meet megan

Say whatever you want about Army wives; if there’s one thing I love about ‘em, it’s that they know how to make friends — fast. Sadly, that also means that we have to leave each other behind just as quickly — a fact that’s coming into sharp focus as we make preparations to move.

Megan and I met when our husbands were starting IBOLC (Infantry Basic Officer Leader Course) this past spring. We’re the same age + our kids are the same ages + we both lived in the Intermountain West = instant friends!

She is the sweetest, most stylin’, funnest, bravest mama you could hope to meet. Her man is all set to graduate from Ranger school this week (which is A Really Big Flippin’ Deal — congrats, Steve!!), and we are thrilled to our toes for them.

Megan and I have been playing together often while our guys are out doing their jobs. We’re both new to the Army life, so we’ve learned a lot together — such as that frequent play/dinner dates go a long, long way towards keeping Army mamas sane! We’ll both be moving soon; while we get to go to the land of the frozen, Megan and her guy get to go to the land of the tropics — yep, Hawaii. Hope you guys have a smokin’ hot time there — you saved room for me in your carry-on, right??

fauxdorf beauties

I’ve been meaning to introduce you to these sweet little sisters.

Lizzy and Maren play/sleep/snuggle with their dolls just about every day (although Lizzy is much clearer on whose doll is whose). My dear friend Janie made them, reversible dresses and all, and I can’t tell you how thrilled we are with them. What I can tell you is that these are going to be toys that last.

And look — if you peek underneath –

Hee hee!

Janie is also an Etsy seller, and she’s happy to take custom orders for your very own doll. She follows the Waldorf method, though she uses synthetic materials (hence the term “Fauxdorf”) — which I think is fantastic, because it is still a quality handmade toy, but you don’t have to spend upwards of a hundred smackers on it. Contact Janie via her Etsy shop for more info.

The yarn for their hair came from Jess’s Etsy shop — she even custom-spun it for me, using all the colors I asked for. It is absolutely gorgeous yarn! I would so love to try spinning one of these days. I just worry that bringing up yet another crafty hobby might send my sweet husband into cardiac arrest.

shawl love

Can I introduce you to a friend of mine? This is Lara.

Well, okay, actually the picture is of me, but Lara crocheted that amazing shawl. Pretty, isn’t it?

Unfortunately she doesn’t have a blog or a shop (yet!), so I can’t actually introduce you to Lara…but her work is just so incredible that I couldn’t keep it to myself.

She’s even so nice that she made me two.

And I keep telling her that she should totally do an Etsy shop — and she keeps telling me that she thinks about it sometimes, because she loves the creative process so much — and I think that if she got enough encouragement, she might think about it a little more.

Amazing work, huh? Thanks for the shawls, Lara — I can’t wait to use them this fall!

for little man H and his mama

My pal Janie is about as old of a friend as old friends come. My first memory of her is from early one autumn morning (1988, I think?), when we played together at her house. I cried when my mom dropped me off, but we had so much fun that both Janie and I cried when it was time for me to leave! Well, buckle my boot, 22 years later and we both have babies, live in the South, and have Etsy shops (see her cute shop here).

So, when I said that thing about Lizzy needing a new doll, Janie said — hey! I’ll make you one! (Well twist my arm.) We decided to make it into a swap, and she requested an art smock for her sweet boy H in gender-neutral colors/motifs, and some napkins in a “cheerful hodgepodge” of colors.

I put a button on Lizzy’s smock, but my buttonhole skillz are like, uh, nonexistent, so I opted for the tieback closure on little man H’s. (Janie, if you want to cut them off and put on a button, go for it. ‘Cause I know you’ve got the skillz.)

Cheerful hodgepodge, right? And all six napkins are reversible and have a different print on the other side (I just didn’t take a picture).

Lizzy won’t get to meet her doll until we go to fetch her in California next month (Janie offered to send her, but going to pick her up at Grandma’s house is way more exciting, right?). We are all so excited to meet her! Thanks for such a fun swap, Janie!

the single-digit celebration giveaway!

We are into SINGLE DIGITS, my friends!! Just eight more days until Richard comes home! To celebrate, how about a little giveaway?

You don’t have to Tweet, Facebook, or blog about it. You don’t have to become a follower or subscribe or tell me which archived post you liked best. No, you guys have already done your work. I wish I had enough of these little guys for everyone; I can’t tell you what a wonderful source of friendship and comfort my friends on the blogosphere have been over the past five months. So truly: thank you.

What I would love to see is a comment about your beloved (and whether that’s your beloved cat or your beloved spouse is up to you) — your favorite thing about him or her, or your favorite date night you’ve ever had (or have ever dreamed of). Something like that.

I’ll keep it open until Sunday evening sometime; leave a comment to enter (I’ll choose the winner via the random number generator). And again, thank you, sweet bloggy friends — both old friends I’ve known for years and new friends I’ve never met in person — for being our cheerleaders and pals. With you, it’s been a whole lot easier to keep my chin up!

thick as thieves

You should be jealous: we got to to play with Brie and Claire today. Claire and Maren are birthday buddies; not only were they born on the same day, but with the same midwifery practice. And Claire is pretty much the most squooshable baby ever (except maybe for Maren — and yes, that’s a good thing). I think maybe I need to do something about Maren’s mohawk.

This one is blurry, but can you see it? — they’re holding hands!!

Besides knowing pretty much everything about cloth diapering, baby carriers, and other rad baby gear, Brie is a total snake charmer when it comes to little kids. It didn’t take long for Lizzy to climb right into her lap, totally unprompted.

Thanks for coming, guys — we had a great time getting better acquainted and talking fluff and stuff!

mama’s first field trip

Kim is here for a few days. She’s taking good care of us.

Today’s highlight (for me, anyway): Mama’s first field trip! Yaaaaay! (Maren had her first field trip the day before with Auntie Bev. Yaaaaaay!)

We went to Ryan’s Place Park, where Kim chased Lizzy around and Maren enjoyed her very first Moby nap (see that teensy little bit of tasty baby hand sticking out there?). Afterwards, we got some milkshakes from Arctic Circle and headed back home. We were only gone for an hour or so, but it was So. Nice.

Recovery is going really well, though it’s annoying to have an entire house to pack up and actually want to do it, but to not be physically quite there yet. Kim did bring Diet Cherry Vanilla Dr. Pepper, though (yes, those two things are related).

girlfriends

I love this quote from Marjorie Pay Hinckley:

“We are all in this together. We need each other. Oh, how we need each other. Those of us who are old need you who are young, and hopefully, you who are young need some of us who are old…We need deep and satisfying and loyal friendships with each other. These friendships are a necessary source of sustenance.”

These are my girlfriends Diane and Tina (Diane on the left, Tina center, me right, having missed the memo about wearing gray). We met at church as newlyweds, became close friends while serving together in the Relief Society, and were pregnant and had our first babies around the same time. These chickies are such wonderful friends to have — the kind of smart, funny, hot mamas you just want to be around.

Lamely, we don’t hang out as much as we should — and double lame, because Tina and I are both moving soon. But happily it will be easy to stay in touch, thanks to this great bloggy world we’re in. I heart you both!

just the rhubarb, hold the strawberries

As of this afternoon, the pie was halfway gone. I have a strong feeling that it might be ancient history by bedtime tonight. And for the record, Lizzy had only one tiny bite and refused to eat any more (?!).

I got this recipe from my friend and mentor, Jan. She was my boss at both Chapter Two Books and at Crumb Brothers; she taught me pie, bread, gardening, and how to let go of the things that really don’t matter in order to embrace the things that do. She rocks.

It’s a great recipe, and the only rhubarb pie recipe I’ve ever used. It could use a little tinkering in the thickening agent and baking temperature departments — next time (uhh, like next week) I might experiment with that, because last night we siphoned off like a cup and a half of juice from the pie. Not that that’s necessarily a bad thing — it will make a fantastic sauce for vanilla ice cream once the pie is gone.

Jan’s Rhubarb Pie Filling

Your favorite pie dough for a double-crust pie, rolled out and ready to rock
5-6 heaping cups chopped rhubarb (about 6 stalks)
1 2/3 cup sugar
2 eggs
Finely grated zest of 1 lemon
Juice of 1/2 lemon

Combine all filling ingredients. Assemble pie. Bake at 425 for 15 minutes, then at 350 for 45-55 minutes.

my rad stash

I have the raddest friends on the planet.

On Thursday, Lizzy and I ventured down south a ways for a date with my Love Muffin. We met up at her mom’s rad fabric shop, then went to her parents’ house to hang out with her rad fam. While there, her mom’s rad best friend (who also works at the rad fabric shop) called to see if I would want some scraps from her stash.

Um, duh?

And I’m thinking — cool, maybe she’s got a gallon-sized bag or two. Oh no. An hour later, my trunk and back seat were full of fabric. A day later, my stash went from fitting in these:

To this (I was up till 2 am that night, gleefully sorting by color):

Rad.