About Us

How we met

We actually met in the 6th grade. We were both awkward and shy, but that didn't stop Mariah's friend from asking Austin if he liked Mariah. On paper, our middle school romance lasted two weeks. In reality, we really only hugged once.

After those two weeks, we actually broke up. Mariah used the excuse that her dad didn't let her date boys at the time. Austin was understandably crestfallen.

How we met again

It wasn't until high school that we met again. We had senior English class together. We became friends over the course of sitting and being on projects together. Long before we dated or liked each other, we were already great friends. This friendship has persisted and grown in the intervening years. After high school graduation, Mariah and Austin started dating in 2017.

Our little life up to now

We have been together now for over 9 years. In that time, we have built quite a life together.

The cats

We have two lovely cats, and they are our world. We dote on them, play with them, and generally spoil them. Both of these little girls certainly do alot to make our house into a home.

Bookclub

Community and books are mutually important to us. So, we started a book club back in 2023! We've been reading, meeting, and chatting ever since. Book club is an important part of our little life that we have, and we are grateful for everyone in it.

How Austin Proposed

A cornerstone of our relationship: Mariah can read Austin's mind. Any trick or joke that Austin is pulling, Mariah can read it scrawled on his forehead. This is good for keeping Austin honest, but it is troublesome when he wants to--say--surpise her with a proposal. This was made all the more difficult by the fact that she helped pick out the ring.

As such, Austin had to come up with a plan. 3 days before he asked, he started asking her for tips on his single leg takedown. For what it's worth, Mariah had been doing Brazillian jiu jitsu for three years. Austin had been doing it for three weeks. If you don't know, a single leg involves:

• getting low
• stepping within grab range of someone
• picking up their leg
• taking them down

For our purposes, we needed to smoothly do the first two bullets. Essentially Austin needed pretense to get down on one knee in front of her standing. Conveniently, Austin's single leg takedowns did (and still do) suck. So, Mariah was anything but suspicious when he was asking for tips about takedown technique.

Montage Austin making this more of a thing. Over a few days, he kept asking her for tips for single legs, shoots, etc.; basically how Austin could more smoothly kneel to propose.

The morning of, in that liminal space between getting ready and leaving, Austin surreptitiously sat at his nightstand and pocketed the ring box. Heart rate rising, Austin was practicing his single legs by himself in the living room.

He did all he could to get ready for the moment. He was nervously palming the ring box in and out of his hand. He was making sure that the clam shell opened out. He was repositioning it so he could easily grab it. All while, he was acting like he was taking down some invisible opponent.

Then Mariah came into the room and saw him practicing his shoots. Austin all but blurted, "so when I do my step in, how do I pull the other one through to be strong?" She helped him with as much patience as a breakfast-less-Mariah could muster. Austin did two practice reps of her giving him single leg tips to really make it seem like this was about BJJ.

Then, after Mariah corrected another part of his form, Austin said "you mean like this" and:

1. Grabbed the ring box from his pocket
2. Dropped to his knee, cracking the clamshell
3. Said "will you marry me?"

After her shock of being surprised subsided, she said "yes"! Then we hugged each other and talked about how much we loved one another. Afterward, we were off getting breakfast, like we will be doing for a long time.