30 Months of Matrimony: A Conversation

D: Today we are celebrating our 30-month anniversary. We have been married for 2.5 years or 915 days today.
J: Wonderful years.
D: Since we are so far apart, we were having a hard time deciding how we should celebrate, so we're going to talk about how great it is to be married on our blog together.
J: Derrill is the most thoughtful man I've ever known. And he always finds a way to show me that he loves me.
D: Yesterday at the temple, I was thinking a lot about Joy's smile and how much I like to see her smiling at me. I decided way back when that I wanted to find someone who had a great smile because I would want to do a lot of things to make my wife happy just so she would smile at me. It seemed like good synergy.
J: I wear a locket that Derrill gave me with his picture in it while I'm away so I can have him with me all the time. And 2.5 years later, I still feel that marrying Derrill was the best thing to do in the world.
D: I think one of the things we have improved on most in the last couple years has been our communication. We have learned better how to encourage each other and to communicate needs.
J: And we've learned how to plan together better and to work together better.
D: That's been particularly true this semester as Joy put in full time effort (more than 12 hours a day often) in helping me with the job market. I couldn't be where I am now without her help.
J: Yay!
D: It's been a great time for us to work together.
J: I'm thankful that we had some time together before we got pregnant, even though waiting to get pregnant is not easy. Then I didn't have to be all that emotional pregnant self right after we got married. ... I could just be my emotional other self! Haha!
D: The thing I like best about being married is how complete I feel. I have always really needed someone who loved me and would accept my love, someone I could be all of myself with. And Joy loves me despite all my flaws and weaknesses, and she loves me despite all my gifts and successes, and she strives always to let me be one with her.
J: I like best about being married because I have someone to talk to. *chuckle* Why are you not surprised?
D: *lol* We were talking recently about an old mission companion of mine who talked constantly, sometimes even in his sleep. I was amazed at how well we got along. I had been under the impression before that I wouldn't want to be married to a woman who talked a lot ...
J: hehehe
D: But I discovered that the difference between Elder Andrews and the talkative girls I had known was that he kept changing topics. Most of the very talkative girls I knew only talked about 5-6 things and then they started repeating themselves to the point where I could chime in and finish their sentences or stories. So working with Elder Andrews taught me I could get along with and be friends with a very talkative person.
J: hehehe
D: Joy may say "hehehe" at all these, but I really don't feel like she's too talkative. She's my Goldilocks juuuuuuust right.
J: And it is more than amazing to me to find a man who likes me with all of my flaws. And he still likes me after 2.5 years. Isn't that great?!
J: It's nice to have a husband that you can be safe with.
D: Oh, and we should announce that in just one or two days, we will enter the third trimester! *trumpet fanfare*
J: Yeah, for little Hyrum.

This life is a test

I'm actually creating this account mostly so I can make comments on the blogs of some of our dear friends who recently let us in on theirs. But I'll probably end up recording some of our happy information here for their benefit as well. It's been a very happy thing, being able to be part of friends' lives even when we're far apart. This will make the communication a bit more two-way.

For those random surfers who just happened to find us, you have reached the blog of Derrill and Joy Watson, two newlyweds (a mere 911 days thus far - a blissful drop in the bucket of Heaven) out in Ithaca, NY. Derrill goes to Cornell, and should be graduating with a Phud in development Economics this year. Joy goes to his head, and should be delivered of a baby boy, Hyrum Spencer, sometime in early/mid March. She is currently vacationing with my parents in Santa Barbara, CA, after spending two weeks caring for my grandmother in St. George, UT. The picture was taken at my parents' house when we were there last Christmas. It'll be another two weeks until we're together, and we miss each other with great pinings.

Hmmm, this is starting to look like a real posting. I'd better cut it out now before it does and the habit is firmly entrenched. (Oh, but it wants to be entrenched, my precious.)