here's to one year

It has been a whole year since Austin and I vowed before God and everybody to love each other forever and ever.  It feels like it was just yesterday, but at the same time I can't even remember my life before marriage!  Of course I remember it, but it just seems like an eternity ago. 

It is crazy how much one year can change things.  I remember the first "meal" I ever cooked in our house.  I diced up chicken and cooked it in a pot on the stove with very little seasoning.  I think I made some instant mashed potatoes to go with it and Austin didn't eat it because he thought the chicken was raw!  I don't even know who that girl is anymore and why she was dicing up chicken for supper. 

The me before marriage would leave my leftover lunch in the fridge at work for days on end.  Whenever I finally did get my lunchbox from the fridge, I would leave it in my car for awhile. Sometimes I would eventually hide it or throw it away so I (my mom) wouldn't have to clean it. It wasn't just the dishes that I didn't think much of.  Whenever Austin came over to my house to see me, I remember him complaining sometimes because I would have so much stuff piled up on every surface of my room that he couldn't even sit down. 

A year ago, I could probably count on my fingers how many loads of clothes I had washed in my lifetime and probably wouldn't use a whole hand to count the meals I had prepared! But today-- 365 days later-- I can half way hold my own in the kitchen (Austin says I do not season anything), our house stays rather clean and I do laundry like it is my job.  I guess it is my job.  Except ironing-- I don't iron like it is my job.  I really despise ironing. 

Austin has always been very neat, clean and organized.  He thinks way ahead about everything and always has a plan.  He has always and probably will always have it all together.  A short time after we got married, we were laying in bed and I got up to get something to drink.  He hollered from the bedroom into the kitchen and told me to bring a napkin so that my cup wouldn't sweat on the furniture.  I couldn't help but laugh at what I had gotten myself into.  I love that he is like that and hate it all at the same time.  I am also aware that his tendencies may be rubbing off on me a little bit.  I drive myself absolutely crazy about some of the smallest things now.  I hate clothes being in the floor, knowing that dishes need to be unloaded from the dish washer, anything on the cabinets, dirt on the back porch, etc.  These are all things that the me before marriage would have never given a second thought. 

Whenever we were on our honeymoon, Austin was adamant about washing clothes in the room while we were in Hawaii.  He did so much laundry that we didn't take a dirty article of clothing home with us.  I remember wondering what in the world he was doing.  It did not even cross my mind to do laundry on our week long vacation & I did not understand why he was doing it.  But....on our latest trip, I had taken on his role and I made sure we didn't bring any dirty clothes home. 

I have always heard people say that whenever you have children, you just know what do.  You fall right into the roll of mom and go with it like you've been doing it your whole life.  I feel like that's kind of how being a wife happened with me.  Once it happened, I just knew what to do and now I don't really even know the person I was before.  I do know that she worried wayyyy less about trivial things like no clutter in her car and spotless floors.  I think it has a lot to do with these things being my own and wanting to take care of them.

While all of that sounds a bit uptight, Austin and I have had a whole lot of fun in our first year of marriage.  After we got married, people always asked "how's married life?!" I always responded- "it's fun!" And it is! It is so much fun.  I love coming home to Remus and Austin and Bandit and Daisy. I feel like being with Austin is my safe place!  Whenever I pull in at home after work, it's like I've reached the finish line or something. 

I am so thankful and so proud of the life Austin and I are building together.  It is a simple life, but it full of the purest kind of happiness.  A few months after we got married, I remember laying in bed one night and telling Austin that I was living the life I had always dreamed of. That is something super special.  

As cliche as it sounds, Austin is my best friend.  He can read my mind and he knows my quirks, but he loves me just the same!  Sometimes I wish I had a camera in our house to record some of the funny stuff we do!  If I feel like busting a move in the living room to no music at all, I do! And sometimes he pulls his pants up to his chest and walks funny just to make me laugh. We don't take things too seriously, and I love that!  

Don't get me wrong, there have been times throughout this year that I could have screamed because he was driving me absolutely nuts, but the good times far exceed the not so good.  

I am thankful to love and be loved by Austin Byrd, and I look forward to all that the Lord has planned for our future.  Good or bad, I know we will face it together.  

God is real good.