My Experiment Failed...In Other News

Since my Luxurious Locks post, A LOT has happened.  Most of you reading this know that we moved from Ohio back to Arkansas after my son was born (his story here, I know I left you all hanging).  I was all too happy to leave Ohio, mostly because having a new baby and no friends or family isn't fun.  As soon as we were back in Arkansas, we started on a journey to plant a church in Boulder, Colorado. This journey flourished then came to a screeching hault summer 2013.  Let's just say God was, and is, happy to change our plans.

We found out we were having baby number two last September.  Olivia was a bright spot in what was a crazy, stressful year.  We were in limbo for a while, when the blessing floodgates opened, and the University of Colorado in Boulder called Garrett--out of the blue--offering him a teaching position.  So now we're here in Longmont.  Garrett LOVES teaching at CU, and Brittney just accepted a position in financial aid at Front Range Community College; I'm so happy for her.

A great place to throw rocks, Ben's favorite new activity.

My kids are also loving the move; well, Ben is as Olivia could care less about where she's at as long as she's being paid attention to. My little girl (whom I love dearly) is, shall we say... spirited.  She is the definition of high-maintenance!  If you know my son, you know that he was a super chill baby.  Olivia, on the other hand, prefers others to know 100% that she's there and has something to say.  Athough she's trying at times, I love her spunk.  She is so expressive; a smile and laugh from her makes all the screaming seem like a distant memory.

My little girl. She's a Ladybug Princess

Ben, now almost three, is a ball of energy; one day a switch just got flipped in him and he hasn't stopped moving since.  Even though he's "Mr. Crazy Toddler" now, he still has the quiet focus and concentration of his baby months. Give Ben a puzzle and he won't hear a word you say; he goes into studying, problem solving mode. He and Olivia currently couldn't be more different, but they sure do love each other.  Each of their faces lights up when the other comes into a room.  I'm so happy that they're good together.

Look at my boy all grown up! NO! I refuse! He's still a little, bitty, tiny man...so there.

One of my favorites of the two of them laughing and playing. They really do love each other.

Beautiful, Beautiful...Wish You Were Here!

One of my favorite movies, one that I could watch over and over again, is French Kiss.  It's a typical Meg Ryan (pre-face alteration, why Meg why) romantic comedy flick.  It has tons of quotable gems that make me happy just thinking about them.  One memorable quote occurs when Meg and Kevin Kline are walking through a quaint French village; she exclaims, "Beautiful, beautiful...Wish you were here!" She's basically wallowing in the fact that she's in an amazing, beautiful place with an annoying frenchman (Kline) and not her former fiancé (Timothy Hutton).

Despite the reason Meg had for this exclamation, I like the quote and how it relates to where I'm at in my life.  We recently moved to Colorado and are loving it.  AND I wish all my friends and family could move here with me.  It's so beautiful in Colorado, and I wish everyone else was here.  I wish my parents could come over whenever they wanted, play with the kids, sit on the back porch, chat, and enjoy the view as much as I do.  I wish my best friend Lacee lived a couple of houses down and came over for play dates and coffee every week.  Even though I love living in Colorado, I miss my friends and family in Arkansas. Sigh...

Watch it and Love it.  You're welcome

Where Are My Luxurious Locks?

One of the perks of living in pregnancy land is typically having thicker, fuller hair.  All the things I read say things like, "enjoy your lovely, flowing locks while they last."  (They say, "while they last," because once the baby comes, your new thicker hair will supposedly start coming out in clumps.)

For those that don't know, my hair is naturally wavy.  I typically style it scrunched curly, flat-ironed straight, or in a pony tail (I don't get fancy as I don't think I could a) pull it off or b) accomplish any other style on my own--ask my sister, I'm hair styling handicapped).  A couple of months ago, after a long run of pony tail days, I decided to go curly.  Things didn't go so well.  I chalked it up to having to rush until I tried again a few days later.  I ended up having to use a curling iron on my entire head of hair thus looking like a much older version of little Shirley Temple (minus the super short dress).  Thus is my life now: I no longer can get my hair to curl naturally.

That's not all folks.  "Just go straight then" you say, well there's a problem there too.  My hair has hormonally become quite corse and a little stiff.  Blast!  Now the only pony tail outlet I have leaves me with an outcome I am not 100% pleased with.  I cry out, "Where Are My Luxurious Locks!"  I'd be happy to deal with losing all my luxury after the baby comes to have a few months of loveliness.  Oh well.

After all that complaining, I'll leave you with a few pictures of the baby's room.  I still need to put things up on the wall, but I thought I'd end on a happy note.

My, essentially free, changing table.  I wasn't going to buy a changing table, but it came with the crib at a cheaper price than the crib by itself.  Thanks Black Friday!

Ben's bedding.  A little cutesy, but I love the colors..

This is Bubble Bear; he's just hanging out.

Bubble Bear is famous!!

Front shot.  My mom insisted on the matching mobile.  It's cute though and completes the picture.

This is Ben's shelf that is a bit cluttered at the moment.  Notice the AMAZING moo bank on the top that Brittney found for us.  We have already started filling it with spare change.  

Thought I'd throw in a prego picture for those that have been asking for one.  In this picture, I was about 29 or 30 weeks.  I'm not big on being in front of the camera, so you're welcome.

           

I'm A Fan

As most of you know, I am done teaching for a while.  Thus, my days are filled with sleeping in (wonderful), doing dishes (blah I miss having a dishwasher), and organizing (a guilty pleasure).  Ok, so I also spend some mornings catching up on all my Hulu shows that Garrett doesn't have an interest in.

On the days that I am trying to put off the dish washing, I find myself surfing the web.  The other day I got caught up for half an hour watching YouTube after YouTube about people giving puppies as surprise gifts.  If anyone had walked while I was watching said videos, he or she would think something was wrong with me as I was sitting there bawling my eyes out in the darkness of my apartment's living room.  I must note that this is not a usual occurrence.  Usually I'm crying over the latest Parenthood or Biggest Loser episode.  

When I'm not crying at my computer, you can find me searching through Pinterest.  I originally had no interest (ha! no pun intended) in this trend until I spent an hour one day looking through recipes people had posted and I found myself trying to bookmark at least ten different blogs on this or that.  After that day, I saw the benefit of having one place that you can save all the wonderful things that you'd normally bookmark the entire site to find again.  Brilliant!  I asked my sister to invite me to join (sounds fancy I know).  I was off to pin (pinterest lingo meaning to save whatever is cool to my account) to my heart's desire.  This image was one of my first finds on Pinterest; if it doesn't make you want to drop everything and join, then I don't know what will.

I've named him Boots.  

The ultimate goal of Pinterest for me is to utilize the pins I'm saving; I want to actually make the recipes that I'm pinning (I'm not sure that I'd actually do any of the crafty things I pin).  If I don't accomplish this goal, then I am junking up my computer in the same way I have managed to collect far too many food magazines with the thought of one day making that one chicken/beef/pork thing that looked so good and easy.  I have made one recipe so far, so I feel I have already taken an important step toward success.  I'll keep you posted on my progress of this goal.  For now, enjoy looking through the world of Pinterest!

My Second Trimester

As I bid my second trimester farewell, I wanted to look back and let you all have a glimpse of what's been going on with me.

My second trimester began with high hopes that my nausea would be ending and I'd feel like a normal person again (at least that's what all the experts say usually happens).  Those hopes quickly vanished as the weeks passed by, and I settled into life of being uncomfortable all the time (no worries, this story has a happy ending).  My first several weeks in my second trimester were filled with aches, heartburn, and nausea.  When all seemed lost, almost every discomfort went away; this might have happened around or a little before Thanksgiving.  Finally!  I felt like a normal person!  Since that point, I have been overall very comfortable.  I have more heartburn than the normal functioning adult, but hey!, that's what TUMS are for!  In fact, I forget that I'm pregnant sometimes.  I'll sit down after a shopping or something and think, "Man, I feel full.  Maybe I ate too much......Oh, wait."

Lately, I've had almost an hourly reminder that I'm pregnant because Ben is constantly moving.  He kicks, punches, twists, and turns all day long.  His movement is only uncomfortable when he decides to hit my bladder when I already need to pee (not cool Ben, not cool), otherwise, I welcome the movement.  Ben's turnings are fun ways to help me get to know him better and make more of a connection with him.  There are a few times that when I put on a favorite song and sing along, he moves; this makes me think he loves it too (or hates it...we'll go with loves it for now and will be a future Warbler--Glee reference).  Garrett hasn't gotten to feel Ben kick yet.  Every time he tries, Ben plays hard to get.  I'm sure Garrett will feel or see Ben move soon enough.    

Overall, I have been able to really enjoy this time in my pregnancy, and thankfully enjoy all the traveling and seeing of family over the holidays.  Because Garrett and I were in Arkansas for three weeks, my family got to see me grow before their very eyes, and boy did I grow.  It seemed like one day I was pregnant and the next day I was PREGNANT.  Needless to say, my belly came in fast.  Besides watching me grow out of the clothes that I brought to wear, my family got to witness some of my quirky cravings and the reduction of my range of movement.  Getting off the couch, bending over, tying my shoes all are movements that take just a little more time and effort to do now.  When my family watches me attempt these types of tasks, I see the same reaction: a smile, a laugh, a shake of the head, then an offer to help.  As time goes on, I hope the offer to help will move into first place on the reaction progression scale.

I don't crave many specific things being pregnant.  I like to say that my love and desire of almost all foods has grown.  I have always enjoyed Taco Bell, and now, I love Taco Bell.  There are a couple of items that I wouldn't think much about before I was pregnant that sound good all the time now.  One of these nuggets is the Coke ICEE.  This is now a special treat for me and the family went on icee hunts while I was in town; it became a game of sorts, a scavenger hunt if you will.  My sister has always been an icee lover, but I grew out of them as I stopped drinking sodas.  However, being pregnant has caused me to reevaluate my priorities.  I must say, though, the icee is a hard item to love in the winter (especially in the middle of this Ohio winter).  I must sacrifice some amount of cold-hand discomfort to enjoy the drink that makes my heart flutter.  It's worth it people.

An excitement picture taken after finding ICEEs at a gas station on the way to Texas.

Too many icee options!  However, be warned, not all frozen beverages are at the same level of quality as the original ICEE.  I found this out the hard way.  Lesson learned.

Well, that's enough for now.  Plus, now I want an icee and it's 19 degrees and snowing outside.  Great!