where we call home

we are so blessed to call this beautiful place our home. the central coast is simply amazing.

my in-laws are staying with us awhile and helping a ton with our yard. so far: the fence was reconstructed, the "pool" deck the owners before us never came close to finishing is disassembled, the jutted-out part of the fence has been set back to match the rest, the wire fence has been removed and so has the old nasty climbing shrub. phew. that's a lot of things. half an acre takes a lot of work. especially when it needed tlc immediately after purchasing.

tonight we took a break, i mean my father in law took a break, and went to Morro Bay for the best fish and chips. ever. really. Harbor Hut does it right and i ate the whole plate. more than my husband. and my father in law. combined. ok, not combined but more than each of them. just a lot, ok?

here are a few photos from our adventure. it was a gorgeous night. m was totally happy. and now she is teething molars and miserable :(

oma and opa and m

and daddy

and mama

the sun setting in the west...

moon rising in the east...

we are so blessed. 

finances

does it ever seem like when one thing breaks everything starts breaking??? that's how it goes at our house. ugh. lame. we had our house appraised to drop the PMI we pay and save over $300 a month. welp, we didn't get the appraisal so there went $450 down the drain. then boss man's truck is totally unsafe to drive and needs over $500 in parts/labor (good thing i have an uncle in the business). and now my dryer is not getting hot. ugh. trying to save for ivf with all of these not-ignorable finances creeping up is tough....

hopefully something will workout with re-financing the house. we could really use the savings!

hello monday

good monday morning! this is my first time linking up so lets see how this goes!!

(linking up with Lisa Leonard for Hello Monday)

mondays are actually fridays at our house and are the busiest day for this mama. cleaning up, laundry, showers. you know the drill.

hello laundry.

 hello sleepy baby.

 hello messy house.

hope everyone has a great week! i know i am really looking forward to a few house projects this weekend!!

finger painting

for the first time! and she was an adorable mess. she discovered that red paint tastes the same as green paint and neither taste very good. 

happy valentines day!

happy valentines day! we don't usually do much, if anything, around the marks residence to celebrate this day. boss man is not really a fan. ok, not really isn't, he isn't at all.

but i love him dearly so i always do a little something.

this year i did 52 reasons i love you.  used a deck of cards, a heart hole punch, some ribbon, card stock, a marker and tacky glue to construct this little love book for him. it turned out really cute. and i hope it will always be a reminder of how much i love him.

here are my 52 reasons. which are really only a few!

1. your smile
2. you let me put my iceberg feet on your warm legs at night. sometimes.
3. you make me laugh
4. you provide a wonderful life
5. you are an awesome daddy
6. you have a passion for golf
7. you support my choices
8. your love for your mama and family
9. you like to be silly
10. you are sexy
11. you enjoy the outdoors
12. you like my DIY projects...or at least pretend to 
13. you take care of our lawn
14. you're so handy
15. you eat chinese food with me even though you hate it
16. you smell yummy
17. you know my moods better than i do
18. you don't mind washing dishes
19. you listen to me tell the same stories over and over
20. you remember all of our firsts
21. you are level headed
22. you keep me grounded
23. you make me feel beautiful everyday
24. because i loved you at first sight
25. you truly are a sweetheart
26. you understand my silliness. or weirdness
27. for always being patient
28. for holding my hand for no reason
29. for loving our daughter
30. for loving me unconditionally
31. for trying hard
32. for never never giving up 
33. for being a dreamer 
34. for always coming home to me
35. for knowing i can always count on you
36. for loving Roo
37. because you watch chick flicks with me....
38. even the bachelor!
39. we can have discussions fairly
40. for the way you say "my wife..."
41. when we think the same thing at the same time
42. for drinking wine with me
43. for letting me fill up the bath before you take a shower
44. because you always order dr pepper
45. you pat my butt when i walk by you
46. you take such good care of M when i'm not around
47. you always love my body
48. you always make sure we are safe
49. you always eat my cooking. even chicken pot pie, which you hate.
50. for wanting to marry me
51. for having a sweet baby girl with me
52. and for knowing that the best is still yet to come

i am so lucky to love this man. and to have him love me. we were meant to be.

we exchanged our cards yesterday and he LOVED his 52 reasons; i will never forget the smile on his face as head read each one aloud. a few laughs in there too. and he got me a beautiful Lisa Leonard triple strand turquoise necklace. i'd had my eye on it for a few months and he secretly purchased it. he's the best. 

jellies, penguins & sea stars, oh my!

yesterday we ventured 2 hours north-west to the Monterey Bay Aquarium. boss had never been in all of his 29 years (gasp!) and it was m's first time too. it was the perfect day!

this was so neat! just keep swimming, just keep swimming- m was totally fascinated.

the jelly fish were by far my favorite. they are beautiful! and i love this photo.

checking out the leopard sharks and kelp forest with dad. we waited around for the diver to feed the fish and when he started talking and waving m gave him a big ol' HIIII and wave back.

loving the touch pools. she tried to pick up every star fish and take all the kelp with her :)

spending family days together are my absolute favorite. i fall more in love with boss when i see him pick her up and place her on his shoulders for a better view or offer her a little snack while carrying her around on his hip. those two are perfect together. 

with IVF as our next option for having a baby, it meant picking the time that was right for us to begin the process. we could've have started much sooner but decided that waiting gave us the chance to spend as much quality time as a family of 3 as we possibly can. that was the reason behind heading to the aquarium and our next adventure, the Santa Barbara Zoo in March. boss took me there for our 1 year anniversary. so technically m has already been but i think this time around she will have a much better view! for the harvest and transfer of our embryos we have to travel to Redondo Beach so we are researching to find an adventure there! 

14 months

how is M already 14 months? i know i say this every month and every post but its going too fast.

her favorite things are still daddy and playing outside.

she loves to snack on goldfish dipped in pb and all kinds of berries; especially black berries.

she says: dada, daddy, down, done, dog, ooo-tinky (we call her toes poo-tinky when they are stinky), mama (very rarely), hi dada and hi gigi, and tickle tickle.

she knows how to bring me a clean diaper, that the car keys mean we are going bye-bye (she carries them to the door and bangs them on the handle), and bath means head to the tub! which she absolutely loves.

she can run now and jump on two feet! which is amazing!! she loves her friends, sharing and coloring.

yesterday we played with bubbles for the first time and she wasn't all that enthused...they were blowing away in the wind and she would rather run in the grass and dig her little chubby fingers in the dirt. and play peek-a-boo in the fence.

 these are her sparkly, light-up sketchers. when you ask for her shoes, these are always the pair she brings to you :)

 can her hands please stay like this forever???? pretty please?

run run run! i took a series of photos of her running and they are just so cute. she lets her cheeks jiggle and says "ugh ugh ugh ugh" with every step. like she is on a bumpy road or something. to. die. for. 

tomorrow we are heading to the monterey bay aquarium for the Boss's first time! and M's too :) it will be our valentines celebration. a post son to follow!

organizing part 1

lately i have been organizing and cleaning out like i may be suffering from a severe case of nesting. but that's impossible. really. so ive just chalked it up to early spring cleaning and wishing it was nesting. oh well, that will come soon enough and i'm sure i'll find loads more to organize and re-organize again.

recently i started moving everything from our guest bedroom closet to the hall closet. the room no longer has a bed so we got a couch from my mom, moved a desk in there and set up the desk top computer that never ever gets used. in fact, it isn't even plugged in. anyhoo, the bedroom closet was mainly storage for all crafting supplies, office supplies, junk, a dresser with more junk, more craft and wrapping paper stuff and some more junk.

i started by purchasing different size bins from Target and organizing things in the bins. i labeled the front of the bin according to what is inside with a cute Martha Stewart brown sticky label from Staples.

this photo is angled to the right of the shelf because the left side is still junk unorganized. i like to save Parenting, Real Simple and Boss Man's Handy Man magazines if there are interesting articles or tips in them. i have these in a vertical file box, on the right, with flags to mark the pages i may want to refer to later.

the categories i have chosen for this stuff are banking&office, tools&nails, crafting&gifting, candles&votives, pens&markers and cords. you may find as you organize, like i did, that some of the containers will need to be bigger and you can re-label as you move things around. i have found that paper and craft paper don't really belong in a 'box type' organizer. i need to find an organizer that has four levels with an open front so the paper can easily slide in a out. our hall closets have 4 shelves and i started with my containers on the bottom two shelves. well, as my growing toddler discovered how to open the doors and play in there i had to move them up to the top two.

im still working so i'll share another organization post soon!

yesterdays post

yesterdays post didn't post. for whatever reason it showed up when i viewed my blog but not on the reading list for anyone else to read. and it was a good one! well at least i thought so :)

having a heavy heart or a heart filled with negativity shows through into our conversations and actions. a friend told me she felt like her heart was filled with negativity and that was why she has been speaking negatively lately. this really caught my attention so i went back through my posts. and i found exactly that.

i blog when i am sad. i blog when i am happy. i blog when i need support. support from people i don't even know is sometimes more powerful. it is a different choice of words. it's a new way to look at the situation that i hadn't thought of before and if i could give a virtual hug, or real hug, to those supporters i would.

sharing feelings and finding support from opening up is different to me and i hope that on the days of a heavy heart i don't show my negativity in my words or actions.

ivf preparedness

before we actually begin with the process of ivf and my treatments, we have to make some subtle changes to our diets and i have to begin birth control (lame) and take folic acid. why birth control you may wonder? yeah, me too. it is completely impossible for my to become pregnant. ever. oh well. as the dr says. anyways, there is no alcohol consumption while doing the treatments and very limited caffeine.  oh. dear. lord. the alcohol is ok. the caffeine i cannot live without.

so ive decided that from today until may 1st is 90 days. so i started today with very limited alcohol (none unless it is a celebration type evening) and weaning off of caffeine, down to one cup. i never have more than 2 but ya know, that second one is a life saver around 11 am. while im at it i figure i could stand to lose a few lbs so why not go low carb? we eat pretty healthy around here so there isn't much else to change.

so, day 1 is done. 89 to go. boss man says if i look at it that way i won't make it very far and i am quite possibly the least committed person, when it comes to diets and such, on the planet. but ill do this. can't be too healthy right? this will be the most expensive baby ever so i need to do all that i can to ensure i am as healthy as i can be for that little peanut.

-no alcohol
-less caffeine
-low carb
-more exercise

ill update after about a week...if i survive.

my bouncy happy baby

patiently waiting for her stamps

yesterday we spent the morning at gymnastics and m had a total blast. i feel so proud when she jumps (on two feet!) down the trampoline, shares a ball with another friend and spins around dancing to the music. she is an absolute joy. so inlove with her. when i watched her sit down with her little chubby legs stretched out in front of her, hands placed patiently on her knees...ugh my heart just melted away and i wanted to kiss her on her little fuzzy head. i am so so so proud to be her mama.

today we spend the day with valerie and vincent walking the bob jones trail in Avila. it was such a beautiful day. a little breeze. warm sun. good company. loved it all.