My, How Things Change...

August 2002... doesn't seem that long ago, does it? I was thinking about what Sgt. Dan said regarding changes in your attitude toward life and what you desire from it. This picture was taken only 3 1/2 years ago, but to me the girl in that picture is a completely different person (and I'm not just referring to the hair color). Fresh out of college, I had only been dating Sgt. Wally a matter of days. Our lives revolved around boozing and staying up late (or early, depending on how you look at it). 3am Sheetz runs after Wally finished bartending, then sitting cross-legged on his living room floor counting stinky, folded up "bar funk" dollar bills from a Rolling Rock bucket. I was living in a 3 bedroom apartment that he shared with 3 other guys with one bathroom and NO bedroom door. Also, I am not exaggerating when I say this place looks like a crackhouse from the outside. But I was fine with this, I had no other expectations from my life at that time but to party and have fun. And here I am, only a few years later, and our worlds have been completely rearranged. I look at this girl and think, "See that guy you're hugging? In 6 months you are going to be his wife!" I wouldn't have bet a dime on that. But time and experience makes your priorities change. I still remember the first time my husband told me he loved me. It was 2 months after we started dating and he was on a two week training in Camp Shelby, the first time we had ever really been apart (two weeks seemed like an eternity then, how naive I was). He was afraid to say it those first couple months, wouldn't let me say it either, he worried it wouldn't be genuine. We were on the phone his last night there and he told me that he couldn't wait to come home...so that he could tell me that he loved me. I cried. He was immediately mad at himself that he let his emotions get the best of him and didn't wait til the next day to say it in person, but I didn't care. Of course I was thrilled because I finally got to say it right back. I love him more than words could ever describe. We have grown and matured together, through the Kosovo deployment, our first year of marriage that has been stretched out over three, and now Iraq. We will go through so many more transitions in our life together, and I am so thankful that I get to experience it with him. Thank God I don't have to count bar funk dollar bills anymore.