My fiancé and I met the Sunday before our Freshman Year of college in 2006. My sorority sister insisted on making a “3rd Floor” Round to meet a few of the eligible bachelors she met at her week of orientation at our college. I, wanting to make new friends, followed along as her “wing-woman.” She introduced me to this guy Eric, the guy she was crushing on, and to his roommate, Cody. Low and behold we hung out that evening and a few evenings after that. While the quote/un-quote romance between Dina and Eric fizzled after a handful of ‘hang-outs’ {let’s be real…cuddling and watching movies in the dorm is ten times cheaper than trying to track down a taxi/bus/walking from the dorms}. Cody and I though? Turns out we had something pretty special. We continued to date on & off our freshman and sophomore years of college, finally deciding to take the serious ‘we are official’ move the October of our junior year. After we graduated from college we both moved back in with our parents to save some money before we found a place of our own a little over a year and a half ago.

Cody got down on one knee this past December during the biggest blizzard we’ve seen in a few years. The night prior to E-Day (Engagement Day), Cody was helping me prepare soup for my department’s soup group. I was making the brownies and he was helping with the soup…I tend to leave him with the cooking tasks. The next day, after lunch at the office, I realized I forgotten to mail something out for my blog and raced home to grab it off the dining room table. I come home to find Cody parked in the driveway and the door locked that leads into our kitchen. He opens the door a crack and says, “Can I help you?” I, baffled, respond, “Yes, I live here…can I come in? I forgot the package on the table.” Cody proceeded to say, “Wait out there, I just…flowers…” I could tell he was getting flustered – but why, I didn’t know {more like clueless, looking back at this moment}. Instead of bringing out just the one package, he brought out all of the supplies into the garage. He follows up with a bit of a, “Why are you here? You weren’t supposed to be home anyways, I made you lunch today!” I just smile and nod, none the wiser of what was to come later that night. I grabbed what I needed and left. No sooner than I arrived back to my office did I have a text from him saying, “Can’t a guy just get his girlfriend flowers and clean the kitchen?” My response? “A guy can ALWAYS do that for his girlfriend.” As the afternoon carried on, I ended up having to rescue a co-worker/good friend from downtown as her car died over lunch and was much more preoccupied with the impending blizzard warnings then to analyze my boyfriend’s odd behavior. As 4:00pm rolled around, the snowflakes had begun to fall. I soon realized I wouldn’t be making post-work errands, and called to tell Cody I would home sooner rather than later and to go ahead and start making dinner.

I took my precious time getting home, as I hate driving in snow. I didn’t even get a foot in my house before I realized what was going on. The moment I opened the door I was met with candles, flowers and rose petals galore throughout our kitchen. And Cody, dressed to the nines, leaning against the wall waiting for me. It hit me then that this man was about to ask a very certain question. I can’t remember what he said, but I can tell you there were tears, a question asked, and an answer given. We spent the night barricaded in, watching White Christmas, and telling our families the great news.

We are set to marry in May of 2014 and I can’t wait! My boyfriend – scratch that – fiancé, is a gem. He got me a ring for Christmas!