Last day in Tucson

Tomorrow I fly home to Chicago. I've had a great week visiting with Mom and Dad in Tucson. The highlights include: daily AM walks with Mom, shopping for maternity clothes and looking at baby gear, enjoying lunches at some of Mom and Dad's favorite restaurants around town, introducing Mom and Dad to Season 1 of White Collar, and making bibs!

Mom and I spent most of yesterday and this afternoon working on the bibs. It is much more time consuming than I realized. There are a lot of steps involved. For a few of the bibs, we cut out fun shapes like an apple, fish, leaves, a chicken and balloons, and Mom appliqued the shapes onto the bibs. They are really cute and definitely one of a kind.

Now, the only thing left is to sew on velcro, which Mom will do out at the ranch next week. Overall, I'm really pleased with our final products and I'm so glad these bibs are gender-neutral because I don't see us doing this project again.

Fabric for Baby Stuff

Mom and I went to the Home Fabrics store here in Tucson yesterday (it is the most amazing fabric store ever - tons of great-quality things at the lowest prices you've ever seen!). We bought a bunch of different gender-neutral cotton fabrics to make bibs and receiving blankets. I love the stuff we found. Tomorrow we're planning to do some sewing, so we'll see how it all turns out.

Day 4 of the Roundup

Saturday was the final day of the roundup and branding. My mom has a detailed post on her blog describing the day's adventures along with photos. Below I've posted some of the photos I captured as well as a video of Dan wrangling a calf in the branding corral. I'll post more videos tomorrow. My role during the branding this year was (very amateur) videographer. Mom and Aunt Mary had their fancy cameras and got right in there in the corral to take hundreds of photos throughout the day. It was a lot of fun, as always. Every time we attend a roundup, I think about what a special experience it is since this way of life is fast disappearing.

 

(Sorry for the clicking sound in this video...my camera's auto-focus kept making noises.)

Dan and Oscar ride towards the house early in the morning.

Dan, Dad and Dustin work on a calf.

Dan and Colter Lee.

Hank is such a sweet horse. He didn't participate in the roundup this year (too young), but his corral (with him still in it!) was used as a holding pen for some of the cows, so he got to be part of the action.

I took this photo when the cows had just been pushed into the corral. They were glaring at us.

Day 1 of the Roundup

The roundup began this morning at the ranch. Dan and I will arrive tomorrow and take part on Days 3 and 4. Dan will join the guys on horseback to roundup cows and move them to the branding corral. Then on Day 4 they will do a final roundup and brand the calves. My role will be photographer and "general helper" for preparing and serving food. There will be 30+ people, so my mom has been cooking all week already. My mom took some great photos today which she posted to her blog. Here are a few of them:

Happy Father's Day

I feel very lucky to have such a great dad. He is one of the smartest people I know and since we were little kids has challenged us (C, W and me) to think about things in different ways. He is encouraging, supportive, and tells us often how proud of us he is. Dad worked really hard to provide an incredible life for our family, for which I will always be grateful. I am so glad that he has followed his dream of being a "cowboy" and is enjoying a second career as a rancher. I love you, Dad! Happy Father's Day.

Justin Bieber for Babies

Earlier this week Stacy let me borrow a book called "Prenatal Parenting" that was a very interesting read. I agree with a lot of what the book suggests you do before your baby is born - things like:

• Read to your child. It exposes them to more words and they become more familiar with your voice, which will be a comfort to them after birth.
• Play classical or soothing music for your baby. After birth, if you play those same songs, it will comfort the baby because they are familiar with the tune.

I have been slowly collecting children's books and baby classical music in the past several months. Today, I found a super-fun downloadable album on Amazon. It's called "Baby Lullabies Popular Music" and they turned classic or pop songs into instrumental versions that are soothing for babies. The album includes songs like Justin Bieber's "Baby Baby," The Beatles "All You Need is Love," The Eagles' "Hotel California" and more than 30 others. I think will be fun for playtime and there are a few songs on here that could be soothing for nap time.

Dinner at Riposo

When Dan and I lived in NYC, one of our favorite neighborhood restaurants was a little hole-in-the-wall place called Riposo. Tonight, I was at a reception just down the street from Riposo and my client and I decided to duck out for dinner. We went to Riposo and shared the cara cara orange salad and a flatbread. So yummy! Riposo has the best flatbread pizza I have ever consumed - anywhere. This place is just as scrumptious as it was when Dan and I lived here. So far, this trip has been a truly fun walk down memory lane. Tomorrow I'll be at the media event all day and then fly home.

Quick Trip to NYC

This morning I flew to NYC for a client media event that kicks off tomorrow. It was a rough trip - I threw up in both cabs (Chicago and NYC) as well as on the airplane. Thankfully I have become better prepared for these incidents and had a supply of ziploc bags with me. Still, I am pretty sure the guy next to me on the plane thought I was a total weirdo. He stared out the window as I was throwing up into my bag.

Anyway, I am staying in a new hotel - The Pearl - that is right next door to St. Malachy's, where Dan and I got married. After I checked into the hotel, I went over to St. Malachy's and spent some time in the chapel. I lit a candle for baby William and said prayers for our families. St. Malachy's is a very special place for Dan and me, not just because we were married there, but also because we loved the priest, Father Baker, who truly made everyone feel welcome at the parish.

Times Square has really changed for the better since we lived here. Shortly after we moved, the city closed down part of Broadway and turned it into a pedestrian area. It makes Times Square much more walkable and safe for tourists (and residents). Here's a photo looking down Broadway from 49th Street:

Maternity Jeans

Tomorrow I am flying to New York for a client media event on Wednesday. I just finished packing, which was a challenging process because fewer and fewer of my clothes fit anymore. My baby bump is really starting to grow. Thankfully my first order of clothes from Gap Maternity arrived last week and I LOVE the blue jeans. I am wearing these tomorrow while traveling:

Martha-Inspired Crafts

Yesterday I joined the public library in our neighborhood and checked out my first book - Martha Stewart's Encyclopedia of Sewing and Fabric Crafts. Later this month I am going to Arizona to visit my parents and am hopeful we'll have time to do some crafting projects while in Tucson. After the weekend branding, I will head to Tucson and spend the week with Mom and Dad. Mom bought a sewing machine last year and has turned out all sorts of great projects. I took a sewing class earlier this spring and it was really fun, so I'm looking forward to trying to make some more things.

The projects I thought looked like the most fun and immediately useful (and require a reasonable skill level) are 1) bibs, 2) an "organization board" that helps you use wall space to organize the things you'd otherwise keep on your desk (I think would be useful either for Dan's office or for our cedar closet), and 3) a very cute tooth fairy pillow!

Best of all, the book includes a CD with downloadable patterns for most of the sewing projects! I thought for sure the library would have removed the CD, but it appears no one has ever taken it out of the book. Yay for me!

An Elephant Party for Emerson

My sister Claire is planning an elephant-themed birthday party for her daughter Emerson, who will turn one in late July. Since they live in Jordan, it is difficult for them to find all the products we take for granted are easy to find in the U.S. I would imagine that party decor stores are not common there! So today when I was out shopping I was so excited to find a few things that I can mail to Claire for Emerson's party. Check this out!!

I bought 10 brown paper mache elephants from Michaels. They would be so cute to tie to a party favor bag/box or even to use as decor.

I found this really cute "birthday party in a box" kit at Marshall's on clearance for $3.50! At first, I thought it wouldn't work since it appeared to be "Hungry Caterpillar" themed. However, much to my delight, there is a Pin the Tail on the Elephant game included along with a colorful Happy Birthday Banner, 20 Happy Birthday crowns (kid sized), 20 colorful gift bags, and 5 sheets of animal stickers (including some elephants!). There is also a book with party game ideas included. I'm sure Claire won't use everything in the box, but for the price, I thought it was a steal even if they just use the Pin the Tail on the Elephant game.

Baby Photo Shoot!

Today Dan and I went in for the 1st trimester down syndrome screening. Thankfully the news was all positive - our baby appears to be growing normally and has no indications of down syndrome or the other markers they were testing for. The most exciting part of the appointment was seeing our baby during the ultrasound. I have had three ultrasounds previously, but the baby looked sort of like a lump in those because it was so early. Today, our baby looked like a baby! It was really special and I'm so glad Dan was able to be there with me. I cried a little bit seeing our baby on the screen. We are so excited to become parents. Here is the ultrasound photo:

On the way to the appointment, which was about a 45 minute drive from our home, I had a "Whitney moment" in the car. I threw up all over myself and the passenger side of the car. I had rolled down the window, but I didn't lean over in time. We had about 2 minutes to stop at a gas station and pour water on my clothes and the floor mat. I arrived at the doctor's appointment with wet splotches on my clothes and smelling a little foul. I took the car in for a thorough cleaning after dropping Dan off at his office. I am hopeful that the nausea goes away soon!

Recent Reads

Since I haven't been feeling very well lately, I've been spending more time than usual at home. You can only watch so much HGTV, so I've tried to find some good books to read. I recently finished two really good ones - The Help and The Lincoln Lawyer.

The Help was very interesting. It's historical fiction and is set in the 1960s in Mississippi. The book follows a group of black women and a group of white women. In secret, one of the white women convinces a group of black women to work with her to write a tell-all book about the black women's experiences working as maids in the white homes of the South. The book chronicles their stories, the lengths they go to in order to write the book, and what happens after the book is released. It's extremely well-written and I would highly recommend it.

I bought The Lincoln Lawyer because I actually wanted to see the movie when it came out, but I missed it in theaters so I figured reading the book would be a good alternative. It's set in Los Angeles in modern times and follows the story of a defense attorney who unknowingly takes on a rich client guilty of a crime that a previous client of the defense attorney has already been convicted for. The defense attorney doesn't know this at first, but as he figures it out, he realizes that an innocent man (his previous client) is in prison for a crime he did not commit. He vows to set things straight and book follows all the twists and turns that happen along the way. It was a good read - I finished the book in one day because I couldn't put it down!

Family Photos

Today my mom posted on her blog two family photos - one from when Claire, Whitney and I were little kids and one that's more recent and includes our husbands. It is so fun to look at family photos. I feel very fortunate to have my family. My mom and sisters are my best friends and I love my family more than anything in the world. Look at the adorable little dresses my mom put us in when we were little!

The air conditioners have arrived!

Today abt delivered four new window air conditioning units to our home. The delivery guy told me we were smart to order them "early" since many people wait until June to place their order and then have to wait until July or August for delivery due to the demand. Whew! I cannot imagine going most of the summer without AC.

I don't love the look of window units, but it cost less than $900 for all four units and the alternative is to install central AC, which would cost us more than $20,000. So I'm more than happy to enjoy the window units for the summer! The four I bought are all matching in look, so I'm hoping that helps with the cuteness factor.

My strategy for keeping our home cool is to have a 12,000 BTU unit (can cool about 700 square feet) in the dining room to cool the "core" of the home (living, dining and foyer) and then 10,000 BTU units in each bedroom and a 5,000 BTU unit in the kitchen. I am hopeful we will have a pleasantly cool summer this year!