Wise Words Wednesday: Woe Is Me

"If only the people who worry about their liabilities would think about the riches they do possess, they would stop worrying." - Dale Carnegie

My little night owl.


I make a huge point of trying my hardest to never feel sorry for myself. I know that there are millions of people on this planet who are dealing with things that even the darkest depths of my mind can't fathom. I really do try my best to feel grateful for each and every moment God gives me - the good, the bad, the ugly.

HOWEVER.

When it's 4:30am and you're dealing with a crying infant who's been waking up throughout the night, it's hard not to feel down. For the last week Landon has been giving me a heck-of-a time at night. Last night he woke up at 11pm, 2am, 3:30am, & 4:30am. So, at 4:30 this morning I hit a low point. In my delirious state I busted down in tears and thought, "why me?" as if this was the worst thing in the world. And I felt sorry for myself. Sorry that I had to be up for the day in an hour and a half after a restless night. Sorry that I had to head off to a crazy-busy day at the office, including a big client presentation, with my sleep deprived brain. And just plain sorry for my poor boobs that had been sucked on all night. Yeah, that's right... I said it.

Ya wanna know how I handled me and Landon's 4:30am sob fest? I put the fussy baby back in his crib and I went back to bed, shutting both doors behind me. I ended up getting an extra hour of solid sleep and he must have eventually fallen back to sleep because he woke up at 7am, happy as a clam.

And now my brain is on straight again and I'm back to feeling grateful for the life I have been given. Sure, I look like a drug addict with my bloodshot eyes and I feel like I need a caffeine IV right now, but I don't feel sorry for myself any more. I chose to be a parent. And I chose these sleepless nights.

I guess I just need to remember this next time I'm crying my eyes out at 4am.

Just Write {First Kiss}

Four friends laying by the lake on a muggy summer's night. Girl, Boy, Girl, Boy. There was flirting and laughing interspersed with yawns. The sound of crickets filled the air and the smell of campfire was embedded in our hair. Soon enough four voices dwindled down to just two and then quiet.

He inched closer to me. His body just barely touched my right side, but I swear I could feel every pore of ours that collided. My heart was pounding so hard that I was positive he could hear it through my chest.

The silence was awkward. I started to sweat. I could hear the low slow breathing of our two sleeping friends. Now what? I could feel the chemistry shooting between us, but I didn't know how to act on it.

And I didn't have to.

In an instant he rolled on top of me and our mouths met. I always wondered if my braces would get in the way of kissing and now I knew... they were not an issue. The real issue was the amount of saliva dripping down the side of my mouth and how his tongue was practically choking me.

Is this what kissing is like? Wow, I guess this isn't all it's cracked up to be. Now what do I do? Keep going? Push him off me?

I felt like I was drowning. Drowning in a sloppy make-out session that was far from romantic. After what felt like an eternity of tongue thrusting drooliness, I finally got the nerves up to pull away - turning my head to the left while his mouth hit my right cheek.

"What's wrong?," he asked.

"Oh, I just think I should be getting back to my tent. I'm tired." Geez, what a lame excuse.

Before he could say anything I was waking my girlfriend up and dragging her back to our campsite. Wiping the saliva off my check as we ran through the darkness.

My first kiss was far from perfect, but I guess I'll never forget it.






Today I'm linking up with Heather over at The Extraordinary Ordinary - I absolutely love her free writing posts, so I thought I'd give it a try. :-)

Monthly DIY: Magazine Picture Frame

For my Feb DIY project, I took a little trip to the craft store with a Pinterest idea in mind, but couldn't find the dang supplies I needed. So, instead I walked out with a $4 plain wood picture frame and decided to get funky with some old magazines and catalogues.



Nothing extraordinary, but a super easy and fun little project. Here's what ya need...

Supplies:

• Plain wood picture frame from craft store (or an old one that you want to re-purpose)
• Old magazines, newspapers, or catalogues
• Scissors
• Mod Podge
• Paint brush or something else to apply Mod Podge

Now do I even need to explain what to do next? All I did was go crazy cutting out anything that caught my eye in my old magazines. I made this frame to hang in my kiddos' bedroom, so I kept that in mind. I seriously didn't take longer than 10 minutes to chop out random crap. And then? As fast as I could, before my littles woke up from their naps, I painted some Mod Podge on the frame, smacked on my cutouts everywhere, let it dry for a few minutes, and then painted one last layer of Mod Podge over the entire thing. Let that beast dry and then DONE. Easy peasy.

We hung it over Leila's bed and she just loves it.



Now I'm not gonna lie... this frame turned out FAR from perfect. The wet Mod Podge caused a lot of wrinkle action to happen on the thin magazine paper (you can kinda see it in the word "COOL" in the above pic). I'm thinking if I had a do-over I would use maybe a spray adhesive or something less wet to glue everything firmly down to the frame BEFORE applying the Mod Podge over the top. But, I don't even know if that would help. Any pro Mod Podgers out there???

Either way, I am still super happy with how it turned out and I am totally keeping this little craft in mind when gift times roll around. Who wouldn't love a funky fun frame like this? Oh, and I also bought a huge "B" at the craft store (for our last name) that I plan on Mod Podging with family photos. That'll be a DIY artsy craftsy project for another month.

And this is about the extent of excitement from my weekend. Did you do anything fun?

Friday Night Word Vomit

The end of the work week makes my brain feel like mush, so ya know what that means? A random thought post... a little bit of word vomit.

• House Hunters International makes me wanna drop everything and move somewhere exotic.
• Speaking of exotic, or at least tropical, I added a new Dream To Do to my list... buy a condo in Hawaii. And ya know what? I think this one may actually happen sooner rather than later!
• Ya know how I said in Landon's 4 month post that he still isn't sleeping through the night completely? Well, he still isn't. BUT, that night he did! And it was A-M-A-Z-I-N-G.
• Hubby's off this weekend and I am stoked! House is gonna get cleaned and we are all gonna do some big time bonding.
• Healthy Choice fudge bars are heaven in my mouth. Seriously. And only like 100 calories. Not that I really watch what I eat.
• Speaking of food, we made stuffed peppers the other night and they ROCKED my world. I promise I'll share the recipe soon and you won't be disappointed.
• Last week we had a lady come to our house to give us a quote for new blinds in our living room. The verdict? $1,600. Gasp. You know how many pairs of shoes I could buy with that $?
• I am still Body Rocking my booty off every week night (well, most nights) and I am loving it! And I am not joking... my butt is WAY firmer and I feel stronger. And only 20 minutes/night is right up my alley... totally doable. Almost done with the Feb 30 day challenge, so I will update again soon.
• Hubby is weird. He loves to pick out all of the random white hairs that grow throughout Billy's black fur. Doing it as I type.
• Exciting things going on in my brain right now. Now if only I could make these exciting things happen in my life.... hmmmm...
• Ate WAY too huge of a lunch today and I'm paying for it now. Still bloated.
• Two happy happenings in my life: got a big ole annual bonus at work AND I'm going to Vegas on a girls' trip in April!!! Love my girls.
• Ok, I'm tired now. It's 9:15 and all I can think about is my amazing bed. Please tell me this is normal. How the heck am I going to live it up in Vegas if I can't keep my eyes open past 9:30?

And now for a little bit of photo vomit to top this post off...

Stuffed peppers. YUMMO!


Baby holds his own bottle sometimes!


$1600 window blinds??? I don't think so.


Off to bed for me! I'll be partying it up in my dreams. Happy weekending All!

Wise Words Wednesday: Quiet

“Quiet is peace. Tranquility. Quiet is turning down the volume knob on life. Silence is pushing the off button. Shutting it down. All of it.” ― Khaled Hosseini, The Kite Runner

Wow, I'm sitting here typing this in complete silence. All I hear is the hum of the dryer in the basement. I don't think I've returned from work to an empty house since before Leila was born 2.5 years ago. And it feels strange. And peaceful. And I don't quite know what to do with myself.

Today was the hubby's day off, so he took the kiddos to his parents house for a visit. Being that it is a 1.5 hour drive from here, I won't be joining them. So, this means that I get a little time to myself. What to do? What to do? That is the question.

I think I'll just sit. And listen to myself think for once. And not have to worry about cooking dinner for anyone or wiping anybody's butt. Ahhhhhhh. It feels good.

Oh wait. Never mind. There are 457 loads of laundry to put away and an extremely dirty house to tidy up. And my peeps will probably be home very soon.

I guess the idea of a little quiet downtime was nice, though. :-)

4 Months

Seriously, where is the time going?!?



All about Lando at 4 months...

• Weighing it at a whopping 17 lbs 8 oz... not sure on the percentile, but I'm guessing like 105% (even though I guess that isn't possible).
• Length = 27 inches.
• My little chunk is just a glowing ball of happiness - he smiles like ALL the time :-)
• Not rolling over... yet.
• He is becoming more high maintenance. He wants to be held pretty much all the time and will only last a few minutes if you leave him by himself in a room before he is yelling for you (no, not crying... yelling out his little crow calls).
• Such a cat napper - well, for us anyway. I guess he will take 3-4 hour naps at daycare sometimes!
• NOT sleeping through the night (even though he has a couple times) & I really wish he would. I am one tired momma.
• He has been sick with various chest/head colds for about a month now. Oh the joys of building up a strong immune system via daycare. I am a pro at using the bulb syringe now.
• Eating 5-6 oz every 3 hours or so during the day and waking up once between 7:30p and 6a to eat at night.
• Landon is a drool producing machine. Bibs are now part of his signature look (along with his faux-hawk).
• His favorite thing right now is his right pointer finger. That thing is in his mouth ALL. THE. TIME. And his tongue is always hanging out over it.
• He is an every-few-days kinda pooper. Pretty nice because I've only had to change maybe one poopy diaper in the last 2 weeks. Oh the excitement in my life!
• I love him more and more and more each day. :-)

Nom. Nom. Nom. I want to eat him up right now!

Kiddos

My weekend involved many hours of drowning in my kiddos' love.



The hubster was working, so Leila, Landon, & I were left to our own devices. What once felt like chaos and filled my head with anxiety while I was on maternity leave, now feels like second nature to me. I have my little balancing act down to an art now. Instead of stressing about getting each and every household task done, I do what I can and make the most of my time with my little loves.



No I did not edit this pic... his eyes really are THAT blue!




Sure, my weekend involved inordinate amounts of wiping snotty noses & poopy butts. And my left arm is on fire from holding Landon for many hours while doing chores with the other. And maybe my eardrums hurt a little from the tantrums and screams of protest against nap time. BUT. But, the smiles and the giggles and the "I love you"s and the snuggles and the feeling of being needed FAR outweighs everything else.





I love my kiddos.

PS - Hello!!! Holy big boy batman! Seriously, how huge is my son? He looks like he's about as big as Leila and it looks like I have a 12 year old strapped to me in the first pic. Love my chunker.

Potty Training: The Good, The Bad, The Ugly

So, I've hesitated putting this out there into the world for fear of jinxing anything, but now I feel comfortable saying...

LEILA IS POTTY TRAINED! WAHOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!



Seriously, potty training was NOT fun. In fact, this has been my least favorite thing about being a parent so far. Give me sleepless nights and snotty noses over teaching a little person how to use the toilet any day.

In honor of this momentous occasion (I am down to ONE in diapers now - YESSSSS!) I thought I'd share our experience with potty training and the lessons I've learned. Feel free to stop reading now if ya don't wanna read about pee and poo. :-)

We started off on our potty adventure way back in July, shortly after Leila turned 2 (you may remember this post). I knew she was still really young, so we didn't go all out on the potty training; we introduced her to the idea of it. This resulted in random pee-pees in the potty (and a follow-up M&M) and maybe one or two miraculous poos over the following months. So, why didn't I just take the dang diapers away and go all out?

1. I was pregnant & lazy & didn't want to clean up pee and poo everywhere. 
2. With both the hubby & I working full time and Leila in daycare a good chunk of the week, it was hard to dedicate several days off in a row to potty training.

So, I had the best of intentions of hitting it hard once Landon was born. I figured that I would be home with both kiddos for 12 weeks and surely I could get Leila potty trained. HA! Sure, we worked on it here and there, keeping her in undies at home during the day, but the distraction of a newborn was too hard on me and especially on her. So, we ended up going back and forth between undies and diapers a lot. Besides, wouldn't you want your diaper changed too if your new little brother was getting his changed?

LESSON LEARNED #1: Don't try to potty train immediately following a big life change (like the birth of a new baby brother). It isn't easy for anyone involved.

LESSON LEARNED #2: Do NOT bounce around between diapers and underwear. If you decide to put your kid in undies, stick with it.

During my maternity leave Leila pretty much just refused to use the potty at home, unless it was completely her idea (which always happened when we were about to turn out the light for bedtime... the perfect distraction technique). At the same time, her daycare started working with her on it, too. So, we had her in Pull-Ups 24/7 because they are obviously easier to pull up and down. But, they are still DIAPERS. Just pretty, expensive ones.

LESSON LEARNED #3: Skip the Pull-Ups. Once a kiddo learns they can still pee and poo in Pull-Ups and it feels the same as a diaper, they aren't gonna get anywhere with potty training.

So, for the last few months we had her in Pull-Ups and I just felt like we were getting nowhere FAST. I'd ask if she needed to go potty and she'd say "No" and then 2 minutes later her Pull-Up would be soaked. It was SO frustrating. And bribery wasn't working anymore either. I kept looking online for advice and it seemed like everyone always said, "your child will potty train when THEY are ready." But ya know what? At this point I knew she was ready, she was just choosing to go in her Pull-Up because she could. It was the easy thing to do.

LESSON LEARNED #4: Yes, your child will potty train when they are ready, but it DOES take parental direction to get it done. Don't be afraid to take control.

A little over a week ago, I couldn't take it any more. I knew she was fully capable of controling her bladder and bowels, so I told Andy we were getting Leila potty trained over the weekend. He had Thurs/Fri off and then I had Sat/Sun off. She would be home for 4 days straight. We took the Pull-Ups away (with the exception of night and naptime) and told her she had no other choice but to use the toilet.

By Sunday she was staying dry ALL day. :-)

Sure, she had a lot of accidents at first, but caught on real quick that we were serious about this. Our biggest obstacle? Poop. Leila flat out told me that she was scared to poo on the toilet. So, for a couple extra days I would let her put a Pull-Up on to poo. (Weird, huh?) But, she finally decided she was ready to try to go on the toilet and she did.

I am SO proud of her. And I seriously feel like potty training this child has been the biggest accomplishment of my life. Ahhhhhhhhhhh, it really is the little things in life, isn't it? :-)

So, knowing what I know now, here's how I'm going to tackle potty training the next time around:

• Wait until Landon is 2.5 years old (unless he is showing serious signs that he wants to potty train before then). With Leila, I saw a HUGE difference in her maturity level and language skills from 2 to 2.5, making it much easier to explain potty training to her. And she could communicate better with me.
• Go from diapers to underwear and skip the Pull-Ups (except for maybe nap/nighttime). Our biggest mistake was bouncing back and forth between the two. I think it was just super confusing for Leila.
• Devote a 3-4 day period to staying home and working on potty training. If we have to go somewhere, the kid stays in underwear. If an accident happens, we deal with it.
• Positive reinforcement DOES work, so I will definitely use it again (we just let potty training drag out too long with Leila and the treat lost its appeal to her). Good ole M&Ms can work miracles, though.

And finally, some words of encouragement for those of you who may be in the throngs of potty training.... HANG IN THERE. This too shall pass. And they can't keep pooping and peeing their pants forever. :-)

Wise Words Wednesday: Valentine Weirdness

"We're all a little weird. And life is a little weird. And when we find someone whose weirdness is compatible with ours, we join up with them and fall into mutually satisfying weirdness - and call it love - true love." - Robert Fulghum, True Love

Yes, we all know I'm a weird one.

So, how was your Valentine's Day? Mine was weird and fabulous, all at once. Here's the breakdown...

Woke up on the WRONG side of the bed. Super Grouch was my nickname for the day.

Grouchiness resulted in bickering with my hubby all morning long and running late for work.

Super swamped at work = no fun.

Lunch with my girlfriends made my day turn around.

After work, picked up the kiddos and had a happy-shiny evening at home. No more Super Grouch.

Hubby brought home flowers and chocolate wine. Yes, CHOCOLATE wine.

Both kiddos asleep by 8:30.

Me + Glass of Chocolate Wine + Hubby + The Bachelor = BLISS.

Completing my nightly BodyRock.TV fitness challenge post wine drinking was HILARIOUS (& super hard).

I could barely move after that one.
Dead to the world in bed by 10pm.

Exciting, huh?! :-)

Our Love Story: Perfect Proposal & Dream Wedding

You can read Part 1 of our love story here ~ Our Love Story: How We Met
You can read Part 2 of our love story here ~ Our Love Story: Falling in Love

Happy Valentines Day!!! How perfectly appropriate that I am sharing the climax of my love story on a day dedicated to love... LOVE IT! Get ready for a loooooonnnnnnngggggggggg post. Here we go...

My Perfect Proposal
After 6+ years together, Andy finally popped the question on March 3, 2007. I remember the day clearly. He was spending the weekend with me (we lived almost 2 hours away from each other at the time). On Saturday night we got dressed up and he took me out to a fancy smancy restaurant for dinner. I didn't think anything of it because we always tried to make the most of our weekends together and that usually involved going out at night. We had the BEST meal ever, complete with a couple glasses of wine. By the time we got back to my apartment (around 9:30 at night) I was totally ready to enter a food/wine coma and not wake up for days.  I got in my jammies and went to bed, much to Andy's dismay (little did I know he had bigger plans for the evening).

So I jump in bed and practically start falling asleep right when my head hits the pillow. But, Andy jumps in bed beside me and reaches over and turns on my bedside lamp. I'm whining to him that I just want to sleep and he's whining to me that I need to stay up and spend time with him... that he found something he wants to show me. I reluctantly sit up in bed and he pulls out a box that I made him for Valentine's Day years ago. He opens it up and it's full of all of the letters I had written him from high school on. You see, letter writing was always a HUGE part of our relationship... at first when Andy would write me love letters in high school (before I ever had feelings for him in "that way") and then when we were living 7 hours away from each other when I started college.

"I found all of your old letters and thought it would be fun for us to look through them and reminisce," Andy said.

I thought this was great! And no, this wasn't weird of Andy. He is a very sentimental person, so I didn't think anything of it. So we each started pulling out old letters and reading bits and pieces to each other, laughing over silly arguments we had in high school, and reminiscing about how much we had been through to get to where we are.

"Hey, check this one out. It looks like there's a letter in here that I wrote and must have forgotten to give to you." Andy handed me a letter.

I started to read it and my heart started to pound.



The first page consisted of sweet sentiments (see above) and mushy gushy lines of perfection. And then he started writing about how important letter writing has always been in our relationship and how he wanted to write me one last letter, and make it the most important one of all. Dot. Dot. Dot.

I turned the page and see, in BIG bold letters...

"ARIEL, WILL YOU MARRY ME??? (and now I will ask you in person)"

In that instant Andy was up and kneeling down on the floor by my side of the bed with the most beautiful ring EVER in his hand. And he asked me in person. And I swear I couldn't breathe for 5 minutes. All I could do was say, "No way. No way. No way." Which of course, meant YES. :-)



I went from being sickeningly tired from our amazing dinner to completely amped up and not able to sleep all night in the blink of an eye. I was completely blindsided by the proposal and it was AMAZING. I would not change anything about it. My hubby is good. I will cherish my proposal letter for ever and ever.

My Dream Wedding

Waimanalo Beach, Oahu, Hawaii... 06/07/08. The best day of my life (next to the births of my children). I would not change a detail about it. And I HIGHLY recommend a destination wedding to anyone considering that route. I experienced absolutely NO stress in the planning of my big day. In fact, it was all done in a matter of hours. Booked our flights and accommodations. Called up a wedding planner on Oahu and exchanged a few phone calls/emails. Got a dress. Piece of cake. :-)

Instead of dragging my wedding day description out, I'll just give ya the general gist. Our families rented HUGE million dollar beach houses right on the beach we got married on (this actually ended up being a TON cheaper than everyone renting hotel rooms or condos... check out VRBO.com). I stayed with my family and Andy stayed with his leading up to the Big Day. It turned out that the houses happened to be right next door to each other - how convenient! Andy's family hosted a big, yummy dinner the night before our wedding and my family hosted dinner the night after our wedding. Some of the best food EVER because it was all made by the people we love (who happen to be AMAZING cooks). Days leading up to the wedding were spent lounging on the beach and swimming in the ocean.

We got married at noon on the most beautiful white sandy beach surrounded by our family and closest friends. Plumeria petals were scattered around us and we had a beautiful bamboo & chiffon archway. I swear if I close my eyes I can still hear the ocean, smell my plumeria bouquet, and feel the warmth of the sun on my shoulders. It was magic.





Following our ceremony, Andy & I got a TON of photos taken and then we spent the evening eating and drinking with our fams. That night we stayed at the Hilton Hawaiian Village (where we also took Leila on her first trip to Hawaii last year) and flew off to Kauai for our week long honeymoon a couple days later. Perfection.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

There you have it. Our love story. Since our wedding we've just been living back in reality - working and popping out kids. :-) And I wouldn't have it any other way.

Hope your Valentine's Day is special and full of LOVE!

Our Love Story: Falling in Love

Our relationship started off as a really strong friendship and over time grew into love.  My hubby & I went through some REALLY tough years to get to where we are today. Here's the continuation of our love story...

If you haven't yet, read the first part of our love story HERE.



So, after initially meeting in the summer of '98, when I was just 14 and Andy was 13, I thought that maybe we had something special. But over the summer I realized that I just saw Andy as a good friend (he didn't agree) and unfortunately for him, I ended up falling for his best friend at the time (the epitome of teenage drama). Sad, huh?

After that summer I started high school in my first serious relationship (with Andy's BFF). Him and I were together for over 2 years. During that time, he and Andy drifted apart as friends, but Andy and I remained friends. We still talked on the phone occasionally and hung out with a mutual group of friends at school. Andy claims that throughout that entire time he always loved me and was just waiting for me to feel the same. Geez, I was suck a jerk!

Now for the tricky part. When did I finally fall for him? And the answer... I don't even know. Even while I was in a serious relationship with another guy (well, as serious as teen love goes), Andy never hid his feelings for me. He would always write me love letters and leave them in my locker. And, I remember one Valentine's Day I got roses, a bunch of balloons, and a box of chocolates delivered to me in math class. I just assumed they were from my boyfriend. Nope. They were from Andy. The boyfriend didn't like that too much. :-)



By the end of my junior year of high school (Andy's sophomore), my feelings for him were starting to become stronger. My boyfriend and I broke up... and maybe Andy had a little something to do with this. But, Andy and I didn't officially become a couple until my senior year... and by that time we were crazy in love. The progression of our relationship happened so gradually that I don't even know when my feelings of love for him as a friend changed into feelings of romantic love. Like I mentioned in my first love story post, we always from day 1 said "I love you" to eachother, so I don't know when those words became true. All I know now is that he is my soul mate and I can't imagine life without him.



Since falling in love in high school, we've been through a lot. I graduated a year before him and went off to college across the state. That was our first year of long distance love. And it was TOUGH. Finally, Andy graduated high school, joined me at college for a couple years and then I graduated and got a job and he got accepted into Pharmacy school a couple hours away from me. Once again we were living in different towns. That was 2 more years of long distance love.

And then? Then we got engaged and it was all up hill from there. I can't wait to reminisce all about my PERFECT proposal and our dream wedding in my next post. :-)

Stay tuned...

Our Love Story: How We Met

Even though my hubby and I have only been married for 3.5 years, our love story began nearly 14 years ago...



It was the summer of '98. I was 14 years old and had just graduated from 8th grade. My days consisted of lounging at the local lakes, thinking about boys, and bouncing around friends houses for sleepovers. Ahhhhhh, the easy life. I was staying at a new friend's house when we decided to call up one of her guy friends I had never met. His name was Andy and he was only 13. :-)

I ended up on the phone with Andy while my friend ran to the bathroom. He ended up with my number. The next night I was back home and Andy called. We spent over 3 hours (seriously!) on the phone getting to know everything about eachother and talking complete nonsense, too. Looking back, the best part about that night was that when it was time to get off the phone Andy said, "I love you." Sure, it was in a joking way, but every phone conversation we had after that, we always said "I love you".... and because of this, I don't even know when the first time we REALLY said "I love you" was.

We spent the next week or so chatting on the phone almost every night... and we still had never even seen eachother! Finally we got to meet face-to-face at a basketball tournament. I remember it clearly. Andy was decked out in his baggy basketball shorts and jersey, sucking on a red popsicle outside on a 90 degree day. I thought he was absolutely adorable, but our meeting was actually really awkward. We were with a group of friends and neither of us ended up saying much of anything to eachother besides "Hi."

Throughout the rest of that summer, we continued to talk on the phone and hang out around town and at the lake with our growing group of mutual friends.  Did we become a couple? Nope. Over time I realized that I just saw Andy as a really good friend... and someone else kinda got in our way.

To be continued...

 :-)

Read Part 2 of our love store HERE.

Wise Words Wednesday: Love

via Pinterest

Happy month of LOVE everyone! I love me some love! Love is all you need. Love makes the world go round. What's love got to do with it? Everything!

Okay, sorry about that. I'm just in an extra happy and loving mood today and the fact that Valentine's Day is right around the corner just makes me giddy. There's just something about a day that is dedicated to love that just gets to me. Love it! :-)

In honor of this month of love, I've decided to dedicate my next few blog posts to me and my one true love, my dearest hubby, Andrew. I figure I'll reflect back on how we met, how we got engaged, our marriage... everything that brought us to where we are now. It's gonna be fun (well, it will be for me anyway)!

Hope you are all having a "love"ly week so far!

The Eye

Guess who got a 3 day weekend? Me! Me!

Pink eye has once again struck our household (seriously, it makes its appearance at least a couple times a year). This time it's poor little Landon. The good news is that I got to hunker in at home for one more day. We also ventured out to the doc for some meds and found out that my little beast is weighing in at... wait for it... a whopping 16 lbs 14 oz at 3.5 months old!!! Wowzer.

Little man is still all smiles!


As for our Super Bowl Sunday??? Nothing big here. Andy had to work and since Landon is sick, I didn't really want to go anywhere. So, the kiddos and I made some little smokies crescent rolls and simultaneously enjoyed watching Dora and the Big Game.





We'll see if tomorrow brings me back to reality.

Becky - Ever since your pink eye post, I just knew we were going to get it around here soon. I told ya I'm all too familiar with "the eye" as I like to call it! Ha!

Prioritize

Sometimes a sunny winter walk takes priority over everything else that needs to get done.







With the hubby working this weekend, it's just me and the kiddos... just trying to survive. With Landon having a nasty cold and us working hard to get Miss Leila potty trained, I really should have just stayed inside all day and caught up on chores. Instead I ventured off to Target by myself with the littles and spent way more money than I should have (I serious couldn't resist buying Leila her Easter outfit already - is that weird?) and then as I stared into our disgustingly messy bedroom I decided to say "screw it" and go for a walk instead.

If you think I have my life together, check this out...

...and it still looks just like that right now.

What should have been a 5 minute jaunt around the block took us nearly an hour. Leila picked up old leaves from the Fall and put them in her little jewelry box. I walked circles around her, trying to get a fussy Landon to sleep in the Ergo carrier while simultaneously walking Billy and snapping photos. It was quite the adventure.

When I sat down to upload photos tonight and type up this post I got a pang of guilt for being so unproductive with housework today. But as soon as the photos from our walk popped up I knew it was worth it. Laundry can wait. The messy bedroom can wait. But, time with my kiddos out in the sunshine (ok, and shopping at Target) are little bits of happiness that just aren't worth passing up.

It's all about prioritizing life the best that you can.

Wise Words Wednesday: Exhaustion

"I've got a great ambition to die of exhaustion rather than boredom." - Thomas Carlyle

Oh man, I am tired. This has been one heck-of-a-crazy-busy week and I am sure glad that it's hump day. Lots of work meetings. Restless nights. Kiddos. Trying to work out. Laundry. The list could go on and on. Around 10am this morning I was feeling great, amped up on extra shots of espresso and over-tiredness. And then, in my 2pm client meeting I was seriously fighting to keep my eyelids open.

Despite the sheer exhaustion, I must say that it feels rather good to be busy. I would totally rather be busy than bored. And come to think of it, I don't even know if I remember what boredom feels like since having kids. :-)