Loquacious Lady

So, one of my best friends, Esther, is six months pregnant. Yes, Esther from the other half of the “let’s be Indian princesses and get covered in poison ivy” chapter of my life…and many other chapters of my life.. And, to make matters even more fun, her older brother Henry and his wife Dana, are a couple months behind her on the road to parenthood. We’re super close to them also, and we’re so excited for their whole family. From no grandkids to two grandkids in one season. It’s awesome.

Something to know about Esther is that she has always been a little (read: A LOT) fancy. In fact, she was “Fancy Nancy” come to life as a child. Which I guess makes sense…they did name her after a beautiful queen. She has a great sense of style and is the fashionista of our foursome (Claire, Esther, Me, and Natalie who grew up together), with a degree in fashion merchandising from FSU and a natural gift for art. So, when my mom and I sat down to plan out her baby shower, we wanted to do things a little differently than we normally do. We took some ideas from different event planners (who may or may not be mentioned on Friday), and we infused them into our decor.

Instead of flowers, baby-related items, etc. that you usually see as decorations on the main table at a baby shower, we went with big, pink ostrich feathers stuck down into strands of pearls. These were in the background and on either side of the three tiers of oreo truffles in milk and white chocolate drizzled in pink.

Another element we loved was to have everything lined up. You can’t really tell in this photo, but everything was basically in lines. The carrots and cucumbers are more obvious. But here there was a dip lined behind the veggies, whipped cream lined up behind the strawberries, chocolate mouse behind (but not with) the crackers and cheese ball. And behind all of that was a tray with napkins in pink and white, a tray lined with said napkins holding lines of stacked silver spoons, and a stack of plates. Having everything in an organized, lined vertical format on the table draws the eye. I might have to try this in more obvious ways at the next party I help throw.

Normally vertical lines would be more obvious simply because you could spread it out over the whole table. But at this party, the table was serving double duty. All the food was on one side. And on the other, we had a punch bowl full of pink lemonade, two pitchers of water, and lines of glasses rimmed with pink sugar. Most had lemons but some did not, so people could go without lemon if they preferred. Of course, it’s kind of hard to see the glasses in this picture as they’re clear.

I also made a banner to go on the front of the table. It serves double duty because when the party’s over, it gets packed up and sent home with Ess-the-Mess so it can hang up at the hospital when Charlotte is born. (And so help me, I ironed and ironed that tablecloth, but it was clearly resisting in some places. It’s bothering me so much to see it in the pictures. It wasn’t really that noticeable in person.) I intended the banner to be in pinks and browns, but my printer was low on ink and printed a purply grey instead, so, short on time, I went with it.

Here’s the whole table…well, all that would fit in the picture. My 50mm lens definitely doesn’t always let me get everything I want in a shot.

And then there’s the mom-to-be herself. I can’t claim any credit with her beauty. She looked stunning, which is pretty much par for the course as far as Esther’s concerned. Here she is after opening a gift from my mom- a pretty dress and a sweet little pearl bracelet that has a charm on it that’s engraved with the initials for Charlotte, Esther’s baby girl. Esther’s wearing a pearl bracelet in this picture too, I just realized. As my mama said, “every well-bred, Southern girl should have some pearls.” Welcome to the south, y’all.

My mom couldn’t be at the shower because she had to go to Savannah to be with her mom the day before. The other hostesses, Claire, Natalie, and Mrs. Lynn (Claire’s mom) were so awesome. I would have been overwhelmed if they hadn’t been there to help me. They were calling all day to see what they could do extra to help, to see if I needed them early, and to make sure I could handle my part and my mom’s both or did I want help with her share. They are so great. All but Mrs. Lynn are pictured below…well…she is pictured below in the background…washing dishes…while we goof off after the shower.

Me, Esther, Natalie, Claire. We’re a dignified bunch.

I can’t wait to meet Charlotte. I just hope she’s not too embarrassed of her mom’s friends.

~Meghan

Tom and I went to a reception for some friends who got married in Tulsa on Saturday night. The reception was a casual dinner and hang out time at a barn in Molena, Georgia. They got married in December, and Tom and I weren’t able to attend, so this was a fun catch-up. When Tom and I set out for home again, I had him pull over on the side of the road so I could take some pictures of the area.

I had fallen in love with Molena. It’s out in the middle of no where, which is pretty much what I love in a place. I would absolutely LOVE to live on a farm or ranch…as long as the only animals I had to take care of were the dogs and some horses. =) The setting is more of what calls my name. I love huge, open fields with bales of hay in them, big red barns with white details, farmhouses, and the laid back lifestyle (despite the amount of work it takes to keep up with it all). Ever since I was a little girl, I’ve wanted to have a big old house on a huge open bunch of land. Instead of a farmhouse, I would picture a huge, white antebellum house with big white columns on the wrap-around porch, a red door, and a long driveway lined with HUGE oaks.

No matter what the house looked like, I just wanted to live somewhere that it wouldn’t be out of place for me to wear my cowboy boots as often as I wanted to. I love my boots. So when we were driving down the dirt and gravel road and passed by a farm with a big red barn in the distance, I knew we had to stop.

I had to take a picture of where we were. And then I decided to do an impromptu photo shoot on the dirt road and on the fence to this property. (Also, I just got a bunch of free actions for PSE, so I played with them on these photos. I know they aren’t all fabulous and that there’s no consistency in these. Just bear with me.)

Tom saw me climbing up the fence and said, “…you know this is private property, right? You’re not going to climb over the fence are you?” I didn’t plan to, but it made me laugh that he thought I would…in a dress.

The road was dirt and gravel, and I yelled, “STOP!” (so I could get out) which made him slam on the brakes and fishtail down the road. My poor husband. He has to put up with me stopping things all the time for pictures. I don’t think he minded too much that day though; it kind of felt like we were in the Dukes of Hazard.

If you’ll excuse me, I need to go see if this property is for sale.

Oh, wait. Tom said no. Something about already owning a house and it being two hours away from here.

Gotta head back to the car and pretend that I live here while I can.

But it was fun while it lasted.

(When Tom saw these next two, he said, “That is so you. Just playing in the dirt road, all by yourself, and happy.” I’m so glad my husband sees my default disposition as “happy.” It makes it easier to be that way when you know the one you live with and whom you’re in love with expects and enjoys that about you.)

Sigh. It’s so pretty in the country. Makes me miss chasing cows out of my parents’ neighbors’ garden. A little.

Someday…we’ll try to find a plot to buy in the middle of no where. Just the way we grew up.

~Meghan

I feel like the month of June is always completely packed with things to do and places to be. There’s so little down time. Due to that, I read only 6  and a half books and one novella this month; of those, five I had read before.

I started off by borrowing Tom’s copy of Choosing to Cheat by Andy Stanley. Andy is our preacher at Northpoint Community Church, and we love to hear what God uses him to teach us. He is a great communicator, and I was looking forward to finally reading one of his books.

No disappointment. This book is all about when and how you have to make the choice to cut back in your work life in order to give more in your family life. And it also addresses the spouses who sometimes turn themselves into martyrs so their spouses can spend the time they should be with family elsewhere.

It’s a quick read and a great guideline for staying out of the trap many fall into of committing more of themselves to work than they should. Andy does repeat himself a little bit, but I told Tom that it kind of reminded me of when he does a sermon series at church. There are a few things he will say enough times during a series that when you hear the title of that sermon series, those phrases immediately come to mind. Those are the key phrases that drive home the point, so I can understand it. And because of that, I can forgive the repetition in the book.

The second book I read in about two days. It was The Duggars: 20 and Counting! by Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar.

I first heard of this family several years ago, long before they had a show on TLC. My mom had heard of them and visited their site. She was encouraged by what a loving and godly family they seemed to be, and she was especially interested in how they managed to stay organized (or maybe she was just looking for tips on how to get me to be more organized as my room was the bane of her existence when I was a teenager). Regardless of my mom’s impression of them, I just thought, “why would anyone want to have that many kids? Is that even safe to have that many kids and keep going? How can they even have a relationship with their parents? And why are all the kids given names that start with J? This family is kinda weird.” And then I saw that they all usually dress the same and wrote it off as an out-of-touch with normality group of people.

So I was surprised this last year when I found myself being drawn in to watch their show on TLC. At first, I was merely curious and trying to understand them. But then it became more of appreciating something wholesome and uplifting in a real family. They genuinely love each other and the Lord. These kids respect their parents AND these parents respect their kids. They don’t humiliate them or make fun of them or exasperate them. They encourage the good and weed out the bad choices their children make with love. It’s fascinating to find something on tv, reality tv, no less, that doesn’t make me sorry I turned it on in the first place.

Eventually, I borrowed this book from my mom, who owns it. It answers a lot of questions as to why and how they do things in their life. I won’t be doing things the same in all respects (less children, more variety in clothes, updated hairstyles, etc.), but I found myself really impressed with this family. The parents married quite young, and they have learned to be great stewards of what God has given them. They have all those kids and absolutely no debt (no, not even a mortgage), and they make wise decisions about how to use what they have. They even share how they came to be financially independent and tips for how to stay that way. I fully intend to try out their recipe for home-made laundry detergent. Once I’ve made it and tried it, I’ll review it on the site and post the directions if it’s good.

The next four books were the Twilight Saga by Stephenie Meyer.

I already covered my opinion on these books, so I won’t repeat myself. But it was just that I was feeling the urge to read them again. I just finished them (that’s the third time I’ve read them) and picked up The Host (again). Stephenie Meyer has a knack for writing books a reader just can’t put down. I hope she writes something new soon.

Which leads me to my next read, the novella. I was looking on Stephenie Meyer’s site to see if she had any new projects coming out, and I saw that she had a short novella about Bree Tanner, a vampire that is briefly part of the story in Eclipse, the third Twilight book. And that’s when I saw that she wrote a novella about Bree. It made me wish her story had a happier ending.

If you like Twilight, check out (for free and with the author’s permission) this short novella: The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner. I actually read this (and the next thing I list) before diving into Twilight again.

And then there was the half book I read, Midnight Sun. I only read half of it because that’s all there is to it, but this was my second time through it. Stephenie Meyer was in the middle of rewriting Twilight from Edward’s perspective, and it got leaked online. She stopped writing it. So sad about that because I actually enjoy reading it from Edward’s perspective more than from Bella’s. There’s no picture to go with it, but there is a link. You can just try to imagine this dude telling it to you, k?

Yikes. He looks a little p.o.’d. Not good for a vampire.

Oh cheer up, Edward. You’ll get your turn to tell your story if Mrs. Meyer ever gets back around to it. We’re just as disappointed as you are.

Until then, happy reading!

~Meghan

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Update on my Nana:

Thanks to everyone for your thoughts and kind words and prayers. It’s been a rough week. They finally were able to get Nana where she could breathe on her own without a ventilator, but she’s not very responsive in general. My mom and her siblings had to make the decision to move her to hospice care. This hasn’t been easy for them.

On Sunday, my dad called me and asked me to talk to her. He said when she heard my brother and sister on the phone talking to her, she seemed to smile a bit, though she couldn’t respond. Of course, I was happy to have the chance to tell her how much I love her and that I am glad to talk to her and that she’s out of the hospital and how I want to come visit her soon. She couldn’t talk back to me, and I could hear her labored breathing on the other end of the phone. That was much harder than I expected and it’s hard for me to think about it without getting upset. Tom and I are making plans to go to Savannah next month to visit her.

At this point, I’m praying that if she can’t improve that she’ll at least live long enough for us to get to go down to see her. But of course I don’t want her to suffer any, so if God takes her early, I’d rather His will be done. Please continue to pray for His will and for comfort. Thanks, friends.

I read a lot. A lot, a lot. I have read Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, L.M. Montgomery, Austen, and Twain. I have read L’engle, Rand, Dickens, and Hemingway. I’ve read from serious Edgar Allan Poe to silly Sophie Kinsella and Meg Cabot.

But some of my very favorite books are the ones that I can’t stay away from. The ones I itch to pick up again. The ones I’d be willing to go pick up at midnight when they’re released just to get some closure in a series or trilogy.

Very few books pull me back again and again, forcing me to read them at least once a year. These are my top books, and I hope that you’ll check them out if you haven’t.

Harry Potter Series by J.K. Rowling.

I’m going to assume that you don’t need much in the way of introduction to these books. I have read this series about 10 or 11 times. I love it. I LOVE it. I am so very impressed by J.K. Rowling’s imagination and attention to detail. Each one is better and more grown up than the one before. In the fifth book, I sympathized so much with how the students hate Umbridge that I could hardly stand to read it the first time through. Rowling just has a way of taking her readers into the story so that they can almost feel like they’re there. I cried so much in the seventh book, and I’m not ashamed to admit it. Please give these a try if you haven’t read them before.

Twilight Series and The Host by Stephenie Meyer.

I can hear you laughing now. And I can just imagine the eye rolls. I will admit that the Twilight books are dripping with sappy romance. And since I love reading stories about love, I don’t mind that. In fact, I think it’s kind of cool that some of these kids are high school age (I don’t count the teen-looking vampires since they are about a hundred). The reason being, I fell in love with Tom in high school. People tend to discount teenagers’ feelings as just silly hormones and dramatics, but there are those of us who know that what starts out young can grow into something strong and lasting.

As for The Host. Wow, I love it. I remember when I read it the first time thinking it was way better than the Twilight books. If you like alien stories and conspiracy theories and people who rebel for freedom, you will love this book. So good.

The Hunger Games Trilogy by Suzanne Collins.

The third book following The Hunger Games and Catching Fire will be released in August (the 11th, I believe). I can’t wait to get it. These are supposed to be young adult books, but all the adults I know who have read them LOVE them. I heard the first book is going to be made into a movie, and I can’t wait. I love action movies, and this one will definitely be action packed. It’s about a teenage girl, Kat, who lives in the poorest district in her country. Each district has to send a boy and a girl to The Capital to be in the hunger games, where they fight to the death. Only one can survive, and that one will win a bounty of food for their district as well as life-long personal wealth. Kat must find a way to survive, but the idea of killing others, especially her friend from her own district, is appalling. This story is really a mix of politics (the Capital is pretty awful and uses the hunger games to keep the districts from uniting against it), friendship, and action. Lots of action. I can’t wait for the third one to come out.

So those are my must-read books. What books do you read over and over again?

~Meghan

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Thank you to everyone for your prayers and support. She is still alive, but we aren’t sure that she’s really aware of anything going on right now. They found out that my Nana had had 3 seizures the day that her heart had stopped beating and her lung collapsed during surgery; one was a grand mal. They will get the results of her EEG back today, and hopefully that will tell us more. Please keep praying, and thank you.

Both of my grandmothers are amazing women. I was actually planning to do a blog post about them, but I haven’t typed them out yet. I’m needing to jump into some stuff about my Nana early.

My mom’s mom is my Nana. Nana Banana as we would sometimes refer to her. She’s awesome and has always been young at heart. Tea parties with me and my sister when we were little, her traveling the world, the way she says “mah-vah-lous”, her wall full of art from all her travels hanging above her vintage sofa in the house she’s inhabited since my mom was a baby, the fact that she owned and flew a plane in her twenties, and her incredible sense of fashion just wash over me when I think of her. Wait until you hear the stories in my post about her.

This is me and my Nana at my rehearsal dinner.

But today, I really just want to ask you to please pray for her and for my family. Nana was diagnosed with multiple myeloma a few years ago when Tom and I were engaged. Part of the treatment for it weakener her bones, and she had to start using a cane, and more recently, a wheelchair. Her personality has remained in tact, and she’s so fun to be around. We all got to spend time with her at the beach, for which I am grateful.

She has been having to go under some procedures a couple times in the past few weeks to treat collapsed vertebrae. Having that happen in her back was painful, and the procedure helped a lot. They would go in and puff her vertebrae back out by filling in with a cementy (no, that’s not a word) material. This would have less pinched nerves in her back and leave her in a much better physical state.

Yesterday when they were working on some more vertebrae, her heart stopped. They had to do CPR, and her lung collapsed. They were able to resuscitate her and  get her lung re-inflated then put her on a ventilator. She was put in ICU. Later last night, she must have stabilized some because they took her to get a CT scan, and they wouldn’t have moved her if that was a risk. They did the scan to make sure she didn’t have brain damage from when her heart stopped and she wasn’t getting oxygen. She didn’t have brain damage, which we were relieved to hear.

But she’s not out of the woods yet. She’s eighty-six years young, and she’s a Christian. We know she’s ready to meet the Lord face to face. In fact, her power of attorney form stating that they were not to resuscitate her was accidentally left at home when she came to the hospital, so she would be with Him now otherwise. We aren’t sure what’s going to happen, but I’m personally hoping that she will either improve or wake up and get to spend some time with my mom, aunt, and uncle if this is her time. There’s peace in knowing that we’ll see her again if it is her time, but I would sure miss her.

Please pray for my Nana today and for her children to have peace and wisdom in how to handle the future. If she passes, they’ll need comfort, and if she doesn’t they are going to have to either try to convince her to move out of her house or find someone who can live with her.

Thanks so much, y’all.

~Meghan

As some of you know (and as my recent freak-out may have alluded to), Tom and I had spent the end of last year and the first portion of this year talking about and deciding to come off of birth control this summer. When it got to be about May…We changed our minds.

It’s not like we had rashly jumped into the idea of parenthood. We talked it over, we both wanted it, and we finally made that decision. But by May, we both felt like we should wait longer. So what happened?

Well, I really, really, really HATED being a teacher.

Really.

I just wasn’t cut out for it. And also, the hours weren’t like a normal teacher’s hours because I taught preschoolers all day, then I taught elementary school kids when they got out of regular school, THEN I ran the school after the directors left until closing. Every day. Closing was after 6. Tom gets home at 4. We go to bed at 10. And somewhere between 6 and 10pm, we had to fit in my workout, doing errands, keeping the house in order, making dinner, exercising our hyperactive dogs, and spending time with each other. That’s a lot to do in the four hours between, “Honey I’m home!” and “Goodnight, Sleep tight.”

And also, I just hated teaching. Really.

So, anyway, Tom and I have always wanted for me to be a stay-at-home mom someday. To that end, we have always made a point of living off of his salary alone, learning ahead of time to stay within our means so that it wouldn’t be some huge financial change as well as a huge life change when we have kids. So when I was at my old job for many, many hours a week, hating it, I would dream of being at home with a sweet little baby that was part me, part the love of my life, and how awesome that would be compared to where I was. Then, when I left my job, I couldn’t find another one for a while. And then we started thinking, “Well, we had kind of talked about having kids soon. Why not start this year?” And summer became that goal.

And then I started nannying. I watch Will.

And Asher, though only occasionally. I’m not full-time for Asher until August, IF his mom’s cousin Erin gets a teaching job. Otherwise, she’ll keep watching him.

They are both adorable and funny and make me smile. They’ve also been really good for me, because before keeping them, I was dying to have a girl first. Now I couldn’t care less what we have first. I love my job. I could have done it before going to college, the hours aren’t better than my last job, and the pay is actually lower, but it’s something I love. I adore babies. And I’ve got a history of starting out watching a baby in a family and falling in love with that baby and being the parent’s go-to gal for the next 9 years. This pattern started when I was 14. I love kids. I just don’t love teaching them in a classroom.

I watch Will four days a week, and during the time he’s not napping or eating, I can take him on a long walk and/or to the pool to knock out my exercise (and get a tan, heck yes). I can go to the store to knock out errands or groceries. I can get the oil changed in my car. I can get my admissions test done. I can go check out a store for the Friday Favorites (he’s gone with me twice). I can go to the library. I can go let the dogs out if they’re inside. I have done all of those things. So when I get home from work, I am HOME. I rarely have somewhere I have to go because I didn’t have time to go during the day. It’s awesome.

Also, when he’s taking one of his naps…his glorious, typically two hour-minimum naps….I will unload the dishwasher or do his laundry or something to help out. But if that’s not necessary or already done, I read. I do a blog post. I catch up on reading blogs, responding to emails, and checking out coupons online. I can even TAKE A NAP if I’m really tired. I can’t think of many other jobs where this would be okay, but his parents are fine with it. I just sleep with the baby monitor by my face.

So anyway. I no longer feel this intense rush to get into the next stage of life. And, now that I don’t come home miserable every day, turns out that Tom doesn’t either. Another reason is that when I’m at work, I get my baby-fix. And when I’m at home, I get to sleep through the night. I love sleeping through the night. Hmm. Not jumping into life-altering decisions for the wrong reasons turned out to be awesome.

There are other factors too. We want to get our savings up, and it wouldn’t hurt if we could get the rest of the inside of our house painted, and furnished, and maybe get the carpet replaced. We’d love to go on some trips on our own and with friends before having kids.

If God blesses us with a surprise baby, it will be awesome. I don’t mind the idea of being pregnant right now, and we would know that it was God’s timing, which is always perfect. I just don’t mind the idea of waiting either. And as long as it’s up to us…well…not this year.

Have any of you faced this “when is the right time” dilemma? And it doesn’t have to be about babies. I mean…there are so many big steps in life. Have you faced a time when you weren’t sure when you should take the next step?

~Meghan

On Father’s Day, Tom and I trekked out to Covington to have lunch with his family at his Nana’s house (to celebrate her birthday as well as Father’s Day), then we went to my parents’ house to visit with my mom and dad for Father’s Day. It was really fun to visit with them all, and I’ve been mentally kicking myself for forgetting to get pictures of me and Dad together on Sunday.

But we did get some pictures with Tom’s family. I’m so glad I married into a bunch of goofs.

Just for the record, I didn’t catch them off guard. They posed like this.

I wonder where the boys get it from? Surely, not their dad…

Or their mom…

Either way, I’m glad they’re so silly. I love them all. So, so much.

Oops. Sorry, Tom.

It was around this point that Tom declared he couldn’t wait until Ben and Lana were married so he could have someone to gaze at lovingly. November can’t come fast enough.

~Meghan

You’ve heard the expression “You say To-May-to, I say To-Mah-To.” We all have different ways of doing the same thing. When some people edit photos, they use lightroom. Others use photoshop. Others who have neither might use Microsoft Office Picture Manager.

Oh, that was just me? Nevermind.

Anyway, it’s fun and interesting to see how people edit photos. Some love for it too look natural, as close to how it really looked as possible, very clean. Others love actions. Some like it a bit textured. Some like them super enhanced.

Ever since Tom got me PS Elements, I’ve been trying to learn how to do the things I’ve seen. I know what I like, but I want to be able to do it all. Who knows? My taste might change a little when I actually know how to do things. I’ve been impressed and grateful, though, because so many people are so willing to help me out, and in the photography world, people aren’t always so willing to do that. So many people, including some of you, have shown me something I’m not sure how to do or shared links to tutorials or to sites with free actions and more.

Today, I thought it might be fun to try a little project that needs group participation. I would love to see how YOU would edit a photo. Below, are two pictures. I have a picture of Will making a mess when eating one morning that I took with my kit lens. The lowest aperture was 3.5, so I had it on that, but it’s still a bit dark. The second picture is one taken from the balcony of our beach house in Hilton Head. It’s looking out over the marshy area that comes up to the beach. It was also taken with my kit lens.

I would love to see how you would edit one or both of these pictures. If you are interested, you can either email me for a larger size or use the ones on my site. Then edit them however you’d like and email me your edited photos. In a couple of weeks, I will post each edited photo on my site with credit to who edited. If you’d like to include a short summary of what you did to the photo, I could probably include that as well so we can all learn from each others’ techniques.

I thought this would be a fun and interesting way to learn from each other and to see how similar or different the same photos can turn out. I’d love for you to be a part of it!

Have fun!
~Meghan

Sunira Moses went to Georgia Tech with Tom. They were both computer science majors, and that is how they met. Tom always had positive things to say about her, so I knew she must be A.) Hard-working (as Tom doesn’t like teaming up with slackers), B.) Smart (as it’s not like you coast through CS), and C.) Normal (as, pardon my stereotyping, many cs majors are kinda weird, and he spoke of her as though she had social skills).  I also gathered that she had a sense of humor, because when he mentioned her, it was usually when a team would get together to work, and they both found something funny.

Anyway, I was glad Tom had someone besides himself in that major who was nice, normal, and equally hard-working. It always makes it easier to get stuff done when you aren’t carrying all the weight of the project or working with a jerk. Other than that, I didn’t know anything about Sunira.

Eventually, that changed. We became friends on twitter, of all places, and not through an introduction by Tom. In fact, the three of us have never been in the same room at the same time. But I was okay with getting to know her online.  I like making new friends, even if it’s through twitter. We also follow each other’s blogs, and she even won my giveaway last week. So we got together so she could get her prize, and we got a chance to meet face-to-face. Love it.

Here are some things I know about her now without learning it via Tom: She lived in India until 1992. She loves to paint. She loves photography. She has her own house and some kitties that live with her. She’s a Christian. She’s ambitious and loves her job. Her parents wouldn’t let her live on campus the first two years of college because they’re pretty conservative about most things, where she lived being no exception. And she’s really, really great at graphic design.

And that is why she is being featured today. Sunira didn’t major in graphic design, or minor in it, or anything. Self-taught, she does it because she loves it. Graphic design is just one more artistic outlet, and she’s good enough to make a profit. All of her clients are just by referral, so I am referring you. I would hate for you to miss out on hiring her to do some work for your site (or whatever you need) just because I withheld some information.

Here’s some fun stuff she’s done:

A while back, she saw some art online that she wanted to try to do with her own spin on it.  But she needed a face with sunglasses on for the picture. I volunteered, and she sweetly emailed me multiple versions of my face…which were sadly all better than the picture I sent her. hmm..

Here’s the picture from online on the left, and one of the pictures of me, on the right.

And here’s the picture of me and one of her renderings.

Here are some fun ones in different colors:

Okay, so that was fun. And then she also did some work for Tom. When he had tommcfarlin.com up and running as a site instead of an online business card, he had a spacey-themed background for a while. For inspiration, he sent her some cd art. He also said that the way you think of Owl City’s Hello Seattle remix when you hear it is kind of the way he wanted you to feel when you looked at the site. Whoa. I’m not sure I could even envision that. (But she could.) Here’s the art he sent:

And here’s what she sent back for him to choose from or adjust as he wanted. I still remember the day he got these via email. He was so pumped. It was exactly what he’d envisioned. We were both blown away at her talent.

So if you’re interested in Sunira’s work, contact her! You can also follow her blog. She’s planning to do a tutorial sometime of how she took my face from a picture in the backyard to art I wanted to show on my blog.

Thanks, Sunira!
~Meghan

I hesitated to share this post with y’all because..well…it just further delves into how weird we are in this family of four (that’s including our two dogs). I mean really…You might never come back after this. But then I thought, what’s the fun in that? It’s my blog. I should be honest about who we are when sharing tidbits of our lives. So we’re weird. You’ve probably figured that out by now. Here goes…

Tom and I have a little joke. Tom’s the fourth, so we know if we have a boy that we’ll name him Thomas Hudson McFarlin V, or rather, just Hudson (as we’ve already got a Tommy and a Tom between Tom and his dad). But we’ve already figured out what we’ll name our second son, should we have one.

Here’s a real concern, and we have talked about this: Our nephews and nieces are so cute. We wonder if there’s any chance that our kids can live up to that kind of adorableness.

Tyler

Madeline

Anna Kate

Violet

Elizabeth

Andrew

Ella

Puce

Now, I realize this portrayal of Puce isn’t cute, nor is it of a human. Nor is it our nephew. This ugly dog (that I found on some random site with the “You Ugly” cheer) represents the child that Tom and I joke we will have someday. One night, long ago, Tom told me he dreamed we had this ugly son named “Puce.” We’ve been joking ever since that we are bound to have one ugly kid to balance out all the cute kids in our families.

Here are some things we’ve decided about Puce that you should know, should you ever hear us refer to him:

1. He sleeps in a crate.

2. He gets the leftovers from Sam and Liam’s bowls.

3. If something goes wrong, it’s Puces fault.

4. He can’t talk because he’s got a busted (ugly, messed up) face.

5. Puce isn’t allowed in the car, hence, he may never go anywhere.

6. I’m allowed to eat and drink whatever I want when pregnant with Puce, because there is nothing I could do to make him worse than he will already be.

7. Anytime Tom and I see anything that we think is gross, we tell each other that we’ll get it for Puce.

I know this sounds mean, but please remember that this “child” does not exist, nor would we really treat any child that way no matter how ugly they were. Puce is our fun little joke about all things ugly and about how we’re a little worried we can’t live up to all the cuteness that our siblings have brought forth into the world. It’s a lot to live up to. Puce is our comedic relief.

Also, if I ever do have a son after Hudson, and any of you refer to him as “Puce,” I will punch your lights out and blame it on the hormones. Fair warning. Don’t ever tell a mama her baby’s ugly. No one would blame me.

But as long as we’re referring to fictional Puce, we’re cool.

Another thing. Tom and I will understand if you think we’re too weird to continue being our friends after this.

That is all. I’ve got to quit sharing this kind of stuff, or I’m going to scare you all away.

~Meghan