Our Love Story

Tomorrow we will celebrate 2 years of marriage... It is absolutely CRAZY how time flies by! I've been meaning to share this since I started the blog back up and then our internet was wonky for about 2 weeks and then life happened, and now here we are! This is kind of long but mostly entertaining... so here it goes! 

In May of 2013, my friend Amanda and I were at the beach with some friends for The Color Run. She kept telling me about this guy that I just had to meet. She had tried before to set me up and it didn't really work out... so I was skeptical. I said no and like the great friend she is (because she knew it was meant to be...) she sent my picture to her boyfriend to share with his friend anyways. She told me his name and because it was 2013... I looked him up on Facebook only to be disappointed. Who does not have Facebook in 2013?!

This guy.

Fast forward to June 15, 2013. My birthday weekend plans changed mid-day and I sent Amanda a text message. She replies with let's all go out to eat tonight and I'll invite Jonathan! I immediately replied that we could go out to eat but I did not want this guy coming that I didn't even know.

So I drove to little Ford City that night and met Amanda to ride with them to the restaurant. We are headed towards the restaurant and JL makes a turn that we didn't need to make to get to where we were supposed to be going. I asked them where we were going and they just laughed.

Friends... they were going to Jonathan's house to pick him up so he could RIDE WITH US to the restaurant. I was mad, excited, and nervous all at the same time. He got in the truck with us said hey and then we were on our way to my birthday dinner. We didn't even sit beside each other that night! After we finished up at the restaurant, we went back to JL's house to hang out. Then those SNEAKY two pushed me into a corner again. They made an excuse as to why they couldn't take Jonathan back home so I had to take him back. I literally pulled up to his house and let him out on the road. HAHA.

That night after I got back home, his face was in my dreams. Somehow even though I barely knew him, I just knew that this was the one I had been waiting on for so long.

Of course, he didn't ask for my number that night... but that was ok. We had mutual friends and we would figure it out. After weeks (think like 6 weeks) of "happening" to be at the same place at the same time out on the river through our mutual friends, he finally got my number and we've pretty much been inseparable ever since. When I later asked him why he waited so long to get my number he said: "I knew I would be able to find you." #swoon.

I had been through enough frogs at this point to know that this man was going to be mine one way or another. So like any Southern gentleman would do, he waited 2+ years to pop the BIG question. Over those 2 years we both worked, I finished my Masters Degree and we added Gypsy Pearl to the fam. We lost some very special loved ones and we did a little traveling. We grew up a little and most importantly we grew together a lot. We did this all "semi-long distance" with crazy work schedules.

We went on vacation in August 2015 and I had been anticipating the big event but didn't know when or how because he is sneaky like that. Let's be honest... I had pretty much packed everything for our trip and never ran across anything sparkly so I kind of had it in my head it wasn't happening at the beach this time either.

Wednesday night I told J that the next day I wanted to get up semi-early and get my 3 mile run in and I wanted him to go with me so I wasn't out there by myself. He said he would walk out there and stay close by. On Thursday morning he told me to go on and he would be down there in a little bit. I hesitated but I went anyway. Of course, he never made it out there and I only ended up running 2 miles because running in the sand is not for the faint of heart. I came in and got ready to go back out on the jet ski to Shell Island. When we pulled up to the jet ski to hook up I noticed that the cover was on it and we had driven all the way to the beach without the cover on it. He made up some story of needing it on there and I believed him. 

If you've never been to Shell Island off of Panama City Beach, FL you need to go! It is absolutely beautiful! We stopped at the Dollar General (tha dolla gentral) to get goggles and sunscreen on our way to St. Andrews State Park and he was so nervous to go in the DG because he thought that someone would steal the jet ski. I am still in the dark, folks. We get to the State Park, put the jet ski in the water and head out on our little #jetskiadventures for the day.

 

It was an absolutely gorgeous day and we were just having fun goofing off. We had a picnic and then he went "looking for shells" while I was writing in the sand and taking pictures. Literally was writing his last name in the sand while he was setting up the proposal down the beach. 

He hollered at me to come look at what he found, we were both walking towards each other and about half way from where he came from he turned to walk the same direction I was going. He took my hand and we were laughing and then we walked up to a jewelry box posted up in the sand with "Marry Me?" written beside it.

I think I doubled over crying because I COULD NOT BELIEVE IT WAS HAPPENING! I turned around and he was on one knee. I couldn't for the life of me tell you what he said to me because I think I blacked out. I just knew that I said YES and that I was the happiest person in the World! 

Honestly, I had NO CLUE until I looked up and it was in the sand. He had hidden the ring in a "secret compartment" in the truck before we left and that morning while I went to run he ran down and hid it under the jet ski seat. I had been sitting on it ALL DAY LONG! Literally, he surprised me SO BIG that day. I could not stop looking at the ring, laughing, smiling, and crying. It was literally the best day.

I started calling and texting our family and friends and they were all back home waiting for it to happen. This is our funny little love story, but I wouldn't have it any other way. Our Love Story is my favorite!

Special thanks to Amanda & John Lewis for making this Love Story possible! 

XOXO, T