It's my party and I'll cry if I want to...

Ok, so I'm not really crying...although I might just start if this baby doesn't come soon. It is my birthday though. Almost. Tomorrow I turn the big 2.9. As in, my last year before the big 3.0. As in, my last 20-something birthday ever. Ah, sigh. Youth. (Okay, I know it's all relative but comm'on, entering a new decade is a big deal, no matter which one it is!) My first 20-something birthday was spent having to watch some string bean cowboy sashay across the dance floor while wiggling his eyebrows at me during my "birthday boot scootin' boogie." Note to self: never ever let friends tell the DJ that it's your birthday: thorough humiliation will always follow.  Thankfully, there's only about a one in a million chance that this baby will actually come out on my bday and that my midwives will channel their inner line dancing divas to celebrate. So unless my water breaks while I'm laying on the couch for about the fiftieth time tomorrow, this birthday should be fairly drama-free. 

Yes, I'm am wearing my princess party hat that my mom brought me last year for my bday. Admit it, you're thoroughly impressed by my coolness right now. Well anywho, let's get to the point of this post, shall we? Birthdays are great opportunities to reflect on life and I've definitely had the time on my hands to do a bit of it (my reflecting face is the bottom right one, you know the one that looks like I'm constipated?). Last summer I was reading a book called One Thousand Gifts: A Dare to Live Fully Right Where You Are by Ann Voskamp. Here is a woman who's had a tough road to walk exploring what it means to live joyfully, gratefully, a midst the obnoxious mundane or even 'can I slap something?' moments of life. Everyday, she decided to revel in one thing, big or small, and write it down rather than attempting to focus on all of her blessings. (True confessions, I've always hated the round the table share your blessings time at Thanksgiving meals...yes, please feel free to put me on the heathen list.)

The thing is, if I look back on the past two years of my life, I can confidently say that in one shape or form dissatisfaction has been my persistent and nagging friend. It doesn't matter that I've tried to ditch him along the way, he just keeps coming back. First it was being fed up with living in our last apartment and I just couldn't wait to move to a new place. Then we finally moved but found ourselves dead broke and with only enough mula to furnish the place with some cheap essentials. Now the place is looking a bit spiffier but my life has been put on hold until this baby decides to make her grand entrance into the non-womb world. I am sick. and. tired. of. waiting. But I'm more tired of thinking that joy will be just around the corner. As a Christian, something tells me that I don't have any business thinking like that. Thus I'm going to begin my own thankfulness project in the form of photos. Yes, Instagram, I'm finally going to see what all the fuss is about. Bring it.

My plan is to take one picture every day for the next year. (Oh gosh, did I just commit to that writing?? Scary...) Little things, big things, but only one thing every day. Does one a day sound daunting and undoable? Abso-tutta-fruita-lutely. But I think that's what I need right now to shake me out of my apathetic 'gimme, gimme' attitude that I've got going on with God these days. And no, I won't share all 365 with you...after all I'm hoping you didn't end up putting me on the heathen list and that you still like me. I will do a monthly recap though to give you some of the highlights. My hope is that by narrowing the lens inward I'll be better able to see the outward bigger picture of blessings and present grace in my life. So let the snap happy party begin!

A little drama for your life

I'm back! Happy 2013 everyone! If the beginning of the new calendar year is a time for reflection, then how much more so maternity leave. Heck that's just about all you're authorized to do really. I, for one, have learned a few things about myself. For instance, I am way too addicted to Pinterest. I'm sure that psychologists will come up with a name for the condition one of these days. I also now understand why house arrest really is a sucky punishment (don't kill me but I used to think "That's not so bad"...not sure Paul, Queen Liliuokalani, or Aung San Suu Kyi would agree with me...). But my crowning self insight is the realization that I apparently must have a deep seeded desire to create havoc and mayhem in my life when I feel it is slightly lacking in outside input. 

Take today's lunch for example. All is going well; I've got soup heating on the stove when I smell something funny. This is not such a rare occurrence in my kitchen so it takes me awhile to investigate. There is a fire under my big soup pot. My first thought is literally, "How in the world does a stainless steel pot catch on fire?" 

It takes a bit for my genius IQ to kick in but I do realize that there is something under my big pot and on top of the hot gas burner. It's a cork hot pad. Under my soup. You see, apparently last night when I had set the freshly made soup on the counter (on top of a cork trivet of course) the cork decided to stick to the underside of the pot while being transferred to the fridge. The mooch that it is clung on for another free ride right onto my burner... 

Matt and I then followed our family emergency fire plan to the T: 

1. Get Matt's attention with lots of "hmm....oh shoot. Oh man. Oh shoooot!" 
2. Throw dish towel onto flaming stove while convincing Matt that dowsing it with water is not the solution. (before you judge, know that yours truly did that a couple of years ago, thus how I "found out" that it's not the world's greatest idea...)
3. Matt runs in with giant beach towel which helps quell majority of flames.
4. Take picture of burning stove for the blog. 

5.   Peek under towel only to discover stove is still on fire. 

6.   More frantic snuffing.

7.   Take a pic of the ensuing mess. 

8.  Eat slightly charcoally soup and think about alternate vacation destination plans for this summer :)

Warning, baby post!

Yes, yes, yes... I promise you all I still am alive. So is the mini Sanders for that matter. Just ran into a rough patch there with the end of Fall Term craziness and you know, being pregnant and all... :) I promise to get back to Part 2 of the last post, but there's been so much happening fairly suddenly this week that I felt a need to interrupt the Frenchy posts. The first interesting bit of news is that we just had our mid-prego ultrasound this past week. Somehow despite me and all my fabulous Talia clumsiness, the baby is in great health (I could have told the doctor that though by all the kicks I've been receiving!). We also found out this lil' bit of info... 

That's right; we're going to have a lil' Sanders lady! We're thrilled and I can't stop thinking about all the clothing and nursery potential abounding (hey, it's only a limited time before she won't be letting me dress and decorate her room, so a mom-to-be's gotta take advantage of it while she's got it!). The last bit of news isn't so great. Apparently Baby S (that's S for Sanders and not Shakira) just can't wait to come out and meet us and is already head down, putting quite a lot of pressure on my cervix. Yep, Talia has been officially put on early maternity leave. Until the baby is born. My that's a long time. (April 21st is her due date)  I'll find out later this week if that means full out bed rest or just takin' it easy until it's time for her to make an appearance. But hey, more time for blogging, right? :)