In the Last 2 months and 20 days...

Babies born: 1

Loads of laundry done: 623

Minutes spent discussing frequency/color/texture/odor of baby's poop: 64

Minutes spent changing diapers: 1,080

Minutes spent exclaiming over naked baby's delicious thighs/tummy/toesies/smiles/rolls instead of changing diapers: 745

Minutes spent exclaiming over baby's knuckle dimples/elbow dimples/knee dimples/cheek dimples: 150

Minutes spent discreetly sniffing baby's hair/ears/neck: 289

Number of kiss attacks mercilessly inflicted on baby: 156

Pictures taken: 2,918

Number of times we've been on time to events and appointments: 1

Late-night, sleep-deprived impulse/panicked online purchases made for baby: 4

Tears shed because of hormones/utter exhaustion/fears of raising a reasonable human being/general panic about state of house/life/body: 825

Dinner dates taken: 2

Meals eaten with one hand and in 5 minutes or less: 39

Regrets: 0

{worth it}

This is Going to be the Summer of the Smoothie

I was recently expounding to a friend how lazy I am when it comes to cleaning blenders (and muffin tins and roasting racks and my oven and a multitude of other kitchen appliances) and that's why our blender didn't make the move to WA when another friend piped up and asked why I didn't just BLEND HOT SOAPY WATER AND CALL IT GOOD.  I had a moment like this while I registered her complete and utter genius then I went home and bought a blender and pinned a million smoothie "recipes" in anticipation.

I made two smoothies the first night (a green smoothie for dinner and a strawberry one for the hubs) and am totally stoked for all the possibilities.  I love anything that combines tons of weird stuff together.  Salads, sandwiches and smoothies are perfect for this.  How can I incorporate black tea into a smoothie?  Wait for it because it is coming...

The Weekend Report

The joke in the Pacific Northwest is that summer starts on July 5th but I feel we're in the thick of it now.  We've taken advantage of our last few weekends and have been road tripping and exploring and camping and brunching like its our job.  The hubs has been charming and full of funny jokes and stories and every outing turns into an adventure.  Like the time we bought 24 bottles of organic lemonade.  Huh.

My library queue of available titles is turning against me.  I now have books coming out of my ears and a careful schedule of when to actually check them out so as to prolong the time I have to read them.  I had forgotten what it's like to always be in the middle of a book and to be able to get away so quickly into another world.

The sweater I'm working on is in limbo.  I tore it out and started it again on smaller needles (size 1...I think I might be insane) to get the gauge the pattern calls for.  I have asked three experienced knitters for help and have gotten three different answers which worries me.  I may just have to stubbornly get through this without further consultations.

I want to take a summer break from work.  These long, sunny days with nothing more pressing than a library book and a knitting project to occupy my time are good days indeed.

5 Things (I've Been Reading)

{from the window of a bookstore in Bellingham}

The Help
So, so good.  So funny and so sad.  I figuratively could not put this book down.

The Cat Who Said Cheese
Formulaic and comforting.  I've probably read 15 books in this series because my mama likes them.

The Rules of Civility: A Novel
A tortured love story.  Snappy and literary.  I read this until my eyeballs fell out and my husband had to snap at me to go to sleep already.

The Shoemaker's Wife
An utter fairy tale where bad things do not happen.  The clumsy foreshadowing is distracting but charming.

The Indian Bride
A whodunit without resolution.  I like an ambiguous, subtle ending but this story line just dropped off, like, huh, what happened to the rest of the book? Boo.

I have been taking major advantage of library ebooks this summer.  I tore through these five titles and am on waiting lists for half a dozen more.  It's kind of fun not knowing which one will free up next so I've loaded the queue with a variety of old favorites and new releases. I foresee a lot of couch time this four day weekend.  Holla.

Five Things (On My Summer Bucket List)

Get rid of half my clothes!
Uh, okay. I don't know if 50% is the right target but I went through a serious purge last week and it feels amazing.  Now I need to figure out how to flip this wardrobe and make some moolah.  And don't talk to me about the JCrew and Anthropologie sales going on right now...

Knit a sweater
This is in the works! I bought yarn and have engaged one of my grandmotherly coworkers to help figure out gauge.  I want this to be the first in a series of rad knitting projects because I have a little niece or nephew coming who needs some hand-knitted love.

Bake more
I accidentally bought an extra bottle of yeast (not sure I missed my other bottle in my spotless and military-precision-organized fridge) so, that's a lot of cinnamon rolls in our future.

Do more outside
Last night we ate dinner outside and we're going camping next weekend but my goal is get us outside more.  There's a Shakespeare in the Park series that we are absolutely going to attend if the hubs has learned anything in 5 5/6 years of marriage.

Take some trips
We have tons more touristy things to do out heah.  Go on and get it.  Portland, San Juan Islands, Mt. Ranier, etc.

The Endless Summer of Pink Shoes

If you asked me if I liked pink, I would vehemently deny any affinity for that color and then look down and feel foolish because I have been wearing pink shoes all summer long.  It seems that three pairs of pink shoes have charmed their way into my closet and into my heart this summer.

Sneaky pink.

{toms, toms, jcrew}

I'd have to take a more moderate stance and confess that I do like certain shades of pink, especially the hot, bright pinks and muted, dusty pinks but I will be a monkey's uncle before I ever own or wear little-girl-candy-pink.

The late summer weather has been sublime and though boot weather is nearly upon us, I will not go gentle into that good night.  I will be shod in pink until Christmas.

Fall (Or Summer?) Is Lurking

It has been 50 degrees in the mornings here lately which is good for two things; snuggling and a bowl of oatmeal.

Ryan came across this quote the other day and thought of me.  I get it.  Me and you, Pooh.

“When you wake up in the morning, Pooh," said Piglet at last, "what's the first thing you say to yourself?"

"What's for breakfast?" said Pooh. "What do you say, Piglet?"

"I say, I wonder what's going to happen exciting today?" said Piglet.

Pooh nodded thoughtfully. "It's the same thing," he said.” 

― A.A. Milne

I made a jar sweater with a yarn scrap I picked up at the thrift store.  Yeah, I paid money for a yarn scrap.  I have 3 projects on the needles and 3 projects that I've decided to frog and I am still sucked in by the leftovers of someone else's project.  Sheesh.  It fits an old salsa jar I saved (I cannot not save a jar) and is perfectly cozy to hold.

The mornings require hot tea but the afternoons demand fresh raspberries.  We picked these up at the farmers market on Saturday morning.  Okay, actually, we picked up a lot more than just these and have been unabashedly gorging ourselves because summer is short and you must take advantage before the mornings turn into full cozy-sweaters-for-you-and-your-tea days.

*tea photo by Ryan

Five Things (I Am Trying to Keep in Mind)

More Mary, less Martha.

Someone somewhere loves that barking dog and someone somewhere loves that kid having a tantrum in the parking lot.  Bless their heart.

Moving madness is only temporary. Deep breaths.

And sometimes 3 pieces of pizza is okay.

That's all. Maybe only 4 things.  There might be a fifth rattling somewhere in my brain but I can't find it.  I'm going to go pack more boxes now.

{mn sky}

I Felt Like Cheering

This is the first hour where I feel I've been able to catch my breath since our trip "home".  It's strange to feel like home is multiple places but I suppose that has always been the case.  I always have a sense of homecoming when we visit my grandma because I have so many memories of her house, the fields, the back 40, Sandy Lake, and the little country cemetery where my great-grandparents and my grandpa are.  I feel there, more than anywhere else, like this is where I'm from because of the way my grandma sees the past in the field her mother used to plow and the neighbors they used to know and the place where the little country school house stood.  It's where she grew up and my dad grew up and I've seen pictures of my infant self being passed around the same breakfast table where we ate last week.  There's something grounding in knowing how a place used to be and how it still is.  It felt good and familiar to be in North Dakota and in my hometown but there wasn't the same sense of homecoming.  Maybe because things are changing and it's hard to feel the same about a landscape that I used to know and don't anymore.  I haven't lived at home for almost 10 years (which is mildly alarming to realize) and as much as I love North Dakota, I'm not from there and will never feel like I'm from there. (The breathtaking flat.  And that wind!)

When we stepped off the plane and I saw the 'Seattle' in a Seattle's Best Coffee's sign, I felt like cheering.  When I drove to work on Monday in mild morning traffic with the Olympics jagged and beautiful in the distance, I felt like cheering.  When I got into the passenger seat of Ryan's car after a week of driving not our car, I felt like cheering.  I feel at home here because this is where our present is and we have each other.  Home is where the heart is, as simple as that.

I have woefully few pictures from our trip, just a few here and there, but here are some from more relaxed moments during the week.

{Modesty Blaise + Caribou}

{up north}

{first date lunch: repeated 9 years later}

{viking church}

{more viking church}

{my dad's t-bird}

Can't Stop, Won't Stop

{another tote!}

I made another stupid tote bag because I was bringing home some chunky work files and nothing says "I mean business" like an amateur sewing job in bonkers floral orange.

Or Not

Me: I was like a zombie in there.  A self-conscious zombie in a too tight skirt.
Ryan: Ooh, a sexy zombie.  That could be your Halloween costume!

Middlefork Camping

{charred and delicious}

{that's what i'm talking about}

{garfield mt.}

{darling spot for a picnic lunch}

{picnicking}

{camping feet = happy feet}

{more smores}

I had a wonderful weekend of much needed r&r thanks to the hubs.  Man knows me.  When I texted him at 10:30 one morning that I had just ordered another pair of Toms, he knew it was one of those days that drives a girl to desperate, spur-of-the-moment retail therapy and kept his husbandly remonstrances regarding excessive shoe shopping to himself.  Instead, he packed us off for a delicious weekend of camping, hiking and roasting things over a fire.  I spent hours staring at the treetops from the hammock, reading and even took a two hour nap on Saturday afternoon.  Amazing.

There's a lot of good camping around here...if you can squeeze in a reservation.  I love the idea of having all our camping gear packed and ready to go at a moment's notice but unless you plan ahead to make a reservation, the chances are slim that you will spontaneously find an open site.  Spontaneous or not, I hope there's more camping in our future this summer because coming home pleasantly tired and smelling of wood smoke means the weekend was a good one.

Seattle Duck Syndrome

That humbling moment when you look at your bedside table and see 10 hairbands, two empty bowls of ice cream, half a glass of water, a couple cook books and some crumpled tissues and you think to yourself, "Maybe I'm actually a slob?"

Or when you eat some really delicious Mediterranean chicken for lunch and then register that you have a full afternoon of meetings with fiery garlic breath. 

Le sigh.

I am embroiled in the biggest project of my professional life, my amazing boss left the company for another opportunity and I cannot find a comfortable pair of office appropriate shoes to save my life.  Or my feet.  And a lady cannot manage a project without hustling around.  Hot pink Toms it is, folks.

On the up side, summer is here for real.

Five Things (That I Do That I Think I Learned From a Teen Mag)

My "beauty routine" is super no low maintenance but there are some things that I catch myself doing over and over again that must have come from somewhere outside of my brain.


Do a final rinse in the coldest water you can stand. 
Supposedly this makes your hair shiny. I don't know if it works but it's refreshing.


Five minutes late is never a good time to pluck your eyebrows. 
Or to try a new hairstyle. Or to decide you hate your outfit.  Just go with it. In the big picture, punctuality is more important than flawless eyebrows/great hair/cute clothes. That's what I tell myself.


Moisturize after every shower. 
More of a life necessity and less of a beauty tip. 


When you have a break out, wear a color that neutralizes your charming red spots. 
My skin had a freak out. I put on a reddish violet shirt that made one particular spot on my forehead stand out like a flashing neon sign. I was a whirling dervish changing into a cream shirt. So much better.


Don't check for VPL in the semi-darkness. 
It don't work.

Totes Bagotes

A while ago, I purchased this cute tote bag on etsy.  I'm not sure why, since I don't even like tote bags but whatever.  I wanted something to carry my current knitting projects in.

This bag and I got off to a rocky start. 1) I waited THREE WEEKS for it.  2) When it arrived it had a couple small holes in the lining where the seam separated (I emailed the seller and she gave me 40% off).  3) One mad dash for the bus and two rivets holding the leather straps popped loose after I'd owned it for approximately a week. Wah wah waaah.  Because I had already emailed the seller about the interior holes, I didn't want to email again about the loose straps but I was disappointed. And self delusional.  How hard can it be to sew a stinking tote bag with firmly attached straps, right?

HA. HA. HA.

One broken needle and 40 90 frustrating minutes later...et voila, a good sized tote with a lining, an interior pocket and a faux leather handle, exceedingly well attached.

I did it but I wanted to punch myself in the face the whole time.  Sewing does not make me zen.  It makes me crazy.  But I'm toting my knitting around now like nobody's business.

Nerd Love In Action

Me: Did I just spell 'fortuitously' right on the first try??
Ryan: *wolf whistle* That's my girl.

Building an In Between Uniform

Where we came from, my wardrobe needed to get me through two seasons.

Winter:

And Summer:

The two weeks days of Spring and Fall in between were hardly noticeable but now, I live in that temperate in between stage.

What to wear when it's 50 for weeks?  I have winter figured out (boots and wool everything) and summer is a no-brainer (sandals, cotton skirt, tee-shirt) but this weather has me stumped.  I want to wear basically the same thing everyday -Toms, leggings, jersey skirt, long sleeve tee, but some part of my brain says I have to mix it up. (And then I tell that part of my brain to just shut up because I work with engineers. In white socks.)

Ryan sent me this article the other day and it resonated with me.  Particularly, this line she references from Jurassic Park,

"I believe my life has value, and I don’t want to waste it thinking about clothing."  

I love clothes but lately my closet has felt more like a tiresome burden than anything.  For as much time as I spend picking out what to wear, sometimes I can't even remember what I have on without looking down.  Right now, in my life, all I want is to be able to pull some clothes out of my closet that fit well and don't require any fussing or finagling.  A few years ago, I went through a serious fussy/finagling Anthropologie stage.  I'm over it.  I love this essay about saying no.  It gives me confidence to say no to ruffles, animal prints, pencil skirts and high heels.  I say no to sequins, tucking in shirts, and belting EVERYTHING.  I say yes to tee-shirts of all kinds, the occasional hoodie and Toms.  I say yes to skirts that do not require a special underwear situation, leggings and a collection of colorful cardigans.  I'm working on building a uniform that works for me.

An Everyday Cake

Now, a word about this cake*.  It's basically banana bread loaded up with chocolate chips and a little chocolate frosting but if it's in a cake shape and the container says 'CAKE', then my brain is like, YAY CAAAAAAAAAKE!

This is the first bundt pan I've owned as a Mrs., which feels like some kind of milestone.  I've always kind of wanted one but not enough to pay for one.  I found this one at the thrift store for $1.99.  In fact, I was in the checkout line behind a lady who had this very same bundt pan in her pile but it didn't have a price tag on it at the time and they couldn't sell it to her.  I found it back on the shelf a week later and bought it. Hee hee hee heeee.  When I texted Ryan about my thrift victory, my phone kept correcting "bundt" to "Bundy", so now we call it our Bundy Pan.  (And by 'we' I mean 'I' because I don't think my husband has ever voluntarily brought up the subject of cake pans).

The cake holder is one that belonged to Ryan's great-aunt Vi and it had a long, happy life in a hardworking farm kitchen and housed many a strawberry angel food cake.  I never knew Vi but I cherish every dent and her green permanent marker initials on top of her cake holder.  There's something restful about the thought of an everyday cake, something a little sweet at the end of a long day of hard work.  This Banana Chocolate Chip cake is like that. 

It's also excellent in the morning with a strong cup of tea.  Not that a farm wife would eat cake for breakfast. 

But I, I am no farm wife.  I eat cake for breakfast.

*I didn't add any lemony anything

and I was inspired in the first place by this other cake

All Your Boss Are Report To Me

A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away, I interned with a small publishing company.  It was the kind of place where my daily workload might be to edit an article and then vacuum the office.  But there were Hot Pockets stocked in the fridge and I had my own desk and the other intern and I had a good ol' time.

The highlight of my internship occurred at the Christmas party where My Boss, upon meeting Ryan for the first time, asked him who he reported to at the company he works for and then proclaimed that Ryan's boss's boss's boss's boss's boss's boss's boss's boss reported to him when he worked for the same company.  Awesome.  I think that many levels of boss puts you at Emperor of the Universe.

Managing Emperors of the Universe must like to drink fancy water because once, when the Culligan man stopped by and asked if we were interested in having a water cooler in the office, My Boss (who was receiving daily calls from Audi's billing department...) asked if they carried Pellegrino water because that was all he drank at home.  The honest blue collar Culligan man replied with some confusion that they did not have Pellegrino but they did have Kandiyohi water?

Now I snicker every time I have one these.  They're all I drink at home.

That internship was the best thing that ever happened to me, if you measure success by the number of bizarre stories you add to your repertoire.  Like the sales manager there with steel knees, one glass eye and a part time job as a personal body guard.

This Place Takes My Breath Away

I'll tell you how the sun rose, -

A ribbon at a time.

The steeples swam in amethyst,

The news like squirrels ran.

The hills untied their bonnets,

The bobolinks begun.

Then I said softly to myself,

"That must have been the sun!"

Poem LXXIII by Emily Dickinson