MARRIAGE {year 1}

This weekend my wonderfully handsome hubby John and I will be boating over to Catalina to enjoy a two night stay in Avalon! We are celebrating our one year anniversary of marriage, WOOT!

Gosh I cannot believe it has been one year already! It seems like yesterday that we were at the Bali Hai saying our vows and shortly thereafter departing for the sandy beaches of Hawaii. Reflecting back on the first year of marriage I can say that it has been the best year of my life! John is amazing and God has truly blessed our marriage and relationship beyond measure. I will treasure the memories we made in those first precious months of our marriage, thinking back fondly to our little one bedroom apartment where most of those memories were forged. Our first year was filled with cooking blunders, hilarious instances of miscommunication, plenty of laughter, too many rented movies, and lots and lots of tickle fights.

My favorite part of being married is just being able to hang out with John from sunup to sundown on the weekends and whenever we can fit in quality time together. Quality time is my love language (how I like to receive love) so naturally this is going to stand out for me the most. We have a blast waking up to next to each other and simply being with one another during the mundane moments of the day. Whether it be homework, cleaning a massive amount of dishes, grocery shopping, or carpooling to UCSD we simply enjoy each other's company.

The first year was filled with far less conflict that I imagined it would be, but there were indeed heated moments where our tempers got the better of us both. I had always thought that there would be a battle of wills when it came to doing most things together, for aren't there two different kingdoms that merge together during marriage? I had thought that possibly battle would erupt in our home, knowing how unique and different two people can be when trying to resolve differences. I think one of our strengths is communication, and this has helped us tremendously when it comes to conflict. We don't let things build to the point of an emotional explosion, instead we are constantly working out issues that arise WHEN they arise, not days later. You could say we have a lot of periodical baby earthquakes instead of a 7.0 earthquake out of nowhere.

Our first year of marriage was not as easy as I might have made it out to be, we had a lot of commitments other than marriage that pulled at us and put strains on our time. John started his master's degree at Scrippts in Geology, I was (and still am) a full time History major and Education minor at UCSD, John was a TA for a class that required him to grade papers until the wee hours of the night (fun times), and did I mention that I am a goalie for the UCSD women's water polo team and work part time? O yeah, and we are involved in FCA at UCSD and also attend a married community group with our church The Flood? Busy is an understatement. We are swamped. However, we both agree that we would rather be married and doing it together, and we do not regret being married while in school. A word of caution to those thinking about getting married while in school: it is not for the faint of heart. We struggled to protect our time and our marriage throughout the business of life and made a huge effort to stay connected during times of crazy schedules. Not everybody can do it, and it took a lot of intentionality and effort to make sure that we spent time together and nurtured our relationship. Maybe this is why I appreciate the mundane so much, the times of going to the grocery store and driving to school together. At any rate, our lives are full and busy but also filled with special moments and times of fun and laughter.

Gosh we laugh so much. We have laughed so much our abs are sore the next day. For example, the most recent instance is when I tried to dye my hair purple with Koolaid. It didn't work, but my hair smelled like a grape Jolly Rancher for a week and every time John and I would cuddle he would crack up and would say "awww, my little grape!" It was awfully funny and I was slightly embarrassed which made it even funnier. Good times. Still get teased.

At any rate, this is a terribly long first post and I am really excited to go out for an anniversary lunch at the restaurant where we got married, and quite hungry, so I will sign off for now.

-Ebey S