Changes..

Well, with Gavin's birthday coming up, I was thinking earlier today about how fast everything has changed.

It seems like just yesterday that we got married. In reality, it was over 4 years ago, and so so much has happened since we got married, but it still seems so recent. When I really think about it, I see exactly how much change can happen in the span of 4 years. We've lived in 6 houses, 3 states, and completed moves from AZ to SC to WA to VA. We're good with change. We do it often. It's when I look back though and think about all the changes to our family, from moving to adding a dog, and eventually Gavin, that I realize exactly how long we have been married, and how lucky we are to have eachother and a detication to our marriage and keeping our family whole. With all the changes that have happened to us individually (since we have spent a lot of time apart) and us as a family, it is amazing that we have came out no worse for the wear.

I've never really sat down and and wrote out everything I've though about our marriage and our kind of odd circumstances that most people are lucky enough to be able to avoid in their lifetime, but I want to share. You dont have to read it, so if you don't want to, scan for pictures and move on. But, if you feel like listening to a really long winded ramble from me (becuase my child is taking an AWESOME nap this afternoon!) then feel free.

Six months after getting married, we moved from South Carolina to Seattle. (ish) That in itself was a shock for me to deal with. I was just figuring out how to get to target without getting lost and we were off again. It was stressful, but we made the best of it. Two weeks after we got to WA, Nick deployed for 6 months. Again, shock. Now at this point in my life, I had been married for 6 months, and had lived on my own for approximatly 0. Now, here I was in a place that I didnt know anything about (and was living in a pretty crummy area to tell you the truth) and my husband was gone. Adios. I took a two week vacation and visited my parents in AZ, then it was back to reality. Reality meaning alone. So, the 6 months passed (slowly), and nick came home (yay!) and life got back to "normal". A month later, he left again, this time only for a month. Agian, time passed (still slowly), and Nick came back (yay!) We repeated the home for a month, gone for a month cycle for about 5 months, then, guess what, deployment! (yay.. ok, no not really..) So, again, 6 months gone. Then, he came home (do I have to say it?) and they went into the shipyards. What this means is he worked 3 hours away from home, and got 6 hours a week (basically) off work. It was a great time. Nothing like being "home", but not seeing your own bed.

So, that's a taste of what his schedule was. On the left here is a picture of the the lovely seagoing vessel itself. To nick, this was "home sweet home" for 28 of the 36 months that we lived in WA. During the time that he was there, so much happened. Think about your everyday life. How much do you talk to the person you live with? Now imagine your every day little conversations from things like finances to when should we have kids, to even more major life happenings. Now, think about having to have all of those little conversations through email. (only you dont get half of the emails from the other person.) It is a fantastic way for people to build a marraige and life together. Believe me. While deployed, this is life. I got usually one email a week from him, and one phone call every 2-3 weeks. So for me, obviosuly it sucked, but at the same time, it was a GREAT way to build our relationship. How you might as? (actually you probably didnt..but you're going to hear anyway.) I knew that nick trusted me. I dealt with all kinds of random things that most (normal) people would discuss with their spouses, without the help or input from mine. Thats not to say he didnt want to give input in how our life was ran, it was that he couldn't, and the fact that he trusted me, and still does trust me to take care of everything means a lot to me. His faith in my judgement is astounding to me, I honesatly would have such a hard time with that kind of faith and trust in another person that it means a lot to me that Nick has handed over household responsibilities to me and never questions me. (Except for the occasional when did you get those shoes and how much were they?)

We have in four years managed to have one holiday together EVERY year. That is an accomplishment. The holiday you might ask? 4th of July, that's right, every Independance day since we got married, we've been together. The picture of the boat you're looking at was taken at Pearl Harbor Hawaii, on July 2. Nick was in port, and I was GOING to be there. So, we also got Independance Day of 2006 together by default. He was in the middle of a deployment, but the ship ported in HI. So, it is truly meant to be that the 4th is our holiday.

While living in WA, I had one thing that I've never really had such wonderful examples of. My friends. I had the best friends I could have asked for, and my job provided me a great escape from boredom. I loved my job, and loved the people that I worked with and miss them dearly. (although I will still never know why I was hired.. I walked in off the street and said I have no experience, hire me. I like diamonds.. and they did!) My job and friends were truly my lifeline through a very very long time

The point of this whole thing? I don't really know, I just wanted to ramble on I suppose. But I guess in thinking back over the last little bit of typing here this afternoon, I guess I would sum it up with Change. It happens, like it or not, it will happen. When I think back, all the changes we have dealt with, even though they seemed terrible at the time, have really made us so much stronger, and our marriage better because of it. Sometimes (ok fairly frequently) I get on the "why us?" kick (the why does it have to be our turn for ANOTHER deployment or ANOTHER round of shift work.. ) but in the end, when I look back, we are 24, have been married for 4 years, have a completly amazing child, and own our own home. It couldnt have been all that bad, right? Nick and I are very blessed. We love eachother and have all the support we could ask for from family and friends, what more could we need?

Well, enough of my rambling, I'm sure it didnt make too much sense, but hey, its a blog, it doesn't need to right? I hear a little voice coming from a back bedroom calling out "mama didi" which roughly translated means "mom, I'm up from my nap and need a diaper change" So I'm off for the rest of the afternoon to have fun with my baby bean. (and I had to throw in one more cute little picture of him playing the other day.

How can you not smile when you see that?!