Four Years and Still Going Strong

Austin and I celebrated our four-year anniversary in December. It's crazy to think that four years have gone by so fast. We've enjoyed our time together, even through the ups and downs; however, life has given us plenty of more ups than downs.

Since being married, we've lived in a basement of an old house, where during the winter it smelled highly of natural gas; an RV trailer in the summer that during the day reached a dangerous temperature of 107 degrees and at night dropped to super, duper freezing temperatures that made us put our winter pjs on and run a space heater during the night. The trailer was also wasp infested and was surrounded by weeds that were three feet tall. We woke up to the sound of birds hopping around on the roof and the cows mooing in the field just outside. We could only walk in one direction: straight. We abandoned the trailer for a more user-friendly environment. Oak Meadows Apartments has been our home for nearly three and a half years. It has been a wonderful place to live and only now are we starting to out-grow our little two-bedroom apartment.

We started our marriage with two Toyota vehicles: a Corolla and a 4-Runner. Sadly, we got rid of the 4-Runner almost a year into the marriage. We have since been a one-vehicle family, which hasn't been too bad.

Both Austin and I have learned some things along the road of marriage. Austin has learned that musicals and choir and plays are actually fun and uplifting. I have learned that sports are okay to be a part of. I've learned to watch football and for the most part, enjoy it (well, at least for a game or two, not all day). Tennis has become a sport I love to watch and play. I must admit, I'm better at watching than playing, but I am definitely improving my game. Roger Federer is my favorite tennis player. Austin is still working on me becoming a snowboarder. He's going to have to work really hard at that one.

More seriously though, we have learned that good communication is an essential key to a great marriage. We have both learned how to communicate well to each other and when our little fights do arise, we're pretty good at getting to the real issue at hand. Another thing we have learned is to apologize to each other right away and to be sincere. We've learned that even though we haven't "made our millions" yet, and our money is tight, we still need to treat ourselves for hard work and accomplishments and to have fun along the way.

"A successful marriage means falling in love many times with the same person."