504,000 Minutes

When I was seven-years old, I thought my sixteenth year was going to be the best year of my life. Twenty was ancient and I would be married and done having children at the age of 23. I'm turning 26 in two-weeks. I have changed my mind about the best year of my life and the whole kid idea by 23. I accomplished the marriage part. Parish and I will be celebrating our one-year on June 15. As of now, we have been man and wife (or husband and woman) for 350 days. That is a lot of days.

Of those 350 days, we have only spent one night apart (sniff, sniff). Well, there are the nights P comes to bed at 2 or 3 a.m. after falling asleep on the couch watching basketball.
During the past 8,400 hours of our marriage we have: traveled 1,200 miles to Arkansas (with a cat), unpacked our lives and decorated a new one, started a successful business, ate 100 pounds of catfish, drove to Memphis during Elvis's anniversary, hosted my mom and dad (we had a really fun time), traveled back to Colorado (a mere 16 hour trip), bought and assembled a desk (7 hours later, I was a mean mess), took up daily walks (almost), learned about sharing and tri-folding towels and fell more in love. It has been an amazing year.

Moving to Arkansas a week after getting married didn't seem like a good idea at the time, but I clearly see how healthy it was for us.

Being far away from family and friends has been very difficult, especially for me, but it has allowed Parish and me to find our legs and really learn about this whole marriage thing. As an only child, I depended on my wonderful parents (a lot!) and it has been hard shifting my reliance to another person. Every day is filled with (marital) lessons. Like the time I went to Bed Bath and Beyond and bought myself a new pillow. I proudly showed Parish my new buy and he asked why I didn't get him a new pillow. I was speechless. He said that now that we are married, when you go buy something like a pillow or a toothbrush, you automatically get another one for your lover. Hmmm...not a bad set-up. I promptly went the next to BB and B the next day and bought him a new pillow and later swung by Target for a new toothbrush.
I guess I have a lot left to learn about this sharing thing. So, here is to the next 504,000 minutes.

Unofficial honeymoon

Driving a Budget truck with a '95 Ford Taurus in tow is not my idea of a honeymoon. It's not Parish's idea either. But, at the time, the wedding and the move had to happen close together. And looking back at it, it made sense not to go on a honeymoon right after the wedding. We were exhausted. We would have slept on the beach the whole time if we would have jetted out on June 16. But, as our one-year (June 15) is approaching, I think it's time for a honeymoon.

I've talked to some couples and they tell me they didn't take a honeymoon either, but there planning on it. She was telling me this as her little boy was smashing a cupcake in his face. Okay, so I made up the kid part of the story, but really, I want to take a honeymoon BEFORE kids. That's the whole idea. And although we aren't planning on having kids for at least 15 more years, I want to enjoy the beach and nightlife while I'm still young and silly. I know a part of me will always be young and silly, but there will be parts of me that won't look good in a swim suit!

Parish and I have not been on a "real" trip together since we've been married. He has also never been out of the country. I have been blessed with many miles of oversea travels. It's time for P to cross a sea, or at least get a passport and for us to enjoy a trip as a married couple! Is that too much to ask? I don't think so. But now the planning part is getting tricky. Finding a reasonable, nice place is a daunting task. I've read numerous reviews and visited countless Web sites. I have found a travel agent in Conway, because I would like to talk to a real person and make sure the hotel we book is actually ON the beach. When I went to Cozumel with my best friend Lacey in college, the travel agent forgot to tell us that our hotel wasn't on an actual sandy beach. Instead, there was a man-made beach and you had to climb down a sketchy ladder to get to the ocean water. Totally bootleg.

We are hoping to go before the end of the year. We are in the process of getting our passports and bodies in beach-shape. I will keep y'all posted. You will definitely know when a honeymoon vacation is booked. You will hear a "Whoo-hoo!" from the southwestern part of the country.

Gate update

Okay, the gates are (literally) up and running. Thank goodness. I know I mentioned that I didn't believe in the purpose of the gates. But, I do now. The beautiful metal gates have been back in action for almost a month now and it seems like things have returned to normal.

Parish still does nightly checks on his beloved trucks. God bless the person he finds tinkering with his black diamond (the name he gave his F-250).
We have decided to stay at The Ridge for at least one more year. We both want a house and a yard and freedom to run around without someone pounding on the wall to stop us. I want to live where someone isn't playing basketball (we live right behind the b-ball courts) all hours of the day. Thankfully, the court closes at 8:30 p.m. Although, we have to remind some rude people. Who plays basketball at 11:30 at night?! Seriously.

We recently rearranged our entire living room and kitchen area. It looks like a new apartment. The minor remodel was Parish's idea and a good one at that! I will try to post some photos soon. We are trying our best and enjoying what life is teaching us one day at a time at the Ridge, with the two, working gates.