{Why I Love My Little Apartment}

Last weekend, Mike and I moved. And moving is not fun. On top of just the whole entire physical move, I was starting to get really sad about where we were moving too. We were moving out of a 3 bedroom, 2 bathroom house, with a garage, backyard, big kitchen, and more, into a 1 bedroom, 1 bathroom apartment on the second floor that is about half the size of our house we were renting. This meant no garage to store things in, we would be walking up and down the stairs constantly, and we just didn't have as much room as we used to. So, as you can imagine, it was hard downsizing. However, now that we have been living at our apartment for a week, it's home and I love it there! And here are some of the reasons that I love my little apartment:

1. Less room means Michael and I get to be a lot closer all the time. We are pretty much always by each other in the apartment and I don't have to yell across the house to tell him something when he is in the other room.

2. Less space=less space to clean and take care of. Now we don't have to worry about taking care of the yard, mowing the lawn, pulling weeds, etc (which we rarely even had time for working full time and having things going on every night). I don't have spare bedrooms and bathrooms I have to clean. I don't have a garage I have to clean and organize. The only rooms I have to clean are the living room, kitchen, our bedroom, the bathroom, and my closet (which is pretty much the size of a room).

3. Speaking of my closet...MY CLOSET! It's absolutely huge. The master closet in the house was a pretty good size but I had to keep some of my clothes elsewhere and I was always stepping on my shoes on the ground because I had no where else to put them. The closet in my apartment is probably my favorite thing about our apartment. I'm seriously when I say it's huge. We even have room to put a dresser and big shoe rack in there. I finally have all my clothes and shoes in one place, along with Mike's clothes and shoes, as well as a section for food storage and just extra storage. My closet rocks.

4. Neighbors. Our old neighborhood was a housing development and I rarely saw my neighbors. In the 6 months we lived there, Mike and I probably talked to the neighbors on the right twice and never even saw the neighbors on our left. People would always just pull in and out of their garage and we wouldn't actually ever see them. Now, I am constantly walking by neighbors saying hello on our way to the car or pool. It's pretty nice seeing the people who live around you.

5. Living in our apartment complex means we get access to all of our amenities! In the house, we just had...well, the house. In our apartment, we get 2 pools, a spa, a tennis court, a small golfing green, a sand volleyball court, a gym, and more. It's nice to have those little extras.

6. Mike and I get to finally be our own persons. Mike and I attend the LDS church, and for my entire life, I have never been able to kind of "be my own person" and "have my own identity". This has absolutely nothing to do with the church though. When I lived with my parents, I was "Kirk and Jenny's daughter". When I went to the Singles' Ward with my brother, I was "Cody's sister". Even when Mike and I got married, we were "the brother and sister in law" of his sister and brother. Now, we are actually our own family and that's how people know us. We will be "Mike and Dani Gabriella" and no "so-and-so's family member" will be included after that. It's kinda nice :)

7. We pay less for electricity. Enough said.

8. We live next to two of our best friends. Enough said, again.

9. We have all the space we need. Don't get me wrong, living in that house was nice, however, I am glad that we have our own little space now and it's all the space we need. We don't need to live in a big house. All we need is each other. And I would rather live in a small apartment any day and get to spend all my time being next to Michael, than living in a big house and have all of these nice belongings. Mike said the cutest, cheesiest thing to me the other day-he said, "I don't care where we live, as long as I get to live with you." But hey, that's exactly how we feel about each other. Our time to have our own, big house will come, but that's not what we need right now. We will work for it, save for it, and enjoy it later. And I think that will be the best part about it; that we are the ones who made our own dream house a reality. But for now, our apartment is home. 

{How I Know My Marriage Will Last}

Both before and after I got married, I would run into two kinds of people. There would be the people who were super excited for me, talked about how awesome marriage is, and seemed happy with their own marriage/relationship. The other people...I did not like talking to as much. They would reply with "Psh, good luck with that" or talk about how 50% of marriages end in divorce and how "I may seem all in love not, but that will go away." And if you are in a relationship or marriage and telling ME that my love will go away, maybe you should start evaluating your own relationship first before you start criticizing mine.

I love Michael.

Plain and simple, I love him. When we got married, I swore to the ends of the earth, to God, and to Michael that I would love him forever. And that's exactly what I plan on doing for the rest of my life. I plan on trying to take care of him. I plan on hugging him tight every day. I plan on being goofy and trying to make him laugh. I plan on surprising him with things he loves. I plan on loving him. And if he didn't plan on doing the same, I wouldn't have married him. 

You know who's love I love? My parents. They have a good love. They will dance in the kitchen together, laugh together, go on dates every week, compliment and make fun of each other, and hug and kiss every single day. They love each other and they are happy together. They have been married for 24 years and that love "hasn't gone away" because they chose to stay true to those commitments they made to each other and work through any trials that came their way.

If both people in the relationship try to do as much as they can for the other and not be selfish, I don't see how the marriage could fail. I honestly don't. I married the most unselfish person I have ever met in my entire life. I couldn't have asked for a more faithful and helpful husband. So, because of him, I am trying so hard every day to not be selfish. I let him go out with friends when he wants, I let him buy what he wants, I try to cook and clean so he doesn't have to, I work so he doesn't have to worry about supporting both of us, and I try to make him as happy as I can. But I don't feel like it will ever amount to what he does for me. He makes me happier than I have ever been in my entire life. So next time you think about how your relationship may be failing, go a day just doing things for the other person and not asking anything in return. I promise you that THAT is the key to a successful relationship-not asking what they can do for you, but what you can do for them. 

After all, a line in our first dance song at our wedding was "I want to make you feel wanted".

Love-it's a good feeling, so make it last.