August Already?

July disappeared. After Florida for the 4th of July, Florida a week later for a weekend, engagement chaos, and a new job August snuck right up! Although it seems like a long summer because it was so nice so early, the end is coming quickly.

We're still booked solid on all the weekends, but with many fun things. This past weekend we headed down to Milwaukee to stay at a waterpark for the night, catch up with friends and go to the Sunday afternoon Brewer game!

I'll let the pictures speak for themselves:

What a weekend! This past weekend we spent relaxing and playing, trying to catch up. Dane and I have been looking up wedding plans like crazy. We secured our date and that led into trying to get everything else booked as fast as we could while we're ahead, I think we just need to breathe before we're in over our heads!

Big Changes

What A Month!
(My post view skyrocketed right around July 22nd, I think you guys are already onto what is coming...)

July has been absolutely overwhelming, in a great way!

On July 3rd I was contacted by the company that I interned for after school. There was a job opening and they wanted me to submit my information/apply. I was happy where I was at, but for a career advancement, full time pay, and benefits I made the decision to take a job change!

This was my last week at my old job and my first week at my new job. It proved to be a bit overwhelming while training new employees at one and learning everything at the other, but it was fun. I am very excited for my new position and what it can do for me! It is going to allow me to show what I can do, as well as send me out of my comfort zone in other areas to learn new things.

(P.S. Did I mention I was sitting by the pool in Florida when all this was happening? Such a rough situation, ha!)

A week after going through job changes I was hanging out at home with my wonderful boyfriend when I was given a packing list. The list had everything I would need for a surprise trip as well as a pick-up time indicated for 4:45AM.

Two days later Dane picked me up, we drove to Milwaukee and hopped a plane to Orlando. Yes, we were back in Florida for the weekend.

We hit the pool at our resort, got dressed up and headed to a fancy and delicious dinner. When we were busting at the seams from eating everything we took a walk down a path from the resorts to the Magic Kingdom at Disney when Dane got down on one knee and proposed!

We're ENGAGED!

We spent the rest of the night riding all our favorite rides and watching fireworks.

The rest of the weekend was enjoyed at the Disney parks celebrating, eating delicious meals, and spending time together before we came home to celebrations!

 It has been an amazing few weeks with big changes and future outlooks! We are excited to get wedding planning started, but training in a new job at the same time = hectic!

Summer Nights

We have had a busy summer and  crazy schedule. It is wonderful to get a few nights in there that are just us playing at home or last minute plans to do something small and fun.

This past weekend we came home from day care and played outside. Before we knew it the neighbors sparked an impromptu pool party and everyone was out having fun. Brode loved swimming and all the adults had soem good laughs!

Saturday we got up early and ran a 10K! It ended up being good weather, not too hot like we expected. Brode was supposed to run a Fun Run after us and wasn't feeling it at all so he chickened out. The rest of Saturday we just played until we went out for hibachi dinner! Brode has neve been, but he loved it:

After hibachi we went to "The Toys R US" as Brode says to pick up a few things and somehow ended up with:

Oh boy! He has been asking for one for months, I have no idea why. There are strict rules and he must be on best behavior at all times or it is packed away.

Sunday morning Grandpa and Dane went golfing so Brode, my mom and I all headed down to the park for Art in the Park. After a few purchases and a lost flip flop we were off to a few errands and then home for lunch.

Our friend Tiff came and visited for a few hours Sunday afternoon and we were glad we got some play time and catch-up time.

Sunday night we took Brode to the free kids fun run in town. This one he actually wanted to run and got right out front. Their 1/4 mile seemed extra long but he did great! We're excited there is another one in a few weeks.

We told Brode if he ran really fast he could earn some DQ (of course we all got some DQ)!

The rest of our summer is still a bit crazy, but we love any time to just enjoy and play together!

Vacation!

What a week! To celebrate the 4th of July I headed to Orlando with Dane and his family. Unfortunetaly Brode stayed here with Grandma, Grandpa, and Daddy, but it was a relaxing vacation away!

The weather was beautiful, we were in no rush to be anywhere, and got a lot of time by the pool and at Disney.

We stayed at the Wyndham Grand at Bonnet Creek. AMAZING. Although not a Disney resort it is on the grounds and just opened in October. It consists of several towers settled around a big pond. Each tower has a specialty such as a family pool, mini golf, lazy river, kids pirate ship pool, splash pad, etc. There are outdoor restaurants, spas, and amazing rooms. Can't forget the Starbucks in the lobby as well.

We spent 3 days at Disney and 1 day at Universal Studios going on rides, seeing shows, and walking around!

(Buzz Lightyear - Dane and I in major competition)

(Harry Potter Hogwarts castle at Islands of Adventure)

(Meeting Brode's favorite - JAKE!)

We ate at all the great restaurants from the German buffet and Bubba Gumps to T-Rex and BJ's Brewery. The pictures below show T-Rex, the dinosaur restuarant like Rainforest Cafe, we really need to bring Brode back here!

I have to say it was wonderful sleeping in, spending the morning at the pool, having a long time to shower, and spending the afternoon with all the magic but I sure missed Brode. Of course we brought WAY too much back for him.

Our favorite was the LEGO Mack truck and Lightning McQueen from Cars. Little boy wasn't a fan of how long it took to build....

But he loved the final product!

 While enjoying my vacation in Florida I also had some other major changes - but that is a story for another time!

Day Zero Project

Have you heard of the Day Zero project?

http://dayzeroproject.com/

One of my best friends, my roommate from college, came to our house this weekend to play and visit. She presented me with a gift and challenge of 101 in 1001.

The concept of the Day Zero project is to create a list of 101 things you'd like to complete in 1001 days. I started my list and to be honest, I don't know if 2.75 years is enough. I put some pretty hefty goals on there that I don't think budgets/income are going to allow, so I will not be discourged if I go over 1001 days. It still serves as a great finish line to keep in mind and I can always carry those large ones over to a new list if I decide to start over in 1001.

As I made my list I realized I'm at a great time in my life to tackle half of these tasks and really set out to accomplish goals. After finishing school and wondering where I'll go next, this gives me great direction.

As for sharing my list, hmmm. I am happy to share my list with some individuals. I will share that #101 on my list is to challenge others to create a list for themselves. If you create a list, tell me and we can share with each other. Maybe we'll have things in common and can do them together! I'd love to see what other things people have because I think some of mine would surprise some people.

Along with the challenge I received an awesome notebook with quotes in it. I'm going to use this notebook to write down my list as well as journal and record when I finish each goal.

Try it!

Art Project

Saturday afternoon we set up camp in the shade to do a painting project. I got the idea to paint these canvases from a combination of Pinterest projects.

 I got two 2-pack canvases, blank stencils, and poster letters at Hobby Lobby.

We traced pictures of sports balls on the blank stencil and cut them out (difficult to see on here becaue they're clear) and put the poster letters on the bottom of each canvas.

Brode then painted the canvases, over the top of the stencils with green, red, orange, and yellow to match the colors in his room.

After sitting in the grass to dry while we played we peeled the stencils off to leave the white letters and outlines of the balls.

He has a big blank blue wall on one side of his room that we put the pictures up on last night. The other walls are covered in painted patterns, letters, his big bed, a bookshelf and a table so this wall was due for a little something.

I love adding his little touch of art to the room. He is very proud of them!

Milwaukee Monday

ANOTHER Milwaukee Monday! You may remember a post a while back about having a Tuesday appointment and I was all thrown off.... whew, we're back to Milwaukee Monday's.

Brode was scheduled for his 1 year check up with his craniofacial surgeon and it fell at the same time as the 1 month post-op check for his eyes. LOVE when that happens!

We were to report to radiology by 9:00AM, that craniofacial clinic by 11:00AM, and the eye clinic at 12:45PM. LONG day.

Brode did GREAT! First off at 9:00 he had a CT scan to re-check the alignment and holes/bone growth in his skull. There are 2 options with a CT scan - not moving (5 minutes), or being sedated (1 hour - 1.5 hours and a whole lot of frustration with an IV). Well good thing we brought Grandpa because Brode sat perfectly still and we were able to get in and out of the scan with no moving. Beforehand we talked about taking pictures, showed him pictures of the "big donut" (scanner), and told him it wouldn't hurt at all. He was a bit hesitant but after a few minutes of talking and looking around and practicing he let them strap him down, hold Grandpa's hand and they scanned him quickly. We were all so proud of him and extremely thankful we didn't need to do the sedation.

At his 11:00 appointment we were able to look at the scans right away and discuss with his doctor. Everything is looking great for a year. He has a few holes, but nothing alarming. His eye has dropped off and his nose is sideways, both things that they can fix in the future, but nothing we're looking into. It would be too much pain for the small outcome. We will just keep them in mind for future if he struggles with his looks.

Lastly, after a long wait and exploring adventure, we had the eye re-check after surgery. The tracking looks great from the surgery and his vision hasn't changed. We're down to patching for 1 hour a day to work down to none and getting rid of the patches as they do not think the vision will change any more than it has.

The best news of the day, we go back to the eye doctor in 6 months and the craniofacial clinic in 1 year. Those are great stretches of time as we were doing at about every 3 months or less lately.

As if the day wasn't long enough, we made an afternoon trip to the Milwaukee Zoo!

 All of the animals were pretty active except this guy.