The Crousers

Another sporadic road trip, this time enroute to see Cory in Roanoke. A pretty common occurrence to just pick up and leave, but this time I had no duties to return back to Vegas—so I intended to take travel at my leisure. We were in the thick of Covid, and my home state of Oregon turned into a jumble of vaccination mandates. Unbeknownst at the time, I was only to be given orders by my bride here today and not my employer. A wild hair and first of dating app adventures, I matched with thousands of hot babes along my trip down south. This was typical for me because I’m quite the catch. While driving through Knoxville on my way to Virginia, there happened to be this short, fake blonde that caught my eye and frankly would not stop laughing at my awesome jokes. Although I often was the funniest in the room, this tickled my fancy. She had a name that was that of a southern belle and an accent that left me needing a translator. I decided to backtrack to Knoxville and stay at my trusty Marriott hotel. I reached out to SB. At this point I’d realized she had a successful job, was just gorgeous as ever, and had the smartest aussie dog I had ever seen. This could be a match. She was thrilled. She mentioned she would cook tacos and that sealed the deal for a visit to her apartment. Still cooking tacos she came to the door. First impressions: shit, she’s a dwarf. But really, pretty freaking hot. A little Koda also greeted me! Two nights was all it took for me to fall in love-- I really started to picture what a possible life could be like with her. Having no belongings, clean clothes, and in fear of overstaying my welcome, I headed back west. A few weeks of staying in touch across the country, I started to weigh my options. Stay here and get a new job, head back to Oregon, or for the third time in my life, move to a random state and start brand new. The latter of the options was deemed the best fit! Since November of 2021, this decision has been the best of my life. We have 3 dogs, traveled the county to beautiful places, bought a home with awesome neighbors and friends, and furthered our connection one day at a time. Trials and tribulations have tested us, work has kept us apart for special occasions, but we have an ability to love hard, cherish moments, judge lightly, and be a perfect team. You could not put a more unorganized, fly by the seat of his pants guy and a type A stress ball of a girl together, and that’s just why this whole thing works. To enjoying memories, more family in the times to come, and a world together SarahBeth Crouser.

Cody and I are a dating app success story--shout out to Bumble. I had been on and off of dating apps for about a year. I never took them too seriously because I always knew I wanted to meet someone organically, and the dating apps were more so practice for that perfect opportunity. Well...then Covid hit us pretty hard and being in healthcare, I stayed home a lot to keep myself and patients safe. I was pretty picky on the dating app. I had my age limit set to my age and above (sorry young guys) and a fairly close mileage range. Anyway, through some sorcery Cody pops into my feed even though he was just passing through Knoxville at the exact time I also happened to be on my app. We matched and I fed Cody some bs 'copy and paste icebreaker' which he saw right through immediately. He gave me a call since he was driving to Virginia to see his brother. We talked on the phone almost all night. I discovered he was from Oregon and Vegas, and just driving across the country for fun. I also found out that he had lied about his age on the dating app. I thought 'just my luck this kid probably isn't even 21 yet' but turns out he was just a few months short of his 'fake' age. Which means he never should have even been in my dating app pool--funny how all that worked out huh? He also said he quit his job because they wanted him to be vaccinated and he refused (spoiler alert: I asked him to get vaccinated before we started dating and he made the appointment within the hour). After visiting his brother in Virginia, Cody headed back to Knoxville where we finally connected in person. He came over to my apartment and scolded me for giving strangers from the internet my address. Little did he know, I had never given my address out to anyone from dating sites before..Cody was the first. Cody came to my door bearing gifts for our first meeting! He brought flowers, a dessert, a chew toy for Koda, and even a toy for Liz! I made tacos for us and let him do a load of laundry, since he was practically living out of his car on his cross-country adventure. On our next date, we had a romantic night out to Waffle House where Cody tried grits and gravy for the first time in his life. I remember our first conversations just flowing so naturally. He was so easy to talk to and confide in. We would spend all night just chatting about life and the future we wanted--Not even knowing that we would get to share that future. We spent two days together before he packed up and headed back west. I thought I would never him again and even told him that he "couldn't move to Tennessee just for me." Well, he proved me wrong and appeared back in my life in November of 2021. We have been a constant to each other ever since. Everything with Cody has always come so easy. We fell right into balance with one another. He is my best friend, confidant, and biggest cheerleader. Here's to the Crousers--Coming Soon!

We had plans to attend the Thomas Rhett concert on a Saturday night. Cody asked where I wanted to eat before the concert and I said, "Texas Roadhouse!" I really wanted some steak and shrimp with buttered rolls. Cody said "...Are you sure.... Texas Roadhouse is where you want to go?" and I said "Yeah of course!" I was getting ready upstairs, in a hurry, felt rushed, always running behind. I changed my dress 3 times. Cody, meanwhile, is downstairs, torn to pieces that I can't pick a dress, patience running thin, trying to keep the dogs quiet and calm while sporting their proposal name tags. I finally came downstairs to find my Cody with our perfect sweet pups to ask me to spend the rest of my life with him. The most perfect and kind-hearted proposal. We are both lovers of simple moments and intimate joys. Cody proposing in our very first home together with our fur family at the helm, was everything my heart desired. We spent the night celebrating just the two of us. With the fanciest roadhouse dinner and dancing together to 'Die a Happy Man' live with Thomas Rhett.