"How's married life?"

Most popular question we've been asked since we tied the knot. I don't think we feel much different, since we were already living together before getting married, but I imagine if we did it the traditional way of getting-married-and-then-moving-in-together that it would feel very different. I reckon I'll make a video someday about why I believe that moving in together before getting married is awesome and makes things easier come the big day.

But I do have a blog post today about the top 5 things I've learned since getting married:

#1: Paying property taxes is very much like doing any government thing anywhere in the world - take a number, get in line, wait an hour for your turn. I don't know why I had it in my head that I would waltz up to the tax office, march up to a front desk and hand my check over and be in and out in under five minutes!

#2: It's easy to stop having "dates" after getting married because you live together and feel very comfortable around each other. The local civic center is a great place for Friday night date nights! Darren took me to watch Cirque Dreamz Holidaze there and it was a lot of fun. :)

#3: Don't forget to spend time with your friends. After the wedding it was really easy to stay in our own little bubble, and after having a socializing-overdose with wedding and family stuff, all we wanted to do was stay in until we got cabin fever. However, we were really busy with chores and errands, and more family stuff for Christmas, so we didn't have a honeymoon yet. I'm kind of glad because I didn't lose touch with the outside world, and still spend time with my friends in Austin.

#4: Take pictures. Maybe it's a long-distance-relationship thing more than a marriage thing, but I don't know what I would do without taking at least one picture at each memory we make or adventure we take. I want our home to be filled with photos and memories so we'll always remember what it was like to have fun with each other, just in case someday when we're older we may forget.

#5: The second-most popular question we've been asked is "So when are you guys planning to have kids?" (or a variation: "How many kids are you planning to have?") It's really quite a terrifying question because neither of us are good with babies or kids (cue: picture of me laughing as I made my friends' baby cry when I held him) and we feel like we can't even begin to afford one. I don't think there is a need to rush into having kids or even rush into a decision. I wonder if there are newlyweds or young-ish couples who actually have kids just because their families/communities are pressuring them to. :/ I think people just shouldn't ask such a private and personal question of couples, because you have no idea if someone is fighting a private battle - like what if a couple has been trying to conceive for years but haven't been able to, and they have been disappointed over and over again, or have spent a ton of their savings for fertility treatments?