Shannan

Shannan and Aaron met online, though not on one of the many dating sites couples often use to find a potential match.  They were each Facebook friends of a mutual friend who Shannan had met through an online game over Facebook while Aaron went to school with her many years ago in Spokane, Washington, where he still lived when Shannan and Aaron first met.  The two first interacted briefly through a post by Vicki, their mutual friend, yet nothing much clicked that first day.  Later, another interaction would come about where the two became involved in a case of mistaken identity where Aaron believed Shannan was a girl he and Vicki had gone to school with.  Shannan, knowing this not to be the case, assumed he was pulling Vicki's leg and played along, furthering the confusion.  Shannan's sense of humor kicked in and she became more confident talking with Aaron via this post on Vicki's wall on Facebook and at one point made a comment with a little "zing"!  Aaron's interest had been piqued and told Shannan that she couldn't talk to him like that without being a friend of his as well...so immediately sent her a friend request through Facebook!  That began a conversation that continued through the night of Aaron's 42nd birthday and into the early morning hours of the next day.  Each night after work, Shannan rushed home in order to continue conversations with her new friend who lived on the other side of the state. After a period of time, Aaron felt it was time for a face-to-face and made arrangements to travel to the Seattle area where his brother and sister-in-law also lived.  Six days later, Aaron returned home to Spokane and within days confessed his desire to relocate to Seattle in order to see what might become of their budding relationship.  Aaron packed his car with his belongings and headed west to begin a new phase in his life. Weekdays were spent living in Federal Way with his brother, Darryl, and sister-in-law, Holly, while weekends were spent with Shannan in her apartment south of downtown Seattle.  Aaron says he knew early on that he wanted to marry Shannan but Shannan, being more of a planner and a cautious person, wanted to take her time and see how things developed.  Aaron continued to look for work, ranging from Seattle and points north down to Federal Way and beyond and eventually it seemed clear to Shannan that if she could see a future with him it would make sense to have Aaron focus on employment more in her local area which was close to her office.  In April Shannan invited Aaron to move into her small apartment and, although Aaron did not bring much to make room for, the addition of another person became cramped fairly quickly. When a two-bedroom apartment became available in their complex, the two looked at it and decided that if they could afford it, the move to a larger space would be ideal.  Unfortunately the apartment was snatched before they could advise their landlord they wanted it, much to their disappointment.  As luck would have it, a friend of Shannan's heard this story and offered to them a rental house that was back in her beloved Queen Anne neighborhood, complete with in-house laundry, room to spread out and plenty of storage space, all things that had been lacking at the apartment!  After a quick consultation with Aaron and a walk-through of the house, they decided to take the leap and move into what would become "their home" together.  Unfortunately the timing couldn't have been much worse as Shannan's mother had just moved a month before, her brother was getting married the weekend after their move-in date and both she and her mother were to participate in the wedding, assembling the flowers, hosting the rehearsal dinner at her mother's home and giving a reading for the bride and groom. An all-family effort began to move Shannan and Aaron before her brother's big day where her aunt spent a day helping Aaron pack while Shannan was still at work and both Shannan's and Aaron's brothers helped put muscle behind the final transfer of belongings to the new house.  Not only was this done just before her brother's impending wedding but Aaron's brother had run a 25-mile segment of a 100-mile race with a friend of his the very morning he helped his brother and Shannan move! While the couple still is working on making their house a home and finding places for everything, they are infinitely happy with where they are and enjoy each other's company.  They are fortunate to fully enjoy each other's families and have already spent an intermixed Thanksgiving with fun had by all!  Shannan and Aaron feel blessed that they are so close to their families, despite sometimes a less-than-close physical proximity, and look forward to sharing special events in their future.