Five years and counting...

It's been five years since this day:

and I don't even know how to express how grateful I am for my wonderful husband.

So, in honor of our fifth anniversary, I'm going to give you my top 5 reasons why I love Wil.
1. When a mouse runs across the kitchen floor at 9:30 at night, he tries to catch it. Even though he's dog tired from being up since four and spending 14 hours at work.
2. When said mouse chase causes our living room to look like this:
He puts it all back AND does the dishes.
3. Our boys4. He works hard to be a better man, husband and daddy.
5. He loves me... even when I'm a big hot mess and forget it's our anniversary.

First there was Mrs. Mantis. Then the stink bugs came in droves. Now my husband is trying to catch the mouse in our living room. West Virginia hates me.

Meet Our Animals Monday

Today we took a trip to visit the boys' great grandmas in Pennsylvania, which means we also got to visit Trooper. Here's a video of Little Man and Trooper becoming fast friends during the summer of 2008. You might need a translation, he's very worried about the stuffed bee Trooper is playing with...

Here's Little Man and Trooper today


(this is the best I could do to get them both sitting still at the same time)

When you don't have to share

I stopped at Starbucks this morning on my way to work. I had left the house without breakfast and dreams of a Pumkin Spice Creme frappacino were dancing in my head. So I ordered a large... it's 3 hours later and I'm trying to figure out why I can't seem to finish it. Then it dawned on me that I don't have 2 little boys snitching my "smoothie". Next time, I'm by myself can safely order a small.

I'm the guest blogger at "On How to be Lovely"! I think my sister just knew that I needed to be reminded of this with everything that has happened this week.You should check it out.

I had to fire a vendor yesterday. It was awkward and made me want to throw up. You see, I avoid confrontation as much as possible. I really don't like having to "discipline" an adult (although I have no problem telling my children "no"). As a reward for being courageous and not crying in the midst of the meeting, I bought myself a birch beer... then I had a lot of  some chocolate.

Wil says I need to not be so hard on myself, that it's understandable with the stress of work, sick babies and being far from home, I'm going to need some chocolate. The problem is, I feel out of control. I can't walk past the dang candy dish in the office without something finding it's way into my hand. And let's not even talk about the cookie jar at my parent's house. When one part of my life feels that out of control, so does everything else. I have a hard time focusing and decision making is near impossible.

Which brings me to the big question... how in the world do I get it back under some sort of "control"? Recognizing of course, that I can't "control" everything. There is always the element of faith in the mix... maybe "find the balance" is a better way of putting it.

In the midst of the chaos, how do I find the balance?

A well planned week has turned into chaos... We are at my parents house. Little Man has croup. My sil (who watches the boys while I'm working) ended up with a nasty flu. Two days at work have turned into a full week.

It's getting late. I miss my husband. I'm stressed about work & the boys. I'm exhausted.
I don't know what I would do without a supportive husband and a wonderful sissie, who's coming back down here to watch the boys so I can take care of the problems with my event without feeling like a horrible mother.
I have to keep reminding myself that this is temporary and will all be over in December. We just have to make it through until then, living apart and working full- time. Wish us luck...and me a lot of patience.

Meet our Animals Monday

Lemonade Kitty


Bird

A work in progress

Our empty living room

I don't have a picture of our room when we only had the two chairs. But here's our work in progress:

The big chair and ottoman are being moved back to my parents house. We still have to hide cords, hang pictures and I'd like to get a smaller Karlstad chair from Ikea to replace the big one. Eventually we're going to replace the tv and entertainment center with something that coordinates. Wil picked out our fun lamps, which took me completely by surprise. I love them! And that space on top of the entertainment center bothered me in the apartment too. I just haven't been able to find something that works up there. Last of all, my dad is going to build me boxes to put on the tops of the windows and then I'm going to cover them with some kind of fun fabric... no curtains in this room. I love the light, but want to be able to hide the mini-blinds. I'm so excited to see it all come together.

It's my mother's fault

I do this every time. Every single time. I don't know why I haven't learned yet, but knowing both my mother and grandmother, I know that the cards are stacked against me.

Tomorrow evening is book club. AT MY HOUSE.

This may not seem like a big deal, but we haven't even lived here for two months. There are still boxes in my dining room and this weekend we bought a couch. The new purchases inspired a room makeover and more unpacking. All of these things are very welcome and important things. (We have to have someplace for the Book Club ladies to sit. Two chairs just wasn't going to cut it.)

So it's almost 10pm. I'm trying to find the desk under the pile of junk that has yet to find a home and I'm feeling overwhelmed. I'm trying hard to be a little different in our new house. Not the frantic lady, who's rushing to clean her house 30 minutes before people get here... I'd like to be the lady whose house looks nice enough that people could just drop by and I wouldn't be worried. Also, I would like it even more if my son wouldn't ask, "Who's coming to our house?" whenever I mention cleaning. That can't be a good sign.

I better go finish the book...