Bringing Up Baby

In case you thought my life was starting to get boring and that CLEARLY I didn’t have enough going on with the move and the holidays and a busy year for my day job, we thought we would add in another (not so little) extra.

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Lexie is very excited to announce that she will have Baby Guard Dog Duty starting next June!  That’s right, the husband and I are going to have a baby! Like everything else, I’m sure I’ll overshare on the blog about this whole adventure, so if reading about that isn’t your thing… skip over those posts! And if you have ever met our dog, you understand that this picture is QUITE humorous because Lexie would not guard anything from anything.  She might however break your kneecaps with her tail of steel since she’ll be wagging it excitedly while she has a toy in her mouth.

If you are curious on some of the details: I am at a little over 12 weeks now, so I’m headed into my second trimester.  Tomorrow I’ll post some weekly updates that I’ve been trying to write (see them here), but let’s be honest, I’ve been moving and working so they aren’t SUPER consistent… but I am trying!

The short version of what you can read tomorrow is that I’ve had crazy intense nausea and massive amounts of sheer exhaustion; all of which people tell me is a good sign.  Although it took everything inside of me not to punch my doctor when she was so excited about my nausea.  Apparently round the clock morning sickness and exhaustion make MJ pretty grumpy!

And I do have to give a massive shoutout to my husband for being a Rockstar during the moving process: he (along with a little help from my parents) packed the ENTIRE house up while I mostly laid on the couch.  HUSBAND OF THE YEAR AWARD.   The morning sickness is starting to let up (and I’m hoping for one heck of a nesting phase) so I’ve been able to do quite a bit of the unpacking.

We are going to find out the sex of the baby, but I’m thinking that won’t really happen until February because of our doctor’s visit schedules. The husband is completely convinced it is a boy, but I’m pretty sure that is wishful thinking on his part.  And that leads me to my next story: how we found out.  You know how some people have cute stories about how they tell their husband’s they are pregnant? Well, first of all, I have no poker face, so I’m pretty sure he would know immediately anyway, but in our case? He found out first.

What’s that you say?  How on EARTH does something like that happen? Well, he was convinced we were pregnant and we decided to take a test, well at the time I was getting up to go to Camp Gladiator at 5:30 3 mornings a week, and this happened to be one of those days, but all the pregnancy tests tell you to take it in the morning, so I did.  I was in a hurry, so I looked at the test (one of the ones with two lines if you are pregnant, one if the test worked but you aren’t pregnant) and there was one line.  So I tossed the test on the counter, told my sleeping husband he was wrong and we weren’t and went to my workout class.

When I got home from CG, he said… are you sure we aren’t pregnant? There are two lines on there. So of course I run in there and look at the test, and sure enough: two lines.  One dark one (the control line) and one VERY VERY faint line.  Well turns out faint line or dark line… a line is a line (and yes we googled that).  So my husband told me we were pregnant.

But we are over the moon excited about this and its already been a crazy ride, but we are excited for the next chapter of our lives!

 

ps… Extra shout out to our awesome friend Claire for writing the sign… SO JEALOUS OF YOUR CALLIGRAPHY SKILLS!!

 

Labor Day Respite

Did you guys miss me? Is there anyone still there?

I can’t believe it has been over a month since I posted last! Actually… scratch that, I can.  It has been an insanely busy month in my life.  I unexpectedly had to take care of an emergency at work which has required me to be in Kansas for about 6 weeks.  I’m facing down my last week here, so I’m getting back into my normal life… and that means I have a little extra time to blog! But not being home means I have done zero projects at home, so I’ll be catching up on a few that I haven’t had a chance to blog about yet, and a couple that I left half done 6 weeks ago and will be returning to when I finally get home this Friday. I’m anxious to get home, and pretty excited to get back to my normal life!!

This weekend my husband and brother came up to Kansas to join my parents, grandmother and myself at our little lakehouse out in the country in Kansas. It has been a relaxing weekend of skiing, swimming, playing fetch with the dogs, sleep and board games.  This place is a dog’s paradise, so Lexie and my brother’s dog Q have had an excellent weekend!

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The dogs played fetch until they basically passed out.
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I caught this funny picture of Lexie and my husband as Lexie was shaking all her water off.

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This is one of those places which has been a constant in my life and some of my best memories are here. I learned to ski here, I spent countless 4th of July’s setting off fireworks, played hours and hours of board games, took long walks, brought friends, and spent time for family.  So after a crazy month of long work hours and high stress, this weekend of relaxation was exactly what I needed!

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I also got the chance to practice some of my photography this weekend, just getting to play around a little bit. And I definitely had some great natural subjects! I was playing around with long exposure after having such good luck at Fourth of July with them, and I have to say I love the way the long exposure turns out!

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This was of the outside looking in last night of a beautiful and peaceful night!  lake5 Then after some storms rolled through overnight, I woke up early and saw the most beautiful sky with a double rainbow and an amazing sunrise.  (both are completely unedited except for size)  lake1 lake3[]

 

Kansas is definitely one of the best places in the world for sunrises and sunsets! And after living in the city, nothing is quite as amazing as a calm clear night with amazing stars!

I hope you have all had a wonderful and relaxing Labor Day Weekend!!

 

4th of July

This last weekend the husband and I had the opportunity to spend 4th of July weekend with my sister-in-law’s parents at their place on the river in South Texas. It was a fantastic weekend to get away from the busy-ness of life and relax.  We literally did nothing but eat, sleep and swim and it was glorious.  They have a beautiful home outside of Houston on the Colorado River.  Its the perfect beachy-cottage and was an excellent place to get away!

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Judy and Tommy are some of my favorite people!! Judy is one of my craft buddies, so we always get to talk crafts, DIY and quilting– she just finished Becky’s t-shirt quilt and is inspiring me to get mine back out to finish!!

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And Tommy– our fearless captain for the weekend is one of the best storytellers I’ve ever heard, he had me in stitches most of the weekend. He even let Reese drive the boat!

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And I can’t forget Duke, the yellow lab who is getting on up there in age (but an excellent subject for pictures!)

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Tommy was also our chef for our shrimp boil (ps… de-heading and de-veining shrimp– kind of gross) which made for some awesome pictures!

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And one of the few pictures I got of myself during the weekend!
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Since working on my photography skills is one of my priorities this year, I decided 4th of July would be an excellent chance to snap a few photographs and test out some long exposure photography.  I’m pretty pleased with the results!!

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Fireworks and sparklers made for some pretty fun long exposure attempts:

 

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And when we went over to the marina to watch the fireworks show, I killed some time trying to take this shot:

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As I was attempting to take the shot above, lightning struck at the very end of my long exposure giving me one of the coolest photographs I’ve ever taken!! (ps.. all of these photos are completely un-edited)

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I’m pretty sure I couldn’t recreate that picture if I tried, but I’m kind of excited about it, and am thinking about finding a place to print and put it up in my house!

The 4th of July has all of my favorite things: sleep, food, friends and some family!!

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