nora jane's birth story

nora jane soma arrived november 26, 2012

at 9 pounds even, 22 inches long.

now that my baby is approaching her three week birthday (yes, every day is a milestone at this point!), i thought i'd write out her birth story before the details leave me.

nora, or "nora the ninja" as we fondly referred to her as during those last weeks of pregnancy, was a little late to show up to the party.  when she didn't arrive on thanksgiving, her due date, i was bummed... hormonal really;)

i was convinced that if i was late, which i never imagined i'd be, that the birth would be rough.  i was scared.  and all you can do is wait and having never had a baby before, i had no idea how i'd know labor was beginning.

well, you definitely know when you're in labor!  really didn't need to worry about that...
the night after her due date, friday, i started to feel weird.  just after spending an hour googling "acupuncture to induce labor"... go figure!  i had contractions for three hours and when i called my doctor, they of course stopped.  super weird.  i got m all excited only to feel super silly.

i went to bed confused.  no baby!
next day was a lot like the first, i had contractions sporadically, but at this point i was convinced my body was just taunting me.  that night i had a hard time sleeping though and by morning, i started making unusual pain induced noises and was assured this was labor.

so i go in at noon on sunday, get there all, "check me in!  oh first thing to know is i want an epidural!"  and they're all, "hold on, let me ask you about your medical history, slow like.  what's your birthday?  yada yada yada."  they monitor me and then crush my world by letting me know my contractions weren't "active" and that i'd not be able to talk through the real ones.  in my mind they were real, two minutes a part, but apparently they were "weak."  you have got to be kidding me.

so we went home, i cried in bed for hours and scared my poor puppy's memory forever.  needless to say, everything started to get more "active."  my water broke, which was awesome, because i knew they couldn't turn me away once i got to the hospital this time;)

we had been deciding between two hospitals, but there was no real choice to make once i actually felt the pain of it all.  southdale!  five minute drive, i'll take it!  (next time i'm camping out in their lobby for the last few weeks!)

so we're checked in, i let them know my birthday and such again, barely talking through the contractions.  we get moved up to the delivery unit and i get pain meds!  woohoo!  then an epidural!  what?!?!  bliss is most certainly the feeling you get while watching the monitor crest with a massive contraction and you don't feel it at all.

we slept a full night and the next morning was calm and exciting.
nora day!

i will spare you the nitty gritty of labor.  some interesting points were:
- our delivery nurse referred to herself as "grandma judy" and discussed how she ate rodents for thanksgiving (raccoons, domestic vs. wild rabbits, snapping turtles, squirrel).  she is from georgia and gets creative with her food apparently.
- our nurse would leave for 5-10 minutes at a time while i was pushing, leaving m to hold the fetal heart monitor and to watch the screen for contractions.  kind of thought we'd have a bit more back up!  he did a good job though.
- i actually had an appt to see my doctor the day i delivered.  when she walked in that morning it was ironic and funny.  i got super lucky she was at my hospital that day.
- i pushed for 75 minutes and i have to say, it was my favorite part of labor... the beginning being my least.  going in i wouldn't have guessed that'd be the case!

nothing can prepare you for the euphoria of seeing your baby, realizing it was her all along in there.  i can cry with a drop of a coin just thinking about the pure happiness of it.

when nora jane came, all jaws dropped at just how big she was!  my doctor had estimate her a pound and a half less.  weighing in at 9 pounds, twenty two inches long, we were all wondering if this baby was in fact related to me!  especially with the curly mat of hair she had!  her face was most definitely m's however, so that gave some comfort;)

they handed her to me and it was all over.
so relieved, it was just the greatest moment.

healthy (except for a heart murmur scare... she doesn't have one, whew! oh and some jaundice) and happy, we're just incredibly blessed.
i'm in love.

notes on pregnancy: 40 wks!

{40 week bump!}

thanksgiving day is my official due date, but i'm rounding;)

still no baby.  getting a little impatient.

but everything's good so far, so i can handle the waiting.

in the mean time, i'm taking many naps.  it's nice.

oh and i do want to say, when i in fact have said baby, i hope to get back on track with posting more about home projects, ahem domesticity, than just life updates.  let's be honest, i live kind of a, if not boring, calm life, which is probably not too interesting to read about weekly!

this dream i'm working on.

what a lovely sentiment, "this dream i'm working on."

have you ever thought of a dream as something you actively pursue?

today, i'm over the 39 week pregnant mark, and so much of my time i'm now daydreaming of the future, of my dream day, week, year, life.  i haven't specified what my five and ten year goals are, but if i close my eyes, i can visualize them.

i see my family, our home, travels and my career ambitions.

i see us laughing and working hard to live to the fullest.

for most of our young lives we work toward many milestones, from sports, grades, college and grad school acceptance, to getting a job, owning a home, marrying, starting a family.  these milestones can be easily quantified on a checklist, but how do they make us feel?  should not our dreams that we are working on make us happy first and accomplished second?

from what i gather, much of adulthood could easily be claimed by guilt.

instead of chasing towards our dreams, we try to stay afloat and feel badly for what we aren't doing.

visualizing a five year dream is difficult when you can't feel satisfaction from today or this week.  it's especially difficult when you're more concerned with what others think you should be than who you know you are.

anyway, maybe this is all idealistic, but shouldn't we try to catch our dreams?

what's the harm?

i got the idea for this post from here

you can call him doctor

{m & his advisor}

until this week, i've never known m as a non-student.

i am so very happy & proud to write that he defended his thesis, passed with praise & after five-and-a-half years of hard work, is a doctor... the PhD kind;)

he's walking around excited about all the "free time" he'll have, now that he's not coming home from work, only to work more.  i'm excited about it too!

(i'm trying not to burst his bubble by mentioning the whole impending newborn thing!)

anyway, i'm relieved for him and know that he's already scheming some new way to advance his statistical skills, the guy can't go five minutes without learning something new.  i try to lead by example by watching real housewives or surfing facebook, but no no, he's dedicated and is already throwing out words like "publishing" and "book" and such.  he's so very smart and i wonder daily how i got so lucky and how he puts up with my subpar math smarts.

job well done, m!

notes on pregnancy: 38 weeks

{38+ week bump}

so, i don't know exactly why i'm posting this unflattering photo.

i don't know what is worse, my look or that it's taken in the bathroom.

sometimes smartphones allow you to make not so smart choices;)

but frankly, when you're body keeps expanding, you can't help but wonder, "how big am i... really?"

a photograph, good or bad, answers this question!

anyway, everytime i think i'm done growing, i wake up the next day bigger.

wow.

but, i'm pretty close to the end!

a baby is the result.

weird!

notes on pregnancy: 37 weeks aka you look like a...

{my 37 week bump photo!}

as you might fathom, being very round on halloween... and the weeks leading to halloween... has warranted (apparently) many, many, OH VERY MANY, comments regarding me looking like a pumpkin.

strangers. neighbors. co-workers. postal workers.

"you should paint your belly orange and put some eyes on that!"

"you've got yourself a pumpkin in there... i didn't come up with that, so and so thought of it first."  thanks!

"you've got the biggest pumpkin in the patch growing there."  thanks!

"what are you growing, a pumpkin?"

"wow, what a perfectly shaped pumpkin you have!"

"hey you, really pregnant lady! you look like a pumpkin!"

"everytime i see you, your pumpkin is bigger and bigger... and bigger!"

"i guess we all know what you're being for halloween... a pumpkin!"

hardeeharhar.

so funny.

really, so creative!

ok, i don't mind a ton, but it's very interesting the social protocol (or lack there of?) regarding commenting on a pregnant lady's body.  like, suddenly you have free reign to compare her to objects, mammals... mostly anything big and awkward.  not only that, but apparently these comments are suddenly cute and endearing!

i have to tell you all that when you tell a woman she looks like a pumpkin, you're not the first to think it.  she has thought it, so originality isn't in your favor.  it definitely isn't when you're the 29th person to make the comparison!  i think there are mostly good intentions behind the above comments, so i take them kindly. but...
i'm sort of over them:)

and haven't you enjoyed my long winded speal?

but in other news, great news, i'm full term!

the baby is like big, over six pounds and letting me know it!

i seriously can't believe i've made it.  we've made it!

how many yay's can you put on a screen without being obnoxious?

so morale is?

i'm a really big pumpkin!

and i suppose i'm proud about that;)

happy halloween!

ok we're ready!

dear soma baby,

don't come yet of course, because it's early.

but we have a place for you to sleep.

that's serious progress.

in the meantime, teddy will be waiting!

notes on pregnancy: 36 weeks

first of all, this past weekend i was given the most beautiful and thoughtful baby shower!

i'm tremendously blessed with generous friends and it was the greatest gift just to see them all!

it was a ton of fun and i'm just sad it's over!  perfect memories though, the day meant the world to me.

for now, some rambling.
it's such an odd thing, watching the world turn leafless and cold while waiting for the baby to arrive!  odd because this fall is the beginning of so many things for us.  obviously, adding an addition to our family is the biggest, but also m is defending his dissertation soon (yay for him!), our basement is hypothetically going to be completed, and our schedules and responsibilities will be drastically different in a month.  to be honest, i'm pretty gitty thinking about it all!  it's been the longest wait for christmas morning ever!

i'm almost 36 weeks now and feeling super great!  there was a month there when i didn't.  at the beginning of the third trimester, i felt so tired, big and had lots of nerve pain in my back and legs, and i was pretty fearful that the rest of the pregnancy wouldn't be as joyful as it's been.  lately, i've been lucky to have energy and i'm thinking the baby has dropped because my bump has shifted downward and i can breath just a bit;)  the goal line is in sight!  i do think i'll miss my baby bump though, so i'm appreciating it while i have it.

oh and at my 35 week 3D ultrasound, the baby looked like a baby (whew!  although m tends to disagree!) and was 5.7 pounds, so they're estimating her as a 7.5 pound baby, whether that's accurate, who knows!  she's super, super active, kicking and rolling near always, even this late in the game.  the ultrasound was funny because it was pretty difficult to get images because of her squirming.  and she's in the 40% for length, so below average like me;)  last time we'll see her on screen!

now, i'm getting anxious about how the baby will come in the world.  this is such a normal fear, i realize, but considering i have yet to experience labor, it's scary.  i think it's healthy to be nervous about it, so i try to not worry.  but it's weird to be so so so excited for something and be so leary at the same time.  so far i've been totally surprised by fitting into every pregnancy stereotype, from belly button pop to waddling.  i've given into the process, how seriously cool it is, so i have to feel the same about the end of it, right?  and if all else fails, there's drugs...  haha.  no seriously;)

in the mean time, we're making progress on the nursery!  teddy manages to get cuter and cuter and we're starting to really get ready for our arrival.... so much so, i did my first load of laundry today that was all baby related;)

next week the baby will be considered full term;)

notes on pregnancy: 32 weeks

i've neglected blogging, but here's a post started and not finished;)

{32 week bump picture here. if there was one!}

i now waddle.  yes, pretty sure i go as much left to right as i do forward while walking these days.  i've been feeling like a really lame old person lately, complaining about my sciatica and my ailing back.  it all frankly kind of hurts.  again, it's all very worth it!  but lately, i've had such a difficult time remembering how it felt to breath and move normally that i'm a bit freaked out.

not really sure how my body will handle eight more weeks of growing. 

women have been doing this forever, and it just boggles my mind!  the majority of pregnancy is totally fun, but i've definitely hit the stage where i want the baby out!  nature really does work wonders in that way.

i feel like i've been pregnant forever.  it's been the longest anticipation for christmas morning ever and it'll be incredibly surreal when i do, in fact, have this baby!  who just happens to be 4+ pounds now, basically the length she will be at birth, and healthy!.... it's all getting so real, so amazing!

lately, i've been getting the "when are you due" question a lot.

it makes me a bit worried that i look so ready to have this baby when i'm actually two months away, but honestly, most of these inquiries are from men who don't have a clue;)

for now, i'm just going to sleep a lot while i still can and enjoy this amazing fall, which i consider "baby season."  i'm going to cherish all the goofy moves my belly makes (which happens all the time!) and celebrate things going well.  i'll try to not eat too much more ice cream during this pregnancy, and concentrate on all the crafting i need to do before baby soma arrives (i'm sewing little dresses... awww).  i'll finish the nursery!  and i'll continue to be super duper excited to meet my kid!  wow!

notes on pregnancy: 30 weeks!

{30 weeks bump}

did i really just write the number 30?  very hard to believe.  honestly, i'm to the point of pregnancy where i can't remember life before it.  yet, weeks beginning with the number 3 seemed very far off and intangible for such a long time that i'm shocked i'm here.  i'm happy about it!

i really now understand how the transition from being a normal person to being completely baby crazed happens to everyone, even if they fight against it.  you say from the onset that you'll maintain your social life (haha, what social life?) and still participate in intellectual conversations (did i ever do that?).  most people assume that your interests pre-baby won't be compromised too much and that you'll retain your general you-ness.  you'll be you, just with a baby.

well, i'm still hoping all that stuff is mostly true, but the reality is that when you literally grow a human being for three-quarters of a year, it's very difficult to maintain a normal brain, function the way you did before, and not think about the baby nearly all of your waking hours (which includes middle of the night hours too, since you're up in preparation for tending the little one... already).

honestly, i'm quite fond of this phase, i feel like i have a great deal of purpose.  a lot of being pregnant reminds me of being a runner.  you're so aware of your body, all the aches (!) and things, and you're ultimately prepping for a pretty significant physical challenge.  in the beginning of the "race" you worry about whether you can do it, how long it'll take, the pain.  but in the end, you're so happy you did it, you feel utterly rewarded and thankful for the opportunity.  uh, i'm hoping this is how i feel before/during/after labor.  

(side note: be cautious when watching birth related youtube videos... you may never have children as a result.)  anyway, let's push that topic off (get it?) for a while.

some notes on pregnancy, seeing as i'm as pregnant as i've ever been (mike likes to tell me that!).

- my back hurts a lot.  i feel like an old person.  in a non-pregnant state you can twist and arch your back and contort until you feel better.  you just can't when you're this convex.

- i don't remember my body before this... really.  i do recall sleeping on my stomach and loving it.  i miss that.

- the whole eating a footlong sub and then some period is no more.  i fill up a lot quicker and feel like i'm going to explode if i overeat!

- my skin is the best it's ever been, which is really weird considering i'm having a girl...

- i'm winded from being winded.  my lungs are always searching for air... and coming up short!

- i'm starting to have a real urge to nest!  sewing, natural cleaning products, all of that goodness.  too bad i get tired just by sitting up!  (as opposed to laying...)  hopefully things will somewhat be in order for baby.

anyway, things are going well.  we've been reading dr. oz's book on pregnancy (i take his words very seriously!  what a guy.) and am scheduling a massage soon based on his doctorly orders.  he also says i should already be making play dates for me and the baby with other moms and babies, so that we have events to look forward to and people to see... besides each other.  so, anyone out there want to make a date?  it'll be a super fun time, filled with bottles, pacifiers and naps!

30 weeks!  wahoooooo!!!

notes on pregnancy: 28 weeks!

{28 week bump}

ok, so technically i'm like 3 days short of 28 weeks, but i've pretty much gotten in the habit that as soon as i've hit another number, i consider myself at the next:)

this week i think i had a pop 2.0.  the belly growth has certainly not been steady, rather it's more like things stay the same for a couple weeks, and then overnight i've doubled!  nothing is more surprising than not recognizing your body from one day to the next.  then figuring out how to dress that body... well forgetaboutit!  i've been resisting buying clothes, but m came home with the top above today as a very sweet surprise... and suggestion that i wear things that fit occasionally!  i kind of forget that my body is much bigger than normal until i pass a window.  is that me?

i'm still enjoying this pregnancy thing, but i'm definitely more uncomfortable than i was a week ago!  i'm constantly overheated, sweating in all settings.  and if i'm exercising, what a mess i am!  that and i'm having a hard time not getting exhausted by any incline i face.  seriously, any uphill has me beat.  i can run and do, but the temptation to walk is winning me over more and more these days;)  poor teddy girl has had to modify her pace!

i've entered the third trimester.  i remember the early weeks when i couldn't even fathom being so far along and here i am!  i'm realizing i have a lot to do in the coming months.  the nursery is, uh, not where i want it!  and i haven't really bought much for the baby at this point, which is sorta wigging me out... i'll feel so much more prepared when i have my ducks in a row... or my bottles and onesies and such:)

for now i will feel thankful that i can still see my toes and assume things will all come together in time!

thank*full

for the past couple weeks, i've worried considerably about my family's health.

surprisingly, i suppose, my pregnancy has been so great that it hasn't factor a whole lot (knock on wood!) into this worrying.

when you find out scary news, or you jump to the worst conclusions, it feels like the world is totally different, like it's completely scary and uncontrollable, not to mention unfair.  it becomes hard to imagine how you ever thought about other things, like facebook, clothes and what to eat, before your world changed.  you worry that your perspective is forever changed.

but then, you find out incredibly relieving news and after the storm, you feel liberated and the world is suddenly better than it's ever been.  color, taste, weather.  you feel completely fortunate to have the opportunity to waste time, without fear or worry, and euphoric that you have what you have.  suddenly, you feel thankful for the world you're in and the things and people that comprise it; you wonder how you ever lost sight of how much good and fortune there is out there, how much of it has been given to you.

today i'm incredibly thankful.  i'm content in the right now and very excited for what's to come.  who really knows how truly amazing "normal" is until it's tested?

this poem was read at our wedding.

just one mary oliver treasure:

the sun 

have you ever seen
anything
in your life
more wonderful

than the way the sun,
every evening,
relaxed and easy,
floats toward the horizon

and into the clouds or the hills,
or the rumpled sea,
and is gone--
and how it slides again

out of the blackness,
every morning,
on the other side of the world,
like a red flower

streaming upward on its heavenly oils,
say, on a morning in early summer,
at its perfect imperial distance--
and have you ever felt for anything
such wild love--
do you think there is anywhere, in any language,
a word billowing enough
for the pleasure

that fills you,
as the sun
reaches out,
as it warms you

as you stand there,
empty-handed--
or have you too
turned from this world--

or have you too
gone crazy
for power,
for things?

thoughts on pregnancy: *almost* 26 weeks

{almost 26 weeks photo}

hi!  i'm closing in on 26 weeks and dare i say, looking it?

i'm feeling really great, i only have two more weeks of the second trimester, but am feeling pretty mobile and relatively normal.  well, if normal now includes feeling kicks from inside my body and this might be an overshare, but having a belly button that is halfway stuck out.  kinda thought that wouldn't happen to me, but what do you know!?

i've been enjoying all that pregnancy has to offer... eating for two (this picture was taken right after good earth...yum), running (ahem, shuffling) around the lake, getting a little sympathy here and there for my many curious ailments (nausea, overheating, heartburn, leg cramps, constantly spilling things on my shirt because my belly is in the way of the floor...).  i continue to find pregnancy a little liberating (your stomach is actually supposed to be big!) and meaningful.  cheesy!

new bathroom ideas

it's time to take a stroll with me, to step into some other people's bathrooms and gawk.

we're finishing our basement and with that is coming a new bathroom.

aren't these ones pretty?

white and airy.  i also love the tiles in the last example.

here's hoping the one we design turns out... like any of these!
(or that it turns out. period.)

and it's a...

baby!

haha, we new that.

so as i mentioned, at my 21 week ultrasound, the baby was curled up and so i had another ultrasound at 23 weeks to get another look.

we were looking to get one of those iconic profile shots of the face, you know, the nose and lips and such.

well for the first half an hour the baby had both of its hands on its face.

then it switched to sucking a thumb.

so no profile shot was had.

instead we have this face front image, which i know, is kind of haunting, bordering on scary...

but i think it's cute.

i have to.

:)

see the chin, mouth, nose, and eye socket?

apparently they're all where they're supposed to be.

thank goodness!  everything is looking good and as of last friday the baby was 1 pound 4 ounces.

i won't share how much i was;)

big sighs of relief.

so as for the "what is it" question...

girl.

it's a girl!

poor m is terribly outnumbered, but i think he likes it that way.

so i went directly from my appointment to joann fabrics to start the nursery crafting.

i'm not much of a girly girl.  i'm frankly a bit freaked at the potential amount of pink that may soon surround me and might rebel by dressing my baby in blue:)  i'm going to do my darndest to make this little one more interested in dirt and toads than princesses and barbies.

but... i did want to give some subtle feminine touches to her room.

i kind of thought she may not love the nautical theme i would have gone with had she been male.

and i also want the room to flow with the rest of our house, not be too cutesy or themey, because really?  i think i'll care more about the appearance of her room than she will, for the first bit anyway.

here are the fabrics i bought and the room color choices i'm thinking.

picking a page out of my handy martha stewart sewing encyclopedia, i've started on the nursery's drapes.

basically the embroidered off-white pattern on one side and the robin's egg floral on the other.

i'm going to sew on buttons and ribbon hoops so that the panel can be pulled up, to reveal the opposite side's fabric... and the sun:)

i have a small swatch of coral (not pink!) fabric that i'm going to sew an accent pillow out of.

other plans for the room?

- we already have m's favorite van gogh print framed, a painting of vincent's bedroom.

- i'm converting an old desk to the changing table and am sewing a skirt to hide the drawers.

- i'll have a painted rocking chair in the room (haha maybe not painted since i can't do it right now and can't imagine m doing it either!), that will have an accent pillow on it.

- i have a gilded frame that i'll hang with a ribbon and embroider the little one's first initial in.

- hopefully chair railing and shelving!

- more things, probably:)

so there you have it.

it's a baby. girl.

:)

watchu got cooking?

{23 weeks}

watermelon aka the fruit of summer

i've always loved watermelon, but my love for the wonderful fruit has hit record levels.

i'm not alone in these feelings.

pretty sure teddy would give up chicken indefinitely for a lifetime supply of watermelon!

seedless, of course.



she eats it like it's corn on the cob:)

notes on pregnancy {22 weeks}

hello!

so i'm 22 weeks now and pretty much showing every one of those weeks.

(and my wardrobe of 99% horizontal stripes isn't helping!)

i never thought i'd be into the belly shot pictures, i mean, if there happened to be like three or four pictures of me pregnant, i thought that was sufficient.  but it's such a crazy thing to go through that curiousity gets you and you just have to document it.  obviously it's very cool and special, but so bizarre!

i'm feeling really good and think i'm in the honeymoon phase... after you feel sick and "off" for 3 months, but before you feel as big as a house for the last 3.  i do wonder how a woman's back literally doesn't break in two with the added cargo... i have a long way to go and it already aches!  but besides that (and the heat!), it's been fun so far, can't complain.

i was really naive going into this.  i kind of thought you could somewhat control the way your body changes, i.e. how much you gain, but i really don't think you can.  pretty much kind of a science experiment that you just go along with.  very neat in that way, but incredibly weird too!

and it also becomes all you think about.  i'm trying to be a normal human being and think about other topics, mainly tom & katie's divorce (haha), but it's difficult.  and nine months is a really long time to be thinking about a single thing.  i'm keeping busy with planning many craft projects and finishing our basement (it's happening!  for real!  this week the work commences!), so those distractions are helping... somewhat;)

oh!  and i feel the baby moving all the time, kind of a new normal.  neat-o.

an announcement

i'm pretty sure that all who read this blog know "the announcement," but i thought it best to write it here before it gets weird not to.

see lately, i've been eating a lot of the following:

*chipotle

*chocolate milk

*apples

*subway subs

*enchilladas

*cottage cheese

*smoothies

for a good while i have not been eating the following:

*anything with tomatos

*anything italian, including pizza, bruschetta, spaghetti

*red meat (ok, this has been like forever)

*poultry i've seen raw

*soft cheeses

*things with raw egg

*most teas ;(

*tuna ;(

yes, so maybe i should get to the point.  i've had the most intense food cravings and aversions for the last 6 months.

because i'm having a baby.

we're having a baby!

on thanksgiving.

cool, eh?  yeah, it continues to be a miracle to us too.

so if you stumble upon me looking like i doubled, i have.

(don't judge me eating a footlong sub and not being at all full, it's you know, the baby's fault.)

{20 weeks bump}

i'm 21 weeks and had my ultrasound yesterday.  the baby was all curled up and while the tech guessed the gender, i need to have another ultrasound in two weeks to confirm for sure and get better images.  we'll see!

so you can count on baby related posts from here on out, but don't fret, they won't alllll be baby related!

(just most of them?)

dog days of summer

now these are what teddy refers to as the dog days of summer

doggonit, where's the relief?

from the mantle & ramblings

hello!

it's friday, friends.
which means i have more hope and excitement now than i do the rest of the week.  combined.

do you ever find that terribly sad, that we spend much of our time looking ahead, then spend the time we're excited about worried about making the most of it, worried it'll end?  sunday evenings are that way to me.

i'm hoping to fill the weekend with domestic things.  duh.
you know, rearrange things on my mantle a couple times, get the hang of using my crockpot for virtually all cooking, and weeding my little garden.  perhaps adding some plants to the collection as well (so that all my flowers in my house aren't of the dried variety).

oh and i get to visit with a new little baby boy. neat!

other things on my mind:

- tom & katie are divorcing and i can't help but wonder if it's because katie started wearing men's jeans instead of skirts.  you think this is the likely reason?  she really has been on a downward fashion spiral.

- what is the world coming to when ann curry gets fired from the today show?  pretty soon justin bieber will be on assignment from afghanistan.

- watermelon is so good!  holy crap.  and filling too, no?  wow, it's like the miracle fruit.

- why is commuting such an event?  and why do bikers never where helmets, never obey traffic rules and always have too small of jeans on?  (sorry for you bikers who read this blog, i'm likely not talking about you.  if you're a skinny hipster type who wears women's jeans, who has no real worry about staying alive, but would rather listen to your really cool iphone while weaving in rush hour, then i am, in fact, talking about you.  and if that's the case, why are you reading this blog anyway?)

- i wish i could afford to eat at good earth everyday.

- why aren't there more fabric stores out there?  i mean, joann cannot possibly be the one and only.  right?

- why does everything have to be so political?  why do campaigns last two years?  aren't we all really in the middle anyhow?

- adele is pregnant?  what?  today is an excellent pop culture day!

- why is 90 degree days generally considered beautiful?  it's so hot!  give me 65, anyday.

- pinterest is addicting.  but do you ever really return to your past pins?  or is it a hoarding thing, where we just keep adding to the pile without digesting what to keep and what not to.

- why do people still smoke?  i mean, isn't it the most obviously decision not to smoke?  and is it even a decision anymore, considering it's such common sense?
(i ask because i'm continually crossing the street to avoid it downtown.  smoking dens or whatever they're called are really, really sad looking.  as are the people in them.)

- i'd like to start a new with my clothes.  reinvent myself.  (with someone else's money!)

- watering your lawn gets really redundant, no?  can we all say #firstworldproblem?

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i'll stop here.
enjoy your friday to sunday!
yay!

barnes & noble inspiration

it's really scary how many times a week i find myself in barnes & noble.

magazines are such a treat, right?

especially when you don't actually buy them!

last week i found some inspiration in a better homes & gardens renovation magazine:

i love the dropped cabinets with baskets above and the beadboard counter.

we're planning to have a similar island separating our kitchen and dining room.

(a long time from now.)

planning to make a L shaped banquette... sometime!

i'd love to figure out how to create an entry storage area by our front door.

can our house "grow" more windows?  lovely.

more banquetter inspiration.  the table is a bit like our own.

love the calm blue on the cabinets... wondering if i can be so bold as to stray away from white!

do you ever wish that the excitement and vigor you feel after looking through a design magazine could last?  all your good intentions for home projects actually were actually followed up on?
maybe they could be without cleaning and cooking and working and sleeping;)