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It all started at a college frat party 10 yrs ago..... it was Tony's frat having a 'Thug Love' party. We had a 1st kiss that night (and someone took a picture of it!!)  and we tried dating even though we lived 2 hrs apart. It didn't work out and we went on our separate ways.....for a while..... In 2006 Tony almost married someone else... he called it off 4 months before (I think God must have had his hand in that!). Starting in the beginning of 2007 we started communicating regularly again. BUT I lived in California and he lived in Indiana. So whenever I would come visit friends/family, I would try to see Tony. He was my regular 'wedding date' whenever my friends were getting married in the midwest. He was a great wedding date! He would pick me up from airport and take me where we needed to go, sometimes planning sweet little outings for us. Somehow, I think we both knew from early on that the other was going to be significant- we just weren't sure how yet. In June 2008 I was a bridesmaid in a wedding in Indiana. It was Tony's birthday and we had a little too much fun.... At the end of the weekend, I flew back to California with a little more souvenir than I had planned. A month later, I discovered I was pregnant! So as we attemped to build a relationship from far away, we also started making plans to move near each other. When I was 7 months pregnant, Tony moved to Cali. I won't lie- we had a very rough first year, Soon after our beautiful daughter Araelynn was born, we got pregnant a second time- oops! And on Araelynn's 1st birthday I gave birth to our handsome son Bowen- yes folks- they share the same birthday one year apart!! It's crazy. Through that first year of a child's birth, a second pregnancy and lots and lots of ups and downs, we finally gave up and let God. A month and half after our son was born we sold almost everything, packed up the rest and moved to Indiana. And we have been building our life together since. We have been through much more than the average couple and were ready to call it quits on several occasions. The one thing that kept me trying was looking into my daughters eyes.....Was I confident enough in my actions and intentions to look her in her eyes 10 yrs from now and say, "I am sorry honey, you weren't worth it to try one more time at a life with your mom and dad happily together" and since I was not ready to say that, I couldn't give up.....and I am SOOOO glad I didn't. Tony finally proposed July 16th 2012 with a gorgeous ring (that I designed). And we are planning our wedding this fall- Sept 7th 2013 on the gorgeous Lake Michigan. I had insisted he make my proposal a surprise and something very special since we sort of got 'stuck' together. Above are some pictures from our special day. Here's how it started....we were visiting my parents in Michigan for a weekend. It had been a rough month or 2 for us with unexpected expenses, stress with family and work and illness- and Tony played this up saying he wanted to give me a vacation and a break. So we got up and got ready for church on Sunday morning and he put the kids in my mother's car....I was surprised....as we pulled out of the driveway the wrong direction I knew something was up. He said he was taking me out for the day to get a break and have some alone time together and my mother would be fine taking care of the kids. As we drove, he turned on Pandora onto a David Gray channel (he is one of my favorites). Finally an hour later we ended up in Bay City and he told me he had found a place that had several new Geocache's that no one had found.(WWW.GeoCaching.com for those not familliar) So I humored him to go geocaching for a bit then we would go on and do some other fun stuff. So after he pretended to get lost while following his GPS, we ended up at a lovely arboritum park on the river. He played stupid really good and was trying to find this geocach location. I was being a little irritated because he was acting weird about it. So finally we found a beautiful and giant willow tree (in one of my pictures). We searched for a little capsul and finally I found a box hidden in the tree. He climbed up to retrieve it and made me open and read it. (also picture included above) The note on the inside read: "If found by accident please replace! You are interrupting a GeoCache.For more information visit WWW.GeoCaching.com . Congratulations you found what you were looking for but it’s not the destination that counts it’s the journey.  This geocache is special. It comes with a challenge to revisit it every five years sign in and write about what you learned over the past five years.  Life is about the unpredictable journey. Not where you started or where you end up, but remember the most important part is who you share it with!" As I finished reading, I thought- now that's cute and weird... and tured around to see him on his knee with my awesome ring saying (he had to tell me what he said later because I saw the ring and didn't hear anything! LOL) "This is where I ask you to share this journey with me for the rest of our lives" It was AWESOME!!! Then he took me shopping for several hours to waste time until we could check into our BEAUTIFUL bed and breakfast for the night. I also need to explain the picture of the flat tire...The Friday night before all this, Tony drove up and scouted out this perfect place and hid the actual geocach box. While he was at the park, some one knifed his tire, so he had to stay for the night at a local diner to wait for the tire store to open. It was a HUGE fiasco!!!! He is my best friend, my supporter, my life line and my greatest love. I did not realize that it was possible to love a human (who was not my child) as much as I love him. We can face ANYTHING together and overcome it. Where I am weak, he is strong, where he lacks, I excel. We are the perfect combination and we are ready to take on the world and make a difference someway, somehow together!!