Thursday, October 29, 2015

Week 2: Spouse. Cheers to 30 Years!!

Well, what do you know?! Week 2 of the Gratitude Challenge just so happens to be "spouse/significant other" the same week as Zacary's birthday! In honor of my man turning the big 30, I have put together a list of 30 reasons why I chose to spend forever with him. 

[[Prepare for things to get mushy!]]

  1. I'm allowed to be me 100% of the time.
  2. He is a true a gentleman. He has always treated me {and all females for that matter} the way women deserve to be treated. 
  3. He's also a true hard working American man. Nothing sexier than a working man doing it for his family. 
  4. He doesn't expect anything from me in return, which makes me enjoy doing my wifely duties even more. 
  5. He has always had a passion for children. He is always the first to make each child feel special and loved. 
  6. He takes that passion to a whole new level when it comes to our own child. Couldn't have picked a better daddy for our boy(s). 
  7. He never asks why the laundry isn't done or cringe because the dirty dishes are STILL sitting in the sink. 
  8. He respects every person he come in contact with. He hasn't ever been one to quickly judge. 
  9. He especially respects our elders, which I adore considering I have a deep love for the elderly. 
  10. He truly makes me strive to be a better me. Encourages me to quit bad habits, try harder, and stress less. 
  11. Along with the stress less. One of the very best thing he has taught me is to not stress money so hard. We do the best we can and money isn't what matters anyway. 
  12. Talking may not be his strongest characteristic, but listening sure is. I tell every. single. thing. to Zacary, and he listens with sincerity. 
  13. When I'm on edge and feel as though I'm loosing my mind, he doesn't make me feel bad about it. He encourages alone time and tries his best to ease the tension I am feeling. 
  14. We are serious homebodies and enjoy every second of it. 
  15. Even though the sports thing is far from "my kind of thing" I LOVE how passionate he is about his sports.
  16. Obviously the sexiness keeps me around. 
  17. Every night when he is home from work, his top priority is his son. They play hard from the moment he gets home to the moment we go to bed. 
  18. He doesn't get mad and hates to argue. If we have disagreements it's most definitely me starting it. 
  19. He is the most forgiving person I know, never once bringing up past mistakes or holding them over my head. 
  20. He kisses my morning breath goodbye every single morning before he leaves for work. 
  21. He supports me in everything I do  
  22. And encourages me to stay home with our son instead of working full time. 
  23. Our hobbies couldn't be further from opposite, which has really made me try things out of my comfort zone. 
  24. Although we do share a love for playing poker/ gambling. 
  25. When it comes to parenting we share a lot of the same views. 
  26. He let's me doctorate our house however I want. 
  27. He doesn't expect me to "ask" if I can do certain things or buy a luxury for myself every now and then. 
  28. He {usually} makes sure to get a chick flick to go with whatever movie he chooses when we go to the Redbox. 
  29. I never have to fake my mood around Zac. He has always, always accept me for me. Good mood, bad mood, ugly, pretty, what have you.. He still thinks the sun shines out my ass.[Juno reference there if you didn't pick up on that.] 
  30. He has the softest heart and is always putting his family before anything else. He makes me want to be a better me and loves with his whole heart. As cliché as it sounds, we truly have become best friends. I couldn't ever picture growing old with anyone else! 

I love you so much Zacary James. Thanks for loving me unconditionally and seeing past my flaws and weaknesses. These past 5 years have been nothing less than amazing! I hope you have an amazing birthday, you truly do deserve it! 

XOXO

YOLO. Lick the spoon!


Halloween Dinner @ papa Randy's house!


How handsome are these men?!


Yeah, pretty gnarly of the dead animal, but I love the picture of my boys.


Reason 31. He always plays along with my silly little "family/couple activities"





Sunday, October 25, 2015

52 Week Gratitude Challenge. Week 1.

Blogging has become a fun little hobby of mine. I enjoy it for many different reasons. One being, it relaxes me and makes me feel more positive about life. Another is having a place to document our memories. A place I wont rip out of a book and destroy after so long. A place that isn't going to get lost or ruined. However, with all the many reason I love to blog, sometimes I can go months without posting. This doesn't always mean I'm not blogging.  Sometimes it means I have unfinished drafts, or drafts I would like to keep for just myself. Other times, the lack of posting is due to lack of ideas. Tonight, as I was scrolling through Pinterest looking for inspiration, I came across a Gratitude Challenge. [There wasn't a link attached to the picture, so I'm sorry I can't give proper credit.] It's a 52 week challenge, which is quite intimidating I have to admit, but I feel like it is something I need to take on. I'm not going to promise I will consistently post once a week, so this challenge may take up the entire rest of my being, but my goal is to simply make it through all 52 topics...eventually. If you are reading this, I encourage you to play along too! Reading others posts would definitely help me stay motivated, just saying! Here are the topics.

  1. Why start this challenge?
  2. Spouse/ Significant other
  3. Family
  4. A family member
  5. Something someone gave you
  6. The city you live in 
  7. A friend
  8. Express gratitude to 3 people
  9. How did you do and feel (?)
  10. List 5 things you like about you
  11. Someone who inspires you
  12. Your favorite personality trait
  13. A challenge you've overcome
  14. A talent you have
  15. Things you like about Spring
  16. Simple things in life
  17. Something you take for granted
  18. The weather
  19. Health
  20. Another friend
  21. Things you like about summer
  22. Something you use every day
  23. Favorite physical trait
  24. A book you learned from
  25. Education
  26. Someone you've met
  27. Favorite spot in your city
  28. Your past
  29. Your favorite memory
  30. Your current age
  31. Core value
  32. A city you've visited
  33. Something you look forward to
  34. Things you like about fall
  35. Your neighborhood
  36. Your home
  37. Something you created
  38. Music you love
  39. Your heritage
  40. Greatest accomplishment
  41. Hobbies
  42. Your favorite possession
  43. A mentor / teacher
  44. Your favorite holiday
  45. What you do for fun
  46. Technology
  47. Opportunities you've been given
  48. Your job
  49. Things you like about winter
  50. Lessons learned this year
  51. 100 things to be thankful for
  52. Did this challenge change you?

Alright, let's begin...

Week 1:
Why start this challenge, anyway?
 
When I came across the 52 week gratitude challenge on Pinterest, I thought, "Wow! What an awesome, inspiring idea." It did sound overwhelming committing to a year long challenge, (even though I'm allowing myself longer to finish, if needed) but it instantly felt like something I needed to do.  At times, I can find myself down in the dumps, feeling as though life has plateaued and there isn't improvement upon the horizon. I know this isn't true, so taking on this challenge is really going to help me appreciate the positive things I do have in my life. With some of the topics {mostly the ones about myself}, I'm really going to have to dig deep to appreciate things I don't always take the time to appreciate.  One of the points I'm excited most about is to see how it alters my everyday outlook on life.  There was a time in my life I remember feeling I was such a positive person. I seldom let anything bring me down. I took the tough times in life with a grain of salt, figured out how to resolve the issues to the best of my abilities, then moved on. I am still that way to a point, but somehow I feel like I have become less of this person. I'd like to think I'm still a glass half-full kind of gal, but often times I let the small things in life get to me more than I should.  I have no doubt this challenge is going to help bring back the full-time positive person it feel so refreshing to be.

Here's me [and Drayze] at the beginning of this 52(+) week challenge.
October, 2015 & 26 weeks preggo w/ "brother"

Life as we know it

It's funny, every time I open our blog I think about how with each post I tend to make our life appear totally put together, like a fantasy life. If one was to judge our character solely from our blog, I'm worried how we may be portrayed. Of course, I did create our blog as a positive place to document our good memories. I wanted a place our children and grandchildren can one day come to read about our day-to-day life. I've recently decided, it's just as {perhaps even more} important to be documenting our life as it is, just as ordinary as the rest.
We are just average people with our share of boring days, bad moods, life stresses, and constant struggles. Life isn't always sunshine and glitter like the moments I tend to highlight here on the blog, and I think it's important to acknowledge that every now and then. With that being said, I'll start by shamefully admitting, I am a yeller. Obviously, this is not something I'm proud of. I've told myself over and over I need to work on this, however, more times than not, I find myself reacting before given the chance to remember the promise I have made. Unfortunately enough, my unacceptable behavior has began to rub off on Drayze. He has his own moments when his temper gets the best of him. He too will sometimes yell when he is upset or doesn't get his way. Hearing myself in the way he speaks and reacts to an aggravating {or any} situation has been a bombshell for me. Beyond any doubt, I have to be better about my reactions and attitude. I don't want my son's inner voice to be a negative one. 
While I'm here exposing our dirty laundry, I may as well make it known {if you haven't had the chance to see for yourself} Zac and I really aren't the best of housekeepers. I quite honestly do try to keep up on it. I mean, I do the basic round(s) of clean up each night and make sure the grossest of things are properly taken care of.  Nevertheless, chances are you are more likely to find our house a "lived in" mess rather than perfectly put together. [[Like this post here]] For one, I absolutely hate doing the dishes, which results in a constant disgusting pile of them in the sink. Two, I'm also not very fond of laundry. This means my piles upon piles of {sorted} clothes take over Drayze's toy room until someone runs out of clean socks or underwear or until I acquire a rare burst of ambition. For my final excuse, have you seen how tidy a 2 year old is(n't)? I can only pick up so many Hot Wheels, balls and dinosaurs before I loose my mind. We have taught him to clean up after himself, but keep in mind he is two. Quite frequently Drayze and the toys win, taking up the majority if the house.  
Because we are just ordinary, mostly boring people, it goes without saying we are very much homebodies. 70% of this is by choice and 30% would be due to lack of entertainment money. Zac works his ass off, and I contribute by working part-time and the occasional little side "jobs" here and there. Though since we are being honest here, we have to admit, if given the choice to be broke and home together or working extra hours on a weekend we're not likely to choose work. Our bills {usually} get paid while the kitchen sits rather bare. We {usually} have enough money to get us by while luxuries are few and far between. 
Well. There we have it, a quick little look at our ordinary life. Some of our days may be a broke and boring mess, but I have always said, "When we look back on life we don't remember the amount if money we did/didn't have, if the house needed to be vacuumed that day, or even what kind of crazy mom yelled about all that morning. We remember the loving people who we made the sweet memories with. 
Here is to documenting more of the ordinary bits of life, because those are the days we tend to make the best of memories in which unfortunately fade over time.



Real life.



I love our simple boy, finding entertainment in paper towel rolls,




Sometimes we eat at the dinner table like your "ideal family" and sometimes we eat on paper plates in front of the TV.

My life. My loves. My happiness.


 
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