This guy won my heart two years ago...
I am over the moon in love with Cody and cannot wait until I become Brooke Nichole Lane. He is the best, ever.
I am jumping around a little on the blogging challenge list. The following list of ten ways to win my heart are in not in order of importance.
1. Give me a lot of physical affection. Hold my hand. Hug and kiss me often. Cuddle with me in bed or on the couch. Give me shoulder and foot massages. I took a test once to determine what my love language is quality time, followed very closely by physical touch. Both of those are very important to me.
2. Allow me to have quiet/alone time when I need it. I am an introverted person, and I need quiet time to recharge. I am a better partner to Cody and mommy to my kids when I get some quiet time. Luckily, I usually have time to come home and shower after work, before I have to pick up Laica from preschool. I am weird about germs, so after cleaning a house I feel as though I have to shower off all of the nastiness immediately. :)
3. Help me out with the kids and around the house. Cody works so hard, and I am a bit old-fashioned and enjoy taking care of our household, so I do most of the housework. That being said, Cody is always, always willing to help out with any chores if I ask him to do so. He cooks dinner at least once a week, which is wonderful. He is very helpful to me all the time, but especially while I am doing school work.
4. Work on my car when necessary (or at least make an attempt). I am the luckiest woman in the world and have a fiance that just bought me a new (to us) car! I love it, and it will be a great car for us. It is in great condition and should last for years.
5. Be responsible with your finances. A lot of the problems that led to my divorce involved poor money management. Cody and I are able to easily save money, and we split our bills evenly. We have an emergency fund, and for the first time in my adult life, I feel secure financially. We were able to pay cash for my car, without taking out any loans. That is a great feeling of accomplishment for both of us. Cody and I are on the same page when it comes to our family budget and finances, and we always check with each other before making a purchase (mainly just out of respect for one another).
6. Be there for me. I get moody from time to time, and Cody handles me wonderfully. He grew up with a sister, and he understands how to be sensitive (or just shut up) when needed. If I need a hug or to just cry to you, then listen to me and once I vent I always feel better.
7. Have the ability to garden. My man is a phenomenal gardener, and we are about to start our little urban garden that we do in our backyard. Last year's garden was really successful and fun to work with. I am excited to get ours started and work in it again this time around. Working with plants is very calming and therapeutic to me, I really enjoy the peace it brings me. The kids also love helping out and picking the fruits and vegetables when they are ready. Laica is excited because we plan on having more strawberry plants this year.
8. Talk to me. Listen to me when I need to talk. I am usually fairly quiet, but not always. Cody gets the jabbering side of me. :)
9. Be respectful of your parents. I was raised to have respect for my elders, and nothing is more of a turn-off than someone who speaks disrespectfully to their mother or father. My ex did this often, and I hated it.
10. Give me your full attention when I need it. Being the independent person that I am, I do not always require a lot of attention. However, there are certain times when I am needy and clingy and insecure. Reassure me that you are there for me and will never leave my side. Put up with my crazy. Cody has vowed to grow old with me, and he has a lot of crazy to deal with in the coming years. He handles it beautifully, as it only appears during a certain time of the month.
There are ten ways to win my heart. Cody won it the first night I met him. I will love that man forever, he is truly one of the most amazing people I have ever met. There is no way I am ever letting him go.
I mean, look at us! Sure looks like true love to me. Until next time, xoxo.
CODY IS HOME! He got home yesterday afternoon, tired and cold, and happy to be here. He had a pretty good time with his buddies, though the snow certainly put a (literal) damper on the weekend.
A lot of strange, fun, and eventful things have happened since Friday. Friday was weird. I started out the day with two separate clients' houses to clean (that was completed successfully). I got an upsetting phone call from a family member and had racing thoughts all day while working. (No tragedies--sending good vibes to the people involved in a bad situation).
When I finished up the second house (this place is over 9,000 square feet--no shit) I got a great sense of relief, which was exactly what I needed. I have worked for this family for around two years, but our time has come to an end. The lady of the house and I had been discussing the topic for a couple of weeks, and I had decided (in my head--I hadn't even told Cody that I was thinking about quitting because it was a difficult decision, as I am not a quitter. Ever.). Basically, I am great at my job. We both knew that. We also both knew that I do not have seven to nine hours to devote each week at her house. They are planning on downsizing (ummm, yes, please do--talk about excessive space) and that is all fine--life situations change all the time. I was not even a little sad, I was jumping up and down, ecstatic relieved. I recently took on a new client and it booked me solid. Like, if something comes up such as a sick kid or a snow day and I have to miss work, it would have messed up every other day of that week, too. My schedule has to be delicately balanced to work out, because I have clients that are weekly, bi-weekly, occasionally (every couple of months) and one that is every third Friday.
I need the flexibility, that is why I work for myself. I have part-time hours for full-time pay, and I have worked hard to get here. Until I graduate and my kids are a few years bigger, this will be my situation. I am grateful for it each day, as I am able to drop my kids off at school, pick up Laica in the afternoon, and be home when Caden gets off of the bus (and be ready to feed him--that kid does not stop eating).
Cody's mom, Beckie, took the kids and me to see Pinocchio at the Lander's Theater Saturday morning, and it was SO fun. I am not usually into kid's television programs or movies, but musicals are a whole other story. It was so cute, we all really enjoyed ourselves.
I hadn't been paying much attention to the forecast with the hectic Thursday and Friday that I had, and we got snow Saturday morning. The kids were supposed to go to Marshfield after the show to stay with my parents, but by the time we got out, the roads were terrible. Fortunately, they got to go sleep over at Magnolia's house and were thrilled with that. I picked them up yesterday around one, and they were tired and happy kids.
I had a quiet, clean house after I tidied up when getting back from taking the kids to Portland's. I was a little bored, but was okay with blogging and looking through facebook, and my school work is all caught up. (One week until spring break!!!) I got showered and into sweats, logged onto Facebook and commented on a friend's (friend of about 14 years and former roomie) picture.
That exchange led to receiving a text from him (I didn't have his number after the last phone I had died). We had a fun, conversation back and forth for a bit and wished each other well, promising to see each other soon. Well, unfortunately I don't think that will be happening, but I hope otherwise... Not long after that I got a private message from said friend's fiance, making terrible, false, accusations. I hope she was intoxicated, because if not, then wow. Just wow. I will not go into all of the details, but let's just say that after a two to three hour period of receiving messages from her telling me to "go f*ck myself" and me denying any wrongdoing, telling her she was making a mistake, and asking her to please re-read the conversation. After a very firm message from me, once again encouraging her to re-read our text conversation, I GOT AN APOLOGY. Actually, I got more than one apology. I was proud that I never cursed back at her or stooped to her level, I knew I was not in the wrong, whatsoever. While I didn't stoop to her level, I wanted to. In my mind, I was thinking, "THAT'S RIGHT, YOU CRAZY BITCH. CHILL THE EFF OUT!" I encouraged her to have an honest conversation with him, got an apology from him for the encounter, and wished both the best. Whoa. I miss my friend, but I will not be initiating any conversations with him until I hear from him. I think it may be a while. :) I never have drama, so this practically blew me out of the water. I was dumbfounded. Glad it got sorted out, but damn. No more of that, ever.
In the midst of the messaging nonsense that was going on, I decided to brave the weather and headed over to some of Cody and my friend's house to drink a couple Stellas and sing karaoke. It was so much fun, can't wait to hang again soon, with Cody too. I am pretty sure I got buzzed and gushed about him a lot. I love that guy. Next blog challenge topic is "5 things that irritate me about guys/girls." Should be a fun list, especially with the dramatics experienced over the weekend. :) Look for that post soon, I'm about to run out the door to take Laica to school and go to work. MONDAY!
