The Never Ending Countertop Quest Part 2: The Reckoning

Posted by Nick in Building on January 29, 2014  ||  44 Comments

So yesterday Amber talked about us driving all over God’s green earth looking for marble for our island. It was arduous to say the least. I was completely worn out and was just over the whole process. I didn’t want to go to anymore slab yards. The last thing I wanted to talk about was marble. This led to this poignant text in which Amber said what we were both thinking.

Agreed sweetheart. Agreed.

Above was the marble slab that we agreed to use. It wasn’t perfect. The fact that it was only 2cm thick, meant that we would have to miter the edges to get the look that we wanted.


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This was the image we gave our marble fabricator with the instructions: “MAKE IT LOOK LIKE THIS”

The slab wasn’t perfect, but we were happy and ready to move on. Maybe not Jack-on-the-edge-of-the-Titanic-happy, but at least as happy as this guy:

We moved on.

Then… *cue dramatic music*…. we started getting messages from the fabricator. They weren’t liking the idea of mitering the marble because they were afraid it wouldn’t hold up well. They asked if they could laminate the edge instead.

They dropped off a sample of what the edge would look like (notice seam through the middle). Needless to say that wouldn’t work. So they would miter it. We moved on.

A few days later the fabricator sent us some pics of our slab with their attempt to miter the edges. It turned out that (according to what we were told after some questioning), they didn’t have equipment to miter a countertop as long as ours (about 9ft) and were cutting it by hand. The result was a jagged edge which meant a bigger (and sloppier looking) seam. Not going to work either.

(Here’s an aside from the brain of Nick, free of charge: Let’s be honest, the build process is a complete beat down. It’s exhausting. Your subs will make tons of mistakes, and you have to either make the decision to live with it or make them redo it. We, as a couple, have stuck to our guns throughout the whole build process. Would we have been as bad if we didn’t have a blog? I don’t know, but I do empathize with those people who are just sick of waiting and just want it be done. It’s tough and the crappiest part about all of this is you feel like a jerk even though you’re not the one that made the mistake.)

So we talked to our builder, and he told the fabricator to find someone that could make the cuts cleaner and send the slab over to them.

A few days went by and we didn’t hear anything. Then we got a call from the fabricator who said they were returning the 2 cm slab. There was a new 3cm calacatta slab at a yard we had visited months previously, and we should go look at it.

We hesitantly agreed. Mainly because we didn’t want to do this whole thing over again but didn’t have a choice.

So I went by myself. I waited at the front for 30 mins to be helped. Once someone told me where the slab was, I walked around back and there she was… the most beautiful piece of stone that ever existed. I called Amber and said “That’s it. That’s the one.” and I moved on.

Think we’re done? Not quite. I know no one is still reading this, so I’d like to take this time to say that Amber doesn’t like the song “Sunday, bloody Sunday” and that makes sad on the inside.

For some reason, probably just because… well, this is the way things have gone on this project, our fabricator sent us to look at another slab after we had already agreed on the calcutta one. I drove all the way (by myself again) to North Dallas to look at it for no reason. Well, you will notice, it’s not even the same kind of marble and had blue veins.

At this point I was screaming PLEASE BABY JESUS. NO MORE STONE. NO MORE MARBLE YARDS. I WILL DO ANYTHING.

For the final time, we called the fabricator and said we liked the 3cm calacatta marble that we already told you to get. Please, just use that one. We moved on.

Finally a week or so later, Amber texted me this pic. The top was finally on, and as you can see for yourself it was perfect. So. Damn. Perfect.

I was at work, but that doesn’t mean that I didn’t get up and give it one of these… cause I did.

I couldn’t wait to get to the house and see it. And let me tell you, it was just as (if not even more) incredible in person. I maintain that it is the single most beautiful piece of stone I’ve ever seen… especially since it meant I didn’t have to go to any more slab yards.

After the top was on, they made templates for the waterfalling of the sides.

Then a couple of days later… well you know the drill. Floor-to-counter straight sexiness.

Pretty much spot on for what we were looking for. (Side Note: The floors are dirty in the pic and look weird for some reason, you probably didn’t notice though because you were too busy looking at them countertops.)

We’re done. It’s over. No more countertop discussions. The crazy thing is, writing this post caused me to relive all of the emotion / stress / anxiety / pain / frustration / et al that we encountered during this process, and I probably won’t sleep well tonight because of it.

In the end we’re ecstatic at the way it turned out. I might even go as far as to say that we’re jumping for joy.

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The Never Ending Countertop Quest Part I

Posted by Amber in Building on January 28, 2014  ||  25 Comments

Yes getting a countertop for the island was such a long and draining process it requires 2 parts, and the use of quest in the title. The house was really coming together with the wood floors finished, but it was such a bummer to walk in and see no countertop on the island. Remember the Carrara marble was way too gray, so we had to find another white with gray marbling option for the island. It was kinda like a slap in the face every visit to the house (which by the way happens at least once a day). The prospect of getting what we wanted for the island was bleak especially since we were told there were no Calcutta slabs long enough for our island at ANY slab yard in the DFW area.

We decided to look into Quartzite countertops. Quartzite is different from Quartz which is much better explained in this link than I could attempt. I called our fabricator to ask for his distributor. I sent him pictures of which Quartzite we wanted to look at, so he would make sure they had it before we headed out with 2 kids. He called a place in Dallas and said they had Super White but not Luce di Luna. However he mentioned that sometimes the names change, so they might have that option too.

We headed out to Dallas which is about an 1 and a half drive from where we live with both kids. We got there, and the place didn’t sell Quartzite at all. Only Quartz which super white was just a plain white counter. I may or may not have punched a piece of Quartz so hard it broke in half. (That didn’t happen. I thought I’d add it for dramatic effect as if this story needs more drama.)

There was a stone place next door, so we went there because why the heck not we just drove over an hour for nothing. We walked in and what did we see first thing…a slab of Calcutta marble long enough to cover the island. This picture does not do this slab justice. It was gorgeous even in the disgusting light of a warehouse.

I called our fabricator and griped about the Quartz place. He did try to argue that there was no difference between Quartz and Quartzite. I did not send him a link to their differences, but I did think about it. At this point I was frustrated and also feeling like a huge brat for being frustrated. (Definitely feeling the glaring shamefulness of first world problems.) I told him to call the place next door and get this Calcutta slab.

Unfortunately, he had never worked with that slab yard, so he came back with an insanely expensive price. Totally worth the beauty of that Calcutta marble, but absolutely out of budget and not going to happen. However he suddenly found a slab that might work at the original warehouse we got our Absolute Black.

Are you still reading? Someone get you a medal. So we got to the other slab yard (no. 3 for the day) which was another hour drive and doesn’t allow children. We had to take shifts watching the kids. Guess what we found? Some quartzite. We figured might as well explore this option while we’re here since we thought it might be cheaper. Mainly it is more durable than marble which is a huge concern for an island in a home with 2 kids.

This is Sea Pearl Quartzite. The price was about the same as the Calcutta was going to be (possibly a little more since we needed 2 slabs). The Calcutta slab that was the right size wasn’t at this slab yard…it was at the one in Dallas!! Nick was ready to just get the Sea Pearl since we’d seen it, and this whole process took us literally the entire day 9-5. I wasn’t sold on it, but once I relented (mainly due to exhaustion) he checked it out again and decided I was, in fact, right there was too much green in it. We left for our 45 min drive home knowing that we’d have to go to Dallas the next morning to look at a Calcutta slab since we already learned our lesson about buying a slab before looking at it.

Loaded up the kids the next morning for day 2 of countertop shopping. Nothing says family time like a trip to a marble yard that doesn’t allow kids. Again this slab was prettier than it’s pictured. There was more movement and more brown to it than we wanted. I know you can’t really see the brown, but it was there.

We said get it. End the torture now. It is a 2 cm Calcutta Danby. Finally we could tell the fabricator get this one. After my many hours at the warehouse the day before, I learned a lot about edges and all things countertops. I told our guy we wanted a mitered edge on this countertop. End of story…oh wait no there’s a 2nd part. More drama and a beautiful reveal tomorrow.

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Nursing Mom’s Guide to Dressing While Breastfeeding

Posted by Amber in Guide, Style on January 23, 2014  ||  26 Comments

The Nursing Moms Guide to Dressing Your Post Pregnancy Body for Breastfeeding Ease

I will admit there are many days when this nursing mom picks pajamas as an outfit, but there’s something about getting into real clothes that makes you feel better and be more productive. It’s just so difficult to find clothes that work with your every 2 hour feeding schedule and the overall change in your body composition (well hey there 15 pounds of baby weight you’re still here?).

I nursed Ramona for a year, so I have had to nurse and work even if that’s not the case with Beckett. I wanted to write this as sort of an encouragement to all the moms who are balancing life and nursing. Here’s to looking great while doing it.

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Go ahead and buy stock in button down shirts. You will be wearing them for pretty much as long as you choose to breastfeed. I do wear blousey shirts from time to time. If I have to nurse in public, there is just too much material between the pulled up shirt and the nursing cover. Beckett does not approve (lots of crying involved). It gets too hot. Nursing becomes frustrating etc, etc.

Pull out a boyfriend button down. Pair it with a cute cardigan and some flats. This formula works so well you’ll keep going back to it, so keep things interesting by mixing patterns. You will wear your hair up because 1) your hair falls out by the handfuls after you deliver and 2) baby will pull your hair with their surprisingly strong grip. You need this DIY hair tie, so make one. It’s the right addition when you’re sick of your usual top knot/messy bun.

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Pumping frees you up a bit with regard to wearing layers. You aren’t having to juggle a baby with the multiple pieces of clothing, so you can layer away. Tucking in your shirt and wearing a skirt at your waistline is going to make you appear thiner i.e. trick people into thinking the baby weight vanished. I love how this skirt drapes and is knee length.

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Yes date nights will be possible…eventually. You will have to pump at some point either on the way there or home or both. I just slip my cover on, pull my dress over my shoulder, and pump in the car. It’s not as easy as a button down but still possible.

When you need to wear a dress, think wrap dresses, shirt dresses, cross front dresses, jersey dresses that pull down, or button front dresses. I like to wear dresses that pull in at the waist, but you can belt any dress.

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I prefer to wear nursing tanks instead of bras. They are great for day and night, but don’t work out in them because there’s no support. (But who needs to work out when you’re burning all those calories nursing? This girl. Desperately. Ugh last 10 pounds.)

A pair of statement earrings and sunglasses go a long way. You can hide the rough nights with those handy accessories. I am not much of a casual jewelry person anyway, but I’m really not a fan of necklaces while nursing. They seem to get in the way or baby pulls on them. A scarf is a better option. Plus it can hide what’s left of the baby weight or a boob leak (yep that happened).

I can’t stress the necessity of button down shirts enough. If you are buying new pieces, pick shirts with small prints since they are more flattering. A chambray shirt and a black boyfriend cardigan can be layered with everything. They are basics that you will reach for more than a few times.

Hope that helps all you nursing friends out there because breastfeeding is hard enough without having to worry about what you wear. It does get easier and is so worth it though! I’m working on a newborn essentials post, so look for that!

Any of you nursing mama’s have any wardrobe tricks that have helped you?

Some affiliate links included.

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Wood Floors Complete

Posted by Amber in Building on January 21, 2014  ||  30 Comments

When we last left our wood floors, they had just been nailed down and in a gorgeous raw state. This was pre painting as you can tell from the walls and doors.

They partially covered the floors while painting. Mainly near the baseboards, so when it was time to finish the floors they looked something like this. Hot mess of paint and grim on all the uncovered portions and still the raw beauty on the parts that were covered.

Even though the floors had been down for months. We had to wait for them to acclimate to the space with the air conditioner on. It was a painful wait since we were delayed electrically, and there was nothing going on at the house.

First order of business was to use wood filler to well fill the holes and what not throughout the floor. Not pretty but necessary.

The floors were sanded to get all the filler and other nastiness from the painting and etc. Then they hand scraped them. You can see the guy scraping them here on the already sanded floor for our stain samples.

Our floor guy who is awesome (locals can email me if you need his contact info) started with a chestnut stain. It was lighter than our previous floors which was great because we wanted something different. Nutmeg went on. Lighter but still not sure if it’s exactly what we wanted. Honestly I liked both and would have been happy with either, but I like to see ALL my options.

The lightest we could have gone would have been to just seal them with poly. The problem with that option is we have red oak floors, so there was too much red tone to be a beautiful blonde Scandinavian floor. Golden Oak was slightly lighter than the Nutmeg. It was actually the color I wanted for the kitchen shelves, but that wood took the stain in a very unattractive way. Think smeared poo.

Look at our pine stain board and see the difference between the Golden Oak on pine there and red oak here. Isn’t it amazing how woods react to the same thing in such different ways? I liked the Golden Oak the most. I thought it gave us the lightest floor possible but hid the majority of the red tones.

We chose to hand scrape them with the wood grain and just a medium scraping. I wanted just enough scrape that scratches (hello 2 dogs + 2 kids + Nick) could hide but not a heavy scrape that wouldn’t fit with the modern vibe we are trying to throw down.

These shavings were all over the floor after they finished.

The final product. Beautiful light floors. You can tell they still have red undertones which would have disappeared with a darker stain. I’m glad we went lighter though.

They look great with the white walls/trim and the black doors. Beckett’s closet has a pocket door. It looks so small here, but it’s not that much smaller than a typical doorway.

How cute is Beckett hanging out in his empty nursery? Answer: Very cute. Poor kid has been lugged around this house in a carrier his entire life. We didn’t bring him in when they were painting and staining, but he’s watched the progress all from his Chicco.

He may look unimpressed, but it’s just his poker face. Or he is generally just pondering when we are going to live here.

 

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That time I had Inappropriate Feelings about Tile

Posted by Amber in Bathroom, Building on January 20, 2014  ||  50 Comments

Remember how I (very casually) mentioned Nick was really into coffee? That + Intelligentsia coffee are responsible for the rest of this story.  And why I can function in the morning. But mainly those gorgeous tiles.

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Yes that is our same Blue and White tile all over Intelligentsia Coffeebar in Silver Lake. If you are a coffee nerd, these tiles will pop up in your instagram feed. When we saw them, we had to have them…like one needs coffee in the morning.

There was some debate on if we should do the blue and white or the black and white option. I was nervous about doing the entire bath. I tire of patterns easily, and it’s not exactly a cheap. Oh the decisions! We settled on blue (go bold or go home) and just doing the floor of the shower (maybe not too bold). We ordered 38 square feet of the Fez tile from Granada Tile.

The shower angles in, so we had to figure out the placement of the pattern. We could 1) have it square up with the entrance and be at a 45 degree angle throughout the shower space (bottom option) or 2) the entrance could be at a 45 degree angle and the pattern would be squared up with the shower area.

We decided to angle in the entry since the shower part is the largest area. It made the most sense to have the pattern squared there. Plus angling in leads your eye into the shower.

*Just note the floor hasn’t been cleaned which explains the dullness on some of the blue. I just couldn’t wait to show you. Who knows when they will finish and clean the shower. I didn’t have supplies at the house or I would have.

Nick is standing on our shower seat for this shot of the squared up floor. We are in love. It changes the entire space.

It’s so bold with the classic white subway tile and shower head. I look at this and just think I’m going to have so many shower in there.

So beautiful! I’m regretting not doing the entire bathroom floor. The tiles are cement and super heavy which explains the shipping costs. They are supposed to open a store in Houston soon in which case I will redo the entire house, so look for that post.

More on the master bath progress – cement floor, countertop drama, and the claw foot tub. Stay tuned for the lighting in there. You can follow us on Facebook, Twitter, Bloglovin or any other social media listed in the right column.

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Year 2…

Posted by Amber in Uncategorized on January 16, 2014  ||  28 Comments

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Happy Birthday to Wills Casa! We have officially been blogging for 2 years now. Pretty crazy. Okay not really that crazy, but the fact that most of last year was blogging while we didn’t even own a casa is pretty impressive.

Thanks for reading during a very strange and unpredictable year.

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Contrary to human development, we will not be entering our terrible 2’s. This is going to be the best year yet. The house will eventually (maybe??) be finished. We are going to actually get to finish rooms. We’ve been talking a lot about what we want the blog to look like. There will be some content changes to reflect our interests and show you a little more us. Nick is a killer home chef and a coffee genius.

We are working through how all of this is going to look in between our building checks and regular parental responsibilities. It’s our pillow talk. We whisper sweet blog nothings to each other…very quietly since we cosleep with Beckett. (Someone get that kid a nursery.)

Here’s to another year friend and some crazy news and a beautiful house reveal (hopefully).

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Shut the Front Door

Posted by Amber in Building on January 14, 2014  ||  42 Comments

Like all good building stories this one starts with getting a bid for a front door that was twice our budget. It was also fugly. So we starting pulling images to convey the exact look that we wanted, and our thought process went something like this… (This process was so long ago that I lost the sources of the images. I thought I had them pinned but negative.)

We liked this single door option. It has an eyebrow arch which would contrast to our arched doorways. I liked that there were windows since we are all about the windows around here, but there weren’t enough windows.

Another eyebrow arch option.  I loved the double doors. It made the entrance look grander. The lines on this one are killer too. Plus there was divided light windows like the rest of the windows.

This pretty much sold me on having a full arched door. I also loved that it was almost entirely windows. So pretty!

We were able to nail down this door for nearly our budgeted amount. The double doors seemed like the best fit for the front elevation. Plus the fully rounded arch looks great with all the other arches around the casa.

As much as I love colored doors, the best thing at this point was to stain it ebony. We’ve talked about our uncertainty about how the outside is shaping up color wise. I think there is probably team stained door out there too.

Since we wanted a lighter stain for the wood floors, ebony for the door seemed like the best choice to avoid a clash of stains. If I was a better blogger I would have a picture of the door with the hardware and in its final state. This is why you should just follow me on instagram because I’ll post a picture of it since I know it’s missing on the blog now.

I also want to apologize for skipping around. I really, really wanted to give you an update on the master bath, but it’s a wreck. It’s really hard to show room reveals (if you can even call showing an undecorated space a reveal) when I have no control over what happens when. Sorry guys. I will have to do another video walk through once we get in, so you can see everything all at once all finished…whenever that may be. A blog post for another time.

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Master Bath Smooth Operator

Posted by Amber in Building on January 8, 2014  ||  26 Comments

We skipped straight to the countertop drama in the master bath before we showed you our tile business in here. Mainly because the floors weren’t done in there, so it was pointless.

When we picked out the tile for the kids bath, we were entertaining shades of gray (completely unrelated to the books) tile for the master bath.

If you are wondering what going on in the nook, remember they had to take out the framing and what not because I decided I wanted a claw foot tub. It’s just what’s left of the framing for the original drop in tub plan and pre sheetrock around that area.

They had to cut into the slab to move the pipes to install the tub. You can see the giant patch here. If you look real close you can see the small holes in the concrete where they pulled out the board for the drop in tub.

I digress. Back to the tile. We got a smooth tile option and a more rough version of the colors. We weren’t sure which we’d like more in the space – polished or slightly dull. I think they were all porcelain, but I can’t remember. We liked all 4 options, but I wouldn’t say we loved any. It was harder than the kids bath for some reason.

(Here I go digressing again. I do have a point. Swearsies.) About that time we headed to Austin for our maternity pics. We stayed at Hotel San Jose. It’s an amazing modern hotel. The room had polished concrete floors throughout. Just to remind you it was like 100+ degrees and I was hugely pregnant, so the concrete floors were cool and refreshing. Also gorgeous. They were gorgeous.

I had mentioned polishing the floors before the trip since we were thinking gray anyway. I was also thinking hey let’s save some money. The entire trip I kept telling Nick that concrete floors were the way to go in the bathroom. Maybe the whole house. He just told me to shut it. Jerk.

Then I got my way because ultimately it made the most sense to skip out on the tile and save a few bucks. I did have them patch the small holes where the old framing was. I knew it wasn’t going to look perfect, but it was better than having holes in the floor.

We didn’t have them stain it because we knew the floors would take the stain differently. Then add the patches in there. I was afraid it would get too spotty. It’s just sealed with a high gloss sealer.

Admittedly I don’t love the patches, but I figure with a rug I’ll like the floor a lot more. I don’t regret  going with polished concrete. Not yet anyway I haven’t stepped out of the shower in the winter on those bad boys. They are more gray than this picture shows which is why I was so upset about the countertops.

Sorry I can’t show you how it looks in the whole bath. Every time I go to get a picture it’s an insane mess in there. I am showing you the absolute worst of the floor. It’s only uphill from this.

I think it was the best choice for the moment. Tiling once we get in is always an option. I feel like the home projects are piling up on us which is not what I thought would happen with a build. Apparently there’s always room for DIY no matter the age of your home!

Of course we did buy some major splurge tile for the shower, so I guess no tile on the actual bathroom floor offset that. If you loved this picture on instagram, you’re going to freak out when you see it down. I have been waiting for it to be completely finished, so we could show you. Unfortunately it still isn’t but fingers crossed that happens soon!

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Kids Bath Mirror Situation

Posted by Nick in Building on January 6, 2014  ||  34 Comments

It just occured to me how bad I am at coming up with punny titles for blog posts. I don’t think that that’s grounds for divorce in Texas, but I can’t really be sure. Don’t tell Amber if it is.

After the flooring in the kids bathrooms went in, we had to make a decision on the mirror situation. A few weeks back, I swung up to IKEA in Dallas (the closest one to us) and grabbed a stockholm mirror to see if it would work here.

Side Note – It is impossible to walk around IKEA as a dude by yourself and not look pathetic. As I was grabbing some other odds and ends for the house, I felt people looking empathetically towards me in a “well, at least he’s trying to dress his apartment up” kind of way. I HAVE A FAMILY PEOPLE. STOP OFFERING TO BUY ME MEATBALLS. Actually, you can buy me some, that’d be great.

After I got the mirror home that week, we hired a male model to hold it up so we could see how it looked. ANNNNNNNND….. we didn’t really like it.

The wood tone is nice, but a bit light for the space and the scale isn’t right.

So the only option was…. say it with me…. CUSTOM mirrors being built.

We didn’t want to just throw a mirror up on the wall, we needed to frame it. We had heard about a reclaimed wood source about an hour and a half away in Hillsboro, TX. So the next day we loaded up the kids and headed south.

When we got there, we basically walked into a yard of reclaimed wood boards stacked super high. It would have made John from Our Homefrom Scratch pee his pants.

There was a little shed in the middle with a couple of ladies in there. I asked them how I could figure out how much a specific board costs, and they said “ask.” Amber was in the car with two sleeping kids, so I walked around the lot with one of the ladies and texted Amber pictures.

After I found some that I thought would work, Amber got out of the car with Beckett (seen left),  and we had some of the workers there start to pull boards to check for straightness etc.

We didn’t buy that giant beam there, but it was amazing and pretty reasonably priced (Around $250 if I remember correctly). Most of the prices there were super cheap. We paid $130 total.

After we picked out the boards for the mirrors, we grabbed a beam to be used as a mantle too and threw them in the back of our car. We had to slide them in between kids and pretty much all the way to the front of the car, but they fit (barely).

When we got back to the house, we laid all the pieces out on the floor of the garage with the best side up so the painter would know which side to clean and seal. After we did that, we walked the trim guy through what we wanted.

A few days later, we went to the house and the mirror frames were up. We asked the trim guy to cut the corners straight since the boards aren’t the same size, but he cut them at a 45 degree angle. They’re not perfect, but we decided we can live with them.

They look a bit rougher in person than in the pic, and we liked that they added some wood tones and some texture to the jack and jill set up.

Then about a week later, they came and installed the mirrors inside the frame. Above is a shot of Beckett’s set up. Tough to get a picture because the angles are so tight, but it turned out great!

Looking back at this post and all the steps it took to just get mirrors into the kid’s bathroom, it shows you how much work even the smallest things are. The whole build process has been like that for us, but I guess when you want to build a house custom from the ground up, that’s how it goes.

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Celebrate

Posted by Amber in Uncategorized on January 3, 2014  ||  25 Comments

I was going to give you more goodness on the kids bath, but I feel like I need to write this for myself right now.

The monthly challenge for December was Celebrate. Besides our gift guides and our Christmas wish to you, there were no holiday posts around Wills Casa this year. Mainly because well I did not decorate. Before you start thinking I’m a scrooge, I really thought we would be in the house before Christmas/the end of December. There didn’t seem much of a point to decorate while in the middle of a move.

We got some punch you in the gut news today that I will share eventually. I sat down to drown my sorrows with blogs and chocolate since nursing has taken the possibility of drinking my sorrows away. (Wills Casa does not endorse this type of behavior and can’t be held accountable for anyone’s poor choices…even their own.) I read Katja’s post. After the wave of self pity over the current situation subsided (a little), I realized I have a lot to celebrate.

Prep yourself for some deep thoughts from Amber Wills… (aka my personal reminder why life is wonderful in spite of chaos)

These two. I adore my kids and love them an incredibly scary amount. It really is like having your heart walk around outside your body. (Don’t know who said that first but they were a genius.)

Y’all I will be married to Nick for 10 years in May. A decade of marriage. I’m still crazy in love with him. Insert all love cliches here then multiple by infinity and add one just because that still won’t even begin to describe my feelings about this man. Plus he is an incredible father. How did I get so lucky?

If I was being humorous, I would say I celebrate being able to see my forehead. 2014 might be the year I let my bangs grow out. However I’m going to be serious, so I celebrate our closest friends. Jamie (and Pete too why not) knows all my crazy (yes it’s so bad it’s a noun in and of itself) and still likes me. I can’t tell you how much Nick and I rely on them to pretty much make up for all we lack which is more than we like to admit.

Eric and Laurie Parker who have been friends with Nick for 15 years (yikes we aren’t even 30 yet) are such incredible friends and a constant encouragement to us. We are so blessed to have thoughtful and compassionate people in our lives.

The best picture I have to illustration another reason to celebrate is me resting my pregnant self in San Francisco for Alt. My blog friends. Whether I’ve met them in person like Jessica, Court, and Lani. Or just stalk them lovingly – Katja, Kenz, Cassie, Michelle, Kim, Caitlin, Julia, Gretchen, Kelly, Kristin, Anu, Caroline, Emma, and many MANY more.

I’m so thankful for these friendships. It’s amazing to be able to connect to people who share your interests, have such different styles, and are just plain hilarious. Thank you friends, blogs, and internet in general.

So despite my urge to let yesterday’s news drag me into a pit of depression, I’m glad I took time to count all the reasons I have to celebrate. There is a constant good in life regardless of stressful situations. I can’t forget the primary reason I have to celebrate, and it’s a big one.

Happy New Year! I’m off to wallow a little less about everything.

 

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