Two years of marriage.

Today is our two year wedding anniversary. I can't really believe it. I know people always say this when they think about how much time has passed but it's really true; it seems like just yesterday...

I think everything in life is a learning experience. So what have I learned?

- Don't ignore the little stuff. The small, every day things are the most important sometimes. They're the path from point A to point B in a marriage and in life. I'm learning not to dwell, but also not to pretend they don't exist.

- Treating your husband like he's a child, doesn't go over well. There's a fine line between caring for someone and treating them like they're incapable of caring for themselves.

- Sharing experiences makes the time more enjoyable. Whether it's a vacation together or grocery shopping together -- there's a reason you chose to spend your life with this other person. Plan things so that both of you can be a part of it.

- Money doesn't equal happiness, but life glides more smoothly when you have it. However, there's a difference between watching your pennies and guarding your paychecks like a hawk.

We've done a lot in the past year (all of which is documented in the archives!). It's so exciting to spend every day with my best friend. :)  I'm happy to be able celebrate another year of marriage -- we're getting pretty good at it!

Buying a car isn't like buying a couch.

It's my 4th day of vacation (5th if I count that snow day last Friday) and I am exhausted.
I have a kitten laying on my legs who is really disabling me to move... so I figure,
why not talk about what I've been doing for the past three days,
and why it is, that I am so tired.

It all started a few days ago, when I got this "hunch" to get a new car.
Having never owned a car, other than co-signing with Sean's last one,
and the three my parents have bought and I seemed to just "take over" without any financial responsibility, :)
I've never had my very own car.
But hey, here I am... growing up every day and I thought "hmm, it's probably time."

My criteria, you ask?
I wanted an SUV (type vehicle), with good gas mileage, a low monthly payment, and for it to be white.
That's it. (ha!)
And on Saturday, I went to the dealership (before the concert I was telling you about before).

I had it in my head, that I wanted to look at a Mazda CX5, in white.
I had seen a few in person, and definitely "built" a few online.
And I was ready to see the car that I wanted, and that I had in my head.

Of course, they didn't have the car that I wanted, that I had in my head, and that I built online.
Duh... but they had something similar and told me they could always swap cars with another dealer to get the one I wanted.
Ohhhh, "perfect" I thought.

I didn't test drive the car. I sat in the backseat and told Sean to update me on the driving capabilities.
I was not prepared to drive someone else's car in a busy area... it was nearly dark outside!

We chatted for a little bit and then left and I had a great feeling about the SUV,
which turns out to be a "crossover".
Whatevs.

Let's fast forward to Sunday.
We woke up, had some lunch (I told you I couldn't get out of bed that day),
and Sean says to me "let's go to the Ford dealer... you should keep your options open".
Insert "dun-dunnnnn" music.

Here's where it all went south.

I was looking at the Ford Escape, in white.
I test drove it since it was sunny outside and I had a good feeling about that.
And when it came time for us to leave to go get the trade-in vehicle the guy said,
"hey, why don't you take the Escape... drive it around and bring it back with the trade-in"
Um, excuse me?
"Oh yeah... you'll really get a feel for the vehicle".

Seems like a sweet deal, right?
No, no, no.
I realized after that this is their ploy to get you back to the dealership.
You see, unless I wanted to be a felon... I had to go back.
To return their car.

So I was debating my two choices:

And when I went back... they didn't let me leave!
Until after hours & hours of back & forth, and room after room of "negotiating".
They even went as far as ringing the "sold" bell in anticipation of me signing...
but the paperwork didn't even reflect our conversations.
Excuse me?
Needless to say, it didn't work out for me & Ford.

Let's fast forward to Monday... back at Mazda.
I could tell you all about the features, or the money part or the whatever.
But the most important thing here... is this:

I wanted to look at a white Mazda CX5.
You would have thought that by asking for a white vehicle,
I had asked the Earth to move closer to the sun.

They needed to ship it from upstate NY.
They had to add money on for it.
They had to do all sorts of things,
even though 48 hours earlier it was "oh, we just swap with another dealer!"
No biggie. Easy-peasy!

Apparently it's a huge biggie.

So did I get a car? I don't know.
Did I sign something? I did.
Assuming things go "right" will the vehicle be white? Nope.
Did I learn anything from the last three days? Yes...

Here's what I learned:

- Buying a car takes a long time and is exhausting. It's not like buying a piece of furniture. You can't always get everything on your wishlist. And nobody cares if you frown and look unhappy.
- Car salesmen tell you anything they think you want to hear. They do a lot of "selling by telling"... and most of it you could read online or in the car manual.
- Money is a sensitive topic. Everyone watches their own wallet and everyone wants a deal.
- When they ask for your social security number it's because they're running your credit... so don't be so free about giving it out. Who knew? Oops...

We always have our deep conversations in the car.

Sean and I have a lot of deep conversations in the car.
Driving together. In between belting out our favorite songs we'll start talking about... anything.

We are very different people.
Our likes are different. Our interests are different.
Our hobbies, our careers, our day to day activities... all different.
And I think that's why our views tend to be different from one another.

A lot of people point this out to me:
"you're so different... I guess opposites attract".

Maybe, that's true.
For day to day things, that don't really matter but are important to get you to the next part of life...
We do differ.
But I think we pick up the slack for one another.

I do laundry. He cooks dinner.
We both go grocery shopping.
I watch a lot of TV. He listens to a lot of music.
We both see movies together.
I keep up with celebrity gossip. He keeps up with the science world.
We both keep tabs on politics.

None of these things are life-altering. I suppose.
Maybe, he wouldn't have clean clothes, be caught up on every sitcom on TV or know any celebrity gossip -- without me.
Maybe, I would starve, be in the dark about the newest music, and completely fail a test about NASA -- without him.

On the bigger items like world events, religion, dare I say... gun control -- we don't always agree.
Sometimes we do, sometimes we don't...
sometimes we confuse each other and have to start again.

We're not the same person... and our car rides would be so boring if every time Sean said something to me,
I said "I agree" or "Totally" or "Yup".
Our car conversations start more along the lines of "well..." or "But don't you think...?" or "I don't agree with that".

And I think that's okay. We are different.
We have different likes, interests and knowledge.
We each know things the other does not.
And through communication we try to fill in the gaps.
We attempt to convince the other of our views... in the midst of singing our favorite songs to each other.

And when the other still doesn't agree... we love them anyway.

That's what I think marriage is.
It isn't necessarily liking the same things, doing the same things, thinking the same things...
every step of the way.

It's two people... who might be completely different,
who work together, talk to each other, help each other and love each other.

We may not always think the same thing, but we feel the same thing.
And that's what counts.
That... and the ability to serenade each other in the car.

You gotta have that.

Recapping 2011!

It's that time of year again -- and honestly, I feel like I just wrote a recap of 2010? But apparently, 2011 is over, too!

So here we go...

January

The first of January meant that it was a big year for us because it was the year of our wedding! I bought my wedding shoes and reserved the boys tuxes. In non-wedding related news, we moved into Sean's parents house to save money for a house the wedding, it snowed an awful lot, and we celebrated my dad's birthday!

February

In February, I received something in the mail that was so special, Sean's band had their first show at the Palladium, we started our dance classes, went to our cake tasting & our food tasting, and spent a weekend in New York City.    

March

In March, I had my first hair trial, finally made some decisions and booked our honeymoon, had my amazing bridal shower & was featured on Jacin's Lovely Little Details blog, our invitations arrived in the mail, and we celebrated Sean's birthday. 

 April

In April, I realized I didn't love our wedding invitations, made our table numbers & love banner, traveled to Maine for Easter, took a countless amount of pictures with our table numbers in Maine for our seating cards, went away to New Hampshire for scrapbook weekend, and celebrated my cousin, Lizzie's, birthday.    

May

In May, I revealed what I did during my scrapbook weekend in April, continued having wedding nightmares, "ran" my first 5K and assembled my wedding invitations, mailed out those invitations, received some RSVPs, created my 101 in 1001 list and accomplished the first thing: hiking a mountain.  

June

In June, I found my something old, was obsessed with these socks, attended the Bruins parade, had so many to-do lists, got my something blue, tried not to get tan lines, did so many DIY projects, celebrated our anniversary, started my Montessori training and filed for our marriage license!  

 

July

In July, all the work and planning and time fell exactly into place and our wedding day arrived, I spent weeks recapping the wedding on this here blog, we bought our first large purchase together - a new car, celebrated my mom's birthday, my garden produced many zucchinis, spent a weekend in Maine, spent time with friends, and I finally started thinking about things other than the wedding.

 August

In August, we traveled to Ireland for our honeymoon, threw a ladies luncheon for my cousin Lindsey, celebrated our one month anniversary, I went back to work, Hurricane Irene took away our electricity for 3 days, and I spent the entire month recapping the wedding & the honeymoon. 

 September

In September, I recapped our summer, turned 25, saw my cousin Lindsey get married, got an acoustic guitar, was very excited about new Fall t.v. & clothes, saw Sean's friend get married, and spent lots of time with the dachshunds. 

October

In October, I was a bad blogger, went to the Cape for a girls weekend, carved pumpkins & finished my wedding album, got the new iPhone, got really excited for the new Twilight movie, started grad school, mother nature gave us our first Halloween blizzard (we had a snow day!) and gave out candy with the dachshunds.    

 November

In November, I was a realllly bad blogger, my husband surprised me with something terrific on a day that wasn't so terrific, I realized I don't take enough pictures, saw the new Twilight movie (twice!), Sean grew out his beard and was in the newspaper, celebrated Thanksgiving as a wife and had a marathon shopping event on Black Friday. 

 December

In December, we took pictures for our first Christmas card ever, had weekends filled with Taco Bell and gossip magazines, saw my friend get married, participated in my first ever blog link-up, hosted our annual cookie exchange, saw the Patriots play on Christmas Eve, spent lots of time with friends and family, and put a deposit down for a new apartment!  

I guess we had a busy year! How about you?