I hate to be cliche, but I absolutely cannot believe it has been an entire year. It makes me wonder if I'm going to blink and be 85, sitting in a rocking chair, holding Matt's hand talking about how quickly 60 years went by. Talk about a need to savor every moment!I can honestly say that this year has been the best year of my life. I wish I could say that it's because all I've experienced was rainbows and butterflies, the fairytale that all girls dream of. That's the idea I get from most girls on Facebook any way (and can I just say, and I may dedicate a blog post to it, I think Facebook is severely distorting what marriage really is and I think encourages people to over exaggerate how magical it all is, which I believe in turn peer pressures people into getting married before they're ready- anyway... back on topic). I think marriage in many ways has taught me to grow as a person.
If you're a dedicated blog reader of mine (haha! I'm not even a dedicated blog creator these days), you will know that Matt and I spent a great deal of time apart during our dating time. We spent about a year and a half pretty much inseparable during college, but then I graduated and moved to Tulsa while Matt finished school in Stillwater. Then Matt moved to Midland which I stayed in Tulsa to finish up school. I have nothing in the world against waiting until one is in their late twenties (or older!) to begin thinking about marriage, I actually encourage it. But at 24, it was the right time in Matt and my lives to continue our life together. I don't regret it for a moment. Is it what I thought it would be when I was young? Not really. For some reason I spent a lot of time thinking the Disney 90 minute cartoon version of marriage was what life would be like, instead of looking to my parents who had sustained a 30 year marriage, showing Joe and I what true love was. Now that I'm married, I've quickly realized that the Little Mermaid, Cinderella, and yes, even the Notebook, are literally figments of some one's imagination, and if you want to see a love story to model your life by, it's probably about a generation or two away for just about every one.
But enough philosophy, lets get to the promise of the title. What has a year of marriage taught me? Well neither of us have enough to work with a comprehensive list, but I'll give you some high lights. How 'bout a good 'ol Top 10 for old time's sake? Yeah.. that sounds like fun. And as always... these are in no particular order.
1) While Matt may not have been the most eco-friendly guy when I met him, he really shows kindness and support in his heart to support my convictions for the earth, and I think he has in some ways adopted them himself.
For example, he created this recycling system in our garage before I even moved in and I never even asked him to do it. He just took it upon himself knowing it would be important to me. He also diligently takes the recycling every couple of weeks to the drop off sites, and doesn't complain about it. Not to me any way.
And here's the composter. At first, Matt sort of hated the composter. I won it at a home and garden show, and these suckers are sort of expensive, so I was stoked. He didn't like the idea. We all know what a composter is, right? Well if not, I'll tell you. This is a bin that sits in our garden and it has a lid on top. You put all of your fruit and vegetable scraps (you wouldn't believe how much we have of this DAILY), and yard clippings and what not. You're supposed to get a good Carbon to Nitrogen ratio in there, and you're also supposed to turn it (I turn it with a rake, but they make some that are circular so you can turn it with a handle and it's a lot easier). Over time, all of this organic material hangs out and decomposes (it doesn't stink though), and it makes a nutrient rich dirt. Isn't science fun!? So not only are we significantly decreasing what we send to the land fill, but we're also creating a compost that we can put on our garden. I love it. We've been putting stuff in that thing for a year and it always seems to remain about 3/4 full. Matt has gotten a little more on board, and at least takes the vegetable and fruit scraps out there daily, and for that I love him.
2) Now these awesome footie pajamas I found at Target and immediately got an idea for our Christmas card. Oh my. I never thought he would ever in a million years do this. Sometime in October we were in the kitchen and I looked at Matt and said, "Honey, sometimes in marriage when you love someone, you have to do something that you may not necessarily want to do," then I led into something about footie pajamas. He agreed at the time, I guess thinking I would forget. I never forget. This may be my favorite picture of us of all time.
What a sport.
3) I still have to work on this all the time, but I'm getting a better idea of what is worth fighting over. Choosing not to speak kindly can really hurt a day, and it's just not worth it. I'd rather have fun and do what ever activity planned that day than sit and argue over something unimportant. But one thing I have learned, is that if you want to get Matt mad... forget to clean out the lint trap in the dryer. Apparently it's more important to some people than others. Something about burning the house down.
4) We are ridiculous human beings who really value entertaining. No matter the theme.
We had a birthday party for our dog. This inspired the cupcakes I made, but I can't find the picture.
Luau themed birthday party for me. And a beer themed birthday party for him. We also had a BCS championship watch party during the middle of a snow storm. Good times.
5) We work really well together. This office is a room that I love. I think I love it even more because I was sure that doing a project like this together would surely spell the end of our brief marriage. On the contrary! I think we may try to do several projects like this together.
5) We're always going to bleed orange. I never grew up loving college sports. I didn't even realize until I got to OSU that students cared about going to games. I was a little misguided. After a year of traveling all over creation and putting about a gazillion miles on my car, I think this dedication is here to last.
7) I've learned that gardening is tons of fun (we're old people). But it's also extremely difficult in the desert with clay soils and only watering once a week. But we love to eat veggies out of our garden.
What's that?? Green grass? No way!
8) Homie has a lot of socks. I knew Matt 3.5 years before we got married, but until I started doing his laundry, I had no idea about the socks. 3. THREE. Tres. Drawers for socks. Just socks. What?
I can barely find socks that match. A little quirk that you figure out after you get married I guess. And I suppose it could be worse...
9) If our relationship with our dog is anything like how we will be with our children, I understand if you don't want to babysit. Just kidding. Pistol is a great dog, but if we can love a little creature so much, I can't even imagine what we will be like with our own little human. I am not a dog person at all, but Pistol lights up my life every day, and in some strange way, I think our mutual love for him strengthens our marriage.
10) The biggest thing I have learned so far about marriage is to think outside myself. I like to say that I'm generally caring person who genuinely tries to be thoughtful of the feelings of others. But this is a different kind of relationship that I daily find confirmation was designed by God. This isn't a business transaction or a piece of paper. It's a commitment to making each other better. We really do make a great team, even when we make mistakes. We always ultimately have each other's best interest at heart. It's really nice to know that you have someone unconditionally in your corner. Matt's success is my success and vice versa.
They say that the first year of marriage is the hardest. If that's true, this is going to be awesome.
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