Fairytale, Chapter 13: Year 1

Wow! It's been a long process getting our fairytale written out--revisiting the past and recalling our experience through friendship, dating and engagement. And in the past two weeks we got to share how we celebrated our wedding and honeymoon. The next part of the journey will take us through the first four years of our marriage. And this whole story will continue, hopefully forever, and serve as a journal of our marriage: something cool to look back on at our 50th wedding anniversary.

Year 1

Fall

We were hitched in October and then Kels moved in with me in my subpar two-bedroom apartment on Office Park Drive in West Des Moines. Olde English Village was our "first home" together. Pretty anticlimactic, but it was where it all began. Jobs in tact and marriage license signed, we were officially fully submersed in the real world.

Kelsey: Although we didn't love our apartment, I remember the thrill of getting off work and hardly being able to contain my excitement that I got to go home to Eric. I was so happy that we were finally married and never had to live apart again.

Winter

We ate out a lot that first year. We had a super tiny alley kitchen that made it hard for either of us to want to spend time in there cooking a meal. We got to enjoy our first Christmas together as well. As the holiday approached we ventured out to look for the Williams family Christmas tree. The apartment didn't allow real trees (not that we would have gotten a real tree anyway), so we looked for a fake one. We settled on a prelit tree and purchased some ornaments, a tree skirt and matching stockings.

Soon after Christmas we started looking for houses. We did a lot of dreaming and thinking about the type of house we wanted, but again, we were pretty immature when it came to making this monumental decision to buy our first house. Sometime close to the end of January we had signed a purchase agreement for our new home. It was still being built, so we had to wait until April before we could move in. Kelsey's dad and I put down the carpet, well mostly him, but I did what I could

Spring

We were so excited to have our own place out in the 'burbs. Both of our families came down to help us move and in pretty much two days we were moved and all settled into our house on Sagewood Circle. This meant a longer commute for me and a realization that I really didn't like the job I had as a fleet manager for a trucking company. The stress was starting to take it's toll on me, but I tried my best to not bring my frustrations home with me. I remember Kelsey was very supportive and comforting to me during this time.

Summer

In June we took our first trip together since our honeymoon and traveled to Savannah, Ga., for Garrett and Lauren's wedding. I remember riding to the church in my tux and passing a bank with a temperature of 100, and it was extremely humid as well. But, it was was a beautiful wedding and I am so glad I got to be apart of it.

Before the wedding my buddies; Dave, Joe, and I made this video in the hotel swimming pool. I'm not sure anyone has ever seen it, but it was a tribute to Garrett and Lauren. It hasn't been edited and no camera tricks, we're just THAT good!

In August we enjoyed a week in Okoboji with Kelsey's family. This has been an annual tradition for many years and something that we always look forward to.

It's hard to remember what we did for our first anniversary. I think we just went out to eat and watched a movie. I guess once we were married, my memory started to fade.

Other highlights from our first year of marriage:

• First anniversary gift is supposed to be paper, so we got each other magazine subscriptions. Kelsey got Lucky and I got Golf Magazine.
• I turned 23 in March and Kelsey turned 24 one week before our anniversary.
• Two house rules were born: "I'm OK" and, once we were moved into our house, "Don't scare Kelsey."
• Myah and Maysen (our first and second nieces) were born in less than 2 minutes on May 31, 2007
• A couple weeks before our wedding we agreed to help out with the high school ministry (Ignition)
• We attended 7 weddings in our first year of marriage.
• Kelsey started freelance editing in her spare time