joshy loses his eyelashes!

in an unfortunate grilling mistake on sunday night, josh lost his eyelashes and singed his beautiful curls.

he was thrown backwards by flame + instinct, and one of our dinner guests found him lying on his back beside the grill.

he was okay! and the chicken (made with a marinade recipe from Orlando's in pucallpa, peru) was delicious!

dia de san valentin!

did this happen to you? the baby was born and then for a span of months there were no pictures taken of you and your spouse. all the pictures were of the baby, or the baby and one of you, or on lucky days one of the three of you. so finally we got a few just josh & mitchy shots... on Valentine's Day!


josh & i don't usually celebrate valentine's day. before josh, i remember spending many valentine's day dinners out with my parents (dad would take out me & my mom, his two ladies), or my brother (when i was in college, and he lived nearby in muncie). josh & i are a rare couple in the fact that we get to spend so much time together--we sometimes forget about going on dates! of course, since having heron, we've desperately needed to go out on dates to have some baby-free time. but i can count on one hand the number of dates we've had in the past 8 months! i think we've been out to dinner in waxhaw, 10 minutes away, two times!

so... i think this year valentine's day just happened to be a coincidence, or an excuse. and it was the best valentine's day EVER!

mom offered to watch heron along with our friends linda and mary (these were my "aunts" growing up in peru, and they've been dear friends to my mom since my dad's death. they also LOVE spending time with heron). in order to maximize the THREE WHOLE HOURS that we intended to spend away from the babe, we decided to dine in, skip the commute. so we prepared a scrumptious meal for five here, and josh & i dished out our plates & dined in his studio. awaiting us was our old dining room table which josh had muscled up the stairs alone, placed by the window, with candles and flowers. a slide show of our past 3 years, and of course a music mix for the occasion.

the menu:
apple stuffed pork loin (drew billups' recipe)
alli's thanksgiving sweet potatoes with walnuts
rice pilaf
linda & mary's green beans with feta

it was a perfect evening, and i laughed & cried (with joy) harder than i have in a long time. we need dates every once in awhile. i love being married to josh, my best friend. oh goodness, we have a good life!

time for a mini update!

we are still here. i think we've just been in project mode. in the past few weeks:

• josh put the finishing touches on his studio. he's been nesting for months... (it's so beautiful and peaceful! & it doubles as a cozy family room for us)
• we made a nursery for heron (in the old guest room). we re-painted the guest room, sold the old furniture on craigslist, & heron is now sleeping in her very own crib in her very own room!
• we painted mom's room while she was on a work trip to orlando
• i started my first microfinance class
• heron's been sick twice
• i continue to nest... heron's nursery is a continuous canvas for me. every few days a new picture is placed, a new hook is hung on the wall, or i find a better way to organize things. my baby's 8 months old & finally i get to nest!
• josh & i have finally settled into our room. it's been a disaster since we moved here in august, partly due to the fact that all THREE of us were living in one room until heron's nursery was finished. though she'd been sleeping in a pack n play in the guest room for the past couple of months, no longer in our bed, her clothes & cloth diapering things were still in our room, & we were all still living in transition.
• heron is now an expert crawler + super cruiser!
• i've been making homemade organic baby food for little bird.
• we're trying to get most of mom's big house projects done by the end of the month. we have yet to sort through mom's office, sort through dad's old office (& make a temporary art/craft studio space for me), sort through the attic & garages.
• we're talking with mom, & praying about how long to stay here. we're praying about the next place. we have some ideas, but we're not ready to reveal anything yet! josh & i have been blessed with some great conversations lately, & it feels like life has movement & inertia.