We're Getting Married!

Technically, we met in Kindergarten at South Highlands Elementary Magnet School. However, our love story starts in November of 2014. We were both at the Sam's Club on Youree Drive. Grocery shopping - romantic, right? I was with my sister, mom, and niece standing in line checking out. I'm holding my niece singing "Let It Go" in the line when my sister looks at me and says, "There's a guy behind you that won't stop looking at you and smiling." Okay, I'm intrigued. I turn around, and it's Austin. I recognized him instantly even though we hadn't seen each other since about middle school. He smiled, I smiled, and we both went back to checking out. A few minutes later, we were both taking our shopping carts to the same return in the parking lot. He says, "I promise I'm not stalking you." Ha! I found it amusing and we both went to our own vehicles. Fast forward to January 2015. I'm at work one day, and get a Facebook message. Guess who it was? You got it - Austin. Turns out, my sister found him on Facebook and messaged him to let him know I was newly single, and he should message me if he wanted. I'm so glad he did.

At this point, Austin and I have been together for 4 1/2 years. We planned a vacation to go to Universal Studios and Disney World - my favorite places EVER! I'm a huge Harry Potter fan, and he's a huge Star Wars fan, so it just made sense. We were at Universal Studios and had just gotten off a ride and retrieved our things from a locker. He wanted to sit down for a minute, and I agreed assuming he was feeling sick after 2 back-to-back roller coasters. So, we sit and I'm looking at the map trying to decide what we're going to do next. Eventually, he says, "This would be a great spot to take a picture." I said okay, still engrossed in the map and trying to find something that wouldn't make Austin feel worse. He told me he was going to ask this couple sitting a little behind us if they would take the picture, and went over to talk to them. Mind you, my back is facing them. According to Austin, he walks up to the couple and asks them if they can do him a favor while he's digging around in his wallet. They look at him a little confused, but when he pulls out *AND DROPS* the ring, the woman was super excited! Ladies, we all know why he chose the woman. A man will take one picture and be done, but a woman will take a thousand pictures and capture every second. I'm not kidding - there are pictures of me still sitting and looking at the map. So, we stand there and she takes a few pictures. I smiled and told her thank you, and went to walk away. He grabbed my hand to turn me back to him, and dropped on one knee with the ring and asked me to marry him. :) I'm pretty sure I cried for a solid hour. It was truly the sweetest thing, and such a surprise!