Can't sleep

1.  Hosted holiday parties are OVER

Here is the thing...I LOVE hosting parties.  I love having people over at my house with the intention of providing them a GREAT night.  This past weekend was no different.  I enjoyed having Thanksgiving and finally hosting martini night.  I really do love having parties.  BUT right now I am also exhausted with school work and responsibilities.  So though I loved hosting -- I am excited that next weekend I am just attending.

One of the MANY trips to the store.  

 2. Martini Night
Jenna was in town and our kitchen is finally done so I decided to host martini night.  It was great.  I haven't seen Kara in months and it was wonderful to see baby Ana again.  It is always wonderful to sit down and reconnect with these women.  It doesn't happen enough but when it does - it is a ton of fun.

3. Christmas lights
Grateful that Mike tackles the Christmas lights.  When the boys were little this was something that I tried to take on (though not on the roof).  Our house looks great.  Thank you Rouzer!

4. Play-doh and other great things
Jack is starting to play INDEPENDENTLY.  I love how he just goes into his room and plays dinosaurs and uses his creativity.  Love. love. love.

5. free time
Since I had girls night at our house on Saturday, Mike & Josh took all of the kids up to the cabin.  That meant on Sunday morning I had a few hours of FREE time.  I had to pick up the mess from the night before but then I headed out to do some Christmas shopping.  I was able to get a LOT completed.  It was pretty heavenly.

5:04am

1. Thanksgiving

I think it is officially official.  We have the BEST Thanksgiving table.  That being said, we had another wonderful Thanksgiving at our house.  This year we had a few more hiccups than usual but overall the day was still really freaking fabulous.  Best parts: talking to family & playing Bingo after dinner.  

 2. Brotherly Love
Because of the Thanksgiving week we have the boys for almost an entire week.  I decided to post this picture of their electronics because they are OBSESSED.  We try to lay down pretty strict rules in the house (these devices are usually at Greg's) but when we let them play -- they are glued.

Back to the brotherly love...I am so grateful that the twins love on Jack and take care of him and that Jack is over the moon in love with his brothers.  One of my favorite things in this world is their love for each other.

3. Jack's New Bed
Has this made the blog yet?  I know that there is not much of a blog anymore but this was a pretty great change for this dude.  Jack transition into his big boy bed a few weeks ago.  The transition was not hard for the adults because Jack was crawling out of his crib a few times a night.  He has been sick the last few weeks so it has made it significantly easier to read with him in bed, sing songs and spend a few extra moments loving on him as he falls asleep.  In the morning, every day, every SINGLE day, he walks out of his room and says, "I'm awake!!" With a huge smile on his face and so so proud of himself.

Ironically as I was typing out the words, "I'm awake" he said it again.  Followed by, "I wake up!"

Yup - he loves to be awake.  (It's 5:04am right now)

4. Adult night out
Last weekend we actually had a night out with Tasha and AJ.  We went to dinner in Broad Ripple and then on a bar crawl!  Broad Ripple has changed a ton since I frequented there 17 years ago (HOLY SHIT - I am OLD). I am so grateful for our friendship with these two.

5.  School is almost OVER
I have one more project that I am finishing next week.  This is HUGE HUGE HUGE for our family because I spend so many hours at work and finishing up my Masters.  The past few days I have been thinking about how I want to spend my time and I decided I want to do a puzzle.  Yup, sit down, at our big ass table every night and do a puzzle.  Doesn't that sound heavenly?

It is FRIDAY

1. Rouzer

He is on this list every day.  He is the best.  So grateful that he cooks all of the meals, helps support me in all of my dreams, keeps my feet on the ground and is my biggest supporter.  I have no interest in doing this life without him.  So freaking grateful for such a wonderful man.

2. Impractical Jokers

While I am on the topic of Mike....this week he introduced me to this show.  I LOVE it.  I was laughing so hard the other night I was crying.  It might be a new favorite.

3. Working on my capstone project

I am officially working on my capstone project.  I have been trying to fly through this program as fast as possible without completely losing my shit (though that has happened frequently).  I can officially see the end in sight and I am PUMPED.  I have a feeling there will be a lot of computer time in the next few weeks.  Then off to Vegas to CELEBRATE.

4. 3am wake up calls
Yup.  Two days in a row.  Please pray that this is not a trend.  I was able to get him to go back to sleep this morning BUT I was awake and not able to shut back down.  **Insert crying emoji here**

5. LIVE on Facebook
This journey has successfully taken me OUT of my comfort zone.  I have learned a lot about myself and some of my strengths and weaknesses.  It has been really insightful and I think has helped me in my current role at CHVH.  I won't be selling toothpaste forever.  That is for sure.  BUT right now I am loving the extra cash and all of the little lessons along the way.

Again -- a shoutout to Mike who helps me with things like Facebook live and figuring out how to juggle all of these things!

one more post.

Yes!!! I'm back.  Clearly I did not do well on the entire MONTH of October so I am just going to pick up right here.  WAY to much to fill you in on.  So in order to make the transition smooth from NOT HAVING MY SHIT TOGETHER to being completely spot on..... I am going to do an early morning list AND a few random pictures.

1. Coffee
It's made the list before - it will make the list again.  It's sort of like my crutch to get through the day. Recently I have started drinking coffee around 2pm to boost me through the afternoon and be a fully functional wife and mom in the evenings.  I am currently sitting in the dark of the morning, drinking my coffee, and it is making my soul HAPPY.

2. The kitchen is done -- ALMOST
It's really the kitchen, floors and half bath....but either way....it's almost completed. I am excited for my garage to go back to normal and to have a toilet paper holder in the bathroom.  We have had a functioning kitchen for weeks and that goes without saying -------- SO FREAKING GRATEFUL.

3. The twins turned 8.
That's a pretty big deal in my book.  Yup, time is officially flying by and not so painstakingly hard with these two.  (Now the 2 year old.....wowzers...but that's a different story)  These two have been ultra easy and fun to be around.  I also miss them like crazy on most days because I have started to share my weekday evenings with Greg.

4. Mike cooks dinner EVERY NIGHT
My husband is pretty fabulous about a lot of things but this is one that makes me grateful every single night.  This man usually has dinner started or almost finished when I walk in the door from work.  I will admit, it has made me a mess in the kitchen when it is actually my turn to cook but for right now I am in love with this arrangement.

5. TWO classes left of school
Right now I am on track to finish school by the end of the year.  My goal is to have it completed, graded and FINISHED by Dec 13th which means I need to bust out some solid hours of work these next few weeks.  All the extra time on my computer makes me want to stay away from my computer for everything else (hence why I haven't done the blog).  I will be so PUMPED when this is completed.

Mike has been on two hunting trips in Ohio.

Love the slumber parties with this crew.  **Last night at the Abel's**

Just SOME of the costumes at work last week.  

We are in full fledge dance part mode in our new kitchen.  We LOVE the dance parties.

He actually thought this was his new bed that I was buying him at IKEA a few weeks ago.

A picture from their party.  Is this real?  WOW.

My favorite FAVORITE holiday to celebrate with my kids.  

Late night meeting of the minds.  

STILL in the toothpaste BIZ.  

I MUST SAY -- this was a super fast blog post and easy to get out and down on paper.  That being said -- I will be furiously trying to get my school work done this month and I am not sure how much I will be posting over the next few weeks.

OCTOBER

It has been awhile since my last post.  I have been terrible at this 40+ hour a week thing.  I go go go at work all day and then I find that I don't have much energy for anything else besides playing with my kids, chit chatting with Mike and heading to bed.  I haven't woken up early in WEEKS.  I have lots of pictures and captions to share but first I will do a quick 5.

1. I am making coffee in my kitchen.
OUR COUNTERS ARE INSTALLED.  Though we still don't have a kitchen faucet and there are a few more details that Luke needs to come finish up....we have counters!!!

2.  The boys got so much better at baseball.
Though we surprisingly lost our first playoff game, this season it was actually fun to watch!  I even made a new friend so it made the entire thing extra fun.  I am actually looking forward to them getting better and watching them play next year.

3. I am liking my job.
The new gig is extremely challenging for me and tests my creative thinking, independence and judgement on a moment to moment basis.  I am learning so freaking much that sometimes (most of the time) I want to slow down to have time to think through my decisions.  I do see a light at the end of this crazy tunnel where I am not on full speed at all times but right now I am enjoying the ride.  For the most part.

Best part -- I rarely RARELY get emails after 430pm.


**The last two are at the bottom of the post.  Sorry for the break.  Enjoy the pictures**

How we ate food for a few weeks.

The joys of watching soccer.  Our team is TERRIBLE but Owen is clearly the best on the team so I think he is having a blast.

Cookout with old friends

Jack was making sure to follow Ezra around extra closely.

School work ALL day on Sunday.  I was able to get another class finished.  Only 4 left!

I rarely do homework with the boys because of my schedule.  I love sitting with them while they read.

...The night Mike got in an argument with the back neighbor.....but they made up and it ended in some YUMMY beer.  **Take note -- Ivy Hills HATES fireworks**

Something pierced the diet coke in my bag.  I noticed it in the middle of the aisle at Walmart.  Ugh.  Another reason to hate Walmart.

Completely, 100% out of my comfort zone at whale of a sale.  Learning from the best.

School picture day.  He was sort of a mess about what to wear.  Between the two of us we probably feed off each other.

When I was ordering hot chocolate for the daycare workers one morning Jack over heard and thought I ordered him chocolate milk.  When I got to the window I purchased a special Friday treat for him too.  :)

Jared's wedding.  AMAZING.

cleaning up trash in the neighborhood for their school project.  Greg did the work with them.

Micah's HUGS.  We are obsessed with playing with our neighbors.

4. Jack's clothes
For the past few weeks Jack has based his whole day off what type of clothes he is wearing.  For example, today he has a dog on his shirt so he wants to watch dog cartoons and pretends to be a dog all day.  He will ask to eat dog food when you ask him what he wants for lunch. One day I convinced him to wear a bike shirt.  Bike cartoons are hard to find at 5am.  haha

5. It's the weekend.
I want to wear sweatpants. Go to the gym, hit up soccer a few times and DO NOTHING.  So freaking excited to be able to put our house back together.  **So I guess that will take time** And then we will put up halloween directions.  PUMPED.

Lots of captions

I'm another week behind on posting.  This week, like all of the rest, have been really busy.  Instead of the normal 5 I am going to just put captions on the photos so you can have a jest about what is going on.

We finished staying at my parents house.  On this particular morning Jack started eating the lunches that I was making because he was up at 445am!

More grandparent spoils.....having twinkis in the lowest drawer so he ate them after breakfast.

The suicide walk with Julia.  The boys were AMAZING.  I was personally about to break down from heat and exhaustion. The kids were on their absolute best behavior.  It was impressive.

Owen's chalk drawing.

Ice cream treats to try and cool down.

After the suicide walk we went to the Stahley house for their annual fall, ND gathering.  This is what Jack's feet looked like after a long day.  He was an absolute mess.  

Nap accomplished on one of our many walks.

We were hiding behind a curtain while waiting for daddy to get home.  Once Jack heard Mike's voice he couldn't hide any longer and started running for a hug.

The routine: eating dinner out. I miss my kitchen.

It's starting to come together and I LOVE it.  We have spent SO. MUCH. MONEY. but it is so a huge change and so so so wonderful.

I don't know if I shared this before but our half bath has been out of commission for a few months.  The toilet was sinking into the floor.  Yup.
So we added the bathroom onto this project.  

It has been a strange two weeks at work.  I LOVE being busy.  I love learning new skills and growing in different skills.  I had this post in my phone because I sent it to my clinical supervisor, Kristin.  I do see the light at the end of the tunnel!

Getting prepared for next week.  One thing that I love about toothpaste is that I am pushed out of my comfort zone.  I love that the harder I work -- the more I earn.  Though I don't have time for a hobby, I am glad that I found this one.

On Thursday night I headed straight from work to the Dave Ramsey Live event.  Dave taught me a TON when I was in nursing school. I paid off credit cards and learned to never carry a balance again.  I started paying off my Butler student loans and learned how to STOP spending money.  Though I don't follow his baby steps anymore, hands down his podcast and way of thinking helped build a solid foundation as we begin to build wealth.

$24 drinks as we watch Dave.  I am absolutely sure that he would not agree to this purchase.  

Another night out for dinner.  Last night after work we hit up Books and Brews before looking at a new car for Mike.