Life.

 

I feel like every other blog post of mine is an explanation of where I've been. But things are pretty crazy in my life right now. If you follow me on Twitter, you may have seen that my dad had to have surgery. He's been seeing a cardiologist for a little while who told him that he'd have to have open heart surgery in the next few years, then it turned into the next few weeks, and then he went for a test on Wednesday and they wouldn't let him leave. He had a triple bypass and aortic valve replacement surgery on Thursday. It's been tough, and I've spent a lot of time at the hospital, but he's doing great! I haven't had too much time or energy to wear my blogger hat, but I'm hoping to get back into the swing of things soon :) Thank you all for bearing with me! And thank you for all your good vibes and kind words, it's all meant so much to me.

These days...

 

Sweater: Target (men's clearance section)

Pants: Thrifted

Slippers: Target

Gross hair: c/o not showering

Hoooooly crap, you guys. Packing is kicking my butt. I sort of forgot how terrible the whole process is, I haven't moved in two years and the last time we packed up our stuff we were living in a teeny tiny little apartment in college. But now we've accumulated tons of stuff that we have to deal with, and it's really overwhelming. I was thinking this move would be simple, easy peasy, since we're just going down the street, but I was totally wrong! 

We had the day off on Monday and it was one of those days where I stayed in bed for half an hour after I woke up, had my coffee on the couch, and couldn't be bothered to shower. Gross, I know, but some days ya just gotta slum it. We ran errands and donated a bunch of stuff to Goodwill, so if you want my old crap check out the one in Vernon Hills, ha! We had dinner with Chris's dad and stepmom, and then came back to veg out on the couch. I feel pretty useless these days, but I'm excited that we're getting closer to moving and getting back into the swing of things! I hope you're all doing well, and wish us luck with the tail end of our move :)

Summertime...

I know it's technically spring right now, and not even very far into spring, but it really feels like it's summer here. The weather here has been in the mid 70s to mid 80s for the last couple weeks, and it feels like we skipped spring and went straight from winter to mid-July. I'm sure this nutso weather will come back and bite me in the booty eventually, but I'm really loving it right now. Except for when I'm working, because then it means we're crazy busy, and that's not my favorite.

Chris and I went down to the lake in our neighborhood the other day to toss around a football and play in the sand. It was so nice to take some time to just hang out, without errands or distractions. We were just having fun in the gorgeous weather with a lovely background. Of course, that was after we spent the morning running around doing errands! I feel like we did the most suburban and adult thing we've ever done... we joined Costco! Is that even the right term?! Well whatever, we signed up for Costco, we are now card-carrying Costcoites. We're pretty into it, though all we bought the first trip was a huge assorted danish tray and grapes the size of apples. And then Chris went back a second time, for milk and a hot dog. Ha! We're seriously into it, like we want to just go there and explore. But I know we'd just buy 10lb bags of Twizzlers and 300 pens or something :)

The time I almost lost $160.

The other day Chris and I were out grocery shopping when I got a phone call from my dad. He told me about a letter he got from the state about toll violations made in my car. The letter said I owed $83 for going through the toll without paying. I have an I-Pass (which is Illinois' version of the EZ-Pass), and I knew I had recently gotten an email saying my balance was low, but I hadn't actually looked at the balance on it. I told him I'd look into it when I got home, he gave me a number to call and that was that.

I went home, found the email, spent ten minutes trying to remember my login id and password, and finally saw that my balance was $0.29. I was able to see the violation notice, and the other violation notice that they hadn't even had time to send yet. $167. That's how much the state said I owed. I was freaking out. I'm broke, I don't have $167 to spend on stupid toll violations. I tried calling the number from the letter, but I was on hold for too long and I was getting really bummed out. I came really close to paying online, but it's a good thing I didn't!

I called the number, got through to a very nice man named Justin, who told me that since I had a valid I-Pass my fee was only $7. I was honestly ready to jump up and down out of pure happiness. I came so close to just paying the $167, because I hate talking on the phone, but I put on my big girl pants and called, and that's how I saved myself $160. Best phone call EVER!

PS: The Bamboo Tablet Giveaway winner has been contacted, congratulations comment #273, Brandy!! Thanks to everyone who entered!!

Promises.

That I will breathe easier.

That I will refrain from speaking ill of others.

That I won't sweat the small stuff.

That I will comment on blogs more.

That I will remember to love even if it seems hard.

That I will be gracious.

That I will take more pictures.

That I will be proud of myself and the things I have accomplished.

That I will appreciate the time I have.

That I will allow myself to get upset.

That when I get upset, I will move on and focus on happiness.

That I will be present. 

Do you have any promises you want to make to yourself?

Prairie Ruffles.

Chris and I both had Monday and Tuesday off this week, and we really had a great time together. Our schedules will both be the same week to week, so we'll have every Monday and Tuesday to spend together. I'm really excited that we'll have a nice little "weekend", we'll be able to get stuff done but also have time to enjoy each others' company! Monday was a really relaxed, fun day. We ran by a thrift store near my work because I'd seen the prettiest pair of Seychelles in the window (like these but gold). I couldn't tell if they were vintage or not, but I wanted to run back and see if they were my size and worth buying. Well, they WERE my size, but not vintage. That's perfectly fine with me, because I got a brand new pair of gorgeous $100 platforms for $7! So lucky. Then we went off to our favorite restaurant, Sushi Station, and gorged on really good sushi. When we got home we wanted to play outside because the weather was so nice, so we went down to the park down the street and threw around a football for a while. We played tetherball for the first time, too, but quickly ended that after *someone* whipped the ball and hit me in the face! (Don't worry, I'm ok!). We went home, hung around for a bit (I napped on the couch), and then headed off to the movies! We don't go to the theater very often, the last time we went was to see Toy Story 3 with my little brother last summer! We've been saving all our spare change in a jar, though, and we set a goal amount and a fun thing to use the money for. We emptied it before our Wilmington trip, and since then we'd saved up about $30. Our goal was to get to $30 and go to the movies, so we turned in our change and headed off! I picked the movie "Bridesmaids", and surprisingly Chris was up for it. It was seriously SO FUNNY! I laughed so hard I choked on a Twizzler at one point :/ Like, thought I needed the Heimlich kinda choking. I worked it out though :) We got out of the movie and stopped at our favorite local bar for a few drinks and rounds of darts. I kicked his butt the first time, but he beat me the second. We went home and planned out our errands for Tuesday.

Monday was our day for fun stuff, and Tuesday was a day for getting stuff done. Chris ran errands early in the morning and let me sleep in (way in, I woke up at ten and fell back asleep til 11:30!). He cooked lunch (grilled chicken, smashed potatoes, and corn), and then we wrote out our grocery list. We went to Target and I got a whole bunch of fun stuff (like a cute new notebook to keep in my purse for blog and etsy ideas!). Then on to Trader Joe's for a few more things. We stayed in for the night, and I got some laundry and crocheting done. All in all, a good little faux-weekend!

I wore this outfit out on Tuesday, and I really wasn't feeling it until I saw the photos. I felt very Laura Ingalls Wilder in it, but it grew on me. The dress was $10 or so on sale at Target, the cardigan is from H&M (also on sale), tights from Walmart, boots vintage.

I finally narrowed down what date I'll be having my birthday party! My birthday is June 16th, but I can't get the weekend before or after off of work, so I'm going to have my party on June 25th! We're hoping to have some of our closest friends out for a barbecue on our back deck. I'm excited, I haven't had a birthday party in far too long!

Check back soon for a new Connections post, and I'll be doing something fun in the days leading up to my birthday that I think you might enjoy!

I hope you're having a beautiful day (just like you!!).

Moving...

[source, original]

Our lease is up at our current house at the end of April, and we're currently looking for a new little house to move into. The house we're in now is nearly perfect, except there's an attached apartment and the woman that's lived there since we moved in has been truly horrible. She's gone through our garbage, come into our house (uninvited, mind you) to yell at Chris (for no reason, mind you!), and made ridiculous demands and unfounded complaints to our landlords since the day we moved in. She's just an awful woman. Our landlords have been less than stellar in dealing with her, and we're fed up. We want to stay in the little town we're in now, and the past couple months we thought it'd be easy to find a new place. Last summer there were about six places in our neighborhood alone for rent. But now that we're getting close to the end I'm having a really hard time finding something that meets our needs and that's in our price range. I'm getting pretty discouraged! There's one little house that seems perfect, but the listing has disappeared from the site we found it on. I drove by tonight and the sign was still up in the yard, so I'll be calling tomorrow to see if it's still available. I really hope it is, because it's the best of the options we've found so far! The idea of moving, even though it's more than a month away, is totally stressful to me. I'm already feeling anxious about it. I'm a total worrier, I work myself up over 'what-ifs' and 'maybes', and thankfully I have Chris to keep me grounded, but it's hard to be calm about this kinda thing!

Do you have any tips for finding rentals? Any moving tips in general?

Valentine's Day

I'm not the kind of girl that needs flowers and candy and a fancy dinner on Valentine's Day. I'm more in the "it's just another day" group. But I had the day off, and I really wanted to spend some quality time with Chris and do something special (and inexpensive). We planned on running a few quick errands and then heading off to an antique mall not too far from our house, and then getting a bubble tea before heading home where I would cook Chris his favorite dinner (chicken and dumplings!). Of course, nothing went as planned!

I'd been having issues with my car for the last week and a half. I knew I needed an oil change, and last week my car started smoking and the oil light came on. I needed to wait until I got paid to get one, so for a week Chris drove me to and from work or let me borrow his car. I got my oil change last Thursday, and they told me that I had a small coolant leak but that it wasn't serious and I could get it fixed the next time I went to a mechanic. I drove home fine, but later when I was on my way to work I got to the end of my street and my car stalled. It wouldn't start again, so Chris had to push me home (poor boy!). It was super super cold last week, so I thought that maybe since my car sat for the better part of a week it just needed some time to warm up. My dad recommended some winter stuff to add to the gas tank, so I did that on Valentine's day before we started our errands, and everything was working fine. We drove around for about an hour, and instead of going to the antique mall we ended up going home to relax for a while. We went out a couple hours later to get our bubble tea, and we got about halfway there when the oil light came on, as well as the engine temperature light. We were in the middle of nowhere, so we kept driving the direction we were going, and made it a few miles before we noticed a burning smell. We pulled off into a gas station and Chris checked the oil level, but everything was fine. Luckily, the gas station was in the same strip mall as a Meineke, so we got over there to have them check it out. Apparently, the coolant leak that the other guys said wasn't a big deal was, in fact, a HUGE FREAKING DEAL! My car had almost no coolant in it, and was really close to overheating. We got there right before they closed, so we had to leave my car and find a ride home. Chris's dad came and picked us up, and when we were halfway home I realized I forgot to take my house key with me! Luckily (again!) Chris's dad had a spare and we were able to get in. I waiting until the next morning to hear back from the mechanic, and they told me they had to replace some hose and flush the coolant. They also told me that I need to get my timing belt replaced, which is another huge expensive thing... I'm sure you were just glued to your seat reading all the details about my car trouble, but it's just been so frustrating and kind of unbelievable that I had to get it out! I've seriously driven my little yellow Bug for years without having to do anything but get an oil change and check the tires, but now all of a sudden there's a whole bunch of crap going wrong!

So sitting around at the mechanic's was a great way to spend Valentine's Day :) We never did get that bubble tea. When we got home I was so bummed that I wasn't in the mood to cook, so Chris made me a sweet Valentine's-themed peanut butter and jelly sandwhich, and we watched a movie on the couch and cuddled. We did end up baking chocolate chip cookies together before heading off to bed.

Despite all the trouble and expensive car stuff, I had a really good day with Chris. It just goes to show you that no matter what happens, if you've got your best friend by your side things will always be alright.

How was your Valentine's Day?

The last few days...

... have been really trying. Do you ever feel like you're being tested? I don't believe in God, but I do feel like the universe or something is testing me to see how much I can handle. Last week it was Jeans going to the vet, and this week it's been car trouble. Lots and lots of car trouble (which isn't over yet). Because of all the added stress and expense, Chris and I have been on edge, and unfortunately when you're as close as we are, we can take it out on the other person even when they don't deserve it. We've been working through it, though, and still manage to have a smile on our face! It's laughable, now, how much has gone wrong in the last few weeks, we're kind of sitting here just waiting for something else to happen! When it does, we'll just laugh and say "Of course!", because that's the kind of month it's been.

Anyway, enough of that. I had last Saturday off, and Chris and I planned a day of running errands. Our big one for the day was a trip to the grocery store (aka Target). We've been eating really terribly recently (ok, forever), and we really want to start a better routine. Because I work so late (I usually get home after 10 pm, and soon it'll be even later), we don't often cook dinner. So most nights I'd pick something up on the drive home, and it started to get really gross and REALLY expensive. We bought tons of groceries and have done really well with eating at home. Usually we'll eat lunch together, and Chris will pack me a sandwich for while I'm at work, and then he'll cook a meal for when I get home. It's a weird schedule, but it works for us! We may not cook super healthy meals all the time, but it's healthier for us in that we're saving money, being a little more adult about what we put into our bodies, and spending quality time at the dinner table together.

I brought this dress out of timeout for our outing on Saturday. I really really love this dress, I got it from Modcloth about a year ago, but I also really really hate it. Shirtdresses are one of my favorite styles ever, and this one has so much potential, but the fit is pretty terrible. It has a band under the chest that is uncomfortable tight on me, and it's super short. It also makes me look pregnant, haha! I actually had someone ask when I was due the last time I wore it... :/ Oh well. I've tried to make it work before, but it's just so uncomfortable that I put it in timeout until I was willing to give it another shot. To be honest, when I wore it the other day I didn't even snap the super tight part, hence the big belt! I safety pinned it shut and threw on a wide belt to cover the gap, and it was only just bearable. That might be a cheap fix for it, but it worked well enough for me!

Dress: Modcloth
Jeans/Cardi/Boots/Belt: Target (too much?? haha)

I really wanted you to be able to see what my new hair color looks like, but it's hard to capture and it's already faded like whoa! It started out a pretty violet red, but now it's just sorta brownish red. It's not a terrible color for it to fade to, so I'm alright with it. I didn't realize how dark my ends still are! They're pretty much black, but I like how it looks :)

I'll be back soon with a recap of our Valentine's fiasco! I hope you're having a wonderful day.

Photo Dump!

Things have been a little weird this past week, not necessarily in a bad way, but my routine was definitely out of whack and I was totally thrown off because of it. I'm sure you heard about the crazy blizzard that pretty much all of the Midwest experienced in the middle of the week. We were hit pretty darn hard late Tuesday and into Wednesday. The snow is just crazy bananas, our entire back patio set is covered! The weather was intense on Tuesday, crazy winds and just tons and tons of snow falling. Wednesday we woke up early to clear and sunny skies, and the aftermath of the previous night's storm. Clearing out our driveway was just a blast!! Just kidding, it was terrible. Luckily Chris's dad had just gotten a snow blower, and our landlord had one too. We got it cleared, and went in to chill out for a while, only to have to come back out and redo everything because the plows came through! UGH!! It's pretty much cleared now, though the roads in the area are missing lanes and have huge drifts built up on the corners. Here's some photos of our fun day of snow removal...

Because of the blizzard, my work closed early on Tuesday night and stayed closed until Thursday. My usual days off are Mondays and Thursdays, so I had Monday through Thursday off, and I was going stir crazy! All the stores in the area were closed, so all the fun crafty things I've been wanting to do but haven't had time for weren't even options because I couldn't get supplies! Our cable and internet was out, too, so Chris and I played Boggle and Uno for wayyyy too long!

Things finally opened up Thursday, so we ran out to get some groceries and some crafty supplies. We were gone for a few hours, and when we got back we noticed that Jeans had something crazy going on with his eyes.

(see his pupils??)

We were pretty freaked out because it just looks so weird, but we were thoroughly scared when we googled what it could possibly be. Basically, the majority of the websites we looked at said that a difference in pupil size could be a symptom of a whole mess of terrible things, like spinal damage, brain swelling, eye cancer, glaucoma... The list went on and on, and we were scared. We made him a vet appointment the next morning, and after a really great experience with the doctor (apparently he was really well behaved and the vet loved him, and his name!!), we found out it was just a gnarly scratch on the eye with the dilated pupil. That was a huge relief, I was so nervous it was going to be something worse!

While Chris was at the vet with Jeans, I was getting my hair done for the first time in way too long. My wonderful dad had gotten me a gift certificate for my favorite salon in my hometown for my Christmas gift, and I finally got around to making an appointment with my favorite stylist. I felt guilty for being at the salon while Jeans was at the vet, but I'm such a worrier I would have been a complete mess if I went with them.

I decided to change it up this time around, so I had my hair lightened and then dyed a deep red-violet color. It's much more red in person, but not crazy bright. I also got my bangs cut! I've seen so many ladies with pretty straight-across bangs lately, I just had to try! They're taking some getting used to, but I'm in love.


I finally reached a midway point on my ears! I got to 5/8" today, with my ultimate (and final) goal being 3/4". I'm super excited because I have two super adorable pairs of 3/4" plugs to wear! I'm so impatient!

Here's a sneak peek of the crafty things I've been up to.


I wanted to make our bedroom a little nicer looking in the hopes that a well decorated room would mean I kept it cleaner... We'll see how that goes! I made these paper decorations (and quite a few more) to hang above our bed, but I'm having the darndest time hanging them right! I want them to lay flat against the wall, but they keep tipping forward. I'm going to try stronger tape and maybe floral wire to rig something up!

Phew! That was a lot. I also want to mention that if you're interested in buying something from my shop, I will be putting it in vacation mode for about two weeks at the end of February. I need some time to work on new designs, plus we'll be going on our super fun roadtrip with Kaelah and Mike in March!! I'll announce a date for the vacation mode in the next week or two.

I hope you're having a wonderful night!

A house for Mr. Littlejeans

I've been feeling awful the last few days, and I'm pretty sure I'm coming down with a cold. I woke up Monday morning with a sore throat and it's still here today. Thankfully it hasn't gotten any worse! I'm all hopped up on cold medicine, so if I sound incoherent please forgive me! Seriously, I've taken this medicine dozens of times before, but this time around it makes me so loopy! So the fact that I feel so gross coupled with the piles of new snow we get every night makes for lots of time snuggling on the couch in pajamas (which also means no outfit posts or adventures for us to document). Here's a silly post for you instead!

I had a random box laying around for a while that I thought I'd need to ship a big Etsy order, but I was able to use a smaller box instead. I I had taped together the bottom flaps, and then sorta just left it by my 'shipping station' (aka our kitchen peninsula counter). Mr. Littlejeans had been having fun hopping in and out of it, but then Chris had a stroke of genius and transformed a regular cardboard box into a little home for Jeans! Surprisingly, Jeans loves it, and actually hangs out in it a lot. He keeps putting his toys in it, and his favorite part is sticking his arms out through the windows!

(Jeansy hulk-smashed this window!)

Chris and Jeans are already talking about additions... I'll keep you updated on the renovations :)

Regional Dialect- This is how we talk!

I've been hearing about this video meme for a while now, and after I saw Kaelah and Mike's I was able to convince Chris that we needed to make one. I think this is the first video I've posted with me in it, which is kinda weird, but now you guys know what I sound like! Don't mind my ratty hair, I thought about redoing the video because of it but then we'd lose our funny reactions and banter... So here it is! If you make one you should link me to it! I love love love having a voice to put to a face (or blog).

*EDIT* Chris and I have lived in the northwest suburbs of Chicago (fairly close to the Wisconsin border) for our whole lives, except for the few years we both lived in central Illinois during college. And Chris is tickled that you guys find him so funny! I think he's hilarious :)

Four years.

Chris and I are celebrating our fourth anniversary today. It's a weird thing, this anniversary (well, all our anniversaries), because I can't remember what life was like without Chris, like we've been together forever, but it also feels so new and fun and fresh that it's hard to imagine that it's been as long as it has. And in actuality, we just recently celebrated seven years of knowing each other, so our history goes back even further (if you want, you can read up about our story here, it's an interesting one!!).

Four years is a pretty long time, especially since neither of us had been in a long-term relationship before. I thought I'd share some of the things I've learned over these past years, because hey, I like making lists, and maybe some of you can benefit from my infinite wisdom :P

1. Your significant other should be your best friend, but they should also be your lover. This is something I struggle with frequently, because Chris and I are so close and we truly are best friends, sometimes it's hard to switch from friend mode to boyfriend mode. After a while you learn to adjust and you find a happy medium, but I will always say that your partner should be both your best friend and the love of your life. I have never felt as close to someone as I have with Chris, and I didn't even know it was possible, but it comes so naturally and effortlessly that most of the time I don't even acknowledge it. We can horse around just as easily as we can cuddle, and I think that's so important! Being in a relationship with someone who knows you better than you know yourself is something you won't understand until you've experienced, but it's one of the coolest things I've ever been through.

2. Some things that you desperately want to change in the other person just WILL NOT CHANGE! Chris and I are going into our third year of living together, and I'm pretty easygoing about the state of the house. I'm not a tidy person by any means, so I don't really have room to judge Chris, but there's one thing he does that just drives me BANANAS! For whatever reason, he cannot remember to hang up his towels after he takes a shower. He'll leave them on the floor in the bedroom, or on the bed, and it's the most frustrating thing to me! I used to nag at him constantly, but I've realized that there's some things that just won't change. I can't force him to change this aspect of his behavior, or any of the other things, big or small, that make me crazy. What I can do, however, is change MY behavior. If I learn to change my reaction to whatever he does, things will go much more smoothly and I won't be angry or upset or frustrated as much. Why waste so much time being annoyed or mad at someone for something that you can't change (and really have no right to make them change), when YOU can be the one to change? After all, I love Chris for who he is, and he just happens to be someone who doesn't pick up his towels. In the grand scheme of things, when I'm on my deathbed, am I going to remember all the times he didn't pick up his towels??

3. Hard times can bring you together just as easily as they can push you apart. We've definitely had a hard time this year, especially since we moved back to our hometown from college. We've both had a hard time finding careers and figuring out what we want to be when we grow up. We've had to scale back our lifestyle and we've been very money conscious in the last few months. I've been more than happy to do that though, even if it can be stressful at times. And yeah, we fight about money, but what I've realized is that underneath the stress and the bickering, we've grown closer. It's kinda like war buddies or something, two people who go through something really hard together, and in the end they have this bond that no one else knows. Obviously Chris and I being broke is NOT the same as going to war or anything, but the bond that is forged between two people who support each other while they go through an unexpectedly rough patch in their lives is something I'd never experienced before. I know we won't be broke forever, but even if we are, we'll be broke together, and if we can get through today with a smile, there's no reason we can't do that for the rest of our lives. Our crappy financial situation has reaffirmed something else, which leads me to...

4. There is no fairytale. Anyone who tells you that things are all roses and sunshine between them and their significant other is a liar. Things WILL BE shitty sometimes. You will get more mad at your partner than you've ever been at anyone before. You will both say mean things. You will both want your space. You will both make the other person cry. But the thing is, you apologize and work through it and get over it, and at the end of it all, you still love that person so much it hurts. Real relationships take work, and sometimes you have to yell and cry to get things out, and if the other person is worth what you think they are, they'll still be there for you. Don't get me wrong, Chris and I have a wonderful relationship, and these angry or hurt moments are definitely few and far between, but it happens, and there's nothing wrong with it happening. It doesn't mean we aren't meant to be together, or that we don't love each other enough, or that we have a bad relationship, it just means that we're human, and we make mistakes sometimes.

I've reread my little list a few times now, and I feel like it sounds kinda dismal, but my intention was to share some real feelings and thoughts. So much of the blog world is 'tell them what you want them to know', and the real things get skipped over and everything seems perfect at all times. Chris has piped in and told me to write this: "It's like eating candy all the time, eventually you're gonna puke". Which is kinda true, if you constantly read about these glossy perfect lives that people are supposedly leading, you're going to look at yours and think you're doing something wrong. I do this ALL THE TIME, even though I'm so aware of this phenomenon, I still compare myself to other bloggers and come up feeling insufficient. My hope is that you can look at this list and know that you aren't alone in these things.

My other main point is to celebrate my relationship (which has maybe gotten overshadowed a bit... just maybe!!). Four years together is an awesome accomplishment, so high fives to us! I wanted to end this post with what I ended our "story" post with, because it's more true today than it has ever been, and I couldn't mean anything more that this...

We've definitely had our ups and downs, and things are hard sometimes, but I have found the love of my life- again. He is my best friend. I can be silly and goofy and dumb with him and we just have fun. He makes me laugh every day, and he makes me feel like the most loved person in the world. I think what we have is more than that though, we are so strongly tied to each other that I will never have to be afraid of anything for the rest of my life. We are a team, we are partners in crime, and we are soulmates.

I love you friend.

My love's birthday.

If you don't follow me on Twitter, you won't know that I've been obsessing over Chris's birthday (today!!) for the last week or two (sorry for those of you who have seen this stuff already!).

About a month ago I decided that I wanted to do something big for Chris's birthday. He's had a really tough year so far, and I know he's struggling with getting older. I thought about what to get for him for a while before I finally chose an iPod touch. I got my iPhone at the beginning of September, and he'd play with it every second he could. On top of that he filled up his old iPod and had to start deleting stuff from it to fit all his new music. I picked the 64g iPod touch 4th generation, and I knew it'd be the best gift he's ever gotten!

I tried to keep it a secret, and I did pretty good, even though he said this morning that he had a feeling that I got him one. I even bought sorta crappy gifts to throw him off:

The original plan was to give him this stuff (a slinky, dino sponge capsules, his fave candy, and a razor) when we woke up and make him wait the rest of the day for the iPod. I'm so so so terrible at surprises though! There were a handful of times throughout the week that I *almost* gave it to him, so I figured if I could make it to his actual birthday I was golden. I gave him the silly gifts, and once they were all opened I told him I forgot to put on in the bag. I handed him the wrapped iPod and recorded his hilarious reaction with the intention of sharing it with you guys, but he won't let me because he was in his pajamas!! I'll just say there was lots of spazzing out!

(He let me take this picture later. fyi- he's actually happy,
he just hates having his picture taken!)

We went to lunch at our favorite sushi place...

(These are the only ones I eat! In the interest of full disclosure,
I ate seven plates of this today...!)

We did a little shopping (for yarn!) before we came home and chilled out for a while. I was super tired (birthday boy woke me up at the crack of dawn... err, 8 am...), so I took a nap while he played with his new toy.

After I finally woke up we headed to Chris's mom's house for cake. We had no idea, but she'd invited a few of their family friends over, so there were quite a few people there to celebrate my man's birthday! We had lots of food, lots of laughs, a few beers, and made some nice memories.

(We'll eat the birthday cake I made him some other day.
It's Oreo and vanilla ice cream with fudge writing/border! I made it alllllll by myself!)

All in all he had a wonderful birthday. I know he wasn't expecting much, which made it so much more fun to do something big for him!

*Quick blog update* I've added a navigation bar at the top of my page with the help of a lovely girl, but I haven't gotten the pages filled in yet... But doesn't it look prettttty??