The Passage of Time

Time is a funny thing.

Two years ago we were drinking champagne and celebrating a medical school acceptance. After a long application process and dreams of moving home we were thrilled with that happy envelope that came in the mail. We started the scrambling process of selling our San Diego house, finding a new one and moving back to Colorado. Hello dream come true!

One year ago I was cramming for a GI exam. It was my second semester in my first year of school and I was in full study mode. I had worked so hard to get to this place and was really enjoying finally being where I wanted school-wise. Dream come true again. 

And then there's this year. Yes I'm still studying and a crazy full-time student and there are times that I don't enjoy every minute of it. But my study breaks are spent loving on my husband and my sweet, sweet son. This year I'm a momma and he is my dream come true. 

I am so blessed with all that life has given me. Is it perfect all the time? Heck no! But it is exactly what I want and I can't believe how lucky I am. Dreams really do come true!

Baby H: His Name

Our son, Mark Jameson.

It still shocks me every now and again that he's our son, that he's here in the world and that we made him. One of the biggest parts about having a child is deciding on a name. His name is his identity. He'll have it for the rest of his life and J and I took choosing his name very seriously.

Before knowing the gender of our first born we had started talking names and it's a good thing Mark is a boy because we were lightyears away from deciding on a girls but came up with a boys relatively easily. We both agreed early on that we didn't want something trendy. We didn't want something that our child would have to spell every time they gave their name. We didn't want something that would continuously be mispronounced. We didn't want something that would fit a child but not carry through to adulthood. We wanted something classic and also something with meaning.

His middle name, Jameson, is a bit of a tribute to our honeymoon in Ireland and a bit "just because we liked it". We had picked his first name and wanted something with more than two syllables (okay maybe that was just me and my a-type personality). Jameson was easy and simple and just fell into place.

It's his first name, Mark, that holds all the meaning. I've written about it many times before but my dad passed away years ago and it's been one of the toughest parts of my life (and continues to be to this day). His name was Mark. And after thinking about it for only a short time we knew our son would be named after his grandpa. It just felt right. It's an honor to an amazing man, something our son can hopefully take pride in and it makes my heart swell each and every time I call him by his first name.

And to make it that much more sweet, I truly believe my dad knows his grandson carries on the memory of him. During my labor with Mark, after settling in with my epidural and beginning the process of delivering our first born, I asked J to turn on some music for me on his phone. My request was the James Taylor station on Pandora. Carolina in My Mind was the first song that played and I cried. It was the song from our wedding. The song I danced with my mom to, the song I would have been dancing with my dad to, THE song that is the epitome of my dad to me. And in that moment, early in the morning on September 25th, just moments before meeting my son, I knew my dad was there welcoming his grandson into the world with us.

Wedding Weekend

Summer time undoubtedly brings with it wedding season and this past Saturday J and I attended our first wedding of the summer together. One of my favorite med school gals tied the knot at a gorgeous golf course tucked in the hills on a perfectly sunny afternoon. It was a perfect day filled with the celebration of love with close friends. She was a beautiful bride, their ceremony brought tears to many, their silly yellow lab (who also happens to be Ollie's girlfriend) even took part and we had a blast celebrating with them. Not to mention it was a fantastic opportunity for our big group to get together and have some fun!

I love going to weddings, especially with my husband as my date. Watching the groom get tears in his eyes as he read his vows to his bride reminds me of the love J expressed to me so perfectly on our big day. Watching smiles erupt from the newlyweds faces as their announced for the first time as Mr & Mrs while the same exit song plays that we picked for that moment brings back the butterflies I felt. Slow dancing to our first dance song for the first time since our own reception made the rest of the room fall away where it felt like it was just J and I on that dance floor again. 

Marriage has been both the toughest and the most rewarding thing I've ever been a part of and I am so thankful I get to go through life with my husband by my side. I was reminded how special a love like this, a marriage like this, a life like this truly is. I can't say enough congratulations to the new bride and groom as they start on this new journey together and I am thankful to have been included in their big day.

It's Been A Year

We just passed the one-year mark since moving into our house and back to our home state. And oh boy, what a year it's been. Filled with celebrations, occasional downfalls, all four seasons and lots of change.

We've celebrated big events, hosted holidays and created traditions. We've had drop in guests, noise filled evenings and made lots of memories with those we care about. This house has turned into our home, such a different feeling than that from our San Diego house, that always had an air of "for now" to it. We take such pride in this house and it feels so much more permanent, so much better, just right, like home. This is where we're supposed to be, I just know it.

In the last year I've watched J settle into a work routine here and couldn't be more proud of him. He works so hard to provide for our family and it makes me beam just thinking about all his success. I have almost survived my first year of medical school and find myself thinking with fondness and sometimes dismay about all the places around the house I've cooped up studying late into the night.

I've cried tears of happiness and sadness in this house. Fought with my husband and fallen even more in love in this house. Cursed the heat because of our lack of AC and wrapped myself in blankets by the fire in this house. We celebrated one year of marriage and found out about our baby in this house.

When we first fell in love with this place I had ideas in my head about what this first year had in store. I never would have imagined it would turn out so good. Here's to year one and all that's in store for the next year!

And if you want to see what a difference actually watering your lawn makes, 

here's what it looked like last year compared to now.

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Thanks to Jen for the throw-back engagement picture idea!

1. I celebrate Valentine's day by... loving on my husband and spending some quality time together. Sometimes that means going out for a nice dinner. Last year that meant making a multi-course dinner complete with dessert at home together. This year we're celebrating a day late to eat at a reasonable time (one restaurant only had 2:45pm available for reservations) and avoid all the crowds (not to mention I might be a zombie on Friday night). It doesn't have to be big, as long as it's filled with love. 

2. My heart goes pitter-patter for... sweet notes, kisses on my forehead, dessert of any kind, a free night from school, my husband...

3. When looking for romance, my best advice is... take leaps! When I first met J, I assumed our "relationship" was just going to pan out into a summer fling. I was 18 and moving to San Diego at the end of the summer. He was 21 and already on a path through life. Not to mention we'd only spent 2 months together before facing quite a distance. But at the end of that summer I told him I loved him and that I wanted this to work. And here we are! 7 years, 3 apartments, 2 houses, 2 states, 1 silly dog and 1 marriage later. 

4. My favorite love story (real or fiction) is... besides my own, right?! Ha! Let's see... Dr. Mark Green and Dr. Elizabeth Corday from the TV show ER. Maybe it's because I'm still obsessed with that show or maybe it's because I'm in the medical field but their relationship and love story are my favorite. A great balance of power, real life struggles (thanks drama-tv writers) and filled with fake, TV love! Now excuse me while I try and find time to watch all the seasons again. 

5. The best relationship/love/dating advice I ever received was... make your significant other your number one priority. Granted, I'm not the best at actually following through with this as being a full time medical student definitely demands the top spot on the totem pole a good amount of the time. But it's something that I'm always conscious of and do my best to achieve. Hmm, maybe I'm finally finding my word (over a month late) for the year 2014... priority... 

Previous posts here: 

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Linking up with these ladies (Nicole @ Three 31, Lisa @ The Coastal Chicster, and Becky @ The Java Mama, Jen @ The Arizona Russums) for Finish This. 

Med School Survival Tricks

It's no question that adjusting to life as a medical student has been tough. I am now three weeks in, have taken (and passed!!!) two exams, am almost done with my first block of class and finally feel like I'm starting to get my groove with this whole thing. 

And these are some of my favorite things that have helped me along the way. 

+ Anything stress relief is obvious and these Bath & Body Works Spearmint lotion/body wash have hit the spot. I've yet to use the body wash because I'm saving it for a glorious stress-free bath in the future but the lotion is heaven, especially before bed. 

+ Tea Tree Lavender Mint shampoo/conditioner was a super generous gift from my momma and has made me so much more calm when it comes to showering. Because lets be honest, even spending 30 minutes to shower each day is stressful. Because, well, the studying! These, however, make me not want to get out.

+ Using this Olay Classic Night Cream each night before bed might not be taking away the wrinkles I may or may not already have but let's keep our fingers crossed it's preventing any new ones. Lord knows I've had many furrowed brows over the last few weeks. 

+ San Pellegrino Limonata beverages are the perfect treat each afternoon that won't make me hyped up on caffeine if I don't want to be, are something more interesting and tasty than just water and give me something to look forward to while the library sucks my life away. 

+ Pilot Pens and Highlighters and well, office supplies in general. We're covering so much material in class that being organized is half the battle and these have definitely helped me stay on track and make the most of my time. Not to mention the highlighters are erasable (!!!), the colors are fabulous and they were all gifted to me by my favorite lady in San Diego. 

Send some positive vibes my direction as the weekend holds lots of work for our upcoming final exam.  

Here's to another week down and feeling a bit more on my game!

Disclaimer: This post took me literally, the entire week to finally finish writing. Oops.

Goodbye San Diego

As our time in San Diego is coming to an end I'm experiencing so many more emotions that I ever thought I would. Moving home to Colorado is exactly what J and I have been dreaming of for the last few years and is our dream come true. But I would be lying if I said the process was easy. 

San Diego (or more vaguely back then, Southern California) was where I dreamt of being as a young, naive, 18 year-old and it was a dream come true 6 years ago. I was headed to the west coast on my own to start something for myself. San Diego has been my home for so many years and I hold so many incredible memories from this place. So much so, that it's almost hard to let it go. 

Life has taken me on quite the journey since my beach-dreaming days. Living here by myself for a year, developing a strong relationship and eventual marriage with J here, hosting so many visitors, accomplishing so many of my goals and basically growing up here. It's so strange to think that I've spent my entire adulthood here.... and now I'm leaving. 

These past few weeks have come with so much excitement about the move and the new adventures in store for us but they've also come with too many "lasts", our last time at the beach, last time downtown, last time having dinner with our best friends here, that it's made me pretty reflective over the time I've spent in California. I cherish these years, the memories and the friends they've given me and will always have a special place in my heart for San Diego because its where.....

 I dreamt of going to college // J would visit when I was away // visitors from home came to see us // I made new friends in the dorms // my relationship with J grew leaps and bounds // we tried lots of new things

 we celebrated accomplishments // grew our family with Ollie // graduated from SDSU // went on weekend get-aways // had celebrations with more friends from home // owned our first house

celebrated 6 years worth of birthdays // went on constant adventures together // hosted our first Thanksgiving // decorated for Christmas // watched Ollie grow up // grew up ourselves

Its gets a little easier when I realize that San Diego will always be a short plane ride away whenever we need a beach fix and it will someday be a place we bring our future-family to so we can share all these memories with them. Moving away doesn't mean we can't ever come back, even just for a visit, but I still might shed a tear or two hundred as we drive away in 10 short days.

The Birthday Boy

Today is J's birthday. 

Hip hip hooray!

The love that I have for this man is difficult to put into words.

He is my best friend, my husband, my goofball and my soul mate. He's helped me become exactly the person I'm supposed to be, shown me what true love is all about and is definitely the reason I'll eventually have laugh-lines. 

Dear Hubs, I can't wait to celebrate your birthday with you today and feel so incredibly blessed I get to share in these moments with you. We've been through our share of birthdays together already and I know there are endless more in store for us. I hope you have a fabulous day and know how much you mean to me. Love always, Your Woof ;-)

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With everything happening around the nation causing so much hurt and pain and damage this week, I wanted to take the time to appreciate the things in my life that sometimes get passed by. It's so easy (unbelieveable easy at times) to get wrapped up in life, wrapped up in the negativity and the stress and the "whoa is me" mentality that sometimes the littlest things that should be making us smile or bringing joy into our lives go unnoticed. One thing I've found that my little family is particularly prone to is only seeing the bad in something  instead of realizing how lucky and blessed we are and happy we should be instead. 

Today I am thankful for:

+ My amazing husband and our sweet baby Ollie. These two are constantly making me smile between their goofy conversations, silly antics and unwavering love for me. Every day when I get home from work I get tail wags from one and kisses from the other. (I'll let you determine who gives me which ;-) )

+ The fact that I only have to wake up for work 16 more times! With our honeymoon and the weekends I realized yesterday I really don't have that much time left at my job and it's sort of surreal. Especially given that I wont have a "real job" for the next 4 years as med school will consume my entire life. 

+ Our upcoming honeymoon to Ireland. With everything else going on in our life lately I admit that we haven't been very focused at all on our marriage lately and a week away with no access to phones, twitter, facebook, or the US in general will be exactly what these newly-weds need. Not to mention how thankful I am that we can even go on this trip in the first place. 

+ Spring flowers and warm weather. Even though we're moving to CO by choice, I can't say that wont miss the amazing weather and sunshine in lovely SD. I'm going to try and soak up every minute of it over the next few weeks especially given that there's snow on the ground in our soon-to-be new state. 

+ How lucky we are to be embarking in our second home-buying experience at the ages we are. Sure there are inspections and loans, expenses of new carpet and new furniture we'll have to get at some point and plenty of other worries associated with this stage in our life but there are many other people who aren't able to buy a house at all. Not to mention how easily the house hunting search was for us. We're pretty fortunate I'd say.  

+ Our families and our friends. It's so easy to lose touch with these people because life gets in the way all too often. We find ourselves making excuses as to why we haven't called/texted/emailed some of the most important people in our lives more frequently. But today I am thankful that they're just a phone call away, knowing that they're all in good health (mostly) and in good spirits and will never hold it against me for my lack of effort. These people really are the greatest.

Tell me, what's something you're thankful for today? 

What's something that you usually pay little attention to that's actually pretty great?

Homeowners: Moving to Colorado

This past weekend J and I flew to Colorado to do a frantic, mad-dash of a house hunting operation.

Less than 48 hours after this house was listed on the market, we had a signed offer from the sellers and were under contract on our new home. This house was approximately the 6th one we'd seen that day and as soon as we walked in we were crunching numbers trying to figure out what our best offer could be for this beauty. We ended up putting in the offer that afternoon, continuing the search just in case they didn't accept and by the time we were done for the day it was all finished. J and I celebrated with a delicious dinner complete with margaritas and dreamt of our new life back in our home state. 

We've been trying and wishing to move back to CO for years now. To be closer to our families, to have our amazing friends just a phone call away, to be able to enjoy the seasons, the birthdays, the holidays in the state we've always called home. And now it's not only come true but where we'll actually be is a reality now.

I'm already dreaming of the meals we'll cook together in our fabulous new kitchen, all the nights I'll curl up next to the fire place in our master bedroom (!!!), the BBQs we'll host on our patio, the games of fetch Ollie can play in our huge yard and the memories we'll make for years to come in what is quite literally, our dream home.

It was a fantastic weekend and we feel so blessed for this new house we'll soon call home. Now the countdown to Colorado has really started!

Tying the Knot: Photo Booth Take 2

Candid photos are some of my very favorite photos ever. Photos where you can be goofy, show your personality, that aren't too posed or formal. So during our reception J and I made a point to hit the photo booth ourselves quite a few times. 

Both together and with our guests these photos show what a blast we had the whole night celebrating our new marriage,  the endless amounts of love we have for one another and the support we have from our favorite people. 

Like our typical selves, J and I made sure to let all the fun and goofy out in these photos too which I absolutely love!

All photos courtesy of Ignite Images.

Next up: Dancing the night away

Need to catch up?

First we got ready

Then it was time for The Dress

Lovely bridesmaid photos

Our sweet Ollie pup

Handsome groomsmen photos

The Bride & Groom portraits

Our First Touch before the ceremony

Small wedding details

The start of our Ceremony (Readings & Ring Warming)

We're finally Husband & Wife

Formal family & wedding party photos

How we remembered missing family

Our pictures as Mr & Mrs

Our First Dance

Reception Dinner & Toasts

Dancing with our Moms

The partying begins

Cutting the Cake

The Bouquet & Garter Toss

The Photo Booth Take 1

Tying the Knot: Wedding Slideshow

So I know I said yesterday that today would be a recap of our Bouquet and Garter Toss but I figured this was the perfect opportunity to show you our slideshow that we played for our guests after we cut our cake. 

I absolutely loved creating this project and did it with the help of my and J's mom to get all the pictures I needed. While we were home for my bridal shower this past fall I sat around at each of their houses and went through albums upon albums of photos from when we were little kids. It was so fun to see pictures of J I'd never seen before and so fun to sit with my mom going through all the memories. When I was creating the section of photos from our entire relationship I was literally bawling like a baby the first time I watched it through. We have so many memories together it was awesome to see them all in one place. 

Once I had all the pictures I needed, I scanned them onto my computer and used a combination of iPhoto, iDVD & iMovie to put it all together. If anyone wants more detail about the programs I used shoot me an email, I'd be happy to share.

So without further adieu....

I'll be back tomorrow with more recaps from the actual wedding.

Tying the Knot: Cake Cutting

By this time of the night everything was going so smoothly! I was walking back from the bridal suite after a quick re-apply of lipstick (from smooching my hubs too much) when I was asked by our catering staff if we were ready to cut the cake.

We chose to go a different route with our cakes and I'm so happy we did. Instead of spending a ton of money on a tiered cake that sure, looks gorgeous, but still tastes like cake (duh!) we opted to do mini bundt cakes and a larger cutting cake. We ordered 21 dozen Bundtinis from Nothing Bundt Cakes in 3 flavors (lemon, red velvet & chocolate, chocolate chip) and ordered our cutting cake from Whole Foods. The cakes were displayed on wood rounds surrounded by candles, our cake topper was from Deliziare on Etsy, and our knife & server set was actually a Goodwill find (never opened or anything!)

Our cutting cake was almost pure chocolate so I told J as soon as we ordered it that there would be no cake smashing! I wasn't worried about getting it all over my face or hair or whatnot, I just didn't want it on my dress. So his pay back for me telling him no was to bite my finger instead! Oh that man.

After we cut the cake, our guests got to choose their bundt flavors, grab a cup of hot chocolate and watch the slideshow I had put together. It was a super fun project for me to do and our guests really enjoyed seeing all the pictures and getting a chance to rest from all the dancing!

And if you didn't already know that J and I love to have fun together, here's more proof! 

This photo cracks me up!

All photos courtesy of Ignite Images.

Next up: Bouquet & Garter Toss

Need to catch up?

First we got ready

Then it was time for The Dress

Lovely bridesmaid photos

Our sweet Ollie pup

Handsome groomsmen photos

The Bride & Groom portraits

Our First Touch before the ceremony

Small wedding details

The start of our Ceremony (Readings & Ring Warming)

We're finally Husband & Wife

Formal family & wedding party photos

How we remembered missing family

Our pictures as Mr & Mrs

Our First Dance

Reception Dinner & Toasts

Dancing with our Moms

The partying begins