Our stars aligned a long time ago, we just had no idea.

Jake and I met 11 years ago, as blind dates (through a mutual friend) to a homecoming dance....he didn’t talk to me the whole night, let alone dance with me.... it was very 80's teen movie. He stood up against the folded up bleachers in the gym the whole night, making the occasional passive glance my way. Meanwhile, I was on the dance floor trying to wring out whatever salvageable fun there was to be had as an abandoned high school sophomore at a school I didn’t know.

We didn’t talk after that.....What followed were just years where we were both in the backgrounds of each other’s lives.

Cut to a little over 3 years ago, after we had both fallen out of bad relationships. I was planning on starting a new life/home/path in south Florida and needed to fuel my ridiculous love for new furniture. I remembered our friend Erik (*the same friend that set us up on that blind date) had mentioned that Jake builds "stuff and things." So I unabashedly reached out to him with something like "I'm sure you don’t remember me at all, but I need some help...I'll pay you." After that first re-connection it's almost as if I never left. Life just turned into a whirlwind of perfect moments, like I had just been in limbo until I found him again.

We now live in Strasburg in the cutest house on hill with three of most perfect doggos (of whom we are not deserving), and everyday I thank the stars for bringing us back together.

I totally ruined it. But it was perfect.

The morning of the proposal, he asked me to go on a walk when we got home, and still half asleep in bed I agreed. I really didn't think anything of it because we had just found this really awesome trail right around the corner from our house.

I had a particularly long day at work that put me in a less than pleasant mood, so when I came home the first words out of my mouth were, "I am rain-checking our walk today. I just am exhausted and want to snuggle the dogs on the couch." Jake's face kind of fell and he sadly said "Oh, um, ok." We went almost the whole night with his face stuffed in a book and I finally (admittedly kind of snappy and sarcastically) asked if he was going to speak to me at all tonight.

****Side Note: Jake and I speak in sarcasm like 60% of the time lol****

Jake continued to fuel the conversation in a sarcastic direction, and while doing so walked over to where I was sitting and took a knee in front of me. I didn't realize this at all, just thought he was coming closer to chat.

At that moment he broke the air of sarcasm in the room and looked me dead in the eye and said "this, those words, that is part of why I Love you. This moment is as much us as we could ever be. I want a life time more of moments like this"

He pulled out a Skoal can and set it down on the arm rest of the couch to my right. I went from zero to 100 in a millisecond, I knew what it was. As he opened the can the most perfect ring was seated gingerly among tissues. As he is apologizing for keeping the ring in the can, and explaining his reasoning for doing so (the ring box was not stealthy enough), a well of tears was pushing its way out of my eyes in the most non-beautiful, non-sexy fashion possible.

After that it was a blur. I am pretty sure I heard all those magic words in some order and I inaudibly said yes (although I was screaming it in my head, like Julie Andrews at the top of that Swiss mountain in the Sound Of Music)

There was mascara smeared all down both of our faces where I had pressed my face hard into his making sure the moment was real.

There were no secret Photogs, balloons, parties, or sky writers. But that moment was more perfect then I could have ever planned. It was raw and us to a T.