The early days:
Way back in September of 2009, Kacey decided she needed to get out of
the office for a little bit each week, so she looked for volunteer
opportunities
in Boston. She came across the clown program at Dana-Farber Hospital and knew it was
for her. Somehow it got around to Kacey’s sister’s BFFL Annie, who is a
nurse at Dana-Farber that Kacey was joining the clown troupe and the first
time Kacey was a Clown-in-Training, she was
introduced to Dr. Nathan Hartwell, PharmD. Annie thought we would be a
fantastic match, but unfortunately, Nate was not single at the time.
Kacey spent the next few months clowning and if she was lucky, she
caught a glimpse of Nate’s best ASSet. Then, one
fateful day in March, Annie pulled Kacey aside and told her that Nate
was finally available. Annie also told Nate to get a move on it! Not wanting to
seem too desperate, Kacey waited until Nate “friended” her on
Facebook. Kacey didn’t want to seem like a total Facebookaholic,
so she sent Nate an email and said it would be best to talk through
that outlet. After a few emails and g-chats, Kacey and Nate decided to
meet up for drinks after work one day. Kacey saw this as a first date,
while Nate invited all his friends to stop by
and hang out to ensure it was not a date. Regardless, drinks turned
into dinner. Then, being the gentleman he is, Nate walked Kacey to her
T-stop to head home. A week or two later, while Kacey was one T-stop
away from her car, she noticed she had a missed
call from Nate. She immediately exited the T and walked to where she
could find service to call him back. Nate said he was going to grab a
few drinks before the Sox game and asked if Kacey wanted to meet up (she
worked right across the street from the bar
they were headed for! ). She stayed calm and didn’t let him know that she
was basically already at her car, and said she would finish up a few more
things at work and head down. She hopped back on the T, (thank goodness for that monthly pass!) and headed
downtown. While at drinks they discovered that
Nate’s sister Annie and Kacey’s cousin Ali would both be graduating from UNH that
coming Saturday and decided that they should probably meet up. Kacey and Nate
met up at the graduation, walked hand-in-hand, sat in a park sipping on
beer in a coffee cup and making out. Pure
bliss! After that day, they were pretty much “dating”. Dinner or
drinks after work... bike rides along the Charles... $0.10 wings at the
Aasgard...
Just when it became FBO (Facebook Official):
Kacey headed out to Napa, CA for a long weekend to visit Kacey’s sister
Kate while she was working out there. While she
was there, the same nurse that set them up, let Kacey know that there
was a Hartwell Vineyard in Napa. Knowing that she was going to be
meeting Nate’s parents in a few weeks, Kacey splurged and purchased a
bottle of expensive wine (the least expensive on
their list, however). Nate picked Kacey up after her adventures, and
after hanging out for a bit, he popped the girlfriend question. Next
thing you know their statuses went from “Single” to “In a
relationship”.
Those three little words:
Nate surprised Kacey one day after work with a “harbor cruise”... AKA a
booze cruise that he bought from Barstool Sports . Even though most of the pax were Guidos & Guidettes, that didn’t stop them from having fun and
they enjoyed the sunset on the harbor with a few drinks. Kacey and Nate
talked about their families and their upbringing and Nate interrupted
Kacey with an “I love you” and after her inner
goddess stopped doing backflips, she said it back. It was perfect!
BFTOs:
The Barker women are competitive creatures. Kacey had to try-out to be
the Maid of Honor in Kate’s wedding, so it was no surprise that Kate
held Boy Friend Try
Outs to see if Nate could handle a Barker in his life. Let’s let
the pictures below tell the story...
It’s a ruff life: The kid came first. One day while Kacey was taking a break at work and playing on petfinder.com,
she came across this pooch named Dottie who
was just too cute for words, so she sent her picture to Nate to
brighten up his day. An hour later, she got an email from Nate that he
applied to adopt her, but not to worry because he lived in the city and
a lot of places don’t want dogs to be rescued in
to a place in the city. Naturally, a few days later, Nate gets an
email that he was chosen to adopt Dottie. Dottie came from Ohio to
Rhode Island, where she was picked up by Nate’s mom and sister, Annie.
It was love at first site! She was, and still is,
the cutest dog on the planet. She is just over a year old and is quite
the sassy young lady. When she is not trying to break in to the trash or slurping up water from the toilets, she enjoys cuddling and playing with her friends.
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| The day we got her! |
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| Just chillin' at the park |
The engagement:
After a year or so of being together, Kacey and Nate hypothetically
talked about a life together and what they wanted as a couple and
family.
Both of their grandmothers (and mothers and aunts and cousins and
friends) always asked, “so when is Nate going to propose?” Those talks
became more real as time went on, and Kacey and Nate decided to look at
houses to buy together. At that point, they knew
it was a forever-thing and that it was the perfect time to buy a
house. Nate flew out to Utah to visit his cousin Jess for a ski trip,
and one day while walking the shops, they went in to a local jewelry
store. Nate found a ring that was very unique and
he loved it, but at that point, just left with an idea of what he
wanted. After a man vs. food challenge, and a bit too much whiskey,
Nate and Jess meandered back in to the jewelry store and purchased the
ring. A few weeks later Nate and Kacey took a trip
down to Rhode Island to Nate’s parents house on the water in Bristol.
On Sunday morning, Nate woke Kacey up to take Dottie for a walk. Kacey
was reluctant to go as it was just about 6:00 in the morning and it was
cold and the bed was warm, but she threw
on her long winter coat and they were on their way. The beginning of
the walk was filled with “it’s so f****** cold, this is so stupid” and
“I can’t believe you made me get up” but then, as Kacey stopped to take pics
along the way, the sun was rising and it was pretty. After one of her picture stops, she turned around to keep
walking when she heard a “hey!” from behind her. She turned around and
there was Nate down on one knee with a ring in hand and Dottie almost
pulling him over. Kacey’s mouth
just dropped and Nate forgot all the romantic things he planned to
say and all he could muster was a “So, do you want to?!” Kacey
screamed “put it on, put it on!”. They headed back to Nate’s parents to
share the news, where they had to wake up his mom
Arlene who was still sleeping. After a delicious celebratory brunch,
they headed up to Mass to share the news with Kacey’s family. Because
they got engaged on April Fools Day, they decided to stop and purchase a
ring-pop on the way to Kathy and Rich’s house,
and tell Kathy that they couldn't afford a ring. She started crying tears of joy even with the
ring-pop, but then Kacey and Nate were like “Hi, thats a joke, here is
the real ring, woman!” Because Kacey’s family has “Sunday Dinner” every
week, all the aunts, uncles, and cousins
were over. Kacey and Nate walked over to Gram’s part of the house, and
asked Gram what the question was that she always asks Kacey. Before
she could answer Auntie Deb screamed and grabbed Kacey’s hand and found
the ring. We celebrated with champagne all around, which had been sneaked in by Dan, Kacey's brother-in-law, the only one who knew before hand!
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| The picture Kacey took while Nate was down on his knee |
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| The best drunken purchase Nate has ever made! |
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