Playa Del Carmen

This time next week, I will be here. Playa Del Carmen, Mexico.

I have been vacillating between feelings about this trip for months. Right now though, I'm leaning more toward excitement. I'm sure all moms would understand what I'm feeling, it's just the idea of letting go, even if it's just for 6 days. I'm used to being the one in charge/control (or the feeling of, I understand God is in fact in control) of things at home. The idea of handing the kids off for an extended time is scary to me. My parents will be here at our place, which is a first time (talk about trying to clean up your underwear drawers) and I know the kids will be in very capable, and slightly spoiling hands.

However, despite all my reservations and sinful fears, I am on board for this trip. Paul and our marriage come first, even above my children. So, with all this said and off my chest.... bring on sleeping in, feeding me and me alone, late nights, fruity drinks with umbrellas, strolls on the beach, bluest of waters, and a cute cabana boy I will nickname Carlos.

The rest of our visit, and meeting BETH.

Sorry Jami, but I will be doing some combining on this post. I simply don't have the patience to break up all of these. :)

Between lots of play. (Which one looks outta place?)

And time spent with grandparents.
I managed to squeeze in a few more things to do, while in the promised land.

Made a trip up to Salem to do a little shopping and have lunch with Aunt Linda.
Good griefness, even my mother is sucked into the electronic devices.
We also got to see Cody play a game. We were rooting for those Borden Braves!
There he is, #34, he's a really good ballplayer.
It was a fun game, and Pierce really got into it this time. We had a lot of fun!
Why is Cody taller than me? Why does he have facial hair? Why do all the girls text him and scream for him? Could somebody tell me where Cody bear went, because this is ridonkulous.
AND I also got to see my girlie's AGAIN on a lunch date. And this is where I met someone I've been stalking for years!!

There I was sitting in my booth, chowing down, when lo and behold I see a child and a man in the corner of my eye, that I recognized in a second.

Let me back up, I've been reading Beth's blog for as long as I've been blogging, but I was always a secret lurker. Tracey knew Beth from college days, and I just thought she had a funny/interesting blog. So, imagine my HORROR when one day she went private, and I could no longer read it! Geesh. Thankfully, one day Tracey outted me to Beth and she invited me to read it, and come to find out she was reading mine as well. God bless blogs.

Anyways, so here comes Josh and Isabella, and I am not kidding you all, I wanted to scream, "LOOK IT'S ISABELLA AND JOSH!!" It was hard to contain myself, but I did. Jami also knows Beth, so I was the odd man out, but I was like "I wanna go meet them!" And I even got all nervous feeling, ha!! Beth and her accompanying family were just as sweet in person as I had always imagined and I think I held it together, even though I really wanted to start snapping pictures. HA! It was so nice to put a whole family with the faces!! :-)

Even though I didn't create a scene taking pictures with Beth and the gang, I made us girlie's document just one more time.

Take #1.
Take #2.
And success.
Great Thanksgiving weekend I would say. Now the countdown is on for another trip, but I will let everyone in on that maybe tomorrow....

My FAVORITE meal of the year.

Thanksgiving dinner is by far my favorite meal of the year. I just love dressing, sweet potatoes, green beans, rolls, and pumpkin pie, YUM!! The turkey itself I've never been a big fan of though, it's always just so-so in my opinion. This year though the turkey was seriously wonderful, and guess who made it??

Look at the yummy bird just waiting to be eaten. Do you think that I made it? I know with my awesome pie baking skills your just sure that it was me...

You know better right? No, not me. Before I reveal, check out our place setting my mom had for us girls. We each got an ornament from Williamsburg, a Santa from Williamsburg and a tin of her homemade fudge. So nice!!
Here he is, the man with the golden turkey lurkey touch. He did a great job, it was for reals the best turkey I've ever eaten.
And then he carved it at the table like a scene from a movie. I kept joking that it would explode like the one in Christmas Vacation. But it did not, the whole meal was wonderful!
Pierce only had one thing on his mind on Thanksgiving, heck the whole weekend. Where are my cousins?
I wanted to capture some sweet memories in pictures (of course) and look who thought he was HI-LARIOUS taking these kinds of pictures of me. He actually said, "this is the face I wake up to everyday"
Take #2 honey.
No worries, I got him back.
We also celebrated my and Chris's birthday on Turkey Day, and this is the only picture Paul got. If I die before him, you better believe captured moments will cease.
Our Thanksgiving was good, and like every year I can't believe another one has come and gone. And I will leave you with my dad's traditional 'family round the table' photo.

Where oh where do I begin?? But of course, Breaking Dawn.

I've gone back and forth about how to blog this weekend, and I thought I might do one big post, that was until Jami told me not to. She said, "it's too hard to read" hmpf. So, I have lots to blog, lots of catch up reading, and I leave again in a week. So, here goes. (Julie, do you still read my blog? I've seen your dislike of Twilight on FB, so you might as well skip this post, ha!)

Tracey and I were late bloomers when it came to the Twilight series stuff. We both held out a long time reading the books, but of course once we gave in, we were hooked. Ridiculous sounding story line, but somehow addictive none the less. My friends were sweet enough to work the movie around my visit to Indiana, and these plans have been set up for a year!! Dinner at Puerto first, so we could catch up, and talk about how excited we all were to see it.

Honest to Pete, we were ridiculous with the photos. Tracey and I even felt we should strike a traditional Olan Mills pose.
I was so happy to see my favorite Jami and Jaime.
And you know that we didn't stop the picture madness once we got to the theatre.

No. Between giggles and flashes going off, one would assume we were HALF our ages. Hardly. We were just acting half our ages.

The movie was REALLY good, definitely the best so far. You have to know though, my favorite part was being with all my girlies for a fun time. Edward was just a bonus.

Thankful. Thankful. Thankful.

In two days I will be with my family and eating my favorite meal of the year. In one day I will be with my friends eating, gabbing and swooning over Edward.

While today I will be cooking, packing and staying in from this nasty rainy day! And while I'm busy all day I will be making a conscious effort to dwell on all I have to be thankful for. So cliche' isn't it? However, so true. And let me say, I am a thankful, thankful, thankful girl.

I hope everyone has a fabulous Thanksgiving holiday.

From our turkey to yours.

Happy Birthday to meeeee!!

This new blog look is my birthday gift from Paul. Thank you honey!!

Okay, that's all I have for now. Ha!!

There's no place like home.

After a LONG 10 hour drive, we finally made it home last night. Is it just me, or when you get back after being gone a week do you have a new appreciation for your house? Of course we had a good time and miss Meemaw and Grandpa, but there's something about your own bed. You know?

I don't have much to report. We went to church today, and then Cracker Barrel for lunch, where we tried on goofy hats and squeezed our way through the gift shop.

This is what awaits me, 87485 loads of laundry. I will get it all done and then it will be time to head back out of town.
And Tracey just wanted you to see that I'm proudly wearing my Colts shirt today. Not quite sure what I'm doing with my face, but hey, it's what I thought looked good at the time.
And I want to document something Hope said to me today. "Momma, when I grow up and become a mommy, I want to be one just like you." I'm enjoying the fact that she really likes me right now. :)

Winding down in Michigan.

Today is our last day here, we'll load up tomorrow and make the long trip home. It's always sad to leave, and I would imagine we'll have a very sad little boy on our hands tomorrow. I thought today I would kind of do a catch all post, various other things that we've done while staying here.


Hope has had a great time here too. She has done lots of pretend play, but honestly her most favorite thing has been the cats. Especially the kitten Micky, who I never managed to get still enough for a decent picture.
When we first got here last Saturday Pierce had one thing on his mind. Giving his grandpa a gift that he bought for him with his own money.

Tom served in Vietnam, and Pierce bought him a knife that commemorated it. It was all his own idea and I thought was super thoughtful.

Meemaw has played lots of games, and even taught the kids a few new games.

Last night we even attempted something none of us have ever done.

We divided into teams, Meemaw and Hope.

Versus Pierce and Mommy.

The kids has a ball doing it!

Look how cute the one Pierce and I did turned out!!

Obviously Hope was excited about their caboose.

Today we even dove into it. Ha!

As we all know though, all good things must come to an end. I'm sure the reason for that is so we enjoy those special times even more in the moment. And thankfully, with holidays surrounding us, we will be with our loved ones much more in the coming weeks.


We love you guys!

37.

Thirty seven.
3-7.

Holy cow, I am now 37.

I totally get that age is relative, and in 10 years I will look back at 37, and say WOW I was young then. However, in the here and now, I cannot believe that I'm 37. You know the soul doesn't age, and I only feel like a kid. A kid that just happens to have a husband, two kids, gray hair, and some crow lines. I can now say that I'm on the downhill slide and my hands are up, 40 I'm a comin' for ya.

Okay, so let me tell you about my day.

The kids were sweet and itching to give me my gifts early. McDonald's gift cards! PERFECT.
And lots of pictures they colored for me.

Such thoughtful sweet kids.

Pam also made me a giant cookie, with dark chocolate icing. YUM!

Then we got all gussied up and were ready to hit the big city for a date.

And literally the minute we were about to leave, TWO special packages came for me!!!

'Gifts from home'

Tracey sent me this awesome INDIANAPOLIS COLTS shirt, which Paul refused to take a picture of. Ha! And some yummy red hots from Schimpff's.

And Jami, you got me all teared up! I know you've always told me that Isaiah 40:31 reminds you of Paul and I. So when I saw this and what you wrote, I blubbered like the blubbering buffoon I am.

I so appreciate you girls and thinking of sending me gifts here, it really was very sweet :-)






So, Paul took me into Grand Rapids, which is like an hour away and kept our destination a secret.

I love Italian, and I love big old houses. Tonight I got both!! This place was fab-u-lous! And to boot? It was snowing while we were there eating, I was in heaven.

It's been a great day, and I'm so grateful for so many things! Birthday's always make me reflect on my blessings, and just how much I like being alive! HA! In all seriousness, thank you Lord for this life you gave me.

Goodbye 36, you were a good year, but I'm moving on.