Merry & Bright

Christmas has come and gone. There's nothing more sad when Christmas is over and all the decorations are put away, all the goodies have been eaten and the new gifts and toys have found their rightful spot in the house...seems so complete and final. Ahh, such is life and the season. In all, our Christmas season was just perfect. We enjoyed every minute of it...our first one as parents. Nothing was more "merrier" than Christmas Eve night when Daniel and I suddenly realized that we needed to be "Santa"...put out all the gifts under the tree and fill Maryn's stocking! SO FUN!
Maryn enjoyed her first Christmas and loved all the attention and gifts! She gave the first gift...since she is too little to earn allowance and shop for her parents on her own, she decided to gift us instead with sleeping in until 8:30AM! Oh Man...we had no idea what to do with ourselves that late in the morning....coffee and muffins were definitely in order. She opened the gifts and played mostly with the paper and boxes. Later, after her morning nap, we headed over to my in-law's house for more gifts and my Mother In Law's traditional Italian Christmas lunch.

We had so many events and memories that filled up our Christmas season this year...here are just a few pics taken this past month. Next festivity: Maryn's 1st Birthday!

Daniel and Maryn excited to pick out a Christmas tree!

Maryn & Mommy Christmas tree shopping!

Maryn seeing the Christmas tree decorated for the first time the next morning!

Our new family tradition--going to see the live nativity at the Billy Graham Library.

Maryn's stocking with her new doggie bath towel sticking out.

Maryn Christmas morning at my in-law's house.


Christmas Card pic 2011!

Maryn Tadala 11 months!

My favorite picture of my favorite people!

The Sushi Roll

So, I'm behind in my posts...typical to this blog.

I was so excited for M's first Halloween...I think mainly because it was the "firsts" of the holidays for this part of the year. (Though I wouldn't really consider it a holiday...more of just a fun day!) I had been planning her little outfit for months now as I saw the idea on Pinterest (aka my addiction...my friends all blame me for the time they consume on it..sorry, but if I am going down, I'm bringing friends down with me..ha).

SO...here is our little sushi roll on her first Halloween. Daniel and I LOVE sushi. Hate to say it but I had to have it while pregnant. No worries, I didn't go overboard or go nuts on the raw fish part. I was careful. But we ate it in South Africa as soon as we could after our year stint in Malawi! YUM! So the costume was a must for our house.

Yes, she is wearing a headband with pink and green...her "ginger" and "wasabi"!

Behind again

Oh, man, I am behind again! The month of October kicked my tail. We have pics of Maryn's first halloween outfit, a trip to VA, a trip to the NC mountains and other new things that M's into now. Time is flying...pics and posts to come soon!

Pumpkin Patch: Round 2

We headed off to another pumpkin patch near town the other day with the Mom's group that I lead for church (Momtourage is the name--isn't that so cute? I didn't come up with it...so no credit goes to me. We alternate locations around town each week. It is so refreshing to hang out with other moms and kids and, for me, it is great to have a place once a week to ask for advice on all things baby.)

So our Momtourage group met at the pumpkin patch this past week. This was a new pumpkin patch that I had never been to before and we loved it. Maryn loved seeing and petting a horse for the first time and watching the three little piglets in the pig pen root around for acorns. She also loved the hayride, holding her pumpkin and hanging out with big girl McKenna...though not sure by the pic if McKenna was too impressed with Maryn. ha ha. A good time was had by all!

Wordless Wednesday

Over a Year

Just finished writing a blog post for my church, Watershed. It hasn't been put up yet...but I'll let you know when it does. Thought I would post it here first.
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It has been over a year since our return from Malawi, Africa back to the Queen City.* A year! A year since I have seen the dozens of Malawian faces that I had come to admire, love on, laugh with, cry for and miss now.
During my time in Malawi, the third poorest country "Hope for AIDS" project, which meant that I was to take care of all the financials for the orphan daycare centers and secondary school scholarships, along with the AIDS peer prevention groups, and AIDS home-based care groups. Each of these areas worked out in the villages where resources both medically, financially, and educationally were limited, to say the least. After a few months in I realized the 360 degrees I had taken from sitting in Watershed’s transit service to sitting in a small, hot office in Malawi…that I literally was watching Watershed’s resources go through my hands to help fed the poor, give vitamins to the malnourished, give hope through school fees paid for secondary students, and give children, whose parents were HIV/AIDS victims, an education that they probably wouldn’t have had otherwise.
My first trip out of the city where we lived was to the small village of Phingo where we had an orphan daycare center that Watershed supports. Phingo was amazing! Not only did I realize how extremely necessary it was to have a little Chichewa under my belt, but I also didn't realize how my heart would overflow with immense feelings of pure LIFE. In a way it was a surprising feeling. It seemed to me that poverty and death, being so blatant and unmistakable as it was, would bring feelings of hopelessness and despair. However, what I found in Phingo was completely opposite! The children, with their tattered shirts and dresses, sores on the faces, and ringworm on their scalp and arms, crowded around me singing their worship songs at the top of their lungs, jumping up and down and clapping their hands to the beat. I just stood there laughing with them and tried to join them in their singing. I could feel my heart start to take over…it was like my soul just burst open with these new feelings of love, compassion, mercy, and happiness to see their smiling faces and hear their voices worshiping to God. I could only think of the time that Jesus called the children to come to Him and as they did He reminded the disciples that the Kingdom of Heaven belonged to those who were like the children—fearless in their faith and love!
I also accompanied the coordinator to pay the secondary school fees for the 25 students that Watershed supports in that area. Literally it took an hour one-way off the main road, up the mountain and alongside the river to reach one school....and there was 4 different secondary schools to pay fees in this region. To say that secondary education is highly valued here is almost an understatement...it is life-altering!
The eternal perspective of these situations is not difficult to see and understand. These children and students are FOREVER transformed because of Watershed's investment into their lives. It was truly humbling for me to be able to witness these things first-handed. To be on both sides of these stories—the side in the US where the Watershed community is giving of their resources weekly and the side in Malawi where Watershed’s monthly support literally went through my hands to fed these children and pay for their school fees. Justice, mercy and God’s love is bringing LIFE to hundreds in Malawi because of the resources given by our Watershed community. Thanks, Watershed! *Jamie, along with her husband, Daniel, and the George's lived for a year in Malawi, Africa from 2009-2010.

Welcome to October

It's October, Everyone! Yay! Nothing regenerates me more than the change of season. I welcome it with open arms...especially when my arms are wrapped up in layered tee's.

We celebrated October 1 by a trip out to the USNWC (U.S. National Whitewater Center). Yep, Charlotte is home to the first and only whitewater center, where the US Olympic teams practice/try out for anything related to whitewater rafting/kayaking. Just another reason to LOVE Charlotte, NC. Not only does the USNWC have rapids for whitewater, kayaking, flat-board and other things, it also hosts zip lines, canopy tours and other group exercises. It really is such a fun place to spend a Saturday afternoon. Our favorite thing to do is just to go and people watch those in the rafts going around the man-made rapid course and have lunch at the yummy restaurant overlooking the rapids (always comes back to food for me!).

It was the first time for us to take Maryn out there...she LOVED watching the water and the people in the rafts race past her. And they happened to have a Grand Pyrenee Rescue meet up on Saturday, so she got her doggie fix in too with lots of them look at.

Maryn watching the rafters go by!
Speaking of our little pipsqueak; Maryn celebrated her 9 MONTH birthday on Sunday! She really is getting to be so fun and such a happy girl. The last couple of weeks she has graduated up to a big girl carseat (still facing backwards), waving bye-bye, clapping her hands (and attempting to do her best at singing while clapping--BE STILL MY HEART), pretty much crawling (though not officially, but she is mobile and fast), and has finally done away with her 3rd nap. She is such our big girl and can't wait to see her VA cousins next month.
Here is the first attempt at a family photo--not the best but you can see the rafts behind us!

Here I Am Again..

Here I am again...behind in my blogging! Tonight I have a few hours to myself to catch up on things while Daniel is at an Equitas board meeting and sweet M is sleeping and I have nothing pressing to do (ok, there is laundry to switch over and a weekend trip to pack for...oh well.)
I thought first I would tell you that last night I was in Target making a quick run in for baby oatmeal, milk, coffee creamer and a few minutes to myself to wander the aisles and get lost in the new Missoni for Target line. While I was standing there daydreaming and studying the various kinds of coffee creamer (hello, my new fav Coffemate Natural!) this dude walked behind me and said in a low voice, "hello beautiful". He didn't stop, he just kept walking...and I didn't acknowledge it but just continued to stare at the creamer container in my hand. At first I was stunned, like, "did he just say that to me or someone else?". Then I was appalled, like, "how dare he say that to me...who does he think he is to say something under his breath like that and in that way...disgusting!". Then I was totally laughing to myself, like, "This guy OBVIOUSLY is just learning English and probably is practicing it on women in Target." He OBVIOUSLY doesn't know the meaning of beautiful...I mean, BEAUTIFUL?? Beautiful would NOT be the word to describe this MOM on a rainy day like yesterday. I am sure I had baby snot smeared across my shirt SOMEWHERE as my baby is on her fiftieth cold in 5 weeks! And I am pretty sure my hair was on day #2 and pulled back in a short little ponytail...as is my normal, rainy day, no-plans-to-leave-the-house look. It was pretty funny!

In other news: We have just been busy here wrapping up the summer and heading into the Fall. I'm preparing for my Bradley Method training at the beginning of November. Yep, I'm getting certified to be a Bradley Method teacher! I hope to officially start teaching classes here in Charlotte in January. Teaching the Bradley Method and all things having to do with natural childbirth has become my new-found passion. Don't get me wrong, I'm not some new-age birthing hero...I just really have a deep desire to empower women, teach them about their bodies and how God created their bodies not only for pregnancy but this the beautiful and memorable event of childbirth! I'm so excited about it all.
Daniel has been so busy in launching NPower's spin-off business called "Volunteer Connect". The board finally approved the launch and approved Daniel as the sole leader for the business. It is exciting stuff and he had his first big sale to a regional Habitat for Humanity. To explain a little, Daniel is a senior IT consultant for NPower Charlotte region and Volunteer Connect, his new baby, is a volunteer management system directed towards non-profits. It is all pretty cool stuff.
AND our sweet M is doing awesome these days. She has ALWAYS been so sweet...but it seems that lately she has matured and has gotten even sweeter! She still has NO teeth and will probably be crawling any day now. She continues to learn new things and loves her mommy and daddy more than anything. Here is a recent pic of her practicing her belly moves!

On a Lighter Note...

Ok...let's just admit that the baby-kissing actually takes up about 90% of my time...this scale is not exact! :)

A Loss

Maryn in her Ivy's diaper!

I can't even express to you how the loss of Garrett and Rosie has impacted my heart and mind over the last 2 weeks. Just incredibly sad...and I didn't even know Garrett but for the one time she was in my living room and the hand-full of times I chatted briefly with her either standing out on my driveway or via email. I feel like I have been in one of those "praying-without-ceasing" times for her husband, Mike, and 3-year old daughter, Ivy.

See last year when still pregnant I expressed to my mom that I wanted to do cloth diapers for environmental and money-saving reasons. My mom decided to gift me initially with 8 weeks of a local cloth diaper service just as her mom did for her back in the day. The 8 weeks has now turned into...5 months and counting! Ivy's Diaper Service is the ONLY cloth diaper service in Charlotte...you would think there would be more. Garrett started this awesome, green biz a few years back. She visits each new customer and walks them through all the ins and outs of her cloth diapers, even providing dolls to practice on. Actually, Garrett was not only the owner of the company, but the sole worker...washing and delivering all her diapers each week to the hundred or so customers that she had.

It was a Thursday morning, I put out my bag of dirty diapers that morning knowing that Garrett (aka the diaper fairy) would be by to exchange my dirties for cleans any minute. She did. Later that day I saw on Ivy's Facebook page that Garrett (9 months pregnant) was in a terrible accident and whoever posted the status asked for prayers. I prayed. Saturday I checked back into the Ivy's Diaper facebook page and read that Garrett and Rosie (their daughter) had passed.

Rosie was delivered via C-section after the accident and survived a day later, but died in her daddy's arms. She wasn't able to survive due to the lack of oxygen she had at the time of the accident. Garrett only survived 10 hours after the accident...never waking up but stayed long enough for her family to reach her and say goodbye. A dump truck had crossed the yellow line and hit Garrett head on...a tragic and terrible moment.

What a tragedy...a loss...an emptiness for Mike and Ivy (their 3 year old). My heart continues to break for them both. Garrett was a mom to the many babies she diapered each week! Thank you, Garrett, for your amazing business and love for all things baby!

Another Before & After

Today's debute....the desk nook!

When we were planning our small, urban house redo last summer I started to wonder where I could fit a desk and a little space for myself. I had an idea to turn our coat closet into a desk nook. First, let me say that it was my idea, but it was my husband's complete DIY project (as was our kitchen---totally Daniel's doing!)

Here is the before pic---ICK, that paint job was by our renters! That half-wall was ripped out too...and the carpet and the paint was redone...wow, do I love before pics!

During construction. The closet was opened up all the way...width and height.


After! My desk nook. Daniel made the shelves and desk himself.

I love the fact that he drilled a circle in the back of my desk to run cords through...makes it a lot cleaner!

Family tradition. Years ago when my parents were having their babies, my grandmother would have these blue and white tiles made for each birth. Now my stepmom has them made. They are delft tiles from Holland, MI. Google if you are interested. They make great gifts. Sidenote: Yes, Maryn was born in Ft. Mill, SC (20 mins away) as she was delivered by midwife at a birth center...which is illegal in NC. (more on that later-another post for another time!)
Favorite verse. Daniel gave this to me for Christmas...ordered from www.redletterwords.com
Thanks for looking at my desk nook. I love it---I love displaying my cookbooks, my collection of things, having a place to sit and work on the computer and, most of all, I love having this as something that is seen when people walk in the front door rather than a plain ole' coat closet.

In the kitchen...

I'm not sure how many of you out there are actually reading this blog, but if you are and if you have been reading it for sometime you may remember that Daniel and I moved back from a year in Malawi, Africa this past summer (2010). When we moved back we moved into a house that we had owned for a number of years but always rented out. It is basically in Uptown Charlotte area..with an awesome view of the Bank of America skyscraper and other buildings and close to NC Music Factory (awesome in the summertime, free concerts on our front porch). Anyway, we love our urban life here in Charlotte. Maybe someday we will trade it in for a bigger house and more land, but for now we feel very much a calling from God to live out a missional life in our neighborhood and city...loving the poor and the disenfranchised around us. (another post for another day...promise).

So with urban living comes small spaces. As mentioned, Daniel and I rented out this small, 3 bedroom house as it was when we bought it...so when we came home last summer we knew we had our work cut out for us. Hardwood floors, new ceiling, painting, knocking down walls, putting up walls, new bathrooms, and re-doing our kitchen. WARNING: the following pictures could be harmful to your healthy...beware of shock! :)

Before pictures. Our renters painted the kitchen a BRIGHT yellow....and those cabinets, ICK. and the old floor. Oh MY!

DEMOLISHING and construction of Ikea cabinets.



AFTER: All cabinets from Ikea (put together by my awesome husband and our friend, Zach. Oven and overhead microwave from Lowes, dishwasher and fridge from local Habitat ReStore, countertops are from a local wholesaler (they are actually laminate but have a beveled edge and a marble design--we didn't want to put marble in such a small kitchen that we may not be in forever and maybe one day knock a wall out and redo again for more space). Curtains I made myself...a faux roman shade!



I LOVE Ikea cabinets for all their space-saver designs! We totally needed it for this blocked-in kitchen. I took down most of the above cabinets because I didn't want to feel so closed in. I really love the open shelving that is so popular now days, so maybe we will do that at some point. But I am loving all the organization and space-saving ideas that Ikea has for kitchens. My favorite is the lazy-Susan type cabinet that we have in both corners--it turns and pulls out to use ALL the space in the corner cabinets...oh, Ikea, you never cease to amaze me. Thankfully, our local Ikea is only 10 minutes away. YAY!


And, I am loving my new faux roman shades! I just finished this the other day. I've been dying to use this fabric somewhere...I love it! Since we live in the city we couldn't get away with just a valance or a cafe curtain, we still needed full window coverage from the street. So I hemmed my curtains and used a backing fabric and actually adhered the fabric to the already-there blinds, taking out the blinds that I didn't want to create the roman shade folds. I still need to tweak a few things--let's face it, I'm no seamstress, but I am pretty impressed that I actually made curtains that are functional! Never did that before.

nice--you can see our garbage cans on the sidewalk outside...ha, just keeping it real here, guys!
Thanks fo going down memory lane with me and viewing our before/after small, urban kitchen! We still have to do a few more things...aka light fixture, but we love it so far!

Chalk it up to Pinterest

Have I mentioned how obsessed I am with Pinterest.com? Maybe I haven't mentioned it on my blog but I have on facebook. Seriously...I was laughing how M has been sleeping through the night the last couple of months and you would think that I would head to bed early myself, but Pinterest it's been my new late night hobby! ha ha.

Anyway...I blame Pinterest on my latest attack of projects around here. I seriously have had 4-5 different projects going on at one time.

SO...here is Project #1. Mirror turned chalkboard. I have this small little wall that is a load-bearing wall (a la can't-be-torn-down-wall) and had an old phone jack sticking out of it (hello 1990's) that I wanted to cover up. I could have put a photo or another decor of some type but I decided to make this chalkboard for something a little different.

M and I visited one of our fav places around here..the Habitat for Humanity ReStore (we're lucky enough to have 2 in Charlotte). We found this old oak mirror for $10. I snatched it up, took it home, cleaned it up and spray painted the trim white. I should have taken the mirror out but it was kinda of a pain as had an old-school encasing around the back that I didn't feel like messing with. After a day to let it dry I painted the mirror with chalkboard paint. Not going to lie I did need to touch up the white where i bumped it with black but it wasn't a problem.

Before:

After: Our first message was for my mom and stepdad who were visiting us this past weekend.

Baby Blues

M has a little boy friend arriving in November! Three of our good friends are expecting...yay for more baby friends. One of our friends had a "gender reveal" party the other night. They had a few people over to their house on the day of their ultrasound. She made blue cupcakes. On her and her husband's cue we dove in for a cupcake, peeling back the wrapper and rejoiced with them on the little BOY on the way! YAY!

Speaking of babies, my little baby is now 6 months. 6 MONTHS! That is half a year. I took her to her 6 month checkup yesterday...M is 90% in height, so maybe she will be a tall one? I hate going these wellness checkups all for the reason that I know the shots are coming. She doesn't know...but I do. I just want to cry each and everytime. Thankfully she only did two shots yesterday (Hib and DTap round 2).
Here are a few this week.

To sew, or not to sew

I just got my kitchen fabric delivered this morning. Yes, I am one of those that ordered fabric online...I know, living on the edge right? There is a HUGE fabric store near Charlotte that I like too (Mary Jo's for the seriously interested) but with a baby who still naps every 2-2.5 hours it is difficult to make it there during the week. So online ordering it is!

Anyway, I already knew that I loved Amy Butler fabric and was dying to have an excuse to buy this pattern that I have fallen in love with since I was fabric shopping for the nursery curtains last fall. So I ripped open the package today eager to see my fabric and was a little taken back by how lime colored it was. I had to leave it in the kitchen, walk away and walk back in several times to get used to the idea. I toyed with sending it back (love Fabric.com's return policy!) but I decided I am going to keep it! What do you all think?

So I am going to attempt to make some Roman Shades out of it. The only thing is that we have old windows and nothing can be nailed/screwed into the inside window frame itself (BOO!!!) so I am afraid the roman shade might look a little funny on the outside of the actual window...so stay tuned. If I do the roman shade I think I found a tutorial online that I won't have to use a sewing machine for (double yay!).
Stay tuned...

Picture of the Week

I can't believe that I am posting AGAIN this week. I think I'm making a new personal blogging record here.

BUT you all have to see this picture. It is the "picture of the week" around our house.

I mean, seriously! Daniel and M were inside watching me spray-paint my little project this week. M loved watching me and was laughing hysterically and then D put her a little too close to the sliding glass door and this is what she did. We all then burst into laughter...she is becoming our little ham!

Seeing Red

My blog has been so consumed with all things baby the last 6 months, that I am just now feeling like I am able to catch up on it and post about other things that are, well, not so baby-ish. Where I do feel like my days do revolve around naps (3 still a day) and feedings...it seems that we have eased into life a bit more. I probably said the same thing when M was 3 months old, but each month it seems easier and easier.

So, this post is two-fold. First to show that I actually do have other things going on in life than just baby feedings and baby naps. And, secondly, to update you on our house projects. Don't worry, I don't have any intentions on turning this into a DIY blog...though I do love some DIY projects and reading DIY/design blogs! (rabbit trail: have you ever played on www.pinterest.com ? OH MY GOSH, I could waste some time on that site searching for things...LOVE IT!)

I think I have mentioned in the past that we live in Uptown Charlotte...very urban. We love it. We bought this house right before we were married and up until last summer had it rented out. We had quite the project to come home to when we arrived Stateside last summer from Malawi. (wood floors, whole new kitchen, tile in the bathrooms, paint, ceiling re-do, addition built). It was fun and stressful at the same time. Since we have been able to sleep a little more these days, we have updated our project list and are having fun dreaming, planning and attacking the list together.

Here's just a small project that I finished last week before we left for vaca. The previous owners left these old-school benches on the front porch. We were going to toss them (like we would, they weigh a ton each) and get new porch furniture but decided to keep them and save our pennies for new furniture for our side-porch add on (further down our project list). So I decided to update the benches and spray them red. Sidenote: make sure you remove running shoes when spray-painting otherwise you end up with pink socks! I love how they turned out...and plan to make a few outside pillows to add to it. We spend lots of time out on the porch with Maryn...watching people and checking out our view. I think even a small table with a lantern on it would be nice too!