MomCon (MOPS Convention)

I had a great time going out to Missouri for a visit with an old friend and to attend the MOPS convention with 9 other women from my Mothers of Preschoolers group.  I flew out a few days early with Julie and Lynn to hang out with a former Pantano MOPS mom, Kate.  We had a lot of fun just chatting, meeting her friends, and visiting an Amish town. 

 

And at Momcon I got to go to some awesome workshops on various topics like marriage, mothering, spiritual journey, organization, etc.  I got to meet Kathi Lipp who wrote 'The Husband Project' which we did as a bible study at church.  Beth Moore was a speaker during a general session as well as Jen Hatmaker (who was my favorite speaker) and Sarah Drew from 'Grey's Anatomy' made a surprise appearance and spoke about mothering and a new movie called 'Mom's Night Out' which I have to see!!!!! 

Meeting Kathi Lipp

Excited to see Sarah Drew

Ready for 70's themed Mom Prom

 

SURPRISE!!!

It started 2 years ago when I told Tony that I expected a surprise party for my 30th birthday.  Every once in a while I'd tell him ideas of things I liked and fun party ideas because well, I'm just that annoying.  So then fast forward to 3 weeks before my birthday...we were at a couples counseling session and had extra time so I said, 'I'm worried that Tony's not planning anything for my 30th birthday and I'm gonna be totally ticked if he's not planning anything, blah, blah, blah'  So after talking for a while about it, I felt pretty confident that he was in fact planning something, I just didn't know what exactly.  As the weeks progressed, I found out that my mother in law was coming down the weekend after my birthday, which led me to think that the party was also going to be the weekend after my birthday.  Then I got invited by my friend Katie to go out to lunch at Zin Burger the Sunday after my birthday, so I asked Tony if that was ok and he said, "I think you should go."  Then I started to think that all my friends would be waiting for me at zinburger and it'd be a big surprise birthday lunch.  Well then my mother in law came down on Saturday and said, 'I need to give your your present now because I can't till ... tonight... to give it to you.'  So then I thought, maybe the lunch isn't actually happening and it was just to throw me off and there's actually a party tonight.  But then there wasn't a party that night.  When we played games Saturday night I kept looking around and seeing what a disaster our house was and definitely didn't want it to look like that in case people were coming over the next day so I kept asking if I should clean up the house but they looked at me like I was nuts.  On Sunday morning Tony conveniently woke his mom up too late to go to church with us so she stayed home and when we got back, the whole house was clean.  She said she was eating at our dining room table and noticed that it was smudged, so she cleaned it and then just couldn't stop herself from cleaning the rest of the house.  Riiiiiight.  I definitely thought something was up then!  I went to lunch with Katie and when we were seated there were 4 other friends sitting there with a birthday balloon and they yelled 'surprise!'  I was so happy and truly surprised and honestly felt kind of dumb thinking that there'd be a party at my house. 

 

Anyway, the waitress let me order a kids meal because I absolutely LOVE their chicken tenders with ranch and I discovered the wonder of their onion rings too, oh so good!  As we were getting up to leave, Katie told me that I should be really proud of Tony because he made sure I got a meal out with friends without kids or husbands.  On our way back to my house, we pulled around the corner on our street and there weren't any extra cars parked anywhere.  I figured at that point, there was definitely nothing going on at our house.  I walked up to the door and noticed there was our kids meal bag from the desert museum sitting in the window above our front door which I thought was odd, but I imagined Nola just chucked it up there randomly.  Then I looked through the front window because the door was locked and nobody was in the living room, but I did see a card table through the back window with a plastic table cloth on it so I thought maybe they'd tell me that we were having some friends over to play games later or something.  I opened the door and everyone jumped out to yell 'SURPRISE!'  Tony then told me to open the door with more gusto because in the kids meal bag there was a bunch of confetti that was supposed to fall on me when I opened the door.  So I went out and did it again.  The whole party was amazing!  I'm so very pleased with the hubby on this one!  The decorations and cake and food (most things recipes off my pinterest food board) were awesome and they had tables set up with some of my favorite games sitting out to play.  I sprinkled confetti on everyone (which there was a TON of *smiles*) and we played a game of Cranium and I got some really fun gifts.  It was just great!  

Thanks to all who worked to make this day special for me!  I'm so blessed to have the amazing friends and family that I do and I'm so very happy to be alive, today and everyday! 

The Big 3-0!

I had an absolutely wonderful birthday!  On my birthday, Tony took the day off work so we went to the Desert Museum (my favorite thing to do in Tucson).  It was a cool and crisp day, there were a few sprinkles, but not enough to deter our fun.  We saw lots of animals and then stopped at the cafe for some delicious lunch...I just loooove their fries. 

Then after coming home, we watched the movie 'Now You See Me' which was good and got takeout from my favorite thai place, Sa-Ing.  It was a great day! 

30 Years Have Come and Gone

It's hard to believe that this day marks my 30th year on Earth.  I've had so many amazingly wonderful memories over the years and I'm hoping for many more to come.   I hate to harp on my near death experience once again, but having an event like that happen really does change you, or at least it did for me.  Now when I do something, I want to have the fullest experience possible and I want to leave a lasting impression of someone who truly enjoys life.  Whether or not I'm accomplishing this, I don't know, but I truly hope I'm making this world a better place to be. 

 I am so blessed to have traveled the road I have in this life.  Even though there were some hard times, I have been refined and come out on the other side with a thankful heart.  I am surrounded by people who love me.  Family and friends who have stuck by my side when the going got rough and have laughed during all the fun too.  I have a truly amazing man for my husband and God has given us two beautiful and wonderful children.  I can't imagine the years to come being any better than the last 30, but I know God has great plans.  ;)