Mother Nature is my Main B

It's actually thundering and lightening outside right now, you guys. I heard one, little, sorry boom of thunder at work a week or two ago, and saw lightening once through the blinds during nap time but this is my first full on storm of the year. This is so exciting. Cleanse my mind, body and soul, Mother Nature, cleanse me. Gosh, it feels good. Just to look out my living room window and see pouring rain. What makes it better is the fact that it's still light out, a nice glow, if you ask me. Let's be real, the sun is shining! As summer is right around the corner, the days are getting longer and it's light until after 8PM. This is the best, the realization that our days are getting longer, warmer. There is nothing like light, and sunshine and a good downpour all at once. This is something I will miss dearly when we move back to the Midwest, the sunshowers. The weathermen actually talk about them. They exist. You got it, it's when the sun is shining bright but it's raining. It's the absolute best. 

It makes me think of a time I had a terrible day at work and then drove home and on my way, was blessed with the most amazing sunshower and then the clouds parted and the rain went away and the sun fully came out just in time to go down. It was beautiful. 

Of course, I Instagramed, think  I didn't? 

The caption was, "Proof that there are greater things than today's frustration." 

Oh man, does Mother Nature feel me. She knows my moods. She knows that this evening's rainfall is all too appropriate after the day I had, the week I had, I should say. The weather is my emotion's, twin, I'm telling you. Between my challenging class of one and a half year olds and my last couple weeks spent at Goddard, my eyes have been leaking lately, lets just say. I've felt frustration and a sense of happy and both are making me more emotional than a pregnant woman. I'm the biggest baby you'll ever meet, I swear to you.

 

What I need is a good downpour to cleanse my mind. And a vacation. I can cross one off the list tonight and the other come, early Sunday morning. Conveniently, today was my last day of work for 9 days and Joel and I are anxiously awaiting a road trip. We dreamed up this plan a couple months ago. Dreamed up, is that right? How do you say that? It's like hanged. Anyways, we developed this master plan and I am so excited we are following through. We are heading towards Utah and doing some camping in Moab. We knew we would never make this trip, after we move back to Wisconsin. Being six hours from Moab is far more manageable than like what, 18 hours? I've always wanted to visit those beautiful arches, stand underneath them. You can bet there will be some pictures taken. After Moab, it's back into Colorado to Telluride, down to Mesa Verde, the Four Corners, back up into Durango and Salida to visit one of my Mom's best friends from high school. We had an amazing last camping trip during the Fall last year, not too far from where we live and thinking about it makes me even more excited to do this road trip. We will be seeing a handful of great places we have not yet seen since we've lived in Colorado. What a wonderful way to start our last month in this beautiful state.

I suppose I can share a couple pictures from my Birthday weekend, last weekend. One of my best friends was in town. She had never been to Colorado, was truly running out of time, us being so close to our move and what better weekend than the one in between our Birthdays. There was nothing like having her here, basking in the sunshine in my backyard and drinking my morning coffee with her. Sharing some drinks, Birthday cards and gifts, laughs, cake, and just being in her presence, gosh, it was lovely.

 

Bridesmaid Material | pc: Joel Kachel

She bought me Drew Barrymore's book for my Birthday. I love cute and/or hilarious coffee table books like it. It's a book of pictures she's taken over the years, hearts in random objects, places. Hearts. Perfect. We all know how much I love love. 

Always wearing those leggings. 

And then look at what I found on my beer glass later that night. 

That's not just my very talented boyfriend playing music in the background, it's a heart puddle of beer placed so perfectly on my glass. Is this real life? 

 

When deciding what I wanted written on our Birthday cake, I took all three of us into account. With Tier having just turned twenty six, me twenty seven, and Joel twenty eight, we needed something fitting for all of us. This is what I went with: 

 

Sparkler candles that didn't really sparkler at all, but we didn't fret. 

 

We visited a couple friends in Denver that had just taken in five foster kittens. Five kittens. At once. Have you ever played with five kittens at the same time? It's happiness, at least, in my world.

 

 

I got no group pictures because the little buggers were speedy things and I was just thoroughly enjoying the moment. Picture this guy, plus four more. Skipping around. Biting each other's ears, wrestling. Greatness. How our friend will give them up, is beyond me. Good luck, Lia.

 

Joel's Mom was also in town for work and was able to stick around for a Joel Kachel show and our Birthday festivities. 

 

Mother In Law Material

Well, that's just not the best cell phone picture ever taken.

 

It was a short, sweet visit from a couple ladies I adore and I loved every minute of it, even though I wish they could have stuck around longer, have seen more, gone exploring. 

 

It's okay, there will be exploring done this week, lots of it. 

Road trip To-Do list, here I come! 

 

Moab road trip: 2 days 

Lana Del Rey at Red Rocks: 11 days 

(Another) best friend comes to town: 12 days 

Move back to the Midwest: 30 days 

 

 

 

It's getting more and more real.

The beard beanie I just couldn't resist.

Happy Birthday, E!

A lumberjack themed Birthday party helped us celebrate this guy turning 1. 

It's slowly getting more and more real, the fact that Joel and I are moving 15 hours away from this family, my best friend here. Alyssa and I both transferred to the same center, from centers we loved dearly but moved too far away from to continue to work at. I started a week before her and felt totally understanding to the tears she shed after her first day, when we closed the school and walked to our cars together. "I cried after my first day too," I told her. Bonding over the fact that this center, by no means compared to the ones we started at, I had a feeling about her and a great friendship. Eventually, we both moved on to other centers, where we were happier, the same company in different towns and we stayed close. I was thankful for my time at the first school, because I developed such a great friendship, as well as another with my co-teacher at the time. As we've gotten to know each other well these past few years, she is who I will miss the most, when I think about the people we've met during this chapter in our lives, the people we are leaving behind in this beautiful state. Getting to be apart of your life, getting to know you and yours, seeing your little man grow so much and develop such a fun personality, is something I will miss and treasure dearly. You have my permission to call me and make me become a phone person once and awhile, and I hope you do. I'll do my best to do the same. Being younger than me means nothing, you have taught me so much. You are my own personal Google and I will miss you like crazy. 

Everyday, I take in the sunshine in our living room, the comfort of our backyard, the trees, the outdoor couches, the fact that we have a backyard, the feeling like we're in the country when we're really in town and I feel so grateful that we found this place and so sad to be leaving it in two months. Saying goodbye to our first place together is not going to be easy.

Joel recently returned from back home, where he put in the new flooring in the basement of our future home, the house I grew up in. Frequently, as my end date at work draws near, I have been asked "So, you don't love Colorado as much as you thought you would? Why are you moving back home?" The truth is, with me being a teacher and Joel being a full time musician, us having jobs that we absolutely love and are passionate about but don't make much money for, we would spend the rest of our lives saving money to buy a house. The fact that my parents are allowing us to buy the house that I grew up in, for a great deal, well, we will be thanking them for the rest of our lives. I didn't always know that Hudson, Wisconsin was where I wanted to raise my family. Before I moved away, I knew that I hadn't been enough places around this amazing world to know where we wanted to set up shop, do the family thing. In our case, it took us moving 15 hours away, into another time zone, to realize that nothing compares to your roots. I know this isn't the case for everyone and that makes us feel even more lucky. Some people go away and have no desire to ever go back to where they grew up. There are people and things and mountains we will miss greatly, but we are ready to no longer watch all the babies in our lives grow up through Facebook and Instagram. We are ready to be involved in every single family event and never miss a wedding, anniversary dinner, reunion or graduation party again.

One more note, before I get on with this obligation free Saturday; my wonderful, caring, loving, encouraging, understanding, (I could go on but do I really need to?) other half turned 28 on the 31st of March. Twenty eight! We always talk about how fun growing up is and how old we thought, even a 20 year old was when we were still in high school. That just seemed so ancient. The fact that we are both now, closer to 30, well, we love it. And I'm convinced we are the only ones. 

Here's to you and how much more fun you make my life, just being in it.

Doing life with you is so wonderful.