showering love

one of the greatest fortunes of my life has been that, wherever i've been, at whatever time in my life, i have been blessed with kind and loyal and good good friends. some of them were friends for a particular time and season when i needed them most, and some have turned into my oldest, longest friends but they have all brought me so much goodness and learning and joy.

and so, even though showers can be a little bit of an awkward thing because you're basically inviting people to a party so they can give you presents, i sure do love gathering with my favorite people to celebrate life's happiest things. and that is exactly what my baby shower was.

miss angela and sarita bonita threw a gorgeous bash, and i just looked around and thought how lucky and happy i felt to have all those stunning people in my life, and how even luckier and happier i felt that  our little baby will have them looking out for her and cheering her on. they will love and protect her like they have loved and protected me, and i can't think of a better gift in the whole world.

in addition to defending my celebrity baby name game title (undefeated!), we all wrote down our wishes for baby girl. if all of those wishes come true, she will be the most successful, imaginative, confident, forgiving, disciplined, loving person who ever lived.

and i hope she is.

here are my wishes for her.

i hope you learn how to be gracious and forgiving
i hope you have confidence, but not conceit
i hope you never forget how much we love you
i hope you create safe spaces for yourself and others
i hope you respect yourself and your talents
i hope you become happy

love, mom 

sail away

yesterday was the kind of day that just sort of wears you out with its rotten-ness. 

but then, after all the work and drama was over, i picked up matt and ABK and headed to the marina. kathryn was waiting for us (dinner group complete!) and off we went on a little sail.

the weather was divine, cool with light air and gorgeous sunshine, kathryn made a feast and we spent a blissful two hours on the water.

and, as a bonus, ABK agreed to teach my children how to sail.

no bad day can survive an evening like that.

there's always money in the banana stand

the weather has turned back to cold around here, so i am day dreaming about being back in lovely and warm newport beach, where we had a wonderful visit with robin, cody and baby alivia.

i hadn't seen robin since her wedding a couple of years ago, so it was a long overdue reunion though, as these things usually go, it was as if no time had passed at all. we stayed up until 2a.m. talking and gossiping and getting back rubs (actually, that was just me. thanks, robin!) and the time went by way to fast.

in addition to giving me major house-keeping envy (will i ever be neat and organized? ever?), robin also took us to balboa island for some balboa bars and waterfront time.

and now, back here in good ol' d.c., they are projecting temperatures down to the 20s tonight. ugh. can we go back to sunny socal? pretty please?

we bought a zoo

while we were in san diego we stayed with sallee and nathan and no-longer-a-baby claire, which was totally fun for a number of reasons, one of which was that sallee and i escaped for a kid-and-husband-free trip to the nail salon, and another one of which was a trip to the san diego zoo.

good friends, good nails and good animals. doesn't get much better than that.

then comes marriage

miss angela is mrs. angela now and it was a beautiful wedding all around.

(it was also a little windy there on the beach.)

hustle, bus(tle)

i made the quickest of quick trips to new york this weekend (as in, left d.c. at 6:30a.m. and left manhattan at 7p.m.) for ck's baby shower.

i didn't take a single picture so you'll just have to trust me that my new hot curler hair-do looked pretty cute, and that ck's baby bump is adorable. guess you had to be there.

when i was at crafty bastards a few weeks ago there were millions (exaggeration) of darling baby things and i actually thought to myself, "too bad i don't know anyone who is about to have a baby."

hello?!? duh.

but, i recovered with a little package of my favorite books for mama and the little lady, including "make way for ducklings," "blueberries for sal" and several installments of frances the badger. because, you know, i like to force my way into the consciousness of babies as early as possible.

after the shower ck and i took a walk around her neighborhood, reveling in the stunning fall weather and the good fortune our lives have been filled with lately. we also saw julia stiles and mariska hargitay. so there's that.

i got a shake shack burger on the way back to the apartment, and then i was off.

when i got home, AWD had already watched a whole season of "battlestar galactica" (dreamy!) so it was a pretty productive day all around.

(no) labor day

how was your labor day weekend?

i watched a french movie, went to the grocery store, went to the temple, went to the mall, went out to dinner, went to church, had my trial wedding hair and make-up done by EH and miss angela, ate a leisurely lunch at bayou bakery with EH and miss angela, picked up my wedding dress and went to the mall again.

it all went pretty well, though the ending of the french movie, "the hedgehog," was really tragic and sad. in happier news, the beignets at bayou bakery are a little piece of fried and sugared heaven.

and now we are in the home stretch! the mama bear arrives tomorrow, dad and ben the day after, AWD's parents the day after that and then the day after that is the wedding.

man alive.

i had every intention of doing a bunch of blogging this week to tell you all about the wedding preparations and all the wisdom and insight i have now as a soon-to-be-married lady, but i think i just have to be honest and tell you that might not happen. i mean, wedding dinner favors don't put themselves together, you know?

not to mention that i am obsessively checking the weather for saturday (currently 30 percent chance of rain) and the path of hurricane katia (looks like our honeymoon destination will emerge unscathed).

so, wisdom and insight might just have to wait, though hopefully i'll get some of my favorite wedding details up here before the wedding itself.

four more sleeps. i can hardly believe it.

hotlanta

after all that dental drama (still freaking out, btw), let us return to happier times, shall we? namely a recap of our memorial day trip to atlanta.

i have to say, my trips keep getting better and this was no exception. it was a perfect vacation. and here is how it went.

we started off with brunch in the hip warehouse district of atlanta, which we think is called midtown, at a place called west egg. it was delicious.

then we headed downtown.

first stop was the world of coca-cola. as you can see, the line was out.of.control.

question of the day: how come the coca-cola company can get a coke to anywhere in the world, but they can't manage a simple line?

once we got inside, it was all customer-worship brainwashing. what is the secret ingredient in coke's secret formula? you! the loyal customer! what is the best way to get through your problems and worries? buck up and drink a coke because you love coke and it loves you back! there was even a spot where you could write out your "coke story."

the tasting room was the best part (they have some good soda in south america), though all of asia was squirting out plain soda water, which was sort of a disappointment.

our souvenir was a fresh coke, bottled right there on the premises.

next stop was the aquarium, which is one of the biggest aquariums in the world. or has the biggest aquarium in the world. anyway, it's big. and full of amazing creatures. we even crawled through a tunnel for an up-close look at the penguins.























then we took a walk through centennial park. there were scads of little kids playing in the fountain. it was darling.




and then it was off to turner field for the braves vs. the cincinnati reds. i am pleased to report that my first-ever baseball crush, chipper jones, hit in the winning run. we will ignore the fact that it was in the 13th inning. and that it took that many innings because chipper kept dropping the ball. literally. either way, it was a perfect night for baseball.





saturday night we drove to athens, home of university of georgia, a sign that refers to the "war for southern independence" and a cannon that is always pointing north. you know, just in case.

athens is also not too far of a drive from stone mountain, a massive carving of general robert e. lee, stonewall jackson and jefferson davis, etched forever in a massive stone outcropping. stone mountain is 40 times bigger than mount rushmore. or something like that. put it this way: you can set up a table and eat breakfast on lee's shoulder. we walked around the grounds, watched a movie about the making of stone mountain, did our best to impersonate the carving and then took a tram to the top for a pretty spectacular view.
















and for monday, we saved the best for last. namely we fulfilled EH's life-long dream with a visit to the cabbage patch babyland hospital, where cabbage patch dolls are born.

this place is no joke. you walk through a door that says "admitting," you sign in, all the staff are dressed like nurses and every inch is covered with cabbage patch dolls. we even saw two deliveries while we were there! mother cabbage pulled through like a champ. we spent a lot of time walking around and cuddling our favorite babies, ahem, dolls. i even did a little children's hairstyling. it was a magical morning.

we finished up with a quick visit to the atlanta temple, and jimmy carter's presidential library.




and then we were off.

and that, my babies, is a perfect trip to atlanta.