Like many couples, we met on an on-line dating website. We messaged back and forth on-line for a while before finally agreeing to meet in-person at a halfway point, The "Muni" in Lindstrom, MN. We shared great conversation and both felt a connection right away. We hugged goodbye and said we'd be in touch soon. A day later, he reached out to me saying he had an extra ticket for the Blake Shelton concert for the very next day. He asked if I would like to join him and I eagerly said absolutely! We met up with a group of his friends at a restaurant in St. Paul before the concert. The dinner was great. The concert was great. The kiss goodnight was even better! The rest is history...

We planned a week away at our timeshare in Orlando. On a previous trip to the timeshare, we realized that Bay Hill Golf Course, the infamous Arnie Palmer designed course, was literally only a couple of miles down the road from the timeshare. We agreed that on our next trip there, we would need to golf there. We booked one night at the Lodge and made a tee time for the next day, which would be our 6 year anniversary of meeting each other. After checking-in, we played 9 holes and had dinner in the beautiful Lodge. I decided not to play the next day but instead ride along and enjoy the sun and fun from the cart. We were paired up with three people to make a foursome; Nick and Hannah, a couple from St. Petersburg and Zan, a single guy from New York. Right away we were all having such a fun time. We got to the fifth hole and I was busy picking up the chipping clubs while they all putted out. I turned around to find Doug on one knee and holding a ring out towards me. With tears in our eyes, he proposed and I said YES! Nobody knew of Doug's surprise, including those on the course with us. By chance, Zan sensed something and had his phone in video mode to catch most of the proposal. Doug explained to us that his plan was to propose on the first hole that he parred. When asked what he would have done if he didn't par any of the holes, Doug confidently responded that most likely would never happen. Needless to say, I was completely surprised and cried for the next few holes. We shared champagne with our group, took pictures and still golfed a pretty good round. The bev cart gal found us later on the course and gave us each a signature umbrella key chain with the date engraved on the back as an engagement gift. We had such a great day! After golfing, we returned to the timeshare where we facetimed the kids to let them know before telling our friends and other family members. A couple of weeks went by after we got home. We were sitting on the couch when I told Doug there was a bump on my ring and thought I should bring it in to get it looked at and hoped it wouldn't cost too much. He kind of laughed and said that the ring wasn't very expensive anyway. I looked at him a little puzzled and he said that he told me that ring was just a place holder. What? When? Apparently, right after he proposed, he told me that it was only a place holder. Oh my goodness, I had no recollection of that! Apparently, he purchased the ring at Walmart for $7.00 because he didn't want to travel with the real ring and wanted me to be able to pick out what I liked. Quite the funny story that we enjoy telling and still laugh about it to this day.