Blessings in a Broken Refrigerator

Yesterday our freezer went out, we noticed when our ice cream was liquid, gross. We quickly shut the freezer door and put it on a lower temperature setting to hopefully get something working again. Of course, that didn't work. I also noticed that the fridge wasn't cooling anymore either. No bueno. As usual when something breaks Chad is traveling for business.
As I sat back planning my game plan to get things back up and running I couldn't help but feel really lucky. I know it is a weird feeling to have when a major necessary appliance stops working but I couldn't help it.
I felt incredibly lucky that I have another full size refrigerator and a separate deep freezer in our mud room. I started moving things out of our kitchen fridge/freezer and into our other two perfectly functioning appliances. After that I once again felt lucky (and smart!) that to fix my fridge all I had to do was log into our home warranty website and put in a service request. Our technician just left our home (almost exactly 24 hours after I asked for help) and at a minimum he will have to replace the computer in our fridge, probably the compressor too and at the worst the entire fridge. No matter the damage all I will pay is $75. I am so glad that Chad and I kept up with a home warranty after our first year in our home. When we closed on our house our awesome Realtor team (http://www.shepherdnelsonrealty.com) bought us a home warranty for a year as a gift, Chad and I decided to continue purchasing a warranty and it has already paid for itself.
So, as I sit waiting for a few more days for my fridge parts to come in to be fixed all I see are blessings and know that it will all be ok!

Until next time, count your blessings! :)

Sara

New Adventure

We have some big exciting changes happening in our world! Chad has left his former employer and has accepted a new position with another company. He is going back into contract sales but now in the healthcare sector. He is going back to doing what he loves and is so good at. I'm beyond thrilled for him and so incredibly proud!

It is no secret that Chad had been unhappy for sometime working with Boston Market. He wasn't feeling fulfilled and most of his time was spent "putting out fires" and doing things that were out of his scope along with his true job functions. He is a trooper and always gave his all, but I knew he wasn't happy. A couple of months ago his boss resigned from the company after being with them for 20+ years. That was a big red flag and after having a long discussion Chad and I agreed that he should start looking around for a new job/company. After several interviews and offers that we decided not to pursue one came across that was a perfect fit for Chad and our family. Every single aspect of the new position/company is exactly what we were looking for and we couldn't be happier! It is even better for us financially, we don't have to move and so much more that make this a perfect fit for our family. Chad's last day with his former company was May 2 which is also the same day that he signed an offer letter and accepted his new job.

Chad and I decided that he needed some time to decompress from the stress he had been under with his former company, we mutually decided that he would take a three week break. From Monday, May 2 until today, May 22 we have spent the entire time together having a blast while our kids have been at school and after school and weekends having a great time with our kids. I've posted a few of our outings on Facebook and know that many have been wondering how Chad was able to get out and about with me so much, here is your answer!

In the past three weeks during our "vacation" we've gone to breakfast and lunch together almost every single day, surprised our kids at their school lunches, gone to happy hour with friends, seen a few movies, played golf, spent the day at the lake with friends, volunteered at our kids school, gone to yoga, done plenty of shopping, bought a BMW, strolled the Domain and downtown Austin, took the kids to Schlitterbahn on a school/weekday and so much more. This past Wednesday was our 14th wedding anniversary, we loved having the chance to reminisce and spend the entire day together. Chad was able to 100% decompress and truly relax during his break. He has enjoyed living "the Sara life" for three weeks and is now rested, eager and excited to start fresh with a new company and a new position. We made many memories in the past three weeks and had the most incredible time enjoying each others' company without a single stress in our world. It was priceless!

Here are just a few pics and highlights of our time:

Please join me in wishing Chad a great first day tomorrow and sending him a big congratulations!

Best of luck my love, I'm so proud and happy for you!! xoxo 

Until next time, count your blessings :)

Sara

16 years

It has been a while since my last blog post, we've been busy as usual. My days have been filled with substitute teaching, lunches with friends, family time and laundry...lots and lots of never-ending laundry, among other things.

On April 18 Chad and I celebrated meeting and becoming a couple for 16 years. This anniversary is significant to me because I was 16 when I met Chad, we've now been together for half of my life! It feels impossible. Time is flying by faster than I could have ever imagined! When I was 16, I was a junior at Leander High School and working at Fazoli's. Chad came in one evening with three other mutual friends who wanted to say hi to me and it was love at first sight. I never would have dreamed that our lives would be forever changed from that first meeting. In our 16 years we have had many ups and downs and a lot of sacrifice. The first 10 years of our relationship was full of hard work, school and sacrifice. They were not easy, they were not always happy. Totally worth it, but hard. The hard work, dedication and sacrifice have started paying off in the past few years, we are so thankful! We love being able to spend so much time together and watching our kids grow together. We are both very active in our kids lives and we are able to have so much freedom thanks to those first 10+ years of school, work and sacrifice. I appreciate what Chad has done to make our lives so great and wake up everyday stress free and excited about all of our futures.

I know I've written a few times about how we have made a very conscious choice to eliminate negative people from our lives (regardless if they are friends or family) and keep company in people who add something positive to our lives, no drama or expectations. We have some pretty incredible friends and family and we appreciate each and every one of them! I am certain that life is so great for us in large part due to the people we surround ourselves with. I am just as confident that we are better people, happier people due to the tough choices we have made to remove certain people from our lives. We have removed people that were negative, stressful and not good for our family. For some it was difficult at first but very liberating and freeing, for some it was very easy. Our family and friends that we surround ourselves with say a lot about us and we couldn't be happier with the group that we have, they are all seriously great, authentic people who we have a lot in common with.

Recently more than ever I've noticed the ebb and flow of friendships that mean a lot to me. I still love these friends immensely but we don't seem to get much time together due to what is going on in our individual lives. It is important to me that they know that even if we can't get together as often as we would like to or used to, they still mean so much to me. Friendships change and that is ok, it doesn't mean I feel any different or care for them any less but life happens and circumstances change. We will all get together when it works out!

Since my last post I've had so much fun re-connecting with a high school friend, going to birthday celebrations, going to concerts and making memories with my family! I was lucky enough to go to the Bryan Adams concert with one of my very best friends, Janine, for her birthday and just last night I took my daughters to see the Ellie Goulding concert. Both were such a great time and fantastic music!

My life this week consisted of Chad taking Monday off to spend with me for our 16 year "together" anniversary, Tuesday I went to a yoga class, met with my sweet friend Kim for lunch and then took my daughters to the EG concert. Today (Wednesday) Chad and I had an early breakfast at Torchy's,  I'm (currently) getting my mani/pedi and then I'll start baking treats for a festival for our elementary school this weekend. Tomorrow I'll finish baking and spend part of the day with my friend Jessica and then on Friday I'll be spending the day with my son and his Kindergarten class on his field trip. 

My life is always busy but in the best ways, I am so lucky to be spending my time doing things that make me feel fulfilled and happy.

If I knew 16 years ago when I met Chad how my life would be now I wouldn't have believed it. My 18 year old raver, purpled hair boyfriend has become the best man I could have ever dreamed of. I'm very proud of what we have accomplished in our first 16 years and am so excited to find out what the next 60 hold!

Until next time, count your blessings! :)

Sara

We Survived #sb2016!

Spring Break is over and we all survived! Our Spring Break (#sp2016) was both fun and lazy. We took our kids to Fiesta Texas where we all had a really great time! It was a very memorable family day and we're looking forward to going back soon. The kids and I spent a day at one of my close friends house where Orin decided to be a typical little boy and hurt his head (It was pretty bad at the time it happened but after a couple of days of rest he is now doing much better and we luckily narrowly avoided stitches/staples). We were able to get out for a little bit on the evening of St. Patrick's Day with our close family friend, Dave. Chad and Dave hanging out on St. Patrick's Day is a tradition that I know they both look forward to every year. We had an impossible time finding the beer that they wanted but they were at least able to toast with some Jameson. We got a few things done around the house and the girls spent an afternoon prepping our garden for planting. We also were able to watch some March Madness and are cheering on the Notre Dame Fighting Irish who are still in it! We also met some great new people who turned out to be neighbors! All in all it was a pretty great break. 

We have a few projects coming up in the next few days that I'm pretty excited about! My canvases came in (the family portraits that I had ordered) but they don't look right where I had originally wanted them. Soon my living room and kitchen will look a little different. I'm eager to get everything in its final spot as soon as Chad can take the time to hang it all. I'm not being too pushy but I want it done, yesterday. 

We're about to have some yard work done to really make our lawn pop again and prep it for summer. I'm about to start doing some research on Pinterest on which flowers I want to plant and what to plant in our garden this season. I'm not a good gardener, yet, but I'm trying. It is definitely satisfying to know that we're consuming something that we grew. My family really loves it and I am happy that our kids are seeing the value in having a garden.

Directly after Spring Break I start planning summer activities. I think this is the first summer that we will be skipping on Vacation Bible School. Grace is too old, Abby isn't all that into it and last year Orin had a meltdown not wanting to stay. Looks like I've got a decent amount of research and planning to do! We've got one trip booked and are starting to plan an at least two week road trip. I'm a little anxious about a road trip with our crew, but if we plan it right, it will be absolutely incredible and something our family will remember forever. I'll let you all know more as we really get it set up!

I hope everyone reading this has a great day and week ahead!

Until next time, count your blessings! :)

Sara

Conscious Decisions

I know it's been a while but I guess no news is good news.

We have decided to scratch the idea of selling our house for the time being. We are going to make the conscious decision to be happy where we are. We always keep our eyes open to new opportunities no matter if that is a new car, house or whatever, but for now we will be happy where we are. Luckily, there isn't anything wrong at all with where we are and the itch to move has come and gone.

We have started to make decisions on improvements and re-decorating for our house. It is already pretty satisfying and I'm glad we didn't jump too fast. We have purchased new coach lights for the front of our house and I've ordered a new duvet for our bed. I'm most excited for my new canvases to arrive! I finally ordered some great canvases of the family portraits that we took a few months ago and will start to re-do our living room once those arrive. The new pictures will be displayed above our fireplace and the painting that is currently there will find a new permanent place in our home. The only part of this process that I really don't like is that everything I want to do is expensive and that I can't do it all at once, I'm not a patient person. Doing things piece by piece is another thing that I am going to have to tell myself to be happy with, and remind myself that I really am lucky to be able to do almost everything I want in our home even if it is a slow process.

(This is our current mantle, stay tuned for the update!)

I'm looking forward to getting to so many projects in our home! I'll keep you all posted on the progress as I get to each project! There are so many parts that I'm excited about but there are also plenty that I'm excited to get over with, like organizing our garage. The garage is a top priority for Chad and while I want it done, I don't want to waste my weekends getting it completed. Same with our garden, I'll be very happy once clearing it out and the plating is over. Wish us luck!

Abby will be starting her second season of volleyball this evening, she is very excited! She is a natural athlete and loves being active, I hope she keeps that passion her entire life!

Grace has her UIL competition for band next week, she is looking forward to it! Chad is taking the day off and we will be watching her competition, we're confident she will do great!

Orin had a nasty fall about two weeks ago at school, where he scraped his face pretty badly and broke his glasses on his face. I was able to replace his glasses the same day and he is almost completely healed.

Chad is doing great things, kicking butt and taking names. I'm so proud of him!

I've been keeping busy with our kids, spending time with friends while the kids are at school and occasionally teaching. I'm teaching two full days this week and I'm really looking forward to it!

I hope everyone reading this has a great leap day and a fantastic week ahead! xoxo

Until next time, count your blessings! :)

Sara

Best Days

Last night Chad and I went to the "I Love The 90's!" concert, it was SO much fun!! We got to see Young MC, Rob Base, All 4 One, Kid N Play, Coolio, Salt N Peppa with Spinderella and Vanilla Ice. It was a blast! Dinner was great and our company was even better, we met up with our friends Janine, Ken, Sommer and John for dinner and had fun talking and getting amped up for the concert.

Our friends that we ate with had purchased their tickets together a while back so we were in different sections but after the first intermission we snuck to their area and were able to finish the concert with them. The show was pretty much everything we hoped it would be! Some of our favorite songs of our youth with Salt N Peppa stealing the show! Words can't do justice to describe the great time we had! I danced my booty off (I do NOT dance, I have zero rhythm) and had the best time! 

After the show we were thinking of going out to a local karaoke bar but decided to go home instead. When we woke up we were so thankful we made that decision! We were already sore and still tired so we were happy to not wake up hung over too.

When we woke up we realized that we had nothing planned for the day. Not a bad thing by any means but pretty rare for us. We stay very busy most of the time. The thought of having nothing down in the planner and all chores done was kind of exciting! Before we got out of bed Orin crawled in with us and we snuggled him and decided that we would go downtown today. We live in a suburb of Austin so it isn't far but we don't venture downtown very often, especially with all of our kids in tow. As long as we've lived here (24 years total, moving away for college and to Florida for a few years-other than that I've been here pretty much all of my life) I've never driven to see some of the murals and art work that is part of what makes Austin so unique and the incredible city that it is and today sounded like a great day to do it. The weather was beautiful and there was no way we wanted to spend the day inside. Everyone got ready for the day and we were on our way. 

We left the house at about 10:45am and started driving south toward Austin knowing that we needed to stop for lunch first. We decided to eat at Chuy's, which fit the theme for the day because Chuy's is an Austin staple. It was a perfect way to start what would turn out to be such an amazing family day!

After lunch we ventured into downtown Austin and found a place to park off of Congress, which was a small victory. Parking was a little nuts! After we unloaded our clan we found the "I Love You So Much" mural and took some pictures. Orin didn't want to cooperate at first but eventually got on board. After our first photo op we walked around for a while and eventually found the "Austin" mural. We again took some pictures that Orin again didn't want to participate in. We still were able to sneak him in some of the pictures thanks to the generosity of some strangers willing to take the shot for us. One of the things I love about Austin are the locals who are almost always willing to lend a hand for a quick favor and expect nothing in return. We of course offered to take pics for those who helped us out and were more than happy to help if they took us up on the offer.

After we took pictures the house/business next to the "Austin" mural caught Chad's eye. It was a Patisserie and something sweet sounded good to all of us! We went inside where each of us ordered one small treat. Chad bought an eclair while each of the kids and I ordered a different macaroon. They were delectable! Seriously, the best macaroon I've ever had! I had an almond one, Grace strawberry, Abby lavender and Orin had a chocolate one. They were perfect! 

After our sweet treats we started to walk back to our car stopping in some classically Austin stores and farmer's markets along the way. We were in no rush and spent over an hour walking half of a mile and enjoying our time together. When we made it back to the car we decided to seek out the Austin Graffiti Park. We drove the less than three miles to our destination and spent a good ten minutes finding somewhere to park. We finally did and made our way over to the park. I've seen pictures of it before and the pictures have never done it justice. It was so cool! There was some scary climbing involved with no stairs but we all made it. When we got to the highest level I was a total nervous wreck because Orin wanted to get too close to the drop off and Abby was wearing boots that I didn't trust her not to fall in. Chad kept his hands on them both and we were able to sit back and enjoy the view of the Austin skyline. It was an experience that we will all treasure. We all sat down on the ground (another kind stranger offered to take a few pictures of us) and we all actually enjoyed sitting quietly together just admiring the view. It was really special. 

After a while we made our way down the hills and back to our car. We decided to pay the capitol of Texas a visit. When we got to the capitol I was so happy to see how excited my kids were to read plaques and listen to what we had to say about Texas history and our personal connections to people who have served our great state. We all enjoyed taking our time and walking around the building and looking at all of the pictures of our Governors and elected officials. Again I was pretty nervous about Orin wanting to run around, I was scared that somehow he would lean too far and fall over the ledge down into the rotunda. He had to hold mine or Chad's hand the entire time, he wasn't too happy about that but had to get over it. We all had a great time exploring the capitol! When we left the inside we walked around the grounds for a little while, the kids were happy to be able to run around for a while and we discussed how old some of the trees on the grounds are, they were interested and we were happy to teach. 

We made our way back to the car with 13 minutes to spare on our car meter, score! We headed home and started talking about our favorite parts of our adventures for the day. We all agreed that we were so happy with how our day went and are eager to do it again. I love that our kids enjoyed the day all together and are more excited about our family days together than anything else, even Grace, our teenager. 

Days like today make me even more appreciative of the life we have worked so hard to have and they make me appreciate my husband and our kids individually, even more than I already do. I'm thrilled to have these experiences and that our kids tell us that "today was the best day ever!" every single time that we get to spend time together like this. We are so blessed to have so many Best Days!

I Love The 90's Concert!     February 5, 2016

Family Day <3     February 6, 2016

Until next time, count your blessings! :)

Sara

Family Trip, Feb 2015

The To me there are two types of trips, a family trip which is where we bring our kids and a vacation, which doesn't include any children. We love both! As our children get older we are enjoying family trips more and more. We no longer have a baby which makes these trips so much less stressful and we all have an opportunity to do a lot of fun things together and strengthen our bond as a family. We are able to create incredible memories that are so precious to us all.

In our school district there is a "February break" where the kids have a long weekend (no school on Monday or Tuesday) and this year we decided to take advantage of it! We spent the weekend in the Dallas, TX area and took the kids to Great Wolf Lodge. This was our second adventure at GWL and this trip was even better than our first. Within reason we stopped caring about the expense and bought our kids each a Wolf Pass and stayed in a fun suite. A Wolf Pass lets the kids do a ton of extra activities that without the pass would cost almost double. Along with having a great time at the indoor water park we all did the awesome ropes course, the 3D movie, had extra sweets, played in the Arcade, played the super cool Magic Quest game (we also had the Compass game loaded on their magic wands that are needed for the games), the kids got to create a stuffed animal (similar to Build A Bear), play laser tag and so much more! We had a blast together and each of us walked away happier than we went in and so thankful for the fun time we had together.

Because we were in the area that Chad's sister, our BIL and nephew live we were able to visit with them twice. We really enjoy getting to spend time with them and loving on our perfect baby nephew! They came to visit us when we arrived at GWL and then we spent part of the late afternoon at their house on Monday.

Chad and I have decided to invest more in memories and experiences rather than things for our children, we have not regretted that decision once. I'm so thrilled with the experience we all just had together and it makes me eager to plan another family trip soon!

Until next time, count your blessings! :)

Sara