Week 1: Newness

Weekly Photography Challenge:

I didn't put a ton of effort into this one. I just took a quick photo containing 2 beautiful things, my baby boy and our new woven wrap. It's my favorite color and August looks good in green!

2 months old!

He looks like such a little boy now! Where did my little baby go? He has been talking to us more, using his arms to work on reaching things, kicking his legs a lot, smiling, and showing increased interest in his surroundings. He us still eating all the time, sometimes hourly. Just within the past week he hadn't been sleeping as well, unless he's on my breasts. He is about 10.5 pounds and almost 22 inches!

Do I look like I did at my ultrasound?

Weekly Photo Challenge

I'm going to challenge myself to do a weekly photo challenge. The rules are: 1. Post the weekly photo by Monday at midnight 2. The photo should somehow relate to the theme, literally or otherwise 3. The photo can be taken on my DSLR or camera phone I found a list of weekly themes here: Digital Photography School

I'm hoping I can stick with this. Photo 1 is due tomorrow!

Goodbye Summer!

I write this as I have one day left of my summer vacation! The end of the summer is always both a sad time and an exciting time for me. I look forward to returning to work, getting back into a routine, and seeing my coworkers and students. However, I know I'll miss the freedom of summer days to do whatever the hell I feel like doing. I did A LOT this summer, but I made sure to have a few days where I stayed in my pajamas until 2 pm drinking coffee, dilly-dallying, looking at old photos (in albums!), rummage through papers from my Beloit days (angry feminist!), call old friends or just do nothing. It feels so luxurious to go to a movie in the middle of the day or to my favorite Indian lunch buffet!

So, what did I do this summer?
1. Travel to California for a 2 week vacation - San Francisco, Marin, Oakland, Half Moon Bay, Pescadero, Big Sur, San Luis Obispo, Pismo Beach, and Los Angeles! This was an awesome trip and I was able to spend time with old pals from Beloit and family. It was also my first solo travel experience and I am hooked. I can't wait for my solo trip to ... New Zealand, Ireland, Italy, Spain, I guess I can't decide. I promise more photos from this part of summer. I'll probably get to them in December.
2. Get my Masters in Special Education! I can't believe I am done with school! I actually could be done with school for ever if I want. Never done learning of course.
3. Love my Eric. We had a month off together. Amazing! We are so blessed. Even though we couldn't do a big trip abroad it was fabulous.
4. Go camping. At Kohler Andrae State Park in Sheboygan, with a beautiful beach on Lake Michigan.
5. Lots of running and a little biking.
6. Friends, friends, and more friends. Eating with friends, drinking with friends, swimming with friend, eating with friends, laughing with friends, eating with friends. It was great to reconnect with golden friends.
7. Family time! Milwaukee, Fond du Lac, Los Angeles.
8. Swimming, swimming, swimming. I think I was a child the last time I swam so much in one summer.
9. Hire a new teacher at my school. Not exactly, but I was on the interview team. This was fun, interesting, and insightful.
10. Read and watch a lot of movies.
11. Get a new (to me) car.
12. Go through a foster parenting home study. Intense.
13. Lots of self care and love.
14. Dentist and doctor and all that fun stuff.
15. Go sailing and have a picnic in the middle of Lake Mendota with 6 other sailboats. I even conquered a fear and jumped into the middle of a really deep lake (with a life preserver on).
16. Fell in love with beets. Where have you been all my life?
17. Go to a Brewer's Game and knit with a bunch of ladies at the annual Stitch n Pitch.
18. Get my first eyebrow waxing!
19. Move into an apartment we love and plan to stay awhile.
20. Have our 2.5 year old nephew over for a weekend. He was so good and we also did a great job, even with no toys in the house!

The photos below are from one of the many lazy summer evenings. This one was in Fond du Lac, on the beautiful Lake Winnebago. What's more Wisconsin than lakeside sunsets and beer? If only I liked beer.

A beautiful wedding: A sneak pique

California Vacation - Phase 2

After spending about a week in the SF Bay Area, visiting Rebecca in Marin County, Ben in San Francisco, and First Congo people in Oakland, I began phase 2 of my California vacation. I was travelling on my first solo vacation. I stayed at a hostel in Pescadero for 2 nights, drove down hwy 1 and then stayed 2 nights in San Luis Obispo. San Luis Obispo is about halfway between San Francisco and Los Angeles. It's a cute little city. It actually reminded me of Madison.

One day, I went to Pismo beach since it's supposed to be one of the nicest beaches on the California coast. But, it was a windy day and only about 62 degrees on the coast so I didn't stay long. I decided to head inland and check out the Paso Robles wine country I'd heard about. I heard it was like Napa 15 years ago, before it exploded. Don't get me wrong. I like Napa. It's gorgeous and I had a lot of fun visiting there with Eric's mom, Bob, and Carrie a few years back. Eric and I even watched the sunrise from a hot air balloon ride! But, Napa is a huge tourist destination. It is very expensive and can be quite crowded. Paso Robles on the other hand has many opportunities for free wine tasting, is supposedly less pretentious, and less crowded. You may familiar with the region if you saw the movie Sideways.

I did a little wine tasting, but was traveling on my own so I couldn't do much. It was fun - and free! After the tasting I drove out to the rolling hills to capture a few images of the vineyards. I only wish it had been sunrise or sunset. Next time.