Busy busy...

Lots going on at the house...It's close now baby! Counters are in! Appliances are all in (well the ones that we aren't buying seperately). Faucets and fixtures are in (though we are changing out just about everyone, ha). Now onto packing up old Gaylord...

Motherhood is a cult

Yep, that's right, it's a cult. From the moment you utter the words "I'm pregnant." Or heck maybe even "I'm late." You start your inductions into the cult of motherhood. As a gal who was in a sorority and is now the local president of an association, I'm totally comfortable with cult-like tenancies, but for others I imagine it's a bit much. Rest assure, it's all coming from a good place, and you might find yourself appreciating the network you have if you can sift through the bs. During some of my "darkest motherhood moments" thus far it was fellow moms who helped talk me off the ledge (and really, I haven't had it bad). It was their honest thoughts and compassion that made me realize I'm not alone in this journey.

In looking back on my past year+ it's been a roller coaster. Once announced I was "with child" it was constant advice, opinions, thoughts, etc.  Mom's literally come crawling out of the woodwork. People you haven't talked to in years are like "OMG you're pregnant! You have to register for ________ it's a life saver." or "pssss....breastfeeding is so wonderful, of course you're doing it, right?" or "Hey, are you seriously going to go back to work??"

Sounds annoying (and sure some of it was), but to be honest a lot of it was SUPER helpful. Maybe I'm smart enough to filter out the comments from those I might not agree with, but it's honestly nice to know what opinions are out there. There are millions of sounding boards. I'm sure some people feel annoyed or as though people are crossing a privacy boundary, but for me it was a nice bout of confidence to have a huge support system. Being a mom is hard. It's REALLY freaking hard at times (thank you mom, you are lovely and I appreciate you that much more now having walked in your shoes), and as a confident and very independent person it's uncharted territory to question every decision, but when it comes to motherhood I have. You literally worry that every choice you are making is impacting your little person...starting at conception (I mean even I only had 2 glasses of wine my entire pregnancy...oh great, now there are lame-o mom's out there judging...to the judgers, he's 100% fine and probably smarter than your nervous nelly child who will never break a rule, so there). Judgement aside, I found it really nice to have people to bounce ideas off of; hey, I work in a collaborative field. Mom's are passionate and more than willing to give you more than what you asked for (plus it saves you time researching things, that others have already done the homework for). Sure, I don't agree with what all mom's have to offer, but it is nice to know what others think regardless if you agree. And believe me, they are happy to share.

Let's be honest, motherhood is a lot of pressure. "Where is your child being schooled? Eat this; don't eat this.  Is that cheese pasteurized? Are you sure you can have lunch meat? Is that formula? Are you sure they are ready for solids? You're going to leave him overnight? I could never do that.   Look at the baby, look at the baby." Yep, pretty sure people are judging me. And to that I say... BITE ME. Do what is right for you my mama friends.  And if you need a sounding board who isn't going to judge you for having freaking feta on a salad when you're pregnant, then I'm your girl!

Use what advice you might need and disregard the rest, just know that once you are a mom you will be hearing it non-stop. If you a type A person, like me, it is REALLY a lot of pressure to know there are so many opinions flying your way. And I really don't think that having a baby should include judgmental stress, which is why I have tried to be very "namaste" and therefore have been dub'd "bo-ho mom" by my family as my attitude is very "sure eat some mud...he's going to be fine."Thankfully I like who I've become as a mom. I'm quite comfortable that I'm not a helicopter parent, I'll leave the uber over protective piece to others.  I've accepted the fact that my child is going to get bumps and bruises along the way and that's good, because how else do we learn?  Helicopter moms are surely judging me now, and I'm judging them for being over protective (does that make me a hypocrite?). *Namaste.* Don't worry though, I'm positive I will be that mom waiting up for the kids to come home during the high school years; so my type A will surface again for sure.

I guess we just have to remember that all mom's even those we don't agree with come from a good place....after all this might be the hardest job out there, so you can't fault another person's passion. At the end of the day, we're all just trying to do the best job we can at a job that doesn't come with a book of policies and procedures, a 401K plan, or heck even paycheck. So cheers to all mom's out there...the helicopters and the bohemians!

Bubbles Baby Shower Brunch

As promised, I'm finally getting around to sharing a few photos of Baby Bubbles' Shower. Meggie's baby was affectionately referred to as "bubbles" when in utero. So we decided to take that fun nickname to the next level and use it as our theme for the shower. Meggie's mom, our dear friend Ashley, and I decided to do a brunch, because really you can't go wrong with brunch and I got really excited about the idea of a "BUBBLES BAR" (ahhh ha, get it?!) as in a mimosa bar for the brunch. Anyway it was a fun morning and baby bubbles got a lot of good swag. Only bummer was that Ashley got sick and wasn't able to be there after helping with so much of the planning. She sent Nic, her husband, over as a proxy to help with some setup and I have to say he rocked it (I had him putting photos and balloons all over the house)...though I wished she could have been there.

One fun thing we did was had everyone who was invited bring a onsie they felt represented themselves, and then Meggie has to guess who they were from. LOVED this. People got really creative with thier onesies and I'm sorry but these were so much cuter than the ones at showers where people have make them at the party and half end up looking like something the baby could of made. These are things the baby can proudly wear!

Oh, and as it turned out "bubbles" was a bouncing baby boy! Gustav Ward Dougovito was born on March 14th at 8:03pm weighing in at 8lbs 10oz. Yay! Welcome to the world...we are so excited for Ian to have a new buddy! Thankfully only a few of the onesies were leaning on the feminine side.

So here's a preview of the day....

House it goin'?

Let's cut to the chase, it's been over a month since I updated you on the house, and of course a lot has happened. Pictures are worth a thousand words, so let's just let them do the talking...

The exterior has gotten bricked and been painted

This shows the master bath shower niche over the course of a few weeks.
Soon enough it will be holding all my shampoo bottles!!

Master bath got carrara'd

The wood floors have been going in! Love me some walnut!

Well hello kitchen cabs.
Note: That light fixture will NOT be staying.
I'm swapping out all the builder lighting

Still waiting for counters

View down the front hall

Closing is rapidly approaching. This weekend I'm planning to start packing. I'm really ready for it.

Where are you?

In a nutshell, I've been busy. I know, I know, story of my life, but these past few months have felt particularly stacked and action packed. Somehow February pretty much got away in a blink and I'm stunned that it's now March. The blog has dropped to a lower priority on the list, but I'll get back on it more regularly. What have I been doing? Here is a quick preview (and I'll add more photos and a better re-cap here soon!)

Reunited and it feels so good!

Feb, Week 1: Absoult Angel Reunion. All my girlfriends who I lived with in college came to visit and we spent 2 days up in Breckenridge laughing, relaxing, catching up, and reminiscing. We then did an evening down in Denver before it was time for everyone to fly back. Pretty cool that ALL 10 of us were able to get together since we are spread across the US...have 10 kids between us (2 on the way)...9 husbands...6 dogs...and likely a partridge in a pear tree.

IIDA CEO, Cheryl Durst, Welcoming
all the chapter leaders at a "welcome cocktail
reception "

Power points...yay.

Feb, Week 2: IIDA. I'm president of the Rocky Mountain Chapter this year. I must have taken crazy pills....who has a baby, works full time, is building a house, selling their current house, attempting to keep up a social life, AND decides to accept the role of President of a professional association? Oh, this girl. Anyway, one of my many presidential duties is to attend 2 chapter leadership conferences a year at IIDA HQ in Chicago, and the 2nd weekend of Chicago I did just that.

Note to self: Being out of town 2 weekends in row. makes for a very unhappy dad and a stressed out mom....don't do this again. 

Mama Meggie Opening Gifts

Feb, Week 3: Party Planning. I swear if I loose my job tomorrow I have a back-up (well I actually have a long list of back up's some more interesting than others) but I might seriously consider party planning because it's practically my part-time job already.  On the heels of planning Ian's Birthday I was onto the next party....Meggie's Baby Shower! The second weekend in February was the Shower for "Baby Bubbles" & Mama. I worked on this one along side her Mom and friend Ashley (unfortunately, Ashley got sick at the last minute and couldn't come). I forgot to mention that John also decided that since I had been gone 2 weekends in a row it was a lovely time for him to leave town an have a guy's weekend. Somehow we still pulled off a fun shower with a "man down" and me still on mama duty. Behind the scenes I've also been working on plans for Molly's (John's sister) wedding shower which I am helping throw in Cincinnati a few days prior to the actual wedding. Oh, and as part of my IIDA duties I'm also working on our annual BESTawards which is basically a huge party and design excellence awards program....so I'm also knee deep in committee meetings, menus, liquor licenses, venue contracts/tours, etc. See.... designer by day...party planner by night.

Bathroom Under Construction 

Bunk Room under Construction
With custom built-in Bunks

Feb, Week 4: Frisco House. Oh, I almost forgot, I have also been helping John's boss on the side design a house he and his wife decided to completely gut up in Frisco. Our buddy, Adam Bacon, built the entire thing, and I was brought in to help with everything else. We started this "little project" over 8 months ago....and since then I've done close to 109,235,908,390 floorplans, 3-d renderings of the entire exterior, a few weekends up there to monitor progress, several trips to stores to pick out tile, shower plans, and finishes. Namaste.  The construction finally wrapped up mid-Feb and the McG clan went up to stay there for a weekend with the Selzer family. Emily, Todd, and Eddie also came up on Saturday night to join in the festivities and check out the Selzer's new digs. The house turned out great and it was the perfect weekend get-away. House on the Market. We also decided it was time to list our current house on the market since the move is right around the corner, and the last week of Feb seemed like the perfect time. So I spent the week leading up to it going live on the MLS cleaning/purging/organizing like a psychopath. Thank God we were up in Frisco and out of the house for the weekend because we had like 30 showings the day it went on the market in addition to an Open House. Crazy town!

And now it's March. What the?!? Next weekend is Molly's wedding so we are leaving in just a few days for that! It should be great long weekend and an awesome St. Patrick's Day Wedding for the Irish Lady.