We're FINALLY doing it!

Powell Middle School, 6th grade, brand new school district for Nicole, finally made it to middle school for Evan. Just a week or two into the school year Evan spots his blonde beauty from across the cafeteria and he knows he has to know more about her. No its not her looks, she wasn't smiling because well, chewing, he's never spoken to her so it couldn't be her personality, so what was it? Evan walks up to Nicole and says.............."Take that shirt off" Wait....what? take that shirt off?? Why would you ever say that to someone you don't know? You see, Nicole was sitting at a lunch table wearing a purple tee shirt with the name Storm across the chest and the number 9 on the back. It was the Soccer shirt her brother outgrew. Nicole's brother had played for the Storm as number 9 for years and had just left the team that summer. Evan didn't care about the girl or the reason, all he knew was that he was now number 9 on the Storm and that was his shirt! You can imagine the banter between these two stubborn 6th graders that ultimately lead to....well....nothing. Evan lost, Nicole continued to wear that shirt and Evan would be angry every time he saw her in it. That is until the end of the year when Evan asked Nicole to be his girlfriend. Nicole said yes, they were 11 year olds holding hands in the hallway...It was magical! Until Evan let go of Nicole's hand one day in 7th grade to run ahead and be a preteen boy, actions of which Nicole was not amused by. That's the day Nicole broke up with Evan. He shrugged and walked away. They stayed best friends all the way through school and are still best friends to this day...just madly in love with each other best friends!

We were driving around on Christmas Eve and as we were getting ready to head home when we drove right past a Jared Jewelry store. He stopped at the light he looked at me and asked "Do you wanna go spend money?" I laughed and smiled only to find out he wasn't kidding. He turned the car around, parked in the Jared parking lot, and told me to get out. We spent hours looking at styles and bands. I still thought we were just getting ideas until they put this beautiful compass setting princess cut diamond on my hand. We both fell in love with it immediately so he bought it. Now, I had to wait for the proposal but that was just a matter of time, all because he whisked me into a store and helped me design the perfect ring to match our epic love story. And he did it all in true Evan fashion.

Early August 2018 we found out that we were expecting out first child together. With our lovely three children from Evan's previous commitments, we found ourselves adapting to being a family of 6. Oh and what an adaptation it has been. But as our little ticket to inheriting the big cabin (John and Michele have two cabins up in northern Michigan and it only makes sense that the bigger family between my brother and myself would get the big cabin, right?) grew, so did our love, family bond, and family memories together.