Sorry I haven't posted in a while but I have been reading a little here and there.

First, I should say that everything here is still very good.  Married life seems to agree with me but I am staying incredibly busy.  The main reason I stay so busy is simply because my wife just is never satisfied with the amount of time we spend together.

She can never get enough of me which is rather surprising to me since I thought for sure that she would be sick of me by now.  So that is a good thing.

The second is that now we are both working and it takes more time to coordinate our schedules.  At least we work during the same times.

I work from 10pm to 6am and she works from 10pm to 7am.  I drop her off at work and then pick her up after work.

She got a job at good ole Walmarts and I think is happy to be earning her own money but still has some problems from this work.  She really wanted to go to work because she was getting a little bored around the house so we finally landed her a job at Walmarts.

But she sometimes gets a little depressed and upset because she cannot understand what people are always saying.  All I do is try to comfort her as best I can and encourage her on how well her English is coming along.

Our biggest differences come in the form of style of clothes.  She often hates what clothes I choose to wear so I give her some input into my wardrobe just to make her happy.  Anyway I figure it doesn't really matter since she is the only one I am out to impress anyway.

For instance.  I often wear my old tennis shoes because they are broke in and very comfortable but she often wants me to wear new looking shoes when I go out in public.  Personally I still like the old broke in look of clothing but she is fixated on wearing new looking clothing when we go out.  It is just something that I have to try to adjust to and try to find some compromise on.

I have to admit that I am still stubborn about my clothes but I am making progress in the area of compromise.  

Overall I think we do a good job at compromise up to this point.

I really hope to be able to post more freqently and also sincerely apologize to Wsbill and Richard and Jack for not keeping tabs and getting back to you all.

I really appreciate everything that everyone has done for me and hope that I will be able to do the same at some point.

      Well you certainly went after what you wanted, as I recall losing your job over the whole thing.

Glad to hear all is going well. That is great that you both work similar hours.

Do not get offended if later she does not seem to need as much of you. Right now you are the center of her Universe in a foreign land. The day will come most likely in which she will want to find her wings and live some of the American life without you having to be there.

About the clothes, before I went to Russia/Ukraine, I went out and totally changed my wardrobe. My recommendation is let her dress you anyway you want, even if you think it is a bit spendy relative what you would have normally spent. It is going to make her feel good to do this and she is having to deal with a lot more than you right now. Do not argue with her but be totally compliant is my recommendation.

We have a really nice little Hall in Ft. Worth called Bass Hall, and it is very elegant and tasteful, and they bring everything from symphonies to broadway shows there... and I am apalled at the way some of the people dress to go there.

Not everyone, of course.

I mean, I like jeans as much as the next guy, but certainly some occasions demand a little dress up.

Of course, to a woman from the FSU, it seems that the occasion is every time she steps out of the house :-)

But as you said, if they do it... I'll do it. No problem. And I just factor in a little "make-up time." No big deal. I am willing to wait...

So I did. I actually preferred it trimmed more, but I want to be as attractive as I can be to the woman I am with.

A few months ago, I was dating this AW and  She made the comment to me once that she thought I would look better if I grew my mustache out. So I did. And, she noticed the difference, and commented on it, and said that it did look better, and she was glad I took my advice. (BTW, I didn't agree, but she was the one who had to kiss me...)

Well, once during conversation the subject of a woman wearing makeup came up, and I mentioned that I really loved it when a woman wore eye make-up. Didn't have to be all of the time, but when you go out someplace special, and get all dressed up... I thought a woman looked really beautiful when she wore eye make-up.

Her response was simply: "Oh, well, I don't wear a lot of make-up. That's not who I am."

Now, she was a very pretty woman. She had the long blonde hair "natural" look going. But dang I would have enjoyed seeing her made up just one time... (And we went out to nice places a LOT...)

Anyway... that little situation was indicative of the reasons why we just weren't right for each other. Not because she wouldn't wear make-up... but because we were on a course of "one-way" compromise. (There were many other examples of this, that I won't get into) That is a bad place to be in a relationship.

I am assuming that your wife dresses to the nines when you go out.

I know that whenever Victoria and I went anywhere she would dress up. I had taken jeans with me that never made it out of the suitcase. I don't mind dressing up, and I sure wasn't going someplace with her looking like a model, and me looking like a stalker!

So, I think you are wise to let her have input into your clothes.

I have always looked at it this way: I will let the woman dress me, if she lets me undress her later :-)

Thanks for posting, don't be a stranger!

I don't want her dressing down.

I'll dress up instead!

In Kiev, she never complained about how I dressed (Except she did say that she liked me in a jacket -- which was fine in Kiev, but not in Dallas where it is over 100 degrees right now!)

But she may have been watching me the whole week and thinking: "When I marry him, I can really clean him up!"

I think that is a woman thing, anyway, that crosses country boundaries.

I never understood how a woman could think I was cool enough to go out with me, would always tell me I looked nice, and then want to change my whole wardrone the minute I said "I do."

Maybe they don't want you wearing any clothes that some other woman has seen you in? I dunno... but it seems universal...