Two Become One

One of the hardest parts about newlywed life so far has been getting into the "ours" mindset.  Sure, I'm great with sharing a home and a plan and a main bank account and a bed. But money was the hardest adjustment for me.    A couple of years ago, I got my own credit card to establish credit.  I was an envelope system user, but it was made evident that if I didn't have credit, buying a house was going to be impossible.  (this was before we decided on the apartment)   So I would put things on the credit card that I had the money on my debit card for. When I got home, I would budget that money so I could pay it off at the end of the month.  This system was great. Who can get in trouble with a $500 limit?  

    While I didn't get into financial trouble in the sense that I ran up hundreds of dollars of debt, I ran into financial trouble in the sense that it was my own secret shopping card that Jackson never had to know about.  Our direct deposit is set up so that our Health Savings is automatic, our Emergency Savings (baby step 1) is automatic, and the rest goes to our main account.  Well, my credit card is linked to my old bank account that became our "Emergency Savings."  I knew Jackson never logged on to our account to check the savings, so it was my own little secret that I would use it to pay off whatever credit card purchases I had made.   Sneaky? Yes. Ethical? No.   I couldn't let go of my shopping habits to benefit our savings and our overall plan.  When I would sell things on eBay, my money would sit in my own Paypal waiting for something I'd like to buy. It started to hurt most when we needed that emergency savings and we didn't have as much in it as I thought we did. Oops.   Two become one.   This phrase has to be present in all aspects of life, big or tiny, or it just doesn't work. 

Happy Father's Day

Father's Day is one of my favorite holidays. Mostly because I get to celebrate the best geezer on the planet.    I am the definition of a daddy's girl.  My dad is and has always been my best friend. Getting married was one of the hardest things I have ever done because it meant that I would suddenly be depending on Jackson rather than my dad.  It took me a long long time to get past that fact.    My dad is my rock. Growing up with an alcoholic mother, my dad always played both Mom and Dad.  He never missed a soccer game, never missed a track meet, never let anyone out-cheer him.  He was at every band concert, every performance and competition, every award ceremony, every homecoming, every prom, every graduation. He chaperoned dances, was the supervision at lock-ins.  He was never absent. Whether he was in the front row cheering or behind the scenes making sure everything was covered, he was there.  I really have no idea how he did it all.  

My dad instilled in me my values and my opinions, allowing me to make my mistakes and choices that would shape the woman I would become.  He taught me the importance of knowing who I am and knowing who I want to become. He taught me about being both conservative and ouspoken.  He taught me to love the Lord with all my heart, soul, mind, and strength.

 

There really aren't words to say exactly what he means to me because it's as big as the world.  He deserves for every day to be Father's Day.

 

They say girls marry men like their daddies, which for me, is a great thing because I have the most caring, loving, giving dad in the entire world. 

Friday!

1. Sunday, we went grocery shopping and this was the result... This is my favorite thing we do as a married couple. :)

  2.  We had one of Jackson's old friends over for a waffle dinner on Thursday night.  It was so much fun!! Tonight, we're going to dinner with one of our other best friends from High School!! I love having friendships that last!   3. Tuesday, we had a painting class at church. We do them every so often and it's just a bunch of the church ladies that get together and paint. :) It's a lot of fun.  This week, we had the idea to take our old song books that the church is throwing out, modpodge songs to canvases, and paint on them! This is how mine turned out:

  4. After scoring some awesome deals at Kohls again this week ($45 for two pairs of dress pants, one pair of boyfriend jeans, three polos, and a new cami), we spent an hour on Thursday night cleaning out our closet.  Yay for the eBay selling that will take place this afternoon when I get home!   5.  Wednesday, My brother-in-law's girlfriend moved to Hawaii this week and she posted a picture that had a caption about a teacher she had ten years ago in high school. I had the same teacher during my senior year for Anatomy. I commented to say so, and didn't realize I tagged the teacher in the post. She came back with this precious reply:     

The Best Days

  A favorite teacher of my class retired last week, and when we were all up at the school we saw this hanging. You know you're old when this is hanging in the high school. (and when you're logging into your myspace because thats where you uploaded these pictures...)

 

How quickly four years has passed. I've graduated high school, graduated college, scored a full-time job, and a husband all in four years. Holy smokes!     I had the best girlfriends a girl could want, I had the best boyfriend who would later become my husband, and everyone (well... mostly everyone...) liked everyone in our class. Not to mention I was bangin'! Our class was made up of 163 people, and we were all as close as we could be. There are days I would really go back in a heartbeat just to live one more day in that school with those people. We (most of us) did seventh through twelfth grades together.  From age twelve to eighteen, we were all eachother had.

 

 

We were ranked in the top 5 schools in the state of Tennessee, the top 25 schools in the nation, and everyone graduated with Honors because they didn't offer any classes that were non-Honors classes(unless you royally screwed up... and that was hard to do.)   I pray often for my children to have the high-school experience that I had.  Even the year I wasn't dating Jackson was an incredible year (not as incredible as the other three honey, I promise).    Dad always used to tell me that after high school we wouldn't be the same... we would all go to different schools... we would grow apart... we would change and lose touch.  I cried and cried at graduation because I spent all of my year denying that it would happen and suddenly I realized that it was inevitable.   I have five of my same friends from high school. I married one (Yes, Jackson is the ham in the picture above), still talk to one of them almost daily (the brunette on the left of the pictures), lived with one in college and had her as a bridesmaid in my wedding, and still occasionally talk to the other two.   "I never had any friends later on like the ones I had when I was twelve. Jesus, does anyone?" - Stand By Me   Oh, how true this statement is.  I met three of the most amazing women in college and they're my best friends, too, now. But the friendships that evolve when you're at such a vulnerable, unstable, crazy age are ones that are usually the unconditionally loving friendships, and I'm so glad to have a handful of mine still.

Humpday Confessions

I confess....   ....I love having Mondays off, but I really hate working 10 hour days for the rest of the week. 5am comes way too stinkin early and I'm cranky until 8.

  ... I got an iPhone on Saturday, and my favorite part is the emoji conversations between me and Jackson.   ...I was so not ready to commit to having every aspect of my life go through a Galaxy S5.  I walked in to T-mobile thinking that's what I wanted, but quickly changed my mind after playing with one. They're great for people who organize with their phones, track every breath and heartbeat, etc. But for me, I was not ready for that kind of relationship with my phone. Siri, on the other hand...   ... Since I got married, I seem to have taken my up-tight gloves off. I now dance with the best of them, I listen to music besides Christian and Country music, I have a lot more fun. It felt good to hear people say, "we had no idea you could let loose like that" at Taylor's wedding on Friday.

  ... I have no idea what to get my dad for Father's Day.  The man really has everything. He wants it, he buys it.  I did think about a Fandango gift card for Jersey Boys tickets for the five of us.

   ... I watched 12 hours of Pretty Little Liars on Monday.  I still have one more episode to watch before I can watch the new one, so I plan to do that at work today and watch the re-run and new one next week. #notsorry 

  ... I am so ready for all of this Nashville rain to go away.  My old lady knees and knuckles can't take the ache. 

  ... People who buy and don't pay for items on eBay drive me absolutely nuts.  Seriously. If you can't or won't pay for it, why even bid on it? ugh.   ... I'm overly excited for my new planner to arrive, considering the fact that it doesn't even start until July....

Little did I know....

I think when you're dating and you're engaged, you have this preconcieved notion of what marriage will be like with your significant other. I sure did.  Someone recently asked me if marriage was everything I thought it'd be. My answer... no, but I wouldn't change it for anything.  

  Marriage is not like the movies. You rarely wear makeup if you don't have to. Pants are in that same category.  You don't wake up and greet the morning together with coffee and a makeout session...  you spring out of bed to get ready to for work and settle for a forehead kiss because of your morning breath.  Your husband, however, will embarass you in public and exclaim, "I HAVE THE PRETTIEST WIFE! LOOK AT MY PRETTY LADY!"   Marriage is hard.   There are going to be nights when you fight about the tiny things, and there are going to be nights where you fight about huge things.  You're going to learn how to mesh your two personalities, backgrounds, upbringings, goals, dreams, etc.  We were raised differently, so figuring what of his upbringing we wanted to keep, what of mine, and what we wanted to be new was one of the hardest things in my opinion.    Marriage shows you you didn't know the person you married as well as you thought. You marry the person you think you know. For Jackson and I, we had known each other since middle school. We had grown up together, we knew each other's likes and dislikes, and how to make the other tick. We knew the good, the bad, and the ugly. However, there were still so many things we didn't know. We are learning daily, and I hope we will continue to learn about each other.  I'm learning that clothes and hampers aren't a match, toothpaste is a mirror decal, and we're both "just let me do it" personalities. It makes life fun.   The "little things" change.  When we were dating, I loved that Jackson would open my door, buy me flowers, etc.  Marriage changed the little things for us.  Jackson works a hard job, he is tired, dirty, and ready to relax when he gets home.  The little things include him folding laundry with me, him loading the dishwasher, him taking out the trash without having to be asked.  Don't get me wrong, the little things from before are still "little things" that make me smile ear to ear, but there are new little things I never thought would be "little things".   You don't get to spend every waking hour together.  That one was hard for me.  Silly, I know. You get married and go on this beautiful honeymoon where you literally spend every second of every day together, and then you come home and work to get into a routine (see "Marriage is hard.") of working, housework, church, cooking and eating dinner, and bedtime.  I'm lucky if I get four hours in the evening of family time.    Marriage is still the best thing I have ever taken part in, and I love everything about it.  The same person asked me if I would have rather someone told me all of these things... and my answer was still no. I have loved learning and growing with Jackson.  

My Best Friend's Wedding Weekend!!

This weekend, on Friday, my best best friend got married! 

We all spent Thursday night in a hotel together after I ran us to Walmart and got pulled over for having a headlight out. sigh. 

We woke up on Friday to celebrate Taylor!! We went to Dunkin Donuts where Alex (my co-matron of honor) and I treated everyone to coffee and donuts. We then went to Houston Station where we got our hair and makeup done!

After getting ready, the bride and groom's first look, the bride and her daddy's first look, and pictures, I handed my best friend over to the man of her dreams. 

Enjoy the photo dump. 

Maybe I'm biased, but she was one of the most beautiful brides I've ever seen! 

We spent most of the night dancing our feet and butts off, but I will share pictures when her photographer shares them! 

Pet Peeves

Marriage has taught me that I am a very hard person to get along with. I get annoyed at the smallest things, and sometimes the not so small things. I've always had a huge list of pet peeves, but marriage has made some sink deeper than others. Age is to blame for the others. I'm older than 22 inside... inside, my name is Ethel and I'm 85.
 
I'm still married, though, so yay for coping!
 I haven't maimed any of my coworkers, so yay for being tolerant!  
1. Loud chewers and ice crunchers.  I will stare at you until you notice I'm annoyed and stop doing it.
   
   
2. People who start stories and get distracted and stop mid sentence but keep you there by repeating themselves or saying "um".
   
3. The noise that comes when people pick at their nails. Just stop.
   
4. That feeling of not being able to get comfortable because your legs aren't in the right spot, you're laying funny, etc. It feels like when you can't get a full breath of air.
   
   
5. The "are you decent?" phonecall because we have unexpected company. I'm not wearing a bra, can you wait five seconds?!
   
6. Husband elbows in the neck when I sleep.
   
7. Deciding on a "one lunch out a week" rule and being asked on Friday if your husband can go to lunch because he doesn't have time to pack a lunch. Grab the freezer meal and go, you'll be fine.
   
8. Falling in the toilet because someone doesn't remember to put the seat down. Seriously, is it that hard? One more time and I'm ordering this.
   
9. Socks right in front of the hamper. It's right there.
   
10. Bringing up a joke that wansn't funny ever but you can't let go. Yes, I ignored that you mentioned it and kept walking.
    
11. People who talk on their cell phones in the bathroom. I'm going to flush and this will be really awkward.
    
12. People who don't use a turn signal. I will hit you and it will be your fault.
    
13. Students who ask questions to purposely get teachers off topic. We have heard the story about how he cut himself with a chainsaw like 8,000 times, can we get back to physics, please?!
    
14. Strange kids' names. I like boys names for girls, and even sometimes unisex names for either kid. Heck, I even enjoy a good first-name-last-name switch, but don't slap the keyboard, call that your child's name, and get upset when I mispronounce your child's name. #imjustsaying
    
15. Couple names. Ours is Crackson. or Jissy. Just don't.

 

 

Humpday Confessions

    I confess...   ... I am so over weddings. I'm excited for all of my friends getting married, and I'm so honored to be matron of honor, but I'm a broke-as-a-joke newlywed and weddings are becoming very chore-like.   ... I was never made to be alone. Jackson is at camp this week, and I'm home alone. It's driving me crazy. I can't sleep, I get bored, it's too quiet, and our apartment is suddenly too big. Plus, is it just me or do all of the huge spiders need killing while your husband is gone? Sheesh!

  ... I have baby fever. Don't get me wrong, I'm loving being married and having our quiet time and being able to pick up and go wherever whenever. However, patience has never been one of my strong points. It's not helping that there are babies everywhere lately.   ... I am still pouting about not being able to be at camp this week. I know, I know. Suck it up.   ... Working 6am-4:30pm may be the death of me. I don't go to bed any earlier, but have to wake up and hour earlier. Not cool.... until Monday when I don't have to go to work.

  ... I downloaded the entire last season of Pretty Little Liars and fell asleep watching them last night. #notsorry   ... I only have one more day of work after today, because I took a sick day for Friday. Mental health because I may lose my mind at this wedding if I have to work is just cause for a sick day, right?

    ... We're in June and I don't think this Nashville Summer has been absolutely miserable. Yet. I'm sure I just jinxed everything.

   

On Growing Up...

Obviously I have been an adult now for four years... I've graduated high school and college. I have a full time job and insurance. I have gotten married and we have a home to call our own. We pay rent and bills.   But I haven't truly felt like a grown up until this week. I've always been able to finagle my vacation time to work around church camp week.  I have not missed a week of camp since my very first year at camp. Even when I was taking a June-mester, I made it work by going to McDonalds and jacking their wifi to do homework.     This year, I didn't get so lucky. Mind you, I wouldn't trade our honeymoon for anything, but I was fronted my vacation for that week off and couldn't work out another week this early in the year.   I may or may not have cried all the way on the two hour drive home. I miss my kids. I miss bunk beds. I miss my friends. I miss my husband who is there while I'm not. I miss the games and hours outside. I miss camp.   And in case you were curious, these are things you don't say to someone who is mourning the loss of their camp week..... "You have responsibility now and that doesn't include camp." "Seriously? grow up." "Well, that's just part of growing up." "Adults don't get camp week... you'll live." "Who takes a vacation week for camp?" "Stop whining."   ...all of which I received after being back at work for ten minutes on Tuesday.   Me and my grumpy tail are going to enjoy the rest of this ten hour day in my office with the door shut.