How We Met...

...the beginning of the end for our single lives!

The short version....we are introduced at O'Dowd's, 6 months later we meet again at a mutual friend's BBQ.  Two days later Neal invited me to dinner for our first date...the rest is history.

Thank You Emily Crupper for taking our first engagement photo...even if it was a joke ;)

The long version is much more entertaining so here we go....

One Friday night while I was still working at Oak63, waiting tables, my friend Colleen 

(Colleen in front and Right)

calls me, begging me to go out with her!!!! She simply CANNOT go to O'Dowd's without me!  I was tired and probably a little sweaty, and still in my work clothes when I enter O'Dowd's.

We are quickly met by.....

Billy, Emily and Neal!

I had of course met Emily before, and Billy maybe a couple times, but this was me and Neal's first encounter.  The night progresses, and people are quickly "coupling" off, Billy&Emily, Billy's friend Brock&Molly and Colleen was doing her usual running around and talking to as many people as possible, leaving me and Neal with no one to talk to but each other.  We began making fun of the other couples together....it was our common ground since we were both single.  By the end of the night, Neal and I were engaged, had a daughter we had given up for adoption in Russia so she could be an Olympic gymnast and had plans to marry another night.

That night was about 6 months later when.....

.....Becky hosted a BBQ, luckily Neal was working with Eric at the time (both pictured above :)

Again with Colleen's pressure to come because I had work the next morning....I finally arrive.  I say a couple "Hellos" as I pass a few people, about 4 hellos in I receive a, "Hey Leah, it's Neal!" I didn't recognize him until he said his name and then I recalled our previous meeting and replied, "shouldn't we be married by now?"  Which quickly turned into our inside joke of the night.  In fact,  we convinced a party goer that we were in fact married, and had previously had a child together that now lives in Russia.  Neal and I joked and had fun all night.  By the end of the evening he had my phone number and he called me that Sunday to make a date for dinner that week....and now 2 1/2 years later we will be getting married!