Y3W: Thank you, Veterans!

Today is Veteran's Day, a day to reflect and appreciate those who have served our country.

I can honestly say that I never fully appreciated this day until I worked at a church. Veterans suffering from PTSD and physical injuries would find their way over to the church from the Veteran's Hospital looking for help paying bills, jobs, and food. These brave people served our country and sacrificed everything and  were reduced to knocking on church doors. I am not trying to get political and I surely don't know what the answer is, but THANK YOU, Veterans!

Talking about sacrifice, I never fully understood what that meant until I had a family of my own. I rely heavily on my husband to co-parent and be a present partner to me. I couldn't imagine having to cope with a partner overseas, risking his life, while also trying to manage a household and raise children. Our veterans are amazing, THANK YOU!

I'm lucky enough to have a dear friend or two in the military, I have seen them sacrifice their personal lives for the personal freedoms of Americans. THANK YOU!

The very least I can do is say THANK YOU!

Happy Veteran's Day!

Y3W: Focus on Organization

While everyone else is heading into the weekend with thoughts of fun Halloween festivities, I am thinking about the organization, or lack there of, at my house. That's right, it's time for a good old day of cleaning and organizing the house!

I don't know about you all, but my family has been super busy with fun Fall activities, it's great and awesome, but it leaves our house rivaling what you might see on an episode of Hoarders: Buried Alive. Piles of mail, diaper bags that need to be emptied, toys EVERYWHERE, dust bunnies, loads upon loads of laundry (I started on that last night!), and just general clutter that needs a new home either in our house or the dumpster! I also need to pack up summer clothes and pull out the winter clothes for the kids which means a trip to the consignment shop or Goodwill.

After all this occurs, and only then, I will be able to enjoy regularly scheduled activities! Pumpkin carving and Halloween Parties!

Have a great weekend!

Y3W: Running on Fumes

I am sleep deprived. I can't remember where I put stuff.
I am sleep deprived. I haven't had enough!
I can't remember the words to describe what's in my head.
While I'm staring at my computer I am really wishing I were in bed!

My baby gets up all through the night
I jab at my husband and start a fight
"She's not hungry, here, just hold her! I've been up since two!"
"What? You've got to be kidding! I have no earthly idea what to do!"

In the morning, I fumble to shower and look great
but make-up won't cover up a face in this state.
Dark circles and huge bags can be seen under my eyes
I'm secretly plotting my husband's demise.
In my office, at work, I try to be productive
but, damn, the thought of my bed seems so seductive
I try my best to get through the day,
but constant yawning and thoughts of sleepy land manage to get in the way.

Every night before bed, I think "this night will be different,"
but then 2am rolls around and I start to hear movement.
I'd give my right arm for 8 hours of uninterrupted sleep
but by the time I get back to it the alarm is sounding beep, beep, beeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeep

Y3W: Booked till December

I never dreamed that life could be sooo busy and fun! Alex and I love doing family activities with our children, starting new traditions, and participating in the World around us! So, as I sit here and type, I realize that our weekend calendar is booked up till December -  December is probably booked too, but I can't think that far in advance yet - INSANE!

Here's a rundown:

October

• Audrey's Baptism
• My Birthday (Winery Tours!)
• Carter's Mountain Apple Festival
• Work (Open House)
• Pumpkin Patch
• Yo Gabba Gabba Live!
• Halloween

November

• Ashland Train Day
• Teddy Bear Run - For the Children's Hospital
• Brunswick Stew Festival
• Thanksgiving
• Christmas Decorating
• Christmas Shopping

The good news.... lots of fun posts! The bad news... I'm not sure when the house cleaning and laundry will be done!

Happy First Day of Fall!!

Link Up!

Y3W: One BIG Weekend

One this day 5 years ago, I married my best friend.... 5 whole years ago! It has barely felt like 5 years, but here it is, staring us in the face! It's fun to look back and remember the day, but our marriage grows stronger and better with each passing year. I feel very accomplished today!

Two years after our wedding, I was overdue in my pregnancy by 4 days and I was huge and I was scheduled to be induced the following day, on the 17th of September. I didn't really like the date and had had the 18th in mind for my son's birthday during my entire pregnancy. So, on the 17th, I waddled myself to the hospital at 5am, was hooked up to all the machines and waited and waited...and then waited some more. I waited until it was 1:49am when it was finally time to push... 15 minutes later, at 2:04am, on Thursday, September 18th, Vincent Alexander came into this world!

 I can't believe that on Sunday I will be the mother of a 3 year old! A walking, talking, thinking, vibrant, adoreable, hilarious, smart, passionate little person.

Life is amazing!

So, with two very important dates so close together, we have one BIG weekend! Tonight, my husband and I will have our first date night since Audrey was born - yes, she's almost 5 months old - we like to do family things with our kids, so it's not like we've been hermits! Tomorrow, is Vincent's big 3rd Birthday Spidey Party!

I'm excited to celebrate all.weekend.long.

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Y3W: Rain, Rain, Rain

I'm feeling a little bit soggy and the only thing that can fix that is some good ole' sunshine! Dillusionally, I even wore my sunglasses in the car this foggy morning, not because it was super sunny, but more wishful thinking! It has been raining in Virginia for about 4 days - and not just little rain showers here and there, no... torrential downpours with lightening and thunder all.day.long. It seemed as though it rained the hardest while trying to get to work and drop off kids each morning - nightmare! My dinky umbrella was no match and usually I came to work wet which means... a week of bad hair days! The rain also kept my son from being able to go outside and burn off some almost three year old energy which means...small child bouncing of the walls every night! I know that we needed some rain, but flash flooding and over 10 inches in one week??

So, anyway, the sun seems to be peaking through the clouds and hopefully this will be the end of one very wet week!

Here's a rainbow - please wish for sun!

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Y3W: Leave Request Approved!

The best email I received this week was from my supervisor approving my request for Thursday and Friday off! Yep, including Monday (Labor Day) it's a five day weekend for me! I am doing it up right, too!

My mini vacay started by heading out to support our local baseball team, the Richmond Flying Squirrels, on Wednesday night! Beer and baseball sounds like a very relaxing time and I was excited that a bunch of my co-workers could come and hang out as well! I was also excited that everyone wanted to hold and meet Audrey which meant I got to be reaquainted with...beer!

Here's all 3 rows of work friends hanging out at the game:




I love these guys!


I thought I'd take it easy on Thursday by 1. compiling everything I want to sell at my sister's yard sale on Saturday and 2. getting ready for our trip to the Zoo, but really, I just ended up watching Tangled on Demand with Vincent and... he loved it! Then, we had a dance party! Hey, I did do a load of laundry which is good because that means Vincent will have shorts to wear to the zoo...

Which brings me to Friday and Saturday... Zoo (read this post) and then a massive yard sale followed by relaxing by the pool (with drinks and babysitters? hint, hint) at my parents' house for the rest of the weekend!

Those are my three words this week... what are yours? Link up here:

Your Three Words: I made it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I made it to Friday!!!!!!! I still have a few more programs and meetings, but  - I made it!!! Thank you to my friends - fast food, Diet Dr. Pepper, an of course, Coffee - I couldnt have done it without you all!

 It's the end of a very long Welcome Week and we've welcomed about 3,800 new students by feeding them constantly, outfitting them with tons of new t-shirts, entertaining them every.single.night, and teaching them about getting involved and staying out of trouble. Throw in training 7 brand new student employees, an earth quake on Tuesday, and the ominous threat of  hurricane Irene this weekend and we have the makings of one of the most unique Welcome Weeks of all time!

I may seem whiny about this past week, but the truth is that I really enjoy it. I can't believe that it was 10 years ago that I stepped foot onto my own college campus and took in all the excitment of Welcome Week. I want to pull each new student aside and tell them about all of the great things that they have in store for the next 4, or 5, or 6 years!

WELCOME CLASS OF 2015!

What are your three words this week? Link up!

Y3W: One Crazy Week

Do you ever have those weeks where you look back and know it was crazy, but you have no idea what you did? Yeah, that was my week! Once, I started examining the week, I figured out pretty quickly why it was such a crazy week!

As I've said before, my life starts to get crazy again in August and  I wasn't joking. I started the week out with a fuzzy feeling throat. My body wanted to get sick and was trying its best to develop something, but a cocktail of ibprofen, claritan, and nasal spray along with my prenatal vitamin seemed to keep the sickness at bay.

The work days were busy and before I knew it, I would look at the clock and realize it was time to go home. I had atleast one meeting every day, lunch dates, and an all day staff retreat on Thursday. This was amongst meeting with students and developing a training session on effective communication. And guess what?!?  Next week promises to be even busier!

After work, I went to the grocery store Monday night, the eye doctor on Tuesday, Target with both kids on Wednesday, and happy hour on Thursday. Once at home, all I could do was get dinner on the table and cleaned up before passing out on the couch each and every night. Of course I made sure to pass out before packing bags and making bottles for the following day, which meant that I got to wake up and rush around each morning!

And sleeping? What's that? I may have fallen asleep on the couch, but Miss Audrey surely wasn't going to give me an easy time this week! Each night she'd wake up several times a night just to fuss. I'd always look at the clock thinking it was time to get up for the day since I am used to her sleeping through the night, but no the clock would read 2:30am, or 3:00am - one night we did get to 4:30am so that was generous!
So, all in all, it was one crazy week, but I guess it's just training for the crazy weeks that lie ahead!

What are your three words this week? Link up!

Y3W: Learning to Blog

I have been wanting to blog for quite some time. Every time I read a great blog I think "I could do this! I have a lot to say!" Well, thinking it and actually doing it are two different things so this week I decided to take the plunge and it sure has been a learning experience.

First of all, kudos to everyone who blogs. You have to have material and style. With two kiddos and the world of full-time employment in Student Affairs, I have got the material. Style? I may have it, but it is super difficult to create it online! I see all of these beautiful blogs and think "what programs are they using and how did they do that?" Luckily, there's pretty much a blog for everything and thanks to some great blogging tutorials: Blogging with Amy (Love the name :) ) I was able to create my own header:

and a button:

Now, it's all very simple and a little rough, but I JUST started! I hope to be able get a little more sophisticated as time goes on, but for right now I am proud of myself!

I am also happy to finally be able to take part in Your Three Words on this Friday morning as I am now a part of the blogging world.

What are your three words this week? Link up here: