“When Marvin Met April”

The story of Marv and April starts with a basketball game...

While on a month-long vacation in Southern California in the summer of 2002, April attended a recreation league basketball game to support a mutual friend. Marvin's team played the prior game for that same league and was asked by the mutual friend to fill in and play on their short-handed team.

During the game, Marvin not only wowed April with how sexy he looked in shorts, but also impressed her with his Robert Horry-like three point shots (so he thought). Marvin was actually so distracted by how cute April was, that he missed ALL of his shots (hahaha).

They met after the game, and while Marvin did not exchange contact info with her off the bat, the introduction was made, at the very least...

April soon returned to Chicago. Somehow, Marvin and April were able to keep in touch. (To this day, April does not know how Marvin was able to get her email address.) First over email... then, hours over the phone... followed by flying to each other alternating months. After a long distance relationship of over a year, April decided to move to Orange County where the rest is history...

The "Promotion" to Fiance' Status

There are two versions of the story. The first one is the way it was supposed to happen... the second version is how it actually went down.

Let's share how Marvin originally planned it…

April loves movies and even more so, movies about kings, queens, castles, dragons, etc. Marvin concocted a very simple plan, where they would go to the beach, walk/jog on the boardwalk, make their way to the sand and eventually build a sand castle. After the sand castle was built (hopefully around sunset), Marvin would say, "You know, this castle isn't complete… Because a castle isn't a castle without its queen…" Marvin would then take out the ring, get on one knee and propose… (I know, it's corny… but, it's sooo Marvin).

As you may have already guessed, the master plan didn't turn out as he had hoped…

During their short trip to Newport Beach, and even while they were walking, April kept complaining about all the other things (errands and chores) they had to do that night and for the rest of week leading up to her birthday weekend. Family was visiting, April was settling at her new job and it was not only an ordinary birthday weekend, it was April’s 30th birthday!!!

As they walked on the boardwalk, April kept saying stuff like "Let's just go," "We have so much stuff to do" and "We're wasting time…" All this time, Marvin was trying to get her to the sand… but April wasn't having it. She just wanted to leave and go about their errands, get home right away and tend to chores.

Feeling somewhat dejected, Marvin thought "screw it" to himself… and slowly pulled out the ring. In mid-sentence, April stopped what she was saying. Obviously in complete shock with her eyes slightly teary and jaw dropped (Marvin was calm, cool and collected, he must admit), and asked, "Will this make you feel better?" The first words she could mutter were "Are you kidding?!?!" and "Is that real?!?!"

April soon realized what was going on when he dropped to a knee and asked, "Will you marry me?" She would eventually say yes after the huge smile and massive amounts of affection.

And that’s what happened on April 11th, 2007.