We're Gettin' Hitched!

We can't decide if it was Wolverine football or 6th grade camp that brought us together, but we know it was one of the two and it was when we were 12 years old. We were friends all our lives after that - hung out in the same crowds, had classes together throughout junior high and high school. Then Derek went off and joined the Army and I did all the random things. We reconnected when I moved back to Washington at age 24. Derek somehow got wind of my being single while he was in Afghanistan and sent me a Facebook message, “just to say hi”. A year later Derek came home from Afghanistan and continued to pursue me and it didn't take long because by that February I was hooked :)

So no one really knows this, but Derek and I have actually been "legally" married since July 26, 2021. I know, right. Wtf? We were looking to buy our first home and wanted to use a VA loan. There's two ways for an unmarried couple to buy a home using a VA loan: you put 12% down so that your significant other can be on the lease as a homeowner, OR you get married, put 0% down and both people get listed on the lease. We opted for the ladder of course. To be clear, there was no “I do’s” and there was no judge. We really just signed some paperwork on a Monday haha. We never told anyone and both agreed that we wouldn't acknowledge it as the real thing. About a year later Derek actually proposed on June 30th, 2022. I had just come home from my very first travel nursing assignment. I was gone for 4 months and I had a feeling Derek had a ring, I just knew it. So we were hanging out on the back patio, drinking some beers and enjoying the sun and just me being home :) Somehow the topic came up and I told him if he had a ring that I wanted it. I didn't want to wait any longer haha. So a little bit later he went inside to grab me a beer and came back with an engagement ring instead. It was great, I had just driven 7 hours from Moab that day, and I was wearing my most raggedy sweatpants that I had cutoff into sweatshorts. And now those hideous things can never be thrown away. And now that we're getting married in Mexico, it's great that we already did the paperwork cause we can't legally get married in Mexico anyways! ✔️