Oh blog. How I've missed you. I've been thinking of you, sometimes daily. Ah, but life is just so busy. And it just keeps coming! There is just so much to be done each day, and I never get it all completed. Just little by little, working on my salvation, through our little domestic church.

I'm going to resist the temptation to cram tons of blog posts all in one. But one thing that has been on my mind...

I started this post last Sunday, at the Hobbs, when I was doing a bit of Mimi watching. It was so lovely and peaceful, as always. But I was also enjoying a trip down memory lane just being at their house.

Working backwards: earlier that day, we went to a graduation party for one of the Elrichs, at their home. I loved it. Another trip down memory lane! I love their home, and kids, and it was so good seeing lots of familiar faces. It made me think of so many times I had gone there over a weekend, or spring break week during high school. I remember happily spending time there with my 'boyfriend'. I remember, sadly, carving one day out of my uber busy college schedule to visit them, only to get a call from my mom, bidding me home.

So that is just a taste of what I've been feeling all last week. I don't know why I've been really dwelling on my life, particularly regrets of the past. Small regrets, big regrets. Just been thinking of them. Not in an overly depressed way. Kinda more like, how can I learn from these and teach my kids, or be there for them, so they might not have similar feelings.

I guess it's a little hard for me to tap into the way I was feeling, simply because I talked about all this with Dan. He is so wonderful in helping me navigate the crazy feelings I have of things that happened in my past. We stayed up pretty late Sunday, just sharing things from our past. It was like we were dating again...getting to know each other!

There were just tough things in my life I went through, and it seems like every once in a while I kinda go through it again, and process it with the knowledge I have now. I think that's where I was coming up feeling regretful about how I handled things. I know I can't do that. I usually end up reminding myself that things were different then.

So how's that for a lot of vague thoughts! I could share specifics, as I was ready to do last week, but talking it over with Dan was so amazing. I can't believe I'm still learning this- that talking about things that effect me, no matter how silly I think it may be, is pretty cathartic!

So where am I now, since I can't seem to retrieve those reminiscent thoughts that were hovering all week?? Just as sharing all those things with Dan made me feel like we were dating again, that feeling stuck around! We are so happy to be in each others company. There's been extra calls to and from work. Dan got us tickets to go see Phantom of the Opera!!! We're planning dates and family outing for the rest of summer. We're on a marriage high. :)

I just finished reading a blog post about marriage and the whole fairytale 'happily ever after' deal. Yeah, yeah. The giddy, all-consuming love you have before marriage isn't the way it will be after. It will lead to a deeper, more mature love, etc. I don't mean to sound like I don't believe this, because I certainly do. I know that marriage is a choice, and to say 'yes' to your marriage, can often mean saying no to your desires...daily. Work, kids, housework, life makes it so! There's so many things you have to put aside, to put others first before yourself. (Man, where was that when you were dating! How did we have so much time to spend together, and how did we have so much fun together, and it was all so easy, and fun... and now. Can't have a conversation cus of kids, and TV, and yard work, and....life!!!) Anyway...my point is, it's like having a glimpse of that carefree life again. And it's soooo lovely. And yes, it will probably wear away again, when we get busy and stressed or disagree. I guess there's always those dips in marriage as well. But I will always have hope, that we can find that infectious joy in each other as we help each other get to heaven.