10 Years Old - Happy Birthday Blog!!!

Ten years ago Chuck kept encouraging me to start a blog (whatever that was).  I was just fine writing down all my stories and memories in my convenient little spiral notebooks, thank you very much.  I actually found one of my pre-blog notebooks not too long ago and we had a blast reading through it. But then Chuck went and did what he always does, he made me something.  He is just so creative, how can I ever say no to him.  He created my first blog, got me all set up and just pointed me in the right direction and told me to start writing.

I have quite an affinity for paper and pencil.  I had an internal struggle in regards to loyalty and my little notebook.  But then when I saw the ease with which my fingers flew over the keyboard, I was hooked. I could write the same story 10x faster on the computer than I could handwriting it (in my speediest, messiest, sometimes illegible hand).  Time was of the essence for me back then. I have not looked back since.  I thank Chuck all the time for designing my first blog and giving me an outlet to write.  I didn't even know how much I enjoyed writing back then.  I was literally just trying to stay afloat.  This is what we looked like 10 years ago:

Bennett (2), Chloe (2mos.), Me (31), Gavin (5)

Bennett (12), Chloe (10), Me (41), Gavin (15)

Gavin (5), Chuck (31), Chloe (10), Bennett (2)

Gavin (15), Chuck (41), Chloe (10), Bennett (12)

By staying afloat I mean, I was just trying to survive each day with the demands that come with a toddler, newborn and a very active, talkative, inquisitive 5 year old.  The blog became my outlet.  It helped me see all the things happening around me in a humorous light when I would have been tempted to become emotionally overdrawn.  It helped me keep time and circumstances in perspective. It helped me still be me when it was easy to get swallowed up being 'mommy' 24 hours a day.  

We could have never imagined the direction our lives would take 10 years later to lead us to where we are today.  3 states later; 5 houses later; 6 jobs later, too many road trips to count later....what a beautiful, incredible, awesome, amazing journey I've gotten to take with my absolute favorite people!

Chopped - Revised

Nana recently came to hang out with the kids while Chuck and I were in Heaven.  They all said their time was filled with games and laughter...and lots of food.  Sounds just like Nana.  Nana loves to cook! So it makes sense that on her last night with us, we play Chopped.  I don't know if it's actually a real game, but we sure like to make it one.  We didn't video it this go around.  Pictures will have to suffice. And we revised our original rules.  The whole fun part of the 'game' is the opportunity to cook each round.  So in order to find the winner, we each gave a numerical vote to each dish, the higher the number, the higher the score.  The high score wins.  So, technically, no one got chopped until the end - but for our family, it was much more fun, filling and exciting this way.  Oh ya, and it was our dinner, so we each took a bite out of each plate made.  We were eating dinner for almost 2 hours that night. Another one for the memory books.

Chuck presenting the contestants with the 'basket' ingredients.

Bennett's dessert.  Still don't know what the brown side consisted of.

Chloe's dessert creation.

Nana's scrumptious dessert bite.

Gavin's creative and delicious dessert.

The Winner!