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My Painted Bathroom Floor

A Love Story

I guess all major life events deserve a blog post . . . assuming after 13 years of waiting, my Rob would be considered one of those :) Our Love story is one that begins many years before we actually began dating, and a story that gives me butterflies to think about. In the beginning, Rob did all the watching and dreaming, and I was young and clueless.

We had our first encounter at a church Christmas party in December of 2004. I honestly don't recall the event, but is one that had stuck in Rob's heart for many, many years. Over the years Rob moved in and out of town and we occasionally would see one another in passing. Our girls were in the play Aladdin with a local theatre group, and occasionally he showed up in my ward or the halls at church (I now know he purposely threw himself in my path whenever possible). In the spring of 2011, I ran into him in the grocery store and realized he was fully aware of who I was! After all these years, I knew who he was but didn't even know his name. I quickly began investigating and became more and more aware of this "Robbie" character. In May of 2011, after finally realizing he had some interest in me, I told a church friend I would one day marry this Cosler fellow. It took me months to figure out how to make a move, and on Christmas Eve of 2011, a mutual friend finally made a move and told Rob to ask me out. It went quickly from there. Our first date occurred on January 6, 2012 and was originally described as "ehhh!" But it didn't take me long to realize Rob was the knight and shining armor I had been waiting for. We were officially engaged for 92 days and were married at Old Poway Park in a small (but larger than small) ceremony of June 1, 2012 . . . only 5 months after our first date. It has been a whirlwind of a year, filled with love, tears, and family blending, but I wouldn't rather have anyone else by my side in our journey to forever!

Mr. and Mrs. Cosler & Family June 1, 2012

Welcome back ME!

Apparently blogging isnt cool anymore! The majority of my side bar shows those I follow have months and months since their last posts . . .I was a fantatic (debatable, I know) blogger at one point in my life and recently I referred to my blog often to recall funny stories and pictures for a photo book I made for Cayds. I read through the entire recap of my life during those few years and am bummed to be missing the last 2 years, with one random Itsie-Bitsie-Polka-Dot-Bikini post thrown in there. So, cool or not, I'm attempting to keep up so I can entertain myself in the future when I'm old and grey and remember less than I remember now :) A full recap would most likely bore and kill someone, so here is a super speedy, 17 months later. . . I'm still on a diet, yet currently drinking a rootbeer float (yup, not much has changed there), I both succeeded and failed (a couple of times) in the Etsy business world, and am mentally preparing to launch a website with my sister. I think we are both purposely dragging our feet a bit, scared of the work that will once again consume our lives. I live in the same house (with an extra room), I have the same job, drive the same car, and I probably have the exact same dinners on my weekly menu. I still love to run but probably talk about it more now than I actually do it. My sister Shawna married her bff and gave me a final brother in law, and hopefully a couple nieces and nephews someday soon. Both my softball teams parted ways this past year which makes me sad but Cayden has been playing baseball for like 80 consecutive months now, so I still get my fill of sunflower seeds. Facebook, Instagram, and crafts keep me at the computer, but I now also search self help blogs, as I now have a sassy highschooler . . . a baby, (who isnt really a baby) old enough to realize I don't really turn 23 every year . . . and after 13 years of raising kidlets alone, I added a joyous husband, and 2 step kids to the mix :) awww, Life is GRAND!

itsy bitsy polka dot bikini

Anytime my sweet little Cayden hands me a treat to hold while he runs off to use the bathroom or something he says . . . "Remember,you're on a Diet!" and occasionally someone standing around will look at him funny,to which Cayden immediately responds, "Shes been on a diet my WHOLE life, I'm NINE!" and he will run off to do his thing. It always makes me smile because basically, the kid has me down! So Monday starts my 1 month to wedding bliss diet(guess I have some posts to go back and catch up on) . . . heres to one last weekend of delishness :) Happy Friday all

October costumes, take 2

Although I dreamed. . . it was no surprise that the Rick Riordan book signing costumes couldnt double as Halloween costumes. We planned and created both sets of costumes in September, making our October Halloween prep pretty simple.

I didnt have any say in the costume selection this year :/ I had this grand plan of being a family of "Where's Waldos," (So cute, right??) . . . Yeah, apparently my kiddos had other plans! This year my Aubs was the Mad Hatter from Alice in Wonderland. She let me design a special hat to match her outfit instead of using the little floppy thing that came with the costume. She was cute :) Cayden decided he wanted to be a super hero. Spiderman and batman werent good enough for his big head . . . and thus, Super Cayden was born :) I created and purchased the majority of the costume on etsy. Cayden however insisted on the boxers and green stretch pants from Justice (yeah, the store for girls lol . . . and now understands why his bff Katy wears them all the time, "they are SO dang comfy!").The plunger, his weapon of choice was also totally him. Yup, he just gets weirder with age. He loved his costume.
Halloween weekend was costume filled. On Friday Cayden's school dressed up, on Saturday we went to a Halloween party, and on Monday Aubrey's school dressed up. By the time Halloween night rolled around, Cayden's costume had been through the wash 3 times. We had a fun weekend and still have a fridge FULL of candy.

October Costumes, take 1

Cayden is infatuated with the Percy Jackson book series, and LOVES its author, Rick Riordan. For months and months he would randomly ask me to go on his website and find where he could meet him . . . and for months and months I didnt do it :) Welp, as my super mom powers would have it, I finally looked it up, and just 2 days earlier, his 7 day book tour (including a library in orange county) was announced. WAHOO! It took weeks before the library hosting the event announced how to get tickets. And for those weeks, to make sure we got tickets, I emailed and pestered those in charge. In the end, I was successful . . . and a proud Aliso Viejo library card holder :) Super Mom Status lasted for weeks!

The event encouraged the kids to come dressed as their favorite "demi-God." Appeasing Cayden a while back, I read the first book in the series and sort of knew the lingo. I did a little online searching and found these cool orange "Camp Half Blood" shirts (obviously from the book) Thinking it would be cool, I asked Cayden if he would want one of these shirts instead of dressing in costume . . . . " MOM (in that preteen Aubreylike voice I am all too familiar with), this is like the comic-con of books, I cant wear a tshirt! . . . Needless to say, he went in a full blown costume :)

The event was located in a beautiful park facility in Aliso Viejo and was an entire day ordeal. We woke up early, dressed the kids up (aubrey had a greek goddess costume from a school thing last year), and drove up north. To get to the parking area we had to pass the will call lines, and lines for the different viewing sessions. There were trillions of those cool orange shirts and not so many kids in full blown costume. It took some encouraging to get Aubrey to get out of the car . . . .and as all would guess, Cayden was never prouder in that lovely red beard :) (he was dressed as his favorite character,Hephaestus, the god of fire and tools)

It didnt take either of the kids long to realize they were amongst the best dressed there. They got interviewed and photographed by every magazine, newspaper, and website present. . . in the end, I think Aubrey was pretty dang glad I didnt let her take that costume off. haha

The event was perfect. The setting, decor, weather, activities, crafts. . .everything was fabulous. Rick Riordan arrived by chariot and spoke for about 30 minutes. We scored front row seats to this (at the price tag of 1.5 hours in line :) and enjoyed his humor and "fame story." When it was time for the actual book signing and greeting, there was no posed pictures allowed (which totally bummed me out) but Cayden got to meet and speak to his idol, and I guess that was the main reason we were there.