Month: July 2014

Hayden and I headed into Anchorage earlier today to pick up Andy from the airport, to find out on our way his flight was delayed due to weather. We were within 10 minutes of town so no use turning around, we’d simply buy some time and rummage around town until he made it in.
In our travels, Mary Lambert’s song Secrets came on the radio. It’s a catchy little number where she shares her “secrets” with the world. Like the fact that she wears mom jeans, and enjoys her disfunctional family. It made me laugh and gave me an idea on how I could entertain myself while waiting for Andy to arrive.
We all have unique personalities. Lots of little things that make us tick. And I bet you all have hilarious little quirks that some of your closest friends don’t even know. No one is perfect and it’s all those silly things that make us real. So I invite you to kick back, open up and share some of your dirty little secrets with your friends and family. Start your weekend off with some laughter.

1. I have the biggest sweet tooth of probably any one you’ll meet. Like go out of my way to find dessert. I once resorted to cooking a frozen apple pie I had and waiting up most of the night to eat some. I polished that puppy off in a matter of a few days. By myself. Oye.

2. Careless Whisper by Wham is my ultimate favorite jam. I know every single word and you better believe I rock it.

3. Children scare me. I get really nervous and don’t know what to do with other people’s children. Especially babies. Good thing I’m pregnant.

4. I have movie amnesia. I can watch a movie and 10 minutes later not be able to quote a single line. Don’t ever pick me for “Name That Movie” trivia. We’ll lose.

5. I can’t eat leftovers. Oddly, cold food freaks me out. Especially cold pizza.

6. I laugh at most everything. Even at inappropriate times. It gets me into trouble.

7. I’m horrible at doing dishes. So much so people have commented on it. Multiple times.

8. I often think about elementary school. And how my friends and I played double dutch. All the time. And then I get sad because jumping rope is super rad and people should do it more often.

9. I just recently quit shaving my arms.

10. I’m not a morning person. At all.

11. I can’t brush my teeth without having to pee afterwards. Even if I went right before I brushed my teeth.

12. I can only name a few presidents. Which include Lincoln and Washington. The obvious ones. And I feel good about the fact that I even know who our Vice President is now.

13. I flunked math in high school. Two years in a row.

14. I’m entirely convinced mermaids are real.

15. My tv guilty pleasures are Teen Mom and Love and Hip Hop.

16. I’ve tried and tried but I just can’t get on the country music train. It gives me the ebbie jeebies.

17. I DESPISE tomato seeds. They are slimy and evil and if at all possible I’ll remove them before eating the tomato.

18. If I found a genie and was granted wishes, one of them would be that I lived in the real life version of the show Friends.

19. The most common things that people learn about me in a short amount of time are a) I LOVE Swedish fish and b) I love all things miniature.

20. I’m a cat person.

There you have it folks. Now maybe you know me just a little bit better. Try it, you might just have some fun airing it all out.

This is currently what it looks like around here these days.

I know I have legs and feet, they are just hard to come by. We’re near the end people, and my inner organs couldn’t be happier. I remember being huge and uncomfortable last time, but this kid really has it out for me. He’s pretty active during the day but it’s at night, right as I’m falling asleep that I imagine he takes out his spoon and is trying to tunnel his way to freedom, using my bladder as his bean bag chair to rest on during breaks.
Luckily, it’s been a gorgeous summer and I can catch up on some relaxing in the sun.

And when my feet and my back are killing me and I need a moment you can find me here.

When I notice that the dirty laundry is starting to overtake the laundry room and we don’t have a single clean fork, this is usually what happens.

(don’t worry, I am wearing a shirt in that picture, it’s just nude colored)

It’s very apparent it’s about time to pop, considering that pants are no longer an option in my wardrobe as you may have noticed in my pictures.
Next week starts my weekly doctor visits and guess who couldn’t be more excited to go and push buttons?

In even better news, there is a squishy precious baby girl due in less than 2 weeks and we can’t wait to get our hands on her! It’s about to get baby crazy all up in here. Happy weekend!

I’ll admit it. Sometimes as a parent I can be a real buzz kill. I get caught up with cleaning and laundry and projects that have sat unfinished for weeks. I do all these things and the last thing on my mind is playing dress up, or building a sand castle, or hide and seek. Which is where Andy comes in and saves the day. He’s the fun one. The really fun one. He takes Hayden most everywhere he goes and she loves it. Trips to the hardware store, pudding cups galore, and stops at swings and slides are the bees knees to a 3 year old.
I do my best to keep in mind though that very soon my free time with her will be occupied with another tiny human, and I need to soak up this time I have with her now. Which is why yesterday we just played. I have a kitchen filled with dirty dishes. Hayden and I have both been rummaging in the dryer to find clean underwear, and don’t get me started on how filthy my bathrooms are. But it was 81 degrees and gorgeous and we needed a play day. So we went here.

I had just a few errands to do, then we grabbed some lunch and headed to the park. What just fills my heart is when other children are there. Hayden gets so excited her “friends” are there and immediately asks permission to say hi and play with them. I wish with all my heart that she would never outgrow that spirit. Upon our arrival we were greeted by a little blonde girl in the creek whose grandmother was continuously trying to corral her back into her car. I know the feeling.
Hayden sprinted from the car and ran up to introduce herself, then beelined for the open grass. I grabbed our lunch and my reading materials and found a good spot to settle. There were a few other kids there but they seemed much older and uninterested in playing with a toddler. Until our little friend came back…

Meet Becca. We first saw her in a purple swimsuit in the creek. It looked as though grandma had caved and thrown some dry clothes on her and let her come back to adventure longer. Hayden brought her new friend over and Becca introduced herself. She was sweet and polite, and excited to play. Becca asked if I knew where her mom was. I glanced over and saw grandma had made her way over to a picnic table and sat down to chat on her cell phone. When I looked back at the girl, she was pointing up and replied that her mom was up in the sky. Just break my heart into a million pieces. I couldn’t even come up with a response before they ran off to play again. Once you become a parent, you learn that you possess a kind of love that is almost indescribable. You’ll also find that the thought of your child losing you is unbearable. The idea of not being here to love on her with every ounce of my being just kills me inside, and I can’t even begin to wrap my mind around it. If we could of stayed at that park forever so the girls could play together, I just might have. They were inseparable.

The park began to fill with more and more people and the two girls remained by each other’s side the entire time.

A woman had brought her little dog which they chased all over. They played countless rounds of tag in the grass. Made sand angels in the volleyball court. Ran down to the creek to spy on the boys. Becca pushed Hayden in the swings and not once asked for a turn herself. They made a cave under the slides and hid from monsters. In a matter of a few short minutes, they had become the sweetest of friends.
Becca’s grandmother had been yelling at her for a while now to get her shoes and head for the car, with her requests ignored. Hayden was now 14 shades of dirt and was going to be in need of a nap. It was sadly time to go. As I packed up our things in the Jeep, the girls got in one last barefoot dredge in the creek.

I loaded up Hayden as we waved goodbye to our small new friend. Usually this is the worst part. A fit inevitably ensues when we have to leave a place she’s having fun at. A few tears are shed and we have to go into that speel that we’ll come back really soon and play another day. But this day was different. She was sad but content. She didn’t cry or throw a fit. She just asked for the window down, “ALL of them mom..” and her water bottle, and talked about her new friend. At home we ate Popsicles and played in the sprinkler, soaking up more of that warm summer sunshine. It’s in moments like these that I am so incredibly thankful to be the mama to this amazing little person.

I’ve mentioned before I’m part of a book club. Going on a year and a half. Just like good wine, it gets better over time. This month was no acceptation. Our pick of the month was The Great Gatsby.

I think it’s safe to say that most of us read it in high school. I’ll be honest though, I had forgotten most of the plot. Okay, all of it. I was so irritated with myself that I had so leisurely passed by this story. It has it all. History and drama. Excitement and suspense. Love and despair. It’s romantic, and tragic all at once. It completely kept me drawn in until the very end, and I happily read it in one afternoon. I’m hooked. I realize now that I need to go back and review all of the classics that I’ve “read” because I obviously haven’t read them. *sigh*

Alright back to book club. Food. There’s always amazing food. I made homemade oatmeal cream cookies, which if you didn’t know, were first introduced in the 1920’s. Jennifer was going to have mint juleps for the ladies so I brought along ingredients for a non alcoholic version. I also made a side dish of Tortellini salad. Delish my friends, I gobbled a few bowls before I even left the house.

To get in spirit, I made myself a mocktail and listened to the Gatsby soundtrack while I got ready for the party.

Now when I say she really outdid herself this time, I mean, she reeeally outdid herself. Jennifer’s house looked so spectacular.

She put so much thought and time into all the decor, she is just a party machine.

On top of it looking fabulous, she went all out on the cocktails and had an assortment of 20’s style drinks for the other ladies to choose from. She’s a doll and always has sparkling cider for me too.

There were so many little details throughout the house that I can only imagine how long it took her to get it ready.

Leo showed up for the party too. So easy on the eyes that man.

As if she wasn’t already the sweetest person on the planet, she planned a surprise mini baby shower for me.

She had all the ladies bring a book of their choice for me. Some brought new stories, some gave me classics. It was perfect, and all I could of asked for from these incredible women. We talked about the book and referenced the movie, which played in the background during our discussion. We ate and drank to our hearts content. Laughed a lot and enjoyed some serious topics. We all have different personalities and quirks and it makes for such a lively bunch. It was a jump back in time to cherish, and I’m so grateful to have these classy ladies in my life. 

 

It’s been a whirlwind of a week. My best friend/sister in law arrived just over a week ago and we’ve been cramming as much as we can into her time here. We started with a festive 5k known as The Color Run. If there is ever one near you be sure to check it out. Here is our before…

And our during and afters.

Our colorful selves did a little shopping in town then headed home to clean up and prep for our next event. My baby shower! The great part is that we didn’t take any pictures. Except for this beauty.

The shower was amazing. The ladies did such a fantastic job putting it all together. The food couldn’t have been any more delicious. We did some fun crafts and played a few games that were just hilarious. We had lots of prizes for the guests and had a stellar prize for the diaper raffle. Don’t you wish you could see pictures? Maybe next time friends.
The ladies worked so hard that I had to treat them to some pampering.

The rest of our week involved lots of eating and family time. The warm sunshine made several appearances so a lake visit was necessary as well.

We had a 4th of July BBQ at our house and invited the masses. Lots of food and fireworks always makes for a good time.

The tricky part about 4th of July in Alaska is nighttime looks like this.

It makes for long fun filled days but also means that our fireworks show doesn’t start until midnight. It still made for a great show though.

We rolled home close to 1 in the morning and even though it was beyond her bedtime, Hayden was perhaps the filthiest I’ve ever seen her. There was no way she was touching any part of her bed without a bath.

The rest of our holiday weekend turned out be perfect boating weather and we wasted no time.

Now if only I could make days like this last a little longer..