Watching my little brother grow up

When we were little the three-year age gap between my brother and I both worked in our favor and worked against us.  We had many days of playing make believe and we also had many days spent arguing.  I remember the day when I woke up and felt too old to play make believe and a little too cool to be hanging out with my baby brother and the thought of that even makes me feel sad.  As if precious time was wasted. Regardless of what day we woke up and had, Ryan and I always remained close and one thing has always been certain, I love my baby brother to the moon and back.  A couple months ago Ryan made the decision to attend college 5 hours away and while my initial reaction was pure excitement, it didn't take long for it to settle in and make me sad.  I realized that I've been spoiled these last 21 years to have him so close by and that come August that wont be the same.  It first hit me when he had prom just a few short weeks ago and then again on Monday when he graduated.  It was funny to see my parents so stoic at graduation meanwhile I'm sitting next to them trying not too cry and failing terribly.  I'm so proud of my little brother and all of his accomplishments.  I've always stuck up for him and pushed him to be a better kid and it's nice to see that he's turning into a phenomenal man.

When I was Ryan's age I couldn't help but feel like I would never know more than I knew in that moment...but boy was I wrong.  My hope for Ryan is that he approaches college with that in mind.  Life lessons and an abundance of knowledge will come his way these next few years and I just hope he soaks it all in.  

Now excuse me while I go cry...

A chalkboard wall, a graduation and a bridal shower!

Happy Wednesday everyone!  I'm currently waiting on Maggie to come over so that we can draw on my newly painted chalkboard wall!  We painted it last week and since you have to let it set for 3 days we are only now getting to draw on it.  I promise to put a picture up of it once there is actually something to look at, right now it's just a black wall.  I woke up last week and just decided that morning that today was the day I was going to paint so of course I enlisted the help of my best friend.  I think we gave my mom a bit of a heart attack but it really did come out nice.

After painting the chalkboard wall I packed my things and headed to Tim's for a very busy weekend.  On Saturday, his very talented sister graduated from college and on Sunday it was her surprise bridal shower (Cinderella themed)!  It was such a fun weekend and I wanted to share some of my favorite photos with all of you (the new pictures of Tim and I are soooo nice).  Make sure to check back tomorrow for our guest post!

 

Sunday recap!

Happy Sunday everyone!  It's cold in New Jersey and I am dreading the fact that I have class tomorrow...but that is besides the point.

It has been a really long week here and probably an even longer weekend.  Between staring my internship in the city with an hour and a half commute to rushing back for night classes and business dinners, I hardly had time to slow down.  This weekend I haven't slept past 6:30 a.m. once...not even ONCE.  Needless to say I am utterly exhausted and have to repeat it this week.  Yikes.  

I'm so tired I don't even think I grasped a single thing from church this morning which is horrible of me.  I was just so focused on the million other little things going on.  It's funny because usually I have these weeks every once in a while but for some reason I don't see things slowing down in the near future.  February is a terribly busy month with wonderful things planned but man, it's times like these when I still wish I had caffeine!

On a totally weird side note tangent, I found out today that my married ex-boyfriend, whom I dated all through high school, is having a baby.  It was weird when he got married. I mean granted I wanted to get married like yesterday, but still, besides the point.  I think what makes this all the weirder is that my best friend growing up already has a little girl.  Holy moly....like what?  I in no way mean to judge and I wish them both the best but I suppose I view things differently.  I want to have a huge family, I just want to wait.  I want to spend years with Tim travelling and building a life we are both proud of and feel secure having.  Regardless, this morning I stopped and thought about all of it and couldn't help but feel that awful pang in my chest reminding me that it's not high school anymore.  That graduation is soon, that I have responsibilities, that I am an adult.  None of us are kids anymore and we certainly aren't all hanging out at the beach together talking about when our days would be like this...no they are surely here.