lately

Things I’ve Been Doing Instead of Blogging:

1. All the Fall Things

Her little bow shadow? And the belly? TOO MUCH!

2. All the Boring Things, like work. And laundry. And dishes. And brushing teeth. Just kidding, that's not boring. It's alternately hilarious and torturous. You never know which it'll be, either, so it's an adventure every time!

During this particular episode, she used one hand to wave at herself in the mirror the entire time she brushed. Naturally she stopped as soon as I pulled the camera out.

3. Freaking out about the Big Gilmore News!!! And enjoying the camaraderie of freaking out with my friends and coworkers who are equally jazzed about this amazing development.

4. Planning for surgery next month.

Yep. Time for another exciting endo surgery!! That was the conclusion of my visit with the RE last week…sorry, nothing fun involving new babies or hopes of new babies. Just confirmation that my pain isn’t all in my head…I have some sizeable cysts and noteworthy endo growth, so in mid-November I’ll let him take it all out again. Womp womp. I’m not terribly nervous about surgery this go round, since I know more what to expect…but I do dread the long recovery and all the days I won’t be able to fully play with and hold Millie! I’m trying to focus on the positive, though- when it’s all done, I’ll have a lot less pain to deal with on a regular basis. And also, even though recovery will suck…think how much Netflix I can watch!! I’m currently accepting suggestions for shows to marathon during recovery. I’m presently leaning towards Friday Night Lights, but open to other ideas!

5. Fake shopping.

We’ve spent/are spending way too much money on medical bills this year for me to justify actually going shopping, so I just live vicariously through filling up shopping carts online and then closing the window without ordering. It’s fun. Kinda. Until I go to my closet to get dressed and I’m like “I should wear those black ankle boots--- oh yeah, I don’t actually own those. Dangit.”

6. Reading.

In addition to my book club book each month, I usually read about a book a week. Because ‘shopping’ at the library is free, haha. I’m currently working on The Royal We for book club this weekend and I looove it so far!! We wanted a lighter read, since last month we read Beyond Belief, which was a really heavy (and long. And repetitive.) look into a girl born into/leaving Scientology. I enjoyed it, but…yeah. It’s time for a fun book, and this one is definitely fitting the bill!

So that’s what I’ve been doing. The list of things I haven’t been doing lately is also really long, including such exciting things like cleaning my house, blogging (obvs), exercising, cooking (sorry, Matt), and doing basically anything during my free time that doesn’t involve my favorite girl. But oh well. I’ll clean the house when Millie’s 14 and too cool to hang out with her lame old mom. Although we all know that’ll never happen, because we are totally going to be Lorelai and Rory.  (Don’t you love how it all comes full circle? Millie. Gilmore Girls. Rinse and repeat.)

You will always be my favorite, Mommy! Unless you make me brush my teeth.

mountain life, take 2

We enjoyed our second annual "family retreat" in the mountains this past weekend. Basically that means we gather with all of Matt's siblings and their spouses and kids and cram ourselves into a super awesome cabin where we eat junk food and have fun all weekend. Calling it a retreat just makes it sound more legit.

Last year (and like, go look at the pictures of my TEENY TINY BABY and shed a few tears with me, will you?) we met up in Maggie Valley, NC. This year we trekked all the way to Boone...a much further drive (well, for the Athens crowd), but well worth it. We went a few weeks earlier, too, to hopefully catch 'peak leaf season' (which is A Thing), and that was DEFINITELY a good call. Oh, and we stayed an extra day longer. Also a really good call. So that's your basic recipe for a great family retreat, I guess. Go to an awesome mountain town during peak leaf season and don't scrimp on your cabin rental. Jacuzzis on the porch are not optional.

I'll let my (millions of) pictures do the rest of the talking.

I love watching Millie get to know our extended family!! She took a special liking to her Uncle Tom this weekend- sometimes she'd run up to him to pick her up and read her books even when Matt and I were in the room! That really made me smile.

The porch at this cabin (and really, we shouldn't be saying "cabin" here. It was waaaaay nicer than a cabin should be) seriously brought its A game. Saturday was pretty rainy and gross, but the porch (with hot tub; did I mention that?) was covered and had plenty of rocking chairs, swings, and blankets to keep us occupied and let us enjoy the (wet, fog-surrounded) leaves.

We didn't want to waste a day in Boone, though, so we headed to explore Linville Caverns- an "excellent rainy day activity," the webpage promised. 

The webpage didn't lie- we had a lot of fun! And so did the rest of the state of North Carolina. I'm pretty sure we were all there. But oh well. I've never been in a cavern/cave (is there a difference??) before, and I thought this was really interesting. And not scary- it wasn't the kind of thing where you're crawling through narrow holes. You remain fully upright at all times, and the majority of the tour is wheelchair accessible, if that tells you anything about how non-spelunkingish this tour was.

On Sunday the weather turned gorrrrrgeous and we headed out for a hike. Again...the rest of North Carolina the entire US population east of the Mississippi joined us. For real though. Leaf season enthusiasts don't mess around.

We borrowed a hiking backpack from my friend and Millie loved being able to see everything, pat Matt's head, and eat snacks/drink water as the Spirit led her. She was also (not surprisingly) the Rough Ridge Trail Sunshine Committee, waving and clapping for every single person we passed- which was somewhere in the ballpark of ten billion. She makes more friends during a two hour hike than I've made in my entire lifetime. 

I'm not much of a hiker, but I really enjoyed this one. It was muddy and crowded, but the leaves and views were just incredible...and also, happy Millie in a backpack. It really doesn't get much better. 

The following picture is too amazing to smoosh into a collage, so please sit down before you pass out over the cuteness.

Ugh. For real.

Sadly, like all good things, the weekend had to come to an end. I'm not a huge fan of car trips, but even I couldn't complain much about yesterday's.

A good book, a breathtaking view, and a happily sleeping baby? I'll take it.

But now we're home, and it's kind of a bummer. The best thing about today was this little nugget in her fuchsia overall dress thingy. 

And when she runs to me and hugs my legs while I'm just trying to get a decent picture?? Ummm it's like the best thing in the world. Decent pictures are overrated.

In addition to returning to Real Life today, I also made a return visit to a place I haven't been in awhile: the reproductive endocrinologists' clinic. Womp womp. I guess we'll chat more about that later, because for now, my BFFs Laurelei and Rory are calling me to come hang out, so I gotta jet. I'll just leave you with one last picture that didn't make it to a collage. I'll let you decide whether the most amazing thing about the shot is Millie's adorableness or the way that the backpack straps smoosh 'the girls' in a most attractive fashion- ha!

soggy weekend, crazy dreams.

It's been a relaxing and v.e.r.y. r.a.i.n.y. weekend. I can't really overstate how rainy it's been for the last two weeks or so. RAINY. Rainy. Rainy. Okay. Now that I've got that out of my system...I'm just thankful that I'm not an elementary teacher anymore, ha. The endless days of being stuck indoors are bad enough with just one easily-entertained one-year-old. God bless the teachers stuck with 22 four-year-olds. 

We spent Saturday watching our football team lose a much-anticipated game. The weather fit the mood. I was just thankful we were watching from the dry comfort of our house and not getting soaked to death at the stadium. 

We also had our wee one to keep us entertained and focused on the positive. She amused herself for basically the entire game by playing with the balloons we brought home from lunch at Chick-fil-a.

THESE BALLS FLY IN THE AIR BUT DON'T FLY AWAY?!?! What kind of witchcraft is this??!

 She's also still going strong with her enthusiastic clapping obsession, so she made sure to support the Dawgs whenever we did anything remotely good. Which wasn't often, but whatever.

Now we clap, Daddy. Stop being depressed. Show some support!

 Later that evening after dinner, Millie was still hanging out in her high chair and Matt and I stepped into the living room for two seconds to watch some replay or something. We came back to find this:

What? I heard one-shoulder shirts were in this year!

I'll just clap for myself and my amazing sense of fashion, then!

 This morning we woke up to the first non-rainy day in recent history. Before we headed out to church, we let Mills run around and enjoy being out of the house. It was incredibly windy, and that seemed to amuse her greatly!

We tried to take some pictures, but it was difficult (and hilarious) (and hideous) because the wind was so fierce. If you have bangs (or have kids with bangs)...you know the struggle. It's real. Also, the cat was running around at our feet, and what with 200 days of being indoors, Millie had evidently forgotten we even had a cat...she was REALLY EXCITED to discover Aidan!

These pictures all cracked me up, though, so I figured I'd share. We just can't get enough of this girl and her giggles!

This is totally her face most of the time. She's such a happy girl!!

DAT BELLY.

I die.

So anyway, what with all the rainy days and nights, I've been watching a lot more TV (well, Netflix) than usual. We made excellent use of her naptimes and post-bedtime hours all weekend and are nearly through Season 5 of Walking Dead. I also squeezed in a few eps of Gilmore Girls (late season 4) when I needed a little pick-me-up. This would not really be worth reporting EXCEPT that the odd combination of shows apparently mashed up in my brain and gave me a REALLY WEIRD dream last night.

I don't remember much of it, just the dilemma I was facing: both Luke and Rick were in love with me, and I was having to choose. LUKE?! or RICK!?!? Holy cow. The struggle was super real, yo. 

When I woke up this morning I told Matt, but before I even got to the part about Rick v. Luke, he was like "oh gosh, Stars Hollow would NOT make it during the zombie apocalypse." And like...yeah. Truer words have never been spoken. So now in addition to pondering my Luke/Rick decision (because that's important. I still haven't made a decision.), I'm also trying to imagine how the zombie apocalypse would go down in Stars Hollow. I've basically come to the conclusion that no one would survive, except maybe Kirk. And Emily. And possibly Miss Patty.

So in conclusion, if anyone wants to write some Gilmore Girls/Walking Dead fan fiction, I'm totally up for reading that. Also, feel free to weigh in on the Rick v. Luke decision, since that seems like something I'll definitely need to have an answer for in the near future. (Matt was like "where was I??"...I was like...uhh, not there. I guess the zombies got you. Or Rick got rid of you so he could move in on me. Anyway, not relevant. Let's not make this decision harder than it already is.) 

these glory days

Ummm…yeah, another week just went by. Sheesh. Remember when I used to blog five days a week? Ahhhh. The glory days. For blog-writing-frequency, anyway. Not actually for like life. The glory days for that are now.

September just trucked right along and now it’s basically gone. It’s fall and there’s football and pumpkin-flavored-everything (recent fave: these English muffins. Totally legit way to start your day!) and it’s finally cooled down enough that I don’t sweat through my clothes every minute of the day. In fact, it’s been raining and/or cloudy every day for pretty much the last week or two…and it’s pretty glorious. We can’t get outside much, but we’re pretty good at entertaining ourselves indoors. Or rather, Millie’s pretty good at entertaining us.

I will scream like a banshee if you put a wipe anywhere near my snotty nose or my bottom, but it's hilarious when I put them on my head!!!!!

Help, my mommy dresses me up like a basic white girl!!! I literally can't even!!!

Her current favorite pastimes include:

1. Playing her instruments (FUTURE BAND GEEK FO SHO)

Sorry, I'm busy working on my first concerto. Don't nobody need to see the keys to compose.

Then again, it would be a shame to waste my amazing maraca skills. What's the job market like for professional maraca players?

Buttttt...I'm also really great at tambourine-ing. Pantsless. Every band needs a pantsless tambourineist, right?

But if I focus on playing cymbals, I can be in the marching band!!! OH THE DECISIONS!!!

 2. Kissing and being kissed by Lola. Lawd have mercy, I feel like I’m chaperoning a middle school dance with those two…Millie, you don’t need to be THAT CLOSE to Lola…Lola!!! Get your tongue out of Millie’s mouth!! Millie!! Stop encouraging her to stick her tongue in your mouth!!! Actually, forget middle school dance. This is straight up high school marching band away game bus ride material. ;)

But I just love her so much...I will love her forever!

3. Bringing Mommy and Daddy book after book after book to read to her. I’m telling ya. Having a bookworm baby is more exhausting than I’d anticipated! When do they learn to read quietly to themselves, again?? ;) Kidding, of course. I love almost every minute of reading to her. I’m going to love ALL the minutes as soon as I get done hiding the books I don’t like/am most sick of reading…

Do you see my Mommy's exhausted face and insane hair? That's what happens after 382 consecutive hours of reading me my stories. Another thing that happens is the stories get shorter every time. It seems like the pages of the books get stuck together. I will need to work on that...

Sometimes I am nice and I let her go get a sip of water. I look at books by myself during that eleven seconds. AND THEN I PUT HER BACK TO WORK!!!!!

I'm serious, though. Little Bit gets more and more personality every day. It's like she gets a fresh impartation each night as she rests. Right now she's also the one-man sunshine committee wherever she goes. Grocery store, walking in the neighborhood, church, Target, restaurant- doesn't matter where. Millie's busy smiling and waving at every single person (and most of the inanimate objects) she sees. If you make even a halfhearted attempt at smiling or waving back to her, she will reward you with a second round of even bigger, more enthusiastic waves and smiles, probably accompanied by some clapping and maybe even dancing. She's big fun for everyone. It's the best thing ever. (Until some strange lady- clearly enamored by my daughter and probably under the influence of something other than just Millie's smiles- PICKS HER UP in the store!!!! When she saw my horrified face (and my snatching Millie away), she was like "oh, can I hold your baby?"...and I was like....NOOOO??? Ahhhhh. Anyway, it was horrifying, but luckily the lady took no for an answer. And the younger woman she was shopping with was like "MOM, you can't do that!! That's so weird!!!"...so at least Matt and I weren't the only ones who thought that was totally not okay.) (The bottom line is: if you encounter a joyful, happy, waving, laughing baby in a public place, the appropriate response is to wave and smile back, maybe say hi and comment on how cute the baby is to the parents. DON'T JUST PICK HER UP.)

Pick up pumpkins! Not babies that aren't yours!

P.S. That pumpkin is foam and weighs about half a pound. Millie loves carrying/throwing it around. We think she's going to be super confused when we go to the pumpkin patch and she expects to be able to throw around the pumpkins there...ha!

We're looking forward to October: we have a fun weekend trip to the mountains planned, as well as other stereotypical fall things (pumpkin patch, costume parties) to look forward to. Our football team is doing well this year. It's just a really great season. :)

In case you were wondering...yes, I still like to eat.

But sometimes my long days of being Suzy Sunshine catch up to me and I just....can't...make...it...zzzzzz

I hope you have a wonderful week! I'm off to continue trekking through Season 5 of Walking Dead (which just came out on Netflix...and since it's been about a year since I last watched it, it's taking me a little while to get back into it and remember what's going on...and also remember how to not throw up the whole time I'm watching it. Ick). Good night!