One year later…

Greetings! I’m Danielle, the aforementioned girlfriend who recently received an promotion to fiancé. More about that later though.

We left you in May of 2020. The day we decided to lock in our rate and move forward with buying our first home, we got the call that John would be laid off. That was a trying day. John had been laid off before, but never right before making a large purchase like this. We decided that we would move forward with the purchase, since the mortgage was supposed to be cheaper than the rent we paid for our current apartment. John looked and interviewed for jobs, I worked and we prayed. A lot. All we wanted was for him to find a job that he didn’t hate and that would replace his previous income. The sale of our house was delayed due to paperwork issues and we were given a June 16th closing date, and we continued to pack up the apartment with lots of help from John’s parents.

June 15th, 2020. John got the call. He was offered a 100% remote job. Full time employment. He would no longer be working contract work, and would no longer be in Oil & Gas. Though Oil & Gas has been good to us both, we had grown tired of the ups and downs of the industry. He accepted the job. I cried tears of joy. It was perfect timing. We signed the papers and closed on our home the next day. We were officially home owners! We worked over the next week to get the walls painted, and had all the carpet torn out and replaced with a waterproof wood like vinyl. The house was really starting to come together. We had lots of help from John’s parents. It was greatly appreciated. You can see some before and after photos of the work we did on the house before moving all of our stuff in.

We apparently didn’t have enough to do and decided that it was high time that we have that dream desk that we had both spent the last few months talking about. I took to creating a design and ran my final past my parents to make sure I wasn’t forgetting any super important structural components and then we were off to Ace Hardware (They were the only ones with the right lumber we wanted). We spend labor day weekend sanding, painting, and staining the wood we somehow got home in John’s little hatchback.

Right before thanksgiving we decided a break was in order. We booked a flight and secured tickets to Disney World. We spent 3 days embracing our inner children, and indulging in treats from all over the “world”.

Unfortunately, we returned from this trip to find that my Grandmother had passed away. We knew a few months ago she had suffered another heart attack, but she had since returned home. She had taken a fall. My aunt, her daughter, took her to the ER to make sure she had not sustained a concussion. She coded while she was in the scanner, and was brought back. Only to code again in the elevator on the way to ICU. They were unable to revive her. She always had a smile for me, and usually a few tears as well. She worked hard over her life to take care of her husband and family, and make sure that every soul that crossed her threshold felt welcome. We had a celebration of life for her this past February, when we felt that the vaccine had been out long enough to help people feel safer to attend this gathering.

Looking back a bit, we put a deposit to hold our place to get a puppy sometime in August of 2020. We were looking for a German Shorthaired Pointer. The litter was due in January. They unfortunately did not have enough girls for us to get to make a selection, and all of the boys were already spoken for. So we moved onto another litter and waited.. and waited some more. Finally, on April 25th, 2021 we got the email that notified us that our new best friend has been born and that puppies and momma were doing great. We’ve received a couple of photos since then. The group photo to the bottom right is from 2.5 weeks old. This weekend (Memorial weekend), we get to go meet the breeder and pick out our newest family member. To say that John and I are excited is an understatement. We’ve already acquired a kennel, leashes, a collar, scarfs, dog training clickers, a few toys, a bowl or two, and an elevated bed. We will be sure to share some photos once we identify which one of these little ones is ours.

Since we haven’t had nearly enough change and excitement over the last year, John decided to change things up again. He asked me to marry him on our 1-year and 10-month anniversary. It really was adorable. He had plans to wait till our 2 year anniversary in June, but he received the ring and couldn’t see waiting that long to ask me. I of course said Yes!

So there is a wedding that will happen, most likely in February of 2022. Stay tuned!

Regards,

Danielle