When people ask me how Joe and I met, I sometimes feel like it’s a convoluted story, one that really doesn’t make sense to anyone but us. But, it does, and after I’ve told it, I’m told just how sweet it is.

And so today, I’m sharing it with you.

It all began in the newspaper biz. I was working at a small daily newspaper in Northwest Georgia, and Joe was working for another small 6-day-a-week paper about 45 minutes south. I was working on a feature story on the Georgia State Patrol’s Specialized Collision Reconstruction Team and, after doing some Google searches, I came across a story that Joe had written on the same subject.

So, I emailed him. And that, my friends, was the beginning.

We became friends through email. We emailed numerous times a day just to chat about things. We were both in relationships, so it was really just a friendship. Soon, we both ended those relationships and began new ones. And, our friendship carried on.

But then, we both broke up with our significant others again and, after growing our relationship via email for about a year, Joe asked me out on a date. Our first date was a double date with a mutual friend with whom I worked and with whom Joe went to college. We went to dinner at Chili’s and then saw Bridget Jones’ Diary at a theater in Chattanooga.

And the rest, as they say, is history. That was toward the end of 2004. The next year, I moved to Joe’s town and, in January 2006, he proposed.

Yes, he proposed by making a scrapbook page. I was a huge scrapbooker then (not so much since Lucy came along), and it was seriously romantic. Love this man. And, nine months later, we were married.

Sure, it hasn’t all been easy. We’ve had our ups and downs and our challenges, especially with trying to grow our family, but there isn’t one other person I would rather do it with.