Long Weekend Blessings

Thursday evening CCI Studios hosted Sarnia Connects for the March event.  We had a great turn out and enjoyed some delicious pizza from Gondola Trattoria, a mini photo shoot with our in house photographer and great conversation with friends.

Conversations centered around everyones plans for the long weekend.  Most people had multiple dinners planned with different sides of their families, cooking and attending church.  There was a common theme of people feeling a little stressed about the long weekend filled with tons of activities and commitments.  I have to admit that as much as I was looking forward to spending time with both sides of our family, I was also feeling exhausted from the week and having a hard to gearing myself up for our social engagements.

While we were all chatting away about our busy plans, one friend who was not from Sarnia, mentioned they were feeling a little unsure about how they were going to fill their long weekend.  This persons family lived out of town and they would be visiting for one day over the weekend but other than that, they did not a whole lot planned.

I was instantly snapped out of my self  centred bubble.  I am so blessed that my entire weekend was packed with family time.  Not to mention the fact that even our out of town family lives close enough to drive for a day visit, we have a reliable vehicle to travel in, we have a family that is happy, healthy and growing and so many other things.

It is so easy to get caught up in our own, little busy worlds and forget what is important in life and that time with loved ones is so precious.  I went into my weekend focused on the quality time with family I had planned for the weekend.

I got to spend 6 hours with my husband in the car planning our summer vacation, I got to play games with cousins, uncles and aunts, I got to make some new memories with my awesome niece and even managed to sleep in one morning.  There were many more highlights in my weekend, these are just a few.

I hope everyone was blessed this holiday weekend to enjoy some quality time with friends and family and made some cherished memories.

I will be looking forward to the next long weekend.

Thoughts For A Friend Waiting On Her Baby

Thoughts for a friend waiting on her baby:

When you showed me the first ultrasound pictures I could tell you were already madly in love with this little person.

I think your going to be an amazing mom.

You seem calm and graceful, like this is something you were made to do.

If I am honest, I am a little sad that our friendship is about to change but I know the next chapter of our friendship will be even better than the last.

I cant wait to be your baby's rock start!  Cool, crazy aunt Heather, its gonna be amazeballs.

You have an amazing family and support system.

Your husband is going to be such a great dad.

You and your husband are going to be a great parenting team.

Your baby is going to be so loved.

I am so excited to meet this new little person.

I Like Getting Older

Today is my birthday, ya!  I scheduled myself out of the office today so I could enjoy the day however I wanted.  I have two appointments, 1) to bottle some wine and 2) get a facial, the rest of the day is unwritten.

I have already done some celebrating for my birthday, dinner at my favourite restaurant with a few great girlfriends on Saturday and some St. Patrick's day celebrations yesterday at church and then a green beer to finish the day.

I always spend a little time on my birthday thinking about where I am at in my life since my last birthday and all the things that have happened in a year.  I also spend time thinking about how I have grown into who I am today and how all the events that have taken place in my life shape who I am.

I like who I am and I like myself more today than I did last year.  I am learning that so far, I like getting older.  I like the growing confidence I have in myself, I like my expanding family of loved ones and I like that the older I get, the greater my appreciation for family and friends.

Often you hear people complain about their birthdays and getting older.  Even though I consider myself still pretty young, what I have experienced thus far from growing older is looking pretty good to me.

So, Happy Birthday to me and being one year older!  I can not wait to see what this year has in store.

There Is Nothing Like A Girlfriend.

A few weeks ago I had a good old fashioned sleep over with two of my best friends.  They were both home during their reading week and one of their parents were away on vacation so we had a delicious dinner, drinks, hot tub and a kitchen dance party together.  It was one of the funnest nights I have had in a long time.

Because Shar and Meghan both live out of town we don't get to see each other as often as we would like.  We have definitely improved our phone/FaceTime frequency and communication to ensure we stay connected but its still not the same as physically being together.  Even though we do miss each other, I think our distance has made us more aware of how important our friendships are.

I always knew that the friendships I have with my girlfriends were very valuable, that there were things you could only discuss with a close gal pal, but this is becoming more apparent as I get older.  I am sure most of you women out there will agree, that when it comes to just needing a good chat, there is nothing like a girlfriend.

Over time our friendships have evolved but I think we are all individually in great places, with exciting things happening and just happy.  We all had a great time being silly together and I can not wait until our next visit.

P.S. FaceTime with these two ladies and a few silly hats, is way more fun than FaceTime without hats!