1 year

Jack and I went up to King Family Vineyards for our anniversary this past weekend. The weather was just as it was on our wedding day - pouring rain in c'ville, but as we approached crozet the clouds parted and it was a gorgeous day! so strange! we took baby and did a little wine tasting (the roseland is yummy!), had some fan-freaking-tastic pate, bread and goat cheese and sat on the patio. we also visited my aunt, uncle and cousins up in waynesboro so they could meet the baby. and on sunday we had champagne (also from the vineyard and also really good surprisingly) and year old cake (which was surprisingly still really good too). we had people write all over the champagne bottle at the wedding, our favorite was from blair and chip "have a baby". done and done.

so i've gotten into the swing of things at work, but looking for maybe something else.....everyone keep their fingers crossed for me! i do like this job but i'd like a more managerial (ahem higher paying) position with more structured hours. something i dont have to bring home. but if i dont get it, i'm ok where i am - i do like this lab a lot.
the trees have started to change, the weather is fantastic and i can't wait for saturday - halloween!!! we've got a hilarious gold fish costume for Poppy. i'm now trying to figure out an easy way to make her stroller look like a fishbowl (suggestions??). i figure if we take her out with her cousins and her costume is cute enough we could def. score some candy! and i really want some halloween candy. i'm already planning on buying up a bunch of stuff the day after, when it all goes on sale.
i'm trying to use my weeknds for cooking, so this weekend i plan on making corn chowder and baking some of those pumpkin chocolate chip things, pumpkin pancakes (or waffles), i'd also like to make some beef stew. i'm craving beef stew. i'd like to use those days to make stuff i can freeze, or use for my lunch for the next week. on the lookout for more recipes....
and i'm thinking about taking up knitting (ha!). but maybe sticking with embroidery. i'd really like to start doing some embroidery (i guess i have to learn how to do that first before i can stick with it). man my thirty years is starting to look like 60. not like i have tme to do any of this stuff.

pumpkins boo - yah!

We went to the pumpkin patch today. momma and baby like to make the same faces.

I realized that i never posted pictures of the finished nursery. mainly b/c it took us so long to put the crib together that i just never got around to making it look 100% presentable where i wanted to post. but here we are:


I've started my new job. I like it so far - I have no idea what they study (Stat5? Mast cells? Immuno-wha???) but they seem to have lots of confidence in me which is nice, at least my boss does and he likes to call me Dr. D. which is always nice to hear. I'm slowly learning m y way around the lab - once I get that down, I'll feel much better about it. So far I'm way busy and I'm trying to finish up my revisions for my dissertation, so I have tons to do. plus i try to do nothing but have baby time when i get home so I stay super busy at work. I'm also trying to adjust to the pumping thing. At first I was pumping twice a day. now I think i've got it down to once midday and i'm good until I get home. Its just a matter of not being too full that I start hurting and leaking and having a free 20 minutes to go do it. It is kind of a nice break though. Plus anytime I dont feel like being in the lab i just go pump. its a nice excuse to get away. Dad and baby seem to have adjusted well. Its nice that he now understands that even though you're home all day, you don't necessarily get anything done. But he has become Mr. Mom in the span of a week. he's already learned how to cook (east african braised chicken and pork chops with balsamic reduction!). I do miss cooking though, so i try to get some in on the weekends (i made harvest soup, pesto pasta salad, and cookies today). well, i cheated with the cookies - the dough was premade.

the other nice thing about jack being home - he can go get me cupcakes from the cupcake store before they run out. AND there is another one out by trader joes that actually makes the same flavors we had for our wedding - lemon raspberry, pumpkin spice, and chocolate raspberry. I'm thinking I'll order some to celebrate our anniversary with. we're trying to decide whether to go back to the vineyard for our anniversary or go visit chincoteague for the day. I'm kind of leaning towards the vineyard, plus my aunt offered to babysit and we can probably score free dinner out of her too! and they're fun to hang out with. I can't believe we've not even been married for a year and we already have this incredible baby. crazy year.

I can't get over the weather richmond has been having - freaking gorgeous! thats another plus (sort of) with pumping is i get to go outside to go to the lactation room. i can't wait for the leaves to start to change. plus this weather brings my favorite things: apple picking, cider,apple cider doughnuts, gludvine, pumpkin pie, halloween costumes.....
our weekends are hella busy for the rest of the month: chrissy's wedding, apple picking in c'ville, halloween, zombie walk, anniversary. not in that order. but so fun! and more merit firsts. love it!