Today marks the one year anniversary of the day Daniel and I ended an epic road trip and stepped into our cat-filled sublet in Brooklyn, New York. This year has been one of starting jobs, ending jobs, watching some guy clip his toenails on the subway, counting our pennies, finding friends in likely and unlikely places, making decisions, delaying decisions, and eating lots and lots of indian food. It's maybe been the best year of my life. I'll get back to you on that. In celebration of this monumental occasion, I've decided to shut up for once, and let my husband get some words in. This is the man who has led me through all of my hysterical meltdowns this year with his strange mix of wisdom, humor, sex appeal, and compromise. He's writing to you today about adventure, which is exactly the thing I needed to remind me why we left our fancy apartment in Texas to live somewhere with a view like this: Without further ado....my husband, Daniel O'Shoney. Or, There and Back Again Maybe Eventually: How The Hobbit Almost Ruined Me by: Daniel O'Shoney There are few things I love more in this world than a really good adventure story. I am a huge fan of the entire sci-fi/fantasy/graphic novel genre for this reason. Those books take me to a place or time that will never exist (except maybe for zombies) and I just get to be somewhere new for a while. I get palpably excited when I sit down with a new book. Not that this should be a surprise to any of you. Christy has already outed me as a nerd. In case you needed further proof. Here's the thing though. While I always have and always will enjoy things like this, and this, and this (all highly recommended), I have learned something really exciting in my 8 years of relationship with Mrs. Christy O'Shoney. It is 100% possible to have adventure and excitement just like this in my real life! Being married and living my life with my best friend is that exciting on a regular basis. There's a trick to this excitement though. It doesn't happen all on it's own. This is where nerds like myself sometimes go astray. As much as I may want it to happen, I am not going to wake up tomorrow in a world where friendly monsters hide in tall grass waiting for me to seek them out, capture them, and then carry them around in my pocket using them to earn respect from my peers and forming lifelong friendships with them. For those of you I lost, that was a Pokemon reference. Gotta Catch 'Em All. In my dreams. Dated references aside, the point here is that I had skewed expectations of adventure for most of my life. I had been trained by books, games and movies to expect to just have that kind of adventure handed to me. It was an unrealistic expectation and it continued for far too long. Then, just when it seemed like I was destined to a life of not finding out I was a wizard, or a mutant, or a jedi, I met my wife. Only I didn't know she was my wife yet. She was a girl with a smart mouth and sensitive feelings who made me re-evaluate the effort I put in to life. Christiana O'Shoney (then Lammert) made me want to do exciting things rather than wait for them to happen to me. This transition was not always easy, but it has been well worth it. Just under a year ago, Christy and I made the choice to move to New York City. We made this choice after getting married and living in Austin for about six months. While we loved it, living in Austin felt a little like this: Those shoes are pretty spiffy, and they would probably look great on the right human. That guy is just trying to wear those shoes at the wrong time in his life. That's what Austin was like for us. It's a great city, it just stopped being the right fit after a while. And people, if you're like me and Christy, if your shoes don't fit, it's time to start an adventure. I started looking for work in New York City because it's a place we've both felt called to over the years. We learned in April that I had been offered a job, and we would have to be in New York by the end of May. It was a really crazy month for us, and to anyone who knew us, I think we looked like this: And by the time we had packed our entire life to drive it across the country our car looked like this: Those are coconuts. But even in the midst of that Christy and I were like: And rightfully so. Our time in New York has been nothing but new and exciting things. Christy and I have tried new foods, met new friends and started new jobs. It has been unlike anything that we have ever done, and I don't see it slowing down anytime soon. Here are smaller adventures we've taken in the midst of this larger adventure: A Christmas-Light-Indian-Food-Bollywood-Dancing Adventure! A Coney Island adventure with friends! New home adventure! We've even added a family member! Kitty friend adventure! It has been spectacular to do all of this with Christy, who has been the most incredible partner. Not that I thought there was anything that could break this up. But for all of this to happen, Christy and I had to say yes to adventure. We could easily have not. We could have stayed in our beautiful Austin apartment WITH A GEE DEE WRAP AROUND PATIO, rather than doubling our rent and braving the bed bugs here in NYC. We could have stayed with our friends and our family, being showered by their love on an almost daily basis. But we didn't. We came here instead, and it has been hard, but it has been a blessing. We are learning and growing in ways that we never could have in Austin, and our friends and family have continued to shower us with love, regardless of the distance. I would like for us all to now reflect on The Hobbit. Maybe you read it as a kid, like me, or maybe you just recently watched the first third of it in mediocre movie form. Either way I have a bone to pick with it. Adventure does not just storm into your life like a herd of dwarves and steal all your food so that you have to leave your house. That's not real. You have to chase adventure down, tackle it, and wrestle it to the ground. Luckily for me I have Christy to help me chase and wrestle. Packing up and moving to New York was big and hard and sometimes frightening, but it has also been good. I have learned more about myself and about my amazing wife than I ever would have if we had just stayed put. Your life, and your marriage if you have one, can and should be an incredible journey. If you're feeling a little restless in life right now, there's probably a reason for this. Maybe your underwear is just a little too tight. Look into that, but if you're still restless, maybe, just maybe it's time for an adventure. Don't be afraid to go for it. You'll be happy that you did. What are some of your life's biggest adventures (either past, present, or future)? Let us know!
Go camping indoors with this easy to build A-frame tent
Click here to read about Emery's pink and gold first birthday party! Our little sweetheart turned TWO this week! She's loved Elmo for a w...
Incredibles Theme Party Banner Free Printable. Birthday Banner Template for DIY Incredibles movie party. Birthday party decorations.
So… this post is a little late. I blame the cross country move madness!!! This party was our last hurrah before we moved out of the house! So wild. We had a small get together with some of Otis’ good friends outside in our backyard. Of course Blake said, “DONT GO OVERBOARD” but you know… I…
Musician Sebastian Bach attends the 7th annual Metal Hall Of Fame Gala at Delta Hotels by Marriott Anaheim Garden Grove on January 24, 2024 in Garden Grove, California.
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Happy birthday to our rad little dude⚡️
Get creative and have fun at home with these Hey Duggee activities! There's yummy recipes to cook and lots of arts and crafts to download and enjoy.
Chuggington coloring pages feature the adorable locomotives from the animated town of Chuggington.
By now I hope you have seen my other ideas for hosting a superhero party. I will provide links at the end of this post just in case you haven’t seen these yet. They should help you in all of your superhero pursuits. The next post I bring you in my superhero party tutorials contains...Read More
So… this post is a little late. I blame the cross country move madness!!! This party was our last hurrah before we moved out of the house! So wild. We had a small get together with some of Otis’ good friends outside in our backyard. Of course Blake said, “DONT GO OVERBOARD” but you know… I…
Our little Levi turned 1 this past weekend and we celebrated with a farm theme first birthday party! It was adorable and a great kids’ party theme for early fall, too. It can be expensive to throw …
We celebrated our son's first birthday with family. We poured so much energy into this party, it felt like we were planning our wedding all over again.
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That’s a wrap! Chloe’s 3rd birthday party is in the books, and it was pretty cute, if I do say so myself. She is a huge Pooh Bear fan, so we ran with that theme and it was oh-so-adorab…
See photos and videos from the fire truck-themed party Kim Kardashian threw for her youngest son Psalm West for his fourth birthday, which featured real firefighters.
Cute dinosaur clipart with watercolor illustration. Digital Download in PNG, JPG & EPS format. This set of high quality painted with watercolor. Perfect graphic for DIY ,invitations, business cards, logos, greeting cards, marketing materials, websites, apparel, books, stationary, software, games, fabric, T-shirt, packaging, prints, pillows, banners, phone cases, etc provided that such merchandise combines the graphic with words and / or other graphics or images provided that the graphics form part of a new design, incorporating your own elements and wording. -Please take noted before purchasing- -You will receive- -6 PNG (300 dpi) -6 JPG (300 dpi) -1 EPS (VECTOR) For commercial use only allows you to sell less than 1,000 physical or digital final products. Resale or sharing of this file is not allowed. If your product is sold more than 1,000 times, you must purchase an extended license, which will give you unlimited sales rights to the product. https://www.etsy.com/listing/960169130/extended-commercial-license-unlimited?ref=shop_home_active_2 Not Allowed: • You can’t resell or redistribute any of my clip art and items in their original design and format as a digital product. • You’re Not Allowed to resell with minor changes • You can’t resell the product purchased here or distribute as freebies/ download/ bundles/ pattern • You can’t resell or distribute my product (or elements) on third party sites • You may not claim the work of Trendysensestudio as your own Please contact me if you need more information Thank you for visiting my shop & Have a nice day! LOVE & PEACE!
Celebrate your kids birthday with these ultimate Blippi birthday ideas your fun-loving, curious kid will never forget.
Free Sonic the Hedgehog color by number printables download pdf. Sonic the hedgehog coloring pages printables for kids.
Just came back from Disney World and had to hurry up and get everything ready for Princess Ella’s party! She wanted a Little Mermaiad themed Birthday Party. Thankfully, I got qui…
Moo-ve in and check out this Modern Farm Themed Birthday Party by Jessica Dworkin of Host Society, out of Franklin, Tennessee, USA! Featuring the cutest sweets and farm themed decor, this event is full of details to adore! So let out a cluck and fly in to spot these favorite party elements and more: Barn Backdrop Farm Themed Kid Table Adorable Cow-Print Farm Cake Darling Farm Themed Cookies Farm Animal Cake Pops Mylar Farm Animal Balloon Favors Farm-inspired Balloon Garlands
Use this sheet to help and motivate your students to practice their multiplication facts! Students multiply and color by number to check their work! Use any time of year but especially for Earth Day in April or any time in Spring!
So we are all geared up to see the Cars 3 movie in theaters which comes out tomorrow. I think we are planning to go next weekend as my son said he wanted to watch the "racecars movie" when he seen the preview. And I heard a review that it was possibly better than the original, although the 3 year old probably won't care regardless. So in anticipation of the movie I decided to create a free printable Cars 3 banner - for all those kids out there who will be requesting a Cars themed birthday. HAP YAP BIY RTH Dlogo Cars 3 Characters And here is Everything you Need for a Cars 3 Birthday Party
Today is Bella's 2nd Birthday! I will post later about her special day and the funny walk we took yesterday with Aunt Lissy when Bella met ...
