Here we go Again!!

So our little man is just a mere 5 days away from his first birthday!  I seriously cannot believe that just about a year ago I was at the Dr being told that they were going to induce me and we were finally going to be able to meet the sweet little guy who had been rolling around and hiccuping in my belly for what felt like so long!  Now almost a year has gone by and I just want time to slow down he’s getting so big so fast!

And he doesn’t seem to be the only one of us getting bigger 😉

Yep,  he’s definitely not the only one getting bigger, but he is going to be the Big Brother!!!!!!!!

Hard to believe that I am only about 11.5 weeks  pregnant in this picture.  I am living proof that you show much earlier with the second one.  I was probably about 18 or 19 weeks before I looked like this with G, although, my uterus didn’t even get a full year to shrink back to it’s normal size after having Garrett, so I guess it is to be expected.

So yes, we are expecting another little one due to arrive on December 30th 2012!!  I think it will be a New Years Baby, but we shall see!  Our newest addition and G will be almost exactly 18 months apart!  Some may think that is pretty close, and it is, but it’s also pretty common.  One of my brothers and myself are 17 months apart, and I wouldn’t have it any other way!  We have a great relationship and I know that the proximity in our age has a lot to do with that.  My hopes are that Garrett and his little brother or sister will grow up to be best buds, and the farther along I get the more excited I become to add another little addition to our family!

You’re probably wondering if we were “trying” and I can’t say that we were planning it down to the due date but Dan and I have always known that we wanted to have at least 2 that were close in age, so we took on the whatever happens happens approach and I am extremely fortunate that I seem to be a fertile Myrtle, but I’m pretty sure that runs in my family 🙂 so when we found out we were kind of like “well alright…here we go again!”  I’ve been excited about this pregnancy since we found out, but I’ve had other emotions as well.  Some days I would be super pumped and feel like I could take on the world, and others I would find myself saying what the hell am I doing?  I’m still trying to figure out how to be a good Mother to my one child, how am I going to do 2??? But I’ve been reassured that these feelings are all normal, and I’m lucky enough to have the best husband in the world to figure it all out with.  Of course I’ve had my moments of anxiety, specifically before each of my Dr’s appointments, but I’ve had 3 ultrasounds all of which showed a strong heartbeat, and I had my 12 week appointment today where again, I was able to hear the heartbeat through the doppler device.  Not to mention my girlfriend is letting me borrow her handheld doppler so I can listen whenever I feel the need.

My symptoms have been pretty similar to those I had with Garrett, although my first telltale sign that I was pregnant came when I was using my favorite bath and body works lotion (that I’ve been using for years) and it smelled much different than it normally does.  I almost didn’t want to use it again because it smelled so musty to me!  My sense of smell is crazy, I like spicy foods, others seem bland, I’ve been a little more nauseous, but haven’t been sick, ground meat repulses me, and fruits and veggies are my go to snack; also… I am absolutely exhausted, but my Husband swears (even though I think he’s nuts,) that I was this tired with G too. I try to lay down and nap or just relax when G takes his afternoon nap and I’m usually in bed before 10 pm.  But other than that, I’m feeling good!  Really the only other difference with this one is that the heart rate has been consistently higher than Garrett’s was.  G’s was always between 150-155 and this one is usually in the upper 160’s or 170’s.  Dan is convinced that this one is a girl…I think it may be too, but I’m not 100% sure yet, only 6 more weeks until we can find out! My belly started popping out a few weeks ago, and it just gets more and more obvious every day.  I’m just about not able to fit into my pre-pregnancy shorts/pants, so it’s back to the maternity drawers I go!  Luckily I have plenty of summer maternity clothes from last year that I’ll be able to wear, but since I wasn’t very pregnant in the winter with G I’ll have to invest in some winter clothes.  Although, if our fall/winter this year is as mild as it was last year, I may be in pretty good shape!

Alright…this post has gone on long enough….thanks for sticking with me through it.  I’ll continue to do updates on Baby #2 whenever something neat happens along with my other posts!

Now to lay down for a few minutes before G wakes up from his nap 🙂

Have a Great Tuesday!

Weekend in Ohio

Garrett and I flew to Ohio last Thursday to celebrate babies and graduations with my favorite girlfriends and spend time with my family.  It was my first time flying solo with Garrett and luckily it was a super short flight, but he did really well overall.  I tried to schedule our flights around his naptimes, and I’m happy to report that he slept on both!

My Dad picked us up from the airport on Thursday afternoon and we met my Mom for lunch on our way back to their house.  Garrett thoroughly enjoyed his grilled cheese sandwich and mandarin oranges, and was happy to be able to move around and play afterwords.  On Thursday evening my Grandma,

G and his Great Grandma Ruth

and sister in law came over for dinner and got to spend some QT with the Little Man as well!  G loved being chased around and entertained by his Aunt Manda!

He also got to play a lot with Grandma Pam

and Grandpa Paul finally got to show Garrett his backhoe!  Even though he wasn’t to sure about it this time…

 we think he’ll warm up to it by next time.

  He spent time with Uncle Tim, Uncle Randy and Cousin Bodie

and LOVED the big back yard he had to crawl around in!

We also got to catch up with a lot of the Brunner’s during my cousin’s engagement party, Tim and I ran a 5K to benefit our old Elementary School, and I got to hang out with my best friends at Jess’s Baby Shower! (She’s due on July 5th with a little girl!)  We also celebrated Amanda’s graduation from CSU!  Unfortunately I didn’t get a picture of all 5 of us, but it was so great to catch up with everyone!

We flew back to Charlotte early Sunday morning so I could spend Mother’s Day with our little family and it was everything I could have hoped it would be.  The house was clean when I got home and Dan had bought me some Stargazer Lily’s….my favorite, along with a card from him and a card from Garrett.  He also hung my pictures in my stairwell for my gallery wall that I have been meaning to do for months now and I didn’t cook or do any dishes all day long.  I even got to nap!  It was a perfect ending to an already great weekend, and I feel so lucky to be this little guy’s Momma 🙂

Huntersville Sprint Re-cap

1:27:46 🙂

That was my overall race time and I couldn’t be happier with it!!!  My goal was to finish in under 1:40:00 and I was able to do it much easier than I thought, I didn’t even have to walk one single second of the entire race and for that I am very pleased!  The hardest part for me was the beginning of my run.  My legs felt like bricks after transitioning from my bike and I felt that my pace was comparable to that of a snail, but to my surprise, my legs felt stronger as my run went on and I actually PR’d in my 5K!

This is what my overall race looked like:

(Rank)Swim: (3)8:07

(Rank)T1: (10) 1:34

(Rank)Bike: (21) 49:45

(Rank)T2: (5) 0:58

TAround: 12:55

(Rank)Run: (15) 27:24

Overall Time:  1:27:46

I placed 18th in my age group and 67th of 130 total women

I PR’d in my run

and although I’ve never actually raced on a bike before, I finished in the best time of all my training rides

and I was the 3rd fastest swimmer in my age group!!!

The Huntersville Sprint Tri was set-up and run very well (possibly because my trainer was the race director 🙂 and because I was fortunate enough to train with her, she was able to fully prepare me for what was to come and made me feel at ease with the entire process.  I thought I was going to be much more nervous than I was and I didn’t expect my times to be what they were either.  If you’re interested in doing a Triathlon, and you have no experience, I highly recommend training with a group…..I think it helped immensely, and I am so glad I did it!  I now see why people who do Triathlon’s say they get addicted to them.  It was so much Fun, I’m already looking into another one in June!!

Despite my poor sick baby who was running a fever all day Saturday, not eating and was up numerous times throughout the night, (he was feeling a bit better on Sunday so)Dan packed him up and brought him to my race to cheer me on and they were just what I needed to keep me going.  I saw them for the first time when I was finishing my bike ride, and then again as I was beginning my run and at the finish line.  My brothers Jeff and Tim were also there to see my finish and that was pretty special to me!  I Loved it and seriously had so much fun doing it, even if I didn’t win 😉

Besides…who needs a trophy when you have this waiting for you at the finish line

Best. Prize. Ever. ❤

10 Months Old

Here we are again, the end of another month and Garrett is now 10 Months Old!!!  Time can slow down now before we know it we’ll be celebrating his First Birthday!

I think one of the reasons this month has gone so quickly is because as I wrote in my previous April post we’ve been super busy!!  It’s hard to believe that May will be here next week, and it doesn’t look like it will be any less busy than this month!

Dan and I get to see two shows in May; Thanks to his birthday gift to me! (Come Fly Away, and La Cage Aux Folles), which means at least 2 date nights 🙂 G and I have a trip planned to Ohio to celebrate with some of my best girlfriends’; One with a baby shower, one with a college graduation/baby girl on the way, and one who’s daughter is being baptized, not to mention the engagement of my cousin Sarah and Mother’s Day with my Momma before Dan, G and I get to celebrate my first Mother’s Day and at the end of the month we have a trip planned to California for my cousin Leah’s wedding!   Although I’m a little nervous as to how G will do on the 5+ hour flight, we’re excited to celebrate with my Mom’s side of the family and take Garrett to California for the first time!

I realize this post was not supposed to be about our crazy schedule, it’s supposed to be about our Sweet Growing Boy so, here’s what he’s been up to

  • Height, my guess would be getting close to 32″ (his torso and legs are soooo long)
  • Weight 21 lbs 2 oz (we had him weighed about a week ago)
  • Wears some 9 month onesies (because he’s so lean) but mostly 12 month clothes (definitely 12 month pants)
  • Size 5 shoes and he has 12-24 month socks that he is outgrowing :-/
  • Crawls all over the plac very quickly so he’s always keeping us on our toes!

  • Has 6 teeth!  4 on top and 2 on the bottom
  • Eats really well…Lots of different finger foods and still some purees, loving pancakes, cucumbers, chicken, sweet potatoes, guacamole, grilled cheese sandwiches, and yogurt just to name a few

  • Can pull himself up to a standing postion on any surface and picks out what toys he wants to play with and when

  • Walks unassisted behind his walker

  • Still loves his doggies and is adament on getting Kuno to pay attention to him

  • Naps once in the morning and once in the afternoon and sleeps from 7:30 til about 7
  • Says mama and baba (sometimes when he’s feeling playful and a lot of times when he’s tired, upset, sad, mad, etc.) we’re diligintly working on dada 🙂

  • He’s one of the happiest babies I know, but he’s also quite pensive and always seems to be trying to figure things out
  • He has the prettiest brightest blue eyes, cutest smile, and sweetest giggle and I could stare at him all day ❤

  • I am so amazed by him and proud of him, and I can’t imagine my life without him.  He’s the best thing that has ever happened to both Dan and I and we are so very blessed!

Happy 10 Months to our Sweet Boy…We love you so much!

Tri-Training/Race and Best Body Bootcamp Update

My triathlon is 6 days away!!!!!  I can’t believe my training is just about over, and even though the distances on their own may not seem too daunting to some people out there…..(myself included) it’s the actual sequence of a 500 meter swim,(which even though my idea of a sprint is a 50 meter swim 😉 is still somewhat considered a sprint followed by a 12 mile bike ride(which again may sound easy to some, but for me, given that it’s a moderately hilly course, and that I’ve ridden it a few times and my legs are TIRED when I finish and that I’m expected to transition directly into a 5K run (which is probably my weakest of the 3 sports, and of course it’s the last one) I’m excited, but a little nervous at the same time.

As most of you know, I grew up swimming, and running track so you would think that this would be a no brainer for me, but I was a true sprinter in these sports.  I mean like 50’s or 100’s in the pool, and 100, 200, 4×1’s and 4×2’s on the track so the goal was to go as fast as I could and in under a minute or so my race would be complete.  So…even though this is a Sprint triathlon, completing a 500 in the water, then biking 12 miles and then running 3 miles I’ve had to train my body differently.  I’ve learned to pace myself, rather than going all out which is great(albeit challenging) and I’m happy to oblige, especially now that I’m not a teenager anymore and my body has drastically changed in the last 12 years.  My goal is to finish the race in under 1hr40min.  I’d like to finish my swim in under 8 minutes, my bike in under 55 and my run in under 30 minutes + time for my transitions.  However, I will PR regardless of my race time and for that I am pleased!

On top of the workouts my trainer has set up for me(which have been great), I have been doing Tina’s Best Body Bootcamp to supplement my strength training and so far I’ve been happy with the results.  My weeks have mostly been looking something like this

Monday-Best Body Bootcamp workout A

Tuesday-Swimming for 45 minutes

Wednesday-Training (Swimming, Biking, Running) depending on the week

Thursday-Workout B-Best Body Bootcamp

Friday- Workout C-Best Body Bootcamp

Saturday-Off

Sunday-Brick workouts (Biking 12+ miles followed by a 2-3 mile run)

I’ve really enjoyed the challenge of putting the two together, and will be sad to see both of them come to an end after Sunday, but I now have a lot more knowledge about all aspects of the Tri-sport, along with strength training, and I’m looking forward to keeping up my workout regime with my own training 🙂

This is supposed to be a taper week for me due to my race on Sunday but I’m still planning on completing my workouts just a modified version of them…Other than that…

I’m as ready as I’m going to be, race gear and all!

And I’ll be sure to update everyone after my race!

April so Far

It’s felt like a whirlwind of a few weeks since my last post.  Between traveling for Easterand having visitors, getting our new boat and training for my Triathlon (which is only 9 days away!!!!!!!!) we’ve been pretty busy!  Garrett is getting bigger and braver every day and it seems like he is getting closer and closer to being able to walk on his own, although, I’m pretty sure we’ve still got some time before we’re chasing him all over the house 😉

We flew back down to Florida to see Dan’s parents for Easter and had a wonderful time!

Garrett got lots of time swimming in his pool,

 and even went to the beach and into the ocean for the first time since he was only 10 weeks old!

He seemed to like the water even though the Gulf was still pretty chilly, but he wasn’t too sure about the whole sand thing 🙂  We’re hoping that he warms up to it a bit more next time

He also got to play with his Grandma and Grandpa Brewton a Lot!!

He especially liked showing everyone how well (and fast) he is crawling now!

We’re home now for a while and don’t have any visitors planned in the near future, and are hoping to get in some lake time on our new boat!

She’s sure to be the reddest boat on all of LKN!!! And since I didn’t get to spend a whole lot of time on our boat last year, I’m hoping this year I get to make up for it.  I haven’t been on a wakeboard in a while and I’m anxious to see if I can still do it!  But first….we’ve got to get G warmed up to his life jacket……so far, he’s not much of a fan 😦  which in turn makes for a little less enjoyment when we’re on the Lake, but we’re not giving up……he’s going to have to get used to it sooner or later!!!

Even though he can be a little stinker sometimes……..he’s still the cutest baby I know 😉

We’re hoping to give the boat thing another go this weekend!  Fingers crossed it goes a little bit better than last time!

Got anything fun planned for your weekend???

9 Months Old

Look who’s 9 Month’s old!!

I know this post is overdue and I would have posted earlier but I wanted to wait until his Dr.’s appointment so I could include his stats….and just like I suspected our little man is not so little anymore!

  • Weight: 20lbs 6oz (50%)
  • Length: 31in (97%)
  • Head circumference: 46cm (75%

We had a great month that was absolutely beautiful weather-wise and also included some very special visitors!  Unfortunately I didn’t get pictures of all the visitors but I did get some.  Aunt Jess came into town for the weekend and she and Aunt Carly came up to see us and go to Discovery Place Kids!

That same weekend Grandma and Grandpa Brunner were in town too!  They bought a fun little car to cruise around in and will be back soon to pick it up!

Uncle Tim came for a few weeks and we FINALLY got a picture with him!

Shortly after, Grandma Lynn came to look for houses so she and Grandpa Rich can be closer to us, and guess what?????

They are buying a house in our neighborhood!!!  We’re super excited to have some family so close and are hoping that Grandma and Grandpa Brunner will follow in a few years 😉

Call me crazy, but I think Grandma Lynn enjoys Garrett a whole lot!

Along with our visitors, came a lot of new milestones!  Here are a few other things we’ve been up to!

  • REAL crawling!!  He army crawled for a few months and got really good at it, and now….he’s up on all fours all of the time now and getting faster every day!

  • Climbing up stairs.  (Don’t worry, we only allow him to climb up the 2 short steps we have to get into our bonus room, that are carpeted all around)

  • Climbing all over Mommy and Daddy!  They make the best jungle gyms!
  • More teeth…He’s got 4 now with another one coming in on the top…check out those chompers!

  • Pulling himself up onto things when he’s feeling brave

  • He enjoys looking at himself in the mirror and thinks he’s pretty funny

We’ve been swimming more and more, and are so excited for our trip to the beautiful Pensacola beaches for Easter!  We like hanging out with friends at the park and try to make that a weekly occurance, and his  favorite toys this month are….Oscar’s dog collar, the wheels on his trucks, stroller, toys, etc.  red solo cups, and anything that rolls.

We also got a chance to to watch Daddy play softall and his team won!

We’re keeping busy and having lots of fun!  Each day gets more and more exciting and we are so blessed to have such a sweet healthy boy who brings so much joy to our lives!

Get in Shape Girl

Are there any other 80’s babies out there who remember this??

I definitely had the cassette and video as a little girl growing up and remember wanting to be just like the girls on TV.  However, my personal favorite piece of workout equipment was my ballet bar.  I started taking dance classes when I turned 3 and contiuned with Ms. Fordu until I was 18.  I still to this day have no idea how she was able to choreograph so many numbers for so many years.  She was Amazing!

Oh…and I LOVED the water!  Swimming has always been a big deal in my family.  My brothers and I were introduced to the water at a very young age.  We all took lessons until we were old enough to be on the swim team and I continuted to do that competitively until I was 18.  I loved swimming and I was pretty good at it 🙂  The pool was and still is….My Happy Place.

I remained active and still had a speedy metabolism through college so I stayed relatively fit.  Then my mid twenties hit and everything slowed down.  I no longer had that speedy metabolism, and if I went too long without working out, my body showed it.  Then I got pregnant

and had my Beautiful Baby Boy

and for the best reason possible….my entire body transformed

I know it’s a fact of life, that as you age your body changes (especially after carrying and birthing a baby)  and I’m sure I will never have my 18 year old body again, but that doesn’t mean I can’t have some semblance of it.  And because I am one of those people who does better when given a plan to follow, and someone to help hold me accountable for my workouts I have decided to take on two challenges.

First…I signed up for a training group to help prepare me for the Huntersville Sprint Triathlon on April 29th.

It’s a 500M Swim, a 20K (12mi) Bike Ride, and a 5K(3.1mi) Run.  I’m in a group of 6 women that meets once a week with our trainer (The Race Director) for a group workout, but we have also been given a workout plan to follow for 6 days of the week which is great for me because I don’t have to think about what workout I will do for the day.  It’s all laid out for me!  I started my training back in January and it consists of 2 swimming workouts, 2 biking workouts, and 2 running workouts per week.  I did my first sprint triathlon back in 2008, so this is not my first, however, the distances are a bit longer and this one is much bigger so I think the training will really benefit me come race day.  After getting back into the water and swimming laps I realized just how much I missed it, and eventhough I am not nearly as fast as I once was, I have already noticed my times improving, and for that I am pleased.

The second thing that I just recently started is Tina’s Best Body Bootcamp.  Again it’s great because it is a workout plan that is laid out for me with specific circuit training workouts and cardio options, for 5 days out of the week.  It works perfectly with my Triathlon Training, as I am able to coordinate both for a complete body workout.   Add in some healthier eating habits and I am determined to feel good about my Mom Body come Boat Season!!  I have never let the numbers on the scale dictate my happiness with my body, because I’m not in any way shape or form petite, and I will never weigh 120 lbs because  that is not a healthy weight for me, rather, I will know I reached my goals by the way my clothes feel on me, and the way I feel when I look at myself in the mirror.

I enjoy working out, and I love the way it makes me feel when I’ve completed something that has pushed my body to a certain limit so I am excited, and determined to Live my Best Life, and part of that means rocking my Best Mom Body before I get pregnant with Baby #2!

 Do you have workout that takes you to your happy place??

The Story of Us

My friend Brittany over at A Healthy Slice of Life had this as the topic of her post yesterday, and I loved it!  It got me thinking and remembering moments in my own relationship so…in honor of Valentine’s day I decided to borrow it from her 🙂   

  1. How long have you and your significant other been together?  7 and a half years and counting!

2.  How’d you meet (What’s your “love” story?)  My best friend and I were trying to decide whether we were going to move  here or to Atlanta after we graduated from College in 2004 and we were in town visiting for a weekend in May.  We went to a friend of a friends house to “pre-game” (they knew each other from OU) and Carly and I were just hanging out talking on the porch when in walked this tall, dark and handsome man (solo may I add) who didn’t even stop to say hello or introduce himself, rather just beelined into the apartment and sat down at a table in the back with his buddy.  I immediately thought he was rude and unfriendly and really didn’t think about him again until we got to the bar and all of a sudden his liquid courage settled in and he offered to buy us shots, and beers, and probably a few more shots 😉  After we had a few drinks he finally came up to me and introduced himself and we hit it off.  We danced at Buckhead and talked and then walked back to our friends apartment together because the cab was full , and had our first kiss at a crosswalk.  We hung out for the remainder of the night and exchanged numbers but he didn’t call….for a while.  Actually he accidently called me (when he meant to call his friend Jim one night several weeks later) apparently our names were next to eachother in his phone book.  He was slightly intoxicated and swore he tried texting me a few times before (but I didn’t have texting on my phone yet so I never knew)  However he called the following day…sober 🙂 and we began our courtship over the phone and internet. Carly and I decided that Charlotte was going to be the place for us and the Friday after I moved (August 20, 2004) Dan and I had a date set up.  He brought me a bottle of wine (which had never happened to me before) and took me to a restaurant uptown called Harry and Jean’s.  We had a very nice dinner and he dropped me off afterwards.  He was to meet up with his friends and Carly and I were headed out as well.  We ended meeting back up later that night and the rest is History!

I remember Carly being so bummed because we were new to the city and hoping to have a while of being single together and lots of time to meet and date different guys but Dan wowed me in every way possible and I was smitten immediately! 

3.  If married…How long have you been married?  We celebrated 2 years of marriage this past September 5th

4.  Where did you get married?  Big or small wedding?  We got married in Willoughby Hills, Ohio at Manakiki Country Club on Saturday September 5th 2009.  It was a pretty big wedding with about 235 people and a picture perfect day

5.  Do you have any nicknames for eachother?  He sometimes calls me QT, I call him babe

6.  Name 3 things you love about your honey.  It’s hard to pick only 3 but He is one of the hardest working men I’ve ever met in my life.  He does so much to make sure our family has everything we need and that Garrett and I are taken care of.  He’s extremely intelligent.  So much so that he’s earned the nickname Ernie from several of our friends 🙂 He knows so much about so many things and if he doesn’t know the answer to a question he reads until he figures it out. I learn from him every day.  He’s an AMAZING father.  Honestly before we had Garrett I had never really seen him around babies, so I didn’t know what to expect, although I had no doubt he’d be great.  He’s patient, and caring, and loving and he is as amazed by our little man as I am.  I couldn’t ask for a better husband or father to our son.

7.  Tell us how he proposed.  Dan is anything but cliche so when he proposed to me on Valentines Day 2009 I was completely shocked.  We had been dating for 4.5 years before he popped the question but lived together for 3.5 and I wanted it to happen and thought it would at some point…I just didn’t know when and I was getting a little antsy 😉  One of our favorite things to this day is to cook together and drink a great bottle of wine.  He’s an amazing cook and we had a very nice bottle of wine that we’d had for 3 years but were “saving” for a special occasion.  I didn’t even know he’d taken it from our wine rack on Valentines Day when we both set out to run a few errands.  We said no gifts so when he handed me a box before dinner I was a little perturbed.  He insisted that I open it before we ate so I obliged.  It was a box from Crate and Barrel and inside of it there was a wine decantuer (which we actually needed) so I wasn’t too bothered anymore.  However, next to the decanteur was a bottle wrapped in tissue paper.  It was our “special” bottle.  A 1998 Bottle of Grgich Hills Cabernet Sauvignon and when I turned around he was down on his knee in our dining room and asked me to marry him ❤

 

 

 

8.  Is he a flowers and teddy bear kind of guy for v-day, or strawberries, champagne, and rose petals?  More of a card and nice dinner kind of a guy although he likes to change it up here and there 🙂

9.  Are you a sunset dinner on the beach kind of girl or pop a movie in and relax on the couch?  Definitely have the opportunity to be the pop in a movie and relax on the couch more than a sunset dinner on the beach.  Not to say I don’t enjoy both 🙂

10. Tell us one thing you’d like to do with your significant other one day. If you could do anything? Go anywhere?  So much.  Raise our family and put them through college, and travel as much as possible.  I’d like to take our family to Germany one day

11.  Tell us what you plan on doing for Valentine’s Day.  Cooking dinner, putting our baby to bed, and relaxing with a glass of wine by the fire.

12.  Are you asking for anything this Valentine’s Day?  Nope, I have everything I could possibly wish for!

13. Give us one piece of advice for keeping a relationship strong and full of love.  Don’t forget to put yourselves first, take time to talk and make sure you are on the same page.  Dream together, work as a team and love unconditionally

14.  Show us a picture of what love means to you

Happy Valentine’s Day!

30 Years Young!

Yep! You read it right, yesterday marked my last day in my 20’s, therefore today marks the first day in my 30’s! Hopefully the title of my post relays to you that this is not a sad day for me…by any means…rather it’s an exciting day, a day when I get to start living the next thirty years of my life and making them even better than the first.

Now, I’d be lying if I told you that I haven’t been listening to Garth Brooks’ song “My Next 30 Years” for the past 3 days…

…or if I said that I’m not racking my brain in an attempt to create my bucket list;

but again, I’m not telling you these things so you will feel sorry for me, not even for a second. In fact, I hope you’re ahead of me and have started your bucket list as well!

I have been incredibly blessed throughout my life, and I will be the first to admit that. I have an AMAZING family with parents that worked their butts off to make sure that my 3 brother’s and I had every experience we wanted as we grew up and continue to stand by us through thick and thin…And who love us unconditionally, and with no reservations in regards to who and what we love 🙂

Oldie but a Goodie!

I have an extended family that many would kill for, a relationship with my inlaws that people could be jealous of,

and the Very Best husband to ever walk the face of this Earth. Not to mention our incredibly adorable son! What’s not to be thankful for??

So yeah….I had to retake the sign and vision portion of the driver’s test in order to renew my license and Iwill be bumped up to the 30 year old age group when I compete in my Triathlon in April, but I’m fine with it! In fact…..I welcome it (hopefully it will give me a leg up on the women who are in the later part of their 30’s 😉

I have lived a lot, and loved til my heart swelled, and lost a few who will forever remain dear to my heart. But thankfully I’ve had more to smile about than cry about in my last 30 years, and I am looking forward to seeing what my next 30 have in store for me!

Bring it 30…I’m ready for you!

Do you have a bucket list??

If so, what is one thing you have on it?