School, Birthday's, Big Ben and more...

What's new around here....

Ella starts school this week! It's only 2 mornings a week, but we're excited. I'm looking forward to it for both of our sakes. I'm excited for her to make new friends and have that structure. I'm excited for me to have a little bit of time with just Catherine. I'm sure I will waste the majority of those 2 1/2 hours the first couple of weeks, but I am looking forward to doing errands, visiting friends, etc with just one little girl. It should be a nice change of pace.

The lazy days of summer are over as of this upcoming week. Not only does Ella start school, but my morning Bible study starts and I have leader training for another mom's group. Our days of being lazy in bed until Catherine gets up at 9 are done. By the time Catherine and I get up Ella has been downstairs with Matt before he leaves, had her first breakfast, made a mess and then snuggled in with me to watch the weather (AKA, the Today Show). I love staying in bed as long as possible. I just love it. Not a real admirable quality, but it's true. But with the onset of fall (doesn't feel like it, still too hot) comes more structure to our days and more busyness overall.

What else....
Oh yeah - a few months ago my husband, with the help of some dear friends, threw me a surprise 30th birthday party. I've been meaning to blog about it since then but I had so much to say about it, that I kept putting it off. And now two months have gone by. I posted all the pictures on flicker and then could not figure out how to link to it from my blog and got frustrated. Maybe I'll get them up someday.

Anyway - it was a wonderful surprise that shouldn't have been a surprise, because our babysitter accidentally spilled the beans the Sunday before in front of me (no specifics, just asking matt if he still needed her for friday night and what time - enough for me to go - ooohhhh, what's going on friday, hmmmm). Matt and I avoided talking about it because I just didn't want to have it ruined and I just ignored him when he tried to get me to admit that I knew. I was supposed to go out with some friends that Friday and I figured the surprise would be afterwards. I have to give alot of credit to Matt for how laid back he was - I was totally looking for clues and he never slipped up. But the real Oscar winners go to Rachael, Tasha and Renee - the friends I went out with beforehand. They did such a good job of throwing me off track and that I thought perhaps I was totally mistaken about what I heard and it was for another weekend or something entirely different. I was actually a bit bummed out because I was looking forward to a party! I wish I could go into the specifics but it would make this post way too long, but it's pretty funny, especially because the whole time they weren't sure if they were fooling me at all. When we arrived at the party location I was so clueless I didn't think twice about the long line of cars across the street (I figured it was a graduation party - if I had said that out loud I wonder if they would have lost it) or the car parked in my driveways that is my friend's and rather distinct.

So I ended up being really surprised and it was a great time. It was a special treat to have my parents there as well as some friends who traveled especially to be there - Shannon and Greg (and little Cade) and Kate and Paul - thanks again for taking time out of your busy schedules to come and celebrate with me! The food was wonderful - prepared by my friend Sarah who stayed up way too late preparing the night before. Renee made a delicious and beautiful cake and my parents even brought my favorite DQ ice cream cake that is only sold in my hometown.

I found out after I got in the car to go home around midnight that Matt and I weren't going home, but we were having a little getaway until Sunday morning! I was shocked and of course a bit worried about what he packed for me (he did a good job, but did accidentally throw in a nursing bra??? He blames me because why is it still in my drawer.). We had a wonderful two nights away at Bear Creek - a beautiful ski resort that also has hiking and biking. We enjoyed a nice hike and swim and hot tub time as well as a great dinner. And of course I bought Harry Potter because it came out that day. I was also worried Matt wouldn't let me go buy it on Saturday but my husband knows me well enough that he didn't even question it.

So that was the surprise party post! Just a bit belated....but since my party was a month after my birthday, what can you expect.

Other randomness....

The Steelers kicked butt today! I didn't get to watch, but I read the play by play online and caught highlights. Big Ben had 4 TDs and I didn't even care that he was the starting QB on my brother's fantasy team - who I was up against. My loyalties always lie with the real team over the fantasy team.

Yes, I play fantasy football.

And finally. If you're in the mood to watch a trainwreck, try and catch some footage of Britney Spears performance at the VMAs. I tuned in just to see her and it was pretty bad. Hard to watch bad. I'll be curious what the reaction is - this was supposed to be her comeback performance. Kind of feel bad for her.

So that's it. A marathon post with no pictures. If you made it through, thank you very much for caring! :)