Baby Blessing

Alpha received her name and blessing this Sunday at church. It was a beautiful blessing full of so many hopes we have for our baby. Lots of family and friends came to help celebrate this special day with us. Unfortunatly we forgot our camera at home, but thanks to Jimmy we at least got a shot of the McArthur Photography crew in the lobby.

photo booth fun

Rat Tail

It has been concluded that my little baby looks nothing like me - she inherited all of Tyson's looks. I like to call them my twiners.

But there is one thing she got from my genes - no not red hair, short stature, or fair freckly skin - she seemed to have only inherited my Alabama redneck heritage - through the rat tail. poor girl.

Alpha Rane Ward

name: Alpha Rane Ward
d.o.b.: March 9th 2010
weight: 7 lbs 6 ozs
height: 20 1/2 inches

Push Present

Since moving to Chicago I have learned about the wonderful thing called a push present.

according to wikipedia:

A push present (also known as a "push gift" or "baby bauble") is a present a new father gives a new mother when she gives birth to their child. In practice the present may be given before or after the birth, or even in the delivery room. The giving of push presents has grown in the United States in recent years.

From what I understand there are no rules or expectations to push presents although jewelry is often the gift of choice. My husband knows me very well and so the other day I came home to a box containing this on our front door step (unfortunately Tyson was out of town so I had to somehow carry this up our very skinny stairway).

Yes, it is a knockoff - and no that does not bother me. Ever since we found out we were pregnant I have dreamed of having this modern little jewel in the corner of our very small nursery.

Thanks Tyson.

Baby Names

We thought we would put a few of our favorite baby names out there for the vote. Not that we are going to do what the outcome says (in fact we may be convinced to do exactly the opposite). Just thought it would be fun.





Duran Duran's video for Rio doesn't inspire the wholesome, down-to-earth image we'd like for a name -- Tyson.

Teen Mom

Sixteen and Pregnant, Teen Mom - both some of my newest closet reality tv obsessions thanks to my friends Alicia and Sarah. I look forward to catching up with these girls every week and must say I have become quite the fan. So when I had my own teen mom experience a couple of days ago I couldn't help but share the drama with you.

This week I decided to go with Tyson on his work trip to bustling southern Illinois for a few days. While trying to burn a couple hours on my own in a small town of 2,000 I stumbled upon a thrift store. After a bit of worthless browsing I exited and sat in my car for about 10 minutes as I used my gps to find anything that I might be able to do for the next bit of time.

Suddenly there was a knock on my window and I looked up to see an elderly woman smiling at me. As I rolled down the window she asked me if I was pregnant and if I needed any maternity clothes or baby clothes. At first I was thinking how nice it was that in a small town like this a lonely lady just wanted to talk and I was happy to be nice and give her some company. As she kept on talking I soon realized that her motives were not as I first suspected. She was there to lend support to me. She thought I was a teen mom! She gave me directions to her church where they have abstinence counseling and a room set up for "girls like me" to pick out maternity clothing and baby items. She assured me that they would take care of me through support groups and some free ultrasounds. She really wanted my phone number so she could come and drop off some of her baby's clothes to me (I took hers instead). As I sat there and she kept on going on and on about her youth pastor I felt shocked. Part of me wanted to scream - I am 28 and married and have my own business! But another part of me, the part that won over, touched my heart. I hid my wedding ring from her view as I thought about how hard it probably was for her to approach me, and how her intentions were really pure. The last thing I wanted to do was embarass her or discourage her from approaching someone who really did need her help.
So I just kept my mouth shut. Finally she finished and I drove away - a bit shocked (and excited to watch Teen Mom that night.)

Blog Revival and Christmas 2009

It's that time. With a baby just around the corner we've decided it's time start using our blog again to keep family and friends informed about what is going on in our world. To start here are a few pictures of Christmas 2009 at the Ward household:

Here is our Christmas tree. I know it is kinda sad, but we love it. I have always had a really hard time spending money on something that is just going to die and make a mess. This is the closest we have come thus far to having a tree. Maybe next year once we have a kiddo, but I seriously doubt it.
Ours was made two days before Christmas out of Green posterboard from the dollar store and a lot of strung popcorn - my very favorite thing on a tree.

We woke up in the wee hours of Christmas morning - 9am - to open presents.

And here we are sporting our favorite Christmas presents - real luchador masks that my brother Robbie brought us from Mexico. I am now on the lookout for stretchy pants to complete the outfit so we will have stellar halloween costumes this year. Maybe our baby can be one of those crazy midget monkey things from Nacho Libre.


And here I am counting our change (it was the end of the month) as we started our first Christmas tradition - Go out to eat Thai on Christmas day. I am already looking forward to reliving the tradition next year.

Presserfoot

My sister Rian and I have started another blog (I know, I don't keep up with this one so why do I need another one). The idea of this blog is an online sewing group. Once a month we start a new project and help one another along the way with how-to posts. I love having a place to post my projects and get feedback. I am more motivated to sew when I know others will learn from it or be inspired by it as well. In the last 2 months that I have had this blog I have already sewn more than I had the entire year before.
So, if you sew and want to be a part of it just shoot me and email or comment. The more the merrier.
Click here to see the blog!

Starstruck

I just returned from my third trip with the Children's Miracle Network. We went to Disney World in Orlando and then to Washington D.C. Once again it was a wonderful and rewarding experience. I will be posting more photos and details of the kids on my photo blog.
On Tuesday we had the opportunity to meet the president. After shaking his hand and watching him interact with these special needs children I must say that I was a little starstruck (much to my conservative husband's dismay). I was so impressed by the presence that this man had. He was wonderful with the kids and even had a question and answer session. The best questions were if they could play on this playground (which he let them do), and my favorite was the young boy who asked the president what his plans were for helping to improve child healthcare in this country - a huge issue for all of these families.

Here are just a few of the photos from the white house:

Obamarama

new furniture

tyson and i spent a wonderful week and a half in alabama with my family over christmas. like last year my very talented father helped me build some furniture for our very bare apartment. we tried to copy the following west elm consol table.



here is our version:





and here is how it fits into our apartment:

the Christmas card

Here is the Christmas card we sent out this year. It was a last minute thing so I apologize if we didn't sent one to you. Especially if you were on Tyson's list. Which means yours is still sitting on his desk waiting to be addressed. Between you and me I think he was worried you wouldn't know it was joke.

Guatemala

I know this is way over due, but it is about time that I give a brief update on our 2 week trip to Guatemala.

As most of you already know we were robbed at gunpoint within our first hour of being there. A nice little welcome present. Because we were carrying everything we had on us at the time our camera was also stolen. So the following pictures will primarily be from flickr and other peoples blogs.
After our little "incident" we went straight to Antigua which is filled with great architecture, good shopping, and lots of tourists.


Some of the highlights of our trip included hiking the volcano. It was really amazing and really hot. The volcano is active so we were able to stick our walking sticks in the flowing lava.

A lot of our time was spent traveling in chicken buses. It is always amazing to play the game of how many people you can fit into a moving vehicle.

Lake Attitlan (gorgeous lake - if not a little on the dirty side - nestled between two volcanoes)

The following pictures are from Tikal - the Mayan ruins. Probably the coolest thing Ive ever seen in my life. Luckily our friends let us borrow their camera for the day so we do have some pics.



It was some kind of religious day for the Guatemalians of this area. As we were on the temple a large group came to do sacrifices in front of it. It was amazing to watch. The people made circles around the fire as they shouted at it and threw alcohol in it. Later that day everyone gathered in the main area for dance. Here is a pic of them behind us on the ground.

This is Tyson climbing back down the temple - about 10 stories up and extremely steep.
All in all we had a fantastic time. I think we both agree that we would go back again. Next time I would be a little more cautious for sure. Also, I would spend some time there learning Spanish in one of the homestays. I think the biggest thing that we missed out on was being able to just talk to people and make friends with those who were local. But we still had many cultural and very memorable experiences.

white skirt done

after a busy photo weekend and catching up on my project runway episodes i felt inspired to dive into my pile of half finished sewing projects. first on the list was this white linen skirt that i was supposed to have made for my sister-in-laws wedding in july. obviously that didnt happen. the skirt of loosely designed around the following jcrew skirt. i wanted something cool for summer that i could dress up for church or dress down with flip flops for shopping. now that the summer is on its way out i have finished it. oh well.

jcrew version:



my version:




i used this pattern for the main pieces and made the following changes:
added pockets
lowered waistline to hips
added waistband
added band at the bottom

next on the list: ruffle jacket and messenger bag

Neopolitan Manthigh

So I went rafting in California last weekend on the American River with a number of my coworkers. It was my first time rafting -- an absolute blast. We had around 10 Class 4 rapids and dozens of class 3s. Loved it.

Just before setting off I made a quick decision not to wear my boy scout pants as I'd planned, and I forgot to put sunscreen on my exposed white manthigh. For those of you unfamiliar with the term, a manthigh is the less attractive, slightly less well-formed, hairier counterpart to the woman thigh.



In the picture you can clearly see three distinct sections. My brown knees had a nice tan from my cycling shorts, the strawberry red section is the exposed, sunburnt portion of the manthigh. Finally (sorry about this) we have the yet unexposed white portion of the manthigh.

Watch Kelli Run the Red

For the past few weeks Kelli has been ribbing me cause I have a penchant for squeezing through yellow lights. I must admit I love the feeling of barely, yet safely, making it through. Gliding through and coming out on the other side feels so much better than having to jam the brakes and then sit for a while.

So the other night I came home to a Chicago dept of Revenue ticket that actually has pictures of Kelli running a red. Those of you in Chicago are aware of all the cameras that have been set up to catch people in the act. They actually video-tape it so you can watch the irrefutable evidence in the privacy of your own home. Even though it's a $100 dollar fine, I feel like it has given me about $40 worth of vindication -- so to me it's like a $60 dollar ticket . . . not quite as bad.

Don't worry, you can watch my lovely wife the run the red too!! Go to the link below and use the following:

Link -- https://www.photonotice.com/login.asp?citycode=chi

Citation Number: 7001271067
License Plate Number: X563536

Ticket for running a red: $100. Publicly humiliating my wife (in good fun): priceless

Enjoy.

potato sack dress

yesterday tyson and my cousin mark spent all day biking a century (100 miles).  so kat (mark's wife) and i had our own marathon day of sewing.  kat's been wanted to learn more sewing skills so we decided to make this dress together.  kat did the original dress in blue and i did a variation on the neckline in a brown linen.  overall it was really easy.  i think mine only took about 3 hours.  here is a picture of us after church with our matching dresses.  tyson says mine resembles a potato sack and i must agree, but i like it anyway.

pillows

i decided to take a break from sewing my messenger bag which is taking forever and make the couch pillows that i have meaning to make for a few months. i wanted to make something similar to these pillows from cb2. i was really happy with the way they turned out. i meant to make more although after the two i felt like they were already getting pretty bold and busy in our simplistic room so i stopped. i may add a few plain ones in the future, but for now i am done. it just feels good to finish a project.

The World We Live In

My name is Tyson -- I'm married to Kelli.

No, I don't have any cool pictures to post except for this one I stole from the BBC website. I found a pretty interesting article there today.

Apparently, a Canadian man sued Culligan Water Co for psychological damages after he found a dead fly in a bottle of water. He was awarded $341,000 until the Supreme Court overturned the lower court's ruling.

Click here to read on.