New Hair

So a few weeks ago I noticed my hair seemed to be falling out. Well, not really falling out, but there was a whole lot more coming out than usual in the shower and when I brushed it, and it was noticeably thinner. Apparently this is common postpartum issue. I already have thin hair, and haven't done much with it since the wedding. I used to have my hair short in high school and really liked it, so I went for the chop. Here is the new cut (it looks so much thicker and healthier! I also found a stylist in Front Royal I really like)...

Pretty BA.

Emotional Closeness

Have you ever had someone share too much with you? Have you ever had someone tell you personal things when you know you aren’t on that level? It’s an uncomfortable feeling. I recently was in a situation where someone I was acquainted with told me many personal details about her life. I was struck by the lack of awareness it showed. Now perhaps she just really needed someone to talk to, and I think I come off as fairly easy to talk to, but it made me feel weird all the same. I like to listen to people and I like to offer any knowledge I have, but I felt that this crossed the line.

I know part of my confusion is that I err on the other side of not sharing enough. It takes me a long time to share personal stories, and ideas. I wait and wait, to trust people enough to tell them important things about me. Andy is much better about this, he will share earlier than I will, but still guards himself. I take longer to trust people.

So what is the line of sharing? Or is it just different with different people?

Father and Daughter

House decorating

I am not really a detail oriented person. Andy notices the nail that you can kinda see from the side of the clock. I do not see it. For our wedding, I think we spent a total of $30 to decorate our reception. I figured it was already in a cool old mansion with books and lamps, why spend a ton on flowers, lights, tinsel(???) whatever, when I knew that I wouldn’t even see it. As it turns out this was a good call. I never even saw the tables of food I was so busy talking, dancing, and looking at Andy. And if anyone missed major decorations? Well too bad.

Now we are trying to get our house looking snappy, and my non-decorating eye is having a hard time doing it. However, I’ve been thinking about personality and how our personalities drip into everything we do. So our house is starting to look like Andy and I, well not literally, but our personalities are seeping into our house. We’ve bought a lot of our decorative items at flea markets and thrift stores, and we’ve really found some cool stuff. We have several old kerosene lamps, which are very cool looking. Just this past week I bought several funky, asymmetrical class vases, and they look super artsy together. I am really liking glass. It reminds me of jewelry. This house decorating thing is a good chance for us to show our personalities no matter how quirky.

Exersaucer

I’m building an exersaucer, or rather following the directions (mostly the pictures) included. Luthien is in need of some bigger baby entertainment. She loved her bouncy seat up until a few weeks ago, and it was my go to whenever I needed to keep her contained. I would plop her in it in the bathroom while I took a shower or did dishes. But lately she has been rolling like a maniac, and a few days ago I put her in it in the bathroom while I took a shower. About half way through the shower, she started yelling so I peeked out from behind the shower curtain and she had tried to roll over while in it and mostly succeeded. She was laying on her tummy with her lower half hanging over the edge precariously and yelling because she couldn’t figure out what was going on.

Anyway the seat has some straps that I tried out on her, but then she just immediately starts yelling because she can’t move. She is a very determined little person. After she hung out with her grandparents for a week while we were on our honeymoon we realized she needed a walker, or an exersaucer as I have learned they are called, and today I am putting it together. Hopefully it will be a while before she tries to climb out of this one.

Car victories

Today was a pretty hectic day but I would say it ended quite well. I did some work on our insurance and some serious research/thinking on what my next life/job move will be. I'm looking into becoming an etsy vendor, but still have some work to do in order to give it a shot. I'll keep you guys updated. Luthien was pretty chilled most of the day, but she has a nasty rash beginning in the diaper area. She got lots of naked time which she loves.

Andy has a rougher day than me. We've both been up late the last few nights, but I often go back to sleep for a little bit after he leaves at 5:45am. He was given some rough hours at work the next few days, and had a generally stressful day.

But, I found out our car insurance will only be about $40 a month, rather than $110 (as it was in DC). We have to finish getting the car registered here, but we both were really happy to hear that about the insurance. Plus the insurance dude I talked to was super nice. Also, on a role of good car happenings, after work Andy took the car in for an oil change and the car guy installed our new headlight (we busted it a few weeks ago) for free! What an awesome random act of kindness!

Married!

I have many, many things to catch up on, and many many things to blog about (the Wedding, Luthien, my career, family, Lost). But I don’t want to do it all at once so I’ll go slow.

So many of the things that “ need for a wedding” we just said to hell with. And you know what? I am so glad we didn’t put work/money into stuff that wasn’t important to us. I think we spent maybe $20 on reception decorations, and the place looked great!—old and mansiony exactly as it should. I kept thinking I needed to do something decoration wise, but my heart just wasn’t in it, and I’m so glad I resisted. The things we put effort into—food, alcohol, my dress, dancing, the actual ceremony—all came out amazing and were so meaningful. And the bridesmaid dresses? Let me tell you these caused me some angst. I was very attached to letting the girls choose their dresses while still having them look cohesive. I really didn’t know how they would all look together and I had this horrible feeling that while I was getting married someone would be looking at my girls and thinking “why don’t their dresses match?” but as soon as I saw them altogether I knew it was perfect. All the girls looked great but also very much like themselves, and they just looked like they were all on the same team. It was so great.

But aside from any of this stuff, I am so happy to be married to Andy. It was about time. I’m so glad to have us all hitched and settled, now it’s time to keep adventuring together…Oh the places we’ll go!
*Photos by Jim Holmes (http://www.jimholmesphotography.com/).