everything which is yes

the post-vacation haze...

So we're back home and in that post-vacation haze of attempting to get back into normalcy. We had a fantastic trip.  Packed full with activities and lots of time to love on my family.  It's strange going home now and feeling more like a tourist than anything.  It's bound to happen as time goes by and especially as we want to share the city and all it has to offer with bugga.

She loved loved loved being busy discovering new things and experiencing the joyousness that is Chicago.  And she LOVED spending time with family.  Especially her cousins.  Could not get enough of them.  Especially little C.  Only, bless his heart, he wasn't nearly as interested. 

I'll share oodles of photos in the days to come, but for now I leave you with this.  Bugga and little C sitting together in the zoo buggy.  One of the two is happier than happy to be there, the other is totally not jazzed about having to endure the other.

 

that toddlin' town

We're headed to Chicago and I am positively giddy.  If you know me, you know I'm one of those annoyingly-proud-to-be-from-Chicago people.  It's still home, in many ways, to my heart and it's where my family still lives.  And where we don't get to visit nearly often enough.  In fact, it's been a year and a half since our last visit.  Since we last got to hug our nephews.  And walk with my grandpa.  And talk and visit and just "be" with my family. 

So we're off for a visit.  We're hitting the open road (goodness, help us).  And we'll be back in about a week and a half. 

Don't go changin'....

Yesterday was fabulously low key and vanilla.  Just how I like it.  We enjoyed a wonderful morning at church and came home, shot a few photos of my pretty little princess in her pretty little dress, giving me a pretty good show of her very best "I am three years old" attitude.

Incidentally, David and I are thinking of making a shirt for her to sport on her sassiest days where we are out in public that reads "I'm three".  Think that will help people understand?

Really the day was wonderful in every way.  Got lots of cuddles, eat some yummy foods--all my favorites, and even got to take a nap.  In the bed.  Alone.  And uninterrupted.  Best birthday presents ever:  good company, good food, and good sleep.  And a couple beautiful shots like this:

thirty one

So, it's my birthday.  I'm officially in my thirties.  Last year didn't count.  It's a cusp year.  Those never count.  So anyway, I'm thirty-one.  I'm not one who is overly anxious about growing older, so I am facing the year to come with happy hopes and optimism.  I do feel like there is less tolerance for people my age not knowing what they want to do with their lives, so I'll have to work on that one.  But I'm looking forward to the year to come.  I'm hoping it's filled with lots of laughs, lots of scrapping, more growth in my faith, more goals reached, some travel, some baby-making, and fewer sweets eaten.  Here's to a fabulous year, even better than the last.  Cheers!

Catching up...

So a year has passed (but hopefully you'll soon forget about that little fact) since I last blogged with any pseudo-regularity and so much has happened since then that I don't even know where to begin.

Mostly life has been about bugga growing and changing and our family evolving.  We've faced some challenging times and we've also had some beautiful bright spots.  David is in full swing of his usual ops tempo so that has had us having periods where he is away working/serving our country and we are home just the two of us.  We always really look forward to the homecomings though and like to spend lots of time soaking up family time together and taking a break from everything else.  And that's where we are right at this moment.  In one of our reunited times.  :)

Let's see..the highlights of the past year: I'm officially 30 (ugh!), we stayed home for Christmas for the first time, we had a trip to see Dad and visit Mickey at Disney in May, we've turned into gardening geeks and we've grown more in our faith.  Bugga is more talkative, more independent and as adorable as ever. Here's a few of my most favorite pages with my most favorite photos of her from the past year (please click images for full credits):

I'm looking forward to keeping up with everyone much better in this latest incarnation of our blog.  Also, just as a reminder, I have another, more personal blog called "Deltasierra".  It is password protected, but if you are family or friend and are interested in keeping up with us more there too, feel free to click on "Q&A" to find out how to go about doing that. 

summertime fun

It's another FOBTY day at Sweet Shoppe and today Meghan has us thinking about summer and our favorite activities.

I'll be honest and say that I'm a bit of a Debbie Downer when it comes to outdoor summer activities here.  Many of the days are so SO hot and humid that I can't stand to be outside for very long.  So my true favorite summer activity is probably playing games inside as a family.

But I hate to coop up bug bear so there are a few outdoor summertime funs that we like to do.  And we generally choose the kind of fun that is breezy and wet and as cool as possible, lol.  We love the splash pad:

We love the pool:

We like to hikes (and please take note per the husband's request that this is NOT a picture of him wearing a skirt.  It's his windbreaker tied around his waist):

And, of course, I love to dig in the dirt and do my butterfly gardening.

What are your favorite summertime activities?

Bugga is also showing interest in the beach this year and since we live, you know, practically ON the beach we'll have to take advantage of that this summer.

I'm mellllllltiiiiiiiiiiing....

So we've now officially had a solid week of really gross, uncomfortable, icky, sticky heat and humidity.  We're talking August-esque-you-don't-want-to-spend-ANY-time-outdoors heat.  And so begins three four months of my lamenting the heat and humidity.

I'll try my best not to complain too much.  No one likes a complainer, after all.

(I loathe it).

lightly nerdy

So for this week's FOBTY at Sweet Shoppe Designs, we were asked to take a sort of barometer of nerd-ness.  I thought I might be in trouble since I *am* a bit of a geek.  (A cool geek, of course).

But fortunately my disdain for mathematics saved the day!  I am, in fact, a little bit nerdy.  According to the test (here), I am "lightly nerdy" which means that 46% of respondents scored higher than me on the nerd scale, 1% scored the same, and 53% scored lower than me. Luckily for me, this quiz was clearly geared more toward the Star Trek, Dungeons and Dragons or alternately the superbly proficient in math and science, computer genius camp of nerds.  I think my favorite questions had to be: "do you have biohazard or warning signs posted in your room?" and "SHOULD you have biohazard or warning signs posted in your room?".  Haha.

Had the barometer for nerd-dom been based on things more like: "how many songs by Neil Diamond can you sing along with word for word?" or "how extensive is your knowledge of Harry Potter?" or "do you ever goofily dance to the "Backyardigans" with your daughter in the living room"? I may have been the princess of nerds.

daydreaming

This weeks' FOBTY challenge at SSD asks about a dream vacation.  One of those hypothetical where would you go if money and circumstances were no object kind of questions.  I've always had trouble with these because there are literally dozens of places I'd truly love to visit.  Ask me tomorrow and I might settle on a adventure to South Africa on a fabulous safari.  Or maybe a trip to Egypt to visit the pyramids and soak up the history there.  Or maybe a visit to Israel, spending thoughtful time exploring and experiencing the spiritual and historical sites.

At the top of my list today though is New Zealand.  From everything I've seen and heard NZ is one of the most stunning places on all the earth.  I'd love to spend gobs of time outdoors just soaking all that beauty in.  And maybe catch a rugby match.

Oh if dreaming made it so....

homecoming

David is home safely and it's so wonderful to have him (and the adult interaction) home!  You'd think that in our 9 years together we'd be used to the separations by now, but it's still tough.  Especially because we've been really spoiled over the past couple years, between him pursuing his degree, going to OTS, training, moving and the baby we had been blessed with a routine of very few trips.  Now we're back into the swing of high tempo, frequent trips and it's taking us a little time to adjust.  Especially with bug bear in the picture now.  So we're soaking up as much family time as possible before the next trip.