Jeremy and I met when I was in high school through mutual friends. The first time we talked, my soul felt like I had known him forever. We instantly connected like we had inside jokes, even though we had never spoken to each other before, and we formed a strong friendship.

Months later, at an Ugly Christmas Sweater Party at our good friend Nikki's house, Jeremy snatched a kiss under the mistletoe. I tried shaking it off, but later, knowing in my heart that wasn't just a friendly kiss, I told him, "Don't ever kiss me like that again!" Clearly, all of us that know Jeremy realize he does the exact opposite of what he is told...and that's not always a bad thing.

Jeremy asked me to be his girlfriend in April 2009. Yes, that's over a DECADE ago!

I first told Jeremy I loved him on June 25, 2009. Why do I remember that? Because it's the day Michael Jackson died. We were up north at Grandma B's cottage, and in 2009, that meant we were unplugged from the world. We couldn't figure out why everyone was talking about Michael Jackson until like a week later when we realized he died. ANYWAY...that's a whole other story. Squirrel!

Of course I meant it the first time I said it, but I had no idea HOW MUCH I would continue to fall in love with him. In fact, I never stop falling.

In our house, we get to twist the words of the classic children's jingle.

Our love grew and multiplied January 31, 2012 when Quinn Madelyn made her grand entrance into the world. Life was turned upside down within hours, but God gave us our first of the two greatest blessings. The second was of course Karlee JoEllen who was born November 28, 2016. Quinn saved my life, and Karlee proved I am living! It is unbelievable how much I love those tiny humans, but more shocking is how much their existence makes me love their daddy even more.

Okay, so that was sappy, but get ready for even more. It's unavoidable in our story - I had cancer. Dude, cancer sucks. I did not battle alone, I had a WHOLE ARMY, and we totally won. Jeremy Krenz is an incredible man. Period. Enough said. Let's move on.

Jeremy and I booked a get-away to Puerto Vallarta, Mexico for March 2018. Seriously, this trip was comparable to being on The Bachelor to me. It was the perfect balance of fun & adventure, laughter, and a wee bit of romance. We both agreed that we wanted to explore the Mexican culture off of our resort so Jeremy worked with the concierge to make reservations at a local restaurant. That afternoon, we ended up hanging by the pool a little too long, so we quickly rushed to get ready and headed out for our dinner. Honest to goodness, I had NO idea what was coming, or I would have at least brushed my hair and put on a little more mascara. As we were leaving through the lobby, everyone was being so nice to me. I got a flower, they opened the cab door for me, everyone was smiling. I obliviously floated by pretending I was the final contestant on The Bachelor. Remember, we had been together for nine years at this point, so I learned to live in the moment and let go of fantasies of the perfect proposal moments that hadn't panned out.

The cab took us up into the mountains. The whole ride we joked and giggled. That sneaky guy was as cool as a cucumber. After a decently lengthy ride, the cab stopped on a dead end road at a random little white house. Clueless as to what we'd gotten ourselves into, Jeremy and I looked around, looked at each other with big eyes, laughed, shrugged, and followed the little boy in the street that led us into the house. We were led down a narrow staircase, turned a corner, and opened up to a gorgeous view of the entire bay, town, and perfect pink sunset. (Check out the few photos we captured of the moment on the gallery portion of our website.)

Again, I obliviously floated by pretending I was the final contestant on The Bachelor as every host and waiter smiled, pulled out my chair, and flashed charming smiles.

When Jeremy left for the "restroom" (code word for handing his phone to a waiter to take pictures of the big moment. Cheapo Jer forgot to slip him a tip so the kid failed to take pictures.) I briefly FaceTimed the girls and Jodi to show them the breath-taking view. As soon as Jeremy came back to the table, the conversation turned mushy and sweet. It took a couple minutes, but as soon as I caught on to what was happening I completely blacked out. From my flashes of moments of consciousness, Jeremy got down on one knee, he said more super sweet things that I didn't really listen to, I told myself to say the word "yes," I said "YES" outloud (but I'm not 100% sure if Jeremy actually asked), I cried, and Jeremy finally said, "Are you going to put this damn ring on?" Everyone in the restaurant cheered, a mariachi band played for us, and we got free dessert, cigars, and wine drunk. It was perfect :)

I spent the rest of our dinner (and vacation) staring at my hand and smiling.