21 Days Later ... The Highlights

It's hard to believe that Dennis and I have only been married for three weeks . . . so much has happened in the last 21 days.

It's been fun and a half -- as you might expect, knowing me, a pretty crazy half.

One week after our honeymoon, we packed a truly incredible volume of STUFF into Dennis's compact Saturn, and drove 11 hours to Des Moines, Iowa. We scribbled vague signatures on what seemed like two hundred different forms, agreements, contracts, and disclosures, and finally shambled up two flights of stairs to our first home together. That first night we noticed, dimly, the lack of promised refrigerator included with apartment. Dimly.


And more-or-less exactly two seconds after the rental office closed for the evening.

Dinner at Applebee's and a brief infestation of Wal-Mart in search of canned goods.

The next day I discovered two things:
I had not included a can opener in the "essential things" list (Fortunately, my Eagle Scout husband was prepared with his all-purpose pocketknife. Seriously, Boy Scouts, I can understand the screwdriver, knife, and can opener applications . . . but a corkscrew?), and
Said promised refrigerator was swiftly delivered to our door :)

We had a lovely, cozy first few days together, before my parents arrived with a trailer, furniture, kitchen supplies (including my can opener!) and best of all, fresh eggs and vegetables from the garden. Thanks, Mom and Dad!

In the week and a half since then, I have managed to:
- Use more Clorox in two days than in the rest of my life previously
- Get lost WHILE navigating by GPS . . . TWICE
- Miss one job interview due to said lost-ness, break down into honest-to-goodness hysterics, and communicate--explosively--with my patient and gracious new husband :)
- Procure a library card and check out seven books
- Marveled at the fact that there are 2 Wal-Marts, 2 Targets, 3 Hy-Vees (kind of like an Uber-Walgreens), and 1 Aldi within a 15-minute drive
- Get four meals out of one chicken
- Reschedule and successfully complete missed interview (perhaps leading to temporary placement?)
- Discovered husband's fondness for homemade cornbread!
- Attend women's fellowship hosted by local PCA
- Contemplated (briefly) spending $7.99 a stem on faux cherry blossoms at World Market. Settled on $2.49 something-else from Wal-Mart.
- Confronted my own desperate need of grace at least four times daily
- Complete the last batch of wedding thank-you notes (check your mailboxes, my friends!)
- With help from the dear husband, cleaned a pigeon nest out of the apartment AC unit. (Contemplated bathing in the last of the Clorox, but settled for an hour-long shower. Am itching in anticipation of avian parasites.)
- Also with DH, finished I Samuel and began II Samuel
- Did NOT buy Starbucks every--or even any--day
- Enjoyed waffles home-made by my DH from a German recipe
- Washed approximately fourteen thousand loads of dishes
- Read the first one-and-a-half of the shelf full (two deep) of Dennis's Star Wars novels

I only hope the next three weeks are as full of fun and forgiveness.