"Come gather 'round people wherever you roam, and admit that the waters around you have grown."
- Bob Dylan
Looking back on the last year of my life I can not even imagine what I would think if someone had told me three years ago what my life would look like now.
I met my husband, Nathan, in April of 2008 and we started dating the following June. Anyone who knows us can tell you that we had a bumpy first couple of months, but we worked through it all and we couldn't be happier.
After months and months of talking about it and weighing out the pros and cons we couldn't stand it anymore and we got our first puppy, Briggs, together.
In November of 2009 Nathan informed me that he was thinking about joining the service. He wasn't really sure which branch and he spent the next 4 months talking to recruiters from different branches and gathering paper work for them and in March of 2010 he was sworn into the United States Army.
Nathan left for his Basic Training and his Advanced Individual Training at Fort Benning in Columbus, Georgia on May 5, 2010. Over the course of the next two months as his family and I struggled to figure out how to continue life without Nathan in it, Nathan learned how to shoot guns I had never heard of, climb ropes that are as tall as buildings, go through obstacles, kick down doors, clear rooms for people or things that could be a threat, and so many other things. He lost around 50 pounds and gained self-pride and self-confidence. In July he got a 36 hour pass for graduating from Basic Training and we got to drive down to Columbus and spend time with him.
After the best 36 hours of my life, it was time to give him back so that he could endure one more month of training. On August 19 we got to go back down to Columbus to watch Nathan get his blue infantry cord and on August 20 we got to watch him graduate from his Advanced Individual Training and we got to bring him back home with us this time!
Nathan got to spend a little less than a month at home with us before he had to report to his current duty station, Fort Stewart, Georgia on September 13. Before he left we decided that living four hours away from each other was just not going to work out for either one of us, so he went out and got me a ring and proposed to me on top of Stone Mountain. Since he was getting ready to move in a few days and we were all ready starting to miss each other, we decided that we had to get the show on the road. So my mom and I planned a wedding, and we planned it FAST!
On October 30, 2010 I walked down the aisle at Gaither Plantation in Covington, Georgia and I became Mrs. Smith.
Two weeks after the wedding we got our second puppy, Tyson, and started house hunting.
On November 17 we moved into our first house together in Richmond Hill, Georgia. We live on Kilkenny Creek which runs right into the St. Catherine's sound on the Atlantic Ocean.
Since we moved we have visited home quite a few times, had family and friends over to our house and we have started to learn how to live on our own. Every day is an adventure for us and we can't wait to see what is in store for us in 2011!
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