We Bought a House

It took us two years to find our new house and this Friday it finally became ours. We're excited and scared. Excited that we finally found a house big enough for us to grow into in a first choice neighborhood, scared because the house has been unoccupied for three years and comes with a list of problems. 

CL holding the key to the new house.

The afternoon was very anticlimactic. Brandon rushed to work and I came back to our current home to launch a campaign for a client. We met for dinner at Pho Real, stocked up on craft beer at Total Wine, and headed to the new house to start prep work for all the work that's to come. 

I took tons of photos and a video to capture the house before we start all the work so that one day we can look back and see the difference! 

We've got a lot of work to do before we can even move in: bringing the structure up to code, hardwood and carpet replacement, removing wallpaper and painting all the rooms, fixing leaks, spraying for bugs and rodents, and a deep clean. We also found out last night that we have termites. We have less than three weeks to complete all the work before we move in. There's a chance that we're going to have to live with my mom for a few weeks since some of the projects have already been moved back due to scheduling issues with vendors. Send help. And wine. 

The new house.

It's going to be a stressful and expensive year (or three), yet fun and rewarding. The bigger the risk, the bigger the reward, right?

The Daily Birch: Cake and Wine

I'm not good at goodbyes. Who is? To me it's more like, "see you later!" Or even, "snap you later!"

A good friend of mine is moving to New York City (a reoccurring theme in my life) and we had our last "wine & cake" outing today at Reid's on Selwyn. A lovely tradition that the three and a half of us started over a year ago and carried through birthdays and other important life celebrations.

Making broccoli nuggets. Yes, I've become that mom. Recipe coming soon.

Eating broccoli nuggets, smoked salmon, beet salad and crab corn fritters at Reid's Fine Foods, delivery pizza from Papa John's at 10:30pm.

Beet Salad @ Reid's Fine Food

Beets, shaved brussels, arugula, lardon, goat cheese, and truffle vinaigrette.

Crab Corn Fritters @ Reid's Fine Food

Sorghum butter and pepper jelly.

Drinking Vihno Verde and Sauvignon Blanc at Reid's and NoDa Brewing's Par 4 with the late night pizza.

Planning for the impending move. Things are about to get chaotic and we're doing our best to stay on top of things before they have a chance to get out of hand. Timelines keep moving and it's making us really uncomfortable. 

Working on multiple custom targets for clients' Facebook advertising efforts. Create, test, refine, repeat. Seeing positive results makes this marketing geek extremely happy. 

Missing my husband. He is traveling for work this week.

Looking for the perfect carry all bag. Must be large enough to fit all of my things and the child's, easy to clean, and under $400. Do you have any recommendations?

When Nothing Goes Right, Go Left

Last week was hard. Like, scream into a pillow and give up kind of hard. Towards the middle of the week it became almost comical on how many things went wrong and it never let up. 

Perspective and finding the light in all situations got me through. So did a much needed Friday night out on the town with my love. 

There was also a lot of good. Charlotte's one year check up, a marketing planning meeting for TEDxCharlotte (get your pre-sale tickets!), Joe's Doughs media night, visiting friends in their new office space, an evening out in NoDa, Father's Day, and lots of great food. 

Hoping this week is more fun and less tests of patience.

Easy Chunky Tuna Salad

Eating, and eating healthy meals, constantly takes a back seat. Between keeping a child fed and entertained, a dog exercised, a business running, and a slew of other tasks pulling me in 50 different directions it's a miracle I eat something, let alone eat something healthy. 

One of my favorite go to meals is a tuna salad sandwich. The meal is quick to make and is filling enough to get me to dinner time without mindless snacking. 

This tuna salad does not reinvent the wheel, however, it's my all time favorite and I hope you guys enjoy it too! 

Tuna salad on organic Jewish rye from Whole Foods.

Easy Chunky Tuna Salad

This recipe serves two people but is easily halved for one person.

Ingredients:

2 - 5 oz cans of albacore tuna in water, drained

1 tablespoon of chives, freshly diced

1/4 cup of red onion, diced

1 stalk of celery, diced

10-15 French style cornichon pickles, diced

1/4 cup of mayo

juice of one medium sized lemon

salt and pepper to taste

Additional ingredients, when available: dill, Roma tomatoes, and hard boiled egg. 

Mix all items in a bowl and serve on toasted bread, a bed of lettuce, or inside an avocado.

Voila! Quick, easy, filling, and delicious!

What are you favorite quick and healthy lunches?

Twelve Month Well Visit

Our pediatrician must be either really popular or there's a shortage in our area because the earliest we could schedule a twelve month well visit for CL was at thirteen months. Not a huge deal since she's not yet twelve months adjusted. 

The past appointments have been fairly easy since she was not as mobile. This time was not fun at all. Sitting still on a scale was a no-go. Getting blood drawn was definitely a no-go. Getting ears and mouth checked? Nope. Vaccines? Forget about it! Wrestling an unwilling child was challenging, to say the least. Three adults versus one child and I still feel like we lost.

The good news? She's right on track with her development and is more inline with her actual age versus adjusted. Getting her to eat more solids is our big challenge right now and the doctor recommends that we keep her on the Toddler Transition formula until at least 15 months to ensure that she's getting all the necessary nutrition. This was our plan, too.

The stats: 

• Weight*: 18lb 15.2oz (8th percentile)  * w/clothes+diaper
• Height: 30.5 in (74th percentile)
• Head: 45.5cm (50th percentile)

The kid:

Goodbye 31, Hello 32

Time goes faster and faster the older you get, at least that's what I always believed to be true. Birthdays go from month long celebrations to week long celebrations to weekend long celebrations to just the day. And the pressure to do anything "big" on the "big" day disappears with age. 

There's nothing special about thirty-two. You're past celebrating surviving your twenties and far enough into thirties to see that it's not as bad as everyone said it would be. 

I had a lovely 30 hour celebration filled with close friends and family. We kicked it off with dinner at Eez Fusion & Sushi with family followed by tea and homemade tiramisu at home. Then, on my actual birthday, I met with Brandon for lunch at Viva Chicken for one of my favorite "fast" food lunches in town. Dinner was at Seoul Food Meat Co. in SouthEnd and celebration drinks at Craft Growler Shop that ended with a Nutella Quesadilla birthday dessert. But wait, the eating and drinking did not stop there! My birthday nightcap included a shot of tequila (of the nice sipping verity) and BBQ chicken nachos at Mac's Speed Shop. 

The evening ended with a birthday song serenade by my Uber driver's daughter. 

All that eating lead to an agonizing sleepless night. My stomach hurt all night and I have no clue what part of last night brought it on. Possibly all of it.

This is 32. 

Me, at the end of my birthday celebration.

A Look Back on May

May was chaotic, stressful, and wonderful. 

We celebrated Charlotte's first birthday, Mother's Day, and Brandon's birthday. We went under contract for our future home and put our current home on the market. Due diligence, packing, cleaning, staging, and everything else that is necessary to make the transition from one house to another has been taking up all of our free time. Keeping the house clean and de-cluttered and leaving at a moments notice for a showings has definitely been a challenge. 

It's all worth it at the end of the day.

A bigger home, a better neighborhood, lower taxes, and great schools. 

A pricey investment, a high risk for unexpected expenses, and a lot of balls to juggle at the same time.

The higher the risk, the higher reward, the higher the stress when you know it will be a bumpy road getting there.

May was only the beginning and a precursor for what this summer will bring.

I'm excited and scared.

A Hat of Lies

It costs nothing to tell the truth, it costs everything when you don't.

You may have seen me tweet the above this past weekend. Some of you even re-tweeted it. It's vague and can easily apply to any situation, including Hat Gate of 2016.

We started Saturday with a lovely brunch at Luna's Living Kitchen with two Living Burritos and gold fish for the kid. Charlotte was dressed to impress in a light purple handkerchief tunic and white cotton shorts. She topped off her outfit with a straw hat adorned with a black ribbon. She was a sight to be seen!

After lunch, we walked over to Atherton Mills Market for lattes from Not Just Coffee and farmer's market finds. We decided to walk around the market instead of waiting at the counter for the coffee. My mom has been in the market for fresh cow tongue and was excited to see that the vendor that sells it was there on this day. We chatted with the vendor for a little bit, mom continued to trek through the market while I stepped away to pick up my latte. I rejoined my mom and Charlotte and realized that she was no longer wearing her hat. 

We quickly retraced our steps and couldn't find it. We asked the cow tongue vendor if she's seen it, she walked over to the stand next to hers and whispered something in a young man's ear, who then pointed to his mother and said, "Mom, the hat?!" 

The woman looked like a deer in headlights and then took a step back and told me that she put it up front. I asked for her to show me where and she lead me to an unfinished stand near the front of the market. "I left it right here. It was a long time ago, may be somebody took it?" Her body language and tone of voice had my senses telling me something was not right. 

My mom wasn't giving up, I'm guessing because she felt guilty that the hat disappeared on her watch. She asked a few other people around the market and they kept pointing to the same lady that told me she put it up front. 

I was not going to let a 'lost' hat ruin our day. If someone stole the hat, then they needed it more than us. We walked out of the market a bit deflated, making plans to go to Old Navy to get another hat for Charlotte. As we were walking back to our car, we overheard a dad tell his little boy that the hat was too girly for him. We approached and asked them if they found the hat inside. Their answer? The lady gave it to them. They happily gave the hat back to us and were as baffled by the whole thing as we were. 

I'm sure that this lady was trying to do what's best but ended up making it worse by lying. She could have easily told us the truth. Instead, she left a bitter taste in our mouth and made herself look really bad in front of her family colleagues.

It may be difficult to tell the truth, however, the loss of trust will cost you more than you could ever imagine.

The Daily Birch: The Longest Week Ever

It's only Monday and it's officially the longest week ever. It's the kind of week that will require a village to make it through. 

My husband is away on business all week, tomorrow is our child's first birthday, we have two swim classes this week, I am attending a two day conference mid-week, we are throwing a birthday party for the aforementioned child on Saturday, and Sunday is Mother's Day. There's also that part where I have to keep the household afloat, a child and dog alive and fed, feeding myself, and finding time to work. Oh, and we put an offer on a house that requires that we do all of our due diligence in a ten day period.

What I'm saying is I won't be blogging much this week. 

I want to write about our awesome weekend and about Charlotte's birth and about all the food I ate this weekend and about the house we put an offer on and this cool tank top I bought to support a local business and about content planning and recipes of things I've cooked recently and about the anxiety I'm feeling this week. 

Writing is quickly becoming my favorite way to relieve stress in a way it did a decade ago.

But enough of my free flowing rant. On with today!

Eating horribly and barely at all. Will have to try again tomorrow.

Watching the Met Gala red carpet. It was a bit boring, in my opinion.

Buying Theo a new KONG collar at PetSmart because he rolled around in poop this weekend. We bought a shock collar for him in hopes of breaking him of a few bad habits and he's not a fan. We're using the vibrate option because, let's be honest, getting shocked is the worst. He took it upon himself to roll his neck in a fresh steaming pile because he knew we would be forced to take the shock collar off. He was right, we did take it off and immediately gave him a bath. He hates getting a bath. It was the quickest I've seen the smugness leave his face. 

Introducing Charlotte to cats at the adoption center at PetSmart. One of the cats was really interested in her. May be we should adopt it? We also spent some time looking at fish. Why go to the aquarium when you can see fish for free at the store? I kid. Sort of.

Strolling through Target, as always, waiting on the storm to pass. It was crazy out there. 

Regretting all the crap I ate today.

Contemplating making a smoothie at 11:30 at night to make the yucky feeling go away.

Planning for the week ahead. 

Happy Monday!

The Daily Birch: Show Me Your Teeth

It was bound to happen sooner or later: the teething, the tantrums, and me going deaf in both ears from the screaming. At eleven months old, Charlotte's teeth are finally coming through. Four at the top and two at the bottom. All at the same time. Jesus, Take the Wheel. Or at the very least, make me a margarita and hold my hand.

Listening to Lady Gaga's "Teeth" because it's the right thing to do.

Watching a segment on Charlotte Today with Carrie Reinecke of Charlotte Parenting Solutions provide insight into tamper tantrums and how to properly handle your child when it happens. I had no idea that children throw tantrums because they're having a fight-or-flight reaction to an unknown (to them) emotion. I have always found emotional health riveting so I'm excited to dive further in and learning more about it. 

Eating two bowls of freshly made organic chicken soup and ramen from Futo Buta in SouthEnd. A little bummed that they up-charged me for extra spice without letting me know. Who charges extra for spice?! 

Drinking coffee, a mint mango smoothie, Wicked Weed's Pernicious IPA, and a tiny glass of water.

Dancing to LEN's Steal My Sunshine at Bulldog Beer & Wine in SouthEnd. 

Snapping an after hours dance party.

The last Thursday of the month is my favorite because it means I get to see my favorite people at #instabeerupclt. Tonight it was at Bulldog Beer & Wine and I won a bag full of swag. Pretty excited. Also, there were plenty of dogs for me to pet and friends to hug. A much needed evening out after dealing with a teething baby throwing tamper tantrums.

selfie with Elvis

#instabeerupclt swag from Bulldog Beer & Wine

Tonkotsu Ramen from Futo Buta. FYI - if the server asks you if you want it spicy, there's a $1.00 up-charge.