Consistency.

..... or lack thereof. I am yet again a terrible blogger.

In any case, in the month+ that has passed since I last wrote several things have taken place. My friend Sara got married (and she was a beautiful bride, of course!), we made zero progress with the house we're still in the process of purchasing (unless you count all of my decor boards I've made as progress, ha), we found out big family news, we've made big decisions and tons of other little things that I'm sure I'm forgetting :)

I mostly want to talk about today, though. You know you've had an amazing day when you actually feel inspired to write about it. I've only slept 3 or so hours in the past 30+ hrs, so this will be much shorter than I'd like. Not to mention I have an adorable husband that is already in bed, SNORING and I want to go snuggle up to him since we're usually on very opposite sleep schedules due to work.

I'm not sure if it was the sleep deprivation or what, but I felt so laid back today (which is not a typical state of being for me, unfortunately). I never got tired last night so very early this morning I randomly decided to watch our wedding video. It brought back all of the happiness of our wedding day! Michael woke up and watched it with me and we laughed about all of the things that went wrong during our ceremony-- realizing that none of it matters at all in the grand scheme of things. I am SO glad that we stuck with our decision to hire a videographer. Our photographs are amazing but there's something so beautiful about seeing it all "live," if you will. In any case, we then had breakfast with Michael's brother Tony, his friend Phil and Phil's two children. It was just nice to be there with good company!

After breakfast we went to Michael's parents' house where we spent the remainder of our day. Our adorable nephew Isaac was there and it was great to have the whole day to spend with him because I felt like I hadn't loved on him in forever. Phil and his children stopped over as well, and between his 19 month-old daughter Bella and 10 month-old Isaac, there was so much fun! Watching them play and be curious, exploring anything and everything, made me so excited for the day I'm watching our children play. It was the first time in months that we actually saw all four of Michael's siblings in one day. I love my husband's family more than I could ever express and it is great to feel so at home with them. I couldn't have been blessed with more amazing in-laws!

It was such a simple, casual day but I wouldn't trade blowing bubbles, taking naps, stacking blocks or watching our nephew learn to crawl for anything else in the world. It fills me with so much joy to see Michael holding Isaac and crawling on the floor with him and I long for the day it is with our children :)

Thank You.

Today has been one of those days. A day where I woke up feeling amazing, actually got my butt on the treadmill, opened the windows, danced around like a madwoman in my apartment without a care in the world and felt all of the love from my heavenly father that I knew he had for me all along.

A day where I feel refreshed, inspired and blessed, blessed, blessed.

On this same day, exactly four years ago-- my husband and I went on our first date. I didn't know it then, but I am so thankful that we are where we are today. I could not ask for a better partner to walk through this life with.

I haven't taken many pictures lately-- so here are a couple from a wedding that we went to a couple of weeks ago :)

Thank you, God--- for more than I could ever begin to express.

Rut.

With so much on my mind lately, I can feel myself becoming grumpy and negative and that is certainly not something that I have enjoyed. So here's to reminding myself that I have so much to be thankful for and that I am in control of what I let matter to me and the mood that I maintain. End of rant.

On a happier note- my beautiful best friend Sara is getting married exactly one month from today. I could not be happier for her. She is an amazing person and I love seeing her dreams come true :)

Contract.

In approximately 7 hours we will be submitting the contract for our new home. I should probably be getting some sleep but the fact that I've been working night shift paired with the excitement about the house makes it difficult to sleep.

beautiful.

I follow a really well known local photographer's blog (to see all of the beautiful photos she takes!) and this post is one of the most heart-warming I've come across in a while. Check it out!

http://www.stephcarson.com/blog1/?p=3965

two things.

There are two things that have really excited me over the last few days:

1)I successfully started my first IV at work (one of the perks of night shift) onMonday night! I got the vein on the first stick! Go me!

2) We received great news regarding the house we want! We're in the process of getting all the necessary paperwork together for it. It might not be long before I get to do my own "home tour" posts. Who am I kidding... it will be a while before we're settled in, I'm sure.

wisdom.

"People are unreasonable, illogical, and self-centered. Love them anyway. If you do good, people may accuse you of selfish motives. Do good anyway. If you are successful, you may win false friends and true enemies. Succeed anyway. The good you do today may be forgotten tomorrow. Do good anyway. Honesty and transparency make you vulnerable. Be honest and transparent anyway. What you spend years building may be destroyed overnight. Build anyway. People who really want help may attack you if you help them. Help them anyway. Give the world the best you have and you may get hurt. Give the world your best anyway."- Mother Teresa

The previous quote is one of my favorites! If only it were easy to follow ALL the time. As I've mentioned before, I've felt extremely out of balance lately and I'm trying to get back in touch with myself. I really want to finish reading this book I started months ago. It is so eye-opening and it talks about several different aspects of spirituality, personal growth and the meaning of life. I consider myself pretty open-minded when it comes to faith and spiritual outlets. I believe in a God that likes for me to ask questions, so that I can grow stronger in my relationship with him. I do not believe that God created us with inquisitive minds, without wanting us to find our own way to him. One of the most important aspects (and perhaps the best aspect!) of my relationship with my husband is that we are on the same page, spiritually. We both believe that it IS okay to question things and not have all of the answers and we want to raise our children to be open-minded and accepting of others and their beliefs. God is love.

I'm trying to face the reality that I have to go into work tonight. I'm hoping to find out whether or not the house we really want is a possibility still. My sister in law is supposed to let me know sometime tonight as to whether or not they received a contact today. Talk about anticipation!