I'm not sure if anyone cares or will read this so I'm gonna write this for myself so that in the future I can remember it ALL! I consider myself a serial monogamist. I've always been in a relationship. In a few of those relationships the word "marriage" came around, but inevitably they ended. So, let's get down to the story of how I met the dude who actually WANTS to marry me (which is the craziest feeling in the world, like, you like me enough to be with me forever?!?!?!)
In the beginning of 2017, my mama, DeDe, thankfully quit her job at corporate America that was making her miserable. She had celebrated her 60th birthday a few months back but had an injured foot, so her and my step dad were looking at rentals in some ski towns to stay in for long term as a belated trip (and to possibly buy in the future). At the time I was living at home, just coming back from living in Dallas for a few months with my sister and trying to figure out what my next step was. My parents mentioned renting a place in Jackson Hole Wyoming for a few weeks. Since my step father runs a seafood company and wouldn't be able to be away that entire time, DeDe recruited me to be her house guest for those few weeks. I'd never been to Wyoming or even remotely thought about it ever in my life, but if I've learned one thing in the past 6 years as a coach,it is to say YES to things that are out of the ordinary and you'll be surprised. And boy was I.
Well, that few weeks rental ended up becoming a 2 month rental on a golf course in WY. My mom and I were to drive CROSS COUNTRY with our princess golden retriever, Kaiya and Mike (my step dad) would come and meet us. So, we set out in our Ford for a 3 1/2 day trip (which I've now down 4x) from PA to WY! I had never been to a mountain town in my life, the last time I skied had been 15 years ago, and it was a new world to me. I'm getting emotional writing about it because of how much has changed for the better since! Anyways, speeding this up to get to the LOVEEE STORY, I fall in LOVE with Jackson. I was never a winter person in PA because its grey and ugly. But here in WY, it's beautiful crystal snow flakes grazing the ground, moose & elk at your door, the mountains are so dramatic and the skies break your heart a little with how beautiful they are.
A month or so later, DeDe needed to fly to FL for a family party, and my sister who now lived in Dallas decided to come to Jackson for 10 days! WOOOOO! Leading up to this, the latest I had 'been out' in town in JH was like, 8pm max. SO I was pumped to have my sister here to go out on the town and enjoy the night scene. And thats where a little app named BUMBLE came into play. And I was not using it, but my sister Lauren was. She matched with this fellow named George who worked at the Mountain Man Toyshop/Knifeworks in town and he said he'd be at the Cowboy bar that night. Lauren mentioned she has a single sister (me!) and then George mentioned he had a single brother (can you guess who?). That night we went to meet the boys at the bar during the busiest weekend of winter (snow mobile climb weekend).
Lauren eventually found George and I was waiting for drinks at the bar. Spencer (who may I add is the least likely to be found out at a bar in town on a Saturday night) tells me now that he was waiting for me and was going to leave if I was taking too long (LOL). But eventually I get my drink and find my sister who is with George and then a mysterious blonde AF, bearded man moseys my way---my future husband.
To those of you who meet Spencer know, he is a quiet, listening, beard twirling mysterious soul. The moment I met him, I knew I wanted to be around him. I felt protected around him. It was an instant connection. Anyways we chat, he watches me play pool. Then we are leaving the bar to head to grab pizza and I say "do you have a dog?", he says "yes". I ask "do you have a voice for your dog?" and he starts talking in the voice we use for Leo--my heart is SOLD! And we walk to his car and meet my little Leo man! We all spend the night eating pizza in town and then proceed to throw tomahawks in an alleyway at 3 AM. I left that night feeling amazing and butterflies in my stomach.
At this point, I only had 3 weeks left of being in Jackson before my family leaves. Spencer and I spend every minute together. He meets my family, Kaiya, we go for walks, he shows me some of our favorite places we still visit now. And then it comes to the end of my stay and we are crying, wondering when we will see each other next. I remember being on the plane SOBBING and the passengers and attendants must of thought I was a basket case. I went home to PA, and immediately tried to find my way back out to WY.
Housing was tough to find in such a transient town but I found it. I spent a month and a half home and then June 1, 2017 moved everything in my Hyundai Santa Fe to Jackson with my Dad. I was so excited to be back with my man. We had an amazing reuniting, and spent the summer exploring Wyoming.
THIS ALL SOUNDS GREAT AND PERFECT RIGHT?!?! Okay, so let me get down to the nitty gritty.
It was hard moving out here. I'm lucky I have my family visiting quite often for weeks at a time, but any friends I would make would move somewhere else. It seemed like everyone already had their own group of friends. Everything was intimidating to me. But thankfully, I had Spencer. Shortly after I moved out to WY, we ended up living together which was great for cost effectiveness and we got along really well living wise. We are both clean etc. But Spencer and I, who had only been together for a few months, were experiencing our relationship at a rapid speed. And the fact of the matter is we only knew each other for a few weeks before I moved out there, and a few months before we moved in together.
We are not perfect and have had TROUBLES! We have fought so hard, almost broken up, but neither of us wanted to give up. Spencer has taught me SO much. He has brought up things to me that I think other ex-BFs were too scared to bring up to me. He's pointed out where I've been contradicting or need to level up, just like I have with him. What I love about him is his willingness to learn, be the best version of himself with no ego attached to it. He listens. He's so helpful. He's emotional. He's patient (especially when it comes to skiing). And he's the weirdest human I've ever met. So, just wanted to share we have had our worse times (back then) before getting to our BEST times (like right now). And its important not to paint that everything has always been picture perfect.
Fast forward to end of December, we've been together over a year and a half, and Christmas is hands down our favorite time of year. Spencer has always told me "I'm gonna marry you" and I would joke that when the time comes I'm not going to believe him because he says it so much! This past December 2018, my sister got married to the man of her dreams, so honestly I was in no rush to get engaged or anything since a lot of change had just happened.
Needless to say, the day it went down I had NO idea. Spencer went to work and I was going to meet him at the ski resort to watch Santa drop from the tram. Our friend Kathryn was going to meet us there too. I get there early and grab some wine and wait outside for everyone while people watching. Spencer boards down and sits next to me and were just chatting. He was quieter than usual looking back now. Finally, we go out into the crowd of people once the tram is there and watch Santa drop, so exciting! Then after Spencer says "let's go get a picture over there near the bridge". I thought "I'm the one always suggesting pictures...hmmm.." We start walking and I realize whats about to happen and I get a wave of tightness/excitement/WTF feeling! I look at Spencer and he's going into the bag and I eloquently shout "YOU'RE DOING SOMETHING!!!" and he said "Yes, I am". And he spoke some sweet words, while Kathryn filmed it all, and I just exclaim and go for the ring.
I never thought about what my ring would look like, I only knew I wanted yellow gold. Spencer did such a wonderful job with Zach & Traci from Jackson Hole Jewelry Co. Spencer showed me my wedding bands and it's the freaking TETONS which I'm obsessed with. I stare at my ring and I'm like "you love me enough to be with my crazy ass forever, you're amazing".
We have no idea when we'll get married, no plans yet but we are just enjoying this engagement BLISS!
