Aah, the Mystery...

So I sat down earlier tonight ready to write all about how inspired I am feeling. There are so many amazing blogs out there that just make you want to create. I also went shopping at Anthropologie this afternoon. That store always makes me feel inspired in so many ways. But I was quickly interrupted by horrifying screams through the baby monitor. I rushed up to see what was wrong. Did she have a nightmare? Did she pull something on top of her? Did she lay on an appendage in some odd way? The answer, my friends, to all of these questions is no. She had what one can only describe as...the dreaded sleeping poop.

What is the dreaded sleeping poop you ask. Well, I will tell you but I can not explain how it happens. The dreaded sleeping poop is a phenomenon, a mystery, a subject I may ponder for the rest of my days. The dreaded sleeping poop is when a baby some how poops in her sleep and wakes herself up scared crapless (no pun intend). Harper does this from time to time and it always fascinates me. There are so many questions that surround this topic.

How does a person poop in their sleep? Do they push and not know it until it's to late or does the poop somehow know you are sleeping and just slip out on it's own? If you do push is that what wakes you up or is it the strange poop in your diaper that does the waking? How does your body know when you are too old to poop in your sleep? Are we all at risk of someday waking up to a sleeping poop? Could you imagine that? There you are snoozing away all cuddled up in your comfy bed. You are dreaming of some delicious meal you just had and how full and happy you are and then BOOM! There it is, like a nightmare, the...dreaded...sleeping...poop. Who will comfort you then? Certainly your mom won't be there to make sure you're cleaned up and rock you back to sleep like she did back when you were a baby and you use to always crap in your sleep. What will become of you then?

And so I bring my thoughts to a close for the night. Aah, the mystery. I hope I don't dream of food tonight.

I Heart My Husband & Friends

Today is my birthday...I am a glorious 33. Can someone please tell me how that happened? I'm just kidding, I actually have an idea about how that phenomenon came to pass. It has something to do with the birds and the bees and time moving forward...

Anyway, I realized last night (not for the first time) how lucky I am to have my husband and wonderful group of friends in my life. We had our closest friends over last night for Chinese takeout and it was great. I got some really beautiful flowers and balloons and funny cards. I got something else much bigger and much better though, I got to spend the evening with people that I love, admire, laugh with, cry with and just genuinely enjoy being around. These people make me a better person for knowing them. I feel so blessed to be all grown up and to have a husband that is my best best friend and to have such a close knit group of chums. This is the best birthday gift I could ever imagine. My husband in particular is a real gift. He is the most thoughtful, caring, sweet, funny, honest, charming, handsome man I have ever met. He makes me happy every single day. He always knows when I need him the most and he never lets me down. I can trust him with the most intimate parts of my soul and he cherishes that and keeps that part of me safe. I don't know what my life would be like without him. I just love him so much. I can't ever think of the words that do justice in describing my deep admiration, respect and love for him.

Thank you to all of you for your friendship. Brett, I love you with everything I am.

Moving on to my next order of business...I have received an award from one of the above mentioned chums and the person that inspired me to pick back up my blog in the first place...Annie from Two Up Two Down: This Girl's Journey from OK to VA. Thanks Annie you rock!

Rules do accompany this honor:

“These blogs are exceedingly charming. These kind bloggers aim to find and be friends. They are not interested in self-aggrandizement. Our hope is that when the ribbons of these prizes are cut, even more friendships are propagated. Please give more attention to these writers. Deliver this award to eight bloggers who must choose eight more and include this cleverly-written text into the body of their award.”

I will pass this award along with honor. Thanks again.

Why Do Boys Dress Like Girls?

Brett and I went to a fundraising event last night for Freedom House. Freedom House is a local organization that fights homelessness in the Richmond, Va. area. It was a really cool event at

The Canal Club. There is a group of bands from all over that are touring the country and donating all of the ticket sales to a local charity organization. The bands were good and it was very fun to be out on Monday night. I hope they made a nice little chunk of money.

Now to the point of this blog...why do boys dress like girls? I can't tell you a time where I have felt old, EVER, until last night. There we were hanging out and we were surrounded by younger people all dressed the same. It was a unisex crowd if you will. I was sure that there were more girls there then boys but I was very wrong. Every time I thought a girl was walking by it was in fact a boy. The skinny jean and very large flat bottom tennis shoe with a hoody. Now there is a look. How on earth do you even get those things on? No man should be able to get himself into something that tight. Especially if it is made with a denim material. All I can figure is possibly using Vaseline or baby powder. Maybe they even shave themselves smooth all over so they can wither around on the floor tugging and pulling till they have managed to get a teenage girl sized jean on. All of this leads to yet another question, at the end of the day when you are exhausted from standing around in your skinny jeans (there is no way they can possibly sit in these things) how do you get them off? Does it take more then one person to do this? The questions could go on and on. I haven't even gotten into the straightened hair or the confusion of gender in the bathroom.

I am girl who loves a mans man. I want my husband to look the part. I am not interested in sharing my clothes or products with him. This whole thing really throws me and so I must be getting old.

Perfect Example of Mind Wandering

As I mentioned in my previous blog the other night Harper stayed up and wailed off and on from 3:45 till about 6:00 in the morning. To keep myself awake while I was rocking her my mind started to wander about the "perfect home". I have figured it out...(imagine drum roll here)

a brand new house that looks like an old farm house

on a farm in the middle of the city

Voila! Why hasn't anyone thought of this before? Why haven't I thought of this before? It would be awesome. It would have all the charms of an older home minus the drafts and the squeaky floors and lack of storage space on any level. You would have tons of space outside for a great yard and garden and a few animals. Your family could enjoy all the things that come along with being able to immerse themselves in nature and being responsible for taking care of animals and the land. They would also have all the advantages of growing up around things that culture them and shape their minds and of course, shopping.

Now the real question is...Is this possible? Can you have the simple life and the on-the-go city life at once?

Obviously, I know that you can't have a farm in the middle of the city but wouldn't it be great to be able to have that kind of lifestyle. I guess it is possible if you can balance your life just right. That is one good thing about Richmond, you aren't too far away from open outdoor activities and the city is trying really hard to act like a city. This is something I am going to work a little harder on. I want my kids to enjoy the outdoors and appreciate how delicate our environment is but I also want them to go to plays and eat in restaurants where they can get more then a cheeseburger or chicken nuggets. I want them to go camping and grow a garden and learn how to be patient enough to catch a fish but to also shop in stores that are not owned by corporations but neighbors and to enjoy concerts and community events and see how many different kinds of people live all around them.

This will be an interesting journey for all of us. I'll let you know in about 20 years if it worked. Wish me luck!

Looky Looky

Well, well, well look what I came across. I can't believe after all of this time I came across my blog again! What a reunion... we laughed, we cried. It was beautiful. I missed you blog.

So much has happened since last we were together. Marriage is still two big thumbs up and the house is still coming together. Making a home takes time, you know. We have had a beautiful baby girl. She is a total blessing and we all love her very much. Georgie just said yesterday how happy he is and that he always wanted a sister. Last night when she screamed for 3 hours the jury was out for the rest of us but what can you do? Just kidding. The jury is never out.

Viva L'italia!

Here we are on our way to Italy! Wow, what a trip! We fit right in. I don't think anyone knew that we were tourists. We packed perfectly. Just as I suspected everyone had on safari clothes and cameras strapped across their bodies. Thank goodness I did some research on the country and their style before we went. There is nothing worse then sticking out.

Seriously, we did have an amazing time. Venice was our favorite followed closely by Tuscany then Rome, Florence and Sienna. The food was good and the beer was great. I have never had so many carbs in my life. The wine was amazing too. We brought some home with us and now feel like real adults because we have multiple bottles of wine in the house that we haven't drank yet. The people watching was awesome and all the old stuff was cool too. I particularly enjoyed the 566 pictures of Mary and the baby Jesus we saw over the 10 days we were there. There were quite a few pictures of him looking quite buff. I think they were trying to depict him in his weight lifting days. When he was first born he looked like this....

Just a few months later with a little hard work and a few protein shakes he looked like this but younger and more baby like...

Anyway, now we are home and have moved into our new house. There were no major catastrophes and nothing got broken. Someone, who will remain nameless, did do some rather stealthy drive by mattress droppings around town. If anyone is in need look around the Main Street area dumpsters. Ssshhh!

There has been some really exciting things happening lately. I would like to continue on about all of this but I have slipped into a food coma and am quickly loosing brain function and my sense of humor. In order to not loose any more I will call it a day. More details to come about nothing.

My First Blog Ever!

Hello! Greetings! Salutations!

Here we have my first blog ever. This should be interesting. It's 10 days before my wedding and all is good. Everything is pretty much done and now we are just waiting for the big event. I can only hope that we will be as happy as this couple....

After the wedding Brett and I will be heading to Italy so I will have more about that when we get home. We will be in Venice, Florence, Sienna and Rome. We went out and bought clothes with many functions to travel in so we can pack lightly. It makes me laugh because we don't want to look like tourist but I think we are going to look like we are heading out into the jungle. Maybe we should use fake Australian accents and wear binoculars around our necks. We could stand in large crowds and point at things and say, "Crikey!". That would be fun. We love you Steve!

No really we love you! Anyway, back to Italy. We are both really excited. We booked hotels a little off the most touristy areas so we could experience "the real" Italy. In Venice we are staying in the original ghetto! I'm going to bring my brass knuckles and mace so we should be good. I'll let you know how it goes when we return. I have been reading a lot on the inter web about what to do while we are there and how to take care of ourselves. On one sight it said if groups of dirty little children approach you and touch you it's alright to yell at them and push them away. That should be interesting. I think Brett has always wanted to push a kid around. Just kidding. Brett would never push a child. I think. No really he wouldn't. Me on the other hand, I don't know. I did make a joke about Steve Irwin. Well, I think on that mildly offensive note I will end My First Blog Ever! Maybe in the future I will write about things that are thought provoking and meaningful. Maybe not. It is a mystery to all of us.