In an effort to keep this a little condensed, my basic background includes growing up in Omaha, moving to Dallas before my Junior year of high school, and attending my first two college years at Texas A & M (Whoop!). The summer after my sophomore year, I moved up to Nebraska and transferred schools to be closer to my dad. I needed a bit of a change and had originally planned on just spending the summer there, but God had different plans for me. A week or two after being in Nebraska, I began my job search. On the first day of my job search, I walked into an Applebees and was hired on the spot. Done! This was all in May of 2003.

In October, I began a second job waiting tables in a fine dining restaurant inside of Ameristar Casino. I began to scale back on my hours at Applebees, as the tips weren't quite the same. That same month, I showed up at Applebees for a random day shift. I was standing at the bar, checking in for the day, when I heard someone loudly ask who had the Texas A&M 12th Man towel in the car in the employee parking lot. That was the moment I met Chris. He had just moved to Nebraska with his band from Austin. We had texas in common, but that was about it. I think I must have been in the middle of something, because Chris tells me that I was not very friendly. I'm also a little shy when I first meet people, so he probably just took it the wrong way. :)

Over the next few months, Chris and I worked very few shifts together. He worked mostly nights and I worked mostly day shifts. I'm pretty sure that there were a few times that we probably talked in between shifts, but nothing to memorable. Chris had a girlfriend back in Texas and I was dating someone in Nebraska. Chris spent a lot of his time promoting his band, American Velvet. He constantly invited everyone from Applebees to go to his shows. I was working two jobs and going to school, so I never really had time to go. Also, I was only 20 at this point, so there weren't a lot of places that I could go. One day Chris handed me his CD and told me just to check it out. I did, and I was kind of surprised how much I liked it.

It wasn't until February of 2004 that I finally broke down and went to my first American Velvet show. My cousin Bridget and best friend Amy also worked at Applebees. They both decided that they were going to go to a show down in Lincoln with a big group on a school bus. It didn't take them long to convince me to go. By this point, Chris and I had gotten to know each other a little bit at work, but we had never hung out. On the night of this show, Chris's girlfriend was visiting from Texas. She didn't know anyone besides the band, so I figured, she's from Texas and I'm from Texas, so I made friends! I loved the show and the whole night was a lot of fun. A year or so later, Chris's former girlfriend told him that she did not like Nebraska, except that Jen girl. :)

A month or two later on St. Patricks Day of 2004, Chris showed up at Ameristar as a result of a random suggestion from Bridget who was working at Applebees. That was the first night we hung out.

As time went on, we realized that we had more and more in common. In the fall of 2004, we realized how much we both loved football. It may seem like a small detail, but football and Texas were the two biggest reasons that we hung out and basically how we got to know each other.

So, in a short blurb, that's how I met my best friend.

When thinking about how I would propose to Jen, I was in a bit of a fix. I spent many hours over the period of about two months shopping, pricing, and purchasing a ring that I hoped would exceed Jen's expectations. All the while thinking in the back of my mind, I have no idea how I am going to pop this question. You always hear stories of how the guy proposes where they had their first date or first kiss. Stories of how she is surprised with the ring at a favorite eatery or special event. Sometimes the guy recreates a special moment in the couple's relationship that just the two of them shared. The basic concept being, a special place or moment that you both shared added with your own idea or twist. Which brings me to my little fix.

As our story is told up above, I met Jen in Nebraska in the fall of 2003 while I was playing in the band and she was going to school. We spent three and a half of our almost five years together in Omaha before moving back to the great state of Texas. Each day we were writing new pages in our lives but our history was still in Nebraska. All our special moments and all our memories together were 915 miles away. Now for a minute or two there, I did contemplate actually proposing in Nebraska but two things came to mind; #1 my sanity, and #2 the fact that Jen knows how much I just love Nebraska and if I had suggested a random trip back to the cornfields, the suprise would have been blown.

In September of 2007, Jen came down to Houston to visit me for the first time since I had moved home. We had not seen each other in almost 2 months. We decided to drive down to Kemah from the airport and have a romantic dinner on the Boardwalk. We rode some rides and played some games. I even convinced Jen to go on the roller coaster (she hates them). That Saturday we spent the day tooling around the strand and relaxing on the beach. We were two kids without a care in the world enjoying the moment and the company of one another. Neither Jen nor I wanted our time to be over. It was then we knew we did not want to be away from each other any longer. I have a framed picture on my desk of Jen and I from that night at dinner. In the 5 years we have been together, it is my favorite picture of us together and unfortunately the restaurant is no longer there (Ike).

Now I know to all you native Houstonians who have frequented Galveston, swam in the brown water, and walked down the seweed infested beaches, that Galveston isn't the most reputable of places. However, after living in the cold midwest for 4 years with no beaches, it might as well be Key West. More importantly, a perfect place for me to "recreate" that special time and use strategery to set up the proposal. Once I knew how and where I would propose, my only real problem now was how I was going to get Jen to Galveston without her becoming some what suspicious. I decided to use our friends Dustin and Betsy as a scapegoat and tell Jen they would be in Galveston for the weekend and had invited us to dinner. Dustin and Betsy live up north of Conroe so we don't get to see them as often as we would like and because of that Jen doesn't talk to them on a regular basis so I knew there would not be much chance of anyone accidentally letting the cat out of the bag. Jen played right into my hands and the stage was set.

That Friday we left Houston right as Jen got out of work at 5 and raced through traffic down to Galveston at about 35 miles per hour. I had predicted lots of traffic so I set up dinner reservations at the Hotel Galvez for 8pm and explained we were eating late because Dustin and Betsy had to sit through traffic as well. We got to the Hotel with lots of time to spare so we went in and had a couple glasses of wine. I needed to relax a bit because I was starting to get a bit nervous. I ask her if she wanted to take a walk on the beach and watch the sun go down. Cheesy yes, but quite effective. We got down to the beach, took off our shoes, and started to walk a bit. I had the ring in my pocket and was looking around nervously to try and find the best spot to pop the question. Jen kept saying, "What are you looking at?" "Nothing, I thought I saw Dustin!" I wanted a place where there was not a lot of people around. I wanted it to be just the two of us. There was a rock pier in front of the Galvez that jetted out into the gulf and no one was on it. I suggested we walk to the end of it and we did. I could not have planned it better. We were all alone and it was a gorgeous evening. A cool breeze was coming off the ocean, the sun was setting, the waves were crashing at our feet, and the Galvez was our backdrop. We settled on the moment for a while. Not one of us spoke. I turned to her and started to tell her how much I loved her. I was very nervous and tripped on my words a bit. As soon as I told her that Dustin and Betsy were not coming, I could see in her eyes she knew what would come next.

As I took the box out of my pocket, I immediately realized the rock pier was not the best idea. I had no way of getting on one knee without falling in between the rocks. Furthermore, I was nervous, I had just sold a kidney to pay for this ring which was not yet insured, and all I kept thinking was, if I drop this ring between these rocks it is gone forever! I moved in front of Jen and looked into her eyes as I held onto the ring for dear life. I asked Jen if she would marry me and she said yes(obviously otherwise you would not be reading this). I put the ring on her finger as quickly as I could and told her she could not take it off until we got off this pier. Neither of us wanted to go so we had pushed our reservations back as far as they would allow. We stayed there for a long while watching the sun go down and basking in the moment until it was time to go to dinner. We were the only ones in the restaurant which made it very special. We felt like VIP's as we drank champagne and celebrated Jen's wise decision.

So on June 20, 2008 in Galveston, Tx right out on the end of pier 21 in front of the Hotel Galvez, I asked Jen to marry me and she said Yeppers. Since Galveston and the Hotel Galvez are so special to us, we decided to get married there. We also thought it a good idea since the Galvez is a Historic property and will always be there for us to show our children and grand children one day. Little did we know that 11 days after we booked it for our wedding that half of Galveston would be ripped apart by hurricane Ike. However, The Queen of the Gulf is still standing and awaiting our momentous occasion on May 2, 2009. We hope you will be joining us and look forward to seeing you then.