Mrs. Schwind

How dramatically life can change.

Sometimes I can’t believe I’m actually married. I dreamed of this ever since I was a little girl and liked to play Mommy and Daddy with my cousins, and now it’s for real. We aren’t play pretending anymore. And, it’s amazing.

So, I was going to let the blog drop. I didn’t have time and didn’t want to keep up with it anymore. But, now that I’m living an hour away from the Lake, I’m spending much more time reading Judy, Rachel, Nathan, and Michelle’s blogs just so I can feel at least somewhat in touch with the family. Which brought me to the decision to get back into this online journal of everyday life because, I honestly want the family to be involved in my life. (Just because I’m on the other side of the river doesn’t mean I’ve fallen off the face of the earth!)

First I want to go back to the wedding day.

The morning of July 1, did not find Ryan and Steven looking very bright, but they forced some smiles anyway.

Anni, my amazing, wonderful beautiful sister spent hours on these boquets. They were perfect.

Last minute stiches.

OK, I love this picture. It’s so classic it should be in black and white. Ryan was teaching Steven how to tie a tie. Isn’t that just precious?

Weddings must bring out the craziness in all of us. Here Sarah S. just attacked Jessica out of nowhere and then they hugged!!! What? Yes, that’s right, they hugged!

This is right before leaving for the church and we all thought their shorts/boots combination was just so stylin’.

Getting ready in the Sewing room was so fun!

There are more pictures on Facebook, but these give the gist of it.

Also,  http://rsauder.photobiz.com/cart/event_select.cfm?eventID=1069162 Our wedding pictures!!!

These are the only pictures we took on our honeymoon. I already have a million pictures of Gulf Shores and I just didn’t feel like taking pictures. It was a great trip, though. The strangest thing was to be able to do whatever we wanted without worrying about a group.

Since then, I went with my family and Donna (my mother-in-law) to the Browns-oakridge zoo to hold the baby tiger, Sarge.

Other than that, life has been very quiet for me. Once we got back from the honeymoon I had to really buckle down with the books to study for my State Boards the next Tuesday. That week I studied every day for about 5 hours. It was really stressful and long quiet hours home alone didn’t help. (At that point it didn’t even feel like home yet even) The worst part was dealing with the government with my name change. In order to take the test you have to have two forms of ID. They were picky on what these could be. Drivers license, passport, credit card, social security card, student ID, and voters registration card. Since my name changed, I didn’t have any of these and I had one week to get them. Have you ever tried to get the government to move quickly. It doesn’t happen. Which left me the day before the test balling and scrambling to get something that would work. Four phonecalls to the testing center assured me that a voter’s registration card would work. So, we ran to the Eureka Courthouse and got one.

The day of the state boards. I’m as nervous as I’ve ever been as I hand the lady my two forms of ID. “I can’t accept this” she says as she hands back the voter registration card. I don’t think she realized the utter cruelty in those words. I explained the situation and she did end up letting me take the test, so all’s well that ends well I guess.

And, in case you’re holding your breath, I passed! I am officially a Licensed Physical Therapist’s Assistant!

I feel so grown up. A college graduate. Married. Living in my own home. It’s all so wonderful. And not so wonderful at the same time.

I’m going to share an honest account of what this past month has been like. I don’t mean to complain or give the impression that I’m unhappy. Past all the superficial stuff I’m am overjoyed at my current life situation. But, here’s the thing. Work doesn’t start until August 13th. So, every morning I kiss Brian goodbye and then I’m alone in this quiet little apartment for hours. It’s just not something I’m used to. Back at home, there was always somebody, my brothers, Anni, Mom and Dad, the pets…but here, it’s just me. And that’s been a really hard adjustment. I’ve been able to get out with other people sometimes, but I just can’t seem to schedule in enough things to do. No matter what there are still empty hours.

Well, this doesn’t do much good for our relationship. Poor Brian comes home everyday from his landscaping job hot and exhausted and I’m all full of energy and dying for his attention. Being the oldest, I think I developed some bad habits of teasing growing up, because I’m having teasing withdrawls. That added to my incredible need for attention is not good for a tired working man. His patience has been amazing, but even the kindest of people can’t put up with that much. I’m learning though.

It’s also interesting the way the dynamics of your relationship changes between going from being engaged to married. When we were engaged, whenever we got together there was no question that he wanted to be with me. We drove enough hours to prove it. But, now, living together, there are some times when one of both of us just wants to be left alone. Deciphering when that is is rather difficult.

And, the absolute hardest thing about getting married and moving away is being away from my family. I’ve cried more in this past month due to missing them than I’ve ever cried for one thing in my life. I love my family. They are amazing and we all had (have) such a close and loving bond. I know they are still alive and I am still alive and we can communicate easily enough, but it’s not the same as living with them and being involved in their everyday life, events, struggles, joys, etc. And, I love Brian, I love being married; I wouldn’t trade any of it for the world, but I also miss my family incredibly much.

On the other, more joyful hand, I absolutely adore Roanoke! It’s Mayberry here, I just know it. Literally, everyone waves at you as your driving or walking. Every other house is some friend or relative of the Schwind’s and if you bump into someone you don’t know, it won’t be a long conversation to find a relation. There are no “bad areas of town”. Our neighbors are all over the age of 80 I believe, which makes our neighborhood a very quiet one. We are also just down the street from the nursing home. The church is amazing. I’ve felt very welcome here and not a bit awkward, though it is a struggle to learn names.

So, its all good. One good thing about all this empty time is having the time to spend on things I wouldn’t normally do, like learning to play the piano. Brian is teaching me. And, I’ve been able to spend a lot more time with God. Learning more about Him and developing a closer relationship with Him has been awesome and has certainly made this crazy time of changes much easier.

That’s all for now. I’m going to clean our little house (it won’t take long) and then post some pictures of it, so stay tuned.