one year

On May 4, 2013, I was sealed to Alex for time and all eternity. You can read our love story here.

All weekend long I've been saying things like, "One year ago this very minute we were...." which I'm sure gets annoying, but I cannot believe that one year has gone by! One minute we're fresh faced kids, believing we can take on the world together, and the next, we're (still pretty fresh faced) actually doing it!

There's not much I can say about marriage, kids. I've only been married a year. I'm not going to be one of those blogs that professes knowledge about how things should be done. All I can say is that we're doing pretty well so far, and I can tell you why we're doing well so far, because I want to remember it for future reference. But! For future reference, please accept that I do not call any of this "advice" nor do I promise it will "work for everyone".

In a year, I've learned how to be a good team mate. I've learned that whining about how I wanted Alex to do something is not going to get me anywhere, because he's not a mind reader. I've learned that I leave the oven on, and Alex follows behind me to turn it off. I've learned that Alex doesn't like the top sheet, and it is fruitless to trick him into lying underneath it. I've learned that we both like going on drives and talking about our dream house. I've learned that we are both fiercely loyal as well as committed to all relationships we have. You can count on us. We show up to book club every month. I've learned that Alex prefers a simple chocolate chip, but it's ok to still make whatever cookie I want. I don't have to eat chocolate chip for the rest of my life. I've learned that it's good to have your own things. We're good at having our own hobbies. I've learned that it's nice to let one person do the laundry and the other person fold. I've learned that vacuuming is kind of more my thing. That the only jobs I consider "boy jobs" are cleaning hair out of the drain and dumping out the vacuum bag. Other than that, we're in this together. Alex likes to know how things work, so I need to be patient while he figures out the mechanics of everything. I like to know about people, so he has to be patient while I tell him story after story. We both agree on how we want to live our lives, so we have that going for us. We seek first to understand when it comes to the other persons feelings, and that prevents a lot of fights that we could have had as newlyweds. While my gut reaction might be to feel annoyed that Alex did not do his dishes even though he was home for hours, I stop and ask myself why he might not have done them, and if it's because he's been working for hours and hours on horrible mechanical engineering homework and stressing over projects and tests, I guess I can do the dishes. He lets me be me and lay around all day binge watching tv shows. He even joins me most times! We start and finish every day with a kiss and an "I love you".

I don't know guys, I don't think it's rocket science.

Alex and I wake up every day and choose to love each other. It's not a hard choice really, but we do. I wake up and decide again that he's my one true love and that I want him to succeed and that we're going to be a power couple for the rest of our lives, and then I act like it, all day. every day. And so does he.

So. We've been married for a year. We've gotten better and stronger, and we have a long time to go. I can't imagine being more excited for anything else.

Love ya, Al. Here's to the next 50.