“Oh! I forgot to tell all of you guys, we just got our expected arrival date! We’re moving to Tennessee on September 30^th!”

My husband was very excited when he broke the news to all our friends. On the dance floor. At our wedding reception. It was also news to me. The Air Force had told us we wouldn’t be moving for another year, at the very least, and I was perfectly content with staying in Nebraska until then. So, naturally, I smacked him on the arm and exclaimed, “What?! You never told me that!” Then we proceeded to argue, in front of our wedding guests, as my husband insisted that I had just forgotten.

First of all, I don’t forget things, Andrew, and secondly, that premarital counseling seemed to really do us well, huh?

So we ate our cake nibbled on our mouse-sized bites of cake, tossed that bouquet (almost into the chandelier), and said our goodbyes to our families as we got ready to head off on our blissful honeymoon. But the whole time, I just couldn’t stop thinking, Oh my gosh, we’re really moving. In just a few months. What am I going to do?

You must be thinking, ‘you crazy girl, you’re spending your wedding night obsessing about moving? Stop it!’ Right now, I’m certainly kicking myself for focusing on that instead of my perfect, despite-that-moving-bomb, husband. But you see, I had already planned out a job for the next year, I had planned to spend one more Thanksgiving and Christmas with our families, I had planned on seeing the Nutcracker Ballet at the Orpheum for the millionth time, I had planned to continue getting my haircut at my favorite place in the Old Market (we should all understand how important this is, people!). I just had plans. But all of that was never going to happen now. And I was worried, upset, and unsure about what our future would look like. I was scared. I had lived in Nebraska for 23 years and I was comfortable and content there. I told myself I could never be as happy in Tennessee as I was in Nebraska. It just wasn’t going to happen.

Now don’t worry, I didn’t stress about moving the entire honeymoon 😉

Fast forward a few months and we were packing up our one-bedroom apartment in Bellevue, loading up the moving truck, shedding lots of tears, hugging family and friends goodbye. And then we left for our new home in the South. I had spent the last four months planning our move and finding our house, making a bucket list of all the things we had to do in Nashville, and I was actually starting to get excited. I was even more excited when we pulled into the driveway of our first home and started unpacking. I was really happy when I got to make my husband our first meal in our new home, and even more so when we went to explore Nashville for the first time.

We’ve been here for three weeks now and every single day, Tennessee seems more and more like our home. Of course I miss my family, my favorite Chinese restaurant right next to our apartment, seeing for miles and miles as we drove down the highway, but this place is beautiful too! The trees are everywhere and they are so pretty right now. We’ve made some wonderful friends and I’ve started painting and decorating and making our house feel like a home. It’s just the two of us here relying on one another rather than referring to our families, and that has helped us to become so much stronger in our marriage (and I’ve had plenty of opportunities to make up for being such a worrywart on our wedding night!). The jury is still out on a good Chinese place around here, though, but I’ll keep eating those egg rolls until I find one.

So all in all, this first military move hasn’t been so bad. We’re settling in, we’re happy, and we’re already planning on expanding our family. And by that I mean we’re getting a puppy next week!

In the spirit of now being a Southern housewife, See y’all later!