Dan and I technically met at Carthage College in Sociology 101. However we never really talked to each other until he graduated and I transferred to Loyola. In all honesty, I added Dan as a friend on Facebook but... he was the one to message me first (1 min after I added him on Facebook). He originally asked me out on a date to see Steve Jobs (for those of you who don't know Dan, he used to be obsessed with Apple). I was unable to go to the movies at the time because I had just had knee surgery and I was on crutches. We decided to go to dinner instead. Dan asked "what type of food do I like" and I replied "really anything other than Mexican food" Dan picked me up for our date and on the way to dinner he said, "So I was thinking Pepes for dinner". I didn't know if he was joking or if he was just being a jerk. Once we got to Pepes I could tell he completely misunderstood. (It took me 7 months to break this to him lol).

Dan and I fell very quick for each other. We spent almost every day together and if we were not together we were texting each other the whole day. We both love to travel so of course we started traveling with each other, going to visit his sister in Iowa, family vacations in Michigan, and the Dominican Republic. We hope to continue our travels once we are married and the next stop is Europe for us (Fingers crossed).

A year after dating, Dan and I decided to move in together. We moved to Chicago where Dan was starting up a company called Eat Purley. We lived in the West loop, I was still in college at Loyola and when I was done with classes Dan and I would do Eat Purley deliveries along with the other co-founders (true start-up life). It was very stressful to go to school from 8-5 pm and then have to do deliveries with him until 9 pm but looking back, it was so much fun and I loved spending the time with him along with helping him with his start-up. After a year at our apartment, we decided to get a house in River West. We had the time of our lives in that house, hosting parties, spending time in the hot tub, raising our two pups, and hosting our first Christmas. We have just recently decided to move back to the suburbs so we have officially left our very first home together.

On the note of our pups, I must tell their story too! Lola (our pied Frenchie) was my Christmas gift in 2018. She was very sick after a few days of having her. She ended up developing Chronic Pneuma and was treated for it with breathing treatments (2x a day for 15 days) and tons of medications for 3 full months. Luckily for us, Lola is such a strong girl and is now stronger because of all her vet visits (it is now her favorite place to go as she loves all the attention). We noticed that Lola was very lonely (she would play by herself by whipping her toys around and running after them) therefore we decided to get Cora (our Blue Frenchie). Cora was flown from San Franciso to come to be part of our family! Cora is all blue except for a perfect white heart on her chest. She is the complete opposite of Lola, she is very shy and has bad stranger danger (also she shakes like a leaf when we got to the vet unlike Lola who doesn't ever want to leave the vet). However, they are the best of friends (despite their little sibling outbursts). They play like crazy with each other and cuddle like crazy when they are in their crate. If you don't know me Cora and Lola are my babies and I am truly obsessed with them!

Back to Dan and I... After 8 whole years of dating, Dan FINALLY proposed to me on the rooftop of our River West home! He surprised me, it was so well planned out all the way down to the spot he marked with tape for where he would go down on one knee. His amazing sister Kelly was there to take pictures of the whole engagement and then after we had dinner on the roof from one of our favorite places. After dinner Dan had yet another surprise for me, our families were downstairs in the kitchen waiting for us to celebrate our engagement altogether! I couldn't have asked for a better engagement, it was an amazing day I will never forget.

Dan and I are getting married on our 9-year anniversary 9/17/22, we are beyond excited and hope that all our friends and family will be able to join us on our big day! Love you all!