NEW YEAR - NEW GOALS

So... Sometimes I look at my 30 before Thirty goals and weep. Not really. But I definitely put some difficult things on my list. Such as the goal that I began undertaking today: the 365 photo challenge. Guys, I think this one scares me more than any of the others. It just seems OVERWHELMING. But since I am the type of person that has to start projects such as this on January 1st (as opposed to some other random day of the year, like July 23rd...), here we go. I will be taking at least ONE photo every single day. Likely post them once a week. Who knows. It will be an adventure, right?

Here is to a New Year!

BTW, do you KNOW how hard it is to get a shot like this? Not to mention the resulting mess...

PUT A RING ON IT

Since quite a few of you have been asking about my Instagram picture/Facebook post about the ring incident, I'll explain. To start off with, I started this pregnancy at my absolute healthiest. I weighed just under 115 lbs and ran/worked out regularly. As a result, this pregnancy has been my best - which is saying a lot since ALL of my pregnancies have been easy peasy. Outside of my pregnancy with Joel (as an 8 mo pregnant ASU student walking across campus), I have never really had any issues with swelling. My feet, once. Otherwise nothing.
Sunday night, after working on a few [failed] sewing projects, I went to my room to get ready for bed. I washed my face and brushed my teeth. Tried taking off my wedding ring and nope. Stuck. Tried a dab of lotion. Nope. Tried cold water. Nope. Tried lotion AND cold water. Nope. Okay... A little bit panicked, but there were several more tricks to try. Tried icing my finger. Nope. Tried Windex. Nope. Tried elevating my hand. Nope. Tried the dental floss/string trick. Nope. Really panicked. Not only did none of these tricks work, they all succeeded in making my finger swell more and more in a reasonably short period of time. My finger began to turn from red to purple and I could no longer bend it. The pain was building, even when I was not touching the ring or my finger. I had the mr. hop online and Google "when to go to the hospital if a ring is stuck". We had reached that point. So away we went (after calling my angel of a mom at 3am to stay with the sleeping kids). I was admitted right away - perk of going in at 3am. The PA came into the room, took one look at my finger, and said there would have been NO WAY that ring was coming off outside of being cut off. It had become a tourniquet. Best part? Not one of my other fingers were swollen. He grabbed a ring-cutting saw and shield and went to work. My finger was so swollen that the shield did not extend past my ring as far as it should have, so the PA only had 1/4" of clearance for his saw. Every time he pushed the saw down into my ring, the ring pushed the shield into the top of my palm. Excruciating. I was hopeful for relief once the ring had been cut. Nothing. The PA tried prying it open with a screw driver, but it was not enough. Instead, he tried using hemostats to expand the gap. Once he had pulled the opening wide by a full inch, I was able force my finger out of the ring. Barely. And little relief. The whole thing just... well... sucked. I LOVE my ring. And now it is sitting broken in my jewelry box. The plus side? I still have my finger. Which is good, you know.Within about 6 hours, the swelling had mostly gone down. My finger still hurts a tiny bit, but no big deal.
So yeah. That's my story. We got to pay $200 to have a $3000 ring cut off. And it will be another $100 (at least) to have it repaired. Sigh. My flesh is priceless, my flesh is priceless, my flesh is priceless...

BELATED BIRTHDAY

Yesterday was my birthday. It was mostly a terrible day. The mr. DID come home early from work with roses and klondike bars. So a little bit of a victory. And my doc DID inform me that at 36 wks, my unborn is measuring 7+ lbs. So a little bit of a triumph. Otherwise, meh.
In anticipation, I pulled up my 30 before Thirty. Checked to see what I have accomplished in the last year. And grew increasingly grumpy. Four things done. Two more close to completion. Twenty four items that are not even close. Dang pregnancy making several of my goals difficult. Sigh. Looks like I have my work cut out for me for the next 2 years...

HEAVY HEART

My heart is heavy right now. You see, there is a woman that I know who is truly one of the most magnificent women that I have ever met. I've admired her for over a decade. She goes above and beyond in all that she does. She is the mother of three wonderful friends of mine, whom I hold close to my heart. Words cannot describe the amount of respect that I have for her. She truly is one in a million.
Today, this amazing woman passed away. It was not unexpected, yet it was still sudden. She fought hard in her short battle with cancer, but today she was called home. My heart aches for her sweet daughters and the rest of her family. I know how much they treasured their beautiful mother. I am forever grateful for the blessing that I had of knowing her; she was such a remarkable person. You will be dearly missed, Marilyn.

I love you Jessica, Amy, & Jen.

ALL HALLOWS' EVE

We were originally going to do classic Halloween monsters for Halloween. Frankenstein. Bride of Frankenstein. Dracula. Werewolf. Mummy. But while browsing Pinterest for costume ideas for a baby Bride of Frankenstein, I somehow came across a Tinkerbell costume. AND HAD TO MAKE BABY GIRL TINKERBELL. I mean, I FINALLY have a little girl. Why wouldn't I pick an adorably feminine costume for her? I hesitantly asked J and L what they wanted to be. J: "Captain Hook!". L: "Jake and the Neverland Pirates". It was perfect. Serendipity at its finest. I decided D (who insisted on being Tinkerbell) would be Peter Pan. And I would be Mr. Smee. "Protruding belly" and all. Being the person that I am (you can read that as cheap), I made the mistake choice of sewing most of the costumes. From scratch. Using no patterns. Just trial and error (and quite a bit of frustration). I finished everything just before midnight, the night before Halloween. And almost peed my pants in excitement. Everything turned out PERFECTLY. And our Halloween was wonderful! Minus the photo-op.
 For your benefit, I have posted a few out-takes. I receive compliments on my personal photos quite often, but lets be honest... four kids plus one (or two) adults? It's insanity. torture. excruciating. difficult. The mr.'s least favorite thing in the world.

The winning photo, which was our last-ditch effort with our neighbor's help:
which is why they aren't looking right at the camera...

FALL

I fail. An entire month without a post. Oops. Reason: I have been working like mad to get a billion things done. I wish I could say that blogging just slipped my memory because I have been so relaxed. Ha. I knew once October hit, life would remain fast-paced until January. Conveniently enough, I will be having a baby in January, so even then - no break.
But amidst all of the sewing/editing/designing as of late, we have had little moments here and there where we get to enjoy simplicity. Like visiting our dear neighbor's garden for preschool. Which turned into a lovely morning doing nothing more than eating fresh pomegranate. The simple things in life really are the best.

MONKEY SEE...

I've been MIA again; I had my nose entirely stuck in a book. Working on reading 30 new books for my 30 before THIRTY. If I can't run as much as I want, I will read.

Moving on. Last week, I made it our "Fall Break" for preschool. Why a week early? Because I could. There are OCD reasons behind it, but I wont even go there. For our break, we had a zoo week. Two trips to the zoo and a LOT of activities and crafts to supplement. We focused on big cats and primates. Talked about their features, their diets, their habitats. The kids loved it. Below are pictures from our monkey-themed visit to the zoo.
I know. No primates here. Just couldn't pass this one up. Apparently Bubs is afraid of pachyderms...