A Little History Lesson

Since so few of our friends and family know much of the story behind our relationship, perhaps it's time to share some of the mushy details.
After the jump is a brief history of our adventure together up until today.

Greg and I met in Summer of 2010 at one of the classiest bars in the beautiful city of Augusta, Georgia. Greg had recently returned from a year long deployment to Iraq and I was diligently focusing on obtaining my Bachelor's of Science in nursing. We hit it off amazingly until Greg confessed a big deal-breaker for our relationship: He was moving to Colorado in a few months.

Greg and I in Fall 2010 at one of Augusta's fine drinking establishments.

For whatever ridiculous reason, we decided to proceed with our relationship with the understanding that we'd lose contact after Greg left for Colorado. We continued to be almost inseparable until Greg started packing up his Jeep to make his cross-country move. One night, while driving to our favorite sushi restaurant just days before our separation, Greg professed his undying love for me and asked if I'd be willing to attempt a long-distance relationship with him. In some crazy act of love, I said yes.

My first trip to visit Greg in Colorado. Please excuse his confused face.

After about 5 months of long distance phone calls, thousands of texts, one week long visit, and a month worth of Greg wearing a ring made of yarn as a token of his love, Greg flew to Georgia with the sole purpose of asking me to be his wife. It only took me thwarting his plan on 3 separate occasions for him to get down on one knee in the middle of my bedroom floor and surprise the crap out of me with an engagement ring. I was so shocked I couldn't stop laughing and asking if he was serious. Thankfully, I still said yes.

The fake engagement ring that I made for Greg and he wore for a full month before proposing.

On December 29, 2011, Greg and I were married at an intimate wedding in Estes Park, Colorado. Our ceremony location changed three times, once only minutes before the ceremony, due to extreme winds. Luckily, our day ended as perfectly as we had hoped with us becoming husband and wife.

Why yes, I am wearing snow-boots at my own wedding.

Unfortunately, after our week long honeymoon of snowboarding, hiking and enjoying the mountains, I had to return to Georgia to finish my last few months of college while Greg went back to work preparing for his next deployment. In March 2012, I returned to Colorado to say "see you later" to my husband as he left for another tour abroad.

So this was his ball, not him leaving. I didn't take pictures of him leaving.

Since Greg has been gone, I've graduated college, moved all by myself to the gorgeous state of Colorado, gotten an awesome job and settled into life patiently waiting for his return. Thankfully, we're now able to count down in days until his homecoming, as it is quickly approaching. After over 2 years of living long distance and nearly one year of marriage, Greg and I are preparing to be reunited again!

After my pinning ceremony about 2 days before I moved.

Recently, a new challenge has been dropped onto our relationship. After years of preparing ourselves to settle down into a routine in Colorado, we'd been getting pretty excited to have a smooth transition once Greg came home from his deployment. Then, about a month ago, Greg came down on orders to Germany. After the initial shock and upset over leaving the home we love and enjoy in order to venture to a strange place where we have no friends and don't speak the language, Greg and I warmed up to the idea of a 3 year European adventure together. For the next three years, we're putting a lot of our major life plans on hold in order to enjoy the beauty of Europe and focus on our marriage. In May, 2013, we'll be packing up our life and our tiny dog to start anew in Germany.

This blog is our way of sharing this crazy adventure with our friends and family all over the United States who we will miss dearly for the next several years. We invite you all to read along as we share the joys and hardships that we encounter on this road to Germany and, eventually, back to the US in 2016.