I took this picture last September understanding that we would be saying goodbye to my mother in law in the near future. We discovered three weeks after Charlotte was born that my mother in law had a terminal form of cancer. The doctors gave her six months.  She held on for five and a half months.  On January 25th she passed away.

She adored Charlotte and could spend hours just looking at her.  I thought that me and my husband were the only ones who would do that.  I always knew that Anne would be an amazing grandmother and she was. In her last months, Anne recorded children’s books so that Charlotte could listen to her grandmother read to her as she grew up. Anne loved reading to her kids and she made me promise that we would make sure that Charlotte was a reader.  We have her copy of Charlotte’s Web from when she was a child.  Anne talked to me about cooking because, “Pete is not a good cook. You are going to have to teach Charlotte to make our family’s recipes.”  She made sure I had all of her recipes, that I knew the secrets and the best ingredients to use.  When she thought we weren’t looking or even when we were looking she would sneak a taste of whatever treat she was having to Charlotte. I took home jars of canned jelly, relishes, and chutney that she had made.  Anne was a classically trained cellist and had the voice of an angel.  Charlotte has her grandmother’s cello, violin, and bows waiting to see if she has a calling to musical instruments.  One of my favorite memories is of Anne singing Ave Maria at our wedding. She made me cry.  She loved to sing “You Are My Sunshine” to Charlotte and made me promise to watch “The Sound of Music” until Charlotte  knows all the songs.  Anne never met a stranger. Our child met so many of Anne’s friends, extended family, nurses, and Hospice staff that she now looks around and wonders where her adoring public has gone now that we are home.  We know separation anxiety when we are away from our child but she looks at all people and sees a new adventure.

In the few short months that Anne had with Charlotte, she managed to share what she felt were the best things in life: books, food, music, and people.

Itzbeen

Itzbeen has to be by far the most useful gift we received upon Charlotte’s arrival.  You keep track of when you last fed and changed you baby. It also keeps track of when they last slept and has a nifty fourth button that we used to keep track of when we last gave her medicine.  Itzbeen has a nigh light feature so that you can locate it and the screen has a back light making it easy to read.  It is  a lot easier to hit a button than to try to recall at 3am when you last gave your baby medicine.

Fresh Sugar Honey Tinted Lip Treatment

A few years ago, I started using Fresh’s Sugar Lip Balm.  It is expensive but I had tried just about everything to treat my chapped lips. I hate feeling like my lips are coated in vaseline or as though I dipped my lips in wax which is pretty much how every lip balm felt.  This Christmas, my husband gave me a tube of Fresh’s Sugar Honey Tinted Lip Treatment. I love it! I still use my old Sugar Lip Balm, especially when I am just kicking around the house, but when I am going out, this is a great alternative to lipstick. It has a hint of color and moisturizes my chapped lips at the same time.

A Game of Thrones

These books were recommended by everyone and I never added them to my reading list because they are long and I wasn’t sure about reading another series.  I noticed that a TV series was being made and I decided I should read the books before watching the show.  My best friend lent me her copies a few weeks before the end of my pregnancy. I just finished the fourth book.  They are amazing books!  There is intrigue, war, love, and a cast of characters that you find yourself loving and hating. I highly recommend these books!

Birth

One Month

Two Month

I can’t believe that Charlotte will be 3 months old next week!  She is simply the best thing  that has ever happened to Pete and me.  She arrived on July 13, 2011 at 6:33pm.  I am amazed that a year ago, we had just put a contract on our house and Pete had started his new job. I remember feeling so sad about our fertility treatment not working  but I was determined to create a happy life for us in Virginia.  We didn’t realize that we were already pregnant.   This year we face new struggles with our family but we find that we get through each day because we have each other and our Charlotte. She is a happy and engaging baby!

I have had some fun on Etsy. I bought a lovely baby book from Ruby Love Designs and these three adorable headbands from Monday’s Child.

You are not seeing things. That is an ultrasound of our baby. Pete and I are expecting a little girl this July!  I am 23 weeks today and she is perfect.  Many of you know that we stopped fertility treatment last July after our IVF with egg donor cycle failed. We had tried everything and we accepted that having our own child was not going to happen.  We prayed that God would help us accept this and maybe we could look at adoption a year from now. Pete took the job in Northern Virginia and we bought a house. I had decided to go to graduate school and work part-time.   After settling into the new house,  I wasn’t feeling well and I thought I had kidney problems.  Pete was joking and told me I was pregnant. I dismissed him but then I thought about it and my period was really late. Two sticks later, we are making an appointment with an ob/gyn.  Dr. Wolfe confirmed that we are pregnant and all I can say is miracles do happen.  It has been two months since she gave us the good news and as of our ultrasound today Charlotte Grace is perfect and should be arriving around July 12th!

Artist of the Beautiful by J.D. Landis

Sizzling Sixteen by Janet Evanovich

Fall of Giants by Ken Follett

Fallen by Lauren Kate

Roses by Leila Meacham

I really enjoyed Fall of Giants and Roses. The other books were just not my cup of tea.  As usual, if you have a recommendation for a good book, let me know!

I was looking around on Etsy today and I fell in love with this Giclee print by Christine Lindstrom. The print can by found in her Etsy shop Mai Autumn.

The last few months have just been crazy. In August, Pete accepted a job offer in Northern Virginia. We have enjoyed living in New Jersey but we missed living in the land of sweet tea, country music, and 50 million places to buy Pho.  He had to start the job in September, so he relocated to Virginia without me.  Once again, our friend Scott adopted Pete during our separation and very nicely let Pete stay with him and his wife. I was alone in NJ with two crazy cats. They didn’t want to let me sleep and decided 3am was the perfect time to run a derby around the house. We took advantage of the housing market and bought a cute Cape Cod in Falls Church. I completed the move a week before Thanksgiving.  Things are slowly coming together and I am getting some sleep.

photo by: dunham_1

I love the Tomato Basil Pesto Pasta Salade made at La Madeleine Cafe.  While living in Austin, we would go there for lunch, meetings, and book club. I loved nothing better than getting a half of a Chicken Salade Croissant and a side of their amazing pasta salade.  Unfortunately I no longer live in proximity to a La Madeleine. I searched for the recipe and came up empty. So I decided to play around with the ingredients to see if I could recreate my favorite. I think I have it!

Tomato Basil Pesto Pasta Salad

1 box Farfalle (Bow Tie) pasta

1/4 cup chopped sweet onion

1/4 cup chopped fresh sweet basil

1/4 cup chopped fresh spinach

3 Roma tomatoes, diced

6 sun dried tomato halves packed in olive oil, finely chopped

2 Tablespoons of Amore Concentrated Basil Pesto

1/3 cup Brianna’s Home style Asiago Caesar Dressing or any other creamy Caesar dressing

1/4 cup Parmesan cheese, grated

Salt and Pepper

Follow the directions on the back of the pasta box and cook pasta until it is firm. Drain and set aside to cool down.  While the pasta is cooling, prep the other ingredients. In a large bowl combine the onion, basil, spinach, diced tomato, sun dried tomato, and basil pesto.  Fold in the cooled pasta. Add the Caesar dressing and half of the cheese. Taste. Season with salt and pepper to your liking. Add in the remaining cheese and toss.  Refrigerate until ready to serve.

If you want to go all out, make your own Caesar Dressing and Basil Pesto! I found it easier and cheaper to buy these items. Also I would go easy on adding the salad dressing to make sure it suits your taste. You might add more dressing after the salad has set for a few hours.

I saw this platter at Mod Cottage in Rehoboth Beach, DE. The platter is made of melamine and features a scrimshaw whale graphic. I fell in love and I am blessed that my Aunt Linda bought me the platter for my birthday!  I also found the platter on the Red Barn Mercantile for $32.95

I was reading O Magazine and there was an article about books that you should steal from your teenagers. I decided to try this book from the list and I was not disappointed! I quickly bought the second book in the trilogy and the final book is coming out next month. I have it on order. The Hunger Game series will suck you in!

During the Christmas holiday I received a bag of Dale and Thomas French Onion popcorn. I fell in love with the popcorn but not the price. I followed a link on their site to Popcorn Indiana and I found my new love…Aged White Cheddar Kettlecorn!  It is savory and cheesy.  There is nothing better than throwing in a movie and grabbing a bowl of this popcorn! I have found the popcorn at Whole Foods, KMart, and WalMart.

The Forgotten Garden by Kate Morton

The Meaning of Night: A Confession by Michael Cox

LOVE THIS!

My friend Nicole gave me a coupon for Smartfood.  If you ever wander around Target, I guarantee you have seen boxes of this at the end of the checkout counters over the last year.  I am always up for a new healthy snack option and I had a $1 coupon. I decided to try their Chocolate Cookie Caramel Pecan Popcorn.  I have to say I enjoyed the taste of the product. I am not so sure how healthy the snack is, but it does have a good amount of fiber and calcium.  I need to do a bit more research on the health benefits of brown rice syrup and chicory root.  What has me writing about this product is the amount of packaging this product uses. In each of those large boxes setting on the shelf is five 1 ounce bags of the popcorn.  The snack bags only take up 1/4 of the room in the box. You could easily fit 12 to 15 bags in a box.  I am so turned off by the waste the packaging created that I couldn’t enjoy the snack. I won’t be buying more unless Frito Lay changes the packaging.

When I was a child, my mother had a bottle of Avon Rose perfume. I would sneak into her room to smell the perfume. Something about the smell of roses brought a sense of peace and happiness. Over the last few months, I have been looking for things that evoked good feelings. I was delighted to find this new scent by Chloe.  The scent is described as,

“Top notes of pink peony, freesia, and lychee embody subtle freshness. At the heart, midnotes of magnolia flower, lily of the valley, and rose rise to sublimated femininity. A base of velvety elegance comes to fruition through cedarwood, amber, and honey.”

The perfume is available at Sephora starting at $85.oo for a 1.7 oz. bottle.

I made the decision to subscribe to Netflix during this last round of IVF treatment.  I have to stay at home and in bed for the better part of two weeks and I really needed something to pass the time. I have fallen in love with the Australian drama McLeod’s Daughters.  Tess and Claire are strong women and their stories are fascinating.  The series is available for instant download on Netflix, so there is no wait for discs in the mail!  Once you start watching you can’t stop.  If you don’t have Netflix, you can also purchase the series on Amazon.

I bought this Villa Footed Bowl from Pottery Barn.  I just loved the shape of the bowl and found it to be the perfect size for their Rose potpourri.  The small bowl is only $20.00.

photo by: British Red Cross

This photo has just haunted me today.  I don’t know anything about the boy other than he was injured in the earthquake and was receiving care in a Port-au-Prince hotel.  I would consider myself a somewhat jaded person after years on working in the nonprofit sector, but this tragedy has really struck a nerve. I have watched television all day and read every scrap of information online.  The history of this nation reads like a Greek tragedy.  I wanted to do something and after looking at all the ways to help, I decided to make a donation to fund direct aid to the country through a organization called Mercy Corps.  I  have made donations to Mercy Corps in the past to assist other countries in times of natural disasters. If you would like to donate any amount please click on this link to my fundraising page with Mercy Corps.

Back in the beginning of December,  I purchased a set of Christmas cards at a Barnes and Noble, that is not my local Barnes and Noble.  They were made of a lovely card stock and had a bird sitting on a branch on the outside and Season’s Greetings written on the inside.  Simple and lovely.  I got home and wrote out the first card.  Upon pulling out the envelopes, I find that all 21 envelopes in the box were sealed.  I called the store where I bought them and I was told to return them to my local store.  Unfortunately my local store never had the cards in stock and the other stores were sold out of the cards.  I picked out new cards, checked the envelopes and learned an important lesson:

Always check the cards and the envelopes before buying stationary at Barnes and Noble.

Well fast forward to a few days after Christmas and I walked into my local Barnes and Noble and there was a huge sale table with cards and calendars on the table.  I decided to look through and I was excited when I found a box of the cards just like the ones I had returned. Well, I had to apply my new life lesson, so I open the box only to discover the card I had written on sitting on top of the sealed envelopes. When I returned the item apparently it was just restocked. I spoke to customer service and explained what had happened and asked that they get rid of the cards. They apologized and assured me this never happens and they will make sure they are labeled damaged and properly disposed of. I learned another important lesson:

Barnes and Noble restocks damaged return items, so check every last thing you buy for damage.

My friends and family got a chuckle out of this story. I posted what had happened to my Facebook account.  Well last week my best friend was shopping in our local Barnes and Noble. She had been with me when I originally bought the cards. Well she is a bargain shopper and she was going through the Christmas cards.  She came across a box of Christmas cards with a bird on the front. She had to look. Sitting on top was the Christmas card I had written and all 21 sealed envelopes.  She took them to customer service. Explained what had happened. OF COURSE THEY WERE HORRIFIED!  They put a sticky on it, wrote damaged and placed it behind the counter, so that it would not be restocked by accident.  She called me. I was perturbed but I learned another important lesson:

My local Barnes and Noble is extremely unorganized and could give a crap about their customers.

Well today I decided to go to my local Barnes and Noble to pick up a couple of books about traveling to London and the UK.  I walked up to get into line to pay and right next to the line is a table with sale items such as calendars and you guessed it, Christmas cards. I look down and there they were…I can spot these cards from 100 feet now, much less on the table right next to the check out counter. I picked them up, took a deep breathe and opened the box of cards.  The card I wrote was not on top! For a moment, I thought wow I am jaded, they had to get rid of those cards by now, maybe they had another box in stock.  I decided to follow the first rule, which was to check the envelopes. Sure enough they were all sealed. Then I decided to follow the second rule, so I counted the cards and sure enough they had thrown out the card I had written on, but put the rest in the box and restocked the item. Which brings me to my third lesson, Barnes and Noble can’t organize their staff or stock.  I went up to the customer service counter, asked for a manager and explained what happened for the fourth time.  I was assured the matter would be handled immediately. I learned another important lesson:

Barnes and Noble lies, lies, lies.

I now have daydreams about finding the cards again in a future visit.  I have thought about carrying a trash can with me and burning them in the middle of the store. I have thought about ripping them into confetti bits and tossing them at customers as they enter. I have thought about taking a Sharpie to the outside of the box.  I have thought about screaming “ARE YOU KIDDING ME?”, at the top of my lungs and collapsing to the floor kicking and flailing my arms. In the end, I have concluded I won’t be doing anything that could get me arrested and I WILL NOT be going to my local Barnes and Noble for anything in the near future.