Starting A New Life

RCC and I have been married three years now and I always thought that getting married would be like starting a new life, but it was more like enhancing my old one.  We got married, and he moved into the place the kids and I have been living in for forever.  He had to integrate into our lives, but it wasn't much change for us - it was much bigger for him.  He moved into an already established household with three kids which was far from easy for him.  The kids and I were pretty much set in our ways.

But now, the kids are out of the house and RCC and I are moving into our first "new" place together.  Now it feels like starting a new life.  Yes, we're moving into the apartment that he lived in when we first met, but the only history that apartment has is us.  You see, he moved into it a few weeks after we met online, but before we met in person.  The only woman who has been in his apartment is me, so the memories we have of it are of the beginning of our relationship, which are great memories.

We're moving out of the town I've lived in pretty much my whole life, but not so far out of town that it's a foreign land.  In fact, I'll be commuting in to work every day.  The kids won't be close, which is both a blessing and a curse.  They're their own people and need to live their own lives without me breathing down their backs, but I actually like my kids most of the time and will miss having them just a few minutes away.  I'll have to be better about advance planning to get together with them, since Ashinator's the only one with a car right now.

I've never lived with just my husband, not even when I was married the first time.  The kids' dad and I always had roommates until the kids were born, and for a long time after that, too.  I have no idea what it's going to be like to live with just one other person in a small town.  I do love the idea of not having to get dressed to run to the bathroom or the freedom of wandering around the apartment nekkid if I want.  I love knowing that there's any mess in the place, it belongs to one of two people.  I really love the thought that if I put Coke in the fridge it will still be there when I come home from work.

I'm going to miss some things, too.  Right now, if we don't feel like cooking, we hop in the car and run five minutes to Taco Bell or McDonald's or wherever we want.  Once we're out at our new place, it'll be a thirty minute drive to go *anywhere*.  We'll be cooking at home a whole lot more, which will be healthier for us both, but we'll also have to remember to make grocery lists and plan ahead.  There's a small market across the street from our new apartment, but the prices are high. 

For the past year, we've been having our milk delivered (totally expensive, but awesome and tasty), but we won't be able to do that at our new place, not because they don't deliver in our new town, but because they won't allow their delivery drivers to go up or down stairs for delivery due to safety concerns.  I get that, especially in the winter, but I'm mourning losing the excellent milk we were getting.

I guess it turns out I'm more of a city girl than I ever thought possible.  All of the conveniences have spoiled me.  RCC and I have a plan for avoiding running out of essentials; we're signing up for Thrive foods, which is a company that specializes in freeze-dried foods.  Most people think MREs when they hear freeze-dried.  So did I, until I tried Thrive.  From Thrive, you can buy individual ingredients, so we'll stock up on the things we routinely forget to buy, don't use all of, or run out of, like celery.  I hate buying *a* stalk of celery and only using part of it.  Or onions - we never use the whole thing.  With the freeze-dried foods, you use only what you need and leave the rest on the shelf.  What you don't use is shelf-stable for 1-2 years.  (<--I didn't mean to sound like a commercial, but I'm really excited to start using this stuff.)

I suspect that once we get the hang of pre-planning our groceries, we'll end up with better stocked shelves than we did living in town. 

Or we'll starve, which is a possibility, too.

Overall, I'm more excited and nervous about this "new life" than I was about getting married three years ago.