Dearly Beloved, We Are Gathered Together Today To Discuss Marriage

I'm always curious about other people's marriages. Weird? I guess it's not much different than people watching. I'm just couple watching. We've been doing a lot of house hunting lately and I find myself more interested in the people that live in the house, than the actually house! I'm a creeper I know. Well just in case any of you fall into the couple watching/creeper category I thought I'd write about our marriage. Feel free to join in and play along if you'd like! You can use my same topics or make your own. Let me know if you write one too because I would love to read it! Not in a creepy way.

Sleeping

Let's just get one thing straight. Cuddling and sleeping are two completely separate activities not meant to be done at the same time. Also, Mark always has to sleep to my right no matter where we are. 

Privacy

I may be the only person I know like this, but I have a closed door policy when.... ehem..... using the bathroom. I will not pee in front of anyone and refuse to be peed in front of. Gross. 

Spare Time

On weekends we go out on the town and stay up as late as possible. It's Friday night, Mark is at work, I'm wearing sweatpants and writing this. On week nights we usually go to the gym or play tennis if we don't have anything going on after work. Then we make dinner and chill for a few hours before bed, which happens to be 9:30. We're very lucky not to be one of those couples that have opposite work schedules! We don't have many friends close by at all so weekends are usually date nights at the movies, snowboarding, camping and hiking. I always look forward to the weekends! 

Fights
Every couple has them. Arguments, discussions, disagreements.... it doesn't matter what you call them, it's a fight. We don't have the throw-your-spouse's-clothes-off-the-balcony-while-they-speed-away-in-the-car kind of fights. Ours are more like a disagreement followed by silence, followed by staying in separate rooms for a few hours (which is hard to do when you live in a one bedroom apartment). Then once we've thought about things and realize it's a silly topic not worth fighting about one of us (usually Mark) will stop being stubborn and give the other a kiss. We both apologize, and that's that. Usually fighting brings us closer together. Not in the moment, but afterwards I understand Mark better and appreciate him so much more. Just like we need challenges in our lives to learn and grow, we need challenges in our marriages in order to become stronger.

Cooking
Grocery shopping and cooking are things we usually do together. Planning what we're going to cook and the groceries we need to buy is something I usually do. We rotate through like 5 recipes and cook dinner 3-4 times a week (the others consist of frozen pizzas and PB&J). We really need to branch out. I always try to cook enough that we can take leftovers to work for lunch. Somehow we still throw out a lot of leftovers though. Cooking for two can be tough! Roommates anyone?

Chores
There are man chores, woman chores, and shared chores. Most woman chores also fall in the shared chores category. Man chores are in their own category which include: killing spiders, building fires, putting furniture together, and setting up all things electronic.

Opposites Attract
We have several things in common or else we probably wouldn't have married each other. But we are opposites in so many ways! Mark loves watching football and basketball. I dread watching sports and want to punch them in the face. I love to pretend to want healthy food every day for every meal. Mark doesn't think twice about the amount of heart stopping grease and lack of vegetables. I stress, plan, stress, plan, stress, plan. Mark doesn't stress or plan, and somehow it still works out! My motto is, "Early to be and early to rise". Mark's motto is... well there isn't really a motto, but it's the opposite of mine. We definitely balance each other out!

Money
Not until I worked at a bank did I realize how many married people have separate bank accounts. Huh? You share a bed, your darkest secrets, and your life together. You can't share a bank account? We both help make sure the bills get paid on time. I'm a spaz and the second a bill comes in the mail I have to send it off right away. Even if it isn't due for 3 weeks it stresses me out to have it sitting on our counter. We don't have allowances or anything like that, but all big purchases are discussed beforehand. Luckily for me shoes and clothes fall into the "small purchase" category. Luckily for Mark Carl's Jr. and Cafe Rio also fall into the "small purchase" category.

"When you realize you want to spend the rest of your life with somebody, you want the rest of your life to start as soon as possible."

When Harry Met Sally