In August of 2022, Lindsey moved back home from Oregon after completing her Master of Landscape Architecture. She tried her best to find a job, but came up empty handed. Then, she stumbles across a 1-year term with a new AmeriCorps (think Peace Corps, but for the States) program called the Green Bay Conservation Corps. She figures that will at least give her a year to find a long-term job. Day 1 of the new job she and the crew get introduced to the full-time staff members at the Bay Beach Wildlife Sanctuary, which included Ranger Austin. She has so much new information coming her way she doesn't remember much of that day, but Austin made sure to put his phone number on his business cards and give one to each of the crew members (when really he only wanted to give it to Lindsey, but he didn't want it to be that obvious). Cue about a month later, and Crew Lead Lindsey needs to get some supplies from Ranger Austin. She gives him a text and asks where she can find the supplies. He replies that it's back by the maintenance buildings (where the public can't go), and she can drive back there to grab the supplies. So she does, but she had no clue what kind of scene awaited her upon arrival. You see, one of Austin's jobs is cutting up the road kill deer that are brought in for the carnivorous animals on site. So, imagine this: you drive up to an aged steel storage building, with no one else around. There's a neat line of deer carcasses sitting outside one door that is cracked open with metal-rock music playing inside. You walk towards the door, having to pass the deer on the way in. You peek in and all you see is a deer leg strung up by a chain in the ceiling, the rest of the body hidden by a side-by-side and beneath its wheels is a stream of blood going to a drain in the floor. Oh, and all of this is lit up by a single light above the deer. You tentatively say "Austin?..." Lo and behold, a 6'6" tall man with a bushy beard dressed in a black chef apron comes around the corner with two bloody hands, one of which is holding a butchering knife. Now you really just want to be on your way, so you ask where your supplies are. He points outside the building and says they're around the corner. Do you need help getting them? You swiftly reply no, that's fine and you really don't want to bother him. You turn around, get your supplies, and drive quickly out of there. Is he a serial killer? Of course you all know he isn't, but Lindsey didn't quite know how to process what she saw that day. Over the following months Lindsey and Austin began working together more and occasionally had chats while out on the Sanctuary property. Around April, Lindsey's supervisor told Austin he should ask her out; she thought they'd make a good couple. Austin said no, because she was 23. Reader, Lindsey was 27, not 23. So now he really started thinking about asking her out. Then, in June, his Mom told him if he wanted a date to Peter and Catalina Ludolph's wedding, he better get his butt in gear. So, he did. In June he asked her out to the wedding, to which she replied yes. In the following weeks, they began going on small dates in and around Green Bay. In mid-July, Lindsey asked Austin if he wanted to formally start dating, and he replied yes. The rest, as they say, is history. Now we're getting married! Yay!