All Dressed Up - A Wedding Weekend

This weekend started off bad enough - Chloe woke up sick Saturday morning. She was supposed to go to her father's for the night. Eric and I had a wedding to attend. Luckily, her sore belly passed quickly and she went to her father's. She had a fever for most of the day but woke up find on Sunday morning. 

 Eric and I rushed around showering, packing and getting ready Saturday, then drove an hour away to where the wedding would be. A friend of his got a ride with me. I felt a little sick for about an hour and I thought it would kill the day, but it passed. 

It was a cool, windy day, but when we got to the ceremony location (a park) it was perfectly warm and sunny. Weddings tend to make me teary. This one was no exception. 

We managed to take a couple of pictures - when we were getting ready at Eric's mom's, and then another picture outside before the wedding started. 

I bought a new dress for the wedding - it may have been the perfect dress for the weather. With the wind that day, any of my flowy dresses or skirts would've flashed the world. This one stayed in place. 

We drove around with a couple of his friends after the ceremony - we bought some chocolate milk and animal crackers like the children that we are. Afterwards we went back to his Mom's to charge our phones. The boys played pool while I read for 30 seconds before giving up and just watched, half falling asleep. 

Then we went to the dinner and dance. Fun was had by all. I can't wait for our wedding dance. 

On Sunday we woke up (after sleeping in!) to his mom making breakfast. So we ate then she took us to pick up our car. Then! We went to meet up with all my bridesmaids. We didn't get a picture of everyone, but one of my friends, Melanie, always takes a picture when she goes anywhere so we got one of 4/6 of us. 

We discussed bridesmaid dresses, suits and eventually took measurements for some of us. Eric left earlier and drove my sister back to town, and I stayed with two of the girls. We went to Giant Tiger, Starbucks, then drove home, getting Chloe along the way. We hung out at my place for a bit, had dinner at East Side Marios, then visited for a little while longer after Chloe was in bed. Overall, a great day and a great weekend. 

Now it's Monday - a holiday - but I'm back to work anyway. Luckily it's a slow day, but that also means it's going by slow. Eric's home with both girls, and I look forward to getting home and laying around all night before bed. 

The Mean Person I've Become

I don't know exactly when it was that things changed. I have no idea why. 

One day, I was a regular, normal person. I'd like to think I was nice enough. 

It seemed like it was all of a sudden that the changes happened. I was so irritable. It took almost nothing to set me off. I had so little patience with my children and boyfriend. To this day, I'm still left reeling, wondering what happened to the old, nicer me. 

I read a Letter of Apology to a husband from a wife that really hit home with me. These words the author spoke, I could've written them to my own boyfriend:

"I’m sorry that I act like it’s your job to read my mind. I’m sorry I make you feel like you can’t win for losing. I’m sorry I criticize the lunches you wake up early to pack for the kids as being “too snacky” and the outfits you dress them in as inappropriate for the weather."

Most of the time, the crazy gets out before I can stop it. Sadly, other times I know I'm being irrational but I just can't stop myself. 

My boyfriend is easily distracted. I think he's partially deaf. It takes him 3 times as long as me to complete the same simple task. Those things drive me crazy, and seem to affect so much of our daily life. 

But those things shouldn't matter. There's a bigger picture here. 

He bathes the girls by himself every bath night. He dresses, changes, and cooks for them, often without being asked. He hands over his paychecks without question, keeping very little for himself. He sits through episodes of Sex and the City and follows the plot. He lets me sleep in anytime I want. He gets the girls ready and takes them to daycare by himself when I don't feel great. He always does the dishes. He will happily join me in a cleaning marathon every now and then. He usually goes along with anything I want to do. He rarely complains when I turn down suggestions of things he wants to do. 

To sum up, he's pretty much amazing when it comes to everything. But the little things bug me. I need to get better at this. I don't want to be this mean person I've become. 

Vacation Long Weekend & Engagement Photos

[ Preview of our engagement/family photoshoot ]

This weekend was amazing. 

On Friday night, two of my best friends arrived, one of them with a 4 month old baby in tow that I was just getting to meet for the first time. Oh how I love babies. Friday night was a low-key night of chatting, eating Chinese food and hanging around home. We were all in bed before 11 o'clock. We're old folks now, folks. 

Saturday morning is when Eric and I left with the girls to get our pictures taken. Mom was awesome and met us at the photoshoot location to watch the girls when we took pictures of just us. I haven't seen all the pictures yet, but I love the preview ones. (I'll post more at the bottom) 

Mom took Chloe when the left the photoshoot, and we took Madi to be dropped off with Eric's Mom. 

Then we were childless. 

We had our dinner, bought some booze and headed home. Slowly, our friends all started to arrive. Drinks were poured, and the BBQ was fired up. BBQ'd burgers and potatoes are some of the best foods you can eat. 

Later on we even had some cake to celebrate "everything", aka my engagement, the birth of a baby 4 months ago, another friend's pregnancy (she's 26 weeks), the birthday that just passed of a friend. 

We had more drinks, played guitar outside on the deck, and played some cards. We were probably all in bed around midnight (old folks) but it was still an amazing night. 

We all had breakfast together Sunday, then got in our cars and went back to our hometown, where Eric and I met up with the girls again for a beach afternoon. When we were through with the beach, we went back to our (free) hotel room and went to the pool almost right away. Eric convinced me to go down the waterslide once (I'm not a big fan) and we went in the hot tub for a bit. 

We ordered some room service and watched Big Brother and ended up in bed at a decent time again. 

We had our breakfast in the morning then met up with Mom, our babies, and my nephew to go to a water park. The same one we took the nephew and Chloe to last year. Everyone had a blast. Madi is like a fish. She's not scared of the water at all, so I'm sure she drank half the pool. She was constantly losing her balance or just throwing herself in the water on purpose, and we'd have to pull her back up but she'd always be laughing. 

Chloe was obsessed with the waterslide, but she was only big enough for one of them. Mom helped me out by catching her at the bottom, and I'd run her back up to the top and send her down again. 

We were there for more than 5 hours. We had tons of snacks and and we were so thankful for the frozen water bottles Eric's Mom sent in a cooler with Madi. Apparently it was crazy hot yesterday, but we never felt it because of being in the water and shade constantly. 

Despite the sunscreen we all wore, Eric still got super burned. 

I could've stayed a lot longer, and the girls probably could've too but it was a long drive home. Madi slept most of the way, Chloe only slept for a little while. It was nice to get home. Today I'm back to work, and back to reality. But not for long, because I'm taking tomorrow off to spend it with friends again. 

Annnnd.. here's more engagement/family pictures. 

This is as romantic as it gets

This weekend was so insanely hot. I'm not really complaining. 

We moved our bedroom to the basement a few nights ago because it was just too hot in our room. I love our new bedroom. I think the bathroom (2nd floor) is a little too far away from the basement, but otherwise I'd consider staying down there for good. 

I had all day Saturday and Sunday to myself. It's been awhile. I wanted to clean up a bit, but it was just too hot for that. So I went to the mall. We have some extra money, which should go towards important things like our wedding and filling our oil tank for the winter, but since I've been struggling so much with stress and such, I said 'eff it'. I wasn't going to worry about money. If I really wanted/needed something, I was just going to buy it. So I got two super comfy tank tops (already wore them both), three new pairs of underwear, two bras, and some of Chloe's birthday supplies. I didn't buy anything extravagant and unnecessary, although I could've lived without the shirts and bras for now. I'm tired of worrying.

As I was hanging out alone all day, cleaning, shopping and watching some Sex and the City in the basement, I just really really wanted to be able to hang out with Eric. Alone, and outside of the house when it was nice out. 

Chloe was with her father, so I put up a hopeful Facebook status asking if anyone wanted to hang out with Madi for a couple of hours while she slept. I expected it would go ignored, but one of Eric's friends offered shortly after. I immediately texting Eric asking if that was weird, or would we be able to let him do it? Eric was okay with it, but we both thought the friend was joking until he private messaged me. 

He did end up coming over and babysitting. We were able to leave home around 8pm, and we were home by 10pm but it was one of my favorite nights out ever. 

We drove down to the beach and just walked. The water was so nice, so we walked in the water a little, then sat for a bit and just enjoyed it. Except the bugs were insane. That was a bit of a mood killer but oh well. 

I had a surprise bottle of pink champagne in my bag, and two of the girls little cups. I pulled out the cups and gave one to Eric - he had no idea what I had in the bag. We ended up walking and drinking champagne due to the bugs, but it was still nice. The constant itching, not so much. 

Most people don't believe that we have a nude beach around here, but we do. When you first walk into the beach, if you go to the right, it's family-friendly, if you walk a bit to the left, you might come across naked people. I'm a believer because I've seen these naked people. Eric is now a believer because someone left a message in the sand "<3 nude PEI". 

We told our babysitter we were on our way and went home. Which was when Eric spoke up and said we should've waited to tell him, and gone parking - something we've both never done. 

Romance is a rare thing in our relationship. Drinking cheap champagne out of children's cups while being attacked by bugs on a nude beach, talking about having sex in a car really is as romantic as it gets. 

The Story of How I Got Engaged.

If you're not following me on Instagram, then surprise! 

It happened on Sunday, June 9th. I'll never forget the date because later we laughed that it was the 9th day of the 6th month. 69. 

The day started off like many others - I was alone all day while Eric worked and the girls were with their other parents. Chloe came home early, and since Eric had the car, he decided to leave work early so we could do something with the girls. Our first plan didn't work out, so we went to the park. Since it had rained all day Saturday, the park wasn't fit for playing so we pushed them on the swings and then went home. 

But while we were at the park, he asked if he could take the car for a little while later. He wanted to pick something up. He was being very vague and annoying (as usual) as to what or who he was picking up, and said it would benefit at least 2 out of the 4 of us. 

Um, what? 

Naturally, I thought he was picking us up food of some sort. 

I was especially thrown off, because he gave me the option of him going right after supper, or him going after the girls went to bed. All major stores are closed at 5pm. He said if I tried to talk him into going later, he would've just gotten flowers and got the ring the next day or something. 

His drive was very quick. When he came back, he was sneaky and went upstairs, telling me not to follow. He came back down, and few minutes later went back up.  This time, I had to change my shirt for some reason so I went up. I didn't really look at what he was doing, but he was in front of our safe. That was when it first crossed my mind that he might have a ring. But then I figured that probably wasn't it. 

We put the girls to bed and I headed to the couch and played Candy Crush. (So addicting) He wanted to get my attention away from the phone so he called me into the kitchen to find a snack. Finally, I went in. He started being all weird. Asking me "How much do you love me...Would you love me if..." and so on. For the first minute or so I thought he was just being his weird self. Eventually he got down on one knee and popped the actual question, pulling a ring out of his pocket. 

And I couldn't believe it. My first response was probably "Are you serious?" and eventually I was like "Yes...?" I was just dumbfounded. And that's how it happened. We spent the next little while laying on the couch together talking and looking at the ring. Eventually we called his mom, and later mine. I still didn't believe it was real. But that's how it happened. 

And now I'm engaged.