Married!

As of last Saturday, I am a married woman. It's hard to believe! I am going to blog a bit about married life so far (even though it's only been about 10 days)! But first, here is a picture taken by my lovely sister (see more of her photos here) -



The wedding was on June 1st, and it's already been an adventure.
I won't go into all the little details of the pre-wedding madness, but I will say that our wedding was everything I ever dreamed it would be and more. I had some very kind-hearted friends and family who worked so hard to make the day perfect, and I was humbled by their generosity.

Since Patrick and I are saving money to move in August, we decided against a big, expensive honeymoon. Instead, we chose a nice bed and breakfast called the Inn and Crescent Lake in Excelsior Springs, Missouri. I can't recommend the place enough! Beautiful property, kind and helpful owners, and just a short drive from Kansas City, where we went to Worlds of Fun and saw the musical Spamalot, as well as shopping and some nice restaurants. We had a blast, and we came back to our new apartment that we are sub-leasing for the summer before our big move feeling relaxed and in love. The love stayed, but the relaxation quickly dissolved when we realized there had been a mistake - we had no electricity! Normally, this wouldn't be such cause for panic, but the problem was Patrick (who moved our stuff in a few days before the wedding) had the refrigerator and freezer full of food for us to come home to. The power had been out a few days, and there are no words to describe the smell that was coming from the fridge. We ended up spending our first night home as a married couple at Patrick's parent's house because we couldn't stand the smell. We cleaned all the gone-bad food out, all the while taking regular breaks to run outside and get some air, but the smell remained. We used various cleaners, bleach, coffee grinds, baking soda, and regular old water over every inch of that fridge, but... the smell remained. Finally, we talked to the landlord, who said the smell is most likely in the vents in the back, and he would power wash it to get the smell out. However, it would be a few weeks before he could do it. Going a few weeks without a fridge would be easier said than done - at this point we'd gone a few days, and that was difficult enough! So we borrowed a mini fridge and are using that for the time being, with the real fridge taped shut to keep the smell out of our apartment. Not an ideal situation, but everyone needs a good newlywed story :)

With all our efforts trying to de-stink the fridge, combined with our work schedules, we have barely begun to unpack, so our apartment looks frightful! Boxes, boxes, boxes everywhere. The messiness has been a cause of stress, but now that we have our refrigerator situation covered, we are going right to work on the rest of the apartment.

Regardless of all that, I love Patrick and I love being married! We have learned quickly to deal with these every day challenges and laugh at them later. I've already learned so much about myself, and I am so excited to spend the rest of my life as his wife. God has blessed us with each other and the gift of marriage!

Thanks for reading!