have i mentioned how amazing my Mr. is?

Scot loves surprising me and doing little things to make sure I know I'm cherished.  

He's amazing and I love it.

Our 6th Anniversary

Can you believe it's been an entire year since our last anniversary and trip to Niagara Falls?!  We really couldn't either, but we will say that last year has been one of sweet bliss.  Of falling more and more in love.  It's been a year of growth and coming into our own on a new and different level than before.  There was something about hitting 5 years (and me turning 27) that made us feel more established.  More of a family unit rather than a couple with a couple kids.  It also helped that Scot's schedule has been better this past year and we actually got to see quite a bit of him.

Anyway.

This year we wrapped part of Scot's 30th birthday present up with our anniversary and went to Cedar Point - Roller Coaster Capital - about an hour away.  It was on our "Cleveland Bucket List", and neither of us had been to an amusement park since high school.   We left the boys with friends all day and Saturday night in order to fully enjoy all the park had to offer.

Let me tell ya what, it was like nothing I'd ever seen before, and the rides were better (and worse) than I could have imagined.  Better, in the sense of speed and drops and adrenaline rushes, and worse in the way they made my stomach feel after.  Both Scot and I walked around after a few of them feeling like our brains had come loose.  And on some of the older wooden rides I had tears in my eyes as we finished and they were not tears of excited fear - they were unfortunately tears of pain.  I wasn't quite heavy enough to not bounce uncontrollably around, and my stomach didn't quite like all the jolting either. 

You know those pictures they take of you while you're on the ride?  Well, we looked at a few of them and in each and every one I look a) petrified, b) horrified c) terrorized or d) a combination of the three.

Needless to say, the rollarcoasters where only a lap guard (and nothing over the shoulders) was in place were not my favorite.  Not the rule, but on the whole I much more enjoyed the coasters where I felt more secure and there was less opportunity to be thrown about.  My favorite rides were the "swing-like" rides or ones that just went fast. 

Overall, we had a great time.  It was hot and crowded, but what's a true amusement park adventure without that?

If you're interested in going, these were my favorites:

• Magnum XL - had to be in the first car for this one so I could see where I was going
• Mantis
• Maverick - again, had to be in front.  Tried it in the last car before we left and it was NOT fun
• Raptor
• Top-Thrill Dragster
• Wicked Twister
• SkyHawk
• Maxair - favorite!

Ones I would never ever go on again! (all wooden ones and horrible to your back and neck!)

• Blue Streak
• Mean Steak
• Gemini

The Millennium Force would probably been a favorite had I been in one of the front cars instead of the back (there's just something about seeing what's coming, right?), lesson learned: on big, tall, fast rides, BE ABLE TO SEE WHERE YOU'RE GOING! 

So that was our Saturday.  It was a great way to celebrate the wild and crazy ride these last 6 years have been!  I wouldn't trade them for anything.

Sunday, our actual anniversary was spent as a wonderful family-day topped off with a trip to Yogurt Vi, a fro yo place nearby where we each picked our favorite and topped it with fun goodies. 

Oh, boys...where are you?

The boys are at the point where they get together and hatch a plan.  They play together all. the. time.  And thankfully, most of the time is with giggles and not tears.


They are truly best friends.  (Oddly enough, I've had 3 different people in the last 36 hours ask me if they were twins.  And no, they were not little old ladies, either!)


Anyway.

The other day, I walked upstairs to hear laughter coming from the bathroom.  Usually this means water everywhere and I was not looking forward to getting them back in line or cleaning up the mess.  But when I looked in, I didn't see a thing.

Yet, I still heard the laughter.

Without them knowing (and without knowing what I would get on the camera), I took this picture.

And then this one.

Evan wasn't too happy that his new little "fort" had a gaping hole in the wall due to my "peeking".

I guess they decided to have a dry bath! 

Suits me just fine!

Home

In a little over a week, Scot and I will celebrate 6 years since I said "I do" and put a ring on my finger to symbolize my never-ending love and commitment to him.  That little ring-finger on my left hand has been home to that ring ever since and very very rarely do I ever take it off.  For the last 10 days, though, I've felt naked.  Like something was missing.  In fact, there was something missing.  MY RING!!!

Due to some flattening on the tips of the prongs, we sent the ring back to the jeweler to have them fix the problem.  I sure didn't want to look down one day and not see my diamond!  But registered mail takes forever even if it is the safest, and it's been a long 10 days.

I've been waiting at home all day.  Nervous to even go for a walk around the block as I knew today was the day my ring was coming in.  Never have I been more relieved and excited to hear my doorbell ring in the middle of nap-time. 

And my goodness!  Not only did they add more metal to my prongs, but they made the ring look brand-spankin'-new!  Makes me remember just how precious and special my relationship with Scot is. 

Ahh...feels so good to have my ring home again.

Signs...

...of a cool August day.

And I'm not talking the groovy kind of cool, although it was that, too.  I'm talking the "high of 68" kind of day.  A gray and misty kind of day.  A wear-your-sweatshirt kind of day.  The sweatshirt we had to go dig out of the fall clothes.

In celebration of our now signed contract, and in conjuncture with the fact Scot worked all day on Sunday, the papa of this house decided to take Saturday as a "family day" -- and he couldn't have picked a better day.

Micro-machines were pulled out and played with.  This momma was able to run to the farmer's market solo, dressed in layers and toting my tote. I met up with a friend, grabbed some coffee and spent an hour chatting and drooling over all the delicious produce.  (ok.  Not literally, people.  That was figurative)   All I have to say is that it's a good thing I go to this market with a list and a meal plan in my head or else I would be in trouble.  Big trouble.

Back to our family day.

There was more wrestling (about 2 hours worth I think) that has even happened at one time before.  It was wonderful to hear the peals of laughter and the grunts of pure boy-joy.  Naps were taken and appreciated by all.

The best part of everyone's day, though?  Hot cocoa and stories read by daddy!

I made up some of my special hot cocoa and Scot brought down a huge stack of books.  He read to the boys for about an hour and got through about half the stack!  I was impressed!


Scot and I finished off the night with a big bowl of popcorn and watching The Artist.  Not a movie I'd see again, but worth a watch if you haven't seen it already. 

Big News

So we have some pretty big news to share. (no, I'm not pregnant) If you're on facebook, chances are you've already seen.  But for those of you who aren't, or haven't seen...WE'RE GOING TO COLORADO FOR GOOD!!

First, let me back up.   In May, Scot sent his CV and cover letter out to a ton of different places both here in OH and all up and down the I-25 corridor.  From Ft Collins all the way down to Pueblo.  We really wanted to get "home" and so we decided to start our search early and make it wide.

We got a few emails back from different places, but most of them were quite what we were looking for.  And then, an email came that just simply said "Saw your CV and cover letter and would like to talk to you about a position in Denver."

Denver?!  Seriously?!  That's our dream within a dream.  Colorado would be fantastic, but Denver would be a dream come true.  Scot and I just loved living there and we've always wanted to move back.  There are so many reasons.  Friends already there.  Family very close (his uncle is in Denver).  Family only an hour away.  Great zoo and kid things to do.  Food.  Art.  Mountains.  Skiing.  Homeschool-friendly if we decide to go that direction.  Lots of Classical charter schools if we decided to go that direction, too.  The boys growing up with grandparents nearby which is something I didn't grow up with and really wish for them.   And then there's this indescribable "click" that happens in us whenever we drive into Denver.  Like something inside of us just says "ok.  you're home now."   And there's a pull to that.

So when we got an email from someone with a position in Denver you know we were excited about even the possibility.  So Scot emailed him times that would work for him to talk.  Amazingly, he was post call and available all day to talk. And talk he did.  For over an hour.

And then Scot got passed along to someone else.  Someone who dealt with only hospitalists in that area (the original contact was the general recruiter).  Again, over an hour on the phone.  Twice.  And again, he got passed up a level.  We were told there was a position that could be held.  We were reservedly excited.

At the end of this 4 person ladder there were more phone calls.  More things that started lining up.  Everything seemed almost-too-goo-to-be-true. Good hospital? check.  In-patient only? check.  Flexible/fair scheduling? check.  Family-friendly group? check.  Scot can care for his patients in the ICU and do procedures? check and check.  And most importantly, maybe, is Scot the primary acting physician and able to fully use his training (instead of being expected to just consult whatever he comes across)? CHECK!!

But was this all too good to be true?

And then we stopped and thought: why would we think that?  Is God not great enough to give us the desires of our heart?  Is He not powerful enough to make something very unlikely happen? (Denver is such a competitive city and not known to be overly D.O. friendly)  Yes, we gave Him a huge cup to fill, but then why are we surprised when He starts to fill it with His blessings?

So then we get the email that asks us for dates to come out for an interview.  And they fly all 4 of us out for 5 days the end of July.The interviews went really well.  Really well.  At the end of everything, Scot was given a verbal offer and he verbally agreed.  The hospital (and way the group works things) is even better than we thought possible.  The bonus of the interview trip is they let us stay there for longer than normal so we could check out a church, check out different areas, and spend time with family.

And the later point was a wonderful bonus!  The boys and I had almost 5 full days with my folks.  My dad took off Thursday and Friday to spend with us (in addition to the weekend), the boys had a ball playing in the dirt in my folks back area, we enjoyed solid family time, and Saturday through Monday we were a total-family-time with Scot joining in on the fun.  We went on walks, roasted marshmallows, laughed, drank beer, watched Olympics, talked about our dream coming true, and just enjoyed the blessing of loving parents.

It's taken all of 3 months, almost to the day, to go from that initial email to signing the official contract, and it's been simply amazing and wonderful to see the Lord's hand in every little aspect of the way.  HE paved this path for us.  HE has made this possible.  HE went before us on the interviews and gave Scot the words to speak.  All praise goes to HIM!  Praise the Lord!

We will plan to move out there late June of 2013 and Scot will start work in August to give us a month to get settled and have solid family time before he starts work.

Pictures from the trip are here.

Lego fun

As a late-ish birthday present all the way from Egypt, Evan was able to go to the Lego store in our mall and fill up 2 whole containers of whatever kind of Legos he wanted to.  He was in little boy heaven.  Hand-fulls of this kind and that.  2 horses, because Drew needed one, too.  Things to build cars.  Oh the fun.

He has had so much fun with them since then.  I let him play with them while Drew naps and I do my own chores or prep dinner.  One afternoon, he spent close to three hours quietly playing and building and tearing down and rebuilding.  Whoever created these simple little lego blocks was a genius.  Pure genius.

On Sunday, Drew did not transfer so well from car to bed after falling asleep on the way home from church.  He laid in bed quietly for about 30 minutes, but then decided to venture downstairs.  Scot and I were playing a good game of scrabble and I was winning and wanted to keep winning, so I told Drew to go play quietly in the living room.  Evan very quickly joined him and they were both fairly quiet until we heard a cascading of legos onto the coffee table.  Well, I thought it was just the coffee table. 

                               When we came in, after I had won the game, this is what we saw.

Can I just say that a 2 year old doesn't like picking up little legos as much as he likes spilling them?

And yes, it was this cute little guy who did it.

cool eyes

I need to do this for Drew, too.  I know.  But he doesn't quite sit as still with sunlight streaming in as Evan does.  Nor do his eyes open quite as much or as round as Evan's.  So even though Drew has equally cool steel gray/blue eyes, you just get an up close view of Evan's multi-colored eyes because I think it's something blog-worthy. Mostly becasue I think it's super neat they didn't end up with brown eyes.