hi and hello.

I was thinking of something clever earlier and I've forgotten it. sorry.

I'm in that place again. It may be that I consumed too much salt this weekend and the sight of my bloated face in a bunch of snapshots taken by my daughter have gotten me down but whatever it is..just feeling a bit bristly.

I love the word Autumn but feel a bit pretentious saying it? Whatever you call it, Fall has me so charmed this year. I told Beebs we've just got to soak up the sunshine every single day because Winter is coming.

Feeling short on close friends and money.
Nothin' much to say here but actually quite a lot?

Omaha Again.

When Beebs was not quite 6 months old we went on a little trip to Omaha for our anniversary. She was a peach and it was so fun. One of my fondest memories of the trip is us being able to nestle in with her in a king size bed and having so much room to nurse and sleep and all of us spread out instead of in the full size bed we had at home. Ha. It doesn't take much. We also hit up the zoo then and it was such a lovely day. The weather was amazing, the crowds were not bad at all.

Friday afternoon I got off work a couple hours early and we met back at home and loaded up to head to Omaha. Beebs chatted with us the entire time. We were all pretty tired when we arrived and it should already be apparent we are monumentally bad at making decisions. When we upgraded our phones they changed the way we take trips in a very positive way. We used to waste so much of our time just trying to navigate and re-navigate. Anyway, we wanted a real meal and then wanted to head back to the hotel to just relax. We finally decided. I was about to pee my pants but the restaurant was 2 miles away so I decided I'd just wait until we got there. We drove across town, struggled to find a parking place and then finally found a spot and gathered up our sleeping kid. She had just fallen asleep when we got into Omaha. She woke up freezing and we walked to the restaurant - relief! In front of the restaurant waited 2 signs - CLOSED for Private Party. WHAT!? Laughable because I swear to you, we agonize over lame decisions and then something like that happens SO often.

We finally settled on "The Twisted Fork" in the Old Market. Parking was stupid bad and we ended up in a parking garage. We're bad at just sort of getting around in a busy downtown whatnot. I mean, we're talkin' Omaha, NE here, folks. I don't think we'll be headed to NYC anytime soon. Dinner was fine. When we headed back to the hotel we passed 2 people walking the streets in gorilla costumes and Beebs asked, "Hey! Are they monkeying around?!" I died laughing because she's 3 and it makes me laugh when she successfully uses her little sense of humor.

Our room had 2 separate spaces and one had a little pull-out sofa bed which amazed her. It also had a TV on the wall. It was a crazy novelty to her to be in bed watching TV! She's never done that. She bounced around the room just giggling at everything and so surprised and in awe. I realized she'd never seen or played with a normal ol' phone! She was absolutely obsessed with it the entire trip! I unplugged it and she spent a large portion of her time in that room making fake calls. She gasped when she saw the bar of soap in the bathroom had letters on it and she said, "It has my name on it?!" ha. Oh! And the hotel had a "water park" in it. When we pulled up she saw the huge slide coming from the building and just lost it with excitement. All of these small things were just mind-blowing and magical to her. It was so fun to see her amazed at all these things.

Saturday we went to the Henry Doorly Zoo. I was checking online the night before to see their hours and found an announcement that their aquarium was shut down as of Oct 3 and would be until April 2012. I seriously almost cried! I love the aquarium and I had told Beebs about it and she was so excited! She really wanted to see turtles. Luckily we saw turtles elsewhere and she never asked about the aquarium. heh. I missed it though! Later she told us the seahorses at the zoo had been her favorite...we never saw seahorses. heh.

Some things I want to note for myself about this trip. It was super simple. I had a few other things on our list to do and see but in the end we just took our time, rested when we needed to and had a lot of fun that way. Yesterday after the zoo we just went back to the hotel and napped then got up and went to the hotel water park. We had not eaten a meal that day so by about 8:30 that evening I felt sick and was like WE HAVE TO EAT FOOD!!! We did and then just lazed around until the wee hours of the morn. Beebs ate popcorn in bed and made "phone calls" and watched TV. This morning I wasn't sure if we'd just like, grab coffee and skip town or what but Roommate was like I need a real breakfast so we went to this greasy spoon diner. The wait was insane! It was packed! I heard some people ask if it was worth the wait and the lady next to them was like..um..you've never been here?! Oh you're going to love it! So we waited. Took forever to get our food and boy was it worth it. I had literally this massive mound of hashbrowns cooked with peppers and onions and mushrooms and cheeses and it came with a side of gravy. It was so yum. I ate until my belly was so full and have several servings left. heh.

Drive home was cake. It took almost exactly 3 hrs. Beebs talked all the way home and played with her yellow balloon from the diner. She fell asleep less than a mile from home and we were like YES, naptime! She woke up when I put her down and is wide awake! She said her body is awake and ready to exercise. I made a little pot of hot tea for myself and fixed her a plate of fruit and veg to eat to start detoxing. haha. Roommate is crashed out. Happy to be home. That was a rambly post but it sure was a nice little weekend. I'm getting better at embracing the things we enjoy and while we love to try new stuff we don't force things because it seems like what we "should" be doing and things are so much more fun that way! We took our time and just soaked up our little joy baby. She's so happy, so flexible, so mellow and fun. I love her so much. I'm so happy we have her. I'm so glad we take her everywhere with us and always have.

ETA: I just read through this post and do not hardly recognize the person writing it. This doesn't even sound like me? (or does it? heh) Mundane read! 

Hope you had a lovely fall weekend. Happy 7 year anniversary to my wonderful, wonderful roommate/husband.

morning: Tuesday

Steaming cup of tea in front of me. I woke up early when it was still dark and felt so relieved that I could just go back to sleep if I wanted. I could hear Beebs all warm and heavy asleep in her bed. I nestled in and felt awake so I gave up on going back to sleep and got up to take a hot shower. After, with warm muscles, I came downstairs and did yoga. When Beebs wakes up we're headed out on a walk. Last night we walked after dinner as it got dark and we talked about walking this morning.

Last week I noticed my scrubs for work felt just a bit looser. I had stopped weighing for a few weeks. I weighed at work that day and am down 3 pounds. I know that's not a lot but I'll take anything headed in that direction.

In the midst of writing this, Beebs came downstairs and we snuggled under a blanket because she was freezing. Now she's under a blanket and we're having hot cocoa and pumpkin bread for breakfast. ha. Lovely!

Also, oh my - a day next week is supposed to have a high of 56 and rain! Please, warm weather..don't go!

Speakin' of gardening.

I was just looking up "shady cottage gardens" because I love them. I really love the casual mix of plant textures and colors a la wildflowers or old english gardens. Tasha Tudor anyone? In my search for inspiration I came across something I've seen before and um..think I might be really into, fairy gardens! Here's a link to a pinterest page of fairy garden examples and accessories. I can't say that I'm that into FAIRIES per se but oh these little gardens. Do you think a little girl might find them magical? I sure do. Beebs has never really seen any princessy stuff. She knows of them and loves reading Sleeping Beauty. There's a chance I might change a couple of the words around like, when the wicked fairy wants to KILL Sleeping Beauty and shouts things like "YOU WILL DIE!" heh. It's an old Disney book, one I had growing up (see..OLD). ha. We have a book of Grimm's Fairy Tales and I won't mind if someday she likes reading those it's just that right now, she's 3.

Anyway. Our backyard is very shaded and the person before here implemented some sort of little stone path and I can just see this actually working well in our yard. I mean these fairy gardens are tiny but..just the look of this. Cute! I've always thought these little doors are cute. (I know, dorky, right?!) By the way, Magic Cabin is a great place for kid toys. We have gotten some great things for Beebs from there. OH, you know what else is SUPER DORKY that I think I like (oh my gosh, I can't believe I'm admitting this.) - the eyes/mouth you put into a tree. ha! I took this photo when we were nerdin' it up at Ren Fest.

Expensive planter.
Fairy Cottage - (could live without the actual Fairies!)
Makes sense this is my dream house. Or their new one..that too!

Today has been one of the best kind of days.

When I realized fall was here I noticed the sunlight was different. I wondered if I was imagining it but it really seemed different and today, wow. It's October indeed. Things were just golden and glowing. I actually thought, wait..is this how it looks on a hot summer day? It isn't.

Beebs went to see Grandma today. She took "Kiki's Delivery Service" with her. They played outside and made popcorn balls. Mom texted me a picture of her sitting on the edge of the deck in her pajamas eating a tomato out of hand with my mom's cat nestled up against her.

While I was meeting Mom to take Beebs to her, Roommate was at home cleaning! I came home and I was like uh..what happened?! heh. We ate a snack and took a NAP! I read until I dozed off and had set the alarm for 30 minutes. Two hours later we emerged and headed outside to work in our yard a couple hours. It looks much better, even with just a bit of sprucing. It's a mess and I don't know where to begin with it for next season. There's so much undoing that needs to take place. Did I tell you my next door neighbor cut down one of my favorite flowers we have. She just..cut the whole bush out. What in the world? It made me so angry yet the next time I saw her I didn't know what to say and so I said nothing. Anyway!

So we raked a bit, cut a bit, mowed, I pulled out every black plastic border I could manage to get unburied (only a couple left!) and we picked up all the stray toys and put them in a big box on the back porch to hang out until it's winter and we maybe put some of them away. I even hosed down the porch and blasted the leaves off to the edges. I did feel a little sad at the chalky milky pink and blues I washed away. She can put down some more!

After our work we made dinner, ate dinner, talked through dinner then did the dishes together. Laundry was folded, books read. I fnished _Visit From the Good Squad_ and he's still working on _Suttree_. We had some special hugging time and then read some more. I feel buoyed up. I've been reading some things I like while posting this and really I should sleep soon. It was a really lovely Sunday here.

"Children are miraculous." - Sark

Fall is my season.

I posted earlier on the twit that I feel more like myself in this weather. It's like I just..sink into it with a sigh. Slump down into a comfy, cozy little place and said oh yes, this, I remember this. Right now I'm listening to Rasputina and drinking coffee shortly after midnight. My daughter is still awake (oops?) listening to music and drawing pictures. I have on the comfiest purple pants made of softest soft and a little sweater and I just feel so happy and relaxed and cozy. Tomorrow we're going to Ren Fest and I'm excited. ha. It's pirate weekend and Beebs loves pirates and I think she's just going to love it. She's just exploding with..stuff lately. She says things that just blow me away. At her doctor's visit this week she told jokes and informed the dr (at my work) she had a few simple questions for her..

This evening we've listened to songs from the Lord of the Rings movies, Amelie soundtrack, Rasputina, Joanna Newsom, Hum, Offspring, Steve Earle and Robert Earl Keen  - oh! and Matson Jones!! Why don't more people know and love them?! A little bit of arson never hurt anyone... xo "So come on, Fall, bring your tattered leaves, bring your cold whipping wind..that drops me to my knees." ah. matson jones.

When I read back through my posts from autumns past - they all sound similar. Coffee, cool breezes and music. It's my thriving time. I'm a predictable creature of comfort.

slizzle mizzle.

This was the lil' beebles 3 yrs ago today. She was just over 6 months so she got to try a bit of solids. first taste here. drrrriiip. happy baby rice cereal. (lame)