Mun Life Update
Main Story
It's been 8 years since I started this blog. I was 23, almost 24. I am now 31, almost 32.
I had started this blog a few months before the longest trip in my life, flying from central Iowa, USA to London, England for a 2-month semester of college studies. I didn't even want to be in college, but this trip was the carrot on the stick to get me through studies and get that diploma in my hands.
From April 26 2017 through approximately December 20th 2018, I was working at a restaurant in Des Moines, which was the source of most of my ooc angsty, self-loathing posts, and I apologize for whining and posting about vague shit in a public forum instead of actually talking to someone who could actually help me. I broke up with my joke of a boyfriend in June 2017. Life got a little better for a while, and tanked again because of how my and my sister's boss would play us against each other for no reason.
I quit the restaurant job, and my relationship with my sister almost immediately improved. I took about 2 months off of working, finished school, and graduated in spring of 2019. I found a new job that treated me much better, it was the only job I stuck with for more than 2 years, and I worked there until June 2024.
My sister quit the restaurant job shortly after I did, and became a private chef with a great company, and moved out of my parents' house. In fall of 2019, she met a fantastic guy, and in 2021, they were married. I didn't even want to think of dating again until probably 2022. There was one guy I only went on one date with that December, and then in 2023, I started seeing yet another boy, but his lack of a steady job and his inability to drive (while I had both) quickly put an end to any feelings I was struggling to keep aflame. Between late 2019 and 2022, I only got the 'rona twice (thanks to coworkers not staying home when they should have), and have lived to tell the tale.
My sister introduced me to a guy from her church (July 2023), and he proposed to me 5 months later on Christmas Day. When you know, you know.
We got married in September 2024, and we've been doing really well, we just celebrated our first anniversary a couple months ago, and he's been absolutely wonderful to me. We have a house and a dog, my husband's black golden-doodle named Percy (after the Thomas the Tank Engine character, not our our darling Director of Magical Security...)
There's my boy! On his 4th birthday! With his lamb! He's thrilled.
Percy Trivia:
His mother was a black poodle, his dad is a golden retriever; he takes after his mama.
My in-laws own his full-brother from a previous litter by the same dogs, so when we go visit, it's like having 2 Percys around. But Nacho is older and grumpier.
He's a ladies' man. Within a month of me moving into my husband's house, Percy has preferred me. It's kinda funny.
Hubby brought him home in 2022.
I've been a lifelong Christian of the Lutheran variety. When I first started this blog, I was very weak in my faith, and I am going to be very honest; none of what I was doing was helping.
I only went to church twice the whole time I was in England.
My attendance back home was being tainted by a highly toxic woman in the congregation (ironically the pastor's wife) who thought I needed to be protected from my own mother.
My drinking was way out of hand, bordering on being an alcoholic, and I am kind of ashamed of that.
Towards the end of my active period on this blog and after I moved entirely to Discord, I was dipping into writing smut, even though I had promised myself early on that I wouldn't. I have since quit writing it, it was almost as bad as I would find porn addiction to be in a guy. I have since stopped, and holding steady on my resolution for the last year and a half or so. Still working on not reading it anymore, but my life significantly improved since I've stopped writing it. Also, there's only so many euphemisms for sex words, and it was getting SO BORING to write after a while. It wasn't doing anything for me.
Pining, slow-burn, actual plot, whump, and hurt/comfort is much more satisfying for me to write anyhow.
Still working on the swearing, but every word has a time and a place. Rather than throwing out swearing wholesale, I've made a point of using words only in their appropriate contexts. As a result, I get taken more seriously as an Actual Adult. (it's so weird to be an actual adult doing actual adult things, you guys.)
Since I've been married, my drinking has become more of an occasional indulgence instead of a personality trait, and my husband and I keep each other in check on our vices.
2020 and Covid were my wake up call to get serious about something real instead of panicking like most of my family and the rest of the world.
All that said, I decided to put that effort into my religious life. After my church (that I'd been attending since 2014) refused to let my sister have her wedding there in 2021, I moved my membership to a church that wasn't afraid to have their doors open, and really got back into things. I'm still quite Lutheran, but recently with much more of a Catholic slant. I still have enough disagreements with the RCC that I'm not quite willing to cross the Tiber, as it were. But, I've sort of started veiling (mostly by wearing a bandana covering most of my hair. It's great for hiding bad hair days), I have been praying a form of the rosary semi-regularly, and I've read through the entire Bible once, and nearly twice in the last 5 years, I'm starting to get interested in a few different saints and Church traditions, and I'm looking for a good resource on learning more without departing from solidly biblical teaching.
Rapid-Fire Personal Stuff
I have two nieces, and another on the way (dunno boy or girl yet), and they are the light of my life.
Wedding colors were dark teal and earth tones, theme was Shire Chic, my husband and I are both LotR nerds first and foremost. The cake had a hobbit door on it, and we cut it with a replica of Sting.
Honeymoon was a camping trip to the Black Hills in South Dakota (now my home state). Hubby waited til we were home to tell me that the Hills are the most haunted place in SD. Whoops. To be absolutely fair, I didn't see or hear anything. And we climbed a flipping mountain!
We lost a pregnancy last December, and I'm still kinda emotionally recovering from it. Their due date would have been mid-August.
I'm now a stay-at-home wife. I cook, clean, do laundry, and READ. I have so much time for reading now, guys, it's unreal. I've read about 43 books since January of this year (2025). I've also joined the Ladies' Guild at my church, I get to help change out the altar cloths and sanctuary decorations, and I also have taken over the post of Confirmation Coordinator, which means for now that I make sure holiday cards get sent to our middle-schoolers who are undergoing catechesis. In April or May, I'll be in charge of getting robes ready and assigned to each kid, and getting the robes back for dry cleaning after the confirmation service.
I'm doing much better now, and I'm still alive (even tho I never thought I'd willingly make it past 26), and quite happy now that I'm not drinking like a fish, am more religiously involved than I ever remember being, and in a steady relationship with someone who has, for all intents and purposes, sworn to put up with my bullshit til the day I die (and vice-versa).
I pray that all of you are doing well, and that something good happens to you, wherever you are.
