Happy Birthday, My Love!

Beep, Beep, Beep...

That's the sound of my 5 am wake up, followed by my 2 hour yoga class, followed by my rush to get home for a quick good-bye to Todd, followed by a disappointing call to find out that he already left, followed by a quick shower, breakfast, random tasks, cleaning, errands, work, editing, blogging, etc... etc... you get what I'm saying. I'm sure you can all relate to the busy life we all may live...

Even though life can be really busy at times to just STOP... and take a minute to smell that fresh air outside, or take a minute to give your dog a good minute of belly rubs, not just one with your foot as you watch TV, but the kind you get down on the ground with him as you bond more and more, or take a short moment to tell your FAVORITE person in the entire world how much you appreciate them for putting up with all my crazy OCD-ness, early morning wake up's, extremely weird eating habits, stubborn-as-a-mule personality, not-so-witty comments... IN PUBLIC... I'm sure I can be pretty embarrassing! Ha!

But after all of that, your FAVORITE person in the entire world, still loves you and still makes you feel like you are the most important person to ever grace this Earth. How sweet are they?

It's only fitting to tell that person on their birthday, a day that everyone has to be nice to them... TOTALLY KIDDING HERE!

Seriously here, it is a great day to remember to tell them that since the day-to-day life can sure be really busy and it can sometimes be hard to stop for a moment to do that...

Todd,

Life is just unimaginable without you... it's as simple as that!




Happy Birthday, my love!

We are blowing you LOTS of kisses!!!



***His AWESOME gift was a Blu-Ray DVD Player with a surround sound... something he never would have ever asked for, but has wanted for awhile now... he loved it!***

High Fives...

I'm totally giving myself some high fives right now...

What a great week it has been already and is going to be... I not only got answers on my back issue, turns out I have mild arthritis... WHAT? All those years playing soccer, running, etc... caught up with me. It was worth it. But I got treatment and I feel so much better! (High Five!)

But this week is such a turning point and in great timing as winter is so over and our wedding season beings THIS weekend! (another high five!) I'm loving that and am so excited for it to begin!

Plus, we have a birthday celebration beginning tomorrow, (Todd's birthday is Friday!) but are celebrating for the next couple days with family and friends, lucky him! But his gift is going to be awesome! He's the hardest person to buy for and I think this year might also be a turning point in the fact that I can get good gifts for him that he'll enjoy! (Fingers are crossed! But I'll high five for the fact that he might REALLY like it!)

Plus... SUMMER IS ALMOST HERE!

I think that needs some double high fives...



Happy Wednesday!

Earth Day Celebrations...

Happy Earth Day Week... even though every day should be Earth Day.

It's always good to remind ourselves that it is OUR responsibility to care for this planet. I feel like each year more and more people are jumping on the eco-friendly bandwagon and that only means the planet is getting extra loving and is being cared for so much better.

We are doing our part here in our house by recycling, using reusable bags, having our summer garden, keeping our electricity down, etc... but we recently expanded our eco-friendly life by purchaseing some Norwex cleaning products. If you have never heard of them, you have got to check them out. I fell in love with them and instead of using chemicals to clean my house, the only thing I need is water. I LOVE that! Not only am I saving my lungs, I am saving the planet! I was so excited that on Earth Day I got my Norwex products, and the minute I got them, I whipped out my new window cloth and cleaned all my windows... seriously, even the car windows. Haha! They are spotless too... no Windex streaks, just clear glass. I was so excited and felt I had to share the great news with everyone else... who else gets excited for cleaning? Umm... someone with Norwex right?!



Happy Earth Day!

Living in the 1950's...

It's 1959 and our house was built. MANY, MANY years go by and 2007 comes around.

A sweet, fun, & young couple (Todd & I - hehe!) come look at the house and end up loving almost everything about it... the hardwood floors, the amount of space there is, the size of our backyard, the huge 'milk truck' size garage, the carpet in the kitchen... ok that part was definitely one of the things we didn't like, along with the old appliances, the gross countertops, the LACK of counter space... that one is probably the worst! I hate cooking and I really think it's because of our kitchen. Ughhh... I dread dinner time because I end up cooking on the stove because there is no room for prepping any where else.

But not to depress anyone any longer, it's now 2010 and that lovely 1959 kitchen is getting ready to be tore up and tore out! HOLLER!

Check out our push button stove...



Love those great knobs... (not really!)



I'm so excited for this summer as we are getting ready to start our long awaited "Kitchen Remodel". We are still in the some what planning stages, but the design is done. Now is all the small details like what kind of countertops, what color, what color backsplash, what color tile, etc, etc... I feel like that's the hardest part. How can you pick out all that stuff without thinking that you can just put a coat of paint on it to change the whole look without costing a fortune to redo tile or whatever. It's so tough! I do have ideas and am getting lots of magazines and books to look through to help, but how exhausting it is to make decisions. Ha! I'm just excited for it to be done, even though Todd warned me it will probably be the end of summer before I see the end. But I'm coming to terms with that, knowing in the end I will have a brand new kitchen to cook in, host parties, holidays, or whatever else I'll use it for. Yay, yay, yay for lots of good things to come...

Chubby Bunny

You know that game you play, where you stick a piece of gum or marshmallow or some type of food in your mouth and you have to get the words "Chubby Bunny" out? Then, you have to keep adding more gum or food and keep trying to get the words out?Sounds funny... and it's pretty funny to play, but believe it or not, I was the baby who looked as though I had the food in my cheeks, but had no food in them. Haha!

I have been wanting to put some old photos up of Todd & I when we were babies, but I didn't have very many of myself when I was young. My dad had given me some he found at his place and my jaw dropped to the floor, seriously, when I saw myself as a baby. Although I do not have any when I was just born, I have a couple when I was about a month old and I was such a Chubby Bunny!!! Oh wow! (See the photo below for a visual). I joke that I probably had a twin and ate them, I was so big! Thankfully I have evened out in the cheeks, and don't look much like that anymore! Phewww...

I thought I would share it with you... I'm proud to say I was a healthy baby. Healthy babies are chubby, right? Haha... I'll keep telling myself that to make me feel better.

Look at those cheeks!!!

Amish Country

Whoah Horsey!!!

Seriously, slow down, you just might miss this place. Todd & I travelled down to Ohio for a few days this past week to visit a place known as "Amish Country." I've never been there before, but was pleasantly surprised being there. It was like we were on the set of "Little House on the Prairie" or something with horse and buggies everywhere, farms, the smell of manurer, and of course the Amish people. They do not like to get their photo taken, so I opted not to disrespect them, even though it was really tempting since they were all so beautiful! But I did get a few photos of the actual country, and what a beautiful place it was!

In a way, it was really weird being there, since most of us live in a civilized world with TV's, cell phones, computers, cars, etc... and being there made me appreciate the simple life so much more. I'm not sure I would want to live without EVERYTHING, but without some things would be great! I think being balanced is the best way, but respect the Amish for being so disciplined and committed to their culture.

All in all we had a great time and came back with some pretty unique stuff!

Here are some of my favorites of the country...

Here are a couple of Amish Schools that are still active today...



Look at that playground equipment...





This was so cute... cups and all...



It was laundry day... so funny!



I was loving all the fields with cattle... it reminds me of Indiana!



Oh wow... the tractor in the background was perfect!

Happy Easter!

What a beautiful day!

Not only is it such a wonderful celebration... but the most perfect day!

I hope everyone is enjoying it as much as we are here...

Todd & I are off for a mini-vacation tomorrow and Tuesday, so keep up as we return from a secret location... hehe!

Happy Easter!

April 1st...

Ouch...

I found out today that I ended up breaking my back!!! Can you believe it???

Ok, I'm not a really good liar... so APRIL FOOLS!

I totally forgot that since it's April 1st, that people still did stuff like that, except today has been extremely nice and with it being nice out, I decided I would open all the windows and just enjoy the fresh air coming in and out of our house, listen to the birds chirping, the wind blow, the noise of nature, and for the most part, the peaceful day that it was today.

Boy was that a mistake!

What happened to kid's being in school today? I spent all morning listening to the kid's across the street ride their bikes up and down the sidewalks telling lies to each other then saying "APRIL FOOL'S!" They would get so mad at one another for the April Fool's joke that they would them self tell a lie back, then they would follow it with a big "APRIL FOOLS", then back and forth all morning long... oh wow... how annoying! It kind of reminded me of when I was little, probably doing the same exact thing, being annoying and all! Haha!

I hope you weren't lied to today as much as the little kids across the way were...