Altanta Trip continued

Here are some more pictures from our time in Atlanta. We did quite a lot while we were here. We visited Athens, attended a Memorial Day cook out, had a photography training session with my Mom, took maternity photos, shared a meal with four different sets of friends, stayed in a bed and breakfast, were told to leave the top of a parking deck by security while taking photos of the Atlanta skyline at night, saw a movie, took a walking tour of downtown, visited the zoo with our daughter, toured a historic home... and more.

I, personally, am exhausted. I've been between a little and a lot sick the whole time here and I just didn't have the energy I would have liked while we did all those things mentioned above. I'm still very glad we did them and we had a really great time.

My Cup Runneth Over

Is anyone reading my preggo blog?? I never get comments on it anymore. :( Maybe I should just stop writing it... even my mom forgets to look and just ends up asking me questions that she could find out from the blog. Sigh.
www.twoinmycup.blogspot.com if you're interested.

Athens Trip

Here are a couple of pictures from our mini-trip to Athens. Eden LOVED walking all around the beautiful North Campus of the University of Georgia. These pictures will be exra cute to pull out in about 17 years, if she decides to make UGA her college of choice.

Apology

It has been yet another week and I was not diligent in posting. I do have an owl clock picture for you to try and make up for it. We are in Atlanta for a week's vacation and I will try and post some pictures as I get some good ones. We brought the fancy camera and I already took a couple of keepers today while visiting Athens.


Here's the clock... I've gotten so much good feedback about it, I think I need to figure out a way to mass produce it. :)

Sad Favorite Friday

One of my favorite things in the whole whole world to do is create choreography. To hear music, to be inspired, to move my own body as I create, to work with another body to make my vision come alive.... all this makes me feel alive. One of my favorite classes is college was Dance Composition. We created pieces every week. They weren't good and they weren't anything that should have been shown on a stage, but I got to exercise my creative muscles, keep those creative juices flowing.

We also had the opportunity as dance majors to choreograph for the Young Choreographer's Series performance once a year. I got an extra bonus of having the opportunity to present choreography in Ballroom Magic once a year as well. I created a total of 5 works that were performed on stage in my college years as well as performing and choreographing for the church group I was a part of and several other smaller school projects.

After I graduated, I went on to teach at Fred Astaire Dance Studios in Atlanta and participated in developing choreography for many, many ballroom pieces, both to be performed in the semi-annual showcases and for our weekly exhibitions at parties.

While in Augusta, I began a women's dance team at my church and choreographed two pieces for them as well as two for myself, one of which I was able to perform before getting pregnant with Eden (which put any other performances on hold).

Tonight, I was supposed to teach a private lesson to a couple wanting to learn tango, but they were a no-show. I left my Yo-Yo Ma tango CD playing as I waited the obligatory 15 minutes. As I listened to the music, which I hadn't heard in years, I was inspired. I got up out of the chair I was waiting in and began moving my body to the music, at first pretending I was leading the tango and then .... any way I wanted. I started dancing in whatever way I felt the music telling me to. I stopped for a moment, closed my eyes and just imagined what the music could look like with several dancers interpreting it. I began to brainstorm. What might happen here? or there? oh, yes, someone could do this particular movement to compliment that musical strain...

And then I just stopped and sat back down. Why imagine? Why create? I have no venue. I have no dancers. I have no reason. I am like a painter with all the colors and types of paint available to her that she could want, but no brushes and no canvas and a waning pool of experience to draw from. Her confidence is low. Could she even paint something others would enjoy if she had the canvas and the brushes?

I feel pretty lost sometimes as far as my dancing goes. I can get so passionate about it that it completely takes me by surprise how moved and alive I feel (there aren't even really words to relate exactly how overwhelming the feeling can be) when I start moving in an empty space to music I love. My brain kicks into overdrive, thinking, imagining, creating. I can quickly get lost in the possibilities. Like tonight.

But I don't have any possibilities right now. At least a painter can go buy a canvas and some brushes, paint to her heart's content and fill the attic with art if she thinks they're not worthy of display. At least she would have created. At least she would be able to release the swirl of artistic passion within her instead of smothering it until she feels inadequate or possibly unable to retrieve it.

Not to be trite, but maybe I should just paint to music or something... I'm at a loss.

Countdown.. kind-of lame one

One more day until my spa treatments!!

POW

One day, I will have a classy but unique wardrobe with sophisticated pieces that are easy to wear, easy to pair, and make me look and feel great. Until that day, I will make do with junior wear and fantastic Goodwill finds. In the future, though, you may see me in these...

Sewing For My Girl

I will put up a picture of the owl clock soon, I promise.

In the mean time, I have decided on my next craft. Making this shirt dress. http://www.craftster.org/forum/index.php?topic=170402.0 Thanks to Gifton over at www.savvybydesign.blogspot.com for posting the idea and link in her blog! I really liked it the first time I saw it, but wasn't ready to commit to a sewing project. I've since bought Eden that cute-as-can-be BrownieGoose outfit and I'd love to have some more custom pieces for her wardrobe. Since I'm not willing to shell out the money for another BrownieGoose creation right this minute, and since I really did know how to sew at one point, and since I am on a "making things for Eden" high right now, I decided to just try it. I bought a boy's size small shirt at Goodwill today. I think it'll be the perfect size to work with. The men's shirts all looked ginormous. Unfortunately, mine doesn't have nearly as cool a pattern on it as the one in the tutorial, but it's green plaid and I like green and plaid is preppy, so it might be cute.
I'll let you know how it goes. I'm really only posting this here because I'm afraid that the shirt will get tossed in a closet and become part of a procrastination pile. This way, I'm somewhat accountable and might actually do this!

Mother's Day

My Mother's Day has been very nice so far. We got up around 8, which is sleeping in for us. We had a leisurely morning with our in-a-good-mood baby (seen to the left relaxing in her toy bin reading some nursery rhymes) and then got ready for brunch at the Fairview Inn. This is the same place we had brunch with my parent's on Easter and we were very much looking forward to their awesome spread. On Easter, we were seated kind-of in a corner around the back of the house, but this time we were seated in the main dining room and could hear the beautiful piano music from the next room. Here are some pictures we took in the garden outside the inn of the beautiful girl that made me a mother.

POW

I started a wish list at ChristianBook.com today. I keep seeing all these books and DVDs that I would like to have either for me or Eden and then I never remember them when someone needs to get something for me.


One of the DVDs I added to the list was my new favorite program to watch with Eden (when we can find it...I haven't memorized when it's on). It's called 3-2-1 Penguins! and I really enjoy it. After watching it a couple of times, I realized that they make a reference to God at the end of each show and the moral of every adventure is definitely Biblical. I looked them up and, lo and behold, their creator is Big Idea, the creator of Veggie Tales. No wonder I like it!


Wikipedia says "The stories center on the exploits of Jason and Michelle, twin children who are staying with their eccentric grandmother for the summer. At her cottage, they discover a toy spaceship and four penguin figures. The penguins (named Zidgel, Midgel, Fidgel and Kevin) take the twins on trips around the universe, "inadvertently" teaching them valuable life lessons along the way."

With details only the parents will understand (Captain Zidgel's hair is modeled after Elvis, the space ship has a manual transmission and leather-wrapped steering wheel) and effortless wit and humor woven throughout each story, it's undeniably entertaining and just plain fun for all.

Owl Clock

My Dad got a new toy for his workshop. He really enjoys wood-working as a hobby and he got some fancy router thing that allows him to cut shapes. He made a fancy wooden highchair for Eden and then he duplicated a rocking horse from a photo I sent him. He offered to do more projects if I thought of any... and I did. I decided Eden needed a clock in her room for whenever she begins to learn to tell time. Since she loves owls oh so much, I drew an owl-shaped clock. It's multi-level with different wooden shapes stacked on top of one another to give it some extra pizzaz. I gave my dad the drawing and told him some basic size specifications and let him have at it. He delivered to me 8 pieces to paint and glue together. I struggled to find numbers I liked, but finally decided on something from Hobby Lobby that worked quite well. I got the last pieces painted tonight and I'm so excited to put the batteries in the clock mechanism and hang it on the wall tomorrow!

Developments

Eden has finally added a couple of other words to her three-word vocabulary. I'm referring to spoken words, of course. She still communicates all the time with signs. In fact, I'm pretty sure she's quite happy with the response she gets from signing... so happy that she really doesn't feel the need to try to speak real words. She'll babble all day, but hardly ever anything that we can even pretend is English. Anyway, she decided to add "nana" to her vocabulary. It isn't what you might think. A "nana" is the snack she gets almost every day around 3 o'clock. It's yellow and has a peel. You guessed it. :) Her other on-and-off word is "baba" which can apparently stand for either Grandpa or Grandma at this point. So, we'll see how that develops. We try every day to encourage her to say other things she has constant contact with... owl, Dolce, and milk, for example. She gets frustrated pretty easily if she doesn't feel like trying it. Oh well, maybe there's a language explosion just around the corner.

I just booked my first spa treatment ever about 10 minutes ago. Chuck is giving me my choice of spa treatments for Mother's Day and I'm very excited. I just called and asked to book a couple of things, just like I do it every week or something. She asked what I wanted and I just went right ahead and told her, like it was nothing. HA. Pretty sweet. I'm getting an Aqua Body Polish and a Spa Manicure. I probably would have gone for some sort of massage, but it's a bit iffy to do that sort of thing in one's first trimester, so I skipped it. Spa day, here I come!