The Most Wonderful Time of the Year

{Photo of my senior recital last weekend, taken by family friends}

Okay, I'm a huge Christmas fan, so Christmas actually is the most wonderful time of the year, but right now, where I'm at in this year, and at in life in general, it feels pretty wonderful. In the next 3 months we will:

move at least twice
travel to Utah
have 2 family reunions
graduate from Arizona State University
sell our car
sell all our furniture
travel to Idaho
have a baby!
start fresh

It's taken me a little longer that I would have liked, to think of these things as wonderful rather than stressful but I'm there! And I'm so excited! Especially about graduating, moving to Chicago and meeting baby boy. So much to look forward to! And I can't wait to share it all with you.

Speaking of sharing wonderful things; last weekend was my senior recital and my family outdid themselves on the beautiful decorations and atmosphere and it was so much fun to sing my heart out!







{Photos taken by my beautiful SIL}

Things I'll Miss

Out to dinner at St. Francis in Phoenix with Coll's siblings and their spouses- - best food ever BTW


We're moving soon. To Chicago. We're really excited. It's going to be a bundle of changes all at once with baby boy, Coll starting grad. school, and moving 1,752 miles happening all within about 5 weeks, but really, we're very excited!

I'm a large proponent of pros and cons lists. So naturally, when we were given the opportunity to move across the country, I weighed it all out.

The Pros:
* in 1994 Illinois passed the "Family Building Act" requiring that all health insurance providers cover infertility treatment/diagnostics
* before there were the Diamondbacks there were the Cubs. I've been a loyal Cubs-fan my whole life, and when you all sing "for it's root, root, root for the home-team" in stead of "root root root for the Cubbies", you're singing it wrong
* Chicagoans dye the river green on St. Patrick's Day
* there is no such thing as 120° in The Windy City
* white Christmases
* great public transportation
* the thrift stores, OHHH the thrift stores
* it's a really cool place to visit (insert hint for family and friend visits here)
* we'll be only a 13 hour drive from family we don't get to see as often as we'd like
* getting to know a brand new city, full of rich history

Cons:
* the first few years of baby boy's life will be spent getting to know his grandparents, cousins, aunts, and uncles via Skype rather than real life hugs and kisses (thank heaven for Skype though)
* I swear the year we're moving is the year everything cool is happening in AZ
* we're leaving most of our family behind, and that's the very hardest part, in fact when I hang out with my brother these days, I find myself crying on the way home (nobody told me that pregnancy hormones come when you're adopting)

As you can see, the pros outweighed the cons, so come July we're making our way to the home of the best pizza I've ever had, which really, should be reason enough to move.

So, does anybody know anything about Chicago? Safe places to live? Good places to eat? Take a car, no need for a car? Send your Chicago info. my way if you please.

Oh, and Happy Tuesday

Happy Is What Happens

Monday morning, as I was riding my Schwinn to school, I took a big breath and it smelled like Spring. I don't really even know how to explain it but the air was fresh, cool, light, and breezy. I got butterflies in my stomach, and rode to school feeling happy.

Today, it's summer.

Though my idea of Spring didn't last as long as I would have liked, I'm grateful that I was outside when that Springy moment hit.

C and I have been feeling a bit overwhelmed lately. I'm in my last semester of school which is amazing, but I could write a book series on how not to get through college, and chapter 1 would be called " Don't Save All The Classes You Hate For Your Last Semester". Anatomy/Physiology, Abnormal Psychology, Music History-so not my thing. C starts school in the fall, and all at once assumes the responsibility of providing for a wife and a child (woohoo!!) and is trying to manage moving out of state, starting a new program at school, up-keeping his website, staying on top of his design side projects, and building 101 things for our baby.

We're a bit stressed. But this morning as I was taking C to work, we talked about what makes us happy, and how to be happy when we're doing things that stress us out, and I realized that there is a little bit of that Spring-feeling in each day, we just have to make sure we're outside to feel it.

Our goal for the next week is to find happiness in each aspect of our lives, even the ones we don't enjoy as much.

What makes you happy? I really want to know.

Life is good. We have M in our life. We have a baby in our life. We have great friends and family in our life. We are happy.

Happy Thursday.