We first met in the summer of 2010, working at a summer program together. At first Tara was not a fan of Zack, and was easily irritated with him (not much has changed). We started dating in September 2012. We then moved to Fargo, in the fall of 2013, for both of us to attend school. At that time we added our first little four-legged pal, Benji, to the mix. After we both graduated from our programs in Fargo, we purchased our home in Mandan, where we’ve lived for the past 4 years. Zack is currently employed as an RN in the ICU at Sanford and Tara is a dental hygienist at Goebel Pediatric Dentistry. In Novemeber 2018 we added our second furry friend, Gus, to our family—I think this was Zack’s way of putting off proposing for another year.

I had decided to go out and celebrate the holidays with family and friends, while Zack stayed home trying to catch up on sleep from working the night before. Several times throughout the night Zack asked when I was coming home, and how much longer it would be. I thought nothing about this, and was getting annoyed Zack was being so needy and STILL hadn’t proposed. After several hours of being out I finally went home, and was unable to get into the house. After knocking for was seemed like forever, in the freezing cold, Zack finally unlocked the door. I was not happy about this—little did i know Zack was trying to plan a proposal. I then went to change into sweats and put my hair up when Zack repeatedly asked “what was on Benji’s neck?” Confused and unable to see real clearly I asked why he couldn’t look?? It was at this time I turned around to see Zack on one knee with the ring in his hand. (Benji had a tag on his collar that said “Will you marry my dad??—which I didn’t see until much later) Screaming and crying I continually yelled “I have to call my mom!!” And was on facetime with her before I even answered Zack’s question.