How we met is a bit of a mystery- how many details do YOU remember from 2nd grade? We were in Mr. Mark's second grade class together, then 3rd, then 4th... and somehow the two of us getting married became a long running joke between our families. So when I started coming home from school in the 9th grade talking about Drew, I think our parents (moms especially) felt pretty good about their predictions. You see, second semester of our freshman year, Drew and I had quite a few classes together. I was always late (some things never change) so he often made the cheesy joke that I was following him to class. Then, I was captain of our gym class volleyball team, and he was the first boy I chose to be by my side. Our dates required the help of our mothers and their suburbans, but I wouldn't have had it any other way. The rest of high school we were nearly inseparable, with Drew picking me up for school every day (once he got his license of course) and me cheering for him at every hockey... and football... and baseball game.

We moved onto college at St. Cloud State University, again with Drew playing hockey and me cheerleading. I think it's safe to say we are both creatures of habit! This was such a fun and exciting time in our lives. We were living on our own, both studying to become teachers. It felt like the right time to move in together when we were both student teaching, during our last year as Huskies. That helped prepare us for our next endeavor, moving to Rockford, Illinois. It was further from home than St. Cloud was, but we were ready for the change. Living together in Rockford was a great learning experience- we realized how much fun we have just the two of us. People often didn't believe me when I said Drew and I had been together for 9 years!

After sneaking around behind Chelsea's back and making up an occasional excuse to go down to the cities, I was finally able to pick out the ring and diamond that I liked best. It was quite simple really because Chelsea was "subtly" showing me pictures for around a year. You know, the casual, "Look how pretty this one is" or "This one is beautiful, don't you think?" Anyways, once they sent it to me in Rockford, I had to figure out how exactly I was going to propose. I had many ideas but I wanted Chelsea to be surprised, so I could not do the traditional nice dinner or event with a cool proposal because I knew she would be suspicious and that she would have known it was coming.

My next option was to put it in her make up case or nail kit and she would have eventually found it and been really surprised. I thought it was somewhat clever and would have been kind of a good story, but if I would not have been there to propose at that point, it could have been an issue.

That brought up option three. It was June 28th, 2014 and it had been a long day for some reason. Chelsea and I went to the gym, got groceries, ran some errands, and did a few other things we had to do around the house. We were both exhausted and a bit crabby. I think Chelsea sensed that too and wanted to cheer me up by giving me my birthday present a day early. I thought to myself, I think I could make this day even better. So, as she was sitting in our apartment watching TV, I told her I had something for her too. I caught her off guard by getting down on one knee and asking her to marry me. She said yes. And cried.