Chris and I met at work. Chris is an occupational therapist and I was working in medical records part time while going through nursing school. We had a great group of co-workers during that time and we all enjoyed hanging out together. Initially, I wasn't super fond of Chris. I thought that he didn't give anyone the time of day, and being a newer employee at the time I took it personally. After getting to know him more, my thought of him changed. He was always very fun and goofy while working. He had a great relationship with many of his patients and after getting to know him, I understood why. We grew to know one another over the years I worked with him. In 2020 we decided to see where things would go if we allowed ourselves to be honest with our feelings for one another. Chris has always been a man who preaches on having good communication. In a conversation we had before we wanted to date one another, he told me "We have this fire going right now and we need to figure out if we want to throw wood on it to make it grow, or throw water on it and put it out." I think we all know what option we picked.

It was a beautiful Saturday afternoon. We both had been looking forward to taking our canoe out to fish after a busy week at work. Our go to spot is my grandparents pond because with each cast you throw, you get a bite. After we loaded up the canoe on our 4Runner, we drove out to LeRoy. I had noticed that Chris was awfully quiet, which is very unlike him. I attempted to make small talk with hopes he'd have more to say but the attempt failed. I brushed it off and enjoyed the rest of our drive to my grandparents. As soon as we pulled into the lot and opened the gate to get to the pond, Chris was driving around trying to find the "right spot" to unload the canoe. I annoyingly asked him what he was doing and that we parked in the same spot every time, as I was confused why this time was any different. As we finally parked the 4Runner and proceeded to get out to unload the canoe, Chis yelled for me to meet him at the back of the vehicle. He began to pull me away further into the pasture of grass and I was getting increasingly annoyed at this point because I was so confused about what was going on. He began to explain to me how happy I make him and how much he cared for me. After much more explanation and detail, he got down on one knee and asked me to marry him. While asking me the question, he opened the ring box in the wrong direction so I didn't know what this mysterious ring looked like. My heart was racing trying to keep up with all the emotions I was feeling. I was so shocked and happy but I had to laugh and tell him the box was backwards but my answer was YES. As he was taking the ring out of the box he kept saying that he thought the ring wasn't going to fit because it looked so small. He perfectly placed it on my left ring finger while I was shaking from excitement. After many hugs and kisses, he had another surprise for me. Not only did he plan a great surprise proposal, he had asked my cousin Shelby to be involved to help capture the moment. Shelby is a great photographer and she was able to help plan this proposal out with Chris. She was hiding in the barn by the pond to capture the moment. After he pointed to the barn and explained that Shelby had just captured it all, I saw her beautiful face pop out. It was a truly unforgettable day.