Countdown Datenight - Year 2

In February, Matt and I went to Lush Burger near Troon.  We have a small love affair with a burger place called Delux near the Biltmore so it's always hard to measure up.  The food was definitely good, but Delux is still at the top of our list.  It was a gorgeous night out though, so we sat outside on the patio while reminiscing about year 2...

Year TWO - this was a crazy and tough year for us

When we moved back from Iowa in September, we got a little apartment in Scottsdale.  We were able to get most all of our stuff out of storage and sleep on an actual bed again!

We spent our first anniversary in Dana Point, CA.  Matt and I were there for a couple nights and then my parents and brother came and joined us. We went to Disneyland and hung out on the beach.  Matt actually had knee surgery while we were there too.  He had to have it done by the Angels doctor who was in Cali so weirdly enough the timing was great to do it at the end of our vacation. (He had torn his Meniscus)

I got a job at the Arizona Biltmore in the Catering department (event planning).  Unfortunately I was not able to put my teaching certificate to use because I knew we would be moving with baseball in the spring. But I loved this job so it was great. And I figured there are hotels all over the country so I would be able to get a similar job wherever we went.

Matt continued to train, rehab his knee, do hitting lessons and coach.

We had a fun but pretty uneventful fall and winter.

In March Matt went to spring training in Florida.  I stayed in AZ to work and pack up our stuff and put most of it in storage again.  Our lease was up in our apartment so I moved in with my brother for a few weeks.

After spring training was over, Matt was sent back to Iowa.  It was great because it was a familiar place for us!

I, once again, packed what we needed for the summer in our 4 Runner and my mom and I drove halfway across the country.

We had a cute little apartment that we shared with another of Matt's teammates.  The guys also bought a junker car to share.  Our thought process on that was that if one of the guys gets sent to a new team sometime during the season (which they were hoping for since this was the second year in Iowa for both of them), the guy left could still live out the lease and use the car.  Well, that did not exactly work like we had hoped!

In June, Matt had to go on a 10 day roadtrip so I decided to visit one of my best friends in Tennessee.  I left on the third day of the roadtrip and when I got off the plane in TN Matt called and said that he got moved up to the team in California!  It was great news, EXCEPT that he had to leave the next day and could not go back to Iowa to get any of his stuff.  AND, our roomate also got moved to a new team.  Enter panic!!!  That meant that once I got home from TN I had to pack up both Matt and I's stuff AND our roomates stuff (and ship it to him since he was going to Utah) AND try and get out of our lease AND figure out what to do with the car the boys bought AND move by myself to Cali.  It was nuts but my parents and friends were wonderful in calming me down and working it all out.

My mom flew out to Iowa to help me pack up and drove with me to California.  We got a great apartment and were only about 40 minutes from the beach which was wonderful!

About a week after our move we found out that a very good friend of mine (who also happened to be my brother's girlfriend) that was battling cancer for the past year and a half was stopping treatment.  The cancer was just too aggressive. It was absolutely AMAZING that God had sent us to California when He did because I was able to then drive home every weekend to see her for the next couple of months.  Had we still been in Iowa, I would have never been able to spend those many precious (yet very hard) moments with her.  I will forever be greatful for that.

We were in Cali for just over a month when about two weeks before the season ended, Matt came home early from practice and told me he quit!  WHAT???!!!  I was in total shock.  He had definitely been having the struggle of not knowing whether to stay in baseball or not.  He had hurt his knee again (the one he had already had two surgeries on) and knew another surgery was in his future if he continued to play.  He had to finish out two years of college (since he signed after his sophomore year) and ASU was starting in a couple of weeks so he decided it was time to call it quits, get into school, and start the new chapter.  It was a VERY sad day.

Three days after Matt quit my friend, Kulia, passed away.  Again, had Matt not quit when he did, he would not have been able to go back home with me for the funeral and to just be there for me the amount that he was.  Such a blessing from God.  AND just a few days after the funeral, my mom had major surgery so again, by God's blessing, Matt was able to be there for that too.

This was one of the hardest times of the lives of my WHOLE family.  Matt had just quit his dream, his passion and was really starting life over.  My brother lost his girlfriend.  My mom had major surgery and I feel like I was on the sidelines watching everyone fall apart while I was falling apart because of it all too.  It was terrible, but God got us through and I can totally look back and see His hand in all of it.

So after the dust settled, we ended year two by packing up our stuff again and moving back to AZ.  We knew we wanted to buy something instead of rent so we moved in with Matt's parents and started the house hunt.  This was the year where houses were FLYING off the market.  A house would get 5 offers the same day it went on the market.  It was VERY frustrating but we found the perfect townhouse and GOT IT!  Yay, our first real place together that we knew we would be in for longer than a few months :)

Matt and I went through a lot this year.  It was definitely one of the most difficult years but I really feel like we grew closer and stronger in our marriage because of it.  I couldn't have gone through any of it without my hubby!

Some pics from year two...

On the beach in Dana Pt.

Cedar Rapids, IA

The boys' Lincoln Towncar - they were obsessed with this car!  They decked it out with dice in the mirror, a leopard steering wheel cover and would always blast music and recline the seats super low.  It was ridiculous!

Groupies (was I technically considered a groupie if I was married to one of the guys?:)

Best Friends Meredith and Crystal in Tennessee

Matt's youngest brother, Will, in Rancho Cucamonga, CA

Signing autographs (several months ago we found one of Matt's autographed rookie cards on Ebay, hahaha)

Me and Will

Me and Kulia

Dollhouse Reno - Phase 1

So the first step in my dollhouse reno is....PAINT!  Don't get me wrong, I love primary colors but I definitely wanted to modernize this little house.  The house is going to go in the girl's playroom, which is the front/'living' room area of our downstairs.  So since it's in plain sight, I did want it to match somewhat to our decor.  We have a lot of yellow accents in our house so I knew I wanted that color, but got a little scared to paint the whole house yellow.  So what's better than a yellow house?  A yellow door!  (I would actually paint OUR front door yellow if our HOA would allow it!)  Painting was the most time consuming part of this project, there are sooooo many little areas and crevices, and I had to make sure I covered up all of the red, blue and yellow.  I LOVE how it turned out, what a difference!  Welcome to 2012 little house :)

Before...

All primed...

Outside complete!

Dollhouse Reno

Our Insta-week

I'm totally stealing this idea from a few of the blogs I follow but since I'm really getting addicted to using Instagram (an iPhone app), I'm going to be a copy cat.  Obviously my girls are my favorite subjects for picture-taking so I've been 'documenting' our week through Instagram.  This is how we kept busy!

We painted our toes...

We ate lunch at Chik Fil A...

We made funny faces...

We wore upside down sunglasses...

We (I) received my second free Target beauty bag (this was very exciting for me! Lots of free samples in an adorable little bag, yes please!:)...

We sewed a lot more car seat coolers...

We went to Allie's last gymnastics class...

We had a date night...

We went to the outlet mall and did some shopping, playing and eating...

Hope you all had a great week!

Dollhouse Reno

I had one of those 'Jack of all Trades' Grandpa's.  He could fix anything, build anything, solve anything, clean anything.  Really, he could do anything.  I think I have a little of him in me, I am definitely the 'fix it' person in my household (sorry honey, but you'd admit that you fix things by dialing a phone number:)  I only wish my grandpa was around longer to teach me more.  Luckily I have two VERY handy parents and a handy brother who helps us out a lot :)

When I was little, my grandpa made me a dollhouse.  It kept me busy for hours and hours.  It's one of those toys that you don't truly appreciate until you are older.  I'm SO lucky that my mom kept that dollhouse!  It was sitting at my parent's house for years and years and then sat at our house in the garage for the past 5 years.  Both of my girl's birthday's are next month and what better gift to give them than a dollhouse.  I think they are at a perfect age (Sienna may be a little young but I think she'll still love it)

I seriously haven't seen it for over 10 years (it was boxed up pretty good).  Just last week I took it out of the box with the intention of re-furbishing it.  Lots of memories flooded back when I saw it and I just felt overwhelmed with appreciation that my grandpa made it for me!  I am having so much fun fixing it up and I can't wait until it's complete.  Check out the before...

Stay tuned!

Ballet

A couple months ago a sweet friend of mine asked if I would be interested in signing up Allie for a ballet class with her daughter who is just about the same age. My three year old, in real ballet clothes and ballet shoes, talking a class from a real ballet teacher? I thought about it for about two seconds before saying YES! The class is 50 minutes long and she does it WITHOUT me watching! That part pains me because I'm not allowed to stay but I love that she is doing something independent and thank goodness they put on a little recital during the last class for the parents to see. She  loved it and loved being with her friend Gracelyn. And I am just dying getting to buy her some ballet clothes :)

Countdown Datenight - Year 1

Well, for our January date night, we went to Modern Steak at Fashion Square.  It was so yummy.  I had heard about it from several people and they all said that the atmosphere was so cool, and that it was.  Luckily the food was great too.  We talked about our first year of marriage...

Year ONE

Got married on September 21st, 2002

Matt moved into the townhouse that I shared with a couple girlfriends during college (girlfriends moved out, Matt moved in)

I was in the middle of student teaching so back to school I went the week after our wedding

It was the off-season for Matt so he was home, working out, practicing, doing hitting lessons and coaching

We drove to California one weekend to go to IKEA (there weren't any in Arizona yet).  We pretty much furnished our entire townhouse for $900 and it all packed perfectly into our 4Runner :)  We only had a bed and a TV between us (thank goodness for roomates during those college years!)

In December I graduated college!  We took a trip to Vegas with both of our parents.

In January we were finally able to go on our honeymoon!  It was totally worth the wait.  We went on a cruise in Hawaii, it was amazing!

I did some long term substituting for the teacher that I student taught with for a couple months (she had a baby).

In March, Matt went off to Spring Training while I packed up our house (my parents decided to sell the townhouse we were living in since we had no idea where we would be going with baseball)

The townhouse sold, a couple days later Matt called to say that he got released by the Twins and was on his way home.  AHHHHH, lots of panicking happened then because we had no place to live.

Luckily I have wonderful parents who let us move in with them for a little bit :)  Nothing like being newlyweds and living with your parents!  But they are the best and we didn't mind it at all :)

Matt got picked up by the Angels and we were off to Cedar Rapids, IA (we put all of our stuff in storage and only brought what would fit in the back of our 4Runner-this time it was mostly clothes and essentials, not furniture)

This was by far the BEST summer we have ever had.  I absolutely loved being in a new place with just my hubby (we didn't know a soul when we moved there).  We got an apartment.  I got a job at American Eagle.  I just worked about 1 day a week so I got to go to almost ever single one of Matt's games and got to travel with him a ton.  This summer was the perfect example of being so incredibly happy while having next to nothing.  Neither of us barely made any money, we slept on an air mattress, didn't have any other furniture other than two camping chairs and a plastic kitchen table, our TV sat on a box, and we were SOOOOOO happy.  We had an absolute blast and I would live that summer over again a thousand times if I could.

Went to the Field of Dreams.

Spent a couple days in Chicago (first time there for both of us)

We were in three, yes three, tornadoes while we were in the midwest!  I love Arizona - the land of no weather at all!

In September, the season was over.  We drove up to Minnesota to visit some of Matt's family for a week then made the three day trip home.  We each had a car so we had to drive alone :(  But we bought walkie-talkies so we could keep each other company (best purchase ever!)

Here are a couple pics from that first year...

Graduation

Vegas

Balcony of our first apartment in Iowa

Home run!!!

I loved seeing him on that screen :)

Baseball hunk

I spent lots of time waiting for him outside of the locker room

Chicago

Playing ball with a teammate on the Field of Dreams

at the Field of Dreams

Minnesota

People say the first year of marriage is the hardest, but it was the absolute opposite for us!  It was the best year :)

Countdown to 10 Years!

This coming September, Matt and I are going to be celebrating our 10 year wedding anniversary!  Can you believe that?! (Yes, I got married when I was 16:)  I feel like 10 years is a pretty big milestone and I can't wait to celebrate with the love of my life.

Matt actually planned something really cool for us to get ready for the big day.  On Christmas he gave me the sweetest letter that talked about how busy (and blessed!) our life is, but that he wanted to make sure that we took time out each month this year to spend with just the two of us.  We would plan a special date night and either before or after we get a massage (he got us a membership to a massage place).  Talk about the perfect night!

 Once we got to talking, we decided on two additional things for our 'countdown to 10 years' date nights....1) each month we would go to a restaurant that NEITHER of us had been to (we are so bad about trying new places) and 2) each month we would spend the evening talking about a specific year in our marriage.  It's easy to remember the big moments like your first place, first pets, vacations you took, but hard to remember things like what kind of furniture you first had (when you read some of my additional posts about this you will know what I mean!), jobs you had (again, keep reading!), and people you spent time with.

Matt and I definitely went through many whirlwinds, especially in the first few years, and have had so many experiences together.  And there is not a single person that I would want to go through all that with than Matt.  It's been so fun to really reminisce.  I'll post each month with what we did on our date night and what we were doing during that specific year in our marriage (yes I know it's June so I'll have a few to catch up on:)

But for now, here's some pictures from when we were dating.  It's true, I may not have been 16 when we got married but I WAS 16 when we started dating!!!

After Matt's high school team won the State Championship

College baseball

First year in the minors...Elizabethton, TN

Summer 2000

Christmas 2001

School's Out for Summer!

Allie's had her last day of her very first year of preschool a couple weeks ago. Excuse me while I go get some tissues :( This kid is growing up way too fast and is becoming way too much of a little GIRL, I feel like my toddler is long gone.

Allie absolutely LOVED preschool...she loved her teachers, she loved her classmates, she loved all the activites they did and art projects she made, she loved the fun school-wide themed days, she loved lunch bunch, she loved pint-sized PE and music class and she loved that there were little kid sized potties in the bathroom at her school :) She loved every minute. She now asks me every few days when preschool is going to be done 'taking a break for the summer'. She's already excited for next year.

The last day of school they had Dairy Queen bring in ice cream sundae's for all the kids. There was a plethora of toppings from chocolate syrup to whipped cream to sprinkles and everything else you can imagine. But of course my child (who at times like these I'm convinced is really not mine) wouldn't touch it. Oh well, guess I can't complain that she didn't get all hyped up on sugar and then sent home to me :)

Can't believe that her first official school year is over. I can't believe how much she has grown and how much she has changed. Someone please tell me you know how to freeze time!!!

Ice cream party


She pretty much just stirred her ice cream around and stared at it for 20 minutes.

Allie's awesome teachers

Me and my girl


First day of school---last day of school (tear)