The first thing you probably all want to hear is our proposal story, but just hold your horses, we'll get to that, don't be impatient! Last August was when we first met. It was a Sunday at church. It was my first day at the singles ward since I had arrived back from Colorado, and it was Kristin's first day ever at the singles ward. After sacrament meeting, all the newcomers met in the overflow to introduce themselves, and that is where 'us' began (or at least it's a good starting point). We had run-ins at church and at activities (and she was even there to watch my performance last October for Rocktober, check it out on facebook), and I felt that there was no way for her to turn eighteen without having a rockin' party, so I helped plan one for her, and we did a little random hanging out and a lot of random conversations.
Now Kristin was not just another girl, she was Kristin Riley, the one that everyone wants to meet, and well I wanted to get to know her better. However, this whole time, she was dating some other guy, so her singles ward attendance was spotted. But a few months later, they broke up, and I of course know a good window of opportunity when I see one. Our first date came not too long after on March 27th at Firebird's in North Hills. Next came a Carolina Hurricanes game, a wedding, a play, and well we began to spend an awful lot of time together. (And if we weren't together, we were talking on the phone.)
The next part of the story is one we all like to forget: my stay in Iowa. It's not that Iowa is a bad state, well, um actually, yes it is. I probably won't ever live there again. It was nice to make money though (and plenty of it) as a salesman selling satellyte. I left Kristin in North Carolina for three months, and we hoped things would keep going when I got back, but we knew we would just have to see. It turns out (and you can ask anyone who was in Iowa with me, especially Brenan Volpe) that if I was not talking face to face with a person, I was on the phone with Kristin. In fact, every month our cell phone mobil-to-mobil minutes (we both have/had Alltel) climbed higher and higher. Our highest bill showed us using twelve thousand minutes between the two of us! That's like a whole year!
Anyway, distance was not enough to keep us apart. We eventually knew we had fallen in love, and on May 24th, that's exactly what I told her for the very first time. We loved the idea of life with eachother, and I began to realize what all my summer earnings were going toward (and it wasn't a big fat piggy bank with 'Michael' on the side of it). Kristin had flown out once this summer to see me while I was in Iowa, but I flew back after I was done, and we picked right back up where we left off.
My love for Kristin inspired me to do many good things, one of which was to write music for her. The day was Wednesday, August 19th, exactly four months before our planned wedding day. I knew she had fallen in love with a particular ring and was sure to have it with me. We were together the whole day, and we stopped by my parents house to have dinner with them. Afterward, I borrowed my dad's guitar (the guitar I learned how to play on), and I told Kristin I wanted to go on a walk. We drove over to Preston and I found a nice little gazeebo on that sunny evening. We walked over there and I played Kristin our song, followed by one that I had written for her (for this very moment). It came out better than I even imagined, and the closing words of the song I sang to her, while kneeling down and getting the ring out, were, Kristin Elizabeth Riley, will you marry me?
Well if you've seen the ring on her finger, you can imagine what her response may have been. We went back to my parents house to tell them the news, and on the way home, she was on the phone with her parents, we just had to get the word out.
Well, now the word is out. Once we told the singles ward ourselves, they handled the rest, and we even changed our facebook status. If it wasn't official enough, it is on the world wide web, and once I find a mountain tall enough, I will shout it out loud, but until then, everyone needs to know that I am in love with Kristin and I cannot wait to marry her!
