Hello World, Remember Me?

Jude and I on Mother's Day

I think it's pretty safe to say I'm in a blogging rut.  Not because I don't have things to say, but I don't have the time to do it.  Or there are other things I want to do more.  Specifically gardening.  I have really been getting into this lately.  And thankfully with this cooler spring and now cool start of summer, it's been easy to do that.  I am beyond enjoying seeing all the new growth on my rose bushes.  This weekend I discovered morning glories growing wild so my head is full of how to try to capture and tame those.

My garden helper

For Mother's Day, Jimmy and I went plant shopping.  It's been amazing to have plants on my porch to look at and relax around.  So thankful for him and his willingness (and knowledge) to garden with me.  He is beyond amazing in countless ways.  Patient with my questions.  He loves on my child in ways that blow my mind.  And he serves me in the most humble ways, including planting flowers into pots with and for me.  He is the best man I know.

So much about this picture I love

My actual Mother's Day was spent relaxing in cool weather with some poetry on my front porch.  It was blissful and beautiful and peaceful.  Jude spent the time in what I have christened 'his digging spot'.  Because I'm pretty sure every boy needs one.  That evening Jimmy took us to dinner and because he is the kindest hearted human, he patiently played games with Jude while we waited.  I tried to get a pic of it, but none of them came out :(

Flash forward to last weekend (everything in between is a blur anyway...) and Jude and I joined my family in Annapolis Maryland where my brother graduated from the Naval Academy.  So much patriotism wells up in me when it comes to the military.  I am not the biggest believer in politics, but I love the general American ideals.  Flags, uniforms, gun salutes, etc just seem to foster that for me.  The commissioning ceremony was rather torturous as it was raining with a strong wind chill of 45*.  If it weren't for the fact that Obama was speaking and my love for my brother, I would have left.  The rest of the time was spent trying to stay warm, enjoying crab foods of all kinds, front porch sitting, and getting to know my brother's beautiful girlfriend (who happens to have been an Alpha Chi Omega at the University of Georgia.  I was one at Baylor.  My sis was one at Texas Tech.  There was secret handshaking.  And a possible night out with this...)

LITB

Some other pics from the weekend:

amazing

Future midshipman?

This is the porch I dream about.  My mansion in heaven will have this porch.

This weekend was spent celebrating that Jimmy and I have been dating for a year.  Technically a little longer, but we consider our first real date to be the beginning of June.  Last year on June 1st or 2nd (not actually sure of the date) we went to an Avett Brothers concert.  It was amazing musically.  Plus Dirk Novitski (sp?) happens to be an Avett fan and he showed up.  I was pretty nervous because this was the first date I'd been excited about since Michael.  I had no idea what I was doing.  Jimmy was nervous.  It  was the slowest start to a relationship considering I was somewhat freaked out to be dating anyone at the time.  I had no idea if I could trust myself to pick out a good one this time.  I took each day at a time and proceeded with caution.  As only God could know, Jimmy is just a naturally easy paced person, and my need for time suited him fine.  We spent 4-5 months 'figuring it out' and it wasn't until that long in until labels were attached.  And probably 8+ months in before we both were ready to acknowledge this was in any way serious.  Thinking back over this past year, (besides just making me cry right now- what the heck...) its just crazy.  Doesn't seem that long.  And yet Jimmy is by far one of the best things to happen to my life.  And in every way, one of the most patient, humble, servant hearted men I've ever met.  In fact if I had to pick a single word to describe him, servant would be it.  And having a character like that, well it's just impossible to not trust and respect him, which my heart so desperately needed to be able to do.  I love him so very much.

We celebrated last night by going to the KXT summer fest, which headlined, guess who- the Avett Brothers.  Same concert.  A year to the day of our first date.  It was a blissful evening to sit on a quilt in our warm, breezy June weather.  (until it poured that night haha :)  

So anyway, life is good.  In 5 days it will be summer.  I will get to spend my time with Jude who tells me every day after work that he 'misseded' me.  And I will continue to enjoy the ease of loving someone who loves me so selflessly for exactly who I am.

Too Cute Weekend Wrap Up

This weekend was different from our norm in the sense that 

1.  my parents were in town 

2.  no date night except that Jimmy came to dinner with my fam

3.  i hung out with my sister

Good times were had by all.  But first, here is my edition of TOO CUTE... 

My sleeping child in the car and his sweet sweet sweet little fist.  Gah- dead.  Why oh why are they just so precious when they sleep.  So precious your heart literally aches for time to just stop.  Jude fell asleep in the car Friday night on the way to dinner.  Right now, we are trying to find the happy medium of naps.  Jude will nap for 4 hours- daily.  But then not go to sleep.  I've tried nixing the nap so he goes to bed early.  But then he's exhausted.  Parenting- a tale in trial and error.  I tell you...

Saturday was cold and rainy (side note- what the heck spring!).  Jude made himself comfortable by turning on the fire place and getting cozy with his favorite movie, Beethoven.  We watch that movie on repeat, honestly.  He spent the afternoon doing man stuff with my dad, while us girls went shopping.  Easter clothes for the win :)

That night, my sister, her friend and I went to a concert at the House of Blues.  I didn't know either of the bands prior to going.  I was just excited to go to a concert!  The last time I was at HOB, it was for Dropkick Murphy and there was a lot of moshing and jumping.  This time it was for Ben Rector.  There were a lot of sorority girls.  And by a lot- I mean that's all that was there.  ::define irony::  Anyway, it was fun.  I was more partial to the opening band, Alpha Rev.  Kind of Ryan Adams ish, which I dig.  I recommend.  I mainly really enjoyed having girl time and just laughing with my sister, who I literally thought was going to throw down if one more 18 yr old cut in front of her.  My sister is like 100 lbs and 5'2", so you can imagine how intimidating she is :)  She blames job stress haha.  Yolo- haha that's for my sis...

The best part was I think this is the first time Ben Rector has ever sold out a big name place.  This was the 4th show in the tour for one thing, and it was the first one in the tour to sell out.  It was kinda cool because he was so stinkin excited.  I think he sort of felt like 'he arrived' ya know.  It was fun to be able to be apart of something you know he will remember.  I mean he's stoked!

Girls!!!!  Night!!!!

Sunday we did it right.  Re-lax-a-tion.  I don't think I moved from the couch much if at all.  Old woman at a concert where she stands all night means I must lay down all the next day.  #fact  Luckily, Jude was down for the chillin...  Thankful!

 I read some of my small group book while I was on the couch.  Didn't want it to be a complete waste of time ;)  And I was just really struck by the truths of this section.  Especially because I struggle with impatience.  Mostly because I get nervous about things going wrong- not so much that I'm in a hurry.  But I do want to be perfect.  In the end though, my impatience because of fear hurts others, and that's a problem.  I am really loving the ideas of this book and just how its pushing me to love and embrace others more!  Side note- I am going to try to do book review posts as I finish books, so this will be included :)

And on that note, here is my lazy face.  No makeup.  No shame.  I loved every second of it.

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