Married life.

Whenever I know a couple that gets married I always want to know...what do they do after all that wedding excitement? Although I've seen a few friends and family and have had a chance to catch them up on what we've been up to, my list of needed skype dates is very long and I've been kind of bad at keeping in touch with all of our newlywed busyness. Here's a super quick summary of what our little Ullrich family has been doing lately. :)


We've been living in AJ's aunt and uncle's basement since the night we returned from our honeymoon, which is even better than I thought it would be. At first I was a little sad about the idea of not returning to our own place after our honeymoon, but the basement apartment we've been blessed to live in is amazing. We have a bedroom, our own bathroom, a kitchen that's bigger than my mom's (not actually hard to do), and a pretty nice tv. We've also been blessed to spend lots of time getting to know my new aunt, uncle, and cousins just by living in their house. They are such gracious hosts and have made us feel right at home here. I'm going to miss this place, especially since we're supposedly living in a hotel room this summer.


So that's where we live, and here is what we've been doing. I was able to still coach a few softball games with my dad when we returned to Illinois, so we were busy with games for about a week. That is something I will definitely miss a lot, not only because I love the game but because it keeps me close to my father and sister. We've also spent time changing my name, seeing a couple friends before we leave, and eating meals at our parents' houses. Today is the first day we're actually cooking dinner! Like many newlyweds, we have plenty of thank you notes to write and wedding gifts to sort through. Unfortunately, the vast majority of our gifts are going into storage because we don't yet have a home. Basically, we've been super busy every day. I'm actually somewhat looking forward to some peace and quiet in Virginia.


Overall, newlywed life has been really good for us so far. We're so blessed to finally be together for awhile, because we're so used to being apart. That has smoothed over many misunderstandings and hardships for us. We love seeing our family so much and don't have to worry about working just yet. At the same time, this is one of the toughest times in my life so far. It's very challenging to have to move so far away so quickly just to see your husband, and even then I don't exactly know what I'll do to pass the time in Virginia. I'm happiest when I'm busy, so the thought of not working or going to school or having a church home is a little scary to me. I'll spare cyberspace the details, but I will say that so far being an Army wife has stretched me a lot. It 's unpredictable, it's painful, it's frustrating. It's hard, and I know that I'll continue to face challenges especially in the next year. Even so, I am finally married to the man that I love, and I would never dream of living apart from him as long as I have a choice. Come war or peace, Army life or civilian life, I love AJ and know that he is God's choice for me. We're in this together for life, and he's worth every sacrifice.