1997 David and I went to elementary school together. I bit him on the arm. He never lets me live it down to this day.
2002 We played on the same soccer team for a season (I was one of 2 girls in the boys' travel league).
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| I am the girl on the left side of the bottom row, he's the kid with the goofy smile, second to last on the right on the back row. |
2006-2008 We both played on the high school soccer teams at our school.
2007 We had Art together in 11th grade where we sat near each other. I just remember laughing at him every day when he used to yell at the art teacher not to judge or change his drawings (she was evil). We used to walk to that class together, too.
June 6 2008 We graduated high school together.
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| Our high school graduation |
2009 After high school, we played pick-up together with our friends at night. We're both Steelers fans, so in the fall, we always used to send each other score/play updates if one of us couldn't watch the game.
March 2010: A few weeks into BCT, he got the good 'ole Dear John from the girl he was dating at the time. I knew he was having a hard time in BCT, so as the great friend that I am, I wrote him a letter and told him it would be okay and that I knew he would get through it. He jokes with me to this day that I knew what I had planned the entire time and I took advantage of him at a vulnerable time haha. For the remainder of BCT, we wrote back and forth, a few letters a week. In those letters, we began to fall in love with each other--without ever having a physical relationship.
May 13 2010 He asked me to be his girlfriend (mind you, in a text message) on BCT Graduation Day while he was at Buffalo Wild Wings with his parents. I still remember getting that text and my aunt wondering what in the world was wrong with me. I was jumping up and down like a lunatic and literally hyperventilating. Only a month into our relationship, we were talking marriage, because we both just knew. We had known each other almost our entire lives, and we knew that God had given us the perfect timing to begin the rest of our lives together.
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| On top, the first letter I wrote to him. |
June 25 2011 He came home from AIT after graduation, and I picked him up from the airport. During that month between AIT and his first duty station, we fell even more in love, and it only confirmed the plans we had for our life together.
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| The moment I first saw him at the airport. |
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| Our first moment together. |
August 17 2010 We decided that we wanted to get married on this day. People always drop their jaws when they ask how he proposed and I say "He didn't." We knew that what we had wasn't about a ring or a creative proposal plan. We just couldn't wait any longer; we had made up our minds.
December 9 2010 I traveled to Hawaii for Christmas and New Years, where I got a little taste of our future home.
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| Checking out the west side of O'ahu |
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| Our first Christmas together in Hawaii |
January 9 2011 After everyone returned from block leave, the guys immediately left for NTC. I sent him off at 4AM and left the next day to fly 16 hours back to Virginia.
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| Leaving for NTC |
When I got home to Virginia, I began my Junior Year of college, and also began the wedding planning!
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| My bridal shower: a hand-me-down from my high school friend who's also an Army Wife! |
March 2011 He got home in early March for our wedding, and all the final touches and rehearsals were done for the big day!
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| Another homecoming :) |
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| At our wedding rehearsal |
March 13 2011 We became husband and wife.
March 23 2011 One week after our wedding, I sent him off to Hawaii to prepare for the deployment with his batallion.
April 11 2011 He left for Afghanistan and we've been living off phone calls and packages since then.
August 24 2011 He came home for R&R, and they were an amazing two weeks. We went to a Steelers game in North Carolina because neither of us had ever been to one. We went to his favorite place in the world, Kings Dominion Amusement Park. We went to get my tattoo finished. Mainly, we relaxed, just like we were supposed to!
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| Picking him from the airport for R&R :) |
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| The Steelers Game! |
September 9 2011 Early morning on the 9th, I sent him back to Afghanistan, and that's where we're at now--getting through the second half of the deployment! We can't wait to start the beginning of our new normal lives together when he returns next Spring!
March 31 2012 I landed at HNL at 4:07 PM and ran into the arms of my amazing husband after surviving a year of deployment.
