Super Dad!

This picture is from December 11, so it’s an oldie in terms of our time as parents.  But I remember this night perfectly.  I was still at home on my maternity leave, staying at home alone with the boys all day.  Most days were good, but sometimes Mark would come home from work and find me crying and exhausted.  This was one such day.  He came in the door, changed his clothes and said, “Give me the babies!”

And then I went and took a shower.  Heavenly.  

Thank the Lord for this guy.  There’s no one else I would rather do this crazy parenthood thing with than him.

2 years + 1 day

Yesterday was our anniversary.

We went out to eat at [our standard] On The Border. Not that exciting, but we love it and I had a gift card from work so it basically only cost us the $7 tip we left on the table.  Not too shabby.

For year number 2, Hubs surprised me with this chair from Target.  I have [not subtly at all] been hinting for awhile that I wanted it.  As in, every time we go to Target I point it out and sit in it and say 'Gee I wish I had this chair.'

Then when I got up yesterday morning, there it was in my kitchen.  Mark leaves for work before I even get up so, as he confessed at dinner, he woke up at 4 a.m. and got it out of the car trunk and built it.  Straight up Santa Claus style.

I'll have to post later with my gift to Mark.  It's something for the yard/outside of the house.  So once we get it set up, I'll post pictures.

After dinner and a nice rainstorm, we came home and watched New Year's Eve [aka Valentine's Day, the Sequel Remake].  I liked it all right.

Two years down.  Much more to come.

Is today Saturday?

This week has been a whirlwind of days, mostly meaning that I can never remember what day of the week it actually is at any given time.  I only worked Monday and Tuesday, so the string of holidays and days off is really confusing me and my calendar.  For example, my cat's birthday is today, July 7, but all day yesterday I thought it was the seventh, so I texted/called/Instagramed all day that it was his birthday yesterday.  But now it's today.  So he's been celebrating/being confused for two days straight.  And let's not even acknowledge that it's a little bit strange that I even know when my cat's birthday is, much less that I tell my entire extended family about the occasion.  In case you were wondering, he turned five :)

Now let's just move past all the cat birthday shenanigans and look at some Vegas pics, shall we?

Here are two of my friends, who I have known since elementary school, Stephanie and Mary Beth.

Here's the Hubs and I, in the Balligio.  The cool part about Vegas is that you can carry your drinks with you everywhere, from casino to casino, in the cabs, on the streets, etc.  You can even lay your glass down anywhere you want!  It's a magical place.

Some of the girls, conveniently arranged in a height line.

When you're Catholic and you see nuns in a Vegas casino, you have to stop and take some photos.

A nice shot of my new Vegas dress, with a bit of our view in the background.

MB and Steph again.

And, Mary Beth and her boy du jour, Norman.

Three Years

Two days before Mother's Day in 2009, this guy asked me to marry him.  Here I am a few weeks later at a friend's wedding, flashing my bling.  Love him.

29.5

Today is my half-birthday.  What, you don't celebrate half-birthdays?  Well, neither do I, technically.  I try to every year, believe me.  But Mark thinks I'm ridiculous and doesn't buy into my idea of presents and cakes on half-birthdays.  Bah!

But today I am officially 29 and a half.  Sliding the slippery slope to 30 quicker and quicker.  And we are *sort-of* celebrating this year.  We had planned to go see Hunger Games tonight, so Mark decided we'd call it my half-birthday celebration.  I like it!  He even emailed me this morning to wish me a Happy Half Birthday.  A small victory, if you ask me.  I'll take it.

When it rains...

What would make ACL surgery even more fun?  Poison ivy!  All over your legs!  Under your bandages and on your ankles where it conveniently rubs against the machine you have to use on your leg for eight hours a day!

Ouchers.

Turns out, we have poison ivy growing in our backyard.  In our flower beds, actually.  Because that makes total sense.  Mark mowed and edged the yard the day before surgery.  He also took the weed eater and skimmed over some weed/plant/overgrown piles along the back fence.  Skip forward three days.  Surgery is over, he's laid up in bed, and suddenly he has this red rash all over his legs.  His mom, who was still staying with us, thinks he's either allergic to the padding on the machine he uses for rehab, or he has developed a heat rash.  Sunday evening, my parents stop by with cookies for Mark.  My mom takes one look at his legs and says POISON IVY. [She lives in the country.  She's had poison ivy before.  Heck, she was stung by a scorpion last week!]  So I grab my phone and start taking pictures of random plants in the backyard (without touching anything) and a few Google Image searches later it is confirmed.

"Leaves of three, let it be" - Well we learned that a little too late!

So now he's on a steroid pack and I'm washing the sheets every day.  Oh my.

There goes the soccer season...

 

Well, Mark tore his ACL.  He plays on a soccer team with some friends and suffered this season ending injury last Sunday.  Surgery is scheduled for a week from today.  The doctor told him he could wait up to five months to get it repaired, but we have some trips planned this summer and we figured he'd rather be on the mend when we take them, instead of still limping around.  He's in great spirits though, and looking forward to having the hard part behind him and on to getting better!

31 and counting

Hubs turned 31 yesterday!  We celebrated with a little shopping and a dinner at Corner Bakery.  He wanted new running shoes, so we hit up some stores and he walked out with a shiny new pair.  I was prepared to take him somewhere fun and fancy for dinner, but he said he'd rather go out this weekend, when we aren't so darn tired.  So we rented Hangover 2 instead, which we still hadn't seen.  We started it around 9:30... so I of course promptly fell asleep.  I remember waking up at one point and seeing the little Asian guy with them and saying, "wait I thought he was dead..." and then fell asleep again.  Oh well.

I felt bad about Mark's birthday this year because I didn't really have time to plan for it.  Ryan's wedding the week before and all the craziness madness with moving (I couldn't even find a gift bag to wrap his gift in, much less wrapping paper), so I decided to go all out on the birthday cake to make up for it.  Mark LOVES peanut butter, so when I found a recipe for a Reece's Peanut Butter Cup cake on Pinterest, I knew I had to tackle it.  And tackle it I did!  It took me almost two hours, start to finish.  But I am glad to say it turned out pretty tasty!

The birthday boy with his new tool belt, the cake I slaved over, flowers from our new neighbors, a peeking Goose Cat