A Weekend Away

In 2005, I started working at the University Store, which happens to be the bookstore for Towson University. Three months into the job I was promoted to a student manager; meaning I "managed" a group of cashiers (who also happened to be my peers). One of my coworkers, upset that I was promoted ahead of her, transferred out of my area. Flash forward to that coworker having a terrible breakup with her then boyfriend and essentially being homeless and needing a place to stay and you're caught up to how I became friends with one of my best gals. Yes, a rocky start for us for sure I'd say. But, her debacle was the beginning of beautiful friendship. One that has weathered many, many ups and downs. One that has seen graduations, job promotions, health issues, new houses, births, deaths and everything in between. One that no amount of life changes or distance could break.

In 2006 on a Saturday morning, while "managing" the bookstore, I met a girl who had had a rough night. Hungover or possibly still drunk on that Saturday morning, I was not impressed with her math skills or lack thereof. In fact, if you would have told me that day that she would turn out to be one of my best friends, I would have laughed. No way. But that's what you get for judging a book by its cover. Because she is. One of the first people I call with good news, bad news and everything in between. A friendship that is mutually unconditional without expectations.

Life has taken us all in different directions since 2008/2009 when we all graduated college. Our time together is often limited but it's always a good time when we are together. Last weekend was no exception. The Peanut and I trekked up to West Virginia, with Rachel in tow, to visit Mallorie and scope out her new house. For hours we sat and chatted and caught up on the comings and goings of life. And even though my trip was short, it was exactly what I needed. Those gals always have a fresh perspective or an encouraging word.

Even better, I arrived home to this...

Chalkboard Calendar on our Wall

 My awesome husband got this done while I was away! It's been so handy to have this on our wall. And now that he's shown interest in home projects, I've lined up a ton for him.

I was also able to finish our play room and our Peanut is loving it.

Last weekend was a productive one. Hoping our 4 day weekend proves to be just as productive (and maybe a smidge more relaxing). Date night tomorrow night! Woo hoo!

New Year, New Us...Maybe

I am getting T.E.R.R.I.B.L.E at this blog posting business. But at least my post will be jam packed, much like my life lately. Yes, my New Years resolutions are failing already... more to that later.

Christmas fun!

Christmas Eve All  Dressed Up

First and foremost...Christmas! To our (ahem) shock, the Peanut was spoiled. With a Toys r Us satellite store downstairs and a Carters warehouse upstairs, she is set. Some highlights from the day were the cottage that Uncle David and Aunt Melissa gifted to her, (She loves to shut the door on daddy and the dog and wave "bye bye". If only she is still kicking guys out of our basement in 15 years, my husband will be so lucky ;)) the ball pit, a bike and a picnic set from my husband's aunt.

        

 Christmas, albeit, crazy was fun and full of family and food. All kinds of f's that I like. Christmas passed as quickly as it came and we kicked off the New Year at friends' house surrounded by a ton of fun folks. And since New Years Day we have been non-stop going. Remember that resolution I posted? About saying no more. Yeah. Hasn't happened, but it will, and soon. Next weekend the husband and I are taking some QT for us. Some time to reconnect and enjoy an adult beverage or two together. For more than a half an hour...after the Peanut's bedtime (and before ours)

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Speaking of busy... we took a time out for a little sledding. On my day off Mr. Winter made an appearance and granted us with enough snow to sled down the hill behind our house. The Peanut loved the sled and was super sad (meltdown commence) when we came back inside. Lucky for her, our old neighbors visited later in the day and couldn't wait to take her back out in it! The day after our mini-snowstorm, a pair of our college friends came to visit as to watch Towson in their football championship. Even though we lost miserably, it was fun to root our college team on. And the Peanut looked uber cute in her tiger gear. Their expecting a little one of their own and we are super excited to welcome Baby W in a few short months!

The last update I can think of since the two and a half weeks I posted is about the house. What a different the house looks like post Christmas. The walls are bare once more and screaming for decoration. While I cannot decide on the living room (besides a pretty sweet decal I'm waiting on), the dining room is waiting on the commissioning of one more painting from our favorite Baltimore artist to be complete and the Peanut's play room is also just about finished. The handprint rug is now on the floor, the art wall is one letter away from looking awesome and the chalkboard labels for her bins are waiting for me to put them on. I hung pictures in our upstairs hallway and I'm collecting frames for the gallery wall staircase.  Lots of progress, but a lot of projects left to be done. 

Speaking of projects, if my husband is around on Sunday (he won his fantasy football league, well actually several leagues, and is going to collect his trophy belt this weekend) we have plans to do this to the wall in our kitchen:

And hopefully, maybe if I'm lucky, this :

 I must have been a pretty awesome kid this year because I, too, got a bike for Christmas! More pictures to come of our house projects!

All in all, the past two and a half weeks or so have been wonderfully busy. Looking forward to calmer weeks as we leap into the New Year with loads of fun stuff planned. Stay tuned.

I Am Not Perfect

The secret is out. I'm not perfect. I'm not the perfect wife, mother, daughter, sister, cousin or friend. There I said it. And I'm proud of it. I try so hard to make each and every person in my life happy that I often neglect my own happiness. That's not to say I'm not selfish from time to time because I most certainly am but the long and short of it... I'm not perfect.

Sometimes I forget to call when I'm suppose to, sometimes I have to cancel plans and sometimes I say things without thinking them through. Just this week I've rescheduled a phone date twice. Sue me. I'm human. Raising another human. Married to one. Daughter and daughter in law to three and friends with many. My life is chaotic on the best day, thanks to the tiny human (whom I love more than life itself).

My point to this, I think, is that one of my New Years Eve resolutions is to stop caring about pleasing everyone. If I can't make it to something because the tiny human has me otherwise preoccupied, so be it. If the human I'm married to needs a little us time , I will forgo the beeping calendar. While I would never intentionally causes discord between someone else and myself, from time to time I find myself there and I'm often anxiety ridden because of it. Life is too short. Things happen. Other things come up. I'm not perfect. I can't be all to everyone on the same day.

2014 is going to be a good year. I can feel it. Leaping into a New Year with positive thoughts.

New Reflection, New Year Resolution

I was looking back over my New Years resolutions from last year and I've fallen short of just about every one of them. This year has been a whirlwind, to say the least.  A career change for each of us, a major move and then another move,  and a baby growing up at the speed of light.

1). I will say I half checked off the first resolution to be more appreciative. Maybe even three-fourths.  I have really worked on appreciating my husband and mom more. I've tried to say thank you (and really mean it) twice as much as usual. The other night I asked my husband to do a task I knew he hated and then quickly told him I would take care of it, just because I knew he hated doing it and it was one small thing I could do.

2). Over extending myself. Major fail. Some days I feel like my head might spin off I'm so busy trying to fit my schedule together like a perfectly shaped puzzle.

3). Read 100 books. I read about 60. Not terrible. I'm actually pretty happy with that even if it fell short of my goal.

4). Lose 10 pounds. I'm pretty sad I couldn't lose 10 lbs in 12 months but it is what it is. Yoga is still calling my name...

5). Spend more time with my husband. I can check this off. We've taken a bunch of mini trips and spent some good quality time together this year.

I'm making just one resolution this year. To be more present in life.  To stop rushing so much. I am uber guilty of squeezing this in here and that there and not really being "there" for any of it. I'm going to not live life behind a screen. To put my phone down more often and connect with people in real time. Life is too short; I would rather make memories than "like" memories. 2013 was a great, stressful, whirlwind of a year. Bring on 2014; I'm ready to leap into a new year. After we celebrate Christmas, of course!

Weekends Fly By

The Facini's had one of the busiest weekends we've had in awhile. Friday night we took a trip to Ann Marie Gardens to check out the Christmas light display. It was worth every penny of our admission fee. If you're ever in the Southern Maryland area around Christmas time, I highly, highly recommend it. We spent the rest of Friday night cleaning and getting the house ready for our weekend guests.

Saturday, after the Peanut's last Zumbini class (we're so sad it's over but can't wait for it to start back up again! She loves it and so do I actually!) our friends from Baltimore came to visit for the night. We had a nice dinner out and they hung out with our Peanut for a bit so the husband and I could stop by my work Christmas party. After making an appearance, we came back to kill our livers for the night. I could elaborate on that but I'll plead the fifth. The empty whiskey/wine bottles can do the talking if they want... Sunday, today, was cookie making day. My mom, the Peanut and myself spent the day baking cookies and making a mess. We're experts at both after today! After all the cookie making, we took a time out to go out to dinner and then visit another light display. Such fun memories we're making with the Peanut.

And now we're prepping for tonight...if you've been reading my blog for awhile you might see a common theme-- my kid hates to sleep. HATES to sleep. My mom swears it's payback from when I was a baby. Apparently, discriminating against sleep is genetic. In fact, as I type this my child is in her crib screaming. After two months of letting her sleep in our bed and still not getting a good night's sleep, we're trying a new tactic. Per my husband. I still don't know if I have the will power to do it. Yep, you know exactly where I'm headed with this-- the cry it out method. I'm fine letting her initially cry herself to sleep, but in the middle of the night when she wakes up, half disoriented from being partially awake and cries out for us I'm not so sure I'm made for letting her cry it out. We'll see... I'm going to try my best.

As I finished typing the above paragraph, the screaming stopped. I better to head to bed now...I feel like it's going to be a long night. Enjoy a couple pictures I remember to take this weekend. I've been pretty terrible at that.

Good Times Applesauce

My weekly, biweekly posts have been stagnant. Oops. Life has just been nuts. And I used to post at work during my lunch break but given my new job, blogger isn't actually a preferred website. Shocker. Haha.

But back to our regularly tuned updates-- our Peanut is walking! All over the place!! She's still not sleeping through the night-- I'm fairly sure she doesn't want a sibling, but she's walking

She's repeating, or at least trying to repeat so much of what we say we've had to really start watching WHAT we say. The general public would probably frown upon our 17 month old shouting "Oh shit".

My new job is awesome. It's finally picked up and 9 hour days are flying by. My boss is really nice and my coworkers seem pretty nice too.

Over the weekend we visiting the Big Apple. The hubby and I spent the day wandering around the City, enjoying the local cuisine and touristy spots, including a little ice skating in Central Park. It was great to get away with him for the day. Even if we didn't get home until 3am the next morning and our Peanut was up at 7am.

Last night I took a time out from mommyhood and enjoyed "Wine and Design". You sip (or in my case, gulp) wine and paint a picture. While I won't be switching careers anytime soon, it was so much fun and it was great to catch up with some girlfriends.

Life has been pretty great lately. Thank you Jesus for things leveling out. I was starting to get a little nervous.

After a busy weekend, Daddy and Peanut nap

She loves Jimmy Fallon

Check out SMC Wine and Design

Well... We Moved!

It's been an amazingly wild couple of weeks in the Facini household. I started my new job two weeks ago and we moved into the new house this past weekend. Our weekend was filled with cardboard boxes, family, friends and 200 trips up and down my new stairs.

While the house is 90% unpacked, the walls are still bare and lacking our touch. Soon enough. I have the next 30+ years to get this house exactly the way I want it. I'm just enjoying having my own space again.

I have thought of a millions topics to post about in the last two weeks but life has just been so crazy I haven't had a chance to put them into anything.

Pictures and better posts forthcoming. But for now, the Facini's have leaped into their new home and couldn't be happier. Okay, maybe slightly happier if the Peanut would sleep through the night but ya know, one thing at a time.