Lunacy is a symptom

Now that everyone knows why I'm carrying around a hodgepodge of various foods and snacks at all times, chugging water and not drinking, I can begin to get into the symptoms of pregnancy. Don't think I'm going to talk about being bloated or about my boobs that are both "ridiculous and out of control", because I'm not. I'm going to talk about my fixation with making sure that the curtains, valance and sheers are hung up to the exact specifications of the picture in my head.

It all started innocently enough with a trip to JC Penney, where my sister found curtains to match the bedding and that wouldn't distract from the orange walls and green chair. Once the curtains were secured, it was time to find the hardware from which they'll hang. This posed a new problem because our house is somewhat lame in that the window frame of the nursery is only 3" from the wall. That leaves me no room to add any of the zillions of cute curtain rods with equally cute embellishments to the ends. Armed with a scale drawing of the nursery, I selected a rod with balls (TWSS) that would be appropriate for the space, proudly showing it off to Nick. He was impressed that I selected the curtain rod with careful consideration and with the assistance of a tape measure.

Fast forward several weeks later. Its the week that the nursery is getting painted, so we decided to hang the curtains, so all holes would be drilled in the wall, pre-paint, hence avoiding any flip-outs by yours truly, when Nick uttered the word oops after drilling a hole in the wall. Monday night, my poor husband headed upstairs for what he thought would be a routine installation, only to be confronted with a new window treatment (a valance) and a crazy wife who couldn't help by articulating the vision in her head. After several rounds of "oops" and re-do's, and "oh shit's", and a broken curtain rod, we called it an evening and decided that my balls were too big (TWSS - yes I did) for the window frame.

If you're keeping score:  Valance: 1, Linda&Nick: 0

Tuesday evening, I triumphantly arrived home with a new curtain rod, with smaller balls, which I thought would fit better into the stupidly designed space. I also arrived home full from a dinner with a friend and with a bad case of heartburn. I'm only mentioning this because it added to an already cranky situation. Nick did his thing with the drill and we stepped back and looked at it...and it looked weird. Nothing like the picture on the back of the package (and the perfect installation that I have in my head). When I wasn't showing any hint of being satisfied, he called his mom and received quite the tutorial on double curtain rods, tension rods and cafe rods as they relate to the configuration that I was hoping would work. That conversation pushed him over the edge and he declared that we were done for the night.

I pouted and went downstairs to research new ways to install everything, desperately looking for a magic set of hardware to achieve my look, but with no luck. After being coaxed into stopping for the night and going to bed, I had a eureka about how what we had could maybe work if we hung things up slightly different than what they were supposed to be. I think I went to bed mumbling about valances, Nick tried to calm me down and coax me to sleep. This morning, it was the first thing I thought of when I got up, and I think I have the perfect solution....in my head. We'll see what happens when we get home and try to make it work. If not, I've been promised a shopping trip to find the perfect solution - for both of us - which will stop the temporary insanity.

Big changes ahead

Last week, my friend Marci called me out on not posting anything about the big changes that are happening in our life and in Chino's life. It wasn't ready to be social media public yet, but as of last Thursday, its officially out there. That's right. It. It is a big change that Nick and I are still getting used to. It is going to rock our world. It is going to make Chino a big brother. It is making us parents this year. That's right. Parents. Our furbaby is going to have a two legged big brother or sister. I'm not sure that he's grasped the enormity of the situation, I know that I haven't.

What I do know is that we are so blessed that we have been given this gift of fear and uncertainty and love. We are holding hands and ready for our adventure into parenthood, which will consist of trips to Babies R Us, projectile vomiting, breast pumps, elastic pants, onesies and lots of love and laughter. Its hard to say that we're actually ready, but I know that we're as ready as we'll ever be. I can't imagine our 20-something selves handling this as remotely well as our 30-something selves are doing (so far, anyway), and I'm so grateful that we got to spend time together "growing up" and making memories before we decided embark on the adventures of parenthood.

Back to blogging

I logged into my Blogger account and realized that I haven't blogged since LAST SEPTEMBER! What's up with that? I was trying to think about what excuse I have for my lack of posts, but came up with nothing. So lets do a quick catch-up and then I'll do my best to resume regular posts about my life, Nick's life and of course...the mutt. There has been a lot going on since last September, including a trip to Paris, London, Indianapolis and St. Maarten. We've also been working on various home improvement projects, which if you know us, is a huge deal. The projects aren't finished yet, but I'm happy to report that its starting to look like adults live in our house. I'm quite pleased with our taste.

I'm going to try to do better at blogging, because I know that I haven't been posting our latest shenanigans and laughing fits, so stay tuned as I brush the cobwebs out of my brain and get things out into cyberspace where they belong.

Chased by a turd

A typical evening walk with Nick, Chino and I was ruined by the perfect storm of distractions and a stuck turd.

Setting: Suburbia, USA, around dusk. Manicured lawns, sidewalks, children playing, yard work in process.

Nick and I are walking along, having an in-depth discussion about any number of seemingly insignificant situations, when suddenly, Chino decides that he has to poop. As usual, I'm holding the leash and Nick is holding the poop bags (because we are responsible dog owners) and like a well rehearsed scene from a play, we assume our positions while Chino assumes his.

As he's mid-dump, we see kids coming down the street. Since Chino doesn't always understand the concept of anyone under 5'0" tall, we knew that we'd have to shorten his leash a bit, to avoid an awkward situation wherein Chino jumps on and scares a neighborhood child. Instinctively, I wrap his leash around my hand, for added leverage, all the while hoping that he'll just focus on the task at hand and ignore the bicycle riding children. 

At the point that we are passed by the child, Nick has the leash and I'm reaching for the treats to try to use bribery to elicit good behavior distract him (Chino, not Nick) Chino lunges to jump on the kid (bad dog) and at the exact same moment realizes that he's got a hanger, if you will. So, mid-leap, he's pulled back by Nick's cat-like reflexes and then twists around to see what in the hell is hanging out of his ass. He realizes its a turd and begins proceedings to remove the offending turd from his ass and deposit it in the grass, where it belongs. As this is happening, he backs himself into me, while Nick joins the chase and tries to pluck the turd from his ass, bag on hand, of course.

Somehow, some way, Nick is able to detach the turd and I escape the whole ordeal unharmed. I did however start a laughing fit, the deep breath, tears streaming down my face, sounds like I'm crying, laughing fit. I hope that the picture I just painted for you will be the kindling for your own.

Moral of the story:  Don't eat hair

Sunflower

Since I wasn't able to post a photo for day 13 of the #30dayphoto challenge on Allie's blog, Show + Tell, I thought I'd post it here.  For me, the lack of color makes me think of the brightest sunflower up against the bluest sky. Maybe its because I always try to assume the best? What do you think?

Happiness...

...can be as simple ripping into a ball of tissue paper. 

#30dayphoto

When I found out that my (twitter) friend, Allie was going to host a 30 Day photo challenge over at her blog, I was thrilled! Allie is graphic designer and all around creative girl, which is reflected in her blog posts and photographs, so I knew that this challenge would push me a bit to become a better photographer AND a better editor (still using Picknik, need to learn Photoshop Elements). In addition to her creativity, which I expected, I've been blown away by all of the other submissions, each one with its own twist on the daily assignment.  My goal is to post a photo every day, even if its just editing a photo that I've taken previously and to see an evolution in my shots and in my editing techniques.

Day 1:  Me (Link to the others here)

Day 2:  What I wore (Link to the others here)

Day 3: Favorite Place (Link to the others here)

Day 4:  From a high angle (Link to the others here)

Day 5:  Whatever I want (Link to the others here)

Day 6:  From a low angle (Link to the others here)

Day 7:  Silhouette (Link to the others here)

Want to participate? You can jump in and out of the challenge at any time. Here's a list of the assignments. The rules are minimal (no nudity, and submit by 9am, the morning of...). After you submit, she compiles and posts the collection, providing a link so that you can check out all of the other photographers' work. Its truly been a fun week and I'm looking forward (and ahead) to the other assignments!