Rainbows and Butterflies

Life isn't always rainbows and butterflies. But sometimes it is.

Jason took this photo during an afternoon walk with Rufus earlier this month. 

While we walked Rufus after work today, it was sunny yet cloudy and then all of a sudden the rain came, falling through the sunshine. Across the street, a little boy galloped from under a tree, threw his arms out, tipped his head back, and let the cold drops fall over his face.

We didn't see a rainbow today, but it was certainly rainbow weather. 

Mother Nature is pretty fantastic.

Change - it feels so good

You know how we've been looking for a house for the past year? Well, we're done looking for now. After nearly ten contracts written and two houses that got to the inspection stage only to find something we weren't comfortable with buying, we're through. We're staying where we are. We've been feeling really down about the house-hunt and it has been painful. So we quit. A year is enough.

"If you don't like something, change it. If you can't change it, change your attitude." - Maya Angelou

Over the past week, we have started talking about a new life path - something that is making me feel lighter already. We're changing things... and where we can't change them we're changing our attitude:

We are going to learn to love our little apartment. We're clearing out crap that we've been gathering in anticipation of moving which made our 600 feet feel a lot smaller like boxes and packing paper. We're going to get rid of our futon and replace it with a comfy couch. I've delivered a few (more) boxes of things I don't want to part with but don't want in the apartment into my childhood home (thanks, Al!). We'll probably buy a new bedspread, some curtains, and shelves to organize our things better in the space we have. 

We're enjoying the nice weather. No sense in dreading summer. It's not here yet. And really, the summer isn't that bad. Last summer I said I'd try not to hate it so much, and that little bit of effort really made it so much more enjoyable.

We're enjoying each other. We've been walking Rufus together each day instead of each of us doing one walk alone. Instead of having separate mornings where I lay in bed until Jason is out the door, we get up a little earlier to walk Rufus together. It's a great way to wake up and start slowly and a great way to decompress after each day.

We're bettering our health. Two walks a day instead of one with Rufus. Gym trips for Jason (a train I need to jump on too). Less takeout, more home-cooked meals. Water in our spankin' new stainless steel water bottles that don't make us feel like we're drinking plastic or BPA.

We feel better already. Rufus feels better already.

What do you do to make yourself feel better when you're feeling down?

Spring has Sprung!

Jason and I felt the pollen today to the point where we started poppin' the allergy pills. It was a gorgeous day, so I really don't have any complaints. Just lots of snotty tissues.

I grew these flowers! I planted their little bulbs last summer. I'm proud that they grew and I'm ignoring the fact that I definitely planted a lot more than you see here (and yet, what you see here is all that there is to see). My first little garden! Haha. They were the result of a local "dig up" where the county was getting rid of the flowers to plant new ones. I know this year I need to get there earlier than they say because all of the good flowers were gone! (No offense, little purple flowers.)

Tulips are one of my favorite flowers (along with lilacs). At the time that I dug those babies up, when all of the beautiful tulips were long gone, I found a sad, dead-looking, discarded tulip bulb. I figured I'd give it a shot and took it home to plant. Why not, right?

It miraculously sprung into multiple tulips!!! My green thumb is so green it produces envy. My thumb is magic. No, just kidding, these pretty tulips that are pictured are on our "village" property. My sad bulb did not bloom. But I feel better knowing that I buried the poor dead bulb rather than let it dry out in the sun and get trampled on the sidewalk where someone left it. It's what every little bulb deserves.

After dropping Jason hints all last year like, "GOSH! I really love tulips!" & "Tulips are my favorite!" & "If we got married in the spring, our wedding flower would have been a tulip!" & "Don't they just brighten everything?" ...and never seeing a tulip in my man's hands.... this year I got smart and said, "It would be really great if you decided to bring some tulips home to me sometime." Now I have some pretty tulips in a vase in our living room. To that story, I shake my head and say, "Men." To that story, men would say, "Women! Can't they just say what they mean!?" Venus, meet Mars. Mars, Venus. In the end, they lived happily ever after in all of their pill poppin', snotty tissued, tulip lovin' glory.

Happy Spring!!!