ballooning festival

So, we moved during my little blogging hiatus. In general, moving is a time-consuming and stressful experience. However, it escalates to a whole new level when you factor in all of the issues that were tossed our way throughout the entire process. It’s only the slightest bit of an exaggeration when I say we had to plow through just about every complication possible…with a ridiculous amount of set-backs on both our buyer and seller’s ends. I won’t even get started on the actual moving process and all of the complications that arose there!

Needless to say, it was by far the single-most stressful experience of our lives and I was so very relieved the day it was all finally over. However, as things so often are in the end…it was completely worth it.

We’ve spent the last two months settling in, decorating, getting the girls used to their new surroundings and I’m approaching the tail-end of marathon training.

It’s been busy, but an extremely good kind of busy! Along the way we’ve had friends and family come to celebrate our settling in, we’ve done some local exploring and already we’ve had some great times in our new home state. The most memorable of which had to be the New Jersey Festival of Ballooning back in July!! I’ve never been to a balloon launch before and when I saw how close it was I decided to bring my daughter along to check it out.

It was fantastic!! It was a gorgeous day and the balloons were beautiful, peacefully floating up into the clear blue sky. My daughter and I both loved it!!

Little did we know that for the rest of the summer (and even as recently as yesterday) hot air balloons would randomly float right over our house in the evenings?! An added bonus to our new home!

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my valentine

I was never really big on Valentine’s Day.  I mean, it’s always nice to be on the receiving end of a beautiful bouquet of flowers or an occassional piece of jewelry…but I never got completely swept away with it all.

Then I suddenly found myself with a daughter.  A daughter who absolutely adores anything pink…and hearts are a huge bonus. So, you can just imagine her excitement when Valentine’s Day rolls around.

Regardless of my previous (non) feelings for it, I now find myself enjoying it.  It’s nearly impossible to not get carried away with celebrating the holidays when there are kids involved!

This past week has been all about Valentine’s Day preparation.  Including putting together 43 goodie bags for her friends, classmates and girl scout troop.  After getting her on the bus this morning and putting the little one down for her nap I proceeded to blow up balloons so I’ll be prepared for some surprise decorating after she goes to bed tonight.

So, yeah.  I’m having fun with Valentine’s Day lately…