Tuesday, March 20, 2007

5 Years Down!

OK, I am sorry that I have been such a slacker with my blogging. This part time job hasn't been so part time lately. We are in the middle of a re staffing at work and so Des and I have been working alot. Its alot of work and surprisingly extremely tiring but I actually and REALLY enjoying it. You never know what to expect on any given day so it keeps things new and exciting. :)
Anyway, in other news, Daniel and I celebrated our 5th anniversary on Friday! YAY! I cant believe that its been that long. I guess it doesn't seem so long in the scheme of things but I remember before I was married thinking that 5 years was a long time. It really has gone super fast and really has been good. I guess time flies when your having fun. :) Plus, we've got 2 adorable boys to show for it. :)

24 comments:

Elizabeth F. said...

Congrats! Seems like yesterday when you were introducing him to the family. We had you guys over for dinner, but then when I think about it Zoe was only 6 mos. old or so...Seems like Daniel has been here with us forever, and that's a good thing! They say the first few years of marriage are the hardest, so if you've been having fun, that's great and you hopefully you have nothing but good times ahead of you!

Anonymous said...

I've never understood the "first few years of marriage are the hardest" statements. Jessie and I have had nothing, but good times!

Annette

Sarafu said...

I cant say that I dont understand it because Daniel and I had a rough first year but its been good since then. We obviously have our moments but who doesnt. It helps that I know that God placed Daniel in my life and vise versa so I never have to Wonder if I made the right decision or if he was the one for me etc.... I Totally know that God brought us together and that helps when things seem less than fairy tale like. :)

Unknown said...

Yeah, everyone told me "The first year is the hardest" too. But it totally wasn't. Our engagement, for some reason, was the hardest part of our relationship so far. We'll be celebrating 2 years in, holy cow! Less than 2 weeks! April 2nd is our anniversary.

In any case! Happy anniversary, Sarafu! Glad you're enjoying your job. Say hi to Desi for me. And can we perhaps invite ourselves to visit you sometime this spring/summer? I'd love for you guys to meet Rachel and I'd love to meet Jack and Daniel.

Check out my xanga for a new slideshow of Rachel. :)

Anonymous said...

Happy Anniversary! For us, the first year was so much fun! The most stress came in the second year when Jamie didn't have a job for 5 months and we had a ton of in-law issues because of Isaac being born! Isaac being born was by far the highlight of the year-he was great- but having a baby seems to introduce all kinds of new issues with the MIL- can anyone else relate?

Mrs. Sara said...

It occurred to me today that a lot of the people who say "The first few years are the hardest" are also the ones who would tend to give up during hard times. Obviously I don't mean anyone that reads this blog, but I've gotten that a lot from people who are thrice divorced and trying to warn me that I shouldn't get married.

I'm sure it IS the hardest for people who have no hope, or who didn't mean their vows, but for those of us who know we're in it for the long haul, there's a security in knowing that whatever comes, we can face it together, and that neither of us are giving up on the other.

I don't know... I guess we've had some "hard times" in the way of arguments, but nothing that would make us look back and say, "Yeah, that first four months of our marriage really sucked!" On a whole, it's been awesome to be married!

Oh, and our engagement was DEFINITELY harder than being married! We bought a house two weeks before we got married. Between that and the wedding plans and my mother, I was so stressed out that my ulcers were acting up, and I ended up taking a lot of my frustrations out on Dan.

If we can get through that, we can get through anything! :)

Liz, I don't have a baby yet, but I think I can see what you're saying! There's probably going to be a lot of the "We never see the baby..." stuff going on! LOL.

Tell her if she wants to see the baby, she should come and see the baby, and do the dishes while she's there! LOL.

Elizabeth F. said...

Well, I do not take any offense to any of the comments that were stated here, but from my experience the first 6 mos. were raelly hard, for reasons that I cannot say on a blog, but when you do mean your vows and are in it for the long run, you CAN and WILL get through the tough times. I think just being married for the right reasons with the right attitude does not make you totally exempt from issues. I'm glad that some of you had the best time ever in the first year of marriage, but it's not like that for everyone for a wide variety of reasons.

I think people mainly say that the first year is the hardest because there is alot of merging that goes on. Sharing space, time, money,responsibilities, the meshing together of families, new MIL's :-), realizing that the reality is different from your over-romanticized dreams of how marriage would be, etc... I think if you have really good pre-marital counselling then maybe you can get all of the yuckiness of that stuff out of the way before you get married. :-)

Elizabeth F. said...

Oh...about the baby stuff. If you choose to be the first one in your family to become parents (I call this Pioneer Parenting.) then, remember that there are pros and cons to this idea.

Pros:
You get lots of attention, gifts, etc... this is the awesome part of the experience. There is soemthing special about having the first baby.

Cons:
Your baby is the only one for grandparents to fuss over. They will want you to share this baby. You will not want to probably. At least not as much as they expect you to. You will be the center of family turmoil in regards to every unpopular parenting decision that you make. Then, a few years later, other siblings start having families and they will not experience the same issues that you did. You broke in the grandparents. Siblings should be grateful.

Just be informed. :-) But, saying all of that now I wish I had allowed my MIL to enjoy it more. I am sad that she is not here to bug me anymore. :-( The key is communication and mutual respect.

Sarafu said...

Good Wisdom Elizabeth!!!
I think the first year for us was hard because of exactly what Elizabeth said. There was Alot of merging going on and not so much courting. :) I enjoyed the extra attention I got while I was dating etc... Plus, I had the extra hormones that come with being pregnant and the shock of the actual pregnancy. :) lol.
As far as babies go, I hear alot of horror stories and am very blessed to have in laws that are very understanding. If they dont agree with us on something they may give their opinion but Daniel is very upfront with the fact that he will listen but make his own decisions. Of course, Jack was like # 8 grandchild so they are old hat at the grandparent thing. I did LOVE my mom being here to fuss over Jack though. It was as if he was one of her favorite pastimes. :)
I have heard horror stories of in laws, especially with nursing moms.

Daniel said...

I, personally, don't recall the first year being so hard.
It must have been hard for Sara, because she was still getting used to me telling her how things are going to be around here, and what she's going to need to start doing differently.

Daniel said...

Wait, I just remembered that there's someone who reads this blog who will be highly offeneded at my comment, so I better make sure everyone knows that I was just kidding.
Ok, anonymous? I'm KIDDING!

By the way, I think Elizabeth pretty much hit the nail on the head as to why the first year can be hard for some people.

Elizabeth F. said...

Daniel,
You are so hilarious!! Anyone knowing you and reading that first comment was probably thinking, "Daniel, you suck so shut-up!" and then laughing.

But, thanks for all of the support regarding my comments Sara and Daniel. I feel so very wise right now. :-)

Anonymous said...

Daniel,

I am highly offended by your comment. Joking or not.

Signed, Anonymous.

Mrs. Sara said...

P.S. The first thing I'm going to teach my babies to do is to blow raspberries. That way, when someone tells me how to parent them, I can turn to them and say, "Nicholas, what do you think of that idea?" And Nicholas will very dutifully blow a raspberry, and the issue will be closed.

"Sorry, Mom. Nicholas doesn't like that idea."

Mrs. Sara said...

P.S. Is it weird that I'm going to have a son named Nicholas and a dog named Nicodemus? Too close?

Elizabeth F. said...

Wow, Sara...you already have a name picked out? What if he/she comes out and doesn't look like a Nicholas?

I do love the raspberry idea though. The other excuse that I've learned now is that you can blame everything on your doctor. (Even if it's untrue! OR you can blame it on Dr. Sear's cause he is a doctor and recommends alot of stuff that I agree with.) LOL! What grandparent is going to go against what the doctor has ordered/deemed to be the BEST for the baby?

Mrs. Sara said...

LOL, Elizabeth. We do have some names picked out, and Nicholas is our favorite boy name, but if he doesn't look like one, we'll pick a new name. :)

Jenny W said...

had a friend tell me the following theory, which i think is a good one: every single marriage goes through the puppy love phase, the "reality" phase, then hell, THEN intimacy. the reason so many marriages fail is because one or both partners give up during hell and never get to true intimacy. that makes sense to me; any couple who really has been through hell together are the ones who, even after a really long time, still seem so in love with each other. hopefully some day i'll have a chance to test it out:)

Daniel said...

Hey anonymous, joking or not...bite me!

Mrs. Sara said...

Hee hee, Daniel...

Anonymous said...

Elizabeth,

I'm going to post this here because I don't think my comments have been coming through on your blog. I looked on craigslist in your area and found these. It's a pretty descent starter set of golf clubs. I'm not sure what size the little dude would need, but anything is better than nothing. These are in the Releigh area for $10!!!

http://raleigh.craigslist.org/spo/300164897.html

Annette

Anonymous said...

ebay is really expensive, but here's a chance at a descent priced set too.

http://cgi.ebay.com/LINKSMAN-TEEN-Club-Set-Golf-Clubs-Bag-Junior-11-15-RH_W0QQitemZ150105372330QQcategoryZ115280QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

Annette

Elizabeth F. said...

Annette,
Thanks for the link! I emailed and asked what size they are. Hopefully we can get them. $10 would be AWESOME!

I don't know what's going on with my blog. I always post the comments that I get from you...I haven't "moderated" any of them. LOL! Just keep trying and I hope I get them!

E

Elizabeth F. said...

Sara,
Go see my blog and pics of the kids!!! :-)