Childhood Joys

Happy Thursday!

The other day I enjoyed a piece of Dove Dark Chocolate. Not only do I love the smell, taste, and smoothness of the chocolate, but I really appreciate the sweet little sayings that are printed on the inside of the Dove candy wrappers.

The one I ate yesterday said, “Enjoy the Childhood Joys in Life.” So often we take for granted the simple joys in life. I took this opportunity to reminisce about some my favorite childhood joys. Guess what? You’re invited to flashback with me!

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Childhood Joys

  • Recess: playing 4-square, tag, kickball, dominating the monkey bars. Adults should really be given recess breaks. It could help with the obesity epidemic in our country, right?

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  • Going to the Park: walking to the park, running around, playing on the jungle gym, throwing a frisbee, flying a kite.
  • Playing with Toys: Barbies anyone ? That isn’t my collection in the photo btw. Dolls, games, books, stuffed animals…

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  • Favorite Foods: Ever since I was little I have always gotten excited about good food. I did a post a while back about typical family meals growing up. I really loved taco night. I also loved cookie dough (and still do!) and would help my mom make cookies, sampling the dough along the way, and then would leave her in the dust when it came to actually baking the cookies! My poor mom! I’ve eaten a lot of cookie dough in my day (CDC wouldn’t appreciate that statement).

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  • Playing Basketball in the Driveway: I used to spend hours with friends and family playing basketball in the driveway. It is such great exercise but at the time I didn’t think twice about basketball in regards to exercise, it was just plain old fun. The other weekend when I was at my aunt and uncle’s cabin, I played in a game of 3 on 3 and holy cow, I was huffing and puffing by the end of the game! I don’t know how I used to do that for an hour or more during full out games!

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  • Dancing: I started dance class when I was three years old. My mom and dad have some irreplaceable footage of me dancing in the house to a DIsney soundtrack record in a pink skirt of course, with my brother dancing around me making fun of me. It’s hilarious!
  • Singing: I was in choir at school, choir with my church, and always loved singing with mom as dad played guitar. My mom and I would even sing on our walks together! I would dance down the sidewalks too. 🙂
  • Going for walks: Again, we would sing, dance, recite state capitals, and practice multiplcation on our walks. We’ve always been good at multi-tasking. We still love going on our walks together!

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  • Watching Disney Movies: Some of my favorites were Beauty and Beast, Little Mermaid, and Cinderella. I want to collect all of the Disney movies when they are re-released.
  • Laughing at America’s Funniest Home Videos: Bob Saget was so cheesy but AFV was always funny to me!

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  • Building Forts
  • Finding a Penny on the ground: If I find a penny on the ground now it is rare that I pick it up. What ever happened to enjoying the simple things?!
  • Lisa Frank Folders and brand new school supplies: new markers, crayons, lunch box…I loved buying back to school supplies!

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  • Plastic Jewelry

I could seriously go on and on! Let’s make an effort to remember to enjoy the simple childhood joys. Laugh at yourself, dance like no one’s watching, and don’t take yourself too seriously. Life is short, enjoy it!

What are some of your favorite childhood joys?

Continue Reading Childhood Joys

Flashback: Our Proposal Story

How about some lovey dove reminiscent memories to help us get through this freezing cold Wednesday? Sounds good to me!

On Sunday night, Dana and I met up with Betsy and Matt at Stella’s Fish Cafe for dinner. I mentioned in a previous post that we were coincidentally seated in the same booth that we sat in the night Dana proposed to me. I realized I had never shared the story of our engagement proposal, so…..it’s share time!

Flashback to January 29th 2010. 

Dana and I had plans to celebrate our one year anniversary. Dana had made reservations at Stella’s. I remember getting all dolled up in my blue sweater dress, saying bye to mom and dad, and driving over to Dana’s house.

As I waited for him to finish getting ready, I browsed the cupboards for a snack and found some Sweettart Valentine conversation hearts. I snacked on a couple of those while I waited, and then off to dinner we went.

We were seated in a booth upstairs and I was giddy the whole time. I was so happy and felt so lucky to be celebrating an anniversary with this man. We ordered our food and a bottle of wine and thoroughly enjoyed eachother’s company as we always do. Dana was cool as a kitten. I had not the slightest idea he had anything up his sleeve.

After dinner we made our way to the parking lot. Once we were in the car, and waiting for it to warm up, Dana handed me an envelope of photos that he had printed off from Walgreens. I had given him a photo album a year prior to this as a gift with the intention of filling it up with photos of all of the fun things we do together. He told me that he had printed some photos for the album.

I immediately start flipping through about 20 photos, commenting on each memory along the way. As I got to the last photo, I had to do a double take. At first it looked like an advertisement or a coupon from Walgreens, but as I looked at it again I noticed some very special words spelled out for me…

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I was in total and utter shock. I looked over at Dana and there he was with tears filled in his eyes (although he may deny this), and he had a gorgeous engagement ring in his hands. He asked me to marry him and I’m pretty sure he said some other things but my head was in a cloud of love dust (I am such a corny lovey person—I won’t apologize for it) so I don’t remember.

I muttered yes and as I tears began pouring out of my eyes, still in total shock mode. Yes I absolutely want to spend my life with this man. YES YES YES! But omg, I’m engaged!

We called our parents on the way home to tell them the incredible news. This is when I found out that my dad already knew because Dana had gone over there earlier that day and asked for his permission to marry me. My dad knew but he hadn’t told my mom because my mom and I have this weird connection with eachother  and I immediately would have known something was going on if she were to have known.

Our parents were beyond ecstatic. After our parents knew I started calling my brothers and some of my friends (the ones I knew I wouldn’t be able to tell in person). Then it was time to celebrate.

Once we got back to Dana’s place, we celebrated with his roommates and a nice bottle of wine. I told Dana I had snacked on a couple of the Sweettarts while he was finishing getting ready in his room and we both had a good chuckle. Little did I know!

We didn’t snap any photos at Stella’s or in the parking lot, so of course I had to make up for it when we got back home.

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It was an unforgettable night and the beginning of forever with the most amazing man.

Fast-forward: Engagement Photos

For our engagement photos, we chose to relive the memories of the day by having our photos taken at Stella’s. I remember being so incredibly nervous before the photo shoot. I really don’t like being the center of attention. Eventually, I warmed up and had a blast! Our photographers from Erin and I photo really helped ease any nervousness.

Here’s our booth (the same one from the other night too!).

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The night before our engagement photos, I want to say it snowed about 9 inches. The snow was so fresh and perfect for photos. It was extremely cold on the day of our photo shoot as well, so we did the outside photos as quickly as possible.

Our outside photos were taken at Lake of the Isles.

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We had to make sure Mooser got in the photo action!

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He was made for the camera.

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I can’t believe our engagement was three years ago already. Time flies. Soak up every moment of life because it does go by so fast!

I hope you enjoyed this flashback as much as I did! Oh, and in case you are wondering what my food intake looked like yesterday, take a look at Tuesday’s post and it was pretty much an exact replica except for I also added lean ground turkey into the mix. I am going to be introducing banana today. How exciting! 😉

Have a happy Wednesday!

 

Continue Reading Flashback: Our Proposal Story