We're getting married!

We met through the "typical modern era," online, specifically Facebook dating. At first it was communicating online back and forth, became texting non stop, and then the phone calls/face time calls lasted for hours on end. Brandon was located in Casey, IL for his work, and I lived back home near Monroe City, MO (only 4 hours away). We both agreed upon that we wanted to meet in person. On January 25, 2025 I drove to Casey, IL we had supper at Cilantros Grill & Cantina. The next day we "toured" the town of Casey, IL looking at all the collections of the Guinness World Record-holding, oversized outdoor sculptures with our iced coffee from Casey Coffee Co. That night Brandon made his famous "Chicken and Dumplings" for supper. When I left to drive back home, I texted my best friend, and said, "literally future husband". From that day, it was just the beginning of our adventure together through life!

Brandon and I decided to take a vacation to Florida together. We flew in and stayed in Fort Myers, FL. Me (Roxie) being the type A person that I am, I had an agenda for us every day that we were there, but it was a relaxed kind of agenda. Thursday we arrived, Friday we went to Anna Maria Island, Saturday we went to Key West, and Sunday was a relaxation day before leaving Monday. Friday we got up and headed to Anna Maria Island to Bean Point Beach, which was about a 2 hour drive. We stopped and ate McDonald's for breakfast, and then proceeded to head to the beach. On the way there we were thinking of all the things we didn't have for the beach, like a chair or an umbrella. So Brandon stopped at a 5 Below and bought both of the items. We finally made it to the beach, we had to park a few blocks away on a side street. We carried all of our items... 2 backpacks, a cooler, umbrella, and a chair.. We set up our little spot on the beach, at first there wasn't very many people on the beach but as the day proceeded on, it got busier. It was about 3 o'clock or a little after, that we decided that we had enough of the sun. We packed up all of our things and headed towards the car. I wanted to take one last picture of us leaving the beach with the walkway behind us. I was carrying both of our backpacks, and I accidently dropped Brandon's on the ground. He put the cooler and umbrella down, and we took our picture. After our picture, I was waiting for him to gather the cooler and umbrella. But little did I know what was about to happen next... Brandon was on one knee with a black box in his hand, inside the black box was a beautiful ring that glistened in the sunlight. Before Brandon could ask the famous line, my immediate response was, "What are you doing?" and then Brandon asked, "Roxie, Will you marry me?" Instead of instantly saying, "Yes." I said, "Are you serious?" There was a pause from the both of us. I was in shock, and Brandon was just nervous because I hadn't answer the question yet. He says, "So will you?" I said, "YES!" with the cheesiest grin on my face!