Engagement

Ryan and I went to visit her family up north in Chicago for Christmas of 2007. I had planned on asking her then, but trying to plan an engagement in a place that you've never been before is a pretty hard task. Plus, it's very cold in the winter there. Too cold for the likes of this southerner. After spending Christmas up north, we flew back on the 26th of December. We got back into Murfreesboro around 7'ish that evening. We still had some Christmas gifts that we had left there to open when we got back. By this time, I had already been given my "big" Christmas gift from Ryan. An Xbox 360. She made a big mistake getting me that ;) So Ryan was opening a few gifts from me. Just little things that she had wanted around the house, an electric can opener, a toaster, the final season of The O.C. on DVD. It was down to her last gift (so she thought). She started unwrapping it and was very confused. It was a wedding planner, you know, one of those huge planners that details everything in a time line and budgets every penny you have for the wedding. Her reaction was, "are you sure this is mine? Is this someone else's gift that I opened?" Then she turned around and there I was with the ring. I don't even think she said yes. I don't even think I had time to ask her the question. She just said, "Are you kidding me? You're kidding me, right?" Then she tackled me. The whole week after we were trying to figure out a good date for the wedding. We had both decided that Fall of 2008 would be a good time. At that time I puled up UT's football schedule online and told her that these dates are off limits. So we had originally planned to have the wedding on UT's bye week, September 13th. In February of 2008 we hade made the move back towards Knoxville, TN. During this spring, UT had changed their schedule around, so this meant our wedding date had too change as well. So, bye week was changed to September 6th, 2008, and likewise our wedding date was set.

How It All Started

With any new marriage, we always get the question "where did you guys meet?" We had actually only been dating for 9 months before we got engaged, but we met years before. Ryan was a student at Motlow State Community College in Tullahoma, TN and I was working full-time at Bi-Lo at the time. We both had a mutual friend, Amanda who I had worked with at Bi-Lo for a few years and Ryan had just met at school. Every so often alot of us would end up hanging out at Amanda's house during the weekend. This was the late winter/early spring of 2002. By the time that Ryan came over to Amanda's for the first time, I was almost out of the scene. I had made a decision to move down to Florida for a change of scenery. So there were a few more gatherings at Amanda's and some other places where we both got to know each other just a little bit more. In May of 2002 is when I moved down to Florida, until Spring of 2005. I tried to keep in touch with Tennessee life as much as I could with phone calls and emails to everyone. I remember calling and emailing Amanda just to see how Ryan was doing. Ryan in this time had graduated from Motlow and was at The University of Tennessee. - GO VOLS! Now back in Tennessee, we were both dating other people and working, school, etc. and haven't seen each other since 2002, and here it is now March of 2007. I was on the phone with Amanda and had been single for a few months now, and asked how Ryan was doing. The only thing I can remember is Amanda telling me "well, she's single." And I guess that's all it took. I emailed Ryan and we started talking on the phone. She had graduated from UT and was working in Knoxville, I was working over 3 hours away in Franklin, TN. One Saturday after work, in the end of march I drove over to Knoxville to meet her for the first time since spring of 2002 (5 years later). And that's how it all started.....

Welcome

Hello Everyone!

We are jumping on the bandwagon and starting our own blog page as well. It's not that we have that much exciting news to put on here, but I thought it would be a good way to stay connected. So hopefully we will be able to keep up with it and try and stay updated with you all. Thanks and God Bless!