In the blink of an eye...

Because there aren't many people I can text and say, "I just found a huge chunk of french bread in Harper's crib" and they'll think it's as funny as I do (see? you probably aren't laughing.. I am. Whatev.) then top me with an equally strange story of their child peeing on the vacuum cleaner, I'm glad there is Tiffany.  We've been friends since 6th grade and went to high school and college together.

 ...and when I found out she was having a baby just three weeks after me, relief flooded. Because it's hard being a trailblazing young mom and our husbands don't really want to get texts about nail polish colors.

We'll be a hard act to follow, but I've got to think that Harper and Danica will be as cool as Tiff and I were in middle school:

 This is from 8th grade, b/c we agreed that the 6th grade pics were way too heinous to go posting willy-nilly on the Internet.

Over Thanksgiving, two old friends got together and so did two new friends:

L: Danica, R: Harper 

 

 

 

Harper creeping on Danica's Puffs

Next year, the group will be even bigger (Tiff is due in January) ..and hopefully Harper will take a lesson from Danica and be more willing to participate in the group picture:

Possibly Unpopular Opinion of the Week

Stick families on the back of vehicles...?  Please choose to brag about your cohesive family unit in ways that don't endanger your children.  Go to Olan Mills and get it out of your system.

Like a ton of bricks.

A few months ago, my Mom dragged the parts of a solid pine table from her attic, and with a feat of strength one wouldn't think possible, she hoisted it into the back of her somewhat-aged SUV and drove it to Maryland. 

B/c we needed something sturdy.  A table that wouldn't groan and sway under the weight of a beautiful granite slab and one that was tall enough and big enough for Harper to safely play under.

After I cussed it out of her car and into our house, it sat.  It sat for three months, until a few mornings ago, fueled by too much coffee and a toddler eager to be entertained by something new, I decided that I had put it off long enough.

"We" flipped it over and began to assemble the necessary parts.  As I finished tightening the screws on the first leg, it hit me: That my dad made this table and the very nuts and bolts that Harper sat "organizing" were the ones that he used, too. 

I was way too young to remember, or he may have even built it before I was born, but I can picture the scene almost exactly.. the shop, the flannel shirt, saw horses, colorful rhetoric. . . usually with himself.  Whatever he may have been thinking when he crafted and assembled this solid piece of our family, I bet he never imagined this scene:

Smells like nostalgia.

I'm one of those people who associates their life with objects, smells, sounds and tastes.  ..In that, some things transport me back in time faster than you can say flux capacitor.

I love unwrapping Christmas ornaments every year. A million things remind me of the time before I was married, but when I unwrap our ornaments, I get to relive the story of the last 5 years.  Pictures say it better than words, so:



This actually looked a little like us. I think of our wedding day and how it poured rain for an hour and then magically let up as we climbed in the limo to go to the church. It reminds me of Brandon at the end of the aisle and how my dress was so tight that I couldn't even eat at the reception.  It reminds me of the party after the reception and how my whole family was there and everyone was happy and healthy and drunk and I couldn't imagine life getting any better and then realizing that we were leaving the next day for a long honeymoon and that it would get even better.






This was actually the first ornament I bought. Brandon worked long hours in med school and in a town where I knew practically no one, I was usually left to my own devices. I bought it because it reminded me of North Carolina and everything I missed so terribly back home. Now it reminds me of how brave I was.



This reminds me of Brandon's first day of his first surgery rotation in medical school.  I dropped him off that morning before I went to work and I've never seen him so nervous.  After 10 years together, that's saying something.  I'd like to say that it was a kickass day for him, but he broke the surgical field with his forehead and got yelled at.





This is a mini pizza box that I may or may not have paid for at Uno. We ate there all the time in Milwaukee.  It reminds me of cold, snowy nights in Brandon's huge truck.  After dinner, we'd ride around just because we could.

This is from 2007, our second year married and second year in Milwaukee.  I loved my job, I loved my friends, I was comfortable and absolutely dreaded the thought of leaving the next year. Mom bought us this, and it seems random, but Hallmark calls it "Toast for Two." ..Which is what we were and I loved being "two."



A loaned executive gave this to me at the conclusion of the 2007 United Way Community Campaign.  When I see it, I think of Annette, Ritu, Dianne and Haya. They worked my Business Partners Central accounts during the campaign.  It reminds me how awesome it felt to be good at my job.

This is an earring I wore when we had a costume party at our house about three or four weeks after we moved to Maryland.  I lost the other earring that night. I look at it and mostly just remember the hangover, so I'm glad we took pictures of flip cup, a pirate with a parrot on his shoulder, a viking who repeatedly flexed his muscles and a snake charmer. The hangover was worth it, because now that everyone is settled or married or bechilded, we still talk about that night.



Harper was 6 months old for her first Christmas.  She liked watch us play Wii in the basement, she liked sweet potatoes, prunes, one-piece outfits, her glow worm and being bounced to sleep.  She sat on the couch and watched me string lights on the tree and I remember telling her how different it would be next year (this year). ..and it's better than I could have ever imagined.



This is a lobster buoy we bought in Maine, this summer.  We were lucky enough to spend 6 wonderful weeks there while Brandon took an Ophthalmology course at Colby College.  It's the most beautiful place I've ever seen. We visited Acadia National Park, trekked to the big city of Bangor to meet up with our long lost friends Paul and Kelley and took several trips to Freeport, where we bought this for 50 cents.








Girl, do us all a favor and have a piece of pumpkin pie.

I frequent a website that showcases the latest in fashion and where similar items may be purchased more cheaply and I happened upon the obviously strikingly beautiful model, pictured below.

I stared and stared at this photo, thinking it must be photoshopped because her head is nearly as wide as her body and I wondered if she's healthy.  On this, the eve of a day of thanks, pilgrims, indians and tryptophan, I have to wonder if she would have survived a trip to the 'new world' and subsequent harsh winters. Would those legs really even hold her up in a strong wind?



I swear, I've never been a hater of the skinny. I earnestly strategize about how to make it through the holidays without gaining any weight because the average woman packs on 7 to 8 lbs between Thanksgiving and Christmas. I figure if I don't gain any, I'm ahead of the curve muffin top. I also purchased a fantastic piece of shapewear today, but that's neither here nor there.

I've always rolled my eyes when the fashion industry is criticized for its glamorization of thin women. Skinny is a job requirement and if people don't like it, they don't have to buy the clothes.

But...then I had a baby girl. When I look at her, I don't just see my cherubic 17 month old.  I see her future.  ...her first day of kindgergarten, her first date, her first broken heart, college graduation, jobs, Brandon walking her down the aisle, my grandchildren...

When I look at current advertisements, I hope I'm not seeing a future of unhealthy expectations.

150 Friends on the Wall

Robin Dunbar, a professor at Oxford University, has studied societies - monkeys, too - throughout history and determined that people are incapable of maintaining contact and interacting with more than 150 people at a time.

How many 'Facebook friends' do you have? How many do you talk to?

He defines interacting as communicating at least once per year and, pretty much, you know how you met them and if they know any of your other friends.  After 150, the group begins to splinter.  Within "Dunbar's Number" of 150, the average person has 4 or 5 friends whom they frequently lean on for support.  Although he determined the number 20 years ago, recent research suggests that it holds true today and even applies to social networking.

My number of 'friends' teeters somewhere around 420. ..I hardly ever think to look, but when I happen upon it, it's always a different number.. and not necessarily higher. For a microsecond, I wonder if I've made someone mad by saying their necklace looks like a butt ...or if someone loosed the shackles that is the News Feed by deactivating their account.  Since I have too many to know who did it, or care, I buy what Dunbar is selling.

Unsettling tidbit: YOUR Dunbar's Number can be as high as 230 and as low as 100. It all depends on the size of your brain. ..which makes me too nervous to go counting and tallying, so enjoy.

Possibly Unpopular Opinion of the Week

Big box jewelry store commercials make me so uncomfortable that sometimes I have to look away. Their voices are at least an octave lower than they should be and really, Kay Jewelers and Jane Seymour? Am I the only one who recognizes that the Open Heart collection strikingly resembles the outline of someone's backside? All the sultry voiceovers in the world won't make me wear a butt around my neck.