{ Pumpkin Patch }

Last weekend, we went to a pumpkin patch.

Turns out that not only was it Lainie's first time, but Mike's and mine as well. Work has been demanding a lot of Mike's time recently, so it felt deliciously indulgent to be going somewhere together, as a family, during daylight hours, just for fun. Lainie was obviously bewildered by her parents' seemingly crazy and out-of-character decision to wander aimlessly around a muddy field full of funny-shaped giant orange balls. She was more interested in chewing on the tab of her new {hand-me-down} jacket than perusing the pumpkins.

In spite of the cloud cover, it was a delicious afternoon, with gorgeous trees, enormous pumpkins, and plenty of very excited little people.

 

 

 

:: obligatory family selfie to commemorate first baby's first time at a pumpkin patch ::

 

Once we left the pumpkins and walked by the cornfield, however, Lainie was on! She was determined to find her way through the corn maze all by her little self.

 

 

...Until, of course, she fell down in the mud approximately five steps in.

On the way home--after coffee and pastries to warm up--I was craving homemade macaroni and cheese, so we swung by the store to get what we needed. Mike and Lainie watched an episode of Baby Einstein and munched on goldfish crackers while I made the mac and cheese. {I'm not sure who made out best with that deal: Lainie got uninterrupted Daddy time and a movie; Daddy got to snuggle with his girlie, and I got to make a meal without fourteen dozen interruptions!} 

 

One more to close...just because they are so.darn.cute.

 

{ Right Now: In My Head }

I'm not sure if life is really busier, or more overwhelming, or more stressful, or crazier than usual, or if it's just the combination of pregnancy = almost always feeling tired, being type A, having an undecorated house, and being an introvert thrust into a season of meeting new people and forging new relationships...but a lot of the time lately I certainly feel busier, overwhelmed, stressed, and a little crazy!

It's been just over a month since we moved, and while all the boxes are unpacked, the "new home" feel lingers as we tweak furniture placement and realize just how childproofed our condo really was, simply due to its small size. I'm still figuring out which grocery stores are closest, where the nearest parks and ATMs are and which freeway exits and entrances work best for going different places. While I long for all of this to feel comfortable and familiar and like home, it's also exciting. The newness. I think, if I were not simultaneously a) parenting a toddler, and b) nearing the third trimester, I would be reveling in this newness--it feels kind of like playing house when I was a kid, just after my Dad finished building our treehouse, or when my cousin and I finally finished the playhouse I grandly determined to build in the pasture behind the garden. It is fun and exciting. However, taking naps, and having at least one room that actually feels finished, and a meal plan that is realistic and doable with a curious toddler--these are also on my list of "fun and exciting things." You can see my dilemma, I hope.

I am trying to savor these days, hard as that sometimes is, because I know that in addition to hard they are also fleeting and sweet and oh-so-brief. Right now is when I can rock Lainie to sleep and read her endless books and work life around her nap schedule...because she's my only baby. She only gets to be "the baby" for a few more months, and then she's the big sister. These are precious, precious days of just her and me. Right now I hold Jellybean safe and secure in my belly all day, feeling his thumps and stretching exercises and getting much longer stretches of sleep at night than I will after he's born. Right now may involve cooking dinner with an adventurous almost-16-month-old, but at least I don't have to juggle a newborn too. Right now is freedom to nap whenever Lainie does. Right now is dreaming and planning about paint colors and kitchen remodeling with Mike. Right now may be harder than a couple months ago, but it's also super sweet mixed in with all the change and newness and exhaustion.

One of our favorite features in our new home is the enormous fireplace. It has the biggest firebox I've ever seen, and opens on both sides. {I'm also in love with the painted white brick, but Mike thinks it is a horrifying travesty and wants to un-paint it. I am therefore grateful that altering the fireplace surround, as a purely cosmetic undertaking, is pretty far down our to-do list! I'm curious, though: What do you y'all think about painted brick? Is it a yea or nay here?} I keep finding myself surprised that there is no hearth; we had a large hearth on our tiny fireplace at the condo, and I'm used to decorating it. Here, there are just two small nooks fairly high up on each side...nothing under the fireplace. Last Friday my parents were in town for a brief visit, and I took advantage of a few spare minutes to thread some leaves Lainie and I picked up at a park and make a couple garlands. They are already curling up quite a bit as they dry, but I really like the simple, striking touch of autumn they bring indoors.

 

Here's the "living room" side...No, I am not at all sure that a zebra print rug is right for this spot, or that it will stay, but it works for now!...

 

...and here is the "other" side. Sort of dining room, sort of not--currently nearly empty.

 

That's all for now, though maybe someday soon I'll download the last month's worth of photos off my camera and give you a peek into Lainie's world. Because that's pretty much all I take pictures of! ;-P

{ Taking a Breath }

We've been in our new house--this is the ninth day, I think?--and I am just now sitting on the couch {still un-slipcovered because a. Mike just found the second half of the slipcover in a box in his office last night, and b. Lainie is still terrified of the vacuum but I MUST VACUUM THE COUCH BEFORE I PUT THE SLIPCOVER ON, and I can't bring myself to vacuum during a nap and possibly wake her--do you see my predicament?!} with my feet on the coffee table {much too small for our new living room, but at least Mike put felt pads on the feet to protect the newly refinished hardwood floors} and feeling like maybe...just maybe...we will someday get this chaos under control. We've never moved an entire household before. I can hear some of you guffawing: How can they possibly count an 842 square foot condo as a legitimate "household"? That's 1/3 the size of many family homes these days! Nonetheless, when we got married 4+ years ago, each of us literally had a bedroom's worth of possessions, nothing more. Well, I also had a couch that a roommate gave me. But seriously. Four years + a toddler = way more stuff to sort through, pack, unpack, and put away. I don't even know how it's mostly done already, with all the Lainie-entertaining and feeding and we-must-go-to-a-park-NOW-or-I-will-lose-my-mind moments I've had.

But. Here we are. Lainie is napping, and I probably should be too. I've been more exhausted than I can even tell you, staying up way too late unpacking and then getting up at 7:00 {or 6:45, depending on the day} with my cuddly little alarm clock and furiously cleaning and organizing during her naps. It's not the greatest life plan for 22 weeks pregnant, I'll tell you that!

Please tell me I'm not the only OCD person who goes around wiping grime {perhaps imaginary--I am pregnant} off all the doors and light switches after moving. Or that I'm not the only person who has lived in a previously vacant house for over a week, with large swathes of multi-colored mold growing in both toilets, before cleaning the bathrooms. Or that we won't get a foot fungus from a week of showering in a bathtub whose state of cleanliness prior to yesterday is unknown.

Have I mentioned that there are no overhead lights in the living room, and for the life of me I cannot find the harp for our main lamp?! There's the lamp base, the lightbulb, the shade...and no harp. At this point I think there is only one box in our entire house that hasn't been opened on a quest for that harp, and I am about to go batty with that one bare lightbulb illuminating the living room. Oh, and all our lightbulbs have apparently decided to die--I keep frantically switching bulbs from less-important to more-important lamps, chiding myself for letting our stash run out and yet forgetting to buy more when I'm at the store.

Have I also mentioned how much I love my new washer and dryer? And my new fridge, which inconveniently doesn't fit in the kitchen {hint: don't let a pregnant woman measure the dimensions of the spot for a fridge!}. Or how much I want to join Lainie in Zzzzz-land.

That's her I hear waking up, so I've got to run for now. xo

{ Five Minute Friday: Mercy }

The thing about mercy is--I often don't know what it looks like. I know what I think it should be.

Certainly not closing on "our" house two days after we're supposed to move.

Certainly not staying at the house of dear friends {who are out of town and have offered their home to us} if we actually don't have a house to move into when we need to move out of our condo.

Certainly not emptying and cleaning our little nest for the renters who are moving in next week, while not knowing where we will live.

Yet I know all these things are mercies.

I don't know why things are appear to be working out so that our timing is just off enough that we may be semi-homeless for a few days. I don't know why it's taken so long for all this real estate/financing stuff to happen, why there have been unexpected curveballs thrown our way at the last minute and why we are questioning Should we even buy this house???

I do know that Jesus knows why all these things have happened and are happening. He alone sees all our lives, the beautiful tapestry that is all our stories being woven together, one day at a time. By His mercy, I am resting in His mercy that undergirds all the unknowns and seeming wrenches that have been thrown in our path. I know that this all works together for His glory and our good.

It's just that our good--and His glory--is turning out to look different than I expected. And that's okay, because I don't know the whole story. Only He can see how everything--everything--unfolds.

{ What's Been Going On }

Sorry for the silence lately, folks. There's been a lot going on, but there has been so much unpredictability regarding the main "thing" that I've been hesitant to mention it. We're buying a house. After--how long? at least 1.5 years--of looking around, putting offers on multiple houses, and nothing panning out, we found a house that we both really like, it's sort of in our price range, and our offer was accepted! {Cue the hysterical happy dance.} We first saw the house in mid-July, the weekend before Amaryah's wedding, if I remember correctly. "If I remember correctly" is a big "if," however, as being 19 weeks pregnant + chasing a newly-walking toddler around + packing + trying to squeeze daily life in between piles and piles of boxes in 847 square feet while keeping said toddler from seriously injuring herself on all these fun new "toys" is a wonderful memory-loss combination when you are already suffering from pregnancy brain.

There have been so many obstacles in this process...I will write about them someday, because it is an amazing testimony of God's grace and faithfulness. But I also want to get this published before Little Miss wakes up from her nap. :-) We are hoping to close next Wednesday, though until we sign the closing documents there is always the possibility that something will come up and the mortgage will fall through. We are moving next Saturday...either into the house, or in with Mike's parents {and renting a storage unit for our stuff} until we can find an apartment to rent that is close to Mike's work. Why move if you don't have a house to move into, you ask? Because, in order to qualify for this mortgage, we had to get renters for our condo. And since we have tenants moving in a few days after we move--wherever we move to--we most definitely have to move.

In a nutshell, that's what we've been up to, and why I've been a bit quiet lately. We only got boxes and started packing on Monday; before that we weren't confident enough about the whole process to start packing. While the thought of packing all our earthly possessions in less than two weeks {while keeping Lainie entertained and all of us fed} is daunting, it hasn't been as bad as I expected. We have never had to pack and move an entire household before--when we got married we each had only a bedroom's worth of possessions. Our small space and my purging tendencies have kept us from accumulating much, but I am nevertheless astonished at how much we have. I am so glad that we haven't been able to spread out over a larger home; I firmly believe that your possessions expand to fill the space you have. Which is why I'm also excited about "our" house--while it has four bedrooms and great living spaces, it's only 1460 square feet. So we can't acquire too much junk...right?

And now I'm going to continue stepping out in faith that the mortgage will go through and we will have a house to move into next weekend, and pack some more boxes!

{ Slices of Summer, Part II }

:: Family date after church ~ ferry ride to Kingston ::

:: Fascinated by the wake ::

:: She ALWAYS gets this distracted by airplanes--she loves 'em! ::

 

~*~*~

:: A recent date night {date date night} included a trip to Fainting Goat Gelato ::

:: Mike had mango habanero and raspberry, I had lemon grisbi and honey lavender ~ so delicious! ::

 

~*~*~

 

:: Baby loves milkshakes, too ::

 

~*~*~

:: Who knew this face happens when you put her in a leotard with rhinestones and a tulle skirt? ::

:: Or this pose... ::

:: Or that our little photoshoot would end in such sorrow! ::

 

~*~*~

 

:: Saturday stroll with Daddy ::

:: "I heard a boat! Or an airplane! OVER THERE!" ::

 

Summer's not over yet, but this post is plenty long!

{ Swimmin' }

This kid...she loves the water.

 

We have access to three pools at our condo complex, but we had never ever dipped so much as a toe in any of them--until this summer. Auntie Amaryah gave Lainie the cutest {ohmygosh it is SO CUTE} bathing suit for her birthday, and I bought her a little kiddie float thingamajig, and one day I took her to the closest pool.

 

She wasn't scared, even a little bit.  We've become regular visitors, us two lily-white girls both with cute little poochy tummies, and sometimes we even drag Daddy {or Grandma, when she was visiting for Amaryah's wedding} to the pool with us.

 

 

:: DO YOU SEE WHAT I MEAN ABOUT THE CUTE SUIT ::

 

 

:: Sometimes...you just need to take a rest. ::

 

:: with Grandma ::

 

It's amazing to me how much Lainie enjoys being in the water. I'm a doggie-paddler, not a swimmer...so it's safe to say Lainie got this trait from her daddy. ;-) She's happy to hang out in her float, or in my arms. She loves to chase her ball around, but most of all she likes to watch other kids in the pool. Sometimes when I'm holding her, she stretches out on her tummy and kicks her legs. And after awhile, she points to the steps and we get out and walk back to our chair and she eats snacks and then she usually wants to walk around and explore for awhile...and then of course, it's time to get back in the water. I didn't realize how much of a water baby she is until I saw other babies her age who don't like being in the pool at all.

 

But don't you worry, Aunt Amaryah. That bathing suit is getting lots of use.

{ Snippets from our Washington coast vacation ~ June }

:: the view from the deck of our rental house ::

:: another view from the deck ::

:: Seabrook, two miles from where we stayed ::

:: "family portrait" ::

:: Mr. and I spent hours reading on the deck...amazing ::

{ Katie + Morgan's Visit }

Katie and I became friends through blogging. Katie was a "bloggy friend" of my real-life friend Chelle, which is how I came across her blog. We met in real life three years ago at Seabrook {you can read about it here and here}, and I think she may have been the first Aussie I ever met! Since Seabrook, Katie has married her sweetheart Morgan, and this summer they are making their way across the USA on a delicious, once-in-a-lifetime trip visiting friends and family. They spent two nights with us in between a week in Spokane, Washington and a week in Charleston, South Carolina, and we had such a delightful time! Katie and Morgan were so gracious with our cramped accommodations, sleeping on an air mattress that pretty much took up our entire living room floor! I'd never met Morgan, and Mike hadn't met either of them, but we really enjoyed the time we got to spend together. Maybe someday we will be able to visit them in Australia...wouldn't that be sweet!

Their visit was brief, and peppered with the early mornings and long naps of a little girl who loves her sleep. Nevertheless, we got to show them around our neck of the woods, as well as a bit of downtown Seattle.

 

:: at the beach near our house ::

 

 

:: Katie + Morgan ::

 

We did have one very unfortunate incident when we went to a local brew pub/restaurant for dinner: They refused to let K + M order drinks without their passports as additional identification. Apparently Australian drivers' licenses are not enough proof that they are of legal age {which happens to be 18 in Australia, anyway!}.

 

On Sunday the grandparents watched Lainie and we went to downtown Seattle. I took almost no photos {which I could say about nearly everything we've done over the last year. If it's not Lainie being cute, apparently I am unable to muster the strength to get out the camera.}. We had lunch in an open-air Bolivian café in Pike's Place Market, meandered through the market, and visited Anthropologie. Katie and I really love that store...Mike and Morgan hid and amused themselves while we browsed.

 

We rode the Great Wheel on the Seattle waterfront--first time for all of us. The views are breathtaking!

 

:: Looking toward West Seattle ::

 

On Monday, the Aussies toured the Boeing factory while I took Lainie for her one-year checkup and shots. Then we all went to the Flying Heritage Collection, which has some amazing, fully restored WWI and WWII aircraft and tanks. Two different airplanes are the only surviving ones of their specific make known to exist.

 

At this point, my camera battery died. Just imagine lots of laughter; both real and impersonated Aussie accents; and a bittersweet farewell at the airport.

 

Our house still seems so quiet--we had a great time with you two!