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1,000th Post & Some Questions Answered

Barry & me in Newcastle, Australia watching the sun come up on our favorite beach. 2005

For some reason this 1,000th post seemed significant to me and I haven’t really been able to pinpoint why I feel this way, but this morning as I started thinking about how I wanted to answer some of your questions, I realized that this 1,000th post for me is more about why I blog and what it means to me and our family. I still remember in 2005 before Barry and I were getting ready to leave on our January – June Australian adventure and he set this blog up as a way to keep our families up to date on our trip. We’d clock into an internet cafe and I always had to whisper-talk to Barry about what ‘code’ to use because he’d set up the writing portion of the site for a computer nerd – and computer nerd, I am not.

By the time we came home from Australia and got our jobs, we weren’t really sure what to write about and the blog fell off the grid for a bit. It makes me sad to think about that time because we had plenty going on  – camping trips, dinners with friends, bike rides, and plenty of fun. We’ve got pictures and some half-accurate memories, but I wish that we’d kept writing during that time. Shortly after we got Sydney, I discovered The Pioneer Woman and her pictures and ability to write about the everyday adventure inspired me beyond words. So, we launched the blog up again and during our wedding planning we started to post with more frequency, with horrible pictures and writing that wasn’t coherent. (Can’t say that we’ve improved that much in the past five years, but we’re more thoughtful than before!)

It wasn’t until Little Miss Maggie Mae showed up on the scene that I realized how strongly I felt about documenting our lives. Time seemed to speed up and I could hardly remember one day from the next. I’d always found an outlet for my thoughts through writing – journals, notes, letters… – and the blog seemed to fuel that need that I felt to dump out my thoughts. Today when I think about our blog, I feel thankful that I’ve kept it up. I hardly ever go back and proof read  (sorry, folks!) and rarely do I regret my writing.

Personally, I think everyone should document their life – through pictures, words, drawings, songs – just document who you are. I know that I love reading my baby book and the notes that my mom wrote about me. It gives me snapshots of who I was as a young child, but more importantly, who she was as a young mother. I hope that someday Maggie will read this blog and she’ll get a feel for who we were, her parents, when she was young and even before.

Sure, so much of our lives isn’t on here, but the snapshots that are make me feel happy, proud, excited and extremely blessed. So, this 1,000th post is significant to me because it makes me realize that the words and pictures that have followed us on this blog from 2005 are truly the fabric of our lives. I blog to document that ever-changing fabric.

And now for some of your questions…if you’ve got more, feel free to ask. Seeing these come through has been really fun. We’re not using formspring in the traditional way, but we’re still getting some of your questions. 

How old was Maggie when it was evident that she’d have curly hair? 

Oh, the hair. I’d say that around 5 or 6 months we knew it’d be curly. We took a trip to Hawaii when she was almost 6 months old and that was the first place that I remember thinking that her hair was ‘having a party on top of her head’ for the first time. That said, I also remember very, very early on another parent of curly-haired children informing me that it looked like Mags was going to have curly hair, something that wasn’t obvious to us yet.

Where do you get majority of Maggie’s clothes? 

Most of Maggie’s clothes have come from local consignment/second hand shops. We’ve had some hand-me-downs from friends, but I really enjoy trying to find great deals in the local shops near our house. My mom has also made Maggie many dresses, skirts and pinafores. Occasionally I’ll find something on zulilly.com or a Groupon and buy it, but for the most part we’ve been able to buy used items. We almost always buy new shoes.

What kind of camera do you use to take your pictures?

I have a trusty-old Canon Rebel that I love and adore. Sometimes I daydream about upgrading my camera body from time to time, but I really am happy with my current set up. I have a number of lenses, with my two favorites being the 35mm f/1.4 and 50mm f/1.8. I try to only shoot with natural light and shoot in Manual mode as well.  I edit my photos using Lightroom. I poured over my owner’s manual and read many online tutorials when I first got my camera and still follow fellow photographers whose work I find inspiration.  I still have a lot to learn, but I love taking pictures.

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Have You Ever Wondered About Us?

http://www.formspring.me/hbadventure

Do you ever wonder things about people? I do. I find myself observing people and wondering the strangest things about them. For example, today Maggie and I were at the park and there was a woman there wearing rain boots, a sweater and a down vest. It was a cute outfit and all, but, lordy, the sun is shining and practically everyone else in the PNW has dug out their shorts and are flashing their bare-ass legs for the world to see, myself included. I found myself wondering and almost worrying about her closet. What if she doesn’t have other shoes? Or maybe she thinks rain boots are fashionable on hot, sunny days? Is she from out of town? You see, I let my mind go…and that was just the lady at the park wearing rain boots.

http://www.formspring.me/hbadventure

This is our 999th post over here at HB Adventure (not counting all the ones from our 2005 trip to Australia that are hidden…like a buried treasure) and we decided we wanted to do something a bit different. We’re going to try to answer your questions in the next post. Even though only 5 of you (and thank you for that!) are regular commenters, we do get a fair share of e-mails, texts and random messages about our blog (and thank you for that as well!), but we’d like to try and do a little FAQ for you. And since we know you like to remain anonymous, which we totally get, we opened up a formspring account. You can head over there and ask us your burning questions. We can’t promise that we’ll answer them if they’re awkward or inappropriate, but this is your chance to fire away.

http://www.formspring.me/hbadventure

I WONDER WHAT SYDNEY ASKED HER!!!

I follow a few fellow bloggers/photographers that have their own formspring accounts and I really love being able to ask questions that sometimes feel lame to me and get answers from people whose work I admire or boots I wonder where they got. You know, the regular things that go through your mind.

http://www.formspring.me/hbadventure

And since this is the 999th post of our blog: here is the very first picture we uploaded. It seems fitting that it’s Sydney swaddled in her baby blanket. I think it was taken on the day that we brought her home. Don’t click on it because it’s huge, apparently we hadn’t learned to resize yet. We’ve learned a lot these past few years. Believe me. Go ASK.

http://www.formspring.me/hbadventure

 

1,000th post will be up in the next few days. Get excited.

HERE

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Her Friend Wheel

Krista  and her family are setting out on a new adventure this week – saying goodbye to their beloved Seattle and moving to Oregon. I’m not very good at saying goodbyes, they make me feel weepy and awkward, but I have an undying passion for new adventures and brave changes. So, I’m embracing Krista, Lance and Will’s new adventure and reminding myself that we’ll still get to be friends with them, just not as often as we’d like.

Way back in March, Will came and stayed with us while Krista and Lance hit the town for some dinner and smooth conversation. Maggie spent a better part of the evening rubbing Will’s silky hair and convincing him that jumping on the bed is the best thing to do when you’ve got your jammies on. They were a hilarious duo.

Before Krista and Lance left for the evening, they informed us that Will typically is in bed by 7 o’clock. Ummmm……what? We’ve hardly started Maggie’s bath by that time. So we did what any parent with somebody else’s child might do in the situation – we kept Will up past his bedtime.

And the kid rocked it out.

He and Mags took a long bath together, read books and basically reveled in having a counterpart to bounce energy off of. And then we set up Will’s pack and play  and he was done for. After plopping both him and Maggie down in there – he just stared at her (and us) as if we were encroaching on his space, which we most definitely were.

After  a few minutes of play time, we snagged Maggie out of the pen and said our night-nights. Maggie and I went to rock – starting our own marathon before bedtime, dang it – and Barry spied on Will around the corner because we could hardly believe that putting a kid to bed could be so easy. (Later Barry confirmed that, sure enough, Will sat and stared for a minute and then peacefully fell asleep. Amazing.)

While Maggie and I rocked she was fairly concerned about Will (“Wheeel? Night-night, Wheel?”) and I shushed her worries away telling her that Will was going night-night all alone (with Papa spying around the corner, so not really alone) like a Big Boy. I think she could hardly believe it herself.

Later that night Krista and Lance arrived on our doorstep with a fresh pie in hand, ready to retrieve their sleeping nugget.  I was still working to get Maggie asleep at that point, but hearing them come through the door, I instantly decided to let Mags join us in our pie-eating-conversation-filled evening. I wasn’t about to miss out on spending some time with Krista, Lance & Barry.

We sat around the living room talking, eating and watching Maggie play by herself and slowly making her way to taste pie from time to time. Eventually it became late and Krista, Lance and Will had a drive to get home, so we started to say our goodbyes. Maggie watched as Will and his gear was packed up and loaded into the car.

She cried, probably because she was overtired, when they all walked out the door.

And the next morning when she woke up she instantly wondered where “Wheel” went. We reminded her that “Wheel” was with his parents and at his house. She seemed fine with that, but everytime we get together with Thomas, Gavin, Mara & Caroline, she wonders, with hope in her voice, if “Wheel” might be there.

It makes me extremely sad that I’ll have to be the one to inform here that “Wheel” isn’t going to be at the various playdates because he’s off on adventure with his parents. But since goodbyes make me weepy and awkward, I’m looking to the future – and Will’s coming adventures.

And who’s to say a road trip isn’t in our future?

Krista’s blog here

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The following photos have nothing to do with Wheel and his parents, rather some oldies but goodies from a few months ago. Enjoy