Sandwich

Maggie and I got married at the young age of twenty one. I had a lot of habits and she had a lot of habits that took some time getting used to. I had just returned from a mission to Paraguay. I was around missionaries for the past two years and I before that I was used to a house that was a little chaotic with eleven people all under one roof. Maggie had been more independent than me. Maggie had gone to Guatemala and taught English at the University of Guatemala in Guatemala City. Maggie was also finishing up her degree in Archaeology at BYU and I was just starting my own college career. So we had both built in habits about things like what time to wake up, exercise, what to wear, how to make the bed, how to wash to dishes and many other things. I was used to a loud house and she was used to a quieter one. I was used to plopping in front of the TV after finishing my work and she liked to read a book. Luckily for her we did not have a TV when we first got married. Because we only lived an hour from our parents home we would go home to visit often. If neither of us were working on a Saturday then we would plan a trip down to the parents house. We usually would bring our laundry along for the ride. Quarters wanted to be spent on other things beside laundry. The first weekend after we had gotten back from our honeymoon we stayed at Maggie's parents house. Maggie was ill and I could not figure out what to do with her. I walked in the door of my new in-laws house and basically asked mother-in-law to fix her. Maggie always says that it looked like I was returning her and saying to take her back. I of course was not I just knew that I did not have the ability to cure whatever ailed her and Mom's always know best. That day I sat in the study with Grandpa and watched TV while Maggie, her mom, and her two younger sisters talked in the kitchen. I was still a little uncomfortable with my in-laws so I stayed pretty quiet. I learned from that and many other visits that my in-laws also have certain habits about how things should be done. Every time we came home They were watching me. The in-laws were very nice but I could tell I was still being vetted as to my abilities as a husband. I think that it takes parents longer to get used to the fact that they have a new son or daughter than it does for the son or daughter-in-law to get used to new parents. This is probably because before coming into their family I had parents and I had a certain expectation about what parents do so adding another set was not so difficult. In the parents case they can't discipline their new son or daughter-in-law and they can't discipline their own son or daughter anymore. I think this will be just as difficult for me when my kids are newly married. One weekend while visiting the in-laws it was time for lunch. Now lunch consisted of grabbing all the different chip bags from off of the refrigerator, the bread from the bread drawer, and the meat, lettuce, tomatoes, and condiments from inside the refrigerator. These were all placed on the counter. Everyone gathered around the counter and we had a prayer. After prayer it was time to make your own sandwich I stepped up next to my father-in-law and grabbed two slices of bread and set them on the counter, I grabbed the mayo and mustard and put those on my bread and set the bread back down on the counter. I grabbed some meat, lettuce, tomatoes and I think there was some cheese and started to put these on my bread when my father-in-law handed me a plate. Now in my house making sandwiches was a task, especially on a Saturday. There were eleven of us so eleven sandwiches were needed. Mom would take one loaf of bread and lay them out in pairs on the counter. She would then get the mayo and put that on all of the sandwiches then following the same order would add the mustard, meat, lettuce and tomatoes if we had them. Then it was just a matter of putting the other slice of bread on top and everyone coming and grabbing their sandwich. In my father-in-law's house when making a sandwich one did it on a plate. Not on the counter!