Mike got to drive the U-Haul while I drove behind him in my Camry. It was a pretty boring 7 hour trip, but to break up the monotony we stopped in Hannibal, MO. It is the boyhood home of Mark Twain where many of his books were based on. They had a museum and the famous Tom Sawyer's Fence. Of course I had to get a picture of Mike painting the fence. While texting back and forth with my mom she told me that her, Uncle Jimmy and Papa K (their dad) stopped there once before. She found the exact picture that we took while there. So cool!! It was a cute little town to explore.
We got all moved into our very small, smelly, dingy apartment the next day with help from Mike's family. This is the apartment we (mainly Kathleen) agreed to stay in for the time being while we looked for houses. It was one of the cheapest ones we found. Now if you don't know this about me, I am a big time saver. I can't see spending above $700 on rent of an apartment that we will only be staying in for about a year. I didn't want the absolute cheapest apartment of course, but I wanted the next step up from that... We had money to afford a better apartment, but why spend more money if we didn't have to? Mike was at that point still in his "first year of marriage Mike" stage. "First year of marriage Mike" agreed to basically anything I said. He had opinions, but didn't voice them as strongly as he should have. If he didn't really want to do something he wouldn't really speak up. It was great for me, but everything he wasn't saying was starting to boil up inside him. For example, when we found the apartment in Lenexa, he wanted to live a a slightly better apartment, but it was more expensive so I put my foot down and explained how living in a worse, cheaper apartment would be so much smarter. (Looking back I was SO wrong). Anyways, we got the apartment I wanted, and he agreed to, and while moving in I started tearing up because it was so bad. It smelled like smoke, there were stains on the carpet, there were insects in almost every corner and it was just gross. BUT it was cheap! Let's just say we started looking for houses sooner rather than later. After the first couple of weeks we were still unpacking things and we had quite a few books so we decided we needed a bookshelf. Mike suggested going to Ikea because they were on the cheaper side but still sold semi-quality products. That was not even an option for me because Goodwill had bookshelves for like $10!!! Why would you buy a brand new $70 bookshelf when you can get a slightly used one for $10?!?! Of course we had money to spend on a new one, but why would you if you can get it for cheap? Also have you seen the apartment we live in? Why would we need a nice bookshelf in that sh*t hole?! (That is the name we gave the apartment) Well "First year of marriage Mike" agreed to go look at Goodwill. We got there and found a decent looking 5 shelf bookshelf and I was excited! Mike kept saying the boards were warped and we could afford a new one and this and that, but I just ignored him (man, am I a good wife or what?). He was still mumbling Ikea under his breath, but got one of the workers to load it up on a dolly and roll it to the front of the store. We checked out and Mike brought the Camry around. I told him we should probably go back the the apartment to get the truck since it's definitely not fitting in the back of my Camry, but he said he could make it work. There was another car behind us trying to unload something and Mike hates to be in people's way so I knew he was rushing to try and fit the huge bookshelf in the trunk. I kept suggesting to go get the truck, but he wasn't having it. He took all the removable shelves out of it and just folded the sides and the top and bottom down so it would fit. Well this made the backing of the shelf rip. Then Mike basically folded the entire thing in half which definitely ruined it. I kept telling him not to rip it and be careful, but that just made him more mad. Then I got really mad because we had just bought the $10 shelf that was in 11 different destroyed pieces in my trunk... That car ride home was the quietest car ride I have had. I'm pretty sure steam was coming off both of us because of how mad we were at each other. This was the point where everything exploded that Mike had kept bottled inside. When we got close to the apartment he kept saying "We can afford a new bookshelf, we have the money for it. Why do we have to buy crap when we can afford new things?!" So in my mind I'm thinking, "Well okay then, if we can afford new things I will just go to the mall as soon as we get home and buy 20 Michael Kors purses. We can afford them so why not?!" Man, I had it all planned out. It was going to be good. We get home and I storm in the apartment and Mike comes in a little behind me. I ask if he wants to talk and I told myself that if he didn't I was getting my purse and heading to the mall. Sad to say he told me he would like to talk. No purses or sweet revenge for me. We talked it out (tears were involved) and made up then walked straight outside and threw the bookshelf in the dumpster and headed to Ikea. That was our first real fight. I will never forget it either. We look back now and laugh and share the story whenever we can. I am so glad we can talk things out and let each other know how we really feel now (even if it means I don't get my way 100% of the time anymore).
