It's march 13th . . . and in just 1 week, I will have been married to Brad for two years. Where does time go?
Since he has been home, we have driven back to Washington, flew to Reno to say farewell to my grandfather, Wayne Smith. We celebrated our very first thanksgiving together and got our first Christmas tree! We flew back to Seattle in January to then say goodbye to my grandma fondly known as Nonnie, Stephanie Aker, and to welcome my 2nd niece, Rahab Elaine. February brought a sweet Valentines day and Mitch and Ashley coming out to visit. So I guess in a blink of an eye, we've done all that and now get to celebrate two years of being married to each other. Holy Smokes!!
I don't think our first year of marriage really counts, seeing as how we were separated by thousands of miles, but we still had our ups and downs. We had to learn, like I think every young married couple, how to talk to each other and get our point across in a respectful way. I think we did pretty darn good considering the miles between us. We learned a lot about each other and ourselves as individuals. I never thought that I'd be living on my own in Billings Mt, while Brad is gone in Afghanistan. But I managed to make my own Army family and get through it. We celebrated the holidays together since all of our men were gone. We celebrated wedding anniversaries and birthdays together. When I had no power to change my situation, I decided to grab it by the horns and have a good time with it. Not to say I had a good time without Brad, but I managed to get through the deployment as best I could without him here. He was always in the back of my mind and i missed him tremendously.
So having him home, I think we've both learned what married life is really like. Meal planning, keeping the house clean ( as a team, not just me ), doing laundry (man do we go through a whole lot of socks) and sharing the TV. lol. Those are just minor things I suppose, but it's getting used to living with another person, the perfect room mate if you will. It's a constant struggle, but it's a welcome one.
In one week we get to celebrate our 2nd wedding anniversary, but together for the first time. Kinda confusing and oh so exciting at the same time. There is a nice restaurant at the top of the Crown Plaza here in Billings, sort of like our version of the Space Needle and we plan on having a nice dinner up there and opening our last bottle of wedding wine. It's fun to be able to save those special things and enjoy them together.
Anyway, I just had to do some reflecting on where the two years have gone . . . and here is to many more very happy years together for Mr. and Mrs. Ireland!! :-)
