(most) everything maggie

tagged!

2012-03-07T20:24:00.000-06:00

Hi all - I'm back from vacation in NYC! I have a baby related post and a vacation post coming up but for now, this was fun - reminiscent of those awesome Myspace surveys. :)

Andrea and Veronica both tagged me, so I'm adapting and picking some questions from both lists. I'm breaking the rules because almost everyone I would tag has already been tagged by someone else, so feel free to answer these questions on your blog or in the comment section below if you feel like it!

1. What foods do you hate?
Seafood that's fishy. There are few smells that nauseate me more than canned tuna or smelly fish. To be fair, I've tried salmon, lobster and shrimp and while none of them make my favorite foods lists, they can be edible. But in general, and especially if it comes from a can or is improperly cooked - seafood makes me gag.

I also hate pre-shredded, bagged iceberg lettuce. It has no nutritional value and it ruins things with it's brown, mushy appearance and gross watery taste. *Note that fresh, crisp heads of iceberg, like the kind we get with our CSA, is excluded from this hatred.

2. Are you a type A person or a type B person?
Type A all the way. I feel a compulsive desire to plan things, ~~over~~ research things, make lists, make plans, etc. Sometimes, type B people drive me nuts in a how can you possibly just "wing this" sort of way?

3. What is one thing you wish you did more often?
Made time for phone calls with friends and family.

4. What is one thing you wish you did less often?
Zoned out in front the of the TV and/or computer. Time sucks.

5. What is your biggest accomplishment of 2011?
I take 50 percent of the credit for this. Pretty amazing if I do say so myself.

6. What is your most irrational fear?
Bees, wasps, or anything else with a stinger on it's ass. I am not allergic, and I've only been stung once in my life but I scream like a little girl (and run away with my arms in the air) whenever I hear a buzzing. Just thinking about the buzzing gives me goosebumps.

7. What is your favorite article of clothing that you currently own?
Sadly, the most functional piece of clothing right now is my maternity jeans. I realllllly need to expand my maternity wardrobe. I also just bought a really cute ivory blouse (non maternity, but it works with a bump) from a local boutique. I love it so much I haven't worn it yet haha.

8. What is your personal greatest sporting/athletic accomplishment?
My half marathon. For an asthmatic, completely uncoordinated person, it was a big success.

9. Do you acknowledge half birthdays? Or any other fun/funky birthday traditions?
My birthday (June 26) prevented me from having any sort of celebration while I was in school. My actual birthday fell during the summer months and my half birthday is the day after Christmas. I never got to bring treats to school, or have everyone sing to me, so I never really celebrated half birthdays.

And we pretty much just did the standard dinner plus cake for birthdays growing up. I can't promise that I won't celebrate every ~~weekly~~ monthly milestone once our little guy is here though. :)

10. What is your most shameful indulgence?
Fruity candy - I try not to eat white carbs, processed foods, artificial food coloring and added sugar - but fruity candies are my achilles heel. I know that the stuff is full of crap and not good for me at all but sometimes I just can't say no. For some it's chocolate, for me it's the fruity stuff. Favorites include Swedish fish, Jelly Bellys and Laffy Taffy.

xo.

20 weeks!

2012-02-27T20:47:00.000-06:00

This week is going to be in bullet points. I'm all over the place with my thoughts today. =)

-I can't believe that I'm half way through this pregnancy (even though weeks 1-3 totally shouldn't count), it is going SO fast.

-In 4 weeks, the baby will be considered viable, meaning that he has a greater than 50% chance of surviving outside the womb. I believe that NICU doctors will try to save babies born at 23 weeks too. Obviously I want this little guy to stay in there for another few months, but I'm looking forward to the milestone all the same.

-I've think I've gained about 12 pounds - I'm trying not to monitor my weight too closely, but I think it's somewhere between 10-14 (depending what time of the day I weigh myself) pounds.

-Still no stretch marks, my belly button is definitely still "in" and I don't have a linea nigra yet. I'm not sure how much I've talked about stretch marks on here, but unfortunately I have really low expectations about not getting them. I got stretch marks every time my body changed: legs during growth spurts, breasts and hips during puberty, hips and thighs during weight gain - so I figure its only a matter of time until my stomach joins the club. I also don't buy into the miracle creams. I don't think there is anything that can be done to prevent stretch marks, and I think only time really fades them.

-Next week I'll try and snap a bare belly picture :)

-If I eat too much for dinner, I have a hard time catching my breath. I have to kind of push my shoulders back and my chest out to take a deep breath. There is obviously less room in there. This is a really neat little video that shows how your body makes room for a baby - watch the bladder disappear!

-I am having a terribly difficult time finding maternity pants with long inseams. There are virtually no options for me in local stores. I just ordered a bunch of maternity stuff from Old Navy, but its hard to tell what will fit at this point. I'm crossing my fingers that I won't need to send a lot back.

-Nate and I spent some time this weekend working on the registry. We are still using myregistry.com, but we did make a smaller registry at Target that we synced. So now I can say we're "registered at myregistry.com, select items are available from Amazon and Target". I kind of hate that people don't seem to like online registries. I understand that people like to go pick out cute things and physically wrap them, but the things we really need aren't in stores! Around here we don't have any of the "good" baby stores (Babies R Us, Buy Buy Baby, etc) and even Target only has like 3 aisles, so you are very limited in your choices. We will see what happens - if worse comes to worse, we'll end up buying things ourselves.

-Baby is about 10 inches long from head to toe this week.

-Little boy is kicking like crazy. I loved the initial fluttery movements, but the kicks are so much better! Sometimes they're up by my belly button, sometimes they're down low, sometimes they're off to one side but they are getting stronger! Hopefully soon they will be strong enough that Nate can feel them - I keep trying, but it's hard to catch a really good kick before it happens.

-Sleeping has still been kind of tough. I'm still having awful nightmares and vivid dreams, and I'm also waking up a couple times a night. Sometimes it's just hard to get comfortable! Laying on my back isn't all that comfy anymore - I feel a strong, weird pressure in my abdomen if I try, so I tried sleeping on my stomach the other night. Apparently the baby did NOT like that idea because I got kicked about 7 times in a row right in my stomach. Maybe I squished him!

-I'm loving (happy) birth stories these days. This lady gave birth in the back of a taxi (after only a 45 minute labor!), but she's still really calm and collected in the video. She insists on holding the baby skin to skin and starts nursing right away. Love it.

I think that's all for this week.

Happy halfway point little boy! We are very excited to meet you, but please do stay in there for awhile yet. And let's hope the second half of this trip is as smooth as the first!

Halfway!

2012-02-27T19:30:00.001-06:00

The halfway point!

Here's a look back at me...

and our little man...

I'll be back with my real 20 week post tomorrow. =)

boy or girl? gender reveal party!

2012-02-22T08:00:00.001-06:00

When we found out we were pregnant, we waffled back and forth about whether or not we should find out what we were having. Initially, I was like "yes, of COURSE we will find out" and then a few weeks in, I changed my mind and thought maybe we would keep it a surprise. But then Nate and I started scheming and dreaming about baby's room and I started looking at tiny little baby clothes and blue and pink pacifiers and we decided we wanted to know.

Except there was a glitch: I felt that finding out at our ultrasound and simply calling our family and friends was kind of a boring, anticlimactic way to announce such big news. Plus, how do you decide who to call first? So I looked into having a "gender reveal party". They're kind of trendy in the blogosphere right now, and even though Nate thought it was a crazy idea at first, we're both happy we decided to go for it.

I used lots of ideas from all around the web, and I wish I'd saved the links, but I didn't. I'll share our party with you and if you decide to do something similar I'd encourage you to do some googling and some pinterest-ing. :)

Here's our invite - I purchased the file from Etsy (find it here) and had her tweak the wording slightly.

I had the invites printed at Walgreens on 5 x 7 photo paper and I loved them. They were exactly what I wanted.

Keeping with the pink and blue theme, I tried to serve pink/red and blue foods but I wanted to avoid excessive food coloring. I came up with blue tortilla chips and sliced red peppers with hummus and salsa, pink and blue dove chocolates (the milk chocolate and raspberry flavors), raspberry yogurt covered pretzels, and strawberries, raspberries and blueberries with yogurt dip. I also bought some wine (for others, obviously) with pink and blue labels. The giant cookie was made by my little sister - she works at Mrs. Fields and made it based off our invitation. It was a welcome surprise. :)

I'll be honest and say that pretty, decorated tables aren't really my thing, so I was kind of impressed with how well everything turned out. I bought all the pink and blue decorations from a party supply store and printed little labels that I mounted on scrapbook paper for the food. The empty white tray was for bacon bites - they weren't pink or blue but they are delicious so they were allowed.

These are my first ever tissue pom poms, which were surprisingly easy (tutorial is here) to make. I hung these above the table.

We also had a cake, which was made by a local baker. During our ultrasound, we had the technician write the gender down and seal it into an envelope. We dropped off the envelope with the baker, and she made us a delicious cake with a layer of frosting tinted either pink or blue inside of it. She even tinted the frosting with berries so there was no food coloring. I had to pick the cake up two days before the party because she was going out of town - not sticking my finger in it took major will power. In our haste to cut the cake and find out if it was a boy or a girl, we didn't take a very good picture of it, but she did a great job. Hooray for good cake.

We also had a baby pool. This was originally my aunt's idea, but I found a few ideas online and made it my own.

For the pool, we had everyone enter their guess on a slip of paper. The date and time determine winner, but in the event of a tie we also had them write down an estimated baby weight. At the end of the party we read through them all - people got a good laugh over the projected baby weights. The pool entry fee was $5 and you could enter multiple times. Overall, I think people enjoyed this. We have even had a few more entries since the party. :)

Hannah made me these cute printable calendars for people to reference.

On this table, we also had a basket for baby name suggestions. We've decided not to share the baby's name until he's here, but we thought folks might like to give their 2 cents anyways. There were a few funny ones in there too. We also read these out loud during the party.

(the baby name book was actually a gag gift at my bridal shower)

And finally, my favorite part of the party is that we asked people to wear pink or blue depending on what they felt we were having.

team pink

team blue (that's Andrea on the computer)

As you can see, team blue was quite a bit larger. I'm not sure if this is because I've been telling everyone that I thought it was a boy or because people have more blue in their closets, but either way - they won.

We gave small door prizes (a couple cookies and chocolates in gift bags) away to the winners.

And here is the big moment, caught on tape. Don't mind all the screaming.

The picture I reference in the video was another ultrasound image that our technician gave us. She put it in a separate envelope and told us not to look at it until after we cut the cake - again, major will power people! You can very clearly see my little boy's "parts" so I won't post the photo. If you really want to see, you can pause the video. :)

So for the past few days, Nate has started making a list of all the fun toys he ~~thinks he~~ gets to buy now: matchbox cars (to go with the 200 he kept from his own collection), legos, train sets and football cards (because we don't have 1000 of those already).

We've also been getting used to using pronouns like he, his and him as well as phrases like "our little boy" and "our son".

It's unreal, and yet so wonderful.

We are excited to meet you little man!

19 weeks

2012-02-20T19:27:00.000-06:00

This was a big week! On Tuesday I had my long awaited midwife appointment and our ultrasound. I hadn't been in to see the midwife since our scary 11 week appointment. Looking back, that feels like forever ago.

This appointment went alright, but there were a few bumps. We were scheduled for an ultrasound followed immediately by our appointment with the midwife. The first glitch was that I got a voicemail that morning saying that my midwife (Julie) had been moved to "on call" and so my appointment would be with a midwife named Tracy. They said to call back if that wasn't okay. Well....I'd waited a month and a half for this appointment, I sure as heck wasn't going to cancel.

So I drank the required amount of water, and arrived 15 minutes before the scheduled ultrasound ~~with a very full bladder~~. This ultrasound was so much more relaxed than my first one. For starters, there was no internal "wand" and I didn't have to wear a paper robe. The technician just squirted goo on my stomach (it was warmed up too!) and started looking around. I was surprised by how much they have to move around - she had that wand up towards my rib cage one minute and low on my belly the next. And they use a lot of goo - she had to reapply about 4 times. I didn't think I'd ever get it out of my belly button!

The little babe was moving all over the place. We got to see him flip around, suck his thumb, wave at us and even take a drink of amniotic fluid. Baby measured 11 ounces and had a heartbeat of 161 bpm.

Seeing the baby on the screen was especially crazy because I still had our 11 week ultrasound picture fresh in my mind. The little gummi bear that we had been so relieved to see was now this moving, waving, crazy little baby. The last photo in the collage above shows all 5 tiny fingers waving to mom and dad. The baby is sucking his thumb in the two photos below. He was also doing all sorts of crazy things with his legs - he had them reclined up against the placenta at one point.

Apparently, part of the reason that ultrasound techs need to move that wand around so much is so they can do a full anatomy scan. Different angles allow them to see the brain, heart, stomach, kidneys, spine, palate, bladder, and so on and so on. Everything looked great on our little baby, but she thought she saw one little oddity in the placenta. At that point she called in a doctor and they asked me about 43 times whether or not I'd had any bleeding the last few weeks. I assured them that NO I most definitely had not (and if I had I would've been in the doctor's office the.very.next.minute), and further review showed that everything was fine. Apparently the tech thought it looked like part of my placenta had detached or torn, but it was just an optical illusion as when she looked again it wasn't there. She assured me that I was safe from all the scary things mentioned in baby books: placental abruption, placenta previa, etc.

Our clinic has 3D technology and our tech tried her best to get some 3D shots but our little ham is quite camera shy. He kept covering his face and wouldn't let her get a good close up. The photo above is probably my favorite from the day. She also got this one, it was the best face shot we could get. :)

The tech was great about our plans to have a gender reveal party. She wrote the baby's gender down and placed it in a sealed envelope for us to give the cake baker, and she also had us look away every time she looked at the baby's goods. She also gave us a labeled photo in a separate envelope and told us not to look until after our party. It was tough, but we didn't peek once.

(Spoiler alert: we're having a baby boy! I thought about referring to him as "it" until I post about the reveal, but it feels wrong not to respect him as a little boy now :)

Our appointment was kind of a let down after the ultrasound. I was asked whether or not the "student midwife" could come in, and I said sure. Unfortunately the student midwife came in first. She was a perfectly nice, older lady but she told us she'd only been there for 3 weeks and then told us we should ask her all of our questions. Now, I had a giant list of questions, but I wanted to ask the "real" midwife, especially since some of them had to do with hospital policies, etc. It didn't work. She attempted to answer some, but was pretty much useless. Tracy, the actual midwife, came in about 15 minutes later and I had to repeat everything to her too. Irritating.

Some of my questions had surprising answers. For example, I found out that pregnant women aren't supposed to use products containing salicylic acid, so it's bye bye Burt's Bee's Acne Kit. I'm kind of irritated that this fact isn't more well known or mentioned in early pregnancy, because salicylic acid is in SO many facial products that I bet millions of pregnant women use them without knowing. It's only been shown to cause problems in oral form (and in much higher quantities), so it's not the end of the world and I'm sure I'm fine, but it would've been good to know 20 weeks ago.

I also told them that an arrhythmia seems to run in our family. My mom mentioned this in passing a few weeks back, so I let them know thinking they would want to update my health history. Except the midwife immediately started peppering me with questions about what type of arrhythmia, did my family members take any medicines, did I want to see a geneticist and started talking about doing an echocardiogram on the baby. I did not know the answers to these questions, except to tell her that I don't think it's a big deal as my mom doesn't take anything and my cousin is an active, healthy guy.

I felt like the appointment was pretty anticlimactic - I expected them to ask me something, but really all we did is talk about my questions. They didn't mention my weight, blood pressure, etc...I didn't get measured to see where my uterus was - they really didn't do anything except let me hear the heartbeat again. I assume they looked over the baseline readings the nurse took and everything was fine, but still - it would've been nice to have some reassurance. With my normal midwife, Julie, I felt like she had reviewed my file and was prepared. With this midwife I felt like I was just another appointment she had to get through. She was nice enough (I think if she's the one who ends up delivering the baby I'd be fine), and I honestly think the student midwife was the main source of my discomfort, but I always look forward to these appointments so I was kind of sad that I didn't get to see Julie. I go back in 4 weeks, and this time I better get to see my own midwife.

Otherwise I'm still doing pretty well. I'm still spending most nights tossing and turning between dreams, but I've had a few sound nights of sleep this week. Baby is still moving around like crazy, and I'm thinking I've felt a few kicks already. I've caught myself in a few hormonal moments this week - I went from angry to sad to excited in about 35 seconds. About 2 minutes later I realized I'd just had a crazy mood change and told my husband I was sorry. Still no stretch marks, leg cramps or back pain. I'm definitely more sensitive to pressure on my belly. Laying on my back gets slightly uncomfortable and laying on my belly is a no go - I can't really describe it, it's like pressure in your entire abdomen. You just don't want to "squish" your belly in any way.

I think that's all for this week - I should probably have written this right after the ultrasound because I'm sure I'm forgetting some details. I will be back to post about our gender reveal party in a few days though. :)

xo.

.

weeks 17 & 18

2012-02-14T21:04:00.000-06:00

Whoa. I don't quite know how time got away from me, but it did. I spent a week in Atlanta, GA for a conference and have been playing catch up since I got back. I intended to post about week 17 while I was in Atlanta, but I would get back to my hotel after a 14 hour day and pretty much collapse in bed. So I'm going to go ahead and lump weeks 17 & 18 together. Let's get right down to business then.

Here's my 17 week photo..

Just kidding. That's just a really, really bad outtake. I should put together a blooper reel sometime - quite funny. Here's the actual photo.

-No 18 week photo - too busy with the conference and all!

-As of 17 weeks, I definitely have a bump. When I wear anything that's close-fitting, it seems obvious to me, but I don't think anyone who doesn't "know"would assume quite yet. The bump grew a little more over week 18 too, but if I wear a sweatshirt or a looser top - it's still pretty tough to notice.

-Earlier during week 17 I found a pair of jeans that still buttoned. I danced around my room and decided to wear them to run some errands. Big, big mistake. I was sitting down in the car for about 45 seconds before I realized I was going to be terribly uncomfortable anytime I was seated. I whined until we were home (sorry husband, I won't do that again) and then immediately took my pants off. At the end of week 18 none of my regular pants fit me anymore without a belly band. I can barely get most of them to zip.

-I have gained a solid 10 pounds as of today (technically I'm 19 weeks writing this)! This is right on track, so I'm pretty happy with it.

-My boobs are going to need a new zip code soon. Or at least I need some new bras - my old ones are at capacity. I'm hoping to go get fitted for nursing bras one of these days, but I have no idea how to gauge how much more they'll grow. I've also had some sensitivity going on, not the achy, bruised feeling of the early weeks, rather I'm so sensitive that being braless in a t-shirt is too much.

-I'm debating signing up for a 5K on May 5th. Does this make me crazy? I'll be 29 weeks at the race. I feel like I need some sort of motivation on the cardio front - I've kept up with yoga and I'm still teaching strength training, but cardio...not so much. So if I promise to take it easy, a 5K is doable right? I ran a half marathon at this race last year.

-This happened. And it was awesome.

-Sometimes I wake up in the morning and am so excited and happy about this little baby that I could cry. ~~Hormones.~~

-Now that I have a little belly, I know what people mean when they say that their belly is in the way. It's an odd feeling to suddenly have this bump!

-Baby has been moving around like crazy. Spoiler: We learned at our ultrasound that I have a posterior lying placenta, which is why I felt the movement so early. They said if the placenta was anterior (towards the front of my body) I wouldn't have been so lucky. The ultrasound happened today, so I'll save more detail for my 19 week post. :)

-The flights to and from Atlanta were uneventful - I was a little worried that flying while pregnant would be extra miserable, but I survived. We're hoping the flights for our "babymoon" to NYC at the beginning of March are equally as successful.

-The nursery and the basement have both been painted! A huge thank you to my husband for all his hard work. The nursery is a soft grey and the basement was just repainted white, but we needed to cover the terrible patch job that the previous owners did.

-I'm still not sleeping well - some nights I have terrible, terrible dreams. I woke up sobbing the other night after a particularly vivid one in which Nate died. I couldn't go back to sleep until he got home from the overnight shift and snuggled me. Most nights they're just weird, random dreams - but the bad ones are bad. Jeesh.

-Slight tangent - we signed up for a CSA again this year, but with a different farm. Our last farm gave us too many "weird" veggies (amaranth leaves, anyone?) and not enough "normal" ones (green beans, broccoli, etc) so a friend recommended this farm. I'm thrilled for it to start again - having fresh stuff in the house all the time is wonderful because you're almost forced to eat it. And gosh, it's such a good deal! I hate paying full price for organic, out of season produce at the grocery store.

-I've been craving raspberries. At first glance this appears to be a "healthy" craving, but since fresh raspberries are about $8 in the store right now, almost all of my indulgences involved chocolate + raspberry desserts. :)

-So far, I've been pretty lucky with the "classic" pregnancy troubles: constipation, back pain, stretch marks, leg cramps, etc. Now that I wrote that down I'll probably get hit with all of them.

-I definitely have a heightened sense of smell. I can sniff out a cigarette from about 2 miles away.

-Some days I feel overwhelmed with all of the stuff I have to do. I still have 20 weeks to go (give or take) but oh my gosh I have to find a pediatrician, finish about 103 nursery projects, schedule maternity and newborn photos, find a daycare, finalize a birth plan, possibly hire a doula, buy lots of baby stuff and so on and so on... yikes.

-I still have my normal belly ring in, but I did buy a flexible pregnancy one, just in case.

-On February 7th, I had my first stranger notice I was pregnant. Granted, I think it was ballsy of her to say so, but she meant well. I was supposed to present at a poster session at my conference, and I dragged a chair over to my poster because it was supposed to take several hours. A staff lady ran over and told me we weren't supposed to use chairs by the posters, but then she looked me up and down and said "Oh but I can see you're expecting and will need a chair. Let me go grab you a different one.".

-I have completely lost interest in the pregnancy message boards online. In the beginning, I read them frequently (despite the snarkiness and drama). Looking back, I think this was because I couldn't tell any friends or family about the pregnancy so I needed an outlet. Now I can just chat with my mom or call a friend. Much better. :)

-Finally, I am suddenly so excited to meet this little one. I obviously want him or her to keep cooking for another 20 weeks, but at the ultrasound today I realized I can't wait to feel his/her little fingers, and see his/her little feet. I keep trying to picture what s/he'll look like, and I can't wait to find out! :)

And because it's Valentines day, here's a hilarious pregnancy valentine from the Pregnant Chicken. Click that link for the rest.

xo.

on my mind

2012-02-01T19:54:00.000-06:00

a few things on my mind lately...

(looks wonderful, no?)

(i don't remember the last time i had a tic tac, but i think i'm going to get some :)

(this is the first piercing that has piqued my interest in years...i'm considering getting it post baby)

(would love to do this with husband this summer)

(spoiler: i am working on making a variation of this)

(i heart this- i'm planning to add it to our registry)

(this poem makes me tear up- hoping to print it and hang it in the nursery)

(love)

(i can not wait to see our baby's tiny feet)

16 weeks

2012-01-31T20:47:00.000-06:00

Four months pregnant...oh my gosh.

sorry about that random chunk of hair sticking out the side of my head. i am too lazy to photoshop it.

Big things happened this week- first, I stopped resisting the allure of maternity pants. And second - baby is MOVING AROUND!

It was a long, long week for reasons unrelated to pregnancy and mostly related to my job. I had to travel to a conference that was four hours away and lead three different break out sessions. We're also in the middle of writing a grant and about a million other stressful projects that I am not going to talk about here. But oy vey it was a long week. The next two weeks won't be much better either.

When I was packing for my trip, I threw a pair of maternity dress pants and my normal pants (plus a belly band) into my bag. Over the last couple days my pants had been getting snugger and snugger and I didn't want to risk fidgeting with my clothes while standing in front of a crowd presenting. On Tuesday I wore my normal skinny jeans (using the hair tie trick) on my drive to the hotel - BIG mistake. I was so uncomfortable sitting in those pants for four hours! I had them completely unzipped and unbuttoned, but still, by the time I got to the hotel, I had lots of red welts all over my belly.

So on Wednesday, I didn't even bother with the regular dress pants - I went straight for the big guns. And I have to say, maternity pants are awesome. I'm wearing the full panel kind that comes up over your belly button and they're stretchy and comfortable and awesome. Maybe I'll wear them when I'm not pregnant too (sort of joking) - they're that amazing. I've started wearing my maternity jeans since then too. I only have one pair, but they're a dark wash with contrasting stitching and no weird crap on the pockets. I love them. I would've bought them even if they were "normal" jeans just for the look of them - and the super stretchy, super comfy factor is a huge plus too. My maternity dress pants are a smidge big on me, but I figured that was okay because ~~my rear end isn't going to get any smaller~~ they aren't as stretchy.

Wednesday was a big day for other reasons though, because as I was sitting in the morning session at the conference I felt a strange little fluttery sensation about halfway between my belly button and my pubic bone. I've been on the lookout for signs of movement for a few weeks, and I'd had a few false alarms so I tried not to get too excited but... I texted my mom and a pregnant friend. Both confirmed that it sure sounded like it was the baby moving. I felt that little flutter a few times that morning and then it stopped. Over the phone that night I was explaining it to Nate...and then I felt it again. And over the last few days I've felt it consistently a few times each day, so I think I can go on the record and say that we have movement!

When you read about feeling the baby for the first time, there are all sorts of analogies: butterfly wings, a goldfish swimming around, nervous twitches, and so on. But really, to me it just felt like something was moving inside of me. Its kind of surreal and I really don't know how to explain it. There is a fluttery, twitchy feeling but it sure doesn't feel like butterfly wings to me. No matter what though, it's pretty awesome.

Other items of note...

I've had a really minor cramping feeling which my midwife warned me might happen. As the baby gets bigger the uterus needs to stretch to accommodate, hence the cramping. Its been on and off the last few days.

The baby is about 4 and a half inches long from head to rump, and the comparison food is an avocado. Note: I think the foods they compare the baby to are kind of stupid most of the time because to me, a lemon (14 weeks) and an avocado aren't all that different. And last weeks comparison was an apple...are you joking? Apples can be itty bitty or HUGE. In the next few weeks the baby is going through a growth spurt, so s/he'll be doubling in weight and adding inches to his/her length. Crazy.

Anyways, this week was the first week where I felt more emotional than usual. Maybe it was the stress, but I found myself tearing up from commercials, songs, random thoughts passing through my head, and other unusual things. My dream life is on overdrive as well - I know I mentioned this before, but holy crap. Some dreams are happy, some are terrifying - but I dream pretty much all night.

I'm also still dealing with acne/dry patches of skin although the Burts Bee's acne kit has helped somewhat. I read this week that some doctors tell you to avoid salicylic acid products (which the Burts Bees kit contains) so I'm going to ask about that at my next appointment. Sometimes I think the list of things they tell you to avoid is ridiculous. Better safe than sorry for sure, but in my opinion, they need to have some sort of research or study that tells you why you need to avoid x, y and z. I had a really hard time at the conference (and another work training) this week with food - both salads had a soft cheese (blue or feta) which are on the no-no list. At the training we had a wrap stuffed with lunch meat, another no-no. And the lunch at the conference was baked trout. I don't eat fish anyways, but trout is on the "you must know exactly where it came from in order to eat it" list. Sigh. I ate a lot of peanut butter this week. In fact, you might call peanut butter a craving - peanut butter toast, oatmeal with peanut butter, peanut butter cookies....I had all of those this week. I went through half of one of those big jars. Also Oreos... in shakes, with milk, crushed into pudding... lets not discuss how many of those I consumed.

So yes, it was a big week over in these parts. We've completely moved the guest bedroom into our spare basement bedroom (note: our spare was FULL of junk that had to be sorted/relocated/donated) and with the addition of one little project, I think we'll have a pretty nice guest room down there. It's actually much nicer than our previous one was! And that means that planning for the nursery has officially begun. We're going to paint the family room portion of the basement before we tackle any big nursery projects (we're waiting until we know the gender too - less than two weeks 'til our ultrasound) only because it needs to be done and otherwise I think we'll put it off too long. But I can't wait to share the nursery projects I've started (so far: an alphabet wall and a mobile). Everything is getting so exciting and starting to feel so "real". Most days I wake up feeling like its Christmas morning (other days I wake up feeling like I got hit by a truck, so its a trade off :) -- in less than 24 short weeks there will be a baby snuggling with us at night. Unreal. :)

I'm off to bed - I'm officially 17 weeks tomorrow (!!!!!!) so I'll be back soon with more.

xo.

.

15 weeks

2012-01-22T11:48:00.000-06:00

So I write these weekly recaps at the end of the week - i.e. I'll be 16 weeks on Tuesday. Sometimes it gets really confusing because people are always asking "How far along are you?" and I feel like a moron when I have to scratch my head and think about it. I'm blaming the week-behind posts for 25% of this and my pregnant brain for the other 75%. It's all going so fast!

First off, have you seen this? It was all over the blog world last week and it's hilarious: Porn for Pregnant Ladies.

Now back to the topic at hand...here's my 15 week photo.

When I put my hands above and below my belly like that, you can actually see a little bump. I'm still no where near the point where strangers can tell I'm pregnant though.

I did hit a milestone this week - as of Thursday the 19th, I can no longer button my work pants. On Tuesday, I was fine - they were snug but they still buttoned easily. Wednesday I wore yoga pants to work (I teach strength training classes once a week) and when I went to get dressed on Thursday, my pants were no where near buttoning. So apparently that happened in a 48 hour period. It's also possible that I was just really bloated, so I'll let you know if I have better luck this week. I'm still using a hair tie to button my jeans, but that's impossible with my work pants (they have a clasp and an inside button) so I'm thinking I'll be getting to know my belly bands quite well next week.

My sleep quality is going downhill. I'm not sure if I'm having all these crazy dreams because I'm not sleeping well, or if the crazy dreams are causing me to toss and turn. Either way - I have been spending most nights in a semi-asleep state complete with midnight bathroom trips. I would also just like to mention that my boobs are getting gigantic. I knew this could happen, but I think they've grown more than my belly! I have never been a busty person, but I think I could totally stash my money and a cell phone in there now like a few of my college friends used to do at the bars. I still fit into the same bras at this point, but I fear that's not going to last long.

On a happier note, I had a fantastic long chat with my mom this week. It started out as a normal conversation but turned into a long discussion on babies, birth and labor. I learned so much about my mom that I never knew - she nursed all 4 of us until at least 18 months, she had all 4 babies with no epidural, painkillers, etc (and this was in the 80s - when they still did all sorts of unspeakable things to pregnant women: shaving, enemas, forcing you to lay down and put your feet in the stirrups, and so on) and she was a member of la leche league! I was SO proud to hear that - breastfeeding wasn't "in vogue" back then, so LLL was pretty progressive. The conversation left me smiling and very proud of my mom and it also reaffirmed the goals I have for myself. My mom completely supported me in my "nurse until 24 months goal" and in my goal of having a baby naturally. I'm so happy that she'll be in the room with me if I start to doubt those goals. :)

We also ordered our first set of cloth diapers. I put in my first order for 6 bumGenius newborn diapers in gender neutral colors (clementine, butternut, sassy, ribbit, grasshopper and mirror). We plan to purchase gender neutral with all of our cloth dipes so we can reuse them. Our plan is to gradually amass 24 newborn diapers and 24 all-in-one diapers (bumGenius Elemental) and forego disposable from day 1. They're expensive, so we're going to order a few at a time to build up our stash. The elemental diapers should fit from about 8 pounds through potty training, but we heard that they don't fit itty bitty newborns very well, so we're using the newborn size to help with that. My fear is that if we used disposable during the newborn stage, it might be too difficult to transition into cloth afterwards.

We've also made big progress on our basement bedroom this week. We went through boxes and boxes of crap but everything is now reorganized and waiting to be donated, trashed or craigslisted (is that a verb? it should be). I even bought paint! Once we move the guest bed down there, we are going to paint and clean the living area in the basement (currently Nate's man cave). It'll still be a Packer themed man cave, but it will be cleaner, more organized and freshly painted. And then, the real fun starts - the nursery! I have about a million ideas that I'm still trying to place. More updates on that later. :)

And for a little update on the baby...he/she is about 4 inches long from butt to head and can now sense light even though his/her eyelids are closed. Taste buds are starting to form as well. And there's a nice strong heartbeat - 160 bpm as of last week. I'm on the lookout for movement - they say mom can usually feel something between 16 and 20 weeks - I absolutely can.not.wait to feel it!

.

babys heartbeat

2012-01-16T19:43:00.001-06:00

we had a good day today. =)

14 weeks

2012-01-15T23:58:00.000-06:00

I remember being 7 weeks and reading ahead in my baby books about week 14 and feeling like it was forever away. Now I'm here, and I'm thinking that weeks 24, 34 and 40 feel forever away, but knowing they're going to sneak up on me as quickly as this week did.

The babe is about the size of a lemon, or about three and a half inches from butt to head. S/he can also squint, frown, grimace, suck his/her thumb and pee, which is gross and kind of amazing at the same time.

Here's the 14 week photo from babycenter.com:

It's crazy that s/he actually looks like a baby now. Granted, a really really tiny one, but still.

I'm still dealing with this odd, late in the game nausea although I didn't have any days as bad as last Sunday. My other new, less than enjoyable symptom is that I have been getting incredibly sharp, painful gas pains this week. It seems to happen around 4 pm when I start getting hungry. At times, they are so bad that I can't really eat. It's kind of bizarre, but I have found that eating an afternoon apple seems to help prevent it.

There probably won't be a ~~beer gut~~ belly photo this week. I forgot to take it on Tuesday (my usual day) and I have been sick the last few days with a nasty head cold that left me feeling quite unphotogenic. I officially change weeks on Tuesdays though, so perhaps I'll sneak one in tomorrow yet. I may or may not post it, we'll see. I'm pretty sure I look the same as last week though. :)

We have names narrowed down somewhat. We're not 100%, but currently we have 1 favorite for a boy and a couple favorites for a girl. We've also decided not to tell anyone about our choices until the baby is here and is officially named. This way we can keep it between us and not worry about having any friends or relatives who hate a certain name or affiliate a certain name with someone. In my opinion, someone knows someone with just about any name - so we're keeping quiet. Plus, since we're finding out the gender - you need a little bit of surprise, right? :)

Also...I've been feeling like its a boy. I'm not sure if this is any sort of motherly intuition or if I'm just in love with our little boy name. We shall see!

This is a random post because things have been randomly popping into my head this week.

I started a Nurseries board on Pinterest where I'm going to keep track of nursery ideas although I'm pretty sure I know what I want to do. We will obviously narrow it down once we have the gender reveal party on February 18th. :) We are also going to start working on cleaning out the guest bedroom in our basement (currently the guest bed is in what will be the nursery) so we can get started with painting and such. I am dreading sorting through all the junk that's in there right now...

I've been working on a registry using Amazon and myregistry.com but I will likely be tweaking it for months yet before its "done". Right now its more of a place to track the things I think I want. So far we are definitely planning to cloth diaper (hopefully 100% including during the newborn phase) and I'm planning to exclusively breast feed for the first 6 months. I'm sure my breastfeeding plans will be discussed more later on, but right now I'm debating on a breastfeeding "goal" to set. I originally thought my goal would be to nurse for a year (obviously I'm not talking about exclusively at this point), but the World Health Organization and UNICEF both recommend breastfeeding to "two years and beyond". It's hard to argue with those two organizations, so I'm currently leaning towards attempting to breastfeed until 24 months. I think there are (unfortunately) many people in America who judge mothers for breastfeeding toddlers, and I may even have a few family members who wouldn't necessarily understand it, but I say that its my body and its our baby ~~and they should do more research on the facts~~. I could (and may) post more about society's views on breastfeeding later on. It's sad though, that women's breasts are displayed all the time in a sexual way in movies, tv, magazines, etc and yet breastfeeding is still sometimes so "controversial". Case in point, this (beautiful) photo of Miranda Kerr caused quite a ruckus, but she is regularly half naked for Victoria's Secret. Bah.

We signed up for classes at our local hospital tonight. Its early, but 95% of the times and dates didn't work for us because I work normal hours Monday through Friday and Nate works overnights Wednesday-Sunday. We are taking four classes, and all of them will be in either April or May. The classes are: Waterbirth, Basics of Baby Care, Preparation for Childbirth, and Preparation for Breastfeeding. I am hoping they are useful because for the 4 of them it was $110(!!). Oh...have I mentioned I am planning on a Waterbirth? More on that in future posts.

I keep thinking that these posts will start getting shorter, but then I sit down to write them and I always have so much to say.

I wore a belly band for the first time this week ~~because I was feeling especially bloated~~ and it worked really well. I have a white one that buttons to your pants and plain black stretchy one. I haven't tried the white one yet, but I'm thinking those days will be here soon. I've also been using the hair tie trick on my jeans.

My processed food cravings have (unfortunately) not subsided. I found myself wanting grilled cheese sandwiches and french fries like every day this week. The thing about these cravings is that when you give in, the food is like THE BEST FOOD YOU HAVE EVER EATEN. Then afterwards I shake my head and wonder where my health conscious self went. I'm trying not to feel too guilty...I know many people wouldn't bat an eye at enjoying pizza, candy and grilled cheese. And I'm trying to balance it out with apples, etc etc. I have only gained about 5 pounds, so I think I'm doing alright!

I have an appointment tomorrow to hear the heartbeat with a Doppler. Since we had such a scary time trying to find it the first time, I'm pretty excited to get to hear it and am planning to video tape and share it if all goes well. Stay tuned!

And as always- questions, comments and suggestions will make my day :)

discount double check.

2012-01-13T20:15:00.000-06:00

if you don't like the packers, these are probably pretty odd commercials to you. but i heart them. the 2nd one is my fave.

show me whatcha got whatcha got raji...

13 weeks

2012-01-09T19:41:00.002-06:00

Today is the last day of my first trimester!

The second trimester is supposed to be a time of glorious energy, improved digestion, a crazy desire to clean and organize things and fantastic sleep. I hope this turns out to be true, because the last few weeks of the first trimester weren't very enjoyable.

For example, I spent the tail end of last night dry heaving over the toilet. We went to church yesterday, and afterwards, during brunch, I started to get a headache. By the time we got home my head was throbbing and I was nauseous. Soon I was just plain miserable. My giant to-do list sat untouched and I napped while my wonderful husband cleaned the house. I was sick until I went to bed that night, and even then - it took me hours to fall asleep. I tell ya, the last few weeks were far worse than the first couple months. Odd, as its supposed to be the opposite.

On a positive note, I am getting my energy back little by little. I no longer collapse on the couch at 3 pm, but I'm still going to bed earlier than "normal". I also managed to go for a run and take several long walks. Click the link to read the full account of my first run (in months), but I must say I have never been prouder of my body than I was during that run. I hope to sneak a few more in soon.

I think my finger nails are growing faster than normal, but those other "fun" symptoms (like beautiful nail beds, thick glossy hair and glowing skin) haven't happened yet. My acne has improved just a smidge; I do like the Burt's Bees acne kit so far.

As for my hair...as I understand it - you are supposed to lose less hair during pregnancy because your hormones stop it from falling out like normal. Then, during the post partum period, you lose all of the hair you should have been losing throughout pregnancy at once and you temporarily feel like you're going bald. New mommas - do I have that right? I'm still losing a normal amount of hair each day, so it better not fall out in clumps post baby. My baby-fine, thin head of hair won't tolerate that very well.

Do you see my itty bitty ~~beer belly~~ bump? I think that I've accumulated enough fluff around the midsection that I can call it a "bump" now, even though I still don't look pregnant to the unknowing eye. Most of my pants still fit, but I did buy a few pairs of maternity pants with a gift card from Motherhood Maternity (FYI: why do we not wear stretchy jeans all the time? so comfy). I haven't worn them yet though, because everyone says to wear normal stuff as long as I can!

Only two other updates for this week: I did start a baby registry. I need a lot of time to tweak and play around with it, so I wanted a head start. We are planning on using myregistry.com so we can register for exactly what we want even if its from Etsy or Amazon. We also decided to have a gender reveal party! More details on that to come once we get closer to February. :)

If you have any links to fantastic gender reveal ideas or any must have baby items, please let me know!

weeks 9-12

2012-01-03T08:00:00.000-06:00

These last few weeks have been a tad bit easier than the first month for several reasons, but mainly because (a few) people finally knew our secret! I could finally talk to my mom and my close friends about the real reason I didn't want any coffee or why I was in bed at 8. Just being able to share the experience with others made it that much better.

I'll touch on symptoms briefly since I covered them in so much ~~unnecessary~~ detail during the last post.

-Fatigue continues, but at about week 9 I began getting better very sllllowwwllllyy. Sitting here at the end of week 12 I can almost make it until 9:30 pm. :)
-I had a few more scary days of spotting but I was assured (again) by the nurses that it was normal as long as I didn't have any cramping (I didn't).
-I have gained a few pounds (3? 4? I honestly am not sure) but I mostly feel bloated. This feeling depends on the day so sometimes I feel like I look exactly the same and other days I feel like I look gigantic.
-Bloating or not, I definitely feel thicker around the middle...like I have a beer gut.
-Nausea was better from weeks 9-11 but during this last week it surprisingly returned with a vengeance. Still no puking, but I wasn't feeling too hot. In some ways it compares to being really hungover, not fun.
-The food aversions are still here too. I ate pizza three nights in a row because it was the only thing that sounded good. Green monster smoothies (I make mine with spinach+blueberries+banana+soy milk+flax+chia) help alleviate some of the guilt I feel after eating such crappy dinners. Luckily I've still been able to drink those a few times a week for breakfast.
-I'm still very thirsty! All the time. The middle of the night pee breaks haven't stopped either.
-The one thing that definitely did improve was the breast soreness. Still sensitive but definitely not as painfully achy as early on.
-The acne continues as well. Blah! I just bought the Burt's Bees acne kit, so if that helps at all I'll let ya know.

My fear of miscarrying hadn't lessened much, probably because of the spotting (and the over researching that I continued to do) so I was counting down the days until my second appointment on December 20th when we could finally hear the heartbeat. Going into the appointment, my worst fear was that they wouldn't be able to hear the heartbeat via Doppler and would send us home without an ultrasound and then I'd be spending the holidays ~~crying~~ worrying. I really wanted to hear that little heart!

When the day finally arrived, Nate and I got to the clinic about 15 minutes before our scheduled 1:30 appointment. They were running a little behind, but then we finally got to meet our midwife! She was peppy and energetic, and after the basics (height, weight, etc) she asked if we had any questions right away. I told her I really wanted to the hear the heartbeat so she said "Oo let's do that first!" and had me lay down so she could find the heartbeat with the Doppler. She squeezed goo on my lower abdomen and started searching.

Now I'd been forewarned that it would take a while, so as minutes ticked by with no heartbeat, I was telling myself to take deep breaths and not to worry. But when she stood up and told me that she couldn't find the heartbeat, my stomach dropped. She was very reassuring, and told me that it's not a for sure thing to find a heartbeat at 11 weeks. She also said that because my dates were uncertain (I'd told her about the late ovulation), there was even more of a chance that we were just looking too early. She told us she was in no way freaking out, but she was going to dart over to ultrasound to see if they could sneak us in. She left the room and I pretty much had a full blown panic attack. I was worried that we weren't going to get into ultrasound today, I was worried that something was wrong, I was worried about how I would tell all the people who were eagerly awaiting a text message with good news, gosh I was freaking out. My worst nightmare seemed to be coming true. Nate tried to comfort me, but that just made me cry. I did manage to pull myself together somewhat before she came back though.

After what seemed like forever our midwife came back, and told us they could get us in for an ultrasound at 2:20. It was about ten after, so she immediately brought us over. Once there, I was told to get undressed from the waist down and sit in the reclining chair thing. There was a tv screen in front of me and the ultrasound machine was to my right. We sat there until about 2:40 when a woman finally came in and turned the machine on. She was kind of awkward and I swear to you she could have been in the movie "Knocked Up". She held up the long wand (this was an internal ultrasound) and proclaimed "This goes in your vagina". Ummm, okay. Yes, we figured that out and we didn't need the demonstration. After a minute, she left. So we waited for another 10 minutes or so (while we made fun of her) and then a doctor and a different, friendlier tech came in. We never saw the weird lady again. The tech fired the machine up and the doctor turned on the tv screen and you could instantly see a little baby. Once they confirmed the heartbeat (173 beats per minute!) it was like a two ton weight was lifted off my shoulders.

The baby was laying in a funny position, on its side, which they thought was the reason our midwife couldn't find the heartbeat with the Doppler. As they moved around, they told us that there was only one baby in there :) and that it looked perfect. They also looked at my ovaries, etc and told me I ovulated from my right ovary. Random, but kind of interesting to know. In a lot of shots of the baby, it appeared to have a little halo over its head. The doctor said that the circle was what was left of the yolk sac and said ours was near the head, so it made our baby look like a little angel. We only got one photo from the ultrasound so unfortunately we didn't get a shot of that.

After the ultrasound, we were ushered into yet another room to wait for our midwife. At this point I couldn't stop smiling, but I had been so keyed up and stressed for the last hour that I was kind of nauseous with relief. We were SO thankful they got us in right away. In hindsight, I think that when our midwife didn't hear the heartbeat it was probably a bigger deal than she let on. The doctor, ultrasound tech and nurses all hinted that it was something they needed to address right away, but they were all glad we got good news. The rest of our appointment was pretty straight forward - our midwife was very helpful and I really like her. The only negative is that we don't necessarily get to choose who delivers the baby. The way our clinic is structured, there is only one midwife on call for deliveries. That midwife could be any one of 10 ladies who rotate on call. So that kind of stinks, but we will get the opportunity to meet each of them if we want to (which I do) so that makes me feel better.

Our midwife did bump my due date back one day based on the ultrasound, so now I'm due July 10. She said that ultrasound is the most accurate way to measure your dates, so that's what we'll go with from not on. She also did an exam and told me that my spotting was nothing to worry about, its just that my uterus was slightly inflamed and sensitive. Since that appointment I haven't had any spotting.

Now that we had our confirmed heartbeat, we felt like telling everyone. We told our grandparents and let our parents know that they could share the news with aunts and uncles. A few days before Christmas we let the Facebook world know and a few days after Christmas I spilled the news on my blog.

Our next appointment isn't until Valentines day. At that appointment we will have our "big" ultrasound where we can find out the gender (not sure yet if we will or not!) and see lots of photos. Hooray! I'm going to attempt to take photos every week to watch my bump grow. Currently there isn't a bump yet, but hopefully soon I'll be able to notice a difference. Here's a photo from 9 weeks. I'm hoping to include a photo with each weekly post, so my next one will be 13 weeks (and that will hopefully go up this week!)

Other random notes:
-At the end of week 12, the baby is the size of the size of a lime (FYI in case you've wondered, the size comparison measures only length. So the length of the baby from butt to head is the approximate length of a lime) which is crazy.
-I have been attending lunch hour yoga and pilates classes for about 6 months now. Recently the pilates classes began to get pretty uncomfortable, especially when we laid on our bellies. My midwife said it was safe and fine to continue with both, but I decided to drop the pilates and just do yoga.
-I think my worst fear about pregnancy is that my feet will grow! Andrea freaked me out with a story about her mom going up 3 shoe sizes throughout her 4 pregnancies, and omg, I already wear a size 10 or 11. If my feet get any bigger I won't be able to shop at normal shoe stores!
-I'm still contemplating what to do about maternity leave. I have an amazingly flexible employer, so I get 3 months (12 weeks) off but I can flex the time if I want to. So I can take the whole time off completely or I can move things around and come back part time for awhile if I work a few hours a week during my leave. We'll see!

This post means that I am "caught up" on all the things I want to tell you all about. I will officially be 13 weeks tomorrow and will hopefully have this weeks post and photo up this week at some point. As always, questions and comments are welcome. The comments on my last few posts made my day! :)

edits!

2012-01-01T22:13:00.000-06:00

Hi all - I just purchased a new URL for this little blog. My new home is at mosteverythingmaggie.com and maggie-jean.com will no longer work. There are going to be a few glitches in the blog because Blogger is being difficult and won't change links from one url to the other, so unfortunately in my older posts, many of my links within the blog won't work. Blogger is on my list lately... Grr.

Thanks for hanging in there!

goals for the new year!

2012-01-01T21:14:00.000-06:00

1. Spend the latter half of the year exclusively breastfeeding my baby.

Since I'm due in July, it's a no brainer for me that I'll become a dairy factory for the rest of the year. Currently I hope to keep breastfeeding for at least one year, but I may extend that goal (14 months? 16?) at some point. Either way, I'm sure I'll talk more about my breastfeeding goals in the future. :)

2. Learn to use my DSLR.

This is an embarrassing one. Nate and I bought a DSLR as a joint anniversary gift in September and I've yet to venture out of "automatic" mode. It's been years, but I did once take a photography course, so I know I just need a refresher.

3. Blog weekly throughout my pregnancy.

I hope to post updates frequently and not fall off planet earth like I did a few times this year. I am going to give myself some leeway post-baby though. :)

4. Take weekly photos once baby is here, and (attempt to) post them on the blog.

As mentioned above, I'm not holding myself to the posting, but I do want to take weekly photos, similar to this!

5. Start a new 101 list and finish my 30 before 30 list.

My 101 in 1001 list has evolved over the last few years. I've changed it several times, but my goals changed rapidly along with the major life changes I've gone through (graduation, getting engaged, a full time job, marriage and now a baby). I've heard a few snarky comments about how I changed it so many times that it doesn't count, but quite frankly...I don't care. Its become an evolving list of my goals, and I'll likely edit it again a few times before it's finished. And the 30 before 30 is a list I plan to use to encompass more long term goals, but I haven't finished it yet and have delayed posting.

6. Complete a post-baby race.

Even if it's just a 5K, I want to get back in the saddle before the end of 2012.

weeks 4-8

2011-12-30T10:04:00.002-06:00

Continued from here! Again, I'm not a very shy person so I'm going to unload a whole bunch of personal details below. Feel free to skip it if you're male or squeamish or modest.

So um, holy crap... I'm pregnant. Even though we are totally psyched, I have to admit that it doesn't really feel real. For starters, that first appointment isn't for weeks yet. Besides the pee sticks, I have nothing to confirm that I'm actually having a baby. I did use an online calculator thing to calculate my due date - July 9th. I have my doubts that that's correct because I ovulated so late, but I figure they'll update it at my first appointment.

Nate and I decide that we want to wait a bit before telling our family and friends. Our reasoning was two fold - first of all, I felt that our parents deserved to be told face to face! I also knew that a few of my good friends would probably slaughter me if I told them the news via text or phone. :) Soo we decided to hold off until Thanksgiving. I had grand illusions that after my first appointment on November 23rd I would be "confirmed" pregnant in some way (spoiler: that didn't happen) and then we could spill the beans to our families. Keeping a secret for almost a month was not fun! I really wanted to call my mom and ask her if certain things were "normal" and if this or that happened to her but I couldn't for a few weeks.

As for early symptoms (during these first 4 weeks or so)..my boobs hurt. Like whoa. They always list this as an early pregnancy sign, but honestly I thought it would be like the I'm-getting-my-period and my boobs hurt kind of pain. No. So much worse! I could no longer sleep on my stomach because it felt like I had two giant bruises on my chest. Ow. They also started to get larger pretty much immediately.

Nausea for me wasn't too bad. There were definitely foods I didn't want to eat and foods that I DID want to eat, but I never actually threw up (there were some "almosts" though). I did have other horrid digestive symptoms that no one really needs details on (if you must know, click here to get the jist). Before I got pregnant I had these grand illusions about how healthy I was going to eat, but honestly I was pretty lucky just to eat. Now I have good friends who upchucked about three times a day for their entire pregnancy, so I'm by no means complaining - I'm just telling it like it is! I also found myself with a hankering for crappy, processed food like never before. I hadn't had Kraft macaroni and cheese or McDonalds in a very long time but I had both during the first few weeks. I felt disgusting after eating all this junk but absolutely nothing that I had in my house sounded good. I would make a meal plan for the week and find myself gagging at the very thought of those meals two days later. Luckily I have no problem taking my vitamins (I take a prenatal, a DHA supplement, a calcium supplement and my iron pill and have been on this routine since April).

Also...you know how pregnant women always need to pee? I assumed that was because a giant baby was jumping around on your bladder, but I was incorrect (although I'm sure that will be an issue later on). Almost immediately after my positive test, I begin waking up at least once a night to pee. It's so bizarre! A little research tells me this is happening because my body is producing a whole bunch of extra blood to sustain the baby and that blood needs to be filtered and that makes more work for my poor kidneys. This symptom was most surprising to me, I really didn't expect it this early!

I really can't talk symptoms without talking about the one that was, for me, the worst. Fatigue. This is another one that you see on websites as an early symptom and think "fatigue? I can handle that - no biggie". But let me tell you...I was EXHAUSTED. It is a whole new kind of tired. Bone crushing tired. I would head to bed around 8 pm and sleep until 6:30 am during the week (my normal bedtime was about 10 or 10:30). Sometimes I couldn't even make it until 8 or I would be unable to get up at 6:30. And still, every day by about 3 pm all I wanted was a nap. I would glaze over at work and lose focus and want nothing except my bed. On weekends I let myself sleep pretty much all day but I was still tired, all the time. The really odd part is that even though I was exhausted, I had a hard time staying asleep. I tossed and turned and was fairly uncomfortable while also being ridiculously tired. Fun stuff I tell you.

Random complaint: I really don't like that they refer to these as "symptoms" ... its not like I have some weird disease, I'm just growing a baby.

During these first few weeks I was paranoid about miscarrying. I think I over researched (my friends are nodding and saying, DUH, that's what you do Maggie) things online so I knew about terrifying things like blighted ovums (when you develop a sac but no baby) and missed miscarriages (when you don't bleed and have to have a D and C). I was especially stressed out because I started spotting a few times during the first few weeks and my phone calls to my nurses line went like this:

Me: I'm spotting. I'm freaking out.
Nurse: Sounds normal, you're fine. See you in a month.

So I dealt the best I could, but I was really sort of terrified the entire time. This was the main reason we didn't want to spill the beans quite yet. We did tell one person early on though. You see, I had been gushing about how excited I was to try hot yoga, and had made plans with Hannah to go on the 12th of November. Everything I read online told me that it was probably not a good idea to attend while pregnant because hot yoga raises your body temperature which can be unsafe. I had been talking this up for weeks, so I felt horrible and knew I couldn't cancel on her without an explanation. So I sort of played a mean little trick! I pretended I was still going with her and we made plans to meet at my house that morning. Hannah showed up ready to go but I was still in my pjs. Then I pretty much blurted out that I wasn't going to hot yoga because I was pregnant. I'm fairly certain I shocked her, but she recovered well and is now hooked on her weekly hot yoga (I still can't wait to try that someday!). I swore her to secrecy but it felt SO good to tell someone!!

This next confession is sort of embarrassing although (from what I read) not uncommon, but even after my positive...I kept taking pregnancy tests. I had stocked up on the cheap-o versions and still had several digitals and first response tests leftover (they're cheaper in multi packs!). So every few days, I peed on another stick to make sure this was all real. It was kind of exciting to see how quickly the lines get darker!

Another form of stress during these early weeks was the babycenter message boards. I made a few posts early on (I needed to talk about this with SOMEONE) and although people were largely supportive, I also kept reading about all these women who had confirmed their pregnancies via ultrasound at their first appointment around 7 or 8 weeks. I asked about it, and someone told me it was sometimes optional to have that first ultrasound. So, I dialed my midwife's office and told them I definitely wanted to hear the heartbeat at my first appointment. I was told that unless its medically indicated, they will not do an ultrasound. Reasons for ultrasounds included: not knowing when your last period was, being a "high risk" candidate and threatened miscarriage. Even after my spotting episodes, I was not able to "qualify for" an ultrasound. I was pretty frustrated and may have cried about it in my car one day after arguing with a nurse. This was particularly stressful because we wanted to tell our families over the holidays and the nurses said we weren't going to be able to hear the heartbeat until our second appointment on December 27th - AFTER Christmas. I really wanted to spill the beans over the holidays as I don't often see my cousins, aunts, etc! The only concession I got from my clinic was that they moved my second appointment to the 20th of December so I would get to hear the heartbeat via Doppler before Christmas.

So, on the 23rd of November we had our long awaited first appointment at our midwife's office. The appointment was with an RN (at our clinic you don't meet your midwife until the 2nd appointment). I was really excited, but it was actually pretty boring. Lots of questions about our health histories and some basic information that I already knew (don't drink, don't smoke crack, pretty obvious stuff). I was given an official due date: July 9, 2012 which I already knew from the online calculator. I told the nurse that I ovulated late so I didn't think the date was quite accurate (the due date is based on a 28 day cycle) but she didn't move it and said I'd have to talk to the midwife about it later. The whole appointment was kind of anti-climactic to be honest.

The day after our appointment was Thanksgiving, and we decided to tell our parents and siblings. We didn't tell extended family yet though. We knew we were going to involve our first "baby" in this process so I ordered this shirt from Etsy and had it customized for Kona.

So that morning, while we were busy preparing food Nate put the shirt on Kona and I told my mom to call her. My mom saw the shirt and it clicked instantly. She started crying happy tears and gave me a hug. My sister in law also got it right away, but the rest of the family needed an explanation. My mother in law thought we were getting another puppy! Once we spelled it out for them, everyone was really happy and my mother in law cried too. This is the 6th grandbaby for my parents and the 1st for my inlaws. :) And let me tell you it felt SO good to tell everyone!

Over Thanksgiving weekend I drove down to Milwaukee with Hannah to meet up with Andrea and Ange for a little BYM reunion. I schemed with Hannah the whole way down on how to tell those two. We had dinner plans and they both kept referencing drinks, so I knew I had to come out with it right away. I thought that Andrea was going to sort of freak out, so I didn't want to tell them at the restaurant. I decided to just blurt it out when we got there. I believe we walked into Ange's apartment and the conversation went like this:

Andrea and Ange: Hi guys! So where do you want to go to dinner?

Maggie: I'm pregnant.

Haha so much for subtlety! Around Thanksgiving I also spilled the beans to one of my close friends at work who is also expecting. Keeping the news from her was really tough because we were constantly talking babies! Being able to finally share the news felt great.

Other random facts from these few weeks...

- We downloaded a few iphone apps... "mPregnancy" is aimed at dad's to be and is slightly offensive but hilarious. I also have a baby name app that I don't really like and the babycenter app. If you have any recommendations please send them my way!

-I subscribed to babycenter's emails and the baby gaga emails. I love getting those little updates every week!

-I have lots and lots of baby books and many opinions on them but that will have to be a separate post!

-After those first few questions on the babycenter message boards I decided to try and avoid them. I forgot how bitchy people in online forums can be. It's like the Knot.com forums on crack.

-Since our second appointment is now December 20th, I started planning Christmas card ideas. My card was inspired by this one and Hannah agreed to take some photos for us. She's planning on posting some of the other photos (that weren't on our card) on her blog soon! I actually designed and ordered the cards from simplytoimpress.com in early December and had them addressed and ready to go, but didn't send them until after my second appointment.

-I didn't gain any weight during weeks 4-8 but I definitely felt pretty bloated (and my boobs seemed huge) the whole time.

-I am SO THIRSTY. All the time! During my midnight pee breaks I routinely chug half a bottle of water! I have taken to carrying around a Camelbak bottle of water everywhere we go. I know its good to drink lots of water!

-I can't forget to mention that my skin is still breaking out like crazy. I've basically given up.

-By week 8 the little babe is the size of a kidney bean!

I don't think I can end this (very long) update without a little paragraph for Nate. I do not know where I would be without him these last few weeks! I should probably get him an award or something. :) He was so very supportive and encouraging during the whole "trying" to get pregnant process and never let me dwell on the negative. He constantly reminded me that it was going to happen and we just had to be patient. Now that we're expecting he is excited and committed to coming to the appointments even though he hates hospitals (and sometimes gets woozy or ill when he's there!). He's pretty much been cooking dinner every night and cleaning up the mess because I collapse on the couch immediately after work to sleep. A lot of what needs to be done around the house falls on his shoulders too - vacuuming, helping with laundry...I am so thankful that I have him. And honestly, one of the sweetest things in the world might be hearing your husband tell your (unborn) baby that he loves them. Melts my heart.

So I think that summarizes weeks 4-8! I'm hoping to do one more longer post about weeks 9-12 and then get into the habit of posting weekly updates. I'm intending these to be more journal-esqe in nature, but I would LOVE comments and questions! I'd also love to hear advice from other mamas out there. :)

Be back soon!

oh baby!

2011-12-28T21:03:00.001-06:00

I've had this post written for quite a while now. I thought I'd give a little background & fill you in on the last few months, but if you'd rather not hear about periods and see pictures of sticks that I peed on, you can definitely skip this post.

I know that most newlyweds are familiar with "baby fever". For many, it hits you right after you tie the knot. Often family and friends fan the flames by asking "So, when are you going to have a baby?" or joking about it in some way. This is a rather inappropriate question for many reasons, but that's a post for another day. For me, it started long before we got married. I've known pretty much my entire life that I wanted to be a mom. Nate and I had talked about this long before our wedding, and a family has always been in our plans.

Now I am a type A, plan everything kind of person. We set a "date" to start trying, we set up a bank account that we've gradually contributed to over the last year or so. I researched and bookmarked all sorts of ideas, photos, and suggestions (I'm lookin' at you Pinterest) but I tried to be sneaky about it so I didn't raise suspicions. :) I bought a few books and then bought a few more. I've been following lots of "baby" blogs for a long time, but I followed a few more. We also decided not to share our plans with anyone until we had seen that positive pregnancy test. In other words, we never told anyone we were "trying".

Believe me, not telling anyone almost killed me (It was especially brutal not talking to you, you and you about this).

Let me tell you though..the moment you decide the time is right, baby fever multiplies like whoa. You start worrying about things like ovulation, the length of your cycle, Lh surges - things you'd never given a passing thought to before.The irony of it all is that as women, we spend a good chunk of time trying to prevent pregnancy. Once you flip the switch and decide you want a baby, you feel like it will happen instantly. After all, isn't that what they told you in health class? (They lied. Or I guess they really exaggerated. A lot.)

I know we were very fortunate and that some couples try for months upon months, years upon years and spend thousands of dollars to make their baby dreams come true. We just had to wait a few months and trust that this was going to happen, just not on our exact time line. That doesn't mean I wasn't worrying myself sick though (like I said, type-A all the way).

Here's how it went for us:

April 19th 2011: We attend a pre-conception doctor's appointment and tell the random ob/gyn our plans. She approves but says I need to get my iron levels up. I get my iron levels rechecked - they are STILL too low. I also get a tetanus booster - it hurts like hell. They run some other blood work to see if I need more shots, etc, but I'm good to go.

April 23rd 2011: I take my very last active birth control pill (after years of being on the pill) knowing that it can takes months for my body to get back to normal. We aren't "trying" just yet.

May 2011: I break out like I'm in freaking junior high. Ick. I schedule a hematologist appointment to see why my iron levels are still low. She tells me that I need to have "normal" levels in order to sustain a baby. I have an iron absorption test which proves that I can, in fact, absorb iron but must not be on the right supplement - they switch me to a new supplement, "Gentle Iron".

June 2011: Seriously, I've never had break outs like this - EVER. I am never going back to hormonal birth control again - my poor body. I start tracking my periods (I use the Woman Log app, which is handy for periods even if you aren't trying to have a baby).

July 2011: My skin is still horrible, but I retest my iron levels and they are officially normal for the first time in about 5 years. Woot!

August 2011: My skin still sucks. We are officially "trying", but no dice. Lots of negative pregnancy tests (and good gosh those things get expensive).

September 2011: Still trying, skin still hates me. I take a few ovulation predictors from the dollar store (I read that the $1 tests for pregnancy and ovulation work the same as expensive tests) but they all come up negative.

Late September - Early October 2011: I am convinced I am pregnant. I swear I have symptoms and my period is over a week late. I don't drink during Oktoberfest weekend (this is a big deal) even though I am probably making everyone suspicious. All 47 (joking, kind of) pregnancy tests are negative. Well, what the heck. When I finally get my period (after a 37 day cycle) I kind of want to cry. I've never been this late before and I had no cramps, no usual period symptoms, nothing. Total shock. Even though we've only been trying for a few months I am scared of having fertility issues and all the complicated steps that could follow. It doesn't help that it seems like everyone I know is getting pregnant accidentally.

October 2011: My periods have been irregular (varying from 26-37 days) and that makes it next to impossible to tell when you ovulate. A little FYI: there are very few days each month that you can actually get pregnant. I can't stand not knowing, and the idea of taking basal body temps (taking your temperature every morning at the exact same time and putting into a chart to track ovulation) seems too extreme at this point, so I cough up the cash and buy the fancy digital ovulation predictors on Amazon. Finally, way later in my cycle than "average", I see the stupid smiley face indicative of an Lh surge.

Late October 2011: I have officially given up on my skin. It's still semi-oily, semi-dry and breaking out like I'm pubescent.

November 3rd 2011: I take an early response pregnancy test. Negative.

November 5th 2011: I wake up really early after having a few weird dreams about being pregnant (in hindsight, its really weird that I dreamt about it on that day). Its about 6:30 in the morning and Nate is just getting home from work so I decide to take another test. Honestly because we'd already had a negative I was expecting to test and then go back to sleep. But lo and behold...there was a very faint pink line. Nate saw it too, but it was pretty light and I was using an early response test so I didn't want to get excited yet. Nate went to sleep afterwards but I couldn't...so I took a digital pregnancy test. Negative. Well then... I spent the next several hours googling and found out that digital tests aren't nearly as sensitive as the other test I'd used (First Response Early Result). Sadly the First Response tests sometimes tell you too early and you can have a "chemical pregnancy" also known as a very early miscarriage. These chemical pregnancies are fairly prevalent, but tests are most accurate in the morning, so I have to wait until tomorrow to retest.

this is the test from November 7th. the one from the 6th was too light to even see on camera!

November 6th 2011: After my mixed results, I woke up bright and early to take another First Response test. It's definitely positive and a little darker than the previous one, but I am too chicken to try the digital test again so I make myself wait until the next day.

OMG.

November 8th 2011: I take a digital test and holycrapI'mactuallypregnant. There really is something about seeing the word right there, screaming up at you. We do a happy dance, and although it still doesn't quite feel real, I call the ob department at my doctors office. My first appointment is scheduled for the 23rd of November!

stay tuned...more to come :)

a very merry Christmas!

2011-12-27T15:13:00.001-06:00

I am still alive! I could explain why I haven't been feeling well, but instead I'll just show you our Christmas card for this year...

front:

back:

I'll be back soon with more updates! :) Hope everyone had a great holiday!

oh, hi.

2011-12-03T18:27:00.000-06:00

i'm going to apologize for my absence on this little blog. i have been pretty under the weather the last few weeks, but i'm hoping to be back up and running (with a ketchup day) soon!

thanks for hangin' in there!

thankful.

2011-11-23T21:53:00.000-06:00

i was feeling inspired by this post, and thought i'd put together little list of things about my home that i'm thankful for. we've owned this condo for just over 2 years now, and although it's definitely not our "forever" home, we've worked hard to make it feel like ours in the last year. we'll likely be here a couple years yet, so i might as well love it for what it is, no?

1. closets. i did not grow up with walk-ins, but now that i have them...i'm not sure i could go back. so.much.storage.space!

2. our laundry room. it was not long ago that i took a weekend ~~every other~~ a month to drag boatloads of clothes to the laundromat. i still remember the time that i accidentally left one basket of wash on the roof of my car and drove away. its not much fun to walk up and down the block gathering your dirty clothes (in the snow, no less). anyways, i love that we have a washer and dryer, and now they're in a cute laundry room to boot (ps: those photos are coming, i swear).

3. our tiny garage (and my amazing husband who lets me park in it). this is minnesota...let me tell you, not shoveling/scraping snow off of my windshield before work is a big blessing.

4. location. i have a 15 minute drive to work, and nate doesn't even need a car to get to his place of employment. i love being within a 30 minute bike ride too. hooray for short commutes.

5. my little family. i love snuggling with the pup and waking up next to nate. my little kitties keep me company on cold nights, and really...i couldn't be happier.

breaking dawn ;)

2011-11-16T19:11:00.000-06:00

Okay...No making fun of me you guys.

Are you going to see Breaking Dawn at the midnight release?

No =( I work the next day so I'm going on Saturday with my sister and friends. Psyched.

Scene you're most looking forward to in Breaking Dawn?

Actually I'm looking forward to see how they portray the pregnancy. In the books it sounded like Bella looked awful so I'm curious to see what they do in the movie. It better be good. Also..I'm curious how they kept the gory birth scene PG-13. In the book they say the kid chews through the placenta...and um, that's not PG-13. Also, I'd be lying if I said I wasn't looking forward to seeing Edward break the headboard.

Team Edward or Jacob?

Edward. Seriously, knowing how the series ends, how can anyone be team Jacob?!

Favorite book in the Saga?

Eclipse. It was just so happy! New Moon was my least favorite.

Are the books or movies better?

The books. Definitely. Same for Harry Potter, but that's another topic isn't it? :)

What do you dislike about the series?

I think Kristin Stewart is a terrible actress. She's just so awkward! And I wish they would have stayed a little more true to the books when making the movies...when I saw the first film I was actually pretty disappointed. I think the trick is not to read the book right before watching the movie, that way the details aren't fresh in your mind!

Your craziest fan moment.

I bought Breaking Dawn at midnight and took two days off from my (part-time college) job so I could stay up over night and read it. Excellent decision. I've also watched the Breaking Dawn trailers an embarrassing number of times...

Do you have a Twilight collection?

I own all the books and movies, but no Twilight t-shirts or anything weird.

Your turn. Link up here.

countdown.

2011-11-13T17:00:00.000-06:00

There are:

5 days until Friday
6 days until I get to see Breaking Dawn with Hannah, Ange and my little sis
9 days until the afternoon outing the hubs and I have planned to kickoff my four day weekend
11 days until THANKSGIVING with the fam
12 days until I get to see Andrea (and Ange and Hannah)
13 days until the BYM takes on Ikea Chicago
27 days until my family reunion up north

and...

41 days until CHRISTMAS

Yeah, I'm pretty excited. And it's officially time for Christmas music. Yep.

xo.

and i quote:

2011-11-09T21:15:00.000-06:00

sorry i haven't posted in a week. life is crazy. be back soon. in the meantime...

(just ordered a print of this. too sweet.)

all via.

oh how pinteresting

2011-11-02T18:34:00.000-05:00

Here a few of my favorite funny pins. I apologize if any are offensive.

All sources available here.

PS: follow me on Pinterest.

PPS: leave your Pinterest link in the comment section. I need new peeps to follow.

life lately

2011-11-02T18:22:00.000-05:00

1. I just signed up for an awesome nail polish swap at Fabulous but Evil. Pretty sure Tara is a genius, I'm quite excited to get some pretty new polish!

2. We were up to our ears in home renovations for the last few days...but the good news is that we're almost finished with our new laundry room, and I'm psyched to show you. It involves purple stripes and a chandelier and it's officially the girliest room in our house. I LOVE it.

3. I'm trying hot yoga on the 12th with Hannah. I've heard so many bloggers rave about it, and if it's truly as fantastic as you all say, I might sign up for a monthly membership. Winters are brutal here, so sweating my buns off in a sauna like yoga room sounds like it might be the best idea ever.

4. I just started the Hunger Games. I hope it's as amazing as everyone says!

5. My 30 for 30 is still going well, but I decided not to post photos. The posts related to it are usually not read or commented on, so I figure I'm boring you all.

6. I think that seeing people you know in Walgreens with your cart full of oddities is very awkward. Do you really need to see the new eyebrow grooming tool I'm buying? No. #awkward

7. Kim Kardashian's divorce is ridiculous, sad & pretty pathetic. Marriage is not something to throw around (or use as a money making ploy). I thought the media around her wedding was disgusting, and I think the media around her divorce is equally so. That's all the words I'm going to waste on that subject. :)

8. There are two link ups involving Pinterest that I've meant to join for awhile now, but I keep missing them! YHL's and the Vintage Apple's. Hopefully soon!

Back soon.

happy halloweenie.

2011-10-31T19:55:00.000-05:00

Kona the hot dog helped me hand out candy. Adorable and hilarious.

I think she actually liked wearing it. It was pretty warm and snuggly!

5 random things

2011-10-27T21:39:00.000-05:00

1. Nate and I are about to tackle a big(ish) home renovation project. We're adding cabinets and a built in countertop/workspace to our laundry room. We're also painting stripes in the purple grey color below.

Inspiration from here. I couldn't get away with the pink stripes, but I'm pretty psyched about purple! A big Ikea trip is in our immediate future.

2. We're thinking our next project will involve new flooring. For a variety of reasons, we've decided to stay in our condo for at least a couple years yet. Currently THREE of the eight condos in our unit are for sale, so clearly this would be a bad time to try to sell anyways! Flooring feels like a BIG decision. Do we just replace our carpet? Personally I would love to rip out all the tile and carpet from our first floor and add faux wood laminate throughout, but I'm not sure it would be worth it when we resell.

3. Speaking of big decisions...our dishwasher has been sucking lately. Things are looking worse coming out than when we put them in. It makes me start lusting after new appliances...but again, not sure that it would pay.

4. We really need groceries in this house. Its pretty sad right now. I'm making a big shopping trip tomorrow.

5. I bought a new deodorant and I really like it. It's natural, aluminum free and it smells fantastic. It's Tom's of Maine in the apricot scent. Love.

Random, no?

"not rape"

2011-10-26T20:03:00.001-05:00

This is very heavy considering what I usually post about, but I saw it a few times on Facebook and think it's a very worthwhile read. This has happened to many, and it is not okay. It spans age, race, education levels, gender and socioeconomic status. Educate the women and girls (and men and boys) in your life.

The "Not Rape" Epidemic

take 2!

2011-10-24T22:03:00.000-05:00

Tomorrow is the kick off of my second 30 for 30 challenge. I really enjoyed this the first time around, so I'm excited to kick off a challenge with fall themed clothes.

Here's what I'm doing, in case you're unfamiliar:
1. Choosing 30 items from my closet
2. Wearing only those items for the next 30 days (exceptions: camis, undergarments, gym clothes, winter coats and accessories)
3. Abstaining from shopping for the duration of the challenge
4. Learning how "work with what I've got" and also discovering what pieces would be worthwhile to add to my closet

For more info, check out the brains behind the operation here.

Disclaimers:
1. I am not a fashion blogger, so you should have low expectations :)
2. There is no cute way to photograph large piles of clothing, so I just threw everything on the bed and took snap shots, sorry!
3. Hopefully I'll do better with taking photos this time, but no promises
4. Hannah is taking photos of hubs and I for our Christmas cards in early November, I may or may not wear something else for the photos. We'll see.

Let's start with the shoes..

black boots - Diba

tan boots - Madden Girl

camel flats - Lands End

black flats - Dr. Scholls

metallic loafers - BC

grey pumps - Madden Girl

Both pairs of boots are newer, so I'm excited to log some miles in them. I wear flats a lot, but I don't often wear those camel colored ones - I just haven't "broke them in" yet. The grey pumps are really cute, I just need to man up and wear heels to work!

Three pairs of neutral pants:

black cigarette pants - Gap

dark grey trousers - Gap

khakis - American Eagle

Neutral Tops:

grey t-shirt - Old Navy**

white blouse - Maurices

ivory blouse - Pac Sun

I've had both of these blouse for a really long time, and I don't often wear them. Someone once told me the white one looked like a pirates shirt, but I am determined to prove them wrong. I've had the Pac Sun one for years (I don't remember the last time I shopped there) and want to find new ways to wear it.

**As I was going through these later on, I realized the grey shirt had a hole. I subbed a white crewneck shirt instead.

Neutral tops:

black scoop neck tank - three dots

ivory cable knit sweater - Gap

white button up - Gap

cowlneck - Kensie

The white button up I purchased after my last challenge..I didn't have one, and thought it would be a smart buy. You may notice that I included a lot more neutrals this time around. During my last challenge I had way too many skirts and pants and not enough neutral tops. Lesson learned.

Colorful tops:

red tee - Victoria's Secret

dark green tee - Gap

thin wine colored sweater - Gap

I heart this sweater, it's new. The other two are just basics.

Skirts:

floral, pleated skirt: Anthopologie

brown pleated skirt: Gap

Black skirt: Target

Jeans:

dark trouser boot cut from a local boutique

skinny jeans from Express

Last time I only included one pair of jeans, but I can wear jeans to the office on Fridays so I thought two pair was a better fit for me.

Dresses:

paisley print - Rampage

maroon cotton - Old Navy

black v neck - Target

I'm hoping to jazz the black and maroon ones up a bit as I've had them forever. Colored tights, perhaps? I've had the paisley print one for a long time too..I'm hoping I find a good way to wear it to work.

Three sweaters/cardigans:

floral print sheer cardi - Target

ombre navy and blue cardi - ella moss

black and grey blazer - free people

Here we go!

klout-ed out

2011-10-19T20:38:00.006-05:00

Okay...so I know I told you I had all these great things coming up...but I'm not going to talk about them today.

Instead, I'm going to vent my frustrations with the blogging world, because I'm mildly irritated with it as of late.

On occasion, I "clean out" my Google reader subscriptions. During these cleaning sessions I unsubscribe from blogs that have crossed over into "giveaway-advertisement-product reviews-must get more followers" land. You see, I like blogs that post content, about their lives or area of expertise. A few giveaways, sure. A few ads, why not? But once you lose the content...I'm out. Sadly, a few blogs I really, really enjoyed have ventured into that land, so I left. My theory is this: what I'm reading should be enjoyable, entertaining or somehow beneficial. If it's not? I have no obligation to stay. Sounds harsh, but I'm bein' honest.

Today though, I have two new gripes to add to that list of blogger annoyances.

The first should go without saying, but I've seen so many who've had to deal with it and I was just given a taste too, so I'll reiterate: Give credit where credit is due. I'm not going to say anything else about that.**

And now for Klout. I want to tread somewhat lightly on this one because many of my twitter friends are ALL about Klout lately. This is also more about twitter than blogs, but...

... I hate it. Seriously. It is bogging down my twitter feed like WHOA. I miss seeing actual tweets from friends about their lives and everyday content! Now it's +K this and +K that. Gahhh. Please stop. I hate having to scroll down past 98 tweets giving K+'s to people. I just don't understand the allure. Do you really need a website to tell you how influential you are? Why does being influential about something matter? Are the perks really that cool? Am I totally missing something?

Rant over.

**disclaimer: I know I am guilty of this blogger no-no (especially in my early blogging days when I didn't know what I was doing). But believe me, I have never intentionally used something (that someone else gave me) to my own benefit (without so much as a link back or a "thank you").

+K to maggiejean87 for being really cranky tonight

whoa

2011-10-17T21:02:00.000-05:00

So I fell off planet earth again.

My apologies.

Maybe I should just accept that my blogging style is like 4 days on, 11 days off... Anyways, life has been boring as of late, but I have some good stuff coming up for ya'll.

Here's a little list:

1. review of my erin condren planner (it's awesome)

2. review of my new purses (love them)

3. introduction to my new friend (it starts with "i" and ends with "phone")

4. reveal of our master bedroom (this is wayy overdue, it's been done for awhile)

5. my second 30 for 30 challenge! (anyone want to link up??)

In the mean time, here is a cute doggy picture. I'll be back soon :)

revamp

2011-10-06T16:50:00.000-05:00

Like so many others, I started a 101 in 1001 list back in 2009.

At the time, I was in college, living with roommates, and crazy about my boyfriend.

Now I'm working a full time job, married and we own our home.

Big difference, right?

For that reason, I have edited my list a handful of times. I'm sure this counts as cheating, but whatever. In my opinion, when I read that list, I should feel motivated and want to do those things. Over time, I lost that motivation as my goals, priorities and interests changed.

On that note, I revamped it again.

I separated everything into "done" and "remaining"...just because it was getting tough to read. I also removed the categories I had originally. And as always, there are some new goals, and some that have been removed.

Without further ado...my 101 in 1001 list.

happy list

2011-10-05T15:34:00.000-05:00

10 things making me terribly happy right now:

1. my hair is now long enough to toss into a ponytail or bun without using 103 bobby pins

2. how absolutely breathtaking this town is in autumn

3. little sister is coming to visit this weekend!

4. twitter convos with my bffs

5. husband. (he made two kinds of salsa yesterday! he also made dinner, bought a surprise dessert, and did the dishes ... seriously, is there anything sexier than a man in the kitchen?)

6. fresh apples

7. snuggling in our little basement "movie theatre" watching harry potter (my dvd box set arrived!)

8. the fantastic bottle of white we opened last night (gifted from our wedding. from kix brooks' winery found here)

9. sunshine

10. this photo. and the fact that H is now firmly rooted within an hour's drive of me.

in the kitchen

2011-09-30T21:13:00.001-05:00

apologies for the sporadic posting lately. work has been a whirlwind, and (as you may have seen on twitter) i have managed to come down with some sort of awful early fall illness. i've got all the symptoms of a head cold plus a sore throat, body aches and a mild fever. symptoms that are fairly reminiscent of actual influenza...so i will be laying low this weekend.

when (if!?) i feel better, i am hoping to get busy in the kitchen! here are few of my ideas! i'm trying to build up my supply of grab n go breakfast foods because these early mornings at work have me relying on granola bars pretty heavily!

pumpkin pancakes.

a local restaurant serves a similar version and they are to.die.for. i am planning to make a whole wheat version and pop them in the freezer for a quick microwave breakfast.

pumpkin granola.

this just looks too delicious not to try. :)

homemade pumpkin spice syrup.

pumpkin spice lattes are kind of breaking my budget lately...so i'm going to attempt to DIY them. i have been using homemade vanilla syrup for awhile, so i have high hopes for this one!

baked apple chips.

i keep seeing apple chip recipes and have yet to try one! i am hoping they're tasty ... i think they'll be a less messy/sticky than a whole apple when i'm trying to scarf breakfast in the car!

mini quiche.

i already have a veggie-egg-mozzarella recipe that i LOVE, and when i saw this idea, a lightbulb went off. we make our version for dinner, but it would be great to freeze and reheat! i love a hot breakfast - i think these will be good!

all of these recipes (and their respective photos) come from my food board on pinterest.

xo.

word.

2011-09-29T20:37:00.002-05:00

awesome.

2011-09-26T20:43:00.000-05:00

I am a self proclaimed Harry Potter nerd, but I don't own any of the movies.

I was planning on holding out, and buying a set once the last one came out. Except...

This was the deal of the day on Amazon this morning.

(via Amazon)

Thirty dollars. For the first 7 movies...with free shipping.

$4.28 per DVD.

Done and done.

fall favorites

2011-09-23T10:44:00.000-05:00

i'm linking up with joelle today to tell you some of my favorite things about fall. It's definitely my favorite season, so I have lots to share!

maggie's fall favorites

-pretty leaves

-pumpkin spice lattes

-sweaters, hoodies and cardigans

-snuggling up under blankets

-not having to have the heat or the AC on

-my anniversary

-breaking out my cute jackets

-the return of my favorite tv shows (hooray for grey's!)

-dark nail polish (it just seems appropriate for cooler weather!)

-boots

-pumpkin muffins, pies and breads

-hot coffee on cool mornings

-apple season! i have 3 different varieties of locally grown apples in my house right now

-new school supplies (i'm not in school...but still)

-being able to wear my scarves without sweating

-packer season!

via google images

I would love to hear some of your favorites!

neglect.

2011-09-20T21:49:00.002-05:00

Call in the authorities; I've neglected my blog again.

Life's been crazy, but what else is new, huh?

Here a few updates from my little world...

I made salsa a few weeks ago. We had lots of heirloom tomatoes from our CSA, so I picked up a few extras and made one big batch (8 jars!) using a recipe from our local extension office. I used my immersion blender to make a nice, smooth salsa (I'm not a fan of chunks!). It is delicious, and it was pretty easy to make!

We replaced an ugly "boob lamp" (you know those cheap, circular ones? with little metal posts in the middle?) like this one..

via

...with this pretty pendant light from Ikea

Probably the best thirty bucks I've ever spent.

We also added a set of Picasso prints (from Ikea) to our kitchen. I couldn't get a good snapshot, but it's a series of stick drawings...

I like it.

Our kitchen sink upgrade is complete thanks to Ikea (oh how I love that place)! We upgraded from this...

To this...

Those aren't the greatest photos, but I love everything about it! The nozzle extends and acts as a sprayer and that little lever on the right controls water pressure and temperature. It was a relatively simple upgrade, but it really made a difference in our little kitchen!

Speaking of photos...

We are the proud owners of this little DSLR. Yay! I'll be honest and admit that I haven't even had time to read the manual yet, so we've just been using the different auto modes..but I plan to get major use out of this in the future! It takes great photos! (Note: several photos in the post were from my old camera..so don't judge me yet!)

A week or so ago, I asked you all to help me pick a new Coach bag to buy with my gift card. Thanks for all your comments! :) I called the nearest Coach store and asked if they had any "preferred customer events" coming up. These events usually happen a few times a year, but you need to purchase a certain amount of stuff in the preceding months to be notified about them. Well a very helpful gal told me that a new event was starting that Friday, and she would put me on "the list" so I could get the 25% off, even though I haven't bought anything in awhile.

Um, score. I did a little dance and couldn't believe my luck.

I ended up ordering the Kristin Leather Zip Tote in black

and because I had the discount...I also got the Court bag in Brittish tan

I'll be sure to post reviews when I get them! Should be in a few days!

I also ordered an Erin Condren life planner. If you haven't already been caught up in the Erin Condren buzz, they are AWESOME. Seriously, click that link to check them out! I purchased a different planner a few weeks ago, but I got some goo on it (one of those freezable lunch pack things exploded in my work bag!) and the binding was coming apart. Sad. Plus it just doesn't stack up to this one...

After much debate and a long phone call with Andrea to discuss the pros and cons of each design, I finally chose the "lattice" design in this pretty grey & yellow color scheme.

Adorable, right?

I also found a $25 off coupon code online (I'm not sure if it still works, but if you DM me on Twitter I'll send it to you!), so my planner cost around $36 including shipping.

Planners make me really excited. I'm know I'm kind of a nerd, but at least I can admit it, okay?

Now I'm just waiting really, really impatiently for it to arrive. Should be here the 23rd. I will definitely be posting a review. So excited!

And just for laughs...

I found this at PetSmart today - it's basically a Baby Bjorn for dogs.

I think I'll buy one for hubs for Valentines day. Ha.

I'll leave you with that.

xo.

one year ago today...

2011-09-17T23:34:00.000-05:00

makes me cry a little bit

2011-09-11T22:00:00.001-05:00

Do you remember Billy Ray Cyrus?

He sang that one ~~annoying~~ hit song in 1992? (but don't tell my heart, my achy breaky heart, I just don't think he'd understand...stuck in your head yet?) He also had a wicked mullet.

via Google images

Oh and I think he fathered someone named Miley (the last time I freaked out, I just kept lookin down, I st-st-stuttered when you asked me what I'm thinking bout...now you have 2 songs stuck in your head. sorry.)

Anyways. I digress.

I bought a Billy Ray Cyrus song recently. And it wasn't Achy Breaky Heart.

It was this one. And it makes me cry a little bit.

It's also the theme song for the show Surprise Homecoming on TLC.

And it got me thinking that I have never really shared much about the period of time when I was a "military girlfriend". Anyone who's been in a similar position will tell you it's a defining time in your life. I know that after going through a deployment with Nate I changed considerably, as did many other things: friendships, our relationship, my lifestyle, etc.

When I first met Nate, at my Ange's 21st birthday party in 2008, he pretty much told me upfront that he was going to be deployed. He had known it was happening for awhile, and really didn't intend to be in a relationship when that time came. He'd recently ended a long term relationship, and I was 21 and not looking to date anyone seriously.

Obviously neither of those plans worked out.

We were together for about 7 months before he left, and I can distinctly remember being terrified about what I was getting myself into. I didn't know much about the military, I was busy with school and work, and quite frankly, I had enjoyed the care free, collegiate lifestyle. Regardless, I think most would agree that we were pretty inseparable during those months, and we were "serious" from the very beginning. As the deployment approached, there were several sleepless nights (and one memorable sob-fest with Andrea), although it was never about whether or not we'd stay together - just about what in the hell I was going to do while he was gone.

Nate left in February of 2009, but not before I threw him a surprise going away party with friends, family and I heart SSG Nate (last name) t-shirts that listed several of his classic funny sayings on the back (SSG stands for Staff Sergeant)

For the first two months, Nate was stationed in Texas for pre-deployment training. I flew down to see him for a few days (that's all the military gave us) before he "officially" left for Iraq in April of 2009. As you can probably imagine, Texas was bittersweet.

I'm somewhat embarrassed to say that for much of the first few ~~months~~ weeks after he left, I moped around, cried a lot and watched all 7 seasons of Sex and the City (in order) on DVD. But once I got my shit together, I threw myself into running. With Nate's encouragement from afar, I ran my very first 5K and then my first 5 mile race. I also started eating better and lost a good deal of weight. After a bit of time, I got into the swing of things. I worked, I went to school, I ran. I became pretty familiar with "desert-safe" baking (lots of Crisco) and how to fit loads of stuff into flat rate boxes. Facebook was a God-send and Skype was a little piece of heaven. I downloaded new songs and made playlists for when I was happy, sad or proud (there are some real tear jerkers out there). I bought every funny/sentimental card I could find (he kept them all). I also routinely spent time with Nate's family, and I'm thankful they are so wonderful.

Several of my friendships changed significantly during the deployment. I really didn't feel right about going out to parties and hanging out downtown at bars without Nate. The reason was two fold - first, Nate and I had done that together before he left, and it made me miss him terribly. Second, why should I be out having a good time when he's stuck in a war zone? Those two things weighed on me, and the social scene was really unpleasant for me during those months, so I stopped going out. As a result, I lost some of the more superficial friends I'd had. Other friendships were strengthened, and I developed new friendships with folks I barely knew, simply because they'd gone through this before. There is an unspoken bond between military significant others, and even if you don't know each other well, you reach out to help provide support.

Nate did his absolute best to make the deployment as easy as possible on me, and I truly love him for that. Before he left he gave me a Build-a-Bear in an army uniform with the dog tags he wore for his previous deployment wrapped around its neck (I've slept with that thing dang near every night for the last 3 years.). For Christmas, he gave me a ring with his birthstone at the center. He tried his best to talk to me every day, when he had time we spent hours talking. He sent me the sweetest emails (I still have them all). Plenty of family members send care packages to deployed family members, but I might be one of the only ones that recieved a care package. He sent me a t-shirt to sleep in. He sent me a stuffed camel with the name of his base on it. He sent me this gaudy little gold turtle he bought somewhere in Iraq (I love turtles). He sent me cards and notes and had flowers delivered. He was wonderful, but it still wasn't easy.

Nate was able to come home for a two week leave late October of 2009. At that point, we had been house hunting (by sharing photos online) for a few months, and had finally found a condo to buy. We couldn't close in time, so we ended up renting the condo from the sellers for a month, just so we could move in together while Nate was home. Living together for those two weeks was amazing but leave, or "R and R", is a tease. Saying goodbye again is so hard.

Incidentally, the day Nate left to go back, his cat (who was living at the condo with me) went into heart failure, and we ended up calling in the vet for an emergency visit. His kitty had to be put down that day, and I had to call and tell him. That was an emotionally wrenching, awful, awful day. I am again very thankful for his family for being there for that night.

If you've never been a military family member, you might not know how up and down your days can be. You may never be glued to your computer and phone, because you know that if you miss the call/skype/instant message, you can't call back, and that may have been your only opportunity to talk for a few days. You might not know that getting dressed up just to Skype is totally normal. You might not know that holidays are the loneliest time - even if you're surrounded by family. You might not spend hours in online support forums talking to others who do understand. You probably don't know what the donut of misery is. You might think your friend's squabbles with their boyfriends are ridiculous, because you haven't even talked to yours that day. You might not know that you need to become really efficient at communicating, because you might only have a few minutes. You might not know that with the military, dates are never set in stone.You might have a loved one in a "safer" area, and still cry yourself to sleep some nights because you're so worried about them. It's a rough gig (and I have so SO much respect for those who go through this repeatedly for many years).

Nate came home in January of 2010, and the day was one of the happiest of my life.

In the end, I know without a doubt that spending that time apart made us much stronger. Sometimes I look back on 2010 and I really can't believe all the milestones we went through that year. Nate came home, we got engaged, I graduated college, I found my first big girl job, we got married, we found Kona...and without sounding too cheesy, it's been happily ever after ever since.

(Edit: I wrote this post quite some time ago, back when Surprise Homecoming first premiered, and have been trying to find a fitting time to post. All the 9-11 tributes have me feeling pretty sentimental this week, so it felt like a fitting time.)

help me spend my money

2011-09-10T13:24:00.000-05:00

This gift card is burning a hole in my pocket...

With that said, I have absolutely no idea which purse(s) to choose!

I'm gravitating towards black. I don't have a black bag (actually, the two bags I blogged about yesterday are the only purses I have) and it seems like a classic choice.

I'm also thinking leather or suede, as the fabric doesn't seem to hold up as well.

And possibly I will buy a less expensive purse so I can squeeze two bags out of this gift card (with the second one being smaller and hands free).

Decisions, decisions,

Here are the options I'm debating...

Kristin Leather Zip Tote (in black. love the side zips and front pocket! I also like that it looks long enough to carry on your shoulder, that's a big deal for me. this is probably my favorite. however it is $398 which seems like a lot for a tote.)

Chelsea Leather Jayden Carry All (in black. I like that this one has two compartments that don't zip and one that does. My concerns are that the straps look too short to wedge comfortable over my shoulder, $358)

Chelsea Leather Ashlyn Hobo (In black. This one is $298, so considerably cheaper and it looks like it would fit well on your shoulder. I like the hardware and the fact that you can choose silver or brass. I don't like that it has a zip top closure and for some reason I just don't love it as much as the Kristin tote above)

Coach also has a series of vintage remakes right now, and I'm strangely liking a few of them.

The Court Bag (Probably in black. Although the other two colors are enjoyable too.. I like how simple and classic this is, but I don't like that Coach doesn't provide a single photo of the inside. Is it lined? Is there a pocket in there? No clue. All they say is "inside front and outside back pocket". I also like the cross body strap. $258)

Studio Legacy Leather Backpack (I probably won't get this one, but I love the neutral color. I think this would be perfect for biking to work and is really classy. $258)

Station Bag (Similar to the Court bag, there is no information about the interior. This is probably lower on my list of favorites...something about the square shape. $258)

And if I spend my money correctly, here is the small bag I've been oogling.

Kristin Leather Crossbody (probably in black. I think this would be perfect for a long day when you don't want your shoulders to ache from carrying a big bag. I actually love the white, but its sold out. It comes in a pretty plum color too. $158)

So really...

I have no idea what to do.

Help me.

lucky?

2011-09-09T21:45:00.000-05:00

If you follow me on twitter, you know that by some totally odd stroke of luck, I've had fabulous hair days all week. I have very fine, wavy hair so this is not normal. Normally I have to straighten or curl my hair in order to be presentable, but the last few days it air dried perfectly. Awesome.

But that's chump change compared to the news I got today...

A few weeks ago I had sent my Coach purse in to have a broken buckle repaired. (This is a free service, by the way - you just drop it off at a Coach store!) Then this afternoon I got a letter in the mail from Coach saying they were sorry that the purse didn't meet my expectations, along with a gift card for $372. Umm whaaat?

I should note that this is a Coach purse I got for 40% off because my first Coach purse was worn down on the handle and was considered "unrepairable" after I sent it in for repairs. (If I'm paying big bucks, I totally expect the purses to last) I'm in love with that purse (it's the Maggie bag in saffron, and it came out on my birthday in 2009) and the wear was very minor, so I requested that Coach send it back to me (always an option when something is unrepairable). They did, along with a coupon for 40% off.

my Maggie bag, via

So that's how I got this purse (the large Kristin Signature Satin Hobo).

via ebay

I liked this purse, especially the cross body strap, but in hindsight, I will never buy a purse that light colored again. It had several stains, and because it was cloth (rather than leather like the Maggie bag) they would not come out.

Because I got it for 60% off, I definitely didn't pay $372 for it. In fact, I paid over $150 less than that.

And because it was stained and broken, and I'm not in love with it - I'm totally keeping the gift card, and the free $150.

And that means I need to go purse shopping.

(And buy a lottery ticket, because I'm pretty sure this will never happen again.)

#packattack

2011-09-08T18:52:00.000-05:00

we're ready for the game.

yes, my husband has a fu manchu ala Aaron Rodgers.

and yes, this is the funniest picture of my dog to date (that was the beginning of a yawn)!

it makes getting dressed more fun...

2011-09-07T19:15:00.000-05:00

This weekend I overhauled my closet.

I didn't exactly get rid of anything... but I made a few small improvements that (to me) make a huge difference.

For starters, I reorganized my clothes by color because i'm ~~neurotic~~ weird like that.

I'd had them organized by color already, but they were broken down into short sleeved, long sleeved and sweaters. I decided to combine them all into one big rainbow.

(see? neurotic.)

I also rearranged everything so i wouldn't have any clothes on the right hand side of the closet. This was in order to create a little "accessories station".

Here's a little background so that this (hopefully) makes more sense...

We have a good sized walk in closet that has rods going all the way around to hang clothes on. Having clothes on all three rods provides lots of storage, but made me feel a little claustrophobic. It also made a sizable space feel really small.

I used to keep my scarves on a hanger, tucked amidst the rest of my clothes. I had a little armoire sitting awkwardly next to my night stand, and it held all of my jewelry including long necklaces that often got tangled up from being shoved in drawers.

None of these solutions were conducive to the 3.5 minutes I allot to get dressed in the morning.

By rearranging, I freed up an entire wall. Then I had hubs mount a Grundtal rail from Ikea to the existing closet shelf.

via

I added S hooks and hung up all of my scarves and long necklaces.

I wanted some storage for earrings too, so I bought a framed picture of an ugly ass cat from Goodwill for $1, threw away the glass and photo and painted the frame. Then I stretched thin wire across the frame three times, tightened the wire and hung it on the wall.

(I have seen a few variations of this project that used wide ribbon instead of wire, but I didn't have any and ribbon didn't seem like it would be as sturdy.)

I decided to mount the frame underneath my necklaces, and then move my armoire into the closet as well.

I threw some headbands over the Grundtal rail too, but I'm hoping to come up with a better solution for those shortly. I'm also thinking about using small hooks to hang bracelets.

To the average person, this might not look like much (and it's certainly not as pretty as some that I've seen on Pinterest) but it makes a huge difference in the feel of my closet. Instead of feeling cramped and crammed full of clothes, it feels open and organized.

Plus, I'm a visual person, meaning that if I can't see it, I don't use it. This way I can see all my clothes, scarves and jewelry without needing to dig around.

The updates make me just a little more excited to get dressed in the morning.

Maybe I'll give myself 4 minutes tomorrow.

crayons and a glue gun

2011-09-05T22:04:00.001-05:00

(crayons + glue gun = success)

This picture on Pinterest had been haunting me for awhile...

Unfortunately, I was unable to find it's original source (it appears to just be an iphone upload). I figured it didn't look that difficult, so I picked up a $3 glue gun, two blank canvases for $10, and several boxes of crayons.

I think the hardest part of this whole project was choosing my colors. I ended up selecting shades of aqua, blue, navy, plum, grey and black to compliment our bedroom. Then I peeled off all the wrappers and arranged them in a spectrum of sorts.

FYI: I used nearly all the aqua, blue, navy and grey shades from two 96 count boxes and one 24 count box of crayons. The number of crayons you need will depend on how many colors you want to incorporate.

Then I spread out some newspaper and went to town.

You had to push pretty hard at times to get the crayons through the hole in the glue gun (the crayons must be slightly wider than the average glue stick), so I ended up breaking a few of them off because I pushed too hard.

Once the crayons broke, they tended to head into the chamber at an angle, which got kind of tricky because then I could no longer push the next crayon through. I had to use the end of an Exacto knife to force the broken bits through. In the end, I found it helpful to snap off the points on each crayon before shoving it into the gun to lessen the chance of breakage.

Once you got the crayons into the glue gun chamber, you just needed to wait a few seconds for the wax to get good and "drippy" and then start splattering.

The splattering was a very inexact science.

All in all, this was a ridiculously easy project and I love how they turned out. I have big plans for these babies once we paint our bedroom.

*there is another awesome crayon tutorial making the rounds on Pinterest that involves a blow dryer...have any of you tried that one? I considered it, but I didn't have enough crayons to do two canvases!

woof.

2011-09-04T00:44:00.000-05:00

Hi, Kona here.

my mom's super busy again, but i had like the worst day ever and wanted to tell you about it because i'm officially campaigning to get adopted by someone else. but i guess first i better tell you a little bit about me, because who knows what kind of crap my mom posts on here about me. She probably tells you that i'm some ridiculous diva, so let's set the record straight.

okay, so here are some of my favorite things:

-treats (especially beggin strips)

-playing fetch (pretty awesome)

-when my dad plays laser with me (i kind of freak out whenever he brings out the laser pointer)

-bobo. RIP. (but i also like my new replacement friend, oscar)

-walks (walks walks WALKS ahhh!)

-other dog's butts (they smell so interesting!)

-the neighbor kids (they play with me and bring me steak scraps to eat)

-digging holes in the yard (i like the digging, not the slap on the butt i get afterwards)

-rolling in dead, smelly things (i get in trouble for this too, sigh)

-queen size beds with lots of blankies (i like to be warm, okay?)

-licking my butt (just being honest)

-grandma's house (she gives me lots of treaties)

-my cousin Gertie (and my other grandma's house)

-neck massages

-bacon (self explanatory)

-rawhide bones (second only to bacon)

Things I Hate:

-the little yippy shit dog that lives next door (how come i'm not allowed to bark, but that thing is?)

-my gentle leader (it hurts my snout)

-that evil grey cat that lives here (she is a beyyotch)

-tubbies (mom, seriously i DON'T need another bath)

-my crate (apparently they thought putting me in there with the cats would be funny)

-the downstairs bathroom (its where i sometimes have time outs)

-nail trims

-those stupid booties i'm supposed to wear in the winter so my paw pads don't freeze

-"what did you do?" (worst four words EVER)

-"roll over" (second worst words ever. i tend to pretend i didn't hear, like in the picture above. "oh what, were you talking to me?")

-my collar that shocks me when i bark

and last but not least..i hate swimming

i hate it. mom and dad threw me into the mississippi a few weeks ago and i hated it.

SO WHY DID THEY THINK I'D LIKE IT TODAY?

you see they brought me to this "charity event" called diggity dog dip. apparently dogs are supposed to have "fun" with other dogs and swim in the pool.

here's me and my new pal. but this water looks sketchy, dad.

yeah.. dad, those golden retrievers are crazy. i'm not getting in.

WHY are you trying to push me closer? i said NO.

goddamn it.

LET ME OUT.

on the way home i contemplated finding new, way awesomer parents and think its for the best.

as long as i can have 67 percent of your bed (queen or bigger please), weekly bacon, and you don't make me swim, we'll be good.

any takers?

disclaimers

2011-08-30T20:59:00.002-05:00

disclaimer 1: if you don't like country music, you will probably hate this...but if you enjoy country, and like a good girl power, ass-kicking song (reminiscent of Earl Had to Die) you'll probably love it

disclaimer 2: it will get stuck in your head like WHOA

Hell on Heels by the Pistol Annies (Miranda Lambert's new trio)

i adore Miranda Lambert, and i love the trio of voices - amazingly complimentary sounds between the 3 of them.

love it.

a little list

2011-08-25T17:14:00.001-05:00

Sorry to leave ya'll in the lurch. I figured I'd let you know that I am alive. I'm just extraordinarily busy these last few weeks with work. I come home exhausted and have absolutely no motivation to do anything besides eat, shower, and sleep. I've been keeping a little post it of things I wanted to write about though, so I'm going to do another little list since I'm short on time...

-We are replacing our kitchen faucet with this awesome one from Ikea.

(photo from link above)

-A month or so ago, Nate bought an old motorcycle. Its a 1976 Suzuki and it took him several weeks to get it up and running. Now that he's able to ride it reliably he has turned into this super willing errand boy. Today I had to return something to Barnes and Noble and he was like "Oh I can do it for you....on my motorcycle (insert smirk)". He usually hates running errands (especially when they require going into the mall) so this willingness is pretty freaking awesome.

-speaking of Barnes and Noble...Nate bought me the Harry Potter books for my birthday. I pulled the 6th one off the bookshelf for the first time today and took off the cover sleeve..the book was COVERED in mold. The mold had seeped through the hard cover on both sides into the first couple pages. I thought it was dirt at first and tried to wipe it off but the cover disintegrated as soon as the damp cloth touched it. Luckily they are letting us exchange it. Weird. You could barely tell with the sleeve on.

-my cell phone (Droid) stopped syncing with my Gmail. Its driving me nuts. Anyone else have that happen?

-I am failing epically in the goal I set with my friends on our running blog. I fell back in love with running for like 2 days and then it stopped and I kind of hate it right now. My allergy symptoms are horrible and I'm soo tired when I get home that I'm starting to give up. September is going to be crazy for me too, so now I'm debating whether I should even sign up for the race. It is going to be pretty pitiful if I do it.

-On a positive note, I have been biking to work more frequently. I biked twice last week and could definitely feel it in my thighs! I'm staying active, I just seem to have the runner's blues again.

-Kona's friend Bobo finally bit the dust. He had one surgery since I last posted, but then she literally ripped his head off (and started eating the stuffing...she's not a very good friend) so he had to go. Unluckily Kona got a new friend today from my sister in law...its a flat wiener dog toy with SIXTEEN squeakers. That is not an exaggeration. And Kona loves squeaker toys... so I am dying and have forbidden my SIL from ever buying Kona a toy again.

-I finished my 30 for 30 challenge successfully, but I was so overwhelmed that during the last week I didn't snap photos most days. I definitely plan to do another one in fall though, it was challenging but in a fun way. Here are the last few photos I have:

-We are in the process of redoing our bedroom. Nate painted it ivory about a month ago and...I hate it. It feels very apartment-y and you can still see some of the imperfections on the walls. I'm trying to convince him to paint it a pale aqua color. I'm sure I'll post about it when we finish!

-I made crayon art. Its the coolest thing I've ever done...post coming soon! I also tried to dye two pairs of jeans darker...epic fail. I am going to try again (hopefully this weekend) and post the results.

-There is a brand new 5 acre dog park in town. Kona hearts it.

-I have been loving on Annie's Eats lately. I've made homemade vanilla coffee syrup, ice coffee concentrate and refrigerator pickles. Not sure if I'll blog those or not but all 3 were successful. Her blog is great (the recipes have never let me down).

That's all I can think of for now. I'll try to be back with a real post soon, but I'm not making any promises.

Paint Chip Garland

2011-08-11T10:00:00.000-05:00

I have to tell you - I love Pinterest. I know I've said that about 30 times on here already, but it's true (you can follow my boards here)

It was this photo, via Pinterest, that inspired this project.

Originally from here

Except I couldn't find a heart shaped punch. And I though hearts might be a little too girly for our living room (Nate agreed whole heartedly).

So I bought a circle shaped punch.

And then I got lots of paint chips from Home Depot. My husband stood 3 aisles over the whole time because he was too mortified to be seen with me while I ~~stole~~ collected paint chips.

I took a lot. I got green, brown, ivory and tan shades for our living room and I also took a larger stack in shades of grey, aqua, cobalt and white that I'm going to use for our bedroom (I haven't done that yet, so no pictures!).

I used the big chips, by Behr.

Hole punch away!

One tip - I found it easier to hole punch upside down, so I could see what I was doing and get the maximum (about 3-4) circles from each chip.

Then I just stitched them together with thread and a needle.

In the inspiration photo above, she spaced them out quite a bit. I found that I liked the circles close together and overlapping.

And then I hung the garland from my mantle.

I'm pretty pleased. And the whole project took like 20 minutes (except for the Home Depot trip).

Easy peasy.

Even I couldn't mess this up (unlike my wedding DIY mishap).

I foresee much paint chip ~~theft~~ collecting in my future...

the best kitchen appliance ever.

2011-08-09T10:00:00.000-05:00

This is a "Vidalia Chopper"

As seen on TV (we have a weird penchant for that stuff.. "but wait! call now...").

via

It's awesome and we use it for ev.ery.thi.ng.

You can take any veggies/fruits/herbs you have in your house, send them through this thing and make soup, casseroles, stir frys, salads, you name it. Everything will be the exact same size (either little cubes or big cubes) and will cook evenly. And it's fast.

Ours broke a week or so ago (husband dropped it), and I realized just how much we use that thing. With the CSA share and all the veggies we have, its a lifesaver. Chopping stuff by hand takes so much longer! So we went to Target Saturday and bought a new one - they're 20 bucks (more than I thought!), so we're going to do our best not to break another one.

So glad to have a little Vidalia Chopper again. I missed it.

via

In other news, our CSA has been providing a bounty of cucumbers.

No one can eat the quantity we're being given, so I had to get creative.

Enter refrigerator pickles. No canning required.

About 4 jars of these babies will be ready in 2 days. I won't tell you how they taste, because I hate pickles, but husband is pretty excited. We used this recipe from Annie's Eats, and I've yet to try a bad recipe from over there, so I'm pretty sure they'll be tasty. Nate added some dried chili peppers (also from our CSA) because he likes them spicy.

These were super simple and I'm glad to use up all those dang cukes.

The only thing we even needed to buy for this was dill - we had extra jars, kosher salt, vinegar, etc already!

We also joined our local co-op. Kind of a big deal since it required $125 (you get the money back if you ever decide to leave the co-op).

In the meantime, we get coupons, discounted cooking classes and one discounted shopping trip a month. I can also check that one off my 101 in 1001 list! Woot.

True Life: I'm a General blogger

2011-08-07T19:35:00.001-05:00

Today I'm linking up with Mrs. Monologues (who is hilarious) and fabulous but evil (one of the very first blogs I started following) for their "True Life: I'm _____ a Blogger" series.

I totally thought I missed this link up, but apparently I just can't read directions very well. Oops. There are several categories you can link up with, and since I pretty much only talk about myself, I fall into the "general" category.

Anyways - I figured that since I have several new followers (um - THANK YOU, I'm flattered), and because others will hopefully be stopping by with this link up, I'd give you a list of a few of my favorite posts!

This page will tell you everything you probably don't need to know about me.

I cut 12 inches of hair off last year. For some reason that post always gets quite a bit of traffic.

"If Facebook Existed..." makes me giggle.

My wedding and my honeymoon, in case you're interested.

I get a little fired up about food sometimes, and have made some serious changes lately.

Here are some naughty vegetables (might be slightly offensive...)

This post, "How to Be a Good Wife" makes me laugh every time.

And finally, the ABC's of me

Hope you enjoy!

If you're interested, you can link up here.

holy crap. aka: 30 for 30 week 2

2011-08-07T17:08:00.003-05:00

So after I posted about wanting to do another 30 for 30 challenge, a few people said "post more pictures this time". I thought that was odd, because I totally tried to take photos regularly the first time.

But looking through my posts today (october 2011), I saw "30 for 30 week 2" as a draft. um...oops? I totally thought I'd posted it.

So here ya go.

Better late than never, right?

Week two of my 30 for 30 remix. See week 1 here (the same disclaimers apply). To see what my "30 items" includes, click here.

A slight improvement this week - I used the self timer on my piece of junk camera and propped it on a lamp so I could take pictures in the mornings instead of post work (sometimes post work out).

This was last Sunday and it was humid. So humid that my camera lens fogged up and most of the pictures we took outside were cloudy. Ick.

Note to self: For future 30 for 30 remixes in the summertime, include more tank tops and fewer long sleeve shirts. This floral top is super thin, but still. I could've used more tanks.

Also, I love my Ray Bans. They were a great purchase.

This might be my favorite outfit this week, and to think - it happened on a Monday! I never would have put these two together if I wasn't doing this challenge - it just wouldn't have occurred to me. It was still humid, you can see that I started the day with my hair down but didn't last that way for long! Luckily my office is super air conditioned so I can wear cardigans all day...

I am loving these grey shorts. Can't believe they've been in my closet for so long - I should have been wearing these for years. That pink headband didn't last long though - headbands tend to give me headaches after about 10 minutes. This one was no exception.

That black and grey skirt is another piece that I never wear. It could have ~~everything~~ something to do with the fact that it wrinkles something awful every time you wash it and requires ironing. I was glad I gave it some wear time though!

A few people commented on my yellow striped cardigan last week. It's from Old Navy and it used to have fabric rosettes on the left side. They looked like crap after 1 wash, so I cut them off. Good decision! I like it much better now! I liked that outfit, but I had to work outside that day (and it was still hot and humid) so most of the day I was just wearing the white tank.

The grey sweater and trouser jeans are from Friday. I like these trouser jeans so much that I have been air drying them to help keep them dark. I heart dark denim. Also, feel free to snicker at the fact that I'm standing in front of a sign that says "HOME" but it kind of looks like "HOE" with my head in the way. I laughed too.

Oh - I also need to throw a little party over the fact that my hair is finally long enough to put in a bun. Hip hip hooray!

Brown skirt and coral tank are from Saturday - the brown skirt is another one that's a royal pain in the butt to wash (wrinkly!). I really like those earrings though - they're paper thin, gold pendants.

WHEW. This photographing-photoshopping everything you wear deal is tough. I'm glad to being doing this challenge though, I certainly am putting things together in new ways!

Like usual, let me know if you have questions or suggestions! I love reading your comments!!

quickies

2011-08-07T13:08:00.000-05:00

1. My new blog design is here! if you follow in a reader, you should really check it out. Joelle put it together for me, and I love it! A few things are up and coming (like my recipes page and the 30 before 30 list). I'm also trying to fix that teeny tiny gap in my header on the right hand side (any suggestions? Blogger is being stupid).

2. We spent last Tuesday night at a boat house on the Mississippi. It was wonderful and I wanted to share a few pictures!

It was fun for everyone except Kona, who acted like a diva the entire time...

My name is Kona and I HATE SWIMMING.

This water is dirty. LET ME OUT NOW.

But the rest of us enjoyed it - it was hot and humid all night, so we swam until late at night (and got a few fun pictures from our late night escapades)

The only downfall was the mosquitoes. Those damn mosquitoes. I have at least 30 bites - no lie.

perfect.

2011-08-01T09:00:00.001-05:00

For a few months now, I've been searching for something to put next to our desk. Its located in a hallway of sorts, and the hall is rather narrow. I've tried putting a lamp here, I've tried a small pedestal table, nothing was quite right.

Finally, I decided I wanted shelving of some sort, because our desk isn't large enough to store all of the necessary paperwork, books, etc that have accumulated in the area.

Our desk is oak, so I didn't want it to be wood (or faux wood).

Our couch and loveseat are dark brown, so I wanted something light and different.

For months, I couldn't find anything that would work. I frequently ~~whined~~ told Nate how "that area just doesn't look right".

And then I found it. In the 80% off section at Hobby Lobby. $70 down from $200 something. It's ivory wrought iron and it fits perfectly.

It stores all my cookbooks, my favorite novels (hello Harry Potter hardcovers) and random knick knacks, like those brown jar things that we received as a wedding gift. I think it even contains that ugly black tote (our "file cabinet") quite well.

I don't have a "before" picture for you, because the area never looked good enough to photograph but here are some after shots. I'm pretty pleased with it!

(See that garland? I have a little tutorial coming up on that...)

(ignore my laptop and breakfast dishes, please)

30 for 30 week 1

2011-07-31T18:15:00.001-05:00

As promised, here is my first 30 for 30 update. I thought it would be less annoying for all of you if I did one update rather than 6. This way you can skip this post if its not your thang and I won't be annoying you by posting daily ~~sometimes unflattering~~ pictures of myself.

To see what my 30 items are and why I'm doing this, click here.

A couple disclaimers:

1. My camera still sucks, so these are not very good quality photos.

2. I would feel awkward standing outside to take photos (we live in a condo) so even though I know outdoor photos would be more flattering, you get random snapshots from my living room. Sorry.

3. Husband works 3rd shift (he's my stellar photog), and I haven't yet figured out how to take full body photos of myself, so these are snapshots from the very end of my day. Since I've started running again recently, a few of these are post run photos (i.e. I am a sweaty mess in need of a shower).

4. It's been upwards of 95 this week with ridiculous humidity. My hair instantly frizzes/poufs in the humidity (i.e. my hair looks much during the work day than in these photos)

5. I am no fashion blogger. So don't judge me.

6. Kona ~~was forced to participate~~ likes getting her picture taken.

Day 1 (Monday, center photo) - yellow striped cardigan, white tee, teal necklace, grey shorts, tan leather belt and yellow espadrilles (this was the only photo I took in the morning (seee my hair is actually straight when I leave the house)

I am really, really uncomfortable in shorts. I don't even wear them to run. I have never worn them to work before, so I started off with a bang. This was probably my favorite outfit of the week.

Day 2 (Tuesday, bottom left) - black turtleneck, tan pants, sequin sandals, silver/turquoise necklace, random earrings and bracelets

This picture was taken about 30 minutes after I went for a run. That means I threw these clothes on the floor, then put them back on after peeling off my sweaty work out clothes. Quite frankly, I'm proud of myself for even taking the photo. This outfit was okay, pretty standard for me.

(If you look closely you can see painters tape in the background. We are hard at work this weekend.)

Day 3 (Wednesday, top right) - dress, silver earrings and bracelet, black sequin sandals (not shown)

I love this dress and I feel like a million bucks in it. This picture does not represent that. This was another post-workout shot, I had to put my outfit back on and then take a pic. I'm going to do better next week. Promise.

Day 4 (Thursday, top left) - coral pants, grey sweater, metallic sandals, cobalt beaded necklace

I really liked this outfit. I have major humidity hair in this one. I had to work outside in 90 degree heat for four hours. I also got rained on briefly. In hindsight, ~~maybe I should shave my head to teach my misbehaving hair a lesson~~ I should not have worn a sweater.

Day 5 (Friday) - jeans, coral tank, white belt, jeans, yellow espadrilles (not shown), earrings and bracelets

I have 3 skinny belts that I never wear. I've worn two this week and I'm kind of excited about that. This outfit was ok, although the yellow shoes started to hurt my feet after awhile.

Day 6 (Saturday) - omg you guys, I am such a cheater. I had to work this Saturday and was required to wear a specific t-shirt for the event. I threw it on with some old jean capris. After I got home I cleaned toilets, scrubbed my shower and mopped my floors (I'm a real party animal on weekends). Plus husband was painting our room. There was just no way I was going to wreck any of my 30 items doing these tasks. I felt like this warranted a skip day.

So even though these photos aren't very pretty, and I'm seriously cheating, I still enjoyed the first week. This is more effort than I normally put in, and I'm having fun.

Goals for next week? Take pictures before excercising. Ideally in the early a.m.

Let me know what you think! Is this annoying? Weird? Do you want to know where I got something? I'd love to hear your thoughts!

lovin' and hatin'

2011-07-31T12:33:00.001-05:00

lovin:

-miss Hannah (might be) moving closer to me!!

-my blog redesign is done! install should happen within a few days!

-Getting back to running

-starting my 30 for 30 remix (it's been really fun thus far! an update is on the way)

-finding some amazing purple raspberries from the farmers' market

-new undies from Victoria's Secret.

-these S'mores cookies (i've made them twice already)

-Project Runway is back (i'm loving Burt! you?)

-getting bumped to full time at work

-my blog hit 101 followers (thank you and welcome to those who are new!!)

-rocking the CSA share lately (made some tasty soup with amaranth leaves and a veggie quiche this week)

-Bobo surviving another surgery

-making a really successful tomato sauce from scratch, sans recipe, with herbs I grew

-clearing out my Google Reader after 2 weeks out of town (and then reorganizing it)

-finding the perfect bookshelf for our living room (something that had evaded me for months!)

-the above bookshelf being 80% off at Hobby Lobby

-Pinterest (seriously. it rocks my world.)

-waking up to these two every day

-starting to makeover our bedroom (post to come!)

-a surprise birthday trip for my mom (I've already dropped a hint about where we're going..)

-keeping My Fair Lady on our DVR (even though hubs keeps trying to delete it)

-my iron levels finally increased. partayyy! no IV iron infusions for me!

-my wonderful new planner. i'm in love with the to-do list feature.

hatin:

-my venture with Watkins not panning out (i'm still selling, but I disabled the website)

-2 of these 3 puking all over our bedroom yesterday (thank god for the carpet shampoo-er)

-being tired because i'm not quite used to working at 7:30 a.m. everyday

-burnt kale chips

-the heat (is it fall yet?)

-still haven't upgraded to a dslr (sooooon!)

-mosquitoes (omg they're bad right now)

(via Pinterest)

all in all, life has been good lately.

your turn.

xo.

golden.

2011-07-24T22:16:00.000-05:00

i need to send out a second happy birthday this weekend.

my roommate for 3 years, maid of honor and bff is 24. on the 24th. golden.

head over to her blog and show her some love.

you moving into my dorm freshman year = best.decision.ever.

happy birthday andrea. love you.

30 for 30 remix

2011-07-24T22:01:00.001-05:00

I've mentioned a couple times that I wanted to do a 30 for 30 remix ala Kendi. I even added it to my 101 in 1001 list a few weeks ago. Today I finally, finally got around to picking 30 items from my closet (quite a difficult feat). If you're unfamiliar with the remix, basically you choose 30 items and wear them for 30 days. Accessories (except shoes) don't count, nor do gym clothes, and I'm obviously not including the basics: underwear, camis, pjs. You refrain from buying new clothes during that time as well.

My main purpose in remixing is to force myself to put more effort into getting dressed. I default to black pants and a plain t-shirt, and it's getting a little old. I enjoy dressing up, I just need to plan a little better. I also want to learn what pieces I should add to my closet (instead of just mindlessly buying things). I'm choosing to start my remix now because I'm headed to the most epic shopping mall in America on August 14th and I want to make purposeful purchases.

Did you just do the math? Yeah, August 14th is not 30 days away. Its only 21 days actually - that's right, I'm cheating. I meant to do a whole 30 days, but by the time my trip to the Mall of America was on my calendar it was already too late. So I'm going to stick it out for 21 days instead. I'm still picking 30 items though, and without further ado... here they are.

Disclaimer: We still haven't upgraded to a DSLR, so these pictures are pretty sad looking. My camera gives everything a yellow tinge now too. Sorry.

dark denim trousers from Dales, bootcut jeans from Gap

purple tee from Old Navy, coral tank from Express

purple skirt from Target, coral pants from Lands End

floral printed button up from Lands End

floral pleated skirt from Anthropologie

patterned button up blouse from Maurices

lace cardigan from vintage

black short sleeved cardigan from Target

striped cardigan from Old Navy

floral cardigan from Dales

teal dress from TJ Maxx

dress from Dales

grey cuffed shorts from Target

grey and black skirt from Old Navy

black turtleneck from Dales

black knit skirt from Target

grey sweater from Maurices

white tee from Old Navy and ivory tank from Gap

brown pleated skirt and tan pants, both from Gap

black cropped pants from Target

black sequin sandals from Target, yellow espadrilles from Lands End

silver and gold sandals from Kohls, camel leather flats from Lands End

grey pumps from Steve Madden

everything together.

Kendi breaks it down into categories in the Remix guide (available here) and I tried to choose the number of pieces she recommended. I must say I've already learned something from this: I own very few patterned items - nearly everything in my closet is a solid color.

I'm hoping to snap at least one photo of myself a day for the next 3 weeks. I'll probably only post once a week or so because I'm definitely not a fashion blogger.

Stay tuned for updates, I'm kind of excited about this!

PS: Seriously, these photos are awful. The black clothes look like random blobs. Bahh. I'm going to bump DSLR up a few notches on our "to buy" list.

can't get this out of my head.

2011-07-23T09:00:00.000-05:00

are you a gaga hater? watch this, it will blow your mind.

(Lady Gaga on Howard Stern, Unassisted)

and this (jason aldean featuring ludacris) is fantastic. i so wish i could've seen it live.

Jason Aldean feat. Ludacris Dirt Road Anthem (Studio Remix)

*update: i just found a live version...it's awful recording, but you can see it here*

the 2-4

2011-07-22T21:57:00.000-05:00

happy birthday to my beautiful, classy friend ange.

love you.

welcome to the 2-4!

i only wish that i had a video of you eating bbq wings to put on my blog.

i would most certainly gain followers because that shiz is funny.

ridin' a high

2011-07-14T20:42:00.000-05:00

Ever have one of those shopping trips where you just get lucky? You find what you're looking for, they have your size and everything you want is on sale? And then you keep telling people how amazing your shopping trip was ~~even though your husband thinks your nut~~s?

Yeah, that happened to me today.

It's "Krazy Daze" in downtown La Crosse. Basically this means that all of the boutiques, antique shops and even most restaurants have giant sales all at once. It also means that shop owners and employees dress in 70's theme clothes. It's pretty awesome.

I scored deals at two of my favorite boutiques today - Kick and Dale's.

So I know I've mentioned before how I was searching for new boots, and that search had intensified after my only wearable pair was swiped from the gym this winter (who steals used boots!?). They were cheap, Payless black boots t~~hat I stole from my little sister~~ but this is the midwest and boots are imperative. I've been hunting for new ones ever since.

Picture via Kick's website

Enter Kick. I scored these Diba "That's It" boots in black leather for $50 originally $155. They had one size left, and it happened to fit me. I wear the same shoe size as Bigfoot, so this was a MIRACLE. Not only did they fit, they're also black leather and have a full zip on the inside calf which is crucial for stuffing jeans into them.

Next up was Dale's. I always find fantastic stuff there. Seriously, every time. In fact I usually find so much fantastic stuff there that I spend about 2 hours trying to decide what I should get (or if I should get it all and just not pay the mortgage that month). If you're ever in the area you should really visit this place.

Anyways,

I found a Tulle jacket (yes I bought a coat and boots in July) for half off. It was really cute and considerably different than the other Tulle coat I got at Dales, so I took it home for 69 beans. Both Tulle coats are wonderful and much, much better quality than others I've tried on. I couldn't find a good photo or link though, this is all I've got -

via

The picture makes it look kind of basic, and you can't really see the awesome yellow print that it's lined with, but I'm too lazy to take a better picture and my camera sucks anyways. Oh well.

I was crushing on this dress for the last several months, ever since it was featured in a local magazine a few weeks back. I remember showing the magazine to my mother-in-law, and she got me a gift card for Dale's for my birthday. They only had it in one size, and it was bigger than my normal size but it fit PERFECTLY. It's got a hint of cleavage, but I tried it on with a black tank top and that made it work-appropriate.

Here are a few snap shots of the dress!

via

It's by Desigual and it was way more than I normally pay for a dress, but the shop owner offered me 25% off because ~~I shop there so much~~ he was in a good mood, so I was sold. I ended up paying $89 for it (expensive - I know!) but I'm in love.

I also found a comfy pair of dark denim trouser jeans (jeans usually take me for.ev.er to find!) for half off and a $15 black turtleneck. The best part? With my gift card, I didn't even break triple digits.

Successful day, no?