She Likes Purple

Seven Quick Takes: Mice, Pre-K, Ninjas, Etc.

1. We've needed a new blender for a while. In fact we needed a new blender, bought a new blender, and then almost immediately needed a new blender again. 

So, I came home Friday and there was a new blender on my kitchen counter. Unfortunately, when you're married and you share a joint bank account and you know the status of that joint bank account, surprise splurges make you first go "Wow, THANK YOU!" and then immediately go "But I literally know we can't afford that." 

Enter Costco and their Costco-sized sales. Turns out, we could afford it, and now we can make smoothies for everyone in something like 10 seconds.

Oh, we got a Ninja, in case you need a new blender too.

2. So, hey, we also caught a mouse in our kitchen this past weekend. I know, so gross, but it was the most adorable rodent I've ever seen. (Maybe he heard about the smoothies?)

Kyle and I would have preferred to domesticate the cute thing, but Mike ushered us into the car, drove us to a nearby (but not too nearby) creek, and forced us to let him loose. Then I deep-cleaned the kitchen.

Also, whoa, does wildlife really like our house. In the last year, we've had a bird fly into our living room (and then up our stairs!), a squirrel camp out on our back porch, another bird make a nest on our front porch, multiple bunnies declare home to be under our backyard shed, a rat scurried around in our garage, and let's not forget Fred. Now this.

3. I have a new blog banner! Thanks to Ashley from Little Leaf Design, for making the process so stress-free and easy. I updated a few sidebar things to match. 

4. I've been contracted to use The Prowl (a new social media site) for a few weeks, but I'm under no obligation to talk, write, tweet, or otherwise promote it. Just use! Except...it's great. I love the Ask & Answer section of the site. You can pose fashion, beauty, home, and kid-related "help me find it" questions and your followers can make useful suggestion and comments. (For instance, I really need a new face cleanser. Care to help?)

5. I have so many books on my to-read list, I could read for years and never run out of material (not to mention, I have a handful of books left on Elizabeth's best of 2012 list to get through this year), but I'm always interested in what others are reading (and loving). So, do tell, what's your favorite book of the moment?

You can see what I've read so far this year on my 2013 to-do list.

6. Every September I get blue. It happens each year. What the entire world feels mid-February, I feel all of September. I wish I knew why, but at least I can now anticipate the dip in emotions, and I hope to treat it with healthy eating, yoga, and some fun plans on the calendar. 

If I'm guessing, I'd say it's because while I love fall, September in Texas is just more summer. It's supposed to be fall but it never is, and actual fall is two weeks long, mid-November, and I'm sad for it to end before it begins. I want pumpkins and football and prepping for Halloween but I don't want to do any of those things WHILE STILL SWEATING. 

Is it just me, am I alone in getting the September Blues?

7. Kyle started Pre-K this week. He just moved from one building at his school to another, and he's with most of the same kids he's been with since he was six months old, so the transition wasn't too big of a deal. But, he has to wear a uniform and he has his own locker and desk, and it's the absolute last stop between daycare and Officially Going to School. While it seems a little weird to be proud of someone for just naturally progressing, I'm still so proud of him. Of who he's becoming, more than anything. He's a beautiful, bright, sunny kid who I feel so fortunate to know, let alone get to be the mother of.

I dropped him off Monday and he was absolutely fine and he waved me away with practically an eye-roll as if to say, "You can go now, mom." I walked back to my car, weepy, because he has become one of the "big kids" (what all the other kids in his school call the Pre-K kids), and everyone says it because it's true, that time just goes so damn fast.

I don't know how we even handle the speed of it sometimes.

Belated high-fives

As I mentioned in my last post, Mike was out of town last week. He was gone Monday through Friday and while I missed him like mad and Kyle missed him like mad and life is just nicer when he's around, I wouldn't call our week without him impossible. Tiring, sure, but a lot of weeks are tiring, even when it's not just me solely in charge. I commute, Kyle is four (he's kind of on high-volume most of the time), and work for us both has been stressful lately, so we have tiring down.

But, our week flying solo was a lot, it was a lot of rushing around, a lot of dropping balls, a lot of collapsing in bed as soon as Kyle was asleep. I felt like high-fiving all single moms after Mike returned home, and not because it was such a hard week but because life is a lot, it's always a lot, and when you're juggling a lot on your own, you deserve high-fives. You do. You deserve all the high-fives, in fact, and then a Carribean vacation.

My dad left when I was nine and a couple years after that, my mom, sister, and I headed to Texas without him to start a new and more financially feasible life, and we each gave my mom hell in very specific and different ways until we moved out (my sister gave her school hell and I gave her boy hell, for those curious).

My mom and I used to butt heads a lot, especially in high school, especially after my sister moved out. I remember when I got accepted to college, she and I were in a huge, silent fight. We hadn't talked in days, but I called to tell her the news and she forgave me on the spot. We celebrated by going to Boston Market, something we loved to do together back then.

I imagine it was a lot for her, to work full-time and raise me, a boy-obsessed, self-destructive silly girl who stopped meeting her potential the day she turned 15. She probably wanted to come home and have a glass of wine at the end of the day without me pouting around the house, whining that LIFE IS HORRIBLE, BUY ME JEANS AND ALSO GIVE ME MONEY. 

I was a normal teenager (I think?), but she deserved better, a break from me every now and then that she never really got because life is a lot and she was always in charge.

Parenthood opens up all these truths to you, and some of these truths are that our parents were wrong, they could and should have done better, and some of these truths are that our parents did the very best they could possibly do and they deserved better than we gave them in return. It surprises me which past memories fall into which category. 

One truth that's separated itself from the rest for me, though, is that my mom was a single mom, and not just some of the year but most of the year. Life is a lot and it was always up to her to handle it, and I don't remember her enjoying a glass of wine at the end of any day. Man, I bet she needed it. 

So, it's not that a week without Mike is impossible, it's that a week without Mike reminds me that my mom was (and is) a badass and she deserved a few high-fives for getting my sister and I safely to adulthood all on her own. She didn't get them then, but I'm giving them to her now. 

Mom, next time, the wine is on me. 

Usually Scarier in my Head

I was sitting at my desk at work, in late May, when all of a sudden I started seeing sunbursty-type light flashes. Okay, that's not the technial term for them but, damn, that's pretty accurate. I've been saying "I saw spots" but that wasn't quite it. They were brighter and burstier than spots. It was a ten-minute episode when I genuinely thought I was either going blind or dying. I tried to Google THROUGH them, but that wasn't helping me stay calm. (BRAIN CANCER.)

Ten minutes later, they were gone.

(I dealt with this the way I usually deal with things that genuinely scare me: tell few people, live in denial.)

Fast forward to last week and the whole thing happened again in a meeting (that I thankfully wasn't leading), and I left a message for my eye doctor the moment I got out of the meeting. Once, I can live in a nice state of denial and assume it's nothiiiiing. Twice, I AM OBVIOUSLY DYING, I SHOULD SEE SOMEONE ABOUT IT.

(My head is a fun place.)

My eye doctor is wonderful and has evening appointments once a week. She got me in that week (which was last week), so I only had to wait a few days. The fact that she didn't want to see me immediately actually gave me a little comfort. (Once, years ago, when I called Kyle's doctors and described a few symptoms that were concerning me, the nurse got very quiet and then said, "You need to bring him in immediately, like as soon as you can possibly drive here." That was the time he had staph. All ended up fine!)

Anyway, Mike was also out of town last week, and I didn't want to stress him out, so I didn't tell anyone until the day before my appointment. Then I told everyone because my nerves got the better of me. (Twitter was, per usual, a huge comfort. You think sending out an 140-character tweet of support to a virtual stranger doesn't help? So wrong. Helps A LOT.)

When I finally sat down in my doctor's chair and described the symptoms to her, she said, "I'm going to show you a picture and don't overthink it, just answer yes or no, is this what you experienced?" As soon as I saw the picture, I basically yelled, "YES, THAT'S IT."

Classic ocular migraines, she told me. She experieced them too, and they're for sure scary but not that scary. She gave me a few reasons they could have started happening -- hormomal shifts, circulatory issues, stress, even -- so I'm going to try and address a few possible culprits to get healthier and hopefully nip these stupid things in the bud. 

I put off all kinds of things because the thought of facing them just doesn't seem like something I particularly want to do. Stupid, quite honestly. I can be stupid. The feeling of facing something and it being managable is always better than worrying your head off. Putting things off? Not better. So, you know, go to the doctor. Check that thing out. It's likely nothing and if it's something it's likely better than what your head's made it out to be. (Or is it just my head that's so nutty?)

Anyway, I totally treated myself to Subway after my appointment because, you know, EARNED IT.

Breathtaking

Sometimes my breath catches and it's not that it's perfect or that I don't yell about Legos all over my living room floor (why all over my living room floor KYLE?) or that I don't wish Mike would bring home flowers more often than he does for no greater reason than I just like flowers and I like when Mike walks through the door with them. My breath catches not because it's perfect but because it's good. 

My breath cathches because I know what not good love feels like and it's heavy and it wears you down and it's exhausting and on my worst day with Mike and on my worst day as a mom, it's just never felt like that, even when it's hard, it's never been bad.

It's actually been a rather tough year for me, normally tough (life is so very LIFE sometimes, isn't it?), but even when days, weeks, or months are tough, life is still good.

Life will always be good with them.

Things to To in Texas: Visit Revolver Brewery

My ladies and I had a girls weekend this past weekend many weeks ago because I can't get my act together to post regularly these days, but we headed closed to home, just an hour away. We stayed in Granbury, TX, which is a 10-minute drive from Revolver Brewery.

We headed to the brewery Saturday afternoon (after pedicures!) and while mid-July in Texas is never ideal for outdoor activities, it was SUCH a fun brewery that I'd recommend it to anyone, any time of year. 

It had so much to do, to pass an afternoon: take a tour, listen to live music (they have a schedule of who's playing on their website), play in water tables and on playgrounds (if you're a kid or if you've REALLY enjoyed the beer), eat some local food. You could also taste beer, which I assume is why some of you would go.

The Blood & Honey, a wheat beer, is what the brewery is known for, and it was so much better than I remembered when I tried it at a local restaurant, but I preferred the High Brass, a blonde ale. 

So, if you're in or passing through Granbury anytime soon, swing by this brewery. I'm already planning my return trip.

July Goals Revisited + August Goals

I kind of feel like a badass this month. I crossed a lot off. Not everything, but it's not really about perfection, is it?

I should also add that "rearend someone" wasn't even on the list but I still totally DID that! Go ahead and put overachiever on my next business card. (Oh, and I'm fine, car is...not. Life is so very life-ish sometimes.)

The one difficult part of all my lists this year has been finding the motivation to work-out. Maybe you've noticed, probably not, since my lists aren't all that interesting. This month I'd really really really like to try and find that motivation and get back to working out. It's a big theme of the rest of the year for me. Wish me sweaty, gym luck. 

July Goals Revisited

1. Read three books (1. Where'd You Go Bernadette)
2. Make these chocolate glazed muffins
3. Host Heather for dinner
4. Try out two more restaurants on D Magazine's best-of lists (1. Company Cafe 2. Hattie's)
5. Go out of town twice: once with my ladies and once with my family
6. Go back to A'Dell's awesome community pool at least once 
7. Finish Kyle's swim lessons (he passed! he got a cheesy certificate that I love to pieces)
8. Finish my vacation box 
9. Get back to yoga
10. Try this wine spritzer
11. Work-out every day this month, but we're defining working out loosely and in whatever way makes me feel okay/proud at the end of the day
12. Re-hang living room pictures (oh, and re-buy a few living room pictures)
13. Hang at least one more photo on my nostalgia wall
14. See one movie in the theater (Saw two! 1. The Way Way Back 2. Despicable Me 2)
15. Buy frames for two prints to hang by our doorway
16. Make a photo book of our beach trip
17. Print our DC prints
18. Make s'mores
19. Make one recipe from Gwyneth Paltrow's IT'S ALL GOOD cookbook
20. Send a couple gifts that are gathering dust
21. Write Wendy Davis a thank-you note (inspired by a dear friend)
22. Clean out Kyle's closets

August Goals

1. Hang more frames on our nostalgia wall
2. Clean out the pantry
3. Go to IKEA for shelves and living room frames
4. Make a dentist appt for Kyle
5. Participate in restaurant week!
6. Finish Snow Child and Eleanor & Park
7. Make those donut muffins AND one recipe from IT'S ALL GOOD 
8. I've been saying this for ages but start the Couch to 5K program (I signed up for a 5K in September as motivation!)
9. Yoga
10. Get a new blog banner
11. Go on a double date
12. Reschedule with Heather for dinner
13. Start thinking about a shoe storage solution (shelves?)
14. Go to a barre class
15. One magazine recipe
16. Re-read a chapter of the Bible
17. One pool visit
18. Clean out Kyle's toys
19. Print out Puerto Rico pictures
20. Start my 2010 photo book organization (I'm determined to make yearbooks for 2009 and 2010 so we can officially have a book each of Kyle's years.)
21. Pay off a medical bill that's been in payments for a while

Pins of the Month: May, June, & July

I'm trying to tackle more Pinterest projects this year. Or, more accurately, I'm trying to buy more things I've pinned and then creatively label that purchase a victory instead of irresponsible spending. I bought something! I'm so productive.

Anyway, here are the previous months: January & February, March & April. 

May: I bought this iPhone case. I love it.

June (& parts of July): Since summer in Texas requires cocktails, I made a handful of drinks from my Pinterest drinks board.

From top to bottom, left to right: 1. Pomegranate  & Lime White Wine Spritzer (3/5 stars) 2. Grapefruit Sangria (5/5 stars; I added blueberries, to make it festive for July Fourth) 3. Pear Mimosas (2/5; I prefer the original) 4. The Very Best Margarita (5/5 stars; SO tart but that's my kind of margarita)

July: Vacation box! I was inspired by something I saw in Martha Stewart Living, a way to keep vacation photos all in one spot without taking up too much space, and also a cool way to display vacations, so you can reminisce any time you walk through a room. 

What you'll need:

    - Wood box (similar to this, but I prefer the ones where the lid slides out vs pops open)
    - Two cans of spray paint (I used black [for the text] and yellow for the boxes)
    - Alphabet stickers (you could also use stencils, but I just found these plain easier)

Mike sprayed both boxes black, then I spelled out the destination names in stickers, on the front of the box. Mike then sprayed (about a million coats) of yellow spraypaint onto the boxes. Peeled off the letters and there you go!

So easy, especially if you get your husband to do all the spraypainting for you. 

I printed a bunch of prints (all with borders) from mpix.com and tossed them in the box. I also included print-out menus, ticket stubs, etc. I love that I get to keep these things all in one place and revisit the trip anytime I want, without digging through drawers. 

We plan to display the boxes on a shelf we'll hang on our living room wall, along with some other keepsake projects like our family yearbooks.