Nursery Decor, Part 2

After picking out furniture (or really at the same time!) we moved on to bedding. Since the furniture was dark and I was still worried about accomplishing a light and airy feeling I thought bedding was one of the ways I could accomplish that. Now, I know there are two schools of thought on nursery bedding--that it's a baby's room and should look babyish or that it should look more adult. Because of our style and the fact that each room is connected to the next or can be seen from at least two other rooms in our old historic home, we decide to keep the nursery in step with the over all design asthetic of the house. Plus, I am not a fan of princes and princesses or the jungle theme that seems to be on like all the baby bedding. Nor do I really like things that are over the top pink or blue--remember I wanted gender neutral to start?


So I searched high and low for modern bedding that was affordable and looked like us and like it belonged in out home.  And this is what we found:

I found it at the Dwell Studio's website.  But let's be honest, baby bedding is a rip off.  First off, they don't care--they are just babies--really its me that cares.  Plus they are going to probably poop and pee and puke on it far more than they are going to appreciate the design asthetic or thread count.  So it doesn't make a ton of sense to pay tons of money for it, plus I am of the firm opinion that you should never pay full price for much of anything, especially since the dawn of the internet.  So I searched around and found it discounted at ModernNursery.com by about twenty percent or so. Plus they were doing free shipping and no tax, which made the pricey designer bedding make more sense (or at least to this hormonal, design loving mama). 

I like that it's light so adds some levity to the heavy dark furniture we picked.  I like that its got some pink but its got some purple--girly but not over the top.  And I like that there's chocolate and tan in it to pick up on and neutralize it a bit. 

Next up...accesories and art work!

A Thankful List

I know that Thanksgiving was last month but in this time of hustle and bustle and shopping and stress I thought I would take a cue from another blogger and take time to list the things that I am thankful for this season. 

1. T, my lovely husband.  I know its seems cheesy or obvious, but this time right before the baby comes has been so much fun.  We are a really great team and I am just enjoying every last minute of our family of two.

2. My really great colleagues.  I don't really talk too much about my work life, but I work with some of the coolest people.  People that I even call my friends. 

3. For T and I's sense of humor which always seems to help lighten the mood

4. For basic human kindness and compassion that people show.  Being pregnant enough that I am now showing and don't jsut look like I've had one too many cheeseburgers I have found people to be very helpful and kind. 

5. For a mid-day skim hot chocolate and a snickerdoodle cookie

6. For being able to feel the baby all the time (whoa is it reassuring!) and being able to share that with T

7. That I only had to go to the mall once this holiday season. 

8. For my two siblings that are two really cool people who always have really sharp insight to troubling situations. 

9. For a season filled with wonderfully cheery mail that are not bills! 

10.  For having some really wonderful family recipies and tradition to look forward to sharing with T on Christmas Day

What are you thankful for this month?

Nursery Decor, Part 1

We have been pulling together the nursery as of late.  Its not finished, but it is coming along nicely.  I thought I would share about it in a series of posts just for fun and to document the process so when little bit #2 comes along we can look back and laugh at our new parent selves. 

We decided that we would put little bit in the middle bedroom of our house, which was serving as our guest bedroom.  It worked the best logistically, because its close to our room and its not right off the main living space.  Also, the walls were painted a nice, light tan, something that I thought we could keep with either gender depending on which way our color palete went. 

Orginally I wanted gender neutral--grey, yellow and white and modern.  But there have been plenty of set backs in that plan.  First off there are only a hand full of modern baby cribs and they are pretty costly, especially for what you are getting (often not even made of solid wood).  Second of all, there is really not a lot fo options for modern baby bedding that is gender neutral.  I would have LOVED to have swen my own bedding together, since I am a pretty good seamstress and love sewing, however, working 50+ hours a week and keeping a household up doesn't leave much time for such a large craft project.  After I sort of did my research and figured out what my options were and after I had drug T to like every baby furniture place in a tri-state area (seriously, this man deserves a medal) we decided on our furniture. 

We went with the espresso finished furniture.  Why?  Well, I orignally wanted white because its so clean and buoyant and woudl add a sense of lightness in our nursery, which sits on the north side of the house and doesn't get much light.  However, as much as I tried I couldn't picture a child much past 2 or 3 years old in white furniture especially since my vision was clean!  We decided that the espresso would be much more forgiving of smudges etc and be able to transition along with the little bit.  We also decided to do one of the "lifestyle" beds that transitions from crib to fullsized bed.  We like the set and think its classic.  So our little bit can use it in the nursery and then grow along with it or if we decide its just not their style it would transition nicely into a guest bedroom set.  The set we picked out besides be asthetically pleasing, got really high safety ratings and customer service ratings and met our basic quality criteria for major furniture purchases. 

We purchased our furniture from a furniture store that was recomended to us by friends.  They were willing to negotiate (I left that part to T my super sales expert) and they delivered and assembled.  And I have to say, even though our store threw in the delivery and assembly at no cost--totally worth it!  Their delivery men were on time, neat, clean and professional and had the furniture ready to go in no time at all.  Totally worth it!

And as far as what we actually purchased it was great--solid wood, well constucted and it totally didn't break the bank at all! 

My Mister

The other night we were sitting at dinner at our kitchen table.  After we had finished catching each other up on our days, there was a lull in the conversation. 

Suddenly (because if you know me I am a bit spacey and random sometimes with my trains of thought) I said to to T, "You know what I have thought everytime I have looked down at my stomach today?"

He replied, "Holy crap! I swallowed a basketball!"

All I have to say is that I must not have too much of the crazy pregnancy hormone pumping through my veins because rather than cry or hit him I laughed so hard I almost fell out of my chair!

I am really lucky to be married to someone who is so funny and who has made this process so much fun!

*the picture is of T and Ranger from our first winter here in Indiana.

Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving was spent in OK this year with my family this year.  T and I drove down there the first part of the week and while T met with clients and worked the first half of the week I spent time with friends and took my sweet grandparents to breakfast.  The rest of the week was spent cooking and hanging with my family, going on walks, and T played like 42 holes of golf while we were there.  

 

Actual Thanksgiving day we celebrated at my mom and stepdad's house with 20 family members.  My mom and I had spent the day before baking pies and prepping all the side dishes so things would go smoothly on actual Thanksgiving day and so things would be low stress.  The meal was yummy and the company was great!   These pictures are of my and my sister K and of me and T.  I think these are the first pictures we have taken with the bump (which happened to be acceptionally large with all the rich food--its now back to its "normal size" about half that!)

The day after Thanksgiving was mom and daughter day for my mom and I so we decided that we would go and look at baby stuff together.  Since we live so far appart my mom is missing out on some of these mom/daughter moments during the pregnancy and really, I miss having my mom around to ask questions and just talk to.  We went to a big baby super store to look at all the gear, because I don't have a clue.  It was fun!  Even when we couldn't figure out how to colapse strollers (eek!).  We then went and got smoothies at my favorite place Jamba Juice (they don't have them in Indiana--boo!) and then decided that we had had enough baby shopping and went to Macy's to poke around.  It was soooo fun!  Then we got mexican take out and met the family at home for a laid back meal of fajitas (that we didn't have to cook!). And my mom and sister got to feel the baby kick while we were there--cool huh?

On the whole it was a relaxing and great holiday week!

A Little Something

So I don't normally talk about my work here on the ol blog.  I like that the blog is alot about my life outside of work simply because my work is very involved and very public.  But I was published in an online publication for young women in my field and thought it was blog worthy information.

Here's the link if you want to read:

http://www.youngclergywomen.org/the_young_clergy_women_pr/2010/11/who-are-we-going-to-be.html#continue

If not, have a wonderful Thursday! 

Halloween

I hope everyone had a Happy Halloween!  We had a wonderful evening.  We took a long walk late in the afternoon, then came home and make hot tea and cider, grab our Halloween candy and a book and sat on the front porch until the trick-or-treaters came along.  It was fun too because all of our neighbors did the same thing and we have some cool neighbors.  So we all hung out and talked and oohed and awwwed over the cute little kiddos in thier costumes.

Once it got dark and the trick-or-treating crowd transitioned into teens and adults in street clothes carrying trash sacks, we packed it up and brought our pumpkins inside to carve.  One of the things I will never understand about this holiday is how absurd it looks from a food stand point.  We Americans, set perfectly good food out on our front porches to rot, which encouraging our kids to go door to door collecting items that are basically chemicals and sugar.  Baffles me, but anyhow.  My favorite part of Halloween is gutting all of our pumpkins and pulling the seeds out and roasting them.  Its such a yummy treat we only get once a year!  One year, we went a got a dozen of left over pumpkins the church was just going to toss in the dumpster after the Pumpkin Patch and gutted every single one for the seeds!  This year we just had the ones from our front steps though so we took them into to carve while we watched the Wizard of Oz. 

After we had gutted and carved our largest pumpkins, I had an idea.  I asked T if we could put Ranger in a pumpkin.  T was pretty apprehensive at first and worried Ranger would be mad, but after a little coaxing, he agreed.*  Ranger was actually pretty non-challant about the whole thing.  He just sort of hung out until we were done snapping pics.  And the only thing that got messy were his paws.

Oh, and if you are interested in how we roast our seeds here's the basic idea:

Pumpkins seeds cleaned and patted dry

Melted butter (just enough to coat the seeds very lighly)

Wostishire Sauce (same as butter--just enough to lightly coat)

Preheat oven to 350 lay seeds out in a roasting pan and place in oven.  Roast for about 20 minutes, checking every 10 minutes and turning and moving with a spatula, or until golden brown.

Lay on a towel to cool and salt to preference. 

On the whole it was a great Halloween!  How was your Halloween?

*Basically by "a little bit of coaxing" I explained to T that it was either Ranger this year or the baby the next, but that I needed to get putting the dog and or baby in a carved out fruit or veggitable out of my system after seeing this YouTube video. Hehe!

All Bets Are Off

Actually all bets are not off...they are lost.  As you already know, our beloved Texas Rangers lost to the San Francisco Giants in the World series earlier this week.   We were pretty bummed around our house.

T watched the final game in the series with some friends at thier house.  I had already gone to bed when he got home and when I woke up I had this vague recollection of him telling me something about the baby before he went to sleep.  

Later that next day I checked facebook and was reminded suddenly of what T told me the night before.

Apparently he has already gotten started on using the baby as a betting tool.  Sheesh!  You see, T's cousin J lives in San Fran and is due with a little one of her own about two weeks or so before us.  Apparently in all thier trash talking via texts, they agreed that the person who's team lost the World Series would have to dress their baby in the winning team's onesie.  

So I hope my little one looks good in orange and black...

Last Night's Dinner

This is technically our dinner from Friday night, but is probably going to be tonight's dinner and its such a staple in our meal rotation and so easy and health I thought I would pass it along.

I saw a version of this stuffed squash over on Jen's blog last year and though, hm...I could do that.  I didn't really follow her reciepe, but just sort of took the concept and ran with it.  I have tried different things, tweeked it here and there and have a pretty awesome, healthy plan that's easy to throw togehter on the fly in the fall and winter.  Below is what I do if I am making it for two people.

Ingredients:

1. One medium to large sized acorn squash cut in half with seeds and stuff scooped out

2. 1 1/2 cups of fat free, low sodium organic chicken broth

3.  4 tblsps butter (or margerine) but I prefer the real deal in moderation over processed stuff

4.  Two sliced of whole grain wheat bread (or bread of choice I suppose)

5. 1/4 cup chopped walnuts

6. 1/4 cup dried cranberries and/or cherries

7. Thyme, rosemary, sage and garlic power to preference (usually about a 1/2 tsp of each, but really I add until it smells the way I want it to!)

8. One Chicken sausage removed from casing, cooked and finely separated (optional, for the folks that are wierd about skipping meat at a meal or who just want a different flavor)

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.  Take the acorm squash and cut off the little points on the long end of the squash where the stem is and at its opposite.  Then cut it in half through the thin end (see picture above).  Scoop out seeds and strings and stuff.  Set asside

Start by heating chicken broth and butter in a sauce pan on the stove.  Heat until the butter has melted into the chicken broth.  Remove from heat.

While broth is heating, toast the two slices of bread.  Once toasted, cut into 1/4 inch cubes; set asside.

Mix into the chicken broth butter concoction the walnuts, dried fruit and seasoning.  Then mix in the bread pieces.  If you have cooked up chicken sausage add it too. Mix all ingredients until bread seems to have been evenly coated and saturated with moisture and ingredients are somewhat evenly mixed.

Then scoop stuffing into the squash.  place squash on a baking sheet and place in the oven for 30-40 minutes or until the stuffing is golden brown and you can stick a fork into the side rim of the squash and it feels tender.

Remove from oven and let sit for 2-3 minutes.  Serve with steam veggies of choice.

Over the Weekend

I can't believe November is already here! Part of the reason October has flow by so quickly is that we have had three weekends in a row of houseguest.  Two weekends ago (I am late in posting this--oops!) my brother B and his girlfriend A came up from Oklahoma to visit.  They got here on Wednesday night sort of late.  Thursday I had to work but they met T at work to grab lunch and I think just re-charged from the draining drive up here.  That evening we hung out and made dinner. 

Over dinner the idea came up that we should go to Chicago on Friday.  Friday is my day off from work and T has hardly taken much vacation time this year, so we could go with B and A who had never been to Chicago.  I actually had never really been either, only to a conference in the suburbs a few years back.  So we all agreed that it would be a fun day trip.

Early Friday we hopped in the car a drove the 3 hours up to Chi-town.  Spent the morning at the Crate and Barrel Outlet (I had wanted to go to look at thier baby furniture line--that was super underwhelming, but I did get the dishes I had been wanting for fraction of what I would have paid in store full price.  So not a total bust).  By lunch time we headed into the city to go to Wrigglyville to see the staduim and eat at Lucky's. 

 

After lunch we decided that we wanted to at least drive down Lakeshore Drive to see the city.  When we got down there, as soon as I saw Navy Pier I wanted to go there and everyone else was really flexible and cool and agreed that we should go check it out!  Yippee!

While we were exploring the Pier we decided that it woudl be fun to go in the ferris wheel.  Ok, now let me tell you I was as gun-ho as the rest of the gang about it.  I have never been on a ferris wheel and thought it would be a fun adventure, especially since this one looked really tall and sturdy.  However, I have never been on one because I am afraid of heights.  Oh well!  It was fun (even if I was a bit nervous).

On the way home from Chicago we stopped at a the dairy store of one of the largest dairy farms in Indiana a got some cheese (everyone else go milk shakes but I am going to be honest, me and ice cream don't mix since I got pregnant).  Then we made it home in time to watch the Ranger's game against the Yankees.

Cape Cod or The Way To My Heart Is Through Crustaceans

About a month ago I went on a retreat/conference to Cape Cod with a group of colleagues.  We are a part of a group that gathers from all across the country to meet for a week twice a year.  But some of these folks I have know for almost a decade. 

There were two highlights of this trip besides seeing my friends that are so fun to be around and so important to me.  The first was lobster.  Yum!  My dad's side of the family is from just a bit south of the cape and so as kids we would travel out there twice a year.  I remember it as a week filled with all the seafood we could eat.  And then we would bring back cooler full of live lobsters as our carry-ons, so we could have fresh seafood at home too.  So I love lobster.  I think its part nostalgia and part that I really love the carnal process of working for your food.  I think that's why I like to cook, why I like ribs and why I love crustaceans. 

And the second was standing on the roof of the historic Old South Church.  The third picture is a view of downtown Boston from on top of the roof.  Very cool!

The Express

We are at home tonight watching the Texas Rangers play the first game in the ALCS against the Yankees.  A few weeks ago when they got into the play offs, we joked that if the Rangers won the World Series we would name the baby Nolan Ryan Gilger.  Now we are half way through the game and it looks like the Rangers and Tim are very serious about the idea.  I am not so much.  Neither is Ranger our dog.  He told me he doesn't really want to share his namesake with a baby.  Since his life is about to get really crappy, I would like to honor his wishes on this one. 

Happy Friday!

This week has been really long and crammed pack.  Plus T has been out of town for work. All. Week. Long. I can't describe how glad I am to be picking him up from the airport in a few short hours so we can begin the weekend.

Thank goodness I have had this little guy to keep me company this week...

Happy Fall!

Happy first day of fall everyone!  I am so excited!  After a long, hot, dry and nausious summer I can't wait for cooler weather and all of our fall traditions.  T and I have always been big on creating our own traditions and have some now that span several years.  Over the years we have also been blessed with lots of friends that have been a part of our little family's celebrations. 

So in honor of the first day of fall (officially) here are a list of our family's traditions that I am looking forward to in the next couple of months:

1. Baking homemade Chex Mix and watching the Wizard of Oz

2. Carving pumpkins

3. Roasting our pumpkins seeds from our pumpkins (I will try to post the receipe here this year!)

4. Driving out to the country to do some end of season hiking and seeing the leave change

The top picture is from carving pumkins in 2006 when we were in grad school and the one below is a bad picture but its so darn cute.  Its from 2005 and our first year in grad school--don't we all look so young?

What are some of the things you and your family look forward to in the fall?

Over the Weekend

Our weekends are shaping up to look alot different these days.  This Saturday morning T and I decided to walk up to the farmers market about a mile north up a walking trial from our house.  We had a couple of friends Rick and Holly from the group Patchwork who were playing live music there and we just really love all the sights and sounds of the farmers market.  We also took Ranger and he was perfect.  He let random people pet him and didn't even jump or do his usual "ok, I will stand really stiff and hope this is over soon" thing.  He wag his tail the whole time and even hopped up in our friend Rick's lap (luckily not knocking over his beautiful hammer dulcimer).  Then I came home and rested while T did some music stuff.  Rest is a big part of what we are up to these days!

After our late afternoon commitment we made open faced, turkey meatloaf sandwhiches from the leftover from Friday night.  Yum!  They were awsome and I wish I had snapped a pic! 

Sunday was a work day and work was so fun/crazy that we napped most of the day.  However, we did go to lunch with friends and our friend Jon brought his four month old son Cal and let me tell you I have never met a more laid back and chill baby in my life.  He just let us all pass him around and he talked and smiled and just hung out. 

So not a very eventful weekend and of course I forgot the camera, but I wanted to get back to regular posts.

What We've Been Up To

It's been pretty quiet around the blog and around our house these days.  I figured I would let T (and Ranger) tell you what we've been up to with a few pictures we took about 8 weeks ago...

That's right!  We are pregnant!  We found out at the end of July and have been so excited to share the news!  We thought Tim taking pictures would be way more fun, since at 12 weeks, I still have no sign of a belly! 

To totally copy our cousin Janet I thought I might do a little Q&A from some of the questions that we have been getting (athough we will have a few different ones since this is our first!)

The most frequent question I get is how are you feeling?

I am actually slowly getting some energy back and the nausea has gotten much more managable.  The nausea was probably the worst around week five through eight, but I will say that it comes back if I do a bad job managing my energy and drain myself.  So as long as I don't push it and work a 13 hour day (which was pretty common pre-pregnancy) I can manage my energy and nausea. 

How far along are you/when are you due?

This question when asked in person is alway accompanied by an up-down of my stomach.  I am 12 weeks and are due on April 1.  When we first found out we were pregnant and spoke with the doctor they did thier magic math and figured our due date on April 1 and that I was 3 weeks along.  However, when we went in for our 8 week exam and ultrasound the baby measured bigger and so they doctor determined that I was a week and a half further along.  But apparently they don't change your due date unless you are way off, so April 1 is the official but it will more than likely be the end of March.  I am also not showing at all. My mom (which you will gather is one of my ultimate authorities) said that's normal for your first pregnancy.

Are you going to find out the gender?

Actually we have gone back and forth on this one.  Originally we though absolutely yes I am a planner and T "needs to know whether to buy a softball glove or a baseball glove" (side note, no matter the gender they will be getting a musical instrument and golf clubs....probably not right away!).  But I sort of like the idea of either not knowing or keeping it as a secret for just Tim and I until the baby is born.

Are you going to share the name and/or do you have a name picked out?

Because of the public nature of my work and because we have heard so many horror stories on oppionated friends and family ruining names for people (my own mother had planned on naming me something different until she and my dad's close friends turned around and stole her name for me for thier brand new puppy!).  So we will be keeping that to ourselves.  Plus I think there is something sweet and romantic about keeping somethings between just Tim and I in our little family.  As for names we have two really great girls names and a few possible boy names but nothing we are set on yet (hence why it might be good to know the gender so we can get crackin on thos boy names or not worry about it!)

Do you already know what you are going to do for the nursery (can you tell my friends totally know my love for interior design)?

I don't have any detailed plans.  I do know that even though we will be finding out the gender of the baby, the baby will have a gender neutral room that is consistent with the design asthetic of the house.  I have a few ideas and will post the progress as it goes. Right now I am contemplating which room the baby will go in and how to make room for all the baby stuff in our cute little house! Also I am really waiting to get some of my energy back before I really get my creativity going.  I did however decide that a good sew machine is going to be a must for my nesting process!

How did you and T's parents take the news?

Since this will be the first grandchild on either side you can only imagine how they took it!  They were super excited, of course.  But the sweetest thing was my grandmother when I told her said, "oh you will be the best little mother!" 

Alright, I promise our blog won't be taken over by baby stuff (yet).  Honestly I am hoping to chronicle some of our adventures as we enjoy our last months together as just T and I on here.  We have been together for six years, married for three and lived in three different states together, it has been an awesome adventure and we can't wait to add this little one to our family so they can share all the adventures with us!

Cute

MARCEL THE SHELL WITH SHOES ON from Dean Fleischer-Camp on Vimeo.


I haven't posted a video here yet and am not sure if I will do it right, but I saw this today over on Anna's blog at Door Sixteen and just LOVED it!  Thought some of you might too!

P.S. If you like blogs about people renovating old houses Anna's blog is great!

Birthday Way Overdue

So I appologize for the insane delay in updating about my birthday.  I want to blame it on my sister for taking forever to get me the pictures from that night and leaving me to steal this one off of facebook, but that wouldn't be fair, becuase let's face it I am a big procrastonator and we have had lots of projects going on lately which have left little time for blogging.  But I am here now and that's what counts right?

When I shared in staff meeting that I had the best birthday ever my boss asked, "what constitutes the best birthday ever for you?"

Well let me tell you (and if you hate bragging or happy stuff just stop reading) the perfect birthday is my sister visiting and being so awesome, a day at the spa, diamonds (that's right way to go T!), a suprise party with a small gathering of our closest friends and T and my little sis painting the last room that needed to be painted in the house after I had done 5 already.  That's right.  It was pretty much perfect in my book.  I am very loved and I know it for sure (and I would have know it without the diamonds, the party or the spa...but the painting was a TOTAL act of love).

So that is what the perfect 29th birthday looks like for this gal.  Thanks to all that made it so special.

Best Birthday Ever!

Seriously, it was. 

Pictures coming soon...And stories...I promise.

Space

If I had a ton of money (and world hunger was ended so I wouldn't feel guilty) I would buy this chair, so I could curl inside and read a book.

 

And when I got too grouchy or needed some time to myself I could throw a hand knit blanket over the hole and pretend it was my very own little fort.  Like we used to do with the bottom bunk of our bunk beds as kids.

 

 

Freecycling

I was inspired by Jess's Summer (Home) Slim Down challenge and more recently by Maryellen's Freegan cleaning spree.  We live in a tiny historic home with tiny "quaint" closets which require vigilant cleaning and purging.  Plus our basement needs some definite cleaning out, since its has boxes that have moved from house to house without ever having been openned. 

So I have been sorting through our stuff, trying to get rid of things and trying to pass on some of our nicest things to different folks.  A few weeks back I found two idenical dresses in the back of my tiny closet taking up space.  They were too big in the top, but they were a nice length, had a cute belt and they were $9 at Ann Taylor LOFT a the end of last season.  But I hadn't ever worn them becasue they were too big in the top.  I rarely ever do that anymore but I hate it when I do!  But then I read where one of the bloggers I follow is pregnant and is in the wierd, nothing-fits-and-anything-that-does-looks-unfashionable phase.  So I shot Indiana an e-mail, boxed those dresses up and sent them on thier way.  She got them a few days ago and they worked!  I was so happy to do something nice for someone else, sort of randomly.  Not to get all sappy but it felt good to just put some random kindness out into the universe, because I think we could all se more of that. 

Note: Freecycling is a term I got from the redistribution website for Freegans.  To learn more see this NYTimes article from 2007. 

Jeppe Hein at the IMA

A few weeks ago T and I decided to head over the the IMA to just hang out.  Its in our neighborhood, its free (except special exhibits) and there just so much to take it. There was a new fashion exhibit I wanted to check out so we headed over there for a couple of hours.  

While we were there, a new instalation on the top floor caught my eye so we decided to head up there and check it out. It was one of the coolest exhibits I have seen in a while. It was basically an interactive exhibit where balls were released at intervals for you to follow through a complex series of chutes and tunnels and funnels.  The mechanics of it was so awesome. 

 

Over the Weekend

Yes, I am just now posting about this past weekend on Thursday, its been a hectic week.  But I didn't want you to miss out on seeing this beautiful shrimp chimichanga.  Yes, my trainer would shake her head if she saw that this is what I fed my hungry body after our training session last week, but oh, wow was it worth it. 

As you all may have guess, Indianapolis isn't exactly the hot spot of the Midwest for Mexican food let alone the kind of tasty Tex-Mex we grew up on.  Since relocating out of the South/Southwest, we have mastered our salsa recipe and can make pretty decent red sauce chicken enchiladas.  But most of our time has been spent trying insulting dishes and eating "cheese dip" (yup, that's what they call queso north of the Mason Dixon).  But this year we discovered this great Mexican food place that serves probably the best Mexican food we have found since leaving Texas five years ago.  The best/worst part is that its within walking distance of our house.  So on Thursday after T came home from work (and by come home, I mean flew in from the other side of the country) we decided to head over and grab a bite.  Yum!

On Sunday we went over to our friend J and K's house to celebrate J's 31st birthday and I'm not going to lie I also went hoping to hold their new baby Calvin.  K had the really great idea for J's summer birthday and because they are new parents and wanted to do something low key.  She decided to throw him an "Ice Cream Social" birthday party.  It was perfect!  And you know what?  Bonus!  K bought Blue Bell Ice Cream which is Texas based, ice cream goodness and just started being sold in Indy.  Plus the weather was cool in the shade and there was a mice breeze on their beautiful patio.  Everyone was super laid back and sort of lazy. It was the perfect way to end the weekend. 

So there was more to our weekend than food, but I guess that's what I wanted to share!  What did you do this past weekend?

Catch Up

I am really behind on my postings.  I haven't finnished recapping our final day in San Fransisco and our family had an unexpected trip as soon as we got back that I was planning on writing about, but things have gotten really busy around our house--all good things, but things that have kept us from regular blog posts. 

Last weekend we hosted two cookout for two different sets of awesome people, which sounds crazy except that we cleaned the house for the whole weekend affair and did one grocery shop for two parties.  So we got two parties done in one effort.  The first one was a little crazy, we had some friends in all who have little kids, in fact we are the only ones that don't.  And I was nervous all week, maybe some of you all who don't have kids either can relate.  We think our house is pretty kid proof, we have a minimalist design asthetic, and most breakable things are up higher, but since we don't actually have kids you can't test this theory until friends bring thier kids.  Which makes you nervous that you don't actually know anything about kida and that you house is super dangerous or worse that a kid is going to throw thier dinosaur through your new flat screen AND it makes your friends with kids nervous because they know that you know nothing about child proofing and so thier kid is likely to mess something up and since you don't have kids, its likely that stain on the prisine area rug is going to upset you more than if you already had kids leaving stains on the rug.  But the cookout was fun and we all had a blast--seriously!  And I wasn't nervous at all and hope that I didn't make anyone else nervous. 

Our second cookout was all adults so I didn't worry about dinosaurs through the flat screen this time.   I didn't snap any pics, but that's ok, since I am never sure about featuring other people on the ol blog. 

Next we are preparing for a slew of guest for over the fall starting with my sister for my birthday, then my mom and step-dad and rounding things off with my brother and his girl-friend later in the fall.  I can't wait to see my family!  And while we prepare for guest we are also working on a few other projects including a co-garage sale with our neighbors. 

Wicked in San Francisco

Thursday morning we woke up, grabbed a cup of coffee and hiked over to Grace Cathedral to look around.  I had visited there once before on a work trip, but it was so beautiful I wanted to go look again and I wanted Tim to see it too. 

After visiting Grace (and after some breakfast) we headed over to the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, which I had been dying to visit since we arrived in San Fran.  And it did not disappoint.  In fact, I think it might have been one of my top things we did.  They had two installations going--the first was in honor of thier 75th Anniversary as a museum and juxtaposed the story of the museum's history with what was going on in the San Francisco art scene at the time with key peices that were aquired in each major momment of the museums climb to international recognition.  It was a great way to "get to know" the museum and its collection. 

The second installation was Calder to Warhol (you can see that above-duh!) and was amazing.  I really love the pop art movement. It was also fun to see some of the peice I studied in school in the live! 

My favorite two pieces for the Calder to Warhol installation were these two Roy Lichtenstein peices.  To me they really sort of remind me of the same elements that make me love letterpress art work so much.   

After our time at the SFMOMA we grabbed lunch with one of T's cousins who lives with her family  the GVZs in the Bay Area.  She has the most adorable two year old on the planet!  Unfortunately we didn't get to meet her in person, but we did get to spend time with T's cousin who happens to be one of the smarter, more insightful people I've met. 

After lunch we did a bit of vegging out and resting because that night we had tickets to WICKED!  So awesome!  And you want to know what's crazy?  Without even talking to one another my parents had planned a vacation to Napa the same week we were in SF and had planned on coming into town for a few days before the headed home to see Wicked and do a bit of exploring.  So we got to see them for a yummy dinner and go to Wicked.  Afterwards we grabbed dessert at a little place around the corner from our hotel.

I Interupt This Message To Bring You...

So don't worry, I am going to keep inundating your Google Reader with our vacation summary, but I wanted to interupt for just a moment to ask a question.

I am thinking about doing a 30 before 30 list (insert joke about how that leaves me positively YEARS before I have have to get it done-ha!).  What are your thoughts?  I love making lists and love taking on new projects, goals, trying to accomplish new things, etc.  But and I do mean BUT I can kind of drive myself mad with my over-achiever tendancies. 

Your thoughts? 

Happy Anniversary!

Tim making a face to match the statue...

I am bummed we didn't get a picture together of us on our anniversary but I guess instead of (or in addition to or something like that) we have 3 successful and happy years of marriage--that sort of stuff doesn't show in pictures.  Seriously, I am not much of a internet-pda kind of girl.  Somethings are just personal and private, but I just want to say that the three years that husband T and I have been married have been the best.  I have grown and laughed and planned and dreamed more in these years. I don't think I have been more surprised, traveled to more new and unexpected places and the best part of it has been having a partner with whom to go through all of it.  He is amazing and I am grateful.  I will leave it at that, since I am not sure that words on the internet would suffice to cover the bredth and depth of our partnership. 

So we were pooped by the end of the day and wanted a low key night, so we hiked to two and half block up the hill (isn't everythign up a hill in SF?) and went into Chinatown, took a look around, grabbed a bite to eat and then headed back to the hotel.  It was low key, but we had a big night planned the next night and really we had planned the vacation for over our aniversary--I say that's pretty exciting right? 

Beat LA (San Francisco: Day 3)

So here I go, picking back up on our vacation adventure! What a packed full of fun day and this is only what we did until mid-afternoon! 

First thing in the morning we woke up and went to Pier 39 to catch a little boat tour of the Bay.  It was a super touristy thing to do, but we wanted to see the Golden Gate Bridge and Alcatraz but didn't want to give up all the time it woudl take to GO to either place.  So we decided to hop on the boat for a one hour tour that took us out to the bridge around Alcatraz and Angel Island and back to Pier 39.  I was actually surprised, it was really fun!  We got to see alot for one hour, it was informative without being overwhelming and it was not too crowded (we had a tip that it was way less crowded in the mornings--thanks!)

Then we hopped off the boat and scooted to the Giants game against the Dodgers.  As I mentioned before we didn't get to go when we originally planned, but we decided that we still wanted to go, since the park is gorgeous and overlooks the bay.  And it was a beautiful day!  Perfect for baseball (and by baseball I mean sitting outside and eating super unhealthy food--yum!)

After that we hiked back to Pier 39 to the Aquarium by the Bay, since we love going to aquariums about as much a zoos.  But I have to say, it was my least favorite place and wouldn't recomend it.  I don't know why, it just wasn't that awsome.  Maybe its because the aquarium wing of the California Academy of Science was so awesome or maybe becuase we were tired, but it was sort of meh.  So we headed back to our hotel for a rest before our evening activities.