Reflections on 3 Years

3 years?  Where did the time go?..  3 years ago yesterday, Matthew and I were married and were eagerly anticipating what this crazy journey/roller-coaster called marriage would bring.  I don't think 100 hours of premarital counseling could have prepared us, but it's been so fun trying to figure this thing out together... I'm sure we will spend the next 60 years wading through it one step at a time.  3 years...went by too fast.

In 3 years we have:

- Lived in 2 different cities
- Resided in 1 mansion, 1 tiny apartment, 1 OLD townhouse, and together bought our first home
- Bought our first dog child, named her Lexi, and decided we would love her more than life
-  Survived one PhD and a Nursing degree
-  Vacationed in Jamaica, Amelia Island, Savannah, Destin, Panama City, New Orleans, Boston, Chicago, Atlanta, went on a cruise, and paid an exorbitant amount to watch our Cats lose in the Final Four (Houston)
- Defended a thesis and passed the NCLEX a few months later
- Sat through 2 graduations
- Spent thousands of dollars on unnecessary medical bills (thanks GERD)
- Lived off virtually nothing, we literally could have qualified for food stamps...and I wouldn't trade it for anything :)
- Started jobs, quit jobs, and started new jobs again
- Struggled (me) through months of homesickness
- Made wonderful new friends (in both Alabama and Texas), and kept up with old (in both Alabama, Tennessee, Kentucky, and California (shout out)
- Discovered a joy of food and cooking together (shocker that we both love to eat)
- Trusted God to lead us to new opportunities, and here we are... (dying in the heat)

Ok, time for me (Matthew) to commandeer this post, I mean for those avid readers of our blog you know that this is the time for my (roughly) yearly post.  I am going to take this space to brag on my beautiful wife.  God has truly blessed me more than I can say with this woman that I get to go through life with.  She is loving, hilarious, gorgeous, a gracious host, uber-competitive, a wonderful cook, and a supportive Christian woman, who could ask for more?  These three years (to paraphrase Dustin Hoffman in Hook...has it been three years?) have flown by and I cannot believe all of the things listed above that we have done, but more important than those is the day to day that we spend together and that we enjoy spending together.  Thank you Chris and Vicki for entrusting me with your daughter, I do my best to cherish and love her in the way God wants of me.   On to year 4 (start the countdown to the Olympics!!)