CMAC + GMAC

Can't Sleep

2010-05-05T01:57:00.000-07:00

This is the second night in a row that I haven't been able to sleep. Last night I woke up at the same time. Just after 12:30. I go to the bathroom and then I am just awake. Last night I fell back asleep around 4, but I am not feeling sleepy yet tonight...so we'll see. As you can imagine this makes for a sluggish work day!

(TMI ALERT) I had big news at my 36 week check up. When Dr. Straughn examined me she found that I was 90% effaced and 1 cm dilated. I'd prepared myself for no news and assumed that Baby James would be late...just like all first babies. Dr. S was also able to feel Baby James's head during the exam. She said he was low and ready. She also told me that I didn't have to worry about seeing 40 weeks! What a relief. Since we had the low amnionic fluid scare she said that we can plan to induce IF I make it to 39 weeks (the week of May 24th). This is in my plan now!

I am not sure if it's just my mind or what, but since the exam I've been showing early signs of labor. It's exciting and disappointing all at the same time. I get excited thinking his arrival might be near, and then nothing concrete really happens...so I go back to thinking it'll be a while. Wish I had a crystal ball and already knew my precious son's birthday. Of course...I guess every pregnant woman wishes that!

Today is Greg and my 3rd anniversary! I can't believe it's really been 3 years. Greg pointed out that I have now been pregnant 1/4 of our marriage...haha. I didn't think that sounded as good as he did. Greg is an amazing husband. As I reflect on these past 3 years I can't remember any bad (even though I know there were times), I just think of how much fun we've had. I hope Greg can say the same.

I can't wait to bring baby James into our family :)

36 Weeks...Tips for Patience??

2010-05-03T09:27:00.000-07:00

We're finally getting close...36 weeks. This time next week baby James will actually be full term! I am so excited to be this close to holding our precious little boy. When I feel his movements now I can tell what parts they are and can imagine what his weight will feel like when it is in my hands instead of on my bladder.

I've never been very good at waiting. I am not terribly patient, so this whole process has been long for me. Now that we're so close to the end it's just like waiting on Christmas everyday for a month. I need advice for waiting out these last few weeks...any words of wisdom?

Greg and I have taken care of almost all of the baby details. We've washed all the little clothes, made sure we had enough newborn outfits, shopped for bottles and everything else we could possibly need after our baby gets here. I am sure we'll learn that we need more as soon as he is here, but thankfully my mother and mother-in-law will be here to help out :) We have a couple more things to buy and then I told Greg we should probably just try to think of ourselves for a while instead of the baby. That way I don't get so anxious.

Good timing...our 3 year anniversary is Wednesday. The past 2 years I've anticipated our anniversary for weeks before the date. This year it's been so backseat to the anticipation of baby James that I almost forgot it was on Wednesday! Greg and I are planning to purchase a piece of artwork to celebrate this year of our marriage. We've looked at 1 art show, but need to look around some more to find the right thing. I think it'll be a lot of fun and hopefully a tradition that we can continue each year of our marriage. We're thinking about going to a nice dinner, which is something we haven't done in while. I am excited about the "date night". It'll probably be one of our last for a while so we should really enjoy it :)

My energy level is low these days and I've started to feel completely out of control of my own body. I never know when to trust it. I've been having sciatic nerve issues in my left upper thigh. Sharp shooting pains that can make me jump out of a chair, stop in my steps, or scream out in pain. Greg is not a fan of my reaction to any of this, but what can I do?

Hopefully baby will be here soon :)

35 Week Check Up

2010-04-26T07:32:00.000-07:00

Everything looks great! James is cooking along just fine :). The fluid measured around 8 on the index today so there is nothing to worry about there.

The ultrasoundographer measured him today. Their estimate is that he weighs 5lbs 10oz right now. This sounds large, but it puts him in the 45th percentile and just average for babies! Dr. Straughn said that based on this estimate the most he should weigh at birth is 8lbs. This is a relief...I was worried we'd have some gigantic baby. No big surprise though, his head is measuring large. A week ahead and with a diameter of 9cm. This is apparently the same for all Machamers!

The ultrasoundographer told me that last week a baby was born in their practice with "ambiguous genitalia". This poor baby was born with only parts of both sex organs. He was typed as a boy. She told me all of this just to explain why she was looking for James's testicles. Luckily, we found them!

We had an amazing time in Maine for Tim's wedding. I will be sure to post pics when I get them up online. I am glad we were able to make the trip, but so glad that we are now home to wait on our precious baby boy :) Hopefully he'll come sooner than later, but that appointment sort of gave me the idea that he was taking his time!

dress rehearsal!

2010-04-14T22:52:00.001-07:00

so i am writing from the hospital bed. i am strapped into a fetal heart monitor, a contractions monitor,and an iv. i am snoozing to the precious sounds of james heartbeat.

it all started because i hadn't felt movement from baby james all morning. i thought i was just being paranoid so i decided to do a count test and he still wasn't moving. i called becky and was surprised when she brought me right in for an ultrasound. we discovered that james was ok first and then she measured him and the fluid un my sac. turns out hes measuring at 4lbs 13ounces. the fluid was too low. this is the reason he wasn't moving. the nurse compared it to having a gold fish in a teaspoon of water.

so with that dr. Straughn admitted me for a night of fluid and monitoring. they will ultrasound me in the am to see if the fluid has already improved. then we'll go from there.

this trip to the hospital has been great to teach us the things we need to have packed in our emergency bag.

greg just gave up trying to sleep in the room with us and is hopefully getting good zzzzs at home so he can come back early in the am. we will update you tomorrow after we speak to the doc.

i love you baby james...you and all your silly jokes...more than you'll ever know.

Pillow for the Nursery

2010-03-21T11:02:00.000-07:00

I finally finished 1 of the 2 pillows I am making for the nursery. I started around 5 yesterday and finished at 1 today. I love the way it turned out, but factoring in the time it took and the materials...I'd probably have to charge $500 to make up for time spent and frustration hahaha! So I won't be sewing for money any time soon.

I do think it does a great job tying the chair into the nursery. We just got our rocker in a couple of weeks ago...it's very comfortable. Don't worry...it's been treated with amazing stain resistant stuff. We've been promised that it won't stain and if it does the company will recover. That's the only way I thought a white rocker in a nursery made sense :)

I am 30 weeks today. I am still pretty on target for weight gain, just a couple pounds over, but it varies depending on the day. I am getting more and more excited about seeing our baby James. I can't wait to look at his face and just be able to put my hands on him. I haven't had many of the symptoms my other pregnant friends have complained about. I get a little acid reflux now and then, but that's the worst of it. I walked for 1 1/2 hours with Leah yesterday and felt great...just really tired after. My feet haven't swollen or my ankles. I know there is still plenty of time though :)

Just counting down the days until Greg and my lives change forever for the better...

4-D Ultrasound

2010-03-14T07:54:00.000-07:00

Greg, James and I went in for our 4-D ultrasound this past Monday. Until we got to the office, we had no idea what the 4th dimension was. We were excited to find out it means time!

James wasn't being cooperative on our first try. This is the second ultrasoundographer that has told us our little guy is "stubborn"...hope that's not a bad sign :( We did get a few glimpses of his face on the first try. She asked me to go drink a little coffee and then come back. Greg was so unimpressed with the first try he didn't even want to wait around for the second. Luckily I talked him into it. On the second go around we were able to see his face so clearly.

It took a day for it to settle in, but as I pinned the picture of his precious face up on my office wall it hit me - this is our child! It's pretty amazing to put a face with all that kicking and squirming. It does make waiting 2 1/2 more months to see it that much harder though. I can't wait for our little guy to be here...he's going to be so amazing.

Look at all the pics here:
http://picasaweb.google.com/claire.machamer/BabyJames#

Most everyone thinks he looks like me from these pics. It's a little early to tell...but what do you think?

DROID

2010-03-14T07:49:00.000-07:00

So yesterday Greg and I went to a birthday party for one of his friends who has a 3 year old son. He showed us his Android phone from verizon and all the features that came along with it. My favorite features were the 5 megapixel camera and the video that uploads straight to You Tube! I thought...we have to have this to capture every last one of James's precious moments and upload to the internet to share with the Grandmothers!

Greg has been begging for a data plan for months, but I was being practical and thought that we didn't need it. I caved and now I've moved over to the dark side. I can now check my gmail and facebook anywhere I am. Cell phone etiquette is going to get a little bit harder after this...please don't be afraid to call either one of us out!

One thing I have noticed is that this phone is a little on the large side. I have a feeling that when James gets his first phone it will make this one look like the Zach Morris version. haha.

Time To Put My Feet Up

2010-02-22T12:44:00.000-08:00

Sunday was a big day. I entered my 26th week of pregnancy and learned that my moving, sorting, and getting on the floor days are over until my little man is here.

I had 3 hours of shift work at the Junior League Rummage sale to complete on Sunday. I was nervous about over doing it since I managed to over do it just lifting can food at my last shift work. They put me to work sorting baby clothes and shoes and I figured I'd probably be ok. 3 hours later I realized I had not taken a break or sat down. I was in such a rush to just work and get it done with and help them make a dent I forgot how I would pay for the work. When I left I felt like I could collapse...just stopped by to check on Preston's broken arm and then went home and fell out on the couch. My sweet husband took care of supper and moving anything else that needed moving for the rest of the night. I ended up asleep before 8 PM and woke up around midnight with back pain that was bad enough to keep me from sleeping for a few hours. Finally managed to get back to sleep with the aid of about 4 pillows.

This is when I knew for sure that my moving, sorting, and getting on the floor days are over :) I woke up ok...but am still sore from the event. It always amazes me when I realize I can't just go like I used to be able to. I never think about resting or sitting down until the damage is already done :(

Baby Mach's movements are becoming more substantial. He's not just softly thumping my insides any more. Sometimes it feels like he's completely rolling over in waves of motion. Or jumping up and down. It always makes me smile and laugh.

Greg and I measured belly size with my tape measure last night. Mine is now a couple inches larger than his. haha. He has been dieting though.

Good Checkup

2010-02-17T10:09:00.000-08:00

I went in Monday for my 25 week check up. I had to stay for an hour to do the sugar test, but luckily passed!! I also passed the anemia test. The lack of energy I felt around 20 weeks has pretty much gone away. I think it did have to do with the blood going to the baby. For the most part I feel pretty normal except for when I try to bend over or put on shoes :)

Baby Mach was measuring right on time and so is Mommy...my weight gain is 1 lb behind normal...I am really proud of that 1 lb too haha.

I made an appointment for the 4-D ultrasound at our 28 week appointment. I am really looking forward at another glimpse of our little guy. The lady at the appointment counter said 28 weeks was a good time to go for the best view. Has anyone else had a 4-D ultrasound? When did they do yours? How did it turn out?

We'll be able to put the 4-D ultrasound on DVD so that we can share the entire thing. I am not sure if I can post it online yet or not, but I think that would be neat if I could.

After my 28 week appt (in 3 weeks) I'll start going to Drs appointments every 2 weeks. This is really exciting because it means that the end is getting closer :)

Baby Belly 22 weeks

2010-01-30T14:16:00.000-08:00

Ok...here's a baby belly pic at the end of my 22nd week. Nic...I hope you and Jackson are happy haha. I had to go maternity shirt shopping today. Greg win's hubby of the year because he was so sweet and went with me and helped me pick out nice shirts and then took care of the bill :)

Enjoy...

Nursery

2010-01-27T05:21:00.000-08:00

I've got a couple of nursery posts to put up...so I am just starting at the beginning.

Greg made the ultimate sacrifice for our baby and gave up one of his closets! He then went to Lowe's and reconfigured the entire thing so that we'd have the most storage for our space!

When I was busy being tired on the couch he even went ahead and organized all of the baby stuff we have now on each of the shelves :) This made me so happy!

Where's My Energy?

2010-01-15T07:24:00.000-08:00

I wanted to post about my recent lack of energy. I am finished with the drug-induced sleepiness of the first trimester and felt a slight energy boost, but now am back to falling asleep by 8 (sometimes 6:30) each night. Even weirder I don't feel like doing anything at night that doesn't involve pjs and the couch. This is not my norm.

I thought my blood pressure might be low so I called my doctor's nurse to ask about it. Turns out it is 108/62. She said this was perfect...nothing to worry about. She told me something kind of interesting so I thought I'd better blog it fast before I forgot it. I am in my 20th week...she said that I might be feeling a lack of energy during this time because this is when the baby's blood begins to be fed directly from my blood system. So before the baby was supplied with blood from the cord, but now it flows directly from my system (still through the cord). That kind of makes sense that it would take your energy away when you think about it. Also, it's kind of cool to just think about.

Becky (Dr. S's nurse) told me that I could go ahead and start an iron pill to hopefully get a little more energy. My next visit (feb 15th) I'll be tested for diabetes, anemia, low blood sugar, etc. She said after that we'll know more, but not to worry.

I have the baby bedding in, but have been slack on blogging. I'll get pics up soon. Plan to go order our rocker on Saturday!

Baby Mach's First Funeral

2010-01-01T11:47:00.000-08:00

Baby Mach attended his first funeral yesterday. I could tell he knew that something was up by the frequency of his recently felt movements. It was one of the saddest funerals I have ever attended. One of my best friend's (Emily) sister passed away on Tuesday. She was only 18.

One of the pastors said during the memorial service that a little bit of Emily was a lot of Molly. I could see that so much...still brings tears to my eyes to think about. Molly had the same contagious laughter and energy that I have always loved in Emily. You couldn't be around either of them without smiling.

Em's family is so strong and has taught me so much during our friendship. They've always been open and welcoming to all of us girls crashing at their house or visiting their mountain home. I learned a lot about grace by watching them these past two days. They've handled this with so much love and grace--it still completely amazes me.

I love you Em.

Belly Pic for Nicole!

2009-12-29T10:21:00.000-08:00

I took this pic on Dec 17th I think. I am almost finished with my 16th week in this pic. I am now 18...so I think I have more belly than that. It still seems to come and go to me. Some days it's very large and others it seems closer to normal. Still pretty easy to hide if I wanted to...but then it just looks like I have a pot belly...so I'd rather people know I am preggers haha.

Feels Like Bubbles!

2009-12-29T10:15:00.000-08:00

I finally felt the tiniest movement!!! It was so exciting it made me laugh out loud. My sister in law loaned me her Baby Plus system to use with our baby boy. It's supposed to help make baby a lot easier after he is born, so we said what the hey...let's give it a try.

My cousin told me that she first felt movements by lying on her back and being still. The combo of baby plus and lying on my back did the trick! I felt my first movement on Monday Dec 28th! It was thrilling! So far I've only felt him while I was using the baby plus...so he must either love it or hate it hahaha.

I am just glad to feel something. I can't wait for it to become more regular and stronger! Also, Greg is very jealous that he can't feel it yet :)

We are still at the beach with my family. It's been amazing and it's cold, but other than that the weather is just beautiful. I will try to remember to take some pics and post soon.

Our first baby purchase

2009-12-28T08:54:00.000-08:00

Greg and I were both off work just before Christmas so we decided we'd start looking at baby furniture. Well...one thing led to another and we found a great deal on a floor model crib! It's a Baby's Dream "Ocean". We bought it based on look and price, but luckily it ranked highly on consumerreports.org!!! The other cribs I'd looked at weren't even rated, so I felt great about the purchase. It's finish is called espresso...so it's dark brown...looks kind of black in the pic, but not in real life. It has a drop gate (not a drop side) which will help short little me pick up that baby for a longer amount of time without breaking my back.

We also found this neat dresser by the same company. It's a changing table and then it flips upside down into a normal dresser...it was so smart (and actually small enough for our nursery) that we were sold.

Greg worked pretty hard to position everything so it fits comfortably in the nursery. We kept the full size bed in the room for practical reasons so it made it a little tough. He did a great job though and everything looks great!! I can't wait to get some color into the mix. My friend Allison is helping me with the decor so I should have more pics to post soon. I'd planned on making pillows and curtains for this room, but we'll see since this first round is turning out to be so hard!

It's a BOY!!!

2009-12-28T08:45:00.000-08:00

Believe it or not...this ultrasound is what made the technician know "for sure" that we had a baby boy coming in May.

We are thrilled!!! I had older brothers and loved that (well loved it more later in life) so I am very glad that we'll have a boy first. Baby Boy Mach wasn't very cooperative during the ultrasound. His legs were crossed Indian style the entire time. At first we were afraid they would not be able to tell...then they asked me to hop up and down on one leg for a few minutes and that seemed to shake him into a little bit better of a position so that they could get this pic. Then the ultrasoundographer said "It's a Boy--for sure!". She showed me this pic and I was just amazed that they could even tell haha.

She said he was a very stubborn fetus and good luck to us hahaha! I choose not to blame him for the bad photoshoot---poor thing didn't even know he was on camera.

Now...I can start decorating the nursery!

Slipcovers

2009-12-28T08:32:00.000-08:00

I just had a set of slipcovers made for my kitchen chairs. I was going to attempt to make them myself, but found a reasonable seamstress and went that way instead. I was more than pleased with my decision. They look amazing and they so WOULD NOT have if I'd made them myself.

Mom and I have been working on coordinating curtains and pillows. So far so good, but making them on the machine has been a lot harder than we both thought it would be. I've learned a lot though. The curtains are coral-orange colored and I am doing a brown "M" on each of the pillows...hopefully will have a pic of those soon. If things don't get easier on the curtains then we'll probably be calling my seamstress friend again haha.

On the plus side...I've learned how to straighten fabric...haha...what a pain!

5 Generations of Pecan Pie

2009-11-25T12:52:00.000-08:00

It doesn't really take anything for me to cry these days. I know it's from the overflow of hormones...it's not bad though. I cry when I see happy things, babies on TV, and sad things...still can summon tears by thinking of the first scene in Star Trek, thanks Greg.

I volunteered to make the Pecan Pie for Tgiving (thank you Karen and Lynn for making everything else). I actually haven't ever made one before...so I was going to comb my stash of Southern Living recipes until I found a good one, but Mom had another suggestion. Use Big Momma's recipe. Big Momma was my great-grandmother. I don't remember her, but my brothers do. It looked really simple and once I found out that Oleo was not Crisco I was set as far as how to follow the recipe.

I finished mixing and putting the pies together and thought they looked pretty good. I stood back to admire my work and noticed that on top of the recipe were 3 generations of women's names from my family. And...there came the water works. It was touching to stop and think about the fact that I was putting together pies that 3 generations of women in my family put together before. I decided that baby and I were the 4th and 5th generation of women (possibly a man...we'll see) to make these pies. I get really excited and emotional when I think about all the wonderful extended family our little baby has waiting for him or her.

And here's the final product...will have to wait until after Tgiving to find out if they taste good or not! Unless we taste test the extra pie hehe.

Baby Update: Doing well, strong heart beat. I am feeling great!

12 Week Check Up

2009-11-20T07:15:00.000-08:00

Great news...Baby Mach's heart beat is now 149!! Everything looks great! Dr. Straughn was able to get it's heart beat reading with her doppler immediately (so no ultrasound). I figured that would be the case since we can hear it at home with our doppler (if anyone wants to listen in...it picks up over cell phone).

I feel really good these days, still just extremely tired. I have at meeting with the editor of SL at work today to share my news so that we can finally speak freely about pregnancy on facebook, etc.

I was back up to my pre-pregnancy weight at my appointment, so I am planning on getting back into my walking to keep things down. Dr. Straughn said to expect around 10 lbs by 20 weeks which is mid-January. She said it's ok to be on the lower end of that so I am going to try...although doesn't everyone gain 10lbs around Christmas and Thanksgiving? hahaha.

We are excited about trying to find out the sex before Christmas. Dr. Straughn said that we would have an 80-90% chance at seeing what the sex is on our 16 week ultrasound! We'll just have to see though. She said to drink a cup of coffee and eat some sugar that morning to get that baby moving around and hopefully showing off his/her stuff.

Everyone is betting that it's a boy except for my loyal friend Claire Butler. She thinks it's a girl! Can't wait to find out. I will keep you posted!

2 New Preggo Buddies!!!

2009-11-13T05:33:00.000-08:00

Last night at supper club I learned that 2 of my friends are also expecting! YAY! It's so exciting to have friends that are going through the same thing as me...well sort of...some how neither have experienced morning sickness. One is 8 weeks and the other 9 weeks...so they haven't told everyone yet so I'll leave their names off.

Both just recently found out they were pregnant. There's no way I could have missed my symptoms before...I knew I was pregnant at 4 weeks. This means the baby was about 2 weeks at the time. I definitely makes for a longer pregnancy. I've known I was pregnant for about 2 months. I am jealous that my friends just found out they are pregnant and are almost out of the 1st trimester! I feel like I felt every ache and pain it had to offer in real time haha.

So anyway...our baby is due in May and theirs in June. It will be so fun to share growing pains with close friends and baby firsts! I am so excited to have friends experiencing the same thing as I am. I am also grateful for all my friends waiting to have children who have so sweetly offered to babysit. Don't think I didn't write all those offers down ;) hahaha.

Finally out in the open!

2009-11-11T18:21:00.000-08:00

I've finally decided to share the news that we are expecting!! I've told work and now there are just a few people left who don't know...I'll remedy that with facebook in a week or so. It will be nice to be out in the open.

When I told my friends I already felt so much more freedom. I was terribly sick from the get go so making excuse after excuse why I couldn't come out was getting a little old. I am glad to say that sickness has gone way down in the past couple of weeks and now it's nothing I can't manage by eating small meals all day long! Amazing...because those first few weeks were so incredibly rough.

I get more and more excited each day. My stomach is growing...gives me very mixed emotions...excitement that the baby is thriving, but apprehension for what the stomach will look like in the coming months.

I will be 12 weeks as of Sunday. Right now the baby is the size of a fig...my stomach on the other hand is more the size of half a football haha. Maybe not that big yet...depends on what time of the day. I still wear my normal clothes, so I wouldn't classify myself as showing.

I can't wait for the little one to be here...pregnancy is for the birds. Just 206 more days till my due date.

Claire

Leigh and Marc's Rehearsal Dinner

2009-08-29T07:19:00.000-07:00

Last night Greg and I were invited to take part in Leigh and Marc's rehearsal dinner. Leigh is my 3rd friend to get married this year so when it came time for the rehearsing part everyone pretty much had it down. ;)

The dinner was at Cafe Iz's special events dining room. It's a great location and was even better because it was within walking distance from the church. The food there is always delicious and all the decorations were just beautiful! I tried to step in as photog...but I didn't do the greatest job. Here are some pics from the event.

the bride and her mother

Gotta go get showered. I am getting my hair did for the big day! More to come on the wedding. I'll charge up my camera battery now for hopefully more photos!

The Farm Box

2009-08-26T18:15:00.000-07:00

For the past month I've subscribed to a farm box. It's locally grown veggies that the farm delivers straight to work. To get the best selection and deal for our money I split my box with another co-worker. It's still plenty more veggies than Greg and I can possibly eat. I've tried to get creative with eggplant...but oh.

Everything in the farm box has been delicious. EXCEPT the corn. We've had several ears filled with grubs. If you think that's gross then just wait. One grub escaped from the trash can and ended up on Greg's leg. UGH the thing had slithered down from the trash and down Greg's leg. Luckily it was him and not me or else...we'd probably be done with farm box.

So here's a pic of our dinner from Tuesday night. I was proud of using this many veggies in one meal. Everything was delicious. Well the eggplant was good, but a little gooey. I broiled it. I think sauteing and grilling is best for it.

St. George

2009-08-26T18:07:00.001-07:00

Mom and Dad took Greg and me down to Apalach and St. George Island for the weekend. It was an exciting trip. Greg had never even been to Apalach, which for any member of my family used to be a yearly event with Em and Elsie. It was a lot of fun to visit a few of the places that are so familiar to my family with Greg by my side.

Greg's second first for the weekend was deep sea fishing. My sweet Uncle Bobby took all the guys out on his boat for a trip. They hired an apparently 300 pound fishing guide and went out to sea. During their trip they caught around 15 fish ranging from red snapper to vermillion snapper. Greg even found himself with a 6 fy shark on the end of his line. We had delicious snapper later that night that Dad grilled and Mom cooked some in the oven. Greg and I were lucky to bring the rest home and ended up having friends over for snapper later that week. Greg fried it and we grilled some too. The fried fish was WAY more popular!!

Latest Invitation

2009-07-27T18:22:00.000-07:00

I thought I'd follow up that post with the latest invite I put together. This one is for a shrimp boil around the clock shower. Yes it was great! I decided to choose one of the themes and just run with it..so shrimp boil won out.

Enjoy!

2 Down - 1 to Go

2009-07-27T17:57:00.000-07:00

Welcome anyone who stumbled onto my tiny little beginner blog from Nic's link!

This past weekend we were so lucky to have Paul and Nic for the weekend. It's great to see Nic. I went to stay with Nic a few years ago when they were living in Jacksonville and we had a blast just like we did this weekend. I love having friends like that -- the ones that you can always just pick back up just where you left off. :)

The wedding was beautiful... see photos on Nicole's blog hopefully more soon on flickr (but please be patient -- she has a baby to take care of too).

Courtney (the bride) was a fashion major in school. She decided to redesign her mother-in-law's dress from the 70s. I have been anxiously waiting to see what she would create and it was beautiful. I loved the little flowers she saved and added to the neckline. She was a truly beautiful bride. The rehearsal dinner and reception were both great parties and Greg and I had a good time. I managed to get Greg out on the dance floor just 1 time for a "slow" song that ended up turning fast. He said I tricked him hahaha.

As soon as I get a hold of more pics I'll post more :)

Now that Courtney is married off we just have one more to go this summer. We're all looking forward to celebrating with Leigh and Marc and all their wedding festivites.
Claire

Home Office Complete

2009-02-08T14:33:00.000-08:00

We finished the home office project. It was the perfect amount of procrastination and actually I think helped me finish up some of my freelance projects. :) It's easier to work when you're organized. I wanted to share a shot of the place with you guys..enjoy!

We've made a spot for greg's computer and mine. We did it pretty cheaply too. Just had to purchase 2 l-shaped desks. I think it's a nice solution for our basement room.

Home Office

2009-02-07T07:01:00.000-08:00

Ok...so greg and I have been in our house almost 2 years. We've finally decided to complete a home office area in our basement. TODAY! haha. I am the world's worst procrastinator (of course I have 2 freelance jobs going on right now and some wedding things). I do think it'll be really cool when we finish and will help our downstairs room have a more organized look. We're on the hunt for some modular desking so that we can both have plenty of room, shelves, and drawers. We pretty much have room to set up 2 cubes in the basement and we're so weird I guess that's what we'd like...cubes at home.

I'll keep you posted and when everything is complete and organized maybe I'll even snap a shot.

Blogging Purpose

2009-02-05T11:15:00.000-08:00

Ok so now that EG has established her blogging purpose I am going to need to look for a theme for mine. I am a bridesmaid in 3 of my dear friends weddings in the next 6 months, so that seems just as good a topic as any. I'll do my best to bring the coolest bridesmaiding tips to the computer near you.

My favorite find recently has been vistaprint.com. My sister-in-law and I are both graphic designers and she shared this site. It takes all the heavy lifting out of designing you own invitations, t-shirts, hats, etc. I've used to to create a cute little invite with one of EG's great little diddys. There is a green bow that goes along with this one, but I didn't scan the real deal (also looking for extended reach hole punch--go figure--hard to find).

I was also able to use the site to design a custom bachy party t-shirt...you can only imagine...I'll probably not be posting that here :)

Blog Networking

2008-11-10T17:23:00.000-08:00

YAY! Sake found EG and my secret blogs. It encouraged me to make a post, because I had given up posting all together.

Currently I am working late to try to get our web site ready for it's redesign launch Dec 11th. I am pretty sure that it's going to get a little worse before it gets better (workload wise). The new site will be awesome. Sooo...because of that stress I spend a lot of my time looking forward to our Thanksgiving beach trip with Greg's family. Apparently I mention it so much that Greg's started to make fun of me.

Love to Nic and EG

2008-08-08T13:07:00.001-07:00

p.s. i hate cancer too

t-town wedding

2008-08-08T12:51:00.000-07:00

We are about to head out of town for Jean Ann and Darrell's wedding in tuscaloosa. I can't wait...it'll be a lot of fun and really fun for our whole family to be together.

I am packed and ready to go, but waiting on Tim and Molly's flight to get in so we can go. Molly works for Martha Stewart right now, which is cool because that is the show I am watching right now. Side note on that...Martha has the men from deadliest catch on and it's quite hilarious to watch them interact. I bet that was Molly's idea ;)

I hope this post satisfies EG...she's been hounding me to post hahah.

I'll post photos after the wedding.

Sweet love...

2008-08-04T19:32:00.000-07:00

EG now has a blog...it's shutyourface.blogspot.com.

Since she didn't use her name in the blog it's going to make it harder for randoms to stalk her, but I guess that was the plan.

We've been cleaning...mom and dad are coming and the house is barely fit for the cats haha. We also bought 2 giant bookshelves for all of our books that have been in storage since we moved in. Greg assembled one from target and then we realized that the floor is uneven and that they are a hazard. So tomorrow is operation secure the bookshelf. Crazy, wild, married life. No worries though...pretty soon Greg's entire sci fi collection will be on display. Along with our cookbooks and all the other albums I forgot existed. I even found 2 glomeratas to put out and greg's diploma. It'll be a nice set up.

Getting very excited about the girl's beach trip these days...count down here we go!
Claire

EG

2008-08-03T19:13:00.001-07:00

I started this blog so that it would be easier for my friend EG to internet stalk me haha. I know she likes surfing the blogs.

But really...I also felt that it was about time because I am about the only one that doesn't have one and I am encouraging people I work with to blog for SouthernLiving.com (click here) might as well join the blogosphere.

P.S. the success of my job is directly related to how many times you click on the link above...enjoy :)

C