Happy Easter - growing up!

Oh, how times have changed for me! I was shopping for Easter baskets stuff this year and realized how fast our kids are really growing up. I used to fill the kids' baskets with kites, swimming suits, towels, goggles, diving sticks, matchbox cars, pretend make-up, barbies,... but now, those things don't really work for us.

Of course I know that our kids are growing up, it's evident by college visits, graduation planning, ACT testing, wardrobe choices, Axe body spray and shampoo replacing all of the kid stuff, pimple cream, I-pods, music, etc. but for some reason it really hit me shopping for Easter basket items this year.

I have never been one to fill baskets with a ton of candy, #1 our kids don't need candy, #2 Brady hates chocolate, and #3 I sure the heck don't want it around the house, especially while doing weight watchers. So I don't ever spend a lot of time in the actual "Easter Area" at the store, I tend to wander over to toys, crafts, swimming, entertainment, etc. But this year, I had to think a little more outside of the box. I am happy with what I came up with but, nonetheless, it made me a little sad to see how our Easter baskets have evolved! It was also the first year that we didn't dye Easter eggs together, it made me a little sad I'm not going to lie.

So, here are my "big kid" baskets, Rachel got all "college bound" items in her basket, Brady got all fishing and camping items in his and Mason got Aeropostle and movies in his. All in all, I hope they liked them and felt that they were good for where they are in their lives. As a mom, I want to achieve giving them things that they may not have even known they wanted or needed.

Happy Easter everyone, give your little ones a little extra squeeze tonight, they will actually be bigger than their Easter baskets one day.

The First of Many...

We have made the first of many road trips to Fort Hays State University, the place that our daughter will call home as of August 18!

It was parent/student weekend this past weekend, so Brian, Rachel and I geared up for the 5 hour drive + time change to Hays, Kansas on Friday evening. We had a great weekend and we are so incredibly proud of Rachel. FHSU did such a great job with this weekend, we did a little parent/student time, then they separated us. Parents went to little seminars on what the hell we are doing, and students were able to go do their thing. Rachel signed up for classes, got her Tiger Card (student ID), and met some other incoming freshman that are also majoring in History.

She seemed to be really excited and enjoy her time there. Brian had never been there so he got to tour the campus to see where his baby girl is going to be living. I think I may have seen a glimpse of a tear in his eyes. As we were sitting there learning about everything, I looked at him and said "can you believe we are here?" and he said, "no, I can't, she can't be old enough for college". I feel the same way, I didn't give birth to her, but I have been with her since she was 7 and I can't believe we are getting ready for high school graduation, let alone college!

I keep telling her just to have fun and soak everything up. She looks at me like I'm an idiot and says "uh, ok" like whatever crazy woman. I wish I could give her a little life experience pill so she can see how much her college life will play into who she becomes and continues to grow into. I want her try new things and experience life (all within legal confines of course). I don't want her to ever look back and regret choices (I mean the bad regret, not the oh, I shouldn't have drank so much last night regret, although a good healthy dose of that will be needed too). I just want... well you get what I want, I want what all parents want for their kids.

Well, we got back into town early enough for me to work on graduation announcements. They are almost complete and ready to go into the mail, (not bad if I say so myself, I'm even a week ahead of schedule). I am missing a couple of addresses from Rachel and her mom and then, they will be ready to go. It's a little stressful though, I hope I don't forget anyone. It's hard when you are a blended family, making sure you get everyone that is important to Rachel.

So, senior year/freshman year are in full swing around the Strong Household. Next on the list after announcements are mailed, getting her an outfit to go under a white grad gown (boo!), getting our house in order for a party (backyard needs a serious make-over, and inside needs a face-lift), scrapbooking weekend coming up so I can get her scrapbook finished (lets be honest, it needs more than finished, it needs done!), and get ready for the grandparents to come in town, figure out menu for party.... yikes, I have a lot to do.....

If you can think of any suggestions, hints, fun ideas for grad, please post something, I always love new, fun stuff to work into our parties.

I can mark something off of my "commitment list", taking the week off of work just to get stuff done around the house - check! Although, I should have taken two weeks off because I was a little too ambitious to say the least, but not horrible for my first ever staycation. Here is what I accomplished while off for a week: *Cleaned my closet (pictures to be shared later) *Cleaned my dresser drawers *Cleaned out 40% of our storage unit (on my way to marking off another commitment) *Cleaned out 50% of our basement (another thing on the commitment list) *Called and set up donation pick up and dontated 10 bags/boxes of clothing and shoes to charity. *Planned and executed my very first garage sale with some neighbors and made a few bucks to go towards home repairs. *Got a sunburn from the garage sale. *Gave all of the remaining unsold items from garage sale to the high school girls tennis team for their garage sale next weekend. *Got my hair cut and hi-lighted, eyebrows waxed, a manicure, and got in a tanning appointment. *Set up an appointment for someone to come give an estimate to fix our garage (more of that story to come). *Hired Garage Man named Max and had our new garage installed. *Set up an appointment for the first service on Brian's new car. *Took Mason to an appointment. *Picked up a friend from the airport. *Baked a cake for a friend's Birthday. *Cleaned under the bathroom sinks in two of our bathrooms. *babysat my nieces and nephew for a few hours Hmmm, I think that's it. I will add as I remember more items. Not bad for a week's worth of work if I do say so myself. Looking around my house now, though, I have to say what the hell did I do all week, I mean it's a mess in the house right now. But I am a little closer to achieving some of the things of my list of commitments to myself. I guess it will get worse before it gets better, huh? I am proud of myself, I put a lot of hard work in and hopefully the more I do, the more I will accomplish and the better I will feel.

I'm going to be a TT again!

My brother and sister-in-law shared some exciting news with us last night, I'm going to be a TT again! I love being an aunt, I love the individual relationships that I have with each one of them and love watching them grow and my siblings parent. It is such a wonderful love that you have for your nieces and nephews and I can't wait to share more of my "TT" love with the newest member of my family in November. Here is his/her's first picture, cute, huh?

My niece Emma, started calling me TT short for auntie when she learned to talk and I love it, it melts my heart each time I hear one of them call me that. I love that not many people have this name. My friend Kelly asked for permission to use it, so she is allowed to be TT too, but I am and always will be the OTT (Original TT).

I am TT to Emma, Ally, Sam, Lilly, Jett, and one more on the way. I am Aunt Amy to Mickey, Indigo, Iliyah, Dree, and Denny. I am psuedo-TT to Caroline and Sophia. I am blessed for sure. :)

Newest Obsession!

For those of you who know me well, you know that I am easily consumed / obsessed / addicted / etc. with things in my life! It could be as small as a new shirt at the mall that I didn't purchase but get home and wish that I had and can't stop thinking about it until I go buy it. I am easily consumed with real life stuff too, stuff going on in my life. Sometimes I just can't stop talking about it or fretting over whatever is going on in our lives. I have issues for sure, this is not a good trait! This new one is a little bigger though than my average obsession.

I am completely blaming Brady for this! We spent last weekend together, just the two of us and we did a lot of talking; talking about everything. It was AWESOME! I love spending time with him and listening to him talk. It started on Friday, we took some of his friends home after swimming at the Rec Center and drove one of the boy's home to a housing development where I have loved this one house for years, so of course I had to drive by and oogle at it, which turned into a conversation with Brady about moving and how he would love to move. By the time I got home from a meeting Saturday morning, he had found houses on the internet and wanted to go for a drive! So I indulged, only to find that the houses he had found were model houses, which meant... yep, we could go in and look around! Big Mistake, big, huge!

A little background... years ago when Brian and I were engaged, we had the big talk about moving to our "own" new house when we got married. At the time, we decided with a 5 and 7 year old and all the changes that they would be experiencing with a new stepmom living here and the adjustments they would be making, I didn't want to take them from the only home they had known, so we didn't move. Something Brian and I have both regretted since, not because of the kids, but because we never got our "own" start. Then about 5 years ago or so, we started talking about moving again, this time it was Brady who had a melt down about moving, this had now become the only house Brady had known, he didn't want to move from his home. So we stayed again.

Which brings us to the thoughts again! I have been living in our house for 12 years and Brian almost 15, now we have accumulated 15 years of, well let's be honest, crap! I have Brady's crib in the basement, Rachel's dollhouse, etc. I know I made one of my committments this year to get rid of stuff, but I am now focused on this more than ever. We are far away from buying a new house because our house is not even close to being ready to sell. We have to gut this place and make it "seller ready". WOW! Talk about a lot of work in the making. But I have to say, this may just be the motivation I need to get this place cleaned out. What better reward than getting a new house to move into without a bunch of crap. There would be no way to do all of this purging while trying to move into a new house, this is a good solution, right?

Here comes the consumption part, I can't stop thinking of this house. Brian, Brady, and I have looked at the two were are interested in at least 4 times THIS WEEK. I want to go there everyday after work, but force myself not to. When I mentioned that to Brady, he's like "oh mom, me too". He is obsessed too (not a good trait to pass on, grrr). He has even started a "house money" jar.

Cute, right? and a good way to learn to save for something, right? He thinks we can save up $200,000 plus dollars in the jar. Love it! I have even been shopping and looking for a new kitchen table, ours isn't going to work in the "new house". I even told Brian that IKEA would be open by the time we moved, yay -new stuff for our new house! I have a problem, we are a week into this thought process, and I am already plotting! I have taken a week off of work during spring break to start "gutting" the house. Brady insists that he is helping and this is our big project. He has already been cleaning out drawers and cupboards, he is just as obessessed as I am. How do we stop this train? Do I want to stop this train?

One of the thing's that I love most about Brian is that he doesn't usually let me do stupid things. He is the "fiscally responsible" half of our marriage (thank God) so I know that he will pull this train over when it becomes out of control, however I find myself looking forward to something, something that I haven't let myself do for a long time. We have had a rough few months and I feel like this is just the fresh start we are looking for.

So, I have decided, new house or not - worst case scenario, our house gets the serious 15 year clean-out and then we have a great "uncluttered" house to live in. Best case scenario... we take our now cleaned out belongings and move them into a new house! Either way, it's good motivation to get some stuff done around here, don't you think?

Birthday Dinner

Brian surprised me with dinner reservations for my Birthday a couple of weeks ago to The Melting Pot, one of my favorite places. I wasn't sure how we would do staying within our weight watchers plan, but I didn't hold back, I enjoyed every single bite.

Brady and Rachel had never been to The Melting Pot before and I think they are big fans now too. My mom and her boyfriend joined us and we had a great evening, I had a really good Birthday.

Brady doesn't even like chocolate, but this was his face when they sat the dessert plate in front of him. I have never seen Brady eat like this at a restaurant, he loved the cheese course, the main course, and was in heaven with the dessert course. I was so proud of him for trying new things.

I loved this picture of Rachel, she looks as guilty as I think she was feeling. She loved the dessert course and I think she used up her WW points for the whole week, but didn't regret it one bit.

In the beginning...

Today is my 38th Birthday! I was born on February 24, 1973. My dad was 19 and my mom had been 17 for just a couple of weeks when I was born. My parents could totally have been on an episode of Teen Mom, for sure! But I guess I turned out ok, huh?

I thought I would do a little reminiscing of my first years. Don't laugh - the outfits were totally in style at the time, I know it, where else would I get my keen fashion sense if not from the very beginning?

This is me on my first Birthday!

A couple of months old with my mom.

My second Birthday; my mom always made us the best cakes, it's where I got my mad cake decorating skills.

My 3rd Birthday, man I loved Barbies!

Had to post this one, cause it's one of my mom's favorite pics, probably because I look so sweet and innocent!

So Happy Birthday to me! I love my Birthday! My mom already brought me an early Birthday present (so I could have a cute outfit to wear to work today). I will walk into work with some sort of crazy array of office decorations by my awesome co-workers and will receive many Birthday wishes throughout the day. I will likely be having dinner with my family and have a nice evening. It sounds like the perfect way to spend you Birthday, I mean when you have to work and have a billion other things going on. Maybe someday, I will spend my Birthday on a tropical island somewhere, but then I might be lonely or maybe I'll just have the cabana boy tell me Happy Birthday all day long to keep me from being lonely, hmmm...something to think about!