Background check!

I'm Cara. He's Dan. This is the (condensed) story of us.

• July 2004 - I moved (with my parents and sisters) to a tiny town called Defiance, Ohio.
• March 2005 - I started dating a dude. We'll call him P. P was sponging off of Dan, sleeping on his couch in their tiny 1-bedroom apartment. I should have seen the light with P early on. I did not. But I did realize that Dan and I liked the same music, while P was into "punk rawk". This should also have been a sign. It was not.
• November 2005 - P and I moved into an apartment together.
• October 2006 - I started getting bored. We ended up at a party where Dan was. We were all drunk. I decided it was time to go, but needed to puke first. Dan stepped on my barefoot with steel-toe boots while I was stumbling to the bathroom -- I still have the scar. While I was gaining the courage to give thanks to the porcelain gods, Dan proceeded to tell me how I'm "hot, and [he's] a dude, so you know, we should totally like..." *BARF* It was quite the romantic beginning.
• November 2006 - I woke up one morning and was seriously done with P. Have you ever been in one of those relationships where it's just over one day? Yep, this was that. Luckily, the timing was so good, since our lease was up at the end of that month. I proceeded to move out and into Dan's place -- strictly as friends until I figured out what the heck I was going to do now that my family lived in another state again.
• December 24 2006 - Dan and I decided to make it official. We were an item. So much for that "strictly friends" thing. Heh.
• August 2007 - We moved to a suburb of Toledo called Perrysburg courtesy of Dan getting a promotion. I freakin loved this town. It was so nice, and our apartment was cute, and we were in the building right next to the community pool and laundromat. Amazing.
• January 2008 - I started working for the company I now work for. It's a rather large retail pharmacy chain that shall go unnamed. I started as a cashier and cross trained as a photo specialist.
• February 2008 - Dan lost his amazing job courtesy of a giant jerk of a boss. We decide (with the help of Dan's mom and step-dad) to move to southern California to get Dan back in school to finish his degree and to be somewhere with more job prospects.
• March 2008 - I turned 23 and the next evening, Dan proposed in the Perrysburg Chili's restaurant with my parents and sisters and his dad and step-mom there. It was pretty sweet. Two weeks later, we headed west. Luckily, I was able to transfer to another store in the same company.
  
• Summer 2008 - Dan's car got stolen, which was the beginning of the end of California. He later learned that he could configure it so all of his remaining classes would be online, meaning we didn't have to stay in California... hhm.
• January 2009 - We high-tailed it out of California. Paying almost $1500 to rent a 1-bedroom apartment was not the greatest of times. So we headed back to NW Ohio. We ended up about 15 miles from where we started in Defiance in a little town called Bryan.
  
• June 2009 - I became a Certified Pharmacy Technician. Score!
• September 19, 2009 - Dan and I became Mr and Mrs. The wedding was amazing and so much fun. The following weekend, we left for our 7-day western Caribbean cruise. So epic.
• November 8, 2009 - My sisters turned 20, and I did a home pregnancy test. I peed on the stick, waited the 3 minutes. Then I went out into the living room and showed Dan the directions for the test where it shows 2 lines = pregnant. "Hey babe - See this? [show him the picture]" "Yes?" "Okay, now see this? [show him the test with 2 lines]" And we squealed like little girls.

That's pretty much where we are now. I'm 29 weeks pregnant with a little boy who we're naming Jackson Gabriel, due July 16, 2010. We're super excited about this new adventure, and we're hoping it keeps up with the crazy roller coaster ride we've been on thus far.

I am 29 weeks and 1 day pregnant. Only 11 weeks to go!