just take my money

when i had elizabeth, i got a bunch of target gift cards from generous friends and family.  this is great except that i don't really shop at target so i have to make a concerted effort to use my gift cards.  today i went to target to get an item that i needed that walmart doesn't offer and that i can get at vitamin cottage, but for a lot more money.  perfect reason to use a target gift card!  so i took all three kids in the store with me to find out that my parker store (actually most of their stores) don't have it in the store... just online.  oh well, i'll just order it online and have to wait for it to be shipped.

i got on my computer to order it and put it in my cart.  it was $24.57 and i could ship it to the store for free... or add something cheap to my cart so i could qualify for the $25 free home delivery.  so i went to add a $1 elf mascara to my cart but the target.com page wouldn't open.  the address bar said i was at the right page, but the page was just blank and white.  ugh.  that happened with a million other things online that i tried to load.  can i please just add a $1 item to my cart?!?

i finally gave up.  whatever, i'll just use my phone instead.  so i added my main item to my cart and my $1 mascara and entered in the card numbers and pin numbers for two gift cards.  then, trying to actually checkout, it wouldn't go through, fiddling around with it erased my payment info so i entered in the gift card information again (for the two cards) and clicked "review order" and then "checkout" and then "review order" and "checkout" and on and on.  it just kept looping me through.  apparently target.com sucks no matter what device you're using to access it.  at this point i was almost screaming to my computer because what other options do i have?  i can't buy it in the store or on my laptop or on my iphone.  i find a customer support number online and call it.  i give the impossible to understand indian guy my cart number and request that he just submit my order for me.  "okay, i just need to review this information with you so you can confirm that it is accurate."  but he's quoting me a price $6 more than it should be so i tell him there should be no shipping charge.  "well, if you spend $25 then you get free shipping."  "yes, i know.  my items are $24.57 and $1 and when i had my order pulled up, it confirmed that the shipping charge was waived."  "okay, i will waive your shipping charge for you... is everything else about your order okay?"

so i got off the phone with him and immediately got an email about my order and that my shipping charge was "refunded" to me.  still confused why it wouldn't just ring up like it should, i looked closer at the email.  somehow my $1 mascara had been dropped from my order so it was just the $24.57 (which explains why the guy on the phone was going to charge me shipping and had to waive the fee manually).  well, wonderful... my item will be shipped to my house free of charge (as it was supposed to) but i can't help but think... "how annoying would this be if i had actually wanted that $1 mascara that randomly disappeared from my order and i had to do this all over again?!?!"

target, you more than just a little suck.  i tried to give you my money in person, on my laptop, on my iphone, and on my phone through customer service... and you still dropped part of my order, therefore charging me less than what should have been the case.

i swear, it has never been so hard to get someone to JUST TAKE MY MONEY.

that was the longest process of my life.

Girls night temple trip

We had a little girls night temple trip. Tacos at rubios, temple, and then hanging out talking til after 11. That was a fun filled 5.5 hours. Can't wait to go again next month! 

Haaaa.

After rubios.

At the temple. I may have been mentioning that I accidentally stroked Andreas backside. Somehow I was talking in a vast majority of the pictures taken tonight.

Sarah's attempt at photography. (Shannon took the ones above)

And my attempt to get a better shot.

Seriously so much fun. 

Other notables from today:

It was a busy day. We were 45 minutes late to the park group today in our neighborhood but there was a good turn out and excellent weather. My arms got sunburned. I had an awesome time staying after and talking to Jenna more. When we got home, there was an enormous bee flying around in our kitchen so we all hid in my bedroom while Abigail went potty and then we ran outside to eat our sandwiches on the lawn. More "picnics" except that we all know I'm just doing it so my kitchen stays cleaner. I put Brady down for nap and Abigail and I stayed in her room and read books until my honey got home. He had to work from home for a while but still... He was home by 4!  That's crazy!  And thankfully he got that bee out of our kitchen. We ate enchiladas together (well, the three of us since Brady was napping) and discussed the pros and cons of preschool. Chris is all for it. I'm dragging my feet hardcore (Ps- Liza, I found out this morning that our kindergarten here is half day) because I'm lazy and hate committing to things. And then I got ready and was actually on time/early to Sarah's house at 5:40. And then I drove us all... Which was amusing. And then I decided to go to Walmart at 11pm. Because we were almost out of milk and today was the last day it was on sale and I needed more produce. Well, between tonight and last night's epic Costco trip, I'm hoping I don't need to go real shopping for a looong time. So today marks the start of that challenge... I'll see how long I last! 

too many hours of shopping

tonight i didn't get my kids to bed until between 11 and 11:30.  we didn't even get home from shopping until close to 10:30.  have i mentioned lately how much i hate being home alone (especially at night, especially during the winter when it gets dark at 5:30) when my honey is out of town?!  i dread it all day long when i know he's going to be gone.

this morning we went to the library with friends and then to target with those same friends.  i got a bunch of clothes for abigail (and a thing or two for brady) and didn't get home til after 2.  brady only took a 45 minute nap and after 30 minutes of waiting for him to go back to sleep i realized that was a lost cause and woke abigail up from her nap.  and by 5 or so we were off.  gone when it's still daylight... just how i like to do it.  we dropped off [HOPEFULLY!] the very very very last of the yw stuff to the new president and i am FREEEEEEEEE.  we stopped by a girl's house to maybe go out for frozen yogurt but apparently she's sick so we'll have to do that another time.  i took the kids shopping instead.  i'm sure my honey loves that i spend all of his money every time he leaves town.  he's going somewhere next month for 3 nights and 4 days so i decided that would be the perfect time (for other reasons as well) to go to utah.  even buying plane tickets for myself and abigail (hallelujah that brady's still free for another year), i'm pretty sure this will be "cheaper" than staying in town and shopping every night because i don't want to be home without my honey.  i mean, we got an amazing deal on airfare and everything and my parents will be in utah and i'll get to see my friend's play so it just makes sense, but really, it's a small price to pay to avoid this i'mafraidofthedarkwheni'mhomealone feeling.

anyways, we went to old navy and ross.  i got soooo much stuff at old navy for super cheap.  two new swim suits for brady at $.97 each and two new swim shirts at $.97 each as well.  i could have gotten abigail a cute ruffled white and navy polka dot swimsuit for $.97 a piece but.... those two pieces didn't add up to be a modest swimsuit so we left that little bikini behind... although i did let abigail wear it while she had a dance party in the dressing room.  i got good stuff for all three of us.  but on that note, should you see any of us wearing something that seems a little out there or the sizing seems a bit off... well, remind yourself that it's probably because i got it for cheap.  don't hate.  ross was disappointing this visit (our last visit there was pretty incredible though... you win some you lose some) but we still managed to find a few things there too.  of course.  this is really the first time that i've had to buy clothes for abigail... more than just the occasional "she needs a pair of jeans" sort of thing to fill in the gaps in her hand me down wardrobe.  and even though brady has an incredible selection of clothes right now (thanks to generous friends and my wonderful sister), i have to think ahead to next summer (and future seasons) so he won't have to run around nakey when the weather warms up.  two main thoughts about all of this... kid clothes add up fast (they cost just the same as normal adult sized clothing!) and ohmygoodnessthisissomuchfun!  i was not at all excited about shopping for boy clothes because i thought girl stuff was so much cuter.  well that's definitely true for little baby stuff but not at all true for toddler stuff.  i am loving shopping for boy stuff.  like really loooooooving it.

and now hopefully i'm sufficiently tired to go to sleep.

the inevitable

is life in fast forward?!  how is it already thursday?!  seriously i feel like just this morning i was comforting a crying abigail because she was sick and we had to stay home from church.  well, both kids are just as sick as ever (luckily it doesn't seem to bother either of them too much and brady is making up for it in sleep) but really... how does life move so fast?!  i'm being to wonder if i'm losing it.  i honestly feel like i am.

anyways, this morning we went to the library and met up with friends.  heaven forbid should our day not include hanging out with elle.  we returned this stack of books to the library because we're either bored of them, they're weird (obesity appreciation, girl with divorces parents celebrating seder, y'know), or it's actually a dvd and our dvd player is broken.   

well, i got online tonight to check our book count and realized i had A MILLION AND ONE things that were due on the 10th.  colossal fail.  seriously, i swear i JUST renewed everything.  so now i have almost $10 in fines i need to pay off.  which brings my library fines total for the past 2 years up to maybe $15.  not bad considering we've probably checked out thousands of books (the nerd in me wishes there was a way to track those stats... but mostly a way to keep track of a comprehensive list of the books and movies we've checked out) and really, this is just a nice opportunity to give back and donate a few bucks to the library, right?  even if we paid $15 a month, it would still be worth it.  although i love that that's not necessary.  this is a fine i'm happy to pay.  but really... did the last seven days actually happen?  i am so weirded out right now i'm having trouble finding words for it.  obviously.

brady was so excited to get this ball, he crawled right out of his pants.  that's what happens when skinny babies army crawl on their belly.  abigail never army crawled so i'm just kind of wondering how long it will be until he starts using his knees.  don't think i don't try to teach him correct posture.  it doesn't work though.  the second i touch him, he collapses in a fit of giggles.  most ticklish kid ever.

things for my calling have been so busy lately.  it's just "lds exhausted cont." all the time.  last week we had conference weekend... all ten hours of it.  monday was family night... i can't even remember what we did.  tuesday night christopher had a presidency meeting.  wednesday night christopher met us at a park for family pictures and then i stopped by home for two seconds to drop off kids before i went to my presidency meeting.  thursday night my honey was out of town so i dropped off my kids with a friend while i went to the church for stake auxiliary training and didn't get them in bed until after 10.  friday night i left the kids at home with my honey for a few hours while i went to the church for young women volleyball.  and saturday i found myself waking up at 6am and being gone from 7 - 2 for the youth temple walk.  i totally thought things would be so much easier once the temple walk was done on saturday but that's not quite the case yet.  

monday night i spent about four hours doing training.  tuesday i started planning for our ward halloween party and we had young womens at the church that night.  this morning was great because i took the kids to the library and the park and i was a great mom because abigail got to play a ton with elle and brady got to eat woodchips but then i dragged them around the dollar store for something like two hours (while abigail ran around like she was on crack and shattered a glass snow globe with glitter water all over the floor within five minutes of being there... although thankfully brady slept part of it and was in an exhausted coma zombie sort of state even when he was awake) while i scoped out prizes and did all sorts of math.  it is really a shame i could never get anything but straight C's.  raise your hand if you hate math!  alwaysandforever.

but happy day, if that isn't perfectly staying within a $50 budget then i don't know what is.  sadly, i got home and went through everything for the girl who i'll be turning this over to (don't you love when you get to hand over stuff like this?!) and realized that none of the whistles work.  so now i gotta go back tomorrow and convince the cashier to take those back and let me have something else (dollar store doesn't do returns so i'm interested to see how this will play out) and get that all organized before i drop it off at the girl's house.

we just hope this girl appreciates my over the top organizing skills of all of these prizes and the games they go to and who is running the games in which rooms and who will be bringing the games, and on and on.  just kidding... i know she's grateful.  i'm pretty much wrapping this neatly with a bow and placing it right in her lap.  she actually offered to make me baked goods to help return the favor.  i assured her i'm only doing it for the intrinsic value.

 

 

i always feel so heavy like i have such a weight... and this week, tonight especially, i feel like i am personally amputating my own arms, and both of my legs as well... the weight is lifting and i'm getting lighter but at what cost?  it's painful, a surreal, and life changing in a way i can't yet wrap my head around.

so, the next few days are doing to be awesome.  equal parts busy and awesome.

thursday- wrap up my part in this halloween party planning and go on a doubled date to the avs game!  the avs are one of two teams that are undefeated right now so let's all cross our fingers and toes that they pull of another win for us tomorrow night!

friday- not sure yet what fun the morning will hold, but that night i'm going to time out for women.  this is a first for me and i'm pretty excited!

saturday- time out for women until later in the afternoon.  hopefully we can do something fun together as a family that night... i cherish that time with just the four of us.

sunday- i've got byc but then i won't even get to be in our ward (three weeks in a row since it was general conference and then the kids being sick and now this...) because we'll be in my in law's ward for mark's homecoming talk!  i'm so excited for this.  of all my brothers in law, mark is the one that feels most like an actual brother to me.  he reminds me of my own brother, we have a sibling feeling relationship, and he even has the same birthday as my brother... i love him to death.  and ever since he got back from mexico, he speaks english with an accent and spanish voice intonations... just like walter did when he got back from his spanish speaking mission in san francisco.  anyways... all day hillier family fun.

and then it will be monday again... and i love mondays.  life moves fast.  i feel like i'm trying not to blink and yet somehow i'm still missing it!  just gotta soak it up as best i can.

ps- something else inevitable?  i finally had the opportunity to be THAT parent.  tonight while my honey and i were talking, abigail locked herself and brady in the upstairs bathroom.  try as i might, my efforts to describe to her how to unlock the door were not at all working and i didn't really want to send my christopher spidermanning on our roof in the pitch black, especially since i knew that window to our bathroom was locked.  so after a few minutes of abigail telling me the door was broken, i went got a wire hanger from the downstairs hall closet (tender mercy that i hadn't thrown them all away like i had previously wanted to) and worked it in the door handle.  miracle of miracles it actually worked and opened the door almost instantly!  i am still shocked... i've never been able to successfully break in like that... using a bobby pin might as well be an urban legend or something hollywood made up... and it actually worked!  i am so grateful for this and not really allowing myself to think of what would have happened if that didn't work.  what are you supposed to do when your three year old and your baby are locked in a room?  call an after hours lock smith?  just kidding... is that a job for the fire department?!  seriously... i'm so curious about this.  it's not like we could break down the door since brady was riiiiight there.  close call.  i'm one step closer to experiencing every parent horror story i've ever heard.

recaps

i am so blessed.

wednesday was a fun day.  i wish i had written about it when i actually remembered it because at the end, i was all "this has been such an amazing day!" but now i can barely remember what even happened to make it good.  we were out of the house by 9:30 for visiting teaching at a playground and then more visiting teaching at another friend's house.  we got home at 12:30 and chris (still not sure why, didn't even ask) had stopped by home for a bit for lunch.  he took off just a few minutes after we got home but it was fun seeing him.

thursday we went to a splash pad in castle pines.  it's awesome because it was really nice (isn't everything in castle pines?!) but much smaller than the splash pad in centennial.  and way way way less crowded.  sooo i had zero anxiety trying to keep an eye on abigail while keeping brady out of the sun and not running around the whole time.  my friend and i just parked ourselves at a little table in the shade and hung out and snacked while we watched the girls run around in the fountains and in the playground area.  i so wish i'd known about this a few months ago but i'm already excited to take the kids back next summer when brady is old enough to run in the fountains too!  brady fell asleep in the car so when we got home, i had some great one on one time with abigail.  we made oatmeal banana cookies* (cookies is a generous term for these things since every ingredient is healthy and they have no added sugar but abigail loves them just the same) together and really, it was just great girl time.  kind of a blast from the past of before i had brady and we did that sort of stuff all the time.

friday we returned a whole ton of books to the library and picked up a hefty stack of strawberry shortcake books i put on hold online.  then we swung by kohls because i had one of those $10 off any purchase cards that i needed to use before tomorrow.  i normally shop their kids clearance but the last few times i've been severely disappointed.  needing a new swimsuit, i shopped that section instead.  i found ONE that i liked alright that was modest and in my size.  70% off and using a $10 off coupon means i just got myself a new $40 swimsuit (welll, the top half) for $1.50 and it didn't even take all day and driving around to tons of stores.  which is the best part because swimsuit shopping is the worst.  well, maybe not the absolute worst but it's pretty bad.  on my way home, i dropped abigail off at her friend's house (okay, maybe they spend more days together than not but it does warm my heart when she randomly starts talking about how much she loves elle) while i headed home to get brady down for a nap and get stuff done.  later, my honey got home by 5:00!  who even knew that was possible?!?!  and we all hung out as a family for a loooong time and enjoyed feeding brady his weight in food.  to say he is obsessed with real food would be a major understatement.  for dinner tonight he got probably a half cup of mashed up sweet potato, a third of a banana cut in chunks, and an egg yolk mashed up in some jarred food.  and i would have kept feeding him except that christopher told me he was worried brady would get a stomach ache.  ha.  maybe his full belly will mean he'll be an awesome sleeper tonight.  his sleep has been uncharacteristically good lately and it's pretty exciting stuff!  and he's pretty much weaned from his reflux medicine which is also pretty exciting.

saturday- my parents come in town for the long weekend!  so ridiculously excited!  let the games begin!

*the blog i got this recipe from adapted it from 3 tablespoons of oil to just 1 tbsp oil and 2 tbsp applesauce.  i am apparently fresh out of applesauce but i had a ripe pear.  so i peeled it and mashed it up to an applesauce consistency and it worked just great.  and brady enjoyed the leftover "pearsauce."

* maybe if i get my act together i'll post pictures from these days.  just maybe.

out all day

saturday morning was pretty funny because all i could think about was getting out of the house to run all the errands i had on my mind.  and after a crazy rough week at work, all honey could think of was a lazy day relaxing at home.  we compromised and hung out together in the morning (although i was still running around the house getting things done) and in the afternoon, i took brady to run errands, while abigail and christopher stayed home to play and have nap time.  and then we all went out for a family date.  a perfect compromise.

honey made us french toast for breakfast.  i think he was going to bring it to me in bed but brady woke up so my honey delivered breakfast in brady's room while i got him up for the day.  french toast is super sweet but not filling so i made myself oatmeal.  as i was eating it, i got a text from my friend sawah asking me about oatmeal!  beat you to it sawah!

check it out!  another train!

my mother in law gave me a cricut for christmas... like four years ago.  this was the first time i've used it.  i had to get myself acquainted with it a bit... just trying things out to prep for our yw activity tuesday.

leaving to run errands.  i had to drop off a baby gift, drop off something to my RS pres, and make returns to target, costco, and ross.  so cleansing getting all of this out of my house!

we were gone for a million hours.  he slept for about 30 seconds in the costco parking lot (while i was finding a spot... and then woke up when i got him out of the car) and 20 minutes at ross.  that's a whole lot of awake with a cranky baby.  but he's still just so sweet when he's asleep.

family date.  we go here often because we have discounts... and every time we go, we joke about being on a documentary about fat americans that overeat unhealthy food.  because what else should you talk about while you stuff your face with tons of rolls with honey butter, fried cactus blossom, steaks, fries, and a sweet potato covered in butter, sugar, and marshmallows?!  i stuff myself til i literally feel sick to my stomach and then walk out of there with terrible feelings of gluttony and self disdain.  yet, what i would give for a roll and honey butter right now...

and then we rounded out the night with a trip to petsmart.  our favorite was the tank of spastic fish that scatter when you hold your hand up to the glass.  abigail thought it was so cool she could control them (although she was confused why it didn't work when she tried it with a different tank of fish) and my honey kept making jokes about being harry potter and having a fish act on america's got talent.

pictures from the weekend

brady spiked a fever.  that morning he fell asleep in my arms/lap while i was sitting in the baby pool with him so i should have known something was up.  but on a happier note (i know i've said it before), it makes me feel so amazing that i can feel that he has a fever just by putting my cheek on his face.  i can't do it with my hand, but i put my face on his a million times a day so i automatically can tell when something is off.  i loooooove that.  i'm a real mom.

my budding photographer is starting to feel the necessity of taking pictures of everything.  now i know how my honey feels about me.  just put down the camera already and let's play dollhouse!

closeup of naptime.

seriously made me laugh out loud.

tiniest phone ever.

when i'm feeding brady, she seems to think that's a good time to bring me books to read.  when i tell her my hands are full so i can't hold the book or see the words...

she does this.  we've read many many books in this manner.

taking pictures of brady.  can't remember what time it was but i was still in my swimsuit because naptime kept having interruptions and i never got out to mow the lawn and/or shower.  hence, evening time swimwear.

saturday 

we all went to walmart together.  we each took one kid and i enjoyed getting texts like this during my shopping experience.

i'm loving the cheap produce!  honey and i decided to go meatless this week (well, until the weekend since we'll have his grandparents with us) and so i stocked up on a whole ton of stuff challenging myself to get it all eaten before it goes bad.  ps- the prices are all written out because that's how i do price matched stuff on my grocery list.

 sunday

this made me laugh.  we currently have four wards plus the stake offices in our building.  hallelujah that we're only a few months away from our new building being finished!  even though there will be at least 2 wards in our new building... maybe three.  the church is thriving out here.

she calls these "lines" and i really don't correct her when she tells me that she's going to open the lines or look out the lines.

this little guy went from not sitting for two seconds to being able to sit for a whole minute or so.  on our trip, nothing.  came back, he can sit!  also, i still love that his mouth is always open.  like he's in awe of what a great mom i am.  i'm sure.

monday

this was less than an hour after she saw me put a new trash liner in the diaper pail and commented "wow!  you're AMAZING!"  since then, the compliments have only continued.  "that looks really good" "you're doing great" "that's cute"  and on and on.  anything i've ever said, i'm getting it right back.  i love it.  

not like she doesn't already have a million sippy cups, but i loathe them all.  so i got baby girl this water bottle and we both love it.  my favorite part is that she's a little more enthusiastic about drinking water now.  i swear i will make all of my kids enjoy drinking water.  not like my mom didn't try her hardest, but where i see a glimmer of hope, i will charge full steam ahead (too much thomas?  yes.)

i was so impressed with her creativity.  i can't remember the name of these wrenches but we had a million extra from our costco cubbys (each one came with two wrenches) so i set them aside to put in our tool box.  in ten minutes, baby girl had created at least five different designs/shapes/pictures/whatever.  it was impressive.

i keep finding more and more horseshoe crabs in our books!  

i mean, really.  we had this book checked out before the beach but never had time to sit down and actually read it until earlier this week.  a whole two page spread on the horseshoe crab!  books are so incredible.  i love them with all my heart.

one of my fb posted a link on her status saying she got this book for free for her phone.  so i did too.  and then i looked around the kindle store and got a million other books for free too.  mostly more jane austen and similar (like little women) and related (like tea with emma).  i'm excited for them all.

weed, i saw this and it made me think of you.  because you're my favorite ginger ever.  and that one picture of you holding that cake makes me think of i love lucy.  totally threw my ten year old self (or however old i was... emmy, do you remember?) for a loop first time i heard she was a redhead.  

 and that's a wrap.

an all around success

today was a good day.  reflecting on my day i tried to figure out why it was so good.  it's a checklist of sorts that i go through pretty frequently and today i got way higher marks than i usually do.

- i showered and got out of the house before 10am.  my hair was wet, and i was wearing a t-shirt and no makeup but who cares... i showered!
- i got grocery shopping and errands done.  double points that abigail was at playgroup so i didn't have the mom guilt of dragging her through walmart for an hour while telling her "no" five million times in a row.
- on that shopping trip, i bought things i needed for the house (hangers, receipt organizer), nursed brady in the dressing room (picked the nearest item to "try on" and i'm pretty sure i didn't fool the dressing room lady with my size 18 dress), got a few fun things (a new purple nailpolish for abigail and a new pink nail polish for me as well as new mascara for me... all a dollar or less), and saved a whole ton of money on the things i bought (price matched $2 milk, $2 cheese, cheap produce, and meat on sale) and avoided getting any impulse food purchases!
- both kids napped at the same time and brady was exhausted from not getting a real nap this morning (he's at the point where he'll only nap for 45 minutes or less if we're out running errands... although sometimes it's only for 10 or 15 minutes) and slept for over 3.5 hours again.
- i was super productive during nap time.  i cleaned out my honey's side of the closet... something i've been itching to do for probably almost two years... basically ever since we moved into this house.  he might kill me when he comes home and finds out... but that's not today's problem.
- baby girl was a lot of fun today.  she's my little pal and hanging out with her helps me not feel so lonely that my honey is gone.
- i'm actually keeping up with the dishes in the kitchen and not letting them pile up like i sometimes do when my christopher is out of town.  i'm actually doing a fairly good job at keeping the house clutter at bay.
- i took one of my young women out for frozen yogurt and we had a blast.  baby girl and brady did too.  but especially baby girl.  she was laughing and squealing like crazy.  extra mom points for me for frozen yogurt and providing a friend for my child.
- i was nice to my husband, didn't complain [that much] about my baby, and was pretty patient with baby girl.
- i maintained a good mood today despite the crazy bad headache that has been plaguing me for the last twelve hours and that i didn't actually get a real meal today.
- i didn't get to talk to my sister when she called but i did talk to my mother in law when she called to check in on me and see how things were going today with brady.
- i did two loads of laundry.  i need credit for that too.

basically, at the end of the day what i really want to know is... was i a good wife?  was i a good mother?  did i work towards fulfilling my calling?  did i do something to improve my home and make it a better place for my family?  did i take care of myself (normally means meals or shower or looking nice)?  was i a good friend/family member to my loved ones?  did i serve anyone or help someone's day to be a little bit brighter?  did i work on any projects or long term goals?  was i happy?"

so even though there is a long list of stuff i didn't get to or should have done better, i am checking off today as a major success.  i mean, it only took me an hour to get brady to sleep tonight!  there is a lot to celebrate! and i am very very very blessed.

a perfect celebration

we haven't been married that long, but our anniversary seems to always get the shaft.  this year it's that my honey is in LA for the weekend at a stanford thing.  sooo, we celebrated thursday night instead.  and it. was. perfect.

several weeks ago, i curled my hair for the first time in umm a really long time... like ten years probably.  it was because i was insanely bored and i thought it would be fun to try something new for our date night (it was the most recent time we went to the nuggets game) and my doesn't-ever-notice-anything-ever husband kept commenting on how much he liked my hair.  who knew?!

and then i never curled my hair again.  whoops.

so i decided i should curl my hair for our anniversary date.  i am pleased to say that instead of taking a million hours like it did last time, that it took about four or five minutes and no teasing or hairspray or messing with.  just curled six chunks of hair, let it cool, flipped my hair over to shake it out, and called it good.

i won't lie... i felt kinda cool.  like all of the pretty girls at church.  y'know... all the cool moms.

also happy that later in the day, my hair still had some wave to it!  i'm thanking zero humidity colorado for that one.  i couldn't believe it. 

we had been planning to go out to bonefish grill, but then i happened to glance through a carrabba's menu online and found a number of delicious cheesy dinner options i wanted to try, as well as this little beauty that i promptly took a picture of and texted to my honey with a "actually, i think we should go to carrabba's... and make sure to save room for this dessert" kind of text.  thankfully he was on board.

he walked in the door with a card (my only request for any special occasion) and a long stemmed rose.  it's kind of our thing.  i can't even count how many roses he gave me while we were dating and newly married.  sometimes he'd just walk in the door after a regular day of work... with a rose for me.  and they were always so pretty.  white, yellow, purple, peach, red, pink, and some of those ones that are blended with multiple colors.  sooo, the single rose is pretty significant for me.  he stole my heart all over again when he walked in the door with that rose.

then my awesome mother in law came over to watch our kids.  i like not having to pick up or pay a babysitter but what i really really really love is being able to leave my children and not have to worry about them one single bit.  dinner was great.  the food was excellent (honey got a pizza with pepperoni and mushrooms which was delish and i got the seafood cannelloni which was absolutely superb.  and we got that "chocolate dream" for dessert of course... also a winner) and the company and conversation was perfect.  we talked about what we want our next trip or two to be.  honey really wants to go to alaska but i'm not in a hurry for that so we're thinking peru to see machu picchu with going to the congo on our two or three year plan (we'll have to skillfully work that around nursing and pregnancy).  making big plans for our future (like buying a house and having kids) was always one of my favorite things to plan and talk about while we were dating/engaged/newly married and it turns out, it still is.  but now we get to plan trips!  anyways, it was all perfection.

six years!

we were done with dinner by 8 or something and had time to kill.  i really wanted to look at furniture on our way home (am i the only one that gets giddy walking through furniture stores?!) and after asking me four times if i was really being serious, honey pulled a u-turn (since by that time he'd long passed the furniture store) and humored me with some furniture browsing. 

we decided we needed this office set... until we were too lazy to even add up how many thousands of dollars it would cost.  we'll list it for later.  ; )

we decided we would not like to purchase this table and four chairs for $2105... paying $265 for each additional chair.

but we actually are in the market for a new kitchen table and this one was maybe my favorite option.

and then we were going to go home until i last minute said "noo!!!  turn right!  turn right!  let's go to ross!" because, for some strange reason, shopping at ross also makes me giddy.  i could spend hours in there.  seriously.  i told honey that baby girl needed these shoes (and he was actually not putting up a fight about getting them!  like when we left the store he was all "wait, you're not getting those pink shoes?!") but i couldn't convince myself to get them knowing that baby girl actually already has a pair of hot pink slip on shoes that i got for her on clearance from target for just a few bucks.  buuuuut i still don't know if this was the right decision because i can't stop thinking about these little pink polo toes.

and then when we got home, i opened honey's card and he opened his gift.

i know just what he likes.  it is wonderful that i can buy his happiness for $2 in the form of chocolate twizzlers.

reading the sappy, sentimental note i wrote on the inside of this book.

milk duds, book with love quotes, chocolate twizzlers, and chips.  $5 present to celebrate our five years of marriage (that's an inside joke... last year honey's card wished me a happy fourth anniversary... so now we just subtract a year).

so now, even though i'm missing my honey on our anniversary (it's after midnight!  i need to go to sleep...) i'm  pretty content just replaying our perfect celebration from last night.

these six years have been good to us.  i can't wait for a million more.