Time sure does Fly!

Seriously time has been going by so fast lately! Or maybe Ive just been to busy. Its been so nice to have yesterday and today off and spend it with Grace. I sure with the weather was nice though so we could go for walks outside. Life has been crazy but good. Love my little family even when its chaos! Here is a very long bulleted post. Hopefully next time I will actually have time to write a real post that isn't full of random things!

• Grace is 10 1/2 months old. How did this happen? She is going to be 1 next month! ahhhh. I have all the decorations for her birthday party. We are doing May flowers theme. Hopefully April showers don't stray into May! I found pretty much all of the stuff in the Target $1 bins and on clearance from Easter. God I love those bins!! Now I'm just waiting on my work to get the damn schedule out!!

• Grace is walking! She has been since the end of March, but she is really good now. She is very clumsy when tired though. Last night she fell and of course went head first into the end table. She scratched her nose up and it was even a little bloody inside. Poor baby. It doesn't help either that she has Ryan's "swelling disease." We don't actually know what else to call it but Ryan has it really bad. If anything touches him with any kind of force he instantly turns red and his skin swells up! Its very weird and interesting at the same time ha ha. Well we have noticed that Grace has a form of this too. She gets very red and swollen but I don't think its as bad as Ryan's. So usually when she falls it looks worse than it actually is!!

• She says Mama all the time. I think its her favorite word! She also says Dada, hi, bye, cat and gaa. I think that means Gunner; our cat. She also speaks and yells a lot of gibberish. Overall shes a pretty vocal girl.

• She just got her 8th tooth. 4 on top and 4 on the bottom. She likes to bite Ryan with them ha ha! I also think she is working on some molars :( The girl has some severe teething symptoms going on still.

• She loves her toys and books. She loves being read to and looking at the pages. She also lovesss animals. She loves our cat so much and usually flattens him to a pancake whenever he is around. She is obsessed with dogs. They are so funny to her but as soon as the come close she hides her face so that they wont lick her. She hates licks!

• Girl has a very stubborn personality! I don't know where she gets that from ;) She throws some major temper tantrums now! Its actually quite funny to see. Ryan and I never give back into her either we just see her throw her self back and snicker to ourselves. We try to let her figure things out on her own when shes doing a task. She cries when frustrated and then we help her. I want her to be independent with things and not rely on us for everything like many kids these days!

• Ive been working pretty much full time for the last month or so. It is so draining. I'm hoping that since we have hired 3 new people I can go back to my part time status. I really have been missing my daughter lately and work is always a shit show to say the least!

• I had my first girls night out (GNO) in a very long time! Oh my god was it needed!! My 3 very best friends from High School all were in town. We usually get together once a year. Alley, Danielle, Heather and I have all been friends since our freshman year or earlier! We have a great bond and its like we never left on when we get together! The first night of getting together for drinks usually end up into a crazy night! We are all so excited to see each other and it usually turns into lots of drinks and yelling at each other to speak ha ha. It was so nice to get out and have adult female interaction. It is also an added bonus that it was with these girls!

• Wedding planning is starting to come along. I have 485 days til August 16th! This may seem like along time to other, but at the rate of how fast this past year went by its not so long to me! We think we finally have a ceremony site figured out. I have to set up some meeting with cake makers and florists. I'm glad I have a leg up on this stuff because if i was doing it all at once I could see how stressful it really could be! I feel really good about everything right now. I like taking one item at a time and researching all my options and choosing the best one for us. I like to keep things cheap but get a great venue. Like cake for instance, were just going to eat it what is the point of getting this big dramatic 5 tiered cake for $3000? Personally I don't get it, but to each your own! I just want a simple inexpensive cake that tastes amazing. I have some local bakers that I'm very interested in. So we will see :)

So excited!!

My best friend is back in the USA!!!!! Allison Harlow has been in Norway for the past 8 months with her fiance Ryan. Ryan was playing professional hockey for a team in Norway and she was lucky enough to be able to join him. I haven't seen her since August. Even  though I will still not see her for a few more days I'm so happy that she is on US soil!

Alley and I have known each other since 6th grade. All though we were not fans of each other that first year in middle school! Arch rivals if you may. ha ha! 7th grade was a different story on the other hand. this began the year of us being inseparable. We had chore together and once we got over the rivalry we instantly hit it off. The first time we hung out we all went to dinner at 3 Amigos (Mexican) restaurant and went to "The Club". I say The Club with quotes because it was suppose to be a night club for underage kids. It was super lame to say the least!

Over the years we would be together every day and then go months without hanging out. We always talked every day at school though. We went down separate paths in High School. Alley became the outgoing cheerleader who was popular. I was more quiet and hung out with older kids and liked to party. Our senior year all of us kind of realized that we wouldn't see each other every day and started hanging out alot more. That summer came with a lot of drama but in the end she was my best friend.

End of August she went off to Michigan State University and I stayed at home and went to Northern Michigan University. Every holiday that she came home we made an effort to see each other even if it would only be an hour. Alley double majored at MSU and became a very talented interior designer. She moved to Chicago and lived there for a few years. She met Ryan while visiting her sister and brother in law in California and I'm pretty sure it was Love at first sight! She moved to Grand Rapids to be closer to him but still wasn't any closer to me. Both cities are about an 8 hour drive from Marquette. Than Ryan decided to go play hockey in Norway and her job said it was OK for her to work abroad! Lucky lady :) Long distance sucks for relationships! So this meant I got to have her home for a few weeks before she took off. This was the most we had seen each other in years and I cherished every minute of it that I could.

Alley recently started up her own business. A online interior design consultant company. I could not be more happy and proud of her. She is an incredibly talented designer. If you are in need of a fresh new look for any room you should check out her company: www.curiodesignstudio.com

Long story short I am beyond excited to finally see her!! I cant wait to go wedding dress shopping for her and just have girls time with her and catch up. Getting the text from her tonight saying USA! USA! instantly put the biggest smile on my face! Knowing that we can be apart for months on end and always go back to where things left off is not something you get with everyone. I feel lucky to know her and to be able to say she is my best friend!