The First Blog is the Hardest

Ok friends. I'm cleaning up some of my blogs (I have way too many) and am posting a couple from a blog I started to write about marriage called "The First Year is the Hardest". Here's the first post!

Hello and welcome to my blog!

My husband and I have  been together for more than 7 years and have been married for almost 4 years.  We have lived together for most of that time and figured that we would eventually get married.  We knew that the realtionship that we had with each other was different from any other relationship that we had ever been a part of.  There was a deeper connection.  Throughout the first few years of living together, we learned the good and bad things about each other.  We learned about the bad habits and little quirks that you learn through living every day with the person.  Of course, going through this, we though, "If we ever get married, it will be a breeze!" and "They say the first year of marriage is the hardest, we should be fine after living together for a few years."  Of course, we were unaware of the things that change after you get married.

Yes, you're still living together but there's a different emotional level.  There's a sense of a greater responsibility towards that person.  You're now "stuck" with your spouse's family members, whether you like it or not.  Before, even if it wasn't thought about, you did have it in the back of your mind that you can abandon ship.  You can leave or break up or go on to greener pastures.

Of course, the divorce rate is extremely high so apparently, people are still running around, searching for greener pastures and avoiding the feelings of being strapped down but to us, my husband and myself, we take our relationship very seriously.  It is a struggle to look at it as a blessing because the negatives in life always seem to outweigh the positives.

Having said all that, I would like to let all of you know that we were naive.  To all of those people who told you that the first year of marriage is the hardest - I don't believe them.  Marriage - let me rephrase that - a successful marriage requires a daily pledge to love and respect the person that you're with.  Yes, the first year is difficult but the years beyond are difficult as well.  As you go through life, you experience many changes.  Jobs change, which create additional stress and strain on any relationship, let alone marriage; children come (or don't); families struggle (you know, the people who were there before you?) and feelings change.  These are the things that make marriage hard - even after the first year.

In my blog, I'm going to be very frank with you all.  I will present the struggles that we deal with regularly and while I will attempt to keep our deeply personal struggles out, I'm sure that I will tend to include them here.  I hope that we can all learn and grow together through this blog.  I welcome your comments and suggestions and will even answer questions, if you have any.

I hope you all have a wonderful day and I am looking forward to writing to you about all the ins and outs of marriage!


I Just Want to Be Ok by Sarah A. Manning is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.

The Masks We Wear

So I decided that I was going to take a shower tonight since I'm sure I won't be able to get up early enough in the morning to take a nice shower to get started with the day.

The other night, I was going through my basket of mani/pedi supplies (nail & cuticle clippers, nail file & buffer, polish & a couple of trial & travel sized lotions & soaps.  I decided that I would try the hair mask and use the "Sea Mud Mask" for my face.  I lit a candle and started the shower...  Then I washed & put on the masks.  I had to get out of the shower to make sure I was covering my face properly.  Also, since I've never used any type of mask before I wanted to see what I looked like.  Of course I laughed & had to show Mike.  When I got back into the shower, an interesting sensation began.  It started out as a tingling then quickly roared to life on my face.  The mask burned!!!  It reminded me of the Gilmore Girls episode where Rory & Lane have to bleach Lane's hair before dying it purple and it burns so much that Lane runs out into the town square running at top speed.  Of course, I'm not about to jump out of the shower and run around naked in the apartment complex in the snow (especially since Anna teased me & made me walk, slip and slide around in the snow in flip flops just 30 minutes or so before) so I quickly washed it all off my face.  The burning sensation is finally gone, thanks to the special Aveeno Night Cream I've got.

Basically, I'm not sure that a mud mask is supposed to burn that much, so I will definately do some research before I get another one - sample or not!  ^_^

It is pretty late now for me and I've got to get to bed.  I hope you all had a wonderful weekend.  I'll talk to you again soon!

I Just Want to Be Ok by Sarah A. Manning is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.

Happy December!

Well, the holidays have officially started!  Thanksgiving was last Thursday and we're now into December.  While most people are obsessed with the thoughts of Christmas gifts (yes, I like the thought of giving & receiving) I find it comforting to know that the real "reason of the season" and the true gift is Jesus Christ.  He was brought on this Earth to give us the gift of life and forgiveness.  For whatever reason God loves each and every one of us - flaws and all.  If we ask, we receive forgiveness and can have everlasting life in Heaven.

On Wednesday night, I was reminded of His love for me...  I found myself wondering why I was hesitating at a green light at an empty intersection yet I was still not moving forward.  Less than a second later, a car coming from the left flew through the intersection, running his red light at 40+MPH (the speed limit on the road he was on).  He would have t-boned my car at the driver-side door and I would have been very seriously injured if not dead.  I drove through the intersection after he passed and thought to myself, "Thank you, God.  You're watching out for me...  God really does love me," and then had tears streaming down my face.  His love for us is so great...

What reminder do you have of His love?  What is the light in the darkness and stress of your everyday light?


I Just Want to Be Ok by Sarah A. Manning is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.