Nothing Better

This week was filled with absolutely average, run-of-the-mill happenings. Nothing incredible. Nothing spectacular. Nothing out of the ordinary. Which is why I have nothing to complain about.

We are loving our place in life right now. (Well, I am writing this alone, but I think Matt and Bennett are pretty content with themselves, too.) We have a great home in a great little neighborhood, a fantastic ward with wonderful friends, family who loves and supports us no matter what, a job that Matt loves and excels at, a little boy that makes our lives so dang fun...could it get any better? I submit to you that it could not.

Well, actually I could really use a good foot rub right now, but anyway...

Some of the highlights from this wonderfully average week include a neighborhood birthday party, taking a dive in my neighbor's trash, preparing our home for deployment, eating at friends' houses, and a super fun date night for me and Matt. Allow me to illustrate.

Here's some of us at Bennett's first official "Friend Party." It was for the little girl across the street turning one, so it was really more for the adults than the kids. Still fun, though. Most of the people invited were from my walking group, and we all vowed to walk a little extra the next morning to work off the delicious Princess Cake and ice cream cones we ate.

It never happened though, because we made it one block the next day and came across this...

A treasure trove of children's items! Seriously, it's like one of our neighbors decided they were done with kids for the rest of their lives, so they just chucked everything they owned out on the curb. Our walk came to a screeching halt while three of us picked through the pile and another person ran home to get their car...which we packed. This picture is only some of the stuff I got personally. Other people took home way more. Mostly it was just toys (which I thoroughly washed and sanitized) but they were all practically brand new and they even had batteries in them that worked!

What I am most excited about though, is this adorable corduroy bedroom set from NoJo Baby Products that Bennett will inherit when he is ready for his toddler bed.

This is from the Internet (obviously) but I got the mobile, the bed skirt, a changing pad, a little throw blanket (not the one pictured, but just as cute), and three little wall decorations. Online this stuff is selling for about $190, so I am rejoicing in my good fortune. Thank you, anonymous neighbor! And a special thanks to you, Clorox Bleach, for making this all possible.

Besides rummaging through garbage cans, large portion of our time lately has been spent getting ready for Matt to deploy. Which means it is a good thing we are saving on stuff like bedding because in the last couple of weeks we have spent major on things like alarm systems, garage door openers, bathroom light fixtures, laptops, a camera, Army stuff, a hitch for the car...the list goes on and on. I know it is all good stuff and we are really fine with the spending, it's just a lot to do all at once and I have had more than one heart palpitation in the process.

Also, the last couple of weeks has been nightmarish for poor Matt, since he was just moved to a new unit one month before they deploy (I will never understand how the Army thinks). So because he was the Executive Officer of his old unit, and is now the Medical Platoon Leader and the Medical Staff Officer for the Colonel of this new unit, he has been expected to move both companies to Iraq simultaneously. Just so you know, there is a lot of stuff that needs to be moved when hundreds of thousands of people and equipment move overseas for a year. Like, a lot of stuff. Needless to say, I have seen Matt only a handful of hours in the last few weeks, as he was gone to work by 4:00am and not home until 9:00pm most days. Exhausting!

Therefore, Matt decided we needed to do a little something to relax together. So Saturday night he took me on a way fun date that started with milkshakes and arcade games, and ended with a movie and pizza that was delivered to us in the theater (did you know they can do that? Pretty cool). Mostly it was just fun to spend time with Matt as a grown-up and not have to constantly be on the lookout for Little One.

This was my favorite game we played at the arcade (besides Guitar Hero, which it is a good thing we do not own because I could totally get hooked on that). It was this super intense safari hunt where you had to shoot giant spiders and bees before they got to you first. Matt and I took down most of the monster bugs, but the Mega Spider got us at the end.

We must have done OK at some of the games we played however, because we won Bennett this weird squishy-frog-ball thing with our tickets at the end...and then I left it in the theater. Sorry, Bennett.

After that we ate pizza and watched "Despicable Me," where I learned I have the nose of a super-villain. I always knew this thing was good for something. :)

So now it is Sunday (actually I am posting this on Tuesday, but I started it Sunday) and Matt and Bennett are hanging out in the chair sharing potato chips and Hershey's Kisses and life is good. Which brings us full circle from the beginning of this post. Which is an excellent place for stopping.

Have a great week!