Can I Get a Slow Clap, At Least?

A tired mama here. It has been a full evening of emotions. Laughs, tears and yelling. The twins had preschool today. I picked them up close to six. Needless to say the girls were hangry! I should have brought snacks but we are only eight to ten minutes away from school. Lesson learned for me. Right away a happy meal was one of their dinner requests. My threenagers are growing crazier and crazier. I try not to wish the days away but dang it’s been hard lately. Plus with all the other stressors in my life.

A thank you for dinner tonight from anyone would have been nice or a “hey, thanks for doing dishes after your work day before racing to get the girls.” But this is motherhood, right? Rewarding with disappointments pushing one to the edge.

The Days Are Long But The Years Are Short

Well, I lied. It has been way too long AGAIN since I have last wrote. After that last post and hoping things would slow down in life… well that was another lie! I became pregnant at the end of October 2016. YAY! Baby! That was a blessing (double time) for sure. We had our last Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas and the entering of a new year as a family of three.

Welcoming 2017 was great we spent it with my old elementary girl friends and their families and experienced my first new years eve party pregnant. A few weeks into that new year I began hemorrhaging at work raced to the emergency department where I had a transvaginal ultrasound with my best friend and cousin Nicki by my side as Dan was in Wisconsin for work. At this time I believe I was 11 weeks and when I thought I was losing a baby I found out I was welcoming two babies into the world. They observed me for a few more hours after but eventually was sent home that same day. Talk about a whirlwind of emotions.

SO now with it being October 2020 I have fraternal twin girls who turned three this past July and my step daughter will be twelve this coming February. We have a 6th grader who is doing half virtual and half in school for this navigating our lives during a pandemic. Fall soccer has also been placed on hold for all the kids and we are hoping for a season spring 2021! Life has been weird and scary at times this year but we are making it through one day at a time as I’m sure most of you are doing.

Peace and love until next time,

Liz

6 month update/ My Wedding!!

So it looks like my blog is in need of a serious update! Coincidentally I finally sat down to write on here and checked to see my last post. It hasn’t seemed that long since I last wrote but it has. This takes me in a new directions now. Let’s see; after that post I had my amazing bridal shower hosted by my bridesmaids with my family and Dan’s family at our home town golf course. Dan took some guys out golfing including both our dads. At the end of April I started a new job per diem for the local hospital and now work full time in a specialty clinic. I actually started work the week before my dad suffered a stroke, 5 months today that he was rushed by ambulance to Intensive Care for two weeks who was then transferred to Mary Free Bed at Sparrow in Lansing, MI. He was discharged home around the middle of July. He can stand with help and slowly walk with help otherwise he is in a wheelchair. He is currently taking PT, OT, and ST therapy sessions in our home town.

Another life changer this summer was marrying Dan! My amazing husband for the last 39 days!!! We were married on August 20, 2016. We were set to have an outdoor ceremony with a location that had a plan B. The reception was held there too. The last time I walked the venue with my mom we went into the Plan B location and once I was inside I knew that my wedding was going to be there. Dan and I’s location was at a local herb garden, a gorgeous setting with 5-6 different barns through out full trees and flowers everywhere. The day of the wedding it was calling for rain. Another thing that I knew was going to happen on my wedding was rain. Good luck right. It didn’t bother me what could I do anyway, that was surprisingly not a huge stress on my day. Pictures before had were a little tricky with us girls but we figured it out. About an hour before the ceremony the rain stopped and as the guests showed the sun came out, It was too late to move all the chairs for guest so they kept the location for the ceremony in plan B , which was much more intimate with people horse shoe shaped around us in a smaller white tent chapel type set up. With my dad suffering the stroke and not being able to walk far distances we planned on having him be pushed by my mom down the aisle with me. A week before my wedding his PT offered to come to my wedding and help my dad walk some steps so that he could “walk” me down the aisle. I was in shock that his PT offered. He did show that day and as I walked into the chapel white tent my dad was standing tall waiting for me to walk me the last 3-4 steps to Dan. There was not a dry eye in the house.

Our reception was amazing, great food, good company and a open bar!! We had a huge white tent reception with a dance floor in the middle and a bar set up outside on a patio. it rained one more time after dinner and then stopped and a double rainbow came out!! Even more good luck right? Our location was down the road from a casino and some of Dan’s family rented us a presidential suite for the night. It was amazing. Full kitchen, table, living room, a baby piano! The bathroom was the best part! Dan and I took off the next week for our honeymoon to the Upper Peninsula of Michigan! So beautiful. If you have never been make the time and the trip it’s worth it! I can give you some places to visit.

Last but not least within in the last month things are finally starting to slow down and our routine is beginning again. The crazy summer that we had was fast and non stop and no more wedding talk. Now to enjoy being married! We’ve been back to school for about twenty days now and we are three soccer games in for her season already. Time is flying by for sure, like always lately. Hopefully the next time I write it won’t be so long.

 

 

Rambling On and On

I’m not sure where to start. Life has been super busy and stressful lately and there is no slowing down in site; so it seems. I know most of my blogs have been wedding related since I have started my blog. Obviously, it is a huge part of my life right now planning, organizing, etc, etc.

The truth is I am just stressed the EFF out!!! I thought my thirties would be a breeze and I was looking forward to my new adventures (I still am) but the last two months have been a whirl wind of emotions and juggling time and work and home life. I work with Alzheimer/ dementia patients and I have been doing so for almost three years now. It’s exhausting. Rewarding but exhausting. Mentally and physically. My work has been bleeding over into my home life which is never good, at least for me and my future family it’s no good. I need a change on the job front. I am looking for new work in a new field all together.

Plus my fiance works on the road part of the week and is home on the weekends, which is when we have his daughter. So for part of my week I am a bored lonely ole soul who works and comes home to sit alone and the other part I am a future step mom / future wife. Two things I have never done before in my life. I have never even dated a man with a kid before until I met D and I had never dated a man who was already married and divorced either. I struggle with wishing she was mine a lot , she is the sweetest person to me and I really do love her and I lucked out on having her as my step daughter, thank god she still likes me. lol. I could write a whole blog on the struggles of a future mommy to a step child but at the same time I feel like I know nothing.

It’s hard being in a little persons life for only the weekends and hoping and praying that she is getting the quality care at her mothers home. Plus I struggle with trying to separate myself with trying not to think too much into things and just hope that the little time that her dad and I do have her is making a good impact on her life. If any of you have words of wisdom for me that would be great. Anything will help at this point. Life seems so hard lately and it shouldn’t be. I should be enjoying every moment and I’m not.

Sorry for the weird post! I’m not sure where I was going here besides maybe making myself feel better by writing.

Twitter: @lizkeepsrunning

 

Under The Six Month Mark

I / we have just reached the under the six months mark until my wedding. (Engaged for 7 months now, wow). I have so many different emotions and so much planning / organizing to do. I find if I sit and think to long on all the tasks that need to still be completed I become over whelmed. The “one thing at a time” approach is what I’m trying to tell myself to rest assure when August 20th comes everything will be in it’s place and I just need to walk down that aisle.

This post is wedding talk all the way. This afternoon I am taking my mother with me to my first hair consultation appointment to meet the hair stylist who will do my hair and my bridal parties hair on wedding day. I am very excited to meet her and to show her some of the hair styles I am thinking at the moment. She will also be trimming my hair today, which is much needed! (One of my soon to be sister in laws, also Liz, set this appointment up for me, she’s so sweet and has helped me a lot so far in the wedding planning process).

My bridal shower will be at the end of April and I still need a venue. After my appointment today we will be stopping at the local Holiday Inn to check out their conference room and get some information on that location. My maid of honor / best friend / cousin has been planning so far and has had no luck on getting a response back from the location I want to have the bridal shower (local country club) so she asked that I would stop today and check out the hotel since I have the day off. No problem. I do feel pressure from a select few to have it at a relatives house but I want there to be enough space for everyone and I really just don’t want it to feel like another “family get together” honestly.

This Saturday is my bridesmaid’s dress fitting at David’s Bridal. Three of my five girls will be able to attend so that’s nice. The other two are busy and they can do anytime that works for their schedule in the next few weeks. I know the color that I want them to wear but I am still debating on the style. Long vs. tea length and if I want them to have all the same dress or all a different style up top. Ah decisions, decisions! 😉

Dan and I have registered at Bed, Bath and Beyond online for our gift registry but we both were bored with searching on their website for gifts. So hopefully this coming Monday night we will go to a store and take that “magic gun” around their store and be more impressed with the registry process. We also may ask for gift cards to Menards or a furniture store.

So there is my short list of to-do’s for the next few days for the wedding alone. I also have finalized my list of girls for my bachelorette weekend and the location! Woot!

Stayed tuned; more updates to come!

twitter : @lizkeepsrunning

 

Busy Bee

Well, let me try this again. I wrote this a couple of days ago from my phone and then thought it posted twice and then ended up deleted the whole thing. Silly phones. I’m sure it was the operator that night!

So yes, it has been a busy past week and a half since I have turned the big thirty!! My party was great with my close family and friends and we partied the night away. I was up way to late, It took me the better half of that next week to feel recovered. haha.

I have almost all of Dan and I’s save the dates in the mail and I am waiting on three more addresses and I/ we can move on to other important things; like someone to marry us. lol Among the cake, gift registry and booking our hotel suite for the night of the wedding. Dan and I are just under 200 days until our I Do’s!

I am also working with some of my bridal party on the bridal shower and bacherolette party. I think I will do a separate blog on those two so I can go into more detail!

Otherwise this past weekend was filled with taking a snowboarding trip up north with Dan and focusing on school projects with my soon to be step-daughter. We have been planning her 7th birthday party as well and getting ready for her first daddy daughter dance with Dan the night before her party. Needless to say someone can’t wait for the fun!

Have a happy week!

@lizkeepsrunning

Turning 30!

Okay, getting back into the swing of this blog posting thing. I think of writing my blog at the strangest times or not the best opportunities and then I never think to write when I do have the time. The last two weeks have been a blur. I picked up my wedding dress a week ago. I tried it back on and it still fit great! The bridal store does not do alterations but they did add some eye and hooks to the back and cleaned up the beading. I do need to take it some where to get bustled and I think I am good on not having any alterations. It’s being kept safely at my parents house. My mom took it that night and I hadn’t seen it until last night when I went over there for my dad’s birthday dinner, which is actually today! 🙂

Otherwise Dan and I have been working on finishing up the final count for our wedding guest list this past week. Right now we are around 145 people. We have about half of the save the dates ready to mail and the rest we are needing addresses. I’m hoping we can finish that up this week and I can get them in the mail early next week.

This coming Saturday is my 30th birthday on January 30th. I keep telling everyone it’s my dirty thirty and my golden birthday! 😉 haha I’m a dork. I am having a group of about fifteen meet up for dinner at my towns local Mexican restaurant then we are having a house party that night. I will be happy to be surrounded by my  loved ones and close friends and the drinks and laughs will be flowing!

206 days until I marry the man of my dreams! ❤

@lizkeepsrunning

Save The Date and Tuxes

This afternoon Dan and I ran some errands and stopped by President Tuxedo so he could be sized and he could see the tux and vest/tie colors I had selected when my mom and I went this past November. (Dan was working out of the state and couldn’t make it). We made some minor tweaks but overall we were on the same page. Now that we are back home we have been brain storming other tux ideas, lol, but I think we are set with the grooms men and the dads. One more thing off our list.

Tonight I finalized Dan and I’s save the dates for our wedding!!! SO happy and SO excited! Ordering the save the dates and knowing they will be sent to family and friends in the next coming weeks really sets in the reality of moving forward with the wedding planning process for our big day! We ordered from weddingpaperdivas.com. It was pretty straight forward and designing was fun from choosing our photo to customizing the card information. The company offers an editor who helps add or remove certain details. I approved our edit and they should be arriving around the 20th. I’m hoping to get them in the mail the week of the 25th. Yay, making moves! 😉

Is this month already flying for you too?

~Liz

 

2016 is for Me!

Hi, I’m Liz. I’m a first time blogger and have been going back and forth for a couple of years now on weather to start one. I feel I am starting a new chapter, turning a leaf (however you want to say it) for 2016 so I finally decided why not. My goal here is to post updates on my life. 2015 was a great year and 2016 will be nothing less than that! I am starting 2016 refreshed and renewed and trying to gain a more positive outlook on life. Join me this year. I celebrate my thirtieth birthday at the end of the month, I’m planning my wedding for August, training for multiple races, plus enjoying everyday life!

Let’s be friends! 🙂

Twitter: @lizkeepsrunning

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