This is his chance! “Ok, I will just go now, text me what you want!” And he heads out!! Ok, drive FAST! Nathan speeds to the mall, runs in and doesn’t even hardly look at the ring, and gets to tii cup! Thank the good lord above for keeping the cops off the freeway today! Nathan texts Malynda letting her know that Tiicup will be ready at 11:30, and asking if she will wiggle his mouse so it looks like he is still online. Malynda sent him a video- she is kinda wonderful! But, Nathan quickly realizes the video wasn’t for him, and that she is completely onto him! Well crap, now what? He thinks to himself, “just play it cool!” He gets home, walks in the door, and asks, “Who was that video supposed to go to?” Malynda is visibly uncomfortable that she sent it to him! These two are a match made in heaven, neither one is very slick!

Nathan has the ring, Malynda doesn’t expect a proposal, the family is together, its an amazing weekend! MaKayla and Maleesha both know that Nate wants to propose this weekend and MaKayla has agreed to help come up with a plan. MaKayla has also enlisted the help of Stephanie! Nate only needs to ask David (Malynda’s dad) for his blessing, but again, how?! David takes a minute to go to the camper and Malynda is distracted so Nate takes his chance! David of course offers his blessing, as he can see just how perfect Nate is for Malynda, and just how much Nate loves his daughter! On 4th if July weekend, the Leisure Lake Association holds boat and golf cart decorating contests, and a golf cart parade, Stephanie, MaKayla and Nate decide that is the best opportunity for the proposal! While Sara, Steph, Nate, Malynda, Josh, and the kids are getting the golf carts ready, Brandie and MaKayla are finalizing proposal decorations! The entire family head down to the beach and the kids, Stephanie, MaKayla, and Brandie get ready for the parade, and the proposal! Malynda and Scarlett sit on the side of the hill and watch as the golf carts go by one time! Josh, and Nate worry that the opportunity had passed so Josh Calls Stephanie! They are turning around and coming back! The family’s golf carts are at the end of the lineup, so as they are waiting, Nathan’s nerves are growing, he wishes Malynda would just stand up so he can actually get on one knee! The first golf cart is there, Malynda reads the sign outloud “Will…” the next one.. “You…” the next one “mar….” and all of a sudden, it makes sense! Malynda is crying, Nate holds the ring out and asks her to become Mrs. Riehle! The first words out of Malynda’s mouth are, “Did you ask my parents?” Of course he did, he knows how important that was to you! Malynda, without any other hesitation says yes! There is no doubt in their minds that God created these two for each other. Our love makes the movies jealous!