One month as a Mrs.

The wonderful things:

• every night we both come home to the same house and every morning we wake up in the same house - I love this
• I see my husband every day (minus of course when I am traveling with youth for work) - although it does make coming home a little bit more exciting in terms of having both Marc and Dakota at home
• I also love that while I am gone someone is in the house taking care of it and watching it for flooding
• grace abounds
• we have decided to live by this - yeah there are things that we both need to get used to or talk to the other person about but we are fully admitting that this transition takes grace on both of our parts - so we live by grace 
• We actually have managed to figure out a good routine in the morning that doesn't add stress 
• it was strange at first to realize we only have one bathroom and two of us need to use it to get ready in the morning - it took us a few days to remember that we both no longer have our own bathrooms
• we no longer have two houses to clean, maintain, and pay to live in
• we only have one fridge with food no more running back and forth to get food to make a particular thing for dinner
• we only have stuff at one house, so no matter what we have everything in one place and we don't have to run down the street to pick stuff up before we go anywhere or do anything
• by combining both of our stuff I have been able to get rid of a ton of stuff
• I LOVE this - I love only having one set of everything and being able to donate the rest of my and his stuff to people who need/want it

The things no one tells you about:

• We have had to figure out how to live together and it isn't always easy - I haven't had a roommate for years, almost 5 of them to be exact
• example 1: I had become accustom to sleeping like a starfish smack dab in the middle of the bed, this doesn't work as well with two people in the bed - Marc has had to give me a good shove from time to time to get back on the other side of the bed - he also says he has gotten a hand to the face a couple times
• example 2: Marc doesn't go back to his apartment every night leaving me with some downtime all to myself and Dakota - although we have learned that the loft is my "sacred space" to do as I want - read, crochet, craft and the garage is Marc's "sacred space" to do as he wants - hammer stuff, pound stuff, drill stuff, paint stuff, build stuff, rip stuff apart
• 2 stall garages BARELY hold two cars
• Confession: I was spoiled before and know it - I had a two stall garage with one car in it 
• I didn't have to care where I put stuff I had more than enough room and plenty to spare - now our cars both fit in the garage with all of our stuff (not really all that much extra stuff but some) and it is a tight squeeze - we both must park in our designated spots and realize that if you don't pay attention and park a little too far over the other can't get in
• really this is mostly my problem - I forget that I have to pull what feels obnoxiously far over to the right or Marc's car won't fit in the garage - he has been very grace filled
• it also doesn't help that we have been storing some stuff in the garage while we debate what to do with it all
• Last summer I was able to go almost all summer without putting in the window air conditioner in my bedroom - I just had a fan that ran all night. Now with two 98 degree bodies in one bed I have already put in the air conditioner and the heat of summer hasn't even arrived.
• Some men eat a lot - leftovers don't last all week
• so there is perks to having two people work their way through a particular meal - I don't end up eating it for nearly every meal for a week or even five or six meals - it is gone within a couple meals - if I get two meals from something I make it is victory for sure

Miscellaneous things:

• I love summer weather and being able to run outside
• or bike or hang out at the lake or just sit outside
• Managing a camp is a ton of work when you already have a full time job and a couple of part time jobs - however I am learning a TON
• I love not running on a treadmill
• Owning a house is a catch 22
• there is always 12 million projects to do (this is not an exaggeration or anything)
• I have almost begun to forget about how much I hated snow by April and how much I hated the treadmill - I am beginning to think half way decent thoughts about mother nature again
• We still have more stuff than I would like us to and so we continue to work on downsizing our stuff - seriously I am next to embarrassed at how much stuff we have - it is excessive and gross - we are both working on this - our closets, drawers, every hiding place doesn't need to be packed with stuff
• I love good long runs with Dakota outside
• I am having trouble keeping myself to only three or four runs a week - my knees can't handle any more than that or else they start to freak out and hate me - so we have come to an agreement - I run three to four days a week and they don't hate me
• I LOVE writing & sending snail mail - this time around it is wedding thank yous.
• I am finding it harder to write them to Marc's family as I just don't know them very well and have a hard time differentiating them from one another as I met so many people
• Marc has written some as well - which was more than welcomed
• My goal is to have these all done by the end of July - wishful thinking? Maybe but it is at least worth the attempt
• I find it annoying when I get a wedding thank you seven or eight months after a wedding I attended - at that point I had nearly forgotten that one was never sent

This post got RIDICULOUSLY long. Snaps to you if you actually read it all.