Newlyweds seek the secrets of successful marriage.
Starting our journey…
Everyone goes into marriage with the best intentions, so why doesn't it always work out? In our first year of marriage, we are intentionally seeking ways to make our marriage last a lifetime.
Is it stealing if you take a flower from the yard at your apartment building?
Yesterday I took the dogs outside and stood staring at a shrub while the dogs sniffed the grass at my feet.
How could I have missed it before? It was as big as a tree and covered in large, lush leaves and plush round, creamy flowers. Gorgeous.
I stepped closer to examine the flowers, already imagining it sitting in a glass of water on our dining table. Glancing around at the nearby sidewalks and up to the open windows of the apartment building, I wondered if it would be wrong to take a blossom. I live here, I thought. If I can’t take one, who can? I looked at the abundance of blossoms on the plant. No one would even notice.
I wouldn’t feel guilty for taking one. (Ok, maybe a little guilty.) But I didn’t want to get caught. So I left them alone.
That night after dinner, Matt walked out the door with the dogs and a pair of scissors in his pocket. I had told him of the plant and the flowers. He returned minutes later with a bloom sprouting from his coat pocket.
What I find interesting about these flowers is that they are so full and flush with petals for having grown on such a large plant.I wish I was better at identifying plants. I still am not sure exactly what these flowers are called, but the closest thing my Internet research pulled up was Japanese Camellia.
When my mom was planning my bridal shower, she found a game that requires the bride and groom to answer a set of questions separately, and then you compare their answers, seeing how many of their answers are the same. We didn’t end up playing the game at the shower, but Matt and I aced it. All but one or two of our answers were exactly the same, and the two that weren’t exactly the same were our second guesses. We know each other well.
One of the questions was “Who wears the pants in the relationship?” While I’m sure the question was designed to stir up some good-humored controversy, Matt’s and my response was “We share the pants.”
And it’s true. We consult one another whenever possible. We try to be on the same page. But while we chuckled at the image of us sharing pants, we had no idea that some real-life foreshadowing was going on.
I mentioned before that in the whirlwind of the day, Matt and I did not completely have our belongings prepared for after the wedding. We headed off to the hotel without much thought as to what we would need. I didn’t think of it until we got to the hotel, but I didn’t have a hanger or garment bag for my dress, and no bags to put my dress’s undergarments in, either. I didn’t think too much of this, just hung my dress as well as I could from he hotel’s hangers, and stuffed my garments in my suitcase. Matt did the same with his tux, and we figured we’d just have to carry them out like that the next morning. At least our event was over and it didn’t matter how they looked.
But the next morning I realized I had forgotten something even more important. I began to get dressed in my ordinary clothes and realized, standing there in my underwear, that I had forgotten my pants. Uh oh.
The morning of the wedding, I had put on a clean pair of pants, planning on packing them up after I put on my dress, so I could wear them the next day. Well, in the hustle and bustle, my clothes never made it into my suitcase.
Visions of checking out of the hotel in my underwear flashed through my head and I began to panic. I told Matt to call my dad and have him bring me my pants. When my dad picked up and Matt explained the scenario, I could hear my dad’s laughter through the phone.
“Please bring me my pants!” I pleaded urgently into the phone.
We had just twenty minutes to check out, and if he was going to bring my pants, he needed to do it now.
My dad proposed that I just wear Matt’s pants to check out and then I could change when I got to their house. I was not thrilled with this idea–man pants aren’t flattering or very comfortable. But Matt surrendered his pants for me to try on.
What do you know, they fit. Not great. They are definitely man pants, and I certainly didn’t feel very attractive, but I could wear them home.
So we shared the pants. I wore Matt’s pants, and he wore his tux pants. We quickly checked out of the hotel and made it home, where I slipped on my own blue jeans and breathed a sigh of relief. My own pants have never felt so good.
Me in Matt's pants, still gripping my wedding dress.
You know, it actually worked out really well that our wedding is the weekend after Thanksgiving weekend. The four-day weekend allowed us to get some rest, as well as get some of the last-minute preparations done for the wedding and our life together.
Part of the weekend was spent putting together some of the final details for the wedding, including helping decorate the church. We’re using a lot of their Christmas decorations in addition to our own decorations. They were kind and cooperative enough to allow us to have some input and didn’t make us feel like we were imposing at all.
After decorating the church, Matt and I made a dash to IKEA and Target to get some necessary furniture for when I move in. After a long, stressful process of trying to put together furniture that was packaged with some wrong parts, I now have a desk for my computer (with extra space for Matt to draw, of course), and an etagere in the bathroom to store all my girly stuff.
I also spent some time organizing the place so that there is room for my belongings. Never underestimate how much space you can save with good organization!
I can’t wait to move in after the wedding and settle into our new home. I’m excited about living in Seattle with my husband, and I’m looking forward to the days to come.
Matt found these prints in a shop near his work, and they are now hanging up in our apartment.
How could you see them and not smile? Between this and the monster print we hung over the weekend, I think our place’s style is turning out to be quite playful.
I spent about five hours washing dishes by hand and getting my hands so dry that they resembled tree bark before it dawned on me that this is why rubber gloves were invented. Oh, wait. I thought that was why DISHWASHERS were invented. But our new apartment doesn’t have one. Instead of getting angry, I’m just going to assume that God wants me to learn a lesson in discipline. Thanks, God.
No, really. I am thankful for the new place and all of its quirkiness. Ok, maybe I’m not so thankful that the toilet tank wobbles precariously, or that I hold my breath every time I flush the toilet because the flush is so weak it looks like it might clog from a single sheet of toilet paper. But besides that…
The place is great. I do kind of love that you can tell it was built by the Army Corps of Engineers. (The cabinets are metal and have tons of hooks and hangers and slots to adjust the shelves. ) The hardwood floors are gorgeous. The windows are large and let in a lot of light in the evening. The blinds actually close when you turn the wand. (You had to “rake” them to close them at Matt’s studio.) And perhaps best of all: the location. OH MY GOODNESS. I think we hit the jackpot.
For me, one of the most dismaying things about moving to Seattle was the lack of grass and space around the buildings. Sure, there’s a park here and there, but mostly everything seems so scrunched up that you can hardly breathe. Our apartments were the first ones we came across where there was actually grass all around. Not a half mile away. Not even down the block. All the way around! And get this: there is a PARK ACROSS THE STREET. Including a GARDEN. I might faint from happiness.
I truly can’t imagine a better location for Matt and I to start out. We are itching to start decorating the apartment, which seems so empty with only the furniture from Matt’s studio. We definitely need to go to IKEA soon to get some essentials. A couch and a dresser are at the top of the list. We’ll also need to get another bookshelf to house all of my books. And a coffee table would be great, since we plan on having guests over as much as we can.
In only two months it will be time for me to settle into Seattle. Here’s to a new life…
Matt went walking around Seattle with his friend Dan, looking at apartments. I had texted him the address of apartments I saw a listing for online, so they strolled by. It was the last placed they walked to, and I think Matt knew right away that he had hit the jackpot.
The first thing Matt told me about the place was all of the grass surrounding the buildings. GRASS! Can you believe it? Grass surrounding an apartment building in Seattle! A building that accepts dogs! It’s an oasis in the desert for dog owners.
The office was closed by the time Matt made it there, so he made an appointment for the next weekend. We went up on Friday to view the place. Read the rest of this entry »
My parents forewarned me that there would come a time in the relationship when it would just be easier to get married than live separately. Sure enough, that day came and Mr. Wonderful and I both asked each other, “Why don’t we just get married and move to Seattle?” We had known for a while that we wanted to get married. It was like we were waiting for the cosmos to align just right, and then we realized that we could cast our own stars. So we got engaged. And then we started looking for a place in Seattle. Read the rest of this entry »
Is it stealing if you take a flower from the yard at your apartment building?
