Advice

I found this gem at Goodwill. Please note the lovely gowns. You should make 

it a point to remove any personal pictures of yourself, or of your daughters before donating.   

Sister's working it on the left though...just sayin. 

My sister and her husband moved into their first house today. This place is lovely and it happens to be situated right across the street from this gorgeous farm. Cows, fields, trees, the whole deal. 

Bucolic is the word... 

If you ever have the chance to watch cows run to be fed, don't turn it down. Those suckers can move when they want to. I was impressed. I was also less inclined to try cow tipping. 

Please make these. Please. Meet the perfect cinnamon roll. They're involved, yes. They take time and involve yeast and a rolling pin, but good heavens they're yummy. This coming from the girl who hasn't had one of these things in over two years (thanks wheat allergy...). They left that much of an impression on me. 

Pet a puppy, it's therapeutic but only if you can do so sans allergic reaction. There's

nothing therapeutic about swollen sinus nodes. 

This is Bindi... Uh, cute. 

Our Wedding

Brad and I got married a little over two years ago. Best decision of my entire life.

Our wedding date was November 13th, 2010 and we got married on the campus of Berry College at Frost Chapel and to this day the only thing I would change about the wedding is choosing a different sound tech. 

Like one that actually showed up. 

Photographer...

http://thornton.zenfolio.com/

- Post Wedding Shoot - 

http://courtneywhitephotography.net

xo, 

Rae 

Mercy Monday

Today was like a sucker punch to the abdomen. It rained. It got very cold after being very warm over the weekend. I added another notch to the belt of "women can't drive" by hitting a car. A parked car. I scheduled a dental appointment for later this month so now there's this dark day looming over me in the second half of January. The word "dentist" makes my skin crawl. "The dentist makes it all better" they say. "You won't feel a thing..." they say.

But sometimes days like these are really very good. Days that rain in more ways than one. Days that are cloudy and slow and maybe even a little depressing. They remind me of what I'm thankful for and what's important and it isn't having perfect weather. It isn't never making a mistake. It isn't going to the dentist.

Kidding.

The dentist is our friend.

In other news, we have added a new member to the family, no, I'm not talking about the little one making his or her appearance in September...

We got another puppy!

Her name is

                                                    "Bindi The Adorable Australian Shepherd"  

But that's a mouthful, so we're just calling her Bindi.

The goal is to have her function as a seeing eye dog of sorts for Clove, our blind English setter. At least for the time being, we're still evaluating Clove's needs and whether or not we'll be able to fulfill them. Here's to hoping Bindi makes things a little better.

You'll be happy to know they're the best of friends and thoroughly enjoy chewing on one another's ears and sitting on each other. Precious really.

You can read more about Clove here.

All in all today was better than I deserve and it was a good reminder of what matters. Now I'm off, I have some puppies to pay some attention to.

xo,

Rae

oh, swimwear...

Does anyone remember last summer? Life in an oven I kid you not.

Warm weather equals several things. Heat stroke. Sweat. Awkward beading on your upper lip and swimsuit season.

It's coming...slowly but surely and here's the crux of the issue...no matter how I turn things around in my head, no matter how I approach things, the fact is that there is a distinct probability that I will be...substantial...come summer time.

Guys, picking out a swimsuit is hard enough without incorporating the considerations of dressing the substantial statement that is a pregnant belly.

On top of all of this, is it just me or is it nearly impossible to find a maternity bathing suit that doesn't look like some sort of lampshade covered in garish wallpaper? After hours of searching, I've found a few possibilities I may be looking into in a few months should I decide to creep out of my air conditioned cave in mid July.

As a disclaimer, none of these are bikinis and obviously there are plenty of those I'm sure would work great since you don't have to worry about stretching anything over your bump...potentially more comfortable if we're going to be honest. I feel more at home in a one piece or tankini even when I'm not pregnant so that's what I stuck with in my search for maternity swimwear.

Click the description of the suit to find it online!

1. I like the ruching along the sides and the bow 

at the front keeps it from being totally boring.
The link takes you to the suit bottoms...the only thing in
stock in mid January apparently... 

2. This is a favorite but then I'm a sucker for anything remotely boho

another perk is that a one piece suit seems like it would 

reduce any anxiety over scary pregnant belly exposure...
(insert image of 10 year old boy minding his own business at the pool when he's suddenly 
and irrevocably exposed to your pregnant girth. Scarred for life) 
79.99 at A Pea In The Pod 

3. Not my favorite, but I like the crochet on this one

and black minimizes apparently..so it made the list. 

$79.99 

4. I love this suit...It's a bit more expensive than the others

but it's so cute and the straps are adjustable/removable if

you want to avoid awkward tan lines, $118.00 on Amazon. 

Interesting note on this suit..it comes from a company called PEZ D'OR Barcelona

check them out here. The look book they provide shows a bunch more cute

maternity swimwear although they have their fair share of "wallpaper suits". They're 

pricey but high quality. Worth a look!

6. This is another favorite, for some reason I just really like 

white suits particularly when they have that cute broderie ruffle. Gah. 

I've kept an eye on this one and it appears to be out of stock for the 

time being, but I'll keep checking. $30.78 for the tankini top

I might have to risk looking like an iceberg. We shall see...  

7. Just plain adorable.

Price listed in euro..it comes out to around $40.00 

Hopefully this will make your search for cute swimwear a little easier... it's out there, promise! 

xo,

Rae 

newness

Sweet news. 

Good news. 

Blessings, right? 

We're excited, we're surprised, we're thankful and blessed also I'm hungry.

I could eat a house but I'm opting for things a bit more nutritionally sound. 

I'm due in mid September as far as I know though I hope to get a second opinion on that very soon...

xo,

Rae 

The Persian Rug

My uncle is Persian. 

His house is adorned with beautiful Persian rugs.

If he asks us over we usually eat fabulous Persian cuisine. 

My uncle is very generous as is my aunt, and last year in a moment of extreme kindness and desperation to make room for yet another lovely rug, they decided to relinquish one into the clamoring hands of the extended family masses. 

Biggest mistake of their lives.  

From that point on the rug has worked a strange magic on our family, one member at a time. 

It starts as a burning desire, "I must have the rug". You nurse this feeling for a week or two, or months as  you wait to see if you're next in the line up of lucky folks to get the rug.

 It's like the lottery.

 And it's serious. 

Be that as it may, for some reason unbeknownst to me the dang thing never stays in one place for very long...  

Then comes your glorious day. Oh, day of all days. You have the rug in your possession, it is your own.  

Your precious. 

Bask in the short-lived glory. 

It is at this point that the rug's magic turns sour.

You start to wonder..."what if this is actually from Ikea, this tag could be forged" or "What if an Aztec pattern would have looked better with my decor..." 

You  also start thinking things along the lines of "holy-toledo-batman, this thing is roughly the size of a small aircraft carrier". And then, once again - the rug loses its shine, it is rejected and sent on to the next house of heartbreak. The next lottery winner. The next person to fall under the spell of the Persian rug. 

It's a sad tale, folks. It's an orphan rug in a foreign land. It has been stored in three garages in the last year. It has been accepted as a gift and subsequently rejected.  

This is a mystery to all since the rug is for one thing, beautiful - for another thing, huge and thirdly, free. 

That's a triple threat. 

I won the lottery today... the rug is mine for the time being. It's sitting nice and snug in my living room and I actually think I might have made it through the process without becoming disenchanted.

 It's hard to wrap my head around using the word "snug" about something the size of a small swimming pool.

Anyway, I'm off to burn a Christmas tree and sit on my rug. 

xo,  Rae 

This & That

sibs, minus one. 

I caved. 

After giving some thought to the fact that I have an endless list of things I can stand to improve on I decided that my stance on resolutions could use some work. 

Cool how I can make my mind up and change it, right? Yeah. Don't hate. 

So that's my list. Plus one more thing and it's a big one...It's one of those resolutions you make and then consider hiding in a dark room until next year so you don't have to experience the embarrassment of failure. 

But here we go... 

There are times when I can't even remember what peace feels like. My Achilles heel (besides salty/sweet combinations) is fear. 

This is my dragon to fight... fear and anxiety. It always has been, some of my first memories are of being anxious and frightened - I was that kid who had a first class royal meltdown when my parents left me at my grandparents or at a friend's house. I needed a closet and a blanket and I could get it together in a few minutes...sometimes.  

Anyway, this is my struggle - one of many and I fail more often than not. I worry, and I churn and I analyze and reanalyze things I have no control over. I get comfortable with being in turmoil and all the while my focus shifts and shifts again from Christ, from others, from giving and outpouring, to self. It's hard to see others when I'm transfixed with my own reflection, my own fears or struggles. 

That's the funny part... I would tell you that I love to serve others and I really do, I love to give, I love to listen and when it comes to empathizing I can roll with the best of them, but it's a double-edged sword because all of that energy, all of the time and effort it takes to do that for someone else can just as easily and often is spent doing it for myself. What happens then is this train wreck of reasons I'm justified in my fear.  

 I'm not trying to get all cryptic, I can only handle so much intensity without feeling the need for some comic relief, that's the 12 year old coming out in me I guess (seriously guys...). But there are things I'm afraid of encountering this year. As excited as I am, as much as I anticipate learning new lessons and experiencing growth, that struggle pipes up and ticks off a list of reasons I shouldn't move forward. What about loss? What if growth means separation and growth away from people I love? What about disappointed hopes? What about death? The list stretches on and on.

Truth saves. Truth is light in darkness and a truth that comes to mind is that fear and faith cannot abide together.

 I'm fearful, I'm afraid I always will be. There's the comic relief. Couldn't resist, moving on... 

That fear will follow me constantly, or so it seems, but something I want to remember this year and every year after for that matter, is that fear may follow behind me but faith is what causes me to climb. Turning my face to Christ and having faith through difficulty is a life-giver while fear sucks the joy out of tomorrow. I forget, I become fearful about things beyond my control, about change and about the passage of time but I want to grow and I guess that's my biggest resolution of all. 

xo,

Rae