Dream – dream, dream, dream!

R and I went away this weekend. It was awesome. I of course missed Praysie Lou, and got a bit teary eyed when leaving her. I felt so much better though when I told my sister this over the phone while I was packing us and she told me that she felt the same way about leaving their dog, so it was perfectly alright to feel that way about leaving your child – even if it was only for the weekend.

We stayed here and it was so neat. Away from any sense of the words: city, rush, hurry, stress, tension, work. It had been so long since I had been able to get away for me, and get away with R. I was proud of us because typically by the end of football season we are all so stressed out that we’re at each other’s throats (when we’re even speaking to each other that is). We were definitely stressed, there was tension, and as usual all three of us were at our breaking points, but we held it together and (for the most part) didn’t take it out on each other. But – it was time for a break. Time to reconnect, time to just “be.”

In between, sleeping in, fabulous breakfasts that lasted us all day, massages, walks in the orchard, and drinks by the fireplace – we got to really talk with each other, to talk about our goals and to dream together! We talked about our lives – I finally was able to tell him in a constructive way how important it is to me to get this time in the morning, whether I am blogging, reading the bible, or just praying – because starting at 7:00 a.m. my day is a rush. The only time I get to myself is the one minute drive from P’s daycare to work and back again. We talked about meeting our goal and dreams for our life, big dreams that are life dreams and little/medium dreams that are things we would love to do together or lifestyle dreams. We talked about our house quite a bit, R is the ultimate design guy (and very good at it). Talked about scaling back, streamlining, focusing on making our house a home that we both enjoy and breathe deep in relief when we walk in the door.

Then guess what? We started on it. You should see our closet right now and the lack of clothes. Anything we weren’t wearing, wasn’t fitting, or just plain didn’t like is in one of two bins: 1. Try to sell, 2. Give away. (Don’t worry Dad, I told R to give you a look at it all ).Of course we’ll have to do this all over again once I wash, dry, fold/hang up, and put away the other half of our clothes (yes, we have that many, it’s pathetic). While doing this my husband stayed up late ironing clothes and putting together outfits for me that I would never have seen in my own closet. His encouragement to me in how I look and the success that it should reflect. I’ll be the first to admit it was kind of exciting – I have forgotten to see myself in that light in a really long time. R kept telling me but I never have believed him.

It was a struggle for me to go from being pregnant and feeling extremely sexy (swollen face, swollen feet and all) to a body I didn’t recognize, that struggled to keep on weight, that had zero breasts (not kidding – no pictures but trust me) and zero booty. My curves were gone and I’m one of those strange people who likes curves. My clothes didn’t fit me, “sexy” didn’t enter into my vocabulary. I’ve struggled… kind of back anyway – but to have a hubby that stays up late and makes me try on combos I would never have thought of so that he can show me what he loves about me… I’m one lucky gal.

And to prove it to you – I’ll show you why:

My Little Princess- trying on her jewels the night before the big dance.

Princess and Mommy

Daddy and P doing “Airplane” (I know it’s not the best photo, kinda grainy – but the cuteness totally outweighs all of that!)