Cody and I are from the same small town, but never knew each other existed because of our age difference-- almost 7 years. When the Y in Ashland opened, I started to go there daily. After a while of going to the Y, I noticed a really cute guy that had just joined. I just kind of thought he was cute and kept doing my thing. It eventually got to the point where I was trying to find out how old he was or if he was single or not (yes, I was in stalker mode for a moment). Then, it got to the point where my best friend Kelsey would text me and say "hey that guy you like is at the gym, so you better get up here!". One day, Kelsey, Gus (a friend and YMCA employee at the time), and Nathan "Woody" (another friend and fellow YMCA member) decided they were going to tell Cody what I thought about him. As Cody was leaving the gym that night, he left his number at the desk with Gus to give to me after he left. I thought it was a mean joke when Woody and Gus handed me the sticky note, because if you know those two, you know they like to joke around. So, being the girl I am, (and lets face it, I know I am not the only one who did this), I waited a couple hours to text him (I didn't want to seem desperate or anything!). After a few hours went by, I sent a text to Cody that said something like "so how much did they have to pay you to give me your number?". The most shocking part....HE NEVER REPLIED! I was bummed, honestly. So, the next week at the gym, Kelsey called Cody out and asked him why he had not replied to me. His response was "I never got her text!". To this day I give him crap about if he really got my text or not, but he swears he didn't! After that, we started to text and get to know each other more. Eventually Cody asked me on a date and we had our first date at Texas Roadhouse in CoMo. Cody was very unsure about it all because of the age difference, but Im glad he gave me a shot ;)

Cody and I planned a trip to Mexico in July of 2018. I was working full time for the summer and had some extra cash and was like "hey lets do a big trip together next summer since we have the extra money right now to book it!" He was hesitant (he isn't the biggest fan of traveling), but agreed! Little did I know, this trip would be one I would never forget. In March of 2019, Cody surprised me with a date to look at rings. We had talked about marriage and knew we wanted to be together forever, but I was in nursing school and we just weren't ready for that yet. I picked out a ring that I loved, and then we left and I just left it up to Cody at that point. I kind of figured nothing would happen until after graduation. When vacation time came, I had graduated 2 days before. So we hopped on a plane and headed to Mexico. People asked me if I thought he would pop the question while we were there but I honestly didnt think he would. Lets face it, taking a very expensive ring to a foreign country is risky. On the second night of vaca, we were about to get ready to head to dinner. Cody was on the balcony and I was at the sink getting ready. Cody was being extra lovey dovey and telling me how much he loved me over and over again. I was slightly annoyed because he wouldnt leave me alone to get ready. HAHA! All of the sudden, he called me over to the other side of the room and gave me a hug and a kiss and told me how much he loved me. I went to walk away after that to grab something and he said "babe". I turned around and he was on one knee with the same beautiful ring I had picked out just months before. I immediately started to cry and of course, my answer was YES! I was so in shock and not expecting it to happen that way at all! The rest of the vacation was perfect! Just celebrating the life we were about to live together forever! We immediately called our parents and friends to let them know our exciting news. Then, we enjoyed the rest of vaca as the future MR and Mrs!