10 on Tuesday (end of August!)

Can you believe August is coming to an end? Where did summer go?!?! Here are 10 11 random things from our last few days. I realized I haven't been taking ANY photos lately when I had to steal one from R's phone (#7). I'm going to start working on that. (And maybe even have some non iPhone photos soon. Maybe.

1. Friday night lights are back. My high school friend, Sarah, came down for the Bomber football game Friday night. She's a nomad currently residing in Minneapolis. It'd been way too long since I had seen her! I'm pretty sure we talked the entire 5 hours we were together and watched a total of 30 seconds of football. Gotta love the Friday night lights atmosphere though, right? :) (We did pay attention during the fly over. Those are always fun!)

2. Saturday was our town's festival. As much as I have craved pancakes the last few months, they didn't even sound good enough to drag me out of bed for the pancake feed that morning. We skipped that but did make it downtown for our other meals (and snacks) of the day. It felt like we spent more time running into people and talking to them than we did seeing all the stuff up there. But I got a little tan while we were at it.

3. While we were eating one of those snacks (a shaved ice in the coolness provided by the fire station), I got a text from my sister who had decided to come up. They checked out the festival then we all went up to the new high school for a tour. I know R is sooooo excited for basketball season in the new gym!

4. We all came back to the house to rest for awhile before heading back up. Holly worked on some baby shower stuff for a little bit. She's going to be making some good food for it, I cant wait!!!

5. The P fams came over and we went back downtown for the hog roast. We had quite the audience as we walked down the street. :) Between the singing/dancing kids, babies, and bellies we apparently put on quite the show for onlookers.

6. Saturday night we had s'mores (I'm feeling like all of these updates are about food!) at the fire pit. R loves sitting by a good fire. (And I do too!)

7. My SIL was in town for a wedding this weekend so Sunday morning we got together with R's family. It was so good to see his little sis. We so wish she lived closer but we'll settle for 'having' to go visit her (in sunny AZ). :) The boys went through lots of quarters in the machines and Coop scored this blinging gold chain.

8. I finally started on little guy's quilt last week. Slowly, I may have some of his nursery done before he arrives.....

9. Finally quilting meant getting a few notions. The lady on the quilting needles is from my hometown!! How exciting. ;)

10. My friend talked me into calling the Dr about an inconvenient symptom. I learned I'll be spending more quality time with this..... ugh. Great news is it's a perfect excuse to not make any plans and just stay home one day a week!

11. (consider it a bonus) We started a new little project. We've been keeping a close eye on curbs... Hopefully we can find what we're looking for on someone's curb in the near future so I'll have an update to this photo:

Seven Links Challenge

Mary challenged me to go digging up past posts..... here's my attempt!

The Rules:

1. The blogger who is nominated (me, in this case) must publish 7 links from his/her own blog; one for each of the categories below.
2. The blogger then nominates 5-7 more bloggers to take part, and the beat goes on...

Most Beautiful Post

I just pulled the first one that came to mind with a smile on my face. This post about R&I's first day together just makes me happy.

Most Popular Post

My most viewed post is 'Mom's Strawberry Pretzel Salad.' (There have been thousands of hits to it from google image searches.) The post that I remember getting the most (POSITIVE) attention (emails with questions and compliments from complete strangers) was the tour of our kitchen.

Most Controversial Post

The one when I let people in on a little bit of our infertility story. We got a HUGE amount of support from people I didn't even know read our blog! And.... we got a lot of backlash from people I didn't even know read our blog. People were offended that I would say what to say or not to say. And, ironically enough, were telling me what I shouldn't be saying. ;)

Most Helpful Post

I wish I could say it was one about faith and was helpful to y'all but I'm going to look at this from the other side and say that the most helpful post to me was this one about baby gear. (So selfish of me.) But thanks! :)

Most Surprisingly Successful Post

I'm not sure what qualifies a post as 'successful,' but this post about making metal stamped necklaces has the most visitors that return to it multiple times. (So maybe it's the most helpful one but since it's random google searchers I'm not counting it.)

Post That Didn't Get the Attention it Deserved
The one where we announced to the blog world we were expecting. Maybe it wasn't informative enough. I did have a couple people tell me they were offended I didn't announce sooner because they had been praying for us. I feel bad about that but in our defense, I was sick and TIRED and we had been told it would be very difficult for me to stay pregnant. As blessed as we were feeling, we were still scared. I took a pretty big step back from blogging at that time. Partially because I didn't know how to transition into being a 'mommy blogger' without being offensive, partially because I didn't know how I would blog if something terrible had happened that would need explaining- but mostly because I was just plain sick and tired. It wasn't personal- I promise!

Post That I am Most Proud of
This mini cardboard testimony series. It's hard to be real about the ugly past. Funny that something I was so ashamed of can be my post I'm most proud of.

And now it's your turn!

1. JILL

2. Tab

3. Laura

4. Kari

5. Lisa

6. BP

7. Molly

Or anyone that wants to play along!

Today It Clicked

Today it clicked for me. That bigger picture that I'm always thinking about got a few more pieces of the puzzle put in and it. just. clicked. I know I'm not going to do God's story justice here but here's a quick review....

LOTS of things had been happening where I worked that made me feel like I was not where I was supposed to be. Some doors in my life were closing and others were opening and they all pointed to me changing my life direction for a time. I said no. And no. And no again. I kept telling God 'no' because I had ALWAYS wanted to be a teacher and I had the perfect teaching set up. I loved my curriculum, my classroom and my kids. It was the only thing in my life I ever felt like I was really good at- I would have been so stupid to walk away from it. As much as I told God 'no,' He patiently kept telling me 'yes.' In February, I compromised and requested a leave of absence for the following school year. It was granted.

Meanwhile, R&I had been wanting babies. Lots of them but we decided we would be happy with just a few if that was God's plan for us. Previous medical history did not bode well with this plan but we were both wanting to adopt anyway so we were okay with that. We sought adoption but the doors kept closing. Upon R's request, I reluctantly went to the Dr. But I told him 'no' as well. 'No, I wasn't going to have fertility treatment.' 'No, I don't want your medicine or procedures.' I just wanted to know what was physically (not reproductively speaking- I had just been feeling 'off' for 10 years) wrong with me. He diagnosed me with hypothyroidism and put me on a pill that cost $1.20 a month. I saw a chiropractor for the first time in my life and she informed me that I was (literally) out of line (everywhere). After years of wanting to be parents, we were pregnant within a matter of weeks.

In fact, remember that leave at work I had requested? I only requested it because God stopped allowing me to say no. We were pregnant at the time but didn't know it. (Oh but God did.) In fact, I probably wouldn't have taken it had we known we were pregnant because, as I'm sure you know, babies are expensive and then they grow up to be expensive kids. 'We wouldn't be able to afford to have a baby on R's income alone.' Surely God knew that.

Over the summer, Baby H kept growing and I kept working. We had a scare in early July. I remember being admitted into the birthing unit and asking God 'Why are we here? What is the purpose of this happening right now?' I. just. didn't. get. it.

School started. It was tough. Really tough. I had anticipated being sad and missing the kids (that laugh at all my jokes and make me feel so needed). I did not anticipate feeling so down on myself. I felt like I was not contributing anything to society by cleaning my kitchen and editing people's pictures. I didn't feel like I was making a difference and immediately decided there was no way I could stay home. I questioned God's will even though we had prayed about this scenario for years.

In just a few short days, God was out to hit me over the head again show me that I could do it. First, He sent me a series of emails using some amazing clients (new friends, really) of mine to tell me what a blessing I was to them. Who knew that was even possible in a 45 minute photo session?

Then, as we were sitting at a routine prenatal appointment, our Dr's generally cheerful demeanor changed. She got real serious and started talking to us about preeclampsia. She told us the complications of it, especially with onset before 32 weeks. Several hours of testing and another Mercy admit wrist band to add to my collection later, and what she suspected was confirmed.

As I talked to the Dr this morning, I wasn't sad or scared about the outlook one bit. Instead, I had an 'a ha' moment. And God was smiling down on me saying, 'See child, I told you so.'

'I told you you wouldn't go to work this year. I told you your job was at home for this season. I told you this summer to slow down. I told you My timing is perfect.'

'My timing is perfect.'

And this slow learner is seeing a little bit more of that big picture today and feeling so blessed.

So blessed indeed.

google images

10 on... Thursday?

I keep thinking I'll do a '10 on Tuesday' post but it seems like every Tuesday lately I've been swamped. I'm on a much needed lunch break from work and decided to distract myself with a 10 on... Thursday instead.

1. R is back at school. It's been quite the transition for us with me staying home but we may actually be settling into our new normal. Our new normal includes a clean kitchen so we're mostly liking it so far.

2. We went to the Straw Poll in Ames. My brother had free tickets so he 'took us out for lunch' for my birthday. Generous of him, huh? :) (In case you didn't know- there's tons of free food/goodies at the straw poll.) We had LOTS of great food, filled a few goodie bags with freebies, and learned more about some of the candidates. I don't consider myself Republican but I did enjoy the event. (Oh please don't misread that and think I'm Democrat. I'm most definitely not. I tend to lean towards being conservative and Biblically correct which is quite often not politically correct. But that's a whole other post that will probably not make it's way to this little blog.) It was a great day but I ended the long day laying under a tree waiting on R to trek to the car and bring it back to get me. I'm sure I looked 'neat' there.

3. I lied. I didn't end the day under that tree. Once we got home and re-energized, we went out to eat with some good friends. They let me choose desert and even sat by the duck pond with me while we ate. How corny fun is that?

4. I've been craving pancakes for the last several months. Cant get enough of them. R is trying really hard to perfect his pancake recipe. We've had several lessons at the H house. On my actual birthday, he brought me pancakes in bed at my desk (because I was already up and working that day) with a candle. He's a keeper.

5. We've been rearranging, repurposing, and really cleaning things out around here. I figure if I'm going to be spending so much time here, I need to start liking the way it looks again. R has been a big help in this by bringing me home flowers from the grocery store. The newest ones are my favorite but I'm too lazy to get a picture so this will have to do. Told you he's a keeper.

6. I found this 90 second cake recipe on Pinterest and tried it out. At 11:30 pm. Not as good as the yogurt version but not too bad.

7. Because of things like 90 second cake close to midnight, I was super worried about 'the orange drink' test. But great news- I passed!! The nurse was SO excited for me. :) However, soon after the Dr came in with more lab results that no one was excited about and I've been doing more testing this week. I finish up with them tonight and will get labs at the end. Hopefully we'll get good news and wont need anymore done until our next regular appointment (in a couple weeks). I'm feeling pretty good about it thanks to my prayer warriors. They are good to me.

8. I got a package in the mail from my mom yesterday. She had taken Mo back to school shopping to pick out some clothes. Mo wasn't interested in getting things for herself- she wanted to pick out things for her new baby cousin instead. Doesn't that just make you're heart happy? It did mine.

9. The upstairs tv is one of the things we've cleaned out! It's been with us since Creston and the story goes that it's how I won R's heart forever (well one version of the story....). We had always planned on putting it in our basement here and it never made it's way down there. (R weaseled his way into a new one for downstairs.) We had some friends over the other night. R mentioned selling it and all of a sudden we found ourselves on the good end of a bidding war. He couldn't justify keeping it then so we said our goodbyes. (And then went to watch her in our friends' basement that night. Ha.)

10. Baby H is growing right along. He's an active little guy, moving often and reaching his '10 kick count' in a matter of just a few minutes. He totally loves attention from his daddy and snacks. Lots of snacks. We are obviously excited to meet him, but we do hope it's not for a little while longer. Keep growing, little guy!! (updated: I just put this screenshot for visual interest and because I like the visual of weeks. I don't have varicose veins. Thankfully.)

What have you been up to lately?

What to Wear?

Warning: This post is about baby bumps. If you just peed on your 1,000th stick this month and you hate people talking about baby bumps, turn away now- trust me, I get it. And know that I still love ya!

Sooooo this week I've had 3 different people ask me about maternity clothes. Which I laugh at because I (okay my mom) bought a total of about 4 pieces of actual 'maternity' clothes and found other stuff that would work or borrowed from friends. But I do think it's worth talking about because as much as R&I wanted babies, I still meltdown when I have somewhere to go that actually requires dressing in something better than R's oversized tees and shorts.

Just yesterday, I was talking to my awesome friend about the reality of me not going to work while all my teacher friends are back at it (yup, it's surprisingly hard). She told me to get my butt up and showered and dressed and get going in the morning (in a much nicer way). My excuse for not putting on 'real' clothes each morning was that when you only have so many pairs of pants that fit, you hate to waste the perfectly good pair just for editing at the computer.

And so ends my excuses. By 10 am today (baby steps), I was showered, dressed and had eaten breakfast (twice actually). And by dressed I don't mean work out shorts. (Do you hear the angels singing?)

As I pulled out a pair of maternity capris I already regret buying. I thought it was worth mentioning some things about what to wear (or what not, actually).

First, go shopping before you need to. NOT to buy a maternity wardrobe. You have no idea how big that baby bump is going to get. But you can buy some roomier clothes that will be good pieces after baby's arrival. I suggest taking a friend that's been there, has a similar build to you, and is supportive. (Actually, just take Jaren. Even if you don't know her, just take her. Trust me.) My first trip (EARLY on, before most people knew we were expecting) was to Target (with Jaren) and I had a $50 budget. I picked out a few summer dresses (not maternity) in a size larger than normal. They fit great then and they fit great now. A lot of the styles right now have lots of room in the belly so they're the perfect substitute. Plus you can pair them with leggings and cardigans to get you through more than one season.

At this trip, Jaren also talked me into the belly band (or rather the knock off version of it that Target sells). I was totally against it. It looked uncomfortable and ugly. She told me to trust her so I did. I'm so glad I did. Not long after that trip, I couldn't fit into my favorite BR skinnies. Cue the belly band. (Amen.)

Adding these few pieces (along with leggings already in my closet), I got through the first 4 months no problem. At the end of May, I was still surviving with these things but we had a MN shopping trip planned. Forever 21 and H&M at MOA both have a (small) maternity section.

I found some grey skinny jeans, comfy pants (that I'll totally wear well past maternity season), and a tank and tee. I also got some jeans at Motherhood Maternity and some capris at Target. In a later trip (just to Jordan Creek), I got some Gap shorts. These are the only maternity pieces I own and each pair of pants is totally different. Let's compare.

First up: Forever 21 Grey 'Skinny' Jeans.

The good: They're cute if you work them right (see below). And they don't make me feel like I'm wearing maternity pants. The band is low but stretchy enough that it actually feels good.

The bad: I always feel like I should wear bigger or flowy tops or tunics with skinny jeans to balance things out. Bigger/flowy+baby belly=tent. Not attractive. Remedy: pairing them with tanks and 'flowy' cardigans.

The ugly: 'Skinny-maternity' anything might be an oxymoron. I'm going to sound like a nimwit here, but I was surprised by how big my legs got (and are getting). These puppies leave marks down the sides of my legs where the seams are. I haven't worn them for an entire day at a time since June. Evenings out are about the limit.

Overall: Love em. And totally recommend them.

The Target Capris:

The Good: Cute factor with the rolled cuffs/boyfriend jean look. And the 'real' button look (more on that in a bit).

The Bad: TIGHT in the waist.

The Ugly: I thought I could pull off the maternity pants with the stretchy sides/back and keep the button up look going. I was wrong. I CAN button them. And they fit when I do. But I cant sit down (or breathe for that matter) without it hurting. Hard metal pushing against the outside of your belly + little baby pushing against the inside of your belly is not a good combo.

Overall: I may have bought them too early but they are the same size as my other pants that still fit so I'm not sure even a larger size would have worked. I still wear them using the rubber-band trick so I've gotten my monies worth but I would not recommend this style.

The Motherhood Maternity Jeans:

The Good: They fit perfect and are definitely 'transition' jeans from early to later. They still fit great and even though I put them through the dryer, I think they should fit for quite awhile longer (hopefully the rest of the pregnancy). From the waist down, they are cute. And they are versatile as jeans or rolled up capris (at least in my mirror they are- I hope that translates to real life).

The Bad: I was opposed to the belly cover of these based solely on looks.

The Ugly: It's fun to wear them as capris on a hot day... but beware- this band (and the belly band) are HOT (and not in a good way). My belly sweats (yup, seriously) when I wear these in the summer.

Overall: Love 'em. Definitely recommend 'em. Other than the sweat factor, they are super comfy and cute. Even though I was opposed to the look of the belly cover, they are the most practical and comfortable of the lot.

The Mauve Gap Shorts:

I wasn't sure if the picture of these I found online (gap.com) were the right ones but I checked and they are. Mine were MUCH cheaper in the store than these are and apparently I bought mine big because they are not that small looking (and longer- though I don't roll mine up like that).

The Good: Cute and comfy. Even with the lower waist band, they are comfy (though I wear them under the belly- not sure if that's the intended style or not).

The Bad: Though the color is fun, when you're only investing in one pair of maternity shorts, it might be a good idea to invest in something a little more practical.

The Ugly: The length. Though they fit quite a bit longer than the ones pictured, I'm more of a bermuda shorts girl and wont wear anything shorter when I know I'll be sitting in public places. (Weird, I know.)

Overall: I like them so much, I'm sure my friends are sick of seeing them. Comfy, cute and clearance are three of my favorite words when shopping and these fit the bill.

Overall, the only ones of the lot I wouldn't recommend are the 'real front button' look. I found them to be really uncomfortable (if you had a different experience with them, let me know!).

I know this doesn't look like many bottoms (trust me, I thought of that when I was moving my 36 pairs of jeans to the spare closet), but these, paired with skirts, dresses, and leggings have really gotten me by okay.

Also, the borrowed pieces from friends have been a huge blessing. R caught me trying on a pair of jean shorts a friend sent my way and he said, "You do not do a happy dance in the mirror for jorts." He's obviously never had to dress a baby bump.

For the sake of not making this post any longer than it already is, I could do a separate post on maternity tops but the truth is, I only have two words for you: TARGET TANKS. (It will be a sad day if these stop covering my belly.)

Happy dressing!

From The Desk Of

It's a desk day today. The newborn I was supposed to be shooting this morning is sick so we had to reschedule. No morning session means lots of work from the desk. After uploading a ton of pictures from this weekend's wedding, my computer started running slow(er than I'm used to). I already spend enough time in photoshop as it is so I really need it to work super fast for me. Thus, the process of clearing this puppy off started.

I currently have a hard drive hooked up that is clearing of tens of thousands of photos and I've started the process of deleting about as many. Thats a big process!

While I'm working on it... I'm finding some oldies but goodies and some that I set aside for the blog that never made it.

This folder, "from the desk of," is one of those folders I had long since forgotten about.

These are pictures that I took from my desk somewhere around the end of the school year. I rotate through quotes/scriptures but some of these made the cut and stayed a really long time. Some I prayed, and prayed, and prayed again over. And some helped me through some not so easy days. It was a little tough to tear the tape off of them and take them down.

I never got around to the week of blog posts I had planned to talk about some of them so I'm just going to post them all here for my own sake of remembering.

A Little Explanation

Earlier today I posted some little lovelies from photo booth. Some felt those needed an explanation. (You're right, there are some scary ones in there!)

From top to bottom:

1. Me today. Straight from bed with only the eye goobers wiped away. Good thing you can't smell my breath.

2. Me apparently trying to show off a freshly cleaned house with only a laptop and remote on the couch. (Notice the much more interesting background from when this baby was upstairs.)

3. New hair cut. (I think it was during March Madness because R's buddy is on the couch and I wasn't hanging out with his wifey so she must not have been here.)

4. A 'beauty' treatment. ;)

5. This was the contraption I set up to hold ice bags over my face (so I could still work) after my wisdom teeth came out. Ouch.

6. Apparently I was doing a self X-ray before the wisdom teeth came out?

7. A view from a different angle. When we first got the Mac, I thought the kitchen bar was a good place for her. I was wrong and apparently not happy about it by the looks of this picture. :)

These pictures are almost making me want to decorate in the basement now so my self-portrait sessions aren't so boring for y'all. :)

Living Better: Sleep

Ahhhhhhh. Sleep. Me & Sleep have this love/hate relationship. Love it when I get enough. Hate it when I can't. And it's been more of the latter lately. We're pretty sure this is God's way of calming my biggest fear about becoming a mom. (Is it bad that my biggest fear is not getting enough sleep?!) As if He is getting me used to this lack of sleep routine in preparation. But I'm really fighting it. I'm working really hard to get at least (okay, about) 7(ish) hours of sleep a night. Though if 5 1/2 of those hours are consecutive, I'll take that too.

This means that if R&I go to bed late and I get up early with him in the morning, I usually take an early morning nap and end up getting up around 9 (except for the two days/week I have 9 am sessions). I'm totally okay with this sleep pattern for now and am noticing that I do feel better with the extra sleep.

However. The problem is that by 9 am, I feel like I need to eat and start working right away so I don't fall behind for the day. Which leads me to my next living better goal: showering.

I posted this on facebook the other day:

I mean, I did get a phone call from R about 45 seconds before they came over to let me know he wasn't coming home alone but what can one really do in 45 seconds besides throw on that lacking undergarment? (Side note: this is why even our best friends whom are over here all the time call or text before just 'stopping by.' ha)

So I posted that and realized that I really need to shower earlier in the day. And currently, here I sit past 10 am, still not showered for the day. Is it bad that I need a shower by goal added to my living better list? (You don't have to answer that for me. Yikes.)

Is it worse that I took a photo booth photo of myself to talk myself into thinking just brushing my teeth would be okay instead? (Double yikes.)

While I'm off to shower, you can enjoy these little lovelies I found while snapping the photo booth pic. Sadly, the sans shower look is trending in them..... Happy Friday!!

A Craftastic Summer Evening

Updated: I have been asked for this post by a few people and I thought I had posted it. I typed it a long time ago and just never got around to publishing. Sorry!!

I have to admit, I really dropped the ball on craft night. We originally talked about doing a spring one, then an early summer one, then finally it turned into lets just get one in before school starts again. -We're much more realistic now and already planning the next one for another Christmas one! I'm also being a little more realistic about what I'll be able to contribute and have already asked the foodie to be the menu planner. ;)

My high school friend, Jill (a foodie) brought the BEST cheesecake stuffed strawberries and the cutest mustache mug craft. (Seriously, I could go for a ton more of those strawberries right now. You know how everyone is polite and leaves the last one? I was totally 'that girl' that ate the last strawberry tonight. SOOOO good!)

Molly brought this fun canvas project. (Are you noticing the Pinterest trend yet? We thought the next craft date should maybe be changed to Pinterest date instead....) Jen made the vinyl letters for mine with her fancy schmancy cricut. Have you seen those things at work? So geeky but soooo awesome!

Kari brought the sand vases. I think you were supposed to cover the entire thing but I opted for a sand stripe instead. (I like to live on the edge).

I did the Scrabble 'frames' with the clothes pin. Jen reminded me yesterday that I hadn't actually seen it or tested it to see how it would work (and that not everything I envision works out). I should have stuck with a Pinterest craft. My original plan was to do the bigger Scrabble canvas as my craft but it's pretty hard to come by that many letters for everyone! (But you can keep collecting those old Scrabble letters for me please and thank you!)

Here's a sample of what we made. Jill has better pictures on her blog so go check those out. My mustache mug had already found a home in my new niche before I took this picture so you may have spied it on my desk picture. (and yes, our little guy's name is blacked out on purpose. R wont let me tell anyone!!! sorry!)

As always, some of the craftasticly awesome women I know:

Back to School

Today is the first day of school for a lot of my favorite teachers. And my first year of not back to school in a quarter century. I'm not sure I could ever get my feelings about that into a post so don't worry, that's not what this one is about.

In fact, when I woke up at 4:30 am not able to sleep, it wasn't that I was thinking about. I was thinking about R and his first day back with new kids today. It will be a different year for him. With the new building and grade shifting, he has two groups of new kids this year instead of his typical one new group. The new group is a third grade group. (Have you hung out with a third grader lately? Those guys are little!)

It will be a different year for him but I know it will be a great year for him. He is the best teacher I know- which is saying a lot because I know a ton of really great teachers and, well, he's a PE teacher. (Oh come on, I know you were thinking it too. We all know how everyone feels about PE teachers.)

He really is good though. He cares about his students but he's their teacher first, not their friend. He has high expectations of them, and they rise to the occasion. He teaches them to live healthy lives. He works to help them grow into better people, not just better 'athletes.' He (and his wife) pray for his kids.

To be real honest, PE was not my strong suite growing up. And PE (and a lot of the PE teachers) never had a good rep with me. (My own PE teacher didn't make me participate, he had me grade papers for his other classes. Classmates in college going for PE begged me to do their homework.) However, R has really changed my mind about PE teachers and the class. He works hard at what he does and really does care. He really is the best teacher I know.

I pray that R (and all the other teachers!) have an awesome year back this year. I pray that they have good rosters, productive professional development and administrators making wise decisions for their students. I pray that they spend this year connecting with their students and helping them to grow into better people. I pray that it's an awesome year for all of them!- I know it will be for R! (How can it not be? He's already had home cooked meals from the PW cookbook this school year- that would not have happened in previous first weeks back. And he gets an extra week vacation to hang out with me and the little guy.)

Happy School Year!

Hang it Up

I'm glad I'm not the only one that thought the 'Crying is for babies' was cute. It's not actually a poster. I typed it up in photoshop and printed it on 8x10 card stock to fit a frame. I made a few different ones so the frames wouldn't hang empty on the wall. I envision those frames being filled with Baby H pictures soon after his arrival but you know what they say about the carpenter's house... And for those of you that didn't think it was funny, relax, I'm hanging this one up too (as soon as I can decide what colors to print it in):

Cry it Out

I didn't cry once today. Are you impressed? Seriously though, it was the first day back for my fellow teacher friends and I was really thinking it would be a tough day. It wasn't that bad at all. In fact, as I was making my 9am smoothie, I was so thankful to be at home doing that at 9am rather than 6am. (Never-mind the fact that R and the fellow neighbor teachers in this district were still out and about today making it still feel like summer... maybe tomorrow will be a different story.. but I still made it through the day not a bit sad!)

I haven't exactly been tear free lately though. Not about school stuff. Just about whatever seems overwhelming (which can be a lot when you're sharing your body with someone else). Sometimes R just lets me cry it out. Smart boy. :)

We always joke that this little guy is going to be a crier. Pretty much every other baby we know right now is a great, quiet, easy going, laid back baby. Which means someone in our group of friends is due for a crier. So you know that means it will be us. ;)

In fact, I hung this up in his room today.

Oh come on. It's funny. (Seriously, don't send me hate mail.) And yes, I'm fully aware that this cements our chances of having a crier. Remind me when I'm up in the middle of the night that I'm totally okay with that. ;)

Hope you're having a tear free day! Especially all of you teachers getting ready for school to start! I'm definitely thinking about you this week!

This Is Not A Post About Lemonade

My blog is boring.

I post about things like sorting the mail and lemonade in an effort to not offend anyone.

If I post about baby clothes, I get told I'm shallow. If I post about vacation, I get told we don't spend our money wisely. If I post about our home, I get told I'm showing off. If I post about spending time with family and friends, I hurt peoples feelings for leaving them out. If I blog about pregnancy, I offend the people who started following our blog while we were still waiting. I've had a lot of complaints from multiple angles about my blog lately.

It bothered me for awhile. I considered deleting the blog. I considered setting it to private. I thought for awhile that God was testing me to see how long I could go at controlling my tongue so I didn't say anything. I didn't respond to the negative comments. I just let people think what they wanted to think because I knew the truth and was not ashamed.

In a weak moment, I decided to take on all the negative comments and reply to them. One particularly mean message was from an anonymous sender. I logged into stat counter to see who it was from. When I clicked onto the post for that day, it said 278 people had read that post. 278. Really? Who are you people?!? I can name about 8 of you. ha. I was shocked to see that many people had read the post that day.

I told R about it. I told him about how my feelings had been hurt. Again. And how I stopped looking up to see who it was and decided not to reply to them anyway. Then I told him about why I wanted to quit blogging.

He talked me out of it. He encouraged me and told me how much he likes our blog. He told me how much he supports everything I say on here and gave me permission to speak freely.

So I kept blogging. I blogged about lemonade.

Then one of my best friends and I went out to lunch. The blog topic came up. I'd be lying if I said my feelings weren't still hurt at this point but she's so good at getting me to snap out of things. In not so many words (she's straight to the point with me- I love her!), she told me to stop blogging about lemonade and just blog.

So I blogged about sorting the mail. Ha. I know. I'm such a chicken.

But one thing both R & J told me was that I need to stop worrying about the few people I may have offended and start blogging for us again.

The truth is I'm not blogging for followers or sponsorship. I'm blogging to record our lives. I don't expect you to enjoy it and you certainly don't have to stick around to read it. But if you do choose to stay, please be nice.

So here it is. Our life. On our blog.

I'm sorry if it offends you (please consider that your apology and move on from picking on us about the blog).

And to those of you that continue to love on us despite ourselves, thankyouverymuch. :)

Living Better

Summer vacation is coming to an end. The end of this summer marks a new beginning for me. I have so many mixed feelings about it.

One thing I'm feeling is worried.

I'm not worried about if this was the right choice for us or not (I've overcome that worry. for today).

I'm worried about becoming a full-time slob.

It's so easy for me to shower whenever I want (or not), to never fix my hair or make-up, and to wear an endless supply of tees/tanks and comfy pants in the summer.

During the school year, I'm more likely to put effort into these things and into things around the house. Without the routine of school to keep me on a schedule, I'm worried about my new normal and what it might look like.

I've decided I need to be more intentional about living better. I'm going to attempt to blog my way through it and you can hold me accountable. I plan to start easy, with things we are already doing, and work my way through things we want to do and/or are working on. I have a lot of friends that are experts in some of the areas I want to improve on so be prepared for me to ask you to guest post.

To start, and to make me feel halfway decent about doing something right, I'm going to show you our mail system.

Someone asked me about the purpose of the 'in' and 'out' clips in our improved 'what is that' spot and if they were really necessary for us. YES. They are. We get A LOT of mail. A lot of junk mail. A lot of business mail. A lot of {cb}h mail. And sometimes a lot of mail that belongs to the neighbors but that's another story....

As soon as the mail comes into the house, I take it to the garbage can to sort it. (I should have said recycling bin, huh? Maybe you can guest post on recycling to live better for me later?)

I tear up and throw out all the junk mail first. R never sees the hundred offers for new credit cards he gets every month (federal offense? sorry, mom).

In the junk drawer directly above the garbage is a pair of scissors (we keep scissors all over the house and in the car, are we the only ones that use scissors that much?). I cut out any coupons or ads I want to save.

The bills come out and go to the 'To Do' bucket. (As part of his quest to lead our family, R took over the bill paying last year. It's been great!)

The {cb}h mail comes out and goes to my work desk for sorting and filing.

Anything else for R goes to the 'In' clip at this point. (Previously, it was stacked on the cookbook holder on my kitchen counter. It felt so good to get it off the counter today!)

I know sorting through the mail seems like a simple thing for most but we really do get SO much of it. If we don't use a system, it can really overtake the counter (and pantry, and desk, and...). It seems like just sorting it over the garbage helps out a lot.

Do you find that you have mail stacked up or cluttered on the counter? Do you have an awesome sort system?

Are you ready to be a living better guest blogger for me? :) Email me and let me know!

The 'What is That?' Spot.

We built our home three years ago. (I don't use the term built lightly like many do. I'm talking about doing the actual, physical building. Yes, I think there's a big difference.)

Since we moved in, we've had this little niche by they back door. I always had big plans for it but it sat empty- or full of boxes, storage tubs, bags, shoes, etc, etc, etc. It was a sad, lonely, unfinished, brown niche. Most people that went through our house would ask about the odd little space and what it's purpose was. And the truth is, it really didn't have a purpose.

Until today.

All I wanted for my birthday was for R to do something with the niche. He's been putting it off for one reason or another (namely blaming his finishing carpentry skills) for quite awhile now but finally decided he would give it a try.

One of the nice things about always having a project going on is that you always have odds/ends materials for new projects. The total cost for this project was $20 and only because he was 5" short on plywood.

The breakdown:

-I made a cardboard template for R to copy and he used the ($20) plywood to build the desk part. He trimmed it in with trim pieces we already had in the basement. We painted it with existing trim paint (We always have this color on hand- it's Sherwin Williams 'PATIENCE.' Don't you love that?)

-We painted the wall with leftover paint from the nursery trim (Sherwin Williams 'Drizzle' color- looks more blue here but it's aqua). Yes, it's trim paint, not wall paint. We improvise on a lot of projects around here.

-The post box was a hand me down from Holly. I painted and ruffed it up.

-The post box holds storage for stamps, post its, pocket change, business cards, etc.

-More storage is located on the back walls (that you can't see). There are also EIGHT outlets on those walls (I originally planned to use this as a charging station).

-We have no idea what the 'In' and 'Out' board is from. I actually pulled it out of the basement garbage and hot glued the scrabble letters and clothes pins on. This will hopefully work great for us because I have a lot of outgoing mail with {cb}h and R is often the one to do the post office run. I often check the mail and things he needs to go through sits on the counter until he gets to it. (Yes, we have the back of the pantry for that purpose but he would forget to check there for it. Hopefully this works better!)

-Bucket next to the pen jar is a 'To Do' bucket. Was hoping to keep it empty but there's always something to do.

-Mustache mug is from craft night (more on that later), courtesy of Jill. Isn't it perfect?

-The pink canvas is taped to the wall while I figure out what to put there. Likely a similar canvas project (with the letters going the correct way obviously).

-Chair I bought from The Shabby Tabby for $5 awhile back. It's a photo prop but this is the perfect place to store it, dontcha think?

I know it doesn't look like that big of a deal but I really wish I had the before picture so you could see what an improvement this really is. Hopefully it serves its purpose well and keeps the kitchen counter clutter free! Thanks for working on this today, R!

PS- He still has over half the plywood left and thinks it's enough for the nursery storage bench so the $20 is going a long ways!)

Lemon Shake Ups

Are you ready for the Iowa State Fair???

I grew up loving the state fair and I try to go every year. R did not grow up loving the fair but he tolerates it every year (for me!).

I haven't been doing all that awesome in the heat this summer, but I'm still excited for the fair to get here. One of my favorite things is the food! Though can't say I've ever tried the fried oreos... I tend to stick to the corn dogs, funnel cakes, smoothies, and LEMONADE! Ginny's Lemonade is my favorite (it's the one outside the pig barn... tasty sounding, I know).

I've tried to copy the state fair lemonades and haven't been real successful at it, but this concotion comes close.

I combined a few different recipes that I found online. If you google search 'state fair lemonade,' you'll come up with lots of recipes to try! Here's what worked for me:

Lemon Shake Ups

Heat 1 Cup water and 2 Cups sugar on high in saucepan:

Bring to boil and boil for 5 minutes (stir, stir, stir!).

Let sit until room temperature.

When cool, stir in 1 Cup fresh squeezed lemon juice (about 3-4 lemons? heat the lemons in the microwave before squeezing for best juice).

Fill 8 oz measuring cup with 1 Cup ice and water. Pour into jar.

Pour 1/4 cup lemon syrup mixture over water.

Shake, serve and enjoy- preferably on the front porch swing but at the computer while editing works too.