Weekend Shenanigans

Summer weekends make my heart so full and happy.  The bright mornings, long warm days and cool nights are just perfect.  Add in family, church, friends and food and it's even more of a perfect combination.  This weekend was just that, a perfect combination.  Dance on Saturday morning, dinner with family Saturday night, breakfast out before church Sunday morning, Sunday school, Church then beach and a cookout with friends. 

I pray that this summer is full of  having a house full of family and friends, sweaty, filthy, sticky kids from playing hard and eating too much watermelon and too many popsicles, piles of dishes, chats with friends, playing catch and easy bedtimes.

Today is a good day.

My dear friends welcomed the newest addition to their family this morning!  Little Leo was born in the wee hours of the morning, 2 weeks early and he's absolutely perfect.  I can't wait to go and meet him this afternoon.  He has made his mom an official "boy mom" and his dad now has a little man in the house, not to mention Penelope has earned her badge as "big sister"!   Congratulations Stacy, Bill and Penelope!   Prayers for your new family of 4!  

Friday Randoms

TGIF - this week has been good.  I'm just glad it's Friday which means tomorrow is the weekend and weekends are fun around here!  Saturday is dance for Olivia and Sunday is church and my BFF's 30th birthday!  Although she'll be busy studying for her nursing exam I'll be texting her Happy Birthday lyrics throughout the day.  30 is a big deal!   Today after work I have discipleship - my last class.  I'm sort of sad that I won't have weekly one on one meetings but that just means that now I'm further along in my faith and I need to pray more and rely on myself and my husband to strengthen our walk ourselves.    I can't wait to deliver my friend's birthday present.  I made her a survival kit for her 30th year to help her stay young at heart.  The idea was inspired by a pinterest pin but mine didn't come out nearly as pinterest worthy.  I know she'll love it.  I included fun things to give herself a makeover, take a relaxing bath and get cozy and watch a movie.  Not to mention a sappy letter and an awesome card.    Tonight I'm meeting my cousin for dinner.  We haven't spent time together in a long, long time, just us.  Truth be told, I miss it.  When we were younger she lived down the street from me and being 5 years older she drove and had an awesome mustang convertible and 90% of the time you could find us crusing the streets of our town with the top down and the music up.  I miss those days.  I'm so excited to see her because she just found out she's expecting and I couldn't be more excited for her!  This is her first baby and she's going to be an awesome and fun Mama!   Happy Weekend!  

Feelings

Yesterday was a tough day.   I blogged about my friendship issue in the past and I'm sad to say that it hasn't gotten any better or really changed at all. I tried to reach out to this person again 2 days ago and still got no response.  I'm at a loss as to what to do next.   So, while I'm figuring it all out, I went through a slew of emotions...  Sometimes you just need to sit and think, have a good cry, hug a puppy or go for a walk.  Send me some good vibes and prayers that this turns out the way it should.  It's really heartbreaking to lose a friendship that you've had for such a long time and not even know why.   

I'm still Laura!

This weekend, for the FIRST time since Olivia was born, I went out.  Yes, you read that right... in the past 16 months I have NOT gone out without Olivia with a friend at all.   So, Saturday night, my husband graciously kicked me out the door told me to go out and have fun!   Perfect timing too because it is my friend Jenn's birthday on Tuesday (Happy Birthday Jenn!!!) ...and we needed to celebrate! At 4:30, I kissed my hubby and Olivia good bye and picked up my friend.   We started the night at Casserta's Pizza on Federal Hill... YUMM!Had dessert #1 at Pastiche - chocolate layer cake for me and lemon cake for Jenn.  Headed to the TATTOO PARLOR for my 2nd and Jenn's 1st ink!  Got pulled over by a pretty cute state trooper... (no worries friends, I only forgot to turn my headlights on, I simply got a "keep your lights on, Go PATS! from the Statey... no interesting jail stories here!) ...and had a 2nd dessert at Newport Creamery!  ....it was a MUCH needed night out.  I seriously enjoyed every second of it.   I kept feeling this sense of "wow, I'm still me" all night long.  99.9999999% of the time, I'm Olivia's Mom and Joe's Wife... it was a nice refreshing feeling to realize that I'm still Laura! ...back to the tattoo, I got Olivia's name on my foot and I love it!  I made up for the time I missed with Olivia on Sunday and we had a Mommy/Daughter lunch date at Panera!  ...and this Monday morning, I feel refreshed! 

The Value of Friendship?

I had this friend, we'll call her Jane.  We'd been friends for a long time.  7 years to be exact.We'd been there for each other through so many life changes, career changes, college major changes.My marriage and the birth of Olivia.The end of her long 13 year relationship.Her mothers cancer and fathers drinking problem.My Grandmothers death.My father in laws death.Moving back in with our parents.  Her starting a new relationship.Relationship problems.  Family dynamic changes. The list goes on and on and on.  Seriously.  I could go on for days. But, one day, in November 2011, I guess she saw fit to end our friendship.   Her way of doing that?  Pressing the "delete friend" button on Facebook. After all these years and life changes and tears and laughs and coffee dates and shopping trips and babies born and weddings... that was her answer.  Delete. When I realized that Jane was no longer my Facebook "friend" I thought there had to be some mistake.  I messaged her, called her, texted her numerous times.  I called her boyfriend to try to get some answers and finally got some info.  She was upset with me.  Why you ask?  I have NO idea.I still don't know why. I finally got a text response from her in December and was told that she was busy with mid-terms and would contact me after the studying died down.   I've never heard from her again.   I'm at a crossroads now.  I don't know whether to keep pushing the envelope and trying to contact her or just let it be.   A part of me is upset with her too.  Why didn't she value our friendship enough to CALL me and TALK to me and let me know that she was upset about something?   How does an 7 year friendship go down the drain just like that?  Just by the click of a button.   Now, I'm hurt.  At first I was angry that I wasn't approached.  Now, I feel like my friend died.  I feel like I never got to say good bye.    

My "To Do" List

I've taken on so many projects this Christmas season and hello?!?!

Christmas is only 10 days away and I'm only 3/4 the way done with my first project. 

What was I thinking??

To Do...

• Finish the 3/4 finished fleece throw blanket
• Make a matching pillow case
• Make a matching hat
• Make another fleece throw
• Make 5 Hot/Cold Rice Packs
• Make 4 Hot Chocolate jar kits
• Make Peppermint Bark (a ton of it!)
• Make 4 dozen Sugar Cookies & decorate them
• FINISH SHOPPING for 5 people!

See, I'm sure I'm forgetting something from this list...in fact, I've made more lists and

lost them over the past few weeks that I'm not even sure what I'm doing anymore.

I did some shopping yesterday and got a bunch of things for my to do list above. 

I do have a big package with 6 gifts being delivered today which is helping my nerves a bit! 

I'm a little anxious to open the package because all items are breakable and I swear,

if they're broken I'm gonna probably cry a little bit.

 Send me some love and energy to get all of this stuff done.

I'm so thankful for good friends that are coming over Friday

to help me bake and decorate said Sugar cookies. 

Should I add that I'm a horrible baker and can pretty much assure you we'll end up

throwing away just as many burnt or messed up cookies as we'll end up keeping?

Let's hope all goes as planned.  Or, not planned, because had I planned I wouldn't be in this situation!

Merry Christmas - 10 days away!!!

~Laura

My Friday Night Friend

I do realize this title could look like I'm having some type of immoral relationship but I assure you, I'm not.  My life isn't that interesting. 

Since having Olivia I've spent a lot of time alone.  My husband and I work opposite shifts and we rarely see each other.  My mother watches Olivia in between Joe leaving for work and me getting home, so the only days I see my husband is Wednesday's (my early day from work) and the weekend.  After Olivia goes to bed, I either go to bed myself, do housework, read or watch TV...alone. 

At work, I'm an auditor for a bank and all the work I do is 90% by myself, in my office.  After a while, 14 months to be exact, things tend to get a bit lonely.

My sweet friend Jenn and I have been spending more time together lately.  She is really my only friend who doesn't mind going to dinner on a Friday night, coming over and sitting alone in my living room during Olivia's bath and bed time, waiting for me to put Olivia to sleep and then spending an hour or two with me at home doing nothing.  She is probably the one person who shouldn't want to do this since she's single with no children and could be out painting the town red with all of her single friends... but no. 

She totally doesn't mind that our Friday night get togethers involve dinner at the closest restaurant and maybe a trip to Target down the road to make sure I am able to get Olivia home by 7:30 so I don't interrupt our bedtime routine of bath at 7:45 and bed at 8:15.

I truly enjoy spending my Friday night chatting with my friend.  It's so nice to end my week with good conversation, companionship and fun! 

Happy Weekend!

~Laura