It's all about perspecitve...

Today's status:

Weight: ??? and probably a good thing...ate like a glutenous cow this weekend. 

Productive Activity: again...??? Hurrah for a Sunday!

Money spent: $15 - groceries for the week

Moments of being TRULY un-selfish: 1

Today is Sunday. Sunday = football according to J. I, being the PERFECT wife that I am, have allowed J to have full control of the TV on Sundays. (Which is starting to move into Mondays....) I honestly don't mind. I take Sundays to get things done I normally wouldn't do if I had a decent television distraction. I like the roar of the crowd in the background as I clean and such...feels like I've got a crowd of people rooting for me.

Well, normally if we are out of town for the weekend, we try to leave at a decent hour so we can get home, unpack, unwind, and get to bed at a reasonable hour. But today, my sweet and wonderful husband was super bummed about missing the Vikings/Packers game due to the drive home.......so I told him we should just stay until the game is over so he won't miss it.

I am SO NICE!

Honestly though...I wish I was un-selfish with him more often. He never EVER asks me for things...he didn't even actually ask to stay for the game tonight...just said he was bummed he was going to miss it. He is ALWAYS doing things for me...doing favors for me and bending over backwards to make me happy. I wish I was more like him...I wish I could do more things for him...I love him SO MUCH. 

...something for me to work on, I suppose! Won't mind that...always looking for more ways to make my man happy!! 

*smile*

Today is Sunday which also = exactly one week before I turn 27...and in a weird way I am just ecstatic to be 27. I know I know I KNOW...I'm NOT OLD yet. Every woman who is older than me will roll her eyes and say "Girl, PLEASE!" when I say "Oh my GOD I'm gonna be 27!!"...but move to my friends who are younger than me, and I get wide open eyes that do not roll. Maybe add in a "Wow....yeah....27...."

It's all about perspective, I say. Age is just a number. ATTITUDE - now that is something to talk about.

I was with the in-laws in the country all weekend - was fabulous! I really think I'm a country girl at heart. Don't get me wrong - I LOVE Chicago and especially our new neighborhood - but MAN do I miss the country sometimes. I miss the trees and the grass and the fresh air...we went to an apple orchard yesterday. When we got there I immediately felt like a little kid again - I was playing on the fake tractors, petting the goats and laughing at the donkey (a donkey!)...I even managed to jam my giant body into one of the "trains" in the playground...

...thank God I got out. Seriously.

...but I ENJOY the small things in life. Honest and for true I do - so while some may think I'm obnoxious, I think I'm just trying to keep and enjoy my youth. Remember how much FUN you had as a kid? The utter pleasure you would get out of Christmas morning...the first snow fall...a cup of hot chocolate with marshmallows in it...a hayride...why is it so hard as an adult to enjoy the things we used to? THAT is what life is made up of...the little things! The times with your friends and family! Yeah we all have bills and school and work and drama drama drama...but I have NO problem with going to play on the swing set. I hope to be doing so well into my late late years.

I was trying to explain (unsuccessfully) at dinner tonight with J's family about the odd pleasure I get out of other people's issues. It's hard to explain it without me sounding like a total ass...but I'm going to try...

...take for instance my morning commute. I get up every day about 6:30am...eat my breakfast and get dressed and pack my lunch and things for my day and I'm out the door by 7:30am. Maybe it's because I'm a new-found morning person...but I find my mornings QUITE entertaining.

I can guarantee that ANYONE who has lived in the city has experienced what I'm about to describe...

You're walking. To your destination. In my case, it is the brown line. So I'm walking...and I hear footsteps behind me...my new friend!...and the footsteps stay behind me pretty steadily...but uncomfortably close. I keep the SAME PACE the whole time...while my new friend is literally walking .0000001 mph faster than me. But for SOME REASON my friend finds it necessary to keep this "faster" pace, and the rest of your walk is spent with this person trying to get "ahead" of you to the train stop. 

WHY?!?!?!?!?!?

Why why WHY WHY did this even HAPPEN?? What satisfaction does my friend get by getting to the train stop just a teeeeeny tiiiiiiiiiny bit earlier than I? The last time this happened to me I gave my friend a BIG smile once we both reached the train platform - the race was over! I kept my pace and she kept hers... .0000001 mph faster than me...I had been beaten! My friend had THE. MOST. INTENSE look on her face - her race had clearly just begun...she'd find someone new to "beat" on her final way to work.

It cracks me up!!! Maybe I shouldn't laugh - obviously my friend took our race VERY seriously and will probably continue her day as such - but does it all have to be so SERIOUS? Ugh! Maybe I should feel bad for her...but I prefer laughter over sadness so I'll keep cracking up over these instances.

Like I said...it's all about perspective. Maybe next time I'll start running...will TOTALLY mess with her.

- Mrs. H

Balance

Today's status:

Weight: 155.8 (which I do NOT believe. There's no WAY I weighed the EXACT same yesterday morning, afternoon, evening, and the next day. Sorry...my scale is a liar today.)

Productive Activity: WORKED OUT!! 

Money spent: $14 worth every penny

A-HA moments in the past month: A billion. Or more like 15....probably somewhere in the middle

Going to eat Thai food by myself is one of my favorite things to do. I am a slow eater - I get it from my dad (we're "gourmets" he says) and I don't find it a flaw in myself. On the contrary...I think EVERYONE should eat slow. Do you know how much better food tastes when you actually chew it? Like CHEW it...not *chew *chew *swallow as J and my brother love to do...but chew and savor each and every bite.

J says I sound like a cow when I eat. Ha!!

I LOVE to eat...ask anyone who's close to me what one of my favorite things to do is, and I'm pretty sure they'll mention eating. I LOVE food - I love the way it smells, the way it tastes, the way I feel after I'm eating - food rocks my socks off. Thai is one of my favorites...and like I said, eating it alone is just way better. Don't get me wrong...I love grabbing a group of my girls and bottles of wine (or if my sweet SE is with us...a 40) and chatting it up over some ginger tofu (my fav!)...but going to eat it alone is top notch...

....did I just age myself 40 years by saying "top notch"?

...I think it's the plinky planky generic piano music that does it for me. The piano and the ambient "hummmm" sounds behind it...if you listen closely half of the time it's actually a recognizable tune. A Thai restaurant piano plinky planky version of some Britney Spears...Sting...old church hymns...it's all there! Today I heard, "Come, Christians Join to Sing."

...it's okay to laugh. I'm a preacher's daughter - add in a church music director for a mother and *BAM* you have the hymn-know-it-all-girl. Start humming a hymn and I'll rock the harmonies...and probably most of the verses too.

I went to a Thai place around the corner from where I work today. Was perfection. 

I have to say though...one of my LEAST favorite things in the world is when you eat something that you thought was going to taste one way...then it turns out to be something completely different. Case in point - I got a "mint" after my meal today. Oh, how excited was I to freshen my breath after my meal! 

Nope. Was strawberry-flavored.

Sad thing is, I LOVE strawberry-flavored stuff! But when I'm expecting peppermint and strawberry comes popping out...it's a true and utter disappointment.

J did that to me a couple weeks back. We were laying in bed watching tv and eating candy (yes...laying in bed eating candy....take it literally because that is literally what we were doing) and J says "open your mouth." I listen, and he pops what I think to be a jelly bean in my mouth...it was a rasinete!! This was way worse than my "mint" experience...at least with my "mint" I had the same texture. Rasinetes are 100% different than jelly beans...they really are.

My advice to anyone out there reading this...when someone says "open your mouth" just clench your jaw and snarl. You'll avoid any raisinete surprise...or worse....!

...moving along...

In ten days J and I will be married for 3 months. And it still has yet to hit me sometimes that we actually are married...sometimes I feel like I'm living in some sort of dream - floating in a bubble above these happy people living in their new apartment and one of these days the bubble will pop and I'll get back to reality.

J and I washed the dishes together a couple nights ago...and for some reason I found it to be the most romantic thing in the world. I felt married at that moment...and not because of the cliche' of doing the dishes or whatever...but I felt this wonderful calmness settle inside of me. It was quiet, we hadn't turned on the tv yet...and we didn't even really talk that much...(except when I would ruin the moment by pointing out J missed a spot on a bowl and he would roll his eyes and plop it back in the water)...but I just felt like I was home. I was HOME with my husband and we were washing the dishes together. Just a simple, yet fantastic moment for me.

I have to remember the simple moments...the quiet ones. The last time J and I visited Michigan we were able to get to church to hear my dad preach. Two awesome things happened that day:

1. I realized that was the first time J and I were in that church since our wedding day! Sent fabulous goosebumps all over me!

2. I realized again how amazing my dad is.

My dad talked that day about the quiet. That in the midst of life - the coming and going and tv shows and work and screaming kids and deadlines and fights and girls nights and parties and everything that comes along with life - that in the midst of all that we need to sit in the quiet and just...BE. It's really hard to do, actually...I like to call it "Me-time"...and in reality my Me-time is never actually quiet...like today at Thai with the plinky planky music...wasn't quiet...but I was quiet. That's something at least.

It was a great sermon that day. It was one of those that you don't realize any time had passed - and left you thinking. I think what really made that sermon great for me was that I knew he had barely written anything down. He was busy hanging out with the family - our visits to Michigan are getting shorter now that we both have to work - so my dad decided to "wing it" on Sunday morning...and it was awesome.

He makes me proud...SO PROUD to be his daughter.

And the thing that really blows my mind...in all my years of looking for my perfect guy...I end up finding a man SO similar to my dad.

Giving

Kind

Thoughtful

Generous

Selfless

Honest

Trustworthy

Quiet and introverted (SO opposite of me...)

FUNNY!

Smart

Loving

Humble

GOOD...they are good GOOD men. God-honoring, amazing men who put up with insane women like my mom and I. 

(I'm only allowed to say that because my mom says it too.... *smile*)

I wish I could explain to J sometimes how much he means to me...and how amazing and wonderful he is. I try to tell him all the time but he always says "Noooo," or says he doesn't believe me. But it's true. I absolutely could not have found a more perfect man...he's MY perfect...made to balance me out...my other half...my best friend.

Balance...now there's a word. If I could give ONE word to describe a way to lead a good life, it would probably be balance...

...or during certain times of the month...mint-chocolate-chip. (It's one word because of the hyphens...)

...but I think balance is key. I haven't allowed too much Me-time lately...what with work and moving and visitors and traveling...it's been hard to find quiet time for me. But I'll look more into that...I need more balance...more Me-time.

...and more exercise...more money...more time with friends and family...but we'll go there another day.

Balance. I need to find my life's balance. 

At least I found it in my hub!

*smile*

- Mrs. H