Mommy and Lauren day

Today was a wonderful day.

I started off my day with a baby shower at 10am, after driving through showers of rain to get there.  My friend Kasey is due September 30th, and today was her day to be showered.  Cupcakes, games, prayer, gifts, well wishes and friends - what a wonderful start to the weekend.

I arrived home to greet Lauren with kisses and hugs for the start of a mommy and sissy day.  Daddy headed off to play 18. I love these days! After lunch, juice, nap and mommy starting the laundry and cleaning, we headed off for a mini-adventure. A quick run to the pet store for Lauren to see the animals: birds, kitties, colorful fish. Then on to Michael's for crafts.

Back at home, Lauren and I listened to music (I don't like a lot of TV on our special days), played with books and dolls, folded laundry (and refolded and refolded after Lauren's "help"). I chased her up the stairs and through the house, to squeals and giggles.  We share snacks and treats.  She kicked back on the couch for a little Spongebob and milk - the equivalent of a toddler of kicking off her shoes after a long day of work.

On to dinner, bath and books, and then back up again for another hour when she wasn't tired enough to sleep. Finally she is down, and I go back in her room one last time, where I am surrounded by the sweet, soft smell of a clean, fresh baby in slumber. I cover her with her blanket, and leave her to her baby dreams. I don't know if babies dream, but I hope that her head is filled with peaceful, happy thoughts of our day together.

Today was a wonderful day!

P.S. Here are my latest felt treats I whipped up today. Look close, there's a whip stitch in there. :)

♥ V :)

Romantic Getaway Weekend Proposal!!!

Here I am, signing in for the first time as the future Mrs. Hancock!  As many of you know, Mr. Awesome proposed this past weekend in Michigan.  I'm wearing my beautiful, sparkly ring and I couldn't be happier. Although I must admit, in traditional fashion of our whole relationship, nothing ever seems to go as planned, and that's ok.

It was so nice to hit the open road Thursday for a road trip together.  Something about a road trip says summer, and exploration, and love.  We arrived in South Bend, hit a few local hot spots downtown, enjoyed live music, drinks, easy conversation. The next morning we drove around Notre Dame and Ian took in all the sights for his beloved Irish team. After a couple more hours, we were on the quaint streets of Grand Haven. We explored the new little town, and then got ready for a dinner out.

The restaurant, the Grand, was in an old movie theatre. It was literally, PERFECT. Old jazz playing, dim lights, and my drink was called Breakfast at Tiffany's. How much more perfect does it get? Our dinner was delicious in every sense of the word. It was a culinary experience. Mr. Awesome had obviously hit this one out of the park!

Of course, nothing is ever perfect. And I've learned to expect it and laugh at it. (Now, not so much then.) It's at about that point in the evening when BAM, my horrible heartburn that I suffered last year after Lauren was born decided to resurface. The kind that comes in waves and nothing gets rid of it. It was alarmingly awful. And the bubble that we were in...started to come down from the sky. After getting some drugs, and leaving my beautiful flaky white fish on the plate, along with half of my Holly Golightly drink, we went next door to the Theatre Bar.

Now, this was supposed to be a "jazz piano bar." But what ensued was most definitely NOT jazz piano. It was spastic one-man guitar playing classic rock request night.  I sipped my diet coke, and tried to dodge the drunken couple next to me.  Between their loud requests, drunken singing and makeout sessions, it was a challenge.

Obviously, this was not The Night.

Fastforward to the next morning. Ok, so we got a little off track. The sun will be out! We will go to the beach! I donned my beach attire. I SPF'd. And what do you know? I went down to the lobby, and what do I see, but rain drops and clouds instead of sunshine and rays.  Ok, now I was getting a little peeved. This was our Romantic Getaway Weekend! There are no clouds on This Weekend!

I got in to a bit of a funk after that. Michigan is wonderful, but Michigan while it's raining leaves a little to be desired. We drove to Holland. I bought Lauren expensive things. But when would Our Moment come?

Finally, after doing everything that we could think of to entertain ourselves, we took a nice evening stroll along the boardwalk.  We entered the pier, and the waves were crashing. The lighthouse was shrouded by big pink skies and white puffy clouds. And on the way back, Ian dropped to one knee. Only we will know what was said. It was Our Moment. And now we are engaged. ♥

My journey with Ian has not always been smooth sailing, from the very beginning. It has been challenging, and out of order, and all over the place. But he was there to hold my hand in the delivery room. He puts up with me and my moods, and I take him for all that he is as well, good and bad. This weekend was no different.  We came out on top, just like I pray that we always will.

♥ V :)

P.S. Thank God for I-phones! A total stranger walking by snapped this shot of Ian proposing, and emailed it to me on the spot. Can you believe that?!

Romantic Getaway Weekend ♥

Well, it's almost that time!  Almost time for Ian and I to begin what I have been calling our "Romantic Getaway Trip."  We are going to Grand Haven, Michigan for a long weekend, alone. Aloooooone. Ahhh. I just keep saying the word over and over again. Apparently, there is a beach with waves and everything less than 4 hours away! Who knew. I'm not sure why I have been paying $500 to fly to a beach in Florida in March when I could drive to one in July for the cost of a tank of gas. What's on tap for tonight is getting a hotel in South Bend. Ian is pumped to be right on Notre Dame's campus. I'm pumped to hit their little downtown area tonight. And I say "on tap" because I plan on finding a bar that college kids frequent and taking advantage of Thirsty Thusday! Yes I will feel old, and No, I don't care!

Here are my observations about our romantic getaway trip so far:

A three day weekend requires many, many outfits. Every outfit has to pass the "Does this look like a romantic getaway outfit?" I want people to say, "That girl looks like she is on a romantic getaway!" If the outfit doesn't meet those standards, then it can not be bought nor packed.

I could not go on a proper romantic getaway with my hair dyed from a box. That's right, I have full on shiny fresh HIGHLIGHTS! I have washed the recession out of my hair!

Even though I get ready at the gym at work multiple days a week, I somehow needed to buy miniature sizes of EVERYTHING. You would think that I was going to the jungle, with no CVS for miles and miles. I just can't pass up those adorable little mini bottles of face wash and lotion. They are only 99 cents!! I had to have them all.

I'm to the point in my life where I will buy a $9 swimsuit coverup, and a $10 piece of "lingerie" (I use the term lightly) at Walmart. I figure that people that shop at Walmart are probably demographically poorer and larger than the people that shop at Victoria's Secret. Therefore, that will make their slinky outfits smaller and cheaper, which makes me happy. :)

I can't wait for our getaway weekend! ♥

P.S. Chaffee, I hope your face has healed from your bout with poison ivy. Let's get together, yeah yeah yeah, next week before you leave me and I sink into a deep, dark depression.
P.P.S. Please no one rob our house while we are gone. Trust me, there's nothing in there you would want.
P.P.P.S. Check back Monday for an exciting post-romantic-getaway-trip post!! ;)

♥ V :)

Free Weekend

What a nice change this past weekend was; we had no plans and no place we had to be.  I still wanted to make the most of it, but I didn't know if we would or not...

Friday evening after work, I decided I wanted to paint the one remaining bathroom in the house that never got finished when we moved in.  It's small - how hard could it be, right? (All of the painting I have ever done has been on a whim, with a wirlwind trip to Home Depot.) I ran all over town, picking up items that I thought Audrey would like. Which, was hard, seeing as how she is NOT into pink/purple/princess notions.  Most eleven year old girls are, so my pickings were slim. BUT - one cannot go wrong at Target, and they had some things I put together that worked in the end.

With a toddler in the house, I had two options - stay up late painting, a little delirious from the long week, or do it the next day while she was mad I was ignoring her, trying to get into everything while Ian was wondering when I would be done and Come Watch Lauren.  So, option #1 seemed the only likely solution.  Once I got going, the painting went pretty smoothly. I did forget that you basically need to be a contortonist to paint BEHIND a toilet, and the paint was a BIT more big bird yellow than I would have liked, but I completed the job! Check that task OFF of the list!

###

Fastforward to Sunday.  Saturday I pretty much spent recovering from painting until 1am (at the pool - thanks Mr. Awesome) and hanging out with Lauren. So, once we got going on Sunday, we got out of the house and were looking for an Adventure. Something Lauren and Olivia would like. We ended up deciding to go to Trader's Point Creamery, off of 86th street.  I thought, "This will be glorious! Lauren will pet the animals! We will spend time on a working farm as a family, showing our kids something new!" Well, we get there, and it was a big fat flop.  We couldn't find anyone that knew what was going on, they charged us $6.00 for a piece of paper for a self-guided "tour."  The stroller really couldn't go where we needed to go...so we just up and left. Ha! I'm very lucky to be with a man that has the patience for my adventures, when sometimes they turn out to be not what we hoped they would be.

I tried to salvage the day, with a trip to Michael's. We would have Craft Day instead of Farm Day. Olivia decided on felt crafts and moonsand.  Who knew - I ♥ felt crafts! I could do felt crafts all the day long. I made little felt hairbows for Lauren. And moonsand was pretty glorious as kids crap goes. We crafted until evening, and then Olivia and I did french manicures.

It was nice to meander through the weekend, doing whatever we wanted to do. I wish we had more of these unplanned family times together!

♥ V :)

Lovely, lazy summer...

Well, here we are in the middle of July, in the midst of some of the longest, laziest days of the year.  Things have slowed down around our household, due to the heat, and the kids still being out of school.  Mr. Awesome and I actually have an entire weekend on our hands with no plans! I quite frankly don't know what I will do with myself. We are excited and gearing up for our trip to Lake Michigan next weekend, but first we have two open-ended days in front of us.

Last weekend, I spent some time entertaining at my house for a jewelry party. I baked pretty pink cupcakes, dipped pretzels in pastel colored chocolates, made rice krispie treats, and yummy, home-made sangria, full of lemons, limes, oranges, and pineapple. I made my house sparkle for my guests, put on some nice music and dressed Lauren and I up in summery outfits for the party.  We had a lovely time!

Which leads me to this weekend, with no treats to bake or house to clean.  A few odd jobs here and there, but the majority of the time will be Lauren and Mommy time, as I told Ian to "get a hobby" and he actually...did. He has resumed playing golf. I love telling Lauren, "Daddy is out golfing." It has such a nice ring to it!

By this point in the summer, the temperates are sweltering, and I'm already looking forward to bouquets of freshly sharpened pencils for school, the first glimpse of the changing leaves and a chill in the air at night.  But I'm going to do my best to enjoy these long, hot days with no where to run and no place to be.  We might go to the Farmer's market for fresh flowers again, jog on the monon, hit the pool or go to the swings at the park.  Or we may do nothing at all! Everyone enjoy the weekend!

♥ V :)

Summer holiday

The summer night is like a perfection of thought. ~Wallace Stevens

Summer is in full swing...one of my favorite times of year. I love all the seasons for different reasons, but summer brings with it a different kind of ambiance...a time to slow down, to enjoy being outside.  The soundtrack to summer is filled with kids splashing, cicadas humming, and fireworks booming.  And those are some of my favorite sounds of the year.

We survived the 4th of July this year, and survive is putting it lightly.  It was a scorcher, one of the hottest I can ever remember.  Last year, Lauren was a baby, and I wasn't in to dragging her out into the elements.  So this year, Ian and I made up our minds that we WERE getting out of the house, no matter what it took.

My friends with small children and I all had similar conversations in anticipation of the holiday.  Holiday weekends with children are no joke - you better get your game face on.  "Holiday" doesn't mean actual "holiday" anymore - it means "a weekend filled with family making memories in which you are going to need another week to recover."

But on we pushed, in the hopes of making memories for our wee ones.  We heaved ourselves off of our couches, put plans into motion and hoped for the best.  Our plans involved Symphony on the Prairie and Carmelfest, tightly packed into an evening and the following morning, in the height of the summer heat.  I thought ahead to every possible thing on earth that could make our trips more enjoyable. Umbrellas for shading, bottles for spraying, snacks for eating, and drinks for drinking.  Nothing could be overlooked, or we would pay the price dearly!

All of the planning and prepwork ended up being worth it. Those moments I hoped for and envisioned actually happened. Lauren clapped for the fireworks, just as I had hoped that she would. It's not every day that you see your childs eyes light up with happiness after seeing fireworks for the first time in the night sky.  She danced happily to the bands at the parade the next morning, and got so excited at Carmelfest's petting zoo that she cried when we had to leave.  Her little outstretched hand petting the baby goat's rough coat made all of the preparation worth it. 

In those special snapshot moments, I forgot the heat, and my heart was full. I was thankful for the stars and stripes, my family, my daughter, for the break from routine and for the beautiful holiday weekend.

There shall be eternal summer in the grateful heart. ~Celia Thaxter

♥V :)