Good for the Soul

Do you ever have a moment when you just stop and reflect on life?  

It must've been the time I spent alone in the car this past weekend. Pure silence.

During this little piece of silence I found myself smiling. Smiling to myself.

It was dark outside. The radio was off. Just me and the road.

Before I knew it I was nearing home.

This made me smile even more.

I pictured my sleeping baby all snuggled up in the corner of her crib breathing peacefully.

I rolled the windows down. Turned on the radio. Breathed in the cool night air.

And just sighed.

"What a wonderful life this is" I thought to myself.

This "what a wonderful life" kind of weekend went somthin' like this......

My honey returned from his work trip to OKC on Friday afternoon. A couple hours later the two of us were headed out the door for a night out. Maddie was a sweetheart and came over to babysit for the evening. Don't even start to ask me when the last time was that we went out on a date (and hospital work dinners and parties don't count!) We had been invited to join some new friends for dinner that night. One of Riley's new providers, Shawna, and her husband Jon were meeting us along with my new friend Lauren and her husband Chris. It was just the perfect night out. Lots of laughs over dinner and some drinks to follow at the Moose Lodge. Of course we left saying that we were in need of nights like that more often. But going out with friends also reminded us that everyone else with small children is in the same boat. Oh, the parenting boat. The next day I jumped overboard off of that boat for a day in Enid with my family. It was a daddy/daughter day back in Woodward and it appeared that she wasn't feelin' the pain of having mommy gone.....

Riley's text read: "it's lunch time momma!"

I had an amazing afternoon hosting Bailey's bridal shower with my Aunt Lisa. It was just nice being surrounded by so many people that I love and adore for the day. I must also mention that it was nice being able to spend time with them without having to chase around a certain little girl. But I did pay for not bringing her along with me. I thought grandma and the aunts were going to strangle me for leaving her back at home. There was much mention of that silly Hallie girl throughout the day. It was around 4:30 that I really started missing my girl and wanted a teleportation machine to bring her to me. Since I didn't have one of those machines on hand I opted for a ride on this machine......

After us bridesmaids tried on our dresses and cleaned up the room where the bridal shower had been we all met up at Aunt Lisa and Uncle David's house. It was hard to miss the huge, shiny new toy in their garage. Dave got a new Harley this week and she's a beauty. If you know me well then you well know that I'm not a fan of things that go fast or have any sort of danger involved. So we can mark bikes off the list then. But for some reason I have the urge to take a ride with him. He happily obliged and Lisa did the honors of tying the do-rag on my head....and off we went. I think my cares and worries literally flew out of my head and off my shoulders as I rode. A few of the other ladies took turns going for a ride too....

It happened to be my uncle Lonnie's birthday so the twelve of us went out for dinner at Rib Crib. It was great seeing grandma get back out and be able to walk around everywhere we went on Saturday. I stuffed my face plenty well. ;) We spent the rest of the evening sitting around outside at Lisa and David's helping Bailey pick music for the wedding ceremony. It was probably a sight to see from an onlooker's point of view....there were five of us who had our phones out searching itunes and taking turns playing sappy love song options and singing along. I really didn't want to leave but it was late and I was exhausted. I swung by dad's house to pick up some of my old rocking chairs for Hallie and then headed home. Riley and Hal were both asleep and I couldn't resist going in to peek at my sweetie sleeping...

....come morning time she was not as happy to see me as I'd expected. After five minutes of punishment for leaving her on Saturday she decided that she loved me again and that we could be friends. ;) Thank goodness because this precious church outfit made me want to squeeze her little guts out (I mean that in the most loving way possible!) Seriously, could this chevron dress and baby wedge shoes be any cuter?

Nope!

And don't get me started about the sassy girl wearing the dress.....

The shoes were a little too big though

After church my pals went out to survey the yard and see what needed to be done.....

Our backyard had turned into an official workzone. No, really. Riley wasn't messin' around when he said that the backyard would be off limits for 4-6 weeks so that the grass seed could grow without being trampled by the dogs. He was serious.....

NO DOGS ALLOWED

Riley jumped right into his day full of yardwork. It was getting pretty hot outside and was nearing 90 degrees. Yowza! I'd forgotten what that felt like. But it wasn't long until I was fully re-introduced to the heat.....ON A 7 MILE RUN!!!!! I hadn't planned on doing something so ridiculous until we were driving home from church and I noticed a few people running. It donned on me that my two to three miles I've been putting in each day will more than likely not serve me well come race day in a month. 13.1 miles. Holy Moses! I needed to do something and I needed to do it fast. I immediately made plans to go die....in the heat. If anyone found me alongside the road I put in a request to Riley that my headstone read "here lies an idiot."

But before I left on that fun journey Hal and I had a couple hours of playtime. I suddenly remembered that I had a front carseat full of gifts and surprises for Hal gal from family. When I walked in with the bags of goodies she spotted the colorful Easter bag and started running in place with her "get excited" look on her little face. I placed the bag on the ground and she went to town taking out each egg and gift one by one.....

"This is AWESOME!!!!!"

Aunt Lana had sent this lovely bag of Easter goodies home with me to give to Hal. Can you guess what she was most interested in?????

Yeah, you guessed it.

Aunt B had picked up this adorable bee Easter basket for her favorite niece so we filled him with some eggs....

Hal tried on the incredibly cute new summer outfits from Aunt Lisa. The girl's set for warm weather! Her little eyes were wide with happiness and she kept scanning the floor looking at all of her new goodies. But there was one more bag lying on the ground begging to be opened. Cousin Aaron had picked up some greatly desired Zoo Talkers zoo animals for Hallie last week. An entire bag full!

"Mr. Hippo, we've got a lot of playing to do."

While I excitedly unpacked her animals she was much more interested in the books that came along with them.....

Keep on reading baby girl!

But there was only so much patience I had.....I was thrilled to check out the new animals and their noises. We plopped each new animal on the talking stand and listened to them growl and gallop and rawr. Why was I so excited about a baby toy? Well, ya see....these puppies are hard to come by. Rumor has it that these little animals fly off the shelves the day they arrive at the store and they are out of stock online. So that's why this momma was so excited when Amy snagged some for Hallie. Oh yeah, Hallie was excited too....

By some small miracle we have only had one casualty at the zoo. Emmi got ahold of Mr. Giraffe and had a snack. He's in need of a special helmet or something....

Gang's all here!

While my zookeeper daughter slept the afternoon away I set off on the long journey. I'm thrilled to say that the only time I had to stop was to send a text and later to get a drink of water. I took a different approach on this run.....when I felt like I couldn't run any longer I just prayed. Literally....I prayed and thanked God for legs to run, a heart that's healthy and the pretty sunshine that was giving my white skin some color. And somehow my idiot self could've been spotted with a goofy smile on my face the whole time. As hard as running the darned seven miles all by my lonesome was....it was well worth it and ironically one of the most relaxing things I did all day. At this point I thought I'd gone insane....smiling while running??? This just doesn't make sense. I think I still had a happy hangover from my staycation away from work. That's the only plausible explanation. ;) I'm halfway to a half-marathon. How's the saying go? "If you can run seven miles then you can run thirteen".....right????? Yeah, I didn't think so. I'll just keep on keepin' on...and hope that there's some other idiot out there who wants to run with me next time.

When I walked through the door and immediately darted for some water I spotted an array of adorable clothes on the dining room table. Looks like Nanny had snuck in and left a surprise from her shopping trip the day before. Holy cuteness! Just check out those ladybug matching sets!!

Riley was in the backyard sweating like crazy, digging up old trees and bushes, trimming back hazardous limbs, evening the ground in the backyard and planting grass seed. Sheesh! Have I ever mentioned that I'm forever grateful for that man? Well, I am.

Hallie woke up in a great mood. Hallelujah. The weather was feeling just like a summer day so guess what we did?

That's right! Swimsuit, summer hat, sunscreen, no shoes and a cool fruit snack. Oh yeah and sunglasses!!!

Aunt Katie and cousin Carmen came over to hang out and take a walk around the neighborhood. The girls were fine with our plans and stayed happily content in their strollers during our walk. Girl time was just what we both needed! I finally lured my worn out yard worker into the house with the promise of some dinner. We spent the rest of the evening outdoors relaxing and watching Hallie play. Neither of us did a whole lot of moving....let's just say we were feeling a tad bit old and sore.

This Negative Nancy had a Positive Patty kind of weekend.

And it was good for the soul.