Our dads, Bob and Marc, were buddies in grade school in southern Illinois. When we were younger, we both ended up vacationing on Mackinaw Island at the same time. My dad posted on Facebook that we were there and his dad instantly messaged that they needed to meet up. At the end of that serendipitous meet up Bob said "if we ever find ourselves in Arkansas, we'll have to give you a call". . . and what do you know, not even six months later we got the call that they were moving to Arkansas for Bob's job. We were friends for a year or two, but after a failed attempt to ask me out, Brendan all but gave up on trying to pursue a relationship with me. By the end of our sophomore year of high school I had found out that Brendan and his family were going to move again, and I knew I didn't want our story to end there. In a lacrosse tournament around that time, I injured my foot. I received some pain meds and apparently called Brendan to ask him out. I don't remember doing this but do remember that I was really sad he was moving away. The next weekend after that phone call, we had our very first date, and well . . . the rest is history.

Brendan asked me to marry him on September 4th of 2021. It is a known fact to my close friends and family that it is nearly impossible to keep a secret from me, but Brendan pulled out all the stops. I was suspicious during the week leading up to him proposing because a friend asked me to get my nails done with her. The day of, friends asked me to go get dinner and drinks in downtown Birmingham because one was in town from far away. As I was driving to Birmingham, Brendan had called to tell me that he was hanging out with the guys and will be out late. I was completely convinced that we wouldn't be getting engaged that weekend and my friend just wanted to get nails done with me. After dinner, they wanted to go to Vulcan Lookout to watch the sunset before grabbing drinks. As we made our way around the statue, I saw Brendan with a huge goofy grin pulling out a ring, and getting down on one knee asking me to be his wife. I, of course, said yes, we took photos, and celebrated with friends. We called both sets of parents and siblings and Brendan told me that the ring is his mothers. I love this story so much.