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Okay, so I know I've been out of touch the entire month of March and beginning of April, but in all fairness I told you in my February blog that it was going to be a busy month. It got even busier than expected with all good things that were popping up, both personal and work related. Now I have so much to tell you I don't even know where to begin. Let's start with all the parties I went to and then I can tell you all the good news. Well some of the good news I should probably wait to tell you.

First up in March was my younger sister, Sarah's, birthday. It was half a surprise party. Her husband planned it all for her—he's so good. He invited our immediate families out to dinner, which she knew about. They own a great bar/grill in Little Italy Baltimore and we ate next door. After the delicious dinner (I had chicken Marsala—yum!), we all "thought" we'd have a drink at the bar and when we walked in, she was so surprised to see all her friends and even more family members. It was great! Anytime a surprise gets pulled off, it's worth all the hard work. We all had a wonderful night and even got some unexpected dancing in.

That leads me into the second surprise, my mom's 60th birthday party. It was just a few weeks ago and it was another surprise pulled off well. With three daughters, my dad really didn't have an excuse not to throw a party for her as we stayed on top of him and nagged him all winter long to start thinking about what he wanted to do for her. We all decided to have an intimate affair with just us, her sons-in-law and her closest group of friends. This is no ordinary group of friends as my parents have hung out with them since my mom was 21 and my dad, a teenager. He even went to the Navy with one of the guys when he was 16. Can you imagine? I have one girlfriend whom I've stayed close to since we were in 7th grade, but that's just one person, this is a group of about 10 who have been close since they were wearing bell-bottoms together. Anyway, back to the party. It was the Saturday before Easter, so to throw her off the three daughters (I'm the middle, by the way) told her we would just celebrate her birthday on Easter and bring her gifts and a birthday cake. In the meantime, one of her friends called to invite her out on Saturday to celebrate and told her unfortunately the whole gang couldn't get together but they'd like to do something. She believed it because let's face it we all can be busy the weekend of a holiday. Plus, I lied and told her I would love to go with them but had to work Saturday night, my younger sister just got home from a spring break trip (she's a teacher) that day and said she was too tired to go out, and my older sister has two little ones (the nieces I'm obsessed with) so she said it was a little too much to go out with the Easter Bunny and church in the morning. So fast forward to Saturday night where my mom and dad meet just two of their friends at a restaurant, get taken back to a table set for four, get comfy, get handed the menus, and just as they start looking at them, a curtain in front of the table opens and there's a small group of about 14 people screaming surprise. It was great! She cried happy tears and a great night was had by all. Oh, and thanks to QVC, a Vera Bradley Tote with a gorgeous Bulova watch inside was her gift from the three of us. She loved them both!

One more party to tell you about. I had a two-week vacation in March. I went nowhere tropical, warm, sunny, or bright, but I was able to go home to Maryland several times. One of the weekends we had my niece's 6th birthday party. It was at an indoor water park and I somehow was the only adult willing to get into the water where about 50 kids were running around. Even more exciting for me was I got to hang out in the baby pool for two hours. Swim diapers are not allowed in the pool and I can almost guarantee not all were potty trained. Yay for Aunt Amy. Really it wasn't that bad and I enjoyed going up and down a sliding board with my two-year-old niece, Reese, about 100 times. It was a good workout and besides desperately wanting to take a shower when I got home, I also couldn't wait to sleep as I was actually kind of sore from all the play. I spent the night at my sister's house and Abby, the 6-year-old, read me a book before bed. It was the first time I'd heard and watched her read and it actually brought a little tear to my eye. There's something about this tiny little finger pointing to each word and sounding it out. I can't believe we were all that small and young at some point in our lives. 

Lots of great family time these past few months, but there were some pretty awesome things happening to Steve and I, too. First, I'm excited to say you are reading the blog of a first-time home owner! Woo-hoo! We are really excited. It's a townhouse in a really cute community that has walking trails, a restaurant, and some stores—just really cute. It reminds us a little of NYC because we miss being able to walk out our door and have everything in walking distance. Now I can't walk everywhere, but I like that we have some activities close-by. The house is totally us, too. Very homey and inviting, but with some good-looking perks that we were hoping for. Don't laugh but were kind of going to miss the one-level living because we can be in any room and still hear each other in our apartment. Steve said he's going to get us walkie-talkies for the townhouse so if we're on a different level we can still talk. Pretty pathetic, I know, but when something pops in my head I want to tell him immediately. I'm not trying to go up and down the steps every time. Though that would be good exercise. I'll show you pics as soon as we get in there. We don't move until May so just counting down the days.

So I have other exciting news, but I don't want to throw too much at you just yet. Plus, what if nothing else thrilling happens in time for my next blog? I should probably save something to tell you. Alright, just a little sneak peek. So my schedule is changing at QVC this year in case you haven't noticed. I'm on at any given time of the day from early mornings, to late at night, to right smack in the afternoon. I love it because now it gives us a chance to try and see each other more. You might be headed out to work in the morning or to run an errand and now maybe you can see me at night on those days. Plus, it does help my sleep pattern not having to wake myself in the middle of the night to go shopping.  Though if I was going to go anywhere at 2am I would want it to be shopping. There are more schedule changes happening and I promise to keep you posted so we don't miss each other. 

I suppose that's it with me. Lots of good stuff! Oh, and because I'm completely random I also want you to know that I discovered how good vanilla milk and mango slices are together. I've also found a new sunscreen moisturizer that I like from BareMinerals and a new hair product from Calista Tools called Intensify that I love now that the hair is getting longer. And, a new pair of brown moccasins have been on my feet everyday. I have not worn heels this month! If it's possible to wear out a pair of shoes in a matter of weeks, I'm about to do it! 

Promise I won't wait so long to catch you up next time. Thanks for reading my blog, but more importantly feel free to write in the reply section what's going on with you as I love the two-way share.

See you soon,

—Amy

P.S. I have a birdhouse hanging up outside that my grandfather made and we want to take it to our new home. Problem is, there are birds in there. Any suggestions what to do?