A much needed reprieve...

I think I've been so stuck in my own little world, that I haven't been a very good friend lately. I seem to have let Dr.s appts., school meetings and Brandon's therapy take over my life. So when Britney called me up to get together for lunch on Wednesday, I was ecstatic! Britney, you are awesome, and you have no idea how bad I needed someone to help me get out of my rut!
She made an awesome lunch for us (thank you, thank you, thank you!!!), our kids got to play together, and best of all I got to slow down and spend time with my dear friend that I've missed very much. So, I concluded that I need to take time to find identities other then just being "mom" all the time, and that I need to put more effort into my friendships (oooooh, 2 lessons in 1 day, yay!).
Wednesday also happened to be the day of our anniversary, and a friend of ours offered to watch our kids so we could go out. It was our first date since Oct. 2007! Sad, I know. We were planning to go to Olive Garden, but decided on Chapalas last minute, and I'm so glad we did. When we got there, there were only 4 other people in the whole place. I think we spent 2 hours there just talking and reconnecting. We had both been looking forward to our night out, and it was every bit as wonderful as we had hoped for.
After we left Chapalas, we weren't exactly sure what to do (really, what do adults without kids go do???), so we opted to just go wander the mall for awhile. It sounds lame, but it was actually a lot of fun. Unfortunately, the mall does have to close at a certain time, so we had no choice but to say goodbye to our night out. We did resolve to make date night a regular occurrence at our house after we realized how crucial it is on our marriage.

This is what happened 9 years ago...

It was 9 years ago today that Richard and I got married. It's kind of funny, now that I think about it, how our marriage started. We were young, too young maybe? And in love, and we couldn't wait any longer to tie the knot- even though we already had a church reserved and a wedding date of June 10th picked out. My wedding dress was picked out as well, but wouldn't be altered for another 3 months at least. I don't really know what we were thinking, but on a whim, we decided one night (Feb. 10th, 2000 to be specific) that we would just go down to the court house the next day and have a judge marry us on our lunch break, then we would go back to work, and then spend the weekend looking for an apartment to rent, you know, so we could actually live together. Well, we did go to the court house on our lunch breaks, with 1 witness in tow, and found out there would be an hour wait and a $50 fee for the next judge to marry us. We decided to go for plan B and have a friend of ours marry us that night instead. So we made some phone calls, found a church that was available and went back to work. That night after I got off work, I made a mad dash to the store that had my dress reserved, and luckily found out that it would fit well enough for me to be able to wear it that night. Then I ran home and had my room mate, Kirsten, try to come up with some way to style my newly cut, very short hair. We couldn't come up with much, so she just put it up in 2 braids- kind of tacky, eh? I wasn't in the right mind set to safely drive, so Kirsten volunteered to drive me across town to the church. When we got there, I discovered that somebody had called all of our friends (luckily they did, because we forgot too! Woops!) and there was quite a crowd waiting for us. We still don't know who made all the phone calls for us, but we are eternally greatful for it!
So our friend that was going to marry us had one condition for us before he would acutally let us take our vows, and that was that 1 of us would have to call 1 of our parents to tell them what we were up to. I was too scared to call my parents, so Richard called his- and happily they were elated for us. I knew mine wouldn't be so thrilled, so we opted to tell them about a week after we got hitched, which is not one of the better decisions I've made in my life time (sorry about that mom and dad). Anywho, we went through with the ceremony and it was short but beautiful. We were surrounded by our friends and fortunately at least 1 family member, my husband's brother. We had a short, low key reception after that and then we were on our way to West Yellowstone for our Honeymoon (actually we stayed at a very nice hotel in Boise for the first night, thanks to arrangements made by my BIL). I won't go into details about our Honeymoon, because it's an entirely different story, but I will say that it involves strep throat, a blizzard, 4 tornadoes, a 5 hour long power outage, and nearly being fired from my job.

It's funny to look back on this now. This was remarkably out of character for me at the time, but now I think that it sums us up pretty well.

An update

Brandon's Dr. appt. was on Thursday and it went really well. He was officially diagnosed with autism, and the Dr. thinks that it's severe enough that Brandon will need special ed. We went in thinking that he would be diagnosed with something else, like ADHD or just a sensory disorder, but Dr. Felix said that it's 100% autism. In all honesty though (I hope this doesn't sound heartless), having a diagnosis like that won't really change anything for us. He's still our sweet guy, and we already knew that he had a learning disability, so we'll just continue working with it. We are hoping that he will be accepted into the developmental preschool here, and we'll be meeting with them in Feb. to find out if he qualifies. Keep your fingers crossed for us. =)

Rylee also had a Dr. appt. this week, for her 1 year check up. She weighs 21 lbs (60%) and is 28 inches long (35%). She's just a little tiny thing to me, but I love that she can actually wear her clothes for a good amount of time before she grows out of them. Brandon was wearing 2T and 3T clothes by his first birthday, so I'm not used to this at all.

I was worried about the possibility of Rylee being autistic, but our pediatrician reassured us that there's only an 8% chance, and that Rylee is right on track for normal development. I was thrilled to hear that!

Happy Birthday Littles!!!

How did my little girl grow so fast? It really seems like it was just a few months ago that she entered our lives. It's crazy how 1 year can go by in such a hurry! It's been a fun journey with Rylee by our sides, and we can't wait to see what next year has in store for us. Stay small for just a bit longer though Littles, momma isn't ready for her baby to grow up just yet.

Happy 1st Birthday Rylee!!!

We have a big day tomorrow!

First, and most importantly, my little Rylee girl officially turns 1 at 10:01 tomorrow morning! I can't even believe it's already been a year. She's brought so much joy into out lives though, and a lifetime worth of memories all in such a short period of time. Who knew such a little girl could bring so many blessings into our lives?

The second reason tomorrow is such a big day for us is because we are taking Brandon to see the Pediatric Developmental Specialist. I'm stressed beyond reason about what he'll say. All of Brandon's future therapy will depend on what diagnosis he receives. It's like a catch-22 for us- if he doesn't have autism, we will of course be over joyed, but he will no longer be qualified for any of the services that help him with his daily life. It's hard for me to imagine everything being hinged on what one Dr. says, but I guess he is the specialist, so we'll see what happens. Wish us luck!

Friends and fun on Friday!

Friday was a fun filled day for us (but especially me)! After speech therapy got over with, I took the kids to Pizza Hut to meet up with Charlotte, Alison and their kids. It was so much fun to just be able to talk with adults! The kids had fun too, although we were a little bummed that Pizza Hut did away with their kids play area. Rylee made eyes at Travis the whole time we there and kept stealing food off of Alison's plate, silly girl! =) Brock, Jamin and Brandon had fun bouncing off the walls (I mean that literally) and playing with Brock's dinosaurs. It was so good to see my friends, it's not very often that I get to catch up with my girls!
After that, I took the kids shopping in Boise and found the cutest little pink raincoat for Rylee (see picture)! I was hoping to find some nice pants for Brandon, but no luck there. It gives me a good reason to shopping again though! When our shopping adventure was over, I took the kids home and they both slept for 3 hours! I guess they were a little tired from our fun day out and about!
Later that night I went out with some other friends of mine, first to Applebees and then to the movies to see Bride Wars. It was a blast! The movie was so much fun, I can't wait until it comes out on DVD! It was the perfect way to end such a great day!

Some cuteness for the day!

One of Brandon's favorite things is watching the garbage truck (which he fondly refers to as the diaper truck) pick up our garbage. Today was no different- like radar he heard the "diaper truck" coming down the road and at about a 100 miles an hour he ran into the living room to watch it. The cutest thing happened though- the garbage man turned around and waved at Brandon and since then he's been on cloud 9! He hasn't stopped talking about the "diaper man" all day! We can't really understand what he's saying, but "diaper man and diaper truck" keep coming up, and he's been all smiles since that magical moment!

Miss Rylee has also surprised us today with some cuteness! After I got her up this morning, I set her on the floor and she immediatly said "hello" to Brandon! She's also been saying "hi" and waves at the same time! I love it!