Look, it’s the top of my head on Yahoo Answers blog.  One of the pictures we took last New Years Eve.  I was still doing my auburn highlights back then, before I accidentally dyed my hair black.

I’m so excited! Beginning in January and stretching over four months, Masterpiece Theatre is airing The Complete Jane Austen. Six movies- including the new versions of Persuasion, Northanger Abbey, Mansfield Park and Sense & Sensibility. The other two movies being shown are - Kate Beckinsale’s Emma and the 1995 A&E/BBC Pride and Prejudice with Colin Firth and Jennifer Ehle (In my opinion the perfect Jane Austen adaptation. Thank you Masterpiece Theatre for not showing that piece of crap with Kiera Knightley. Or that horrible most recent Mansfield Park where the screenwriter attempted to sex-up Jane Austen a little too much. Luckily Andrew Davies- who was behind the ‘95 P&P wrote several of the new screenplays). And a bonus new drama based on Jane Austen’s life, Miss Austen Regrets.  Here’s the schedule.

I’m particularly interested to see Persuasion on January 13th. I love the Ciaran Hinds/Amanda Root version from ‘95 and still watch it frequently. It’s definitely tied with Pride and Prejudice as my favorite Jane Austen book/movie adaptation. And I have never seen a movie adaptation of Northanger Abbey.

Can’t wait!

I need to get this shirt for our little Southern belle. It’s from Happy Family’s Etsy shop. Their other shirts- peas & carrots and milk & cookies are pretty cute too. And they are a local B’ham seller. Cool.

I happen to love red beans and rice, craved it while I was pregnant and even felt Daphne kick for the first time after having some. When I didn’t have time to make it from scratch I would go to Popeye’s and get a large side and take it back to the office and eat the whole thing. Even now at 3:00 AM that sounds good. Really good. Maybe I’ll make a pot tomorrow. Here’s my recipe.

We are finally home!! I won’t bore you with the details of our trip, but let’s just say it was a rough couple days. Chris & Daphne were both sick (I spoke too soon in my last post) and none of us got any sleep. Anyway, hopefully we can get Daphne back on her schedule soon and life will return to normal.

I was thinking earlier about how much our lives have changed in the past year. On Dec. 31, 2006 Chris was employed with a different company, I had a job I absolutely hated and didn’t have any idea I was pregnant, Daphne was a mere zygote. Now Chris has a new job, I’m unemployed and spend practically every second either caring for, or thinking about Daphne. Motherhood so far has been easier than I expected. I’ve only had a couple moments where I’ve wanted to pull out all my hair (one of those moments was on the return trip home Saturday during our overnight stay in Hattiesburg when at 4:00 AM after another night of no sleep and crying/gassy/poopy baby I proclaimed, “I’m never traveling with this child again!!” and just laid down and cried with her. I really wanted to scream, but figured hotel guests might think someone was being murdered in the room and call the cops. And I wasn’t in the mood to deal with small town Mississippi hotel employees and police.) Not that Daphne isn’t a high maintenance little girl (I can’t blame her, she gets it from me), I’ve just dealt with the challenges better than I thought I would. I think some of that is due to my age. Chris & I had been married for 11 years and together for a total of 16 years when Daphne was born. If we’d had her right away, Chris & I would have killed each other. We are much better parents now that we are older and have worked through some of our own issues. And I’m sure it’s easier on us because we only have 1 kid. We are thinking about trying for Baby #2 sometime this spring, or summer. (I don’t want to wait too long since I’ll be turning 35 in August. Not that I’m really thrilled about having an infant and a toddler at the same time, but I don’t want to still be trying at 40.) I’m sure that if we do have another baby soon that I will pull out my hair and need to be on Zoloft or something. Let’s just hope that Baby #2 will sleep well, not be as particular as his/her big sister and will take a fricking pacifier (but that’s a whole other post).  My luck I’ll have twins.  And then I will need to be medicated.

Daphne & I are surrounded by sickos. Most of my family, including my husband, are feeling a little under the weather- mainly sinus/allergy problems. Because Chris is sick we decided to stay one more day in Texas before heading home tomorrow. I’m totally ok with it, because we had an exhausting day Thursday with my dad and step-mom and I need a chance to nap. Plus it will give us more time to figure out how to get all Daphne’s new toys into the car. I think we will have to buy a bigger house now to accommodate all her new things. And she won’t need any more new toys until at least her first birthday.

Besides everyone being sick, we’ve all had a pretty good time. Daphne did much better on this trip compared to our Thanksgiving Tulsa trip.  And we’ve dragged her all over the metroplex in the Babyhawk… from Katy to Kemah, Spring Branch to Sugarland.  But I think we are all ready to be home and back to our normal routine.  So don’t call us until after the new year.  We’ll be recovering.

Moody Gardens, Galveston, TX

Greetings from Planet Houston (yes, that’s a General Zod reference and I know I’m a dork)!  After a 12 1/2 hour trip we finally made it safe and sound to Katy, TX (pre-baby we could make it in 9 hrs).  Tomorrow will be a very busy day with church, Daphne’s first visit to Santa at the Katy Mills mall, the Lucy exhibit at the museum of natural science, and finally Christmas lights at Moody Gardens.  The rest of the week should be pretty relaxing. 

I’m going to go watch my husband and siblings play Lego Star Wars on the Wii and crash.  Goodnight!

Today I’m attempting to finish the bulk of our Houston trip packing. Tomorrow we pick up the rental car (and hope it’s big enough for all our stuff), drop off the dingo (Allie) and take a quick nap before hitting the road early Saturday. It’s amazing how much stuff a 14 lb. person needs. And in an attempt to save space for the return trip home, I’m packing for all three of us in a 21″ suitcase. For a week.

I’m not good at strategic packing, but I’m better than Chris (who will bring two suitcases just for himself if I don’t pack for him). I watch Rick Steves travel through Europe for months with nothing but a small duffle bag and I’m amazed. I’d need a duffle bag just for my shoes. So far I’m packing brown boots, black boots, black Oka B sandals, brown and pink Rocket Dog slip ons, oh.. and black dress shoes. And I need them all, really I do.

Making a packing list on tadalist.com has been helpful. I always know where the list is (unlike my lists scribbled on pieces of paper) and I can share the list with Chris so he can help. I’m a list person.

I am glad this is our last road trip for a while. At least until March when we head back to Tulsa for my brother in law’s wedding. Chris has mentioned flying next time. I’m just not ready for that. Too much stuff to coordinate through an airport. That would totally stress me out. I mean- baby, stroller, car seat and base, suitcases, diaper stuff, electronics- laptop, video camera, Nikon D50 & D200, tripod, lenses, etc…

The good thing about going to Houston is it’s a pretty easy drive, unlike Tulsa. They are almost the same distance away from us, but Tulsa always seems to take 1 or 2 more hours. I blame the state of Arkansas. And the BBQ in Memphis. That always slows us down. We usually don’t hit any consistent traffic on our way to Houston until we get north of New Orleans to maybe Baton Rouge. Mississippi is always a breeze.. that is unless there’s an ice storm and you get stuck 30 miles outside of Holly Springs and it takes you 8 fricking hours to get to Memphis. Been there, done that. Never again.

Anyway, posting will be sparse next week since we’ll be so busy with family.  With my brother and his family, and my sister and her new husband we’ll have a total of 11 staying at my mom’s.  Three little girls- a 3 year old, 1 year old, 4 month old.. and two dogs.  Lots of entertainment.

Hope everyone has a safe and happy holiday!

Today we had Daphne’s 4 month Dr. appt.  It’s a little early, but since we’d be in Houston on her actual 4 mo. date we decided to go ahead and get it out of the way.  She’s now 13 lbs, 10 oz. and 24 inches long.  50th percentile in both height and weight for her age.  She’s perfect, except for the one blue and one hazel eye thing.  The Dr. is pretty sure her eyes are going to stay two different colors.  We will see.  I’ve noticed my blue eyes have a more pronounced gold ring around the pupil and almost look green at times, and they weren’t like that when I was younger.  Meanwhile Chris will be researching colored contacts for infants (just kidding!).

I don’t say this publicly enough, but I have a pretty good husband. As long as it’s not home improvement or yard related he’ll pretty much do whatever I ask. When I was pregnant and wanted popsicles at midnight.. no problem. Drive out of his way to run an errand for me.. no problem. Clean my bathroom (I hate cleaning bathrooms).. no problem. Today I shoved him into the scary world of the children’s clothing boutique super sale. Janie & Jack is having their semi-annual Season Finale sale where they markdown all their old lines to pretty decent prices and Daphne had some Christmas money to spend so we thought it would be nice to stock up for next year. Normally the prices for their clothes are absolutely absurd. I mean, come on.. unless you just have money to burn why spend $100 on an ivory wool coat that can only be worn for one season. I don’t care that it’s Italian wool. But mark it down to $30 and I’ll reconsider, especially if I can ebay it later and end up making money on the deal. From what I understand Janie & Jack has pretty good resale value. Anyway, I totaled up our purchases and if we had bought at full price we would have spent $700 (insane!!!!). Let’s just say we only spent a fraction of that. Chris works not too far from the store and it made sense to send him rather than try to drag Daphne (kicking and screaming) to the Summit. He did a fabulous job of picking out several outfits with really no help from me. And I don’t think he had to beat down any soccer moms for any of the items. Here are some of my favorites that Chris picked out:

Totally cute together.. top is silk and gorgeous, skirt is wool with white tulle peaking out and is to die for. Skirt was $15, top was $12.. down from their original prices of $54 and $38.

Again, very cute outfit. It does match perfectly, although it doesn’t look like it online. Cropped pants were $12, top was $8. Original prices were $38 and $26. And THE coat and THE dress:

I feel like Stacy London every time I look at these two, “Shut Up!” They are just too beautiful for words. Originally $98, we got the coat for $30. Ivory wool with satin rosettes over the buttons. The dress was originally $88, we got it for $25. The detail on the smocking is gold and blue. Are they practical? No, these were splurge items. But just think of how pretty Daphne will look in it next Christmas. And I’m sure we’ll get our money back and then some when we decide to sell. So if you have any little girls to shop for this holiday season, make sure and check out Janie & Jack.