Our Babymoon

Collin and I decided to take a weekend trip and have a 'Babymoon'. It's a little something to help you celebrate each other and have a romantic moment before the baby is born. We went up to Spokane and ate some amazing food and stayed at The Davenport Hotel which is where we were married. We love it there so much!

On Saturday night we went to Shogun and had yummy hibachi steaks. The whole table was really social and we all got to know each other a little bit which was really nice. There was even another pregnant couple there due a few weeks before us. Sadly, the food and entertainment were so good we didn't take the time to take pictures. Oops!

My parents had a giftcard for The Davenport (which isn't really their 'thing') so they were awesome enough to give it to us to use. Collin was able to get us a beautiful room that included a $75 credit to be used at the hotel, which was beyond perfect because we had planned to have their Champagne Sunday Brunch the next morning.

When we checked into our room I was greeted by a lovely bouquet of flowers that Collin had waiting for me. It was smelled wonderful and was so sweet!

The room was beautiful and had three windows which gave us a great view of Downtown Spokane. 

We woke wonderfully refreshed on Sunday (even though I had not one but two charlie horses in the middle of the night) and got ready to go to brunch. I managed to take a 23 week belly picture before we went down, but I didn't take any pictures at brunch. I was too busy eating all the delicious foods!

We sat for two hours and ate until we couldn't eat anymore. I think Collin had 7 mimosas. It was a celebration so why not? They were free and he has always has a designated driver. I even celebrated a bit and had a mimosa of my own. My midwife gave me permission and it was wonderful. Our waiter was awesome and had a great sense of humor. He even gave Collin a mimosa to take back up to the room with us. Collin felt like a true baller. LOL

Since we were married at The Davenport on a Sunday and served brunch at our reception, going to their brunch is like having our wedding meal all over again! We love that we'll be able to take our son there when he's older and let him eat all the yummy things that were at Mommy and Daddy's wedding.

I made sure to take some pictures of the hotel's beautiful flower arrangement they had in the lobby before we checked out.

I seriously love it there and can't wait to go back again! Lucky for us my parents live in Cd'A and I'm sure that once Desmond is born they'll be happy to take him for a night so we can enjoy a romantic evening together. It couldn't have been a better weekend!

Memorial Day Weekend

So I've been really lazy about blogging lately. I wish I could say it's because I've been SUPER busy getting things ready for the baby and having lots of adventures but mostly I've been napping on the couch. So here's a photodump blog for you viewing pleasure of our Memorial Day Weekend.


Collin and I took a trip to Seattle to visit his mother's side of the family. Since his Mom passed we haven't visited them nearly as much as we should so we took the long Memorial weekend to rectify that. 

Our first day there, Saturday was absolutely gorgeous for Seattle. Pretty gorgeous for anywhere really, mid-80s and sunny. I started the morning taking pictures in Collin's Uncle Clay's garden.

Then we drove north to Mount Vernon to visit Collin's grandmother and then to Whidbey Island/Deception Pass to go on a hike and visit his mother's resting place.

Her couch was so deep I was having trouble sitting in it for the picture. Being pregnant makes for some awkward photos :-)

The next day we were absolutely exhausted from the day before and decided to keep it simple. We walked to get some coffee and found this awesome blue flowering tree. I'd never seen anything like it. There were millions of tiny blue flowers and bees everywhere. I love listening to the hum of bees in flowering trees/fields. Reminds me of working with canola in college. 

After some quick discussion we decided to take the day and drive down to Tacoma to visit Collin's grandfather too while we were in the area.

Collin's grandfather, Wayne, is one cool man. He's a WWII vet who loves music, computers and cameras. We always have so much fun when we visit him. There's always so much to talk about. Collin took the opportunity to take some pictures of his Grandpa's old cameras.

And I took the time to take some pictures of his Grandpa's flowers.

And I made sure to play piano for Grandpa Hooper. If I don't automatically do it he always makes sure to ask and I'm happy to please. 

We ended the trip with a family photo and a trip to get Chinese food with Collin's sister Marney. I didn't take any pictures though.

Grandpa, Grandson and Great-grandson (in utero) pretty sure I'm 23weeks pregnant in this picture.

It was a lovely trip and we were happy we were able to get over there to visit while I was still pregnant. Can't wait to visit again soon.

It's a Boy!

We had our 20 week ultrasound today and got to see our sweet baby for the first time.

It was beautiful, I teared up just a tiny bit and we got to find out what our sweet baby is.

It's a BOY!

We tried to get a good profile shot, but baby boy was happily napping under my ribs so this blurry one was the best we got. But we did get to see his sweet face with his tiny mouth open making an 'O' face.

You can see a little bit of his hand under his chin. So cute!

285 of 1,000 Cranes

I am officially 28.5% of the way done with my goal of making 1,000 cranes for our baby.

In the week and half since I started this project I've managed to fold 285 tiny paper cranes. 

285 tiny paper cranes

5 colors down and I'm still not sure how many to go. 8 or 10 colors left by my count, but it's really hard to tell what all I'm dealing with as the paper in this tiny little box and you can't see the what's in the bottom. I guess it will be a surprise! 

I've had different #'s for each color so far ranging from at little as 33 all the way to 62. I'm interested to find out how many large cranes I'll have to make once the box is all done.

I finally figured out on the third color that if I don't pull the wings/puff the body out I can get more cranes 'nested' in a bag. I'm trying to protect them until I'm ready and ziplock bags seemed like the safest way to go.

I'm happy to be getting done with the lighter colors and making progress. I feel confident I should be able to get this done by June at the latest. Collin and I already have a plan to hang them as a 3-tiered chandelier/mobile. I think it's going to look amazing. I'm already proud. :-D

Pregnancy and body image

I promise that my next post will be fun, creative and not serious. But for today, you're going to have to deal with a little bit of seriousness.

I'll start with some good news just to get us started. Now that I've officially entered my 5th month of pregnancy I'm starting to feel SO MUCH BETTER!

I can finally eat what I would like to (for the most part, still no turkey sandwiches :-( ) and I don't throw up nearly as much as I used to. I still have not so good days, but they are thankfully fewer and farther between. I've got a ton more energy and I'm starting to feel like me again which after 4 months of feeling like hungover zombie, I'm more than thankful for.

But there are other issues I'm struggling with.

You may or may not know this about me, but I suffer from really low self-esteem and complete lack of healthy body image. I've felt fat for as long as I can remember. Like all the way back to being 11.

I had a chubby phase in elementary school and was made fun of about it. Kids would moo at me, tell me to eat the salad bar but then tell me not to eat it all. I once had a girl tell me in the most disgusted manner she could muster that she saw how much butter I put on my bread. I was in 4th grade at the time and it really messed up my psyche. I also had an older brother who used every opportunity to remind me that I was fat. After a couple years of this, I began to believe them. Everyone must be seeing something that I don't. They must be right.

After I went through puberty and grew a few inches I wasn't fat anymore but I still felt like it. In fact, most people would probably say I'm thin-ish. I'm only 5'3" and in high school weighed 115lbs. I was too fat then. I was too fat in college when I weighed 125 lbs.

At one point in college I had gained the dreaded freshIman 15 putting me at 138 lbs and one of Collin's friends remarked to him that, "Man, Jenessa's gotten fat." Collin then for some reason decided to tell me this information. My relationship with that friend of his was never the same after that.

After Collin's friend said I was fat, 138 became my 'scary weight'. That's the weight I feel essentially obese at. Sadly, at that weight my BMI is a little over 25 so I'd barely be considered over weight.

Obviously these body issues are all in my head...

And now I'm pregnant. My body is practically changing daily and it's been really hard for me. I felt 15lbs over weight before I got pregnant. Remember this post? Literally days after I wrote that I found out I was pregnant. A week after that began the epic battle with morning sickness.

So I started this whole pregnancy thing in an uncomfortable place body wise. I'm currently 140lbs. The exact same weight I was when I got pregnant 17 weeks ago. I'm grateful for that. But I'm still mourning the loss of my body.

Being pregnant is a beautiful and magical thing and I'm blessed to be creating life, but it's also hard having a closet full of clothes and having nothing fit. It's depressing walking into a store and suddenly not knowing what size to try on.

Okay, enough whining. I just had to write this in case there are other pregnant ladies out there struggling with this too.

1,000 Origami Cranes

There's an ancient Japanese legend that someone who folds 1,000 paper cranes will have one wish granted by a crane. The act of folding 1,000 cranes is called Senbazuru. I've always loved origami and have always wanted to do this. I have decided to make 1,000 paper cranes for my little baby baking in my oven. I'm putting all my hopes and love into each one and will hang it in the baby's room. I hope it's something they'll think is cool and hold on to.

When I was in high-school I just happened to buy a box of tiny origami paper. It was multicolored and seemed like a great deal. Later on I found a crane pattern on the bottom of the box. Now over a decade later I was able to put two and two together and realized that all those years ago I had purchased my own Senbazuru set of 1005 sheets of tiny origami paper. In my defense all the writing on the box is in Japanese so I really had no idea what I was working with.

Sadly I used quite a bit of it before I realized what it was for so I'll have to supplement from my regular origami paper collection and make some full sized cranes.

So far I have 36 tiny cranes (35 in pale pink, 1 medium pink). Ever wondered what 35 paper cranes look like? Wonder no more:

35 pink paper cranes = 3.5% DONE!

If I keep up this pace I could be done in a month. That's my goal.

More crazy dreams

Last night I got a full 8 hours sleep in one go. No bathroom breaks, no midnight snacks. There is one side effect to all this sleeping I've found. I have more dreams. And they're not like my normal non-pregnant dreams. I understand why I have most of my dreams and it seems my mind is playing out all my worst and most irational fears to prepare me for motherhood. Most of my dreams are incredibly real and emotional now. No more fun 'I CAN FLY!' dreams.

Here's the latest batch of strangeness to come from my mind.

• Had a dream I was a student in high school taking a class on how to be the best employee. There was this long list of things on the chalkboard about what made someone a better employee than the rest and I didn't have one quality on the board. Oddly I don't remember anything that was on the board, just that I didn't have any of it.

 *I'm pretty sure this one stems from my transition from a working person to housewife. *

• A very emotional dream where I screwed up the knit pattern on a baby sweater I'm making and I had to rip the entire thing apart. I vividly remember crying in this dream over how upset and frustrated I was. I honestly thought the dream was real when I woke up and was really upset.

 *I was afraid to look at the sweater the next day for fear it was all true. Luckily it was all a horrible dream and my baby cardigan is coming together. I've gotten quite a few compliments and feel very proud to have made such a lovely gift.*

• Collin and a gaggle of girls are all disagreeing with me and I have no way to talk to them. They're dismissing everything I say and treating me like a child. I got so upset by them not listening to what I have to say. I took my wedding ring off and threw it at Collin saying that if he agreed with them so much that he could be with them too. 

*Pretty sure this one is my fear of Collin and I disagreeing over circumcision and him siding with people other than me. I just can't stomach someone cutting at my baby's genitals for cosmetic reasons. We aren't religious we wont use that as a reason, so for us it would be cosmetic. I know there is anesthesia and that boys don't remember it, but I can't get around it.  It's hard holding your own opinion when everyone tells you how they disagree with it. But at the end of the day I believe in standing for what I believe in and only changing your opinion when someone can show you evidence to support their beliefs. Collin and I believe in compromise and I feel like we've found a way to solve our disagreement that meets both parties needs. So if we have a boy, Collin will take him in for the circumcision and care for it for the following week so that I don't have to be a part of something I don't feel comfortable with. Both parties happy.  I just keep hoping for a girl. ;-) *

Late 20s

Today marks my official entry into my 'Late 20s'. I don't feel old, but I don't feel young either. I'm at this strange point in my life where I've accomplished quite a bit, but there still is so much life left to live. I'm starting to feel my own mortality creeping in.

I've always been aware of the impending demise of myself and those around me. Now that I'm pregnant, my desire to keep everyone safe and healthy has increased thirty-fold. I'm worried about my parents who to me in their 50s and 60s aren't old yet. But then I think of my grandparents, I remember being a child and them being in their 60s. I know how hold they are now that I'm adult. Some are gone, others are passing. I'm reminded that as my children grow up, so too will my parents, and quite honestly I wish I could just freeze time for them. I appreciate my parents more now than ever and all I can think about is how scared I am to lose them.

Every day I'm reminded that this little baby will never meet their grandma Judy and it makes me sad.
Will we be able to convey who she was to them? Will they believe us when we tell them that surely she loves them just as much as if she had been with us? What do we tell them about the afterlife? Do we tell them about the heaven we don't believe in, or teach them laws of physics about energy never being destroyed?

I just keep hoping that no heart attacks or cancers fall upon us, but I'm not naive enough to believe that. Getting older is both a blessing and a sad passing of my youth.

As cliche as it is, you don't realize how precious time is until it's almost gone.

Pregnant Dreams

Last night I dreamt about:

• My husband and I hanging out in the woods. I see two foxes acting aggressive in a steam. Then Collin sees a skunk. I turn around and watch the skunk climb the tree. When I look back at Collin there is a second skunk and it sprayed near him. We then had to exit though very thick mud, very slowly so as not to make the pair of skunks upset.

• Getting a manicure after having broken three nails. In reality I broke a nail last night and I must have been more upset about it than I thought.

There was more that I can't seem to remember, but those two stood out. It's amazing how vivid and detailed they were. In my dreams I kept telling people I was pregnant.  Like it was important information that explained every situation I was in.

Being pregnant is very strange at times.

I'm happy to report that the past two days I have successfully left the whole night through. I've also had vegetables two days in a row and not thrown them up. While I still have nausea, I'm sleeping better and throwing up less and it seems like the biggest victory in a long time. I'm hoping I feel awesome for Our first wedding anniversary coming up.

Keeping my fingers crossed.

Little Victories

Yesterday was Collin's Birthday and I had pretty bad morning sickness most of the day.

It all started with my 3:30am wake-up call and having no yogurt (or food really) in the house. I tried to choke down crackers but it just wasn't working. I ended up heading back to bed like usual only to wake up again at 8:30am feeling even worse and more exhausted than I knew possible. I literally walked into the guest bedroom to get something, sat down, and then woke up an hour and a half later.

By the time I made it down stairs I was convinced the day was going to be a wash. Normally I don't care when morning sickness stops me from doing anything because I don't have anything to do. Yesterday I actually had a ton of stuff to do. I still had to put the finishing touches on Collin's birthday.

Birthday's are incredibly important to me. Sure you share your birthday with millions, but you can't deny that your birthday always feels like a special day. A day in time just for you. A day to celebrate your many years on earth and to hope for the future.

My husband certainly deserves to be celebrated. I do my best to celebrate him every day because he's so awesome to me. He's the poster husband for how men should be while their wife is pregnant. But the one day of the year I wanted to really, REALLY, celebrate him; I felt sicker than a dog.

By the end of the day I managed to print off a gift card and find a birthday card I made to give to him. I also gave him Chrono Trigger for SNES. I'm pretty sure Chrono trigger alone would have made his entire month. After he got off work, we went to a candy store and bought him some treats for his birthday. Does it sound like we're 8 year-olds? We probably are. And it's awesome.

Then we went out to P.F. Changs for his birthday meal. It was the first meal I'd had in over a month where I didn't feel the need to be picky. I ate the things I would normally eat, they all stayed down and then to top it all off, I slept for 7 hours straight last night. Which is my new record over the past month. I couldn't believe it. I went to bed at midnight and woke up at 7:20. It was pretty damn magical.

A birthday miracle perhaps?

Collin had a great birthday and felt loved and celebrated and that was all I truly wanted. To give him a night that wasn't about me feeling sick, or being pregnant. A day to just talk about what he wanted and do what he wanted. It was the best day I've had in a long time.

Leap Year Thoughts on being pregnant

I figured I should write a post today as my next opportunity to write a post on February, 29th is another four years away.

I feel bad for complaining so much about being pregnant. I'm honestly just struggling with giving up my body to a foreign being. I've never been good at sharing, so giving up my well-being for a critter the size of a grape is new territory. At least it's the internet says it's the size of a grape right now. I've noticed a disturbing trend where embryo's/fetus' are classified by what food they're closest to in size. Maybe food is the only universal sizing people can agree on.

I went from having a poppy seed, to a pea, to a bean, and now a grape. I have a friend who is 8 weeks ahead of me and apparently she's in avocado territory. I find this really weird. Something about comparing unborn children to foods just freaks me out.

I digress.

I thought I'd take the time to write about a few things I actually like about being pregnant so far. This list isn't going to be the longest list in existence, but there are a few things so far that are pretty neat.

1. Cleavage: I have some for the first time in my life. Sure my coat almost doesn't button over my chest anymore, but winter is almost over anyway so who cares?
2. It doesn't matter if I didn't do the dishes: I have a completely legitimate excuse. I'm creating life and can't handle the sights and smells or the sink anymore.
3. My husband is still beyond awesome: I knew this before I got pregnant, but now I see more examples everyday of how amazing he is. This man is doting, and caring, and will rub my back when I have gas. That's love. 
4. Being part of a new club: Being pregnant gets you entrance into the Mom Club. You can now join friends and family who are parents in discussing various aspects of family life. Family life/parenting info is pretty boring to those who are single or not pregnant. 
5. Special moments with my Scheherazade kitty: I'm up in the middle of the night and so is she. We play, we bond. It's lovely. She's also my napping/sleeping buddy so I always have company. I love that little kitty. She seriously brings me immeasurable joy.
6. Finger talons: I'd call then nails but that doesn't do anything to suggest the hard and magnificent nature of my fingernails at the moment. I now have nails that are difficult to bite, which is a great deterrent as a nail biter. They aren't completely indestructible as I did break my left thumb nail twice while bowling. The fact that I had enough nail to break it twice should say something. Prenatal vitamins are kind of amazing. 
7. Drinking a crap ton of ginger ale is considered fine to help with nausea. Which is awesome. Seeing as I feel bad for having one soda normally, now I can just drink what I need to to settle my stomach. Awesome.
8. Midnight snacks are actually encouraged.
9. Now that I think about it again, having cleavage is still pretty awesome, so I'll list it twice.
10. I can use snarky quotes from Juno like, "I'm a sacred vessel, all you've got in your stomach is taco bell." Or "My eggo is preggo."

Well that's all I got for now. I finally finished my middle of the night yogurt ritual so it's time for me to crawl back into bed and hope for another 4 to 5 hours of sleep if I'm lucky. 

Happy Leap Day!

Middle of the night ponderings

Tonight has been a rough night. I'm trying not to whine about being pregnant, but honestly, so far it's really hard work.

Before I got pregnant I knew morning sickness existed. I just underestimated how bad it could be. I'm used to being nauseous and vomiting. As I have crohn's disease, I'm not new to this ball game. I'm just not used to it being practically incurable.

With Crohn's I'm able to find relief. I can avoid what's causing the upset. I can take copious amounts of drugs to fix what ails me.  I can't seem to do this while being pregnant.

I've read that now that I'm entering 9 weeks, the placenta should start making some hormones soon and I should start to feel better in 4 or 5 weeks. Seeing as I've felt this way for 4 or 5 weeks, I feel like I can handle the tail end of this wild ride.

My new mantra is, "You just have to make it to you're birthday next month. See how you feel then."

Having a day in mind seems to help. Something to look forward to. Even if I don't feel great on my birthday, I'll at least be 4 weeks farther along and hopefully 4 weeks closer to eating real food again. My eating habits have changed so drastically, I don't even know who I am anymore. My grocery store game plan is completely different from what it used to be. What used to be veggies and meat has been replaced by processed potatoes and ginger ale. I never used to eat yogurt, now I eat at least one a day.

And my poor, poor husband. He went from having a housewife who cooked every night to a housewife who refuses to enter the kitchen. I can hardly open the fridge, let alone look at the dishes. He's gained weight while I've lost. He's such a trooper, and I honestly couldn't ask for a more supportive husband.

Even if I snap at him about silly things like always using the fan while cooking, he's still so patient. I swear I can smell the heat coming off the stove and it makes me feel sick and he just listens and turns the fan on. He tries his best to suggest foods to me, even though nine times out of ten I don't want what he suggests. He runs to the store when I run out of ginger ale. He is wonderful and I'm proud to be making our baby.

Now if I could just stop feeling so sick, all would be right in the world.

Valentine's Day

It's 2am on Valentine's Day and I'm dealing with an epic case of nighttime morning sickness. It started with my evening snack and has continued thru my midnight snack. Not exactly how I planned to spend my early Valentine's Day, but c'est la vie.

I went downstairs to get  my midnight snack and found my husband had gotten my some potted lilies for V-Day. I felt like a naughty child peeking at my Christmas presents. But they are beautiful and smell even better so I'm trying not to beat myself up about it.

Valentine's Day is so different this year. Usually we drive up to Spokane and have brunch where we got married/engaged, but this year it just didn't seem like a good idea. Going to an all you can eat brunch with unlimited mimosas when you can't eat or drink anything just didn't sound like a good use of money. I honestly felt like it would be a waste.

So Collin is making me Toad in a Hole (egg in a basket to some) for breakfast tomorrow. I'm hoping my stomach will cooperate as I do love a good toad in a hole. My love also plans on making dinner. I do hope that I feel well enough to enjoy in the day.

I had hoped to do something for Collin, but it seems I lack the energy to even do things for myself these days. I'm hoping I'll dream something up that will be perfect. It's the little things in life and this day is all about reminding your loved ones how much you care. I know I can figure out a way to do that.

Well, it's 2:15 and I'm having trouble keeping my eyes open. Time to put another episode of Gossip Girl on netflix and hit the hay.

You're killing me, smalls!

Hi, readers. I have some exciting news! I've been trying to keep my mouth shut, but I just can't any longer.

I'm 6 weeks pregnant today!

I was hoping to hold out mentioning anything until 12 weeks or we heard a heart beat after past experiences, but when you're excited it's nice to share good news.

Oh, and I'm dying of morning sickness and I don't think I can hide it anymore.

Add a bathrobe and a layer of sweat and it's pretty close to what I look like.

As a food blogger/general lover of food I'm pretty miserable. At the moment food is both my best friend and my mortal enemy, which I'm finding a hard line to walk.

I have to keep eating every 3 hours. Somewhat like the movie Speed, if my blood sugar drops to a certain level I explode in a storm of upchucking that would make even the skinniest model both nervous and proud. At one point in time I was worried I ruptured a blood vessel near my eyebrow as every time I'd have a bout of morning sickness it felt like my skull was trying to find a way through my skin and escape my body entirely. I don't blame it for trying.

Once this ick sets in, I know I need to eat something.
But once the ick sets in, nothing sounds good. Even things that sound good, once you're faced with them become intolerable. I have a few constant friends so far, bagels and cheerios. Two things that once eaten will keep me in a reasonably good mood for at least 3 hours.

One day baby carrots were my savior, last night they were my downfall.

I wake up every morning and tell myself that the awful sickness I feel is in fact a comforting reassurance that I'm still pregnant. I tell myself when I wake up in the middle of the night that I'm baking a damn good bun, and that I'll hopefully feel better in 6 weeks or so. I'm also secretly hoping my blood work will come back saying I'm farther along than I really am and that the end of morning sickness is near. A girl can wish.

Then I ponder all the women before me who've made it through this before or who have had it worse. I think of their strength and try to use it to bolster my own. I think of the women who so desperately wish they could feel morning sickness but have to fight just to get pregnant. I think of their strength and keep fighting for them, not wasting the gift I've been given.

Despite what anyone might tell you, getting pregnant is not easy*. Being pregnant isn't easy either.

* It seems like if you're trying it's not easy, but once you stop trying you get knocked up. That's been my experience anyway. It's pretty much a crap shoot.

Wii Fit Challenge

I have serious issues doing things. I'm great at planning, but the actual execution part I have issues.

I'm kind of a naysayer and I'm really hard on myself. Like I should get in trouble for bullying... myself.

I really do have goals and hopes and I try to do things...

Do or Do Not, There is No Try.

I need to really work on my discipline and I have serious issues with going to the gym. I work out when I get to the gym, I just can't seem to physically get myself to the gym.

So I set up the Wii today and issues myself a challenge. Every day just play the WiiFit. Even if it's only to weight myself and take a fitness test. I need to just take care of myself and be healthy. I got the WiiFit set up, did my fitness test, and my results were less than stellar. I already knew that I have to pour myself into my jeans and then make sure I don't sit down in them. Or breathe. I can't say I was surprised.

I'm planning on checking in periodically to see how close I am to my goals. I want to lose 10lbs in two months. I want to not be depressed anymore. It's really tiring being depressed, and I really feel like if I could just start exercising more I'd feel better. So here goes again. To working out... like I mean it.

Do or do not. There is no try.

A New Obsession

Thanks to my good friend Sarah over at KnittedFoxTrot got me started on a whole new addiction.

Vintage Pyrex!!

This stuff is A-MA-ZING. It's milky glassware from the 1950s, 60s and 70s. It totally makes me feel like that awesome house wife when I use it.  It's totally oven, microwave,and  fridge safe. Just don't put it in the dish washer. I mean, you could put it in the dishwasher, but then pyrexics everywhere would cringe and shudder. You don't want that. But none of that matters as you wont have to put these in the dishwasher because with some know how they come clean easy-peasy-lemon-squeezy. 

There is a color or pattern for everyone and the thrill of the hunt is incredible. Plus I do a lot of walking which I tell myself is good and makes going to EVERY thrift/vintage store I can find. We spend almost 4 hours over the past two days in three shops comparing and pricing pyrex. After our second day, we all came home quite happy.

Here is they very beginning of my vintage pyrex collection.

On our first venture out I got the 2cup Pyrex measuring glass. I had to get it because it has both imperial and metric measures on it. Which makes doing my weekly articles for BitchBuzz that much easier. 

The second day I fell in love with the two Snowflake Blue fridgies. One has a chipped lid, and I honestly paid too much for them, but I HAD to have them. I see a lot of the Primary fridgies, but not as much of the patterned stuff. I'm sure with some time I'll find a better lid.

I also picked up the 043 Snowflake with lid and a 474 Snowflake blue Cinderella casserole. It didn't have a lid but it was only $5 and in beautiful condition so I just couldn't pass it up.

So begins a what I feel will be long pyrex journey.

Happy Hunting!

Pictures of the New Year

I was going to post about how I need to eat more vegetables. I decided to post some photos instead. Happy Monday.

Cute picture of the cat that drives me insane, Kamikaze.

We took a trip to Tacoma this weekend to attend Collin's Grandmothers memorial, it was a lovely gathering of family and we all enjoyed coming together to celebrate Lois. Here's a picture from Collin's Grandfather's patio.

What a beautiful view of the cascades! It was a perfect day. Could have been spring time with how sublime Yesterday was.

Before we left the area we went to visit Lois' monument and her final resting place had a lovely view of Mt. Rainer. It's so wonderful to live in the Pacific Northwest. It's just so beautiful out here.

Then on the drive home we caught some awesome shading during the sunset. I just loved the multi-layered grey-blues. This was a tricky shot to get as we were on the freeway. With all the bumps in the car it wasn't easy.

Then I got a quick pick of the sunset with Mt. Baker in the background. 

And then when we were almost home I caught the full moon. This shot was even more difficult. I screwed up and got some a the cars doorframe in the shot, but this was the only one that wasn't blurry. You can even see the man on the moon!

And then a shot of some trees in the sunset reflected in a pond.This one has the side-mirror in it. And a huge dirt smudge. But just ignore all that. Try and see the inner beauty or something.

Enjoy.

xoxo, Jenessa

The only person in my way is me.

I'm on a mission to be the healthiest me I can be. I want to feel great and look a little better. I want my clothes to fit properly again. I want to prepare my body to be a vessel of life.

So today I hit the gym. ALL. BY. MYSELF! 

I was completely able to drink my water. No struggles for me!

After reading my editor Cate's blog 'Simple Tips on How to Be Happy' it just clicked. Something I've always known but never truly accepted. The only person standing in the way of who I want to be is me. 

No one is going to hold my hand and drive me to the gym. So I held my own hand for once and drove myself to the gym. The only way to loose my pooch from the holidays and stop my arms from jiggling in strange places is to work out. 

So I worked it out. Just me and Lady Gaga. While listening to Bad Kids the line, "Don't be insecure if your heart is pure." Just kept resonating with me.

I SHOULDN'T BE INSECURE!!!!

I AM BEAUTIFUL, AND LOVELY, AND CLEVER, AND FUNNY, AND SMART! I AM TOO GOOD TO BEAT MYSELF UP IN MY HEAD ALL THE TIME!

So today I ran 3.78 miles in 50 minutes. The machine said I burned 482 calories. I doubt that's accurate, but the # makes me happy anyway.

I am now 3.78 miles closer to being the healthiest me I can be.

A New (Twitter) Name

I decided to change my twitter name. This is kind of a big deal for me. I've been the BionicBotanist for awhile now. I chose it in college back when I used to blog on the now defunct vox.com. I thought it was cute as I was a Plant Scientist it seemed like it fit. Other than I'm not a robot who plants things.

Fast forward a few years and here I am writing a weekly food column on BitchBuzz.com and being my hippy self. I've been thinking about my 'brand' lately and what I want to do with myself. I don't really feel like much of a botanist anymore. I've been out of it for so long that the only thing I cultivate these days are house plants. I also made some really sweet terrariums for Christmas. As soon as I figure out how to take a good picture through domed glass I'll post it. That's about all I do with plants anymore.

I'm not saying I have no skills. Because I do. I have mad skillz. I used a z. That means it's more serious than just regular skills.

Lately my skills are around the house and I'm loving it. I still struggle with motivation. I still hate the dishes, but I'm a lot better at doing them.

So that long story is why I changed my twitter name to something that suits me much better.

You may now tweet me @HippyHomemaker