For My All My Librarians...

I Love Felt

Liz's friend Ligia was making pieces of art with felt years ago before it was cool.  I love this medium.  I think it's clean and oh so colorful. 

You could leave this wreath up year round.  If I was a stay at home I would attempt to make this if I could buy the felt balls.  My last wreath attempt, a Halloween wreath of candy corns, was a complete failure.  I came home from work on a hot October day and the candy corns were melting off.

Felt bowls on Etsy

Felt acorns with the real caps.

Felt ipod case.  Etsy.

Felt letters also on Etsy. Edie will need these and Milo would love to chew them up.  A Milo aside: He vomited 5 times while I was pumping this morning and I'm pretty sure he threw up in the bed last night.

Felt laptop sleeve.  You guessed it, Etsy.

Felt coasters on Etsy.  I love Etsy!

I will copy this idea.

This looks easy enough for me to make, ok, or buy.

I'm not wasting time because it's raining outside!

This time last year I was in Maine.  I was pregnant but I didn't know it yet.  I was about to find out though.  I told Chris, then Amy, then Mom and Nancy, then Dad and Liz.  I didn't wait the three months they tell you to wait; I told people immediately.  Here we at the end of 2009.  It was ten years ago that I graduated from undergrad at LSU and went to work at the Dallas Arboretum.  I can't believe it's been ten years!  What's changed?  I'm happier and more confident.  I ran longer and faster then. I still had this crazy willpower to watch what I ate (where did that go?). I didn't have my own pet other than a fish tank. I didn't have a child or a husband.  I loved my job then as I do now (everyone reading this take note, do what you love for a living!!). I quoted movies and t.v. shows then and I do now. I didn't know how to cook at all.  I couldn't even make rice. I didn't know how to dress properly for working outside in the winter.  I do now. I was a neat freak then and now.  It's actually gotten a lot worse. I still don't know how to shop properly and collect clothes I actually want to wear and look good in.  I have a lot more sun damage.  My hair is longer.  I try to wear it down more now.  Thanks to this:

I had never met Chris. Everything about landscaping was completely new to me. I didn't know I would be going to graduate school. I take a lot less shit off of people now.  I know how to watch my temper and try to remain professional. I know more about computers.  I was practically computer illiterate 10 years ago.  I still don't read much.  I wish I did but I just don't.  I can't hold my pee in anymore thanks to pregnancy.  I shave now.  I know my Granny much better.  I now know the date that Doc will die.  I still workout almost daily.  I have a wedding ring now but never had a wedding.  I still don't wear makeup or blow dry my hair.  I realize how lucky I am more now.  I still don't know if I believe in God or not.  I have a cell phone now.  I have a house now!  I have in laws now. I still go to bed really early and get up earlier.  My handwriting has gotten worse.  I have learned lots and lots and lots about landscaping and life in general.  I value family and friends more now.  My best friends are still Jeanne Marie, Jeremiah, and Caroline.  I have a lot more great art now.  Thanks Nancy.  I am much more obsessed with celebs now.  I know more about sports now only because Chris is loves sports and ESPN is on in our house every afternoon when I get home from work.  I still think Martha Stewart is a goddess.

My New Year's resolutions: Get back down to my prepregnancy weight and then some.  Learn how to use my camera properly.  Not be a bitch to my crew at work when they make mistakes.  Run and bike more at the lake on weekends.  Cook more.  Use more organics at work.

Other stuff:

I need Chris to learn how to do this so he can braid my hair like this everyday before I go to work.

I found this on another blog.  It's my new baby growth guide.  Looks like by late February she'll be sitting up.  Can't wait.

Edie Visits SMU

Edie with Ek.

With Simon.

Sucking up leaves.  The guys rigged this themselves.

Christmas Odds and Ends

These pictures capture our glorious week off from work celebrating Christmas with our friends and family.  Unfortunately a lot of the week's events aren't captured because much of the time I was holding Edie instead of my camera.

The girls on their new bikes.

Getting some work done.

All grown up.  Except for Frog.

A Christmas Frog.

Jeff and Chris with the girls.

Bubba and Edie.

Mimi and Liz at Christmas lunch in Natchez, Mississippi.

Catching up with Allison.

The reunion breakfast at Another Broken Egg.

Can you see Edie chewing on my fingers?

Simon, me, Edie, and Ek.

Jeff, Liz, and Charlotte (The most mellow baby ever!).

Christmas Edie with Cindy at our reunion breakfast.

A Very Harwood Christmas

After Allen Christmas on Tuesday (which I forgot to take pictures of) we packed up the car and drove down to Lafayette, Louisiana on Christmas Eve.  What a great visit!  Liz and Jeff were there too with their adorable daughter Charlotte Grace.  Charlotte is three weeks younger than Edie so it was a Christmas baby fest.  Karen and Alecia had been baking and preparing for days so the house was full of fancy cookies, two impeccably decorated Christmas trees and beautifully arranged decorations on every surface, and, most importantly, great food.  Brisket, potato salad (my fav), spinach and artichoke casserole !!! (I finished the last of this without bothering to heat it up), two turkeys, stuffing with mushrooms or without, mashed potatoes, rolls, cookies galore, omelettes, blueberry pancakes, poboys, Peking Gardens, somebody stop me.  Needless to say I exceeded my Weight Watcher points everyday but it was worth it.

Chris and I shared a room with Edie for the first time since she was about 3 weeks old.  I remember why we stopped doing that almost immediately after she came home from the hospital.  What a loud sleeper!!  And an even louder awaker.  She was up about 5 times each night.  I guess it was the different surroundings but I haven't gotten up that much with her since she was a newborn.  I even put her in bed with us one night which was a mistake.  She took up about 80% of the bed, laying perpendicular to Chris and I as we clung on to the edges of the bed all night.  I'd much rather share a bed with two dogs and a cat.  Anyway the trip was fantastic and I didn't want to leave.  I got to spend time with Jeanne Marie and she and her parents were able to meet Edie.   I didn't take nearly enough pictures because I was holding Edie most of the time.  But here are some of what I managed to get. 

Look at those decorations!!!

Heading to Lafayette.

One of the decorated mantles.

Edie riding her new bike.  I think we have a future cyclist on our hands.

I rode the stationary bike at the gym almost everyday while I was carrying her.  This wasn't one of those granny stationary bikes that are the size of a car; the one I rode is basically a real, road bike on a stand.  It was the only thing I was comfortable using while I was pregnant.  As I got larger I couldn't sit down on it so I rode standing up as if I was going up a hill for 45 minutes.  So I worked out a lot while I was pregnant and of course I was at work everyday doing some sort of physical labor so I wonder if this will help somehow influence Edie towards having an active lifestyle.  We will see.  I hope so.  I know it certainly contributed to an easy pregnancy and an extremely easy labor.  Sorry I got off track.  This has nothing to do with Christmas.

Cousins.

Karen and Andy holding Edie and Charlotte Grace

Max crashed out on the couch.

The new bikes that Alecia impressively assembled.

Edie passed out on Alecia.

Passed out on Grandpa Harwood.

Charlotte getting her first taste of sugar.

Chris in the middle of breakfast preperation.

A game of Trivial Pursuit.  Jeanne Marie and I came in last place.

One of Karen's perfectly decorated trees.

Alecia made and decorated cookies for each of us.

The Christmas dinner table.

Karen and Alecia preparing the turkey.

Alecia's gingerbread house.

Christmas dinner.

Edie and Karen.