Has it Really Been 4 Years?

Wow... Almost 4 years exactly since my last post, and so much has changed. And what brought me back after all this time? Actually, it's kinda funny... I happened to scroll through my blog-related e-mails this morning and the last notice I have is from some anonymous person responding in February of last year (2011) to a post entitled "Lost" that I made in March of 2008. In their comment, this anonymous person told me to stop doing whatever it was I was doing to somebody, or move away if I can't help doing it so I'm only hurting myself and not them. I was like "Huh?!"

Even going back and reading the post they were responding to, I have NO idea what that post was all about. I was being quite vague at the time. But I'm pretty sure it was at a time of high stress (the entirety of 2008 was one huge ball of stress) and trying to adapt to being in a relationship at all, let alone with somebody 6 timezones away. Thankfully, it seems that Sweetie sufficiently survived my stress at the time, and I was not required to move away.

But let's see... how to catch up?

2008

2008, as previously mentioned, was a mess of a year... but by the end of it, Sweetie and I were finally together. In England, we enjoyed a very nice Commitment Ceremony with a formal reception so his mum could participate, followed by an informal reception/good-bye pub party so all his friends could see him off. Here in the States, we had a cozy wedding ceremony and reception, followed by a blissfully quiet honeymoon at an awesome Bed and Breakfast in a nearby vineyard town. After bucketloads of paperwork, I not only reinstated my VA disability income, but we also finalized Sweetie's Visa and he passed through immigration without a hitch.

2009

Most of 2009 was spent getting Sweetie established as a Permanent US Resident. This, of course, required more immigration paperwork. But it also involved all sorts of things one tends to take for granted... such as establishing a social security number, a driver's license (and learning to drive on the right side of the road), a cell phone... a job. In fact, Sweetie spent the bulk of that year trying to track down that last. He found temporary work ushering the University football games that Fall, but finally found permanent full time work at a chain grocery store in October. It wasn't his ideal job, but work is work, and we were getting pretty financially tight by that time.

2010

Things finally started settling down in 2010. Life began to resemble something of a new "normal" for the both of us. The highlight of the year was a trip to Florida in October, treated by Mom and Pop since Sweetie and I didn't really have a ton of money for that sort of thing. The trip was inspired by the opening of the new Wizarding World of Harry Potter at Universal Studios. Mom found out about it and immediately decided that we all HAD to go. Since they were paying our way, we were perfectly amenable to the trip. We ended up spending 3 days at Disney World, and 2 days at Universal Studios. It was a pretty awesome trip... especially for Sweetie, who'd never been to either amusement park.

There were a few downsides to the year: the first being increasingly deteriorating conditions at the duplex, and the second being some lower back problems I was in physical therapy for most of the year to overcome. We started making plans to move to a new duplex/apartment. And I was making progress on my back by the time of the trip... however, things took a downturn when we returned.

2011

2011 kinda became a crazy year again. It started out with us finding out that we were actually eligible to buy a house rather than continue to rent when we moved. This news pretty much blew us away. The only glitch was that we had to wait until Sweetie had been in his job for 2 years before we could apply for a VA loan... the VA's guaranteed down payment being the only way we could afford a house. By this time, Sweetie was REALLY not happy at his job, but steadfastly pushed his way through until October so we could buy a house. So we started packing. By the way: packing and moving a household in general is a new experience for Sweetie... after it was all over, he has sworn never to do so ever again. I can't say's I blame him... lol.

But recall that I mentioned at the end of 2010 that my back had taken a downturn. Well, as it turns out, I'd herniated a disc in my lumbar spine, and the disc material was leeching out onto my spinal cord. So, in May, I had spinal surgery where I had my vertebrae fused around the disc they removed, and they removed all of the disc material that had started to impinge on my spinal nerve. 2 months in recovery and out of work wasn't the easiest to deal with financially, but it was actually a lucky time for us. I'd just paid off a large loan, and had some extra income we'd originally intended to help towards the move. It all worked itself out... though we're a tad more in debt now than when we started. Well, aside from the mortgage, of course.

So, after a quick trip to San Diego for my 20th HS reunion (paid entirely by airmiles), we came back and signed all the papers to become responsible homeowners. The move, as usual, was a horror and is best blocked out in our memories. I sincerely hope this is the last time. Ever.

2012

Which brings us to the present. We have actually managed to unpack and put away about 98% of all of our belongings. We still have a ton of projects we have to work on around the house as we have time and money, but the place has actually become home. We have a nice small stand of forest as our backyard, and it's been really cool to watch the seasons change back there from autumn to winter and now to spring. We've spent a few blissful weekends doing absolutely nothing after all of the craziness. But soon, I'm gonna have to buckle down and attack the paperwork I've left untouched since the move.

I'm also gonna have to pay more attention to neglected friends, too. I hardly talk to Bus Snob anymore, and I don't think I had a chance to see IHOP Buddy at all last year, between the packing, the surgery, the move and the trip. It's bad enough that we've steadily seen less and less of each other since I got married. I'm not sure that I've actually become even more anti-social than I was before (if that's possible), but I do know it's been difficult to schedule couples nights what with IHOP Hubby and Sweetie's schedules being all over the place. We've decided that we'll just have to schedule more girl's nights together when couples nights can't happen. It hasn't been just her and I hangin out in ages. But she'll be out next weekend, so it'll be good to catch up.

Becoming more fed up than ever at his workplace, Sweetie has been putting in application after application everywhere he can think of. He actually got two bites within a week of each other a few weeks back... though, one has already struck out. We're still waiting to hear back about the second. The whole thing is beginning to get him down a bit. So now we've come full circle, and he's stressing and lashing out, while I'm doing my best to support him. But that's what a marriage is supposed to be all about... or so I've heard. Instead of having to move away from each other, we've only become stronger.

*assuming serene pose* And that's a good thing.