We both swiped right on Match.com… twice! There’s still an ongoing “discussion” about who ghosted whom the first time around, but everyone knows who is right! The only thing we can agree on is that voice inflection through text gets lost in translation and someone ended up ghosting the other... We even reached out to Match.com for the old conversations to find out the truth about who sent the last message, but they only keep records for 6 months, so we're out of luck 👻. Six months later, we matched again and the conversation was much smoother the second time around... partly because T.J. forgot about the previous conversation! Our first date was at Rusty Bucket in Rookwood because it was roughly halfway between Anderson and Colerain with only two airport layovers 😂. It was a rainy June evening, perfect for grabbing a couple drinks and some dinner. When we sat down we started chatting about life, family, careers, and before we knew it we were two hours into the conversation with lots of laughs and not one moment of awkward silence. The poor bartender stopped asking if we wanted food because he knew we hadn't even looked at the menu! After a couple drinks, a very late dinner, multiple best-friend “are you alive?” phone calls, and three hours of conversation, we decided we had enough in common to go on a second date. And the rest, as they say, is history❤️!

It was my second week at a new job and the receptionist called to say I had a delivery waiting at the front desk. I went down and I discovered there were flowers waiting from "my secret admirer", obviously T.J. 🥰. He is always thoughtful/romantic but we also had a running prank war, so I was "on-guard" for any surprise around the corner 😏. I ended up having to work late that day and he called asking when I was coming home, which heightened my "Spidey" senses even more to a possible prank. When I finally walked through the front door, I was consumed by a room filled with candlelight and delicious Italian food. However, this isn't the first candlelit dinner he has planned and he played it off as just a nice dinner for the two of us so I still wasn't tipped off that a proposal was coming... After dinner, T.J. motioned me over to the fireplace where there were stockings with our initials hung and explained the tradition of St. Nick’s day. I reached into my "M" stocking and pulled out an ornament, some candy, and a tangerine. While I was looking at the ornament, T.J. sneakily reached into his stocking, pulled out the ring, and got down on one knee before I knew what was even happening. By the time I looked up, he was already popping the question! I was so surprised, I couldn't get the words out, for what seemed like FOREVER, but finally through tears of happiness I said YES! He definitely shocked me! I guess it wasn't a prank after-all! 💕