On catching up with the rest of society.

I've had an excellent week and weekend, which included being very productive (yes!), getting to see our little growing sprout via ultrasound (incredible!), blowing through the entire season 6 of Weeds  (because it FINALLY! came on Netflix!), and hanging out with awesome friends and family (who are awesome!)

Yes, the baby bump is definitely coming along. Exciting times, I say!

In other news, I finally jumped on the Pinterest train. I had successfully avoided it for so long...because really. Did I need ANOTHER thing to take up my time? I think not, I told myself. Besides, it can't be THAT great, I told myself. But I have finally succumbed and joined the pinning madness. Of course, I'm a convert. As everyone told me I would be.

But. I did think that it was super weird that I had to request an invite and then wait forever for it to come instead of just being able to sign up. AND it took a super long time to come. More than a day!! What's that??! I guess that Pinterest and I have a lot of things to learn about each other.

And yes it definitely took up way too much of my Sunday afternoon today. Help!

Or. Want to be pinning buddies? Find me here!

Lots of exclamation points today. I must be in an excitable! mood!

My very favorite tulips.

First tulips of the season are sprouting up! This brings joy to my life and I stop to admire and give encouraging words to the growing buds each day when passing them on our sidewalk.

Then I shake my fist and shout curses at the dandelions that are already beginning to overtake our lawn.

Cat family.

My first sketchbook post in awhile. Hooray! It feels good to draw again.

This is my cat family. I bought them as a college student from a little shop called Ten Thousand Villages in St. Paul. I was with my friend Mel at the time, who was also my roommate at the time, and who soon became my cat family watcher-over-er when I was gone.

Nowadays they proudly find their rank among such names as Dostoyevsky and Dickens.

In other news, tonight I decided to make a special dessert that consisted of melted marshmallows, Nutella, and Cheerios.

Because Cheerios are really healthy. You should read the label!

Stop looking at me like that.

You make me crazy Liz.

My 5 year old violin student the other day told me (after I told her to try playing a few lines again), "You make me crazy Liz." I promptly laughed super hard which caused her to think of herself as a brilliant comedian, and she said it over and over again for the next five minutes.

I like the funny parts of life.

I'm getting caught up on some projects around here, and hope to be back to my more creative endeavors soon. But I feel like I'm having trouble regaining my old work ethic and momentum.

Example.

Today I came home from teaching violin and ate some dinner. Then I ate a second dinner. Then I ventured down to the basement where the hubs is working on some electrical work. After unsuccessfully trying to lure him upstairs to hang out with me by using my swingin' prego moves and flirting, I wandered aimlessly back upstairs and wondered what to do with myself.

I was already caught up on any Hulu watching I might want to do.

I had finished my book and didn't have another one to start.

And I had already eaten two dinners plus some snacks and dessert.

"Dude, what am I going to do now?" I asked my faithful kitty companion.

Then I remembered how if this had been a time before we got preggers, I would have been excited about the opportunity to squeeze a few extra hours of work in. Editing new projects for the shop, making a sketch, or writing a post.

So then I wrote a post. This post.

And now I'm going to share a picture of cats. What else?

Look at them, plotting. They totally April fooled our sleepy hineys on Sunday morning. They woke me up at 6am to feed them. I went back to bed....and they woke up the hubs at 7am. And he fed them! Two breakfasts!

Dang, fooled yo.

A list of nice things.

Happy things from this past week or so:


- Renting the first season of Modern Family from the library. I didn't start watching the show until the second season so I was excited to finally catch up. Luke is of course my favorite character.


- Thrifting with my sis. And another time with the hubs. And another time by myself. Thrifting is a great past time. 


- Good work outs and good chats with my bestie.


- The hubs bringing me home cinnamon rolls (on account of my spending an obscene amount of time on the Cinnabon website reading their product descriptions) and the new Muppet Movie one night. 


- The hubs bringing me home cream cheese wontons another night. I guess that when I became pregnant my new love language became....food. 


- Having enough energy and drive to do some gardening on Saturday. I may have mentioned sometime before how much I (don't) love gardening, so it felt like a pretty big victory to me.


- Delicious Sunday lunch with a couple of friends in uptown.


- Chugging huge glasses of orange juice filled with ice. I decided a long time ago that orange juice is much better if it has ice in it.


- Making a successful loaf of banana chocolate chip (and also pear) bread. It was only around for a few days.


- Blizzards with the hubs after a busy day. I got french silk pie. Mmmm so good.




Maybe I should have just titled this post good things that I ate this week?

Hello.

Alright. I hereby declare my return to blogging. And I'm excited about it!

But you know the thing where you don't say anything for a really really long time...and then you decide you want to start saying things again....but you're not quite sure what to start saying?

That's happening to me right now.

So since I'm sure that I want to start blogging again but unsure of what exactly I want to say, this post might be a bit of a rambler.

First off, thank you friends and readers for your wonderful comments in my last post! The one where I announced that I have a baby bump starting to grow. I was so glad to hear from you, and was reassured that taking a blogging break when you have the growing a baby grumpies was perfectly ok. So thank you again.

Second off, well I'm not sure. This is where I start randomly typing my thoughts. I'm super pumped to get back to work on my animal doodle note cards, improving my etsy shop, and having sketchbook days again! But as I did basically nothing these past few months (and when I say basically nothing I'm in no way exaggerating) I have quite a few items to catch up on before I can get to those things. At the top of the to-do list has been cleaning my much much neglected house, sorting through frighteningly high piles of accumulated papers and mail, doing our taxes which is one of my VERY favorite things (and by favorite I mean I want to kick taxes in the face), working on projects for clients, and reminiscing about how the hubs finally threw away our only plant because I allowed it to slowly die. Because apparently I was so lethargic that instead of getting up to water it once in awhile, I just watched it's slow death from the couch I sat on for four months.

1st trimester pregnancy looked good on me.

But now I feel like a new person! Or perhaps more like the old me. And if I could get that plant back to apologize to it right now I would, and I would lovingly nurse it back to life. And there wouldn't be that bare space on top of our tv stand anymore.

More good news is this: spring is here in Minnesota! And it's only March! When most years we'd still be having snowfall and slick ice, this year we are having 70 and 80 degree weather. And yesterday we had a thunderstorm! A (very) early spring is perhaps one of my biggest dreams come true and I refuse to even entertain the thought that winter could maybe still bring it's ugly head back into our lives this early in the year.

Here's a few shots of the hubs and me enjoying some park time in the glorious weather.

Me getting ready to slide down a twisty slide.

Ouch, guess I'm old and have big hips and twisty slides hurt me.

The hubs is an outstanding climber. Here's him on a super hard route. Yes he wears Hannah Montana sunglasses. I think it's sexay.

Us being happy at the park.

Well I think I'll wrap this up. Talk soon!

The one where I awkwardly come back.

hark! avast ye! be still my beating heart.

And such begins the post where she (and by she I mean me, myself) unearths herself from the blogging rock she seems to have buried herself under.

For 2 months! Or a month in a half. Or something along those lines. The whole month of February passed by with nary a post!

For my absence, I apologize. And although I'm not too incredibly sure how many people noticed my absence, for those of you that did and checked in, I am grateful.

And now for my explanation. I am still alive. So are my hubs and kitties. And as it turns out....I'm totally preggers! Have been for a few months now. Surprise! The hubs and I found out on Christmas Eve and have been excitedly placed into the category of expectant parents ever since. Our baby Points is due at the end of August!

But as it also turns out...pregnancy so far has turned me into a sick, fatigued type of person who doesn't seem to resemble my usual, peppy, workaholic self. In fact, growing a child has completely stripped me of any motivational or creative thoughts, plans, and ambitions. It's kind of...a bummer. But in an excited, "we're making a human!" kind of way.

BUT. As I am now at the 15 week mark and the dreaded 1st trimester symptoms should HOPEFULLY be settling themselves away and the 2nd trimester is supposedly high energy and cute baby bump filled...I am hoping to become a productive person again very soon.

And so. I'm not sure if I am completely out from under my rock or if I'm just merely peaking out my head today, but as I was staring listlessly at my computer this afternoon I remembered something.

I remembered that I used to blog a lot, and that I really liked it.
And I remembered that I used to draw a lot, and that I really liked it.
And I also remembered about a note card project that I was about to put into my shop, and that I really liked those too.

And I remembered that maybe I would like to start doing those things again.

So. To sum up. I'm harboring a baby in my uterus. It's a very, very happy thing for the hubs and myself. And perhaps the cats too, although it's hard to tell.  And although I have been sick, lazy, absent, and without any life ambitions the past couple of months, I hope to be coming back very very soon.

Man. It felt good to write that!