:-)

I think I'm pretty lucky.

There are a lot of people out there who make my life better because I know them (if you are thinking, "does she mean me?", I do. Really). Some people I don't know as much as I would like.

Angela, you are one of those people.

My good pal Anita (and currently my longest-time-known friend at RSU) introduced me to Angela by way of Ladies' Craft Night, hosted at the church we all attend. As someone who is slightly (okay, more than I would like to admit) agoraphobic, this is/was the best way for me to meet people. I'm not one to stand around and chat before and after church. The "meet your neighbor and shake their hand" part of church makes me sweat, and I try to look nonchalant when really I want to just sit down and take part of church in a more anonymous fashion. Like, a lot of anonymous. As in, I think I'll just listen to the podcast of the sermon in my house. In my pajamas. Eating pancakes. With no one but Brandon and Birdy (who would undoubtedly eat ALL the pancakes. Piggy).

But this is getting a little off the subject. Let's get back to Angela.

Angela is awesome, and from what I've known about her so far, she is incredibly genuine, a devoted mom, and insanely creative. I like that. I want to BE that, you know? After the boo-hoo posts last night due to The Biggest Loser, she sent me a link for Cathy Zielsky's blog, who also happened to catch an episode of TBL. It was a good post. It was funny. It made me read more of her blog. That, dear internets, isn't good. Don't other bloggers know to not be so interesting? Don't they know I have enough to read? Harumph.

And mostly, it was good because it showed me that someone takes interest in me. As the slight-agoraphobic person, I tend to make a career out of being somewhat invisible (or is it opaque, or transparent?) so that I'm not noticed too much.

So thanks, Angela. You rock. And, I'm looking forward to Saturday (even though there will be people there I don't know) (Eek) (I'm already getting clammy).

garsh part 2

Okay, fine. FINE. I cried 7 times. That last 10 minutes killed me.

garsh

I must be hormonal because I've cried, like, 5 times during The Biggest Loser tonight. Also, I want a cheeseburger.

morning musings

I am a sleep junkie. I love it. When I was in high school, I read the Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood, and the only thing that really stuck with me was when the daughter (I can't remember her name) was talking about her mom, Viviene, and her love for sleep. Viviene once told her daughter that she could taste sleep like a BLT sandwich.

That is the way it is with me, and one of the things that I worried about most when I had Birdy. I mourned my loss of sleeping in, of afternoon naps, of spending the entire day in bed reading. Also in the Ya-Ya Sisterhood, Viviene had a nervous breakdown and left her family. When she left, she checked into a hotel and slept for something like a week straight. This was something I was worried about when I had Birdy too. Would the lack of sleep cause me to go crazy? I would obsess over this, as pregnant women are wont to do (part of me still worries about it, but I can ignore the little naggle of worry most of the time).

However.

Having Birdy has introduced me to the joy of mornings. Everything is fresh and new. The air feels different. The sun is the clearest it will be all day. No one else is up except for the two of us. I walk into Birdy's room, grumpy and bitter about my sleep being interrupted, and I'm greeted by Birdy's smiling face.

Her smiles are better than coffee.

I have come to love mornings, and that is something I never thought was possible.

le sigh

I've resigned myself to the fact that I need the following items:

Fiskars circle punches. I am incapable of punching the old fashioned way. Much like clear stamps this concept was too long in coming.

Large corner rounder. Ali Edwards has shown me the rounded corner light..

More Fiskars border punches. Be still my heart..

Martha Stewart watercolor markers. Is there anything this woman can't improve upon?

the Fiskars CraftCrate cover. I cannot believe I don't have one already.

I have not resigned myself to the $105 price tag (even with the sweet deal on the CraftCrate cover, which is almost 50% off) at scrapbook.com.

window shopping: etsy dresses

I love dresses. They're just so...dressy, you know? Here are some of my favorite I found today at Etsy.

toot toot

I'm sorry, but I have to share this.

You'll forgive me for being a little vain, right? Please? I'll return the favor, I promise.

I love my new blog design. I love Birdy's picture on the side, and I love the white background, and I love the colors. And I love all of it. It's like when you really really clean a room in your house or add a new piece of furniture and all you want to do is spend all of your time in there. That is how I am with my blog right now. I love the way it came together, and I want to be looking at it (not really reading it...but just looking at it) all the time.

That's all.

Thanks for understanding.

And for thinking Birdy is cute.

And for understanding (again).

design team stuff up!

Sneak peek of Design Team stuff up now! now! now!:

omfg AGAIN

Peeps, we have to talk.

Did you know that you can search "destash" on Etsy and you can find stuff people are just unloading for super cheap? Say you're looking through your stuff and you realize that you have 5 rolls of the same ribbon you bought at Michaels (no judging). You realize you couldn't possibly use it all, so you sell it on Etsy for SUPER DUPER CHEAP. Then, you're like Heather who thinks "I don't have nearly enough ribbon even though I really do have enough ribbon 5 times over" and you buy it. And life is grand.

Have I mentioned my love for Etsy? No? Well, I also want this:














And this (I'm a sucker for a ruffle and ric-rac):

a day at the park

The first weekend in April, Brandon's parents and our friends Jessica and Makayla came to visit us! We went to the "Dino Park," where Birdy fell in love with the swings.

Makayla spent her time at the park running between the swings and the slides...and pointing at her mouth?

brand new shoes

Birdy went shopping in my closet and picked out some nice new shoes.

this weekend

My parents were flown down to Oregon to my dad's friend's beach house and all I got were these pictures.

















I want to go to the ocean too! However, I was with her when she bought the jacket she so stylishly tied around her waist, so it's like I was there too.

What? No, no I'm not bitter. I jackets are stylish no matter how they're worn. Really.

omfg peeps!

Ah HA! HA HA! It's coming!!

genius

I can't do anything to my hair other than put it up in a messy bun. I have a feeling this will be an invaluable tool when Birdy actually has enough hair to do something other than nothing to. And yes, Anita, I just ended a sentence with a preposition. BOOYAH.

finding peace

Peeps, you may remember that I wrote about Stuff Christians Like a while ago. I love reading Jon's daily posts, and it makes me feel good about myself. Or I laugh at myself. Or I laugh at my church. Either way, it makes me smile (or at least smirk).

A few weeks ago, Jon posted an essay on thinking we were naked.

Not really naked, you know, but alluding to the Adam and Eve story where God is super bummed that Adam ate Eve's fruit and ruined the party. God was sad because someone (I'm looking at you, Satan) made them feel like God didn't love them. And he did. And does. And after a week or so of having a pretty big pity party (complete with cake!!) about myself, I remembered that I'm not naked. That I'm fine, and actually...better than fine. I invite you to read the Thinking You're Naked post.

And when you are done, I hope you also realize that you aren't naked. You're perfect.

i love spring

This was today.

If you click on the picture above, you will see Birdy's four teeth that are coming in (and my dirty glasses...sorry, mom).

This was two weeks ago.

I love the Palouse in the springtime because everyday is a weather adventure.

blaargh

As previously mentioned, I'm running out of things to care about. I'm so stressed about the end of the school year, money, packing our entire apartment to move to another apartment less than a quarter mile away, the end of the school year and then also money that I'm going to go crazy. Not the adorable, "would you look at that? She's so stressed she's making cookies! And cleaning!" type of stress. Much like my tendency to look terribly ugly when I cry (puffy, red face and...and...oh...it's just terrible. It makes me want to cry thinking about how horrible I look when I cry), I'm an ugly stress case. I get mean and grumpy and want to sleep.

In closing: please bring me a cookie.

Thank you.

challenge accepted

Here is a peek of my response to Anita's challenge...

craft it forward!

My blog buds Anita and Angela started this...and I'm joining in!

The first three people to respond to this post will get something made by me! My choice (but there is a good chance it will involve paper-crafting). For you.This offer does have some restrictions and limitations:

1- I make no guarantees that you will like what I make!
2- What I create will be just for you.
3- It’ll be done this year.
4- You have no clue what it’s going to be.
5- I reserve the right to do something extremely strange.

The catch is that you must repost this on your blog and offer the same to the first 3 people who do the same on your blog. The first 3 people to do so and leave a comment telling me they did win a homemade gift by me! Oh, and be sure to post a picture of what you win when you get it!

So, loyal reader(s), start commenting.

*craft it forward idea from Kiwi*

for the (grand)parents

We (I) get a lot of flack about not putting up pictures as often as we should. I partly blame Jessica, Brandon's cousin...she is a super mom about putting up photos and videos of baby Hannah on her blog. The name of the blog is "And Birdy Makes Three," and she hasn't really been the star in a while. So, in an effort to redeem ourselves, I give you three events that happened within the last month and a half showcasing Birdy. And us.

uniontown sausage feed

For the third year, Brandon, Birdy, David and I went to the Uniontown Sausage Feed. Last year, we went the day before Birdy was born, so we had to make plans to go again. This year, Owen and Kyle joined us for homemade sausage, sauerkraut and pie. Delish!

triple x rootbeer

In the last few months, we've started a tradition: when we visit my parents, the last Sunday we are there we go to Triple X Rootbeer in Issaquah. This last time coincided with Birdy's birthday, so she had her third birthday party here. Our friends Jessica and Makayla (and her faithful kitty) joined us for burgers and fun.

Birdy got to have her own ice cream sundae--she had recently discovered the joys of whipped cream earlier in the week on her first First Birthday.

go cougs!

This is a little late, but these are photos from when our beloved Cougars were in the NIT playoffs. We went to dinner with some friends from my office, and it was good times!

i dig your style, dude

First off: Angela, I stole you photo. I would say I'm sorry, but...but...I needed a photo!

Second: I'M ON THE DESIGN TEAM! You may (or may not) remember that I tried out for the Paper Pals' design team at the end of March. After a long time of inpatient waiting (which was really like a week), Shawna called and offered me a place! I was giving a presentation to new students and their parents at the time, so I made a really great impression when "Business Time" went off. I feel like it really brought the presentation a little bit of pizazz, you know?If you are not familiar with the musical masterpiece that is Business Time (or Flight of the Conchords, for that matter), here it is:

Side note: I've used a lot of parenthesis in this post (sorry).

Anyhoo, I'm totally stoked, and really really flattered. It's on thing to think that you are creative, and another thing entirely for someone else to think so.

When I tried out/applied for the Design Team, I had to choose things that exemplified my style. I hadn't thought too much about my style before hand, other than "wow, I am a Frugal Frannie when it comes to scrapbooking." After some thought, there are three things that I do on pretty much every layout: pictures and journaling are lined at up at right angles, I write out my journaling by hand, and I use Stickles. The photo below has all three elements on it, and was one that I turned in.














This is from the "Dear Eva" set of layouts in Birdy's baby book. The letter is from my brother David. He's great. :-)

So, in closing: yay for me! And thank you Shawna and Karen, for giving me this opportunity!

roller skates and earthquakes

I think I was a weird kid.

One of the things I used to really, really, really want to do was roller skate on the ceiling. The ceiling is always so pristine, and it had these great ramps to skate up. I remember being sad that I would never get to roller skate on the ceiling because of gravity.

And since my mind was on roller skates, I would wonder what life would be like if, instead of feet, we were born with roller skates. What would the world look like? Would we wear socks? Would we have to wear shoes with holes for the wheels, or would they be hard enough we wouldn't have to wear shoes at all?

And then I started thinking about how we would be in our mom's tummies. How would the human body create the metal to make roller skates? If there wasn't a way for us to make metal, how would the wheels turn on our roller skate feet? Would it hurt more to have a baby because of the roller skates?

These are the things I used to wonder about. Sometimes, I still want to roller skate on the ceiling (especially at my parent's house...they have ceilings just asking to be roller skated on). And now that I have a baby, I'm glad that I didn't have to give birth to something that had roller skates instead of feet. Baby feet are much more kissable than dirty roller skates.

I can only imagine what my life will be like if Birdy thinks things like this. Did any of you think about weird stuff like that when you were a kid? If not, that's okay. I think I've come to terms with my weirdness as a kid and as an adult...because I still think weird things. Here is an example:

One time, when I was walking to work, I saw a dead bird. It was outside of the vet school. A few days later, I saw another dead bird in nearly the same place. I started wondering if they were doing experiments on birds. Of course, these experiments would be top secret, because you can't just go around having dead birds all over campus. Since the people running these experiments were so smart, they must also notice I walk to work the same way each day, and they would worry I would catch on. Since they didn't want anyone to get wind of their bird-killing experiments, they would have to kidnap me so that I couldn't tell anyone. And then, they would do experiments on me too! Scary!

I thought of all of this on one day on my way to work. I told someone about it at work, and they told me I was crazy. Maybe I am. But I wanted to make sure that if there was someone who was going to kidnap me for their weird bird/human experiments that I knew that they knew I was on to them, and that someone else now knew that I knew that they knew they were going to kidnap me. True story.

I hope no one from the vet school reads this.

I think I've weirded enough people out for one day.

waiting for my family

Sometimes, when I fill out forms, I get to check the "professional/graduate degree box." That box isn’t offered on every form, but the times that it is, I get two feelings: smug and indifference. Like cjane says, people have different emotions they experience in regular seasons. I’m like Peter in Office Space; my emotions are indifference and depression. I can also be incredibly lazy, though that can be tied directly to the indifference. For the most part, I just don’t care.

There are many things I enjoyed about graduate school; my professors, my classmates, the classes that met at bars…the usual. I had a professor at RSU who was awe-some. Let’s call him Dr. Ed. Dr. Ed was my favorite professor for a variety of reasons, which even include the subjects he taught. More than the subjects, his stories and phrases stick with me more than what was taught (so I really got my money’s worth!).

One of the most memorable things he said was that he had “a limited amount of shits, and couldn't afford to just give them away anymore.”

This statement stuck with me, and continues to guide my life.

Why? Because I just don’t care. I don’t care about a lot of things, and I have to ration out the shits I do give out, because I don’t give a shit quite often nowadays. I have a lot of things I have to care about now (more so than at any time in my life), so I can’t really care about things that don’t matter. And I don’t care about some things that DO matter, which will surely come and get me in the end.

Exhibit A: Packing. I hate packing. I’ve been putting it out of my mind so I can live in a pack-free dream land. This is going to be great until we have 2 weeks left in our apartment and I realize I have to scrape together all the care (or “shits”) that I have left and actually get ready to move.

Exhibit B: Weight loss. I want to lose the baby weight and post-wedding weight. I really do. I just don’t have enough effort to care about focusing on it. This will work until I either get disgusted with myself or get diabetes. I’m beginning to feel more of the former, which will hopefully get me to care and avoid the latter.

Exhibit C: Basic household chores. I’m talking about you, mountain of laundry and pile of dishes. If I don’t think about you and stay in the living room, I don’t have to care. This works only until I have to eat or sleep. I’m working on ways to avoid both.

I care about people a whole lot more than I care about things.
The people that I really care about consistently are Birdy and Brandon, which is good, considering I’m partly responsible for keeping her alive. Birdy and Brandon get the best of me, which is how it should be, I think.
I’m off to go home. The laundry can wait. I have a baby to snuggle.

brevity

Don't tell April, but it's snowing again! I love snow. I hate the ugly brown/green of the athletic field outside my office. White is much prettier. :-)

Also, I'm going kind of nuts about the design team stuff. I'm not--how do you say? Ah yes, patient when it comes to waiting.

More pictures of my darling Birdy will be up this evening.