Lame Sauce

Sorry for the blogging hiatus... things have been crazy, crazy busy (and it's not gonna settle down anytime soon). I am determined to keep on keepin' on, though... so here we go.

For weeks (and weeks and weeks) I had been dreading last Friday. More than any other day of this gonna-take-three-months-to-get-it-done move. More than any day of my ENTIRE life, even: Like a root canal with no pain meds. On a Saturday. While all your friends are at the beach... being slathered with oil by Chippendales dancers.

It was to be an entire, 16-hour-day of traveling, with my 9-month-old and mother-in-law.

Our morning began at 5am, waking Evie up so that we could begin the long drive from one side of Connecticut to the other so that I could teach from 9-12 before we headed to the Boston Airport. The stars aligned, though, and Evie napped the whole way to UCONN. Then, on the second leg of our drive, Evie took another nap. By the time we got to our gate (all the while carrying two carry-ons each, a baby and a stroller) we were so proud of ourselves that we were fartin' rainbows.

Then, because of Debbie's I'm-BFF-with-the-inventor-of-Delta Diamond Medallion Member status, we got to hop on an earlier flight, sit next to one another, check our bags for free, and BOARD THE PLANE FIRST.

Next time you see her you should channel your best Robin Leach and say "Diaaaaaaamonds, dahhhhhhhhhhling". She would like that. (She was seriously such a rock-star all day...Evie would have probably eaten my tears for lunch if Debbie hadn't been there to help me).

The day was going really well; and guys, leaving the Atlanta airport with SMILES on our faces felt pretttty good. After a full day of traveling I would have been satisfied with everyone having all of their appendages intact. But no: we go big. We were SMILING. Diamonds, y'all. Diamonds.

But then we got into the car. With a tired Evie. At 5:15 on a Friday evening. In Atlanta. And here's where I will tell you that listening to a baby cry, neigh... scream, for 2 hours is worse than getting a curb sandwich. So now you know.

But then, just 120 minutes of sheer misery later, we were home. The day I had been dreading for weeks was over. And it was beautiful.

Wednesday is the New Monday

Today has been a giant string of miniature disasters. Aside from Wednesdays being generally sucky because I have to be on campus from 9am - 9pm, Graham is sick, I slid down a snow embankment and ruined my new flats (I know, I shouldn't wear flats in the snow. Stop yelling at me!), I forgot my wallet at home (and had to get my sick husband to drive to campus and bring it to me) and I am still here. In class. Blogging. That's almost the same as listening and learning. Right?

But none of that matters friends. Know why? KNOW WHY!?! Because tomorrow I will be hopping on a big, steel bird and flying out to sunny California. Because - have you SEEN this commercial?

So. I'm going to california because David Beckham wants to play soccer with me.

In addition to the whole "David Beckham clearly wants me and is using soccer as a ruse" thing, I am going to visit one of my favorite people on the planet: Miss Catherine Herzog. She is so beautiful it's disgusting. I can barely like her because of it. Despite the nauseating attractiveness, however, I am going to go spend some time with her. I haven't seen her since Evie was born. I haven't told the story about how she was there for those first two weeks... but let's just say that I am beyond lucky to have her as a friend. Beyond. Lucky.

I also get to visit my niece: Sophalinaloafa. That is the name on her birth certificate. At least her birth certificate that exists inside my head.

All this to say that there probably won't be much posting this weekend... but I will catch everyone up when I get back with a post that will inevitably start "HA HA, SUCKAS, I wore hawaiian shirts all weekend while you were all stuck in the cold... with runny noses!"

Tomorrow I'll post about how I have an EIGHT MONTH OLD. And, while we are on the subject: WHAT THA WHAT?!?

The Club I Least Wanted to be Part of

This past Sunday we loaded up the Scobey Clan and spent the day at Carla's for a family portrait mega event with all of the other peeps from the studio. It was so much fun. And Evie, in typical Evie fashion, was a trooooo-per. She was incredibly patient and smiley. Especially considering that she only took a 20 minute nap the entire, 6 hour day.

I guess that shouldn't really surprise me. She is a really happy, good-natured baby. But this one time, when Evie was about 12 weeks, I drank caffeine and by the time it got to Evie it had apparently morphed into rocket fuel and she was all schooooooooom, kazoooooooommmmm, wablammmmmoooooo for the next 12 hours.

I spent the majority of that day crying. It was enough to scar me for life.

It is also the reason I am still a little shocked when Evie is her typical, awesome self.

At the end of the day we all sat down and watched a slide-show of the images: they were unreal. It got me all jazzed up and made me want to take more pictures.

So on Tuesday I got Evie all dressed up, put her in a little tutu, and we had a little mini portrait sesh of our own.

Super cute, yeah? Mommy-daughter bonding time, right? Except that exactly .45 seconds after this photo was taken I look down at my camera to check my exposure and Evie rolls off the chair. Does a full 360 degree flip in the air. Lands smack on her big 90th-percentile-head. On the hardwood. And starts screaming.

Yeah. I am officially one of those moms who drops their children on those-things-that-HOUSE-THEIR-BRAINS.

I felt/feel awful about it. Like, seriously terrible. So much so that even after Evie had stopped crying I kept the good ole' Tear Train going for a solid hour.

If life were a video game I would have had little "Mom-guilt + 2,000" signs popping out of my head for the next four days. My mom assures me that every parent has accidently hurt their child in some way, but that doesn't really make me feel better about it.

What have you done that has caused the most self-inflicted-guilt?

Weekend Visitors

Ya'll (anytime I am around Wynnes, talking to Wynnes, or talking about Wynnes my Southern accent comes out like hillbillies at a Stone Mountain laser show); ya'll, this past weekend one of my Dad's sisters and her Daughter, Haley (my Cousin, for those of you with no sense of deductive reasoning) came to visit us.

I have been going to Pickens, Mississippi (I bet ya'll didnt know that I was from a place called PICKENS. There is an actual story about how it got it's name: something about a man with no shirt on, picking his nose and falling off a bridge to his death. No lie. I am not making this up. This is what they told us as children. Right before handing us the keys to the riding lawnmowers so that we could pretend they were cars and the backyard was the grocery store -- in hindsight maybe not the safest practice ever -- but so much fun) anyways... I've been going to Pickens at least once a year since I was little, but since my life has gotten a little move-across-the-country-then-back-to-the-northern-most-tip-of-the-other-side-of-said-country-have-an-unexpected-baby-in-the-middle-of-a-research-heavy-graduate-program-support-husband-beginning-new-career busy, we have not been able to visit Pickens in a couple of years.

Ya'll, (see how I did that?) no trip that has ever been made by any human being in the history of the world has ever meant so much to me. It was Haley's first time on an airplane ever, and while I was a little bit sad that her premier trip on a big steel bird took her from one podunk town RIGHT to another, I had so much fun with her. I am in the process of staging a hostage-negotiation-scenario so that her parents will let her come back up in February for her birthday.

Here are some pictures of them loving on Miss Evie. Watching Angie with her was really emotional for me because it was exactly what I imagine it would have been like to watch my Grandma with her... Angie has every single one of her good qualities: her selflessness, tender heart, and steadfast values. And I just love her so much. And I love her daughter. And I loved watching her daughter with my daughter.

Please come back soon! (as if you have a choice... hostage. negotiation. remember?)

Happy Fall Ya'll

Now that we have gotten past the snow (oh yeah, uh huh, it SNOWS here in October...) the air is perfectly crisp and the leaves are perfectly vivid. Fall in New England is, by far, the only thing that redeems it from the harsh winters. It is beautiful; except that "beautiful" does not even begin to describe it.

Driving down the roads right now, you find yourself completely enveloped in what can only be described as the most awesome display of God's ability to paint.

So this past weekend we bundled up the little one, threw on our scarves and went for a hike.

She has really started to enjoy being put in a carrier. Thank GOD, because I was not too keen on living the rest of my life with my arms randomly falling out of their sockets in an effort to rebel against me for those three years that Evie would not let me put her down.

Add to that the fact that going on hikes is one of our favorite past times as a couple and, well, it's just really convenient that little bit likes it, too. I hope all of you out there in the blogosphere are enjoying the change of seasons as much as we are.

*pictures by the ever-talented Graham Scobey - my miniature beefcake of a man*

Full Moon...Full Weekend

This weekend has been great. Despite the fact that I have been a little bit cranky lately (read: pretty much a holy terror to be around) my sweet family has gone out of their way to take my mind off of the inescapable fact that I...am...still...pregnant.

Yesterday we spent the afternoon in Mystic (which is a small town, down by the coast, that has lots of cute shops) and then ate at S&P Oyster Company. It was soooo delicious. If you are ever in Connecticut give it a try.

Here we are doing a little bit of shopping...Graham has been so wonderful and patient with me this week. I can barely stand to be around myself lately, so I would not blame him if he hopped the next flight to Tahiti...but he is here...letting me cry/complain/turn up the air conditioning as high as it will possibly go...and loving me nonetheless.

Today Graham had his first soccer match for a recreational team that he just started playing on. There are few things more attractive to me than a guy in some sort of athletic uniform...so stick my husband in one and...well...I was pretty much drooling on the sidelines for a solid 90 minutes. I really encouraged him to join the team pretty much for that very reason. Don't tell him. He might feel objectified.

After the soccer game we went to the Coventry Farmer's Market. This is seriously my favorite place in all of New England...and I look forward to it every week. I lovingly refer to it as The Most Magical Place on Earth (please do not sue me, Disney...I am but a lowly blogger) and it is...it really is.

Here is Bear getting some time with his Pop...can you tell that they really don't like each other at all? Can someone please tell this dog that he is not a person...what kind of animal with any self respect sits like that!?

On another note...there is a full moon tonight so I am still holding out hope that tonight could be the night (yes, I know that it is already 10:00pm...but I am a desperate woman, people...I will take hope wherever I can, no matter how irrational)

Come ON crazy gravitational pull...work your MAGIC!

Mission: Nesting

I have been putting off my urges to work on Evelyn's room with the knowledge that I just had a few weeks left of class and teaching to get through before I could focus completely on getting ready for her. This has resulted in a very, very clean home (whenever I wanted to work on her room I ended up scrubbing floors instead). Well, this weekend the urges got the best of me. Phase one of nesting is complete! Her clothes are washed, her closet is organized, the walls are painted and her rug is down (thank you Lolly!).All of her newborn and 0-3 months outfits are hanging...the rest are organized in bins

I know this shouldn't come as a surprise to me...but this little girls is going to have way too many clothes!

We set up her bouncer and let Bear give it a test-drive...he was not thrilled

Here is her new rug...which will get turned the other direction once her furniture gets here (which should be THURSDAY!)

And a quick shot of her pink walls...we are so happy with how the color came out

It felt so so good to work on her nursery...I was in a wonderful mood all weekend. It probably did not hurt that it has been gorgeous here. Saturday and Sunday saw temperatures in the mid 80's...so we spent a lot of time on the yard. Sunday was my church shower. It was so humbling receiving gifts for our little girl from people whom we had not even met. We have been so so blessed here!

This was the delicious and gorgeous cupcake-cake

And little "E" sugar cookies

I will put more pictures up once we get her furniture set up and in the room...I would be willing to bet that the nursery will be baby-ready by the beginning of next week. Yay!

Stormy Saturday

Well it has been a good end to a crazy week. We had friends over for a Halloween party on Friday and had a blast. Then we cleaned, relaxed, and ran errands on Saturday. It had been threatening to storm all day long when, at around 3:30 (right when we got home, thankfully), it started to pour. Not only was it raining, but the wind was reaching 40 mph gusts...needless to say our potted plants were all toppled this morning. Then, at 4:00pm, our power went out and didn't come back on until around 7. This is one time that my love for candles has come in handy.

Today we are taking it slow yet again.

Weekends are the most wonderful time to recuperate.

Two weekends ago I went to Atlanta for my Papa's 65th birthday party. It was so wonderful to see all my family. Here are some overdue pictures from the fun-filled weekend.Just a quick update. More to come later.

Lazy, Rainy Saturdays

Well, due to hurricane-turned-tropical storm Hannah, we have had an extremely restful Saturday. For the first time in several weeks I got to sleep in past 8am...in fact, I didn't roll out of bed this morning until well past 10:00. We have been watching a lot of TV and playing video games all day long. I think that everybody needs days like this, even if they are few and far between. We all need to decompress...and we all have our own unique ways of doing so.

What does your perfect lazy, rainy Saturday look like?