The After Effect

I think everything was delayed.

All the overwhelming emotions, all the extreme amounts of happiness that seem to leak from my eyes, its all delayed. It's just now sinking in that I'm married to the love of my life and when I really stop to think about it, I get a bit emotional. 

I knew we were married, but it felt like a Birthday more then anything. It came, it was awesome, but it was last week and doesn't really set in. People would ask "What's it like being married?" or "How do you feel now that you're married?" And I'd respond with "Uhh... what?" I'd think to myself "Am I supposed to feel different?" I still don't really feel different, but a different reality has come into view. 

My life, rather Our Life, is changed forever. In Our future we'll have Our house. Our mess. Our pots and pans and dishes and a bed that we'll call ours. Our taxes will now be filed Married - Separate/Joined and everything else about our current life will slowly phase out.

That's where the different feeling comes in. It's a good feeling.

He is my Husband.
I am his Wife.

I've never smiled as much as I did while seeing him stand at the other end of the aisle.

Now back to all these forms to still fill out. 

Strength of Bonds

What I'd actually like to talk about is rings. Wedding Rings/Bands, and how tough they really are.

Since I was young I loved rocks. Rocks I found on the ground, or in the grass, and even sometimes the polished ones found in stores. That love of rocks turned into a love of gems and other precious stones. Later, as I grew older, it turned into a fixation with the minerals and metals around them. I don't call myself an expert by any means, but I do love reading up on them.

I wasn't too picky when It came down to my ring. He knew I wanted anything other than yellow gold. That leaves the 3 greater known materials. White Gold, Platinum, and my new favorite but hard to come by Palladium (Silver and Titanium are less common metals). I'm not gentle by any means and knew I'd need something that could possibly outlast my clumsiness. When it comes to his however, I dove head first into research.

After scaring myself with multiple pictures and reading about bands for males who work with their hands, I learned the dangers of the softer metal. Metals such as Gold tend to bend under pressure. They can bend around the finger, clamping down on the skin. If caught in something and pulled, it can have as much of an effect as "degloving" the finger. Not to be too graphic, but it's where the skin tears from the finger leaving sometimes just the bone with slight muscle. It scared me. Another horrible property is its high thermal conductivity, with low resistivity. It will complete a circuit and conduct heat that will leave a burn to scar you for life. Platinum, like gold, will also burn and bend, but not to the same degree.

I then turned to Tungsten and Ceramic. Tungsten has the highest melting point of any other metal and is amazing when it comes to heat resistant. The best property about it is when significant pressure is applied, it shatters. Its brittle enough to crack into parts and not have to be cut off in case of emergency. Ceramic is the same. The main difference between the two is Tungsten can come in all shades of metal from a shiny silver to a polished black, while ceramic is usually found white or black. Ceramic is scratch resistant, but if possibly damaged maintains its color and the scratch is nearly invisible.

The down fall to Tungsten and/or Ceramic is size. While other metals can be melted over and over again to resize as needed, Tungsten and Ceramic cannot. A lot of places offer a small fee to completely replace the ring, which isn't too bad considering the price of this metal/material is better priced for what you're getting vs the softer ones. I explained to him my logic behind my choice and filled his head with way more information actually needed. We both agreed on Ceramic, and I found a ring that matched both our tastes.

On the geekier side of things, I also had it engraved to say "Soulbound." You maybe thinking "aww that's kind of cute, how is that geeky?" It comes from World of Warcraft. Items marked "Bind on Equip" in game, become Soulbound and change in the item description, once equipped as an item.

"Soulbound is the property of an item that prevents it from being traded or mailed to another character or sold in the Auction House." 

He ended up with Black Ceramic. He Loved it.

From Ms. to Mrs.

It's an exciting step!

I get the feeling, I should feel a change. Don't get me wrong, I'm completely excited! I think I'm just going off stereotypes that there should be a change or something.

The wedding was everything I thought it'd be. There were a couple family members missing in attendance, but the parents were there and I think that's what really mattered to the both of us. It was small, it was cute, it was a little chilly and it was moving. He teared up a little, but he denies it. I think I took more pictures with my cell phone then the photographer or anyone else took. I got a little bit over excited.

I also, for the first time practically ever, wore a light colored dress. I love my darker colors and I always had it envisioned if I ever was to get married, Black dress with purple as an accent color. All that was tossed aside. I'm glad I wore white. I'm glad my accent color was red. I'm glad I was able to match him. To an extent at least.

So yeah. This is us :3 

Myself and my Other Half. 

I'm a Mrs!

P.S. Thursday night through Friday evening I had a cough that turned into just a runny nose and cold symptoms were gone by Saturday. That in itself made me quite happy :)

I'm Sick.

I might have brought it on myself.

Last week I was stressed with all of the planning. Over the weekend I noticed the engraving on his ring was incorrect. I've been calorie cutting on top of the other diet, and I started working out a little bit harder than I should. I think I stirred up the perfect recipe for a weak Immune System. I also don't really sleep. Maybe 4-5 hours a night during the work week just out of habit.

Started with sneezing. Then the Runny nose came. I thought "Oh, maybe its just allergies."
The sore throat then started followed by mucus (I know its gross) getting thick.
The sneezes made my throat burn with one of the worst feelings I've felt in a while.
Now I'm hit with nausea, slight temp elevation, and the urge to cough that I keep suppressing.

I'm pretty sure it's not allergies anymore :-\

It all started Saturday so we're about 4 days in. I've been downing 1/2 gallon of water a day which I know isn't much, but for me its a ton. I usually don't even drink water and find myself ignoring dehydration. I've also increased my Vitamin C intake to around 1,500-2000mg.

I hope it helps.

If not, there's always makeup to cover puffy eyes and redness, right?

Nobody at work knows I'm sick. I can hide it well. Worse comes to worse, maybe I can just hide it Saturday.

Is Getting Married Always This Hard?

It's a question I asked myself multiple times the past couple weeks.

All those last minute details, all the finalization, and of course the major fun part of getting after everyone about what not to do or bring.

The countdown is at 5 days and I'm definitely more excited than scared. Since almost everything is in order minus a few small things, I can finally take a moment for myself. I'm still unsure about which shoes to pick though.

I had a moment this weekend where I broke down, from I'm guessing stress, but everything seemed to be wrong and falling apart at the last moment. Something... odd.. happened at my podiatrist, My face was breaking out, my hair cut was horrible, the shoes I planned to buy were out of stock minus 1 size 8 (I'm a 10-11) and they lost my dress while it was getting cleaned. I pretty much lost my cool and broke into tears. I wasn't prepared for this at all. I'm definitely not the emotional type, there's just somethin' about wedding planning that gets to me.

Ya know, I can't even say it's hard. Just confusing and some what hectic.

The (Original) Date Is Set!

The date we wanted so long ago, but thought might be unattainable, is finally set!

          For this month.

                       Next Week.

All the planning was completed in a single weekend and I'm pretty sure I can pull it off. I think we both gave up on the date and were planning for end of March before he goes off for more training. Then, very slowly but surely, he got word it was alright to keep the date, and get hitched on his 96.

I haven't lost all the weight I've wanted. Actually, probably not even close. With diet alone (No exercise) I dropped 8lbs in the first week (I think cutting out Cheese for me was the biggest thing). Started to throw in Insanity and started trickling down again. What matters to me now, is the dress I want fitting. There's always Plan B of Spanx/Corset undergarments.

I've been thinking about venues since he was down on 1 knee. I've bounced all over the south west from New Mexico to Nevada, Colorado to California, and even threw in Texas. With everything constantly changing, I looked at venues from outside parks, to tree houses to even the Zoo. I was actually quite fond of the zoo. Him, not so much. We came to an agreement in Fabulous Las Vegas.

Part of me thinks its a little bit stereotypical. Early 20s, running off on a weekend to Vegas  Never would have thought I'd be getting married this young. Well, for me it seems young. Thought falling in love wouldn't smack me in the face til I was in my late 20s. Maybe 30s. However, I've never felt more ready.

I'm stuffing in appointments left and right for everything from a Dermatologist to Podiatrist. From Dress fittings to Hair. I've slacked on exercising Monday and Tuesday from being so exhausted. I already regret it. I would say maybe the extra running around helps a bit, but I'm driving everywhere and most appointments are just sitting there.

What I've been having the "Most Fun" with is his ring. I've done quite a bit of research on that too given his Military Profession, mixed in with his current MOS. I've had my eye on one for quite some time but Someone won't give me their ring size. Rather, Someone keeps forgetting to find out. Although it is high on my list, my days are filled with so much random stuff I forget to remind him! Not to sound sexist, but I've yet to find a Male that's excellent at reminding their-selves on things, not related to hobbies.

I keep telling myself Always Flexible. Although I've accepted it, I  haven't had a full grasp on the concept. I really should learn to always expect the unexpected. Just in case. 

Eep! It's That Friday Again!

I was in the middle of typing a blog about newly acquired information, then it hit me. It's Friday! The other post was turning somewhat into a ramble anyway.

Thanks to WifeOfASailor, My Friday has become interesting once again!

1. What’s one thing in the past month you would have changed?
2 Words: Less Stressed. I love to worry about his opinions sometimes, even when I know most of the time its up to me anyway.

2. What was your favorite thing that happened in January? New  Years Kiss. Hands down.

3. What are you looking forward to in February?
Well, there’s always the obvious but I feel like a broken record. I think I’m just looking forward to getting into the routine of my life. This is just the third week of grad classes. Work, grad classes and the Reserves are hard to manage right now so I’m hoping to get into a routine.

4. What are your plans for Valentine’s Day? 
Working. Then taking off the next day for a life changing weekend, non-related to the Holiday. 

5. What is your best advice for a MilSpouse whose spouse is deployed for Valentine’s Day?I have zero experience in this area. At least for now. The emotion you feel probably comes down to how much the Holiday means to you. For me, Its most just another day. I plan to treat it as that.

Now I rush off to catch a plane!
February is looking like a good month :)