small paychecks, big memories

Did your mom and dad ever tell you stories about their "struggles" when they first got married? Well, my mom and dad did. They would tell me about their teeny tiny apartment where they lived as newlywed teenagers, and how they would turn the lights off and immediately hear mice crawling inside their walls. I also remember my dad telling me he still to this day can't eat Campbell's Vegetable Beef soup because they ate it so much when they first got married. That + scrambled eggs + fried potatoes. Oh, and if they really wanted to splurge, they would walk across the street and buy an order of potato logs to share.

I used to be convinced that when I got married, I would want to go through that struggle, too.

That's so cute! I want to be poor and just live on love with my husband! 

Yeah...that was until I got married, and I went probably two weeks eating a peanut butter sandwich for lunch. Every.single.day. I remember just losing it in the car on my way home from somewhere with Chris and I looked at him all teary-eyed and said, "I can't eat one more damn peanut butter sandwich! I just can't!" and of course, Chris just laughed. He now refers to peanut butter sandwiches as "damn peanut butter sandwiches," and always says it with a little smirk. Punk.

Obviously, Chris and I have never had to go through the kind of struggle my parents did. Actually, when I think about it, we haven't had to go through very many struggles at all (which I'm very grateful for). There have been some times throughout our marriage that I have thought, "I can't wait to tell my kids about this," though. Tonight was one of those times.

I was scrambling through our fridge and cabinets trying to find something to throw together for dinner. The final product: semi-freezer burnt tator tots and fettuccine alfredo. Well, if we're being technical here, it was spaghetti alfredo, since we only had spaghetti noodles. Normally, I would just suggest going across the street and getting a $5 hot-n-ready, but for some reason, I was kind of excited about having to get  creative and work with what we had. Am I finally growing up?! Probably not. But as I was making dinner, I just couldn't help but think about the other things I'll get to tell our kids about to convince them that we were once "poor newlyweds" too.

Here's the list that I have so far...

• Our fridge for the first month of our marriage was a little mini fridge that sat on top of a bar stool.
• The dryer we got on KSL has a high-pitched squeak that doesn't stop until about 20 minutes into the drying cycle.
• Chris had to walk to the church parking lot to use wifi.
• We can't use the shower in our hallway bathroom or it will set off the fire alarm.
• For the first 6 months of our marriage, we shared a car and I had to bum rides (mostly from my brother) to school. One time I even rode the bus. Guys, big girl pants!

I know half the things on that list are things I've complained about, but today, I'm grateful for them, because I know that this is the time in our lives where we get to trade in the small paychecks for big memories.

 So for now, I'm going to try to enjoy the random dinners, the little quirks about our home, and the many, many bowls of Spaghettios that lie ahead of me as Chris and I finish school .