In 2008, the economy took a downturn. I'm sure I stole that sentence from someone, but I don't know who it was. Maybe it's so commonly said that it's become free for anyone to use.

Milwaukee Downtown

Josh and I got married at the end of 2008, and when I moved up to Milwaukee to be with him, I couldn't find a job. No one was hiring. Not even fast food joints.
So, when Josh went to work, I stayed at home and caught up on reading, movies, and general interest trivia. (I would have crafted, but there was no room.) From December to April, I learned about LORT, Ten Chimneys, Anthropologie, vegetarians, downtown Milwaukee, food stamps, the Actor's Equity Association, and bilateral pneumonia. (Poor Josh. He was in 3 shows at once when he got sick.) I learned about other things, too, but they don't affect my life quite as much today as the afore mentioned items do.
We were freshly married, so it was nice to have that time to get acclimated to being a wife. I brought Josh lunch daily and ate with him. I got to know Josh better and more quickly since we were alone up in Wisconsin with no family to run to if we were not seeing eye to eye. I became creative in ways that I never had to be creative: living in a cramped room with a new roommate who had just as many things as I did, creating a clever chocolate concoction to pacify my chocolate craving (we couldn't afford a Snicker's bar), having an awesome day out on a date and spending less than $10 all day, learning how to bundle up tightly but fashionably to walk anywhere between December and March, etc.
After our time in Milwaukee was over, we went to Normal, IL so that Josh could go to graduate school. With the economy in turmoil, the best thing we thought we could do was go to school. (Josh went first because I'm indecisive about what I want to do.) We rented an apartment (sight unseen - yikes), moved our 2 pieces of furniture into the 2 bedrooms, and sat on the floor in awe of all the room we had in our possession. Taj Mahal.
Over the past 2 years, we've inherited furniture from family members and collected odds and ends from thrift stores. Our possessions no longer fit in two minivans. (Thanks for helping us move, Mom!) Oh, and I got a job. I figure that means the economy is doing a little better.
All that to say, the economic climate affected us, but perhaps unlike the way it affected the rest of the world. We didn't really know anything different than what we were experiencing at that time. I'm not saying we didn't worry about money - I cried when I found out exactly how much we owed for Josh's undergrad school bills - but I think we rolled well with the punches. I'm thankful we are where we are, and I'm excited to see where we go when Josh graduates!

Ten years ago was summer 2001 - and so much was happening in the present I didn't have time to think about the future!

At the end of my junior year of high school, I was quite certain I would be going to a small Christian college in Florida like most of my friends who were graduating that year. Though I had friends in my own class, I treasured the ones I had made in the grade ahead of me, and I almost dreaded my senior year without them. Fortunately, my senior year turned out to be a blast. Thanks to those who helped make it awesome.

Summer of 2001 I turned 17 - ready to start my senior year of high school! It was a good time. I had a job at a summer camp as a nanny, and I was thinking about being an au pair for a while in a foreign country. At that time I was waffling between majoring in acting and majoring in architecture (which I now know as engineering). By the end of the year, I was gently talked out of acting by my mother and convinced that being an architect was not as exciting as it seemed. (I wanted to design cool houses - not office buildings!)

While nannying many of my extended family members visited the camp for a week of Family Camp. That was awesome! I stayed up until the wee hours of the morning playing games with the cousins while the adults sat around and talked. I know that I thought we'd be doing this regularly for summers to come.

We have gotten together for Family Camp once since that summer.

Later in Summer 2001 my immediate family took a trip to Cape Hatteras in North Carolina. (A place my family still goes about every other year.) While we were there, we visited my aunt and uncle in Jacksonville at Camp LeJeune. While visiting, I remember seeing a picture of my cousin Andy and his girlfriend Katie. (Andy was on a mission trip in East Europe at the time, so I didn't get to see him.) Katie wasn't the girlfriend I had met last year; could she possible be as nice as that other girl? I was skeptical. Little did I know that Katie and I would become great friends - nor did I know that Andy and his brother Joe would become like my own brothers while I was at university.

As a 17-year-old, I thought I would graduate from college (no more than 4 years! no siree!), get married, and have kids a couple years later. On that timeline, I should have had my first kid in 2008. Yow.

I'm glad I'm not where I thought I would be - my sights are broader, my expectations are higher, and my family is dearer.