Whatever Wednesday - Biggest Heartbreak

Wow, Shay and Alissa really took it up a notch today. Okay maybe it was Alissa...but whatever. I've thought and thought about the topic since it arrived in my inbox on Monday. One thing really stood out in my mind, but I wasn't sure if I wanted to talk about it. It's not something that I normally tell people, mostly it just makes for an awkward few minutes. But I thought, it's been almost almost 14 years, and I haven't cried about it in about 3 years, so here it goes.

This is about to get really personal, so if you don't want to know personal stuff about me, then stop reading.

Now where to start? I guess from the beginning. It all started with a hug. He had graduated already, and I was in the school admin office, for what reason I'm not sure. We had been working together for a few months and never really talked to each other, but when he saw me he smiled and gave me the biggest hug. That hug changed my life forever. We dated the rest of the school year and into freshman year of college. My parents of course were concerned we were too serious at such a young age. They told me that I need to see less of him during the summer before my sophomore year. This it turns out, while I hated them and thought they were ridiculous became a blessing. School started back up and we started talking again. We went on a couple of dates, things were picking back up where we left them 2.5 months ago. Wow this is harder then I thought it would be. Then one day I get The Phone Call from my best friend from high school. It was super early in the morning so I let it go to voicemail, who calls at 6:30am? She calls again, and again, leaving messages every time. I finally get up, I don't recall what time, maybe 8:30? I listen to her messages, the first one she's been crying, telling me to call her. The second time, she's a little more calm, and the third time, she's not crying. I figure her mom and her got into another fight, and by the third message she seemed okay, so I figured they had worked it out. I casually call her back. She bursts into tears and just spits it out, she tells me he, the one I thought I had forever with, the one that I had given space to for my parents so that when we got back together we knew that we had to be together, had died in a car accident the night before.

You know when you see those TV shows when people get really bad news and they scream and yell NOOO and drop to their knees? I always thought, that doesn't really happen in real life, but it does and it did to me. My 3 roommates knew something had happened to him, they all came running.

Life that year was a blur, it was like I was living outside of my body, watching me perform normal everyday activities, but not actually living them. I was getting school work back I didn't even remember doing, taking tests and getting them back that I didn't remember taking.  Slowly the fog began to lift and by Junior year I was back to a new normal.

School was hard, I had worked so hard to get to where I was, and I begin wondering why? Why do I put so much effort into school when it can all be taken away just like that? I got a new outlook on life, have more fun, enjoy my friends more and be a little more carefree, totally cliche of my to say, but life is short, and if you don't live each day like it's your last, then what's the point? I made more of an effort to foster my friendships with friends, and to say yes when they were going out, instead of studying 24/7 (an engineering degree can do that to a person). I didn't have to have the best GPA, I was okay with average. I was going to take advantage of living with my 3 best friends and being young and being in college. And that's exactly what I did. I have no regrets from those years in college.

Turns out my parents summer ban on boyfriend was a blessing. I wasn't talking to him everyday, seeing him everyday, so it wasn't as huge of a hit after the accident. For a long while I  just kept thinking, it's still summer, I'll talk to him next week, or I thought it was a cruel joke and that he would come waltzing around the corner at any moment. He never did. He will always have a piece of my heart, and will forever be a part of who I was and who I have become.

Saving One Swing at a Time

I know you're all wondering what I did over the weekend, but I'm knee deep in trying to get ready for throwing Baby Fox a half birthday party on Saturday, and of course I decided to start all of the crafts THIS weekend. So well, that's what I've been doing from the time Baby Fox goes to bed till I got to bed an hour and half later. Just pretend you read what I did, hung out at home and crafted...I know such an exciting life.

Last night, Mr. sprayed for bugs around the house and in the house and while it was drying we took Baby Fox to the park. Not the most exciting thing you've ever heard, but we saw a friend and put our kids on the swings. Baby Fox's swing was squeaky,  driving us all nuts. Mr. promptly walked home and then did this:

He's concentrating really hard here, he's now wishing he didn't tell me that he brought his iPhone to the park so I could take a picture and then quickly send them to myself

I made him pose with the WD-40 showing, he's not spraying me, don't worry

Yep that's my husband saving one swing at a time. Our ears thank him profusely.

Whatever Wednesdays - Girl Code

Well another Wednesday is here and Shay and Alissa cooked up a good one this week...Girl Code. I guess there is a show on MTV, I haven't watched it yet, but probably should. Anyway, they sent out the topic on Sunday and I thought, I have no freakin' clue...so here are my thoughts:

1. If you call dibs on a guy, it's NOT okay for your friend to then go hard core on you and try to get him first after she's told you that you would be perfect for each other. That happened to me in college, I broke up with that friend, literally, I had a conversation with her, told her I no longer wanted to be friends, walked away and never looked back, well until now.
2. Just after college I moved out with a friend, or so I thought. She turned out to be ca-razy! She started spreading rumors, etc. It's fine if you don't like me, but don't start spreading false rumors to mutual friends. Not cool. They felt like they had to pick, some of those friendships were never the same.
3. I learned that when you get a boyfriend, don't drop your friends. Not cool. I did this when I met Mr. But my bestie kicked me in my butt and said, not cool. We then made weekly meet-ups and I made more of an effort. Boys come and go, but best friends are here to stay (or at least I hope they are)

      4. And last but not least, since my life is more about mommyhood, tell me I look fantastic pregnant, don't
          tell me "you look like you're ready to pop" when I still have 3 months to go. This is a time that it is
          perfectly acceptable to LIE YOUR ASS OFF. I already feel like poo, so just go ahead and tell me
          how wonderful I look.

Looking at these pictures apparently I have a thing for polka dots...Blue and white to be specific.

Heart Chalk Board

Remember this?

Wondering where I got those heart chalk boards? Well wait no further, I'm going to tell you how I did it right now. It's super easy, don't I always say that? But really, it is.

Supplies:

Wood Heart Boards (got from Micheal's in the wood craft area) - Less then $3
Fine grain sand paper - I already happened to have this
Colored paint - unless you want to go with the wood look, I had left overs from this project
Chalk board paint -  less $10 at Home Depot
Chalk

What do do:

Step 1:

Sand the heart, there were a few rough edges on mine, and I wanted a good surface for painting.

All ready to go

Step 2:

Paint the heart, or whatever shape you chose. I painted the sides and the top on the first round, waited for it to dry

then painted the backside

All finished

Step 3:

Use the chalk board paint to paint the front surface

All done with one, now to finish the others 

 

Tips: I should have been more patient and really waited to start a second coat, but I wasn't and had some drippings of the chalk board paint. So I had to go over some of the spots with the regular paint color. Be more patient then me.

Follow the direction of the chalk board paint, wait for the given amount of time and then color the surface of the chalk board with chalk, erase and you're good to start writing messages.

We have these as the center piece of our kitchen table, with different messages to read, depending on how we're feeling.

Now go out and make your own cute chalk board hearts!

Long Weekend Recap

I hope that everyone had a nice 4th of July. I know ours was jammed packed (on that later). I also admit, I had a long weekend, and didn't blog or take many pictures for that matter. But I'll show you what I did take.

Thursday, we woke up earlier than normal to get out the door and drive the 100+ miles to meet up for brunch and...

well, let me start with my dad...this is what he used to look like:

2012

He's lost a about 80 pounds since then and as a gift to himself did this:

Fact: I uploaded a bunch of pictures to share with friends, and Google+ recognized that these were sequential so it made this little movie, pretty cool if you ask me

He loved it and absolutely would do it again in a heartbeat. Perhaps I'll join him the next time.

Thursday evening we headed over to my Uncle's house for some BBQ action. It's always great to get together with my cousins with kids, gives Baby Fox a chance to get to play with his cousins, who he absolutely adores.

My uncle is on the city council so we got special passes and viewing area to watch the fireworks from. My cousin is a rock star and when we got there she set this up in about 2 minutes.

The fireworks show was totally awesome, we could feel the boom of the fireworks we were so close. Baby Fox didn't like how loud it was, so this is how we spent the entire show:

We made the 100 mile trek back home that night, it was a long day, but oh so worth to sleep in our own bed.

Friday Mr. had to work, so it was just Baby Fox and me and we just played around the house and then went to Target...and spent too much money...as Target usually makes people do. When we got back home Baby Fox found his Halloween costume in his toy bin and decided that he wanted to put it on...I told him it was 90° out, but he still wanted to put it on.

If you can't tell, he's saying "rooooaawwrrrr!!"

Saturday was swim lessons (forgot to bring camera), and hanging out with Grandpa and Nana

Sunday we hung out with some friends that are moving in a couple of weeks and since we were both free we met up for some breakfast at Dim Sum and some swimming.

 
We went on the Carousel after breakfast. Pretty good selfy if I do say so myself. This is while the horse was in motion.

I just thought this picture was funny, I tried to get a shot of the kids in the pool, and Baby Fox sneezed right when I clicked the shutter. You can't tell, but Mr. is underneath them hiding so I could get the picture.

We decided to go swimming last minute, so Ms. O didn't have a swimsuit, she borrowed one of Colton's shorts, don't judge her, she's 2.5.

So sad to see them moving so far away from us, we'll miss them. I'm sure we'll meet up in some snowy place to get our snowboard on in the future.


Sunday night was great, we went to my parents for dinner, so no cooking for me, it was awesome! Great way to end the weekend!

Now onto my FIRST full 5 day workweek since April 15th. Yes you read that correctly, I haven't worked a full week in 3 months.

Linking up with Sami and Faith, Sarah and Megan

Whatever Wednesday - Another Decade

Today is the third installment of Whatever Wednesday's with Shay and Alissa . See last week's topic here. Today's topic? If you could live in another decade which would you choose? Well I thought and thought about it, and I couldn't really think of anything. I asked my husband which decade he would choose and he said he likes living in the now, with all of the technology and wouldn't want to live in any other time.

He asked me the same and the first thing that popped out of my mouth, 1890's. The reason(s)? Okay I have to add a caveat...when I told Mr. that I wanted to live int he 1890's his reaction why? Work was so hard, everything was labor intensive, no air conditioning. My answer, I don't know I just think I would love it...that being said, since this is my choice, I'm going to choose to be a lady married to a wealthy man where we travel the world and have servants to clean and cook for us. But if push comes to shove, I could do it prairie style and cook and clean and keep a garden and do all that house wife work too.

Reason #1: The fashion, I know, totally wacky. I love the dress styles and the hats and the long dresses. I hate pants and I love dresses, I would wear a dress every single day if I could get away with it.

Love this green dress and matching hat

Via

 Seriously the backs of these dresses? Can't get better then that!

Via

Reason #2: Manners, most people seemed to be so polite, the men stood up when a lady got up from the table. Ladies whispered in the corner while the men folk went to the cigar room after dinner to talk politics. I hate politics or talking about them, so I'm totally okay just gossiping about what Mrs. Smith wore to church.

Lastly Reason #3: You get to ride in horse drawn carriages, people didn't seem to be in a huge hurry to get anywhere. The horse can only take you so fast, yes it's bumpy, but I can handle bumpy. Life just seemed more simple, no technology to worry about, no shows to DVR and catch up on, people learned how to play instruments for entertainment.

I know this is probably totally not what it was like, but for this Whatever Wednesday, I'm going to say it is and just keep living in my little dream world of what it would be like to live in the 1890's.

Weekend Recap

This week has been long, I'll get to telling you some other time, but for now we'll think about the good stuff.

Friday afternoon we went somewhere and there was a fire truck. Baby Fox couldn't wait to get on that thing! So we walked over to the fire truck and they let him get on and explore! He was in heaven!

Baby Fox really wanted to touch the screen

Fine Mom, I'll pose for a picture

My favorite of the day

And then the best thing happened, since we knew the firemen's boss (my uncle), they gave Baby Fox, Mr. and Grandpa a ride in the fire truck around the "block"! I'm fairly certain that Mr. and Grandpa had WAY more fun than Baby Fox, and of course they just said they "volunteered" to go with so Baby Fox wouldn't get scared.

Saturday Baby Fox helped me make cupcakes for our visitors on Sunday. He was a very good helper, . couldn't ask for a better assistant.

The next day we made frosting, Baby Fox was introduced to licking the beaters, isn't that every kids dream? I remember as a kid doing that and thinking this is the best thing EVER! Double fisting it of course. Not having to share the other beater with a sibling...at least for another year or so. I might have created a monster by introducing this concept to him.

Sunday afternoon some friends that were in town from Virgina came to visit. We had lots of fun visiting and playing with them.

 We went to the park

Went swimming after nap time.

Played with every single toy that Baby Fox owns, twice

And watched Finding Nemo

We were sad to see them leave, hopefully they come visit again soon! (side note: Baby Fox's friend is 9 months younger than him...)

And that our weekend in a nutshell. At least it's a short week, thankfully!
  
Linking up with Sami