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3 Years Ago on August 22nd:

"Marriage provides an ideal setting for overcoming any tendency to be selfish or self-centered. I think one of the reasons that we are counseled to get married early in life is to avoid developing inappropriate character traits that are hard to change." Elder Richard G Scott

Truer words have never been spoken. Reflecting on our 3^rd year of marriage, this stood out as a theme. In year 3 I think I made great strides in the selfishness department. At long last, my mentality began to shift from “ME” to “WE”. I still catch myself getting caught up in what I want, especially when it comes to education/career goals, wanting to just do whatever my heart desires without consideration of my future family… But in general, I believe marriage has been the ideal setting for me to overcome this natural tendency. When I had that brief awful job at certain unmentionable chain restaurant , I really got caught up in selfishness. All I could think of was how bad MY life was. How much I hated MY job. How unfair life was to ME. I though only of myself and resented Dan because I felt his situation was sooo much better than MINE. Sure enough, this patch was one of the hardest on our relationship. (When it came down to it, that’s the main reason I quit.) There is no room for selfishness in a loving marriage. There’s something amazing about knowing that you have a partner who thinks of and considers your needs and desires above their own and that you do the same for them. I’m glad Dan and I share that.

 Three Things We Did Today to Celebrate Year 3:

1)     Sushi: Kind of. Dan’s been dreaming of a Las Vegas Roll (fried) since my Dad introduced him to them at Benja’s. I got fully cooked chicken, for the record.

2)     Movie: We were going to see Sarah’s Key, but decided something lighter than the Holocaust would be more fitting for a happy occasion. We probably should’ve just stuck with the depressing plan…. Crazy, stupid, love – the title says it all.

3)     Coldstone: An anniversary tradition!

(Since were full time students again (read: poor), we decided to forgo gifts. Our gifts to each other were the crazy expensive textbooks we just bought! (Sure hope you love that $150 math book Dan).)

 THREE FAVORITE MEMORIES OF OUR 3^RD YEAR:

1)     Training for the ½ Marathon together for 4 months: running on asilomar on Saturday mornings,  then getting reds donuts or pastries from pavels.

2)     Enjoying going to a married ward together for the first time: The “Friendly Monterey 2^nd ward.” It was great. We loved our callings, our friends, and just the ward in general! Miss it.

3)     Becoming somewhat “outdoorsy”: In Monterey we became REI groupies and learned to actually enjoy being outside. I don’t think we ever hiked our backpacked together before then.

 3 Hardest Things from our 3^rd Year:

1)     Stress of DLI/ French DLPT

2)     Both having our least favorite jobs ever (waitressing, security)

3)     Trying to get everything worked out in SLC (tuition assistance, GI bill, car gets hit by bus, etc, etc)

 3 Things that I hope have happened by our 4^th

1)     We’re both done with school! (at least our bachelors degrees)

2)     We have a third member of our family (a dog!)

3)     We both have jobs we enjoy

I thought year 2 was way better than year 1.

 Now I can say year 3 was better than year 2. 

Hopefully this trend continues….

I have a feeling it will.