The special mascara...

I haven't worn it since August 20, 2011...the day we got married.  It is of course waterproof.  I anticipated that I could possibly be a blubbering mess on my wedding day.  Instead, happiness took over, and I think the only tear that fell was one dramatic one down one cheek (great effect!).  But I was prepared just in case!

Yesterday as I got up and got ready for our ultrasound for the baby I was a bit nervous.  We hadn't had one yet so all we had heard up until yesterday was that lub-dub of the baby heartbeat.  I was anxious to see that little face and all the pieces and parts...and to know if we were having a little boy Bean or a little girl Bean.  I put on minimal make-up (per usual) and then thought..."hmmm, I know I have waterproof mascara somewhere!"  Good call, Momma!

Let me just say, technology though it has its downfalls (i.e. everyone staring at the phone in their hand and not the person they are with) can be AMAZING!  The first glimpse of that little bundle in my tummy made my heart soar.

The technician was quick and thorough and also warm...perfect combo for this sort of thing especially for first-time parents!  When she said, "Looks like you are having a little girl!" my eyes got all watery.  Thank God for that mascara!  And thank Covergirl or Maybelline or whoever made it too.  

As Cooper held my hand, we both just stared in amazement as our little girl scooted around on the screen.  She was all over the place (as much as one can be in a confined space).  The technician even called her a "little stinker" because she was trying to get a good picture of one of the chambers of the heart and baby was doing somersaults and making it tough.  But eventually she got what she was looking for, and she told us that everything looks really good.  :)  Hooray and hallelujah!  And now Cooper knows I'm not lying when I say she is moving all over the place in there. :)

We feel so happy and blessed to be the parents of this tiny gift and can't wait for what is to come!  In this picture, she almost looks like she has little hooves.  But it's an illusion, Michael! (for those Arrested Development fans out there...).  

We love you, baby girl!  Can't wait to meet you...but we will.  You stay cooking in there and keep on growing!  She is 10 oz. already (ahead of what my apps say).  Overachiever already.  

Here we are, the proud parents.  It was an amazing day.  And I know we have many more ahead of us.  

Last night we celebrated with a family bbq and had a great time.  Thanks for sharing in our joy, family! :)

Back around the time of our first appointment (10 weeks, I think), C went to the park with the dogs and one of our friends.  As the boys ran around, a balloon coasted over towards them.  It had no string attached and there was no one around.  He brought it home to me and it said...

And it is now displayed proudly on our fridge with the rest of the pictures from yesterday.  Now it's time to decide on what colors to go with for our already green nursery!  Fun fun.  We love you, baby! (I'm assuming my baby can read as it is my child and I was an obsessed reader).

"Today was the WORST DAY EVER! My life is over!"--jr. high Molly

I have said it many times: I am SO incredibly glad that facebook was not around when I was in junior high and high school.  That time of life is so difficult.  I was part of a trifecta in jr. high.  I had two best friends.  Oh man, that is tough.  We would go back and forth asking each other who was the #1 best friend.  Ha.  It seemed to change daily, and there were many tears and hurt feelings during those days.  Thankfully those girls are my life-long friends, and I love them both dearly.  We made it through and none of us care anymore who is #1!~ :)

Then there are love relationships.  Being in a small Christian school it seemed like everyone knew everyone's business (or at least they thought they did....;)) and that would have only been compounded if we had had access to facebook!  I read my old journals every time I move and am highly entertained by the drama they contain.  But those are just for me, and no one else is fully privy to my immature outlook on life and what I deemed to be "important."

My jr. high and high school problems make me laugh now.  Will I look at earth with that same viewpoint when I finally get to talk to God face-to-face?  I thought of that the other day.  The drama, the questions I had, all the "problems" of this life...will they even seem important when I am a fully mature Christian able to talk to Him?  I think not.  Perspectives shift as we get older.  We realize that friendships are amazing, but that being someone's #1 doesn't matter as much as knowing that when you need to talk to somebody that person will be there for you.  Your boyfriend letting another girl wear his jacket doesn't ruin your day (oh many a day of mine was ruined by that...haha).  There are many things that I don't understand about this world.  The "whys" can overwhelm a person....but my perspective is shifting.  I'm leaving behind my jr. high mentality and letting (ha) God take over.  Oh wait, that's not my job and I have no control...right, I forgot.

It is refreshing to know that we don't have to have all the answers.  It is enough to know that God IS the answer.

Paw print autographs available upon request...

This is just a preview but I do have to say that I am so impressed by Arthur's skills.  I randomly submitted him and Moses to an online contest for our local free events paper which is called The Source Weekly.  A month later I got an email saying they were picked for a photo shoot to be in the issue!

They did great at the shoot--only took the guy 20 minutes to get about 100 pictures of them being silly and adorably boxer-like.  :)  I emailed my contact to find out when the issue comes out, and she told me that our "old guy" was picked to be a half page ad for the upcoming Best Of issue.  We were crazy dog parents and looked for it at multiple places before we found the issue and man, I just have to say that this dog rules.  He sat on that big red pillow on his own and crossed his paws.  Such a natural.  Ha!  Toddlers and Tiaras, here we come (kidding).

A new role

Mommy!

This is the role I feel like God made me for.  Seriously.  I mean, I figure since the majority of my post-college life has included watching and caring for and loving other people's children, it only makes sense that now it is my turn to watch and care for and love my own little human!

If you had asked me in college, I probably would have said I would be married by 25 and have multiple babies by now.  But that's just not how things went.  And honestly, I am so glad to have had those growing years on my own figuring out who I am and the world around me...and being (mostly) patient until I met Cooper in 2008.  <3

My grandma Gerty loved being a mom and a grandma.  My mom loved being a mom and now loves being a grandma.  I come by this deep desire within myself quite honestly.  It is such a blessing to be here now on the cusp of motherhood.

We found out on Memorial Day that I was pregnant.  The funny part is that even though I've wanted this for as long as I can remember, I still showed Cooper the pregnancy test and then said the only thing that came to mind..."yikes."  Ha.  Something about the reality of a tiny baby growing inside of me made everything feel very real very fast.  We headed off to a bbq with this little secret (which didn't stay a secret very long since a friend who knew we were headed to baby-dom asked me "are you pregnant yet?" and my face proclaimed the answer loudly to her even without saying a word). :)  But she kept the secret for us.

I have been feeling great and am already almost to the second trimester.  Hearing the heartbeat was one of the best experiences in my life.  It is nice to feel like you are not just chubby but that there is an actual little person in there. ;)

We are super excited about this new chapter.  I'm trying to prepare our furry creatures for their new tiny playmate slowly. :)  We are working with Moses on being aware of his paws a little more.  Baby steps.

For now, we are calling the baby Bean and are greatly looking forward to finding out if we will be having a boy or a girl.  Here is the announcement my uber-talented guy made for us to share our news.



And if I'd had more time or energy, I'd always hoped to re-create this amazing commercial from oh so long ago to announce my pregnancy.  Anyone else remember it?  KT and I still know all the words.  It is so awful and entertaining. :)

All things bright and beautiful

Oh the love of a dog.  There are those who love lizards.  And those who are "cat people."  Some people feel most alive when they are around horses (sidenote: watch the documentary "Buck" if you get the chance--inspiring and well-done).  Back to my point, I am a dog person.  I like cats.  I talk to any animal I see practically thinking I can become its friend.  But at the heart of it all, I love my dog.  And other dogs.  Little furry creatures that wag their tails.  Love them.

In California, C and I talked about getting another dog to keep Arthur company and to love on.  We even went to a shelter there.  Unfortunately, the dog we had our hearts set on was not a good match for Art.  I blame part of this on the environment in which the dogs met (picture: metal fencing, dirt, bad smells).  It felt like a prison yard, and both dogs acted like it was in fact a prison yard.  So we put a new doggie out of our minds for a bit when that didn't work out.

When we moved to Bend, we started talking about it again.  A little time had passed, we felt situated in our new house and area, and it seemed like the right time.  We visited the Humane Society one Friday evening and immediately put our names down for a sweet girl we met there.  That didn't work out either.  Someone else had their name down and had 24 hours to decide...and they decided she would complete their family.  Great news for them, slightly sad news for us.

But I know this all happened because we were meant to have a certain animal come into our lives.  In February, we started looking for a boxer online.  Arthur has been amazing, and I know the breed pretty well from hanging with my brindle buddy for the last 8 years.  There was a rescue...but it was 5 hours north in WA.  I of course wanted about 10 of their boxers when I started looking at the pictures, but we settled on a younger guy that the head of the rescue thought would work well for us.  At the time, his name was Harley...and these are a couple of pictures we saw of him on their site.





We made sure that we would not be making a 5 hour drive one-way to find out he wasn't a good match with Arthur (and they assured us he was mellow and sweet).  So we did it!  We drove the 5 hours to Ellensburg, WA and met our new buddy.  He was and is adorable.  The drive home I sat in the back with both dogs and cuddled with my new furry friend.

I knew I would like having two dogs, but really I had no idea how much I would like it.  We changed his name because it just didn't seem to fit him and because he was only 10 months old we knew with a little repetition he'd be just fine adjusting.  To be honest, he didn't really respond to his given name anyway.  Ha.  It felt a bit like naming a baby.  I have a thing for old man names when it comes to dogs. Obviously with Arthur, his name is just perfect for his personality.  We must have listed off 30 old man names and couldn't really agree on anything that fit our new guy until the morning after we got him.  We were on our first family walk and Cooper said, "What about Moses?"  PERFECT!  It fits him so well, he reminds me of a mellow old dude and it goes well with Arthur.

I am so happy that we rescued a boxer and have grown so attached to this guy in such a short time.  We got him February 22nd and yet it feels like he has always been with us.  Here are our fellows (who are great pals now...Art took a day or so to really love on Moses, but since then it's been no turning back).  I think his main issue was just jealousy since he'd been the only doggie we focused on for so long.  But I knew he would love him quickly and I was right!!  Life with two dogs is indeed bright and beautiful.


One of the only times Moses was naughty...he's really been a good boy for being less than a year when we got him.  This cracked us up though.  He was being told "no" and just rolled over to look cute. :)

 At the top of Pilot Butte after our hike with our buddies Joe and Jen who were in town from the bay area.  Gorgeous day, and the dogs did great!

 Arthur has a method for getting the tennis ball back from Moses.  He sits on him.  We have video of him doing this about 5 times within a minute.  It is hilarious to watch.  And it usually works.  Eventually Moses spits out the tennis ball. :)

We love our guys, and we love our life!  The rescue calls boxers "wiggle butts" and it is truly accurate. Their little faces are so expressive and because they lack more than a nubbin' of a tail their whole back half wiggles when they see us.  Unconditional love wrapped up in jowels,  nubbins and faces I just can't resist.  :)

In honor of Nettie

Today the verdict came in. GUILTY.

Waves of relief flooded over people in the courtroom and all over a collective sigh happened I'm sure as the news spread. I was not there. I'm in Oregon, thousands of miles away. But I still feel connected to the family, to Nettie's friends. There has been such a united front of support this entire time, and it is a blessing from above.

It is not a happy time. It is not something anyone should have to experience. It is not something anyone should be prepared for because it is a terrible, horrible thing.

I have found myself looking inward lately. Wondering why I feel so strongly about this. I hadn't seen Nettie in a decade at least. The reason I have stumbled upon is this: Nettie was a good person. I said it in my previous blog about her. Everyone liked her. That is why it rocked us to the core to see someone like that taken from us. It makes no sense. And it will never make sense as it was wrong and evil to take her from this life.

I am happy to know that the family can start down the road to closure. They will ALWAYS miss Nettie because she was the kind of person that you miss (I typed "is" first...strange how the mind does that). The important thing now is that they continue to feel loved and supported, and I have no doubt that they will. I'm proud to be a part of a community who has rallied around in prayer and love for the Petersons. I am thankful that the trial has concluded in this way. And I am proud to say that Nettie was my friend.

Words, words, words

Everywhere I look there are words. Every t-shirt in the stores seems to say something. Anyone tried to buy baby clothes lately? "Daddy's little princess" and "Mommy's little slugger" dominate. But it is getting more and more difficult to find something that is just a classic outfit without it saying something.

The same goes for artwork. We are so into words. It is interesting to me that this trend comes at a time when it seems like people are reading less and using incorrect English more. Words are abbreviated for the sake of speed. "Totes" is no longer considered to be a couple of small bags you might take on a trip. "Amazeballs" makes sense to people, and it is not even a word. (Yes I realize this is not in fact a shortened word, it is just made up and proves the point for me anyway).

I'm challenging myself to read more in the coming months. It calms my mind. It makes me smarter (well, depending on the book...the Brontes will always help me learn new words!). And if I'm going to buy a piece of artwork that says "All because two people fell in love..." (which I'm not, ever) I should at least also open up a book and be inspired by words there.