At the beginning of our relationship, Dusty was having lots of back pain to the point where he couldn’t not even get himself dressed in the morning. The first couple of months we spent trying to make him as comfortable as possible until he was able to get the back surgery he needed to get back on his feet. To us, this was a huge test of our relationship and we realized that we are a really good team together. We enjoyed watching movies, fishing and just really getting to know each other better.

After being cleared from back surgery we got the chance to visit New York where we stayed with my best friend Jamie and her boyfriend Hunter where we got to experience Upstate New York and all its beauty. For Dustys birthday we went down to West Virginia and stayed the night in a beautiful cabin and I got to show him my happy place. A couple months later we decided to travel to West Virginia again to go white water rafting with Jamie and Hunter.

During the month of June Dustys son, Troy, came and visited us from Germany. While he was in town we got to go floating down the Muskingham River, visited the drive thru zoo , and got to light off tons of fireworks for the Fourth of July.

It was quite a fun and exciting year for both of us!

On August 20th 2023, exactly one year after I asked Dusty out, Dusty asked me to Marry him.

The day was already planned with activities as I am such a planner and love going out and doing stuff on the weekends. The plan was load up all three dogs and take them to get their shots for the day at an event that has discounted shots. (Having three dogs this is a must on a budget). Then we were going to drop the dogs off with my parents so we could attend the Hilliard Food Truck Festival. After that we would pick up the dogs and take them to a park Dusty and I used to visit more frequently when we started dating to get some energy out.

Once at the park we had all three dogs running around following us through water and Dusty had us walk to spot that was very pretty next to water and huge trees. While I was looking out he tapped me on the shoulder, pulled out a ring and got down on my knee. Before he could say anything I said yes! I don’t remember anything after that but according to Dusty I just kept saying “Are you serious?”. I am so happy to be marrying my best friend!