Happily Ever After

i got to be the "maid" of honor in a client's wedding tonight. It was a pretty simple ceremony but the amount of love in the room was palpable. The groom was ready to cry, the mother of the bride was crying, the groom's dad teared up a little bit. It was really nice and i can't commend the pastor and his wife enough for all the work they put into the ceremony.

Of course, during the ceremony, i flashed back to Our wedding. i remember that, when we first met online, some of the people in the chat room tried to warn me that He was a no-good player who would break my heart. And, when we told them that he was moving to Texas to live with me, more warnings came flooding in. But, my heart told me to trust and believe. When he told me that he had to go back to Florida, i knew i couldn't let a good thing go, especially since i had nothing really keeping me here at the time. So, off i went and i didn't look back either. Looking back on things, it all seemed to happen so fast and it was a little crazy at times. But, we managed to make it work and come out only a little bit worse for wear.

Our ceremony was very simple and laid back but it worked for us. my family wasn't able to make it to the ceremony but His dad walked me down the aisle. Since i was 7 months pregnant, a regular wedding dress was out but His grandmother let me wear one of her dresses. There weren't a lot of decorations but we got married in His grandparents' front yard under the trees. We couldn't afford a fancy honeymoon but we were able to get a couple days off from work to hole up in a local hotel and do some shopping.

When we met with the chaplain for our marriage counseling, the best piece of advice i think he gave us was that, if we could keep laughing together like we do, our marriage will last a long time. And, He can still make me laugh, even when i want to be mad at Him. Love may be blind and it may not always make sense...but, for that, i am definitely thankful :)

blah

not much to say today because i'm too freaking tired so here's the short list of thanks:

1. my co-workers T, R, J, and D, who make my work days much more manageable
2. a whole work day without voicemail messages (woohoo!)
3. spinach dip (yummies both warm and cold)
4. colder nights, perfect for snuggling with a warm kitty (and Daddy too)

i'll have a more substantial post tomorrow. but, until then, i leave you with this...the $12 was paid forward towards a lovely lunch with one of my clients today, who particularly enjoyed the strawberry milkshake she got.

Holy Frijoles!

i guess i'm getting some kind of good karma from blogging on a regular basis because today was a pretty good day. so, in no particular order, things i'm thankful for today:

1. the uber-numminess that is nutella (ok, we don't have nutella but this knock-off pralinetta is pretty good too)
2. having a work day with no voicemail messages waiting for me and an hour of quiet at the beginning AND end of the day
   
3. the musical geniuses in Weezer and They Might Be Giants (i <3>
4. Simple Green (because any parent knows that the stuff will rock your socks off - and clean them too!)
5. the fact that i "have" to go into work late tomorrow so i don't go into overtime Friday
   
6. and, last but not least, my dear husband (love ya babe!), who celebrated his 27th birthday yesterday mostly with the kids (but i made it up to him after the kids went to bed *winkwink, nudgenudge*)

the next couple days will be interesting because i was asked to be maid of honor in a client's wedding. yes, i am aware that i am technically a "matron" of honor with kids and husband and such but they keep calling me the "maid" of honor so i'm rolling with it. tomorrow is the rehearsal and the wedding will be Friday night. so, rather than ringing in the weekend as i normally do (aka boozing it up while watching some Netflix), i will be spending it with my client and his soon-to-be wife along with what i imagine to be a colorful cast of characters. i'm going to try and tweet as much of the evening as i can but it's kinda hard to discreetly text while standing up in front of a bunch of people. but, anywho, off to take advantage of the extra sleepytime!

Today's Thank You goes to....

Thank you to whoever managed to pay for my birthday lunch today.

At work, we've started taking everyone who has a birthday for the month out to lunch. This month, it's my birthday along with 2 of my co-workers and we all decided on Mexican for lunch. i ended up getting to lunch late because my previous appointment ran late. So, by the time i got there, i ended up getting stuck on the other end of the table from my friends at work. Everyone had already ordered so i had to quickly pick something so i wouldn't be waiting forever on my food. It was your typical chain Tex-Mex food so nothing spectacular. While i was eating, a birthday card was passed down to me but my mood was sour enough by then that i didn't want to open it yet. Our waiter (who was very nice btw) got to-go drinks, boxes, and our receipts for us. i didn't get one but i just figured that my co-worker, who had organized the lunch, had gotten mine and paid for it. When i got back into the car and opened up my card, i found $12 in it, which surprised me. Later on, the organizer came into my office and asked me if i liked the lunch and asked me if the $12 was enough. i have to admit that i was multitasking when she came in so i just said yeah and moved on. It wasn't until later that it dawned on me that she didn't pay for my lunch after all. But, the waiter never gave me a receipt for my meal either.

So, i'm not sure who ended up paying for my lunch....one of my co-workers, the waiter, some stranger. But, the $12 i got today will be paid forward - it was meant for me and someone took care of me. So, now it's my turn.

A Quick Thanks

To Robert, my cashier at Walmart tonight...

i entered Walmart on the hunt for a cheap pack of diapers, 2 gallons of milk, and a small pack of wipes. i happened to also leave the store with a bottle of Boone's Farm Blue Hawaiian (hey, the theme tonight was cheap). Dearest Robert, you managed to turn my frown upside down while regaling me with your teenage hijinks with the infamous cheap wine. And, i must admit that a chuckle may have escaped as i left the store, watching you play air guitar to "Smoke on the Water" as it wafted out of the game arcade. As i indulge myself in a viewing of Pulp Fiction, i raise a glass of the Windex-colored treat to you.

Salud Roberto, may you continue to enjoy your trip down memory lane tonight.

Everyday is Like Sunday

So, yeah, i'm back....again. Since i was last here, we've been working on potty training with Godzilla (which is hit and miss, literally), the girls have had their birthdays (2 and 1 now), our car is finally paid off (yay!), and we've had another fun audit at work. Oddly enough, the audit made me take note of what needs to be done around the office and i think making that list actually took some stress off of me. and now that my stress level has lowered, i've discovered that i'm able to focus more on the family - playing more with the kids (i took several breaks while writing this, in fact), spending more time with Daddy away from our computers (Netflix has been a big help there), and getting things clean and better organized around the house.

For the past couple months, i've been reading Simple Abundance by Sarah Ban Breathnach and today's entry hit home for me. It was about loss and being thankful for each day you have. A couple weeks ago, i was going through the girls' clothes to get out their fall/winter clothes and see which spring/summer clothes could be donated. i was folding a couple outfits and asked Daddy if he remembered what we originally got those outfits for. He couldn't remember so i reminded him that we had gotten them for the Princess to wear at my grandma's funeral. It hadn't dawned on me that it had been a little over a year since she passed away and it didn't fully hit me until a couple days later. i have a couple pictures of my grandma on my bedside table and i was looking at them when i realized that she was gone, really gone. She hadn't had a chance to meet the Diva before she passed but we had talked about the fact that i was going to have 2 girls and a boy, just like she did. It probably didn't help matters that my Papa's birthday passed recently, although i'm sure he didn't even realize it. He's been in a nursing home for about a year and half due to dementia from Alzheimer's. Prior to being moved in there, he had been staying with my grandma. i honestly think that taking care of him had kept her going so, once he was gone, it was just a matter of time.

But, back to the entry...it was a good reminder that we don't know when our time is up. So, all those scented candles that i've been saving to burn "one day" are going to be used. The brand new journal i bought a month ago is going to be written in. The fancy chocolate i've been seeing in the store will be tried. And, the blog i've been neglecting will have posts again. So, expect to see more out of me.

Honey, i'm home! (or am i?)

We've spent the past week getting moved into our new place - we were desperate for more space plus we had too many people to stay where we were at (since when do little kids count as a whole person in living spaces? then again, them and their toys take up enough space as an adult). anywho, i've pretty much been away from the net for about a week, aside from the occasional glances while at work or when i had a moment to catch up on twitter through my work blackberry (thanks work for my precious!) . i thought i would go through massive withdrawals but i've been so tired each night that checking out things out in the rest of the world didn't really feel that important (not that i haven't missed you guys). i came back to 666 posts in my Google reader (yes, i had a little chuckle at that when i saw it) and got to catch up on some of the world events i had missed out on while being without internet or TV (Beer Summit? really??). i also got to catch up on some of the BlogHer/mommy blogger drama that i had seen flashes of on twitter. i haven't even gotten through half of the posts in my reader and i'm almost ready to take another sabbatical from mass media. this might sound sad but tonight was the first night that we sat down and ate dinner together at the table! without the TV on! and without Mommy or Daddy being partially glued to the computer! i've been out from work most of the week dealing with the move and unexpected car problems - and honestly, i haven't missed it one bit and i'm dreading having to go back tomorrow. i guess what i'm trying to say in all this is that this week has been a big reminder of what's really important to me. my kids are only going to be this little once and i haven't found the right balance between them/time with Daddy/work/time with my family/life in general yet. and, i don't know if there is a "right balance" to life but, if anyone has any clues, could you please let me know?