For the love of coffee, faith and family: March 2012

A lot has been happening around the Wright house, despite my lack of blogger-riffic communication. What better way to play catch up, than an instagram update, plus a few random pictures I actually pulled my camera out for. When life is happening too fast, our phones are the ones, always around to catch those moments I keep forgetting to share. Sad, but true.

Strawberries!

Big news, Addison has achieved her first strawberries. And by strawberries, I mean, she fell on the patio and skinned both her knees. She didn't cry when she got up and saw her knees dripping blood. But, she did cry because I made her come inside to clean them up. She just kept screaming, "outside!!" My child is tough, and she loves to be outside. She also hated the band-aids, so she continues playing, falling, and re-scraping her knees. She looks like she's been involved in some shrapnel-attack. She doesn't care, as long as she can stay outside.

Pinterest!

Of course, I have to show you my latest pinterest project. I took some wine bottles and cleaned them and spray painted them for vases. The idea came from pinterest but I am most proud of my own genius spray painting technique. I pulled the handlebar off my swiffer and stuck in the ground in the backyard where our tiki torches usually are. Then, I was able to stand the bottle upside down and spray paint all sides with ease. Genius I say.

Grown Up Dramatics...

In less exciting news, our 2007 Ford Explorer just crossed the 100,000 milestone. And here's hoping we get another 100,000 miles in it. In honor of the occasion, she was also due for an oil change and a few other big things that happen with tired cars. This is where we learned that we also needed four new tires, due to low tread, in addition to a nail in one tire and a gash in another. We are counting our blessings, that I didn't find out about that gash driving on the interstate with our one year old. They said it could explode at any time and wasn't in any condition to be patched. We took it in to be serviced as a last minute decision today and are so thankful we did, since we are driving to Asheville tomorrow, and Columbia on Sunday afternoon. wow.

Papa Tom comes to Town

In more exciting news, Papa Tom came for a visit last week where he treated us to lunch at Cracker Barrel and stayed to visit with Great Granddaughter, Addison for a little while. She loves her Papa Tom, and is completely chill with him, as you can see her lounging on him while drinking her milk.

They also had some fun rocking at Cracker Barrel. She is a true Southerner. She loves to sit in the rocker on the Cracker Barrel front porch. If I would let her, I'm sure she would be sipping on a sweet tea.

Bye-Bye baba!

A true accomplishment this week occurred a few days ago, when Addison went to bed without asking for her ba-ba (this is what she calls her pacifier). She has only been allowed to have it at bedtime and naptime for the last 9 months or so, but she has faithfully relied on it at those times. Lately she's started chewing on them instead of sucking on them, so I figured it was time to say goodbye to ba-ba. Fortunately, she made it really easy. I think because she had been chewing on them, she punctured a hole, so the ba-ba wasn't really doing it's job anymore and she lost interest. Two nights ago, she didn't ask for it so I just went with it. She slept all night without it and hasn't asked for it since! I love how Addison makes my job so easy. I'm hoping next week she'll say, "Mommy, I think it's time I wear big girl panties and use the potty." Hey, I can dream, right?

Date Night on the Range

Last night, thanks to our generous friend, Jill, who watched Addison for us, Matt and I had a much needed date night. We ate a quick bite of deliciousness at Five Guys before heading over to the driving range for some fun. Neither one of us have played in a really long time, but I'm pretty sure Matt cleared the fence a few times (at 293 yards) and my pregnant belly did not interfere with my game at all. We had a blast, and although it isn't your conventional date night, I think it was just what we both needed, even though we had some brief rain showers while we were out there!

And I'm actually pretty sure this is the first and only pregnant picture of me so far! I am 28 weeks pregnant and have just entered my third trimester. Matt also took of picture of me in my backswing which I will definitely NOT post. It is not so flattering, but here you can see my great big baby bump. I can't believe how fast the time has flown, and how completely unprepared I am for this baby boy!

You see those trees? That's where Matt's ball landed.

Catching Butterflies...

one of the many explorations Addison is having in the great outdoors this spring.

And please take note of her super cute Nike's I got at a consignment for $4. New, those boogers would cost 30 bucks and she'll outgrow them in 4 months.

So there you have it readers, a month's worth of excitement in one sorry post. :) Stay tuned for my next post. We'll be kayaking tomorrow in Asheville. I'm hoping my belly doesn't throw off my balance and land me in the river.

I am 6 months pregnant this week. The comments I was getting... "wow, you hardly look pregnant at all!" have quickly and suddenly changed and now I am apparently big enough that strangers feel comfortable asking when the baby is due. I try not to be offended. My uterus is now the size of a soccer ball, so it seems normal that my midsection would reflect that. I know. And no I haven't taken any belly pictures to show you. Instead I will show you my other children playing with bubbles. Not sure who was more excited, Bella or Addison. :)

The most amazing thing happens in pregnancy, at least for me. Not as amazing as feeling this little booger kicking me all day and night, but a very close second. I get a little crazy doing the "nesting" thing. And if you don't know what that is, apparently, moms have an instinct that kicks in before baby is born just like birds and bears. We want to prepare an appropriate place for our child. I think for most people, it doesn't happen until close to the end of the pregnancy but for me, I turn into a cleaning machine. It's quite amazing and my baseboards have really missed this. Here's what I've done this week, single-handedly, while still having lots of time to maintain my other responsibilities:

Cleaned all the baseboards and repainted the ones in the living room, dining room, kitchen, staircase and new nursery.
Removed a beautiful, heavy panel that has been hanging in our living room (after Addison knocked one side off the nail). I repainted that wall along with several other areas in our living room (since I already had the paint out). Then, I re-hung 3 frames in place of the panel, that my daughter can't get crushed by.
Dismantled my photography backdrops and wall mounts and repainted the soon-to-be nursery (with some help from matt).
Cleaned out the microwave and washed all the kitchen cabinets, doors and doorknobs downstairs.
Cleaned and organized the laundry room.
Shelled a box of pecans (that we'll talk about later)
Cleaned and reorganized my closet for summer and maternity clothes.
Reorganized Addison's closet for summer clothes and packed up those she's outgrown.

And I'm sure I'm forgetting something. Like I said, I'm a machine. It is not actually me, but the hormones or something. Thank goodness Addison is such a great napper for me to get all that painting done while she sleeps. She actually got a washcloth and helped with the cleaning on the kitchen cabinets. She sat beside and said, "wash" so I would spray the cleaner and then she would wipe it up. It wasn't all that productive, but pretty, darn cute.

Painting is a touchy subject with my husband and me. He is always happy for me to paint. But he has a trim brush I am not allowed to use because he feels I do not clean them properly or well. Same goes for the putty knife. "A putty knife is no good if it has dried spackle on it, Libby," he says calmly but annoyed.

"Really? I didn't know. I'll remember that for next time." But I rarely do. I feel like he shouldn't notice the brushes or the putty knife because he is so impressed with how well the freshly painted walls, door and baseboards look and the fact that a delicious meal is still on the table. I say, "who cares about the brushes?" but, really, I know he's right.

Now for some Pecan talk.

My fabulous great Aunt Exie and Uncle Fred that live in Macon, Georgia mailed me a huge box a pecans this week. I LOVE pecans and they happen to have a zillion pecan trees on their property. I usually have several quarts in my freezer thanks to them, but just as I was running low, a special treat arrived in the mail!

After shelling pecans for a couple days, I am now well stocked and this morning I made Glazed Pecans. You know, the ones, you can get in a paper cone at the fair or the basketball games or whatever. I always buy these and now I have made them myself and they are DELIGHTFUL!