Rose

I met Reid during his only semester at Bob Jones University, during the one(ish) month that we worked at the same place (Brody's Grille at the Den on campus - this is where love stories start, y'all). To show even more the unlikeliness of our even meeting, the only reason I was working the night we met was because I had taken on a sub shift. So there I was, subbing over at the Papa John's station, and I see this guy working over at my usual station. It was closing time for all the food stations and I was working hard making sure dishes were done, floors were swept, and that my area had a general appearance of cleanliness. Chick-Fil-A was between Papa John's and Brody's and had been particularly slammed that night, so I had offered to sweep their floors. After I diligently swept my floor and Chick-Fil-A's floor, I stopped at Brody's and noticed the floors hadn't been touched in the least. Naturally, this bothered my little OCD heart greatly. The guy working at Brody's was just meandering around, taking his time getting what little clean up he had done. So naturally, I marched up to him and handed him the broom. "I see you haven't swept your floor yet. Here, I'm done with the broom. You better get on that." I could tell this guy was new to campus (I thought he was an older freshman) so I foolishly assumed he would see that I was an upperclassman (a senior!) and not to be trifled with and comply. His response? "Excuse me? You have the broom, just sweep it yourself!" Accompanied with that laugh I've now come to love so much. Back then it just annoyed me - did he think this was funny? Clean-up is serious business! After stubbornly arguing my case (this was my usual station, it was never swept properly, and for pity's sake the pots don't belong there) he, for reasons unknown, complied and swept. My argumentativeness quickly melted away, I introduced myself, joined in on the friendly banter he had been trying to start (poor guy) and by the end of the night there were no hard feelings. The next few weeks saw multiple encounters with this same guy, finding out his actual age (and feeling ashamed for thinking a guy younger than me was cute!), and taking sub shifts during what I knew would be his shift. I invited him to go to Genghis Grill with some friends, and he in turn invited me to chaperone him and his friends (and the girl he was dating at the time) to the same restaurant. I looked forward to encounters with Reid, wondering where I'd run into him next (it was usually the Den). His band of friends ended up going to my church and so I saw him more often. I can still remember how truly disappointed I was when he told me he wouldn't be returning to BJU for the spring semester, or at all. I implored him to keep in touch, and wondered if I'd ever see him again.

Reid

Now for my side of the story. Once upon a time, in a university not so far away (Bob Jones to be exact). I managed to acquire a lowly position at the late night version of Brody's grill. It was a dark and lonely night in the den as Papa Johns and Chickfila were closing, when suddenly, someone came over too Brody's Grill and said something to the effect of "Do you not sweep this place?" (In case you haven't guessed, this is Rose talking). I expressed facially and/or verbally something to the effect of "yeah....no". Of course, now I had to because I've been called out for it, but to be fair, Tyler, my previous partner in crime and only other person to work that particular shift, didn't sweep either, and neither did the lunch people so can't blame me for it entirely.Well we ended up working together (and by together I mean at the same time) a few more times, enough to add each other on Facebook, and eventually became actual friends. Our first date (yes, it was technically a date) was really when she invited me to Genghis Grill, (to be clear I was still single at the time), the thought definitely crossed my mind that we could probably date successfully but I didn't think anything else of it. I end up dating a different girl and ask Rose to be the chaperone (required by BJU for those of you that are confused right now) since she was a senior and how could she resist going to one of her favorite restaurants? So since she was one of, oh 3 or so seniors that I knew, I decided she was the most likely to actually go. Plus she was the only one of the 3 that was a female so better for dates. But even when I was dating someone else, Rose and I were still friends and we ran into each other every now and again, usually at Mornigside Baptist or in the den, and it was kind of...mutually unspoken and thus mutually thought that we were friends and that was it. I was sure thinking that for the most part, come to find out almost 2 years later that she was not. The end of the semester came and on vacation I decided that BJU was not going to be cost effective so I concluded that I shan't return, not any time soon anyway. I explored my options over the next few months and came to the conclusion that a sufficient job would be far too difficult to find so the military seemed like the best option. I told my girlfriend at the time and she broke up with me for it, but it was for the best. That fall I took a vacation, my very first road trip on my own to visit Tyler and Josh and Richard (see groomsmen section). While I was in the Greenville area I also attended a service at Morningside, immediately searching for Rose among the choir. When I couldn't find her I sent her a message asking why she wasn't in the choir. Of course she had no idea I was even there until then.The days came and went and Rose and I talked via Facebook here and there, and then my time had come. Bootcamp was upon me. [TO BE CONTINUED]

Photos

Reid & Rose

Night of our engagement

Engagement Photos