First Day of Summer (Almost!)

Today is the first full day of Kyle's summer vacation.  The summer is our time to relax and spend together as stress-free as possible, and with as much fun as we can fit in to his two and a half month break.  This year it will be a bit short lived as Kyle is going to spend two weeks being trained to teach driver's ed, but after that we have all of July and August to enjoy as husband and wife!

This summer is especially exciting because my dear, beautiful friend from across the pond, Adrienne, is coming to spend two glorious weeks with us!  We're down to 17 days until she arrives and I'm so excited I can hardly stand it!  We've been planning this since as soon as she got home from the wedding!  She told me before Kyle and I left on the honeymoon that she wanted to come back ASAP.  We'd talked about things she wanted to do in the United States, and she'd always wanted to celebrate July 4th here.  So, we thought it would be wonderful if she came and spent July 4th with us sometime.  So, when she got home, she showed just how serious she was about "ASAP" and "July 4th" and booked a flight to return in four months!  Now we're in the home stretch and I've been a busy bee planning fun activities for the three of us to do while she is here!  I can't give too much away, but I imagine that future summer posts will be full of our adventures!

Adrienne's first hockey game! Let's go Canes!

This summer has been a long time coming, to be honest.  Kyle has worked so hard this year, and there were times where we thought we'd never make it to the summer, let alone save enough.  Between the wedding and the honeymoon, we just had so much else to save for that at times the summer seemed like a distant mirage.  On top of that, there was a period where legislators wanted to change the pay schedule for teachers which would have meant that Kyle wouldn't be paid again until September and would have meant we'd need an extra month of expenses and quick.  However, that was repealed and now we're able to breathe a huge sigh of relief.  Plus, Kyle had been teaching two home bound students, tutoring after school, and working hard to get his students prepared for their End of Year tests (which they rocked, by the way!).  

We've also been helping out with my grandmother who has Alzheimer's and will be continuing that through the summer and fall.  It's been difficult to watch her slowly deteriorate from the woman she used to be, and I'm so afraid of the day where she'll have trouble remembering all of us.  She's such a spitfire and it is hard to watch that be taken away from her.  We just keep hoping and praying for more time.  The idea of losing her absolutely terrifies me.  We've always been so close.  She's also my last living grandparent, so spending time with her is very important to me.  I want us to have as many wonderful memories as possible.

Me & Grandma dancing to Katy Perry at the wedding reception.
Photo by Kristen Abigail Photography

This summer is just getting started, but Kyle and I are both hoping for a lot of rest, relaxation and fun!  We're not sure of what all the summer will bring, but we know we're going to make the best of it (and blog about it!).

XO

The Newlyweds: One Month Later

Today Kyle and I have been married for exactly one month. People constantly ask us if things feel any different for us and we always have to tell them that they don't. We keep waiting for this magical "change" that people tell us is going to happen. The common consensus is that we'll suddenly love each other more, feel more connected or that our feelings on our commitment will change. Yet, we believed that these things had been happening all along.

We have always felt that we love each other more every day. We've always felt more and more connected as time goes on. Our commitment level has always been very high and very serious. We never felt that a piece of paper and a ceremony was going to be the switch to flip these things on. In fact, we wouldn't have gotten married in the first place if we weren't already experiencing these things. I mean, why expect these kinds of circumstances after the wedding if they weren't there before?

There is one piece of advice that I once received that I believe holds true in this situation: "Marriage doesn't change a person. They will be the same person after the marriage as they were before. Your problems then will be your problems now. Don't be fooled by the hype and the fairy tales." We truly believe that for us there is no magic switch. Our love, our commitment and our connected-ness comes from the hard work and the time we put in. Vows and yards of tulle don't make those things. We do.

So, on our one month anniversary we say again, no, our lives haven't changed. Not in some hugely measurable way. Our days and our evenings consist of the same things they always have. We watch Dancing with the Stars together. We play video games. We have weekly Hamburger Helper nights. We take care of one another. We laugh together. But mostly, we love together and are so grateful for every moment we have with each other. And in our minds, this is enough.

As for our future, we're just kind of winging it for now. We have no imminent plans to buy a house, nor do we have any plans for children. Our biggest plans now consist of whether to buy a washer and dryer or save up for another Disney vacation! We measure our lives in the small stuff. We're excited for The Avengers movie which comes out in May. We desperately want to read the other two books in the Hunger Games trilogy. We're counting down the days until Borderlands 2 and Bioshock: Infinite are released. We're taking (ok, I'm taking) a small joy in spring cleaning. This is our life. Small and unremarkable, but absolutely perfect for the two of us. In the end, I think that is all that matters.

XO

And so it begins.

Ok. I know what you all are thinking. Another blog? How many does she have now? She didn't keep up with those, so why in the world would she start yet another? Well, friends. Things are a bit different now. For those of you who are out of the loop, I'm married!

Photo taken by the lovely Meredith Brookover.

So, how does that make things different?

Well, for starters, Kyle is also an author for the blog! Yes, Superfly McAwesomeFace is my handsome husband! Either that, or a very strange super hero. Or perhaps both! Either way, he'll be posting from time to time as well, so there will be a second person to keep the blog typing along. Wait. I hope he remembers us talking about this months ago. Hm. Maybe I should remind him tonight after work just in case!

Secondly, with family and friends scattered across the globe, we both felt that this would be a great way for everyone to have a peek into our lives, and to keep everyone up to date on what we're up to!

Third, it gives us a great way to chronicle our marriage and all the amazing things in store for us! We'll have something we can look back on and remember all the silly, fun things we've done, all the trials we've come through, all the dreams we've fulfilled, and how much our love has grown!

All in all, I think it will be a wonderful experience for us as a couple and will be a lot of fun for anyone who reads our posts!

So, this concludes our maiden voyage into family blogging! Stay tuned later today for an actual update on our lives since the big day and what is next for us!

XO