Random Truths

My best friend publishes a very entertaining and informative blog, Faith, Family and Beef.  Her post today was about a few random truths, so I stole her idea for my latest entry.

 Random Truths:

1) I cuddle with a T-Shirt at night.  It started when Bo and I were in college and lived apart, he would send me home with a T-shirt that he had sprayed with his cologne for me to sleep with during the week. I got so used to sleeping with it, that even though he sleeps next to me now, I still have to cuddle with a shirt.

The brand spanking new 07

2) Since I was sixteen, my car has always been a Toyota.  It started with my “Dusty Rose” 1992 Toyota Corolla. I upgraded to a 2007 Toyota Camry (thanks Mom and Dad!), and now I have a 2009 Toyota Camry.  I even got Bo hooked on Toyota’s.

3) Rain itself doesn’t bother me and worms in the dirt or grass don’t bother me, but it does bother me when it rains and the stinkin’ worms come out and spread out all across the sidewalk.

About the 2 month mark!

4)  Bo is the only guy I ever dated for more than two months.  I guess when you know, you know! Although I do owe some credit to my best friend, because at the two-month point I started getting a little freaked out with the whole commitment thing apparently and she convinced me to stick it out for a little bit.

5) I have two very unique skin markings.  The first is a darker spot on my left shoulder that is in the shape of an H.  I call that one my “H” brand, so I guess I was born to be a Hansen.  The other is a light spotty patch above my right armpit.  I call this one my giraffe skin.  When I have spent some time in the sun; most of my skin gets darker, but the lighter patches resemble the markings on a giraffe.

6)  When I was in middle school, I fell in love with a calf named Oscar.  He was a little black and while Holstein and the cutest darn thing!  He was my cousin’s 4-H bucket calf and I would make trips out to the farm just to see him. I cried the day they called me to say they were selling him.  I now have a new fascination with the Highlander breed of cows.  They are so fluffy!

Our little blonde baldy

7) Before I had kids, I secretly (but not so secretly since I openly talked about it) wanted my kids to have blonde hair and blue eyes.  Dexter must have listened to his Mama enough, since he has blonde hair and hazel eyes which look blue on some days.

8) I don’t like seafood.  Any kind of fish, shrimp, lobster...you name it, I am not a fan.  In my defense, every so often if someone around me is eating it I will give it a try. Nope, not happening. The smell, the texture, the taste, nothing about it sounds good.

The 1 Year Anniversary of our 5 Year Plan

If I told you that Bo and I both have Futuristic as one of our top 5 strengths would you believe me?  What does that mean? We are forward looking thinkers that want to know where we are headed and not where we have been.  This is why from the time we got together we had a vision of our first 5 years.  This upcoming weekend we will celebrate the 1 year anniversary of our 5 year plan... huh, you ask?  We are celebrating our 6th wedding anniversary!  As this weekend approaches, I think about what we have accomplished and how blessed we are, and I get emotional.

Other than being a 5 year plan, we didn't necessarily set deadlines or due dates for each item. We just knew that this was what we wanted our first 5 years of marriage to look like: get married, pass our CPA tests, work hard to advance in our careers, live in an apartment to save money, buy an acreage lot, build a house, and then fill that house up with babies!  

Obviously our parents were proud of us for all of it, but their most popular question was "When are the babies coming?" This is how the plan got its "official" name... an easy response was we want to be married for 5 years before we have kids. That answer didn't stop the questions. Will you get pregnant at 5 years or have a baby at 5 years? And guess what...we almost nailed it, August 1, 2014 was our 5 year anniversary and 2 weeks later I went into labor!

While the first 5 years were great, this past year has been amazing!  There are no words to describe the joy that Dexter has brought to our family. The first 5 years were planned and thought out, but this year we have learned to fly by the seat of our pants! It has been a year of soul searching, finding the joy in life and becoming comfortable in our own skin!  

Bo became the family chef, searching and trying new clean recipes to help fuel us and keep up with a baby on the move.  Dexter has become our Coach and motivator to work out and continue to push ourselves. With these changes, our happiness and stress levels have changed drastically, we have become comfortable in our own skin.  Finding the "Why" in our lives has made all the difference!

As we celebrate this past year, you can be sure we have started to think about the next five years and the things we hope to be celebrating on the 1 year anniversary of our 10 year plan!


  

Not Enough “Thank You”s and “I Love You”s

Are there people in your life that you know that you don’t say “Thank You” and “I Love You” to enough?  My Mom and Dad are those people for me!  I wouldn’t even know where to begin saying “Thank You,” but I do know that I have learned a great deal from them and am very lucky to have them in my life.  Today marks a huge milestone in their lives, it is their 35^th wedding anniversary!  I figured I would start to get caught up on “Thank You’s” on this special day, so here it goes…..

1)  Thank You for meeting each other at the movie theater all those years ago.

2) Thank You for showing me what love and marriage should look like.

3) Thank You for teaching me to put others first.

4) Thank You for Grandpa Daycare.

5) Thank You for researching and teaching me about thistle plants.

6) Thank You for being there when I need to clear my thoughts.

7) Thank You for letting Andy and I celebrate your 25^th wedding anniversary with you on the cruise.

8) Thank You for loving me.

9) Thank You for family traditions like carving pumpkins, Christmas morning omelets and New Year’s Eve prime rib.

10) Thank You for helping me plant flowers and keep our yard looking nice.

11) Thank You for allowing me to participate in so many activities while growing up and attending all those events.

12)  Thank You for spraying bugs at our house and buying furnace filters.

13) Thank You for volunteering to babysit Dexter after having him all week.

14) Thank You for my good looks (Mom) and attitude (Dad).  (Growing up I was told you look like your Mom and my response to that was, but I act like my Dad.)

15) Thank You for bringing Pedialyte or holding my hair when I am sick.

16)   Thank You for treating Bo like a son and being great in-laws to him.

17)   Thank You for being there with advice but giving me space to learn my own lessons.

18)   Thank You for teaching me to be a good driver including learning to drive a stick shift, even when it took multiple tries and stops in the middle of the steep hill to practice.

19)   Thank You for showing me how to be a loyal and hard worker.

20)   Thank You for teaching me to be financially responsible.

21)   Thank You for caring about Dexter.

22)   Thank You for supporting and pushing me to continue my education.

23)   Thank You for putting up with me as a teenager, I know my attitude wasn’t always the easiest to deal with, right Mom?

24)   Thank You for showing me a unique way to spread God’s word through clowning.

25)   Thank You for butterflies.

26)   Thank You for believing in me.

27)   Thank You for cooking me lunch during the week.

28)   Thank You for allowing me to paint each wall in my bedroom a different color.

29)   Thank You for being there when I need you.

30)   Thank You for fostering my love for the country by taking me to the farm.

31)   Thank You for trusting me to make the right decisions.  (Even if you didn’t think moving into the country when I was a junior in college was a good idea and you worried about me every day!)

32)   Thank You for hugging me.

33)   Thank You for getting rid of the mouse that had snuck into my room.

34)   Thank You for helping me move just about every Father’s Day during college.

35)   Thank You for being amazing Grandparents to Dexter.

Happy Anniversary to you, I couldn’t be more proud to be called your daughter!  Here's to 35 more!

Chapter Two: Jeans and Tennis Shoes

We have turned the page in the BS Hansen Family History book.  Chapter 1: “Lutz” ended as Bo worked his last day at the place that both of us started off our accounting careers.  After having a business casual dress code and wearing dress shoes for the last 5 years, we are saying goodbye to that.  Meanwhile we gladly welcome the new dress code of jeans and tennis shoes (or Cowboy boots in my case!).  We made a commitment to our careers during the past 7 years which included studying for CPA exams, long hours during tax season, and gaining professional experience.  We both appreciate the first chapter and wouldn’t be where we are without it.  If you would have asked me a couple years ago where I saw myself down the road, my answer would have included public accounting.  As we neared the end of our 5-year plan and started to think about adding a member to our family, we found our priorities changing.  In my list of priorities, I began to see wealth and career advancements slide down as quality family time, health, and financial stability moved up the list.  The adrenaline I once had during tax season started to dwindle, and my heart began to head in a different direction. 

Once Dexter joined our family, I knew that it was time to turn the page in my book and find that balance I was missing.  While I still enjoyed accounting, I decided it was time to look for other career opportunities.  My search resulted in finding a group of misfits that are outside of the box thinkers like me.  An added plus to my new position is I get to wear jeans and tennis shoes (or cowboy boots) everyday!  Little did I know that Friday in August when I cleared off my desk hoping to go into labor over the weekend, that I would be working my last day at a public accounting firm.  I officially started my new role as a private accountant for Sympateco Inc. in November and am enjoying my new dress code! 

Bo and I seem to go through similar experiences with different timing.  I like to say that he couldn’t handle working at Lutz without me, but he has a different story ;)  He also decided public accounting was no longer the right fit for him and thought a smaller, family-owned business was more his style.  He found a great little real estate company and the added bonus for him was jeans and tennis shoes every day!  We declared that this next chapter in our lives, that focuses on family and our new careers, should be titled “Jeans and Tennis Shoes”!  We are extremely excited about what our future holds and can’t wait to see where this chapter takes us!

Counting My Blessings!

As I sit here on Saturday morning watching the sunrise in a quiet house on our “ranch” with my two boys still sleeping, I can’t help but count my blessings.  This spring my life is drastically different than past years.  Are there particular moments that make you stop to count your blessings?  Once you start doing so, do you find that they keep building up on top of each other like a positive train rolling down the tracks?

The aftermath from the fire at our neighbor's.

For me it started a few weeks ago, we had a real scare when there was a large grass fire that started at our neighbor’s house.  Something as simple as getting out enjoying the nice weather and working in the yard turned into a disaster quickly.  Starting that day, lots of prayers were said thanking God for the south wind that helped keep the fire from spreading to our property, the firemen who helped get it controlled, and the smart thinking that limited to the only real damage to a garage. The destruction of the garage was devastating, yes, but all of the homes and, more importantly, individuals were left unharmed.

Spring has sprung, the flowers are beginning to pop up.
 Dexter is checking out the state of our grass.

The very next weekend with warm weather, our family got out to do some work in our own yard.  It was then I realized this is the first time I have been able to do spring yard work on the first weekend of spring.  In previous years the house, yard, and everything else except for work was put on hold until after April 15^th passed.  Prior to this year, I missed those beautiful spring sunrises because I was already at the office putting in long hours to get all the tax returns finished long before sunrise. After fighting the signs that God had been throwing my way for quite some time, I finally listened.  With the support of my husband, I decided it was time to leave the life of a public accountant and get a job that was less stressful allowing me more time with my family. 

Each day brings new adventures for our family.  We went from just Bo and I to Bo, Dexter and I, and this Mama couldn’t be happier.  It is hard to put into words the joy and blessing that little boy is to us.  He is learning or experiencing something new every day.  While I won’t hold it against him he decided to say “Dada” first and rubbed it in all last weekend by repeating it over and over, I am glad that he added “Mama” this weekend.  It is easy to get wrapped up in a fast paced life, but those moments that you step back and listen to the baby giggles, watch them working to figure out how to reach for a toy, snuggle up and watch them sleep help you to remember how blessed you really are.

Today I encourage you to stop to Count your Blessings!