Little Blessings

So we have successfully moved to Texas, though not into our house yet. We still have to wait until closing day on Friday and hope that things go smoothly.

It took us 3 days of driving to make it to Dallas and I learned some things along the way:

• G is an angel. The boy slept almost the whole time and still slept at night. He was cute and sweet even though he has a cold and a pretty bad cough.
  
• Guido is a big baby. He meowed almost the whole time, even though he was mildly sedated. Cats do not move well.
• My DH is the only person I know who can take a 4 hour Sudafed dose with a full dose of Excedrine and then take a 2 hour nap.
  
• "Gusty winds may occur" somewhere, but they may not, that's all the sign said.
• "Women get drunk, too". Yes, there was actually a billboard that said this. Which is awesome because I can just imagine some woman saying, "I can drive. I'm not drunk, I'm a woman."
• Wisdom can be found in Texas, but we were too busy to follow the sign, so I guess I'll never find it.

All in all things went well, and even though I'm caring for two sick guys, and completely surrounded by males, I'm counting my blessings. Here's a picture of G in his blessing outfit.

What's going on?!!!

Okay, the title isn't me wondering what's going on, but the answer to the burning question that I'm sure is annoyingly tickling your brain - what is going on with Tara? I heard she was relocating. I heard she had a baby. I heard her husband lost his job.

Well, the first two are true, the third is not, but due to economic circumstances things did change on the work front. Instead of moving to South Carolina in July, we are now moving to Dallas at the end of the month. What?! you say, the end of the month, yes. But, your brand new baby will be only 2 months old. That's true, but he's already been on 4 airplane rides. We flew to Dallas 2 weeks ago to go house hunting. And we found a dream house. It was gorgeous, we fell in love, and the price had just been lowered into our price range. We made an offer, they made a counter-offer, we signed a bunch of documents . . . and then decided not to buy it. Why? you ask. Why give up on a dream house? Well, there are several reasons. First, we aren't sure how long we'll be in Dallas and it would break our hearts to have to sell our dream house in a year. Second, taxes in Texas are like everything else in Texas - very big. Almost double the taxes in Utah in fact. Something that surprised us and made the house just outside our comfortable price range. Third, due to number 2, we wouldn't be able to afford to furnish the house, which means we wouldn't really live in the house at all. So, we found another house that we are working on buying, sight unseen. The DH might fly out to see it before we close, but I don't think it will make much difference. Here is the virtual tour.

We'd be moving Memorial Day weekend and closing on the home on the 29th, hopefully, which means a long-term hotel stay for us. Luckily we have a moving budget that accounts for these things.

But we still have to pack . . .
Any idea where I can find a box for this guy?

Next big question: what is to become of Guido?

Younger Men

I have discovered the joy of younger men. Yes, it's true, I have fallen in love with a younger man. I hope my husband won't mind. I must say I don't think he will, he seems fairly taken with my young man, as well. He has even been known to kiss this young man himself on occasion.

Anyway, here are my reasons for liking this younger man:*
1- He knows that I know more than him, so he doesn't try to impress me with his vast knowledge.
2- He's a lover, not a fighter.
3- He lets me smother him with kisses.
4- He wants nothing more than to let me feed him and sleep all day.
5- Everything is new, so everything I do is still fascinating.
6- He's happy to just sit around and look at me.
7- He doesn't complain about my messes in the house.
8- He's got lots of fun toys.
9- He likes my family and they like him.
10- He isn't jealous if I talk to other men.

*This list is not meant to imply that these are things that my husband doesn't do.

Here's a picture:
My husband's on the left.


The new guy is G, and he was born March 29, 2009. 8 lbs. 9 oz. 21.5" long. I think I'll keep him.

The Passenger

So, there's been a lot of sickness going around, and I'm sorry to say I have caught one. Or rather I was given one. That's right, through the joy of marriage, Johnny gave me a parasite. Luckily, this parasite isn't fatal, but it has caused a bit of swelling. It has also made it difficult to do everyday tasks. Well, see for yourself:

Yeah, socks are hard. So this little passenger is set to come out April 3rd, they tell me. Not that it's really up to me.

It's a boy. Danger will literally be his middle name. How cool is that. Though I don't want to tell him until he's older, because I really don't want to catch him trying to fly off the roof. I know, I'm asking for trouble. What can I do, I'm a glutton for punishment. Besides, it's too late to do anything about it now, this baby's only coming out one way, and he's able to pretty much survive on his own now, so I guess I'm going to be a mom whether I'm ready for superman capes, trucks, and exploding noises or not.

I really don't know anything about boys, can you tell?

Halloween

So, I really love Halloween. And this year, despite the fact that I was busy with play rehearsals, I managed to make the costume I wanted last year and couldn't find any where -- Alice in Wonderland.
That's the Cheshire Cat attacking me. Anyway, thanks to my Dressaday obsession, the night before Halloween, I suddenly decided it was absolutely necessary for the dress I had thrown together to have pockets. It was definitely worth it. That was one of my favorite things about it.

I was pretty proud of this dress because I didn't have a pattern, I combined a few and made stuff up, and it ended up working really well.

So, several people asked me if Johnny was dressing up as another Alice character, and despite my goadings to get him to be the mad hatter, he wouldn't. So he dressed up as nothing this year, not wearing nothing, of course, but with no costume. So sad.

I'm in a play!

Or rather, I was in a play. It closed on the 22nd. And I think it'll be the last play that I'm in for awhile. Mostly because I got back into theater to prove something to myself, and I have, so now I don't need to do it anymore. Granted, I still love performing, but I hate rehearsals and working with people who aren't as committed or serious as I am. And usually I'm done with the show before it even opens. So with the combination of fulfilling my goal and my distaste for the process, it's time for another theater break. Anyway, here are some pictures from the show.

Me, singing and dancing my heart out.

Me, not wanting to marry Johnny. It was fun to do a show together. We haven't done one together since high school. And then we didn't really interact with each other too much.

My sewing habit

So, one of the many reasons I have been busy lately has been that I have resurrected one of my oldest and most loved hobbies -- sewing. And after creating a skirt or two and fixing a few also, I decided to expand my horizon my trying a vintage pattern. I have discovered what I feel will be a deep and abiding love of 50s patterns, thanks to dressaday.com. My goal now is to be confused with June Cleaver and to ask myself "what would Doris wear" frequently. Here is my first vintage dress, the mockup in horrible Walmart cotton. (One day it will get the fabric it deserves).

I learned a lot from putting together this pattern, like old-fashioned button holes, fabric-covered buttons, and sleeve cuffs. It looks a lot better with a puffy slip under it, which I have acquired, so I get many more positive comments now.

So, since there was only minimal cussing when putting this together, I have decided it was worth it to try other patterns, and thanks to ebay, I now have a little stash of vintage patterns.

I have been sewing since I was a little girl. My mom taught me and the first thing I sewed was a handkerchief. I still lack the skill I need to do all the sewing I want, but I feel a lot better now that I'm sewing again. It's nice to have something to fill the void homework has left in my life. Now I can come home from work and have something to do!!