Anniversary

M and I celebrated our first anniversary on Sunday. It was fantastic.

I was pleasantly surprised by these Friday morning at work...

This made my day. I was pretty sick last week. It started with some annoying allergies the week before that conveniently turned into a sinus infection. Since I'm a workaholic, I refused to call off work. Instead I made an appointment at our company's wellness center, got a Z-Pack, and just kept on trucking. I was feeling pretty lousy Thursday and Friday, so these flowers from M definitely brightened my day!

We originally planned on going away for the weekend to celebrate our anniversary, but we've been kind of busy the past couple of months and never planned anything. So instead, we settled for dinner at Hyde Park Sunday evening.

Amazing. That pretty much sums it up. I have eaten there once before when a supplier took some procurement people out for dinner... but M had never been there. I'm not a big fan of steak, in fact, I'm a pretty picky eater (and M is even more picky than me, but LOVES steak), but I will eat steak at Hyde Park any day!!

After dinner, we went to our favorite local watering hole, toasted and talked about how quickly the year went.

Happy Anniversary, M. I made the best decision of my life when I married you... the peas to my carrots. Here's to many more. I love you always. Thank you for making me laugh every day.

Yes, I'm Still Alive

Wow... so it's been a while, huh?

Well, let's see. I started a new position back in June/July which has been keeping me busy. I was kind of thrown into it with not much training at all, so it's been interesting to say the least. But I'm loving every minute of it and I'm finally at a place in my career where I am saying... finally! I made it.

M & I went on vacation in July and met up with my parents. We were in the boondocks of West Virginia where we had no cell phone coverage. No complaints from me!! We spent the week riding on the Hatfield McCoy ATV trails and getting very dirty in the process. It was an absolute blast - I will have to upload a few pictures. In the evenings we just hung out by a bonfire or in our log cabin. I can't wait to do it again - hopefully next year.

My brother got married a few weeks ago and my new sister in law is pregnant. I have mixed feelings about all of this. But we'll just leave it at that.

I am absolutely loving the beginning of the season change. I love everything about Fall and I'm so excited about all of the fun things we have planned coming up soon. Oktoberfest next weekend... can't wait.

I cannot believe it's already been a year, but Sunday is M & I's first anniversary. Originally we were going to plan a weekend away, but we've made dinner reservations instead.

I hope you are all doing fantastic!

It's June Already?

So much has been going on...

I cannot believe we are already almost halfway through June. The past month has been busy! Since my promotion, things have not gone so smoothly. Management took a while to find a replacement for my current position... this person doesn't start until next Thursday, and even then, will only be working half days through the end of June. I feel like I'm in limbo. I'm still handling all of the responsibilities of my current position, and have been doing half of my new job, too. I feel like I haven't had enough time to devote to learning my new job and starting next week, I will be doing it full time. It's been stressful... but I welcome the changes and learning new things.

How about this weather? It's been crazy. It's either raining constantly, or miserably humid. Yuck. I can deal with hot, but I'm not a fan of humidity. So far it's looking like it will clear up a little for Sunday to make a pleasant day. M and I are thinking of making no plans and just waking up and going on a bike ride. Wherever we end up, we end up.

My skin has been ridiculous lately as far as breakouts go. This has always been an issue for me, but it has been bad lately. Any suggestions? I am going to be 28 in a few short weeks and feel like I'm still in high school with all of these zits! Gross, I know.

Has anyone seen the movie, The Rite? M and I watched this last weekend and I was surprised to see that it was based on true events. These kind of things (i.e. Exorcisms, ghosts, spirits, the Catholic church's involvement, etc...) fascinate me. Not really sure why.

We are going to see Kenny Chesney at Blossom on June 23rd. Cannot wait! M's friend also thinks he can get us VIP passes - yay for free alcohol! I love, love concerts at Blossom.

I look forward to everything slowing down a little in the near future and hopefully, that will mean more blogging.

Normal

Recently, a friend of mine made the comment that a child growing up with one parent is not a normal family household. I also read Tara's blog from yesterday about co-parent counseling. All of this really got me thinking... what is "normal"?

My parents divorced when I was three. I don't have any memories of the three of us together as a family. I do, however, remember how they used to fight ALL the time when my dad would pick me up/drop me off at my mom's every other weekend. This was normal to me.

I have four siblings. My dad was married both prior to my mom and is now remarried to my stepmom. Only one of my brothers is my "true" sibling (for lack of a better way of explaining it... because honestly, as far as I'm concerned, they are my brothers and sister, period. There is no half-brother/half-sister explaining going on. Most people don't know any different and I like it that way). I was the only kid in my Catholic school class who had divorced parents. I'm not saying all of this because I want sympathy. I'm saying it because this is my normal. It gets even more complicated and it's definitely not the traditional two parent family.

Sure, I have issues. In fact, before I met my husband, I was pretty certain I would be single forever because I would never find anyone patient enough to break down the walls I built so far up and move beyond my issues. I can only count on one hand the number of people I truly trust. I have major trust issues. I am way too independent for my own good. I have a hard time expressing my feelings and sometimes have problems with giving/receiving affection. It makes me uncomfortable. I'm more of a pessimist and usually believe that I will be let down at some point, so I prepare for it. These can all be connected to my childhood and a result of my parents divorce. I don't need to have a therapist tell me that. It's not news to me. I also don't blame my parents for divorcing or use that as an excuse for anything.

I recognize that these are things I will always have to work on. Yes, most people would consider my upbringing as "abnormal." But never once did I question my parents love for me. Overall, I think I turned out pretty good. Most importantly, I'm happy.

Normal has nothing to do with being happy.

Finally

It's official. I got a promotion. Finally. After being in my position for 3 years and taking on way more than my fair share of work... I got a promotion.

This came right in time. I was interviewing with a few other companies and actually took a half day vacation last Thursday morning to go on my second interview with one company in particular. When I came into work later, my boss pulled me in his office to offer me a higher position. Which also came with a pretty fantastic raise. I wanted to jump up and down and scream... "it's about freaking time you realize how fabulous I am..." or, you know, something along those lines. Then I was told I couldn't say anything to anyone about it until it was officially announced today. I have been feeling like I was going to burst!

Later that day I was offered the postion with the company I interviewed with earlier in the day. No, I'm not joking (who knew... Cinco de Mayo is my lucky day). Oddly, I felt really bad about turning the job down. No doubt, I would have taken it if this promotion didn't come along.

I still can't believe it. It's been a long time coming and I'm really excited to get started.