Happy Anniversary

2 years ago today was the second happiest day of my life. (This first, of course, is the day Landon was born). 2 years ago today I married my best friend, the love of my life, the person that truly completes who I am. Ok, fair warning, this is probably going to be pretty cheesy, but I can't help it. S makes me cheesey! When I talk about us, and our marriage, and our family, and our wedding I turn into a big ball of goo that wants to cry and sometimes uses words like "soulmate" and occasionally wishes that life had a soundtrack so that everyone could hear "better together" by Jack Johnson when I talk about my husband and our life together.

And, wow, has life changed in 2 years. I knew we would be starting this amazing adventure together when we got married, I knew kids would be in the (near) future, but I never could have even imagined how amazing it would all be. Our wedding was beautiful, and so, so, so much fun. I love that we had a fairly large wedding. I love that we were surrounded by friends and family that loved us and were there to see us off on this journey we were about to take. I love that everyone had so much fun and that it was a great party.


But mostly I love that I got to start this new chapter in my life with this man by my side.

I remember being so nervous and so excited at the same time. The whole day felt surreal. My dad cried as he walked me down the isle, and I have never felt more loved by the people in my life.

And now, 2 years late our little family has the most wonderful addition. And the happiness I felt on our wedding day is magnified by about 200 million everytime I look at him. And it's maginified by about 5000 million when I see S and him together. Because these two men are all mine, and I love them more then I knew was possible.

So, happy anniversary baby, I love you. I can't wait to see what the future brings us.

luckiest girl in the world!

I realize this is two posts in one day, but I had to write and tell everyone out there that I am by far the luckiest, most-loved, blessed girl in the world!

As I was toiling away at work (Ok, I was reading other peoples blogs, mentally decorating our master bedroom  and toiling away at work) in walks an incredibly handsome and dapper man, dressed to the nines in a shirt and tie. Very, very, very successfull-business-man handsome. And this man hands me a beautiful vase of flowers and gives me a kiss.

Handsome business man is my husband, who drove all the way from Scottsdale to hand deliver me flowers on his lunch break.  How lucky am I?

"What are these for?" I asked him, giggling like a schoolgirl.

"I just realized that I haven't bought you flowers in a long time."

**Sigh** My heart melted.

And then hansome, thoughtful, wonderful husbanded headed back to work, after completely making my day and making me feel oh so loved!

Sorry ladies, he's taken!!!

7 months

Landon turned 7 months last week. How crazy is that? It seems like just yesterday we brought him home from the hospital, and he was so small and we truly had no idea what we were doing! Lol, I laugh about it now but those first few days I just remember being so terrified about everything. I woke up about 10 time a night just to check his breathing, I was convinced he had a fever everytime he felt the slightest bit warm, if he wouldn't sleep I was worried, if I thought he was sleeping too much I was worried..... it was pretty stressfull! But then, like all things, we settled into our routine and slowly navigated our way through caring for a newborn. I have friends that sometimes ask, "how do you know what to do?" and the truth is, we don't. We just learned as we went. If we didn't know we googled it (Thank God for google!)  or asked family member and sometimes, we just guessed. And seeing as how Landon is now a healthy and happy 7 month old, we obviously didn't fail too misrabely.

Everyone tells you how fast it is going to fly by, but it's hard to believe how true that really is. Landon is still trying his hardest to crawl, but he is definetly very mobile. He can scoot or roll to wherever he wants to go, and he is starting to pull himself up into standing position.

He loves taking baths, and I love taking bathtime pics! (Seriously, is there anything cuter then a wet little baby playing in the water?)

He is still the sweetest little boy ever, but he is also learning to express what he wants. He has this loud shriek/yell that he does if he feels that you are not paying enough attention to him and he also will yell at you if you take away a toy he wants. Another thing he does  is hold out his arms to be picked up, which absolutely melts my heart everytime, so I end up doing pretty much everything with a baby on my hip!

I love, love, love this little guy and everyday is amazing to watch the little boy he is turning into.

Some pics of Landon 7 months ago:

And now, 7 months later he is soooo big and so handsome!

Writers block

It's been awhile since I've written anything. I've had a case of "writers block" or something. Or, maybe it's just more of a case of "I have a 7 month old baby and am usually lucky if I have time to shower and/or eat lunch, so what was I thinking when I thought I would have time to write a blog on a regular basis?"  It seems like everytime I've sat down to write something one of two things happens. Either I sit here and stare and the screen, write something, then erase it and repeat this procces about 10 times before I give up and swear I will come back later and write. Or I sit down, bursting with inspiration and ideas and the second my finger touch the keyboard my little guy start crying for my attention and all ideas are lost as I run to get him.
We are settled into a good routine now, even with my new work schedule. Everything is so good and we are so happy, but at the same time our days just kind of chug along, running into one another untill one day I look up and realize three weeks have passed. And I know I have things I could have been writing about along the way, pictures I could have been posting, or lifes little annoyances that I could have been bitching about. But I haven't and now I am irrated at myself because the whole point of this blog was to be able to look back on this time and remember all the good and bad and happy and funny as we navigate our way through the early years of young marriage and parenthood and all the joys and trials that go along with both.
I think the older you get, the faster time seems to go. I can't belive L is almost 7 months old. I can't believe S and I have been married 2 years this month. I wish I could soak it all it all in and remember every little moment (hence the blog) but it's going at such a fast pace I feel like I am almost running just to stay caught up with everything.
This is a little disjointed, I realize. Maybe even confusing for some of you, but it makes sense to me. And the main point of this entry is that I just need to sit down and write something, even if that something was about the fact that I haven't been writing. So, hopefully, the "writers block" is broken. I have put something down and stopped the cylce. No be prepared, because next time I have a flash of inspiration but L is crying, I'm going to pull him up on my lap, give him a cuddle, and make sure I do not stop writing until I get down what I wanted.

Spring

Today was a fabulous day. I love the time of year when winter turns into spring. (Not that we really have "winter" in Phoenix, but I can still appreciate it!) The time of year when the short days slowly begin to strech out, leaving us warm, dusky evenings that are perfect for sitting on porches with glasses of wine and a good book, or for barbequeing with friends. The time when instead of rolling out of bed at 6 A.M. and stumbing to the shower in the darkness, it's already starting to get light and the birds are chirping. In phoenix at this time of year it is the perfect tempature at about 7:00 A.M., when I drive to work: mildly warm but with just enough chill in the air leftover from the night to make everything feel fresh and clean.

This morning, after leaving L with my father-in-law for the day, I drove to work with the windows down and my music blasting, just feeling good about life. And the feeling stayed with me all day. I felt productive at work, I had a great meeting with one of my bosses, and I started preparing for my schedule change next week. Also, our current daycare called me and told me that they would match our new daycares tution, so we don't have to move L to a new daycare! Like I said, it was just one of days where everything seems right in the world, and I truly attribute the start of this great day to spring. Seriously, sometimes I think that I suffer from seasonal affective disorder. As the weather starts to turn from fall to winter I have those first few weeks of excitement over the prospect of cute sweater and boots and scarfs, long dark night curlded up next to fireplaces with hot chocolate, comfy, soft flannel pajamas that just beg you to spend all day in them, and the holidays. But that truly only lasts a few weeks. Then I start to feel suffocated, and dark and trapped. (And at times can also be prone to dramatics) I hate, hate, hate waking up in the morning when it is still dark outside. And I hate it even more when I have to climb out of bed and it's freezing in the room. I don't like it when it's dark long before we even think about sitting down for dinner. I despise being cold in general. And soon the reality sits in that I like my summer clothes more then my winter clothes, and I can't afford cute new sweaters, boots and scarves anyway. and we don't have a fireplace to curl up next too, and while I do love the holidays they also tend to bring family drama and debt. Flannel pajama pants is pretty much the only thing that stays on my "what I like about winter" list.

Now, this hasn't been nearly as bad for me since we have lived in Phoenix. Like I said, it's not as though we really have winter. It's more like a chilly fall with really short days and Christmas thrown in the middle. But sometimes that's almost worse, because at least if there were a foot of snow on the ground and freezing tempatures and dark cloudy skies I could justify my feelings. Instead we get sunny days with cool to cold temps, winter on prozac.

But it doesn't matter. The days are finally getting longer, and our front porch is calling to me and L to go sit and enjoy the weather while we wait for S to go home. Thank you spring, for returning so faithfully each year. I miss you when you are gone, but your return is always a joyous occasion for me.

Monday

Monday, Monday. It's always such a sad day when the weekend is over. That alarm goes off at 5:20 (Ack, sooooo early!) and all I can think is "No! No! No! I don't want to get up!" (This though often sounds like a petulant four year old in my head, my inner, and spoiled, child I suppose). I think all places of business should allow there employees to start Monday morning an hour or two earlier, you know, ease into the work week instead of jumping in feet first.

So that is my rant about Monday. Done and done, I will move on. I have some rather exciting news this Monday, actually. After much debate and discussion and stress about our financial situation, and exploring every possible avenue (second jobs, me going back to full time, selling our beagle on the black market) we found one potential solution. We found a great daycare, very close to our house and right on my way to work, that offered a four day a week, part time program for $100 a week. For those of you with children in daycare, you know that is pretty cheap. At our current daycare we pay $155 a week. So right there we would save $200 a month, and at least for the time being, solve our problems. Great, right? The only problem was approaching my work about moving to a four day work week. In fact, I pretty much thought there would be no way. I am the office manager so me being there everyday is pretty crucial. But I took a deep breath and explained our situation and let them know that I knew it was asking a lot but if I could move to four five hour days as opposed to five four hour days it would really help us. And, oh my gosh, they said "YES!!!" Well, not a permanent yes, but they are willing to move my schedule for a trial period of about a month and see if it works. If it does, we can make it permanent. I am so, so, so excited. Not only will it save us a money, it will give me an extra day a week of having my little man all to myself. (The three day weekend every week doesn't hurt either).

So, for all my complaining, my Monday turned out pretty great. I know that I am already so lucky to have a job that allows me to work part time so I can be home with L as much as possible, but the fact that they care enough about our situation to take a chance on this new schedule is pretty amazing. I am kind of dissapointed about having to move L out of his current daycare. I have had a great experience with them and I love L's teacher. But, I also really like this new one we found. One really cool thing about the new one is there is also an adult day center in the same complex (for seniors) and when the kiddos get a little older they do a lot of "inter-generational" stuff. The have the kids perform play for the seniors, and the seniors teach them how to garden and read to them. I think it's great for kids to learn from their elders and to learn respect for their elders at a very young age.

So, bottom line, I really hope this all works out, I think it will be good for all of us. Keep your fingers crossed!!!

Oh, and Happy Monday!!!

Alone in the house

It is 9:30 at night and I am alone in the house. (Well, L is asleep upstairs, but I am the only adult in the house.) This is such an incredibly rare occurance that it deserved to be blogged about. S has an old high school friend in town so the two of them went to a spring training game. L and I stopped by a friends bbq earlier and then came home and he went straight to bed after a delicious bottle, some snuggling in the rocker and a quick lullabye.

There was a time in my life where I really enjoyed night alone. As much as I was always one to prefer going out then staying in, I liked those rare occassion where (back in high school) my parents were gone for the night and later in college all my roommates were out. I use to seize these oppurtunities to order in pizza, paint my nails, watch girly movies, and drink copius amounts of wine while reveling in "me time".

Not so much anymore.

Due to a very unfortuante incident when S and I lived in Flagstaff. (Late night break in, intruder in house while we slept, stolen car keys) I am now a nervous wreck anytime I am alone in the house after sundown. So much so that I can probably count on one hand the number of times S and I have been apart overnight since the incident. Now, when I am alone in the house, every noise is a potential prowler, or, more likely, a serial killer who is intent on kidnapping and torturing me and my baby. Despite the deliciously warm night air, every window in our house is locked up tight, every door bolted, while the tv is one it is muted (to better hear scary noises) and I writing this blog while curled on the couch with a sharp knife (only weapon availabe in house) on the table in front of me. Hey, you can never be too careful.

I miss the days of blissfull ignorance to the fact that there are people out there who actually will come uninvited into your home. Instead of enjoying a marathon movie session of "Mean Girls", "13 going on 30" and "Under the Tuscan Sun" I am mapping out all potention escape routes/hiding places and imagining who would play me in the lifetime movie about my harrowing ordeal. (I'm thinking Reese Witherspoon. She's older then me, but I feel we share similar bubbly traits and a cute hairstyle). And I won't stop this obviously unreasonable and obsessive train of thought untill my strong and handsome protector (A.K.A  S) comes through the door.

I know, I know. I am completely paranoid. I am perfectly aware of this fact, no need to point it out to me. Doesn't change how I feel though.

So that's all for tonight. I have about 2 hours before S is home so I'm off to check the door and windows and see if I can track down our baseball bat. Just in case. Like I said, you can never be too careful.