Mutual Weirdness Forever

They met in 2005 working at Wally World on separate ends of the store, Rob at the Photo Lab and Tawni in the Layaway department. Rob would find ways to see Tawni and make her laugh. Eventually, he asked her on a date in May of 2005. They went to Ithaca, NY and had an awkward time followed up by their first awkward kiss. That awkward kiss led to 4 years of awkwardness together. After a few years they moved in together. They had chinchillas and frogs together. They had a crazy romance together. As most kids do, they both had growing pains. Emotionally, this relationship was too much for young them to deal with at times...Too much of a good thing. They both needed something but neither knew what. There was a shift happening but they weren't aware of the consequences until it was too late.

After dating for nearly 4 1/2 years, their relationship had seen its fair share of ups and downs. They were on their way to the biggest down... Rob had decided to go away to further his education and make something of himself. He asked Tawni if she would consider moving with him. She didn't want to move because she was going to be in the music business and thought moving would ruin her chance at being a rockstar (So young. So naive.). She broke Rob's little heart into a million pieces and though she wanted to continue a friendship with him, he could not bare to be "just friends" with her. They parted ways and only wrote to each other once or twice before anding all contact for 4 years. These were dismal times, indeed. Dismal, until one day...

Tawni had begun a job at the local bakery. One day, after not seeing Rob or his family for nearly 4 years, Rob's sister comes into the bakery to order a cake. They talked. They laughed. Tawni asked about Rob. Old feelings began to stir. Rob's sister insisted Tawni should reach out to Rob to see how things were. Tawni was very apprehensive. She knew she hurt Rob's feelings beyond repair. (Little did she know, hearts heal and time is the greatest band-aid out there.) So, she reached out to Rob via the internets. They talked. For hours. And hours. And hours. After days of talking, he told Tawni of his great journey to Texas where he lived and how he would be planning a trip back to NY to visit family. He was hoping that she would be interested in meeting up for lunch one day while he was there. She said yes. July of 2014 they met at a playground in Big Flats, NY. It was magic...Pure, ridiculous magic. It only took one glance for them to realize their love had only been hibernating. They spent that day/night together laughing and loving. Then another. Then another. At the end of Rob's vacation he knew he could not be without Tawni and invited her to "visit" Texas. She went out there in September to "visit" and by October she moved there to be with him.

Rob and Tawni were just like peas and carrots again. They realized their time apart had changed them. They were adults now and better versions of themselves. Living together now was so easy. Their relationship was now SO EASY! (Imagine living with your best friend and doing ridiculously fun things all the time. That's how it was. Not too bad, eh?) They decided to plan a trip to NY to visit their families in August of 2016. During that trip home they took their families to the fair (Tawni's favorite place in the world!). Tawni was unaware of Rob's motives as he insisted they break away from the group to go for a walk through the fairgrounds. They stopped in front of the carnival game THE RING TOSS. No one was guarding the game and Rob reached into the game booth and grabbed one of the bright red rings. Tawni was getting anxious and told Rob to put that ring back... totally ruining Rob's confidence and planned speech for the moment. He told her to hush and he got down on one knee. Tawni was sure he was saying words but she was so overcome with emotions she couldn't hear anything. He took the bright red ring from the game and asked her to "Marry Him?"... She said, "Not with that. That's stealing!" So, he reached into his pants pocket and got the real bright gold ring out and placed it on her finger and asked once more "Will you marry me?". She asked, "Are you sure?"... then exclaimed, "Yes!" through puddles of tears. They went back to their families and told them the news (that Rob had already told everyone earlier). The rest, as they say, is history. Now they are planning for the biggest party they'll ever throw with all of the people they love. More than in love, they're in mutual weirdness forever <3