Quick, go back and get caught up on the story with Part 1!
You know how you look at everything your parents have and think that will be you in the first year of marriage?
Ha. Not so. I don't know what I was smoking.
Everything looked so neat and nice on my registry list, and I dreamed of coordinating furniture and comfy couches, but it 'twas not to be.
For one, we didn't have a lot of money to start. Oh, we had more than we would have had we not talked about our finances earlier in our relationship, but Joseph was currently working full-time as an assistant camp director, and I was working part-time as a retail associate at our local Kmart.
We weren't necessarily raking in the dough.
A move to the middle of nowhere
After we got married, we moved straight out to camp. Staff training started within a week after our honeymoon, followed by 8 weeks of camp. That summer, I managed the bookstore and snack shop, plus I was helping Joseph whenever I could.
Because camp income was limited, and they didn't provide any insurance, we had to pay through the roof for our own policy. That set us back a little bit….and we were 25 minutes from the nearest Walmart, so we spent a lot on gas too. (But housing was free!)
Despite all that, it was a great summer, and I really don't regret any of it. Not only did we spend time with some of the most wonderful people I've ever met, it really taught us to pinch our pennies. And we needed the practice since I would finish up my degree come Fall.
Time to move….again
Because we didn't have a lot of money from the summer, we were really limited on what we could spend on an apartment and what we could put in it.
Thankfully, we heard a pastor and his wife were trying to find someone to rent their upstairs apartment, and they also happened to be good friends with my grandparents.
We were even given some hand-me-down furniture from family. We had a dining room table with chairs that broke, a pretty scratched up bedroom set, and an ugly couch from the 60's, but it was home. And lets not forget the variety of bathroom and kitchen towel colors I received as wedding gifts. I got over it quickly.
Everything just seemed to be working out. Within a week of moving, I got a part-time job at a bank, Joseph started working as a manager at McDonalds, and we were still holding out hope he would land a job at a local news station so he could make use of that degree he had!
It only took a couple months before he was hired as a news videographer position and even though he had to work two jobs for about a year, we were very happy.
Minus the car breaking down twice.
And not having a clothes dryer for a while.
Oh, and Joseph ended up in the hospital with an appendix issue.
Nope, we were still happy! {grin}
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