We're getting married!

Online dating is an interesting experience and one I was getting rather tired of, but about the same time I gave up on actually finding anyone and just decided to enjoy the friends I'd made in the Catholicmatch.com chatroom, everything changed. On February 15, 2016 a thumbnail pic of a cute guy with bright blue eyes popped up on my home page. I clicked, wanting to see if he was as cute as he seemed in a tiny picture. He absolutely was. Still, I hesitated on messaging him. Thankfully, Michael had no qualms about messaging me because not five minutes later there was a message from him in my inbox. It didn't take long for us to exchange phone numbers and what I thought would be a thirty minute phone call on my commute home from school, turned into a two hour conversation. We had other things to do, so we decided we'd call back later. The phone call that night was another four hours long. In that first week, Michael and I spent nearly forty hours on the phone talking. And we haven't stopped since then. We met in person at the end of April 2016 and despite the most awkward car ride, thanks to my dad being there when I picked Michael up at the airport, we decided to really try this whole long distance relationship thing. There were lots of phone and video calls, movie nights, games, and whatever other date nights we could come up with to keep getting to know each other. We were also fortunate enough that we saw each other almost every month. Mostly, Michael came to see me, but I made it out to Vegas a few times as well. It was hard, but oh so worth it. In October 2021, Michael was finally able to move to California just before his birthday. I flew out to Las Vegas for the weekend before we drove to Sacramento together. It was a long but fun twelve hour road trip. We just had to wait a couple of weeks for all of his things to show up. (Moving pods are amazing! I did not want to drive a moving truck all that way!) The last seven months of being able to date more regularly have been wonderful!

In December 2021, my entire family went on a trip to Disneyland that we had been planning since before the pandemic. I was so excited to go with Michael and my family to one of my favorite places for the celebration of my favorite holiday. Leading up to this trip, I'd begun to wonder if Michael might propose, but about a week before we left, he threw me off the scent by saying he hadn't had a chance to even think about it with his business and the move and everything else. It seemed plausible to me and I was glad to stop wondering either way if it was going to happen or not. My whole family was nervous when our flight was delayed and then they were trying to figure out how to get the ring in the park when I decided to share a backpack with Michael instead of keep my own things. There was some very tricky sleight of hand by my sister, her fiancé and Michael while I was looking in one of my favorite shops. We had early dinner reservations and my mom proclaimed that she wanted to go see the lighting of It's a Small World. The timing was pretty perfect for us to ride a ride or two after dinner and then go see the lights come on. There was a huge crowd by the time we got there and my whole family was wondering how this was going to turn out when my brother spotted an empty alcove on one of the raised walkways. It was a perfect view without many people close by. The lights came on and it was beautiful. I saw Michael kneel out of the corner of my eye but thought he was just tying his shoe. When he tugged on my hand, I turned and was absolutely shocked to see that he was indeed proposing! I don't remember all of the beautiful things he said, but I do know I said yes! The rest of the weekend was a bit of a blur and I'm delighted that Disneyland now holds an extra special place in our story. Here is to so many more trips and memories that we will make together!