Part 1
This is not a woe is me post, but I think it is going to sound like it. After writing it, and realizing how long it is (almost 4 pages in a Word document), I decided to make this multiple posts (8). So I am going to add a paragraph to the bottom of the posting each day. By the end, you will see how everything has evolved for me as far as being a great wife and mom from getting married, having not one but two kids, and where I am now. Oh yeah, I asked B to read this to make sure he was okay with it before I posted it. He was okay with it and he wrote me a really good email reply after it that I am going to make the ninth post so you can see how the other half thinks!
Growing up I thought when I get older I am going to be able to do it all. I mean that is what you see on the TV shows. Right? How hard is it going to be to be married, keep a clean house, raise kids and work full-time? If I was really lucky I would marry someone who made enough money so that I could be a stay-at-home mom. I would bake desserts, be the great soccer mom, be part of the PTA, and so much more. (Oh, did I mention that I also wanted 4 kids.) How hard could this all be? I nannied for a family of 7, six boys and one girl for over 15 years. If I could handle seven kids and come out of it okay, I could surely be married, have kids of my own, and keep house.
One of my favorite baby pics, and yes I am a twin.
Part 2
Boy was I wrong. When B and I got married we lived in what you would call a starter home. It was just under 1,000 sq. ft. and needed a lot of work. B did all the work himself from putting a new roof on to building a dog house with dog door. I thought it was hard to keep up on that house and barely managed it. To vacuum the entire house it didn’t take more than 20 minutes, and yet I couldn’t keep up. I found out I was just not the type of wife that was good at keeping house. Somehow I had to figure out a way to be this great wife that was awesome at keeping a clean home, had dinner ready, and took care of everything. I came to realize that as long as B and I were happy together that was all that mattered. Sure we had our arguments, but when it was all said and done we were happy. Somehow between the two of us we did keep up on the house and had a great little home.
Our little family
Our first home
Part 3
We decided to move out of Toledo, and somewhere that we wanted to raise children. So we decided to move to Perrysburg. After looking at over 100 houses we settled on our current home. It has not been a dream home for B or me. We have discovered many things wrong with this house that we did not initially know. If we did we would not have bought the house. Fast forward 8 years and B is still working on redoing this house. If I thought keeping up on a house under 1,000 sq. ft. was hard, imagine my surprise when I had a hard time with a two-story 1,800 sq. ft. house. We had many arguments about the house and cleaning it. At the time we were both working full-time jobs so it was hard for either of us to keep up on the house. Somehow between the two of us we did it. We managed to keep the house clean and were happy at the same time.
Our new home & current home