You know you're old when....

• After telling your students that you graduated high school in 1999, one of them raises their hand and says "I was one year old then."


• You go to sleep at 9:15 on a Friday night


• Your knees crack when you get up in the morning


• You look down and realize you were driving 55 on the highway and you were in the fast lane


• You find out that students starting college this year have never seen one of those giant Sears catalogs

All of those things happened to me this week. I think I must be getting old.

Sadness

Today I had to go back to work. I didn't realize how sad this would make me. So sad I indulged last night and rocked Harper to sleep. I haven't done that in months. I think she knew something was up, because she snuggled in really close.

This has been a great summer. It's a good thing I love my job, because Harper would make it impossible to go back otherwise.

It's a blessing that she loves her daycare. She just toddles right in and starts playing. Although I had to have Joe drop her off this morning...I might have cried if I had to do it.


I'm excited to meet my new group of students...but I'm also secretly anticipating all the fun things we'll do next summer.

See these...







These are Harper's crack. From day one in the hospital she has been addicted. It was always the ace in the hole when we couldn't settle her down. If she was crying, she would instantly relax when we popped it into her mouth.



At about one year, we got pretty good at only using the pacifier for naps and bedtime. Being the kind of kid she is, she loves to put things away. So after she would wake up, we would always put the pacifier away in her drawer. She was such a big girl.



Well, before I head back to work, we decided to make the plunge and wean her off of it. I figured I'd rather have crazy nights of no sleep before having to get up and be productive again.



So last night we started the process. She cried hysterically for 20 minutes. Joe went in and calmed her down and said she passed out within a minute of him picking her up. No problems during the night. Night one...check.



Nap time today, I decided to let her take one of her stuffed animals to bed with her. I could hear her playing with it a little, and then when she decided she was ready to sleep, the crying started. I checked the clock, planning to allow her another 20 minutes before intervening with some snuggles. So I sat down to make this post. Guess what...no more crying. Only about 10 minutes this time. That is super exciting for mommy. Nap one...check.



Here's hoping we continue on this good streak. Keep your fingers crossed for us.

We're not in Kansas anymore

But we were this weekend. Harper and I boarded a plane to visit my best friend and her family in KC this past weekend.

We got lucky both on the way there and back that there was an empty seat for Harper. She loved looking out the window and waving the houses she could see below.

Emily has a super cute little boy who just turned one, so the kids got to spend a lot of time playing together.

Can you tell they were both working on new teeth? There was a lot of chewing happening.

We did a lot of fun things with the kids. There was splash time at the pool.

A romantic stroll through the park.

And the obligatory embarrassing bath picture of them together.

I had a ton of fun catching up with Ems. It's been hard having her so far away as we both go through the crazy journey of having kids. Spending this time together was so great. We're already planning a vacation for our two families for next Spring. I can't wait to see how the kids have changed by then.

Picnic in the Park

We've been having some beautiful evening weather lately, so we decided to take advantage and go for our first family picnic in the park. We picked up some sandwiches, pasta salad and watermelon at the Kroger and headed down to Schiller Park in German Village.

After playing on the playground and eating dinner, we headed over to feed the ducks. If Harper could have dove in and handed the bread to the ducks, she would have.

We even got an up close look at some land bound ducks.

It was a great way to spend some time as a family.

Rite of Passage

Skinned, dirty knees. That means we are doing a good job of being a kid!

To sell or not to sell

That is the question.

My mom has been storing my wedding dress in her closet since my wedding..so 5 years now. She finally had enough with it taking up so much room and asked me to make a decision. I never had it preserved because I just have a hard time spending money to put something in a box and never get anything out of it again. It's doing the same thing in my mom's closet so...I need to make a decision on whether to sell it or not. That was my original intention.

I have no delusion that Harper will want to wear it when she gets married. Who wants to wear a dress 25 years out of style. Don't get me wrong...my dress is beautiful. It's two pieces, which I loved. The top was a lace-up corset style, and the skirt was a traditional ball gown. I just don't think that Harper will want to wear it. Plus, I am most definitely looking forward to the search for her wedding dress.

All that being said, I might be having second thoughts on selling it. Now that I have to make the decision and I don't just get to filch free storage space off my parents, it's a little tough. I certainly don't have the room to store it. I'd have to find a place for my husbands giant lego collection in order to get the room in our spare bedroom closet.

On the other hand, I could use the money to do something for myself that it totally selfish that I just can't bring myself to pay for otherwise. I really want to have my hair permanently straightened. I hate having to get up an hour before work to get it done. And that's just the straightening part. I usually do the washing and drying the night before. So I could justify the cost of the hair by selling the wedding dress.

I just don't know. What do you all think?

Sell or Save?