A new addition

Faked you out, didn't I?  A new addition?  You thought the baby came!!  Nope, we just had a built-in wine bar installed between the kitchen and breakfast nook - a lovely new addition to our home.  I think this may qualify as the male version of nesting...we'd talked about doing it for a while, but then Craig kicked it into high gear and made this thing happen.  Do you know how many options are out there for wine fridges??  It's a little redonk.

Here's how things were looking about three months ago...

We committed to a wine fridge (this was actually the second one we bought...the first one didn't exactly run quietly...quite the opposite, which was causing me to go bonkers, which meant we definitely got a different wine fridge), and Craig did manly things like move electrical outlets and switches to make room for the new cabinets.  Electrical things scare me...Craig, not so much. He's very brave.

Fast forward a few weeks...

...and amazing things have happened!  We now have granite people and a cabinet guy and staining guys (yes, different people for each one...apparently this is not a one stop shopping endeavor), and the whole thing is really coming together.  They did an awesome job of matching the existing kitchen cabinets, but the process was a little scary - I actually spent two nights at a hotel while Craig held down the home fort and kept the animals alive while battling truly epic fumes from the varnish/staining/painting process.  We decided it was probably best if I didn't expose our unborn child to scary fumes...yeah, they were pretty bad.

And then we debated backsplash options and found yet another guy (the tile guy!) to come make it all happen and NOW...

All done!!  It's awesome.  And I told Craig I didn't care if the wine fridge matched the existing appliances, but now that it does, it makes the crazy person in me really happy.  Not that I'm enjoying wine these days, but soon enough.  Yay for successful home improvement adventures!! And it's alllll done before baby comes...which could really be any day now.  Yeeps.

Puppies, paint, and paying people for perfect corners

Remember how we reached "just need to perfect the chair rail...and the crown molding...and do eight million other things to really make this room a nursery" several months ago?  IT HAPPENED.  BEFORE THE BABY'S BORN!!!  That's really a major victory.

Here's that chair rail in progress, which we did finally get done in February:

And then there was this crown molding thing going on...you see that funky angle on the wall with the window?  That slope into the wall and ceiling business?  That makes crown molding kinda tricky.  We gave up and called in the pros, which was a really excellent decision.  Because then things started looking like this:

Sometimes that yellow just comes out really, really bright...I promise it won't blind the kid

Yeah yeah!  Totally painted walls and totally painted chair rail and beautifully installed crown molding AND then we could do cool things like set up the crib and make it start to feel like a baby room.  Major, major props to Craig on tackling the painting and ladder work and general furniture assembly.  I sure hope Holden appreciates all the physical labor his dad put into his room.

Then that's where mom steps in - time for decorating and sewing and putting things on walls and cute-ing up the place.  Remember those little puppy dogs I was working on?  I made an army of them...

...and overanalyzed spacing them out and practicing just the right stitch length to applique them to the background fabric...

...and finally, finally made it all come together in a crib skirt!  Huzzah!  Again, busy season really puts a damper on getting projects done, wah wah.  But at least it's done now!

Yay for puppy dogs!  Full nursery pics coming soon...because it's DONE, y'all.  Totally ready for a kid.  At least the room is ready...I don't know if that has any bearing on us really being ready...

Oh, so THIS is what having a baby looks like?

Post-baby shower explosion of assorted baby awesomeness in the dining room as I attempt to organize...that's a lot of STUFF, y'all.

The Great Sorting of the Tiny Clothes!!  Why must alllllll of the tiny things be SO ADORABLE?!?  I think we're set for a while in the clothing department.

The epic "you get one shot to use the 10% registry completion coupon so let's go get all of the things" Buy Buy Baby shopping trip.  Phew.  That's also a lot of stuff, y'all.

Basically what I'm saying is that our home has exploded into a pile of baby stuff, and now that I actually have things like weekends and time to breathe I'm trying to organize it all and actually feel ready for the arrival of our tiny human child.  Going to Costco and buying 1,120 wipes will really make you feel like a mom.

It's a...

Oh boy!!  Looks like I have a lot to learn in 2014. :) Bring on the all the little boy parenting tips - I think we're going to need them.  Actually, pretty much any general parenting tips are accepted, too - we have no idea what we're doing.  Which hit home yesterday when we tackled a first pass at registering for baby things.  There's just...so....much...stuff.  And I'm sure we don't need all of it.  But we'll learn as we go, right?

So excited for what this year will bring us!

Man down!

So, probably best to limit the number of items you're juggling while making the precious walk from car to kitchen counter after fighting traffic for almost an hour and then arriving home to a dog, crazed from the chill in the air, spinning in wild circles.  Almost there, almost there...oh, dang, I dropped one thing on the cold, heartless, unforgiving ceramic tile.  Hmmm, what was it...oh, my phone!  No big whoop, that's what the case is for.  Oh, say what, now?  The case didn't actually stop the screen from cracking and the LCD crapping out so that now all I see are some sad lines amid a sea of black sorrow and nothingness?  Fudgeballs.

In the interest of not spending $600+ on a new phone when I've had this one all of three months, I'm attempting to find a local phone doctor who can work some magic and bring this little guy back to life.  I don't know anything about how to fix this, but the Internet is full of magical knowledge that tells me this is totally fixable and will theoretically cost about $250.  We'll see how it really goes...

Say a little prayer for the phone, guys.  It's not time for it to go to phone heaven yet.

A very valued customer

I'm a big believer in online shopping.  Perhaps a little obsessive about online shopping, considering one Mr. Vaughn points out that there's an Amazon box on our doorstep more often than not.  Which is not exactly true, but I did come home to three boxes today.  Look, I can't help it if Amazon sometimes ships one order in two different boxes...so those two boxes definitely really only count as one.  And obviously it makes perfect sense to buy Toms online because that's where the biggest selection is, so you can overanalyze the purchase by comparing styles AND colors WHILE reading all of the reviews.  It's really just the intelligent way to shop.  I think these are the winners, by the way.  So that was the other box.

The Amazon order consisted of three books, a page-a-day calendar for 2014 (I'm ahead of the game on that one), and a new set of flexible cutting boards for the kitchen because we destroy them on a pretty regular basis.  I was less than excited about one of the books, and while normally I'm not overly anxious about getting a $15 refund, I figured I would go ahead and send this one back so that the $15 could be better spent on other amazing Amazon products like anything you could ever want EVER because they have it all.  So I went and selected the book for return and gave the reason "no longer needed/wanted," which is just the nice to say that I totally changed my mind and just don't want this at all.  Click.

"Since you are a valued customer, there is no need to return this item in order for us to issue you a refund.  Please feel free to keep the item, and we will issue the $14.62 refund to your method of payment in 3-5 business days."

Well, thank you!!  I mean, who does that?  We'll give you your money back, but just go ahead and keep the thing you don't really want anymore and maybe it'll grow on you.  That's cool, you spend a gazillion dollars with us and we'll just spot you the $14.62.

While this is completely awesome, it also makes me wonder just exactly how much I've spent on Amazon in the last...omg, ELEVEN YEARS.  My first Amazon order was in March 2002.  For a VHS copy (let me repeat that...V. H. S.  Woah...) of the entertaining and mushy One Fine Day, which I think I sent Mom & Dad for their anniversary.  Yeeps.  I might put my analytical skills to use later today and add up the grand Amazon total...maybe.  It might be too scary.

Vrooooom zoom whoom!

Hiiiiiiiii.  How do I even begin to catch up?  What with Life Whirlwind Extravaganza 2012 going on (formal title to just mean I've been BUSY), the blog has fallen by the wayside, and that just makes me sad because I'd love to capture all of the little details of this part of my life and preserve them while I actually remember them.  Also, you know how many pictures I've taken in the last six months?  Not NEARLY enough.  Still way too many by Craig's standards, but not nearly enough for me.

Let's just start somewhere then, ok?  Somewhere like two months ago when, after many weekends of test-driving and over-analyzing, WE. BOUGHT. A. NEW. CAR.  Eeeeeeeee!!  After twelve solid years and 100,000 miles (finally!) with the trusty CR-V...

Yes, I nerdily took pictures as it flipped from 99,999 to 100,000 - don't worry, I was coasting very slowly through an empty parking lot in Deep Ellum.  Ok, maybe you should worry about that...

...we still have the CR-V!  We opted to let go of the car that still had payments, and Craig's kinda hopped on the SUV bandwagon anyway now that we live in the land of giant monster vehicles - I think he felt teeny tiny on the highways in the BMW.  But don't worry, I gave it a big hug before we let it go.

I manage to get remarkably attached to inanimate objects.

And here's the new baby!!

It's a Ford Edge, and I'm in love.  There are now armrests for both driver AND passenger.  I can TALK to my car and she understands me (sometimes).  It still smells good.  It has a really cool touchscreen and tells me what song is on the radio and it's just lovely.  Given that I probably won't get another new car for a decade, I'm really embracing the moment here.  Also, a MASSIVE sunroof and really cool ambient lighting.  And fancy leather seats.  Sigh.

Oh, and guess what?  I managed to put a pretty good scrape on the front bumper after being in the car for approximately ten seconds.  It's just now starting to be funny.  All fixed now.  Oh, and guess what else?  A devious little rock decided to make friends with the windshield last weekend, and there is a nasty crack snaking its way across, so...getting that fixed this afternoon.  Let's hope this doesn't continue to be a spend-$500-on-the-car-every-month-because-something-goes-wonky adventure.  Yipes.

I still love it.

Eleven for '11

Eleven pictures to oh so briefly sum up my 2011

I moved back to Dallas from DC...in the middle of a giant snowy disaster.  Which you'd really think would be much more likely to happen the other way around.  But I was home.

And not only did I move to Texas...but Zach did, too.  And his dad, of course.  And Harry thought this was pretty much the worst day ever.  I worried.  A lot.  And basically it's all ok now.

I bought a dress.  Not just any dress.  THE dress.  And they celebrated by attacking us with bubbles, which was fun and wonderful in every way.  I'm so glad my mom was there.

My sissy went and graduated from Duke Law School.  Kinda a big deal.  Just sayin.

So many wonderful times throughout the year with so many wonderful friends, and nothing says it better than four Fredericksburg pies.  Yes, four.  We needed alllll the flavors.  So grateful for these wonderful friends, and not just because they agree to four pies.

We celebrated this whole "we're engaged!!" business with some official photography moments.  And I've just never been happier.

I have two of the most amazing friends a girl could ask for in Carolyn and Kami, and our annual summer trip is always, always one of the highlights of my year.  And Beaver Creek in the summer is a TREAT with these ridiculous Texas summers.

Soooo....we bought a house.  A month before the wedding.  Much going on?  Nah.  Just the usual.  So we bought a giant, beautiful house to turn into a home and build our lives together.  Ok, maybe a touch more awesome than "the usual."

Last year I did some recipe testing for a cookbook...and the cookbook became real and a free copy was shipped to me and my name is in there and I think the whole thing is just generally cool because I absolutely loved the work and the whole experience.  I. love. food.  You know this.

Craig and I got married.  And we had a wonderful wedding.  Surrounded by family and friends.  And we had a FUN wedding.  One of the most amazing days of my life, really and truly.

And we followed up the wonderful, amazing wedding with a wonderful, amazing honeymoon to Costa Rica where we did ridiculous things like zipline through the rainforest.  Such an incredible trip, and really a very incredible year.

Giant big deal #1 - we totally went and bought a house

Can you believe it?!?  Normally I'm a huge overanalyzer and delayer of doing and major procrastinator...but we just DID this thing.  We'd spent a few weekends with our realtor checking out houses in various areas to get a really good idea of what we really wanted in a house and where we wanted to be geographically...and did you know there are about a million things to consider when you're buying a house?  Things like square footage (Craig won this battle - his belief is bigger is better) and number of bedrooms and school districts and size of backyard and age of home and how much do you really want to spend and dear HEAVENS the commute time and so on and so on and so forth.  And imagine two people who both like to have their way making this decision together.  We made it through this - good pre-marital test, methinks.

And while I wasn't 100% really ready and totally on board with buying a house RIGHT NOW - it just worked out.  We both fell in love with this place, and it has absolutely everything we want, and I want to live in this house for the next fifty years.  I love it.  And Craig loves it, too.  And when that actually happens, you dang well better just buy the place.  Especially when the sellers are more than happy to do a sale-leaseback so the buyers (ummm...us) aren't stuck with rent+mortgage for a few months.  It just all came together.

So I crunched spreadsheet numbers and panicked while Craig told me it would all be ok...and it was.  I'm such a worrier.

Yay for our own little slice of Carrollton!!

That day we celebrated with lunch at Abuelo's (extremely close to our new home AND site of many fond A-town memories AND delicious Mexican food!!), and then we also had giant steaks and a bottle of bubbly for dinner.  Because food is really the best way to celebrate, you know.  A little anticlimactic since we don't actually live in the house (and won't be there until December/January, btw), but still really, really exciting.  And really, really real when we make that first mortgage payment here in about ten days.  Yowza.

I grabbed the pictures from the realtor website and tossed them into a Picasa album if you'd like a better look.  It's all perfect and wonderful in those pictures (except for the color of the dining room - I'm dying to paint, and other than that it's pefect...and maybe some more painting, because I'm demented and actually really love to paint walls), so it might look a little more sad when we move in and have less furniture (fact of new home ownership, right??  there is a dining set in our near future...), but it will be our home.  For a very long while.  And I'm so, so happy about that.

Oh?  What was that you said?  We're totally insane for adding "home purchase" to the list of life events occuring over the last month or so, especially with the wedding coming up?  I totally agree.  Hoping my stress levels at least burned some calories.