Sunday, May 13, 2012

Happy Mother's Day

Happy Mother's day to my amazing mom!!  I am so glad to have you in my life!  Thank-you for all you have done for me!!


Happy Mother's Day to my sister!  It's her first Mother's day!

I'm so lucky to have these women in my life! 




Wednesday, May 2, 2012

Sisters...Sisters...

There were never such devoted sisters....


ok, sorry...done singing White Christmas now!



I am incredibly lucky to be close to my sister.  We weren’t always this way.  When she left for college, and we didn’t share the same space anymore, we were able to appreciate each other and the closer we became.  Sarah has always been my protector, my confidant, my truth teller, and my supporter.
I remember her first year of college (I think), we got this massive ice storm.  CIU and Ben Lippen were closed for over a week.  My mom was out of town, and our house lost power.  CIU surprisingly still had power, so my dad went to stay with the Boans, and I went to stay with Sarah in her dorm.  Now, her dorm wasn’t massive, but it wasn’t small either, and I slept on the two-seater pull out couch.  It was my first experience of dorm life, and Sarah could have easily been put out and annoyed that I was there, but she wasn’t.  She took care of me and we hung out together.  She could have easily not included me because it was her freshman year and wanted to hang out with her friends, but she didn’t.    I don’t think I will ever forget the way she treated me.  She may not even remember, but I do! 
Fast Forward a few years to when we worked in the same building, and she was just two floors up from me.  I would go see her on my breaks and talk to her about life.  There were days that I could have stayed up there for an hour because we were just talking about…well, everything!  A lot of moments were shared in the confines of her cubicle.  Now that she isn’t up there anymore, I truly miss those days.  It was nice to have a half hour each day to just talk to her.  I really miss her not being upstairs.  I think back on all the times when we had wardrobe and hair questions.  We would ask each other “does this look good”…. “do you like my hair”…. Or simply:  “fix this!”
I have thoroughly enjoyed watching her become a mother.  She is not your typical first time mother, in that she isn’t flustered.  Sarah is calm, collected, and goes with the flow.  He’s crying, she keeps it together until she can figure out why.  It is bedtime and he’s crying in his crib, she says “he will calm himself in a minute.”  At 3 weeks, mom and dad babysat so Ben and Sarah could go on a date, and they didn’t call to check in, or have a hurried dinner.  She (and Ben too) doesn’t watch you like a hawk when you are holding Caleb, or feeding him.  They let you do your thing.  Sarah writes a letter to Caleb every month and I have enjoyed reading those and seeing her love for that boy.  It’s amazing!
Sarah, thank-you for being my sister and for always loving me, laughing with and at me, supporting me, protecting me, and just plainly being there for me.  We have so much fun together, and I couldn’t have asked for anyone better.  Love you!

Life


Yes, I realize it has been awhile, that is partly due to the fact that I don’t have internet at home.  I don’t have it not only because it saves me money, but because if I did I would be on it constantly, and I just don’t need that. 
Life has been good.  It’s so funny the changes that I have gone through the past month.  I’m still trying to get into a good groove at home.   My personality is not one to get stuck in ruts.  I am constantly changing things until I find the one thing that works well.  This can be routines, organizing, product choices, anything.  With moving being such a HUGE change in my life, and with spending time with my nephew, I still haven’t found the perfect way of doing things for everything.  I have accomplished much more than I thought I would have; just have one or two more areas to find my niche.
In other news, and I know this is really odd, but the past few days I have been working on revamping a PowerPoint presentation.  My boss told me to go all out and he would “pull me in” if it was too out there.  I gave it to him today and am waiting to hear back on his thoughts.  I LOVED working on this project!  It brought me back to my Yearbook Editor days and I was constantly changing (yes, even PowerPoint falls prey) until I thought it flowed.  I was so giddy working on this.  I hope he likes it, if not, I’m interested to hear his thoughts.