The Past in a Nutshell

So, you may be wondering what could possibly entice us from leaving the beauty of New England to live amongst the prairie of the Midwest… Shall we return to the beginning of our marriage? I’ve heard it is September 2nd, 2007 (a date I forget regularly for reasons unrelated to the fact that it was one of the best and biggest decisions of my life, so don’t be worried).

Brad and I moved into my apartment in Derry, NH following our fabulous honeymoon at Avalon Acres in Durango, Colorado. We made friends with several squirrels and cats that meandered past our generous outdoor food supply. Needless to say, we did not make friends with any of our neighbors as many of them refused to make eye contact. Only a few months later, we decorated for Christmas with a ten dollar clearance tree and partially working lights I managed to pick up for free at a yard sale. We began our marital journey simply and lightly.

For a first year of marriage, life ran rather smoothly. We awoke each morning for work, took advantage of the local library, frequented the Saturday matinee at our local theater, began attending Rockingham Christian Church in Salem, joined a wonderful small group on Mondays, spent many evenings going on “Hannaford dates” at the nearby grocery store, and nearly wet our pants with excitement when we discovered TWO Red Box locations within five minutes of our home (making a total of three boxes between my place of employment and home).

Then we got bored.

That isn’t unusual for the two of us. It began with dreaming of absurd relocations to the Northwest or putting all of our possessions in storage and cancelling our cell phones to go on several six month adventures throughout the country. Unfortunately, in the midst of our idealism we are realists to a fault. We would love to play, but we wanted to be wise.

Brad began taking online classes through Southern New Hampshire University. He had enough to increase his appetite for more, but realized that the amount would not be satisfactory in his current situation. I was on the fence with my job, knowing it was not a career I wanted, the only attachment being with people (who I miss very much!). We decided that Brad’s pursuit of finishing college was the direction we desired.

Within six weeks, he had been accepted to Lincoln Christian College, we put in our notices at work, and were packing up and heading to the Land of Lincoln! Ripping life-as-I-had-come-to-know-it like a band aid actually helped with the transition.

Brad will be studying under Michael Gowin (also our wedding photographer), and many other brilliant faculty, in the Business program. Classes begin January 15th. He has been employed part time with Fastenal, which is conveniently flexible and located only five minutes from home.

I am a professional job hunter. For the first two months I had filled my time as a temporary assistant for my friend’s grandmother (she is amazing!) and now am contracting for a month at a business conveniently located three minutes from home.

We have begun attending Lincoln Christian Church and will hopefully begin a small group after the holidays. We have been blessed by friends of my past. They have truly taken us under wing. Many of our weekends have been dedicated to traveling around the state (including Indiana) to see family and friends who have been too distant for the past five years.

So here we are at Christmas, one year later. We have a more interesting decorated tree in our two bedroom student apartment. There will be countless hours spent with family in the next couple of weeks. It is frigid.

And our life is peaceful.