Entering a 3rd Decade

Today is my boyfriend’s 30th birthday!  (Actually, he’s my hubbie, but he’s still my boyfriend—and I still like it when he dates me.  Ya know?  Just in case you were wondering…)

Since we basically celebrated his birthday one day early, I mentioned that yesterday was his last day to live it up in his twenties, which brought about some reminiscing about the best aspects of being in one’s twenties and the exciting—although somewhat daunting—move into one’s thirties.  The twenties are full of adventure—college, career, new locations, marriage, possibly kiddos…LOTS of change in a short amount of time.  The thirties feel a tad more serious—like you’re really an adult making more permanent decisions.  For us, this season involves welcoming a baby into our family—although not for six more months—which is a huge change in itself.  Clearly there was need for a celebration!  Hence, Matt’s 30th birthday bash! 

While we didn’t go too crazy, we did invite some close friends to join us for snacks, desserts, and games (Matt loves himself a good strategy game and I love myself a new recipe).  We grazed on southwest veggie eggrolls, chips and salsa, fresh strawberries and pineapple, pretzel turtle bites, and a divine triple layer chocolate ganache cake (a huge thanks to my mom for the recipe!).  And yes, this was my first time making a layer cake, which went surprising better than I originally envisioned—but I was still very thankful for the frosting, which covered a multitude of sins. 

Did you notice the cake stands?!  My heart still pitter patters when I think of them nestled away.  I've been searching for this style of cake stand for over a year, and I finally found them at Homegoods, of course!  I bought two different sizes so I can stack them.  Since I didn’t have an official “cake stand” budget, I dipped into our grocery envelope…which means that I really love those stands, because we’ll likely be eating rice and beans at the end of this month.  But occasionally it’s worth it, especially when you’ve been searching high and low for just the right piece.   While I was at it, I snagged a bunch of silvery candle holders on super clearance at Target.  Please tell me I’m not the only one who is overly fond of serving dishes and sales!

After praying blessings over Matt upon this new season of his life, the guys got serious about their games, and the girls chatted about…you know, whatever it is that girls chat about.  e.v.e.r.y.t.h.i.n.g.  The hubs even received some fun gifts in multiples of thirty.  Like 30 ounces of Ben & Jerry’s ice cream, 30 Reese’s Cups, 30 Tootsie Pop suckers, and a frisbee to be used for 30 games of ultimate frisbee/frisbee golf—in which the giver hopes that he beats Matt at least 30 times.  Haha!  What fun. 

There really is nothing better than being surrounded by close friends and family during those significant milestones in your life.  We’re thankful that we have a home in which to share those memories.  After all, what is the point of living in a special space if you keep it all to yourself? 

What are your thoughts on turning 30?  Favorite moments from your twenties?  Bits of wisdom for the future?  We’re listening! 

Crazy Dazy

Whew!  Has it been crazy around here or what?!  Let me just tell you that hosting events in our tiny little home is fun but somewhat exhausting.  There are simply more logistics to think through when you don’t have lots of space.  We don’t even own a card table!  For the record, last week we made dinner for some friends on Wednesday night, hosted our small group (which is not so small anymore…) on Thursday night, and then threw a church picnic on Sunday afternoon!  We were counting on the weather to cooperate this weekend so that we could grill and send folks outside with their camp chairs, but unfortunately it rained (boo!), so we were packed inside like sardines.  Thankfully everyone had great attitudes and it ended up being a really enjoyable time of fellowship.

About an hour after everyone left on Sunday, my throat started tickling and things went downhill from there.  You know how your body sometimes shuts down when it knows it finally can rest?  Well, I think that’s what happened to me, because I’ve spent the past two days sleeping off what I think is the flu.  Blah.  But here’s the cherry on top… This morning our carbon monoxide detector went off, so Matt tried to figure out what the problem was.  Before he could get it all squared away, he had to leave for work.  Of course I was just trying to catch a few more winks of sleep since I haven’t been feeling so hot, but as he’s walking out the door he tells me that he’s going to call the fire department—which, as it turns out, can only be reached by calling 9-1-1.  So as I’m rubbing sleep from my eyes, he jets out the door and says he’ll call me when he gets to work.  At this point I’m feeling less than stellar and slightly confused about what’s going on.  Default: call Mom!  As we’re hemming and hawing over whether or not I should stay in the house or go sleep in my car, Matt calls back.  I put my mom on hold and have a very choppy conversation with him as he’s driving through the parking garage (horrible cell connection).  As Matt is trying to explain to me that I need to get out of the house and what to tell the firefighters, I see the fire truck pull up to our house—lights flashing and all—and realize that I’m in my pajamas and am—ahem—not quite decent, if you know what I mean.  So I hang up the phone and pull on a bulky sweatshirt, usher in five firefighters, and try to explain what has happened with our carbon monoxide detectors (there’s a little more to the story, but I’m not going to get into the details here…way too confusing).  At that point my phone rings again because I left my mom on hold for too long, so I awkwardly answer it and then immediately hang up on my mom so I can continue explaining things to the fire men.

*If you’re still reading this, you get a gold star.*  In a nutshell, the fire men tested our house for carbon monoxide and said they were reading zero (which is good!).  They basically told us to replace our batteries.  Then they said they would send out a man from the utility company just to double check and make sure things were okay.  As they were leaving, one of the fire men asked if we fixed up the house ourselves.  I told him we’d been working on it for over a year, and he said it looked great.  Wasn't that nice of him?

After they took off (I’m sure the neighbors were dying of curiosity), the utilities guy came by and said everything checked out fine.  He also took a look at our gas fireplace (it was converted to gas a long time ago, so we’re talking about an ancient gas fireplace set-up).  We’ve had trouble getting our fireplace to light, but he was able to work some sort of utility guy magic and lit it right  up.  Within a few seconds our house was filled with fumes; apparently the fireplace doesn’t vent properly even with the flue open.  He suggested either converting it back to a log-burning fireplace or installing a new enclosed gas fireplace.  Before leaving he told me we should not use the current set-up under any circumstances.  While I was a little sad that our fireplace is worthless, I was glad to know about the problem and relieved that we didn’t buy any expensive parts to fix it.  We’ll have to decide whether we want to invest in a new set-up or not.

For now, we’re just happy to know that nothing is wrong with our house.  And it’s a good reminder for us—and for you—to check the batteries in the smoke and carbon monoxide detectors.  If you don’t have a carbon monoxide detector, go out and buy one today!  Several years ago on Christmas Day at my parent’s house in Indiana, we had a huge carbon monoxide scare.  My mom woke up at 5 am and instinctively knew that something was wrong (despite the fact that it’s impossible to smell carbon monoxide fumes).  She made us all get out of the house.  A utility guy came to the house and found a crack in their furnace.  As it turned out, the gas levels were really high and could have been deadly had we stayed in the house much longer.  It really is amazing that my mom woke up and felt like something was wrong though, because my parents did have a detector, but the batteries were out… Anyway, lots of lessons to be learned here, including that your friendly neighborhood fire/utility guys will check out your house for free, plus they were super nice (despite my serious bedhead and bleary eyes).  As for me, I’ll be buried under the covers to sleep off more of this bug.  Adios amigos.

It’s A Boy!

Ummm…what were you thinking?!  That I’d tactlessly announce my pregnancy over our blog before giving you a personal heads up?  I know some of you will be sorely disappointed, but this blogger is not prego.  On the flip side, I did host my first official baby shower last Saturday!  I keep saying that I feel like I’m a real adult now.  Anyone else ever feel like that?  My dad said the umbilical cord was truly severed when I finally was removed from the family plan and Matt and I started paying our own cell phone bill.  Don’t worry—we didn’t mooch off my parents for too long…

I hosted the baby shower with a slew of others who did just as much prep work as I did.  Thanks to Brandi, Hannah, Tiffani, Sarah, and Beth for pitching in and making the shower a success!  And of course, congrats are in line for Ellen, the delightful guest of honor with a bun in her oven.  You wouldn’t believe it if I told you, but we crammed fit 25 lovely ladies into our little bungalow!  That’s right.  It was a tight squeeze, but in the end everyone pretty much found a space to claim as their own.  A table laden with goodies, old acquaintances chatting happily, and lots of laughter—all the ingredients needed for a baby shower.

We themed the shower after Ellen’s nursery—vintage bicycles.  Isn’t that just the best idea?  I suppose it would be weird to steal the nursery theme of a good friend, so when we eventually enter that season of life I’ll just have to find new inspiration.

Although the invitations were store-bought, the colors were just right and we were able to personalize them with a bicycle stamp.

Since I was in charge of décor, I tried to keep things sweet and simple—and cheap.  I started by looking online for images of vintage bicycles.  I found more than I bargained for!  Then I printed them off and popped them into our newly hung frames (good timing!) for a subtle backdrop.

Since I wanted the bike theme to carry beyond just one wall, I added a few photos to frames (that normally house our wedding photos) and settled them down beside all the plates and serving ware—which happened to fit snugly into our built ins, creating more space on our dining room table to display food and flowers.

Speaking of flowers, we bought ours at Costco.  For vases, we used vintage steel pitchers that I happened to pick up at a local antique store last year.  Since we wanted to send flowers home with some of the guests, we just popped a few into mason jars for easy transportation.

And I can’t forget to showcase the darling watering can that my sister Hannah picked out specially for me a few years ago.

Doesn’t it look like it was made for these roses?  I love the tightly packed look and their slightly nostalgic color.  We actually gave the flowers away as a gift after playing a trivia game about the mom-to-be, but I won!  (Is that wrong?  I know…I wasn’t sure about it either, but I must admit that I’m loving the fresh flowers!  And no, I didn’t create the game, so I had no idea what the answers were ahead of time.)

Warning!  Food pictures below!  Since it was a mid-morning shower, we opted for an array of breakfast foods, like quiches, baked blue berry French toast, scones with cream and berries, fresh fruit, petite lemon cakes, and some delicious cup cakes (which aren’t officially a breakfast food, but what’s a shower without a little celebratory cake?).

One of my favorite things was the tub chock full of Izzes.  Ellen loves Izzes, plus we thought it added a bit of vintage flair.

Lastly, we passed around a blessing book where friends could leave Ellen with a blessing or bit of wisdom about motherhood.

If you’re looking for baby shower inspiration, I recommend Pinterest, an addictive site loaded with images for your imagination to feast on.  Don’t say I didn’t warn you when you find that it’s midnight and you’re still browsing…