Have you ever listened to a Conference talk and the speaker says.....I remember when we lived in a one bedroom apartment with nothing but a mattress on the floor and a few dollars. I seriously told myself long ago....that will never be me. Well here I am to say THAT WAS US!
We got married in the summer of 2008. In August we took a very long journey to Virginia from California with nothing but what we could fit in the car. It was crazy I know but we got to Virginia knowing that we were going to be Resident Directors over a boys dorm and we were told that the living quarters would be furnished. Little did we know what exactly they meant by living quarters. We got there late at night to find that our "apartment" for the next year was going to be a dorm room split into to tiny bedrooms. In the first room there was a sink, fridge, cabinets and brick walls! In the second room there was a closet, double size bed, and dresser! It was crazy how small it was. We slept the first night on the double and realized that all of Derek's 6' 1" and my 5"10" was not going to sleep very well together on a double. So we were out to find a cheap bed. Luckily someone was having a yard sell with a king size bed. Derek got the bed for $25.00! What a steal right! The only problem was there was no frame for it. So there we were with a $25.00 king size mattress and boxes on the floor. The bed left just enough room to have a foot to walk around it! So literally our bed took up our whole room!
We slept on the bed for a couple of nights before we realized that we weren't sleeping well and it was just too hard of a bed so we went to Walmart and got us a bed topper for $125.00. Isn't that silly and bed for $25.00 but then the topper was $125.00!
Oh first year of marriage was a very humbling experience! I look back at it now and just think about how simple and easy our life was there. Having no distractions and just living in the country side back east! It was a beautiful time in our lives and I am so grateful for it!
I was just going through all of our pictures of our first year of marriage and realized I never blogged yet had so much to blog about so I am going to make this as short as possible.
Our first adventure at SVU as a married couple is the welcome back dance which was signal themed....Yes traffic signal themed.. Green means go (single) ...Yellow means undecided (which I thought was lame) and Red means stop (taken)! Hence my red lipstick! It was a really fun dance!
I don't take themed parties very lightly. So when I heard the homecoming dance for SVU our first year there was 40's themed the first thing I did was looked online to see what the 40's had to offer. And what did I find? One of my favorite movies of all time is based of the 1940's.... A League of their Own. Derek and I dressed up like that movie and I loved it! It is by far the best costume I have ever made and it was so simple! I definitely think we will have to do it again!
One Sunday after church Derek and I decided to drive the Blue Ridge Parkway and have a photo contest! Which was so fun! We took pictures the whole way and then got home and had a friend judge to see which picture was the best without knowing who took it! Derek won with the yellow leaf on bottom and tree above it picture! It was such a great time just going out in nature listening to hymns with the windows down and really seeing what fall is. Growing up in the desert we have no clue what a true fall is!
Then came Halloween. Our first Halloween as a married couple we had to find once again something cheap but good. I was Cruella DE Vil and Derek was a dalmatian! It was great and so fun! We went to our ward Chili cook off then off to the school dance. Derek and I both love dancing and we loved hanging out with the baseball boys! The picture with the boys are Seth, Drew, and Justin some of our dorm boys who also played baseball and we loved hanging out with them! And let's not forget hillbilly Ricky, one of Derek's favorite friends from SVU!
We also decided on day to head up to Washington DC and just spend the day. It was a little overcast when we got there and in a matter of a hour it went from sprinkling to complete down pour! We had multiple layers of clothes on and the rain made its way throw all layers in no time! So we decided to leave but had to make sure to get to the Lincoln Memorial first! That was were Derek and I both wanted to visit so we made the stop then headed home. It was a 3 hour drive home in wet clothes! FUN!!!!
We went to DC often in our 2 yrs there just to go to the DC Temple. We love the DC Temple.
That December we went home for the winter break and it snowed a ton! Derek got home a week after me so he didn't get to see the snow because just like all Antelope Valley snow it leaves as soon as it comes!
I can't believe how much fun I didn't have documented! I am so grateful once again for all of the fun that Derek and I have been able to have during that first year of marriage. They say your first year is the hardest....if that was the hardest I am truly blessed!
1 comment:
You guys are seriously so much fun! And I too loved our first year - one of the easiest :)
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