“We’re getting married!”

In the midst of COVID, somehow Peyton and I got lucky enough to meet each other. We had just gotten to go back to school for fall of 2020. This was both of our last semesters as college students. We both were on track to graduate December of 2020. A new bar, called Logies, had opened right before COVID had hit. I never had a chance to make it there before everyone got sent back home to wait out the pandemic. Fast forward to September, bars and restaurants were slowly starting to open again. My friend Brooke & I wanted to go to Logies (the new bar) to grab a drink and some food one Thursday night. Since COVID was still going on, the bar scene wasn’t the most typical. You were required to sit down at a table and could not stand/ congregate around any open areas or you’d be asked to leave. It was treated just like a restaurant. You couldn’t go up to get drinks, you had to wait for someone to come to your table. My friend Brooke decided she wanted to leave as there was limited seating and not many of our friends were there. I did not want to leave because we waited in line for what felt like an hour & I was very excited to see this new bar. I ended up finding my friend Morgan. She was sitting at a table with other people who I had never seen before. There was one seat left at the table so I quickly sat down before I was asked to leave. Sitting across from me was Peyton. I didn’t know anyone else at that table besides Morgan, but I figured I should make the most of the night and introduce myself to all her friends. Peyton and I got to talking. We talked all night until last call. At the end of the night, Peyton asked for my number and a few short days later, asked me on our first date. Our first date was September 16th 2020. & the rest is history.

Did I know it was coming? You could say yes, but you could also say no. Of course we had talked about how we wanted to get married one day and how we felt we were meant for each other. But, I had no idea the proposal was coming this particular day in Amarillo, TX. Peyton had been living in Amarillo for about a year at this point. We continued to do long distance as I was still living in Dallas. We talked about me eventually moving down to Amarillo and living together. Every time I would come down and visit, I helped Peyton fix up his parents old house that he was staying in. This particular day, I had been working on ripping off all the wall paper in the kitchen. It was a lot of work and what felt like forever to get all the wall paper off. Peyton was at work, soon heading back home, so I decided to open a bottle of wine and play some music so I could finish up before he got home. Once Peyton got home, he gave me a hug and a kiss and smiled. He asked if I wanted my Valentine’s Day present. This year, we agreed not to do Valentine’s Day gifts and just go out to a nice dinner (which we were doing Tuesday, on actual Valentine’s Day). I remember telling Peyton he shouldn’t have gotten me a present because I didn’t get him one. “I thought we weren’t doing presents this year” I said about five times as he ran into the back bedroom and was ruffling around in the closet. At this point, I had turned around to the pantry to grab the dogs some bones to keep them occupied while we kept working on the kitchen. I didn’t think Peyton was serious about any present. As I am grabbing the dog bones, he taps me on the shoulder and gets down on one knee right in the middle of the kitchen. I was in so much shock at the time, I put out my right hand when I said yes. That’s how the original picture of the ring is on the wrong hand…. And why everyone thought I was playing a joke when I first sent the picture. Now, Peyton’s version may go a little something like this. He knelt down and asked me to marry him and in quote, stated “I promise I won’t hurt you as bad as this hurt my bank account.” I figured I had to add that in here just in case he reads this. Lol!! Because, he did indeed say that.