The Marriage Diaries Vol. 1

July 18th was exactly one month ago today. I've been a wife for 31 days.  Sometimes it is still hard to wrap my head around the fact that we are married but then again I am loving every second of it. I though I would do these "Marriage Diaries" as little updates each month throughout our first year. I want to always remember the little things and always be able to come back and read about our first year together. I know once kids get thrown into the mix of already busy lives (in the future) then it will be so nice to remember when it was just us and starting out as newlyweds! So if this makes you want to puke then just skip over these each month ;)
If I had to describe our first month it would be: The busiest month with a lot of hard work and fun times mixed in, all while doing it all together.  Hard work: Moving the rest of my stuff out of my Cookeville apartment and unpacking it all. Also unpacking all of our wedding gifts and organizing where everything goes. We ended up getting a lot of presents at our wedding and still mailed to us after the wedding. We are SO blessed by all of our sweet family and friends who have shown so much love for us through this season of life.  Fun times: Just being able to do everything with Matthew and knowing that I get to come home to him after a long day made all that moving and unpacking okay. Dancing in the kitchen, taking a break from the unpacking to watch a movie, making little Target trips at the last minute to grab something, just riding around with the windows down and talking about our future and where we want to be in a year, encouraging each other, those sweet goodbye kisses each morning as he walks out the door. I'm telling you, it is all fun, even the not so fun moving, is fun when we are together and working as a team. 

I love the silly moments where Matthew has me doubled over in tears from laughing so hard that remind me marriage is a GOOD thing. I love the serious moments that remind me that Jesus and His will always come first. I love the sweet moments that make me tear up and fill me with so much thankfulness and remind me that this marriage is the sweetest gift.
We have been attending a new church, one that is closer to where we live now. So far we are loving it. They have a young married class that we have been going to and I am SO excited about it. Our first Sunday back from our honeymoon was the start of a new quarter so we haven't missed any lessons. I loved coming in on the very beginning so we weren't clueless as to what we would be studying. Our teacher is great and is very knowledgeable. We joined their Facebook group and I about died, I was so excited lol. They have girl's and guy's night and then have group outings that we are looking forward to attending. Also, they are having a marriage retreat this October. Y'all, I am so excited about this I can't even stand it. I have already been praying over the retreat and whoever our speakers are going to be. I love retreats and I love marriage! 

I have absolutely loved watching Matthew transition into his role as a husband. He has done it with grace and the best attitude. He leads, he serves, he protects, and he comforts all while being the sweetest man on the face of this planet. Now I'm not too naive to think it's going to be rainbows and butterflies the rest of our lives, but it's nice knowing that when the going gets tough I'm going to have Matthew by my side. This whole being on the same team thing is kinda the best thing...ever. 
Marriage is fun, being newlyweds is fun, making our apartment a home is fun, cooking together is fun. Life in general right now is just fun. I keep thinking to myself THIS is finally happening and THIS is real life. I remember during the end of our dating years I was getting pretty impatient thinking we were never going to get engaged and then married, and that time was moving so slow, but now looking back, I wouldn't change that time for the world. Our timeline leading up to us getting married was perfect and perfectly laid out by God. Everything happened at the right time and place and it's becoming more and more evident to me that it was all apart of God's plan. 

I promise these won't be as long each month, this first month has just been so, so sweet. Can we just be newlyweds forever?!  Matthew, thank you for being the best husband, for working so hard for us, for making me laugh all the time, and for choosing me. I'm honored everyday that the title of "Matthew Coats' wife" is mine.

I was going to post this yesterday on our actual "one month", but there were more important things to post about. I checked their Facebook's a little bit ago and there weren't any new updates. Still in constant prayer for the Waldron family and hope that you are, too. 

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The Marriage Diaries Vol. 1

Monday night date night

I wanted to celebrate Matthew passing the first part of this CPA exam but I didn't want to go overboard since it was just the first test and he has 3 more to go. So I decided we would have a date night in last night and go out when he passes his last test at the end of the summer. He grilled the burgers and then later we celebrated with ice cream sundaes! It had rained most of the day yesterday but when the burgers were done it had finally stopped and it was an overcast afternoon. It felt great outside and we had a lot of fun!

The rain held off the rest of the night, even though we were under a severe thunderstorm warning most of the night, ha!

My patio table came with an umbrella but in the afternoon the sun sets on the front side of my apartment so I haven't had to use it yet. The hole in the middle of the table bothers me though lol.   Monday's aren't all that bad when it's date night ;)

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Monday night date night

Anniversary weekend

Last Thursday on our anniversary I had to work, sadly so Thursday afternoon when I got off I rushed back to my apartment to change and get ready. I walked into my apartment and saw the prettiest flowers on my table

 

  

We went to dinner at a local restaurant here in Cookeville called Char and it was delicious. It was our first time eating there and needless to say it was well worth it!

 After we ate we still had awhile before our movie started so we went back to my apartment and watched HGTV and I dozed off on the couch (seriously, I am like 60). I also gave Matthew his anniversary present, I honestly had no idea what to get him.

I searched for weeks and then came across the idea of putting his graduation cap and gown in a shadow box and LOVED it.

While he was in Huntsville taking the first part of the CPA, I went over to his apartment and grabbed it out of his closet. His Beta Alpha Psi cords and stole are red and black, so it makes Tech's school colors look red and black but they aren't. They are purple and gold!

When he graduates in December I will put his second cap and gown and hood in a shadow box and when he has an office in our home one day we will hang these on this wall with his two degrees and certifications in the middle!

 

 

Our movie, The Million Dollar Arm, started at 10pm and it was SO GOOD! If you are wanting to see a good baseball movie then we definitely recommend it!

After the movie I was EXHAUSTED! Matthew dropped me off at my apartment and I was out as soon as my head hit the pillow.

 

Friday I had doctor appts in Nashville, so back after I scheduled the appts I looked at the Nashville Sounds schedule to see if they had a game that night, since we would already be in Nashville and they did!! I got us tickets to see them play that night at 7.

 

We ate dinner at a cute little burger place called The Pharmacy. Here are a few pictures from their website...

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It was the cutest little place to eat at!! I had heard many many great things about it but when we drove up to it I was a little skeptical but it just goes to prove, you can't judge a book by it's cover. They have a small dining area inside but most people that come through want to eat outside and we definitely wanted to eat outside. We ate under the covered patio (the top right picture, up there). The burgers were amazing and huge and I couldn't finish my meal. We wanted to try one of their famous milkshakes but there was no way we could even think about trying to drink a milkshake after eating that.

 

After we ate we headed to the Sounds game! It was starting to get cloudy and it looked like it was going to rain, I had checked the weather before and brought my rain jacket and Matthew brought his umbrella.

 

It did end up raining some during the game but it wasn't too bad and stopped shortly after it started and out came the prettiest rainbow!

We sat on the second row for most of the game but then realized there was no one coming to sit in the first row so we moved down for more leg room!

 

 

They played a great game and won!

 

It started out pretty hot but by the middle of the game it was feeling pretty good out!



 

On Friday nights after their games they always have a firework show and we stayed to watch

 

 

After the game we stopped at Sonic to get half price milkshakes!

We had so much fun celebrating our 4 years together, I honestly can't think of anyone else I would rather be with.

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Anniversary weekend

year four

If you missed year one, year two or year three you can go back and read them before you start year four!   We celebrated our 3rd anniversary with dinner and a movie. Also on our anniversary last year I found out I got the job in Cookeville. I found out that morning and I think we were both a little in shock all day that I would be moving sooner than we both had planned. We sucked it up and still had a great day together!! Matthew finished up his senior year and graduated with a degree in accounting, I started Tech in August. He turned 22 and I turned 21. Matthew started grad school in January and was offered a graduate assistantship.     //Year FOUR//   We went on a road trip to Chattanooga with a group of our friends and went to the aquarium

 

Jenny and I drove up to Short Mountain in late July to hear Matthew's devo for the youth group back home.

celebrated my 21st birthday with dinner and going to see Luke Bryan and FGL 

 

We went to Short Mountain in October for fall retreat with the SOC

carved pumpkins at my apartment

 Went to our first Halloween costume party as minions

 

had our 1st annual friendsgiving

Celebrated our fourth Thanksgiving together

 

Matthew's brother and roommate left his backdoor open and while we were at church a kitten ran inside and we kept him for a few weeks. We ended up giving him to a friend back home but we loved playing with him. We named him Cooper!! 

 

 

 

 tacky Christmas party with the SOC 

  threw Matthew a graduation party with all of our friends

 

Matthew graduated in December

 we celebrated our 4th Christmas together

 

We went to a couple of hockey games in Nashville

 

celebrated our 4th Valentine's Day together



 

took another road trip to Chattanooga

 

went to skyhigh in Nashville a couple of times

Matthew showed up at my apartment at 2:00 in the morning, knocked on my window and took me by surprise when he asked if I wanted to go get milkshakes at Steak 'N Shake but it was a blast!



 

 

celebrated Matthew's 22nd birthday

 

 

on March 6th Matthew baptized me at our church here in Cookeville 

 

on spring break we went back to Short Mountain for a work retreat with the SOC

 

 

 We watched each other play intramurals this year

 

 spent out 4th Easter together

 

 

 played a lot of disc golf at Cane Creek

   Year four has been SO fun! We have been able to do so much more now that we are living in the same town, from SOC events to eating lunch on a week day together, it's all so fun! So excited to see what year five will hold for us!! :) 

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year four