8 YEARS!

My husband married me 8 years ago tomorrow. That means that we have been together for ten years! I hardly remember a time without him. He seemed to be my missing link from the first moment I laid eyes on him. I was chartering private jets and Jer was a new pilot with the company my best friend worked for. I remember him walking into the East Coast Jets office door and April introducing me to him. He was wearing a brown leather bomber jacket and sunglasses. He got his trip sheet from April and walked out the door and I said, "THAT BOY IS HOT!". My steadfast rule during my years in aviation was never date a pilot...but for this one, I was willing to break my own rules. I was in love with him from the beginning. We didn't know how easy we had it then or how outrageously lucky we were to be in our situation. We were young and successful with lots of wonderful friends. We worked in private aviation and spent the majority of our lives flying in jets to all kinds of places and experiencing life. We would fly to Atlantic City at the drop of a hat to gamble all night...shuttle down to Fort Lauderdale to spend weekends at our company condo...spend the night in NYC drinking cocktails in hotel bars. We were everywhere. I lived just outside of NYC and Jer lived in PA. He would drive out to Madison, NJ almost every time he got home and sometimes would have to turn around and go right back for another trip. We were inseparable from the very start. I love that we spent those years having fun and being young and carefree. After we married, we spent about 5 more months in the northeast and then I got the charter sales manager position in Dallas. It was a dream come true for me to get back to Texas. This is my home and this is where my family is. I loved living up north, but I was honestly pretty homesick. Jeremy was supportive immediately and had no problem with moving his whole life to a brand new state for his new wife. I remember driving across the country with our poor kitty Gretchen huddled in her litter box in the back seat. I remember when we crossed the state line into Texas and I almost wept with joy. I remember seeing our awesome apartment for the first time when we pulled into downtown Dallas. I remember standing on the roof with him and realizing that the skyline of Dallas was all around us. I remember when we picked out Enzo and then proceeded to pamper him like a child for a few years. :-) I can't believe it has been so long and how far we have come. I love knowing that I am going to spend my whole life with Jeremy Shaffer!

Here are a few oldies from our early days...

This is me at our engagement party in Fort Lauderdale. We had a big celebration with lots of our friends. I had to include this shot mainly because I can't believe that my stomach used to look like that. This is how I know it really has been 8 years since this picture. ;-)
Dinner on the beach in Fort Lauderdale on the same engagement weekend.

Look how young we look! This is when we told Jer's mom and step-dad that we got engaged. It should also be noted that I went crazy around this time as asked a hairdresser in NYC to give me the Faith Hill look from her "This Kiss" video. Which was totally brilliant, what with me being 5'10, blonde and skinny...wait. WHY did that person listen to me?! I hated my short hair and was secretly so upset with myself that I cut it right before we got engaged. I almost wanted to wait for the wedding so that my hair could grow back out. Almost. ;-)

Flying with Captain Shaffer in the spring of 2003. And by flying, I mean making the co-pilot Nick move for 10 seconds, taking this picture, and then hightailing it out of there. I prefer the seats in the cabin. ;-)

Our wedding! I love this picture...it was so Viva Las Vegas. :-)

In the limo on the way to dinner! MARRIED! I can't believe this was 8 years ago.

Sitting poolside during our honeymoon in Vegas.

New York in Vegas! Lord, it was hot.

Pool party right after we got home as a married couple...

I may have to post more pictures soon...I am waiting on Jer to get home from his weekend away with friends and he knows where the rest of the old photos are. I am loving going down memory lane! I love you, huBsand! :-)

Happy 4th of July!

Okay. I am not changing the name. I am apparently completely unable to do anything as drastic as change the name of my blog. As much as the name seems to mock my inability to sit down and write a novel, I have become attached to it and nothing else sounds right. So I will apparently live in infamy as "The Storytelling Mommy"...you know, the one that dreams about writing something worthwhile and instead blogs. ;-)

A lot has been going on around here, as usual! The 4th of July weekend was absolutely insane. My nephew Jackson was celebrating his 6th (what??) birthday that Saturday, so Colin and I spent the weekend in Tyler. We were there Friday through Sunday and got home just in time to go to sleep and then wake up for a big 4th filled with awesome stuff! We met Jer's parents bright and early for a 4th of July parade in their neighborhood and it was so much fun. We went back to their house and Colin played with the slip-n-slide while I marveled that I once threw myself down on one of those without breaking all my bones. A long time ago. After a great lunch, we headed home so that I could make up a couple of dishes for an impromptu evening with friends. Kim's parents, Barb and Dave, had some friends over and we stopped by. I really have come to think of that whole family as part of mine! :-) Colin had a blast and I actually managed to take ZERO pictures, either at Jackson's party or the 4th of July with Kim. I guess I needed a camera break. Anyway, we had such a great weekend!

As we drove home that night, we decided on a whim to pull over and buy some sparklers for Colin. It was a rural road and we pulled in to the first place we saw. The sun was going down on the day and Colin was already in his pajamas in the back of the car. He asked for "fireworks", and so he shall have! ;-) It was the cutest little place with families and kids buying stuff and even a litter of puppies being offered for free just running around the place. Colin was very serious about what color sparklers he wanted. GREEN AND GOLD. It turned into one of those little moments I will treasure one day when Colin is a man...I will always remember him in his turtle pajamas, half asleep already, but jumping up and down for sparklers. I will always remember that he was so worried about those puppies running away and how he wanted to make sure the other kids were holding them out of the way before we started the car. I will always remember how excited he was just to be with his family and doing something special. What a perfect day!

Here are Daddy and Colin getting ready for the show. Colin is going to ride in the golf cart with Jer's parents in the parade!


Colin's best case scenario: Cops, firetrucks, and military machines. He was beside himself over it!
This is SO cute of them getting ready to head out on the parade route! Colin was seriously into it!

Just a cute chat with Mom Mom. At our afternoon party, I got a couple of cute shots of the boys eating their spread of cookies, yogurt and cotton candy.


And last, but not least...my little man and his wonderful sparklers! Happy 4th of July!!

A New Name

I am getting ready to change the name of this blog! "Thoughts From A Storytelling Mommy" was my brilliant decision when I was the sleep deprived mother of a newborn with fantastical dreams of succeeding at becoming a novelist. I still have dreams of becoming a novelist, but it hasn't exactly happened yet. ;-) Anyway, I have not liked my title in a long time and I have finally decided to make a change. I don't want to do this a million times, so I need to pick a name and stick with it. Any opinions? I have been thinking about:

A Shaffer Story

Three Shaffers Strong

Three Shaffers

Or, maybe none of those. I need to be more creative. I need something catchy and cute. I am close to having someone fix up the blog for me and I need to obviously pick a new title first. Why is this so hard?! Somebody be super creative and suggest a new title. Or tell me to stick with the old one and be quiet. ;-)

Around Here

There are very important things going on around here, none of which are actually important. First of all, Sephora opened today. Not the silly little JC Penney's Sephora, but the real deal! A huge store opened in Southlake Town Center and it is going to take all the will power that I posess not to go there every single day. It is amazingly close to Anthropologie and Black House White Market, which makes this my trifecta of shopping. Not to mention Janie and Jack...we wouldn't want to leave Colin out of the shopping fun! I love Southlake Town Center and adding Sephora to the list of greatness has taken my life to new highs. ;-)

They finally broke ground yesterday on a grocery store within walking distance to my house. That's right, folks. Walking distance. It is going to be a Kroger Signature and it is certain that I am going to live there. I can't even wrap my mind around how great this is going to be. I feel like I spend my whole life driving back and forth to the grocery store, so this is big news. I am a little too excited about it, honestly. You know you are old when the thought of a nearby grocery store is too much for you to handle. Our newspaper said that the store would be complete 10 months after breaking ground, so let the countdown begin! The "coming soon" sign has been up for months, so seeing the bulldozers out there was pretty exciting. Our pedi and family doctors are both in the office park across the street from the new store, so I will soon be filling my prescriptions at the Kroger pharmacy. This means that when Colin is sick, I can take him to the doctor and get his meds less than a mile from my front door. I told you that I was abnormally excited about this.

We have been at the pool every single day for weeks now. Our HOA dues may be a little steep, but it is so worth it to have access to all of our pools. There is one a few doors down from us on our block, so Colin and I throw our swimsuits on and walk over there constantly. He is also loving the other pools this year, including the slide pool and the splash park pool. He likes the splash park because he can go back and forth between that and the big pool. He likes the slide pool because his girlfriend lifeguard Emily is always there.

This is Colin swimming with Emily during swim lessons. She is his first crush. I know that he doesn't know what it means yet, but I can tell by his behavior and the look in his eyes that he loves her. Swim lessons are over now, but she lifeguards at our pool and Colin loves it. We had to explain repeatedly that she can't talk to him while she is on the stand. He waits for her to take a break and then runs over to talk to her. What am I going to do when a million girls are swarming all over my boy?! I don't even like that he loves Emily. She is too skinny and wears 80's sunglasses like she discovered them. ;-)

However, you can't blame the girls. Who wouldn't be all about this guy?!

One Season Down...

Ah, Blastball season. I can't believe that it is already over...I remember starting practice in March and thinking that June sounded so far away. There are really no words to express how proud I am of Colin and his whole first team experience. In April, Colin was officially diagnosed with an anxiety disorder (which I will finally post about soon), so being on this team was a huge deal for him. Things started out amazingly well...in fact, it blew my mind! I realized quickly that I had mentally prepared myself for the worst and never actually entertained the option that he would like playing! He listened carefully to instructions, participated in every aspect of the game and really had fun doing it. I was also shocked to find out that he is an excellent hitter! He really excelled at that part! We want Colin to experience everything and decide on his own what he likes to do...I would never force him to participate in something, but I also don't want to shelter him too much. There are many times that my assumptions on what he will tolerate are wrong and I never want to limit him. We try to work through his anxiety and face it head on. Blastball has been an excellent example of how strong Colin truly is. A few weeks in, he started having serious panic attacks before practice and wouldn't get out of the car. It came close to derailing the whole thing, but the panic had something to do with the practice field (who knows what exactly) and not the game itself. Our awesome friends unanimously decided that Colin didn't need to attend practice to play the game, so we worked through that part and kept going. He loved the games from day one and was always racing out the door ahead of me to get there. There were a couple of games that had rough patches where he got nervous about something and couldn't play, but so did all the other boys! There were also several moments when he got truly upset about something and still managed to recover himself and go back out there. Colin's whole world can be so overwhelming and the fact that he worked through his fears in order to be on this team is just amazing. He really wanted to play...he wanted to wear his uniform and be with his friends. He wanted to learn and succeed and managed to do just that. Did I end up sitting in the dugout on more than one occasion...yep. Was it worth it? YES!

We had an end of season party on that last Saturday after the game and we had a blast. The party was at Barb and Dave's house and after lots of swimming we had a big feast of hot dogs and hamburgers with all the fixings. Coach Nate handed out the trophies and Colin was BESIDE HIMSELF. It was so beautiful to see the joy and pride etched across his face when Nathan handed him that trophy. I could tell that he got it - he totally understood that he worked hard to hang in there for that prize. He fell asleep with it in the car on the way home that night and it is proudly sitting on his dresser now beside his team picture. What a wonderful experience for all of us!!! I think we are going to try soccer in the fall! :-)

Colin and Hayden standing in line for trophies together...I love how close Colin stood to him! Hayden is one of his favorite people in the world.


One of my favorite pictures in the world...Nate handing Colin his trophy. Nate congratulated him on being one of his best hitters and you can see how proud Colin is. I also love that we have people in our lives that adore Colin so much. You can really tell how much he loves his coach!

Atta boy!

Showing off his first trophy!!

The whole adorable team! From left, Hayden, Jack, Hayden P., Colin, Anders, Greyson, Keegan and Gavin. There will never be anything better than having a team comprised entirely of your best friends. :-)

Colin and Mommy Date!

Look at me! Two posts in 24 hours! I am very proud of myself and happy to be back into blog mode! Now it's time to play catch up...June has been so busy and wonderful around here! Let's start with my recent date with the best boy in the whole world! We just had Legoland open at the Grapevine Mills Mall a few weeks ago and Colin has been begging to go. The day before the school district let out for summer, it hit me that if I wanted to take Colin without a huge crowd, I had to do it immediately! I informed Colin that we were having a special day together and he was over the moon. We arrived at Legoland at about 11am and it was everything Colin wanted it to be! The crowd was minimal (for such a popular place) and the first thing we came upon was a ride that took us through a castle. As we rode, we helped fight the bad guys with laser guns to save the princess. Colin LOVED it!! We also got to see a 4D movie, which was absolutely amazing. They showed Bob the Builder and we got to wear the special glasses and the whole nine yards. They had real water, wind and even snow in the theatre! Colin was blown away and kept reaching his arms out to touch everything. We had an absolute blast! Afterwards, we picked out a Lego set in the gift shop and then went on to the second half of our date, lunch at Rainforest Cafe! It was Colin's first visit there, which is crazy. He was beside himself over the animals and we got to sit right beside the elephants. They even had a balloon artist walking around creating balloon animals. It was the most amazing afternoon and Colin was radiating joy. We even popped our heads into Payless on the way out of the mall and he helped me pick out sandals. :-) It was just one of those days when I realize how lucky I am. Colin is my sidekick and as he gets older, our adventures together are becoming so much fun. Surprising him with treats like this is one of the highlights of my life! Seeing his face when he experiences something new and amazing...I don't think I will ever get enough of that!

Lego's are EVERYWHERE! :-)

VERY impressed with the Lego dog!

Ready for our 4D movie! How excited is this boy?!

The Lego display of Dallas...they had replicas of Forth Worth, too! Super cool!

LOVING our date!

Getting ready for lunch at Rainforest Cafe!

Posing by the fountains at Rainforest Cafe

Colin and the elephants!

Posing with his balloon caterpillar. What a PERFECT DAY!!

Getting Back on Track!

Okay, so a lot has been going on in my life. I have several blog posts going in my "drafts" section and with every passing day, I am getting more and more behind! I have had so much going on that I got a little overwhelmed with trying to write here. Which is not cool. I have next to nothing written since the start of the year and we are already into summer. I hate that! This blog has definitely taken a backseat and I don't like it at all.

The elephant in the room right now is the fact that we have been trying to conceive for a very long time and despite plenty of help from my doctor, things are not going great. I went into a bit of a funk over the whole thing and couldn't figure out how to keep going on the blog. I want this blog to be fun memories for Colin AND I am not one to share such personal stuff over the world wide web. However, I couldn't bring myself to write my usual fluff since I have had so much on my mind. I have started so many posts detailing the pain of not being able to conceive, but then I just delete them. I don't like to be sad and I don't like to write about it, either! I am a glass half full kind of girl! Therefore, I have decided to totally drop it and pull myself together. There is a TON of wonderful stuff going on right now and we are in a great place with our little family. I refuse to neglect this blog any longer because of my pity party! SOOO, in honor of the lighter things in life, I give you a nice fluffy Chalna style post! Don't we all feel better now?! ;-)

*Colin is finishing up his second week of swim lessons and he LOVES IT. This has been a momentous occasion for us...as of yesterday, Colin swims underwater. As in, totally under. With goggles. On his head. One of his biggest sensory issues has been getting his face wet and having anything touch his face...we still battle with washing his hair! After several days of convincing, he gave it a try during class yesterday and I almost fell out of my plastic pool chair. He came up grinning, obviously proud of himself, and shot me a thumbs up from his spot in class. After lessons, we kept swimming together and he was like a new child! He swam until almost 2:30, going underwater the whole time, and then passed out once we got home. He napped for 30 minutes, and then we went BACK to the pool when Dad got home to show off our new skills. He then slept until 8:15 this morning, which in Colin's world is close to being in a coma. I love swimming! ;-)

*Colin started his 5 week summer program at school this week. He goes on Tuesdays and Thursdays and is actually thrilled to be back! On Tuesday, he literally ran right into Miss Gina's arms and forgot to tell me goodbye. How quickly we fall of the list. HA! There are different kids in his class and Miss Heather is also his teacher, which is new. He still loves it and told me that he made several new friends. I am so proud of how far he has come!! Ten months ago, he wouldn't even get in the car to go to school and now he is happy and going with the flow. What a difference a year makes...and a great occupational therapist, counselor and psychologist-as well as great teachers. :-) We have this wonderful team around Colin now and he is thriving beyond what I thought possible. He is so brilliant and I am starting to believe that he will be a rocket scientist. I am only slightly kidding.

*I need to be totally honest. The other reason that I don't blog much anymore is because I can't stop watching "Glee". I waited until a few weeks ago to start the show and I am completely and totally out of control. It is the. best. show. ever. I am coming very close to being caught up and I am starting to slow down because I don't want it to be over! How will I possibly wait until FALL to start the new episodes?? As soon as Colin goes to sleep, I park myself in front of the TV with a diet DP and bowl of popcorn and wallow in the joy that is people bursting into song randomly during the day. I crazy love this show.

*I bought a crazy rock star awesome curling iron for no good reason. You have to wear a heat proof glove to use it. I love it. I had to actually practice with it. An expensive and frivolous beauty device brings me such happiness.

*Colin is going to be 4 years old in one month. WHAT???????

*I just gave myself a mini-stroke when I wrote the last statement.

Okay, so I promise to write more tomorrow and the next day and the next. I WILL get this blog up to date! However, I must go watch Glee. Mr. Schuester needs me.