So, before I was pregnant I was all gung-ho about being a stylish pregnant lady and making a bunch of cute maternity clothes for myself. I was going to be awesome. That motivation has translated into me buying four items … Continue reading
So apparently, there is this thing that bloggers do.
Well, the pregnant-lady ones that is.
They post cute little updates and pictures of them with their growing baby bump, and just generally let you know how pregnancy is and stuff. Like a little diary. It’s cute.
But I’m not digging it, for myself….
So instead, here is a picture of the awesome green rug I bought for my living room last week!
thank you, Ikea!
The curtains have since been taken down and are awaiting a return…because I liked them less and less each time I saw them. Hahaha. But the rug, I love. A whole lot. But really, who can resist a green shag rug?!
Not me, that’s who.
love, rach
ps is it weird that I’ll talk ALL about pregnancy and all things associated with it if you ask me in person, yet I don’t really want to blog about it?? I mean, I don’t even have to know someone that well for them to get me talking about OB/GYN visits and puking and breasts and anything else awkward. but on the internet to a general audience?? not a peep. hahaha.
My husband is a complete turophile.
So, naturally, when we traveled up to Northern Oregon for Thanksgiving…a trip to the Tillamook cheese factory was in order.
I’ve been here a number of times throughout my life, and it’s always a delightful experience! The self-guided tour is awesome, it’s fun to watch the cheese being made and processed, they give you free cheese samples, and the gift shop is chock-full of every kind of Tillamook cheese ever made (including “squeaky cheese”!) and lots of entertaining cheese-themed silliness. But the best part???? THE ICE CREAM COUNTER. It’s the only place in the world where you will find every single flavor of Tillamook creamery ice cream under the same roof (did you know they make sorbet?!), available for you to devour in freshly-made waffle cones!!! oh. so. good.
Needless to say, I’m a little bit in love with the place. Pretty sure the hubs’ fell in love too.
Here are a couple random photos I remembered to take:
Brother the [blur of a] cow + cousin the farmer
Hubs the cow + Tiptoeing cousin the farmer
Sister the cow + Myself as the crankypants farmer
Crazy kids waiting for lunch! Which is delicious, btw. I LOVED the Centennial Grilled Cheese.
Favorite piece of cheese paraphernalia found on the tour
We grabbed a block of smoked cheddar and vintage extra-sharp cheddar to enjoy at home. SO GOOD. Highly recommended!
And my tiny little cookbook addiction problem led me to purchase the Tillamook Cheese Cookbook as well…but I mean, who wouldn’t want a cookbook where every single recipe is doused in cheesy goodness?! Plus, they have an entire chapter dedicated to Macaroni and Cheese. I think that speaks for itself right there.
Basically, if you’re ever in Oregon, go to Tillamook. If you fancy a beautiful drive, take the scenic route along highway 101 – coming up through Newport and Lincoln City is my absolute favorite 🙂
And if you’ve never been to Oregon….get there. You’re missing out.
love, Rach
This past weekend, a good friend of mine and her 1-year-old daughter stayed with us for a couple days. It was lovely!!
But now, I have a problem.
I have caught the “baby stuff bug”.
Ingrid helped me start a baby registry, because I was being all contrary about it and refusing to start one.
“I hate asking people to buy me things, it feels so needy and I hate that.”/”UGH WHY DO PEOPLE THINK THEY NEED SO MUCH JUNK FOR THEIR BABIES”/”I don’t even think baby clothes are cute”/”Why is all baby girl stuff pink, I hate pink.”/”I am such a grandma, I don’t like any of this modern stuff, why can’t I just find everything at thrift stores”/”I love children and babies but I think the whole baby industry is a scam, kind of like the wedding business. PEOPLE ARE JUST TRYING TO MAKE MONEY OFF OF OUR FEELINGS!”/etc etc etc….
These types of thoughts are probably also why I had the worst wedding registry in existence. AKA why we still have yet to own a complete set of dishes…we’re up to two glasses, two mugs, two plastic cereal bowls, and a whole mess of plates! woohoo!
Well, Ingrid pretty much smacked me upside the head and set me straight. “You will need basic onesies, some in every size. Bottles and a bottle brush, too. These swaddling blankets are great. You know you like this baby carrier, you’ve used mine. Register for the cloth diapers you want, I know you’ve researched them. Here are some thoughts on baby swings and car seats.”
I now see the light…some baby junk is essential. I’m remembering this now. It’s not like I don’t have any childcare experience.
But…I’ve also found the cute stuff (AKA: not pink).
All I want to do all day is edit my Amazon registry until it is absolutely perfect and has everything I could ever want or need listed.
And hunt down baby stuff at garage sales (I scored a great Johnny Jump Up and Umbrella Stroller for $8 total this weekend!)
And talk about baby things and hold other people’s babies and think about babies and babybabybabyblahblahblah….
Yep….I am turning into THAT lady.
HELP.
love — rach
PS – on a slightly related note – I’ve been surprised lately by how much I find myself hating my entire wardrobe and how virtually all clothing looks on my current body. I find shopping for maternity clothes akin to shopping for a bathing suit. I am most definitely not a “cute fashionable pregnant lady”. I wish I was!! I just need to buckle down and buy some real maternity clothes, I think, if only I could find some that I like…Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated 🙂 it’d be nice to enjoy this part of my life to the fullest now that I am (finally)(for the most part) not nauseous 24/7 😛
Me + Halloween + copious amounts of hot glue + about an hour of hard labor =
“Close your mouth, Michael, we are not a codfish! Spit-spot!”
Voila! Instant Mary Poppins! Practically perfect in every way 🙂
(except not really):
About two hours before the Halloween party I was supposed to be at, and after days upon days of brainstorming…I realized that all I had to do to complete this look was make a ‘dickie’ collar for a white tuxedo-style shirt I already had. So I got out my trusty glue gun and bits of fluff that I had lying around and temporarily modified my blouse! Yes…I was glued into the shirt for the night. But don’t worry – I got out! And the hot glue came off (I think)! And it was only SLIGHTLY off-center! Perfect? Not by any means. Good enough for me? YUP!
I paired the blouse with the skirt shown in this post (high-waisted style), low-heeled boots, and carried around a lovely umbrella! Err’body got it. It was so much fun!!
And no, I don’t have any pictures of the full getup myself….partially because my hubster was out of town that night (thus thwarting our original Kronk+Yzma costume plan…silly work trips!), partially because my bathroom mirror is currently the reigning champ of being-the-only-mirror-in-the-entire-house-excluding-hand-mirrors…
…and partially because I look about five months pregnant right now.
…..literally.
So yeah, I was a pregnant Mary Poppins, and maybe it was a little weird, and maybe I felt a little huge (mostly thanks to the multiple “WOW you don’t look pregnant at ALL!” comments that I’ve been getting…), but overall I think Halloween was a success this year : )
And oh yeah, I really am having a baby girl! She’s due at the end of February, and the hubs and I are SO excited! : )
I promise these photos are much more legitimate than this one from my sister’s 6th birthday party.
— Love, Rach
PS – I’ve tried to spread the news to everyone personally, but seeing as I’ve got a pretty bad case of the pregnant brain (IT’S REAL. NOT A MYTH.), I’ve probably forgotten a few of you that I love very dearly. If that is the case…I’m sorry! I just don’t feel like having random peeps all up in my business, so I’ve kept it off the social networking radar for the most part : )
I was just talking to my Momma dearest. As was giving me words of motherly wisdom and encouragement she added, “I KNOW you will be able to do anything you set your mind on doing! You are determined and you DO things! No matter what it is! You came out that way!!”
She then recounted the story of how, as a baby, I couldn’t quite get the hang of how to crawl at first. But I didn’t let that stop me from going where I wanted to go, all by myself….I taught myself how to roll instead. I was a steamrollin’ machine!
crazy-haired, steamrollin’ child
My Mom would take me to playgroups with other ladies and their babies, and they’d have the Mommy talks, “Oh, how is she eating, how are her naps, and is she crawling yet??”
My Mom would always reply, “Oh, no, she doesn’t crawl….but she is DEFINITELY mobile,”
And the ladies would just smile and give a rousing, “Oh that’s nice.”
Until they’d been distracted for a while and suddenly couldn’t find me, and I turned up all the way across the living room and halfway down the hall.
Then they were giving a rousing, “HOW THE HECK DID SHE GET THERE?! You said she doesn’t even crawl!!”
“Well, I told you she was mobile.” was my Momma’s tongue-in-cheek reply…
mobility is for makin’ messes and eatin’ onions. YUM.
This story is pretty funny to me. But what’s even funnier, is that it speaks volumes about who I still am as an individual.
Even though this happened when I was less than a year old, the same basic personality traits can apply to my twenty-something self.
Impressive, ain’t it?!
I am so grateful to have parents around to remind us who we are, with simple silly stories like this.
Are there any stories from your childhood that you love/are hilarious/mean something to you?! I love hearing baby stories : ) and seeing others’ baby photos. It’s one of my hobbies. Not that I sneak into parents’ homes and look through family photo albums…that would be creepy. But if it happens to come up somehow, I secretly love it. So feel free to share 🙂
love, rach
PS – I’ve noticed I’ve gotten quite a few new followers recently…and I don’t know any of you! Please say hello! I’d love to meet you 🙂
okay, so that MIGHT be a slight exaggeration. but it ain’t far from the truth.
you guys, I feel like I’m in a real-life Agatha Christie novel!
[minus the murder/death/sadness of human nature parts and keeping the intrigue/whodunit/mind-bending parts, of course]
this is pretty darn awesome.
Agatha Christie is my all-time favorite novelist and I am in love with every single book of hers that I’ve read. especially the Miss Marple ones. oh, that Miss Marple. I wish I was as clever as you…
I guess I should explain.
it all has to do with this little lady:
the rad sweater, of course, not myself. haha.
how cool is that sweatshirt?! I love it. muchas gracias to my dear friend Maye for introducing me to it!
after she posted this on Facebook, I perused the original site and ended up pinning it.
about ten people I don’t know then liked and re-pinned it. I felt pretty cool.
a few weeks later, I get an email from the company that manufactures these babies (Cat vs Human and the Spreadshirt Team). it was a confirmation email, thanking me for my order and informing me that they would make my shirt and ship it shortly.
the only catch?
I WAS NO WHERE NEAR A COMPUTER WHEN THE ORDER WAS PLACED AND MOST DEFINITELY DID NOT ORDER THIS MYSELF.
so I sent a quick email to my hubs, at work, thanking him for the surprise. His response?
“Umm, that’s weird, I didn’t order that for you…”
that was when things started to get crazy.
———————————————————
the order was addressed to be shipped to a temporary address that I hadn’t given out to many people. this temporary address was also listed as the billing address. the order used my married name and new email address, which are fairly recent developments. AND, the order was for an item that I had discussed on two forms of social media, so the anonymous party followed my online networking at least somewhat.
it HAD to be someone I knew fairly well, I thought.
[actually, I thought for a moment that it was this online stalker I had dealt with recently, but I have convinced myself that is not the case…still hoping it isn’t the creepo stalker. haha.]
I texted/emailed/called all of my family and good friends. none of them fessed up. so…I emailed the company to be sure my credit card wasn’t the one actually paying for the order [my billing address had been listed, so I wanted to be sure].
“Thank you for your questions regarding order # blahblahblah. Your name does not match the name used on the card given for payment. If you would like to discuss the matter further please call phone number during business hours. Thank you for your time. blahblahblah.”
okay. so I am not financially responsible. cool beans.
my big question now was not so much WHO had sent me an anonymous gift, as WHY they were sending it. it’s nowhere near my birthday, it’s kind of a weird thing to give for a late wedding gift, I haven’t done any favors that necessitate a return lately…I was puzzled.
WELL. the shirt finally arrived a few weeks ago, and it answered that worry! the enclosure card read “Merry Unbirthday, Rachel Ann!”
so, it was an Unbirthday gift. how delightful! I have 364 of those a year, and it was fabulous to finally celebrate one of them!
after receiving the gift, my detective-sleuthing instincts kicked in. here is how I dissected the message:
01 – “Merry”. obviously this salutation in addition to the punctuation at the end of the enclosure is wishing me well. the packaging also did not appear to be tampered with, it looked as if it had come straight from the distributor. I will proceed as if I am meant no harm and there is no hidden anthrax/bombs/anything else harmful contained in this package.
02 – “Unbirthday”. I sent a card to a dear friend recently-ish, wishing her a Merry Unbirthday. this same friend had denied any knowledge of these suspicious activities [and continues to do so], so I will take her word for it. I will therefore simply assume that the sender is rad and loves Alice in Wonderland. this is a good thing.
03 – “Rachel”. they know my first name. that is good. they also did not use any of the nicknames popular among my close friends, so it either was not sent by one [or more] of them or they are covering their tracks. very sneaky.
04 – “Ann”. they also know my middle name, but not well enough to have spelled it correctly. this is very understandable, I myself was mistaken about how my middle name was spelled until I was twelve years old. I could never for the life of me remember if there was or was not an “e” at the end (there is). I never use my middle name in public places, so it is quite possible that a friend who has heard the name, never would have seen it and would have been left to guess at the spelling.
so….where does this dissection leave me?
nowhere, really. it’s all inconclusive. [what a letdown, right? this is why I don’t write novels. hahaha]
all I’m left with is a sweater that I LOVE to wear and a WHOLE HEAPING LOT of gratitude for whoever the mysterious giver is!
so, mysterious giver, I’ve inferred that you follow my online presence and I am assuming that you will read this. which is why I have decided to recount the story in its’ entirety and say a big, fat, “THANKS A MILLION!” not only for the wonderful gift, but for the marvelous adventure you’ve sent my way. I’ve enjoyed it SO MUCH. you are the best and I love you forever.
I’m sure the answer to this riddle will turn up eventually, somewhere down the road.
but until then, I’m quite content to have the thrill of an unsolved mystery in my life!
[in addition to the thrill I get seeing the looks on people’s faces as I walk by while wearing this shirt. they are pretty awesome.]
Love — Rach
Waffles&Cereal 
