Nows probably not the time to admit that my last name has yet to legally change, right? Okay perfect. I won’t then.

In honor of our first anniversary, a nice little recap of the last year has been on the blog-genda. Let us all acknowledge that the most wonderful day in history was 4-12-14 and today is not exactly 4-12-15, but we were too busy reminiscing/celebrating last weekend to blog/gush.

Here’s a brief look back at our first year as husband and wife:

• 4/12/14: The most amazing wedding to ever occur (my completely objective opinion)
• 4/14-4/23/14: The most adventureless uber relaxing Costa Rican honeymoon (a very accurate summation of our 10 days spent eating, drinking and doing this…)

• June: Ryan the banker moves on up (and west) in his career landing a job with Berkshire Bank
• July: The purchase of the most perfect first home together on the street where Hesses reside.

• Fall:  My last semester as a nursing student and Ryan’s first semester as foreman of our (quite ginormous) home renovation project
• October-ish: Surprise-ish! BABY HESS is conceived. Wicked Pumped with excited eyes! Commence pregnancy.

• January: The Hess Station was born. Wicked pumped with more excited eyes! Commence blogging.
• Somewhere in there: The purchase of two family-friendly vehicles and concluding our days as that weird couple with matching subarus. (RIP gray subies)
• March: Jill the nurse moves into her own real career (finally!) and begins working as an RN at Mercy Medical Center
• April 2015: Here we are, 12 months later, looking forward to another year chock full of change, memory-making and jumping into the completely unknown — well I do know there will be far more laundry and far less sleep in the year ahead… So more jumping into the completely un-grasp-able (not a word)

Ok time for the gush now that the details have been covered, ready?:

• What I’ve learned: 

1. Love is an action. No really it is. That’s more than just a little saying that gets floated around the Internet. There’s substance to it.
2. Marriage is synonymous with compromise. So is wedding planning.
3. We make one heck of a team. And balance each other out more than I ever really understood. Our personalities, our talents, our temperaments, our skills, our values, our food preferences… some of these things may be more important than others, but I’m often amazed by how consistently we make each other better people.
4. Life is so much more fun when you are constantly laughing.  Whether it be at each other, at yourself, or at anything else, I love laughing with my hubs.
5. One cooks, the other cleans. I don’t care how you slice and dice it. This just works.
6. Whenever I notice the ring on Ryan’s left hand, I am still absolutely filled with a butterflies in my stomach excitement because I’m the reason he wears it…  I adore that I’m the girl behind that ring, always have, always will.

• What I haven’t learned:

1. What I ever did in my whole life combined to deserve a husband so positive, inexplicably supportive, and so far beyond thoughtful and self-less that I find it hard to imagine I’ll ever live up to the caliber of spouse that he just is…With this ease and certainty that I am sometimes dumbfounded by. I still don’t know how I got chosen to be this guy’s wife but it is the most amazing mystery and wonderful challenge to want so desperately to show him this same kind of all-encompassing, 100% self-less love that I’m shown every single minute of my life. Challenge accepted.
2. How much more my heart will be able to handle when I see him hold this baby for the first time… Imagining that moment makes me feel like I’m going to burst.

True or False: I just had a little sobfest over here at the Hess Station thinking about all the teeny tiny and super huge things that have added up to this year’s crazy happiness.  I’ve always felt I had an extraordinary capacity to appreciate, but this life I tell ya… makes it difficult for me to capture all of the beauty and joy that I’m surrounded by.

Stay tuned for another life-changing year for the Hesses… and all my attempts to take it all in and give each moment the attention it deserves.