Samantha K Schmidt

A few weeks ago, we had the opportunity to announce to the people we love that we were expecting our first child. Those people just happened to be nearly 100 high school students. My husband works full-time with students and I've volunteered as a mentor since we began dating 2 years ago. Although we have a few close friends, those kids make up the majority of our lives. It was amazing to see their faces light up when we made that announcement. It brought me so much joy knowing that they were so joyful for us.

Many men (sorry guys) have high expectations of marriage. They expect a woman who appears and acts like the 50's housewife of his dreams. Today, that vision just isn't realistic. The Feminist Movement has come too far for women to be perpetually fulfilling these unrealistic expectations. When millennials' grandparents got married it was quickly assumed that the man would work while the wife would stay at home and tend to all things "womanly": cooking, cleaning, etc. In the modern century, however, many wives don't have the option of staying home. Men and women are paired with the burden of providing for their families. In these instances, it would be cruel and unusual punishment for a woman to take on two roles (full-time business woman and housewife) while the man got to saddle back with his one role and relax the moment his feet hit the threshold of the home. At least this is the burden for many women. They feel crushed by their husbands expectations ...

For us, it took a long time to decide where we wanted to go on our honeymoon. We toyed with the idea of going abroad, but realized that was a little out of budget for us. The next thought was Hawaii. So many people go to Hawaii on their honeymoon, and I definitely liked the idea of being by the beach, but the reality was neither one of us would be able to relax and do close to nothing for an entire week. We are the kind of people who are always moving. Finally, we decided that we both love California, we love road trips, and we've always wanted to visit what we call "hipster cities" like Portland and Seattle. We boarded a flight from Orlando to LAX and spent our first two nights in beautiful Santa Monica.  The second night of our trip we decided to head over to Venice and try a restaurant suggested to us by the founder of Toms shoes. We ran into him on our flight and Eddie asked for some suggestions. It turned out his taste was a little too outside the box. We ...