fruits of our labor

well, we harvested the first fruit from our garden a couple days ago - a cucumber.  we ate it last night on toast with a little cream cheese....deliciousness.  it was so crispy and fresh!  nothing like produce straight from the garden.

we also randomly have tons of rose bushes around our yard.  i kind of hate roses - they are beautiful, but growing them is a huge pain and i end up slicing my hands and arms open on the thorns every time i deal with them.  but, whoever lived here before us planted them around, and despite not taking care of them in ANY capacity, every year around this time, we get mega blooms.  this year has been especially fruitful, so i cut some and put them in a vase.  they're not looking as great anymore, but i am sure i can just go cut some more and replenish the arrangement.  we have some hot pink ones and some weird mottled pink and white ones that don't do as well when they're cut.  

i guess that's all for now.  this is the first weekend i don't have to think about school at all and it's SO WEIRD.  jb will be rocking his 100-mile bike ride tomorrow.  more to come.  

things to not say to a newly pregnant woman

me: "i'm pregnant!"
person: "ahh, i was wondering because, you know, your face looks pregnant."
me: "thank you?"

how is "your face looks pregnant" ever a compliment?

finito.

after 33 long months, my graduate career has come to a close.  finally.  in all honesty, it doesn't feel real yet.  i took my last final last night, financial statement analysis.  it was hard but i think i should still graduate.  woohoo!  in about 4 weeks, we will celebrate in earnest with the graduation ceremony, parties, etc etc.  by then, i'm thinking it will probably feel more legit.  for now, i'm just hoping i don't receive a random phone call telling me they can't find my transcript or some giant component of a grade.  bring on the free time!

congratulations, it's a baby

dear internet,

today i heard the heartbeat of my unborn son. pretty solid stuff. we are already at 12 weeks, which is much too early to actually determine the sex of the baby, but i'm absolutely convinced it's a boy. how do i know this? because the heartbeat sounded like the 4th led zeppelin album. our doctor was thrown against the wall when the heartbeat came through the doppler, due to the sheer power of this man-babies heartbeat. there isn't a girls heartbeat i know of that would have the same effects... piper would argue that at 165bpm, we are totally having a girl. what she didn't realize was that our son was simply doing push-ups, incidentally raising the heartbeat at the time. another indicating factor of masculinity was the ultrasound. our doctor determined that what we were looking at on screen was indeed 100% penis. apparently the first trimester of a boy's life in the womb is spent developing his most important organ. our next visit is at 16 weeks - more to come at that point.

xoxo

justin

expectations.

today, for the second time in a little over five weeks, jb and i heard the heartbeat of our child.  wow.  i have been pregnant, officially, according to the books and websites and doctors, for exactly 12 weeks.  we've known about it for about eight.  i must say, i am still trying to wrap my head completely around the whole thing.

though we knew we wanted kids, this was not a planned pregnancy, per se.  i have been finishing my last semester of grad school while trying to finish my first trimester of pregnancy, which wasn't *exactly* the plan.  but, the older (and hopefully wiser) i get, the more i feel like plans are kind of for the birds.  so, ready or not, planned or not, here we are, about to finish the first third of this exciting new adventure.

so far, i have felt remarkably good.  i'm sleepy a lot and try to fit a nap in every day.  but, no throwing up, no other crazy weird or scary symptoms.  in fact, if i hadn't seen the little nubbin at the 7 week ultrasound and heard her (him) again this morning, i don't know that i'd be entirely convinced i was actually knocked up.

anyway...that's all the news we have so far.  due date is november 5.  we're not planning to find out the sex (despite the groans i hear EVERY TIME i tell people that).  the heartbeat was 165 this morning, and that just supports my confidence in the fact that it's a girl.  we're stoked.  we're staying in austin, staying in our house.  we're going to wait a few more weeks/months to break the news to the dogs.

8 days, people.

that's 8 calendar days.  as in, one week plus one day.  and then, i will officially be an MBA.  but even more importantly than that, i will be freeeeeee....i cannot wait.

this weekend was awesome, as usual.  they never are long enough, and i never get tired of saying that, however trite.  we managed to do lots of yard work and even some house work.  cooked some delicious food, including butternut squash soup that was super tasty.  saw kick-ass with some friends.  it was ok - pretty hilarious, but wildly inappropriate and violent, with lots of language i wouldn't even want a 17 year-old to use (hello, pot, i'm the potty-mouthed kettle).  the highlight of the whole weekend for me was watching jb get into a fist fight with our weed eater.  pretty hilarious.  he was victorious, though, so take that, yard equipment.

we've got lots of exciting stuff coming up on the weekends, so i'm sure pictures and stories will be forthcoming.  trip back to louisiana, trip to st. thomas, trip to vegas.  plus, graduation and all the joviality that will ensue in its wake.  i almost need a nap just thinking about it....

one final thought - now that school is over (ish), i am looking for book recommendations.  that's right, REAL books that i WANT to read.  bring 'em on.

promotion for a friend.

my friend (and my mom's boss) jasmine has a precious son named Finn (well, his nickname is Finn, and he's the Fifth generation of his name, awesomeness).  anyway...he's in a photo contest with his cute little mug, so if you'd like, please visit this site and vote for his cute little cheeks on monday.  i will try to remember to re-post this then.  i will promote other peoples' children in the future, just send me your propaganda :)

more bluebonnets and dogs.

i'm sorry i just cannot seem to get enough of this lovely spring weather and our sweet pups having a field day in it.  we took them to walnut creek again this weekend, with a camera this time.  if possible, this weekend was even prettier.  they did not want to behave and sit calmly for any portraits, but i think we got some pretty hilarious action shots that capture our little adventure.  

i'm also posting a couple pictures of the chickens in a planter.  we have a long, skinny window-box type planter with nothing planted in it right now.  the chickens think flinging the dirt in there around is a great time.  

garden update #1

so, things in the spring garden are really growing, so far.  i think it's a combination of fresh rain water (jb is so diligent, and it is because of him that the plants are all still alive....), functional temperatures (nights in the 50s, days in the 70s = perfection), and chicken poop.  jb dressed everything with a healthy amount of chicken business last weekend, and we've really seen some great growth since then.  i really hope the weather stays spring-ish (as opposed to summer-ish) for a while longer so we can actually reap the benefits of all this work.  here are some pics from this afternoon:

(valley girl tomato plant - one of eight tomato plants we're growing this year....)

(one of our heirloom varieties - i think we have three total, out of the eight tomatoes)

(eggplant - you can see the pole beans in the background)

(squash)

(habanero pepper - we're growing like 6 different types of peppers, too)

(tomatillo, one of two)

(pumpkins!  from seed....)

(watermelon, one of three)

(bluebonnets - these aren't in our garden, but they're in our yard)

happy weekend!

hoppy easter....

for the record, i have always hated the phrase "hoppy easter".  i think it's ridiculous.  but somehow, i also now find it hilarious and like to use it in jest.

this is obviously a few days late, but we had a great day for easter, and an awesome weekend in general.  friday, we had w&d over for steaks and got to sit on the back porch for dinner.  the back porch dinner is the thing i love the most about austin, and this time of year is the most exceptional for it.  saturday, jb did a long bike ride.  he's training for the shiner ride - a 100 mile bike ride to shiner, texas.  he did it last year, and i think he's kind of crazy, but also awesome.  anyway...last year there was not a lot of training but he still made it.  this year, despite every single one of our friends bailing on doing it with him, he's put in lots of training rides and been doing strength training.  i'm quite proud.

anyway...when he got back from his ride, we took the pups to walnut creek park for a hike and a picnic.  it was, yet again, absolutely gorgeous out.  the bluebonnets are in full bloom everywhere right now, which is gorgeous.  the dogs got to romp through fields of flowers and cool off in the creek.  it was etta's first time swimming, and she's not quite sure about it yet.  she's also not sure about bikers, and she let them all know by standing behind me and barking at them.  she's quite ferocious.  i can't take credit for this picture since we forgot the camera, but this is a good representation (and it's from walnut creek, this year).

on easter sunday, we went to mass with several friends at st. austin's on campus.  it was a really good service, and the priest there is full of energy and really nice.  then, we all went to brunch at z tejas.  always delicious.  i spent the afternoon working on a paper for school (less than 3 weeks left!), and then we went to c&r's for gumbo.  all in all, the only downside was not having a few extra days to hang out and relax.  it's time for a real vacation....

the virtue of happiness.

i came across this editorial yesterday, and i was super intrigued by it.  the gist of it is the sandra bullock conundrum.  if you could have the pinnacle of professional success, only to find out a week or so later that your significant other has been philandering with 11 different other women (that we know about), would you make that trade?


of course, my answer, and the consensus of the studies cited in the article is a resounding no.  i've always felt, i guess on a gut level, that you can't quantify (monetarily) domestic contentedness.  i mean, it would always be nice to make a little more cash, to have a little more breathing room.  but never at the expense of my marriage, family, and home life.


a couple of interesting factoids from the article: "joining a group that meets even just once a month produces the same happiness gain as doubling your income....being married produces a psychic gain equivalent to more than $100,000 a year."  


anyway...as you go on about your day, think about the areas where you really are fortunate, and realize that even though money may stress you out, you're much happier than you might even realize.