With a little help from my friends

So may I just share a really happy story?

So three years ago one of my "kids" got this vest for school and I was totally in love. It's from gap kids and since I oddly can fit into gap kids xxl (haha) I went to get one. Sadly they were sold out and never restocked. Everytime Emmie would wear it to school I would say how much I loved it and I wished it fit be because I would steal it.

So Emmie's mom asked me to stop by after work the other night because the kids got their new photos done and she had my yearly set:)

I did, and the photos came out great. Ps not to brag but I got a bigger size than wallets which I think makes me special. haha.

Then Annie (mom) told me Em to bring in my gift.

Gift? I was so confused.

Then Annie explained this was supposed to be for my 21st birthday which was almost two years ago, but it took forever to find.

When I pulled back the tissue paper I just cried and was literally speechless.

I kept saying "are you serious?" and "how did you even remember?"

She said she looked on Ebay everyday for over a year and finally one still with the tags came up and she snatched right up.

She kept apologizing it was two years late and I just kept hugging her.

It was probably one of the most thoughtful things anyone has ever done for me.

I was overwhelmed by such sweetness and the realization that people really care.

People care. Even if you don't see them everyday. Even if they never call. Even if you only spend small amounts of time together. Even if all you did was teach their kids preschool.

They care. You leave imprints on hearts even when you are unaware.

Love has no boundaries and knows no time frames.

"Love is real, it is not just in poetry and stories, it is truth and it will follow you everywhere you go from now on."

xoxo j

I would have stayed with you.

Oh a lovely weekend indeed!

This weekend was boyfriends birthday and because he is far from home we wanted to be sure it was a good one:)

We are pretty tight knit with the family I nanny for. We go over there at least once a month for family dinner, and always love it. We just really love those kids and their parents are amazing. We gain just good life things from them.

Anyway, on Friday it was Derek's birthday (dad), and the family invited us out to eat so we could celebrate both birthdays together.

Of course we would never pass it up, we had a really lovely time. And all my kids hand made Greg birthday cards. It was so cute!

I snuck out Saturday morning to have some Bethany Joy time. She made me a super yummy breakfast and showed me her SUPER cute new apartment. I was pretty jealous;)

Here's one of her adorable decorating ideas from the living room,

SO inspiring.

Also saturday we Greg and I had a super simple "us" day. We had a bunch of random errands to run. My boy HATES to shop, especially for clothes. But, with winter coming and his only two pairs of pants both filled with holes, I decided to make him.

That night we had birthday dinner with Greg's meal of choice. We just hung out with the family, opened gifts, and both sketched in our notebooks. (did I mention I got a new craft journal!?) We watched movies and and had cupcakes. It was very cozy.

On sunday, we got invited to Greg's ceramic professors house to help press cider. IT WAS BEAUTIFUL! The house itself was definetly Greg's dream house. Log Cabin style. The inside was to die for. And being a ceramics genius he had made everything. All the dishes, all the tiling on the floor and countertop, and even the bathroom sink.

I could barely take it all in.

The whole afternoon was filled with veggie chili, apple crisp, wonderful conversation, kids, the outdoors, and the most amazing freshly pressed cider, ever.

I wish I could spend more of my days there. It was definitely rest for the soul.

I hope you all had a peaceful weekend as well.

I have things stirring in my head and will hopefully share some of these things soon.

xoxo jbird

Keeping up.

I've been locking myself up at home because of all the work I have to get done. So occasionally I actually miss human contact and I escape to see some of my loves. Here's a peak at all the fun dates I have been going on.

1. Yogen Fruz with Lizzy. UH-mazing we're pretty much addicted.

2. Annual coffee date my Steven and Sarah. Oh I missed him so.

3. I baked my first ever apple pie from scratch. I know its pretty rough but I worked so hard and it actually turned out delish!

4. My sweet little Tessa, had been in my class for three years. So her family invited me over for a pre- first day of kindergarten breakfast. And of course Tess wanted us to have matching nails for her first day of school.

5. My little cousin Becca came to spend the weekend at my house. Fun nonsense, shopping dates, couch potatoes.

6. More apple pie and apple crisp with the girls. Walks to get coffee in the nice cool weather. And laughing about absolutely nothing.

I've been loving cozying up in sweaters, with warm drinks and pie. We had a really lovely labor day but it really deserves its own post.

I have painting to get done. No homework tonight:)

love, j

catch up.

Life is in motion.

I feel like I'm not catching my breath. But its good, because I've been going through a lot lately and the busyness helps me to not dwell too much. I need some serious blog catch up, so be ready I plan on posting about 5 times in 2 days. (fingers crossed)

Last week I had the amazing opportunity for a nanny playdate, ekks. Joy and I were nannying in neighboring towns so we decided to both pack lunches and take the kids on an adventure together. It was fantastic! Joy brought her four little critters and I brought my two high energy tots. Playground and picnic, then some Hullabaloo on the tennis court. If you've never played Hullabaloo your seriously missing out. AMAZING game helping kids with, categorizing, sharing, colors, shapes, and they get exercise while playing. yes! best part of the game will call out "do a funky dance" and you can only imagine the looks the eight of us got as we went all out with ours moves, hilarious.

Lunch!

Joy brought delish eggplant parm to share with me!

nannies dont wear makeup. haha

Our amazing kids!!

They make us want to pull our hair out sometimes but we do really love them so so much!

I hope this happens so much this fall, it was really amazing to watch all the kids get along even though they had never met. Kids can teach you so much, they are so non judgmental, they just accept everyone without any reservation. They love so purely! Ah, its so refreshing!

Ok, so I actually have to go to CLASS now. I can't even believe it.

happy monday,

j