Not the welcome home I had in mind

....but we'll take it. We've been back in Texas for a little over 3 weeks and it. has. been. nuts.

We flew in on September 11th (I know, for someone with anxiety flying on 9/11 is enough to put me in full panic attack mode), our flights were smooth and Brooklyn was a good traveler as usual. We'd barely unpacked our bags when my daddy-o was having some pain in has abdomen. Turns out it was his appendix which ruptured before they could take it out so he spent our first week back in the hospital. He's home now and doing well so we are very thankful for that!

At the same time they were taking him back to the OR to get that appendix out we got a call from my dad's sister letting us know that my granny (my dad's mom) was on her way to the ER with congestive heart failure. She's basically been in ICU since then and has had good days and bad. She's 99% blocked so it's really a miracle she even made it past her episode 3 weeks ago. They took her to Houston Tuesday and did surgery to put stints in which could have easily killed her but God's not done with my Granny yet cause she made it through surgery . Pretty hardcore for 91 years old wouldn't you say? :) She's doing pretty well but needing her kidneys to start functioning better.

We also went to Oklahoma to attend the memorial service for our dear friends' baby girl who went to be with Jesus after just 5 weeks here on earth. She fought for every day she had here and we were all blessed by each of those days she spent here even though many of us never got the chance to meet her. I can't even begin to imagine what our friends are going through but I do know that they could use your continued prayers. The service was a beautiful celebration of her life and I will always look at the color purple and think of sweet Bryn.

I picked up a new car while we were in Oklahoma really just out of dumb luck I think. I've been car-less until this past weekend. We'd sold my car before we left Oregon so I've been borrowing my mom's minivan and she's been taking my dad's car to work since Brooklyn's car seat doesn't exactly fit nicely into a mustang backseat. For some reason in my head I have it that no matter what car, what age and what condition, I'm not be getting a good deal if I pay sticker price. And I don't just want a discount, I want the deal of the century. Well I'm pretty sure we got the deal of the century. So if anyone wants a car and needs someone to get them a steal of a deal call the Hares. Here's my new ride- I lurve it.

We also happen to be house hunting too. You know, cause who needs money in a savings account? Those things are overrated.  We've seen about 10 houses and are seeing another 4-5 this week. House hunting is much harder when you are hunting for real and have a budget (and a very small one at that), and a school district you want to stay in, and questions about flood insurance and foundation issues. It was much more fun when I just flipped through the real estate books they have by the newspaper stand and picked out the pretty half-million dollar "starter" home with 5 bedrooms 4 baths and a pool house. So if anyone is house hunting in the half-million dollar range in Waco and needs some help, I have a few I think you should see. As for our house - we'll be looking for a while longer I'm sure.

The most recent part of the moving to Texas madness is that I have a new niece and should be having a nephew any day! My brother and his wife welcomed their 1st baby, miss Harper June on Tuesday around 10 am and D's sister and her husband will be having their 3rd little boy, Reid any day.

Getting a little heat lamp action.

Brooklyn meeting Harper :)

Snoozin' at home.

With all that's been going on these past few weeks we are positive that coming back to Texas was the right decision and are thankful that God has provided, as always, exactly what we need.

The last seven pounds.

As I've mentioned before I'm stuck with my last seven pounds of baby weight. It's. driving. me. nuts. So I figured I need some accountability and what better accountability than the interwebs! I'm attacking this last seven with a fierceness and a plan. I'm putting the fat on notice: it has 4 weeks to vacate my body!

Here's my plan:

Instead of depriving myself of sweets, sodas and take out  I will be "excessively limiting" myself. Because I know I'd be able to do the hardcore thing for a week or 2 but then one day my husband will come home to find me next to an empty bag of Double Stuf Oreos (because let's face it - regular Oreos should be called Diet Oreos) saying "but I was just going to have one" and all hope will be lost. I just want to tweak my habits a bit. I'm turning my soda a day habit to a soda a week habit. Going from having some type of sweet every day to only treating myself once maaaaybe twice a week. Moderation is the name of the game my friends.

Except when it comes to getting off this tush. NO more excuses with that one (I used my entire pregnancy as an excuse to not move a muscle for 9 months). I'm no longer letting rain be an excuse not to get out and walk, that's why they make rain covers for strollers and waterproof jackets for moms. Making a point to do strength and core workouts 5 days a week during Brooklyn's morning nap. I'll also be doing a Zumba workout 3 times per week.

I'm tired of complaining about my jiggliness while eating a cupcake. It's time to stop complaining and start sweating.

The hardest part for me is motivation and accountability. Brooklyn doesn't to so well in holding me accountable (ha ha!) so it's easy for me to be distracted during her naps by pinterest and twitter and such so I'm using the pressure of a reasonable deadline and the potential internet shame as my accountability partner and motivator. I'll post my sad before picture today and each week I'll post an update. At the end of 4 weeks I will post the "after" photo which will hopefully show me 7 lbs lighter! :)

So without further adieu- here is my starting photos, weight and measurements (wow- I can't believe I'm posting this on the internet. This confirms it. I really am crazy.).

Before

Date: 4/16/12     Height: 5' 5"      Weight: 140.6 lbs
Waist: 37 in.     Arm:11 in.        Thigh: 23 in.

Like my "scary" face? Hehe!

Yikes!

Ok- well after seeing that nightmare- I'm going to get crackin'. Wish me luck!

31 weeks

31 whole weeks in the books! And to my family who have been requesting it.... here's the 31 week belly pic. Pardon the grainy-nighttime high-ISO-no flash-"I was about to get ready for bed and remembered I hadn't taken my weekly picture"- bad hair shot.

She's grown (and therefore so have I) so much in the past few weeks. Just 7 weeks ago I looked like this. Anywho. On with the point of the post- the 3rd trimester emotion-coaster.

A note to those who have yet to experience it....you know you're near the end when you start to get teary-eyed in aisle 9 because you can't decide which baby wash to purchase for your unborn kid.

Yeah, that just happened.

We made a trip to Babies r' Us because we realized that other than a bed and a car seat we have nothing to care for our child with. Things like diapers, wipes, bottles, the stroller-  you know things you actually need.

We get to the aisle where they have all the 8 million baby washes, shampoos, lotions, diaper rash creams and I just stood there, staring. It sounds dumb, but I had 1 particular type of diaper rash cream I wanted to get cause I read it was the best and my kid needs the best diaper rash cream. Well our Babies r' Us apparently didn't have it and I freaked. There was no backup cream, no plan B, so I just stood there eyeballing the 20 other brands of butt cream that weren't the one I wanted like they were poison. I hadn't researched these foreign brands, therefore they were all deemed unsuitable.

My loving husband suggested we just hold off on the baby butt cream and move on to the baby wash. He deserves an award for keeping me from having a meltdown, surely he was wondering what psycho-emotional being had taken over his wife's body.

Again, we stood there, Daniel suggesting different brands and me looking at him like he was speaking German. I just kept picturing us giving our baby a bath and her having some insane reaction to the wash and then hating us the rest of her little kid life, as if  we weren't already going to get the tween/teen hate your parents phase, I couldn't have her mad at me as a toddler.

All I could get out is "Um, I don't know...is it unscented? is it all natural? Is it the super-mega-gentle-sensitive kind?" for every brand he suggested. He ended up having to calmly remind me that should Brooklyn have a reaction to the baby soap we will just go buy a different kind. Novel idea, right? So he just grabbed one put it in the basket, declared it a win and ushered me to the next aisle praying that there were no items on aisle 10 that would set me off.

And the nut-job of the week award goes to....yours truly.

Just thought I'd let you into that little moment of crazy with me.

In other news, I'll be posting another project for the nursery as well as a little home made art project for our living room walls (that have been empty for nearly 2 years) later this week. Here's to a meltdown-free week.

Boy or Girl....the results!

As I mentioned in this post, I would follow up with baby old wives tale results so without further adieu.......


1.) High or Low
If you are carrying high with a big, round belly = Girl.  If you are carrying low with a smaller belly that sticks straight out = Boy.

This one is difficult, since it's my 1st baby I'm not really showing enough to determine high or low, but for the sake of the game I'd say my belly isn't really the stick straight out belly is more of spread out jolly belly ha ha! So test #1 = GIRL


2.)Heart rate
140 bpm or higher = Girl / Under 140 = Boy

Ha ha! Again with our ambiguous child! We have gotten heart rates in the upper 120's to low 150's  at the Dr's appointments and on our home Doppler but I'd say that it's most often in the 135-142 range so I'm going with BOY on this one.

3.) Acne
If you breakout = Girl  /No crazy breakouts = Boy

If you know me you know I have always had breakouts - my skin is the bain of my existence. I didn't think breakouts could be worse that the ones I already get at ahem, age 30. Turns out they can and they did. I have been a face washing machine the past 4 months! This round = GIRL.

4.)Sweet & Sour
If you crave mostly sweets = Girl / Salty & sour foods = Boy.

This one's easy! I crave mostly plain ol' carbs (plain boring bread, cereal, pasta, rice) and sweets. Especially fruit, Popsicles, and anything with chocolate in it.  GIRL

5.) Chinese Gender Predictor
there are 2 different calculators so I'll try both. But it basically takes your age at conception and the month of conception and tells you if it's a boy or girl.

The 1st one is from the parents.com site this one came back GIRL.
The 2nd one, found here, is really technical and uses your "lunar age" (whatever that is) this chart said BOY. So test number 5 essentially negates itself from the experiment!

6.) Mayan Predictor
Mothers age at conception and the year of conception. If both #'s are even or both #'s are odd =Girl / If one # is even and the other is odd = boy.

I was 29 and the year is 2011 both odd so this one goes to GIRL

7.)Drano
You pee in a cup (disposable of course!) add 1 tablespoon of Drano - Green = Girl / Blue = Boy

Uhhhh. I've officially secured my place in the looney bin with these next 2 experiments. So I'm thinking Drano has changed since this Old Wives Tale began. The Drano was a clear gel so it didn't do anything. At all. Boo. I was also paranoid of some weird chemical reaction so I was outside with two plastic cups each with tiny amounts to mix. Ha ha!

Survey says = TEST FAIL. 

8.) Baking soda
Again with the peeing in a cup! This time add 1 teaspoon of fresh baking soda fizzes= Boy / no fizz = Girl/

Yep. I did it. And I am somewhat embarrassed to admit it. Disposable spoon, cup and gloves! However this test said BOY

9.) Wedding Ring
Tie your wedding ring to a string. Hang it over your belly. If it swings in a circle = Girl / If it goes back and forth =Boy.

I did this one three times because I was sure it wouldn't do the same thing three times, but each time it went in little circles! It kind of creeped me out. Round 9 = GIRL

10.) Morning Sickness
Morning sickness/queasiness = Girl.  No or little morning sickness/ queasiness = Boy.

I've had all day queasiness starting around week 7 til week 13 since then it's been only hit me for a few hours once or twice a week. Round 10 goes to GIRL

11.) Eye test
This is wacky but, the eye test is when a “V” or “branches” appear when you pull down the skin under your left eye.  If you see a “V” or “branches” in the white part, you’re having a girl.

I did this test 3 times over 2 days. I was convinced that this would be different based on morning/ night whether you were tired etc. So I check about an hour after I'd been up in the morning, before I went to bed and the following day around lunchtime. no "V" = BOY

12.) Sleeping Sides
If you lay on your left side = Boy.  If you prefer resting on your right side = Girl

I'm a side sleeper by nature but can't fall asleep unless I'm on my left side so this round has been won by the BOY

13.) Cold Feet
Are your feet colder now that you are pregnant?  If so = Boy.  If your feet have stayed the same before pregnancy and during = Girl. 

My feet have always been cold and haven't gotten colder or warmer since getting preggo so this one = GIRL 

So with 11 tests  (Test #5 negated itself and the Drano test = fail! )For a grand total of.....

Girl -7  (63.6%)
Boy - 4 (36.4%)

The girl odds win by a nose! Geez- all that work and I'm no better off than where I started really! (As if we thought these Old Wives Tales were actually true. Ha ha!). It was fun to pass the time though.

For what it's worth I think it's a boy, Daniel thinks girl.

I suppose you'll have to check back tomorrow when we leave the gender predicting up to the sonographer and hopefully the kiddo won't have it's first camera shy moment!

Until tomorrow.....

Speedlight

I got my speedlight in the mail the other day and let me tell you....it. is. life changing.

I think if you have a DSLR and you live in Oregon you should invest in one of these puppies. Especially for indoor pics - there are only like, 3 months out of the year where there's enough natural light to take indoor pics without needing a flash.  The best way to describe it is if you're taking a pic where there's not enough light, you typically use the built-in flash in your camera to provide extra light. But the bright flash that's built in to your camera only faces directly at where your lens is pointed so it comes out ok, but kinda shiny and harsh.  Here's a pic of Boomer with my regular built-in flash.

but now I have this sucker.....

It twists and tilts so that I can point the light away from Boomer and bounce the light off a wall or the ceiling.  Here's the same shot same settings with my nifty new speedlight (my last purchase from the interweb for a while).

I just moved from using A and S  setting to full on Manual setting like a week ago so don't judge too harshly- my focus was wonky among other things. I'm still a looooong way from good, people. But isn't he much smoother looking and less washed out? Yay Boomer! Yay Speedlight!

I was hoping to get to practice on my alumni at an event in Portland last night but apparently when a dusting of snow falls people freak their freaks here. So that has been postponed for a few weeks. 

Anyone having a kid party indoors this weekend?? Can I crash it to be the creepy stranger who is snapping away like the paparazzi after a Charlie Sheen tantrum? Anyone!?!? 

Otherwise, I'm stuck using my spouse as my guinea pig, and his patience for my photography-guinea pig-antics has grown short. 

Plus, he never does what I tell him. 

Somebody get me a dog, a fish, a buffalo something to take pictures of with my new toy! Drop your kid off at my house for a few hours (cause you know, what kid wouldn't want 1,000 pictures taken of them? Coloring and playing video games is so overrated) I'll even feed them, although I can't guarantee it won't be 100% sugar.

I know, I'm whining. What can I say....I'll try anything...I just wanna practice so I can get better. Send me your children.

March Madness

If you clicked on this post expecting to read about college basketball you are sadly in for a disappointment. Although if you give my husband a call he will gladly talk "bracketology" with you for days. He was the kid on the bus with the sports page breaking down records, scores and stats the day after OU basketball games and that's one of the many reasons I love him!

No, unfortunately this March Madness has to do with the month of March and my lack of mental sanity. We have been saving our pennies to hopefully have a nice down payment for a Casa de Hare sometime in the next year and we've been doing well I suppose, but I got this half baked idea and because my husband was coerced loves me, he's agreed to go along with it. 

Here's the plan: For the month of March we only spend money on things we need. 

Shocking, right?!? (this is how I suckered got him on the wagon). See it sounds stone age simple until you begin to discover that "need" to you and "need" to him are worlds apart. See conversation below:

Me: "Hey let's see how many dollars we can save in March by only getting what we need- no extras."

Him: "Ok, so like no movie Sunday, no random internet lunch shopping"

Me: "Right! We'll have lunch at home or bring it to work, only dry clean the things that need to be dry cleaned, (I like to take some of my tops to the cleaners because they look prettier when the cleaners do them!) no free for all shopping at the grocery store just because it looks good. We get what we need, the end."

Him: "Wait, did you just say lunch at home or bring it to work??"

Me: "Yep."

Him: "Um, I'm not sure that's such a good idea."

Me: "well, you already said ok. C'mon it'll be fun!"

Him:(shakes head and looks at me like I'm a nutjob)

I'm going hardcore on this thing, people. It may very well be the worst month of my life but there are folks all over the place that live this way every month not because they choose to but because the have to. 

I'm excited to see how much we can save by only living with what we need. So for me that means my once a week internet purchase, my occasional mid-afternoon candy bar & Diet Dr. Pepper run with the girls at work, and my gym membership that I never use, are being put on hiatus for one month. I'm excited to cook more and get creative and bring my own snacks to work, and dust off my yoga mat. 

Not sure how I'll replace the shopping thing, but we'll take that one day at a time. 

I think our little family can use a reality check of the difference between needing something and wanting something. 

Be prepared for a "what was I thinking??" post after the first week! Wish us luck! 

Insanity

This is what insanity looks like......

"What? Christmas eve is a week from today?!?! How'd that happen??"

I'm attempting to get dates and locations secured for our 5 alumni events in 5 different cities (one being Honolulu) for this spring... All before I close up shop for the holidays. My desk has been my command center of calendars, notes on each potential venue, budgets, yada, yada, yada. I came in and realized I'm going bonkers because my desk looks stressed out. 

Guess who's gonna be paper shredding and folderizing on her lunch hour??