5 Years (and counting)

Today is my 5th wedding anniversary.  Some days it's hard to believe that it's been 5 years, it seems like it's just been a few months.  Other times, it seems like we've been married forever and I can't really remember what my life was like without Brian.  This will be only the second time that Brian and I have been together on our anniversary and hopefully we won't have to spend any future anniversaries apart from each other.

These past 5 years have been crazy and amazing all at once.  Our wedding was fantastic, a small affair with just family and a few close friends.  We got married at the Tacoma Nature Center in Tacoma, WA which happens to be right across the street from my high school.  A good friend of ours performed the ceremony.  My sister was the matron of honor and my 11 year old stepson was the best man.  During our reception, we had a great time just hanging out with everyone.  Brian and I left to spend our wedding night in a lovely hotel on the waterfront then the next morning we picked up my stepsons (aged 8 and 11) from my parents' house and set off down the Oregon coast.  We played on the beach, dressed in jeans and hoodies since it was cold.  We flew balsa wood airplanes from the Astoria Column.  We checked out all the exhibits at OMSI.  It definitely wasn't your typical honeymoon but we had fun. 

A day later, Brian flew with the boys back to Virginia.  We met in El Paso the day after that to find that our recently rented apartment had been burglarized and the management had changed the locks.  It was after business hours so we couldn't get into our apartment.  We ended up sleeping in Brian's barracks room on a twin bed.  It was not my idea of fun or comfort.  Needless to say, I shed some tears that night. 

Fast forward to October.  I had a teaching job at at local high school and Brian was leaving on his first deployment to Iraq less than 4 months after we got married.  Communication was difficult because I would go weeks without getting any phone calls or emails, then we'd get to talk for a few minutes and only get to discuss something about our finances or family, etc.  It was very hard on our relationship.  Brian came home in April 2007 for his R and R leave.  While he was home, we found out from the news that his tour would be extended for 3 months.  Fortunately part of his leave coincided with my spring break and we got to spend a little time together.  He went back to Iraq. 

Since he was deployed, I decided to spend my summer vacation traveling in the UK and Ireland for a month.  It was a fantastic trip and I was joined by a couple of friends at different points.  On my first wedding anniversary, I happened to be in Ireland in a hostel with no electricity and my rental car got stuck in the mud on the way there.  I had a pay-as-you-go cell phone for the trip but for some reason, the calling cards that Brian was able to get wouldn't let him call my international number.  So we emailed each other but ended up not talking on the phone for 6 weeks.

Brian came home that December, shortly before Christmas.  That was our first Christmas we spent together and I spent away from my family.  It did not turn out well.  2008 was a better year for us since we were together for most of the year (except for our anniversary, I was in WA taking care of my grandmother while my parents were out of town) and in September found out that I was pregnant with our son, Julian. 

In 2009, we found out that Brian was going to deploy to Iraq for a second time.  He left less than 3 weeks before Julian was born.  The day after he left, I flew to WA to be near my family when I had the baby.  Brian was able to take his R and R leave when Julian was 6 weeks old and we were able to spend a great two weeks together. 

Julian and I returned to El Paso in March 2010 to prepare for Brian's return in May.  That next month, we were able celebrate our 4th anniversary together.  It ended up being a quick dinner at Olive Garden because we were worried about leaving Julian with a babysitter for the first time. 




Now on our 5th anniversary, we are preparing for our second child and Brian's third deployment to Iraq followed by his retirement from the Army.  We're also packing up everything to move to WA.  Ideally this will be our last move since we'll be buying a house later this year. 

No matter what, it has all been worth it.  I have a wonderful husband that I love dearly and I wouldn't trade him for anything.  I hope to have at least 50 years with him.

Garage Sale and Road Trip

So I've been decluttering for a few months in preparation for our move and we finally had our garage sale last weekend.  My friend had told me what it would be like but I was still totally shocked.  People started arriving at 4:30 am and we were done by 9:00 am.  At one point, there were so many people there at once that we couldn't pay attention to them all and some stuff walked off.  Fortunately it wasn't anything worth much.  We never even got to unpack all of the boxes and bags, people just rummaged through them in the middle of the driveway.  

We ended up making $422 from the garage sale, then $85 later in the day from Craigslist and the pawn shop for a total of $507.  Yay for us.  Right after the sale, we took a bunch of stuff to the women's shelter and other stuff to Goodwill.  We still have almost all of the books left since they're all in English and everyone who came to the sale spoke Spanish.  I'm just going to Freecycle them this weekend.  We also have the CDs and DVDs to deal with.  No one was interested in them at the sale.  I'm going to try them on Craigslist but if I don't get any hits in a couple of weeks, then I'll just Freecycle them.  I basically just want to be rid of them at this point.  The only other thing left is some costume jewelry.  I never got a chance to put it out at the sale since things were so crazy and I didn't want it to get lost in the midst of everything.  My goal is to have everything out of here by the time I leave for Montana in July.

Yesterday, we got back from our road trip to San Antonio and Killeen.  It was fun but exhausting.  We got to visit with family and friends plus go to some fun places like the zoo and the Children's Museum.  We also went to the San Marcos outlets.  It wasn't in our original plan but my friend told me about them and even though we didn't actually need anything, we went anyway.  Our baby will be showered with plenty of hand-me-downs but I did want her to have some new clothes all her own when she joins our family.  So I bought her a few outfits in each size through 18 months.   Then of course I worried that I bought all these girly clothes and somehow it would turn out to be a boy but I had another ultrasound today and the tech agreed that it was a girl so I felt better.  I was planning not to buy anything for the new baby but I was having such a hard time preparing for her since I can't decorate a nursery or anything like that so buying her some clothes was my only way of getting ready for her and now I think I got it all out of my system.  I know that Brian really wanted her to have some things of her own too because he has a thing about hand-me-downs.  I made sure that several of the outfits had something about Daddy on them since he won't be around those first few months but I can take pictures of her and email them to him everyday.

It was good to get rid of all our excess stuff to make room for our little girl.  I'm still not sure Julian what Julian thinks when we talk about the baby but he realizes that something is going on and he sees that my stomach is getting huge.  He pokes my stomach and says baby but we'll see what he thinks when there's a a real baby.  I see him making all these connections lately with his 2 year old mind and it's awesome but I still don't know how much he understands when we tell him things. 

After traveling so much this last week, I'm glad that Julian and I will be flying to Washington instead of driving.  Ten hours in a car is a long time when you're pregnant and have an active toddler.  Fortunately, Brian did most of the driving and I could rest a little or catch up on blog-reading with my phone (or feed Julian snacks constantly).

I'm happy to be home again and even happy to get back to packing and my to-do list.  I just want to get everything finished and be finally done with it all so I can relax and get ready to meet my baby.