Swoon With Me

Since we've now outgrown our house bedroom-wise I've been thinking a lot about our next house, which will hopefully be our forever house. At the end of this month the Parade of Homes starts, which is where builders from all over the area host open houses for two weeks. I had never heard of it until Chris took me the year we met. I kid you not guys, the VERY FIRST house we went to look around in, I fell in luurrrvveee.

How do I love thee, house? Let me count the ways.

I love the floorplan. I love the mudroom off the kitchen, the laundry room off the master closet, the kitchen cabinets (Oh, the cabinets!) I love the fact that it's an open floorplan and I can cook dinner with kiddos at the kitchen island doing homework while littler ones play on the floor. Now I'm getting ahead of myself but ohmygodilovethishousesomuch.

And now for the wake up call. The rude awakening.

If we both keep the jobs we have now and save every possible penny for the next 3 years, we couldn't afford this house.

Naturally, I did what any logical person would do and I threw myself onto the nearest object like a  sobbing Disney princess.

 

 

...you get the point.


Those girls have some pretty solid coping mechanisms sometimes.

Baby J's Room

Baby J's Room by superdupergirl on Polyvore

1. I wanted a good, cheap white crib and I found it at Target. (where else?)
2. I just love this mobile on Etsy.
3. I'm envisioning these in a big frame collage. Both are from Etsy,  here and here.
5. Curtain material! I saw it on Project Nursery and fell in love. You can buy it here.
6. Hoping to score a good dresser and paint it a cheery yellow, with 7. these knobs from World Market.
8. I bought a big pink basket from Target that I'm going to put stuffed animals in, but I love these too for all those tiny things like nail clippers.

The paint color is Eiffel Tower by Olympic.

It's a...

(source)

 

 

Yep, another girl for us! We just found out yesterday. I'll admit, I was really hoping for a little boy but I think Lily is going to love having a little sister so close in age. I know they won't really "play" for a few years but I'm already envisioning tea parties and Barbies. 

Saturday Food For Thought

 

Source via Pinterest

Surprise!

Star Wars Nursery by superdupergirl on Polyvore

I'm pregnant with #2 which means I've been going insane checking out nurseries on pinterest and planning away. I'm not due until November so we won't know No. 2's gender for several more weeks but I've been dreaming about different girls and boy's nursery possibilities.

1. Chevron sheets with Star Wars bumpers.
2. I'm in love with the smooth lines on this crib.
3. I LOVE this light fixture from Young House Love's collection.
4. This rug from target is a great color.
5. I have pinned a million cobalt pieces of furniture so I would love a bright blue dresser/changing table with these etsy star wars prints (7) above it.
6. I WANT these nesting dolls. I think they would be great for playtime.
8. The walls in the bedroom are already painted this color from when we moved in, knowing it would eventually become a nursery. Thank god I had the foresight to choose a handsome color I liked no matter what the gender.

The Secret Of True Love

Chris: You love me
Me: I love you all the time. I like you most of the time.
Chris: I like you more than I don't like you.
Me: And that's the foundation of true love right there.

You stay classy, San Diego. I'm Ron Burgundy?

Discovered by the Germans in 1904, they named it San Diego, which of course in German means a whale's vagina.

I'm sorry, I was trying to impress you. I don't know what it means. I'll be honest, I don't think anyone knows what it means anymore. Scholars maintain that the translation was lost hundreds of years ago.

Now that I have that out of my system...

We went to San Diego two months ago! My brother was at MCRD for bootcamp and we went to see his graduation/soak up some sun. I have just been too lazy to blog about it until now, which is really sad considering this is a picture heavy/not very wordy post.

We went to the beach, which was so cool because I've never seen the ocean. And this is one of my favorite pictures of my favorite people.

Lily actually hated the ocean and cried the whole time. She just sat on a towel and screamed bloody murder if sand got anywhere near her.

 

Adventurous, that kid.

 

We also went to Sea World and rode the Manta like a million times because it was awesome. Seriously. Then we pet Bat Rays and saw a bunch of other animals.

 

We also checked out their big walk-through aquarium which was another first for me. It was very cool and Lily seemed totally into it.

 All in all, I want to live on the beach and have a year round sun tan and basically never leave. But I'm in Missouri where we're melting almost two feet of snow. Damn.

I Fell Off The Wagon(s)

Several of them. I fell off the diet/exercise wagon a long time ago but it's still dragging me so at least there's some progress there. I still do the 30 Day Shred five days a week  four days a week  when I feel like it.

It's not that I don't want to work out, it's just that I hate having to do my hair. Working out = shower. And even if I put my hair in a topknot and keep it at least a foot from the water at all times, there is no going back after that.

I fell off the blogging wagon just before we went to San Diego. I had dreams of this being a real life blog that gets traffic and has interesting topics but really it's just a higher tech Password Journal. I know what you're thinking, is it really possible to be higher tech than a Password Journal? It's not easy, but it can be done.

I also fell off the wedding planning wagon. I'm back on it now but I took a good 3 month break from really even thinking about wedding stuff. Now I have a ton of overdue stuff on my To-Do list on The Knot (which is part of a totally awesome group of sites, by the way. The Knot, The Nest, The Bump and The Blush are referenced quite often in our house.)

It will all get sorted out when I find a venue but until then there are quite a few things hanging in the air that all hinge on each other. Once I do that though, I should be in the clear. Or at least caught up to where I should be 6 months out from our wedding.

Oh Hey!

I'm alive, I promise. I'm actually trying an orange juice and baking soda facial right now and since I have to let it sit for 20 minutes I thought it was the perfect amount of time to dust my living room write a blog post. We went to San Diego for my brother's graduation from boot camp and it was insane, but that's another post for another day.

We're about to get our taxes back and I'm so excited to do the bathroom with that money. We still need to finish buying tiles and backerboard and all of that but I would LOVE to get it done by my birthday in March. Finding the time for it is really going to be the hardest part. Here's a thrown-together-in-15-minutes mood board for the bathroom:

Bathroom Mood Board by superdupergirl on Polyvore

Ignore that whole orange paint behind the floating shelves, I was too lazy to find more. Anyway, the idea is to have the 12x12 tiles as the floor continued into the shower surround and putting in a 4 inch strip of tile around the top with the glass mosaic. The walls will be Rockport Grey and I plan on getting big fluffy white towels to go with the shiny new bright white curtain. I'm pretty much dying of excitement and I cannot wait.

Birthday Business

Today is Lily's first birthday and I thought I would share her birth story. We went to my parent's for chili on January 22nd and watched the Giants beat the 49ers for the NFC championship. By the end of the game I felt kind of weird and told Chris I wanted to go home. We cuddled on the sofa here watching tv and I started noticing I was having contractions about 10 minutes apart. I urged Chris to go to bed and sleep some because I thought this might be the real deal.

I laid on the sofa, I did the dishes, I straightened my hair, I tossed and turned trying to watch some ridiculous infomercial and eventually texted my mom that I was having contractions and really uncomfortable. She told me a few positions that would help, but I spent most of the night half sobbing half deep breathing with my forearms leaned against the wall. Around 7 I called the OB's office and told the nurse that my contractions were now about 5-7 minutes apart and I was really uncomfortable. She told me to go ahead and go into Labor and Delivery to get checked out, but it sounded promising and to make sure I brought my bags.

I waited around a little more, trying to make the morning as relaxing as possible. At 7:30 I "woke" Chris up (I have doubts he slept at all that night) and told him what the nurse said. He asked if we needed to bring our bags and I said "oh, the nurse said to. They'll probably send me home though." He raised an eyebrow but didn't even question my blatant panic ridden denial. What a smart man. We got in the car, texted our parents and best friends and walked in. They asked me about my contractions and put me in a bed immediately. I was 6 cm dilated. They broke my water and gave me an epidural, then my contractions slowed down so they gave me some Pitocin and they picked back up.

I took a nap for an hour or so and begged for ice chips. At around 2:30 I started pushing and Lily Danielle was born at 4:07 pm. She weighed 8 pounds, 7 ounces and she was 20.5 inches long. As soon as they laid her on my chest, I burst into tears. I was so relieved that she was here, safe, and perfect that I just couldn't stop it. I kissed her all over her tiny face and handed her to Chris. I fell in love with him all over as I watched him rock her, gently wiping her face with the receiving blanket.

 

 

 

Happy birthday, Liliford. Boogerbutt. LDJ. It's been the best 12 months of my life.

 

Nice To Meetcha!

After posting and referencing things that I probably should fill you in on, I realized I had never done a real "intro" post. So here's a random list of things about me:

 

One: Let's start with my looks, since I recently realized that since I've never posted a picture of myself you don't know me from Adam. (Eve?)

One and a half: I'm tall. I'm 5'10. It's weird.

Two: I work part time in a grocery store. It's the only job I've ever had.

 

Three: I bake. A lot. I bake when I'm having a good day and I do it to brighten up a bad day. I think measuring and all that recipe reading takes the perfect amount of concentration to get your mind off whatever's bothering you. Seriously, make 4 dozen cookies next time you're mad and tell me your day isn't better.

 

Four: I have an about-to-turn-one-year-old daughter. I don't believe in all that 11 months business. I ain't about that life.

 

Five: I have four Star Wars shirts. Five if you count the one with Elvis shaking hands with Darth Vader.

Six: I love Will Ferrell. And if you don't think he's a fucking sketch comedy genius, we can't be friends.

Seven: I watch a LOT of tv. It's borderline pathetic. On average, we record The Biggest Loser, New Girl, Criminal Minds, CSI, Bones, Parks & Rec, The Office, Guys With Kids, Big Bang Theory, Hoarders, Saturday Night Live, and The Walking Dead. Wow, that's really sad.

Eight: My lucky number is 23.

 

Nine: I have run out of things you should know. Well, I've actually grown tired of talking about myself. Anyway, hopefully you learned something!

Snippets & Sound Bites

While watching The Walking Dead last night Chris hit me with this loving romance:

Chris: I don't think I'd have trouble shooting someone I knew in the face if I knew they were a zombie.

 Me: You could shoot zombie me in the face?

Chris: Well, no. I couldn't shoot you.

Isn't he the sweetest?

Saturday Food For Thought

Kitchen Porn

I adore this kitchen. I love it's face off. I love the backsplash and the countertops together and I think I could possibly pull this off. I was really doubtful that all the white would work in our space but I think it would balance the dark floors I'm hoping to put in. Anyway, here's some kitchen porn for you.

 

 

 

 

[Source]

Cats Are Assholes

I still love them though. Even if they are tiny sociopaths. I can't imagine not having Prudence around.

The real reason cats are assholes is that I can't get Lily to say Mama for the life of me. She now says Dada, doggy, hi and kitty. No mama. She calls me Dada and I say "no, Mama" and pat my chest. She laughs and says "Dada." in a spiteful way. Earlier today she was calling mananana so I figured that was as good as I was getting for the day. Then the cat walked in and she said "oh! Kitty!" and unraveled herself from a hug to go chase her.

 

 

And the kicker? Prudence doesn't even like the baby.

Keepin' It Real

My house is usually a mess. Okay, it's always a mess. We're kids still, with a kid. We don't even pick up our own toys, much less Lily's on a daily basis. I'm not saying there's food rotting in our kitchen or anything (that I know of) but I don't usually pick up the dirty pans from dinner until the next morning. (This is in hopes that Chris will do it instead though. He never does.) My living room frequently looks like this:

 

So while I am going to do my best to be a better blogger and stage my pictures a little, just know that I'm probably cropping out a pile of magazines or shoving some toys to the side. And I'm okay with that.

Saturday Food For Thought

[Source]

Saturday Food For Thought

My Little Beaver

Just a week or two ago Lily popped through all four of her top teeth at the same time. You can imagine my horror when I went into her room to pick her up from a nap this morning and she had done this:

I know I shouldn't be surprised. Every baby does it, it seems. I just didn't expect it to happen for a while longer. So I raided my fabric drawer and grabbed this fabric that I found at Walmart in their remnant bin and threw together a tutorial.

I measured the crib and realized my fabric wasn't long enough to cover the entire side lengthwise, so I cut six 5-inch wide 18 inch long pieces of fabric, then laid them right sides together.

Then I just sewed a straight line right down one side and opened it up.

I laid the third piece down just like in step one, right sides together, and sewed another line.

Repeat to make two strips and pin them right sides together.

(and please pardon my terrible phone camera pictures)

Then I cut eight 6.5 inch strips of ribbon and sandwiched them between the two pieces of fabric at each seam.

Sew a straight line down the long sides, stopping to sandwich in your ribbon ties.

Turn it right side out.

Then just fold it over your crib railing and tie your ribbons. If I could do it over again I would have put maybe two more sets of ties on there, but overall I'm happy with it. In all, it took me about 40 minutes to do, it was totally free, and my precious crib is safe(er) from my half beaver half chipmunk child.

 Note: yes, I am aware that bumpers on cribs are not recommended and neither are blankets. You raise your kids and I'll raise mine.

New Years Resolutions

I love resolutions. I make resolutions all year long. There is one hitch in my getalong, though- I hate keeping them. I suck at keeping them. I really am just lazy. There isn't any excuse but that. So this year I made a plan to maybe be a little better by making them pretty simple. This year I have 12 goals:

One I want to make progress towards paying off all my debt. I want to go into our marriage with little to no debt carried month to month.

Two start running. 

Three is to get a tattoo.

Four is to run the trolley run with my mom.

Five I want to have my wedding dress bought by May.

Six will be finishing the color run with a good time.

Seven try something new.

Eight take an online class. or two.

Nine get married!

Ten I will join the bone marrow donor registry.

Eleven get my driver's license.

Twelve be a better blogger, mom and wife.