The first time we met… My (Jo’s) sister, Ryan, worked in the classroom across the hall from Aaron. She invited us both over to watch a Husker football game in hopes that we would become friends. Aaron had told her that he didn’t have a lot of friends in Omaha after moving from school in Kearney. I came to Ryan’s house with my best friend/landlord/room mate, Blaise. Not being much of a sports person, I spent the whole game talking to Blaise. Aaron thought Blaise and I were married because we had so many inside jokes and we were so close. The second time we met… Nothing came of that first meeting, but Ryan, my sister, invited us both to watch the first games of March Madness. Luckily, March Madness is one of the few times I pay attention to sports. We hit it off talking about our favorite teams to root for. Everyone else had to get home and the two of us ended up being the last two at the table. Aaron gave me his number and offered that we could keep watching the games at his apartment. After excitedly texting Ryan that I got “Callahan’s” number, I went home to let the dogs out. I texted Aaron while watching the rest of the games for the day. A couple days later Aaron and I both went to the Malone’s annual St. Patrick’s Day party. We had a great time talking, putting eyeball stickers on everything, and shooting light up slingshots at each other. On the way home from the party Aaron snap chatted Kendall, my sister-in-law who he had gone to college with, and asked her to tell me he had fun. I had Kendall tell Aaron to let me know himself because he had my number. Aaron texted me and we’ve talked everyday since!

Aaron and I made plans to go look at rings in January after the busy holidays. I showed him what I liked and didn’t like. He took photos on his phone to look back on when he needed to. About a month later Aaron said he’d be home later than normal. When I asked why he said he had “an appointment at the mall.” Since Aaron usually avoids the mall, it was pretty obvious that he was going back to look at rings without me. We had several trips planned to attend weddings and family events. With the expenses from trips I wasn’t expecting anything until after our travel schedule slowed down. Aaron dropped a few hints while on our trip to the Dominican Republic. He made a dinner reservation, which he never does. He also made several comments about celebrating our 5th dating anniversary, St. Patrick’s Day, on our last day there. We don’t normally make a big deal of anniversaries, so this was out of the ordinary. The photo is from Friday morning on St Patrick’s Day. We spent the morning on the beach and at the pool with family. After our dinner reservation on our anniversary, Aaron asked if we should go to the beach for a walk on our last night there. The whole ride to the beach Aaron was very fidgety and held my hand (we don’t hold hands). We barely made it onto the beach before Aaron was down on one knee. Of course I said “hell yeah!”