L is for the way you look at me... :)

Come on, you all know the song! At the beginning of this journey (the living together and in a totally different city), we had no idea what would happen. We had never lived together before, and little did we know that we didn't really know what to expect. Up until that point in our lives we had obviously spent most of our time living with our parents. Sooo... no grocery shopping, no decorating, and no question as to our lifestyle choices. As you start this process of living together you learn those weird things about people. For example, Tom's family puts the syrup in the fridge. My family keeps it in the pantry. Every time I go to grab the syrup, it's not there. Sure enough I find it in the fridge. Then I have to put cold syrup on my pancakes. Who wants cold syrup on their pancakes?  My family would always go out for ice cream, whether it was after softball games, or just because mom & I had a hankering for some yummy coldness. This is something Tom was unfamiliar with (or at least not thrilled and thought of it as a waste of money), but this summer I have turned him onto ice cream parlors and now we are lovers of ice cream parlors. Aren't they ah-mazing? haha. Anyways, this is not about ice cream. This is about how Nine-ish months ago I thought I was as satisfied with our relationship as I was going to get. I did not think I could have been happier. I was soooooo happy. Now here we are... nine-ish months later and I can say that I am utterly amazed that I get to spend the rest of my life with Tom. He is truly a great man, and will be an amazing husband, and will one day be a great father. God could not have blessed me with a greater man. And this realization makes me so thrilled because I am so looking forward to the next time I have this realization. I hope every person gets to feel this way, at least once, and hopefully always.
Who knew you could learn so much about someone just from living with them. :)
Love,
Lauren

The last of the summer weekends...

So this weekend Tom and I really started to wrap up our end of summer-ness. We were fortunate enought to be able to have all of Tom's family down for the weekend (Pat, Sandy, Melissa, Eric, Connor, Zennon, and Nana), and what a great weekend did we have! Mind you it was very busy, but yet a lot of fun (and we didn't even drive three hours with a toddler and a baby!). We played at the park, had some tasty margaritas, took a paddle boat ride, ate some yummy crab dip (and cakes!), played Zoo Legos, watched some fireworks, and watched a lot of football! Busy I know! But this weekend taught me a lot. It showed me that kids grow up so fast, and you only get so much time with them before they don't want to be your friend anymore. Connor just turned three, and that completely boggled my mind! I remember when he was a baby and getting to hold him, and now he is a toddler, and soon he will be heading off to school! So Uncle Tom and Aunt Lauren spent a lot of time playing with Connor this weekend. We got to play a lot! Tom also managed to pick up a few "Connor-isms." Like, Connor wanted to watch the fire works RIGHT NOW! So now Tom is saying he wants to watch football RIGHT NOW! If only you could hear the way he says it! Connor just gets so excited about what's coming up, and Tom just does it to be silly :) Uncle Tom also learned how to build a zoo out of legos, and Grandma just can't quite do it the same way. We also got to spend a lot of time with Zennon, who is rolling over and almost sitting up on his own, already! It was so great to get to see the boys and spend time with everyone. They're growing up right before our eyes and we just can't believe it!

Looking at the big paddle on the boat!

Living out of town has taught me to appreciate the time I have with my family, because I dont get to see them all the time anymore. Differences need to be put aside, and you just need to relax and let yourself have fun and enjoy each other's company, that's why you're there in the first place! You only have so many memories, so they should be good ones. :)

What does living out of town teach you?

Love,

Lauren 

Playing with Uncle Tom

Yikes!

Hiiiiiii!

I know it's been a while, but I have been a busy lady! Between work, visiting friends, and general life thrown together it gets busy. We had an awesome weekend (last weekend), but it was very quick and very busy! On Friday Tom had his first football draft, so I spent my evening at the gym (glamorous I know!). Then on Saturday Tom worked in the morning, and after work we headed up north for Tom to draft in his second league. He got to play a few games of horseshoes with family and spend some time with our adorable nephews. After the draft we headed over to Katy and Jason's (Check out my uber talented cousin Katy here: South Paw Studios) for a beer tasting (Jason and my brother in law Matt are super into Craft beer, check out Jason's page, Everything Brewed). They got all sorts of yucky different cheeses for us to try with the beer, it was a lot of fun and good to see Matt, Lisa, Katy, and Jason! On Sunday morning we headed back down to the Cinci area and made our way out to our friend's family farm and spent the evening visiting our friend Ben who was in town from Augusta, SC. So good to see him and meet his new-ish lady Anna. On Monday (after work that is) we headed down into cinci to watch our Redlegs lose to the Phillies, but hey, at least the game was good! As far as this weekend goes we are home bodies. Tom is on call so leaving the house can become a pain. But football is on now, so it makes our Saturdays spent at home much more enjoyable! (And I got to put my Buckeye's jersey on again, FINALLY!) As far as the future goes we will have lots of visitors next weekend when Tom's parents, sister (& fam) and Nana come to visit us! We're going on a Riverboat ride and I cannot wait to see the excitement on Connor's face!

Till Later!

Love,
Lauren