The Story of Us

Yesterday, our family celebrated its 8th anniversary! Eight years of being a family!  Every year around this time I get to thinking about how things were before I met my husband and I get an itch to tell the story of how we came to be.  I know that everyone has a love story but (for obvious reasons) ours is my favorite.
Once upon a time I was single mother of 3 small children and I was happy.  I had accepted that my children were my life and I had everything I needed.  A few months later, while listening to K-LOVE I was encouraged to pray for love.  So out of the blue I found myself behind the locked door of a bathroom praying to God and telling Him that if he had someone for me, I was ready and would love to meet him. (Yes, in the bathroom! The kids and I were living with my parents at the time and there were few places in the house I could hear myself think!) 
While using my computer later that day, match.com ads kept popping up and I kept ignoring them.  For the next week every time I would use my computer match.com adds would pop up. Ok, so maybe it was a sign, maybe I had just never noticed them before but seriously the ads were relentless! After about a week and a half of this I said to myself, "Why the heck not?!" and gave myself one month. Everyday, I checked in on the 29-35 year old dating scene and was disappointed.  Then one day, this super cute dad of one popped up on my screen as I checked in.  His name "Happy Beach Dad"! His priority was his son and I was compelled to send him an email. I clicked send and watched as his profile popped back up stating that he was actually 28 (I had typed in the wrong age). He quickly responded and it was quickly established that he thought I was someone else that he had been hoping to match up with.  Long story short, we ended up emailing back and forth for a couple of weeks before meeting for breakfast at an IHOP (within 3 weeks of signing up on match.com).  We sat in a booth across from each other, I ordered a veggie omelet that had cauliflower (yuck!) in it and he ordered pancakes.  We laughed at my omelet and talked about our kids.  I would be lying if I said that I didn't know then.  There was this moment, while we were talking when I actually heard in my head, "That's him".  I knew that he was the one, like I had never known anything else in my entire life. We went thrift store window shopping after breakfast, before I headed home and got ready for work.  I remember walking into work and the first co-worker I saw asked me, "How was the date?" and before I could really think about it, I answered, "I met the guy I'm gonna marry." Less than a year later, we were engaged!

Everything was so simple as far as our little family went.  Our 4 kids were siblings from the start; They clicked and we were just happy! We all had so much fun and simply enjoyed being together.  By the time we got married in January of 2007, we could not wait to add another kid to all the craziness.  It took us a bit and a heart-breaking miscarriage but we finally met our youngest child in 2010.  
I'm not saying that our relationship is perfect but I will say this: I married my best friend.  He is always there for me and always believes in me.  Best of all he sees the good in me, even when I cannot.  He makes me laugh and listens.  He brings flowers for no reason at all.  He washes dishes!! Oh, and he does laundry!! (Now do you understand why I think he is SO awesome?!) 

Every now and then my mind wanders to the what-ifs...what if I had continued to type in 29 instead of making a mistake that day? What if I had completely closed my heart to the idea of the existence of someone out there falling in love with me AND my children? The what-ifs don't keep me up at night though because there is no doubt in my mind that this family was meant to be. I often find myself praying and thanking God for this life!  I am beyond grateful that my husband and son stepped into our lives when they did and I am so thankful that I have such an amazing someone with whom to share life's storms and blessings.
So, here's to another year of crazy chaos! This family is my world and as much as I love all of the memories that we have created, I am also looking forward to what the future holds!!
Happy Anniversary to Us!!

Our New Year's Traditions

Happy New Year!! I know that it's cliche but didn't 2014 just FLY BY!?! I remember when I was a kid, it seemed that time went by so slowly and the adults around me were always saying the exact opposite! Now, I'm the grown up and I find myself trying to come up with ways to make sure that my kids hold on to as many sweet moments as possible.  I pray that those are the moments that make them smile when things don't go their way or when they need something to look forward to.  
Over the past couple of years our family has been doing a couple of fun things that really ends up being a fun activity and gives them a chance to see themselves grow and change.

THE  MEMORY JAR
I keep a square jar on our mantel.  It is filled with little squares of paper and a couple of pens. At the moment it isn't decorated because for some reason I never got around to it. (I will within the next couple of weeks, so stay tuned!!) Anyone in the house can add a memory to the jar, even visitors! The only rules are that whoever writes a memory has to write the date and sign their name.  We read all of these memories on New Year's Day and laughed and talked! It was such a fun way to start the year!!

Our undecorated "Memory Jar".

Taking the memories out of the jar and reading each one was so fun!!
It inspired a lot of "I remember that" and "that was so much fun!" 

SOME OF MY PERSONAL FAVORITE MEMORY JAR MEMORIES:
1) The time Lincoln had to be rescued by the life guards at the beach because he had gotten himself in a pickle. He was fine! AND it wasn't funny at the time (I was MAD!!! lol) but, of course, it's funny now!
2) When Megan came home after she had been asked to homecoming!! (Milestone!)
3) Sebastian's 8th grade graduation!
4) The night we had a homemade Crab Feed! (So MUCH fun!!)
5) When we met Cimorelli!
Really, trying to write out my favorite ones is tough because there were so many great moments this last year!! 2013 had been a rough one for us so 2014 was a very welcome change! 

Sebastian gave me permission to post this picture.  I love how he started his letter to himself.  He spent most of the time giggling at what he wrote.

LETTERS
Last year on New Year's Day, I had each of the kids write a letter to themselves. At first they weren't too excited about it but in the end three of them did wrote their letters. Our 2 younger ones didn't write one; one because he was only 3 at the time and the other because he adamantly refused and I had to choose my battles. I put the letters in a safe place and saved them there until this New Year's Day.
It was kind of fun to see that the kids that had written them were actually looking forward to reading them.  It was even more fun to watch them read and comment on how silly or funny they were or how much their writing had changed. 

I gathered everything together and decided to simply fold a piece of card
stock in half, tuck everything inside and save it.  I don't really know when or if we'll look at last year's
memories again but I couldn't get rid of them!

These are just a couple of our traditions! Actually, I find that our traditions evolve a bit as the children get older.  Watching them grow and change is one of the things I live for!! 
Do any of you have any New Year's traditions? If you do, I'd love to hear them!
Until, next time!!
Love from:
The Crazy, Chaotic, Happiness that is our Family