Sweet Lemons

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It's true. We have taken quite a long blog hiatus, which I'm thinking is something that happens to most bloggers at one point in time or another. But it's official, we're back!

I have spent quite a while trying to think of what to blog about, which is in part why it has taken so long to get a new one up! I've been struggling with the balance between writing an update and being realistic about what the past several months have been like for us without venturing into the realm of online oversharing! The result is summarized in this entry's title: Sweet Lemons....because our life has been a combination of the sweet and the sour.

2012 has been a year of significant growth for us and we're still going strong, which of course is not without pain. We have been working through the dynamics of marriage in the context of sporadic long distance relationship and being at the whim of the military. It often feels like we're functioning in high gear and then have bursts of shifting into overdrive, which is exhausting, straining but certainly gets us where we're going! Since Josh's return last winter we have been trying to get our lives together, which is tough when one member of team Salmon Eye has to go away every once in a while for a month at a time. Josh has been doing lots of training, which is good for his career but has been tough when it comes to us settling into life. We're really working hard not to see his departures are interruptions but to make our life work alongside them. Definitely not something that happens over night! On the positive though it looks like after the next few weeks he spends in Kingston, Ontario, Josh will be around the Edmonton area for the rest of the year. It's the military though so we never see it as a guarantee but that's what we're looking forward to and will make adjustments if necessary.

I guess the best way to sum up what we've been going through is trying to figure out how to function together and alone and then to readily transition between the two. We're doing our best but it's been a tough go with lots of late night conversations, several appearances by Angry Sam and Frustrated Josh, and a lot of asking "What are we going to do?!". Along this tough journey we have constantly found it important to do what we can to see help outside ourselves because, quite honestly, no one can fix things alone. One of the measures we're taking is seeking marriage counseling, not necessarily to fix anything major but to tidy things up a bit and get equipped for an even better future! I don't think there's any shame in getting counseling because it's a lot more healthy to have a third person helping you walk through things than just going around in viscous circles between the two of you. Counseling has been an enlightening and funny experience for us...funny because sometimes we maybe don't take it as seriously as we should but we still walk away with a lot of good things :)

Ok so that's a little insight into the sour things we've been experiencing lately. I hope that wasn't oversharing but it just wouldn't feel right to paint a picture of pure bliss for the past several months when we have experienced the good alongside the bad.

And that brings us to the sweet things! A really big one is the purchase of our first home! Well, we more feel like we're borrowing it from the bank because right now they're technically the ones who own it but we're the ones who get to rip it up inside and make it look nice! We've been working hard for months to renovate our 1200sqft, 1949, 5 bedroom, semi-bungalow in Edmonton. It's been coming along slowly but surely. I wish I could be more like the people who come by to visit from time to time and notice significant changes in what has been done because when you're living in it sometimes seems like you're getting no where! We also have an awesome roommate living with us who is lots of fun, makes great lattes (so I'm told) and is a super amazing helper with house renos! She's pretty brave to live with this crazy married couple in such a cozy (...another word for small) house but we appreciate it a lot! For those of you who are interested I will post pictures of the house one of these days but I just don't feel good doing it while it's so chaotic! You're always welcome to stop by though!

Another sweet thing has been that we just celebrated our 2 year anniversary! I know that some people say it goes by quickly but when you spend so much time apart it kind of passes by slowly but that just means that it seems like we've enjoyed a longer amount of time to grow together over the past 2 years. 

Well that's about it for now. Thanks for reading! I hope you were able to take something away from our honesty whether it's gaining a little insight into our function dysfunction or reflecting a bit on your own life. 

Life eh? What a journey!