Happily Ever After

Big Spoon brought up "marriage" this weekend; what it means to each of us and what we expect. However, the conversation got way off base because I had been bottling up some personal worries and frustrations. We never finished our conversation about marriage simply because I had neglected - in our day to day life - to address these issues.

I sometimes find it easy to get wrapped up in planning and its good to have these reminders of the importance of our growth as a couple; reminders that keeping communication open is one of the keys to a successful relationship.

It's very early in our planning process and I hope that going forward, I can remember to just take time to talk, whether it be about how each of us are feeling, our careers, the wedding or anything. Simply put, it's important that we express our feelings - both good and bad.

Making things work by taking a step back

Over the weekend, Little Spoon's brother was scheduled to come back to be in his friend's wedding on Saturday and then to meet us that night in preparation for flying out to school the next morning. There was just one problem: We didn't know when he was going to be coming back in town, and we had plans to go to Little Spoon's friend's Fourth of July party. En route to the party, we got a text message from her brother asking where he should meet us!

After some frantic back and forth between him, Little Spoon, and their younger sister, we finally hatched a plan to make sure he wouldn't have to be alone for the Fourth while still ensuring that Little Spoon would get to be with her friend. I offered to drive up and meet her brother off the highway and get some chairs for us to sit in back at home while Little Spoon could stay at the party. I pulled into the parking lot of the agreed-upon place perhaps 30 seconds before the van containing her brother came up, so the timing ended up working out nicely. After the party, we came back to the house, watched some Robot Chicken, and got some good sleep before Little Spoon took him to the airport the next day.

The moral of the story for me was that given a bit of time to think about things, we can handle problems before us well. However, if we insist on rushing into something without thinking it through, more problems will likely arise. Taking a breath to think and strategize together is a good thing.