In honor of MSU being ranked #21 in the nation in the BCS polls, I thought I'd share with you 21 things that I've learned since marriage. This definitely isn't all of them, but they are the ones I could presently think of.
Twenty-One Things I've Learned Since June 19th
(in complete random order)
1. My milk bill has tripled. No really, it has. Every time I go to Kroger, I know the person behind me thinks I must have five children by the amount of milk I'm buying. 2 gallons all in half gallon size because they are cheaper. "No ma'am, I don't have any kids. Just a husband with a drinking problem -- a milk drinking problem that is. What's that? Yes, he actually drinks 2 gallons per week. Sometimes more. No, I buy separate milk since we don't agree on the fat percentages." Seriously. Currently, there are 6 half gallons of milk in our fridge!
2. Boys eat about 6 meals a day which leads to an expensive grocery bill and necessitates coupon clipping. I never really considered coupons to be fun until I began learning HOW to use them. Now it's a game to see how much I can save. My best...$200 worth of groceries for $130. Thank you for those $70 extra dollars Kroger! Thank you Jenny Loving for teaching me the art of coupon clipping and using them! Too bad there are no milk coupons to clip. There are soy milk coupons....no way on earth David is going for that!
3. Number 2 leads to me eating 6 meals a day unintentionally. Yes I know it's 10pm. No, I have no idea why I'm munching on what he's munching on.
4. Sleeping in the same bed with a boy is different then sleeping in a bed alone. Probably mostly because we are currently sleeping in a full size bed. And if you have met my husband, you know he is 6 '5". Needless to say, this is temporary. However, I like it because it forces him to cuddle with me whether he likes it or not! Big jump, however, from sleeping in a queen size bed alone to two people in a full size bed.
5. Boys who are 6'5" untuck the sheet at the end of the bed every night making bed-making twice as hard and twice as long. Fortunately, David has learned how to make beds and tuck sheets! Makes the amount of time it takes drastically less! But really, he untucks it every night. Like comes to bed and pulls it out. I'm hoping there isn't a draft in the winter months.
6. The hardest thing to share in married life is the remote. Now, y'all know I love sports as much as most anyone, but my evening entertainment generally includes sitting down with my dinner to whatever is on Food Network. While my husband doesn't mind watching the occasional episode, it is definitely not his favorite. I have only successfully roped him in to Chopped on the Food Network. I'd say our TV knows two channels--231 and 206 which would be Food Network and ESPN respectively. I might adjust that to include ESPNU and ESPN2, however, I have no idea what channel they are on DirecTV.
7. Budgeting can be fun. You would be amazed how much I enjoy having a set amount of money to spend each month. David set up a budget for us when we merged bank accounts. It is the most incredible thing ever. My husband knows how to use an Excell spreadsheet. For our friends who have seen it, you know what I'm talking about. As long as I'm under budget, it doesn't matter what I buy. Works out great when you want that really cute pair of shoes that you don't want to tell hubby about. You don't have to tell him what you spent $42 on as long as you have $42 in your clothing budget to cover it. Works out awful when all you have is $14 left for the month and it's the 22nd of the month.
8. I rarely have leftovers. Thoughts on my shopping trip... "Hm, the package says serves 6. That means I can hope it will serve us each 1 meal + David 2 lunchs." When we were doing our budget, we were talking with our pastor. He told us everyone in their family gets a specific dollar amount per person for the month for groceries. To that, my reply was, "does David count as one or two people?" Again, my husband is 6'5". I've had to learn that one serving to me does not equate to one serving for him. Needless to say, leftovers are minimal.
9. I have made Captain Rodney's dip far more times then I wish to count in the past four months. Please see here if you don't know what Captain Rodney's is. If you don't, I suggest you make it. I found it in Starkville for $9 a bottle at Campus Bookmart. That's the cheapest I've seen it. Make it. Eat it with Frito scoops (thanks Alex and Chelsea McIntosh). You'll be addicted. Let me know when you make it. Don't blame me if your husband requests it every time he watches football. Or when you gain 5 pounds because you eat it all the time.
10. Date night used to mean eating at a nice restaurant and watching a movie. Now it involves eating roast when I've shopped cheap (see #2) and watching TV (see #6). And it's still bunches of fun! I never thought we would quit going on real dates. I don't think we've been on a "real" date since our honeymoon and that's perfectly fine with me! As long as we get to hang out together and can make quality time for each other, that's all that matters.
11. Cleaning up after myself is imperative if I want the house to look neat. There is not enough time to clean up after myself and my husband if I don't. Ask my roommates from college, I'm not the cleanest housekeeper. I like the kitchen clean, spotless, and in order, but when it comes to my room or the rest of the house, I make piles. However, being married has taught me to pick up after myself. Don't get me wrong, David helps out. BUT, most of the time I just pick up after him. (though, he does pick up after me too!) It is nice to have someone else to help keep the house clean!
12. As David would say, "Text message inbox deletion used to happen every other day. Now it happens every two weeks." We used to text all of the time. No really. We texted ALL of the time. Now, our texts are short sweet and to the point. Ready for some examples? a.) "Did you take the garbage out?" b.) "My cell phone is dying." c.) "Get some bread from the store." Needless to say, we used to have to delete texts everyday. I just looked at my cell phone. We have 100 texts between the two of us. They go all the way back to Sunday, October 17. Woah.
13. David does not respond well when I am hysterically crying. Actually, I think he wants to laugh at me when I do that. Probably because half the time I'm crying over something that really isn't a big deal. I could be crying over a spider that is running across the wall. I could be crying over something so trivial as the fact that it's Monday. Or as big as why God has us here. Needless to say, it is evidently clear that God made girls emotional and tearful. Boys are stoic. They say, "oh hey, it's Monday." Girls cry about that! Haha. I'm so glad God made us different, but sometimes I want David to join my pity party. BIG difference from living with girls. You come in crying and a girl wants to hear all the details and what's wrong. Husbands care about what's upsetting you too, but I think mine could respond easier if I wasn't a blubbering fool. Why God made us different, I'm not sure, but I bet he gets a great big belly laugh watching us try to communicate through our emotional differences! Ha!
14. Weddings are so much more fun to go to when you're married and not engaged. When we were engaged, we would attend weddings with a little bit of dread. Not of going to celebrate with our friends--we were excited for that. It became a joke between us as to what people would ask. David would almost always be asked if he was ready. He always said that one day, he was going to say no and see what the other person said! In the words of our friend Simon Bailey, "This whole thing was my idea." I always got the question "are you taking notes?" Thanks, but as much as I love being at this wedding, I'd really like for my wedding to be original and my own! Now when we attend weddings, we not only get to visit with our friends, but we get to remember our vows and what we promised to each other. Weddings are now so much more fun because we're so excited for our friends to enter into what we have. Don't get me wrong, they were fun before. But now, we KNOW what the minister is talking about when he tells our friends it won't be a cake walk. I'm pretty sure, standing on that stage, we were blinded by love. Our ears weren't really receiving what the pastor said. HA! Our ears weren't really receiving what ANYONE said that day! And since we've yet to see a video of our wedding, we live vicariously through the ministers our friends choose for their weddings and what they choose to say!
15. We were at a wedding and the pastor said that the wife should put out a vase of flowers every time the husband had done something wrong to let him know he needed to apologize. Insinuating that husbands don't necessarily know when they do something wrong. When I told David that sounded like a great idea to me (especially since we received a beautiful crystal vase for a wedding present...that currently resides in storage), he responded that he thought the husband should be allowed to do the same. Except instead of a vase, he'd just set out his golf clubs insinuating I'd done something to make him upset, and I should purchase a round of golf for him! And yes, Emily and Tanner, that was at your wedding. Just in case you, like us, don't remember anything anyone said on your wedding day!
16. As David would say, "I will never understand his desire to play golf, and he will never understand my desire for decorative pillows." Fact: I like to decorate. Fact: David likes to play golf. I will never, ever understand why a boy would want to spend between $30 and $50 to go outside, hit a tiny ball with a big club, yell, get frustrated, and leave mad. Okay so the aforementioned sentences really describe my brother, dad, and grandfather during some of the times I've seen them play. David doesn't really let it bother him, but still. $35-$50 is a lot of money. Especially when you have to spend lots of money on clubs, gloves, shoes, clothes, etc. to be able to play and do well. I can think of lots of things that sound more fun. Namely, shopping. So even though we are not in our own home yet, and all of our belongings are in storage, I still have been shopping lately for our bedding. When I told him I had bought 7 pillows for our bed plus the 2 we'll sleep on and that I still needed to get 2 more, he just didn't understand. For some reason he thinks 11 pillows is too many pillows for our bed! I keep thinking he'll appreciate it when he sees how cute our bed will be when it's all put together. I think I'm wishing futilely. We will always differ on this one and agree to disagree.
17. I long for the day when David learns to drink coffee with me. I love coffee. David does not. Growing up, my parents had (and still have) a tradition of drinking coffee together in the mornings. They talk about their day, and they used to talk about how bad my brother, Daniel and I were! David does not drink coffee. And it makes me sad that we can't enjoy coffee together in the mornings. I guess we'll have to get him something else to drink. Ooooh! I know! How about we try MILK (see #1). Now, if only I could get up and ready on time in the mornings so that we could share this tradition! Time together in the mornings has definitely NOT become a tradition for us yet.
18. Ole Miss has a new mascot---the bears! BAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! Yeah, it's something I've learned since June 19th. Just had to include it because it makes me laugh! Out loud. A lot. And actually, we were gone for a week to St. Lucia for our honeymoon without cell phones or internet. When we got back, I checked all things MSU on my tweets with Kyle Veazey. We missed a ton while we were on our honeymoon. The two biggest being Phil Turner left the MSU Basketball team AND Ole Miss put out a list of potential mascots. Needless to say, I text all of my UMC friends and told them to vote for the most ridiculous one! Anyway, can't contain myself over Ole Miss being the bears. Really?
3. Number 2 leads to me eating 6 meals a day unintentionally. Yes I know it's 10pm. No, I have no idea why I'm munching on what he's munching on.
4. Sleeping in the same bed with a boy is different then sleeping in a bed alone. Probably mostly because we are currently sleeping in a full size bed. And if you have met my husband, you know he is 6 '5". Needless to say, this is temporary. However, I like it because it forces him to cuddle with me whether he likes it or not! Big jump, however, from sleeping in a queen size bed alone to two people in a full size bed.
5. Boys who are 6'5" untuck the sheet at the end of the bed every night making bed-making twice as hard and twice as long. Fortunately, David has learned how to make beds and tuck sheets! Makes the amount of time it takes drastically less! But really, he untucks it every night. Like comes to bed and pulls it out. I'm hoping there isn't a draft in the winter months.
6. The hardest thing to share in married life is the remote. Now, y'all know I love sports as much as most anyone, but my evening entertainment generally includes sitting down with my dinner to whatever is on Food Network. While my husband doesn't mind watching the occasional episode, it is definitely not his favorite. I have only successfully roped him in to Chopped on the Food Network. I'd say our TV knows two channels--231 and 206 which would be Food Network and ESPN respectively. I might adjust that to include ESPNU and ESPN2, however, I have no idea what channel they are on DirecTV.
7. Budgeting can be fun. You would be amazed how much I enjoy having a set amount of money to spend each month. David set up a budget for us when we merged bank accounts. It is the most incredible thing ever. My husband knows how to use an Excell spreadsheet. For our friends who have seen it, you know what I'm talking about. As long as I'm under budget, it doesn't matter what I buy. Works out great when you want that really cute pair of shoes that you don't want to tell hubby about. You don't have to tell him what you spent $42 on as long as you have $42 in your clothing budget to cover it. Works out awful when all you have is $14 left for the month and it's the 22nd of the month.
8. I rarely have leftovers. Thoughts on my shopping trip... "Hm, the package says serves 6. That means I can hope it will serve us each 1 meal + David 2 lunchs." When we were doing our budget, we were talking with our pastor. He told us everyone in their family gets a specific dollar amount per person for the month for groceries. To that, my reply was, "does David count as one or two people?" Again, my husband is 6'5". I've had to learn that one serving to me does not equate to one serving for him. Needless to say, leftovers are minimal.
9. I have made Captain Rodney's dip far more times then I wish to count in the past four months. Please see here if you don't know what Captain Rodney's is. If you don't, I suggest you make it. I found it in Starkville for $9 a bottle at Campus Bookmart. That's the cheapest I've seen it. Make it. Eat it with Frito scoops (thanks Alex and Chelsea McIntosh). You'll be addicted. Let me know when you make it. Don't blame me if your husband requests it every time he watches football. Or when you gain 5 pounds because you eat it all the time.
10. Date night used to mean eating at a nice restaurant and watching a movie. Now it involves eating roast when I've shopped cheap (see #2) and watching TV (see #6). And it's still bunches of fun! I never thought we would quit going on real dates. I don't think we've been on a "real" date since our honeymoon and that's perfectly fine with me! As long as we get to hang out together and can make quality time for each other, that's all that matters.
11. Cleaning up after myself is imperative if I want the house to look neat. There is not enough time to clean up after myself and my husband if I don't. Ask my roommates from college, I'm not the cleanest housekeeper. I like the kitchen clean, spotless, and in order, but when it comes to my room or the rest of the house, I make piles. However, being married has taught me to pick up after myself. Don't get me wrong, David helps out. BUT, most of the time I just pick up after him. (though, he does pick up after me too!) It is nice to have someone else to help keep the house clean!
12. As David would say, "Text message inbox deletion used to happen every other day. Now it happens every two weeks." We used to text all of the time. No really. We texted ALL of the time. Now, our texts are short sweet and to the point. Ready for some examples? a.) "Did you take the garbage out?" b.) "My cell phone is dying." c.) "Get some bread from the store." Needless to say, we used to have to delete texts everyday. I just looked at my cell phone. We have 100 texts between the two of us. They go all the way back to Sunday, October 17. Woah.
13. David does not respond well when I am hysterically crying. Actually, I think he wants to laugh at me when I do that. Probably because half the time I'm crying over something that really isn't a big deal. I could be crying over a spider that is running across the wall. I could be crying over something so trivial as the fact that it's Monday. Or as big as why God has us here. Needless to say, it is evidently clear that God made girls emotional and tearful. Boys are stoic. They say, "oh hey, it's Monday." Girls cry about that! Haha. I'm so glad God made us different, but sometimes I want David to join my pity party. BIG difference from living with girls. You come in crying and a girl wants to hear all the details and what's wrong. Husbands care about what's upsetting you too, but I think mine could respond easier if I wasn't a blubbering fool. Why God made us different, I'm not sure, but I bet he gets a great big belly laugh watching us try to communicate through our emotional differences! Ha!
14. Weddings are so much more fun to go to when you're married and not engaged. When we were engaged, we would attend weddings with a little bit of dread. Not of going to celebrate with our friends--we were excited for that. It became a joke between us as to what people would ask. David would almost always be asked if he was ready. He always said that one day, he was going to say no and see what the other person said! In the words of our friend Simon Bailey, "This whole thing was my idea." I always got the question "are you taking notes?" Thanks, but as much as I love being at this wedding, I'd really like for my wedding to be original and my own! Now when we attend weddings, we not only get to visit with our friends, but we get to remember our vows and what we promised to each other. Weddings are now so much more fun because we're so excited for our friends to enter into what we have. Don't get me wrong, they were fun before. But now, we KNOW what the minister is talking about when he tells our friends it won't be a cake walk. I'm pretty sure, standing on that stage, we were blinded by love. Our ears weren't really receiving what the pastor said. HA! Our ears weren't really receiving what ANYONE said that day! And since we've yet to see a video of our wedding, we live vicariously through the ministers our friends choose for their weddings and what they choose to say!
15. We were at a wedding and the pastor said that the wife should put out a vase of flowers every time the husband had done something wrong to let him know he needed to apologize. Insinuating that husbands don't necessarily know when they do something wrong. When I told David that sounded like a great idea to me (especially since we received a beautiful crystal vase for a wedding present...that currently resides in storage), he responded that he thought the husband should be allowed to do the same. Except instead of a vase, he'd just set out his golf clubs insinuating I'd done something to make him upset, and I should purchase a round of golf for him! And yes, Emily and Tanner, that was at your wedding. Just in case you, like us, don't remember anything anyone said on your wedding day!
16. As David would say, "I will never understand his desire to play golf, and he will never understand my desire for decorative pillows." Fact: I like to decorate. Fact: David likes to play golf. I will never, ever understand why a boy would want to spend between $30 and $50 to go outside, hit a tiny ball with a big club, yell, get frustrated, and leave mad. Okay so the aforementioned sentences really describe my brother, dad, and grandfather during some of the times I've seen them play. David doesn't really let it bother him, but still. $35-$50 is a lot of money. Especially when you have to spend lots of money on clubs, gloves, shoes, clothes, etc. to be able to play and do well. I can think of lots of things that sound more fun. Namely, shopping. So even though we are not in our own home yet, and all of our belongings are in storage, I still have been shopping lately for our bedding. When I told him I had bought 7 pillows for our bed plus the 2 we'll sleep on and that I still needed to get 2 more, he just didn't understand. For some reason he thinks 11 pillows is too many pillows for our bed! I keep thinking he'll appreciate it when he sees how cute our bed will be when it's all put together. I think I'm wishing futilely. We will always differ on this one and agree to disagree.
17. I long for the day when David learns to drink coffee with me. I love coffee. David does not. Growing up, my parents had (and still have) a tradition of drinking coffee together in the mornings. They talk about their day, and they used to talk about how bad my brother, Daniel and I were! David does not drink coffee. And it makes me sad that we can't enjoy coffee together in the mornings. I guess we'll have to get him something else to drink. Ooooh! I know! How about we try MILK (see #1). Now, if only I could get up and ready on time in the mornings so that we could share this tradition! Time together in the mornings has definitely NOT become a tradition for us yet.
18. Ole Miss has a new mascot---the bears! BAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! Yeah, it's something I've learned since June 19th. Just had to include it because it makes me laugh! Out loud. A lot. And actually, we were gone for a week to St. Lucia for our honeymoon without cell phones or internet. When we got back, I checked all things MSU on my tweets with Kyle Veazey. We missed a ton while we were on our honeymoon. The two biggest being Phil Turner left the MSU Basketball team AND Ole Miss put out a list of potential mascots. Needless to say, I text all of my UMC friends and told them to vote for the most ridiculous one! Anyway, can't contain myself over Ole Miss being the bears. Really?
19. MSU Football is way more fun to watch with a husband! However, I'm pretty sure he'd prefer to watch me yell at Ole Miss football games. I'm not sure how we got married without David ever seeing me route against the Rebe...err bears. Really and truly on any given Saturday, I'd rather see Ole Miss lose then MSU win. Don't get me wrong. I LOVE MSU winning, but you should hear me cheer AGAINST Ole Miss. It's rather comical for David I'm sure! You'll have to ask him about it!
20. Saving for a special "vacation" trip means combining vacation and a bowl game. Vacation has been budgeted for. We just didn't expect it to be spent on a bowl game. Thank you in advance Bulldogs for becoming bowl eligible early enough in the season that we can actually save our nickels and dimes with an ending in sight! Instead of haphazardly saving, we'll be doing it knowing that our efforts will be rewarded! Merry Christmas to the Adams family. BOWL ELIGIBLE!
21. After four months of marriage, I'm more in love with my husband than I ever thought possible. I cannot imagine what it will be at the end of a lifetime together. We have had so much fun in four months. We've trusted God more than we ever have before. We've learned so much about each other. It's just been a really great 1/3 of our first year of marriage! If you made it through all 21, thanks! Aren't you glad MSU wasn't ranked 24 this week--ha!
If you're married, do you have something funny that you've learned in marriage (or serious)? We'd love the advice (or the laugh)! I went back and made it to where anyone can comment! Please leave some for us so we'll know who is reading!
I've learned more about accountability, discipline, and selflessness than ever before. What a blessing to have men like David & Ben who are living out the command of Ephesians 5! And... what a treasure to have great married friends to walk through all this with! Thank you both!
ReplyDeleteThere is a direct correlation between the increase in YOUR milk bill and the decrease in MY milk bill! But...There are worse vices to have! :) I have learned in 28 years of marriage to always try to find the humor and joy in any situation. From the sound of your writings you are already on the way to learning this. Laughter can ease many tense situations and put things in their proper perspective.
ReplyDeletep.s. If you ever upset David (#15) a gallon of CHOCOLATE milk would do the trick and it is much cheaper than a round of golf!
I am not really anonymous but, (I know you will find this hard to believe) I could not figure out how to post this any other way.
Patti
Sara-
ReplyDeleteJust wanted you to know that I have been laughing OUT LOUD in my office as I read this!!! I LOVE IT! Even though I am not married...I have definitely learned a lot from reading about your married life, and I look forward to figuring these things out in my own marriage one day!!
P.S. Now I want to have a blog...AND get David to set me up a budget!!! :)
Sara I have throughly enjoyed reading this blog! What a great joy marriage can be! And I understand the bedsheet thing. While Chris doesn't untuck them, he will not get in the bed unless everything is tucked in! However, I tend to be a very violent sleeper and everyday I am retucking the sheets back in!
ReplyDeleteHow am I just now reading all of this. Ditto to Kylie's comment. I LOL at this, want to get married, and the first thing i thought was oooh i want david to make our budget!
ReplyDelete