Birthday Boy

On Monday, my main squeeze turned the big 3-0.

I've been 30 since April, so I am always happy when we are back to the same age.

However, all of our major life events have happened (and been documented) when I was a year older than him.  By major, I mean 2.

1.  When we got married, I was 26 and he was 25.  Right there in black and white forever on our marriage license.

2.  When Blair was born, I was 29, he was 28.  Again on her birth certificate.

I will go down in history as the older woman.

We celebrated his birthday the weekend before with dinner at his parents, then dinner the next night with my family.

On his actual birthday, we went to work (thrilling), I made him his favorite Canadian bacon/pineapple pizza, and he had a softball game.  It was at 8:15 and Blair was (supposed) to be asleep by then, so my mom came over, so I could go cheer him on.  It was a fun night together.

I don't talk about him too much on here, but he really is the rock I lean on.  (Do you lean on rocks?  You know what I mean.)  He keeps me together when sometimes I may fall apart.  He makes me laugh, mostly at the silly things he says.  I knew on our first date, that I wanted to marry him.  I wasn't sure if he felt the same way, but I sure hoped he did.  It was the first time that I had really felt like I met someone that I could be with 24/7.  We can talk for hours (we used to on the phone when we were long-distance) or just hang out and be perfectly happy.  Matt really respects me and everything I have to say and everything I do.  I love that and truly feel like we are best friends....forever.  I can't imagine life without him.  He's the best daddy to Blair.  She adores him and he can get the best giggles out of her.  I'm so, so happy that he's mine....and that he was born 30 years ago.

I picked some pictures that just made me snicker or smile or remember...or just when I close my eyes and picture Matt, these are what I see.

Weekend Recap

So I'm a terrible blogger and it's been a full week since I have updated.

I guess this will just be the blog of weekend recaps.

Just kidding, I'll get better, this was the first week of school, so I was busy getting back in the swing of things.  Also, nothing really exciting happened.  It's hard to blog when you just go to school and home to crash.  Nobody wants to read that!

Anyway, this weekend we started with a Friday night dinner with my grandpa and my side of the family.  We usually do this on Sunday, but switched it up this week.  It was a nice way to finish the work week.

Saturday morning and afternoon I worked on a project to clean up and utilize the area above our washer and dryer.  I covered copy paper boxes with contact paper.  Here's the end result.  Looks good and more storage too since they can stack.

Saturday night, I was my mother-in-law's date to the Art Feeds Gala.  For those of you not from around here, Art Feeds is an art program that helps foster creativity to help students heal, especially after traumatic events.  They had been working in Joplin before the tornado, but really took off in Joplin schools after that.  They have since gone national and expanded to other communities.  The founder, Meg, and her family are good friends with my in-laws.  It was their goal to raise $50,000 during the night and ended up with $55,000!
Everyone was supposed to wear primary colors.  It was a lot of fun, here are some pictures from the night.

I may have gotten a tattoo....or not....

Sunday morning, we headed off to church.  Then, Blair took a monster nap.

Once she finally woke up, we had lunch and headed off to meet my mom and dad at the pool.  We came home and she was nice and tired for another long nap.  We ended the weekend with Chinese and the Chiefs.
Blair was ready to cheer them on....yes, she is wearing a sports bra.  Yes, she is nuts.

Weekend Review

This has been another speedy week and then weekend.  Sorry for the lack of posts once again.  Little girl, work, and life are just keeping me pretty busy.

Here's a recap of our weekend in pictures.

When I got in my car after school on Friday, it was 102.  HOT!

I wasn't feeling amazing and really craving some good 'ole chicken noodle soup with saltines, so my sweet husband made it happen.

It was too hot to do much else, so Friday night was spent chilling in our pjs.

Saturday morning, we watched The Pioneer Woman, notice her bracelet, you'll see more of those.

We took some extra long naps.

We woke up happy and with some bed head.  Also, my husband and I both have dark hair and green eyes, where this blue-eyed blond came from, I have no idea.

We took selfies.

On Sunday, we looked extra cute for church (bracelet is on, but barely visible.)

We went to Matt's parents and celebrated Matt's birthday with Chipotle

and cake.

We raided Aunt Natalie's room and played with all her accessories.

Bracelet overload, the girl loves her bracelets!

With Monday morning our weekend was over, but we did get to see our neighborhood pet fox.

Book Review-The Astronaut Wives Club

I thought I'd start doing some book reviews once I actually finished some books.  I'm finding it's harder and harder to find time to sit and read now, but oh how I love it when I do.  

Recently, I read The Astronaut Wives Club: A True Story by Lily Koppel

I may not have picked this book up on my own, but my Kindle is linked to my moms, so anytime she buys a book, it's on mine.  So most of the time, I just pick something random on there, because most likely I'll like it.  She's like my personal book shopper.

My dad has his private pilots license and I grew up flying in small planes with him.  Therefore, all things aeronautic (including space) have always been a topic of conversation in my house.  So I brought some background knowledge of some of these early astronauts, but not much.  I don't read non-fiction much, but I really liked this book.  It was easy to read and was just filled with juicy stories about their lives.  It got a little hard to keep all the wives straight as it followed different generations, but it was still fun.  I am always so intrigued by women in the 50's and 60's and what their lives must have been like.  I think part of me thinks I should have been born in that generation and love all the old fashioned values but at the same time, it seems like a lot of work and doing it all in heels and dresses.  

Anyway, this was an easy read and I enjoyed it.  Supposedly, ABC is making it into a TV show with JoAnna Garcia Swisher from Reba, so that'll be fun to watch.  It says it's a limited 10 episodes, so I'm not sure if it'll be around for long, but if you want to learn about the wives perspective of this part of our nation's history, check it out.

Weekend Recap

We had another pretty low-key weekend, prepping up for school starting up full-force.  Last week, I was just working in the library for my extended contract time.  Monday and Tuesday we have meetings all day and Wednesday the kids come!

Friday night, we stayed home and I made fajitas.  We hung out and had a grand ole time.  The night commenced with me (finally) beating Matt at Sequence...twice!  Boo-yah!

Saturday, we just had another quiet day at home.  Matt mowed and Blair and I played.  We shared some ravioli for lunch.

It started to look pretty stormy, but we didn't get too much rain.  I headed off to Wal-Mart, that's always fun.  I had a nice evening bike ride.  Definitely too hot to run.  We were going to grill burgers for dinner, but this genius forgot to buy hamburger buns.  PB&Js it was!

Sunday morning, Blair looked super cute for church. 

 She took some really long naps, so mama had some time to read and relax.  We ended the night with Sunday dinner with my grandpa.

It was a pretty uneventful weekend, but I'll take one of those anytime.

Back to the Grind

Well since I started back to work this week, we have fallen into our routine pretty easy, except I have only had to be there at 8:00 instead of the usual 7:30, so it's been a nice ease into things.

Our meetings start Monday, so all classroom teachers report Monday and kids start Wednesday.  My contract is just longer, so I work a week before teachers and a week after them in the summer.  I have just been getting everything set up at both schools after the cleaning crews came this summer.  I have also been getting the new batch of kids in our circulation program and working on getting our books ready for our updated Accellerated Reader program.

Basically, just doin' my job.

Blair's been getting up about 7:00, so I have been able to feed her breakfast and spend some time together in the morning.

Monday night, my friend Nellie came over to take Blair's 1 year pictures.  She sent me these teasers and I am obsessed.  I can't wait to see the rest.

Tuesday was election day and we were on pins and needles waiting to find out if our good friend, Joe Hensley, was going to be elected judge.  He, and his family, had campaigned so hard and their hard work paid off!  We had gone to parties, worn our t-shirts, drove around with a magnet on our car because we knew he was the best candidate.  We are so excited for Joe!

Wednesday night, was quiet and typical.  

Nothing too exciting to report on, but that's kind of how I like it.  

I like the simple life.

Weekend Recap

We had a great, relaxing, mellow weekend.

Friday we stayed at home most of the day and just practiced looking cute.

It was overcast and in the 80's, but I was determined to go to the pool on my last weekend before school starting.  It ended up warming up and being beautiful.  We had a great time!

Friday night (this mama doesn't cook on Fridays), we ordered a pizza and spent the evening chilling out.

Saturday, we had a relaxing morning with a pancake breakfast at home.

I ran off to go to a co-worker's wedding in the afternoon.

Blair practiced hugging.

We also gave blankey lots of love.

I made tuna, bacon, avocado sandwiches for dinner.

Blair preferred her bread over anything else.  Carbs win!

Sunday morning, we headed to church in our cute, little romper.

Actions shots are all we get these days.

After church, Blair took a nice, long nap.  We had some lunch, and then this mama escaped to the pool alone for a couple hours.  AMEN to actually being able to lay out and read.  Plus, I had the place to myself...pretty much, my mama did join me though.

When I came home, we went on a family run.  It was hot, I thought I was going to die.  I don't like running.  That's all.

We finished the weekend with dinner with my papa, my parents, and my aunt and uncle.  

Now, lunches are packed, diaper bag and teacher bag ready, and Real Housewives is a rollin on the TV.  Party on!