It’s past 10pm and instead of catching up on mindless TV and unwinding for the night, I am catching up on ALL the work emails, CapRo emails, and general LIFE stuff … and blogging. Because this post was supposed to go up Monday, but here we are ;) Thank GOODNESS for Kara for reminding me kindly (psssst Bree you gonna blog that post or what?!). The days are really starting to blur, but we’ve also seemed to find a new “normal” and I told a co-worker today that I think I am just about in the “acceptance” phase of grief stages with this whole COVID thing. Accepting what I can control, trying to let go of things I can’t. The real main focus every day is just staying healthy, and hoping my friends/family can do the same.
Anyway, nothing like a good dose of LOVE and SMILES and LAUGHTER to help us cope and remind us that there is still GOOD in the world. I love this engagement session so much and I really cannot wait to get back to our couples & WEDDINGS.
Joshua and I met in the doorway to the cafeteria at Digital Harbor High School, where we both taught. Well, at least that’s what he says. I don’t remember because I was a first year teacher, and too over stimulated to process any conversations.
He told me he liked my backpack, is what he says (haha). Anyways, the first REAL conversation I remember having was when Joshua came back into the school at 6:30pm after finishing soccer practice, and he was carrying the ball bag. I was in my office working, and as he was walking by I popped my head out to say hi. We talked for a couple minutes about the year so far, and other random things then I said, “We should hang out some time.” Joshua replied with a big smile, “Yea, that would be awesome! See ya,” without asking for my number or anything.
The next day he left his number in my classroom and I thought it was a prank. After clarifying it was really him, he asked if I would want to go on a hike with kids (he would bring students hiking random weekends) and I agreed. We had a blast and then went figure skating and got pizza a week later and it just kept rolling and building from there!
The morning of the proposal, Joshua informed me that he wanted to go on a hike – I just didn’t realize how EARLY he wanted to go. Let’s just say it was too early for my liking, and I begged and pleaded to stay in bed. It wasn’t until he enlisted my sister (who just so happened to be visiting us that weekend) to convince me to get up and out of bed because she really wanted to go for a hike. I grudgingly got out of bed, put on some random clothes to go on a sleepy early morning hike. To my surprise, about halfway through the hike, there was a trail of rocks that we followed that led to rocks formed saying “J <3 J”. As I looked around in sleepy confusion, I turned around to notice he was down on one knee. Josh proposed to me in the same place where we went on our first date… a hike through Gunpowder Falls.
I know it seems silly and cliché, but I really do think that Joshua and I have a wonderful balance. We joke around now, and say that if we are blessed with children they will be very well-rounded students because they will have both a math teacher and an English teacher as their parents! But where Joshua is calm, silly, and spontaneous, I am firm, over-planning (control-freakish one might say lol), and plain. Joshua pushes my boundaries in travel, exploration, and trying new things, and I push him into movies (especially Marvel, duh), and attending events. Disney is ultimately what we bond over the most making deep connections to movies and our take on different interpretations. He pushes me to learn more about soccer, while I teach him more about gardening. We bring out the best of each other and we know how to comfort and support the not-so-best of each other through difficult times. We are blessed to find our balance that keeps pushing us to grow more and more each day.
