getting fixed v7.0

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this lil' cardboard nugget of wonder plopped down on my doorstep last week. my first fix of 2013.

 my first fix under the minty fresh new logo. may what is inside be as pretty. amen.

if you have no idea what i am talking about, here's the lowdown on the quickety quick from Stitchfix themselves.

so when i opened my box for the ever-so-exciting first glimpse, here is what i spied:

my little eye spies color, stripes, geometrics, knits and a little black label TART staring accusingly up at me ( i am offended by being so labelled, but then i realize it's just a brand name). a promising melange!

let's pull out the bounty:

it's a scarf. i cant decide if i love or hate the colors. but it's a finite scarf (aka not an infinity) and i am certifiably dumb at tying/wrapping scarves we'll see how this goes.

 pardon my blur. a knit-sweatshirty jacket. digging how stitchfix has styled it in the pics.

 a little razzle dazzle in the cardigan department. this is way beyond my cache of solids. dare i? is it on trend or dr. heathcliff huxtable?!?! only time will tell

i love a stripe and a washed-out red color. this one shows upside though i doubt my ability to rock a slouchy neckline without constantly playing with it. BOING!

a tunic top/dress. this more than satisfies the stringent boundaries yall placed on tights as pants. and it's an oh so soft knit material that is pure comfort but may cling in some tricky places. the pattern is a stripe that i'm not 100% sure that i love yet.

ok so let's get me in these puppies. you should know that i washed, dried AND flat-ironed my hair just for this business. i hadnt used my blow dryer in over a month (except to dry some paint on a ninja turtle because we had a spare donatello that needed to be a michaelangelo STAT). trying on outfit after outfit and coming up with cute ways to accessorize them with my existing closet is HARD for me. my brain doesnt work well that way (and about 80% of our wardrobe is dirty right now). add to this fun combo the fact that having a picture taken of just me would be a great way to break me if i was a captured spy because it makes me CRAY in the BRAI.

i typically try on clothes and judge them in two seconds flat; proclaiming them either, "ew, disgusting, get OFF me!" or, "huh, thats not too bad." but since my fixes are styled by someone else with me in mind, i try to really go the distance and give them a fair shot, no matter how outside my comfort zone it is with the hair/makeup/styling/acting normal.

item one!

i'm liking it way more in the pic than i thought i did in real life. it wasnt doing tons to define a shape and its interesting cut kind of accentuated my hips...which are a no no zone for me. but i love the yummy textured gray and the comfy material. 

i love the pinkish stripe but the white/cream one is almost identical to my skintone. it was also a bit shorter than i like. i had to add an extra long H&M tank under there for modesty (aka the roll protection program) since it was sheer too. bonus points for the sprinkler sticking out of my knee that didnt even sideline me!

obvi, if i'm rocking a geometric cardi, i need to play up the nerd vibe with my new glasses. i dig this one WAY more than i thought i would and enjoyed the swap-a-roo of the cardigan as the statement over a neutral top. i also dig that i havent spotted anything analogous to this any online or brick & mortar shop. that is one of my favorite things about stitchfix: finding really unique pieces that arent in every other clothing line.

first off...no i am not pregnant. that's just fluff. any pregnancies theories will make me ugly cry. so just dont.

i do really love this style of tunic since it's so comfy and casual feeling but can pull off dressy too. the colors along with the knit fabric and shape are sort of reminding me of a nightgown, though i do love the overall look, this specific one might not be my prince charming but has definitely given me a new idea/direction.

and finally, i was so sweaty and tired of clothes trying-ons at this point that i just gave up and nabbed a selfie. at my current stress level the scarf became a torus of strangulation and despair. i had a hard time arranging it since i am so dependent on the infinity these days, and i couldnt decided if the colors were spring chic or middle-aged drama teacher's prop closet.

there she is! my latest fix.

so what do yall think? should i keep anything? definite NO's?  be thou my stylist!

My other Stitch Fix Posts:

fix #11 (post preg)
fix #preg
fix #10

fix #9
fix #8

fix #7

fix #6

fix #5

fix #4

fix #3

fix #2

fix #1

breaking the seal

you cant just inaugurate a sexy new sewing room with any old project. darning jesse's old underpants would NOT have been a worthy first task in that most glorious of spaces.

luckily i didnt have to wait long for the most perfect of sewing tasks to present itself as the first in the new space.

you might remember our poang rocking (re: bouncing) chair that was in layla's room. it now lives in the living room (fitting, no?). we originally didnt buy the matching footstool for the chair because of budget and spatial constraints. woe to us.

well, with our shiny new loan from my parents in hand, i was able to get the footstool on my IKEA bender this week. but oh, sad, alas, they dont make the cushion in our fabric anymore.

i told myself, "its no big deal. matchy-matchy isnt cool anyway." so i just got black and was a happy lady.  then i saw the combo in its nook and my heart was rent:

me. no. likey.  the plain back was too close to be a contrasting piece and too far to be a coordinator.

i was flummoxed. sure, IKEA sells this fabric on other stuff and i could have gotten the material from one of their armchair covers for $15, but mama dont play dat (unless i truly cant think my way out of that expenditure). 

so i was charmed to pieces when i realized that the back of the chair cushion cover was upholstered in the patterned fabric.i decided to play plastic surgeon and do a skin graft: from the back of the chair to the stool cushion. 

i giggled to myself at the poetry of taking IKEA fabric off one piece of IKEA furniture to put on another piece of IKEA furniture using my brand new IKEA sewing area. and then the giggling stopped because, ugh, i dont love working with heavy weight fabric.

in the end, i was victorious, and pure IKEA nirvana was reached.

blammo. a little homemade Eslöv footstool cover from ya girl!!! (yes. i need to wipe down the arms of the chair which are still milk-spattered from the line of duty...and quite possibly doodie).

i plan to make covers for the headrest straps that are NOT flesh-toned ASAP. come on, IKEA, youre better than a color that is probably called "band-aid sunset."

and in case the kind-hearted among youare curious about the condition of the dear sweet donor cushion...take heart, i took excellent care of him:

a little skin graft patch from the old kitchen curtain panels i had made back in 2011...made of, you guessed it! IKEA fabric.

while the bright yellow isnt the most inconspicuous choice for the back (i sometimes catch a sliver of yellow racing stripe on the side of the cushion and get a tad grumbly), i felt that as a good surgeon, i needed to find a match as close to the donor skin as possible to prevent host rejection of the new skin. therefore, IKEA home decor. 

there you have it. the sewing room giving up its v-card (ew, weird) to its swedish soulmate. dont worry. jesse is ordained and married them first so that it would be fornication...or should i say FURNication???

game, set, match: me.

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UPDATED 2/2/13: eek, i just found this old pic of me test driving the chair for the first time. i was breastfeeding a 3 month old layla in the showroom of IKEA and we were both digging it. such teensiness of peeking footsies and such enormity of hidden breasticles.

making room(s) volume one: and then everything was better

you guys remember my current sewing area, right?

as seen monday morning, 1.21.2013

it was never ideal. it was never something i was super proud of. it was something that had to happen for a moment in time. (one moment= 23 months, btw)

you may remember that we have a teensy 3-bedroom house. when layla stopped sleeping in our room around 4 months old i had to give up the "extra room" as my sewing room and make a (somewhat spectacular) nursery out of it for my little ladyface. 

this pushed the sewing area into our chronically unused dining area off the side of the kitchen. i took the table for my own, pushed it up against a wall, ditched the chairs, added pegboard and shelving for pure functionality and just resisted the urge to melt down in aesthetic horror. 

no matter what new shelving or storage i got for this area, it just was NOT going to look right or good.

what, your dining table doesnt look like this?

the view from the kitchen. pure culinary peace at every turn...um...no. (sometimes jesse models).

but it was a decidedly worth-it trade off to create what we felt was a magical nursery of perfection for our baby chick-a-dukes:

oh so magnificent. (full tour here)

but some things happened (marvelous, fantastical things) that allowed us on monday (MLK day...i had a dream too and mine and his both came true!) to take back the 3rd bedroom as sewing room, office space, studio extraordinaire and general creative refuge. and since i have had an utter style transformation of the brain since i "designed" my last sewing area, this one was able to hit a whole new level of function and beauty (credit where credit is due: i was almost 100% inspired by raechel's studio. she's my muse. #inspiRAEtion).

some of said things are a secret that i will have to keep quiet for now as they havent been finished or photographed, but one of the biggest things was securing an instant (note: dad is the one to hit up for money) loan from my parents to go forward with this project rather than saving up and waiting another few months. perhaps the room should be called the "Lee and Genia Vincent Center for Adults Who Dont Focus So Good and Thus Need a Special Work Room." 

i'll have a plaque commissioned for the door.

i made a trip to IKEA without jesse but WITH judah on monday 6 pm. this would turn out to be my magnum opus of all IKEA adventures. there was sweat, there was stress, there was even spilled elderberry juice that spelled like the inside of roadkill...but i prevailed.

okay so just to remind us all of my past sewing areas:

2009-2010 in the 3rd bedroom. this makes my brain try to crawl right out of my head.

2011-2012 in the dining area...looking better and more organized than it ever really was.

and now, are you ready for how it looks now? i mean, seriously...gird up your loins, because they might leak:

OMG this is a big deal. i just want to make sure you are emotionally prepared for this moment.

do you think i am building it up too much and it is going to disappoint?



 IT'S NOT!!!

TA-EFFING-DA!

even after spending hours in this room last night making it look this way (reorganizing and stowing bits and bobs) i am having an intense emotional reaction looking at this weird MC Escher bendy panoramic shot of the room. getting choked up over a sewing room...what have i become?!?

obviously the shell of the room is still very layla's nursery-esque. but you know? it kind of works as a creativity-flowing sort of decor. i do plan to at least repaint some day, but let's just pause and take in how much better, brighter, bigger and ballsier the room itself looks

i mean...which seems like a better area for NOT having a lobotomy?

SO much table top space for cutting, prepping, dreaming.

all the sewing little knick-knacks stowed away in their places and only pretty things visible among the gorgeous white space of the VIKA table system (this whole combo was $250).

plenty of room at the window table for jesse to use as his office for planning worship, writing sermons, doing quiet time, etc (his chair was out of stock but is coming soon)

a chunk of floor space for bigger projects that require me to spread out lots of fabric.

more under table space if i need to add another fabric drawer set (fabric is my love language)

and there is even enough space along the other 2 walls for the ironing board and for a kids craft area if they ever prove themselves worthy of the arts (jk...but seriously: fools are messy and distracted right now).

those drawers not being pushed in for the picture is really irking me. but, oh mercy, they hold ALL THE THINGS!! and one white drawer and a few red ones are still empty.

the bigger stuff is stowed in the closet to the left (with a knob that escaped my oil rubbed bronze conversion).

dont you just want to roll around on those glossy white table tops of perfection?

AHHHHHHHHHHH. i'm so buzzed on this room.

but trying to move on...if you are a clever bird this transformation leaves some questions. some spatial reasoning quandaries.  alas, i will have to leave you puzzling because the hour is not yet nigh. soon though.

for now let's all just pause in reverence to chaos redeemed and clarity recaptured.

and we saw that it was good. amen.



*and for all the worries that layla is roaming the streets, take heart! here is where she landed.*

unwritten

OMG i have crushing blogger guilt, you guys. 

it hit me full on when one of my stupidly pretty friends told me last week, "i noticed that you dont share as much lately  on your blog as you used to." and i was all, "bitch please!"

it's true though. 

while i do have a few pretty sah-weeeet things coming up to post about, i just dont vent here on the deep stuff like i used to. and if you really love me then you know thats a good thing. 

it's good because it means i am living in community and working a lot of my junk out with human faces (i almost typed "feces" there...ha! havent tried that form of therapy yet) and so i dont have as much of a need to unleash all of it here in this particular season.

but the thing that i love about this "space" (i've been watching a lot of "biggest loser" lately and jillian's vernacular, if not her calorie-burning,  is creeping in) is that it's kind of whacked out and all over the place and subject to fits and starts and periods of massive productivity and crippling lethargy and EPIPHANY OMG YOU GUYS I AM MY BLOG!

whenever i have to fill something out for an advertiser and they ask what category my blog is i usually spend like 10 minutes fiddling with the drop down menu because, ugh, "define me!!!" (name that sitcom!). 

because depending on the day, i am a food blog, a craft blog, a home decorating blog, a spirituality blog, a humor blog, a family blog, a political blog, a bitch, a lover, a child a mother, a sinner a saint...no wait. i've veered. 

and so in a just perfectly tailor-made pun: LIKE my blog recently, i am unwritten. sometimes my tries are outside the lines, oh oh. i am just staring at the blank page before me...

i might need to step away from the light pop channel on my radio, yall. (but for real, i might dream of breaking it down with a black gospel choir in an elevator like this.) p.s. this song is so saccharine but so kick ass. i dont even care.

i guess what i'm saying is, i do this as an expression of me, and while i'd like to say it's JUST for me, it's not. i want to make yall laugh, i want you to like my kids (for the love, please tell me that pic of layla on the previous post was as cute as i thought it was!), to think jesse's hot, to puzzle through tricky jesus things WITH me. i care about yall and i hate the thought of making you bored or letting you down. 

if you like this blog, you'd probably like me in person. but just like my IRL friends know, i'm not good at keeping a steady pace. i'm a fluctuator. i am the fluctukeightor (that looks like such a mean german cuss word!) and sometimes you hear from me 5 times a week and then sometimes i disappear.

i havent gone anywhere or decided to slow down the bloggy crazy train. it's just a slow season. i'm probably just busy wearing my gaucho pants frolicking in puddles with an assortment of kids from all different ethnicities right now.

i'm sure i'll brb.

thanks for being here. for reals x 1000. 

the princess and the frogs with a side of cheese

good gravy, this little fire cracker makes us smile

zooma

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UPDATE (2:59 pm)- we have a winner! the mystery is solved here (dont click unless you want the answer).

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did you ever get those weekly reader/current science magazine in elementary school? my school did and they were awesome. 

we all got our little 5th grade paws on a magazine and then got to read articles on cool scienc-y stuff and all that goodness. it was an awesome way to get us excited about topics that might not be in the curriculum but still would kindle the heart of every science-loving student. kind of like a popular science junior edition.

the favorite of EVERYONE, and the very first thing we'd all do as soon as our issue hit the desk was to turn to the back of the magazine where there was one of those puzzles where there is a picture of something really zoomed in on and you have to figure out what it is. (this is also a task in cranium which jesse and i are undefeated as a team in, btw).

i cant for the life of me remember the catchy little name they gave this gave, but i know cranium calls these a ZOOMA, so we'll run with that.

i have a keyfob from my etsy shop in the colors/fabric of your choice for the first person who can guess  (in the comment section, ya slacker/lurkers!) what this is that i took a picture of yesterday:

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UPDATE (10:25 am):  okay i was nervous that it was too easy so i didnt give hints. but since no one has it yet, here are some hints:

-layla created this photo-op all by herself
-the object in its natural state doesnt look like this. she did/added something to it to give it this effect.

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UPDATE (11:09 am): SOME people are complaining about the lighting. lucky for you i took the pic on a couple of times with different settings.here's one at a slower shutter speed for you squeaky wheels.

so long

miss lay-lay bay-bay must be getting plenty of protein, because girlfriend is growing teeth, nails, and hair like a boss!

the nails are the most hazardous to our health as they are sharp enough to geld a rhino and most certainly to slash up the faces of any ticklesome parents who she is trying to fend off.

but the teeth are the saddest and most painful. layla was super slow on teeth. she had 2 at 6 months and then no more for another year. now all she is missing is her incisors. the bottom ones are coming in now and this lady is not pleased (amber necklace, or no). 

 this child is normally either a ravenous beast or a sprightly chatterbox at dinner, so seeing her like this tugged at me like getting cornrows put in my heartstrings by a mountain troll.

it was so sad because all afternoon she was asking for her paci (pah-pah). in the interest of her learnignenglish we only let her have it now at bedtime and in the car though. so i kept saying, "no, baby you cant have your paci during daytime. and she was needing comfort so badly but was also being so obedient that she would just cry/wail, "ooooooookay, mommy. oooooookay."  

we let her have some tylenol and she was feeling a little better and showing off what all the pain is for:

 lil' porcelain chicklets!

and the final growth surge that the miraculous body of my tiny girl is going through is HAIR! my goodness. did this child really used to be bald for her first year?

a tumble of golden locks (i need to take her to the salon to get her roots touched up...how embarrassing!)

i really had to go back and check and see how long it had been since she was a little fuzzy baldikins, and sure enough, EXACTLY one year ago she was still firmly in the "oh she of little hair" camp:

it's craZAY how much of an impact on cuteness, oldness, and personality a head full of hair can make on a child's appearance. 

grow on, layla boo.

judah-isms

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we are at the point where we can get pretty much any information out of judah that we need. at 3 and a half his english is practically fluent. i found myself telling a babysitter the other night, "if you are wondering about anything, just ask judah."

with the frustrating exception of anything relating to time (everything is "next week" or "last year") he can express himself with no trouble. his vocabulary is chock full and his pronunciation gets better every day.

rocking the mic

as fun is this is, it means that one by one, some of his adorable little language mistakes are falling away. so while we are here on the end cusp of toddler-hood, i want to record some of these little gems.

-oh-jinge: a citrus fruit with the same name as its color.

-duh-snuggable me: a cartoon starring minions.

-cord-a-boys: long winter pants that aren't jeans.

-little bit while: small unit of time. i.e. "mommy can i watch TV for just a little bit while?"

-i fink: i suppose; i'm of the opinion that...

-gank gu: i appreciate that.

-chicken a lay: the place where we get our nuggets and waffle fries.

-uncle donald's: the place where we get our happy meals

-ban-daddies: what you put on a boo-boo.

-hatchen down the sails, makees!: "batten down the hatches, mateys!"

-if he gets a spanking he always says, it bleeds, it bleeeeeds! meaning, "it stings"

-but how to do it?: how do i do it?

-(i tweeted this one but want it here too): everything is a simile  everything is LIKE something else.  last night i was conceding that judah's transformer toy (which jesse was in rapture over) was actually pretty cool. i said, "okay that is legit." judah replied, "yeah, mommy, it IS like a jet!"

-this is actually an extremely CORRECT turn of phrase but hearing it from a 3 year old with a chipmunk voice slays us every time: "mommy, my rocket ship is nowhere to be found!:

i want to keep  adding to this list as i remember or think of more of these little artifacts of judah's little kid-dom. 

i love all the things on this list so much that i refuse to correct him on them and even will pronounce them his way myself in an effort to not let him know the real way. 

yikes. that came out sounding way more psycho-mommy than it feels in my heart. i promise i wont follow him on his honeymoon.

are there any adorable kiddie-language treasures that you will be/were sad to see go from your kids' vernacular?

in which i think i'm clever

i have a total of 2 internet tricks that i can turn. when i tell friends about these, they want the lowdown. they are mad useful and so in the interest of disseminating as much useful brain pollen as possible, i'm sharing them with you today.

1. after my obsession began with Downton Abbey i obviously watched both seasons in about 3 days. then it was over and my life stopped having meaning. what was i supposed to do without my regular fix of brittish wit, 20's fashion, hideously curled bangs, and 7th grade giggles about "Mister Bates?"  

i was incensed to find that the brits across the pond had already watched all of season 3 and here yankee doodle me was stuck waiting until january. i say A POX on that!   dont tread on me! so i had myself a little interwebby tea party, overthrew my royalist oppressors and got the hookup. i have already watched all of season 3.  

no syndication without representation, bitches.

i am not sure if this site is 100% legit, so i only watch things on it that are free when they are originally broadcast. it's my personal code of pirating ethics. (read all about it in my forthcoming deposition) since Downton is on PBS, that's totally free like, pick-it-up-on-rabbit-ears-on-my-9-inch-black-and-white-TV free (on both sides of the pond), so i feel good about it.

you do have to wade through some sketchy pop ups and do a little trial and error, but like i said, i watched every episode from season 3 this way. 

here's the link to all of downton abbey season 3

2. my second little trickeration of the internet might make me look a little nutlog. i'm at peace. 

ok so jesse and i both have iphones. we keep them almost exclusively on silent. this means that they are easy to misplace AND it is easy to miss a call or text. additionally, one of us if often out of the house working and the other is at home with the kids slowing losing their mind because, candyland and chutes and ladders are designed to slowly vaporize brain cells. when it's me, i am counting the minutes until he is home and i'd rather not endanger his life by constantly texting, "where are you?" everying 90 seconds.

solution: the Find My iphone app.

here's the obvious perks: it's free. you can locate your phone from any computer or other phone. it will show you on a map where your phone is if you have utterly lost it (and give you driving directions). if its just misplaced in your house, even if its on silent, you can force it to play a sound (it sounds like a submarine sonar) that keeps going until someone picks it up.

yeah i zoomed out so you jokers wont know exactly where my bat cave is.

and say you locate your lost phone and you see that RUH-ROH your phone is in the lair of your worst frenemy. and maybe you had some boobie pics on there that you sent your husband? well in case of emergency, you can lock your phone remotely or even completely wipe its memory with this handy little app.

but my favorite part (and the slightly tricky part) of this app is that, since all of the devices in our house  are under the same iCloud account, i can not only find my own phone when it's missing, but i can also find out where jesse's phone (and therefore, he) is without bothering him. 

i know this is a little like putting a tracking device on someone, but there's never a time when he wouldnt be okay with me knowing where he is or visa versa (except this one time he turned off his phone so i wouldnt know he was coming home early from a trip to surprise me..full clemency!).

this also works if there is an emergency and our phones are on silent. this usually happens when i am taking a nap and jesse really needs to get ahold of me. he can force my phone to play a sound (even on silent). also if one of us is just not feeling the phone vibrate in our pocket or is maybe ignoring the vibes because we're at a meeting, the other person canforce the phone to beep so they know they are needed. i have to use some self control on this one and must never, EVER use this feature one sunday mornings when jesse is leading worship.

i know there are other tracking-ish and lost phone apps, but this one is by far the best one we've tried and we seriously use it at least 5 times a week.

so there you go. maybe this is the biggest "DUH" of ever, but on the off chance you didnt know where to find Lady Mary Crawley or your husband...this post might be useful!

(all) that. just. happened.

okay. so christmas and new year's, huh guys?

the first phase of our break was entitled "parties" that was followed by "sickness" and the final act has been "cabin fever."

here's a rundown of the past fortnight in the duchy (as in, territory ruled by dukes...blammo first comedic home run of 2013).

went to a NICE dinner out for my office party. so much food a spirits. one time i was a leetle bored with the conversation and jesse had gone to the car to get something and i started pretended i was texting the babysitting when in fact i was taking some hot selfies with my cocktail like an airhead. 

it got super cold and judah was forced to wear pants. he chose to wear less of them that we had hoped.

3 days before christmas just woke us up with the splish splash down the hall of THE STOMACH BUG. jesse got baptized taking him back to his room and then i got baptized 3 hours later at the doctor's office. luckily we had RX anti-puke meds and the dr. said it wasnt contagious (no fever) and should be gone in 24 hours)

on the way home, still smelling of blue gatorade and flecked with chocolate speckles (really jesse? you give the sick kid candy?) i started to feel that awful stomach sloopy flutter that precedes nausea. and just like that 2 hours later i was down for the count. followed soon after by jesse.

layla, impervious to the bug, ran utterly amok this day. we were powerless to stop her. 

that night after my 9th barf of the day i had dozed off. i woke up and was weirdly out of breath. i went to get some water and then started a bath for myself. i kept noticing that i couldnt seem to catch my breath. as i sat down in the tub it got intense. i felt like i was suffocating. like i couldnt get enough air in my lungs. i started thinking i was allergic to something and asphyxiating. it was like i had just been on a super hard run but was getting worse instead of better.

i screamed for jesse to call 911, thinking i would pass out at any moment and drown in my tub. he came in, verified what i was saying (screaming/panting) and ran to call. while he was gone things got worse. i kept telling myself to slow down and be calm but all i could think was that i was suffocating. 

then i barfed. then i was fine.

911 sent people anyway (its free) and feeling a little stupid, "sorry guys, i know i am perfectly normal now, but SWEARSIES! i was gonna die 10 minutes ago" i described what had happened. 

turns out i had had a panic attack. despite being high-strung, type-A all my life AND already on antidepressants/anti-anxiety meds, i had never had one of these in my entire life. and it was extra weird because i wasnt stressed (i was asleep!) at the time. 

it was so much scarier than childbirth yall, because A: i didnt understand why the pain was happening, and B: rather than getting a baby at the end i just got a tub full of puke.

the next day was sunday and poor jesse had to lead worship at church. i couldnt move and felt like i had been hit by a train the next morning so some of our friends and family looked after the kids (judah was all better layla impervious). this SAVED my life. i slept until 2 pm and besides a little weakness from no food, was good to go.

so yes, panic attacks: AWFUL. such a new appreciation for people who deal with these monsters.

christmas eve service at church. pretending this is what our family looks like all the time

this is really what it looks like: blurry kids and adults beckoning

this little elf was not a happy christmas eve shopper. she wanted a cruddy old bakery cookie instead of the delicious fresh santa cookies that we were to make at home.

 

i just happened to have my camera out when this amazing scene took place before the nativity. we are working with layla on sharing. (follow the numbers).

i feel like this wont work on layla next year. 

presents wrapped, stockings hung, watching the bumpuses ransack the turkey. and of course, the hallway barricaded because at 3 1/2 judah totally gets christmas.

sadly, jesse parents caught the AWFUL bug in the line of being awesome grandparents and helping us out so we couldnt go over there for christmas day. so our little family stayed in ALLLLLLLL day long (this would become a theme with school on vacation). 

we were getting desperate for activities on christmas evening (it was raining and cold all day) so we had a hot chocolate tea party bath tub (like you do).

after the kids went to bed we desperately called a sitter to come literally sit at our house while we escaped to see "Les Mis." it was AWESOME. i saw the play as a kid and the old version of the movie and wasnt a ga-ga fan, but might be becoming one. i immediately bought the book and am 800 pages in. seeing play then movie then book is fun because i just keep getting more and more of these characters rather than less and less. (ps was anyone else utterly distracted by eponine's CGI waist!?!?!?! she's a warlock)

snuggled up with two of his gifts on christmas night: thats kind of magical. one is his pirate spyglass and the other is his dreamlight. despite being pretty vigilant about watching commercials (we always fast forward) somehow judah had seen an infomercial for dreamlights a few months ago. 

it was insane. i guess because it was his first commercial ever, it imprinted on him like whoa. he remembered that junk and would not stop talking about it. the good news is, he really does love it and it is fairly cool. but now layla is obsessed and sneaks in his room to steal it, yelling as she makes her escape, "muh deem lai! muh deem lai!" naturally, they are enamored of a stuffed animal (yuck) with a plastic laser show coming out of its back.

this little thing got braids for the first time ever!

and followed that up with a lovely duckface photo.

one of our longtime friends was home for christmas and found this gem of jesse in some old photos. look at slickback lamar!!

a lady at target heard me talking to judah and asked me if i was a montessori teacher. highlight of my parenting life! i love hippie methods and crunchy parenting so hard but am so naturally bad at it. so to have someone who knows something (her kids had gone to montessori school) recognize some of their kid-empowering methods of communication felt really good.

this was cancelled out minutes later when we had to drag a melting-down layla out of the store. alas.

judah is really into "working on plans" these days. he found a nice spot to do so. this was the most exciting thing that occurred on new years eve. when you have kids that are waking up at 7 no matter what, new years looses its appeal. i was reading in bed when the ball dropped (not a euphemism, much to jesse's dismay). jesse barely remember to grab a kiss as he turned on the TV with 50 seconds to go. 

 the adorable start of ANOTHER day at home, inside with the kids. 

i'm serious, you stay at home moms, you are amazing and it must be a calling. we are losing our minds not being able to take the kids to school for stimulation and scenery and not being able to go to work. i went like 9 straight days with no makeup on. that was were the fun ended.  it didnt really feel like much of a vacation a lot of the time. but in between the chaos and cabin fever, it felt like magic. so i'll take it.

glad to have made it through 2012 unpregnant and happy! glad that christmas break isnt for another 11 months. glad that this crazy, frazzled, magical, redeemed life is mine.