farewell, 2015.

i think this is the first time in the history of this blog that i've written an end-of-year post on the last day of the year. typically i don't even bother with a post but even the few times that i have, i've back-dated them from some time in january. i hope this is a sign of how on top of things i'll be in 2016...

this year was a blur for me - i cannot even fathom that the whole year is gone already. i remember being a kid and hearing adults talk about how fast time moves as you get older and not believing or understanding that at all, but it's clearly a thing. 

it was a good year, i think. no major changes in terms of living arrangements or jobs. emme started preK and hollis transitioned to a new school. we started reading chapter books together as a family. we took an awesome vacation to the mountains to see lots of family. we had trips to lafayette and wichita and i got to go to japan. we did a whole30 and got on and fell off the healthy eating train a few times. we went on lots of family walks and spent time cuddling and playing and fighting and singing and sliding and cooking and watching too much tv and just living. i took a course this year on the science of happiness and it talked a lot about happiness vs. meaningfulness. i don't know that we lived meaningfully in the grand scheme, but i'd like to think there was meaning in the everyday - enough that we can hold on to and try to make it even more so in the next year.

so that's it! out with the old, in with the new. cheers to deliberate living, less screen time, more patience with ourselves and others, and getting outside as much as possible. 

summer weekends.

this weekend was good, although too short as usual. ek is still not 100% in terms of stamina and energy levels, but she's doing much better.

friday night we played with the kids and got them fed (emme is eating again yay!). then we had a little date - jb and i went to see what if and i love daniel radcliffe even when he's not harry potter. also, i would move to toronto.

saturday brought lots of productivity in the morning. house projects (stupid doors for the porch - an endless project, but we (and by we i mean justin) are almost done!), i finished a quilt i've been working on for months that i will send to a friend's new baby, and i made waffles for breakfast. hollis was really into them and kept saying "WA! FLES!" and asking for more.

saturday after nap we headed out to the lake for a friend's 40th birthday celebration. super fun. there was a boat full of sand that the kids LOVED, as well as some tire swings. we also took a ride on a pontoon boat up and down town lake. there are some rich people in this town and their properties are amazing. at one point on the pontoon boat, the driver hit a wave and a giant tidal wave poured all over all of us. it flooded the boat with about two feet of water and i thought for a minute we were going to sink the boat. of course it was fine like 2 minutes later, but it was definitely freaky. we stayed out there too late and could have stayed later - we were having a blast.

sunday morning the kids were up way too early, so i let justin sleep in and took them to taco deli before a birthday party at the wildflower center. that place is gorgeous and i wish i'd take more pictures, but we may strongly consider doing ek's birthday out there in november when the weather should be cooler.

hollis skipped nap because he refused to transition after passing out in the car on the way home from the party. amazingly, he was in a great mood and played with cars and blocks while i sewed a new outfit for big baby (emme's favorite doll) with some scraps from my quilting project.

after emme got up, we hit central market to meet up with some friends from lafayette who were visiting austin for the first time. there was brazilian music and the kids took down some spaghetti. super fun.

this week we head to vacation/wedding in colorado. it's cold there. i can't wait!

some updates.

i have been pretty neglectful of the blog lately.  i’ve posted, but the postings haven’t felt comprehensive or complete – they’ve really just been an exercise in getting it checked off my to-do list.  which is not the point of this, at all (even though there are certain documentary-type things that just have to be done…that doesn’t mean i need to strip the fun out of it).  anyway, this may be rather boring for some folks, but please bear with me as i share a few updates…

the nanny situation:

there was one super crazy week where things were all kinds of up in the air and i am pretty sure i developed eleventy billion stomach ulcers just thinking about it all, but we found a short-term nanny on a website our friend dp let us access through his subscription (sittercity.com).  i posted a very candid ad saying we needed something short-term and on short notice and we couldn’t afford to pay $20/hr (or really even close to that).  even though it was a long shot, we got some hits.  one girl, s, was very on the ball, so we had her come for an interview.  we liked her a lot – i especially liked that she talked to emme like a person and included her in the conversation.  she also miraculously has another nanny job set up for november, so she was looking for something short-term to fill the gap.  i’m a big believer in things aligning, so we did a trial day with her and her first full week was last week!  even though she is not mary poppins, i am amazed at how much more relaxed i am now that the previous nanny is out of the picture.  i was so stressed thinking about her taking the bus for hours every day (s has her own car and lives relatively close, whew), and wondering how much she would be on the internet ignoring ek.  we went to happy hour with vincent and his parents last week, and we all agreed it was amazing how we didn’t even realize how much we were internalizing that stress.  i imagine having emme in school will bring different challenges, but i am so excited for that new routine and the structure it will give to our family. 

the house situation:

the first six weekends in our new house consisted of the following: 1 – friends from Atlanta and boston visiting; 2 – hesterly move-in crew visiting (and helping!); 3 – emme has fever of 105; 4 – me and emme travel to lafayette to pick up mom; 5 – dad and gram visit and pick up mom; 6 – erin and derek’s baby shower was at our house.  so, it’s been a little frenetic.  but, between multiple visits from my parents and learning how to work in fits and starts, i think we’re feeling more and more settled every day.    my natural tendency is towards using large chunks of time to complete large projects all at once, but that is just not possible with a small human and the pace of life right now.  we are getting better, and the house is starting to feel like home.  emme has so much space to crawl and explore and she loves that.  pippa is in the biggest area she’s ever been in and she’s living it up, exerting her dominion over all of us.  the dogs do their wrasslin’ in the front living room and love everything, even though i think they miss their field.  and justin and i are really enjoying that our stuff has a place to go and we have room and opportunities to pursue our hobbies (haven’t had a lot of time for those hobbies just yet, but the possibility is there!).  anyway.  we have some pictures hung, the kitchen and emme’s room painted, and most rooms are furnished at a functional level.  what we get to do going forward is really put our own spin on all of it.  we hope to landscape and refinish some furniture and sew some curtains and paint some more and add shelves and personal touches here and there.  it should be a blast and i’ll post pics soon. 

the job situation:

this is a very different place than my last place.  during the insanity that comprised august, there were several occasions that i wondered what in the world i had been thinking, but i am starting to feel a lot better about it.  learning windows has been mildly challenging, but it’s not so bad.  the people here are nice.  there is a TON of career development and opportunity for me to learn and do new things, and that is really exciting.  is this job as ostensibly hip as my last one?  no.  but it’s a great job.  i am carving out a niche, just as i knew i would eventually do.  i probably won’t be here forever, but i will make the most of the time i am here, and i plan to enjoy it as much as anyone. 

the social situation: 

a random category that i haven’t written much about, but i feel like i’m maybe kinda sorta emerging from my cave.  it’s hard to be the kind of friend i want to be, and this is an area i want to really keep focusing on in the coming months.  two very close friends had babies in early august, and i have only met one of them (and that was only this past week!).  there is just no excuse for that, except all the excuses i’ve made.  ha.  anyway…we went to happy hour last friday, we’re having some friends over for dinner, and we’ve done a few other activities intermittently.  we’re also planning a housewarming party at some point, so that will be a great opportunity to see everyone.  i get so lazy and selfish of my free time sometimes that i forget how much i really like people and hanging out.  i am also so intense about emme’s sleep schedule, so there’s another opportunity for growth there….

the health situation:

when i turned 30 (30!), i vowed that i would start taking better care of myself.  i don’t know why this is SO hard for me, but it is.  i would prefer to do almost anything over all those little routine self-maintenance things like exfoliating and moisturizing and blow-drying my hair.  all of that just feels self-indulgent to me, even though i know in my heart that it is super important.  i also vowed that justin and i would exercise more and eat more healthily and generally start leading a more healthful lifestyle – for our own benefits, but also to get into the habit of setting a positive example for miss e.  i’m sorry to report there have been no earth-shattering changes at our house.  but i think we are making some baby steps.  last week, we saw our first sub-100 degree temps in over three months, so we took emme and the pups for a walk every single evening.  it was bliss.  of course, we’re back in the 100s this week, so we haven’t made it out, but my iphone tells me we’ll see a mini cool front this weekend, so hopefully we can get back to it.  i’ve also been planning our meals every night, so at least one meal each day is healthy and nutritious.  baby steps, i say!  for me, it’s really all about establishing a routine that i can count on, so i know what i’m doing.  i’m not a girl who does well with a loss of control…

so, if you persevered and read this whole thing,  i think that’s all the major status updates.  this is a really great time – my favorite time of year.  i’m obsessed with combing pinterest for ideas for emme’s halloween costume.  football is taking over our house.  the weather seems like it might someday feel less horrendous.  we have holiday excitement to plan for and anticipate.  emme is turning 1 in a month and a half (this is both amazing and heartbreaking).  we have so much to be grateful for. 

nannies.

we threw a couples baby shower this weekend for our good friends erin and derek who have a little one coming in october.  i was stressed leading up to it, mainly because it was at our house (reminder that we moved in a month ago and we are not as fast at getting situated as other folks, i think...), and i was one of two hosts and the other girl is 36 weeks pregnant.  so, i just wanted everything to go smoothly and be fun for them.  and of course it was...i stress out so needlessly most of the time. 

anyway, leading up to the shower, i kept saying things like "if i can just execute this shower, everything will be perfect and wonderful and life will suddenly be completely without stress".  ha. 

to back up for a minute...we decided a few weeks ago to put emme in a montessori school when she turns a year old.  we had heard from several people that this school was awesome, and it is 1.2 miles away from our new house - amazing!  it is the only full-day, year-round montessori program in austin, so that was additionally appealing since we didn't want ek to be with different providers over the course of the day (i.e. school and after school care or whatever).  we also felt strongly that she needs to be in an environment with some structure and opportunities to learn, because she is SO busy and it's obvious that she wants more than what she's been getting at home.  so, we toured the school and met the director and watched the kids playing and engaging and we loved it. 

on the day of the tour, i had gone in to work and jb stayed home until i came to pick him up for the tour.  the nanny was there with the kids, as usual, and she asked justin what we were doing that day.  of course, he and i are both TERRIBLE liars and we didn't really have a plan of what/when to tell her, so he just said, oh, we're going to tour a day care this morning.  when i got back that afternoon, she asked me when we were planning to put emme in a daycare, and again with me and the inability to lie, i said probably around 1 year. 

this was a problem for a few reasons.  1. the school doesn't have an opening until nov. 1, so we really needed to keep the nanny until then; 2. we hadn't had a chance to discuss with vincent's family and figure out a plan; and 3. once you know your employment is on its way out, where is your incentive to work super hard?  and when it comes to your child, how do you enforce quality care in this scenario? 

so, we were stuck.  the day after we had the joint-family conversation with the nanny about moving on to a new arrangement in november, she asked if she could leave early the following day for some citizenship stuff.  we were skeptical, to say the least, but we accommodated her.  on that day, she put the babies down for naps almost 2 hours before when they should have gone down and just let them cry it out until they fell asleep.  she also spent that time primping for her interview and left the house in a mess.  needless to say, this was not a great start.  vincent's mom and i both had talks with the nanny the following day telling her we weren't ok with the super short notice, even though we knew we would have to be somewhat flexible as she looked for other jobs, and we most definitely were NOT ok with her trying to force the babies to align to her primping schedule. 

anyway...on friday of last week (the day after the conversations), when jb and i got home, we noticed that a chunk had been bitten out of our coffee table - literally, the wood is splintered.  it is obvious that it was emme that did it because of the shape of the bite and the fact that she's a wildebeest and tries to chew on the table all the time.  the level of chew indicates that she had to have been working on it for at least 10 minutes.  that means the nanny either watched her do that and didn't care (scary) or left emme alone in the living room on tile floor, unsupervised, for that long (scarier).  i also checked her browser history on our computer (which is in a room that the babies should never be in) and she had hit 386 web pages.  yowza.  we were obviously frustrated, but hoping to just make it through the next two months and then move on.  i was also hoping to preserve the relationship, as it would have been nice to have her babysit occasionally (if she ever got a car and didn't have to take the bus over 2 hours to be at our house). 

but, that wasn't to be.  on sunday morning, she texted us asking if she could have 9-1 off on monday, clearly ignoring the request for more advance notice.  vincent's family decided they were just done, and, after discussing it, jb and i decided we were over it as well.  beyond the recent frustrations, the logistical issues were becoming too much, so we just had to call and let her go. 

i have mixed feelings about the whole thing.  on the one hand, i do think that she loved emme (although, as her mother, i can say that i don't think it's hard to love my baby - ha).  she is enamored by babies in general, and i think she enjoyed her time with them and thought we were nice enough as well.  on the other hand, though, she definitely pulled a few stunts that i didn't like, and she was generally rather lazy.  there was no "light housekeeping" done - really, we had to ask her/remind her to pick up after herself and the kids.  she had the tv on most days, despite us making it clear that we weren't crazy about that.  lots of little things adding up to make me feel just sort of....meh about her.  i think she was a bit manipulative and took advantage (maybe not consciously, but advantage nonetheless) of it being our first time hiring someone in this capacity, and of the fact that we are relatively laid back etc etc. 

anyway.  the bottom line is that she is done, which is good and bad.  good because i think she had begun to detach from us and the kids in a major way, and i know how quickly emme can get hurt, so it makes me feel safer this way...but bad because we're without a nanny and both in new jobs.  i worked from home yesterday and our friend alison is watching emme with her daughter cameron at our house today.  tomorrow is emergency care through dell, and then thursday we're trialing a girl i found through a neighborhood group. 

we shall see.  but this situation is not the first time i've thought about the particular trials of working moms.  how do you just blindly allow a stranger to care for your most precious person?  ugh.

here is a pic of ek helping me "work" yesterday...

dirty thirty.

well, i am here.  in my 30s.  a new decade bringing with it all sorts of hopes and probably (as you might expect) too many expectations.  i like birthdays, particularly major ones, because they feel like a big, special new years eve all for you.  it's like another opportunity to make resolutions and start afresh. 

as i mentioned, the hesterly brigade was in town last weekend, pre-tuesday-birthday, to help with the unpacking.  they were amazing, as expected.  they showed up on friday around 7:30pm and by 10 we had almost a whole room functional (and lemme tell you, that room was in NO WAY functional before that).  we managed to have a good time as well - swimming and grilling on saturday afternoon and evening.  saturday night there was a little fiesta to celebrate my birthday, complete with presents and cake and singing that i tolerated because we were in our own home.  on the day of my birthday, justin made coffee and breakfast and then i scurried off to my new job where no one really knows me so no one cared that it was my birthday, which was ok.  i had about 700 meetings, then scurried to get ek.  i don't think she knew it was my birthday, but she makes every day so fantastic, it felt like she might.  justin had arranged for mike and kim to babysit for us, so after getting the wee one down, we dressed in adult clothes and headed downtown.  we ended up at flemings, a steakhouse, and it was really delicious.  i have been so overwhelmed with everything that's been going on, it took me a little while to decompress, but it was profoundly lovely to sit at a table with just justin, eating and talking and not thinking (too much) about my to do list. 

which i guess brings me to my to do list.  ha.  i have been thinking a lot about this, and i'm fairly sure this list is not comprehensive or even very detailed, but i wanted to write down some goals for this year and for my 30s in general.  so here we go....

• look like an adult (meaning, flip flops with no make up is acceptable, but not for every day, and certainly not for work).
• take better care of myself - floss, exercise, try not to stress out, use sunscreen and moisturizer.  
• slow down.  
• invest time and energy into quality interactions - this could be phrased as do less, but do it with intention.  
• cook new things.  
• travel to new places.  
• write more letters.  
• give thoughtful gifts.  
• write more, period.  
• complete craft and DIY projects instead of just thinking about them.  
• forgive myself and others more easily.  
• take classes (french, maybe?)

i'll keep working on this....

house hunting #2: new house!

a lot happens and changes really fast at our house.  it's really always been this way, so i don't know why i expect it to slow down (ever), but this time is no exception for sure.  after my angsty post about our house, we actually found a house that was awesome a little north of our current home (neighborhood = not as hip/trendy but still relatively central and best of all affordable!).  we saw it on a sunday evening and decided we wanted to put in an offer.  long story short, our offer was submitted too late and the seller had already accepted someone else's offer.  we were SUPER bummed.  justin especially.  the yo-yo of emotions associated with house buying are exhausting.

anyway.  our realtor felt really bad about the situation with that house, so we all redoubled our efforts and made a list of six houses to see the following weekend (last saturday).  one of the houses was in roughly the same neighborhood as the one we lost, but the pictures looked kind of blah.  we weren't super excited about seeing it, mainly because we still had the image of the other house in our minds and we just couldn't imagine getting lucky again.  so, we went to the first four houses and they were all just so-so.  none that we would really consider living in, even though they weren't horrible.  then we headed to this house.  it was surprisingly amazing.  i think i walked into each room for like 12 seconds before declaring that i would absolutely live in the house.  i let emme crawl around on the floor and she was fired up about it too (or at least, i think she was as she spit up on their carpet - ha!).  it's a 5/3 or 4/3 + an office, depending on how you look at it.  and the layout of the house is perfect for us.  there's a big living room with the kitchen open.  a secondary living/sitting room with dining area in the front of the house.  4 beds and 2 baths on one side of the house and a really lovely guest suite on the other side.  this is super perfect because my parents come to town once a month and we always want people to come visit us but have always had to cache that statement with "and hotels aren't that expensive around here..."  now we can say "oh please do come visit - you can stay in our guest room that has an exit to the backyard and POOL.  very exciting.  oh, yes, so we also have a pool.

a pool was not something we thought we wanted or were really considering until we saw it at the house we lost.  standing outside on a june day in austin, we started thinking about how much we love to be outside and how much we love to hang out with friends and how much emme loves the water.  it was like we could envision family and friends hanging out around the pool as we grilled stuff and the kids played.  once we got that visual, it was like we could not get it out of our heads.

so, this house has a pool too.  we looked at everything, talked about it a little, and decided we should go for it.  our realtor brought the offer documentation to our house at 8:45 that saturday night, and our offer was accepted on sunday afternoon.  it's all moving so quickly, but the inspection was yesterday and everything seems to be go for launch!  we close july 21....start lining up your visit!

house hunting and big decisions.

our house is small.  like, really really small.  one bathroom and under 1,000 square feet small.  it's also adorable and cozy (or, we think so) and the location is perfection (for us, our lifestyle, the pups, etc).  we live on a dead end that ends at the UT intramural fields.   the dogs have never really had to learn how to walk on a leash because we have a big field for them to romp in right outside of our front door.  and because of that we've been lazy about leash training...  we can walk a few blocks to great restaurants, neighborhood grocery stores, a yogurt place, and a farmers' market every wednesday. as far as the whole location thing goes, we are covered.  but, again, small.

when i got pregnant, one of the first things we discussed was should we move?  it seemed like it might be a good idea, what with adding to our little urban farm and all.  but, we ultimately decided that one baby couldn't possibly take up THAT much space (oh, the naivete!), and we didn't want to deal with selling, buying, renting, packing, etc etc etc with the end of grad school and me being big and pregnant.  ha.

so that brings us to now.  in the beginning, i think having a tiny house was perfect.  i could hear emme's every whimper even on those rare (very rare) occasions when she wasn't in the same room as me (on my person).  even now it's nice for nighttime because we don't even need a baby monitor - just an open door and i'm there in 3 steps if i need to be.  but...there are other, less convenient issues.  like...emme has a tub that goes in our tub (duh).  there's not really a place for this thing, so it's either in the middle of the bathroom floor for us to trip over, or sitting in the tub preventing us from showering conveniently.  if we have more than a few people over, there's only one toilet, which is just annoying.  we can't really baby-proof, as that involves putting stuff up, and we don't have an up to put things.  we are not hoarders, i swear, but we just seem to have a bit more stuff than our little 840 square feet can hold.  our poor walls are bowing from installing so many shelves.  it's getting a bit out of control.

our first thought was to just add on to our house.  we figured we love our area and we could deal with a construction project for a while if it meant getting to stay here.  but, alas, the city is conspiring against us because we're on a flood plain, so that means no expansion of our footprint.  then we thought we'd sell our house and use the cash for a down payment on a new place.  this is a two-fold problem: one, the housing market is horrible right now (even in austin), so if we sell, we aren't realizing nearly the gains we could if we were in an up market; and two, we'd be losing our location and potential rent revenue.  sooooo...we decided we want to try to keep our current house as a rental property and maybe hopefully buy something else too.  the rent market is fantastic in austin right now, so this should conceivably work out.  except we can't actually find a house in austin that's big enough and cheap enough and also happens to be located in a neighborhood we want to live in.

and now here we are.  we did actually find a house that was pretty amazing in a lot of ways, but it was just a bit too pricey for us to comfortably swing.  not to mention, we would need to acquire some additional furniture if we moved into a new place, so we can't get into a payment that's so high we have an empty, echo-y house for a couple of years.  even though i am gung-ho for some thrifting and furniture refinishing projects....there are only so many hours and great deals out there.

i guess i'm writing about this so we can look back and remember what it was like to feel so weirdly in flux.  even though we've had countless conversations about this, i still don't really know what we're going to do.  wait it out?  look for a house in a neighborhood we don't love?  move to the 'burbs like all our co-workers think we will?  until then, i'm thinking of installing a butler building...

23 weeks.

no, i'm not randomly, secretly 23 weeks pregnant again.  there are 23 weeks until october 29, which is the weekend of a half marathon in new braunfels, tx.  i'm not running these days.  i'm not really doing any physical activity, other than lifting and monkeying around with my increasingly heavy bunny.  somehow, these activities are not getting me into fighting shape.  i know, i've been shocked too.  

anyway.  i am considering signing up.  for a few reasons.  

1. it's before emme turns 1, so technically that means i've gotten back into some form of shape (the ability to run 13.1 miles kind) before she's a year old. 
2. i'm turning 30 in august and i'm kind of (really) freaking out about it (even though i know that's lame, i just am, ok?), and i'm thinking training for a race will give me something positive on which to focus my age angst.  
3. i am apparently incapable of doing things like exercise just because they are good for me and i need some sort of deadline/quest to get me off my (fat) butt.  

the training program i think i'll probably follow (if i decide to do this) is 17 weeks until the actual race (plus two recovery weeks afterward).  which means the 23 weeks i have to go right now is kind of perfect, since i should probably do some pre-conditioning before going whole hog into a training plan, due to the aforementioned atrophy of my muscles while growing a human.  

but, i am scared.  i keep making a lot of excuses about time and all that, but it's really not that much of a time commitment when you look at the schedule.  i can make it work.  but i'm scared.  i'm scared of how disappointing it is that i've let myself get to this point.  i'm scared that i will do the runs and feel horrible and be judged (and worse - judge myself) by everyone on the trails/road.  moving forward (literally and metaphorically) is so much harder than the status quo, even when the status quo makes me feel frumpy and discontent.  

so i guess we shall see.  i'll start this weekend if i'm going to start.  maybe.  at most i've got 5-6 weeks to pre-train before i have to make a real decision about actually training.  5-6 more weeks to figure out if the frump is really detestable enough to get me off the couch....

welcome to 2011.

wow.  here we are, beginning yet another year.  we have so many things going on and so many things to look forward to in this new year.  we rang in 2011 with several friends, good food, and emme sleeping in her crib for the first time ever!  i thought it was going to be this intense transition process, but she just went right down and is happy in there.

i love the freshness and optimism of january...i hope we can harness it and hold it all year long.

here are a few of the things we have on the 2011 horizon....

- rachel and chip's wedding in lafayette in march (it will be emmeline's first wedding and her first time seeing the lost bayou ramblers play)
- kim and mike's wedding in jamaica in april.  jb is the best man/photographer and my parents will be joining us in sunny jamaica to help take care of emme while wedding business is happening.  we actually got e's passport photos taken yesterday and they are hilarious.
- the hesterly/browne weight loss challenge.  my parents, jb, my brother, and i all threw some of our christmas money in a pot.  we have approximately 90 days and whoever has lost the most weight (as a percentage of body weight) by april 1 gets the cash.  i think we all over-indulged a bit over the holidays and i am really excited about cooking and eating healthy again....i, personally, have been overindulging since my last trimester....woops.
- the launch of justin's side business: jtb visuals.  more about that later.
- my 30th birthday.
- the birth of baby girl perque in april
- the birth of baby mccarthy in august
- several other friend/family babies joining the scene
- and who can even begin to guess what else??

there is much to look forward to and be thankful for.  can't wait.

hob knobbery.

so the furniture situation has not been resolved as far as the money we spent at usa baby, but things have progressed in the acquisition of furniture department.  after we got the letter saying they were going out of business, and after i emailed asking for a refund check and got an automated "contact your bank" reply, and after we read the article in the paper about the sheisty dealings of this place, we foraged craigslist for some gear.  have i mentioned in the past how much i love craigslist?  i really do.  i got my first sewing machine there, our tent for camping, and other stuff; and we've gotten rid of loads of stuff we didn't want and gotten money for it.  it's genius.

anyway...we found a diaper changing table and a chest of drawers thingy on there for a great price, and the people who were selling even offered to deliver them to us.  success!  they dropped them off on saturday afternoon and the stuff is in really great condition.  they had painted the knobs on the bureau pink, and we figured we could find something with a little more personality, so we headed to anthropologie and found 4 different pairs of knobs that i think turned out really cute.

the diaper changing table isn't the most exciting piece of furniture ever, but it's cute and functional.

as for the crib, a woman my mom works with has sooooo generously offered a crib that she has to us.  it's brand new, with a brand new crib mattress, and nibs will be the first baby to sleep in it.  we are really so overwhelmed by how well this has worked out, and how supportive everyone has been.  so now, all that's left is to figure out the glider/rocker situation and keep praying that we get our money back.  but at the end of the day, this is a much smaller problem than what many people face, and it looks like we will have a place for a baby to sleep, which is great news.  it's really helped me to get some perspective and be grateful for how good we have it.  i'll post pictures of the crib after we pick it up this coming weekend.

other than that, we've been busy trying to stay cool in the demon heat of august.  our house doesn't really stay cool when it's in the 100s every day, so falling asleep is kind of annoying for me these days, but i have a feeling the pups are fighting it even more than i am.  ollie has fur like a husky, even though it's shorter than that, and he just lays around waiting for fall.  his most recent spot is in his crate (he and etta share a crate, but he absolutely loves that thing and hangs out in it any chance he gets), upside down.  it's really cute, but i have no idea how he finds it comfortable.

i've also completed another sewing project - 2 throw pillows for our couch.  i had sewn a few last summer but did a pretty shabby job with cheapy fabric, so it was time for a refresher.  these were made from some fabric jb picked out and also included my first ever attempt at putting in zippers (which i taught myself how to do and actually succeeded!).  i think they turned out well, and i'll probably do a couple more in the coming weeks - they are soooo much easier when you have a pillow insert instead of stuffing with the poly-fill stuff.

so i guess that's it for now.  we head off to lafayette for my first baby shower this coming weekend, and we are super pumped.  though louisiana will not offer any respite from the heat, it will be awesome to see family and friends...and i'm sure i'll partake in some delicious food, which never hurts....nibs is moving and shaking these days, especially when we go to the movies.  we're getting super curious about what s/he is going to be like, and especially what gender s/he is.  less than 11 weeks to go!

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....

new year, new leaf.

new years always bring out a pile of lists and endeavors to be better at things. things like organizing and eating healthily and taking care of body mind spirit intellect. i'm a little slow on endeavoring so far this year, but i'll get there.

this weekend was my last free weekend before my last semester of grad school. i'm going to louisiana solo this weekend to see the parents and pick up a couple of christmas gifts that couldn't fit into our overly-stuffed, dog-filled car during the holiday trek. anyway...we managed to get several things done this weekend. i cleaned out all the bathroom cabinets and organized all of that, as well as the desk drawer. then jb hung book shelves high up in the office and the bedroom and we got rid of this massive ikea bookshelf that was taking up half the office. geez i have a crap load of books. so, things are somewhat more organized, or at least on their way to being so.

etta james is getting bigger ever minute and is the sweetest and most precocious little pup. she loves ollie and follows him around, eagerly awaiting his attention. he's adjusting well to her presence, though he's not 100% back to normal yet. i think we need to get on a more disciplined pattern with both dogs, but it's been fun nevertheless.

the past week was insanely cold - a low of 16 one night, in the twenties the others. we put the chickens into a rubbermaid container and brought them inside because we thought they might not make it huddled in their coop along. hopefully it's a tad warmer this week so i can run a few times....

holidays on ice (and snow).

well, it's 2010. we've made it. i don't really know what that means, but there are lots of cool things to anticipate this year. my graduation, some friends having babies, projects, trips, jb turning 30....it's going to be a fun year, i think.

the vacation time this year was different, but still really good. we passed on louisiana - only my second non-louisiana christmas ever. instead, we drove to my uncle's in dallas, where my family met us (me, jb, and the 2 pups). we spent 3 days 2 nights there, mostly eating a ton of some crazy delicious food and watching the snow dump. first white christmas ever! it was beautiful, if ridiculously cold. all in all, a very fun gathering with the fam. nice gifts, good chats, and a few quality board game throw downs. my uncle also happens to live on a lake (his suburb is called the colony) and there is a sweet path all around it that was awesome for morning walks with ollie.

we left christmas night to drive to wichita to hang with jb's family, hoping to miss traffic and be rested for family picture day on saturday. bad idea jeans. the weather was bad all over i-35, apparently, and okc had been absolutely blasted by snow and ice on christmas eve. there were several very treacherous stretches of road, but jb's remarkable driving skills pulled through again, and we made it safely to the cozy basement at his mom's house. nevermind that it took 7 hours instead of 4....

anyway, wichita was a good time. the little dog and the big dog liked romping through all the snow in the parks near jb's house. freaking precious. we ate tons more good food, and got to spend some quality time with the crew, including our nephew maddox.

we made it home in (slightly) better weather and buckled down to get the house ready for our first new years eve party. lots of work, lots of fun, and i think we're going to pass on hosting another one next year. i also mixed a few too many types of cocktails, so new years day was a very rough experience for me. not the best way to start a new decade, but what can you do?

we are full of high hopes and aspirations for 2010: more vegetables, more running, less t.v., less clutter. lots of other ideas and resolutions too, but...that somewhat sums it up.

goals

i realize that it's july now. actually, almost august. but i had big plans for 2009. plans that included, but were not limited to, a level of documentation of the events and happenings of my life, our lives, life. i was going to journal. and take more photographs. and keep a blog or a scrapbook or both.
well like many good intentions, these projects and plans went by the wayside almost simultaneously with their conception. in fact, i want to say i didn't actually make resolutions until january fourth or fifth, which isn't exactly starting off on the right foot or anything.
i digress. i hope, for now, that this blog is a daily or maybe weekly summary or update of the adventures and happenings of the brownes. i think things are very good for us right now. we are very fortunate. and i would love for us to be able to have a record of all of it.