The Sun!! It Burns Us!

Long post ahead to include:

Pregnancy stories

Belly shots

Two, count 'em, TWO projects

All kinds of sarcastic wit from yours truly *wink*

Hiss!

This is the sound of the light of day touching my skin as I finally emerge from the cave of the first half of my pregnancy. 

Me eyes!!

(picture I took after running into the Misters coworkers...because without fail I always look like a scrub when I see people like that.  I only have make-up on one eye...A mess I am!

Yeah, remember this?

Baby #3 is currently cooking in my oven (25weeks5days) and I am loving it. 

Well, loving that I have finally started feeling better the past couple weeks.



Side note: Wanna hear a funny story? 
How I knew I was pregnant...Ahem!

Back in February, the Mister had two months of training to complete up in Montana. The kids and I drove him up there and dropped him off at the smallest tiny-teenie base I ever saw. I was sad to leave him but that's the life of this military wife, my friends. Anyhoo, on the way home the kids and I blasted the "Frozen" soundtrack for the majority of the hours home, singing our hearts out.  Whenever this song came on.....

...I was a sobbing mess, like tears dripping off my chin. I have lots of sisters and the sister love in this movie just gets to me every.single.time..
So I was sitting there, crying, and I thought to myself, okay these songs are good... but they aren't this good.
I was due to start my cycle that day but after a year of disappointing pregnancy tests I had told myself to just wait a week to test.
But when we got home I gave in and boom.
Positive.
Saweet!
Then I had to be the "married-single-mom-military-wife" for the next two months.
We watched a lot of Netflix and ate a lot of crap food. And I don't even care if you judge.


This pregnancy has been my hardest.  Super odd how that happens. With Sunshine and Birdie I felt better around 12 or 13 weeks.  This baby took me all the way to 20weeks of feeling consistently terrible and then slowly got better up until now.

So without further ado.... please bask in the vast glory that is my baby belly.
Pictures taken at 25weeks3days

But first...
Please witness what I wear on a daily basis...
Leggings and over sized t-shirts
And yes that is a mix of Doctor Who and Peter Pan, two fandoms of which I support an addiction.
Tink is the light on the Tardis...
"So that's how it flies!"

It was sunny. My faces are ridiculous...


Okay, up first, the more flattering quarter-turn angle...

Birdie was all...Wha???

All right, here comes the big one

You know those little pregnant mamas who just stay so cute and tiny and adorably cute?
I am not one of them


In other big news (get the pun?) nesting is in full swing at my house. Been working on some fun things.
Take a look!

Before...

During...

Sand that baby down!

Slap on the paint...

After...

Oh yummy! I just love this little dresser so stinking much! I got it for free from a friend and I'm letting my kiddos share it...even thought I love it so much I considered just keeping it in my kitchen so I could look at it all the time.
Hah!


And look! 
I finally finished our little birdie-girl's quilt.
Thanks to my tall neighbor for holding this up for me!
Quilt stats-
13 fat quarters making...
20-8.5x8.5 squares
12-8.5x16.5 rectangles
1-16.5x16.5 square
Riley Blake fabrics (love that stuff!)

Front...

Back...

My new favorite thing to do is have a little peek-a-boo on the back of all the fabrics used for the front.  

And that purple binding is just heaven to me. 

This quilt also ended up with some awesome stippling.  

Loving it...

Yummy stippling texture...

The angle of the sun really makes the texture stick out.  

I kept rubbing my hands on it, I couldn't help it!

More stippling texture...

That's all for now my friends!

I have lots of projects in the works and am excited to share them with you! 

Thanks for reading 

• 
  

Spilling over

Heehee 

:-)

10 Things I'm Learning About Death and Grief.

"Grief" Self-portrait by Michelle Starrs assisted by Joseph Starrs
December 5th 2013

 Almost 8 weeks ago my Dad passed away. 

 This explains my absence from blogging. 

After years of a mysterious illness, best described as a mix between 

Corticobasal Degeneration

Posterior Cortical Atrophy

Parkinson's

Early-onset Alzheimer's

And eventually labeled as a "Unique Case"...

My dad passed away on November 11th 2013

Counting, One by One

It's November

I am going to join the masses and document things I am thankful for this month. 

Click here to read the rest of the month

ThankfulNovember

Day #1

the Mister

the Mister

This guy is my number 1 and I love him, like a whole lot of lots. 

Joey loves me 

Joey loves our kids 

and most importantly he loves Jesus 

I'm so blessed to share my life together with Joey

I love him. 

"You're My Everything"

We celebrated  

SIX years

 as a married couple this past weekend.

  

 Aw... Love :-)

 I always think we looked "so hot right now" in the picture above.

 That is more like it... We agreed on a certain spin move before.. which we both messed up on during the real thing. Oh brother...

And here we are the other night, celebrating our love

Don't judge... camera pictures...FUZZY!

It took me a long time to decide how to celebrate our lives together and show my appreciation. I have given the Mister all kinds of gifts but rarely feel like it really shows how I feel. 

Then one day it hit me....

Six Pies for Six Years 

the Mister basically passed out on the kitchen floor when he saw this. 

Chocolate coconut cream-
This is was probably the easiest. 

Nilla wafer crust

Instant chocolate pudding (from a box)

Coconut whipped cream via

Via

 Oreo crust with homemade sweet cream ice cream 

3c. heavy whipping cream

1c. whole milk

1c.sugar

Mix in bowl until dissolved. 

Pour into ice cream maker and process according to your machine

the Mister loves pecans and pumpkin

I got this recipe out of the red plaid cook book, I think it's called Better Homes?

HAH!! Yeah right! I'm not giving this recipe up! This is my one secret recipe I don't share.

WAhahahah!

YUM!!! This one came from the red plaid cook book too. 

Wondering how we will eat them before they go bad? 

Pies freeze like a dream :-) 

He plans to defrost them one at a time. 

I just had a slice of the chocolate coconut cream and OOOoooh. 

Heaven in a slice. 

YUM!!! 

How have you celebrated your anniversaries?

"Let me not to the marriage of true minds
Admit impediments. Love is not love
Which alters when it alteration finds,
Or bends with the remover to remove:
O no! it is an ever-fixed mark
That looks on tempests and is never shaken;
It is the star to every wandering bark,
Whose worth's unknown, although his height be taken.
Love's not Time's fool, though rosy lips and cheeks
Within his bending sickle's compass come:
Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks,
But bears it out even to the edge of doom.
   If this be error and upon me proved,
   I never writ, nor no man ever loved."

The Bird as a Hockney

I'm taking several photography classes this semester.

It is really challenging and rewarding. 

Most people in my classes are already really good. 

I am the type who is taking the class to learn something I don't already know. 

It can be pretty discouraging because I feel really behind everyone else. 

But, put that aside, 

I am loving it! 

I especially love these two photos by Hockney...
This one

This one

This is my most recent project.

A Hockney inspired piece. 

(Click on the picture if you want a better view and better quality)

When a thousand words isn't enough.

What I love about my developing photography knowledge is that I am able to take pictures of things I love 

and 

it doesn't matter if anyone else likes it. 

But I still wanted to share with all my friends and family who keep up with this blog. 

I love you all. 

Thanks for your support and views and comments and pins and likes. 

(!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!)

(the Mister says I use too many "!!!" and I totally agree so I am working in it...)

TMI Tuesday #32-"Bug Off"

So the Mister is gone playing Army out in the Idaho desert somewhere. 

And he sent me this text....

"I'm sitting on a porta-potty right now. 

There are a bunch of flies at the bottom and they keep flying up and landing on my butt. 

I can't like it."

Um.... TMI!!!

TMI Tuesday #31-"Pick me!!"

TMI Tuesday: "I deserve to be embarrassed by how long it has been since I posted"-edition

Firstly, anyone who is still hanging around my pathetic blog...You are amazing! I swear I am going to get it together... I really actually have legit reasons for my 13 week hiatus. 

13 weeks!?! 

have you guys been surviving? 

I just scraped by....

I'll hit the highlights:

The Mister is in the military and was gone for three months (3 months!!!)

And I decided to continue with school...16 credits...while he was gone. 

I feel like no further explanation is needed. 

BTW, I took some of the best classes, ever. 

More about that in a few days/weeks/months

And I kept pretty busy to deter any of the

 "I feel so depressed because the Mister isn't here"-blues. 

 

Because who wants that?? 

Not this girl. StarrsTown doesn't have time for that crap. Nope. 

But I am back, baby!!! 

  And I have big goals and plans for the blog.

Starting with this week's

TMI!!!!

I thought it was only fitting to embarrass myself instead of someone else.... 

Okay so, here it goes...

Holy Hannah...I can't believe I am going to tell you all this!

Recently I have been trying to grow my finger nails out and take care of them. 

No biting, tearing, cutting, ripping etc. etc. 

Lotion, cuticles, vitamins...all that stuff

Consequently I have longer nails than I have ever really had before... 

Which comes in handy for a lot of things 

(self performed scalp scratches after taking out a day-long ponytail being my favorite!)

But there is one serious disadvantage I wasn't anticipating...

Okay people, you know how humans all do things they don't like to admit they do?

All those bodily function stuff? 

(Gah! This is so embarrassing! I am sqirming and dying at the same time!)

So the other day...

I had something funky going on up in my nose. 

Like big time. 

And so, like I know you all do, I might have attempted a bit of a 

"Pick and Flick"

Catch my drift???

Well, the inside of my nose wasn't ready for the increase length of my nails and well....

My nose started spurting blood...

Biggggg time...

And I had to do this.......

Can we still be friends???

Um...TMI!!!