The first time I met Halie was at a leadership game night where Halie told me I looked like "Glasses" from Grey's Anatomy. And that was really the whole interaction as Halie left before we even started the games. It was when I was organizing a team of students to attend a leadership conference in St. Louis that Halie signed up. It was not until the return trip that I had the idea to ride in the same van as her (I know, quite smooth on my part). We exchanged snapchats, then phone numbers when I proudly stated that I knew how to make a prayer board for her church youth group (I did not know such a thing). It took roughly six weeks, but it was filled with good laughs and memories. We starting hanging out daily, and then I got the nerve to FINALLY ask Halie out for our first date. It happened to be on Karli's (Halie's sister's birthday), and then on the second date, Halie's car got towed! We began officially dating (not "hanging out") in December. In March, COVID-19 sent us home to live with our parents, and it was an interesting time filled with many letters and late night FaceTimes. We moved in together after I graduated college in May 2022 while Halie was finishing her last year of nursing school. On April 2, I proposed and we got engaged! Then Halie went to Malawi for her nursing practicum for two weeks and graduated in May 2023. We moved to the Twin Cities, tried the city life, which was not for us. Then we moved to Duluth in July 2024 (much more our speed) when I got accepted to medical school! We are in a crazy busy period of our life and learning the new balances of medical school plus wedding planning, but we are so excited to get married!

After living on campus at NDSU for approximately 20 minutes, decided to join hall government (a pretty good decision if you ask me). A couple weeks in, 2 big things happen. 1. Mark and I both attend a little get together thing, where we met for the first time and I felt it was necessary to tell Mark he looked like glasses from greys anatomy, then left like 15 minutes into the event and 2. an opportunity presents itself to go to St Louis for a big hall gov conference. Mark, who was the VP of all the hall govs, was interviewing people to go on this hall gov conference trip and I was very interested- for a few reasons ;) Flash forward to halloween and we are going to St Louis! A few days into the trip, we exchanged snapchats (classy, I know) and on the return trip home we talked most of the long van ride back. Mark happened to offer his handy man skills to help me make a prayer board for the church I was working for at the time, and when we got home, I followed up on that offer. We hung out often in the next weeks (ask Mark about the green bean casserole), went on some dates (our first date was on Karli's (my sister) birthday- oops) and started dating in December (awww). In March, covid came with its social distancing and sent us both back home to live with our parents, the dream of every new and in love couple :) We did the whole college thing for a few years, moved in together after Mark graduated in 2022. Mark gave me this big ol fancy ring in April of 2023 and then took it back while I went and did my practicum in Africa. (Don't worry, he re-proposed with the ring again when he picked me up from the airport when I got home). We moved to the cities after Halie graduated in 2023, and moved to Duluth when Mark got into Med school in 2024. Now we're navigating wedding planning whilst in medical school, wish us luck :)