2012 in Pictures

So, now that I've already established that it's been too long since I've been a regular blogger, I'd like to share some pictures from 2012 that I haven't posted.  

The morning after I finished the Bar, this was the first thing I saw. :)

I became a brunette for the first time in years!

We spent a day wandering around the town where I accepted a job.

My husband became a superhero.

My uncle died in a motorcycle wreck.
ALWAYS WEAR A HELMET!!

We found our new favorite place to grab a burger.

My mother helped Maddox carve his pumpkin.

Maddox dressed up as Yoda for Halloween.

We found a really cute deer while visiting Shreveport.

We also found Elmer Fudd.

Maddox shot a gun for the first time.

Maddox performed at his Christmas piano recital.

Maddox discovered his love of modeling sunglasses.

Santa visited us.

Playing Catch-Up: A Hair Cut & Politics

So, obviously I haven't written since February.  Honestly, I can't say why.  Sure, I've had busy weeks.  But I've also had slow weeks.  There have been times that I've considered writing and was just eh, about all of it.  Then it seems that the longer I'd gone without writing the worse I felt about writing again.  But, today I've found the motivation to come back.  If any of you have missed my writing, I'm seriously in shock... and also, I'm sorry and thank you.

To play catch-up.  I take my last law school final ever one week from today.  It's pretty unbelievable, actually.  At times I felt law school was never going to end and now I'm wondering where the time went. Isn't that how life goes though?  I graduate in less than two weeks, and I'll be sure to post pictures of me in my beautiful (sarcasm) tam, gown and hood (insert "ooHhhHh").

I will say that in my absence I have managed to cross two things off My 30 Before 30 List, which I'm pretty proud of.

First, #18, get a new hairstyle.  That was really hard for me to do.  I've had long, straight (read: boring) hair for several years and couldn't quite find it in me to spice it up.  The last time I did something drastic was right after my husband and I got married, over 3 years ago, when I chopped it all off before we went to Jamaica so that it'd be cooler.

Here it is pulled up in little pigtails while in Jamaica.

(Side Note:  I miss Jamaica.)

Here it is now, with plenty of layers, and lots of pretty color.

I love it!

BTW, those pics of the hubs and me were taken outside the Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers concert a few weeks ago.  Great show!

In addition to the new hair style, I also crossed off #27, work on a political campaign.  I'm a Spring Organizing Fellow for the Obama Campaign.  (To learn more about fellowships and how you can apply click here.)  I've really enjoyed my time working for the campaign.  I've learned way more than I thought I would and met some incredible people.  I can't work for the campaign over the summer due to that pesky Bar Exam I'll be studying for, but I'm hoping to give it a go again in the Fall, closer toward the election.  

The welcoming desk at the Obama Headquarters.

The hubs and I celebrated our anniversary by attending the

Grand Opening of our headquarters.  It was a great event.

 This is Jim Messina, the National Campaign Director for the Obama Campaign.  He came out to our Grand Opening.  It was a privilege to meet him.

So, that's only about 1/20th of the craziness and amazingness that's happened over the past few months that I've been away from my blog.  I'm glad to be back, so thanks for sticking with me!  :)

Will You Marry Me?

Picture Source

This Post Secret submission made me smile.  I know, that doesn't seem like the normal response, I'm sure.  But, I smiled because it reminded me of my husband.  ;)

I can't count the number of times I've been asked the same common questions.

So, how long have you been married?

Where did you meet?

How did he propose?

Well, while it's easy to give answers to the first two questions, the third one is a little difficult to answer.  

How did he propose?  Ya know, I'm not sure that he did.  

I remember sitting in a small area with other parents during my son's gymnastics class a few months before my husband boyfriend deployed.  We were chatting--about what I don't know--and all I remember is him leaning over to me and saying well, why don't we just get married then.

PUT ON THE BREAKS!

Did I just hear him correctly?  I have him repeat himself.

Well, why don't we just get married then? 

Okay, so at least I'm not hearing things.  That's good.  I think.  

But is he serious?  

Are you serious?

Yea, I'm serious.  I mean, sure.  Why don't we just get married?

I start to laugh.  I laugh uncontrollably.  

At this time I become uncomfortably aware that I'm sitting within earshot of at least six other strangers women.  For some reason, this only makes me laugh more.

Through my own raging giggles I manage to cough out--Did you just propose?  I mean, did you REALLY just basically ask me to marry you?  At my son's gymnastics class?  Is that what's happening?  I think I've lost my mind.  

This entire interrogation is continuously cut short by my own laughter.  And it's not a mean laughter.  It's more of a shocked, happy, what the hell is going on, kinda laughter.  

Yea.  I mean, I obviously didn't mean to go into this here, but I want to marry you.  So, let's get married.  

Robert, I want to marry you too but we can't have this talk here.  Can we?  Wait, ARE we?  

I laugh some more.  We hold hands and smile, knowing that we've just given the other nosey parents something to go home and talk about.  

Later on that evening we finalized our decision in a private post-gymnastics discussion.  It was official.  We were engaged!

The next day, I nervously told my mother.  I didn't know how well it'd go over with her considering Robert and I had only been together a little over three months when we got engaged.

About two weeks later his mother and father made the drive from his home state to mine to meet me.  They brought a few rings with them for me to pick from that she thought I'd be interested in from her jewelry store.  I picked the biggest one (duh!) and Robert placed it on my finger.  

So, I guess that's the story of my proposal.  :)  

Although I sometimes look back and think that I wish he'd have proposed in some really romantic way and had planned it, I honestly don't think I'd change a thing.  Sure my proposal (if you can even call it that) wasn't romantic.  But it's ours. And honestly, I love that story.  It's us.  And I love us and everything that makes us 'us.'  

I think society puts way too much pressure on men with regard to proposals and making everything super romantic and perfect.  My favorite kinds of romance come at times where none is expected.  I think the best example of this is receiving flowers.  

I love flowers.  But don't you dare give me flowers on Valentine's Day from some expensive florist.  Instead, while you're out at the store on a random day--pick me up a small bouquet for $5 of daisies or sunflowers and surprise me with them.  That means so much more.  

So if I could tell the sender of that postcard anything, it'd be to let up on the guy.  If you love him and if you want to marry him for the right reasons, you'll look past those moments that didn't quite come in the perfect little package you'd always planned for them to.  Instead, try to appreciate how non-generic your proposal was and laugh about it.  For better or worse--it's now a part of your story.  

And ya know, I'd much rather stick with my funny, awkward proposal story and tell it until the day that I die because my husband and I have had a happy, long marriage than to trade that in for a spectacular proposal that ended in a broken engagement or divorce.  

Secret Sunday is a series of posts inspired by the weekly submissions to Post Secret.

Click here to visit postsecret.com OR click here to visit other posts by this author in this series.

The Birthday Boy (And Some Apparently Angry Birds)

Okay, so yet again I have super sucked at blogging lately.  I didn't realize it had been over a month since I'd posted until just looking back at the dates.  WOW, November flew by!

Okay--catch up post.  Where to start, where to start....

OH, What was it that The King said in Alice in Wonderland? 

"Begin at the beginning and go on till you come to the end:  then stop."

Yes, I suppose that's what I'll do.  And the beginning (of where we left off) would be Madd's birthday!  I still can't believe that yet another birthday party is in the books and that my little man is now a six year old.  [sigh]

His actual birthday was on a school day, so we started out with surprise birthday chocolate-chip pancakes (complete with birthday candle, of course)!

**Note, I made the pancakes myself.  If you're thinking, "Um SO?" well.... then first of all you can kiss it (and I think we all know what that "it" is) and second of all, it's obvious that you've never read this post.  Judge me if you must.**

Where was I?  Oh yes, I made pancakes.  At 6am.  Because that's just what I do I only have one kid and I guess I can sacrifice a little sleep to burn prevail in the perpetration of pancake perfection!

So rub those eyes and wake up birthday boy....

"Maddy, smile for mommy."

He smiled, but those eyes still weren't ready to open.

The day after his birthday was his party.  It was honestly the least stressful birthday party we've ever thrown for him.  For once, I felt like I got to enjoy the party too.  Usually I'm running from one end of a room to another, so it was nice to sit back and soak it all in.  

Here's a few snapshots from his special day, including a few pictures of his cake I promised I'd share.

Here's daddy with his birthday boy on the water inflatable.

He helped all the kids across (and okay, threw a few off too!)

After about two hours of swimming, we headed upstairs.

Something tells me this was the last birthday 

we'll have to read his birthday cards to him.

[Another sigh.]

And here's the cake and party favor table.

[Sorry about the poor quality of the cake close-ups.  

I took them at the house before the party in a hurry.]

Photo-op while waiting on mommy to light the candles.

I can't help but wonder what he wished for.... 

Oh, how I hope all his wishes come true!

But for now, a more serious question.

Who gets to eat which Angry Bird/Green Pig?

As you can tell by that half exhausted, but ear-to-ear grin, 

my little man had a wonderful time.

And with six birthday parties under my belt, 

I'm beginning to feel like an old pro!

Again, thank you to everyone for sticking with me through my bloggy-blahs, which I'm slowly trying to escape from.  

And a special thank you to my newest readers who found my blog by happening upon my DIY Angry Birds Invitations post and have taken me up on my offer to email me and ask for the Invitation PDF.  It makes me so unbelievably giddy to know that someone is actually taking the time to read a little bit about what's going on in our lives.  

So again, thank you so much.

And yes, if you're reading this right now I'm talking about YOU!

So quit being modest because you really rock my world.

Chocolate-Covered Strawberries

My hubby knows I've never met a chocolate-covered strawberry I didn't like, which is why he whipped up a dozen of these tasty treats for me last night.  

And after I finished thinking about how amazing I must be to deserve chocolate-covered strawberries my husband is for making me chocolate-covered strawberries, I began making a mental list of my favorite things (which chocolate-covered strawberries was obviously at the top of, duh!)

And while I'm sure all of you know about the wonders of chocolate-covered strawberries, you may not know about many of the other foods or items that make my "favorites" list.  I love hearing about other people's favorite things that I've somehow overlooked through the years, and so I've decided to try to share some of my favorites with you in hopes you'll discover new favorites as well!

So, as you check in on my blog from time-to-time, be sure to click on my new label to the right entitled My Favorite Things.  I look forward to sharing them with you and hopefully discovering new favorites along the way!

Twinkle Toes

As of yesterday, Robert and I have officially been married for two years.  This may not seem like much of an accomplishment, but anyone who's ever had to live with me Robert knows this is something that deserves a celebration.

But, no celebration happened yesterday.  Why not, you ask?  Well, I suppose it all started the day I bought this desk.  That same day, in the same store, I also fell in love with this.

It's a cedar chest.  I bought it as a present for my mother.  It's a little shabby but will look great once sanded and stained.  

So, now back to my anniversary and why we didn't go out, which can best be explained using simple math.

Cedar Chest

+

This Guy

=

This!

Somehow, while attempting to move the cedar chest, he dropped it... on both of his feet.  Being in the military, he's required to get a record of his injury so he spent six hours in the emergency room yesterday.  Thankfully there are no broken bones, only a broken ego.

Something tells me this will be an anniversary that I never let him we never forget.  ;)