We met playing pickup beach volleyball at our favorite local spot, Fern Gully. It appeared the stars aligned Summer of 2020 and both of us were single so I (Steph) shot my shot and asked Curtis on a date. I mean, what's the worst that could happen?! Curtis quickly found out when we starting playing cribbage after dinner and I skunked him :) A few months later we moved in together and haven't looked back.

After having Carmen we knew we wanted to move closer to our families and spent a couple years keeping our eyes peeled for a house that tickled our fancy, Curtis found it. We decided to go take a look that weekend and both felt it was our forever home. Once our offer was accepted we got to work which meant lots of de-cluttering, dump runs and small home projects to put our best foot forward in selling our Gorham house. One of the first dump runs, Curtis took off while I (Steph) started boxing stuff up in my office and what do I come across? THE ring, oh my! Slight panic set in, not sure what to do. Did he mean for me to find it? Was he planning something? What should I do?! I decided, regardless of what he was planning, I was going to get him with the surprise. So I took off the band I was wearing, put on the engagement ring, then hid the box on him in an area he'd have to organize. When Curtis returns I'm wearing the engagement ring and he doesn't have a freaking clue, no matter how much I flaunt it in his face. About 40 minutes later as Curtis is organizing the fish tank supplies, there it is. Confusion quickly takes over as he opens the box holding the band and turns to me "What's this doing down here??" The only appropriate response at that point is to hold my hand up with the engagement ring on to which Curtis replied "Oooooh shit". I could see the wheels turning as Curtis decided his next move and given he was already kneeling he looked up at me and said "WELL, will you marry me?" "YES"