9 Years and Counting

9 years ago, I woke up to rain and clouds and a smile on my face.

And 9 years ago, the rain and clouds cleared away to offer us a beautiful day of sunshine

as we celebrated our marriage with our family and friends.

Our life is nothing like I imagined.

It's crazy and chaotic and has wild highs and lows...

And I am insanely grateful to be going through it all with Ryan.

We are an odd match, but we work.

For whatever reason, and in our very own unique way, we fit together.

Ryan, I love you.  Deeply, truly, purely, and never-ending.

Thank you for being the man I love more than anything.

I will forever be your always.

Almost a decade of marriage... So much love!

Celebrations

The fall is always busy for our little family!

Lots of love and lots to celebrate!

In the past week, both Ryan and I had birthdays, and although we didn't do anything 

big and exciting, we still made sure to recognize the importance of such a special day!

The Friday before Ry's birthday, he and I had an unexpected night without the girls

and decided to enjoy a nice dinner out at a fabulous little place called The Salt Cellar!

If you haven't been, I highly recommend it!  Unique little place, with good food, 

and it happens to be across the street from Nina's, which is a cute little coffee shop!

Saturday, I got quite excited after a call from staffing, stating that I could stay home

"on-call" until 11pm!  Our neighborhood was heading out to enjoy Oktoberfest, and I was

thrilled to be able to participate (even if sober) with the gang!  So I got up from my nap,

got myself ready to go, and as we're heading out the door, I get a call again from the 

hospital saying "Oh sorry, we got a late sick call... we're gonna need you to come at 7"

wah wah wah

So... I worked.  And Ryan went out and rang in his Birthday with some great neighbors.

And a lot of beer.

A lot. 

 The next morning, I dragged the hungover Birthday boy out of bed and took him to breakfast! 

That night I made a hasty chocolate cake and the girls and I sang Happy Birthday and snapped a few pics before I rushed out the door to work again!

Photo courtesy of Elaina ;)

A little over a week later, I turned 34.  And guess what I did?.... I worked.  

Actually, I don't have any qualms working on my birthday... kinda fun to share my day with some

new brand little people!  I had some leftover chinese and saw my family for about 90min, but it was

still really nice!  Then off to work.  And low and behold, my wonderful co-workers had a sweet surprise for me!
I am quite grateful for the sweet ladies I get to work with! They make my job even more enjoyable!

Birthdays are Awesome!

Fall start up

We are off to a good start this year!  

Both the girls have seemingly adapted well to school and we're 

slowly getting into the swing of things! Bedtime, lunches, fighting 

with Lila about doing her homework... you know, the usual?! ;)

She actually reads very well... just doesn't like reading her "school" books 

A friend and I took our kids to the Renaissance Festival last weekend! It was a great day and the kids had fun!
The girls got their hair braided (to the tune of far more $ than I'm willing to admit), but it was really dang cute and they loved it.... makes it all worth it, right?

Photo season has started and I'm actually quite excited about it!!  Bring it on!

I have had some fitness ups and downs.  Basically, my lifting is kinda in the tank... boo. 

I haven't been hitting the weight as hard as before, and lets face it... I'm getting older.  If you don't keep on top of that, things go south in a hurry.  However, I have been running more, so THAT is at least improving.  Take your wins where you can get them, I guess!

WEAK!

 When Ryan texts me "How was your workout babe?".... this is my response lately...

 BUT, I've got a new running buddy which is kinda fun.  He used to be miserable to run with and has evened out a bit in his old grey age... it's kinda nice!

I cooked.  This in and of itself is worth mentioning.  (Oh, and also worth mentioning, is that I basically just found the recipe, and laid the ingredients out... may have chopped a few things, but Ryan pretty much did the work)  But whatever, it turned out really good and pretty, therefore, I will claim my success! 

Skillet pork chops with mushroom and onion cream sauce and fresh spinach

I had a girls night out with these exceptionally lovely ladies! Wine on a Wednesday, with this view...

Yep, pretty awesome! Thank you again girls, that was so much fun!

These munchkins had dental appointments yesterday morning.  8am. (Which after being out until the wee hours the night before with my girlfriends, came really damn early!!!)   It's a good thing their hygienist was fun and the whole thing went smooth.  They even got to "help"! Hahaha!!

First Day of School - K & 1

It Happened.

My baby is a school age child.

Cue tears shed.

(to my credit... I did better than last year, but still, 

a few were shed after the bus picked them up)

The night before, we made sure clothes were laid out.

Backpacks were ready, showers were done, and everything was set for the big day!

The girls were both excited in the morning as they woke up, and were ready

long before they actually had to get to the bus stop!  

(Just was lots of time for me to take pictures!!)

Lila was a pro.  A big 1st Grader, no concerns at all.  Just happy to get back

to school and back into her routine.  She was great at playing the Big Sister

role, explaining to Elle how everything would go!

I was nervous for E.  Worried she would get her nervous upset tummy.

But she didn't waver a second!  Nothing but smiles all morning.

And when that bus pulled up, I didn't even get a hug and kiss

Didn't get a backwards glance... she just climbed on, sat with her friends

and big sister, and off she went. (cue the tears for me).

They returned home with smiles on their faces... happy and excited to tell us all about their days!

Ryan and I were there to greet them as they got off the bus, and it made my heart happy to know 

that both my big girls had a great start to what is sure to be a great year!!

Last week of Summer

The girls got on the bus this morning.  Both of them. 

Suddenly, I am the parent of two school age children and I can't figure

out how that happened so fast!  I blinked and here we are.

I took a million photos between last night and this morning,

more to come for sure when they get off the bus this afternoon!

But for now, I'm going to wrap up our last week in photos.

It was a good week.  A fantastic way to bring summer to a close!

Summer was good to us this year, far superior to the past one,

we had fun, good weather, and time together to enjoy it!  

Goofy kids

Ryan took the girls to the State Fair one day while I was napping after a shift! 

They loved the barns and probably would have been happy spending the entire day there!

We worked on getting the pool put away, and the yard cleaned up

Super messy, hot, sticky, job... but I'm so glad we got it done!

And yesterday we went to the River

It was a Fabulous day and we enjoyed the hell out of our last day of summer!

The girls swam, we ate, relaxed, and soaked up the sun (I may have gotten a little crispy, oops)!

The whole day was great and I couldn't be happier!!

Our little E... who a few short weeks ago wouldn't swim in the river at all... :) 

Have to feed the ducks!

Thank you Summer! You were good to us!

~And now on to this....~