And then there were four

When you're the mom of this beauty

and then you introduce this handsome man to the mix

you hope that it will be like this forever.

Sometimes it turns out more like this, 

but if you're consistent and persistent and pray a lot

some days it will turn out like this. 

31 Years- The Best Celebration of All

My 30th birthday was a bust.  It was absolutely my own fault, but a bust nonetheless.  This year I told TJ that all I wanted for my birthday was to spend real time with my best friend.  No, not him.  My best girl friend, Corrie. She's the mac to my cheese.  The peanut butter to my jelly.  The sugar to my spice.  She lives like a zillion miles away and when she's here we get to spend a handful of hours together, but I needed something more substantial.  Time where we didn't have to rush through everything, watching our watches for the next feeding or naptime or obligation.  I had no idea how it was going to happen, but CORRIE MADE IT HAPPEN.

IT. WAS. HEAVEN.  Seriously, heaven. I don't even know how to share the details because it was so wonderful that I can't write it adequately and I don't want you to think it was mediocre.  Because it was so far past wonderful that it would be a tragedy for you to not fulling understand it.

Mostly, I can just say this.  Friendship is rare and should be treasured as such.  I have been incredibly blessed by God for having Corrie in my life.  She understands exactly what I mean, the words and the insinuations and the eyebrow raises and the tears.  She is forgiving and kind and loving and honest and wild and crazy and everything I'm not and everything I am.

Her husband Brent, is equally wonderful.  He's just crazy enough and just not crazy enough to keep us out of trouble.  He's kept us from getting gobs of horrible group tattoos (some of which I still think are great ideas, by the way) and reigns us in when we're out of line.  He is so loving and kind and perfect for the job God has put him in.  He's talked me through times when I thought God was an absolute crock and I just love him so much.

My something more substantial included lunch at Coriander Cafe, shopping, dinner, a THUNDER GAME, a secret gift, girl talk at the freakin' SKIRVIN HOTEL, waking up to snow, an amazingly delicious brunch, and a relaxing ride home.  It was just what I wanted for my birthday and I loved it so much. 

It was the four of us again for part of the night and I just can't explain how good that felt.  It used to be the four of us every single night practically. And even though we pine for those days, we know that these are the days God has blessed us with now. And we are so grateful for them.

Resolution Check

Here's a check up on my new year's resolutions.  Be gentle with me.

2- two goals for the year (that is actually 4 goals)
1. Be thankful and show that I'm thankful.  I WAS taking time every day to write down what I was thankful for and I was using my Facebook status to keep myself accountable and to show people that focusing on the positive makes us more positive.  THEN a really frustrating thing happened- someone questioned my intentions of posting it on Facebook.  I tried to explain what I was doing, but they made me feel inches tall, like I was posting it for some sort of weird attention.  I wanted to punch her (maybe anger management classes should've been somewhere on this list) because it was of pure intent.  All I was trying to do was focus on what God has blessed me so greatly with and share that with others and she made me feel like some weird attention whore.  It made me so mad I quit doing it that day.  Shame on her.  But really shame on me because she probably doesn't even care that she is a jerk and I stopped doing something that made a difference in my life and others.  So I guess I wasn't doing such a great job of focusing on the positive that day which I am just now realizing.  Nothing like a blog gut check.  Lesson learned.  Picking it back up today.
2.  Be healthy.  25% success.  I eat a fiber bar for breakfast so I don't snack throughout the day and somewhat of a healthy dinner.  Lunch is scavenged in my class fridge and NEVER filling or healthy.  And working out is non existent.  Because I'm damn tired when I FINALLy sit down at 10pm and I'm not getting on the treadmill.  I am having to learn to give myself a little grace here because all of my friends are at different points in their lives right now.  They're all Stellas getting their grooves back and I have a 4 month old baby.  My life is different than theirs right now and I WILL GET THERE. It's just not going to be today and that's okay.    That being said, I gave away all my fat clothes before I got pregnant with Silas and now I only have a few pairs of jeans, one pair of slacks, and one dress that fit me while allowing me to breathe so I've got to do something quick.
3. Be organized.  50% success.  Its coming together nicely and we can taste the fruits of our labor.  Now if we could only hire a maid. I kid, I kid.
4. Be more adventurous.  HA.  I'm sleepy, y'all.  And the hilarious thing is when I think about this, I laugh at what my ideas of adventurous are compared to other people's ideas.  You'll see soon enough...

0- something you want to stop doing
Spending unwisely.  Back to Dave Ramsey we go.  And I have a love/hate relationship with this man.  Like, if I saw him, I'm probably hug him, but then make faces to the people behind him.

1- one place to visit
Beaver's Bend.  100% success.  We are going this summer. Funny how the ONE resolution I've completed is one that takes absolutely no sacrifice whatsoever.

3- three things I want to learn (that's actually 4 things because one thing I've never learned is how to do is edit.)
1- Study the Bible.  50% success.
2. Knit or crochet. 0% success except I found my instructional DVD and I have the supplies. So I'm bumping that up to 10%.
3. Learn to drive a standard.  I see a date night in our near future.
4. Play the guitar better.  Here's a funny story.  I inquired about guitar lessons from a wonderful guitar player I know and he told me that the best way to go about it these days is to get on youtube and use their guitar lessons.  Great idea, I THOUGHT.  I honestly locked myself in my room with my Kindle and guitar and settled in for some guitar instruction. But then Faith knocked.  And I could hear Silas crying.  And Faith kept knocking.  And the internet was being cantankerous.  And I started calculating how much time I'd already spent away from my kids that day while the video was loading. Then I shut the  Kindle and gave up the dream.  (I obviously haven't given up the dream of being hopelessly over dramatic about everything.)  So I hope that I can carve out time for this, but truly it might have to go by the wayside for now.

So there's my resolution check.  It can only go up from here, right?