It's Noon....and I'm still in bed.

Guess where I am right now. You already know I'm in bed from the title of this post so I'll give you that one. But guess where the bed is that I am in........Give up? It's in a Marriot hotel. Downtown. On the 14th floor. Do you know what that means? It means that I woke up this morning when my body told me to, not when I heard a toddler crying for a sippy or cracked my sleep deprived eyes open to see a face six inches away from mine requesting pancakes, to which I always groggily answer, "Go eat some Goldfish Crackers, I'll be down in a little while." I know...Mother. Of. The. Year. Anyway, this morning I woke up around 10:30, ate some donuts, in my bed under the down comforter, then licked my sticky fingers and turned on my iPhone to read my Kindle book without interruption for the next hour or so. Then it occurred to me, this is an experience worth writing about! So here I am shamelessly bragging about being in bed, at noon on a Saturday, without anyone needing anything from me, besides maybe the peanut M&M's in the fridge who clearly need me to devour them...hold on. Ok, I'm back! Frozen chocolate and peanuts will only serve to inspire my writing so let's say, really, I'm eating them for you. If I'm inspired this will be more interesting for you to read so I'm consuming frozen, crunchy bits of heaven in an unselfish effort to entertain my readers (are you out there?) more fully...you're welcome.

So this whole blogging-in-bed-at-noon all started almost 6 years ago when our beloved babysitter Nikki came for the first time. That night started a tradition of her coming to stay with our kids every Friday night while we went out on our weekly date. We started talking way back then about how when she turned 18 she would stay with our kids while we went on a vacation. Fast forward to the past few months. We knew she was leaving. We knew it would be in September so we've been thinking about where we could go so that our kids could have their parentless weekend that they have been eager about for years (Nikki's WAY more fun than us!). Then, about a month ago, Nikki broke the news to us that she has to leave on July 23 for a family reunion and then head straight to college to begin an Anatomy class that she has to fit in and it starts at the beginning of August. She's getting a degree in Nursing and I tried to explain that we are WAY more important than knowing where someone's body parts are, but unfortunately she didn't buy it and we've been grieving ever since. Well as you can see that little announcement put our long awaited "weekend getaway" at the top of our priority list and we decided all we really needed was a comfortable bed in a decent hotel, some good books, good restaurants, and a movie theater and we would have what we really wanted...complete relaxation! Yesterday we packed our bags, kissed the munchkins goodbye and drove away a little bit giddy at our new found extended freedom. We ate, we shopped, we napped, we went to the store at 10:30 at night and filled a cart with an embarrassing amount of junk food that we wouldn't have to share and we ate it in bed while watching a movie. Really, it was like another honeymoon...well, with stretch marks and cellulite that didn't accompany my 19 year old body back on our first honeymoon.

So that brings us to this morning. Blogging in bed. I have no worries about what's going on back at home. Nikki loves my kids as much as I do. Yesterday she took them to a local beach, today she was making them strawberry and whipped cream waffles with who knows what adventures to follow. I love my kids but time apart from each other makes us all that much happier (and saner) to be reunited. Today Matt and I will read, nap, maybe go see a movie, find a really good steak house, break out the Double Stuff Oreos and remember what it was like to just be us...delicious! Tomorrow we go home to most likely lake induced sun-kissed noses, abundant hugs and non-stop jabbering about the adventures had in our absence.

We will also go home to the realization that this was it. This was our last regular Friday night with our beloved Nikki. Sure she'll come back, and I text her all the time, and we've already contemplated a Hawaiian vacation that includes her, seeing as she is part of the family and all...but it won't be the same now. She'll become a nurse, no doubt one of the best, and she'll marry her missionary when he returns and she'll have her own kids and will make THE MOST amazing mom! But we will ALWAYS remember when she was my kids' "other mom", back when they were little, and we'll thank our lucky stars that she was (and hopefully always will be) part of our family!

And now I'm going to go drown my sorrows in another donut, in bed, because calories don't count on vacations!

12 Years!

This past Sunday The Hubster and I celebrated 12 years of marriage! 12 years! Now I know in the whole scheme of things that's not much but in today's world of divorce that's the equivalent of like 20 years....kinda like dog years ya know? Anyway. Since our anniversary fell on a Sunday we didn't do much, but I have to tell you about the gifts I got prior to our actual day. About 3 weeks ago I was doing the dishes and I dropped my cell phone in the sink. Now honestly, I am not addicted to my cell like some, so I went without it for a good week or so before I finally told Matt to just pick up a new one for me while he was out. I told him I wanted a colored one but didn't care which kind. He came home with this:

I was shocked! He told me that it was an early anniversary present. Yay me! Of course, the day he brought it home I barely even got a chance to check it out in between him and the kids playing with it. I love that it's red (my favorite color), but my FAVORITE thing is that I can entertain The Pea with the toddler apps I have on it. Again...Yay me!

Then on Saturday I came home from running errands to find the most bea-utiful red roses waiting for me! Yeah, he's a keeper. He sends me flowers all the time! The best thing about it is he knows that I love all different kinds of flowers so sometimes it's tulips, sometimes it's roses, sometimes it's Gerber Daisies and one time a few years ago he even sent me flowers twice in one day! I know ladies....(as Reagan always says) don't be jeal!

I have to tell you, when I married him 12 years ago on a lovely spring day I had no idea how lucky I really was. He was fun and cute and made me laugh. Now that we have been through depression and pregnancies, bed rest and child birth, raising kids and job stress, car accidents and sick kids, etc, etc, etc...I can honestly say that he's "The One". Not in a twitterpated all hopped up on pre-wedding hormones kind of way, but in a "wow, he stuck by me through all of this and he still loves me" kind of way. And on top of all that--he still thinks I'm beautiful. Yep, he's a keeper....

I love you Sir! Thank you for all you do for me and our kids. You made a promise to me way back then that you would make me laugh everyday and you've kept that promise. Thank you for seeing past all of my craziness and faults and believing in the best in me. You are my best friend and my life is wonderful because of you. Here's to the next 12 year and counting! 
                                                                                                              Love- M

The sky is falling!

Tonight  we looked out the window and saw the BIGGEST snowflakes ever! It literally looked like pieces of clouds falling. Some of the snowflakes were 3 inches across! I tried to get a picture but my camera threw a tantrum. The Hubster commented it was like standing in a snow globe. It was wild! The flakes were so big and heavy I could actually feel them landing on me through my sweater....Anywhoooo....here is a funny pic for your viewing pleasure. Figure out what's wrong: