A Quick Visit to Longwood

A couple weeks ago, we made a last minute decision to head up to Longwood for the Friday of Spring Weekend.  So last minute that I didn't even know until I was on the way home from work! haha.  (We talked about it on Thursday and I thought we were talking about the NEXT Friday, not the very next day, lol.) We'd been wanting to go to see all of the construction progress that's been going on since we were there, so it was a perfect time to go.  We knew we'd be able to see a few people we knew, which is always nice!

This may have already been changed for past Spring Weekends/Oktoberfests, but this was the first time we'd seen the stage set up here, in front of Stubbs.  While I'm normally one to say keep things the way they are, I really liked this new set up!

This is the first residence hall I lived in, ARC.  During my freshman year, there were trailers about where I was standing to take this picture.  Those were the athletic offices.

NOW. There are 2 new residence halls and a courtyard in front of ARC! It's so awesome looking.

This building was our home-away-from-home, as the majority of both of our classes were held here in Willett.  Also the location of the Vice Presidential Debate!

Marshall, you're our "and Guest." ;)

Longwood started this cool tradition during Abby's senior year, I believe.  There's a fence where you can sign/decorate a lock and add to the collection.  As alumni go back to visit, they also add their locks.  It was neat to see the wide range of graduating classes.  Abby was one of the first people to put a lock on, and I was determined to find hers!  I need to remember to take locks for us next time we go.
 

Last time we visited Longwood, I don't believe there was any structure built yet. Just grass/dirt.  This is so crazy to see a new building being built where the last residence hall I lived in was.  This is going to be the new Student Center, and I really do think it's going to be awesome! I can't wait to see it finished!

Abby, your old room used to be somewhere here....haha...

Marshall was either
a) tired
b) cold
c) not impressed
d) all of the above

He did enjoy watching Oozeball though! :)

It's always nice to go back and visit Longwood.  As cliche as it may sound, those 4 years at Longwood were some of the best years ever.  Met some great people and made lots of memories!!

I'm baaaaack

It's been a while, hasn't it?

Between everything that life has thrown at us (both good and bad), my blog has been pushed to the burner farthest in the back.  Not only are we chasing a 1 year old around and snuggling with our favorite dog every chance we get, we also started a crazy fun adventure by selling LuLaRoe!  I say we because it is very much both of us now!  In the beginning, it was just me, but now Matt helps with going through inventory, live sales, setting up for pop-ups and events, etc.  He's a huge help, but I love that we do it together! And don't be mistaken...Marshall is very much involved too ;)  When we get new shipments in and before all the LuLa goodies are taken out of their packaging, Marshall loves carrying them from the box and putting the packages in piles while we're going through it.

So here we are, trying to start my blog back up again.  As you may (or may not) have noticed, there's now a new url link and a new blog title, so hopefully this will be more about us as a family.  I still had my original url (malloryloraine) and the blog title was The Noltes, with pictures of Matt and me.  I had every intention of updating that to include a picture of Maple, once we got her. HA. So you know I never got around to making one to include Maple AND Marshall, so here we are.  There's the title image for now, and maybe eventually we'll have a picture of the 4 of us to include ;)  Also, over on the right column is a slideshow of our family Instagram account (@thenoltefam).  There's only one picture so far, but we plan to share a lot!

I hope to finally get around to sharing pictures of Marshall's nursery. hahahaha. I really wanted to wait until after his 1st birthday, because that's when he was getting the final touch to his room.  His room is probably my favorite in our house, because all of the decor was so fun to find and receive! :) We have a couple new things to hang up, but then I'll take pics to share!

So, here's to hoping I get back in to blogging "regularly" and share exciting things with you guys! 

A 25 Days of Christmas Interruption Post

There isn't a regular 25 Days of Christmas post tonight.

We attempted reading tonight...he* wasn't having it.  Oh well.  He went to play on his own and I did my own thing, too.  

*he=Marshall, not Matt.

We're only 8 days in, and I've beaten myself up a handful of times already for not reading a Christmas book or getting a post up.  But you know what?  Life happens.  Life will go on if I don't post 25 different posts for 25 straight days.  Maybe next year (I'm not holding my breath, though).

There are just always going to be nights when Marshall is too fussy or too active to sit still and listen to me read a book. There are lots of times when he's MUCH more content sitting by himself and flipping the pages and "reading" on his own.  And hey, if he's happy and content, then I'm not disturbing him.  Let him be.

Then there are days/nights that are extremely busy and wear us ALL out and we ALL just want to call it a day and go to bed.  I need to make myself take a chill pill and just go to bed those days, so I can be refreshed for whatever this crazy kid will do the next day!

So, the next time we read, we may or may not get completely caught up on all the books we need to have read.  All we can do is try and see what happens!