The Engagement/Our Story

November 24th, 2021

That was the best day of my life so far. Parker proposed to me and I- of course- said YES! I had a feeling it would happen sometime before Christmas since we had been talking about it for a while. I was there for a whole week and he had plans to take me hiking at the Red River Gorge. He had a massive plan and everyone was in on it, he even pretended to get a little lost looking for the specific place. The place he had in mind was where we had our first kiss on Auxiliar Ridge Trail. 

Today I took my last final exam of the semester, so now it is very serious wedding planning and internship applying time. We are planning on an April 2022 wedding and we are in contact with the venue, got our theme, guest list, cake, and photographer figured out. There is still ton more to go but we are an incredible team getting things done and- after all- we were coworkers first. 

In 2 weeks I will be going with my mom, grandma, aunt and the bridesmaids to look at dresses. It is crazy this is happening yet it feels like the most natural thing in the world. I really believe Parker and I are made for each other. 

In other notes, we also got a puppy that week. She is a 5 month old bernedoodle named Stormy. She is a cuddler and is very people motivated. Right now we are working on hiking with her since she is gonna be an outdoors dog to fit our lifestyle and take with us out in the woods and on trail. Stormy is such a sweetheart and we love her lots. I need to remember to bring my camera with me on hikes and such especially since school is out and I am done writing English papers. 

This verse I have is about love, for obvious reasons. Place me like a seal over your heart, like a seal on your arm; for love is as strong as death, its jealousy unyielding as the grave. It burns like blazing fire, like a mighty flame. Many waters cannot quench love; rivers cannot sweep it away. If one were to give all the wealth of one’s house for love, it would be utterly scorned. - Song of Songs 8: 6-7   

I had found another really good verse but I think I will wait to post it because the rest of my life will be opportunity for that. I really feel like God brought the two of us together over Summer, he is my perfect person, we had a Summer full of bugs, heat, and hard work but you get to know someone really good through that. We are a team, we work hard for what we want and for the rest of our lives we will be working to intentionally show each other love in every situation. Like the verse says, love is the strongest thing and its bonds are not broken. 

💜Nichole

P.S. 

I wanted to say this somehow to you all who have been out of the loop with this relationship. Some people I know have tried to live my life for me and information I tell they have used against me even if it is the best news. I wanted to keep Parker all to myself for a while and just enjoy life and how well it is going for me without bringing in any opinions from anyone other than myself, Parker, or our very close families (who by the way are very in favor of us because they see how much we love each other). So here is our story if you hadn't heard, and for all you folks that are new welcome to my life for the past 6 months. We worked together as interns over Summer in Havana, IL. We were together all day every day hiking out in the woods exploring way deep forestry plots no one goes to, bird surveys, wetland work, pulling out invasive plants as well as climbing trees and eating mulberries and laughing together lots. We got along perfectly and quickly realized that life would be really great if we were together. That didn't officially happen until August 10th so we were not a couple until the day our internship ended but we did go on dates before then. He came over to meet Cooper when we first got him, on hot days I'd invite him to my hometown to get slushies and sit by the dam (because men seem to love dams, haha). But spending all that time together and being so so compatible we fell in love. Parker liked when I acted like my goofy happy self and was impressed by my outdoorsy-ness and independent personality. I liked how confident he made me feel, how he made me laugh until tears ran down my face and how smart and capable and good looking he was and is. When Summer ended we didn't let that end us- that's where we really started being a couple. Driving back and forth 6 hours every other weekend, then that wasn't enough and made it every weekend to have adventures like some of the ones I blog about on here. I knew early on that I wanted to marry Parker. I love him so much, and his family and friends like they are my own, like I belonged the whole time and they were just waiting for me. So yeah, it may seem fast to some of you, but I don't care. This is it, if this isn't what love is then it must not exist. It is like God put a compass in our hearts to find each other and when we did we just knew this is it.