Noel is the most wonderful girl you will ever meet. Energetic, enthusiastic, spunky, silly, sweet, thoughtful, creative: these words barely begin to describe her.

Noel grew up on a 2000 acre ranch in Arroyo Grande, California. The second of eight children, she learned to be with a lot of people in a small area. (That's good, because we're going to have lots of kids.) Her parents homeschooled, or are homeschooling all of the Zimmerman kids.

Her family did lots of ranch activities, because they lived on a ranch. Noel was very active in her local 4-H club. She was her project leader for the market swine group. She got so interested in raising and showing pigs, that she had several sows and a boar as breeder pigs. She also raised goats, sheep, chickens, horses, and her family has a couple of llamas. (So did mine, until they died. The llamas that is, not my family.) Ever year they go to the huge Central Coast fair, which is the big event of the year for the Zimmerman family. In fact, this year, Noel flew out from Washington D.C. to visit her family...and attend the fair.

Noel got involved in politics when her dad ran for office, attempting to become the district Assemblyman for the State of California. This is when Noel learned two things: she loves politics, and she is really good at motivating and organizing people.

Because of that campaign, Noel got involved in the California Republican Party, as well as the California Republican Assembly(CRA), which is the conservative wing of the party. She started a Republican assembly club in San Luis Obispo area, and then was elected a Vice President of the CRA. (This happened at the first convention she ever went to. She's just so likeable that people thought she should do the job.)

Noel went down to Los Angeles, California to run a campaign for State Assemblyman. Though they ended up losing the campaign, they came within striking distance of their opponent who outspent them 10 to 1. She worked so hard that she literally passed out at the campaign victory party. People thought that perhaps she had had a little too much to drink, but in reality, she just hadn't slept in, like, 3 months.

She moved down to San Diego, California, or Carlsbad to be more precise. This is where she met the best person of her life. (ME!) Working for the Howard Kaloogian campaign, she ran the grassroots operation.

I met Howard Kaloogian at a conservative conference, and wanted to work on his campaign. So I called a friend, who called a friend, who happened to know this girl name Noel Zimmerman. When I first met Noel at the campaign headquarters, she seemed like a nice girl, and we hit it off well. We had a lot of fun on the campaign. We always managed to find fun activities, like walking on the beach or watching the sea lions. She was a great girl, except that she talked almost constantly...like seriously...all the time. I remember specifically thinking, "wow, this girl can be really annoying sometimes." Go figure.

Well, we ended up traveling together to the East Coast, where Noel found a job in Pennsylvania and I was working for the George Allen reelection campaign in Fredericksburg, Virginia. Funny thing though, as we spent more and more time together, I realize that I might like Noel a little more than as "just a friend." I thought this idea was pretty crazy, but it kept coming back to me. I thought about it more, prayed about it, and didn't get the answer I was expecting. Here was a girl who worked together perfectly with me. We had the same interests, goals, hobbies, we even like the same chocolate. I knew that, when I looked for a wife, I would need someone who not only appreciates, but also likes politics. And this was her!

So before Noel left, I told her that I thought of her as more than a friend, and wondered if she felt the same way. Well, that didn't work so well. Yea, she basically decided to move sooner up to Pennsylvania. But I got my answer three weeks later, when I went to visit her for her birthday, and she told me she missed me so much, much more than she would miss a friend.

Now you can read the rest of our story under "Our Story."