It has been great, 2013…. XoXo

Happy New Year’s Eve!

This time last year, I was returning from my getaway with Mr. Speedy in Cancun. As I flip through the pictures from that trip and look outside at the 17 degree weather, I wonder why on EARTH we did not jet away somewhere warm.

Moving on from that, 2013 has been amazing… for many reasons but mostly because of Mr. Speedy. Here is a timeline that validates that 2013 + Mr. Speedy = an amazing year:

I made this with powerpoint.

Less than three months till the I DO. We will be married in under two years of knowing each other. Wow.

Here are some more 2013 highlights that made my year:

• Jazzercise is a BLAST: My future sister-in-law teaches it and although I have only done in NE when I see her, it is super fun. Even though I am highly uncoordinated and look like a stringy pancake flopping and kicking at all the wrong times possible…. I have fun.

Can you believe she has had THREE kids? I hope I look like that.

• Discovering that even if you dress like starfish on a date, you can get proposed too. Even if you wore your hair crimped for years. Even if you got stuck in buckets. Love will find you. Life is fantastic that way.

This is basically what I felt like the entire night.

CRIMPED hair was da best!

I really am quite the worker. Promise.

• The possibility to start something new. I mean this in any facet in my life, but I have been doing a lot of soul searching and love that if you pretty much make a committment to start something, you have the ability to finish it. No matter how different and new it may seem. Right now I am trying to finish making my bed and I almost have it completed. Almost.
• Coaching GOTR: LOVED this program! Even though I had hairy legs that were often noted, I loved coaching and plan to do it again.
• A family in our future: I always knew I’d want to have children one day, but until Mr. Speedy proposed that idea never really solidified itself into my brain and heart. It has. I think about it often and am excited to have enough children to have our own cross country team. KIDDING.
• Wedding – it is what you make it. Big lesson learned. Planning a wedding can be easy or hard – you pick. It is what you make it. It is not at all what I expected but then I didn’t know what to expect. I am enjoying it. And I am looking forward to the end result.

I am so weird. He is so handsome. Bridal shower in Nebraska.

• Sometimes I talk out the side of my mouth. No one has noticed this (not even me) until Mr. Speedy mentioned it and said it was one of my cutest features. He also has noticed my two large freckles underneath my eyes, that one of my ears is slightly lower than the other, and my tiny birthmark on my hip. The fact that he notices the unseen or not-noticable things on me… makes me feel so special. Like a speckled apple mixed in with a bunch of solids. Only noticeable to the close observarber. I love that he observes me in such a minature, simple way.
• Laundry: This is a major chore that I seem to get behind on constantly. Let’s hope 2014 can bring me up to speed on figuring out the special way to keeping laundry under control.
• Bloggin’ Friends: I’ve gotten a lot closer to some of my bloggers on here… thank you. You are all such wonderful friends with such full personalities. I can’t wait to meet Brittany and Megan at the wedding and then hopefully meet up in the fall, along with Britta.
• Aunt: I get to be an Aunt now because Mr. Speedy has nieces and a nephew. This makes me jump over the moon and back. These three children make me smile so much and although our time together is short (they are in NE), I love every minute!

Me and tiny Lillyan talking to Santa.

• Running: I PR in my 10 mile. Close to my half marathon, but not quite. Let’s hope to PR in the half and re-qualify with a better marathon time for Boston. These are the goals. I am thankful that I still have strong legs and a solid set of lungs to run. I love running. Running fuels me. Deep in my bone marrow, a feeling of being alive and happy and healthy, seeps and stinks in.
• Alexander McCall Smith: Um….. yeah. That was a pretty flippin amazing moment – meeting this amazing Scottish author. So charming. So intelligent. So respectable and inviting. I want to invite him over for dinner and ask him all about his life.

So…. what about you? Highlights of 2013??? Excited about 2014??

Have a happy and safe holiday! XoXo

Sincerely,

Almost-married-Lily

The First Photo in my Phone

You can tell a lot about a person and their phone.

Depending on the case (if there is one), you get a sense of their style.
Depending on the apps, you get a sense of their interests and hobbies.
Depending on their camera roll, you get a sense of who is important to them.

The very first picture on my camera roll is this one-

HELLLLOOOOW.

OH HELLOOWWWW CUTIE.

We had just bought my smartphone (well, he bought me one), a huge upgrade from my dinosaur flip-phone. And we were about to go running, hence the cut-off t shirt. We had only been dating for about 2-3 weeks and were still getting to know everything about each other. I still was completely unaware of his Cornhusker football and golden retriever dog obsession and he still did not know that I go to bed at 8pm every night and sleep in the starfish position, taking up the entire bed.

Such a precious period during our dating phase. Sigh.

The second photo on my camera roll is this one-

I’m healthy as a horse!

I believe this a side-affect of running – having a very low, strong heartbeat. Whoot! There was a machine that measured all of this at the grocery store and Mr. Speedy ALWAYS wants to check his vitals, so I decided to check mine. Apparently, I am normal.

The third picture on my phone is of this little tater tot-

Aunt Lillian & baby Lillyan

Things you could probably gather from this picture:

• Wow, that girl is as pale as a baby. She should probably tan.
• Wow, that baby loves to eat crackers. I am hungry.
• Wow, that girl’s head is the same size as the baby’s head. She has a small head.
• That baby is the cutest. I don’t even notice the other human.

Anyways, this was the first time I ventured to Nebraska to meet Mr. Speedy’s family, including his nieces and nephew. Baby Lillyan is a bit over two years old now and I am still convinced our heads are the same size. Her older sister and younger brother, along with her, will all be part of the wedding as flower girls and ring bearer (Meg and Brittany, you get to meet them all!). It will be quite exciting. We might have to strategically place crackers down the aisle in a breadcrumb style to get her to walk, but that will only make it cuter, right?

But looking back at the first picture, and all other pictures on my phone, I love how it displays a timeline of events and memories. I love that first picture of Mr. Speedy, his smile a little uncomfortable, almost saying “Hey new girlfriend, what are you doing taking a picture of me while I’m half-laying down and not ready.” I love that he has a bit of a summer glow on his skin. I love his chest hairs popping out.

Speaking of chest hair, HOLY MACARONI. I love it on this man. I know that he probably will never embrace my hairy legs and say “Don’t ever shave again! Leg hair is sexy and I love feeling your furry toes!” (Yes, my toes have a few hairs). But I can honestly say to him, “Don’t ever get rid of that chest hair! It is downright manly, makes things steamy, and reminds me I’m dating a true stud.”

This picture is such a great shot of him, representing the beginning of everything and the end of searching.

This is how I always picture him and how I’ll always picture him.

What about you? What is your first picture on your camera roll? Does it involve chest hair or babies eating things?

Sincerely,

Lily

Cupcake Monster, PB Monster, Lake Monster

Lillyan, also known as my mini-name twin, also known as Mr. Speedy’s niece, also known as my future baby niece, also known as the child of Mr. Speedy’s sister who styles hair, was at the wedding this weekend.

I feel like she is finally recognizing me:

“Hi… do you remember me? We have the same name.”

And by recognizing me I mean that she blankly stares at me, thinks baby thoughts, and contemplates about what is dangling from my earlobes and why I like to repetitively kiss her uncle and squeeze his butt.

Can you believe she has had THREE kids? I hope I look like that.

Please disregard my ONE RED-EYE in the above photo. I am part vampire.

Anyways, during the reception, little Lillyan truly showed off her liking for fruit.
She loves grapes and watermelon.
She also love plastic water bottles, capping and uncapping them.
One thing that I did not know about her was that she loves, I mean LOVES, cupcakes.

Specifically, the icing on top-

“This icing. It is good.”

When we tried to ration her intake, she panicked and gave us this face:

“WHOA WHOA… WHAT DO YOU MEAN I ONLY GET TO HAVE 3???”

When I told her to smile, she gave me smirk full of frosting (unfortunately, my camera phone ruined this a bit but it is still cute):

“Oh stop…. this is just too much!”

It was a hoot watching her eat this thing. Sometimes when you aren’t around little kids that much, you forget how carefree they are when they consume sugary treats… or anything for that matter. This reminded me of a long, long time ago when Louis was tiny and somehow managed to capture the PB jar, unscrew the cap, and stick his whole forearm in it while smearing the sweet goopey goodness all over his mouth, face, and head.

We found him like this:

“I am a human Winne the Pooh.”

“You can’t have any hehe. Its MINE.”

This was circa 1996. Quite some time ago.

What was I up to during this period?

Oh, I was doing this:

“THIS IS NOT A FUN BOAT TRIP, DAD!”

Yep, that is me in the awesome red sweat suit (I was extremely chic) and my sister is the foreground, obviously about to turn away, fearing for her life.

This was taken on a family boat trip. I won’t bore you with extreme details of our family trips- filled with safety vests and waves and getting soaked by hurricanes, but they were intense trips. Pirate always thought it was ‘free fun’ to send us off on the pier during huge white-cap conditions and get ‘splashed.’ Getting splashed by these waves is equivalent to having a power washer shot directly at you within 3 feet. Or walking through a high-speed car wash with no clothes on.

I believe here I was questioning how long I had left to live and how to dry my underwear and if I would ever kiss a boy or meet a Prince Charming and if I’d ever finish the rest of the Box Car children books and if getting smacked by a cold lake wave qualified as showering.

Luckily, I survived this trip.

And ended up kissing Prince Charming and learned how to shower without lake water:

This was at the wedding. Mr. Speedy’s friends were extremely happy to be a part of our photo.

SO baby Lillyan, even though you consume cupcakes like a messy carnivore, you will eventually grow up and fall in love and be a lovely lady.

Same thing with Louis, except he will be a lovely man.

I am excited to watch her grow up and be a part of my family, along with the other kids.

I am excited to eat more cupcakes and teach her to avoid getting swept away by monstrous waves.

I will be such a good, strange Aunt.

Sincerely,

Lily

Alternative Titles

Title: Captain Forearms

Alternative Titles: Beloved, Be Still my Heart, Hunky Runner, Sweet Sweat of my Life, Can I Kiss You, I-think-I-might-faint, Forever Mine, Perfect Arms, Turn-my-Legs-to-Mush Man

Title: Small Lillyan with Tiny Puppy

Pint-sized Peeps, Too Cute for Words, I-Think-I-Want-to-Reproduce, Tot with Toto, Baby and Baby Hair and Baby Puppy, Love Overload

Title: Pensive Lady

Alternative Titles: Weird One, Lady with Eyebrows, Woman Who Thinks A Lot, Feed Me, The Look of Love, Thinking is Difficult, Senior Photo Redo, I Wear Boat Shoes but On a Bed

Title: Snowy Runner

Alternative Titles: Freezing Franny, Snowflake Attack, My Love is Cold, My Love is Frozen, Heat Me Up, Runner Gone Wild, Scary and Sweaty, I Run in Anything, Extreme Jogger

Title: How to Hold a Newborn

Alternative Titles: Get Me Down Please, You Are Doing it Wrong, Babies Flee From Lady, Planning an Escape, Woman with No Womanly Abilities, Football or Baby, Babysitting at its Finest, I need to brush my hair, Moments Before the Spit-up, Back Burping

Enough of that.
Thanks for listening.

Sincerely,
Lily