Our Story

I know I promised a post on the engagement and it's coming!! I also have about 10 more thankful for posts (that I'm still doing even though Thanksgiving is over) and other wedding related news but I thought I'd first start with the story of me and Trav. This is more for my benefit than yours but feel free to read along...I happen to be absolutely in love with the way this story pans out.

In college Travis and I were both in serious relationships. We didn't know each other but had mutual friends. My boyfriend at the time lived with a guy named Wade.  Wade and Travis were friends from class and I remember this big red head (enter: Travis) coming over to the boys house to study or get notes, etc. from Wade.  I've always loved a big guy and strangely a guy with red hair (I mean, do you know a red head that is not a total blast?!? I don't!) but I obviously I didn't think much of it because I had a bf.

There is no doubt we partied at the same parties and frequented the same bars all through college but these encounters never really stuck (I was dating a really good guy and he was dating a witch of a girl) we had other things on our mind.

Fast forward a couple years.  We were both out of college. I had decided to go out with Wade for a birthday celebration of a guy I didn't know.  As soon as we got to the house we were meeting at out comes this incredibly drunk red head, the same guy I remembered from college. I was no longer in a relationship and I immediately was attracted to this guy that was being, simply put, an asshole. As soon as we got in separate cars I asked numerous times, 'Who is that asshole with the red hair?" I remember going on about what a jerk he was being (I couldn't tell you how he was being a jerk, chances are he wasn't. I am not one to outwardly flirt with people and I guess I was annoyed because he was not showing the slightest interest in me, which I found read as jerky.) Wade informed me his serious girlfriend had just broken up with him, he totaled his brand new King Ranch, and one of his retrievers had run off ...all in the same week. He was living the life of a sad country song and he was in town to drink his sorrows away!

After that night some serious facebook stalking ensued for about a week or so.  I learned from creeping that he lived in Victoria, about a an hour and 45 minutes down the road from me, but came in to town quite a bit.  I was in talks with my ex boyfriend at the time and nothing much came out of the facebook stalking. He went back to being out of sight, out of mind.

Fast forward another couple of years and I'm reading a message from him. I was very excited but there was a lot of beating around the bush. I wasn't quite sure the point of the emails we were sending.  They weren't flirty or even chit chatty.  From what I remember they were literally about nothing. After about a week of waiting for him to ask me out he finally said he was coming through town and asked if I wanted to grab lunch with him.  This in my mind was a very friendly outing, nothing more. After lunch he walked me to my door, as soon as the door closed I did one of those silent screaming, jumping up and down bits. I had found the perfect man and I was SOO excited! 

I randomly invited him to come with me and all my best friends to my families bay house in Rockport, TX the following weekend. This was risky. We are a very close knit group and rarely have new people join without some ridicule. I would never normally do this but I knew there was something about him that would just fit. And I never though he would actually come! I was nervous the whole way there and was actually wishing I would have never invited him.

Not to my surprise, my best guy friends immediately formed man crushes on him.  We had a great time that weekend and I was right, he fit right in. The boys told me on or way home that I better not mess this one up for them. (He had 100 hobbies they were envious of AND a boat - it was love.) 

The distance and another boy I had just gone out with was just one of the factors that I worried about when thinking of starting a relationship with Travis. With my friends voices echoing in my mind I sent Travis a long, dreaded text (I know, I suck) saying that I really liked him but that the timing was off and that it made me really sad because I knew I would regret it. He simply responded with "Ok. Thanks for being honest with me."

I had never been let off that easy before. His simple response made it so hard to not want to retract everything I had just told him.

Sure enough, 4 months later I found myself sitting shotgun driving home from NOLA with the "other boy" wishing with everything in me that I had just spent the weekend in New Orleans with Travis.  I FB crept on him basically the whole drive home and re-read all our past text convos.  When I read the the part saying "I know I'm going to regret this" I knew I had made the biggest mistake of my life.

Shortly after, I found the courage to break things off with the other guy and couldn't wait to try my luck with Travis. You can read about the life changing second chance here.

I mentioned before that I knew if he cared enough to respond to my desperate text, I knew I had it in the bag. I was right. I can count on probably one hand the weekends we haven't spent together since that very text. And the rest as they say....is history.....GOT HIM!
(the desperate text went something like this: "You know what I'm dying for right now? Your crab dip. Warm. With crackers. mmmmmm" to which he responded "hahaha that was random. what's up?" Crab dip is just one of the many delicious things Travis makes. Ladies, this boy can cook.)    


One problem, he was still living almost 2 hours away. I hated it but we made it work, I actually got to the point where I loved how we scheduled time for each other.  We'd meet at his bay house in Palacios on Wednesdays (a mini vacay to look forward to mid week, every week) and usually spent weekends in Houston.

Then, a few months into our relationship he called on a Tuesday saying he was coming to Houston for the night to take me to dinner and "talk about some stuff" I immediately got super excited. I knew he was getting some new great opportunities at work and I had convinced myself he was going to tell me he was moving to Houston. I already had plans for where he should move (into my apartment complex, duh) and how amazing life with this guy close by would be. Well, I was dead wrong.

We met after school at my parent's house. I had never seen him so nervous. He explained that he had this amazing opportunity at work.  A position he had hoped to have by his late 30s. A position that could potentially put me in "house wife" status sooner than imagined (that's how he sold it to me, he knows me well, haha). An opportunity that would move him from less than 100 miles away to 300 miles away. To a town I'd never heard of, Carrizo Springs, basically in Mexico. (yea, that terrifying country next to us) He told me how much he liked me (thought he was going to drop the L bomb but that didn't come until later! ha) and how he really wanted me to be in his life but he'd understand if I wasn't willing to put in the time and effort.

 I told him to do it. I absolutely hated the idea but I knew it was for the best. I hugged him for 5 plus minutes so he wouldn't see my tears.

 And here we are today.

We're ENGAGED and so, so, SO happy and full of love and excitement.

But...it hasn't been easy. In fact, at times it was really, really hard.  I never once doubted that we could do it but I'd be lying if I said there weren't tears. Probably way more than Trav's even aware of. There was a period of time that I would cry basically every time I got off the phone with him. And of course, the only person that I wanted to comfort me was him. 300 miles away. There were times I just wanted to give everything else up to be with him.

Simply put, distance sucks. BAD.

But we did it. We made it work just like he always promised we would.