Weekend Recap

Happy Monday, all! This was a good weekend. We packed a lot in, but we got to relax as well which was needed.

It's my last week at work and I'm definitely feeling the feels. We'll see how I do on Friday ;) Until then, let's recap.


FRIDAY
My girlfriend came over on Friday night to meet Henry and see our house.

She gave us a sweet "Home Sweet Home" sign and this lovely gold Eiffel Tower that has aromatherapy beads inside of it (!) which fits perfectly on our entryway table where I've been featuring Paris related items (an old map my Grandpa used when he was there as a sailor in the Navy, books, etc.) upon our upcoming trip. 

We caught up which was SO nice and needed, planned a little bit of our upcoming girl's trip to Florida, and marveled at how big this guy looks already.

SATURDAY

I got up earlyyy on Saturday morning so my dad and I could make it to the DMV near my house before it opened. I had decided early last week that I would attempt at getting my license on Saturday morning because if I didn't do it this past weekend, I wouldn't be able to go for another few weeks, so I decided to try my luck (and nerves!) and see what happened.

And what happened was...I passed! 

I've mentioned it a few times on here in an attempt to be transparent in documenting my life, but it's still something I've been embarrassed about, and therefore, don't mention to a lot of people. I'm twenty-six years old (about a month shy of twenty-seven) and, up until a few days ago, I didn't have a license. This is a decade in the making. A decade of feeling lesser than everyone else in my life because I haven't been an active driver, a person without a license. I've allowed it to control my thoughts every single day for the last ten years. One would think that would be enough to motivate someone to deal with their own shit and anxieties and just get going already. But it hadn't. 

It wasn't until last Spring when I sought therapy that I decided I needed to deal with my anxieties around driving, which, as it turns out, is a result of a deep rooted fear of (essentially) performance anxiety and/or being judged for doing something "wrong." It's weird how our insecurities from childhood manifest into adulthood, especially when they're not dealt with head-on. 

Over the last ten years I've thought getting my license would be SUCH a relief. Finally I wouldn't have to think about this thing that I'm lacking anymore. But since going to therapy, I've realized that not having a driver's license doesn't make me less of an adult or functioning individual. Certainly having it will make my life (and other's close to me) much easier, but I've always managed to remain relatively independent without it. A plastic card doesn't equate my self worth or worth as an adult or human in our world. 

I will admit to being a little disappointed when I didn't feel all that different after getting it. Like I said, I thought I would feel this huge relief, and when I didn't, I was kinda sad honestly. Like, that's what I waited all this time for? Haha. But I think it further proves that I didn't need that card after all. I mean I need it haha but I didn't need it to feel good about myself.

That being said, I am immensely proud of myself for overcoming my insecurities, anxieties, and fears that were exceptionally deep rooted, especially so after the last ten years. I will sing praises of therapy and the wonders it works (especially when you have a therapist as exponentially wonderful as mine) forever and ever, and while therapy is what gave me the tools to make some changes in my life and opened my eyes to the real issues, it was ME who did the lasting work. And for that, I'm very proud.

And I'm incredibly grateful that everyone in my life has been SO supportive. They've been supportive in many forms over the years, especially in the form of driving me around for ten years longer than they should have, but especially supportive in how excited they've been for me. Case in point, the man of few words sending me this text (and me, being the vain person I am, only worried about my picture ;) ).

I've always been worried (and unnecessarily so) that some people would respond with "finally!" or make a well-meaning joke that I would inevitably take personally haha and no one did that. Everyone acted as I suspect they would have to my sixteen-year-old self, and that made this experience that much better. And I was so happy to go with my dad who has been my guiding force (with the help of my siblings, my mom, and Sammy, of course) in this driving adventure. 

This may seem super boring or weird to some, but it's another part of my journey and a part I definitely want to document, although I'm sure I wouldn't ever forget even if I didn't blog about it. So after receiving my temporary license, we booked it out of the DMV and headed over (with me behind the wheel ;) ) to Allen's Corner for a celebratory breakfast.

Absolutely the greatest breakfast place around. If you're ever in Hampshire, IL, or anywhere remotely close for that matter, do yourself a favor and stop in.

After my dad dropped me off at home in CL, Sammy and I took Henry to downtown CL to walk around and stop by the farmer's market. We picked up some tomatoes and corn and Henry was approached by every adult and child around...and we lived for it. Not ashamed to admit how much I loved everyone fawning over our boy haha.

This is Henry fully laying at farmer's market haha I think he was getting tired out from all the socializing!

We stopped at three flower nurseries in town before heading home with a cornstalk, hay bale, and some mums.

Henry and I proceeded to sit in the backseat because the corn stalk extended all the way from the trunk to the front seat of the car haha.

Obsessed with these views. We didn't end up leaving the lanterns up there, but I loved seeing all these pieces situated together.

We're not sure how long the mums are going to last because they won't get any light on our porch unfortunately, so if they end up dying, we're going to move them to our patio in the back which gets a ton of light, and we'll replace with a bunch of pumpkins which I think will actually look even more festive around Halloween and Thanksgiving time than the mums.

We were home long enough to style our porch before heading over to Sammy's brother and SIL's house so we could babysit our niece for the evening. I was incredibly pumped to lay on the couch and read and nap and not be disturbed once Eliana went to sleep.

But before that, we played on many toys with wheels...

and in our fort with many balls...

And we read many books, which is this zia's favorite ;)

Of course we had a snag in the evening. As Sammy and I were eating dinner after Eliana had gone to bed, we realized their dog had been skunked, poor girl. So we dealt with that (well, Sammy dealt with the dog while I cleaned everything else, thank god) and tried to get the smell out of the house as best we could. Luckily she only got skunked a tiny bit and the hydrogen peroxide mixture we made seemed to do the trick.

And I got to read and nap for the rest of the night until they came home which was pure bliss.

Meanwhile, back at our house, my mom and brother saved the day again by coming over to watch Henry so he wouldn't be in his crate the entire time we babysat. We got home around 2 a.m. and I was exhausted having been up since 6:30 a.m. that morning, so I immediately crashed.

SUNDAY

I got up around 8 and took Henry out and met a woman (around my age!) who lives on the next street over. We exchanged numbers and plan on getting together which was a nice way to start the morning. 

I made some coffee (added some cinnamon for seasonal measure), brought a load of laundry upstairs to fold, and watched a Fall Harvest Hallmark movie.

I also intermittently studied the style guide my new employer uses which is one of the dorkiest things I've ever done and please note the amount of hair Henry has started to shed thank you.

Sammy's grandma and parents came over for dinner (and so Sammy's dad could help him mount the TV in the basement) and so his grandma could see the house for the first time. Her reaction was really sweet, but she also told us now we have to get married because we "don't have anymore excuses." OKAY.

His parents saved the day by bringing over the crate their new German Shepard has already outgrown because Henry has outgrown the little crate we got from my mom. I think he's going to be much happier with a little more space and we'll definitely have this one for longer than the first. Sorry you had to look at this phenom picture. Not sure why I thought this was vital to this post. But whatever!

Anyway, there ya have it. A packed weekend followed by a pretty light week which I'm happy about. I have several things to get done this week on my personal to-do list, so a light week should help out with that a lot.

I hope everyone had a wonderful weekend! xo

*linking up with Biana!