The good news train wasn't quite finished

When I embarked on this thing called marriage, I had no clue what I was doing.  I mean, I had this fantasy in my head about rainbows and puppies and happily ever after, but I really didn't see the big difference between boyfriend/girlfriend, living together, or marriage.  It all seemed kind of the same at the time--loving someone is all about loving someone right?

But in my 4 short years of marriage, I've learned that there is a lot more to this partnership.  Especially when you ultimately want both parties to be happy, healthy, and prosperous.  The ebb and flow of each partner's contributions seems to be cyclical.  Sometimes we are lucky enough that they sync on the high spot for awhile, but most of the time it just moves up and down.  Gosh, I can only be in awe of the couples that have 20, 30, 50+ years under their belts!

Now that I've waxed poetic, I can happily announce that my better half is starting a new job with a better salary, better benefits, and a better commute in two weeks!  With both of us starting new gigs this fall, we'll increase our salaries by 30% and go from 108 miles of commuting to 50 miles.  Woot!

It's funny how much more excited I am about Adam's new job than I was about my own.  Maybe because it was sad that I was leaving a huge chunk of life behind? Or perhaps I feared the change? But I'd like to think that it is because I am genuinely thrilled for him. 

These first few years of marriage have definitely had a lot of really fantastic moments.  Great vacations, creating new traditions, adopting (another) dog, etc.  But there has a been a lot of tough stuff too.  Adam's diagnosis with MS and job losses have been some pretty big sources of stress.  That whole "if it doesn't kill you, it'll make you stronger" mantra really kind of makes sense when you've dealt with some tough stuff. It makes the good times that much sweeter though--perhaps why I feel so over the moon about all the happy stuff.

On Thursday night, after Adam found out the great news, I kind of couldn't stop pinching myself.  It was a lovely night to have tickets to a Braves game. I bought a couple of splits of prosecco to toast in the parking lot with--we were highbrow tailgating! We upgraded our seats through the magic of technology, 25 rows behind Chipper Jones.  The weather was absolutely gorgeous.  The cutest family with the best behaved kids sat in front of us.  The beer stand had pumpkin beer (score!).  Adam won a free shirt and his name was on the scoreboard (I was too slow with my camera to take a pic, oops). The Braves won.  I mean, I can't make this stuff up!  

Cheers to the love of my life!