Lemondrop

In April 2007, just 10 months after we met, JB proposed to me on a weekend trip to Boston. If you think that was quick, consider this: During those 10 months, we probably only saw each other on 12 or 13 occasions. Our entire courtship took place long-distance. Thank goodness for free nights and weekends on our cell phone plans!

Every four or five weeks we'd visit each other. Occasionally, we'd get to see each other twice in one month. I'd go to San Antonio or Omaha, or he'd fly to New York.

Here are the milestones that led up to our engagement.

June 2006
We meet a wedding in New Jersey, and it's love at first sight for both of us.

Click here to read more and to see a picture of how JB proposed.

July 2006
As part of JB's Air Force training, he flies to Syracuse, N.Y., for a couple of days. Knowing that we want to see each other again -- and that Syracuse is closer to New York City than San Antonio is -- we split the cost of a plane ticket for me to join him. We spend an amazing weekend at the Finger Lakes, going to wineries, getting lost and listening to too much Tom Petty on the radio. I get very emotional when it's time to say goodbye.

August 2006
The long distance is starting to get to me. I can't remember how JB moves his mouth when he talks or how his hand feels when it's holding mine. Mid-month, I fly to San Antonio for his graduation ceremony from an Air Force training program. We say "I love you" for the first time, and I'm giddy all weekend. I also meet his mother, who's there for his graduation. She cries a lot because she's (understandably) not comfortable with her son being in the military.

September 2006
Although he has already met my parents the weekend of the wedding in June, JB comes to the East Coast and is introduced to my extended family at a Labor Day barbecue. Everyone grills him about why he decided to join the Air Force. While in New York, JB and I make an impromptu stop at Cartier on 5th Avenue, and I nearly faint while looking at engagement rings.

November 2006
I take a week off from work and fly to San Antonio so I can help JB move to Omaha. It takes us a day and a half to drive to Nebraska. After a couple days of unpacking, we fly to Cleveland to spend Thanksgiving with his mom's side of the family, and I meet his brother and sister-in-law and grandparents. This is the first time I'm celebrating Thanksgiving with a family other than my own; I miss them.

December 2006
We see each other twice this month! First, JB comes to New York over Christmas (as both of us are Jewish, this is not such a big deal). For New Year's Eve, he and I meet up in Atlanta and stay with his father and stepmother. I've now met -- and been approved by -- all of the important people in his life.

January 2007
At the end of the month, I visit JB in Omaha and fall in love with an engagement ring at a local jewelry store. That weekend we learn that my mom is going to give us my great-grandmother's diamond, and rather than feel excited about getting engaged, I begin worrying about what life is going to be like when JB has to deploy.

March 2007
On a visit to New Jersey at the beginning of the month, JB asks my parents for permission to marry me while I'm in the ladies' room. Later that month (a week after my birthday) I head out to Omaha and receive the best birthday present ever -- a Chi straightening iron!

April 2007
JB was part of the all-male a capella group at Boston University, our alma mater, and invites me to go with him to the group's 15th anniversary/spring concert. The afternoon before the concert, his friends paint the "frat rock" (a large boulder that sororities and fraternities take turns spray-painting with their letters) to say "PJ Marry Me."

He walks me to the rock, gets down on one knee before an audience of about 50 people, including his friends with their cameras and a professional videographer, and proposes. Taken by complete surprise, I have to ask him what's going on before I'm able to answer: YES!