Pretty Much the Best

I have the best husband in the world.

Now, I know that there are many of you out there that would argue with me. However, I would disagree with you. Justin Good is the best husband I know. And he's MY husband!

Seriously, I never thought marriage would be this good. I hurt my back at work on Wednesday. Normally, in the pre-Justin-years that would mean hours on the couch, cereal for breakfast, lunch and dinner and painful trips back and forth to the freezer for my ice packs. Oh, I forgot. Painful runs in my car to Walgreens for pain meds. This time around, I am appreciating having a husband while I am sick.

Listening to me cry on the phone while he's at work cause a doctor made me mad.
Offering to take me to the ER if I really didn't feel good.
Stopping and getting me stuff at the store on the way home.
Taking care of all the housework once he got home.
Sitting on the couch with me for hours hugging me.
Lets not forget the really bad chick flic he agreed to watch.
Timing my minutes on and off the ice pack.

Seriously. I just look at him sometimes and can't believe he wanted to marry me. I am the most blessed girl in the world. I love our house, I love our relationship, I love working out all the small details, I love laughing with him, crying with him, kissing him. Sigh. Yeah, life is really good.

There are always the bumps in the road.
But now I get to figure them out with him.

I miss my Bethy.

Mental Note.

Kidnap Bethany.

As soon as possible.

Too Many Cookies....

Many people joke about gaining weight when you get married.

Let me tell you.
It's true.

HOWEVER, I will attest that it is not because we were just recently married. I attribute it to the fact that we like each. A lot. In fact, we like each other so much that when we were dating we spent all our free time together. All of it. Including the shopping-for-healthy-foods-time, the going-to-the-gym-and-working-out-time and the making-your-food-and-eating-at-home-time. You know all those important things that we (pretended) to do before. It started then. A year ago.

Um. Yeah.

Poor eating habits and no exercise is not our problem. We're just in love and enamored with each other rather than paying attention to what we eat and when the last time we moved off the couch was.

Right?
Yeah, that's what I thought, too.

So, Justin and I have decided that a little weight control is in order here. We're both at the heaviest we've been in years. So, we've started to try and address this issue. Here are a few things that we'll be trying to help us get "back to normal."

1. Advance Menu Planning!
Planning out all our dinners 1-2 weeks in a row. This way there is no question about what we're having and I ONLY go to the store to buy what we need. No extra high calorie ingredients in this cart. Saves on the grocery bill, too!

2. Stop when you're full!
Self explanatory. It is not necessary to feel full all the time. Truly. It's ok to feel a little empty at times.

3. Drink WATER!
Everytime you are hungry, drink water. You're probably only thirsty. Little Weight Watchers secret there I learned along the way. Keep water everywhere.

So, wish us luck and more exercise. We'll keep you posted.

We bought a new camera!

So, Justin and I have both always wanted a decent SLR camera. We've been doing some research and snooping around a bit at sales and we finally found JUST the camera we wanted for a good price.

So we bought it!
And we love it!

So, of course, we've been taking pictures like crazy, figuring out all the settings and generally just messing around. We both LOVE to take pictures.

(And if any of you technical people are wondering what-in-the-world we bought, we bought a EOS Rebel T1i EF-S. It's pretty.)

Needless to say, I couldn't help but post my pictures and share them all with you! SO, if you would all head over to my blog, you can look at my most recent pictures in the slide show on the right hand side of my blog. If you'd like to look at them in a larger format, just click on the slide show.

Also, if you'd like to look at any of my previous work or my work in it's entirety, you can take a peek at my Picasa portfolio here.

Married Life

I can't think of a cute way to start this post out, so I'll just say it.

Justin and I are different. In many ways.

Yes, it's almost been two months and we've discovered in many ways that we are different. In some things it's laughable and cute, in other things we can't understand why-on-earth the other would do it that way! The thing that has really been eye-opening for me is the subject of cleaning and organizing.

I thought I was a clean person. I picked up, swept the floor (when it was visably dirty), vacuumed the carpet (when I couldn't remember the last time I did it), organized the closets (when things began falling out and I was bored) and generally kept dirty things away from clean things (like laundry). However, it has become clear to me since marrying Justin that I am a different type of clean person than him. Really, that's just a nice way of saying that overall, he's cleaner than me! Let me show you.

Justin washes the dishes before dinner, while making dinner and after dinner.
Kristen washes the dishes right before they get moldy.

Justin rinses dishes he puts in the sink for easy cleaning later.
Kristen lets the dishes dry out in the sink so they won't grow mold as fast.

Kristen buys groceries and puts them in the fridge, reorganizing so they all fit.
Justin reoganizes the fridge after each grocery run so that everything is easily accesible.

Kristen buys food and leaves it in the cardboard containers they came in.
Justin buys food and immediately takes everything out of the cardboard containers.

Kristen takes out garbage when it starts to smell.
Justin takes it out when it's full.

Justin does a load of laundry 1-2 times per week so it never builds up.
Kristen does all her laundry ONCE a month in a laundry blitz.

Justin scrubs the top of the stove when it's dirty.
Kristen scrubs it when it starts to gross her out.

Kristen works on organizing projects when she feels like it.
Justin works on organizing projects a bit at a time all the time.

Kristen organizes by placing things in piles.
Justin organizing by finding things a home and putting them there.

Whew! So yes, we are different. We're both learning to adjust and give grace and help when necessary. We have not fought over these things, but there have been tears on my part. It's not Justin's fault, I just know I should be cleaner and I feel guilty when Justin ends up doing all the cleaning.

I am adjusting. Really, I just had to look around for my big-girls-pants, pull them on and get to work. This week (since the tears) I'm trying the clean a bit every day thing. It's going well. Justin has noticed and thanked me and it hasn't been too bad. The house is cleaner. Well, it doesn't look destroyed somedays and spotless other days. We're finding a happy medium.

Overall, marriage is great, even when it means changing and adjusting.

I'm just thankful that he chose me. (I still look at him and just wonder that God gave him to me. I am a blessed woman!)