16 years. Wow. Where do we start? Well, once upon a time in 2008 at IKEA Frisco, Texas, we met and we became friends. A local bar, The Irish Rover, was nicknamed the IKEA bar. A large group of us sat at a long table and shared stories of the crazy customers we encountered on our shifts for the day. As the night grew longer, our co-workers dwindled to a handful. A co-worker in my department guessed Philippe spoke German since he said he was from Belgium. I had been to Belgium and knew they did not speak German but French or Flemish. The co-worker was so embarrassed that she excused herself from the table and left. The handful dwindled to just two. Philippe and me. We talked about everything under the sun. We were just friends in the beginning. We had great talks and discovered we had the same sense of humor and taste in music. Our family backgrounds were very similar. The friendship was easy.

We had a lot of social events like volleyball, ping pong, drinking at the Rover Irish Pub.

Our friendship turned to something more when I asked Philippe if he would like to be my plus one at the Rangers Baseball game. And then we started dating.

The days turned in months and months into years.

Pages in a book become chapters. So much to celebrate after sharing 1 apartment, 2 houses, 2 high school graduations, 2 college graduations, 2 weddings, 2 grandchildren, our time is now after 16 years. From friends to boyfriend/girlfriend, to fiancé/fiancée, we are ready to become husband and wife!