He asked, she said yes!

Joe and Amanda met on New Years eve 2015. They had been friends on facebook for a few months after Amanda’s dad passed. Joe knew all about Amanda and Peyton from training and working with Amanda’s dad, but Amanda knew nothing about him! Lol Amanda was spending New Years at her best friends house, and Joe showed up with a mutual friend. Peyton kept Joe occupied while everyone played card games before going out. Funny story, Joe still has the pictures Peyton took on his phone. Amandas first impression: man this kid is nuts. Joes first impression: she’s responsible, staying in with her daughter and not going out on New Years. They never knew where their lives would end up!

February of 2017 Amanda was moving home to Wisconsin (finally!), but she had one problem. She had two dogs she couldn’t take to her uncle’s house. Amanda’s friend Angie said hey why don’t you ask Joe if he can foster for a little bit since he’s so good with dogs. So reluctantly and very nervously Amanda typed up a message to Joe on facebook. He agreed to watch one of her dogs for “a couple weeks”. Amanda had planned on finding her own place sooner rather than later. Little did Joe know, that “blue heeler” he agreed to watch was definetly not a blue heeler and would become a pain in his butt. Daisy ended up spending some time with Joe’s mom as well. And one other foster. When Amanda and Joe started dating, Daisy went back to Joe’s house. That “couple weeks” of fostering turned into a lifetime of love.

Sometime in the fall of 2017, Amanda and Joe satrted talking to each other more and more through snapchat. After a couple weeks they realized that they were talking to each other everyday. So one night when getting ready to go out with friends, Amanda messaged Joe and asked if he wanted to go. That night, everyone stayed out till almost 4am. The night ended with a kiss from Joe. I guess you could say that was the beginning of the end.

After a couple months of dating and not really telling anyone, Amanda went with Joe to a friends birthday party. This was the first “the public” knew of them seeing each other. When they got back to Joes house, they were sitting in the car and talking about pretty much anything and everything. Then Joe said “Is it too late to ask you to be my girlfriend?” Pretty sure I, Amanda, responded with a kiss.

2 short months after they became “official” Amanda and Peyton moved into Joe’s house. Life changed for us all then. We never knew how much though. 4 months later we got pregnant with Skyler. August 2018 we dealt with a custody case and drove 1000 miles to Oklahoma to attend court. 1000 miles with a pregnant girl is not easy. But Joe survived! Lol We went through worries and scares during the pregnancy that really brought us closer together. We had a beautiful, healthy baby girl in 2019. We dealt with and handled the high and lows of life with someone else. The trials and tribulations, and the joys and triumphs of Parenthood. And during all of this, Joe was planning something bigger than Amanda even knew.

March 2021 Amanda and Joe took a vacation with some family to Hawaii. It was a dream whirlwind vacation. For Amanda, being there was magical enough. But she was unaware to just how magical it would become… The evening of the 12th Joe’s sister said something about taking pictures on the beach with the sunset. She kept rushing everyone to eat and get ready. When they got to the beach Brittany’s friend started taking pictures of Brittany, Joe and their mom. Brittany convinced Amanda to come join them. Joe and Amanda took a few pictures and Joe started talking. He told Amanda he was glad she was there with him. And he was glad they went on all these adventures together. He said he wanted to go on every adventure together. Amanda said well of course and uh huh. Brittany was trying to give Joe a chance to get down on one knee and said look a whale! So Amanda started searching the ocean for a whale. Meanwhile Joe is still talking to her. He finally said what are you doing? Amanda said I’m looking for the whale! He got down on one knee and took her hand. Thats when she stopped looking for a whale and realized what was going on. Needless to say, there was no whale and Amanda was completely blown away! He asked if she would marry him and duh, she said yes! The beauty of the ocean and the island pales in comparisson to the love they have for each other.