This morning I was up before the sun at 5am. I'm not sure if it was because I'm still recovering from east coast time, or my hormones are so out of wack that it will be physically impossible for me to sleep in ever again. In my head I started going over all of the things that I need to do: write two papers, finally work on our taxes, and of course finish organizing the apartment. Since organizing the apartment is much more fun, I started making a list of the things I need to tackle next. If I continue to wake up in the wee hours of the morning, I should at least have some things to do before Jesse (and the sun) gets up out of bed.
Before leaving for Florida, we had a great weekend of organizing that left me feeling pretty good about the state of our living space. We shifted around the back bedroom to make space for the guest bed mattresses and ordered perfectly sized boxes to hide away his hundreds of cds (ahem a thousand and some change). I also worked on that shelf in our bedroom that was causing me so much stress. It's still not perfect, but if you shield your eyes from the very top that is still pure chaos, I am pretty pleased with the progress.
I lined all of the shelves with dotted shelf paper and have implemented a strict towel and sheet folding policy so that everything stays compact and tidy. Jesse has embraced the towel folding, since he is also very particular about the way his t-shirts are folded and stored. However, I think I'll have sheet duty for the rest of my days, since his method of folding fitted corners is rolling them in a ball and shoving them out of sight. The middle shelf is half empty (except for the gender neutral baby items), but I plan on using that for clothing items that don't quite fit in our drawers. Maybe that would be a good way of showcasing Jesse's t-shirt folding talent.
However, if my mom keeps up at her current pace (full speed ahead), we may have that middle shelf filled in no time. Can you tell that she's just a little excited about being a grandmother? A couple of weeks ago, I got a package in the mail addressed to the baby and inside was this amazing quilt. Apparently, she started on it just days after she found out that I was expecting. Recognize the pattern? My mom knows me too well! When we arrived in Florida for our recent visit, another set of baby items were waiting for us in our room -- a giant pile of receiving blankets, burp pads, and a couple of bibs. All were made by mom and much better looking than anything that I could find in the store. She even hand-stitched the back side of the blanket and burp cloth binding! We are going to have one spoiled little dude or dudette in just a few more months. Hopefully s/he will have a somewhat organized apartment to come home to!
Last week J and I flew to Jacksonville, FL for a much overdue visit with my parents and sister. After a bit of a snafu with our plane in Portland, we thought we might not make it, but somehow miraculously showed up only two hours later than scheduled. The week was filled with a bit of work, a bit of play, and for my mom and me, lots and lots of shopping. I guess I should say browsing, because there wasn't a whole lot of buying -- except for a couple of maternity shirts that I found on sale. We looked at crib options, car seats, tested out strollers, and I even allowed myself to gush over the totally cute bedding at this boutique that carried really really expensive strollers. I had to keep repeating to myself, I will not be seduced by monkey sheets, I will not be seduced by monkey sheets, I am stronger and more powerful than the cutesy monkey sheets.
On Saturday, we all drove down to St. Augustine for an afternoon in the gorgeous sunny weather. Neither Jesse or I had been before, so it was a treat just to walk around and check out the town. We spent quite a bit of time at Castillo de San Marcos, one of the oldest standing structures in North America. The fort was started in 1672 by the Spanish to defend their empire and is one of the cooler forts that I've seen. You'd probably get a better sense of my new totally normal looking maternity top if my sister hadn't pinched my rear end two seconds before the shot was taken. Look at her smile. She is so proud.
Later, we walked around the Flagler College campus and explored the lobby of one of their main residence halls. Can you believe students actually get to live in this building? As we were walking my parents to their car, a horse and carriage parked next to an old church that we were admiring. Apparently, I must suffer from post-morning sickness trauma, because the smell of horse pee sent me leaning over the church wall trying desperately not to lose my lunch. Luckily, I was able to compose myself before anything terribly embarrassing happened, but just in time for an entire group of trolley riders to witness my dramatic scene.
J, Katie, and I were left to our own devices for a couple of hours while waiting to meet up with my good friend Jon and his wife, Cathy, for dinner. Had circumstances been different, we probably would have ponied up to a bar and sampled a local brew or two. Since I've found that it's not really all that exciting to watch my husband drink great beer, we settled on a roaring game of mini golf instead. We found this 18-hole course tucked into a maze of hedges near the marina and had a blast. And at only $4.50/person it was quite a fun deal.
Sunday was a low-key afternoon. Jesse and I packed up our things, we all had a delicious lunch, and then went for a walk on the beach before heading out to the airport. It was a great trip.
As I've mentioned previously, for the past couple of months our back bedroom has been the dumping ground for all things ugly and unwanted -- piles of unopened boxes, random bags of cords and electronics, and stacks of artwork and photo frames that still need a home. It is also J's home office, so add a bunch of work stuff on top of the heap and we had quite a mess. Actually, it is still a huge mess, but we've made great strides to improve conditions this week. One giant motivating factor was that we went out on Tuesday evening and purchased a set of mattresses at a super discount from a local sleep shop. To my surprise, they were insanely speedy with the delivery, promising and arriving at 10am sharp yesterday morning. So what's the catch? Well, we haven't actually purchased a bed frame.
We'd been going back and forth about whether to go with a queen-size guest bed (with the comfort of our parents in mind) or something smaller. The thing is, we actually want our families to come and stay and feel comfortable, so a full size bed was out of the question. The only problem is that 75% of the year, the bed would remain empty and take up a lot of floor space for such a small amount of use. When searching for alternatives, I remembered that my sister had a daybed as a kid and my parents frequently used it for out of town guests. After consulting with my Mom, she assured me that it was a pretty comfortable sleep. So, I started the search and finally found a daybed with a pop-up trundle in our price range that wasn't insanely hideous -- I was surprised to find that daybed designs have changed very little over the course of my life, most of which really didn't fit the look of our other furniture. So, for most of the year, the bed will serve as a couch/lounge space and when guests come to visit, we'll have a king-size bed for their use.
Naturally, my mind has jumped about 15 steps ahead of the game. I'm already envisioning color schemes and coverlets for the new daybed (that hasn't been ordered and probably won't arrive for another 6 weeks). To add fuel to the fire, one of my favorite blogs, Apartment Therapy, just announced that DwellStudio has teamed up with Target again for a new line of bedding. Unfortunately, their coverlets only come in queen and king size (I'd most likely want two twins), but I'm kind of loving the gold and pewter combination. I'm also partial to the blue green combination (found on the link above) that might contrast well with the sort of lemony walls in our apartment. Perhaps I'm due for another trip out to Fabric Depot in the near future to see if I can't make those coverlets myself!
(Image of DwellStudio Line borrowed from Apartment Therapy)
I always felt special growing up knowing that King Cake season always started on my birthday, January 6th. However, there are a lot of really bad King Cakes out there, so I rarely requested one as an actual birthday treat. Whenever I would go with my parents to visit my grandparents during Mardi Gras season I knew I was in for a treat -- I wasn't as interested in the King Cake as much as the candy, parades, beads, and doubloons. We'd inevitably go and visit relatives that were along one of the local parade routes and stand outside to catch our treasures. Of course, someone always had a King Cake and I would lurk around the kitchen and living room to see who got to keep the baby hidden inside.
I
usually don't attempt to make King Cake myself, because if not done just right it can be a dry, tasteless loaf with cloyingly sweet (and tacky) icing on top. However, I just couldn't resist giving it a try in honor of the Saints making it to the Superbowl. Last year around this time, I tried a recipe that was very tasty, but didn't really look like a King Cake. The texture and feel wasn't exactly as I had remembered either. So, my mom sent over a recipe adapted from Emeril Lagasse that she really liked and I decided to give it a whirl. I generally turn my nose at Lagasse's recipes, since he isn't really from New Orleans, but in this case he did get the King Cake just right. If you've never had a taste before, I'd have to say it's closest to a slightly sweet dense bread with a pretty good hint of nutmeg. Very simple, but oh so tasty. Mine didn't bake up perfectly (notice the seam where the dough didn't rise together), but it was still beautiful. This recipe also has a hidden treat inside, a slightly sweet cream cheese mixture that keeps the dough really nice and moist. It seriously is one of the best King Cakes that I've tasted.
The icing is lemon juice, milk, and powdered sugar that made a nice crust when it dried. As I hurried to ice the cake during commercial breaks in the fourth quarter, I realized that I probably shouldn't have put it on the cake stand until the end. Oh well, the drips are just part of the charm, I guess. And all of those little stars? Well, our grocery store didn't stock Mardi Gras colored sprinkles, so Jesse's contribution to the King Cake was painstakingly separating the gold, purple, and green sprinkles from two jars. Hey! He offered (and seemed actually excited about his accomplishment).
My only complaint? I personally think that it has a bit too much nutmeg, but that may just be my pregnancy nose/taste buds working overtime. Oh yeah, and it is really large! Next time if I make it just for two, I'll definitely try to cut the recipe in half.
I've heard people say that sometimes things have to get worse before they get better. I think that's pretty true with illness, certainly this economy, and of course, my organizing projects. Sometimes you have to just explode a few boxes before you c
an pack their contents neatly away in their proper place. See? Even though the bedroom looks even worse than when we started, progress has been made. There are blank spots everywhere on the bookshelf. I'm hoping by the end of the weekend that at least half will be completely empty. I'd like to put down some shelf paper and maybe have a place to temporarily stash our clothes and sheets.
I also made floor plans of our two bedrooms last week and little scale paper pieces of our furniture. We've been trying to figure out a configuration for the the yet-to-be-purchased-but-much-anticipated-guest-bed in the back room. Until a few days ago, we'd been calling the back room the larger bedroom because, well, it looked a lot bigger. As it turns out, they're almost exactly the same size, but due to doors and built-in shelves the second (front) room it just has a lot less wall space. I think we've gotten a good arrangement figured out that will accommodate a daybed, Jesse's office desk, and a baby crib. Don't worry, we plan on making the crib a somewhat movable fixture, so please still come and visit us. You won't have to tend to our spawn as part of your room and board -- that is unless you're really dying to jump right in on night feedings.
Last weekend, Jesse and I also put together our Expedit shelf from Ikea. Once we get all of the crap cleared out of the hallway (like Jesse's muddy running shoes and miscellaneous items that have piled up in a matter of days) I think it's going to look pretty snazzy. Adult-like even. Gasp! The bottom boxes currently hold nearly all of my fabric stash, sorted by color. Since the top cubby holes look pretty lonely and are just begging for us to fill with more random items, I made another trip out to Ikea yesterday afternoon and picked up four more. I haven't decided exactly what will go in them, but I'm thinking art supplies and other crafty things that we don't use on a regular basis.
As for the rest of the weekend, Jesse and I plan on trying to set up our small TV with the digital antenna to see if we can catch the Superbowl on Sunday evening. I am planning out a delicious menu that will include braised pork (either made into a carnitas pie or tacos), fresh guacamole, chips and dip (of course), and a King Cake. I feel that it's only proper to celebrate the Saints making it to the Superbowl during Mardi Gras season (in addition to this being my official birthday weekend) with a King Cake. My mom passed along a recipe that I think I'm going to try this year that has a cream cheese filling. How could you go wrong? MMM. I can't wait for Superbowl Sunday!
As many of you read, my birthday was pretty uneventful this year despite being a huge milestone (the big 3-0). In fact, I didn't even bother to post an entry on my blog. At the time, I wasn't prepared to divulge the real reason that I could have cared less about January 6th, 2010, so I let you believe that I was just lazy or in a spiraling state of denial. Don't get me wrong, I was insanely lazy and maybe a little in denial, but there was a much bigger reason that I decided to postpone my birthday for a month or two.
I'm pregnant.
That's right, after two years of marriage and a year in our new city, J and I decided to expand our family. The move to Portland in 2008 was not only to find a new cool place to live, but also to find a place where we would want to raise our children (someday). Making that decision took a lot of thought on both of our parts, especially since I'm in the process of switching careers in a pretty uncertain economy. However, when it came to figuring out whether to wait or just go for it, we both realized that there might never be that perfect time.
Oh right, back to my birthday. So, that woeful case of morning sickness that started early on in December (and subsequently squelched all plans for cooking a delicious holiday meal) had me pea green straight through a better part of January. I think at the time of my 30th year on earth, even the word "birthday cake" sent me running for the bathroom. It was sad, but all I could eat was yogurt, apples, and cottage cheese and wanted to nap all day long. In my book, that is not a birthday.
However, today J and I went in for my first ultrasound appointment (I'm 12 weeks along) and got a first-rate view of what will be our newest family member. It was so much better than birthday cake, presents, and a party combined. The baby is only about 2 1/2 inches long and has little toothpicks for legs and arms, but it was jumping around and giving us quite a show up on the monitor. At one point (while trying really hard to capture an important measurement), the technician mentioned that the baby was wearing the umbilical cord over its shoulder like a hand bag and wiggling its hands in front of its face. Naturally, our little jumping bean must have inherited its father's energy and mother's flair for the dramatic -- I think we're in for quite a ride!
This morning I was up before the sun at 5am. I'm not sure if it was because I'm still recovering from east coast time, or my hormones are so out of wack that it will be physically impossible for me to sleep in ever again. In my head I started going over all of the things that I need to do: write two papers, finally work on our taxes, and of course finish organizing the apartment. Since organizing the apartment is much more fun, I started making a list of the things I need to tackle next. If I continue to wake up in the wee hours of the morning, I should at least have some things to do before Jesse (and the sun) gets up out of bed.
However, if my mom keeps up at her current pace (full speed ahead), we may have that middle shelf filled in no time. Can you tell that she's just a little excited about being a grandmother? A couple of weeks ago, I got a package in the mail addressed to the baby and inside was this amazing quilt. Apparently, she started on it just days after she found out that I was expecting. Recognize the pattern? My mom knows me too well! When we arrived in Florida for our recent visit, another set of baby items were waiting for us in our room -- a giant pile of receiving blankets, burp pads, and a couple of bibs. All were made by mom and much better looking than anything that I could find in the store. She even hand-stitched the back side of the blanket and burp cloth binding! We are going to have one spoiled little dude or dudette in just a few more months. Hopefully s/he will have a somewhat organized apartment to come home to!
