October 15

October 15 might be my new favorite holiday... the end of taxes for a few months!! I only have a little more than a week before I will have free time with no work to think about! I have a GIANT to do list to complete so I won't have to worry about filling my free time. I've decided it's time to redecorate my house (again) with ideas that I've found on pintrest. I also have photobooks to make, a 5k to train for, a wedding to plan, and a cpa to study for!

I've decided to start Christmas shopping early this year. I want every gift we give to be really meaningful and not a last minute grab at an overcrowded mall. Hopefully pintrest will give me good ideas! (I'm obsessed if you haven't noticed)

Organizing Everything!!

I love lists. I probably make at least 5 or 6 lists everyday: a work to-do list, a personal to-do list, a shopping list for P, D, and the pup individualized for the particular store you find the items, and a to-do when I finally get home list. I never complete all of them, I usually only get to one a day (the shopping ones), and then on the weekends just clean/organize everything that I can in the few hours I have when D is willing to let me. The result is a house that looks like a tornado hit and still isn't completely unpacked after moving in a YEAR ago!

My plan is to organize my organization. I just ordered P90X and I plan on waking up super early every morning to do my workout, eat a healthy breakfast, and go to work with more energy than I am these days. (That takes care of personal goal 1: lose the rest of the baby weight). When I get home I'm going to work on organizing the house. But I'm going to focus on one room at a time. Tonight will be D's room. He's decided that the crib is the most awful place in the world, so last night I "converted" the crib into a toddler bed and put a twin bed up against it. He (after about 45 minutes of trying to climb into the twin bed with me and screaming his head off when I put him back in his bed), slept in the "toddler bed" from about 11-7 WITHOUT waking up, while Charlie and I slept in the twin. Tonight I'm going to try and organize the rest of his things in there so it looks a little more like a room despite half of it being full of beds.

I'll post pictures tonight when I finish (if I finish).

After (or as a break), I'm going to make dinner, and lunch for tomorrow. We're only going to eat healthy food and no more eating out or cheating. I think on tonight's menu is halibut. And finally, I'm going to attempt to get to bed early so I can practice waking up early while I wait for P90X and go for a morning run with the pup!

Here's to hoping I can do this!!

New Pics: 8-27

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Party Time!!

Yesterday was our engagement party and it was amazing!! All of our closest family and friends jammed into Pat's parents house for some great food and drinks. It was definitely the first time all of our friends were in one place.... best friends, soccer friends, college friends, neighbors, and family all together. It was slightly overwhelming -- whenever we hung out with a few people for two long we felt like we were neglecting everyone else.. but it was so much fun to see everyone. Pat's parents did an amazing job with food/cake, and the sangria was amazing!! Playing beer pong in the basement definitely made us feel like we were in college (or drinking on a Thursday night) again. Thank you everyone who came and helped make it amazing.

Yesterday also made me insanely excited for the wedding. If our engagement party can be that much fun, I can't even imagine what the wedding is going to be like.

Anyway, I just wanted to say thanks again... I'll post my updated pictures tonight :)

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365 Pictures

I love pictures. Babies grow up fast.

I think I take wayyy too many pictures. Every now and then I upload them all and look at them/make photo books/order prints I'll probably never get around to hanging up. I was looking at pictures the other night because I uploaded them and my memory card was full. I realized just how quickly D is growing up. He changes so much SO quickly. Since I see him every day I don't really notice until I look at a slideshow on my computer. I decided that since he does change so much every day, I'm going to do a 365 project of him. I'm going to take a picture of him every day (hopefully) and post it. February 5 (superbowl Sunday) is day 1. When I finish I will have a pretty incredible photo book too!

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In today's picture the poor little guy is sick... we're headed to the doc in the morning for his first sick visit :(

I'm a lucky girl.

Luck... this word means so much. Every now and then I need to take a step back and reflect on everything that has happened over the past week, month, year, 5 years, etc. If you asked me on May 31, 2003, my high school graduation, where I saw myself in 7 years, the only thing that would have remained true would be living an amazing life in DC. I thought I would be a politician, not an accountant. I thought I would be married, and living the night life of your average 20 something year old. I thought I would have conquered the world by now.

Instead, I live in a townhouse in the suburbs with my little black dog, incredible fiance, and adorable little boy. My weekends consist of playtime in the basement, walks with the dog (when there isn't cold and snow to deal with), and catching up on the plethora of TV that I now watch. The night out on the town is a rarity these days, but honestly, I wouldn't have it any other way. The support of my friends and family outweighs anything and everything else. Being one of the first to have a baby is insanely life changing. It's really taught me who my friends are. There are DEFINITELY people that lost interest now that we aren't bar hopping every Thursday/Friday/Saturday night. At first it was so hard to feel left out, but now that I'm settled, I realized that I've had my fair share of nights out and mornings in because I'm too sick to go out. And that just leads up to where I am now, a new phase of my life. And my few nights out and sick mornings in are just that much better.

I also have so much to look forward to, and that makes such a difference to any one's day to day morale. No one likes waking up, sitting in traffic, going to work, then sitting in some more traffic. But right now, while I sit at work on this dreary Saturday, I can honestly say I don't mind. I have SO much to look forward to...

a wedding, some new business prospects, a wedding haha. Not only is the wedding going to be an AMAZING party, but this (perfect) ring on my finger symbolizes a lifetime of happiness, never being alone, always having someone there for me, and a family full of babies and puppies... every little girls dream. It's weird, I always knew deep down that Pat and I were in love and would get married, but this ring makes it real and absolute. He loves me and made the commitment by spending way too much on a silly piece of jewelry, just to make me happy. I watched other friends get engaged, congratulated them, was excited for them, wanted what they had so bad. Despite thinking it was silly, he knew I wanted it, and cared enough to make it happen... and got a limo and took me to one of my favorite restaurants!!!!!

I'm done rambling now. Thank you to those of you that have stuck by me through all the laughing, crying, panicking, stressing, and life changing that this past year has brought me. I couldn't have done it without you. Thanks for trekking out to the suburbs to see my little family, calling me to make sure I'm still alive when you haven't heard from me, and simply sticking by me. Most importantly, thank you for the 3 am drunk dial last night... it's good to know at 3 am that you drank too much, are thinking about me, and wish we could trade places at that moment so you could drink all night, and then I can be hung over lol.