Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes

As I sit listening to my darling boyfriend play video games and smell the delicious mulled cider candle I just lit, I can't help but be reflective. Life has changed so much in the past two weeks. Change for the better. Change I've been waiting and longing for. Let's start at the beginning...

In case you didn't catch it in the opening sentence I have a boyfriend now. The infamous Bryan Pearce wandered back into my life and this time I've decided to keep him. Haha :) He is a classic nerdy gentleman who is sweet and compassionate and gentle and everything I could possibly want or need in a man. And I do use the term 'man.' He is not a boy as so many of my previous companions have been. He's the real deal. I'm a pretty big fan of him.

I am currently sitting at his house in Odessa. It's not just for a quick visit either. This is where I've come to call home (don't panic everyone! I'm staying with a family friend, not Bryan!) Two weeks ago I was still living in my parent's house wondering when life was going to start. And then out of the blue....it was going.

I have a job here now. It's temp work but hey, it's a job. It's so weird to be away from my family; to not come home and start dinner with my mom; to not fight with my brothers constantly. Last week was difficult, I'll admit. There were a LOT of tears. Homesickness was my middle name. I just didn't feel like I had a place to call my own.

This week is better. Bryan has graciously allowed me to take over his house (hence the new candle) and carry out my domestic desires. It's a win-win for him. He makes his girlfriend happy and simultaneouly gets a clean house, clean laundry and dinner every night. It's a pretty sweet gig. He lets me cook and clean. He shares his home with me so life can carry on with some sense of normality.

So I cleaned the kitchen and went grocery shopping today so I can make dinner for the two of us for the first time tomorrow night. (fingers crossed that it doesn't come out black) I enjoyed it.  It wasn't a chore. I guess somewhere in the past few weeks....I grew up. It's a strange feeling. I'm 24 now and for my birthday I got knives and kitchen towels and measuring cups and decorations for a future home. And I couldn't have been more pleased.

It's strange how you long for life to start - to have a boyfriend to love and a house to make your own and a job to pay your bills. You wait and you pray and sometimes you wonder if it'll ever happen. And then one day you wake up and you're in your boyfriend's living room with a fall-scented candle burning next to you and tears of joy in your eyes.