seven things you might not know about me

my friend and fellow blogger, hadley {go check out her blog and show her some love, shes currently doing a giveaway and is a very talented graphic designer, who also happens to have fabulous taste}, just gave me a thoughtful honor:

the rules are:
1.  Thank the person that awarded you by linking them back in this post.
2.  Tell us 7 random things about yourself.
3.  And pass on love by awarding to least 2 recently discovered new bloggers (or blogs you love!)

honestly, if you have been reading the blog for any decent amount of time you probably know more about me than you ever wished to....but in following the rules, here goes :)

1.  i am allergic to stinging insects. 
i was mysteriously stung by a mysterious bee of some sort {looked like a huge fuzzy bumble bee to me} while riding on a waverunner when i was younger.  it was the first time i was ever stung, it was in my leg, and i was in bed with throbbing pain all afternoon/evening.  it left a scar.  later that summer i was stung by a yellow jacket at summer camp {saddle rock} right before the camp dance with camp laney.  my friend sarah beth asked me what was all over my face and after going down to a mirror to look i could see i was breaking out in hives everywhere.  needless to say it progressed incredibly fast and i had to hop in a station wagon with the camp nurse, bundled in sweaters and shaking crazily, and head to the "local" emergency room for a big ole nasty shot.  my high school chemistry teacher proudly told me the next time i get stung i will probably die.  i do not believe it is that ridiculous but i do carry an epipen with me at all times.  my mosquito bites last for weeks.  i do not love this little random thing about me. 

2.  i am sensitive to certain types of lighting.
fluorescent lights make me crazy.  when i was younger they seriously affected my mood.  think department store changing room lighting.  uuuggggh.  during the beginning of my pregnancy with emory i had a strong aversion to the computer.  my mom suggested it might be the lighting of the screen, referencing my problem with fluorescent lights as a child.  i think she is right.  i prefer natural and lamp light.  i could live without ever seeing/using a fluorescent fixture or can light.  i know they are sometimes necessary, but if you ever stop by my house it will probably seem dark to you bc all i ever turn on is the lamp in our den.  i WISH we had floor to ceiling windows all over our house and i could just live by the sun. mmmmm

3.  i double pierced my own ear {and about seven other girls ears} at camp one summer.
we used flames and alcohol and needles and it was all very primitive.  we decided i should do it bc "my dad was a doctor" {fabulous reasoning girls}.  my mom in her eerie sixth-sense way SOMEHOW found out and threatened me short of my life that it better not still be in there when they came to pick me up.  i think all my friends had similar threats but they were smarter and took it out when their parents were around but continued to wear it.  i however was blessed cursed with a crazy HUGE conscience and i took that earring out immediately and the hole filled in before camp was over.  you would be surprised to know how badly i regretted that.  for YEARS.  its a little embarrassing but as late as college, as my roommates know all too well, i still wanted to run to claires in the mall and re-double pierce my ears.  ??? i dont have any answers for you...just keeping it real

4.  i cannot do a cartwheel.
when i used to take gymnastics/when i was a cheerleader in high school, i could do back flips on trampolines, and standing back handsprings...but to this day i still cant do a cartwheel.

5.  i know i cant sing but i sing anyway.
i always apologize to those who are around me at home/in the car but its just something that comes with being around me.  i somehow know every word to every song and most tv jingles from the 1970's-1990's.  besides a few exceptions i still prefer classic oldies, rock n roll, or alternative/indie stuff vs current top 40.  i am the last to learn current hits, i will be the first to admit that.  but i love singing.  mainly to myself, but it is still outloud.  so you might hear it.  i do not pretend that it is something you remotely want to hear.

6.  i have never, ever used anything on my face other than dove soap...
until recently and now i use rodan + fields products.  still not regularly bc i am just not a product type of gal, but i really have enjoyed having a "routine" when i want to adhere to it and some good face scrub and eye cream.  i actually have noticed a lessening of my premature crows feet.  {victory}

7.  i am working towards nearly-no-time-ing my "part-time" job.
as most of you know, i am a stay at home mom and i am also a self employed interior designer.  i love my job and i hate my job.  it is my passion and my creative outlet and part of my personal fulfillment.  however over the recent past it has overwhelmed me and i have not been ready or aware enough to handle it as i should and still be all the other things i hold much more dear: wife, mother, friend, human being.  like ive mentioned recently, i had a come-to-jesus meeting with myself and decided i just cant do it.  at least nowhere near the way i had been.  {stephen was my biggest cheerleader in this decision}. so jobs were handed off, finished up, and turned down.  i still have a few lingering jobs but as of right now they are manageable.  however, things have happened recently that have made it even more...pertinent...that these jobs be finished and my "job" turn more into an infrequent "hobby".  and this is all because... {yes you get a bonus "number" for being so faithful and reading this far...}

8.  i am pregnant.
yes.  if you need to read that again i understand.  i had to read it over and over and over again myself and i still have some disbelief!  for all the very real reasons why i should NOT be pregnant...which i wont go into...the fact is i AM and we are beyond THRILLED.  its been quite an exciting, emotional, humbling past few months.  to be honest, the day we found out was quite rattling and...shocking? i cant come up with a better word.  to be completely honest, i was more scared than i was thrilled like i was when i found out about my other two miracles.  i had no idea how far along i was.  bottom line: i had no idea about ANYTHING.  and it was the first time, the FIRST TIME in my life something big had happened that i didnt actively plan to some extent.  now dont get me wrong, i have always been the first to tell you that we are not in charge of things...and to think we are is arrogant and ignorant.  God has this life so intricately knitted and knows our comings and our goings.  He gives us free will and the freedom of choice, but he already knows the decisions we will make and the good he has planned to come out of these choices if we just surrender to him and accept his blessings.  but i was still arrogant and ignorant.  even in the craziest moment of "oh my gosh this is happening", i STILL tried to control some part of it by trying to figure out when/where/why/how this actually happened.
the most God-sent grace of that entire afternoon was my husband who, if you had asked him the day before, would have told you and me that we were only going to have two kids.  i knew i was going to have to fight for a third.  but when i ran outside to him sitting in the carport, with emory on his lap and bennett running around with sticks and trains, his immediate reaction wasnt: "are you kidding me?" but a huge giddy smile and a: "thats incredible!"  he didnt stop smiling.  he told me this is how we were always meant to have our third baby and how wonderful is it to know this is all in Gods hands.  i agreed but i wasnt fully calmed down until i found out the next morning i was a little over 4 weeks, not 12 like i feared {i mean over the past few months i had been to events and parties and family meals: aka WINE}.  we didnt exactly see anything except a black hole that confirmed the fact that i was pregnant, but we returned for another ultrasound two weeks later to find out we were actually 8 weeks one day...meaning our boulder of a child had done four weeks of growing in a two week period of time. {typical}  and then today i heard the heartbeat {not to mention i have been showing for a week now...INSANE}.

i cannot express the blessing this has been for us.  i love everything about how it is unfolding...so completely and utterly out of our hands.  i cannot begin to understand anything about it, how it happened, how it happened to us and not to all the many many other dear friends of mine praying for it to happen to them...and the second i start to try and reason it or figure it out i step way above my head and enter back into the world of ignorance and arrogance.  this is not about me, this is not about the hows or the whys but more about the Whos.  and i dont know about you but i refreshingly embrace another humbling reason to look upwards and outwards.  so i will praise Him in this blessing and do all i can, to be all i can be to this new baby number three. 

and i would be remiss not to mention that i might need some prayers to support me in this, as
emory and this baby will be around 14 months apart.

since i started showing i am already getting confused looks/gawks in public: three year old on my hand, 8 month old on my hip/in carrier, bulging belly.  you could do the math but modern math doesnt do it justice...

i think its a boy
:)       
 

oh, and two blogs {one new to me and one...old{?} to me} that i think are versatile and always interesting are:
1. tessa from nine and sixteen
and
2. vanessa from this and that