A happy heart

My God is amazing.  

Something that I will never understand is how God knows exactly what I need before I even know that I have the need.  Kapeesh?

For example:  When Jami asked me early in the week if I wanted to walk at the park Friday morning, I didn't know that it would be a divine appointment.  

God knew I would need a heart to heart.  I did not.  

You guys, I've been struggling this week.  Struggling as a mom and as a friend.  I've had some stumbling blocks come up and haven't really known how to handle it.  

Some days, I just long to be carefree.    

I just want to live in my own little bubble and ignore the big, bad world.

But, I know that God has called me to be where I am right at this very moment.  I am a mom, and while I screw up, it gives me the opportunity to teach my kids about grace.  A grace we don't deserve, but God gives us freely.  

And, I'm so thankful.  Thankful for God's grace.  Thankful for HIS mercies.  Thankful that even though I feel inept, HE equips me with what I need.

T H A N K F U L that God knew I would need this time today to talk, share, decompress, vent, question, listen and receive.  Sometimes, it is just nice to hear some confirmation to what God is telling you in your heart.  Love this girl and our sweet time together this morning. :-)  Thankful that my divine appointment this morning left me with a happy heart.    

Flashback Friday - kickin' it back to my first blog post!

I sat down to blog tonight and had every intention of doing a post about Fall.  As I got started, one thing led to another and I started going through some old blog posts.  So, I thought it would be fun to look back at some pictures from my very first blog post.  We'll call this the Flashback Friday - the "I'm gonna need some medication because my big boy was a baby" edition.

I started blogging in July of 2008.  My sister-in-law, Jenny was blogging {BRING BACK THE BLOG, JENNY!!!} and made me do it encouraged me to start one.  We were on vacation together, so the pictures and free time were abundant.  It was love at first post and even though I have neglected it pretty often lately, I love my blog.  A lot.  

Check out these two studs: Levi, 26 months old & Griffin, 3 1/2 years

      

LEVI WAS 2.  TWO.  A BABY!  He was younger than Maggie is now.  That, my blogger friends, blows my mind!!  

Oh how I miss that little face.  I really do!  I miss him curling up in my lap and wanting to cuddle with me.  

I miss him hanging onto our necks for dear life while we were in the pool.

THAT LITTLE FACE...

That little face is now 7 years old.  That little face now walks in after school, goes to the fridge to fix himself a drink and plops down to play Minecraft on his iPod.  That little face now throws his helmet on and bikes up to 10 miles with his dad.  That little face now spends the night with his friends, jumps off the high dive at the swimming pool, hits a baseball over the head of the pitcher, reads books to his sister before bed, and rides the bus to school.  

YOU GUYS...   

Don't blink.  It goes way too fast.

swingin' at the park, a little tea time, and a day trip to Indy

This weekend was a pretty fantastic weekend!  Something about this fall weather just makes me giddy and puts me in a good mood. :)  Friday morning, Natalie and I decided to take all the girls to the park and we all had such a good time together.  The girls loved being outside playing and Nat and I enjoyed chit chatting. ;)

YOU GUYS...these pictures just cracked me up!  There is something special about watching your child cackling when you swing her "high".  So, so precious!  Love my Maggie May!

Saturday, we did a whole lotta nuthin'.  I'm pretty sure I hit some sort of epic level of lazy that day.  Do you ever have those days where you cannot for the life of you remember what you did all day long?  No?  Well, I do!  It's like I have the early onset of dementia!  I know at some point I was probably pretty productive...maybe...??  I do remember that Levi spent the night with a friend, Maggie didn't nap and went to bed at 7pm, so Eric and I had a movie night.  O Happy Day!

My grandpa had surgery on Friday.  My parents actually took him to Indianapolis for the surgery.  He is doing pretty well, but will be in the hospital for a few more days.  We are used to my grandparents being about 10 minutes away, so it's weird that he is recovering in Indy!  Sunday morning, we loaded up to make the trek for a visit.  

The kids did extremely well and loved visiting with him!  He had some pretty crazy tubes and gadgets all around him, but they took it in stride.  Luckily, we had our own waiting room area and my parents had both of their iPads there. ;)  

My parents took us to lunch and I seriously think this sign is true:  

City BBQ - um, it was sooo good!  Great, great food!

And the company wasn't half bad...

Seriously, though, I know my parents were glad to see us...especially the kids.  Day in and day out at the hospital can make you a little batty.  

On the way home, Eric took us to the Russel Stover store.  Oh my.

I LOVE CARAMEL APPLES.  Like LOVE them!  They are one of my favorite fall treats.  Ever.  CARAMEL APPLES.  LOVE.  When I walked in the door and saw this sign, I did a little happy dance and said, "thank you, Jesus".

Because I am a FREAK now (and this will make Alicia sooo happy...ugh!), I looked up the calories on MyFitnessPal and it was 350 calories FOR HALF AN APPLE.  700 calories for a whole apple.  I stomped my feet, may have cried a little, and did not get an apple.  In the moment, I really wanted it.  But now, in hindsight, I'm very proud of myself. :)

The kids were in awe at everything they had in the store.  Can you believe they didn't want any candy?  Whaaa???  Levi wanted ice cream and Maggie wanted a stuffed doggie animal.  Ha!

Such a fun, fun day with my family.  I heart them.

In case you're wondering how we roll...for the 54th time...

You know how you have those significant moments that define your life?  For me, getting married, having Levi, quitting my job, having Maggie - those are all things that stand out on my timeline.  There are other moments, good and bad, but those are the significant.  For me, another significant moment was when my bestie moved three years ago.  THREE years ago!  YOU GUYS - that seems like a long time!  Maggie was born and G moved five months later.  Stupid.

Since then, we've been blessed.  Blessed that our friendship has gotten even stronger.  Blessed that we still talk every day.  Blessed that we can plan little weekend trips to kick back and do our thing.  We did that...our thing...this weekend.  And, it was wonderful!

  

I'm so thankful that Eric understands my need to get away and visit with Gretchen.  And, I'm thankful that Paul is okay with me coming to crash for a whole weekend.  We have good husbands.  Really good.  Friday afternoon, I headed out sans kids for BG.  I don't normally like to drive, but when you have peace and quiet for two hours, it's heaven.  And, I was on a mission...some uninterrupted time with this gal...  

Before we got to have some G & T time, G had other plans.  We had to spend some time with these two hoodlums...

And, this big hoodlum...

They had a fall festival and we had to go got to spend time watching the kids play!

After what felt like 16 hours an hour or so, we got the thumbs up from Paul and we all but ran to the car. ;) 

We had dinner plans with this sweetie!  

I don't get to see Brittany a whole lot, but when we do, it's like we've been friends forever.  I love that!  The weather was fabulous the entire weekend, so we made some special time for convo over coffee and tea.     

Saturday morning, we were up bright and early to head to a spin class.  It felt sooo weird because we have never worked out together!  Ever!    

There's a first time for everything, right?  I'm still new at spin so my numbers aren't all that impressive.  But, it felt good to get started for the day with a hard workout.

Workout: done.  Next up? Mexican.  One of our faves.

Ima be honest.  One of the only things that gets me through a workout is thinking about what I can eat next.  Before my workout was finished, I had already planned my next meal in my mind.  

{Here's the deal: when you hang out for the weekend, just the two of you, you get lots and lots of selfies.  Sorry 'bout that!  Hope you aren't BORED TO DEATH yet!}

Bonus for the weekend was sitting outside a lot!  Lunch was perfection.  Mexican outside.    

I know right now you are about to explode with excitement over our weekend!  What else can they possibly have done?  Right?

Pedicures!  You guys...it was wonderful.  Oh, except for the lady that did my feet.  I could barely understand her!  She sat down in front of me, looked at my feet and said, "Ohh, you need extra.  You need the callous reemovah.  It extra.  You need bad.  You have bad heels, need reemovah.  Five dollah extra."  I looked over at G, who was about to die laughing, and told the lady, "Um, okay...?"  Then, she seemed to work on my calloused heels for what seemed like 40 minutes.  Everyone began to stare.  She talked in her language ABOUT MY HEELS.  Okay, not really, but that's what it felt like! 

I'm proud to report that my heels are now as soft as a baby's butt.  ;)

Of course, a weekend wouldn't be complete without a little shopping and dinner out at what has become one of my favorites: Mariah's.  YUM!! 

I would tell you that we ended the evening by hanging out with Paul and making him watch Sex and the City with us, but I won't.  That would be embarrassing.  I will tell you, though, that we had a GREAT weekend and I'm already looking forward to the next one!  I love my girlie time.  A lot. 

It's Friday, it's in the 70's, and it's G & T time!!

There are two pretty awesome things about today: it's FRIDAY and the temperature is cooler!!  Woo hoo!!  

Several people have asked how my diet lifestyle change is going.  So, since it is the weekend and I haven't updated this week, I figured an update was due!

I'm still hanging in there, trying to make healthy choices a part of my everyday life.  Like this:

Besides Alicia, who goes to the store and gets all that?  It still kills me to pass up the cookies... sigh.

I've been loving the gym!  Some days, I go and walk/jog on the treadmill.  That is my absolute least favorite thing to do.  In fact, I hate the treadmill.  With a passion.  When I do the treadmill, I try to fit in a half hour of lifting.  My trainer is awesome and showed me very specific things she wants me doing.  I'll admit that it is intimidating to "lift" next to some of these guys that have muscles exploding out of their arms and shoulders.  But, I've caught onto some of their habits.  They load extremely heavy weights, sit on the bench and breathe really heavy, adjust their music on their iProduct, stand up and walk around their machine 5-8 times.  Then, they lift.  Sometimes 5-10 reps.  Then they moan and make sounds that would remind you of a dinosaur dying, and hop up and do more walking around their machine.  I'm not there.  I just do my quiet little lifts, sweat some, and try not to be noticed.  ;)

I've tried a few different classes.  I love Group Power and Zumba.  Then, it was time.  Time for me to try this stupid Spin class everyone is talking about.

The first time I did it, I hated it.  It was uber hard and I couldn't get past my bottom hurting!  Some people didn't care about my complaining:

Every single person told me to go back within three days.  They said the second time would be better and soon you wouldn't notice the butt pain.  I just knew that they were lying...every single one of them!  However, I went back, and it didn't hurt as bad.  I've been three times now and actually kind of like it.  Gasp!  ;)

Okay, so this Friday is special for one more reason!  I'm heading to BG for a much needed G & T weekend!!  I'M SO EXCITED!  So, this is the moment of truth -- how will I handle making "healthy" decisions on my weekend off?  

For the first time ever, I've packed exercise clothes!  YES.  G and I are going to workout in the morning at her gym.  Whaaa??? 

And, I've packed my chai tea in hopes that this will satisfy better than a cupcake.  A cupcake...I can't...

I've also packed some hard candy, gum and an apple for the trip down.  What is this world coming to?

And, instead of stopping for my traditional diet coke from heaven on earth, I packed a water.  WHO AM I??????  

 So, stay tuned, or follow me on IG (dietcokeluvr) to see updates on how horrible life is without splurging and indulging in buckets of chips and queso.....