So the "every day" thing didn't work out...

...you know, posting every day? optimism and all?...but we're back on track! I got thrown for a bit of a loop on Monday when I officially became a person not obligated to go to work at around 4:30 PM. Whaaaaaaaaat, you say? Well, after going back from maternity leave right into busy season and getting a true reality check in "nope, this is not for me anymore EVER," I worked on finding a new job where I might actually have a life and DID and put in my notice and then found out that notice = leave pretty much right now, so that's that!  And my new gig doesn't kick off until January 5th, soooo...I'm currently not working but still getting paid and it's basically amazeballs.

Totally productive things I've accomplished in the last five days:
 - Finishing up Christmas shopping...mostly
 - Wrapping a chunk of that Christmas shopping into pretty packages
 - Going to the grocery store and buying things that enabled me to cook a real dinner in the form of chicken pot pie
 - Baking banana muffins
 - Baking milk chocolate-dipped hazelnut sandies for the 2014 Cover-to-Cover Project: Holiday Cookies
 - Excessive loads of laundry
 - Successfully shoved approximately 25 pills down Cleo the kitty cat's throat and kept her alive while Momma Dale was out of town

Totally self-indulgent things I've blissfully enjoyed in the last five days:

 - Took myself to the movies at 10:15 in the morning - Mockingjay and a giant bag of popcorn for the win
 - The aforementioned baking is also because I just like to do it
 - Starbucks grande latte pretty much every day
 - Friday lunch with Carolyn with no care about how long we sat and chatted because there was no job to hustle back to

And the ultimate combination of productive/indulgent = EXTRA HOLDEN TIME.  He's still kicking it at daycare for a chunk of the day so he can maintain some kind of routine while I run around, but I've been picking him up early and enjoying every extra minute I can steal with this sweet baby. They allllll say it, but of course he's growing up too fast.

And the ULTIMATE indulgence that hasn't happened and just won't...sleeping in. I have a baby now, so that's just not in the cards, and for those of you who really know me, you know how I am about sleep.

Ummmm...I could get used to this. Which is dangerous. But I'm also excited about my new work path, and so I'm going to soak up every minute of the next three weeks and then jump into a fresh start. Happy holidays, y'all.

Hey baby!

One month ago, this tiny little person came into our lives and changed things forever.  Infinitely for the better.  Those first few weeks were anything but easy, but worth every minute when I remind myself what an important job this is - raising, caring, loving this little man.  Welcome to the world, Holden Michael Pendarvis.  Born May 29, 2014 - 7 pounds, 1 ounce, and 21 inches of perfect.

And I'm really not sure how we went from that little guy up there to this one down here who is already ONE MONTH OLD!  It's a bit of a blurry haze, really.

I'll try to capture some parenthood adventures here on the blog...but my boss is a little demanding these days and I tend to run a little short on time.  Priorities!

Due dates...just a suggestion

Due date, schmue date.  Come and gone and no baby in sight.  Well, I guess he's technically in sight since I'm sporting this bowling ball midsection thing, but...you know.  Does it look like he's worked his way downward at all?  Everyone keeps asking if he's dropped...well, I don't know, maybe...so then maybe not because should it be really REALLY obvious?  I haven't exactly done this pregnancy thing before.

So what do you do with a pregnant lady who's hit her due date and hasn't had a baby yet?  You take her out to dinner, preferably somewhere with awesome pregnant lady food like biscuits and fried chicken.

I love you, Babe's.  Although it's a little sad that I have limited tummy room these days.

We do have an induction end date in sight, which is both reassuring to KNOW Holden will be here within the next week and also a little weird to KNOW something like that.  Still hoping he decides to make his appearance on his own; I keep telling him it's ok to come out, but he seems pretty content to keep baking in there.  Stubborn kid.

Might as well get as ready for everything as I can!  The tax department is shifting to a new space in our building over the summer...so on Thursday I went ahead and packed up all of my stuff, which definitely felt a little strange.

And I was feeling mushy anyway since the sweet work gals got me flowers and a card AND cupcakes and took me to lunch at Uncle Julio's - talk about some of my favorite things.

So sweet!  I managed to not cry, which is a big accomplishment for the pregnant lady.

It's strange to think about having a completely different routine in the next week.  I mean, we know change is coming and we've done a million things to "get ready" for this ridiculously large life event, but I just don't think it's going to hit me until it really, really HITS me, like with an actual baby actually here.  It feels very real right now...but still just a waiting game.  Yeeps!!

Let's see if anything happens at 40 weeks and 1 day...last child-free weekend EVER.  Weird.

Operation Nursery...complete!

It's definitely been a work in progress, but now we finally have what is probably the only "complete" room in our home.  Holden, I hope you like it!

He really does have an army of puppies in there!  Quilt by my wonderful mommy, crib skirt by me, puppy prints from Etsy, crib from Pottery Barn Kids, crazy wall camera to watch him sleep installed by Craig.

All ready for changing!  Dresser and mirror are from Ikea, and random assorted things are from random assorted places.

The giant alphabet wall!  Alphabet decals are from Etsy, chair from Buy Buy Baby, storage ottoman from Target.  Learn your letters, Holden.

The tiny clothes await!  Itty-bitty plaid shorts, I die at the cuteness.

Lots and lots and lots of tiny clothes...and diapers and toys and books.  Thank goodness for plenty of storage space.

Cute things on shelves, yeah yeah!

Alllllll ready for lots and lots of reading, courtesy of wonderful friends building his library at the baby shower.  Yes, we probably need an actual bookcase or something, but for now a basket on the floor works for me.

All ready for you, Holden!  Curtains by me

See, we at least appear to be ready for a baby...

I love the "little man" banners from the baby shower, so they're on the wall now!

Here's your cozy place, Holden.

The puppies are waiting!

Packing for a trip where you come home WITH AN EXTRA PERSON

And not just an extra person, but one whose clothing size you don't know.  Does he need an adorable newborn onesie to come home in, or should I throw the three month version in there in case he's a whopper?  WHO ARE YOU, TINY PERSON?!?  This is fascinating, terrifying, and exciting all rolled into one.

In case you couldn't tell, I packed a hospital bag...or as much as I could pack with a big note stuck on top reminding me to grab all the things I'm still using that can't really hang out in a bag for an undetermined amount of time.  Just one more thing in a string of "ok, this makes is very REAL" moments that seem to keep occurring...every day.  Yeeps!  But Holden has a place to sleep and diapers and clothes and food (well, theoretically my body's working on that - science and nature at work, y'all, it's for real! - but we have some backup formula on hand just in case), so really we're ready to go.  Or at least we appear to be ready to go.  There's this whole mental/emotional component that is NOT covered by giant boxes of diapers and wipes.

Just look how super pregnant I am!!  Ahhhhh!

We've made really good progress on the nursery and the organizing of all the things - I'll give you a real post on that, but for now let me share an army of tiny clothes...

Washing all of the clothes and organizing his closet made me really, really happy.  Sometimes strange things (excessive organization!) make me happy.

In other baby-related news...my belly button hasn't really popped out (yet), which gives me great joy.  There's just something about that belly button POP happening to my own body that was weirding me out.  Although it is kinda weirding me out that my belly button is just stretching...crazy town.

Also, a note for my husband - when I share my stretch marks with you, "ewwww" is not the appropriate response, even if quickly followed by "I'm kidding!" - come on, husband, you're dealing with an emotionally wrought and extremely pregnant wife.

Early on in the pregnancy I was T-I-R-E-D, and I'm sad to report that I'm pretty much back to a very tired state.  Tiny things are exhausting, so how am I supposed to summon the energy to push a human out of my body??  Adrenaline and drugs kick in for that part, right?  Still waking up in the night (training for the parenting job to come!), although last night I'm not sure if it was kicks from Holden or my extremely vivid "being chased by dinosaurs" dream that woke me up.  Yes, dinosaurs.  Who knows where that came from...

Tomorrow is May.  I'm supposed to have a baby in May.  Eeeeekkk!!

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.

Oh HELLO third trimester, where did you come from?!?

Hello at 28 weeks, baby!  Which was about two weeks ago...details, schmetails...

The beginning of this baby adventure was all anticipation and wondering and waiting...and now the days and weeks are just flying by and I feel like our little guy will be here before I know it.  How does that happen??  At any rate, here's what's up with us these days:

• Physically feeling pretty good, other than the fact that I keep waking up in the middle of the night - I think he likes to throw raging dance parties around 3 AM, which I'm sure is fun and all, but not for mom.
• Baby had the HICCUPS last night, which was both adorable and completely freaky.  It's been so incredible to feel his movements go from the tiniest little flutters to full on "yeah, I'm in here!" motions all the time.  And have you ever seen your midsection just MOVE because something INSIDE YOUR BODY IS MOVING?  O. M. G.
• I'm not exactly craving ice cream, but Craig keeps buying it for me, so I keep eating it.  I'm not too sad about the way this is working out.  Thanks, honey!
• Actual cravings?  I went through a clementine phase, which was great since I was feeding myself and baby healthy things, but now I've moved on to carbs carbs comforting carbs.  I'm not going too crazy with the food, though, and weight gain is right on track. Phew.
• Doctor appointments have gone from being every month to every two weeks...which just drives home the point that we're in the home stretch, making this both incredibly exciting and mildly terrifying.
• Right after we found out "it" is a "he," I may have gone on a bit of a clothes-buying bender. Which means Craig has banned me from buying any more baby clothes.* Yes, I know people love to buy tiny cute things for the baby, so I really don't need to...but I love buying tiny cute things, too!
• Did you know I'm a worrier?  Who, me??  Yeah, so basically I'm worried about everything ever.  Although I took my glucose screening test a week and a half ago and haven't heard anything back on the "no news is good news" kind of test results, so I'm actually NOT worried about potentially having gestational diabetes.  Woot woot!
• At this point I've worked my way through an entire little tub of Burt's Bees Mama Bee Belly Butter, mostly because I had this month or so in trimester #2 where my skin (we're talking arms, legs, WHOLE BODY) was crazy itchy.  I think that one was a combo of winter skin in general + pregnancy heightening sensitivity to basically all things that could cause problems.
• I've switched to flats for the remainder of this "carry a growing baby around" business - a little bit of pain/swelling going on in the leg/ankle area.  Highly recommend these Gap maternity pants for work - I actually bought two and hemmed one for heels and one for flats. I haven't worn pants that actually buttoned since early January...this could be hard to go back to...
• I'M HAVING A BABY, AND CRAIG AND I ARE GOING TO BE ACTUAL PARENTS OF A HUMAN BEING.  That's all.

*Theoretically. What he doesn't know won't hurt him on the baby clothes front...how do you resist this??

So, I'm still a person...

Just because I'm pregnant doesn't mean I ONLY want to talk about the baby.  I'm still me, people. I'm aware this is an epic, life-changing event that will completely rock my world and probably change the way I feel about a lot of things and how we live our lives...but I'm actually still me at the moment.  Which means that even though I LOVE talking about the baby and what's going on with my pregnancy and getting advice on how to handle this whole parenting gig, it's not the ONLY thing I want to talk about.

Let me caveat by saying this is really not an issue with 97.3% of the people in my life.  I'm generally surrounded by wonderful, supportive friends, family, and co-workers who ask me about my life in general and talk about things other than the tiny child I'm currently carrying around with me at all times. But sometimes the 2.7% really get to me.

Work has been the most challenging battleground on this front.  My admin at work is well-meaning but a little overreaching in her concern and sympathy - I'm greeted every morning with a belly stare and a "how are you feeling?" when previously just a simple "good morning!" would suffice.  And I know she's desperate for her own daughters to give her grandchildren, so I think I'm filling this strange surrogate role in her life that's freaking me out a little bit. Another admin, whom I'm spoken to for approximately 10 minutes in the last 15 months, now carries on epic conversations in the hallway with me about everything from belly bands to breast pumps.  It's a touch awkward.  And since these relationships don't exactly go past the acquaintance phase, I can't just say "please stop doing this" without it coming across the wrong way.

And this week I got the "you're finally looking pregnant!" exclamations on multiple counts. Well, thank you - it's not like I was trying to NOT look pregnant before, so I'm glad the baby's popped out enough to satisfy your desire to see a pregnant-looking pregnant lady walking around.  This is wonderful for you, but marginally uncomfortable for me - huzzah!

I'm aware this is an epic, life-changing event...but...

I'm so fortunate to even be able to have this experience and bring a new life into the world, and I don't want to seem disinterested or anything less than thrilled or grateful for the little guy hanging out with me...but every once in a while I just want to talk about what book I'm reading or weekend plans or even the ridiculous stock market.  For the 97.3% of you who do this, THANK YOU.  It's nice to not worry about kiddo or parenting or daycare for a minute.  You guys are awesome.

For the other 2.7%, QUIT STARING AT MY BELLY.  And maybe also stop offering me parenting advice from your lifestyle in 1976 that doesn't resemble our lifestyle in 2014 in pretty much any way at all.

All that being said, we're going to go devote seven hours of our lives today to a one day condensed Weekend Childbirth Seminar at the hospital, so really it probably all IS about the baby.

And now that I've devoted this space to pretty much talking about the baby while essentially asking you to talk to me about things other than the baby every once in a while...thanks for letting me rant and ramble.  It's probably just the crazy pregnant lady talking.

Fifty shades of every paint color ever

Even though we now have some small idea of what our little one is going to be like, we know we don't want a blue sports crazytown room, so it's time to commence the preliminary rounds of Baby Nursery Decisions!, which I'm going to officially name and treat like the Olympics.  Also, the Olympics start in thirteen days, and we all know how I feel about the Olympics, so we better get some of this nursery stuff knocked out so I can focus on curling.

The walls were a perfectly fine neutral tan sort of color, but I really didn't want out baby to have brownish walls.  Commence the color debate!  And actually, we both liked the idea of doing a yellow nursery (agreement, huzzah!), so the dad-to-be was off to Home Depot to clean them out of pretty much every yellow-ish paint sample that exists.  And then the narrowing process began...

The contenders get a spot on the wall for further consideration...

...while the rejects sit sadly to the side.  Sorry, rejects.

After much debate and overanalyzing (I'll let you guess who did most of that) and moving paint samples from wall to wall, we committed to getting samples of four colors and slapping them on the wall to see how we felt about them.  Ok, let's pick a yellow!

And we kinda picked a yellow.  But then, because why would we keep anything simple, we decided it would maybe also be a fantastic idea to put up a chair rail and do a DIFFERENT color under the chair rail and also put up crown molding and definitely make sure we have the right color for the ceiling, too. Aaaaaand here we go.  Yeeps.

Fortunately we were a little more decisive on the grey (or is it gray? Apparently I skew British on that one) for the bottom portion of the wall.  I mean, yes, we still taped up paint chips and overanalyzed and narrowed it down to four and threw some paint on the wall, but it just went a lot faster than the Yellow Debate. Besides, Harrison was helping with this decision.

Allllll the colors.  And a ceiling fan with no blades.  And miles of tape and acres of dropcloth put into place.  We're doing this thing.

Zach really isn't sure if any of this is a good idea.

All decisions in place, finally, and let the painting begin!  We debated hiring someone to do this, and after each of us put about twenty strokes into painting the ceiling, we thought that might have been a really really REALLY good idea. Have you ever painted a ceiling?  It's a giant pain - fortunately Craig will not be defeated by something like paint, and he powered through and did a dang good job on it.  You go, honey!

I taped up a fake chair rail to guide us, and we kept painting.  And painting.  And painting.  Lightening walls isn't ideal, because often you need juuuust that extra coat of paint to make sure it really looks good.  Yeeps.

You're making excellent progress, husband.

But the painting is done!!  Well...mostly.  We'll have to do a few touch-ups here and there, and the chair rail and crown molding still have to be painted to match the trim in the room, but the giant swooshes of rollers are all taken are of.  Gallons of sweet chamomile, lemon souffle, and gentle rain later.  And here's where we stand at the moment...

The yellow looks way brighter at night - I'm hoping it all mellows out a bit once we have the room pulled together.  Although it really doesn't matter, because this yellow is what it is.  We're committed.

Looking good!  We were even making really good progress on the chair rail until we got halfway around the room and realized that, even with measuring and using a level along the way, we managed to drift up about an inch from where we started.  And for the OCD anal person in me, that is most definitely NOT ok.  So on tap for this weekend - perfecting the chair rail.  And the crown molding.  And getting them puttied and caulked and painted.  And getting all the supplies out of the room and babying it up a bit.  That's probably a little optimistic for just one weekend, so I'll let you know how it goes.

I hope you like your room, baby - Mom and Dad are putting some sweat into this one.  And I love it.

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!

Happy anniversary eve!

Holy jeez, where have the last two years gone??  And yes, it's only anniversary EVE, not actual anniversary, but I needed something to write about tonight and was feeling a little mushy.  To celebrate two whooooole years of marriage, we took off to Seattle for a few days to celebrate (which I'll tell you all about in this month o' blogging), a little before our actual anniversary to make time for important things like University of Washington football games.  Last year at this time we were having red rocks adventures and relaxing in Sedona, celebrating one whooooole year of marriage...

...and then two years ago I'm certain I was having trouble trying to wind down and go to sleep because I was just a little excited about the whole "I'm getting married tomorrow!!" thing.  But it was all worth it for this.

Happy almost anniversary, husband!  And just when Craig is FINALLY HOME from the Great Houston Adventure, he's out of town again this week for work training in Orlando.  But I have some really wonderful friends who are going to celebrate birthaversary with me tomorrow (birthday dinner on the anniversary, of course), so I think I'll be ok.  Two down and many, many more to go.

A swift punch in the face

Remember that cookbook I mentioned?  That just made my day?

Yes, that one.  I was so excited to receive this in the mail that I punched myself in the face.  Literally.  Ripped open that packaging so quickly that my hand flew back and connected with my face.  Which caused Craig to laugh and laugh and laugh at me, and I think I actually did something practical like ice my face.  Which was probably dramatic.  But so was the punch in the face, so it really all goes together.

I mean, this may be the only time my name makes it out in the world in print (unless you count any number of boring tax things I worked on while in DC, which I don't count since they were...boring tax things), so I overreacted.

There I am!  Woot woot!

My notes are responsible for things like pan de campo, ruby red sweet rolls, and coconut tres leches cake.  And I just had way too much fun testing recipes.  How to turn this into a job...

Go forth and make these things.  Check out the Homesick Texan blog.  Buy the book of deliciousness (Kindle edition, only $9.90!).  Make tasty food.

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.