Karaoke at the Mediterranean Hookah Lounge in Madison was our first date! We both love to be center stage when singing, but on the date we were both a little shy. One of the karaoke regulars decided to play matchmaker and pushed our chairs closer together and we both just looked nervous! The line that hooked Janet was Shawn replying to the question “So what are you looking for in a relationship?” with “Someone to love me for the rest of my life”. His wild karaoke performance helped too. Shawn says he was immediately enraptured by Janet’s smile, which he calls the “World Famous Tri Smile”, and was blown away by Janet being both beautiful and intelligent. He followed up the date by writing Janet a poem.

We traveled to Georgia in the summer of 2020 to celebrate the 4th of July with Shawn’s Mom Kate. Kate loves to host all of her grandkids at the same time each year for “grandbaby summer”, but in 2020 she was a rockstar and took care of the grandkids for many weeks during the pandemic. We had a lot of fun playing and swimming with Shawn’s kids and his nieces and nephews, and Shawn put on a fireworks show for us on the 4th of July. We got to see how Kate cares for and protects a flock of purple martin birds in her yard each year, and tour her amazing garden full of fragrant flowers and buzzing bees!

On the one year anniversary of their first date, Janet and Shawn planned a romantic italian dinner. What Janet did not know was that Shawn had a much bigger surprise planned! After dinner, Shawn announced that he had an anniversary present for Janet: Pokémon! It was a callback to their first conversation when they met and discovered they both liked to play. The kids has also asked both of them separately "If you could be a Pokémon, which one would you be and why?", and both Shawn and Janet chose Togekiss, a fairy type who feeds on positive feelings and shares them with people who do good things. So Shawn had a whole batch of fully trained and customized Togekiss Pokémon ready to trade Janet. He had purposely picked out the movesets and special abilities to maximize the romantic metaphor. They had the moves Attract, Charm, and Sweet Kiss. The last one had the special ability Super Luck. Each Togekiss had a one word name, and he began sending them to Janet one at a time. The first six: Would You Like To Be A "Would you like to be a pepper too?" Janet guessed. "No", Shawn chuckled nervously. And then the last Pokemon arrived with the name: Griffiths? So the question was "Would you like to be a Griffiths?" At that moment, Shawn got down on one knee and pulled a ring box from his pocket and presented Janet with an engagement ring. She said yes.