FindSomeone

CJ and I celebrated our one year anniversary this past Tuesday. We are expecting our first child at the start of next month and bought a house together back in March.

Rewind back to June 2013 and neither of us knew the other existed! CJ had been living on Waiheke Island and I had moved up from Dunedin in 2012 to start my first job after uni in Auckland. In CJ's words, he went on Findsomeone because he 'didn't want to spend an eternity alone' but it probably had more to do with the fact Waiheke Island was a small community.

Meanwhile, I was finding I didn't like working all week only to lose a day each weekend thanks to too many wines after an evening out. I thought there must be another like minded soul out there who would be keen to go on weekend adventures instead of trips to bars.

I was a free user who would buy message packs if I wanted to chat with someone. I gave up on Findsomeone twice before I met CJ. This was mainly because I went on dates with lovely guys, but we didn't click. The people I met were pretty cool though - you certainly can tell that this is a good quality site!

I 'smiled' at CJ one day because he ticked a whole bunch of my boxes: liked his job, passionate about stuff (float planes), and his answers to the questions revealed quite a decent guy. He sent me a message fairly quickly - asking about my pet great dane dog!

Eek! I'd forgotten my picture was me with my friend's flatmate's massive dog. Had to backtrack! Turns out CJ had had a pet great dane growing up. Excellent ice breaker and we had a bit of a laugh about the misunderstanding.

We chatted for a few days and decided to (ironically, as we both don't really drink) meet in a bar! Being a bit useless at Auckland driving... I got lost thanks to misreading my GPS. I rang CJ so he didn't think he was being stood up, and was struck by what a lovely voice he had!

Now, CJ had warned me he might be 'overdressed' for our date as he was coming straight from work. I took this as a marvellous opportunity and dolled myself up to the nines. When I got to the bar I discovered him in jeans and a t-shirt. "My god," I thought to myself. "Is this what he thinks overdressed is?!"

Being the subtle lady I am, I called him out on it. "Oh I finished work early!" He said, apologetic but amused.

As dates go, we hit it off marvelously. Here are some highlights:

-I was half an hour late after taking the wrong exit (I did ring before I was due to meet him though!)

-He fibbed about being overdressed. This was okay. He still looked gorgeous!

-He drew an excellent killer chicken cartoon on my arm. Fantastic ice breaker!

-I suggested we go get ice cream. When we got to the ice cream parlour I changed my mind. He stubbornly ate ice cream anyway. Later he confessed it was subpar and I'd made a good decison!

-His getaway plan was a ferry to Waiheke island. He almost missed it because I, aghast, said he needed to walk me at least halfway back to the parking building I was in.

-Upon saying goodbye he gave me a kiss on the cheek. I was moderately disappointed as he pulled away... only to be thrilled as he grabbed me and planted a kiss on the lips.

We went on five dates in the first week. One of them was to Mannequin (POV serial killer movie in the film festival). It was so awful - my idea (for some ungodly reason). I remember being so impressed when I looked away from a particularly horrendous death scene to see he had his eyes closed. "Hey," I hissed at him. "This isn't really adding anything of value to our lives, is it?" "No." He agreed with me. "Let's walk out then!" I suggested excitedly. Like teenagers we leapt out of our seats and ditched the movie theatre. At least ten people followed suit immediately abd the next day I read a film review in the paper mentioning that the movie was so horrific that some people walked out. Felt a wee bit proud! Sky city parking still cost about $30 for the half hour we'd been in there though!

CJ and I just clicked right away. We were each other's 'cup of tea'. I met his family at his sister's October wedding. We moved in together at the start of December. We spent Christmas with my family. He proposed at the end of January.

Our wedding is December 2014 and we are so excited about the future. Our baby due in a couple weeks in a girl. We had a craft day where we painted giant letters to spell out her name in the nursery. It took at least five hours to paint, gloss and glitter!

We cannot sum up how stoked we are that we decided to give online dating a go. :-)