To work, or not to work...that is the question.

So, I got this cute blog invite from one of my good friends the other day on the latest and greatest news of her fantastic family...and I thought to myself, "WOW...that is such a good idea...". I know we have several family and friends across the states that we don't get to see very often, so this is the perfect way to keep them informed of what we have going on in our newly married lives :) And today seemed like the perfect day for me to start it, since I have ABSOLUTELY NOTHING on my desk to do. That's right...I'm caught up on ALL of my work, for once in my life. So here I am...blogging...for you...in this 5 foot high cubicle enclosure of mine. And life couldn't be better...writing is my get-away in life...

Ryan and I are going on 2 months now of this thing they call "marriage". 2 MONTHS! Man, how time flies when you are having fun. We're finally getting adjusted to our daily routines, and dealing with the opposite sex :) (Please note, this is the first "real" relationship for BOTH of us, so neither of us have had to know the in's and out's of the opposite sex, and why they do WHAT they do :) Ryan's learning the "emotional" side of women, and why women need their own "girl time" sometimes with other women, and I'm learning about men and their need to want to fix everything! You never realize just HOW MUCH work marriage takes, until you are IN the situation, despite hearing this saying over and over in life! We're learning that communication is absolutely essential, trying not to read into things too much is important to keep from getting hurt feelings (especially during this beginning part where we are both super sensitive :), and learning each others personalities/jokes/sarcasm is something that has to be tread through...some adjustments might have to be made in our own personalities to keep from hurting the other. But I think we're finally coming to the emotional end of the first part of our marriage, and learning to understand each other more and more everyday. Ryan is THE BEST guy to talk things out with, and the MOST WILLING to fix things that need fixing...he really genuinly tries to understand the things I tell him, and tries to understand the things that I tell him I need as a woman, even if he doesn't understand why. I love that the most about him. He helps with everything, 50-50, in the house....cooking, cleaning, food shopping. He STILL opens my car door for me...my favorite guilty pleasure as a woman. I love it when he does that. He even tries to help me find video games for me to play on the XBOX :) That's a good man.

We're trying to get our daily routine figured out now...Ryan just started school on Tuesday. He's going for his Bachelors in Marketing at the University of Phoenix. He eventually hopes to get a Masters/Doctorate in Economics (probably from ASU, but that's not set in stone) and possibly become a Business Economist...he's really found his passion for it with the recent political campaigns going on (the campaigns have been a hot topic in our home for about a month now :) Ryan is definitely a DEVOTED student. That is one thing I know he got from his mother :) He is constantly checking up on the website (he is doing online schooling) to see if there are any new assignments or postings. The class seems to be going TOO SLOW for him. He excels at schooling, so he needs the challenge of a challenging class! He currently also works at the University of Phoenix, and on top of his good pay, he gets free schooling as well. We feel blessed with the opportunity for him to continue his education while making a good living for our family. This seems to be the ideal situation for us right now (as I also get an 80% discount on tuition from his work, so I'm going to start working on a degree in Psychology sometime soon). We all know I LOVE Arizona (born and raised!) and we hope to hang out here for as long as we can until a job or schooling eventually pulls us away. But until then, we are just enjoying ourselves in our apartment in Tempe. I'm lucky enough to work approximately 1.5 miles from my work...it takes me about 5 minutes MAX to get to or from work each day. I'm spoiled...and I love it :) Ryan's drive is A LOT better too...before we got married, it would take him about 1 hour to get to work everyday! Now, it just takes 15 minutes. We are both so close to home, that we have the great luxury of going home and having lunch with each other everyday...something most couples don't get to do! We like to eat and watch "Blind Date" on t.v....another guilty pleasure of ours ;) I'm just working at my current job as a Loan Processor for Wells Fargo (they bought out my previous employer "The CIT Group" last July, so I now work for the bank!). I'll keep this stint up for as long as our family needs the money (we're sitting quite comfortably as of now, and have almost no debt...so it's a good time for us to furnish our home and get everything paid off so we are set up both financially and with material necessities for our home before I ever quit), and until a little one happens to come along...but we aren't planning on starting the process for any additions for about a year :) We're trying to get Ryan a little further in both school and work before then...but we'll both admit that seeing all the babies at our family ward each Sunday, and seeing our friend's twin babies, we get the bug to have a cute kid of our own all the time :) It gets hard, sometimes, to resist the temptation, but we both think, in the end, it would be better for us to wait just a little longer. We'll see what the future holds :) We would make some pretty FINE looking babies...HA!

Until next time...XOXO

Pam