old family photos

Friday, September 28, 2012

disclaimer: partially written thursday, partially written friday

THURSDAY NIGHT

oh hey you pretty people.

as i wrap up my standard thursday night cry.

as the avengers is blasting through the bedroom wall.

as i laid here for 1.5 hours trying to sleep through it.

i gave up.

then i remembered that my wonderful cousin sent me some wonderful pictures and i instantly felt better.

and then a fight scene happened and i instantly became ticked off again. i mean...i haven't slept well for a few months or anything...i don't get up to pee seven times a night...my body temperature doesn't rest at about 102 making it impossible to be comfortable...please oh please blast the avengers. nothing like 37 weeks large to bring out the passive-aggressive in a gal. i digress...

so my amazing cousin, woodrow...woody, sent me some amazing photos.

(y'all remember woody, right? from here and here and here.)

the photos he sent really tugged right at my heartstrings.

like this one...

do you know who these people are? well, that's my grandpa there on the left. and my grandma there on the right. i never had a chance to meet the man, but i've heard he was pretty fantastic. i think you would have to be pretty fantastic to put up with the sass of my grandma. i knew this fine, classy lady quite well. and dare i say...i think i'm a bit like her.

can we take a moment to look at the gaze of my grandpa...is it wrong for me to say i think he's handsome?

and just look what happened...they created this...

you bet they did. and he's my father. father of the bell. and yes, that is his red hair. and yes, those are bangs on a shaved head. it concerns me.

regardless...he turned out a-okay...

plus he made me...so the gene-pool can't be all that bad...right? i clearly was gypped on the ginger gene. (did you know that's how gypped is spelled? i. did. not.)

moving on...

he also sent me this gem...

top row: aunt p, great aunt gerri, cousin mic, great grandma, my grandma, aunt s, great grandpa
bottom row: cousin tom (woody's dad), my grandpa, my dad, aunt mary and uncle bill (woody's grandma and grandpa)

lots going on in this picture, but please note the super-sassy cowboy hats. also note that my dad's shoes match his hat...quite the accessorizing.

basically what i'm saying about this picture is it might be one of my most favorites. three generations are represented and it's full of people i love.

but let me point out one more thing: have a look at woody's dad...

now have a look at woody...

did someone say, "twinsies!" yes...i just did.

FRIDAY NIGHT

so after falling asleep way too late in a huffy mood last night, i woke up way too early and got right to work. 47 phone calls later and i was on my way to our glorious, little family cabin about three hours from le farm.

the beauty of it all? i get it all to my little lonesome. well...i guess bebe is here too.

i was chatting with my dad on le cellular telephone and he said it perfectly:

"there is something about the cabin that gives good vibes."

(some of my dad's terms can be a bit hippie.)

but he's right...you pull in to the dirt driveway and your forehead relaxes, you take a deep breath of mountain (although smokey) air, and all of a sudden the avengers blasting through the bedroom door ain't no thang.

clearly i can blame the pregnancy hormones for my avengers reaction last night.

the strawberry-oreo milkshake i bought when i got to town certainly didn't hurt a thing...that's for sure.

and so...i hope y'all have one heck of a weekend. i'll be very busy cookin' bebe for 21 more days.

no...i'm not counting.

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36 - the countdown begins

Saturday, September 22, 2012

last night i asked my farmer if i could be "done."

he wasn't sure what i was talking about.

but then i groaned, rolled over, sat up, and groaned again.

then he realized that i wanted to be "done" being with bebe.

and with all the groaning, rolling over, groaning, and tiny bladder...i'm starting to actually wonder if i'm turning into a bebe. isn't that what they do?

36 weeks - boom

bump watch - i think it goes without saying my bump is no longer a bump. let's get real, people. it's there. it's real. it's as hard as a rock.

coincidentally enough, it's the only time in my life when i've had a firm stomach. good for me.

how big is bebe? bebe is rockin' and rollin' at about 17 - 19 inches in length and about 5.5 pounds. that's what the books say. i'm convinced it's closer to 10 pounds and competes in strong-man competitions.

the kicking is a little painful, bebe. please get the memo. also bebe, when you hang onto my ribs with both your little hands...that hurts to. stop it.

the kicking? why so painful? well, you see, my farmer has what i call "dancer legs." long and lean, that's for sure. perfect for dancing...and kicking. i'm convinced bebe will also have dancer legs...just like my farmer, all 6'2" of him...see:

(the above picture makes me laugh because i took the picture to show my sister our new piece of furniture...farmer wanted to show off his dancer legs.)

so basically, day and night, i'm getting kicked in the stomach by dancer legs. enough about that...

clothing - the other day i ordered some awesome white, skinny jeans from j.crew. they were on sale. and when they arrived and i tried to put them on...you get the picture. what was i thinking? they are currently in our burn pile.

they aren't actually in our burn pile...moreso on the floor of our closet where i mouth hateful words in their direction every day.

note to self - don't buy regular clothing until you are regular-sized. sheesh.

weight gain - no problem here. i'm packin' it on. 16 pounds, just like that. it's amazing what a few weekly milkshakes will do.

stretch marks? not as of yet...but i'm not taking any chances.

workouts - no more running. (sob sob sob.) it's been a few weeks and i miss it terribly. so now i just pump my arms as i speed walk on the treadmill. i prefer not to subject our neighbors to my workout attire. my gut is no longer covered by my workout shirts. it pokes out the bottom of all of them. real classy-like. regardless, i just put some bachelor pad on the ol' ipad and march until i can't take the ridiculous drama anymore...either that or about 45 minutes, approximately three to four times a week.

last night i was so entranced with the episode i was watching, 60 minutes was gone...just like that.

gender - we'll keep you posted.

cravings - how can one have cravings if one eats everything one desires?

most dramatic moment of the week? well, i finally decided that my hair falling out in patches wasn't going to do the trick. why do other women get fantastic hair and nails during pregnancy and my hair, quite literally, breaks off in chunks. at first i thought it was new growth...it wasn't. just patchy little spots on the right side of my head giving me what i lovingly dubbed my sideways mullet. business on the right, party on the left. i got away with this look (i think) for a few weeks/months by sweeping my hair to one side...but it just got to be too dramatic. alas...my glorious friend, amanda the nurse who also does hair, scooped me up and fixed my hairz real good like.

before: long, blonde, mullet-city

after: short, brown, and sensible (according to my farmer). he calls it my mom-cut. it had to be done...

everyone knows you DON'T smile when taking self-pictures, whilst driving on back, country-roads.

very mom, yes? yes.

my farmer still said i was pretty, but i know he prefers the longer, blonder hair.

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ANNOUNCEMENT! new bloggy style

Wednesday, September 19, 2012

so...ummm...in case you didn't notice, the ol bloggy-blog has a totally hip and with it, super-snazz-tasitc look and feel.

it's farm-livin' y'all.

am i right or am i right?

it incorporates all my loves:
1. my farmer
2. idaho
3. my farmer
4. my super hot farmer
5. wheat sprigs which = farm (right?)

i owe it all to one fantastic gal who delt with incredibly picky, specific requests; poor communication (on my part); and quite the revision process. all whilst weathering hurricane conditions.

seriously - one of her e-mails said something like, "...i'll work on your edits until my laptop loses power since we don't have electricity right now..."

i was like, "whaaaa???? please be safe."

talk about client satisfaction!

so a big shout-out to my billie designs!
 
 

isn't she a doll? she is.

 

and if y'all also want to check out my new pages...they are fun too. especially the ADVERTISE page.

 

no no...i'm not asking for $$money$$. but button tradesies are fun, yes? 

 

any interest, you just shoot me a little e-mail...how does that sound?

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two bird studio + bebe belly photo shoot

Tuesday, September 18, 2012

you know what's fun? it's fun being married to my farmer-man who does just about anything to make this farmer-gal oh so happy.

a few weeks ago we had some visitors out to the farm for a little photo sesh. and the only reason this photo sesh. happened is because my farmer knew i was oh so thrilled to get my belly out there loud and proud.

as i said, we had some visitors. our visitors were the husband/wife duo of two bird studio. EB and jason made their way from le big city all the way to our little corner of the world.  and with the help of a few adult beverages (for my farmer, not me!) we were all relaxed a-plenty to begin our maternity shoot.

you bet that's our straw. that there straw was baled up just a few days before the pictures were taken. i had big dreams of all those bales all speckled around the field, acting as the perfect backdrop...but apparently the act of farming does not pause for photo sessions. but to my delight, they still looked real real good all stacked up behind us.

and do you want to know the very best part?

EB tells you you're pretty the entire time.

isn't it funny? the more someone tells you you're pretty, the more you like them? at least that's how it works with me.

quick...someone tell me i'm pretty.

see...it's even okay to ask for compliments some (or a lot) of the time!

EB and jason were also sure to capture our not-so-normal side.

the picture on the left - this epitomizes the face i make A LOT...usually in response to most jokes/phrases/words in general from my farmer.

that farmer of mine...he's got a mouth on him.

the picture on the right? i'm not sure. maybe we were talking about how sometimes bebe kicks so hard i want to grab my belly and shake it. but apparently shaking bebes whether in the womb or out is frowned upon. let that be noted.

OUTFIT CHANGE!

that's right...the two bird studio team let me change up my clothing. A GIRL NEEDS OPTIONS, yes? yes.

i really loved every second. and i think this was quite apparent by the smile plastered across my face the two hours it took to snap all 5000 shots. (that's not an exact count.)

let's also have a moment of honesty - those white shorts? i love. but they are in NO way/shape/form even close to being buttoned...or zipped. nope, i squeezed my fanny into them and called it an outfit...and i have no apologies (except for maybe to EB and jason who I kept asking if my shirt was covering the zipper).

what? ANOTHER outfit change? you BET!

thank you again EB and jason. we can't wait to have you out to the farm again...once your schedule finally relaxes a bit!

good photographers = busy photographers!

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34 + a few

Wednesday, September 12, 2012

and just like that...i'm very nearly 35 weeks. and please tell me what my farmer and i thought was a great idea to do at very nearly 35 weeks?

1. finish (kind of) our house
2. have 35+ people help warm our house
3. cry

yeah...it's been an ongoing trend of this here pregnancy. all-out, tear-gushing, shoulder-shaking tears. from me...not my farmer. (although he probably wanted to more than once...i mean...he's dealing with me after all.

but the beauty of it all?

we finished some SERIOUS projects on our little casa. allow me to put on my bragging pants:

1. please have a look at our basement!!

just a nice little view of the bing bong table i surprised my farmer with for his birthday.




let's get real people. we've made significant strides! we went from hoarders to some serious extra square footage. we couldn't be prouder.

and you recall the "hoarding" room itself. now it's totally legit and our guests don't have to sleep...oh wait. now we can actually have guests. (seriously, my dad slept on the couch for two weeks whilst helping my farmer build our deck.)

2. my farmer built our stair railing. before? giant pit that was very child/adult unfriendly. certain death for anyone that had had more than one adult beverage.

now? perfectly safe and code-approved...i think.

BEFORE:

AFTER:

3. my super-handy, glorious, hunk of a farmer hung this hunk of a light above now user-friendly stairs. and i'm in love...with the light. and my farmer...

my farmer calls it a giant popcorn bowl...which only makes me love it more.

4. and naturally, before the par-tay, i had to get the bebe room in SOME sort of order...

don't mind the 1-trillion green lanterns. just a little left-over party decor.

and don't you worry...i have big plans to do a post ALL about those stripes.

many MANY additional house chores were completed such as footkicks under the cabinets, under-cabinet plugs, lights adjusted over the island, door painting, trim painting, touch-up painting, more painting...not to mention my farmer put the railing on our entire deck. see...

okay...this isn't a direct shot of the railing, but you can see it in the reflection of the window...right?

regardless, it's glorious. and we love it. and i especially love it because my farmer built it. and he's hot.

shall i leave you with a 34 week + belly shot? i think i shall.

apparently i was as surprised as my farmer...?

let's all have a moment of silence for that gut, though. sheesh.

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fire-safe bebe room

Monday, September 03, 2012

so, umm...as bebe time approaches at a cut-throat pace my farmer and i have bits and bobs around the house that are certainly mandatory to complete before we actually bring a helpless, sweet bebe to the farm.

one of those bits may be installing fire alarms. granted, this should have been done about five months ago...when we moved in. (especially since we did all the electrical work ourselves...) alas, we just got around to it. rest-assured, bebe will now be in a safer environment.

so today i'm going to learn you up real good on how to install a fire alarm. why not, right?

here is what you DON'T want your bebe's fire alarm to look like...

please take special note of the ragged wires hanging from the ceiling. not exactly to "code."

first you are going to want to trim those ragged wires down to something more manageable...

next, you'll have to actually expose the wires so you can...well...wire them to the alarm, like so...

boom. all the wires are exposed now. but then you have to expose the actual wire. see all the little copper tips? that's what you want exposed...

now we're ready to bring in the wires that were provided in the fire alarm box. and seriously people, it's as simple as matching the colors...

just like that. red to red, black to black, white to white, and copper to copper. see what i mean? seriously, so easy.

next, you just need to tuck those wires right back up into the ceiling so that your actual alarm can sit flush.

make it look real pretty-like by screwing the fire alarm plate to the ceiling. the only piece that should hang out is the wire that connects the fire alarm.

and just like that, your bebe room has a fire alarm. and it looks safer. and you'll no longer show people your bebe nursery with shame in your heart.

wow, what a thrilling way to start labor day. what are the odds i'll get lucky and this will be my labor day? none.

labor day link-up over here...

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