Changes are Exciting!

In case you haven't heard, I had some changes occur recently in my life.  First, is that Lars and I are married.  So far, it feels the exact same as being engaged and dating but I do love calling him husband.  It still feels weird but I'm sure I'll adjust.  I am excited about this change because I get new health insurance and after our honeymoon (to China!), I'm going to change my name.  Plus, we are going to be getting a joint account soon too!  I'm also excited to get our pictures back.  While we were taking them our photographers showed us a few and they looked freakin sweet so I can't even imagine how the rest will look.  So the wedding was great!  And Vegas was great!  Lars and I were so so busy but we were able to see and hang out with so many people.  We had 46 people come to our wedding and I'm so glad they did!  When it came to the ceremony, I wasn't nervous at all, I was just excited.  I swear I practically ran down the aisle I was so excited!  Overall, it was better than Lars and I could have ever imagined.  The whole weekend was fantastic and our wedding was perfect.  :)

Second change is that next month I will be aunt to two cute little boys!  My sister is due in two weeks and I'm excited to see their new addition.  Lars and I are stopping by to visit them for two days after we get back from China in November so I'm excited that I'll get to see them all soon.  Apparently my cute little nephew on the way back from our wedding in Vegas kept saying, 'Viva Las Vegas' and saying he wanted to go back because he had so much fun seeing everyone there.  How cute is that?!  I also worked really hard on getting him to say Aunty Melanie and he can do that now but you know how many times it took him to pick up saying Uncle Lars?  Once.  He loves his Uncle Lars and knows who he is and will even give him hugs without Lars asking him for one.  I might be a little bitter about that.  But I will make sure I get plenty of hugs when we visit soon so that makes me feel a little better. 

Third change is that I moved positions in my work.  I'm really glad I made this change and my favorite part about my new job is that I don't deal with angry students.  I have dealt with one angry person so far and I've been in this position for a month and a half.  Yeah, that's a definite improvement!  I do miss my old team a lot.  They were a lot of fun and so sweet.  (My old team even threw me a surprise wedding shower after I moved teams!  It was so nice of them!)  I'm sure my new team will be just as great, I just don't know them quite yet. 

Fourth change is in relation to our wedding and a gift we got that has impacted our relationship.  One of our gifts was a book with a bunch of questions about our relationship that we answer.  It is the cutest thing!  We try to do a question or two every night.  Last night the question was about when we first started dating and when did we know we wanted to see more of each other?  Lars was so cute in his response and talking about how enthusiastic I am about everything and how much he loves it.  My response was about how sweet, kind, and genuine Lars is and how at first I thought he couldn't be THAT awesome and that it had to be a ploy.  Once I realized he really was that sweet, kind, and genuine, I definitely wanted him around more.  I know that makes us a bit cheesy but this book is so cute and I love how it makes us think about things like that and write it down.

Gratitude

The other day I was at my internship, a residential substance abuse facility for men, and I was in group. It was a group on the 12 steps. These are the 12 steps that addicts go through to help improve their lives. In group we were talking about the last three steps and it was so amazing to me! I don't know much about these 12 steps at all, but it was amazing to hear people's stories on what they thought was important when they were using and what they think is important now. It really made me think about what I think is important now and how grateful I am for what I do have in my life!

I grew up in a house with no abuse. I'm so grateful for that. I have all of my limbs and I have full use of them. I can see, hear, taste, touch, and smell. I've never been to jail or prison. I have all my teeth and they're straight. I have a place to live. I have a family that loves me and would do anything for me. I haven't had any traumatic brain injury. I don't have an addictive personality. I've had the opportunity to go to school. I have a job that allows me to pay for necessities and for my wants as well. I have a phone, computer, and car. All of these things allow me to stay connected to people. I'm able to go on vacations. I have met people recently who don't have these things. And honestly, it really helps me be grateful for what I do have. I tend to take things for granted a lot so I'm really glad that this internship is helping me be more grateful. Haha, I guess I could say I'm grateful that I'm becoming more grateful! Man, I am such a nerd!