Michael and I were living dangerously on the various dating platforms 2017 had to offer when the fates (aka Michael swiping right up and down 35) brought us together. He was in DFW for a Veteran's Day parade, we "matched," and a few weeks later we went on our first date. On night one we got to experience an awful 80's cover band and a bar full of 40+ year olds, but we shut the place down. For the next 3 weeks we logged countless hours getting to know each other over FaceTime and counted down the days until we could see each other over his block leave. During the 2 weeks of Christmas and New Years we spent every possible day and night together, and once he made it back to Copperas Cove (and realized how much he missed me) we decided to make things official. From the beginning we've both been all in, and Christian wasn't far behind. The late winter and early spring were filled with numerous trips between Copperas Cove and DFW to spend our weekends together as a family unit. We met extended family early on, seamlessly melded ourselves into each other's lives, and have been inseparable since January of 2018....not including the whole not living within 3 hours of each other, of course. I've knew very early on that I was going to marry Michael Paul. The love I've received from him and Christian has been the greatest addition to my life, and I consider myself the luckiest woman in the world to get to spend the rest of my life fiercely loving the both of them. My journey to finding Michael has certainly not been the prettiest. The path we've travelled the last year and a half that's led me to becoming a Blue has been the start of a lifetime of happiness and wonderful memories to come.

Alyssa and I first talked in the summer of 2018 about getting married. Job interviews came and went, and after her not getting a job that looked very promising in the fall, we found ourselves right back where we started. It was around this time I was concocting a plan to propose to her during our holiday concert. She was playing flute for the concert, and had it worked out she would have been floored, but long story short it didn’t shake out. When the New Year came, I knew it was time to get the ball rolling. I started shopping around for rings; online, in stores, and even looking at married women’s rings to get an idea of what it would like on her hand. February came and Christian and I finally found the ring I was looking for. March is Music in Our Schools month and one of the first shows we did was at Christian’s school. Alyssa was in town and I knew that was my moment. But there was only one problem: I hadn’t talked to her dad. Not getting his blessing would ruin a good thing so that was once again a missed opportunity. A few other moments came in March, but Alyssa ruined them for various reasons. Finally, one weekend in March we went up to Midlothian, I sent her on a mission while I spoke to Mr. Hawkins, and I got the blessing I was looking for. Now time to execute this proposal. The last weekend of March we had a mission in Copperas Cove that Alyssa was bringing Christian to. We performed our normal set and it hit me, NOW IS THE TIME. I gave my band an audible (they knew nothing about this either) and I asked this woman to be my bride. Little did I know local newspapers were in attendance, and we woke up Monday morning to a front-page story about our proposal. It wasn’t perfect but at the end of the day I get to marry my Queen, best friend, and wonderful mother to our handsome boy. We make a good team, and I know all the trouble going into this proposal was well worth it to see the joy, shock, and pride on her face that deceptively cold last day of March.