Naturally Optimistic

Yup - 5:28am...the babe is fed & dressed, we're mostly packed and shortly on our way. Bye!

So we're leaving for CA tomorrow and quite frankly I have mixed emotions... For one, I'm TOTALLY squishy...and yes, I know, I had a baby 3 months ago so no one will hold it against me - except me. I don't like it. I don't fit into *normal* clothes and all my t-shirts are so shrunk up from years (decades? yes, I found a t-shirt from college in my dresser today...) that with my new large mid-section they DEFINITELY don't fit. So I had to go shopping today for a few casual but in style short sleeved shirts and I was nearly in tears in Old Navy. I found a few things that looked better at Penney's but MAN it's depressing. I'm trying to adhere by the WHAT NOT TO WEAR mantra of who cares what the size is as long as it looks good and makes you feel good but seriously? I'm not happy. The other thing is...I'm going to miss my baby. It's weird. I've been with her nearly ALL of her life and while I know I will enjoy getting away, sleeping in, having ...

I had a insulation guy come over today to see about getting our house properly insulated because we are SICK of being cold and spending so much on heating oil. And if we're going to be here through another heating season, I'd like to have it be more economical & efficient. Well, the insulation guy was very nice but told me that for the tiny attic that we have, it probably won't be worth it. Plus they have to take out all the cellulose that is up there and cover our FIRE HAZARD of wire & knob & tube or whatever it's called wiring which is ancient. *sigh* I'm glad he was honest with me and I would probably call this guy first if we move and need insulation, but I'm bummed that that's not going to help us out. He actually suggested we look into getting a gas furnace (we have a gas line to the house already) as a high-efficiency gas furnace would probably cut our heating costs by 50% and that's WITHOUT more insulation. Ah sometimes being a homeow...

Having a few of those days. Blah. Hoping that a few days in sunny CA will help.

I always offer to bring dessert to my MIL's because it's what I *make best* (IMHO)and she's a great cook...and I suck at salads. This Easter was no different. So I pulled out the Martha Stewart Baking Handbook to pick a recipe for Easter Sunday. I thought lemon would be springy and picked the Lemon Curd Cake. Read through - sounded easy! I'll be done in a snap! Um, yeah. I spent 5 hours on Saturday making this cake. Well, more specifically the lemon CURD. This cake took forever. It also took more eggs, butter & sugar than I thought possible (16 yokes just for the curd!!!!!). By time I finished the cake I didn't have time to frost the thing. So I made the frosting and refrigerated it for the night. Well, long story short, when I went to frost the cake yesterday - the frosting separated (even though I followed the directions on how to get it back to a spreadable consistency), then I could get the paper cornet w/decorating tip to stay together to put the decora...

As of about an hour ago we have a ROUGH CUT of GOD ROCKS ! WAAAAAAAAAHOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!! :)

I took Dahlia on the Lakewalk for the first time yesterday. It was such a beautiful day and we had been in the office all day and decided it was a good time to get out. I work very close to the Lakewalk and enjoy walking there. With the stroller it's not problem. Everything is accessible which is very nice. Of course it would've been nice if they had SHOVELED the ramp leading from the "Park Place" Park (is that what it's called? Lake Place? I can't remember) to the actual lakewalk...the STAIRS were cleared. IT seems to me it would make more sense to clear the path that EVERYONE can use....Of course the top of the ramp (it zig zags back & forth) was clear but about 1/2 way down....it was LOADED with snow. I half dragged, half carried the stroller through - only to encounter more snow later. I was stuck. Half way up half way down. Ugh. It was like taking the baby off road. It sucked. And I am sure I looked like a jack ass along the way. Ah well, Dahlia slept...

Approx $26 Target Brand Formula - Approx $13.... And Dahlia seems to eat it no problem!

I am a little belated in doing this....and a little light on subject matter this week so... Here we go - let's see how I did in '07: Health/Body 1. Ski/Hike a couple times a week, or at least go for a walk outside. [ Mostly... ] 2. Sit ups/arm weights [ Not so much - I blame the pregnancy ] 3. Stop eating so much. [ Yeah, I did better on this one, blame the GD! ] 4. More water!! [ Yup!! ] 5. More salads, less chips. [ Still working on this one ] 6. Ride my new bike more. [ I did good on this one til my center of gravity shifted! ] Travel/Adventure 1. Lots of camping! [ Some - more this summer! ] 2. Visit a trail you’ve never been on before at least once every other month. [ I did pretty good on this one including hiking in the mountains of Sweden! ] 3. Keep writing in hiking journal/add digital pictures [ No, didn't do this... ] 4. Go to Sweden [ Check! ] Arts/Crafts 1. Knit lots of baby blankets [ Accomplished...5 baby blankets last year. Whew! ] 2. Make more gifts instea...

I lost my garage door opener last week. It sucks. I know, I know. Big deal I have to get out of the car and key in the code to open the door. I am glad I even HAVE a garage. It just is a pain. Luckily the weather hasn't been ass cold lately or it would REALLY suck. I suppose I have to get off my lazy butt and get a new opener. Hmph.

We had a good weekend....here are some highlights: Meigan and her family were in town to visit the in-laws and do a bit of late season skiing. They stopped by to say hello and meet Miss Dahlia. I hadn't seen Meigan in a few yeas (although - DUH I saw them at the NEWTON'S premiere a couple years ago) She has graciously embarrassed me on her site with some LOVELY pictures - go check them out and tell me you don't LOVE my pants. Anyhoo - it was great to see Meigan & the gang. Her girls are SO sweet. It makes me excited for Dahlia's fun future!! She also brought us some yummy chicken & rice soup which we ate last night for dinner - so good!! And a gift for little Dahlia and a bag full of samples from her work - I'm set! Meigan it was GREAT to see you! I'm looking forward to the next visit - there were so many subjects we didn't even touch on!! I got my hair cut & colored: Of course it looked cute the first day but I cannot recreate that look. It als...

I forgot how good this movie is. I haven't seen it in years and had gotten it from Netflix a couple months ago but couldn't get excited about watching it (+ having an newborn cuts into the movie-watching time). I love the time this film takes. There's not a ton of plot and that doesn't matter. There are immensely long one-shots that meander here and there. Sometimes revealing a bigger picture, sometimes not. It also BREATHES. Long, deep, desperate breaths. This tone is set during the opening titles and is repeated throughout with montages or one-shots set to Simon & Garfunkel's music. Another thing I love about films from this era (late 60's to late 70's) - if the room is dark, the shot's dark; if someone walks in front of the camera, so be it; it's so much more voyueristic and REAL feeling than a lot of films produced today. I love that quality a whole lot. I hate writing reviews because I think I suck at it but there ya go. I really enjoyed wat...

Needless to say - I am amazed by the changes. Oh my sweet Dahlia, you're growing up so fast.

Guess who's up... and guess who's still sleeping... Hmmmm - sleeping in tomorrow is REQUIRED!

Success! Well, we just showed the PREMIERE of the trailer for GOD ROCKS at this conference art gala thingy and it was good. It was a bit hard because the venue was more set up for mingling than watching a presentation but it worked well and the people who saw our trailer seemed to respond well and well, I think it went good! I was NERVOUS but that seems to be unfounded so A BIG WHEW on that front. Tomorrow I will be attending the conference all day and hopefully it will be energizing and enthusiastic! Dahlia is spending the day with Grandma B so that should be fun. :) I'll post the link as soon as we have GOD ROCKS live on our site...until then, good night!

But it's all sticky & wet and supposed to be around 40 here today by this afternoon so....I guess I'll have to live with it. I'm just SO OVER winter already. Sheesh.

The day that we have to be at the office at 9am...guess who's still sleeping? (*it's not me...)

Here is a little something I've been working on on the side... It hasn't officially launched yet - so take this as your special EXCLUSIVE (ha!) sneak peek! What do you think?

It's sunny & warm* today! (*45? I'll TAKE IT!) The yucky crusty dirty snow is MELTING and I am so happy. It feels springish....not quite springy but close. We need the lovely scent of spring for it to be springy... But I am happy that we have had the return of daylight savings time and a SUNNY day! Wahhooo! I get over-anxious and want to sit out in the backyard but...it's really not quite weather for that yet. Besides our patio table is still covered in snow....doh! Tomorrow? High of 34 and light snow.....I'm hoping for a higher high and no snow. I'm ready for SPRING!

Yesterday was a day of a lot of firsts... First time Dahlia went to Best Buy - boy was she intrigued by those tall ceilings. She really wanted to go home with a 50" HDTV but I was strong and resisted her baby jedi-mind tricks and told her no. Not until she can at LEAST sit up... First time in the fabric store. Ooh! All the colors. Sadly (for Mama) she seemed to enjoy the electronics store much better. First time she HELD ON TO SOMETHING. I loved this. I don't think she *knew* she was holding on to something - just that something was *different.* We could put a rattle near her hand and she *sort of* grabbed for it and would hold on and then flail about either 1) playing/shaking it or 2) trying to get the danged thing off her hand. Hard to tell. First time she went for a stroller ride/walk to the park! It was cold, yes but it felt a bit more springy yesterday for the first time in ...I don't know, a year so off we went. Sadly she slept through most of it. At one point she lo...

Sleeping in with Miss Dahlia.... Well, Blogger won't let me upload any more photos right now so I guess you just get this one. Two lovely morning snuggle sessions with my sweetie pie daughter & husband. ;) I love it! Also - driving up the North Shore; hiking at Split Rock State Park (the ski trails were BEYOND horrible); quality time with my husband; "Swedish baby" photo shoot this afternoon in Dahlia's crib (hee hee); my awesome husband scrubbing the bathtub; using my new fabric scissors for the first time; family dinner at Steve's Dad's house; daylight savings - OUT OF THE DARKNESS! I'm hoping the time change hasn't totally mucked up Dahlia's schedule. She's been a bit off today and I'm hoping for at least a 5 hour stretch tonight...we shall see....

I can't seem to figure out the sleeping thing. My sleeping, the baby's sleeping, etc. For instance - Wednesday night she did great - slept from about 11 til 5:18am. Yay! Then at just after 7 I brought her into bed with me so we could snuggle (read: I just wasn't ready to get up). It was lovely and after about an hour she fell asleep again hard core. Her baby snores are too adorable. I also got some extra winks and woke up feeling great. But is that too much? Should we be getting up at 7 and starting our day so then she can have a morning nap? Yesterday she slept almost all afternoon and I feared for her sleeping situation last night but she wasn't interested when I tred to stimulate her (changing diapers, bringing her home from the office, etc). Sure enough she ate at about 11 and then again at 3 - ugh! She wouldn't go back down at 4 and by 6 I brought her in with me where we slept a little bit. Am I still supposed to "sleep when the baby sleeps" (as I was...

I'm having dinner out tonight with Julie who I went to college with but we have been quite terrible about getting together over the past 4 years or so. She visited me during the dark days of January when I was trying to adjust to having a newborn and I appreciated it so much. So, tonight we're going to have dinner and a glass of wine or two sans wee ones and it will be fun. Luckily the nausea from last night has abated but I am still experiencing TERRIBLE hair. Something I must remedy before the California trip (3 weeks - whohoo!)

I'm feeling nauseous this evening and I really hope its a passing fancy because I do not have time to be sick...again. Ugh.

Well, I figured I wouldn't get that great of sleep last night. Dahlia slept for most of the afternoon and I had to sort of wake her up to eat dinner. She & I read part of THE PILLARS OF THE EARTH around 9 or so and she fell asleep in my arms. I put her down and there were no problems. I figured she might be up again around 10:30 to eat and sure enough! Just as I was falling asleep she was waking up. She also got up to eat at about 3:30 which was an hour shy of what I was hoping for. Luckily she went back down at 4:30 for another couple of hours which was good. I knew blogging about her recent decent sleep habits would bite me in the ass. Ah well. I had something else to say today but I'll be damned if I can remember it. Hmph.

The doctor's appointment went well yesterday. Dahlia weighed in at 9lbs 1oz! That's 4 lbs since her lowest on December 18th. She is 22 inches long. She's getting tall. That places her in the 3rd percentile & 15th percentile respectively. My Mom said I was usually in the 3rd percentile. Like mother like daughter! She took the shots great. Yes, she screamed but not for too long and she was generally not too upset by them. She drank the Rotavirus vaccine like it was candy so that was good (granted she was HUNGRY by the time we got seen...). I was worried that she would be cranky & feverish last night but instead we spent an hour snuggled up watching the Barbara Walters Royals special and she went to bed before 10pm. Slept til 4:20 - made mama happy. No fever, went back to sleep like a champ and seems to be doing great today! *She's sitting in her new space-saver high chair - she loves being at table height with us!

I haven't been posting details of Dahlia's goings on because I'm pretty sure I will jinx it but oh well, here goes.... Dahlia has been doing great. Aside from her cold from a couple weeks ago she's been just wonderful, really. She has stopped screaming her head off when I change her diaper (although still screams when I put a onesie over her head and when I take her out of the bath), she has been SLEEPING from between 10-11 til around 4am every night! For a week! One day she even slept til 5am! I thought I had died and gone to heaven. She's been going back to sleep for a couple hours after that feeding too so thankfully I am feeling much more even-keeled with a decent amount of sleep. Hallelujah! I can see the light! She also has, I'm pretty sure, started smiling. Steve & I can get her to give us the cutest looks...they're not super plentiful (yet) but we are happy to get what we can. She's SO much more interactive! She actually LOOKS at us and follo...