We're Back in Action!

Meet Molly Helen Handren. =) Born February 21st.

And now come on over to our new blog, here to catch up!

On the menu for tonight: rice cereal - first dinner!

Girls, It's a Girl!

We had an ultrasound on Thursday at 18 weeks. The tech said she was 80% certain that we'll be having a little girl!

The whole experience was amazing. We were able to see her brain - you could clearly see two separate lobes. We also saw her stomach, bladder, kidneys, heart, and lots of feet kicking! We were also able to witness our sweet little girl trying to find her thumb. You can see it in this picture. =)

This weekend I went north to New Hampshire to visit my parents and brother, and my mother and I went shopping in North Conway with some friends. We got the most adorable little clothes at Carter's! A little pink dress and a soft, cream-colored cardigan to wear over it. (It'll be February, after all!) Also tights to keep her legs warm and some little booties! Everything's so tiny and cute. I can hardly stand it. In a good way, of course.

Yay for little girls!

On Fruit, Fetuses, and Lasting Nicknames

Blueberry = Baby. Did you know? At least, for my family it does. When we told Scott’s brother and sister that I was pregnant, they were ecstatic. They’re 24 and 21 (respectively), so they can’t wait to be uncle and aunt. They were also curious to know how big the baby was at that moment. Taking a page from “What to Expect” (not literally, of course) I explained that the 5 week old fetus was about the size of a blueberry.


Since not everyone knew about it, we spoke in code at the family reunion.

How’s Blueberry doing?
Good!

Make sure you eat enough for blueberry!

And my favorite, as I was eating fruit salad with blueberries in it.... Simultaneous looks (from both of those fools) of fake shock and disappointment as I “ate” my child.

They really are hilarious and awesome people – I consider them to be my closest friends... And because they’re so witty and amusing, the nickname has stuck. (Not surprised... ^_^) I have a feeling our little one will always be “Blueberry”... even when they’re going to their prom. Even now, baby is more peach than blueberry. But that doesn’t seem to matter.


I can still hope that the baby grossly mispronounces their names and they go through life referring to uncle and auntie as something completely random. Like my cousin who started saying “Gwah” instead of “Gram”. He’s sixteen. She’s still Gwah. That would be some funny irony.

My Family Heirloom

I cannot WAIT to get my hands on that glossy black spray paint that Scott is bringing home with him from my father-in-law's hardware store tomorrow. I'm painting my awesome $8 mirror this weekend, along with some other mismatched frames. Aside from the awesomeness of sassing it up, I'm excited because I can finally put my old candlestick to good use. Its new home is a black shadow box from Crate & Barrel, which we'll be hanging in amongst the mirror and other frames. (Hopefully.)

This isn't any ole' candlestick, friends. It was my grandmother's great-grandmother's. Yep. Alice Brierly brought it with her from England when she came to America when she was sixteen. This was in 1884. She passed it on to her daughter, and so forth down the line until I received it as a wedding present from my Uncle Kevin two years ago. (My dad's mom only had boys, so it was passed to him for a generation.) I'm truly honored to have it in my home, and I can't wait to pass it on to my daughter someday (if we have girls!).


Isn't it just amazing?

On another note, I've made plans to visit my grandmother on Saturday with my mom. We'll meet halfway in Portsmouth, NH... My Memere recently moved in with my aunt and uncle after my grandfather passed away in January. They had lived in Florida for the past fifteen years, so I only saw them occasionally. Once he passed, my family moved Memere to NH so that she wouldn't be alone.

The last time I visited her, about two months ago, we spent over two hours going through her old photos. She has the MOST INCREDIBLE family pictures stowed away in an antique breadbox that was her grandmother's. She has wedding portraits for her parents, her grandparents on both sides, my grandfather's parents, etc. And hundreds of snapshots. My favorite are pictures taken during WWII of her Uncle Leo who was in General Patton's army. They're unbelievable. Right in the thick of it, with helmets on and camoflague netting around them. Insane. She also has pictures of herself and my grandfather at their own wedding, at their first house (that my mother grew up in), etc.

My plan is to see if I can borrow them. I want to scan them, print them on cardstock for my own home, and frame some of the more important ones in a decorative frame collage for a Christmas present to her. Those photos are too good to waste, just sitting in an old breadbox and no one ever seeing them.

My last bit of news is that I spoke to my mother about my aunt's old plates. Ever since I scored those thrift store teacups (the blue transfer-ware) I've been thinking about how much I like them. I remembered that when I was about 10 years old, I overheard my aunt talking to my mother about how she had a whole set of the stuff. She said that she saw some in an antique store for mucho bucks. This was before internet, so she hadn't known that they were worth anything. She had said that she didn't even want them anymore, but that she would keep them in storage since they were valuable. *Swoon!* I asked Mom about it, and she said that she thinks that she still has them somewhere. I'm emailing her tomorrow (Friday). I want them! =)

You Gotta Have Friends Family

My sister-in-law, Sarah, is still in college. She'll be a senior in the fall at Roger Williams University.



Since I'm one of only two children (one younger brother), I've never had a sister before. She's the youngest of three, with two older brothers - the oldest being my husband, Scott. She's never had a sister either. So it took us a little while to settle into the roles. I think we're coming along swimmingly. She's a hoot. There are few people I would rather hang out with.

It's a blessing to me how lucky I am. I make friends as readily as any person, but it's incredible to me that my husband's family are such AWESOME friends. They're intelligent enough to understand a random literary reference, and their sense of humor lends well to witty conversation and just plain silliness. Which is, oddly enough, exactly what I needed in life and what I've wanted since I was a teenager looking for it in all the wrong places.

I've had a few semi-serious relationships over the years, and each of them came with its own small disaster of a family. One was an over-protective mother who was certain that I (still a virgin until long after her son, mind you) had deflowered her innocent teenage boy (an oxymoron in itself). Ugh. What a nightmare. The next was a combination creep-a-zoid, pervert father who told nasty jokes to see me blush, as well as a crazy-schizo-exercise-a-holic older sister who was, well, crazy. And her husband was worse. Unpleasantness abounds.

So when I say that I'm blessed, know that I say it with a history to look back on fondly as I enjoy my weekends with my husband's family. Laughing until we cry, playing board games, playing wiffleball in the street... Good times.

And the best part, I must say, is having a sister. Our shopping trip to JoAnn Fabrics was postponed until tomorrow.



I've been looking forward to it all week. Just the gals. ^_^(I WON'T get overwhelmed by all the pretties this time. I won't! I will buy something cute.) And the GREAT news is that my mother-in-law bought us both a sewing machine to share. Joint sewing machine custody, if you will. I can hardly wait to learn how to use it. I have big DIY plans for that puppy!

You can't BE the bride and eat it too...

I think I'm getting the quote wrong.

I got married two weeks ago... *Crickets chirping* Exactly. While I'm convinced that my marriage is the absolute best thing that ever happened to me, the wedding itself didn't seem to be top priority to anyone other than myself, my groom, and our immediate families. One person said he couldn't attend because he "had a thing." My own grandmother didn't come because it was the perfect occasion to use as bait for her drama with her daughter-in-law (my Mom/Matron of Honor), despite my somewhat important status as her only granddaughter.

Don't get me wrong - the wedding was beautiful, the ceremony was incredible, the food was awesome... and most of us had fun. (Well, the important people did.) Some remained uninvolved - sitting at their tables with bland looks on their uninterested faces, leaving early, or better yet (my personal favorite) not bothering to show up at all. Some were super-involved - agreeing to help with various aspects and then making their own decisions as to what would be best for my wedding... I'll leave the best details out, here, in hopes that my next major life event will have more loyal attendees (my funeral, for example).

It was my understanding that people had to do what the Bride asked. Hence the term "Bridezilla" which I did everything in my power to avoid being. Perhaps there's the rub. I should have been more of a bitch, and then no one would have dared not listen to me, for fear of my wrath! Well, there's always my funeral to be wrathful at. Anyone up for a haunting? I already have a few on my list...