As part of this effort to cut back on unnecessary expenses I decided I was going to dye my own hair, instead of going to a salon like I usually do. I realized it was absolutely necessary after TH took this picture and showed me how nasty my roots have become.

Here is what I started with. TH laughed when I told him I wanted to make a serious face for the picture because that’s what you do when you take a before picture.

Look at those bleached ends and dark roots!

After a considerably long time spent in the hair color aisle I decided on Clairol Natual Instincts 24-Clove. I kind of wish I had gone with something lighter like 18-Medium Golden Brown but oh well!

The problem isn’t with the shade, as you can see, the problem is that I did an awful job of evenly distributing. I used two boxes, just like everyone on Twitter and Facebook advised, but I think my mistake was twisting it all up on the top of my head and stuffing it into a shower cap for the 10 minutes it was supposed to set.

I don’t think these pictures do it justice either. TH agrees that it looks much worse in real life.

I do like the way the shade makes my eyes pop and I’m going to buy another box and try again. This time though, I’m thinking I will cover my body in vaseline, have wet towels at the ready, apply the stuff and then stand there with my hair dripping dye until it’s time to rinse. If it comes out wonky again, I’m just going to go and get it done somewhere.

Anyone else have a better suggestion for how I can ensure a completely even result?

Also:

• Living Without the Internet
• Stroller Striding
• Cockroach Encounter

Maybe a kind of silly of me since I’m having a hard time keeping up with the volume already! (393 questions currently in my inbox if you’re wondering). If you don’t see a reply right away, I will get to it someday. I do delete questions pretty liberally, but only if they are repetitive, offensive, expired (sometimes it takes me so long that a question isn’t relevant anymore), or beating a dead horse and then taking it’s tail and whipping it in the face with it, and then ripping it’s teeth out. Like really beating the dead horse to a pulp kind of questions.

Usually, but not always, attaching a name that I recognize from the blog comments on That Wife will mean I’ll get to your question faster. Bonus points if you create a Formspring account and attach your identity to your questions!

Also:

• Top Commenter Widget
• Mission Blogcation Accomplished Part II
• Mission Blogcation Accomplished

I love painting! Great idea!

or

I hate painting and when you move out you’re going to be kicking yourself for doing so.

I really wanted to paint in our last apartment, but TH wasn’t really up for it and I didn’t push the idea any farther. This time, I started talking about painting really early, and started talking about the very real possibility that I would be able to book extra photo sessions during the winter months because of our amazing lighting conditions. Blank white walls are both boring and difficult to expose for, so I pleaded for just one painted wall in the living room.

Kristin of Bien Living Designs was Mrs. Quiche on Weddingbee, and we’ve been growing closer ever since I announced my move to Chicago. She is just about the sweetest person I’ve ever met, and she offered to help us conquer the task of painting. I’m so clueless that a random person off the street probably could have helped me do a better job than I would have done on my own, but it just so happens that Kristin is an interior designer professionally. And I don’t mean she has a business out of her living room, I mean someone pays her actual money to work in an office in downtown Chicago doing interior design. Can you see why I’m crazy lucky that she was willing to help us with this project?

Per FTC guidelines I want to make it clear that she is offering her services as a designer for free, and I am blogging about them, but she didn’t email me and say “If I help you decorate your apartment will you write about me on your blog?”, it was more like “Hey bee friend, I’m a really nice person and I have only met you one time but I want to help you decorate your new apartment because I like helping people.”

Okay so maybe the email didn’t say those exact words but that’s the basic idea.

First up on the decorating list was painting! I wanted to get it done as quickly as possible because I knew it would be a lot easier to do with empty rooms.

This  what we started with. When I emailed her with ideas about decorating the living room I sent pictures of all of the pieces we would have, and told her to go ahead and tell us what paint color to get. The thought of starting the Is this the right color? Maybe one shade lighter? Or darker? discussion stressed me out so I decided to go with whatever she thought was best. Kristin not only offered to help us with the painting, she picked up the paint and brought some supplies from her house so we wouldn’t have to invest in things that we only planned to use once. For the living room she bought PPG Pure Performance eggshell in Summer Suede.

TH also agreed that we should paint the kitchen based on the photo of the kitchen in the model apartment from this post. For the kitchen she chose the color pickling spice.

Kristin said taping edges was a waste of time, so we laid our plastic down and filled our trays and got to work. She carefully went around the edges with a special brush while I used a roller brush quickly fill in the middle. When we made mistakes and got paint on the floorboards and such we quickly wiped it off with a damp rag.

We only had two brushes for the living room but we had some for the kitchen, so Kristin left TH and I to finish the living room while she tackled the kitchen.

Good news, TH walked away from the experience saying that painting really isn’t that bad. Hooray! As long as painting it white again isn’t completely awful I think we’ll be painting future spaces as well. I also need to give That Husband the credit he deserves, he ended up doing much more work than I did. Painting the wall in the living room and above the counters in the kitchen was easy enough that we decided to do a room in the office as well. I’ll show you a picture of the room later because I want you guys to help me what wall vinyl to put on it (if you haven’t seen wall vinyls they look like this or this.)

The finished product! Doesn’t it look amazing?

And Kristin deserves all credit for the painting of kitchen, she did it all herself. It’s so cheery in there now.

Kristin not only did the painting she also pitched in and did a bit of babysitting when That Husband and I were painting. This won’t be the last you see of her smiling face since she’s offered to help with the rest of the decorating once our belongings are put away.

Maybe you want a little bit of Kristin in your life? She has a service called Long Distance Design, where she will work with you to create presentation boards to help decorate your space. If you’re like my mom, you would never need this service. My mom is really creative, she can see a space and picture how different patterns, textures, and colors  would work together to create something beautiful. If you’re like me though, with no ability to visualize how a space can be best utilized, then Kristin’s service would be awesome for you. I really like that she not only makes you presentation boards like this, but she also sends you a list of links where you can buy everything pictured

The regular price for her service is $250, but if you contact her and mention That Wife she’ll do her Long Distance Design for $175 (which I’m pretty sure every other interior designer out there would say is crazy cheap). If anyone ends up hiring her and writes a blog about the experience with before and after I would love to write a post here on That Wife to show everyone how she transformed your space. Kristin is such a sweetheart and I think anyone who hires her will be really impressed with the result!

Also:

• The Chicago Moving Saga
• The B School Digs
• Here! Here! I Want to Live Here!

There are so many options for moving. Throw everything away and pack what you can in suitcases you take on the plane (as TH did when he first moved to Dallas before we were married). Throw most of your stuff away and pack the rest of your belongings in your car (which my friend Janssen just did). We also considered good old U-Haul, and the PODS that all of our friends seem to be using lately. I immediately nixed U-Haul after considering what it would be like to have TH driving the truck while I followed behind with the baby in the backseat all by myself. We almost went with the PODS, but Compass Van Lines ended up costing less and they packed the truck up for us, and will be unloading all of our stuff as well. Win!

The experience in Dallas with the loading was a great one. We had a pile of free stuff in the garage that we let the movers pick through, which made them happy because they walked away with entire garbage bags full of food and clothes, and they were courteous and careful with our stuff. From what TH told me, they took our stuff, drove it to a storage facility, unloaded it, and then left it there until they had enough stuff from other people moving into the area surrounding Chicago (or on the way) to make it worth the drive. Then they load it all up into the same truck and drive up, dropping things off as they go. It’s a great system because we get a full service move for less than other companies quoted us, but it’s probably not the way to go if the thought of being separated from your possessions (and having no idea if all of your possessions will be correctly loaded up again and brought to you) makes you anxious.

They loaded up our stuff on August 26th. Yesterday, September4th, we finally got the call that the truck was almost here. HOORAY!!! (3 exclamation points definitely necessary for such news.)

We’re going to be there at 11 pm to move you in. Okay, well that won’t work since we have to use a freight elevator and loading dock and they won’t let us do it that late at night.

Nevermind, we’re going to stay in _____ tonight, so we won’t be there until tomorrow morning. Expect us at 7 am. We schedule the freight elevator for 7 am.

We wake up on Sunday morning, movers-are-coming-day, and it feels weird to not be getting ready for church. It’s 7 am, now 8, now 9, now 10:30, and finally they call. TH goes downstairs to get them and bring them up so they know the way.

Awesome apartment you have, can we take pictures of the view? Oh yeah, please give us $$$$$. No, we will not give you that money, we already paid it back in Dallas and here is the receipt you gave us that proves this.

Oh, well we don’t have the original receipt with us because we forgot it back in Dallas, and we called our boss and he said that he doesn’t want to go into the office to verify that the receipt is the real deal so we’re going to get a hotel for the night and move you in tomorrow. Well thanks for making us skip church and put away our blow up beds and get all excited about no longer having to eat with our plates in our laps while sitting cross legged on the floor.

This picture, taken on my iPhone, is from our walk home from church last week. I love my boys!

After sitting around with bummed looks on our faces for a few minutes we realized that we still had enough time to get to church, albeit with the singles ward instead of our regular family ward. (LDS wards are divided up into family, single, and sometimes language wards. We heard that there aren’t any Polish wards in Chicago anymore which is sad because I kind of wanted to go!) We walked in right before they started and T1, being only one of two babies in the room, was passed around from pew to pew while all of the students did their best to try to make him laugh and smile.

It’s late Sunday night now, and all we can do is hope that the movers show up as promised to drop our stuff off tomorrow. Though it was fun at first, sleeping on blow up mattresses with T1 in between us on the floor has gotten rather old, and my hips are aching because I spend all of my time at the computer sitting hunched over sitting cross-legged on the floor while I edit photos.

I’ll update this post and let you know how everything turns out. Right now I’m feeling optimistic, hoping that our Labor Day will be spent directing movers, doing a little bit of unpacking, and then hitting up Taste of Polonia 2010 later in the afternoon! TH is salivating over the thought of real Polish sausage, Pierogi, and Polish bread. I am, of course, most excited about all the great photo opps!

Update: It’s 11:00 am and we still don’t have any movers here (actually we haven’t even heard from them yet.) I’m not only bummed because we might not get our stuff today, but because we’re going to have to sit around waiting for them until they call and we might miss Taste of Polonia.

12:21 pm the movers are here! I think things are worked out and we should have everything unpacked in a few hours.

Also:

• Painting (and Bien Living)
• The B School Digs
• Here! Here! I Want to Live Here!

Some things about Sophia:

According to my Top Commenter widget she is the #1 commenter on That Wife

She is one of my favorite readers

I’ve told TH many times that I think she’s brilliant and I can’t understand why she’s still reading my silly ramblings after all this time

Her comments are some of my favorites, always relevant, always detailed, and always incredibly logical

She has commented on this blog over 500 times

Sophia is not her real name, but even when we met in person I still called her that. It confused TH and he kept asking her if we should call her Cortney (her actual name) but I think she knows that by now she will always be Sophia to me!

You can find her very first comment on this post

She used to live in Dallas and we met for the first time right after T1 arrived

She just spent a week in Chicago so we were able to meet in person again this past aweek

I liked taking pictures of her pretty smile and naturally curly hair (yes her hair just “does” that without any work on her part)

This is her blog

The two photos above were taken in my new apartment! The light is just amazing, but the color is a bit wonky so I need to get a gray card.

The photos below were taken in this super special (somewhat secret) garden that’s right outside my building and only accessible to residents. I suspect several of my Chicago photo shoots will take place here.

Not that I wouldn’t love to meet all of you, but frequent, long-time commenters definitely hold a special place in my heart. Some of you have been reading and contributing for an impressively long time, and even if you don’t have blogs of your own, I feel like I’ve been able to get to know you (through your  many many many comments).

The more time I spend on this blog, the more my e-friends become just as important to me as my IRL friends. When I was a crying, sobbing mess due to problems with breastfeeding who did I get in touch with? An e-friend who had a baby boy just a few months before I did. Her emails and IMs meant so much to me and without this lovely little blog of mine I never would have made that connection.

I’m getting all emotional and teary-eyed as I write this. 3 years ago I never could have guessed at the ways blogging would change and shape my life. I feel like we’re all in a big blogging sorority together and I just love you ladies (and the few guys who are reading-I love you too!)

Also:

• Couple Friends
• Ice Cream Pie For Miles
• This is Why I Pay for A Pro

This onesie fit him for like one day, and then I couldn’t get his head through anymore. I love my bowling ball noggin baby.

I’m curious, do any of you not have the internet at home? Do you know anyone that doesn’t have it?

How do you function? How do you print out maps, find places to eat, figure out the phone number of places you want to call, answer emails, write on your blog (oh wait, there are people who don’t have blogs… crazy!), pay your bills, keep in touch with your friends?

Okay a few of those are obviously possible without the internet, but I’ve gotta say, I am pretty miserable without my constant connection. Spoiled upper class American mentality?* Maybe, but I suspect most of you couldn’t function without it either. Especially since you have to have the internet to read this here post that I”m typing up this very moment. Tonight I was in the conference center of our building and the internet stopped working. I knew it wasn’t just me because I looked around and noticed that everyone else had the same windows box up on their screen indicating that the connection was lost. My eyes teared up and I knew that I only had a few minutes before the dam burst and I embarrassed myself.

I packed up my stuff and headed back upstairs, Jenna Cole photos standing at the ready to be uploaded into this post, and took deep breaths during the elevator ride. TH came out and asked me why I was home early and I’m not exaggerating when I saw that I burst into tears. Sheesh, how over-dramatic can you get, right?  I think I must be riding a menstrual cycle induced hormonal roller coaster because I knew while I was crying that I was being ridiculous but I couldn’t stop. I miss my blogging, I have over 100 emails in my inbox that need to be answered, I have clients waiting to see their photos and hear back from me. I start telling myself that my blog will die, I won’t be able to start advertising, Jenna Cole will fail, because everyone will hate me do to slow response times and constant excuses about not having an internet connection, overall I’m just an emotional mess.

We were able to get things sorted out temporarily (obviously since I’m typing this post) but I’m really looking forward to the day when a fast and reliable connection is mine once again. I might be a bit more productive without it, but if I’m that much more stressed is it really worth it? I’m going to go with no.

Also:

• This is Why I Pay for A Pro
• Stroller Striding
• Cockroach Encounter

From left to right you see Seahorse, Starfish, Corn, Octopus, Hot Cocoa, Potato Chips, and Avocado (me!)

This is right before Seahorse got a ticket. Poor girl!

I adore Hot Cocoa. She is the bee that one day made TH say “There are some really accomplished women writing on that wedding blog.” He thought they were all unemployed childless non-graduated housewives like me.

How would I describe Potato Chips? Kick in the pants.

Corn wanted a new photo for her professional blogging gig (how cool is that?), so I did my best to work with the rain and give her a nice headshot.

Potato chips was there so I took a picture of her with her cute yellow umbrella.

And Octopus too!

Can I still be as obsessed with Weddingbee as I am now when I am 40+ and have 5+ kids? Thanks for the lovely time ladies!

After I spent the morning with the bee girls, I drove over to Rhode Island (yes it blows my mind that in one weekend I shot a wedding in Maine, slept in Boston, and had a smoothie in Rhode Island, you can’t do that kind of state hopping out west!) to spend some time with one of my very favorite bloggers in the whole wide world, Molly of These Little Moments. I took some pictures of her adorable son, who has the most delightful cartoon face I’ve ever seen on a baby, but I can’t show them here because she doesn’t post pictures of her son. So sad for all of you.  After spending a few hours with Molly I am now convinced that we would be BFFs if only we lived closer to each other.

Then again I’m convinced I could be BFFs with pretty much everyone I’ve encountered in my meetups so far. Looking forward to my next trip where I can meet some more of my internet friends! Technically that trip will be to Poland and possibly Italy. Anyone from those countries want to speak up and schedule something with me?

Also:

• No Related Post

This was the best rootbeer I’ve ever had. I actually haven’t opened the cream soda yet. Am I crazy, I hauled it all the way from Texas to Illinois! We just don’t drink a lot of soda so I need to wait until my next craving hit.

T1 enjoyed all of the attention he was getting.

Rachel of Fit, Fun, and Fabulous came and brought a gift. So sweet, right?

T1 is just starting to develop an interest in toys (really it’s just an interest to bring things into his mouth so he can gum them), but I’m not just being nice when I say that I think he really liked it. The combination of the dots and the soft ears and legs to chew on made it a win. Plus it’s a toy that he won’t outgrow for a long time to come, thanks Rachel!

That Wife, Rachel, and Amy (who was the winner of the Mommy and Baby photography session giveaway!). Lynn is taking the picture, somehow I forgot to get one with or of her.

And this is Marissa, who comments as Marissa C.

Thanks to all of the ladies who attended for coming out and keeping me from looking like a loser who hosts meetups with her baby as the only attendee (oh, and for the fabulous company you all were!)

I’m really looking forward to the Chicago meetup now. I’d definitely like to do it in my apartment, because I’m that crazy about our view. Anyone have any suggestions for what we should do? We don’t necessarily have to play games, but I’d like to plan something inexpensive and fun. Maybe everyone can show up in their workout clothes and we can have a Dance Dance Revolution dance-off? Ha! I’m guessing people are going to throw out different suggestions now that they’ve heard mine.

Also:

• No Related Post

Baby BoP and Baby Avo. T1 has such a HUGE head compared to her! They are only 5 days apart. I remember when BoP went into labor and I was so mad because she was due after me and I was so ready to have the baby out of my belly!

Hydrangea, BoP, Mouse, Avocado. TH came after we took this picture, and Fro-Yo was there as well but she wasn’t in our group shot because she was mistakenly at the wrong pool for a little while!

Baby Hydrangea is on the way.

Those swim trunks are for a 12 month old. He looks ridiculous in them.

I brought my waterproof camera down for some shots in the pool. Fro-Yo’s nieces had so much fun playing with it.

I am most definitely NOT good at being in underwater photos.

Fro-Yo is really good at it though!

Isn’t she darling?

Can you find Mr. Mouse in Mrs. Mouse’s glasses?

If any of the bees present would like a copy of the photos they are in send me an email! I’m exciting for our Chicago Bee get together this Saturday

Also:

• Sophia
• I’ll Sleep When I’m…
• Jagged vs. Lagged or English is Strange

Also:

• Operation Documenting Mothers and Babies
• A Whole New Level of Cuteness
• Avoid The Hard Light

We still don’t have all of our stuff. We used a company called Compass Van Lines and they come pack up your stuff in their truck, take the truck to a holding facility, and then group up everyones belongings according to the area of the country they are going. That way you get the experience of a full service move (i.e. someone packing up all your stuff for you and unloading it at your new place) but you pay a lot less. Of course there is one big drawback… we don’t have our stuff yet and we may not have it for something like two weeks. We’re making do with what we were able to pack in the Camry. One chair, a handful of utensils, a few articles of clothing, and of course all of our computers. We couldn’t live without those!

I have my computers, which is very necessary because I have a bazillion photos to edit, but we just found out today that we won’t have internet in our apartment for at least a week, maybe longer. I’m dying dying DYING as you can imagine. Posting will be sporadic, since it’s tough to drag a baby down to an internet location and still get anything done, but I’ll have lots and lots of photos to share when we are finally hooked up again!

We painted, I’ve been to the farmer’s market and started stocking up the kitchen again, we’re going to go do some shopping today and try to find me a desk so I don’t have to edit photos while sitting on the floor (what am I still doing down here in the laundry room writing on my blog?!?!). I just love life so much right now!

I’ll leave you with some photos that Kelli Nicole took when she was watching T1 a few weeks ago. I think I haven’t shared these already…. if I did I apologize for the repetition! The photos are hers, editing is mine.

I love him in this hat. These photos are my favorite.

Also:

• T1’s First Playdate
• Operation Documenting Mothers and Babies
• Baby Wearin’ Love

4 pm we made it! I signed my life away and have key in hand. Now I’m wrangling the babe while TH does the same. I’m realizing that moving into a high rise is going to be several vary ts of awful (especially since we are moving in on the busiest weekend of the year), but I adore the employee that is helping us, Krista, and I know she is going to make it as easy as possible.

I think all three of us are just happy to finally be out of our super cramped car! We had every nook and cranny that we weren’t sitting in packed full of the stuff we need for two weeks and anything we didn’t send on the moving truck.

I won’t have Internet until Monday, so we will as if I am able to post before then (business center maybe?) for now T1 and I are chilling on the grass enjoying the sunshine. I’ll check back in soon!
1 pm CST. I just finished a few hours of driving but TH has done most of it less thN 3 hours left!

Did I mention that I can’t see what I’m typing? Apparently I’ve been mKing some strange mistakes. Whoops!

I’ve been listening to a book about thr Columbine shooting while we drive. I cried several times and really like it so far. I think it seems very balanced.

With the stress of moving I’ve been really lax with my eating. Still committed to my new rules about meat eating but indulging in some refined carbs and way too much fat and sugar. I’m looking forward to my first trip to a Chicago farmers market and restocking our kitchen completely with food that fits our new way of eating.

Doesn’t sound like anyone other than Kristen can come to my paintin party, but I realize it was late notice. We will do something soon though!

I’m considering a virtual book club of my own, similar to what Blue-eyed bride is doing, but only for nonfiction books. I’m just kind of “over” fiction lately for some reason. Would anyone like to join in finishing a non fiction book wig me once a month? I haven’t worked out any other details in my mind.

It is 8 am CST and we are about halfway there. I still haven’t spent a single moment driving.

We are listening to In Defense of Food and TH is officially a believer. Hooray! Our new favorite books are Nurtureshock and In Defense of Food. You should read both.

U2 is tired of being in his car seat.

Apparently I have to update near the top because I am using the web browser and can no longer get the Wordpress app to work for That Wife. Anyone else ever had this problem?

We are in Oklahoma. I haven’t driven yet because TH is a rock star. I should be napping so I can take over for him soon.

We just took a nap in thenparking lot of a McDonalds.

Ree, Pioneer Woman, lives in Oklahoma. Does anyone know where exactly?

U2 is still sleeping. I’m grateful.

It took me 14 hours of straight work to clean the apartment from top to bottom and I still think we aren’t going to get our deposit back because it wasn’t good enough.

I love TH. He really is the one that made this move happen.

We took Grunty to Jason’s Deli at 9:30 pm tonight. It was incredibly classy.

Our car is loaded down with stuff like you wouldn’t believe.

Apparently the amount of stuff we had stuffed in our 1bed+den is comparable to the national average for a 2 1/2 bed. How do we have so much stuff?

I am covered in mosquito bites. Lately I always am.

The 500GB hard drive on my computer is full. TH finally agreed to get me 2 TBs.

We have two families in particular to thank for helping us move. To the G fam and thr L fam… we love you and we will miss you. Come join us at Booth next year!

Also:

• No Related Post

We survived the packing. I slept two hours last night, TH pulled an all nighter, and now the majority of our stuff has been loaded up into a moving truck and we are keeping our fingers crossed that we will see it all again within the next three weeks.

One of my wonderful visiting teachers (it’s an LDS thing where women are assigned in pairs to watch out for specific female members) took care of T1 for a few hours so that TH and I could take a nice long afternoon nap, and after a delicious lunch at Jason’s Deli we are ready to pack up the car with the clothes and toiletries we have set aside for the time we will be waiting for the moving truck, and clean the apartment from top to bottom, hoping the charges we have at move-out are minimal.

I wanted to get this up earlier today, but I suck and procrastinated everything so this probably won’t be very effective.

But if you want to come over and sort through this pile of stuff that’s going to get donated/thrown out you are free to do so. Clothes, food, books, other miscellaneous items. I’m going to post my address publicly since we’re moving in the morning and if you wanted to come rob us you wouldn’t be able to take anything except my socks and shampoo anyway!

We live on the opposite side of the street from the leasing office. You can call me at 214-233-5331* and I’ll give you the gate code when you get here (I don’t think my apartment complex or fellow neighbors would appreciate me posting that information publicly!) Second set of garages on the left, look for the white Toyota Camry that should be parked out front. We’ll be up late cleaning so feel free to come by anytime before midnight.

I won’t have time to answer questions about what you can specifically find in the pile, so please don’t call or email about specifics. If I do have a lot of people come by I’ll update this post with a new picture to give you an idea how much is left.

If our stuff takes a few weeks to get here I should be able to lots of blogging, because I won’t have anything to do other than paint and eat. Hooray! I said it yesterday, and I’ll say it again, I miss my daily updating!

*I’m changing this Google voice number when I move to Chicago, so yes, I’m also comfortable posting my phone number publicly. You can find it on the Jenna Cole site anyway!

Also:

• No Related Post

Send me a note at thatwife {at} gmail {dot} com if you want to come over and party with T1 and TH and TW. It will make the painting go so much faster, and I would love to meet some of you Chicagoans in person! Don’t worry if you aren’t available, I’m thinking a holiday party style meetup in November/December would be fun!

Oh, and the wedding in Maine this weekend was AMAZING. After 14 hours of shooting on Saturday I was definitely exhausted with aching feet, but I admit I was a little sad to say goodbye and see it all end. Pictures of that, and my time with the Boston Weddingbee writers coming soon!

Also, I miss my blogging. I just want this week (from heck) to be over already!

Also:

• No Related Post

Gah! I’m so excited. And a bit nervous. I’ve got the “dream team” of prime lenses though: 35 1.4, 50 1.2, 85 1.4, and 135 2.0, as well as my 16-35 2.8. Wish me luck! I’m very excited to be share the images with you in a few weeks (expect bunting and lots of it).

A few shots from mini “Mommy and Baby” winner session that I shot this week. The winner, Amy, is new to my old congregation, so we actually met each other on Sunday, she modeled for me on Monday, and then she came to my That Wife meetup at The Soda Gallery on Tuesday. Sad that this friendship won’t be continuing, I had a great time with you this week Amy!

Also:

• No Related Post

and saying hello to a lot of coupon clipping for diapers and the diaper genie for containing odors (or something just as good).

We’re giving up cloth diapers for our time in Chicago, and I’m really sad. The reason it took us so long to find an apartment is that I was holding out hope that we could have a washer/dryer in our apartment, but that just wasn’t an option based on what we found. We have laundry facilities in our basement, but there are two reasons why I’ll be converting to the dark side of  diapers (ha! I really don’t judge anyone who chooses to use them, really I don’t!).

First, I don’t feel right about washing the massive amounts of poop and pee that we put in our own w/d in a community set of washers. I’m just not committed enough to change our habits, and I think sometimes we need to think about what others would say if we are going to share a space with them. Just like I don’t play DDR late at night or early in the morning for the sake of my neighbors, I don’t want to be washing my dirty diapers in the same machine they will be using without their knowledge (I guess I could post a sign, but then everyone would hate me and I want to be liked you know? ) Yes, he will still poop and pee so much that it gets on clothes and blankets, but it will never be close to the volume we are putting through the washer right now.

Second, I will be living something like 30 floors up, and though we have an elevator, I don’t want to be visiting the laundry facilities every other day. I want to keep the house up, and blog, and edit photos, and cook, and sometimes sit on the couch with TH and watch 30 Rock. I can’t do any of those things while I’m sitting in the basement waiting for the diapers to dry.

I would love to do a diaper service, but if we want to graduate debt-free that isn’t something that fits in our budget. I’m going to keep the 6 gDiapers we have in medium and large, and we have some disposable inserts for those, and you’ll probably see those show up in photos from time to time (I refuse to take pictures of him just wearing a disposable diaper, I think they look really ugly). We’re also thinking about getting some bigger Thirsties covers in white and putting them over the disposables.

At least while we’re living in our new fabulous new high rise apartment, we’re going to be a disposable family. I love, love, love cloth diapering though. And if the reasons I listed above weren’t issues for me I wouldn’t be switching. If you’re curious about them, you should try the 21 day cloth diaper trial program from Jillian’s Drawers. I just sent mine back and I loved it! Very easy, and with tax and shipping cost us like $30. Now when we go back to cloth in a few years, we know what kinds we want to buy (or maybe we’ll try it again to see what new CDs they’ve come out with since then).

I have so many questions about disposables though!

1. If you have a long and slim baby (T1 is like 90th percentile for height and 50th percentile for weight) what type of diaper do you like best? Where do you buy them? Do you use coupons? What is your coupon system for diapers?

2. What made you choose a certain diaper brand over the other (bazillion) options?

3. Do all disposable diaper parents use diaper cream? We don’t with our cloth but I’m not sure if he just isn’t prone to rashes.

4. Do you have a diaper genie or equivalent diaper oder management keeper?

5. We’re thinking about buying some more Thirsties covers, and putting them over the disposable to help prevent blowouts, since he’s never (ever!) had one in cloth. Has anyone heard of people doing this?

Also:

• T1 Spends the Day with Kelli Nicole
• T1’s First Playdate
• Operation Documenting Mothers and Babies

The living room that I dream of every night since I left. Let’s not talk about how I let TH convince me not to take my 5DMKII body and so I wasn’t able to use my 16-35 to capture the entire room the way I could have. I won’t be listening to him again.

The view out one side.

TThe view out the other.

I took some pictures of the furnished model so TH could see how nice it looked with painted walls (and a coffee table!)

This is meant to be the master bedroom, but I think we’re going to make it the office. We spend more time at our computer than in our bedroom, and the view is a lot prettier from these windows.

I gave up a LOT of closet place for those windows in the living room. TH will get a room of his own once he’s mobile. For now, he’ll sleep wherever is most convenient!

Sick I know, but the unit hadn’t been cleaned yet when I toured it so it will be much better before we get there.

Much better with paint and real furniture, isn’t it? (Hint, hint, TH). Good news? I think we’re going to get a bed frame so our mattress isn’t sitting on the floor anymore. Fancy right?

We’ll use this as our bedroom.

The kitchen. The other downside to this apartment is the lack of light in the kitchen. It’s a bit of a hole.

Lots of cupboard space though. Hooray!

I’m really glad I took a picture of this one with all of the finishing. TH is convinced that painting is necessary in this room after I showed him this (blurry) photo.

This place has a few fun perks like an indoor pool (!!!)

A grill right by the pool.

And a fancy pants gym that even has fitness classes throughout the week!

One last look at the living room. Sigh. I’m going to put the dining room table in the far corner of this photo, so when we eat we’ll be able to look out over the whole city. The friends who put me up while I was there apartment hunting are going to be the first people we invite over to dinner. That view will contribute toward a nice thank you, right?

Also:

• Painting (and Bien Living)
• The Chicago Moving Saga
• Here! Here! I Want to Live Here!

Lately I’ve:

Had a nakie photoshoot with T1

Traveled to Chicago

And found an apartment with a view like this out the living room window (I took that from the very apartment we’ll soon be living in!)

Did a super quick 4 month shoot with T1

Had another Aspirations sessions with the sister of a former roommate acting as a model. She has convinced me that I need to start recruiting girls from dance studios to be in front of the camera. She’s a dancer and she was so graceful in front of the camera.

The Texas Weddingbee writers got together and had a pool party! Somehow I convinced everyone to do it at my complex, and several people drove up from Austin to come. You can see Mr. Mouse having a good time in the pool reflected in the glasses of Mrs. Mouse. T1 was able to meet Baby Bop. They are only 5 days apart and when he saw her for the first time he laughed. Really he laughed!

Last night we had some dinner with friends. I thought the strawberry cake I made was going to be a bomb, but it turned out to be delicious. I’ll post the recipe so you can try it yourself.

We let T1 fall alseep in the other room while we stayed up playing rock band (I’m sure the neighbors were cursing us for it).

Today I woke up and did the session with the mother and baby giveaway winner. I have a client consultation at lunch, and dinner with some of TH’s coworkers from Company X at a place in Dallas called Central 214.

Tuesday I have the That Wife meetup at The Soda Gallery (I hope those in Dallas will come!), and Wednesday I have another shoot.

Thursday I’m getting on a plane and flying in to Boston, then driving over to Maine for a wedding on Friday and Saturday.

I’ll be having brunch on Monday with the Weddingbee writers in Boston, and the afternoon afternoon will be spent with Molly of These Little Moments, then a flight back to Dallas late that night.

Tuesday I have a mini maternity session, Wednesday the movers come, and Thursday we are getting in the car and starting our drive up to Chicago. EEEEEEEKKKK!

Basically, I shouldn’t really have time for updating That Wife. As usual though, I’m sure I’ll be stopping in daily or close to it even if it’s just to put up a few pictures. The madness will all be over soon, right?

Also:

• Sophia
• Texas Bee Pool Party
• T1 Spends the Day with Kelli Nicole

I know going to a blogger meetup can feel a bit strange, like you’re doing something that is kind of “nerdy” or “weird”. It’s not nerdy and it’s not weird! No nerdier or weirder than reading my blog everyday, anyway. Just come, okay?

And for your daily dose of T1 cuteness, look at those little monkey toes!

This is my baby blessing blanket, and it’s our favorite for several reasons. The biggest being the way he threads his fingers and toes through the little holes. The cuteness! I die!

Also:

• T1 Spends the Day with Kelli Nicole
• I’ll Sleep When I’m…
• High Chairs and Little Dogs

The hostess offered a high chair, and I thought we’d give it a try (I had brought in the Moby but it is pretty hard to eat while wearing him, I’m always dropping stuff on his head).

He is not ready for high chairs yet.

The best part about having lunch with a fellow photographer? You can hand your camera over and expect some great pictures!

I’m trying to force encourage him to look into the light. As TH is always saying to me half-jokingly, “It’s all about the pictures!”

Still rockin’ those baby blues!

Yay! More pictures of the two of us!

T1 also had his first encounter with a dog. We dropped him off at a friend’s house while we went to the temple, and were told that Lolita (the dog) gave T1 lots of kisses. Good! There is a (very small) body of evidence that suggests that pet exposure can help ward off allergies in children.

By the time we got back he seemed done with the whole dog thing.

(The temple was amazing though! New chandelier in the Celestial room that I stared at for several minutes with my mouth hanging open in awe. If you haven’t seen it yet you should go.)

Also:

• T1 Spends the Day with Kelli Nicole
• I’ll Sleep When I’m…
• Dallas Meetup, August 17th 2010