NEW THINGS!

I'm sitting here in a quiet napping house in SHORTS! Spring is Springing! Birds are chirping! Life is full of so many simple pleasures.

I've been particularly blessed lately. There are a lot of new things happening in my world.

Some of them are small, like my NEW HAIR!!!!!

I've been dying for highlights since I got rid of my last ones... 3 years ago.

These little beauties showed up just in time for Carly's wedding in MAY (its getting close!!).

Moving right along...

Who remembers that awful dream they once had when they came over to my house, and we were all having a really nice time, and then all of a sudden you had to use the restroom, and you walked in, and all you saw was this VOMITING GREEN MONSTROSITY glaring back at you?!

(The vomit part is the paint... not the Tyson. Not that I needed to clarify... ahem.)

Yah.

I had the same dream. Every day since I painted my bathroom right after we moved in almost 5 years ago.

But, then I did a little homework and went to a few home-improvement-projects-gone-bad group therapy sessions, and suddenly the dream is looking a lot more peaceful.

HUGE shout-out to my Dad for the use of his wonderland of supplies and tools from his shop and his handyman tips on demand, my father-in-law for giving up a Saturday to re-plumb my bathtub to fit the swanky new (high maintenence!) fixtures we had to have,

and of COURSE the star of the show, TYSON...

The man manages to pick up overtime, help in Dawson's classroom, be the carpool guy for 2 different school schedules, and still make time to learn how to lay tile all by himself while I run a daycare under his nose as he does it.

There is nothing this guy is afraid to try, I love my new bathroom and my good 'old' husband. ;)

Also in recent headlines, I am now officially broadcasting from the mature perspective of TWENTY EIGHT YEARS OLD!!!!


Happy Birthday, ME! ;) I've learned to embrace these age advancing occasions in my "Camelot" years of life.

I enjoyed a a pre-celebratory bday feast with Tyson's family the night before that included wine, cake, and PEEPS! Then, after a good night's sleep, went to coffee with my parents followed by a Home Depot run to pick out a new screen door my personal fixit man (holla, DAD!!) is slaving away to install for me, and came home to an AMAZING lunch that my girlfriends made me.

There were flowers, sandwiches that are so good I cant talk about them or I will cry because they are all GONE, LOTS of kids I happen to adore running wild everywhere just the way kids should, and then, later that evening, I got the pleasure of being in the company of both brothers (and mom!) on my day.

I don't know what more I could have wished for... except then, I got this:


Bethany's mother-in-law is an artist, and she doesn't even know my family, but a few months ago Bethany mentioned that she had a recent masterpiece that looked JUST like Anabelle and I at the beach. She texted me a pic, and I fell in love with it. I mentioned it to Ty and he remembered! I love it so much I feel like no room in my house is good enough of a spot to hang it! I have so many good people and good things going in my life... I don't even mind that I'm getting any older. Yet. ;)

ARE YOU STILL WITH ME!?

If you are... good.

Two more new things.

My son is getting old. He is six now, you know, and he popped out of bed the other morning while I was at the gym (that means it was before 7am!), got himself dressed head to toe including jacket and shoes and socks, and then packed his own lunch...


Apparently he prefers his sandwich with a cheese stick chopped to smithereens and light on the meat, heavy on the pickles. No mayo. It was so so cute and such a milestone since mornings can be quite a shenanigan around here. He was completely ready to head out the door by the time I got home at 7am.

That entire day was quite a mommy love fest evidently, because after dinner he suspiciously kept asking if I needed to go potty. I didn't think it was all that strange because Ive been known to ask them frequently if they 'need to go' if I see them being antsy.

But when nature finally did call... I discovered why he was so anxiously waiting for this occurrence...


Oh yes he DID write me love notes on the roll of toilet paper. And oh yes it DID bleed thru several layers. I was laughing SO HARD at the thought of wiping with purple marker soaked TP I almost had an accident. For reals. You KNOW someone loves you when they proclaim it from the seat of their throne!

Ahh, Dawsie. I love you, too.

And last but not least by ANY measure.... speaking of love... if you made it to the end of this long catch up blog, then here, oh good and faithful reader, is your reward...

Something that has never happened to me before is about to happen.

Something amazing and wonderful and surprising and emotional... something I've looked forward to forever but never expected to be blessed with so soon.

My (extended) family is growing.

KJ and Jessica are making me an AUNTIE for the very first time, and I have tears of joy in my eyes as I type the words.

My brother and I are 6 years apart, which is a big age difference, but I believe it made us close for the reason that I remember all of his life.

I remember being an only child, being lonely in that role, and wanting a sibling so much.

I remember the ultrasound that the Dr squirted jelly all over my mom's tummy at, finding out it was a brother, being disappointed until I found out my best gal pal at the time was also having a brother and we started a "baby brother club."

I remember the hospital tour, the 'big sibling class,' then day my Grandmom showed up to pick me up early from Kindergarten because my Kenneth Joseph was on his way into the world.

I remember being so confused about why he wasn't instantly mine to take to the park and play Barbies with, changing his diapers, blowing raspberries on his tummy till he was belly laughing so hard he was pink in the face, watching him scoot across the hard floor of our house on his little red firetruck toy.

I remember his big baby fine blondie curls and his very first haircut, his first day of preschool.

I remember when he fell off the monkey bars and scared us half to death, the time he almost poked his eye out with a stick, and the time he shoved the rock up his nose that warranted a trip to the ER.

The school plays, the lego fettish, the birthday parties...

Theres just so much about this baby boy that I adored from the moment I laid eyes on him, and I just can't believe he's grown into a kind, strong, capable man who set sights on such a lovely girl for our family to love, and here I get to have the joy of watching him grow his very own miracle to enjoy.

I hope he loves his baby experience as much as I loved having his babyhood a part of my life.

(But I already know he will, and then some).

YOU GUYS WILL BE THE BEST PARENTS, and one thousand congratulations.

Look out, world!

Harkness is about to get a whole new generation.

(And I am about to spoil it rotten).

xo