Totem

Some history.

Chris & I love going to Cirque Du Soleil shows. Our first show was a tent show at the OSU fair grounds way before Emma was born.  If you have never been to a Cirque show - a real one, not the Vegas version - then you need to go. They are mesmerizing, awe-inspiring and entertaining!

Cirque Du Soleil's new show: Totem came to Columbus this month and they brought back the tents with them. I have to say that the tent shows are by far better than the arena shows.  Anyway, I digress.

On a last minute whim, we decided to take Emma to the show. Grandpa Risheill was with us for the weekend and agreed to come along with us. We debated, unsure if Emma was ready for such a big, long, loud show. In the end, we (I) decided she would love it...   and love it she did :) 

This is Emma's reaction as we drive up and she sees the tents:  "Daddy are we going to the circus??"

We headed towards the tents with one very excited little girl who kept asking over and over if she was going to see clowns. Odd for a girl that has never been to a real circus or seen an actual clown before..  :)

Emma did not want her picture taken with the Totem banner because she thought the "green frog guy" would get her and she was afraid of it.  This is the point I started thinking maybe I over-estimated that she would enjoy this show.

However, once we were in the tent and seated, she was super excited again!  We were not allowed to take pictures or video during the actual show, so this is the only picture I have of her during the show. She did awesome!  The opening was a little scary but everything afterwards was excellent and she warmed right up to it.

It was just shy of 3 hours long and when it was over, Emma was asking for more. She was mesmerized! It was my second favorite Cirque show!

Once home, Emma spent the next two days putting on her own circus shows. We videotaped them and were quite entertained by our little Cirque professional ;) 

Money well spent for a memory none of us will forget anytime soon!

New Normal - Version 2.0

In 2007 and 2008, we had hospice care workers and doctors "counseling" us on what it means to have a new normal. Our Moms had passed away and we were staring at a future unlike anything we had planned, hoped for or desired.

God gave us a new normal and we figured it out. He also brought along Emma Sue. What an amazing source of healing God is. How quickly we learned to deal with our grief as we were distracted by a pregnancy, then a baby, then a toddler and now a little 3-year old girl.

In the summer of 2013 within weeks of each other, my sister moved to North Carolina and our close friends Sonny & Erin moved to Texas for a job opportunity and with them, went their 3 adorable kids. One of whom, happens to be Emma's best friend. She has two friends living near us that mean the world to her, Joy and Hudson. Hudson moved to Texas. Joy enters K4 this fall and will be gone 3 days a week and unavailable.

I'm not saying anything of this for sympathy sake. Are we sad around here? Yup.  Do we miss Aunt Seppie and our friends? Yup.

However, we are already starting to create our next New Normal.  So, I will lovingly refer to it as New Normal 2.0.

God is good. All of the time.  No matter what life brings, and we are promised it will bring suffering and pain, He is always there. Never leaving us. Always restoring us.

So, what will our new normal look like?

For the past 2 weeks, I have been doing a fit body bootcamp. Yup. Me. The one with ample amounts of fat and very scarce amounts of muscle. It started as a surprise Anniversary gift to my husband for our 10-year wedding anniversary.  It quickly changed into a personal form of challenge to myself to be healthier, live healthier and give God all of me.  The one area of my life that I struggle with the most is by far my health. So, with Groupon in hand, I headed off to my first body bootcamp having no idea what to expect. In my 3rd week now, I still don't know what to expect and I still have a nervous knot in my stomach as we drive there. I can say, it has been the most physically difficult thing I have ever done in my life.

The surprise?  Is that it also has challenged me spiritually. What words are coming out of my mouth when I am at my worst? What am I relying on to get me through these workouts? His strength? or my own?   In the last 3 weeks I have found myself going from uttering "OMG" every 10 minutes -  to "holy cow" every 10 minutes - to "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me" over and over in my head the entire time without muttering anything else out of my mouth.

You see, I take Emma with me to these workouts... and she sees and hears everything. That first day, I was ashamed of the things that came out of my mouth when I was put under pressure (intense pressure, mind you). Not that I cussed or spoke vile words... but would I want Emma saying "oh my God"? Do I want her saying "holy crap I can't do this" ?   NO. I don't.  So, I prayed. I prayed for my heart to be changed and you know what?  God is changing it.

My physical body and spiritual body are changing at the exact same time.  It was completely unexpected. In fact, I had not planned to share any of this! LOL :)

Moving on.

So, our new normal consists of some new things:
* Mommy work out time at 9am (every day! ugh)
* Emma gymnastics at 11am (one day a week)
* Emma began piano lessons last week (she loves it!  one day a week)
* Emma now has a chore chart
* I have taken on more piano students than I have ever had before, 2 of them during the early afternoon hours

I have already seen a drastic difference in Emma and I both with our new normal. More energy for Mommy, more motivation and learning for Emma, both of us being challenged every day.

So, do we miss our friends?  Yes, we do. Very much.  However, God is filling up our time and I know that He will be faithful to bring new friends into Emma's life and keep us moving along the path He has laid out for us.

In the meantime... Mommy needs a massage, some tylenol and another cup of coffee!

10 Year Anniversary

I have been married for 10 years!  What??   How in the world did that happen?

This year... my husband went all out and completely filled my heart with acts of love. If I have ever doubted that this man loved me (and I haven't), then last night would have been the night that any doubt was erased.

Christopher took the day off of work to spend with Emma and I. He joined us for our early morning gymnastics class and we enjoyed sitting together watching our daughter learning and enjoying something she loves. Afterwards, we headed to the zoo! We strolled back to the Gorilla exhibit and spent a lot of time watching them eat and play. It was awesome.  Then we headed to our favorite spot by the river to eat lunch together. Afterwards, we made our way to the Animal Show and it was amazing! Our seats were situated just perfectly so that a huge horned owl flew right by Chris's head. The show was fun and we all loved it.

 We headed home from the zoo and Emma and Daddy took their naps :)

After nap time, I began to get ready for our Anniversary date night. I was getting dressed and doing my hair when I hear "don't come downstairs mommy!" So I waited ever so patiently and then heard "ok Mommy!" and then Emma came upstairs to let me know it was time to come down ("M&M's mommy! We got you flowers too!). So much for surprises ;)

I headed downstairs to the most beautiful display of roses and M&M's.  3,.650 M&M pieces. 1 piece for each day of our marriage.  10 roses with a card displaying the year for each year we have been married. Beautiful and SO sweet!

We finished packing up Emma and then headed to the Geist house to drop her off for the evening. She kept telling us goodbye and was in no way sadly affected that we were leaving :)

We get into the car and Chris hands me a folded piece of paper labeled #1.  It read: Where it all began. The best day of my life!   We drove for a while and ended up here:

The site of our wedding reception!  We walked around and talked about all of the memories we had from our wedding day. What we were each thinking at what time and what we were both like back then. Then, he pulled out his phone and started playing "Slow Dancing" by U2. The song we danced to at our wedding. And right there (in the midst of all of the people that were at this park) he danced with me like we did on our wedding day. Then we walked around to all of the spots we had our engagement pictures done at and we sat on a bench and prayed together. It was wonderful :)

Then it was time to go to Stop #2: It took long enough, but I finally broke down. Must be true love.  This was my clue. We ended up here:

Ballroom dancing lessons! To our surprise, we learned to hustle (or hussle?)!  It was really awkward since we had to keep switching partners, but it was fun! Chris is a really good dancer! He was only a slight shade of red the whole time, but he did awesome. It was really fun! Something I have always wanted to do that he has refused to do until this night. That is true love! :)

Then we were off to Stop #3: The end of a chapter. Tasted Good!

He drove me to J. Liu!  This is the last restaurant we ate at before Emma was born and a chapter of our married life as just the two of us ended. We were on the hunt for the best Chicken Parmigiana in all of Columbus and this was our last shot. So, he brought me back here for dinner for our Anniversary. 10 years behind us!  They gave us a complimentary dessert of creme brulee and we had a glass of champagne (which we have never done before and it was so good!).

Stop #4 was to:  Our go-to date place for people with no money

lol!  Which is .... Barnes & Noble :)  But they were closed :(    Sweet thought, though!

Stop #5 was to: My favorite place

Which was??  

Home :)  With Emma and I :)

We had a wonderful Anniversary and it was one I will not forget anytime soon. Christopher went above and beyond to shower me with love and I will be forever grateful. We had so much fun talking about our life 10 years ago and how far God has brought us in 10 years.

Here's to the next 10!!