Speechless. Amazed. Blessed. Part II

But wait, there was more...

Friday night was the ultimate surprise party to date--with my parents and siblings and good friends and family flown in, and I honestly thought it couldn't get any better!

Then, Saturday night happened. OH. MY. HECK. We were going to dinner at Firebirds in Southpark. I am thinking just with the family. I walk in, and Hubby has ANOTHER surprise party with local friends and don't worry, my childhood friend, Aimee, who I hadn't seen in 15 years, was there! I am embarrassed to admit there was a good deal of jumping up and down and screaming, but afterwards we spent a wonderful dinner catching up and listening to family and friends take turns talking about me. A little overwhelming, but what a great time! At this point, I was wondering if my name spelled out in fireworks or a hot air balloon ride back to the house was in store (hehheh). Little did I know, Hubby had also arranged for me, Aimee, and my MIL and SIL's and girlfriends to spend the morning at the spa getting Swedish massages and manis and pedis. Then we shopped, we ate, laughed, lounged by the pool, had the BEST. TIME. EVER.

I can't thank enough all my wonderful friends and family, especially my bestie Kim, and EVERYTHING she and her family did to help my Hubby plan and execute everything so beautifully and perfectly. And to my Hubby, what can I say? You are amazing. I'm lucky to have you.

The best part? I didn't have a clue any of it would happen. Honestly. NOT ONE.

Speechless. Amazed. Blessed.

Yesterday I was rendered speechless. The surprise was perfection. I have to say, I didn't have a clue. They dropped false hints and clues and had me going in different directions. My wonderful AMAZING husband and family and friends, they planned for months and flew in from all over the US and coordinated a massive 40th birthday party, for ME. Can you say humbled and awed? Seriously, when I walked into that party last night, and saw my family (from both sides!) and dearest friends all there, I felt like the luckiest person in the world.

I am the luckiest person in the world. I am so blessed to have amazing people like this in my life. I'm still kind of speechless. And you know how often that happens.

So, to my astoundingly AWESOME Hubby and family and friends, THANK YOU, I can't manage anything other words. You made yesterday one of the best days of my life.

XOXO Lara

I'm Amazing.

Okay, I'm totally NOT, but it got your attention, right? ;-)

I just made up a phrase. It seriously just came out of my brain. And I'm sure there's 979468 variations of it out there (I googled and didn't see any but it's not like I'm going to sift through 10584769586 pages of hits to verify).

ANYWAYIRAMBLETOOMUCH, here is my inspirational saying of the day:

"After trying and trying, sometimes it's best to acknowledge the existence of a brick wall. That's when you go and get yourself a sledgehammer."

That's me sometimes. I try and try, and FAIL, miserably (as I suspect some of you do) and I guess sometimes we just need to think outside the box, and try a different approach. A sledgehammer is definitely harder than my skull, so there you go. ;-)

I am off and running today--the kids' basketball hoop is going in tomorrow! They poured the concrete for it last week, and tomorrow they set it up, but I have to run to Home Depot and get gravel to weigh down the sandbag thingies on the ends of the ball return net.

Am starting to not like the fact all my favorite stores are at least 15 minutes away...

Oh well. Happy Thursday!

AND I'M BACK!!!! DIDJA MISS ME???

Yes, I have now joined the Land of the Living. Three weeks. THREE WEEKS of being sick and finally battling a sinus infection. (Heh heh, one of those weeks was spent tending the other sickies in the family.) I've always wondered why we can't win the lottery with viruses. Instead of getting a nasty virus all at once and all of us being sick in one week (and DONE) we get sick ONE. AT. A. TIME. and when you have a family of six, you're down for a month solid. I think my washing machine will fall over dead from shock if I program it to anything other than the "sanitary" cycle at this point.

So, all is well in the household. I am super busy, but busy is good. I started working out with a personal trainer on Monday (is it bad that I'm still so sore I can't go DOWN the stairs and I scream whenever I have to sit down on a toilet seat?) and he's got me on a nutrition plan (BOO) and a workout plan (YAY) and I'm lucky because Hubby is super fit and we have a whole room in our house full of workout equipment. A gym, elliptical, treadmill, free weights, bosu, medicine ball, bands. etc. etc. etc. and really the only thing I had to buy was a large and ridiculously heavy workout thingy called a kettle bell. A 20-pound thing I have to swing between my legs and up into the air. (I don't question the trainer, I do the ridiculous things that will somehow mold this pudgy body back into shape.) Even if I look...special while I'm doing them...

I'm dejunking my house, writing away on my sequel (I already have 25K!) and every once in a while I glance at my "to be read" pile of books wistfully, but that just isn't going to happen anytime soon. Because even when my family goes on vacation, we don't RELAX. We run around and around looking at all the cool stuff and cramming activities into our schedules until we fall, exhausted into our beds at night. (Kinda like being at home, only in a more tropical setting.) So, my stack of books will probably get read sometimes in late 2014. No one's perfect.

I hope everyone has a fabulous Wednesday!!