Three Happy Years

Yesterday was our third anniversary! We had a really nice time. We went down to The American River Bike trail after breakfast. Sacramento impresses me with how green it is. I'm sorry we didn't have our camera, but there were massive trees, well kept trails, park areas, places to go by the river, ducks, geese, squirrels, and an obnoxiously cute couple with their doggie--that was us! Since there was a breeze and shade we managed to enjoy ourselves until past noon (which I hadn't expected. I thought we were going to get too hot.)
Later we went to the movies--something we haven't done since we got here. We had a pretty good time seeing Oblivion. Is it just me, or does spending $8 per ticket for a Monday matinee seem a bit crazy? I guess I've gotten used to some high CA prices, but not the movies yet. After that we were starving, so we found a place to stop on the way home.
It was a really nice day, even if it was simple. The trails completely exhausted Little Foot and, by the time we got home from the restaurant, we went to sleep at 6 something too because of lots of sun and fun made us tired and also because we could. We got up again a few hours later to just unwind and drink lots of water.
But today I was thinking about a review of the last three years:

After we got married, we had a summer where neither of us had school--the only summer since starting at Pima in 2005 that I had off. Jay and I both got terrible jobs--he at a water park and I worked at a kitchen on campus as well as an early morning custodial job. Believe it or not, it was the culinary job I hated, not the job at 4 a.m.! I had to work in a kitchen and make 200 lbs of potato salad while the room was kept at a chilling temperature to preserve the food. Mostly, I kept getting sick from compromising my immune system with the cold air. Getting up at 3:30 was easy in comparison. Jay was working at a water park that really didn't appreciate him. We're glad we got some cash and even experience out of it, but we're both glad that's over with.
I also remember attending a lot of family reunions with my mom's side of the family that summer, which was fun. Plus Jay and I were newly married and enjoying ourselves a lot!

That fall was my senior year. I finished up my classes while Jay was in the middle of his accounting Jr core. This meant we were both very busy with school, but we were somewhat used to it. We dated over the course of 3 semesters before getting married, so we were good at helping each other succeed in classes.
Here we were also in a cute family ward where Jay and I, along with a woman named Cindy who was great, taught a very large class of 5-and 6-year-old kids. We really enjoyed the big class and got along well with them. It was also really nice to have a lower stress calling--we only taught 1 in every 3 weeks because we rotated teaching. And it was great, with Jay and my busy busy schedules, to be able to spend all of our Sundays together.

That January I did my student teaching, which was my hardest semester ever, and I'm grateful to Jay for supporting me. He continued in the Jr core, which is extremely competitive. By our first anniversary, Jay had gotten good grades despite hard curves and evil exams, and I had a degree in English Teaching :)
That summer Jay took classes to work towards getting his masters. He started these before he knew if he got accepted to the BYU master's program. Thankfully, he was admitted to it and we partied.

At this point we moved into Jay's sister's home. They were moving from North Carolina and had offered us a free place to live while Jay finished up school. Also, they closed on the home before Chad was finished with his residency, so we moved in a few weeks before they did. So we had a huge 2 story with a basement house to ourselves for a bit. This massively confused the ward we moved into. How does this young couple, still in school, afford that big house? We explained, but I think we continued to confuse the ward about our families. I was always getting questions about who we were, even a year later. Some people believed Natalie and I were sisters, some thought I was teaching at the school next door, some started out believing Jay was a doctor.. Ha ha.

The next fall Jay started his school year that incorporates the bachelor program with the master program. I worked at a school with a bunch of sixth graders who were great and fun. I think I may have learned more from the experience than they did. I still have some cards they made me as a thank you, lots with my last name very misspelled. I'll never forget how smart, and just how... not smart... 6th grade kids can be. Sometimes they came up with brilliant thoughts, while other times they could be quite immature.
I had a strange experience teaching the kids from Frederick Douglass. I explained a bit about who he was and one boy raised his hand and said, "Some people overreact about slavery back then."
I saw he was serious and said, "Well, then I think I'm one of the people that you may think overreacts about slavery."
The boy continued, "Well, I know that a lot of the presidents of the United States had slaves and it wasn't a big deal."
I realized that another teacher was probably trying to teach the how prevalent slavery was, but one boy had learned the wrong lesson: he thought that because it was so prevalent and practiced by men we revere, that it wasn't a big deal.
But we read through the exerts of the autobiography, which were relatively tame, compared to many accounts. I heard kids saying, "Wow, I never knew that they beat their slaves," and similar things. Hopefully I revealed these horrors appropriately. What I do know for sure is that no one who read it with me thought that slavery was not a big deal anymore!

Jay and I worked in primary again in our new ward. We even got to teach our niece, Sakura's, class for awhile. While we were there we taught the sunbeams (three and four year olds) and we also taught the four and five year olds.
While we were in the Sunbeam class I had to remind the all girls' class to keep their dresses over their knees. One day I reminded a wiggly girl and another next to her looked over and saw her panties. She said, "You have Sleeping Beauty?! I have Tinker Bell!!!" and lifted up her dress. In a moment every child had their skirt up to show who was on their panties. Ha.
Natalie got pregnant with her third baby that spring and started needing some help since she was having complications that required extra rest. After the school year ended I became their nanny. I loved those two older kids so much, but it was auntley love, not motherly.
Natalie and Chad actually took a week long trip and Jay and I (mostly me), watched the kids. One morning I  was helping the kids with cereal when Jay came in and said, "I got up with Seth in the night because I know you watched the kids all day yesterday and I knew you were tired."
And I said, "Seth was crying in the night? Really?"
I was right across the hall from him, sleeping in Natalie and Chad's room, and I didn't hear a thing. See? I love those kids, but apparently not in a "Even when I'm unconscious, I'm still aware of their needs" way. I look forward to being a parent, but I'm not going to pretend that I know what I'm doing, even if I have been a nanny. Hopefully I can get the pacifier in the right way.
Jay worked hard his last semester of classes because he was lined up to graduate a semester early. He got multiple job offers, but eventually we said yes to one in Sacramento. Another company in particular really wanted him. He said that calling them and telling them no was as hard as breaking up with a girlfriend. The shocked silence. The, "But why?!" The, "Can I do anything else to change your mind?"
And now we're here in Sacramento. We like the people at church and have found people in the area are usually very friendly. It may help that I see lots of them while I walk the cutest doggie in the entire world. Everyone loves my doggie.
I'm the primary song leader and Jay is working with the young men.
Jay's of course busy working while I find lots to do, even though I still wonder what to tell people I do all day, since I don't have a job.
I'm getting allergy shots which have helped my health some, but I'm still having reactions to things. But I know that I'm a lot better than I once was. I'm very grateful I've been able to lead the church kids in singing time without any problems.

So that's an account of the last three years of mine and Jay's marriage. We're going to be married for an eternity. I wonder if that will seem long. In some ways three years has been long, and in other ways, it's been no time at all. Will eternity be like that? I'll check up in several thousand years and say to myself, "It's been awhile, but compared with the rest of eternity, it's still such a little time."