Baby Boston's Blessing

Sigh. I had such a great weekend with my family!! I just love them all to pieces!! I flew into Salt Lake at 0900 and Heidi came to pick me up. Since we had both worked the night before we went for "breakfast" at TacoBell :) After a failed attempt at shopping at the Gateway ...who knew they weren't open at 9? Anyway ...we headed home and took some naps. Well, I took a nap. Heidi apparently went to the gym and then to make my secret present, then came home to take a short nap. When I woke up Cody, Chelsea, and Boston were at my parents house for dinner and to visit so I spent the rest of the evening with my family. And it was wonderful. And I got my secret present. A poop box for my car. Complete with air freshener and tissues :) It's a long story that I'm not going to go into, but it involves a very extended congested traffic jam after a long day of shopping ...including shoe shopping with boxes and tissue paper. That's all I'm going to say.

Anyway..... So Friday I got to spend the whole day with my awesome sister in law and my sweetie lil favorite cuddle buddy Bosty. Chel had a photo job at the Bountiful Temple, so I came with her to hang with my little buddy. On the way home we stopped at In-n-Out for Bosty's first visit :) Then we forfeited a small shopping trip to make it home in time to see Life As We Know It with my mom and Heidi. Great show, and also Bosty's first movie. He thought it was great :) Saturday was a chill day preparing for Sunday and doing a lil shopping. Including the second trip to Temptation Cupcake ...best cupcake store ever. Hands down. Amazing. Then of course Sunday was Bosty's blessing day and family picture day. Good times!! Love and miss my family already!! Boston is just such a sweet little happy baby. He's just sweet. A chubby little adorable sweetie. And he only let's out a death scream every once in a while :) And Cody and Chelsea are amazing parents. I'm so proud of them! Heidi is just amazing as always and has so much more self control than I could hope to have ever. And what can you say about my parents?! I'm just more lucky than words can express!

Preparation

In preparation for the holiday season I was getting a playlist ready for my ipod with all my holiday favorites. I was inspired to do this by all the freezing winter weather we're having up here, the possibility of snow tomorrow ...and in honor of the winter menu/music/decorations in Starbucks the other day :) While digging through my massive music collection I found a couple songs I wanted to share. They are both from John Schmidt's Winter Serenade album that I fell in love with in college. There were many a stressful teary night when I would lay down to bed, put this CD on repeat and it would quiet my brain away and lull me off to sleep. I love the whole thing! The first is one of my favorite Christmas songs ever (Along with O Holy Night (preferably sung by a nice baritone voice) and Mary's Lullaby by Debbie West Coon) The second one is not necessarily a Christmas song. It's the last song on the album and I just think her little voice is the cutest thing ever. Should I ever get married, this song will be on my wedding video. These songs just make me happy. They make me smile, and they make me feel peace. Just wanted to share :)

*despite of the fact that I can't make blogger fit the links INSIDE my post ...irritating!!!!!!!!!!

Yeah, can't handle the size issue anymore ...so look it up on you tube :) John Schmidt's 'Still Still Still' and 'I Will'. Awesome stuff.

Complacency

Complacency is bad. I need more letters ...starting with CEN, CPEN, TNCC-I, and BSN. Possibly followed by a MSN-FN ...Eek!!

Happy Birthday

A very special very sincere happy birthday to a group of men who deserve it. To a group of men who have put themselves through hell for 235 years to date to ensure we have the quality of life we do. Happy Birthday Marines!!!!

And also ...in related news, Happy Veteran's Day to our veterans. Our heroes. Your sacrifices are not and will not be forgotten. There are no words to say thank you the way it is meant. But thank you. In the most sincere, down deep heart-felt from the bottom of my toes on up. I think Veteran's Day is in a tie for my second favorite holiday. The first being the 4th of July ...tied for second with Thanksgiving. For more reasons than just the men in uniform ...although that doesn't hurt ;) Today a best friend of mine started his journey to be a Ranger with the Army, and two other good friends celebrated their years of service with the Marines this past weekend. I love them each beyond just their service and sacrifice they have made in serving our country. Amazing men. And now I'm teary (how unlike me, I know ;) ) so I'm going to go. But I'll leave you with a thought I got from a friend. It's one of those obnoxious 'put this as your status if...' posts on facebook. I have a rule against reposting stuff like this. I figure I love my mom, sisters, friends, brother's dogs etc, and I tell them and don't need to broadcast said feelings across facebook. But this is a good thought for the day, and technically I'm not breaking my rule :)

A U.S. Military member is somewhere in the world tonight

missing their family while you are safe at home.

In the minute it takes you to read this

Military members across the globe are not only saving lives,

but sacrificing their own lives for your freedom.

Reality Is...

It's not the fall that hurts. I mean it hurts a little, bit it's minor and it's fleeting. What really hurts is the getting up. The moment when you start to move stiff joints and rebelling muscles damaged in the fall. What you damage in the fall doesn't hurt until you try to put yourself upright and get back up. Sure a broken leg is painful, but have you ever tried to get up and walk on one? I myself have had a fear of falling for years. I'm not afraid of heights, just that for some unexplained reason when I'm standing on the edge of the majestic cliff without a railing I'm going to spontaneously loose all muscle control as my body flails itself off the edge. It may seem irrational, but that's what fear is. Really though ...it's not the fall that I fear. Free falling and floating through air sounds amazing and free-ing. What we truly fear is the unknown ...we fear the repercussions of the fall. The part that happens when we have to get up. Interesting.

Ah, the power of email...

It's always amusing to me to browse through my junk-mail folder of my email every once in a while. It makes me giggle at memories and remember fun times past. You know, when you get emails from companies or places that you've visited, or more accurately from their websites that you've purchased part of your vacation through. I still get emails from the Anaheim Convention Center, Disneyland, hotel chains in Florida and Southern California, basketball arenas and concert venues across the country. Today I opened one that hit a sentimental spot of mine I've been dealing with lately. It was from a horror house. A haunted horror house. It wasn't so much the actual venue of Blood Manor ...although it was amazing and spectacular. It was the memories of the people and the location that hit the tough spot. I learned long ago that I left my heart in Seattle. The problem is, that I've left my soul in Manhattan. And my mind is definitely somewhere else entirely. I have been seriously craving New York City recently. I miss it like you'd miss breathing. I miss it always, I love Manhattan in all it's seasons, each has it's own magic. But there is no place in the world like Manhattan in the fall. There is an absolutely indescribable feeling that descends on the city come Labor Day. I miss it. I miss everything about it.

It's killing me to not be HERE this October

My soul is here.

Can you blame me?

I miss these people.

I miss this place.

The thing is, when I was here amongst all the fall colored crisp breeze scarf and pea-coat wearing glory and glamor, I was homesick. You've heard that home is where your heart is? Well, when I was in the most amazing and wonderful city in the world (it will always be so) I realized that Seattle felt like home. It was where my heart was and where I would return to some day. So when I was in NYC I yearned for this:

And now I'm in 'this' and I am having quite the identity crisis. Because as I said, my heart is in Seattle, My soul is in Manhattan, and my mind is here:

With this little guy. Again, can you blame me?! Sigh. What's a girl to do? How about vacation somewhere new and fabulous?!!! Good idea, no? I'll keep you posted! :)

Deflated

Remember those little emotion magnets that everyone had on their fridge in college? The one with all the faces and an emotion written under each one? Then there was the black frame magnet that went with it that said, "Today I feel," on it? Well today I feel deflated. I just got back from dropping my parents off at the airport. It's always a deflating disappointing feeling to come home to a now-empty apartment that so recently was filled with people and laughter. I'm missing my family and I'm missing friends from far away. And I'm bewildered over a friendship I thought was indestructible. I still think it is since i'm a firm believer that the truth will ALWAYS prevail ...but hiccups suck. And men are douche bags. And when the douche bag is your professionally controlling live-in boyfriend and baby-daddy, I can understand that it's easier to want to believe them ...but ...sigh. Today, I'm a little deflated. So you know what I'm gonna do? I'm gonna be deflated today and spend the entire day in my comfy clothes with lots of time in my bed and on my couch with lots of great movies and TV on DVD ...perhaps some Grey's Anatomy. Although the last few times I've watched that one it's hit WAY to close to home on several emotional issues I'm not ready to deal with yet. So maybe I'll stick to Bewitched and I Dream of Jeannie. The TV on DVD version of comfort food :) Ooh! And I'll eat some macaroni and cheese ...and chicken noodle soup ...and grilled cheese sandwiches... And now I'm just thinking out loud ...via the keyboard ...so I'm gonna go ...but I'll leave you with a picture of me and my amazing parents from yesterday.