It was October break this week here in Phoenix, which means school was out and my main day care was closed! Which I’m A-OK with!! I immediately planned two days where I could be home with Jace and on Monday I captured almost every hour of our wonderful day together. I felt like a stay-at-home-mommy and it was incredible. We made smoothies in the morning, baked muffins, went to the Chop Shop with Daddy for lunch, stopped in quick to Tempe Camera to drop my lens off, danced to the Beach Boys, got out the Halloween decorations, met Grandma for shaved ice and then ended our fabulous day with Sarah and James at Vertuccio Farms. I ran this kid ragged all day, and I think he only napped for like 25 minutes. I’m definitely finding out how important it is to have things planned with a toddler. They get bored easily and need to be engaged with something, almost constantly, ha. So I made sure we were out and about, eating and playing a lot. It was so nice to have time with little boy this past week. I still can’t get enough of him.
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Hello friends! The weekend is almost over. Noooooooooo! I don’t want it to end. What would life be like if we didn’t have jobs? And everything was free. (sigh) It was a long week for me, and a busy weekend. But all good though. There was actually, genuinely a lot of good and joy in this past week, and even just in the two days of the weekend. I really could call out a lot, like my birthday, or my barre and brunch date with a friend, talking about motherhood and life, or breakfast at my parents’ house, watching Jace play his new guitar, or simply hanging out at the house with my boys, dancing to the Beach Boys on Pandora. Plus, it was my birthday “weekend”, which involved a long over due pedicure, shopping and Italian food! Oh and we hit a new phase this weekend, too – Jace is now that size where he can push his own mini shopping cart at Trader Joe’s. It’s so ridiculously cute (see above)! He shops like mommy, too and puts everything he sees in the cart, haha. So without further ado, here is what brought me joy last week:
#1. A week night that involved Friends, apple pie and Tillamook’s Oregon Hazelnut & Salted Caramel ice-cream. Please pardon the paper plate.
#2. Limetown. I am so hooked on this podcast!! SOOOOO good!!!
#3 – Surprise birthday delivery from my sister. Sunflowers are so happy and bright. Love them. Thank you sister! XOXOXO
#4. My really birthday celebration last night with Rob. We ate at North (amazing kale salad and Bolognese) and then went to Chicago after, at the Phoenix Theatre. Incredible dinner. Incredible show!! Such a nice night with my man.
Happy Sunday friends. Ours is slowly coming to an end. Jace is already asleep and I’m trying to not dread the long week ahead. Today Jace and I went to the Sea Life aquarium in Tempe with our friends Sarah and James (and Anthony) … it’s really not that big of an aquarium, so thank God for the jungle gym after! And Jace made it out just in time before some little girl peed all over in it, hahahaha. In other news, Mr. Jace is our newest helper around the house. He throws his own diapers away, throws trash away, sweeps the floor, feeds the dogs, puts his dirty clothes in the hamper, stacks his books and even helps load the dishwasher (see above!). He is such a cool kid. Every day he wants to do something we do and usually does. I’m even starting to bring him in the kitchen more to help me mix and bake! Well, as you can probably guess, I’m here to share what brought me joy last week, and since Jace brings joy to my life basically every time I’m around him, I tried to get creative with the joyful moments I found in other parts of my every day:
1. A new planner from my boss. I just recently finished the 7 Habits of Highly Effective People and am now incredibly inspired to become more organized and proactive. I even wrote my very own mission statement. Perhaps I’ll share that sometime soon, once I finalize it.
2. Lunch at Federal Pizza with our ad agency.
3. Groceries. Food in my house is the best feeling!
4. Oh, and this new sweater I picked up at H&M today ..
The decision to move back to Arizona was a hard one. We both had good jobs in California. Good friends. Good landlords. Good weather. But family won us over in the end. So, we started making all of the arrangements to move, and soon the weekend came for Rob to go back to start his new job, and it was our last weekend in California together. So, for Valentine’s Day we went for a drive along the coast. We opened the moon roof, we put the Summer Mix CD in .. we took in the ocean air and California smells one last time together, and said goodbye. The ocean road took us to Big Sur for most of the day. We stopped at McWay Falls for an easy hike along the ocean. After, we stopped at Nepenthe to watch the sun set over the water. God must have known we were saying goodbye because he gave us the bluest sky that day. The air was warm, with a small chill around evening. Big Sur was busy with adventure seekers for the long holiday weekend, every hotel along the 1 was occupied. So many people outdoors, enjoying all the beauty California has to offer. The landscape so alive and green, on the verge of Spring. In case you can’t already tell, I’m going to desperately miss California and how gorgeous and grand it is. How green and fresh it is. The air, the jasmine, the grass, the fields of wildflowers, the trees that crawl the ocean cliff and the coastal oaks in Aptos, the sound of the waves. I’m going to miss the slow life and the sunsets. But most of all, I think I’m going to miss the life that we had begun to build. Right now it’s time to be close to family, but this life of mine isn’t over. So, California. I’ll be back. I promise you. And trust me, when I set my mind to something, it happens. Thank you God, and California for a wonderful 3 years of adventures to Tahoe, Sonoma, Napa, San Francisco, Half Moon Bay and more.
