April and I met at Sherwood Forest Faire out side Austin on February 20th, 2016. We quickly knew that we were perfect for each other and I quickly decided that I wanted to marry this wonderful woman and have her by my side for the rest of my life. My original plan was to propose to her as close to February 20th 2017 as possible at Sherwood in the same spot where we met (see picture). [side note, it's also the same spot where I asked her if I could put us as in a relationship on FB.] But the Sherwood folk had other plans and decided to move the start date of Sherwood Forest Faire to March. 

This put me in quite a quandary...what great moment do I use now? I thought of proposing to her on a walk around Viridian. Or out on the lake as we were sailing (which brought up images of a diamond ring bounding out of the catamaran and into the lake that had already claimed a pair of prescription Oakley sunglasses). And then one night it happened.

We were at home. I had picked up the ring earlier that day that we had picked out from the jeweler. April had no idea I had the ring. April was grooming Shimmer (one of our Chinese Cresteds) as I helped Allison with her homework, which she was working at diligently as I had promised we could draw after we finished her homework. As we completed her homework I realized this was the moment. It was what we loved most about being together...being a family and being there for each other. I asked Allison to wait a bit and went upstairs to get the ring.

Upon my return I sat on the couch next to where April was grooming Shimmer on the floor. I asked Allison to join us. I asked April if she minded if I asked her an important question. She responded of course not. Then I pulled out the ring and asked if she would marry me. Tears came to her eyes and she said yes (very emphatically I might add). Allison started jumping around all excited as I put the ring on April's finger. We hugged and kissed and generally made lovey eyes to each other until Allison asked less than 60 seconds later "Can we go draw now?" My response was to ask her "I just asked your mommy to marry me, don't you think that's important?" To which she responded "Yes, but so is drawing...they are the same importance." Even a trained advocacy professional such as myself finds it difficult to counter such logic.

And so there it is, how we started down this marriage path and how we discovered that indeed, art is as important as proposing marriage.