Our Story

Our story began in the world of online dating. I can't remember who reached out first, but if you ask Bryan, he'll tell you that I kept winking at him until he said, "Alright," lol. One thing I remember the most about when we first started talking is that he would write me these nice long messages that seemed like he put a lot of thought and effort into. There was one message, in particular, that stood out to me the most. He was telling me what he was looking for in someone and one of the things he said was, "I am looking for someone who will be a good mother to my kids." I must've read that a thousand times. I could not believe what a beautiful thing that was to say and at that moment, I knew this guy was special.

Now, one thing to know about our story is that Bryan never asked for my number. The way it happened was that as I mentioned above, he would write me these really nice long messages and I, in turn, would do the same - or so I thought. Turned out, my nice long messages would never send. I'd spend all this time and effort writing them and they wouldn't go through and I wouldn't know until I'd check after not hearing back from him. I kept trying to explain to him that the app was driving me crazy because I'd feel bad sending shorter responses (since the long responses wouldn't go through) after he'd send me these well-thought-out messages and after that kept happening over and over again, I finally gave up and said, "Ok, enough is enough with this app. Here's my number." Lol.

Our first date was at a hockey game and I was really nervous because I had never driven to the arena by myself before and I thought I was going to get lost, but Bryan said, "I got you," and sent me a map of the Honda Center and put a smiley face of where he was standing (real picture shown below) lol. That was actually really helpful! It made me laugh and definitely helped make me less nervous and made me even more excited to meet him. As I was walking up to that spot, I asked him where he was and he said, "Holding up the wall," and I laughed and looked up and saw him leaning against the side of the wall and the rest is history.

The cool thing is they gave out special commemorative coins that night, which we both ended up keeping as a cool souvenir of our first date.

Two days before we met, I text Bryan that I was on my way to Party City to get a masquerade mask for a friend's birthday party that I was going to that weekend. Lo and behold, I walked in and the shelves were completely empty. I mean completely. It was right after Halloween and they were taking everything down and getting ready for Christmas. I was now in a full blown panic because I'd have no way to order one on time and I'd have to end up going in my Spiderman mask (from my Halloween costume - I don't just randomly have a Spiderman mask lol)! Bryan immediately told me, "I got this. There is a costume store right next to my work and I'll find a mask for you and bring it to you on Friday," (which would be our first date). Remember, at this point, Bryan and I hadn't even met yet. Hadn't even talked on the phone yet, either.

So the following day, the day before our first date, he went to the store and not only found me a mask, he found about 15. He lined them up on the counter at the store, took individual pictures of each and every one of them, sent them to me, and asked, "Do any of these look ok?" My jaw dropped as I scrolled through picture after picture of these beautiful masks, shocked that he went to so much effort for a girl he hadn't even met yet. I looked through and couldn't decide between two of them and finally picked one and he ended up getting them both (in case I changed my mind). He gave me both masks at the end of our first date and I ended up going to the party the next day with the most beautiful mask that I will now keep for the rest of my life.

When Bryan and I first started talking online, I got very sick and I was home in bed for about a week. During that time, we talked every day, but one day I told him that my back was killing me. In hindsight, my back really was killing me, but I think I told him that to see if he'd find a way to help me lol. Sure enough, he did! Right away, he said, "You need a hot sock." What the heck? What is a hot sock (besides the obvious answer)? I stared at my phone confused and asked him if he meant a heating pack and nope, he meant a hot sock. I had never heard that in my entire life and started laughing at the randomness because I was not expecting that lol. Come to find out later, a hot sock (in case you didn't know) is from the Mexican culture and what you do is you fill a sock with rice, heat it up, and then use it as a heating pack. Now I know lol.

Kelly and I have had some amazing experiences already and I know there are more to come. One of my favorite stories thus far in our relationship has to be when went to our first Los Angeles Angels Baseball game on Opening Day of the 2016 season. Weeks before the game, it was all I was able to talk about. I kept telling Kelly about all the different players, who our starting rotation was going to be, what the batting order was going to be, etc. As you know, she could care less about all that lol. Whenever I started talking about going to the field and opening day, she would look at me and say, “When we get to the field, I only want two things - junk food and to NOT get hit by ball,” lol. I would reply with, “Absolutely. You can have all the junk food you want, but really? Get hit by a ball? Don’t worry, babe. You’re going to be fine.” I mean seriously, what are the chances of that happening, right?

On game day, Kelly, my parents, and I headed to the game super excited for Angels baseball and on the way there, Kelly reminded me multiple times that she did not want to get hit by a ball (and of course she reminded me that she wanted junk food, too, lol). We got to our seats on the third base line about halfway up from the field and we were there early enough to see a little batting practice and every time a ball was hit, she would grab my arm nervously, afraid to get hit, even though the baseballs were sometimes hit on the opposite side of the field, lol.

So the game started. We rooted on our team, had a few beers, devoured hot dogs, peanuts and cracker jacks - just having a great time. Then came the 4th inning. As the inning started, my parents went up to get another beer and Kelly and I stayed in the seats because we wanted to see Mr. Kole Calhoun lead things off. Right before his at bat, we decided to slide over into my parents' seats, so it would be easier for my parents to get back into the aisle. Right as we sat down, Kole Caloun hit the ball high in the air and it was going foul. Not only was it going foul, it was coming down right on us. I told Kelly, “GET DOWN!” and she quickly got into the fetal position in the aisle and as I pushed her down, to protect her of course, I realized I had a chance to catch it. As it got closer, I leapt for it, stretching as far as I could, but I barely missed it and it landed in the row behind us, hit the ground, and started bouncing directly at Kelly! Suddenly, I heard, “I’VE BEEN HIT!” The ball then bounced again and landed in the hands of a fellow Angels fan. I then looked at Kelly, who was of course just fine (it didn’t hit her hard), and we just started laughing, lol. We couldn't believe she actually got hit by the ball. After that, she kept telling me two things: “I told you I was gonna get hit!” and, “My parents are gonna kill you!” lol. Suddenly, my parents came back and were looking at us trying to figure out what we were laughing at and as we told them, they just couldn't believe it. Definitely one of my favorite memories ever!