Robb & I met waaaaaay back on New Years Eve 2005 during our senior year of high school. We were both at a "party" (I use the term loosely...there was no alcohol, just movies and poker...which sounds incredibly lame now...) at the house of a mutual friend (Katie used to live in my small town and then moved to a somewhat bigger town about 45 miles away, where Robb lived). We bonded pretty quickly over the fact that we don't like scary movies or Paris Hilton (House of Wax was on). So we decided we would go rock the poker table. And by rock, of course, I mean my competitive streak got in the way and I totally owned him! It was the beginning of a beautiful friendship. :)
The next morning I found out about a tragedy that had happened in my small town and our new friendship kind of got put on hold for a little bit as I worked though some things and tried to help my friends put the pieces back together. We would frequently find ourselves at Katie's house on the weekends and before I knew it, I was picking him up on my way into town and dropping him off on my way home (his poor little red Chevette just wasn't having it at the time). I was going to ask him to prom, but his prom was the same night as mine (such is life in small town Nebraska). We continued to talk and hang out through the summer, commiserating in the fact that August couldn't come fast enough. We were ready to get as far away from our towns as possible. He ended up at the University of Nebraska in Kearney & I ended up at the University of Nebraska in Lincoln (you know, THE University of Nebraska that everyone
not from Nebraska thinks of). We didn't talk much for a couple months as we both adjusted to college life 130ish miles apart as opposed to the 45 miles apart we used to be. Robb joined a frat (Alpha Tau Omega, for those who care) and found his place at UNK and I found that I couldn't have loved Lincoln and UNL more if I had wanted to.
A month or so into college, our friendship picked right back up as if we had just talked yesterday. Over the next two or so years, our friendship became best friendship. We would talk on the phone every day and text all the time. He was the one I would call both to laugh and cry (or for any reason I could come up with, really). I'm not sure when it really changed from best friendship to more than that, but we made it "official" on September 21, 2008. We had been getting quite a bit of crap from our friends (imagine that!). We were on our way to pick something or someone up and while we were driving, Robb looked over at me and said something along the lines of, "So...should we make this official? Do you want to do this for real?" Of course, I said yes. I thought this was the greatest thing ever!
Because of some extenuating circumstances, Robb ended up staying at my parents' house with me for the holidays that season (don't worry, we were able to see some of his family, too!). I was ridiculously nervous about asking my mom if it was ok for him to stay with us (I don't know why...my parents are truly the best parents ever). She said of course he could and just like that he was welcomed into my family. We've spent the holidays together ever since and my family absolutely LOVES him!
We both continued our college educations in our respective towns until I graduated from UNL in May 2010. I had made plans and packed up almost everything I owned so that I could leave town as soon as commencement was over (partially because my little brother graduated from high school that afternoon on the other side of the state and partially because I didn't want to have to come back to Lincoln before moving to Kearney with Robb). We found a cute little four-plex with 2 bedroom and a bathroom. It was small, but it meant we could live in the SAME PLACE, which was huge for us. Robb finished his music education degree as I started my Ed.S. degree in school psychology (let's just call it a Masters level degree and save the headache of me explaining how it has more credit hours than a masters and less than a doctorate and so on...). The following year, we moved back to Lincoln (let's face it, I left my heart AND my (girl) BFF in that town) so that I could do my practicum within LPS and Robb could HOPEFULLY get a teaching job. Well, he ended up subbing and I ended up having an amazing practicum. Unfortunately, there were no job options for us there and we ended up moving back to west central Nebraska to take jobs that were only 50 miles apart.
SIDE NOTE: I'm sure for some, 50 miles apart sounds like a LOT. And on days where I'm exhausted, it is. But when you're a music teacher and a school psychologist, there's only maybe one of your position in a district in most Nebraska school districts. We were just thrilled to get jobs within a commutable distance of each other. We ended up finding an apartment in medium sized town that Robb's job is in and I drive the 100 miles round trip daily. There are pros and cons, for sure. :)
That brings us to the relative present. A few months ago, Robb and I went and looked at rings. We had been ready to take the next step in our relationship for awhile, but we both wanted to be done with college, with full-time jobs, and a little more settled (financially) in our "adult life." We found one we both loved and left to think it over. We tried to find it online that night, but the store was no longer carrying it online...they were discontinuing it, basically, and all that was left in the stores was what was left. With that in mind, we decided to put some money down on it and put it on layaway so that we wouldn't lose it. And that was the last I would know about it until Robb decided to propose; little did I know that it would be happening sooner rather than later!
A couple weeks later, I called Robb to let him know I was on my way home from work. He casually mentioned that it was our 4 1/2 year anniversary exactly that day, so he wanted to go for a drive when I got home. This didn't seem unusual to me since we would go drive through the city park on occasion. I picked him up on my way back into town and we headed to the park. He wanted to get out and go for a walk, but I told him no way! The wind was blowing about 40mph (not an exaggeration; we were in a high wind warning all day) and my hair was down and I didn't have a hair tie. I was not about to leave the car if I didn't have to! He finally told me to just pull over for a minute. When I did, he told me that he had put some more money down on the ring today, and since I couldn't have the real thing just yet, he gave me a ring pop to hold me over. He held out the ring pop and asked me to marry him. I giggled and said yes and playfully put the ring pop on my left ring finger. He laughed and wanted to take a picture on his cell phone. I held out my hand as he took the picture. He then grabbed something out of his pocket and said, "Here, now I want one with this on!" He gave me the beautiful ring we had picked out and I replaced my ring pop with the real thing! I know this wasn't exactly how Robb had imagined proposing (since I refused to get out of the car) but I think it's fitting since we began dating in a car! The ring pop was perfect, too. He had always joked that I would agree to marry him, even if he only gave me a ring pop. Should I have seen it coming? Probably. But he completely caught me off guard and to me, it was absolutely perfect.
That was about three months ago. We've gotten quite a bit of planning done and I'll start catching you up on that soon! Date? Check. Gown? Check. Ceremony & reception locations? Check. Photographer? Check. Colors? Check. Bridesmaid dresses? Check. Cake? Check. Flowers? Check. See? I told you we had done a lot! As I work for a school district, I'm making the most of 6-7 week summer vacation because next school year is going to be CRAZY busy (we are in the process of building a new PK-8 facility, but in the mean time, I still have three separate elementaries, one middle school, one high school, and two parochial schools to keep me running). Check back soon for my next post about our venues and date!
