My 30th Birthday!!

A couple of weeks ago I celebrated turning 30! I had been looking forward to turning 30 for quite awhile. After having cancer, every birthday is a milestone and you can't wait to celebrate another year. I'm sure that all cancer survivors would agree with me. I wanted to spend my 30th birthday with my closest friends and that's exactly what I did. Hilary A. and Kevin, Hilary O. and Tyler, and Ryan and I all started our night down at Maria's. It is my absolute favorite place for Mexican food....and margaritas. After a wonderful meal, we all headed to Ernie Biggs Piano Bar. It was a lot of fun with a lot of memories. I'll leave it at that! Finally, we ended our night at the Mud Lounge. I really couldn't have asked for a better birthday. Ryan and I have the best friends and to spend it with them was perfect!

It was also so nice to spend time with my family. My mom's birthday is less than a week after mine and for us to celebrate together is always wonderful. Thank you mom and dad for always being there.

Now to brag on my family a bit......Ryan has been so wonderful to me over the past years. We actually started dating when I was 15 and have officially been together for 15 years! I just want to thank you for being the best husband and father. Thank you for always providing for our family. Charley and you have an indescribable bond and she and I are truly blessed. I LOVE you so much and look forward to celebrating many more birthdays together!!!

Summer is Over and the School Year has Begun!

Can you say slacker???? I have really let the blog go this summer. Perhaps it is because last summer I was robbed of time with my family and was just beginning my battle against breast cancer. So, when this summer rolled around, I took advantage of it. Although our summer didn't involve any glamorous trips or vacations, it was still wonderful. Charley turned 3 this summer which is so hard to believe. My baby is longer a baby. At 3 years old is she even considered a toddler anymore? I think she is slowly crossing over to officially being my big girl. Despite how time is flying by, I have to admit that I absolutely LOVE this age. Charley is such a firecracker......which might not be such a good thing at times! She now officially roles her eyes and just the other day I said something to her and she looked at me and said, "Whatever." I literally stopped in my tracks. Did my 3 year old seriously just look at me and say "Whatever?" She obviously gets this from Ryan. I would never roll my eyes or say whatever. (wink, wink)

As much fun as summer was and as busy as were, I was somewhat relieved when it was time for preschool to start again. The only bad thing about school starting is that the time seems to go by even faster and because of that I know summer will be just around the corner which means Charley will be turning 4. Could someone please freeze time for just awhile???

Yesterday was the first day of school for Charley and she was so excited. I remember last year she was so reluctant for me to leave her there and clung to my neck out of desperation for me to save her. Unfortunately that was not the case this year. When I Ryan and I dropped off at her class yesterday she took off her back-pack, turned to us, and said, "I need a hug." After hugs and kisses she was off and there was no turning back. No more separation anxiety. Charley is a social butterfly. Although I miss the days that Charley was fearful to be left in an unfamiliar location, I am so proud to be raising an independent, strong-willed child. I know these are attributes which will benefit her greatly as she gets older. Here are some pictures of Charley's first day of school:






With school starting, I thought this would be a good time to also enroll Charley into some sort of extracurricular activity. She LOVES music and LOVES to dance so I knew she needed something where she could be wild and move around. So, I decided we would try a free class of both dance and gymnastics and then choose from one of the two. Yesterday, Charley had Hip Hop. Yes, I said Hip Hop. It was her and two other boys, both of which were older than her by one, if not two years. My little Charley looked like a twig out there and although she was pretty good at the stretches they did at the beginning, Charley is so not ready for Hip Hop. Besides being so completely distracted because Ryan and I were there....although we did try to hide....she had no clue what was going on. At one point I heard her yell out, "My favorite color is yellow." What??? I ended up pulling Charley out of the class before it ever ended. Perhaps if there was a class called Free Style, Charley would do much better. Today we give our free gymnastics class a try. I really hope that today is more successful than yesterday! I'll keep you posted!