Flying South for the Winter

I can now officially announce that I was offered a promotion a couple weeks ago at work and I gladly accepted it! My boss was working out some of the final details and it was kept pretty quiet but the last few things to attend to have been settled and I will be starting at our sister office in South Nampa in just a few short weeks. This will mean a great little pay bump and switching from part to full time. The learning curve will be a little intense and I will miss my dear friends at North office like crazy but I am ready and excited for this new opportunity and can't wait to see what's in store for me at South!

Our Last July Saturday Night

If you were looking for me this weekend, nine times out of ten you would have found me at the pool! It was a beautiful weekend and I took full advantage of that sunshine. Titus had a great time splashing around in the pool and hanging out in his stroller, sucking on his frozen teething toys while mommy got her tan on. Saturday
was reserved just for us ladies though; Courtney, Adele and I laid out for a little over an hour, chatting and listening to country music as we bronzed up (and burned a little too!)

After wrapping up at the pool, Uncle Bug came over to babysit so Eric could go see the new Batman while I went out to Caldwell for the Jo Dee Messina concert. I was pretty impressed with the Canyon County fair; it was bigger and much busier than I expected and
Jo Dee was excellent, of course. I even ran into some high school buddies at the concert; it was fun catching up and talking about the 'good old days' in Hindy's class. After the concert we walked around the fair and played some games. I got a free rose from the nicest little carnie; I was pretty excited about it if you couldn't tell. :)

Levi and Chelsea waited in line for FOREVER to go on a ride and then everyone headed back to Adele and Ben's for the night. I don't know if I'm getting old or if it was all the time in the sun, but I was beat so I headed back to Boise. I got home to find Bug watching Billy Madison which I've never seen or even heard of. Garrett was shocked and offered to start it over but unfortunately the humor was wasted on me as I was very sleepy and kept having to ask questions about the plot, or lack thereof. It was nice hanging out with him for a while though and just laughing together. It was definitely the perfect way to end our last July Saturday night, at least until next year. #springsteen

My 'Little' Brother

Yesterday I was able to attend a long boarding competition that my brother and a couple of his friends were in. Out of almost 50 people, over half of which were college aged kids, Garrett came in 8th place! I was so proud of him and so excited that I was there and got to be a part of it. After I got home I looked at my phone to find a text from him basically saying thanks for coming and I love you. I don't really know what it was about that text, or maybe it was something I saw that night, but Garrett is really growing up. He has somehow turned into a young gentleman over the past year; I'm not exactly sure where or when it happened but it certainly did. He opens doors for Nichole, mom, and me, he loves spending time with and taking care of Titus, he is incredibly helpful and he is becoming more and more mature every day. I can't believe 15 years has gone by since that day at Raedeans's in that corner booth; mom and dad telling Cole and me that we were going to get a little brother soon..

I'm so blessed to be a part of your life, Garrett! I love you and I'm so proud of everything you do; you are becoming an incredible young man and I can't wait to see all that you will accomplish.

Somebody That I Used To Know

Have you ever had a song come on as your driving that reminded you of an old friend? At first you're like, awe, so-and-so, I remember them. But by the end of the song your heart is racing, you're singing at the top of your lungs, and you're gripping onto the steering wheel so tight your knuckles are turning white. And you're so surprised at 

how incredibly pissed off you still are that all you can do is start the song over and sing it again, allowing all the memories to run through your head as you wonder why in the world that person isn't a part of your day to day life anymore...guess that I don't need that though, now you're just somebody that I used to know..

A Step in the Right Direction

I"m not really sure what to say anymore. I feel like screaming in a crowed room. I'm not trying to lie to anyone or be deceitful. If you have questions; I'll give answers but out of respect for those closest to me and out of respect for myself I'm not willing to 'air out all my dirty laundry' in a blog or on Facebook. That said, writing is how I process and my blog is for me, not for anyone else. If you want to read about the parts of my life that I'm willing to share; stay tuned. If you are going to judge me, try to change me, or hold what I say and how I feel against me, kindly stop reading my blog and stick to reading my FB updates and 'liking' my pictures. I enjoy writing and I enjoy letting the people I care about see bits and pieces of me that I usually wouldn't share in person or over the phone. I know that my blog has had a lot of recipes and fun stories about Titus and about me and about day to day life, and I will continue to post about those things but the past couple months every time I sit down to write something I feel like I'm sugar coating everything. I sit at the computer thinking, for hours sometimes, trying to come up with things to say that everyone is going to want to hear about and omitting the stories that might offend. And that's no one's fault but my own. From now on I'm just going to 'do me', whatever that expression is supposed to mean. No more sugar coating and no more thinking about what everyone else is going to think of me...

Somehow even as I'm writing all of this I'm contemplating if I will actually click that little orange box that says 'Publish' when I'm done. If I do, well that's probably why you're reading this. If I don't it will be saved in my unpublished posts and I will see it every time I create a new post filled with things that everyone will approve of. So for now I will pretend for a bit longer; I will click save and I will read this and re read this until I'm finally brave enough to post it; until I am finally willing to stop confining myself. 

Sweet Summertime

It really is crazy how quickly time flies; I can't believe that we are only a couple days away from July. So what's been going on lately? Titus is almost six months old. He is about 12 pounds and I think 24 inches long. He can roll front to back and back to front now. He also loves to scoot so I've had to start keeping a much  closer eye on him lately. He is always smiling now and chuckling a little too. A smile from this little boy makes my whole day :) He is also eating cereal at night. We have been doing this for about three weeks; the first couple were rough but he is really starting to get it now! Last night I mixed a spoonful of banana baby food in with it and he 

really liked that. He still spends Mondays and Tuesdays with Dawn while I work; which I feel like I have been doing a lot more of lately. But I love staying busy so it's nice. He spends time at Aunt Cole's house on Tuesday nights then we all watch 'Love in the Wild' together. Adele's cousin , who is also one of Joey's good friends, made it onto this reality TV show and we get a kick out of watching it and rooting for him. He spent the weekend before it premiered here in Boise and we all picked at him trying to get all the behind the scenes info on the show. It was weird hanging out with someone then seeing them on TV only a couple days later! It's been fun cheering him on but I think next week is his last on the show and we will all be very sad to see him leave.

Titus and I have been enjoying the warm weather and soaking up the sun as much as possible. We go on walks when it's not too hot outside and we've been going to the farmer's market every Saturday for a little over a month. Aunt Cole always comes with us and sometimes mom, Mark, and Joey tag along too. We stop and get bread every time and we 

usually snag a couple flowers too. Titus also took his first dip in the pool a couple weeks ago. He wasn't quite sure how he felt about the cold water and kept pulling his feet up as far as he could but then the next week we went swimming with Nana and he didn't seem to mind it as much.

Papa is still out of town and we miss him like crazy! I try to send him a picture of me and the little guy at least once every couple of days and he calls about once to week to talk and catch up. He's been gone for over a month and we still have another full month until he gets home. I miss him. I could really use a daddy hug right now..sometimes it's all a girl needs to make everything better.

Anyway, I've been spending more time with Adele and Ben lately; she is in love with Titus and just can't seem to get enough! Ben just started working very long days so I'm sure we will be seeing even more of each other now; neither of us like being home alone! We always have a great time together and we somehow can turn the most 

boring situations into something fun. We've met some pretty interesting people this summer and the other week we actually ended up hanging out with the production crew of a series that will be premiering next week about paranormal activity. We were both pretty skeptical and keep asking if it was actually real or all just set up; they said it was all real but I'm not sure if I'm convinced. Too bad Adele and I are both too chicken to watch a show like that! I guess we will just have to take their word for it.

Well, that's pretty much June in a nutshell. I think I've covered everything except for the fact that I cannot wait for baby June to get here and that I have recently become completely addicted to country music again! Hopefully July takes it's time a bit more and doesn't go by so quickly. Happy Blogging!

'Whoop, Whoop, Graduation!'

A couple weeks ago Titus got to go on his first road trip. Leading up to it I was pretty anxious; how would he do in the car? How would he do at night? What if I forgot something important, like diapers? Well I definitely didn't forget anything; Titus had the most luggage out of the three of us!

The whole trip from start to finish was a grand total of 48 hours, short but sweet. Eric and Joey both had to work but Cole was able to get the time off which I was so thankful for; the trip wouldn't have gone nearly as smooth without her help. After work on Wednesday we loaded up the car, stopped at Moxie for a couple peach Redbulls, then hit the road. We made pretty good time considering we stopped five times and Titus did fairly well in the car. He was very cranky and ready for bed by the time we made it to our dad's house but so was I so
I couldn't really hold it against him. The next morning Chantelle had graduation practice, which is why we went to Utah by the way; Chantelle's high school graduation! So Cole, Tiffany, and I all did our hair and make up together while we talked about school and boys, it was a lot of fun catching up with her and learning more about
 the wonderful woman she is becoming. The rest of the day was pretty busy; we ran some errands, helped Chantelle do her hair and makeup for the night, decorated the house for the after party and I somehow even snuck in a little nap since there were plenty of people just itching to hold the little man for a while.

The graduation ceremony was nice; Chantelle is in choir and they sang some very beautiful pieces, the band played of course, and the speeches from the students were entertaining as always. Unfortunately I hadn't really thought about all the noise and how Titus would feel about it. Let's just say he was not a happy camper; about ten minutes in he was done and pretty much cried for the next four hours straight. Poor little guy. We hung out in the hall until the 'W's started being announced. I popped my head in just long enough to see Chantelle get her diploma and snap a couple pictures. The rest of the night was a lot of fun. A bunch of Chantelle's friends came over for a little party and cake. She looked like she was having a lot of fun and so did everyone else. It was great seeing her so happy! 

The next morning Cole and I packed up pretty early and headed out around 9am. We drove 20 minutes in the wrong direction to grab some Starbucks from the only coffee shop in a 60 miles radius! It kind of blew our minds since there is a coffee shop on almost every corner in Boise but it made for a fun mini adventure. Nichole's birthday was the next day so we both thought it would be fun to hit up an awesome mall in Salt Lake City on the way home to do some pre-birthday shopping. The mall had a lot of stores that we don't have here and we basically spent all our money in H&M. I think we went back into that store three separate times, each time leaving with yet another bag. Titus did great in the stroller; he was pretty drowsy most of the time but when he did wake up he was pretty content just staring at all the pretty lights. After a few hours of shopping and some lunch we finally heading back to the 'home land.' We listened to the same seven songs on repeat the entire way home. 'Call Me Maybe' and 'Payphone' were played the most. Titus slept from
Salt Lake until Mountain Home and was relatively happy till we made it back to Boise.

All in all it was a great trip; Titus did wonderful, it was so much fun seeing our family in Utah, and the best part was spending a straight 48 hours with Nichole. Literally, there was one bathroom break and one time that she ran back inside a store for a minute that we were apart, other than that we were together the entire time. And I loved it! I'm so glad our first trip with the little man went so smoothly and it makes me that much more excited for any trips to come.