The Honeymoon Days

February 16, 2008: This was the official day that started the rest of our lives together, for better or worse. After catching up with our Caribbean cruise 3 days late because of one of Wisconsin's famous snow storms...we came home to reality. We had our gift opening, saw all the wonderful things we got from the wedding, and went back to work. We didn't quite have the normal newlywed start, however. We came back home to the house my husband bought with a friend from school after they graduated...they owned it 50/50, so we started our married life out with a 25 year old bouncing baby boy, you could say. We had decided prior to the wedding that we were going to stay in the house we all lived in before the wedding for the next year or so. Our options were that we could live married with a roommate for the first year, or hold off the wedding. Seeing how my mother was a mom-zilla of the wedding planning world, a wedding planned in 3 months was the way to go! And we decided we would have a roommate into the newlywed part of our marriage. It has had its perks, don't get me wrong. The biggest one being that we half own the house, so it is an investment (that's what I keep reminding myself). We also save money splitting things between the 3 of us, and with this economy I guess it wasn't the worst. Yep, those are the perks. The downside is living with a 25 year old man during the honeymoon phase of our life together. There have been the grudges over who isn't cooking, who doesn't go grocery shopping, who doesn't clean around the house, who doesn't shovel when it snows (oh, the snow!!), who doesn't get the dishes done, etc. Truthfully, those are mostly my grudges...it's one thing to clean up after my husband, but to clean up after our 25 year old roommate...that gets on the nerves a little bit. The first year of our marriage was great, minus this minor setback. The highlights of our first year together were spending time together, which included going to Paris together (gotta love a hubby that travels for work--I get to tag along). We also decided to work hard and save up to pay off bills and debt. We have become the grown up adults planning the start of journey. Let's see...how does that order in life go? Find someone to spend the rest of your life with (check), plan a wedding (check), move into a home (in the process), get an animal aka "fur baby" (check-have a midget hamster), start a family.... The honeymoon days are over--onward and upward! ........................P.S. That IS a cast you see on my husband's wrist in our wedding picture. Another one of our humorous stories!

~Story of Us~

This is the Story of Us:

My husband, Corey, and I have known each other for a couple years. Oddly, we went to the same college, but did not meet until after he graduated. We actually met for the first time in a bar, I know what you are thinking- romantic! It gets even better...after we met he "stalked" me. Well not quite "stalk", but he constantly was IM'ing me on the computer, and when I finally gave him my phone number, he was very insistant we had to get together. He basically kept begging me to see him for lunches or dinner. Eventually, I broke down and decided to meet up with him after I realised he knew one of my girl friends in nursing school. I still thought he was kinda creepy inside. But my friend had told me he was "a nice guy", so I gave him a chance...the best chance I ever took!

Corey is 25, and I am 26 (only 8 months older)...and yes, he graduated first because I decided I wanted to switch majors and was in no hurry to graduate. So, I went to school for 6 years and finally graduated with a BS in Nursing after attending 2 different colleges. Corey is an engineer, he is my brilliant geek and I love that about him. We dated for less than a year before I asked him to marry me. It was very romantic, actually. I had decided that since Corey had helped me through a rough time in my life, I wanted to show him how he helped me gain back confidence in myself.

Rewind to years before "life with Corey": In a nutshell, I was in a dysfunctional relationship for many years and lost myself in it in more ways than one.

Fast forward------ What better way to tell someone you love them than to ask them to marry you? Even more meaningful, Corey gave me back so much confidence in myself that I decided I wanted to ask HIM to marry ME. With the help of his amazing brothers, we went back home (up north) one weekend and they set up my engagement scene with a few instructions. I had a picture blanket made up with the border saying, I will love you forever, Will you marry me? His brothers really shocked me because they even added a rose petal path, and a huge arrangement of candles surrounding the area, almost like a shrine. Very impressive for a bunch of boys! I had just planned for a fire by the beach, the photo blanket of us, and a bottle of champagne. It definitely was quite the site! After Corey kept repeating, "what did you do?" a million times and "this is suppose to be my job"...he said YES! After I explained that he gave me the confidence to do this, he thought it topped as one of the coolest engagement stories. After sipping on champagne and heading back to his parents house where the family was eagerly awaiting...our night ended up in the pitch dark. Now don't let your minds wander too much...it was the result of a storm that passed through (had to have been a tornado), which resulted in a power outage and many many MANY broken trees in his parents front yard. And this led to poison ivy on my legs 2 days later as a result of walking through the debris (I was not a country wilderness girl-this proves it!). As some people may see this as a bad sign... I see it as this--The story of us: romantic and funny... that perfectly explains our life together.