Pieces Lately.

Ty planted some seeds with Scarlett early this spring. They quickly grew into plants and outgrew their pods. These photos were taken right after being replanted and although they appear weepy, I can assure you….they are growing big and strong now. Updated photos on them to come. Scarlett loves watching them grow and learning the process of growing plants. She counts them and names them, all of that fun stuff.

Most of my mornings are spent at coffee shops like this before work. It's ironic since I only drink decaf but even their decaf is wonderful and they always have delicious pastries or breakfast sandwiches. I've learned that sometimes it's really relaxing and therapuetic to begin the day sitting outside with coffee and the birds before a busy workday. 

We brought Scarlett to a few fun things this summer. One of them was this day. She rode on a couple of rides that almost gave Ty a heart attack. My little dare devil...

A lot of walks in the city for dinner or ice cream or just to enjoy time together. 

My Better Late Than Never, 4th of July Post.

I realize that The 4th of July was over 4 days ago. I just haven't had a free moment to catch up and post this. The 4th is one of my favorite holidays. Always has been. A holiday in the beginning of summer combined with cookouts, drinks, family and the fact that we are celebrating America's birthday and honoring all of the people who fought for our freedom makes it just that more awesome.

We had no big plans this weekend besides watching some fireworks. Ty was lucky enough to get the holiday weekend off (a rare occasion) and we took full advantage of getting to spend time together. The long weekend turned out to be way more eventful than we planned. I got wild and made a red, white and blue trifle for our cook-out on Friday. We had some friends from Texas, my older sister and her family over. A small but festive gathering. We walked into the city to watch the parade and on our way out, we tried some food from the Barb-A-Cue & dessert festival. We ended the 4th with fireworks. It was a quieter 4th than I'm used to but it was still good. On Saturday, I had this impromptu idea to head out and play some miniature golf. I thought that Scarlett was finally at an old enough age that she could try it out. We headed to Lake George since they have some of the best mini-golf around. Scarlett was just in heaven with the entire process. It was a good day in her book. Then we grabbed some dinner by the lake before taking an overtired, un-napped Scarlett home. It wasn't a pretty dinner scene at. all. I'll spare you the tantrum details. ;)

Sunday was one of those mornings when you wake up with the sun peeking through the shades and that awesome feeling comes over you that today is going to be a great day. And oh was it.

We all (even Scarlett) slept in until almost 9 am and then we woke up and hung around in our pajamas. Ty made coffee and blueberry scones while Scarlett played and laughed with Ula. If you are new around here, Ula is our French Bulldog that joined our family about 3 months ago. We got outside in the sun around 11. I replanted my some new (and old) plants into new planters. It's been on the to-do list for awhile and Sunday turned out to be the perfect sunny day to tackle it. Scarlett played in her sprinklers with the dog and Ty washed his Harley in the drive-way. I made some Sangria and played some music in the back yard as I got dirty in the soil. Yeah….it was one of those picture perfect days that I'll keep locked up in my memory for quite a while. 


Later in the afternoon, Ty's motorcycle buddies asked us to come out on a ride with them. Since Grandpa came to visit and offered to stay with Scarlett, we hopped on the bike and headed out. It was the first time that I've rode the Harley since Ty got it over 6 months ago. We rode around the entire Lake Sacandaga, which by the way, was scenic and very pretty. I was really into the ride. I could have rode for quite awhile longer if it wasn't for my poor butt that isn't quite used to the VRod yet…

Anyhow, it was a really wonderful weekend. Not too busy but with plenty of fun events. I hope you all had an awesome long weekend as well!

A Change Stirring In Me.

The days have all been colliding into one….

Sometimes I'm not sure what day it is. I get up and play out the same routine most every weekday. Almost a year ago I chose to go back to work full-time and I don't regret it. It was exactly what I needed at that time. I've learned a lot in my new position and also learned how to multi-task home life with working. I do however, miss time. And as the days start overlapping into one big blur, I can only think about all the fun things that Scarlett and I used to do before I began working. I miss those days.

Scarlett is a big girl. She is fully potty-trained now and her sentences and imagination are as wild as ever. She is growing out of toddler and into girl….And yes, I'm sad about that. Not because she isn't a baby anymore, I knew that would happen. But because I miss her little moments. The little moments that I used to selfishly devour. I'm not one of those mothers who is completely career-driven. Never have been. But I would say that I often like change. I like to spice things up in all aspects of life and as my husband will tell you, it's never dull around here…lol. I am feeling a bit of a tug for change. I'm not sure what that means or where I will go from here, but I do know that it's stirring in me. My heart feels as though it needs to be set free. This happens to me often. Time to alter things a bit. Time to slow down the colliding days and start to live them more. I think that this is a common wish for mothers. We all want to slow down time to be with our babies. 

 Meals have been another challenge. I can tell you that the one thing I do not enjoy, is cooking. I keep hoping that someday that will change. However, I'm doubtful that this will really happen permanently. I go through stages where I find myself making a few great recipes and starting to feel like I get the hang of dinner-making, just to find myself over the phase by week's end. But having a family means feeding a family, too. I need to start meal planning. I plan to try and document this journey here as well. I'm sure you can appreciate a good meal plan from a wife and mother who truly doesn't have the time to cook. 

And so, not knowing how or when I will make my change, I continue on my routine of morning preperations, bringing Scarlett to school, working and then coming home to prepare for it all over again.  I'm doing the very best that I can. Which usually means making the most of the weekends and struggling to get everything done in the evenings. I'm okay with this, because I know that this is only temporary. Change is coming.

Our One Year Anniversary Getaway.

So, as most of you could tell by my Instagram, Ty whisked me away for our one year anniversary. It was a surprise and I didn't have the slightest clue where he was taking me. We landed 3 1/2 hours west in the Finger Lakes of New York. Wine country at it's finest. We pulled up to our resort at Geneva on The Lake, to a town car with a driver awaiting us. A smile crossed my face as Ty told me that he was ours for the day. We were going on a wine tour. We hit up as many wineries as possible, stopping for lunch in between. It was so interesting to see all the different wineries. All were unique with their own themes. Medieval themes, owl themes, Fox themes, and even a haunted winery that was ghost themed. We tasted wines until we couldn't bare one more sip. We came back to the resort and I changed into a dinner frock while Ty put on something more formal. The wine and cheese party was held out on the patio before we dined in the elegance of the Rome Mansion replica restaurant. The food? It was more delicious than food should be allowed to be. Four courses followed by Hot toddies in the courtyard. Ty found it extremely hilarious that I was over the moon excited with the restaurants ability to pack up the left overs up in a tin foil swan to go.(see photos)  I actually didn't finish all of my food for this very experience….haha.

By this time,  I was beyond impressed with Ty's planning of this all. I was starting to think that he may just be a better planner than me!! We felt like royalty all weekend long.  After dinner we spent the rest of the night in our vintage-themed honeymoon suite. The rest of the weekend included shopping, breakfasts overlooking the lake as the sun rose, water activities, discovering wine slushies (which you must experience at least once in your life), making out on the dock, holding hands, swimming in a 1970's retro pool all to ourselves, playing croquet for the first time ever, getting private massages in our suite along with a candle lit dinner for just us and lots of glasses of wine. It was just an amazing weekend that I will surely not forget.

It's been a long time coming for us to have a long weekend like this. Lots of work and many lonely nights came before this. He said to me when we got home on Sunday, "Babe, you know that I work so hard and such long hours because I want to give you and Scarlett the best life. But I realized after this weekend that sometimes that means nothing if I am not spending time with you and Scarlett." This meant the world to me. The fact that he realized this meant even more than the glorious weekend we had just experienced. This is why I love this man so much……I wish I could say that our first year was full of only love with no issues. But that would be a lie. We had our share of hard times already. But here we are, still in love and still fighting for each other. Love is easy, but relationships are hard. One year in, I can already say that my perspective on love has changed a bit. Love is about fighting for the one that you know is your soul mate, the one that you know would give it all up in a heartbeat for you. I enjoy learning to love better and stronger with Ty. We learned a lot about our relationship this first year of marriage. I'm more in love with him now than I was a year ago. I am so appreciative of all that he does for us.

A few of these photos you may have seen on my Instagram but many of them I have not shared with you yet….I know this is Photo Overload but I wanted them all in this one space to remember forever. Here's a little music to get you through them anyhow. ;)