I'll start by saying, I never thought I'd ever find someone to spend the rest of my life with; or at least thought it was extremely unlikely. I even told my mom about a month before meeting Abby that I seriously never thought I would find someone from my generation. I say this only due to the fact that I am an old soul and enjoy building car models and playing solitaire more than a night out on the town. Let me start at the beginning to get the full story. I was working at Beards N Broads in Broadway doing mostly prep and working in the afternoons. I had worked at Beards N Broads for a while at this point and knew quite a few people from special events, weekly league, and just everyday interactions. A few of those people I grew very fond of and enjoyed seeing on a normal bases, one of those people being Steve. I met Steve when I was 16 and had just started working at Beards and over the years got to know him better and enjoyed seeing him and the living waters guys. A few months into working at the Broadway location for Beards, Kyle, a good Friend, and at the time my boss informed me that Steve's niece was going to start working in Broadway and would not stop messing with me about asking her out. I of course blew him off and ignored all of his antics, little did I know I would end up marrying her. She started working a few of the shifts I was on and was pretty shy and didn't talk too much at first. I noticed how she carried herself and how she interacted with those around her which was different from what I was used to seeing and it sparked a desire to get to know her better. Over the next few weeks I knew I was starting to fall for her but was too cautious to say anything to anyone. It was approaching Christmas time of 2022 and Beards always did a Christmas raffle, Abby and I were working a slow afternoon shift and decided to sit down and write all the prizes on the tickets to pass time. I can easily say this was the first core memory I have of us, We sat at the bar for hours and wrote on tickets and talked about everything you could think of but especially music. Over the course of that afternoon I learned that her favorite genre of music was also mine and that she knew all the old rock music we listened to as kids with my dad. Which I was very surprised by not going to lie. After weeks and weeks of battling on whether or not to ask her out I knew I had to at the end of that shift. I drove home and called a friend of mine and told him that I had met a girl and how much I liked her and how I knew I had to ask her out or I would be dumb and possible miss the best thing that could happen to me. Abby and I continued to text back and forth and share music and talk about various things, and I contemplated different ways to ask her on a date. At this point all of our coworkers knew that I liked her and teased me daily about when I was going to ask her out and she still had no idea that I even liked her. I was already nervous about asking her on a date but running into Steve and Kyle at the Harrisonburg Beards really put me to ease. I had drove to the Harrisonburg location for one reason or another and Steve happened to get there about the same time I did. It was like any other normal interaction, handshake, hug, how've you been. Then Steve grabbed the back of my neck and said "I heard you're thinking about asking Abby out on a date". This immediately made me think about my life decisions. (Just kidding, love ya Steve :) I eventually figured out a plan for a date and got the courage to ask her out.

Friday December 8th 2022. I had worked an afternoon shift at Beards in Broadway knowing that Abby had a shift that evening that overlapped with mine. I did not tell the rest of the staff that I was going to ask her out but they all knew what was going on. With that being said as much joking and picking on me that was going on and the very obvious signs and looks from people Abby had no idea. My plan was to wait until her break in her shift and meet her outside away from the busy Friday evening crowd and staff to ask her on a date. That is not what happened at all. Instead, I waited in Beards for a good 2 hours after my shift because I was so nervous to ask her out and she wouldn't take her break. At this point we had been talking all evening and everyone kept pushing me to get the job done. Our manager at the time told Abby that she needed to take her break, attempting to get her away from everyone so I could ask. Thankfully she listened and finally walked outside for her break where I met her, and asked her on a date! Which I thought she told me no too. I asked her if she wanted to go out with me, her response "Um can I call you later". I drove home and thought to myself well that didn't go well at all and she is definitely going to tell me no. I was wrong, a few hours later she called me and told me that she had already told her parents and that she would like to go on a date. The first date was amazing, a little unconventional maybe but perfect for us. We got coffee and drove around and looked at Christmas lights all evening. I vividly remember Abby's little sister texting her every 10-15 minutes to make sure I did not kidnap her, and the stories of her grandmas Monkey. The 8th is now our dedicated date night every month, and also why our wedding is on the 8th!

To save time, I'm going to jump forward quite a while. I knew just after the first few months that I was going to ask her to marry me. I started looking for rings in the fall of 2023, which was a good idea looking back now. I knew that a normal Diamond ring wasn't the right thing to get, which meant I needed to not only find a style but also a gem. After many many months of searching. My brother in-law Blake and good buddy Scotty asked if I wanted to go with them to look at rings across the mountain. It was there with them that I found her gem, a light blue Montana sapphire. The only issue is that it was in a necklace at the time, thankfully the jeweler was nice enough to let me design a ring and dismantle the necklace in order to make the perfect ring for Abby. Unlike when asking her out I knew what I wanted to do when I proposed. One of our first few dates was us making dinner and then going to watch the sunset together. I knew that I wanted to do something similar to that.

May 8th 2024. It was a warm perfect day to propose. I had cleaned the bed of Camo truck and hooked it up to the battery charger the night before to ensure that we could drive it into the field and have a picnic on the bed of the truck and watch the sunset. I was so nervous and excited that I had no idea what to do with myself. Abby finally got to the house and we warmed up the food, loaded up the truck, and drove into the field behind the house to eat and watch the sunset together. I attempted to be calm and not let her know what was going on so she would be surprised but she already knew, which in itself is surprising for anyone that knows Abby. At this point in the date we were still sitting on the truck bed and I had to come up with a plan on how to get her on her feet, so I started to play music and asked her dance with me. She indulged me and we slow danced in the sunset (My heart rate was at 180 bpm). After slow dancing for a few minute's I got down on one knee and asked her to marry me. After lots of laughing and crying she said yes!

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