On Our Way To Crazy

So. Five years of marriage. Wow.

If I had known life would be so good at five years, I would have gotten married sooner.

At dinner last night, over the best steak I’ve ever had in my entire life, we talked a bit about where we’ve been and where we think we’re headed. It’s been a good trip so far.

Our first year was characterized by an awful downtown apartment, full of bugs and water stains and raccoons in the walls and loud neighbors. We had to carry our laundry down three flights of stairs and down a long sidewalk, only to be greeted by a laundry room full of smokers and dirty magazines. We smelled like cigarettes for a year. We got our first ‘real’ jobs that year, going from a valet parker and a temp to a label sales guy and a nonprofit PR person. That label sales job was the start of something big, that nonprofit PR girl was in way over her head. We had one car, a 98 Chevy Blazer that only worked about half the time and had pieces falling off of it left and right.

Around the time year two rolled around, we bought our first house. A new construction townhouse in a neighborhood they swore was going to be amazing in just a couple of years. There would be a grocery store, a drugstore, a movie place, all within walking distance. We sold that house last week still waiting for those stores. In year two we really started feeling at home in Nashville - we had friends, we were getting involved at church, we knew our way around. I thought a lot less about moving back to Texas in year two.

Year three was the year of the party. I think we had a party for every single holiday that year. I had a house and a postage-stamp sized yard and I was using it! Several things happened that year in Aaron’s career - he moved into the new media department and met both the guy who would later become his boss and the band he would later manage. I left the nonprofit world in year three and joined the world of Reba with no idea what I was getting into. My title changed from Director to Assistant and I could not have been happier about it. Year three was a big one for us in youth work as well… we had a solid group of junior high kids that year, we went to camp for the first time since we got engaged, we started running bible studies and events.

Year four was a steady year for us, the first of our marriage where not much changed. We had the same jobs, lived in the same house, drove the same cars. We also left our church that year with the intention of helping start a new church in a different part of town. That… did not go well for us, for a lot of reasons. It was a really trying time - we didn’t really have the church family we needed and there were no youth. It was a tough call, but we left that plant and started going to GracePointe. I think it was one of the best decisions we’ve made.

Year five was a big one. Aaron left the job he’d had for almost five years to go to a smaller, mostly independent label. The first several months of that job were trying, but things are really moving along now. I left Reba and started at the church, marking my fourth job in five years and the end of my weekly ‘what am I doing with my life?’ crisis. We sold the townhouse and bought a real house in a neighborhood we have loved since we moved to town. We both feel really settled… like the stuff we’ve been working toward all this time is finally starting to come together.

We’ve done a lot of growing up in the past five years. I don’t know what my life would have been like if Aaron hadn’t come along… I would never have moved to Nashville and I’m pretty sure I would be a lot more boring. Looking back, we can both see how the other one has affected the way we think, expanded our outlook on life, brought out sides of our personalities we didn’t know were there before.

I’ve never been one to believe in soulmates or the idea that there’s only one person out there for everyone. But I can’t imagine a better partner for me than Aaron. I am beyond grateful to have met him, to have married him, and to have been allowed to share these past five years with him. We’re a good team. I can’t wait to see what happens next.

Five years ago today…

(That dip was my favorite part of our whole wedding.)

This is my friend Becka.

Two years ago for my birthday, Becka gave me a set of Harry Potter books 1-5 in paperback.

I read them very, very fast. Then I made my sister overnight me her copy of book six so I could be caught up.

Then I waited two years. I know this is nothing compared to people who have been reading them since the beginning, but still. Two years is a long time. I reread the first four in time for the Goblet of Fire movie, then reread the last two just to finish out the story.

Then the Order of the Phoenix movie came out. I reread the first five in preparation for the movie, and Becka and I went to see it at midnight when it came out.

We waited and waited, amusing ourselves with Becka’s assorted Harry Potter merchandise.

We even hung out with the closest thing to the real Harry Potter we could find. He had a broom.

Then, just two weeks later, we got to go to the midnight release party of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. It was the last time we wouldn’t know how it ended! This was something not to be missed. I may have even bailed on a church campout to be there. Maybe.

We met all kinds of characters.

Quidditch players…

A somewhat shady Dumbledore, who had freakishly long toenails and a crystal ball…

Professors Umbridge and Sprout were there with a former headmaster…

And a very realistic Harry Potter himself, who was hopefully casting a shield charm to protect him from Becka, ifyouknowhatimean.

Then it was time to get in line. A friend of a friend had staked out position early, and we were right up front. Look how close we were!

My receipt seriously says 12:01. I just checked it for you.

It has all been so much fun. My friend Becka is super awesome for introducing me to these books. Also she is just kind awesome all the time.

I just bought this tshirt for Aaron for our anniversary. I can’t wait.

(Don’t worry, he reads this site like twice a year. It’s worth the risk to share the joy with you all.)

THE SCENE. Saturday afternoon, Centrifuge camp. Three vans are loaded with kids and ready to drive back to Nashville.

THE PLAYERS. Aaron, driver of the lead van full of junior high kids, and Brandi, driver of the last van and keeper of the medicine bag

Aaron gets out of his van and approaches Brandi’s window.

AARON: I have a problem and you have to fix it.

BRANDI: … ok.

AARON: My van stinks like body odor and I am not breathing that in for six hours.

BRANDI: What am I supposed to do about it?

AARON: I don’t know but I am not driving away until it’s fixed.

Aaron walks back to his van. Brandi considers her options. Remembers a small stick of deodorant in the medicine bag. Grabs it and walks to lead van. Opens door.

BRANDI: Raise your hand if you put deodorant on this morning.

(Every kid in the van raises their hand.)

BRANDI: OK. I don’t want to call anybody out, but somebody’s lying. It stinks in this van, y’all. You know it, I know it, Aaron knows it, and we’re not going anywhere till it’s fixed. So…

(Brandi pulls out the deodorant. Kids groan.)

BRANDI: I know this is gross. But this is a brand new stick of deodorant, and I need everyone in this van to use it right now. Just pass it back till everyone’s had it. OK?

(Kids respond with varying degrees of protest, but they do it. The van smells very deodorant-y.)

BRANDI: Thanks y’all. Have a pleasant, stink-free ride home.

Hi! We survived camp.

Good things that happened last week:
-we all got there in one piece AND made it back with no serious injuries
-I drove a giant van twelve hours and NO ONE DIED
-we tasted cheerwine
-our kids went from uncertain cynicals who wanted to go home on the first night to Fuge cup winners and future staffers on the last
-the food was mostly good
-we had only one big fight in the dorms and lots of relationship mending
-we all lost ten pounds from climbing rec hill every day
-junior high girls who had never spoken a word to anyone wouldn’t shut up by the end of the week
-our group singlehandedly started a camp-wide dance party
-kids who I thought would never open up were telling their stories to the whole group
-we learned that moles have hands like people, only smaller
-our random group of 30 kids went to camp strangers and came home friends

It was just what we needed. There wasn’t a ton of crying (though there was definitely some), there weren’t many big decisions or life-changing declarations. We just spent a good week together, playing games and being silly and getting to know each other. I won’t say walls were totally broken down, but they are definitely starting to crumble. I saw kids sitting and laughing together who wouldn’t have made eye contact before. We began, as Pastor Gary said all week, to do life together.

There are a million stories I could post here, most of which would not be very funny to anyone who reads this blog. They have that ‘you had to be there’ quality trip stories always have. Instead I will just say this: I love these kids. This is the first time in my adult life that I have been totally content with my job. Which is a good thing, because I just found out my old company signed a management deal with Kelly Clarkson, and I am much less jealous than I could be.