back to life with good surprises

Posted: November 15, 2010 at 8:00 pm

After such an amazing weekend, I worried that today would feel disappointing. Or that the good feelings I left the weekend with would not continue or last as I approached real life again. I happily report that I had a fabulous day. Likely one of the best I have had in awhile. Nothing spectacular happened, but simply a change in perspective from a refreshing weekend that reminded me of true blessings helped immensely. Some nice surprises to come home to didn’t hurt either.

While I was away, Peter worked hard painting a couple special rooms.

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We switched Makenzie to the bigger room, with my old apartment’s bedroom furniture, and put baby B in her old nursery. I have a ton to organize between the two rooms and the playroom downstairs. I am so thankful to Peter for painting and getting the rooms ready for me to do that. Good thing I feel that nesting instinct kicking in!

I also came home to a special delivery from Theresa @ The Active Eggplant. She very kindly sent me the Stieg Larsson book series to read at my leisure. I miss reading books like this, but can’t find the time to finish books in the library’s time limit anymore. I can’t wait to dive in!

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I also feel surprised at how much Makenzie seems to have grown in just a  few short days. That kid is speaking in longer sentences since I left.

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One thing that did not surprise me was my happiness to eat my regular food choices again. I loved the food on the retreat, but certainly missed my oats and fresh fruit/veggies. It felt good to include those at my meals today.

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And I guess it shouldn’t surprise me that even after many, many sweets this weekend, I still crave something sweet right now. I may just have to top off the night with a bit of chocolate “agape”…and time with my husband instead of even trying to catch up with all of this…

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Sometimes you just have to…and there’s nothing wrong about it. I love you all and can’t wait to catch up more soon!

  • Anything exciting to share with me since I had to skip out on reading this weekend’s posts?
  • What was the last surprise you received?

Reminders:

  • Sign up for the Holiday Gift Exchange if you haven’t already. I am adding as I go along, but with over 60 participating so far I can’t respond to every email. I will send out a verification email shortly before assigning partners in a couple of weeks. Thank you to all who have signed up already. Also, thank you to those who haven’t because they know they can’t commit.That is extremely respectable.
  • Ask me anything for the November Q + A series. I have about 10 left right now and could use a few more to fill up November. 🙂

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46 Comments to “back to life with good surprises”
  1. emily says:

    I am so glad you had a great day! You deserve to happy!

    I am always suprised when I go to my mailbox and find a special card from my best friend!

    Question: What was the best food you EVER ate and why?
    I was watching the Food Network and say a commerical about that new show so I thought I would ask!

    xoxo,
    Em

  2. Camille says:

    The bedrooms look great! I am so excited for the arrival of little B 🙂

  3. Love the purple! I bet M’s excited about it too 😀

  4. that is the cutest picture of your little girl!

  5. chelsey says:

    I <3 the word agape – my pastor uses it all the time!

  6. Leashieloo says:

    Ohh my gosh, the paint jobs are gorgeous. I especially love the purple. I suddenly want a purple room!

  7. This post is so lovely! And the rooms color so bright!

    The last surprise I received was my boyfriend getting a job after months of post-grad searching! Oh my gosh I am so so thrilled for him.

    • Tina says:

      The colors aren’t quite so bright in real life. Something about the computer turned them that way after putting them in LiveWriter. They are more pastel looking in person. I don’t know if I could handle that bright!

  8. The rooms look great. And it’s so true you sometimes just have to mark them read and start over where you are. It’s too much to try to catch up with everything and everyone.

  9. Liz says:

    Aww, Mackenzie is so cute in those little Elmo slippers! I don’t think I’ve had anything too exciting going on over at my blog lately… I’m trying to eat healthier, and my baking is suffering. 🙂

  10. I have a question that is based on an experience I had yesterday with the monkey. What is your favorite first experience with M?

    My sister brought me home a name tag/lanyard thing that says I <3 Vampires. We have a small Twilight obsession. We give and receive sprizzies on a regular basis around here. 🙂

  11. That “mark all as read” button can be a life saver sometimes eh?

    Glad you had such a great day! 🙂

  12. I do the mark all as read thing far too often… no need to feel guilty!

  13. […] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Tina Reale, Tina Reale. Tina Reale said: back to life with good surprises: After such an amazing weekend, I worried that today would feel disappointing. … http://bit.ly/9RkcAr […]

  14. Am interested to see if you like the Dragon Tattoo series! I tried to start it over the summer and was bad about sticking to it. Have heard it is an AWESOME series once you get into it! Enjoy 🙂

  15. Sarah says:

    Makenzie is so adorable. I think she gets her good looks from her mother 🙂 I love the purple room!!

  16. Mackenzie is SO CUTE- I love seeing pictures of her!!!
    Stieg Larsson books are great, you’ll definitely enjoy them:)

  17. The last surprise I received was a Pom-A-Gram from POMWonderful last week. I’ve never had a pomegranate before so it was a nice surprise. 🙂

    Oh, and I am signing up for the blogger gift exchange. What a fun idea! 🙂

  18. janetha says:

    Gosh, that grinning photo of M is too cute! I am glad things are going great for you. Love the paint jobs. And I marked all as read, too.

  19. Haha. I totally hit “Mark all as read” when it gets out of control. I always spend time pruning my reader to make sure its under control.

    So glad that you had a great day! Your children’s rooms are adorable!

  20. Melie says:

    The Stieg Larsson trilogy is so good! I am sure you are going to love it!

  21. Karen says:

    I love Makenzie’s big girl bed!! How fun and exciting to start getting the nursery ready for Baby B!

  22. LindseyAnn says:

    Aw, little M looks so much like you!! 🙂
    Which leads me to my question: of your parents, who do you resemble the most? How about your siblings?

    I know in my case, I’m 60/40 between my mom and my dad. I have my mom’s features and hair, but my dad’s eyes and a similar body type.

  23. I’m on the 2nd Stieg Larsson book. SO good. Enjoy!

  24. M must be so excited! Oh goodness, that would have taken hours to read through! Yikes!!! I am thinking catching up with your man and hanging with M would be more fun! Have a great week Tina!

  25. Lee says:

    Marking all as read is definitely necessary after a weekend away. I did it last night too.

  26. I’m glad that your good weekend continued into Monday! 🙂 And the rooms are very cute- Peter did a good job!

  27. Heather says:

    oh man, i have done the reader thing a million times…like when i got back from kauai? yep…deleted them all. sometimes you just have to do that!

  28. I finished The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo a couple nights ago. LOVED it. The beginning is a bit slow, but stick with it and it gets a lot better.

  29. Angela says:

    Heheh aww the Google Reader… I always feel so bad when I have so many unread items and don’t have time to get thru them all. I was away doing a Nutrition & Wellness Specialist course this weekend so I had a similar situation when I got back!

  30. Em says:

    Love the colors in both rooms! Peter did a great job!! So glad you had such an amazing time at the retreat!! 🙂 Looking forward to seeing you this weekend and hearing all about it!!!!!!!!!! 🙂 Have a great day!!

  31. Courtney F says:

    Reading is my FAVORITE hobby. I love how it just takes you away.
    I’ll need to put that on my “to-read” list on Goodreads.com.
    I will “mark all as read” too. It seems to be more stressful when you have that many to look over.

  32. The kids rooms look awesome!! And I do that a lot in google reader because seeing a huge number overwhelms me!

  33. I unplugged from the internet and blogs for the weekend, too! My mom and sister came to visit me so I just wanted to really savor my time with them 🙂

  34. M is so adorable with her Elmo slippers!!! What a sweetheart. And how nice of Peter to paint those rooms? Painting is one of my least favorite things ever for sure.

    My last surprise? Coming home this weekend from Vegas and seeing snow on the ground — does that count? 🙂

  35. Your daughter looks so much like you! Glad you didn’t have that let down coming home! I definitely had that after my recent travels and it wasn’t good.

  36. the rooms look great!! So exciting 🙂
    You’re gonna love the Steig Larsson novels. I did!

  37. The paint looks great!!! And it’s true, sometimes you have to catch up with the ones you love instead of answering e-mails! 🙂

  38. The kid’s rooms look so cute!

    Great books, I could’t stop reading them once I started.

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