Just some snippets.

Now that we're done with the move to the new place, I finally feel like I can breathe. Let me tell ya: moving with a newborn is about 10 times more difficult than moving normally. And no matter which way you paint it, moving sucks, so it sucking multiplied by 10 is pretty darn sucktacular. At least we had helpers, including ever-generous parents and friends.

In the shuffle, I lost track of my Nikon so I made do with my crappy little point and shoot, which frustrated me to no end (so. many. blurry. photos! UGH!!!). Now that I unearthed the DSLR, I've been snapping photos like a mad woman trying to make up for lost time.

So, without further ado, here's a quick snapshot into our life nowadays:

Sokka loves the abundance of windows at the new house, and is having a blast chasing the critters that torment him from the outside.

My son has what I affectionally call "Crazy Eyes".

Pumpkin likes to think that she's Owen's babysitter.

Brian's a pretty awesome dad. Even if he occasionally sleeps on the job. :)

If you look closely, you can see Owen spitting up. Oh babies.

A smile! Granted it was because of gas (and a few seconds after I took this photo he started screaming) but still...I'll take what I can get. :)

...And Baby Makes Three. Five if you count the cats.

Wow, it's been awhile since I've written a post! Life has just been so nutty lately that it hasn't been high on my list of priorities, which instead have consisted mainly of preparing for Baby K's arrival, working on the move to our new place in the 'burbs (which we're finally done with, thank goodness!), and dealing with a diagnosis of gestational hypertension, which caused me to go on modified bed rest for the final days of my pregnancy.

Originally Baby K was due to come on May 13 - however, with the hypertension coupled with a false labor I had a couple of weeks prior, my doctor had a feeling that he'd come early. Turns out she was right!

On April 27, after 21 hours of labor and four hours of pushing (which my OB said was a "superhuman" effort) our son Owen Stewart came into the world.

7 lbs., 11 oz., 20.5 inches long. 100% adorable (not that I'm biased or anything).

:)

More updates to come, so stay tuned!

Wow.

That word pretty much sums up my life as of late. Here's a not-so-short summary. You have been warned. :)


The car.
I still remember when Brian brought home the Saturn in the fall of 2007. I was so angry at him because, although it was a newer car than the '78 Porsche he had previously, it had a manual transmission! After a few half-baked attempts at learning stick on the Porsche that included lots of stalling and screaming for my life, I let Brian drive me around in the Saturn like a little old lady who never bothered to get a driver's license.

Fast forward to fall 2009, when we moved to Ohio. Since Brian was in school full-time, and I needed to get one of those job-type things to help support us, I no longer had a personal chauffeur to drive me to and from interviews. So, I finally buckled down, had a heart-to-heart with the Saturn, and conquered my fear of driving stick.

After a rocky start, and despite all of the car's quirks (like only half of the dashboard lights working, no back-up lights, a clicking sound whenever you turned on the heat and/or air conditioning, etc.) we became great pals. I felt a strong attachment to that car and drove it with pride, despite its inherent ghettofabulousness.

You can imagine how heartbroken I was to discover recently that the car no longer idled. I won't bore you with the specifics of what went wrong, but after not being able to fix it after two months (!) in the shop, we knew it was time to let it go. With a new part-time job for Brian starting in January and a baby on the way, it was time to get a new car.

Although the new one is pretty and works far better than the Saturn ever did, I still can't help but miss the car that taught me how to drive stick. That drove us to Disney World and back. That wore three different state license plates throughout its life.

R.I.P. Saturn. We love you and we'll never forget you!

Photo courtesy: Brian Kaster (aka the bestest best husband ever!). And in case you were wondering, the handicapped signs were put up AFTER we parked there (no joke...gotta love Chicago!). At least the city didn't slap us with a ticket!

The roof over our heads.
Our former landlord, who we really liked (and trust me, he loved us in return!) sold the building we're living in to a couple who don't speak much English and had zero experience being landlords. Very long story short (trust me, it's full of drama and lots of frustration), let's just say that we can't wait to move out after our lease ends into a house in the 'burbs. True that I'm not thrilled about moving away from the city, but I am excited to be closer to family, friends and some fresher air.


The cats.
They're still fluffy and crazy, as always. :)

Shortly after returning from Christmas, however, we noticed that Sokka's appetite had decreased dramatically and his ribcage was starting to show. For a cat that would chase us down and consistently wake us at 5:30 in the morning begging for food, we knew something was amiss. We brought him to the vet to get it checked out and a few days later got the news that Sokka has diabetes.

We're not quite sure how it happened (he used to be a couple of pounds overweight, which we gradually fixed, and kept him pretty active) but of course pregnancy hormones plus my natural predisposition to worry led me to blame myself for letting him get to that point. After a talk with Brian (who is great at talking sense into my oft-non-sensical brain) I realized that it likely wasn't my/our fault, and all we can do at this point is to help him feel better.

So now we'll get to discover the joys of living with a diabetic cat!

Sokka, taken a few months ago (I didn't have the heart to photograph him while he still looks like "skeletor cat"). I'll post an update pic after he chunks up a little. :)

The baby.
After the morning sickness finally subsided in early-mid December, I took a few weeks to simply enjoy feeling like a human being again instead of the pukey, food-hating zombie I was for essentially three months. It's been a blast to feel the baby starting to move, and it's amazing that it's now full-on kicking and rolling around in there!

We journeyed to Evanston on New Year's Eve morning for the anatomy scan, a detailed ultrasound that is essentially a guided tour of the baby's many parts and my uterus. For a majority of the scan the baby was pretty stubborn, which proves that there's some of my genes in there somewhere!

When it came time to locate "the goods", the baby miraculously had no problem showing us the parts, and we found out that we're having a BOY! And we're so stinkin' excited...although I think Brian is more relieved that he won't have to suffer through what he calls "Pony Princess Cartoons".

...whew! Now you know why it's taken me so long to post anything. Life's been pretty crazy lately, and it's only going to get crazier in 2013. It's time for me to pick back up my camera and start clicking away again.

Let's do this!

AWOL. With darn tootin' good reason.

So, I'm sure you've noticed that this blog has been a little....quiet lately. Which is kind of ironic, because my life has been pretty darn eventful as of late.

And here's the reason why.

FYI - Head is on the left, body on the right. 

I think this is a very sufficient excuse for my temporary leave of absence, wouldn't you agree? :)

That and the morning sickness...which no one tells you lasts all day, for weeks on end. I'm told that the light at the end of the tunnel is coming, but in the meantime I'll keep stuffing my face with ice cream and whatever else my body decides is worthy of digestion, thank you very much.

Let it Snow...Finally!

So far, this winter has been rather pansy-esque. It hasn't gotten that cold, and the snow for which Chicago is famous has been hiding like Katy Perry's true hair color.

Well, the snow got brave and finally came, and in doing so I had the pleasure of witnessing one of this city's most time honored traditions: clearing a parking space, then placing chairs on it to lay claim over said space.

Word to the wise - if you ever see this occurrence in Chicago, do not, I repeat, do not touch the chairs.

Unless, of course, you enjoy having your car keyed.

:)



Happy Winter!

New Year, New Beginnings

I'm not gonna lie...2011 was a rough year.

From losing precious time with Brian because of the overwhelming demands of earning his master's degree (and now his Ph.D.), to packing up and moving to a (well, not-so) new city yet again, to spending a few months unemployed and overwhelmed, my patience and faith have definitely been tested to the limit.

And yet, through it all, there were some glimpses of positivity and grace from others that I'm not sure I deserved, but gave me something I feared I'd lost:

Hope.

These random acts of kindness came from the unlikeliest of sources: friends (old and new), family, former colleagues, even strangers on the street.

Now, you might be reading that list and saying to yourself, "Well, duh, of COURSE friends and family will help you out!"

And that's very true - however, I have a history of being fiercely independent, have been from a very young age. The earliest example is when my mom took me to "Mommy & Me" fitness classes at the YMCA when I was two or three. All of the other children stayed glued next to their mother's sides. And where was I? Across the room, scooting around on my knees, exploring the unknown with an air of "I can TOTALLY take on this world ALL...BY...MYSELF!"

This attitude (good or bad, depends on your outlook) has helped carry me over some challenging times, but it also had an unwelcome side-effect: I'm unwilling to accept or ask for help. I don't like to be a burden (nor be "in-debt" to anyone), and I'm of the mindset that I'm an adult - if I got into any mess I can claw my way back out. By myself. No help needed here, but thanks for checking in!

Over the past year, however, I realized that I was put into some situations where I needed some extra assistance. Again, my fierce stubbornness and need for independence prevented me from outright asking for it.

So, what did these gracious people do? They offered their help on a silver platter, no strings attached. And then I did something crazy:

I accepted it.

Maybe it was the years of being worn down that finally did it, or the wisdom that comes with age that sometimes I just can't do it all by myself - either way, I knew I needed an extra pick-me-up so I went with it. Sometimes when life gives you some crappy lemons, you need to accept some sugar from others, and there's no shame in that.

Since it's the start of the new year (fresh beginnings and all that jazz), and my yearly life forecast is looking sunnier, I'm making it my mission to pay their kindness forward. Because, to me at least, a heartfelt "Thank You" only goes so far...as they say, it's not what we say, but what we do that ultimately defines us.

And, because a post is never a post without a photo or two....

Here's a couple ways I've been keeping cozy while the weather outside has been busy being frightful.

My Kind of Town...

I've been meaning to do a post on our new life in Chicago, but wouldn't ya know it....life inconveniently got in the way. That, and the photos I took last weekend were absolutely atrocious because of the bright, shining sun (what in the world was I thinking??) - good for improving moral for the general population; a bit of a challenge for photographers.

When I looked outside my apartment window yesterday morning, it was nice and cloudy with a high of 65 degrees (is it really mid-November?!). I had to run to a local yarn shop for some wool, so I figured I'd take my camera with and capture some scenes from my little corner of the city.





I made Brian pose next to the side of our apartment building. Note the "thrilled/I'm-trying-to-be-hip-and-emo" face.



Looking down the street from our apartment building...





I always pass this sign on the way to the "L", and it always makes me giggle.





Okay, so Brian and I can't figure out what this place is...we know it's Korean, and likely a restaurant/bar...

...or perhaps a front for the Korean mafia.



The Rockwell CTA Brown Line stop!




At the "L" station on Southport.



So we were walking down Southport, and found a whole bunch of dying sunflowers in a small urban garden next to the sidewalk. You sure don't see those everyday in the city!





Brian has big feet.



Looking down Southport.



Watching the world whirl by while on the "L".





Back in Lincoln Square, and here's the wonderful mural next to the square. The neighborhood is very German-influenced, hence the scene that looks like it's from the Sound of Music.



This place is Awesome (yes, the capital "A" is intentional). It's a medicinal shop with some fantastic soaps and herbal remedies, and it's set up like an old-time general store.



Giddings Square. Worth noting is this used to be a thru-street, and my dad grew up in the building on the right-hand side.

A few words about the road to success. And baked goods.

This past Saturday I was in a major cooking/baking mood - to celebrate I decided to finally bake the soft pretzel recipe I had stuck to my fridge months before. I glanced through the ingredients and instructions and figured it would be no problem. After all, if I can make kick-ass pies, cookies and muffins at the drop of a hat, pretzels should be easy-peasy, lemon-squeezy.

I was confident about my first batch of dough - it came out just the way the recipe intended, and I was excited to begin the rising process.

You can imagine my surprise when I returned in an hour and saw that the dough hadn't grown.

At all.

Not even a little.

Not one to give up that easily, I disposed of the stubborn first batch and staunchly re-made the dough, making sure to more carefully follow the instructions in case I was missing something. With encouragement from Brian (my husband), I totally thought I had it this time. When the microwave timer went off (while I was watching Gilmore Girls - awesome show, by the way!) I lept off of the couch and ran to the bowl, eagerly anticipating the mammoth size of the dough.

However, what I saw made me want to throw sharp, pointy objects violently into a Scott Walker voodoo doll; once again, the damn dough didn't rise at all. It just sat there, a patronizing blob at the bottom of the giant bowl. I could have sworn I heard the yeast pointing and laughing at my feeble attempts to make it rise.

Can't you see how evil it was?!

At this point I got really depressed and felt like an utter failure. I gave up on my grand pretzel-making adventure and called it a night.

The next morning I decided to give it one last try. I looked over the recipe yet again, and discovered that, although I had altered the ingredients list to reflect half the original recipe, the instructions did not show the change. So, instead of using a half teaspoon of sugar for the starter, I put twice as much in as I was supposed to - no wonder the dough didn't rise! It was the equivalent of providing a huge buffet to a bunch of hibernating bears; they feasted so fast and got so full that the yeast had no energy left to actually dig in when it counted.

I excitedly mixed everything together, wrapped up the dough, and waited for one hour. This time the dough grew! Not by much, but it far surpassed the pitiful glob it was the night before. I rolled it out and baked about six pretzels of assorted shapes and sizes - and they turned out great! A bit too dense, truth be told, but nothing I can't fix in future baking endeavours.

It was then that I thought to myself: baking pretzels is a lot like mastering photography and life. It may seem really easy at first, but as with any craft you want to perfect, you constantly have to work at it. Failure is a given - in fact, Brian likens it to the first step on the long and winding road to success.
And did I ever have a success with these yummylicious pretzels. As the old adage goes, if at first you don't succeed, try, try again!





P.S. - Blogspot.com, you really need to stop overriding my paragraph spacing. It's really pissing me off; I had this beautifully-written post and I had to delete and re-type it because you didn't want to behave. Not. cool.

Sprinkles, Cake and other musings.

A couple of weeks ago (March 13) I celebrated my 26th birthday.

Hurray for me...I'm getting old.

Since I couldn't make it back that weekend to celebrate with my family (or to celebrate my step mom's birthday, which is the day before mine) I hopped into my aging Saturn last Friday and drove back to Chicago to visit. The drive to and fro was uneventful and rather dull (Indiana is the longest, flattest, most boring state ever), and my sanity was saved by listening to one of the audio books I picked up from the library.

I was about 90 miles outside of Chicago when a light bulb went off above my head.

CRAP! I forgot my camera!!!

That's right folks - I have no photos from this past weekend. No photos of going to Chicago and eating a delicious dinner and dessert at a friend of the family's house, nor any of my parents or just general lollygagging. Not to mention the gorgeous skyline.

So, instead of pretty pictures to look at, I present: Laura's random musings. I can tell you're just thrilled.

• I still miss Lake Michigan...a lot. It was rather nice to actually be able to drink water straight from the tap without gagging.



• Three frozen Lou Malnati's pizzas (the best-of-the-best Chicago-style deep dish pizza) should last me about two weeks.



• Eight Kolackys from Lutz's Bakery will last two days - one bite made memories of my childhood come flooding back in a brief, shining instant. Yum.



• My step-grandma apparently likes Cappuccinos. Keep in mind she is a professed tea drinker (she's from Sri Lanka and swears by the stuff), so you can imagine how surprised I was to hear that she liked something coffee-based. Unfortunately the one I bought her at Starbucks wasn't sweet enough for her - nothing some good old Sugar in the Raw couldn't fix!



• My dad has a kick-ass scooter he rolls around in. Gotta admire his resolve to stay mobile - recent foot surgery be damned!



• My step mom really liked the photo I gave her for her birthday. So, if this whole photography thing fails flat on my face, at least I have one fan of my pictures! Wait, no...two...can't forget about my pops.

....okay, I can't resist. I have to post a photo (because I'm weird like that) so here's a first look at Spring!

...it's March already?

Here are my excuses this time for not updating since October (yikes...that's a long time ago...):

• Work
• The Holiday Season
• Winter Doldrums
• Performing in yet another musical
• Training for my first 5K (which I just ran today...go me!)

As you can clearly see, my priorities have been all over the ding dang place lately. Now that the show is over, work has calmed down (for now at least) and spring is about ready to be sprung, I've finally dusted off my camera and exclaimed:

"Oh yeah...that's right...I really need to practice my photography!"
In the past I made many an overzealous promise to update this blog more often. Unfortunately, it didn't quite work out (obviously...darn my self-diagnosed ADD) so from now on I'm just going to wing it and you'll have to deal with it.

So there.

Nyah.

:)

And because a post is never a post without a picture or two, here's a couple that I shot fairly recently.

My first attempt at Strawberry Rhubarb Pie (it was yummy)...



And Sokka's new favorite napping place.

Well, I have to practice on someone...

Everyone, meet my lovely guinea pigs:

Pumpkin (easiest cat ever to photograph):







And Sokka (also known as "Boo", and the most difficult cat ever to photograph....unless he's sleeping):






And this handsome feller who decided, for some ungodly reason, to take me as his wife.





And here's me. Behind the laptop. In my pajamas. Because the husband "borrowed" my camera.






Boy is he going to get it.