Quick & Easy [Step by Step] Makeup Application!

Hello Dahhhlings!

Today I will share with you some knowledge that I've compiled in my cranium

throughout the course of my life.

Note: I am not claiming to be a professional.

Over the years, however, through trial and error [many many errors] I've picked up exactly how to do this makeup thang.

If you do things differently and it works for you, feel free to comment below and share!

I love to learn new makeup tips and tricks.

If you are an early morning riser, don't get much sleep and/or are a mom [or a hard working woman in general]

These steps will brighten up your face and help you achieve the "Hi, I'm well rested and ready to rock" look in just 5 minutes!

Here are the tools I'll be using:

Eye Serum: Kirkland. Borghese. [Costco]

Face Foam: Skin Effects for sensitive skin. by Dr. Jeffrey Dover [CVS]

Eyelash Curler: Tweezerman. [Ricky's]

Concealer: Amazing Cosmetics. "A little Amazing" [Sephora]

Blush: "Fashion Frenzy" [M.A.C]

Brow Brush: [Mary Kay]

Blush Brush: Kirkland [Costco]

Lip Gloss: Clear. Glossy Gloss. [Sephora]

1st things first:

Before you apply any makeup you should always

*wash your hands

 *wash your face

and

*moisturize using a facial moisturizer, not a body moisturizer.

Also, I would recommend going the extra mile and using an eye serum for the extra sensitive skin under your eyes.

Think of your face as a blank canvas.

You are the artist.

No artist wants a dirty, oily canvas to paint on.

Be sure your face is fresh and clean.

[Honest sidenote: I am totally surprised by my own willingness to share a photo of my tired looking face.]

Moving right along...

[There are plenty of skin products that are great for cleaning and freshening your skin prior to makeup application. I would recommend Clinique's skincare products.

They are a bit on the expensive side,

but very worth the money.]

If you are broke [like I am] just make do with the best you can afford.

Eating healthy and drinking plenty of water works wonders when it comes to your skin's health and natural glow!

1.Curl lashes

Ladies, the act of curling your lashes alone will enhance the beauty of your eyes.

Don't skip this step.

Curl them puppies!

Start at the base, hold for 10 seconds, and work your way to the tips of your lashes, curling as you go.

2. Apply Concealer

Using your squeaky clean ring finger (because it has the lightest touch) lightly tap the concealer on the skin under the eyes. Blend without rubbing.

You could use a concealer brush, but the warmth of your finger makes the blending process easier.

Concealer is vital when it comes to concealing the bags we all have hangin' out under our eyes from time to time.

3. Fill in Brows

To achieve a natural look, use a brow brush and an eyebrow powder that most matches your brow color.

Your brows frame your face, and this is the perfect way to give 'em a little boost.

Never underestimate the importance of shaping and filling those eyebrows!

4. Apply blush (or bronzer)

There are different ways you can apply your blush.

I typically apply mine right on the apples of my cheeks.

This will give you a rosy and youthful look.

Bronzer is great for giving you a sun-kissed look.

I love using both!

5. Apply Lip Gloss

Spruce up your lips with some clear or tinted gloss.

Chapped lips are a definite no-no.

If you are not a fan of gloss, use chapstick.

I always apply chapstick under my gloss or lipstick.

AND THERE YA HAVE IT, FRIENDS!

Can you see the difference?

It's CRAZAY!

Note: I did not attempt to cover up those sun spots or age spots or whatever those spots are on the left side of my face.

I never try to cover those.

 I truly belive there's beauty in imperfection.

When applying makeup my one and only goal is to enhance the features that God gave me.

You should do the same.

Wearing makeup is not about achieving a look of perfection.

If you wear it for that purpose, then you are simply trying to hide behind it.

Makeup is a tool that should be used to bring out your natural beauty.

All of us can benefit from a little bit of makeup from time to time.

I hope this helps at least a few of you!

Hugs!

xxx

Think BIG. Really BIG. [Some midnight thoughts]

"Before you walk you must crawl."

But

some babies just skip the crawling part and head straight into walking.

So who's to say you can't achieve those "far-fetched" "highly unlikely" "a little on the unrealistic side"

dreams you've been harboring in your heart sooner rather than later?

Don't put limitations on yourself

and don't let others limit you.

Think BIG.

Dream BIG.

Then, act accordingly.

My thoughts on Boys. . .

I was recently looking through some photos in one of my younger cousin's Facebook albums.
On January 1st of this year she posted a beautiful picture of herself and the caption read something along the lines of "JaNEWary 1st. New Year, New Boys."

It made me giggle.
It sparked a train of memories in my mind, of all the times I became giddy at the thought of meeting new boys. 
I started dating a few weeks before I turned sixteen.
It would be 7 years before I would meet Jon for the first time.
Those 7 years were filled with dates with all different types of guys:
blind dates, dates with friends, dates with friends of friends, dates with stranger-friends [man, do I have stories about those stranger-friends... ] etc.  
While I was single I was on a mission to find the perfect guy- the one I could potentially marry.
Yes, at the young age of 16 that was my goal.
Fortunately, I broke it off [or vice versa] with all of those fellas, and ended up with Juan.
I wouldn't have it any other way.

My mom grew up in a strict household where she was not allowed the option to date.
She always told me she didn't want me to have that same experience.
She wanted me to have the freedom that she didn't have, so that I'd be able to figure out my personal preferences and ultimately choose the right spouse.
She and my Dad trusted my judgment. [I will openly admit I was unworthy of that trust at times.]
But, thankfully, although I'm not perfect and many a time became infatuated with smooth talkers and good dancers, I was able to weave my way through the sea of wolves and find my Prince Charming.
I must note, not all of them were wolves. There were a handful (literally like 5) great guys that I met along the way.
I must also include the fact that I have the freedom to write about these types of things because my husband and I freely talk about our past experiences, to a certain extent, of course.
Neither of us wants all the stinkin' details.
But, we have that freedom within our relationship.

There isn't really a point to all of what I am writing.
These are just my thoughts.
Some of you were raised very differently.
Maybe your parents had [or still have] you under lock and key.
Maybe you have tons of freedom to choose whom you date.

Maybe thinking about past relationships is not something you will ever enjoy doing because of harsh (or in some cases, traumatizing) experiences.

I totally get it.
All of us have memories we wish we could completely forget.

Whatever your case, I pray that each of you finds the person God has set apart for you.
I pray for extra grace for the singles that may be reading this,
and wisdom for those of you currently in relationships.

There is nothing as satisfying as a longing fulfilled,
and my husband is my longing fulfilled.

"A longing fulfilled is sweet to the soul. . . "

 -Proverbs 13:9

Chicken and Waffle Delight!

OH MUH GOSH, you guys!

This weekend I discovered that I have been deprived of the following most amazing meal all of my life:

Chicken, mac &cheese, and waffles!

I assure you, it was way more delicious than it was visually appealing.

If you are ever in the San Francisco Bay Area and you want yourself some soul food deliciousness, do yourself a favor and stop in the Home of Chicken and Waffles in Jack London Square.

As far as the food goes, you will not regret it.

Be warned though - there's nothing fancy about this place.

In fact, the layout is a bit on the tacky side.

But the staff more than makes up for the lackluster environment through their attentiveness and friendliness.

So, it's all good in my opinion!

I seriously did not stop to breathe.

It was that heavenly.

This was my husband's meal.

And this, amigos, was the most delicious Arnold Palmer I've ever tasted in my life.

They call it "Delight."

[For those of you who don't know what an Arnold Palmer is, it's a blend of Lemonade and Iced Tea.]

Yummay!

As for Bekah-

Nothing on the menu impressed her as much as Daddy's watch.

Nothing was too sweet, too salty, too greasy,or too sugary; everything was flavored to perfection.

I wanna go back.

Right now.

But I can't. [Sad face.]

Anyway,
I hope you all enjoyed your Memorial Day weekend.
If you are among those who have served our country, THANK YOU!

Sick Days

We've all been a litle sick lately. It started with Jon, passed on to Bekah, and now it's my turn.
Thankfully my husband had a 4 day weekend, so I have today and tomorrow to finish recuperating before it's back to staying home with the baby while he works.
Yesterday I mentioned the fact that I desperately need to learn to overlook my momentary trials and see the beauty in all the imperfection.
WELL,
being sick and moody and irritable is probably the best time to start practicing that skill!
So, I've been trying to make the most out of everyday ordinary situations.
And, this is the result.

1. Instead of freaking out when I found Bekah overdosing on playing with her teething tablets, I chose to take pictures instead. Ya know, for memory's sake.
For the record, there were only 3 teething tablets left in there. So I'm not the worst mom in the world after all. {PHEW!}

2. Instead of not picking up a book to read to Bekah (because she never pays attention and would much rather taste the pages than stare at them) I tried, for the millionth time, to read her a story. There was some progress! She touched the pages and actually listened, until about page 5 when she lost interest and started to cry. We're getting somewhere, folks! Yay!

3. And I've been doing my best to make sure I don't get so caught up in household chores that I forget to take some time to play with my girl.
Lately I've really been slacking in creating fun for Bekah. I need to step my game up and make this happen on a regular basis. Life is too short to forget to have fun with my baby. Before I know it she'll be getting married and leaving us . . . I need to make the most of our time now.

So, we played a little more Peek-a-Boo than normal, and she got a kick out of me hiding under her high chair and popping up again and again.
I love the sweet simplicity of entertaining a baby.

I'm determined to do all this and more, way more often.

Why this sudden mission to intentionally make the most of every situation?
Because of God's word.
It's been hitting home.

"LORD, remind me how brief my time on earth will be. Remind me that my days are numbered--how fleeting my life is."
-Psalm 39:4

The Beauty of Imperfection

Are any of you photography lovers?
Do you ever get behind a camera thinking you're about to capture the most amazing photo, and afterwards, upon examining said photo you realize it didn't turn out half as amazing as you thought it would?
I hate those types of moments.
Happens to me all the time.

But then there are those moments of imperfection that turn out to be some of the most incredible moments in your life.
Like this one was for me.
There I am, wearing my engagement ring on my pointer finger because Jon bought it a full size too small for my ring finger.

Yet my smile speaks volumes.
Despite the mishap my heart was bursting with joy. 

I really want to learn how to always press the "pause" button on my mindset when life seems imperfect.
If I could just learn to stop thinking negatively when life gets tough, and purposely find the beauty in my trials, then I would be so much more wise for it.
My goal is to learn to never ever focus on the ring size.

My week in FB status updates.

Last year I wrote this post about why blogging is amazing and why Facebook sucks.
After a while I decided to reactivate my account and simply "prune" my friends list a bit. (A major bit.)
99% of you don't have me as a friend on Facebook, mainly because my goal on FB has always been to maintain a certain level of privacy.
BUT
I would still love to share more of my life with those of you who take the time to read this blog.
So, one way for me to do this is to do a bit of a recap of my Facebook status updates.
They'll give you a better idea of who I am and the stuff that goes through my head (things I normally don't include in my blog posts. Yikes.)

Thus begins this week's recap!

First, here's a photo that a friend tagged me in.
I love the comparison! =)
The caption read "Becky Seuss."
[Sorry about the blur.]

Highlights:

"I always wondered if babies actually smell bad breath, because they never seem to react to bad smells.... but my daughter just answered my question by cringing when I breathed in her face just now. LOL. Thanks a lot, Bekah!"

"Thanks to my dear husband the song "Somebody that I used to know" is now stuck in my head. I don't care how popular that song is, it's WEIRD. . . Jon, you'll pay for this!"

"Watching Jon work out is a tad bit frightening."

"If I don't walk by faith today, I ain't gonna walk at all!"

And lastly,

"Today, for the first time ever, I have another person's snot all over me. This is what motherhood is all about... So gross, yet so beautiful."

Hope you all are having a beautiful, snot-free Friday!

A Grand Old Time!

Today Bekah decided her bungee jump [minus the safety cord] out of her bassinet on Sunday was not enough excitement for her life. So, she spent the entire day having mini temper tantrums to stir things up a bit.
I'm not so sure what's worse: repeated mini-tantrums all day long OR one huge temper tantrum, period.
I'm thinkin I may have preferred one huge tantrum.
Everything set her off into a fit of kicks, yells and tears today.
After just staring at her and wondering what in the world could be going on in her mind, I realized that she didn't seem as interested in her toys as she normally would be.
I think she needs a heckuva lot more stimulation, and I plan on doing what I can to help her out with that.
She still prefers chewing on her baby books rather than listening and watching while I read them to her.
Reading is not her thang yet, although I know it will be in a short few months.
And she's pretty much sick and tired of her stationary exersaucer.
She wants to move around, which means we need to get this child a walker ASAP.
One of our friends offered to give us hers, so we're good to go when it comes to that.
But I know there have got to be other things I can get or simply do to get her mind thinking and help her release some energy.
Any suggestions, moms?

The only other exciting thing that happened today was me on my hands and knees, on the kitchen floor, scrubbing Cinderella-style.
The reason that's so exciting is because my kitchen floor is now way cleaner than it would have been had I just used the mop.
Nothin' like a good old fashioned scrub-a-dub!

Our apartment has been SO messy these last few days.
I've been searching through our stuff and sticking things in piles- some to give away and some to pack.
The process of digging through everything has resulted in annoying little messes everywhere.
It's seriously driving me nuts.
Which is why I'm so excited that our kitchen floor is clean.
It's the one area of our apartment that would give off the impression that neat and normal people live here.

Hope you all have had a great day!
If not, tomorrow is a new chance at making that happen, right?

There's always hope!

Deodorant fights and Shadow play.

As of late, Juan and I have been doing things that would easily put us in the category of being a childish pair of almost-newlyweds.

Stuff like playing with our shadows.

Which is why it's awesome that we have friends [like Charles, shadowed above] who join us in our childish ways.

It's proof we're not immature after all.

We're just fun loving.

[Or maybe we're just all a bunch of crazy kids. Either way, I'm for it!]

Did any of you catch the eclipse?

We were fascinated by how our shadows were way more weird than normal.

Our fingers looked like claws, and there was sort of a blur effect goin' on.

Cool stuff.

Stuff that maaaaybe made me wish I had paid attention in my science classes.

Maybe.

But then I got over it, because frankly, 90% of my science teachers were either extremely weird or extremely boring.

Except one.

I actually passed her class.

Her name was Miss Uhden.

I can't believe I remember that.

Wow.

I'm impressed.

[patting myself on the back.]

Anyway,

Over the weekend Jon and I had our first ever deodorant fight [think pillow fight, minus the hitting and the pain] while getting dressed to go out.

We both happened to be applying deodorant onto our armpits when I felt the sudden urge to swipe some across his arm, again and again.

He couldn't back away because we were jammed in front of our bathroom mirror.

I then proceeded to beg him not to do the same to me because I didn't wanna smell like a man.

He, of course, didn't listen.

So we both ended up smelling like the opposite sex that day.

Fun stuff. Good times.

Those are actually the moments that make marriage tolerable.

Haha.

I sound like a pessimist.

But, in many ways, it's very true.

Marriage can easily become a burden that's ridiculously burdensome

unless you find the fun and excitement in it.

Lately we've been great at making the most out of everyday married life stuff.

So, here's to deodorant fights and shadow play!

May we never cease to entertain the children that live within us!

It happened! Finally! (And unfortunately!)

Two things happened this weekend that I must share:
#1. My friends made sure I posed for some (way nicer than usual) photos with my Bekah.
#2. We were officially initiated into parenthood this morning when Bekah decided today would be the day she'd learn to pull herself up and fall out of her bassinet.
Jon was in the kitchen prepping a bottle and I was in the bathroom putting some makeup on when we heard a loud thud. We both dropped what we were doing and ran to her. Thankfully, she was okay, and more scared than anything else. Not a bruise or a scrape, thank God.
And surprisingly, I felt total peace.
I picked her up and kissed her and hugged her and soothed her,
feeling totally calm all the while.
My husband, on the other hand, was definitely thrown over the edge.
He felt guilty because he was technically the one who was supposed to be watching her.
I don't know who I felt more sad for, my daughter or him.
It was just her first fall out of many, I'm sure.
If she turns out anything like me she'll have bruises and scrapes all over her legs and knees all throughout childhood.
After all, life is made up of many many falls, isn't it?

The cherry on top of our day was an awesome hangout session with a bunch of our friends after church.
The other cherry on top was Juan and I struggling through the Insanity fitness test together this AM.
I don't know what possessed me to want to start that today
but
I don't regret it.
I now officially know that I'm out of shape,
and
I know that because EVERTHING HURTS.
Ugh.
I could just smack myself.
Did I say I didn't regret it?
I lied.
Stupid Insanity workout.
Ugh.


All of these aches and pains remind me of pregnancy.
I mentioned that to Juan earlier and he cringed.
He tells me, "Don't use bad words around me."
The term pregnancy [his least favorite "bad word"] brings back way too many horrid memories.


Sweet dreams, my friends!
I'm gonna go whimper myself to sleep now. 

Me, Baby B, and our new home! [Yippitty Skippity!!]

I'm hoping that some time before Bekah's first day of Kindergarten she and I will finally take some really beautiful pictures together.
Until then I will continue to try and capture amazing photos of us, and probably fail at doing so 95% of the time.
These are just a few of my latest attempts.

So, about that ironing board. . .
In these photos we're standing in the bathroom.
Actually, it's the room that leads into the bathroom.
There's a sink and cabinets, and yeah.
(I'm sure there's some really cool French term for this type of room. Anyone know it?)
Anyhoo!
Back to the ironing board.
We don't have anywhere to store it.
It's a huge pain in the rear.
We live in a one-bedroom apartment and storage space is nonexistent.
As in, we have one closet that sorta, kinda, maybe fits all of our clothing. And that's pretty much it. 
We're forced to do things like store our toilet paper in our kitchen cabinets, keep our changing table in the living room, and leave our vacuum out on our little balcony.
I mean we could totally proudly display the vacuum for all to see upon walking in (which we have done in the past for lack of a better place to put it)
but our little entryway is always crowded enough.
We've got our shoe rack there, and Bekah's stroller's always there, and a million other things that should never be there are there, and so on.
So.
We had a MAJOR dilemma up until recently.
We needed more room.
ASAP!
Fortunately, God took our dilemma into consideration and decided it was time to bless us with a newer, better, roomier place to live.
AND because God is downright awesome, He decided that place should be the first level of a quaint, cozy, old fashioned (with all the right renovations) Victorian home.
This opportunity sort of fell into our laps.
We weren't even looking for a new place to live.
After repeatedly discussing our major desire to move, Jon and I had decided the wisest thing to do would be to stay put until we'd be able to afford our own house.
However,
a friend of ours happened to be searching for a new apartment in our area when he came across this gem.
It didn't fit his needs, but he knew we'd love it.
So, he called us and told us we should check it out.
And we did.
Like, right away.
An hour later we were given a tour and the next day we were praying for favor as we handed in our application.
2 days later we received a call letting us know we'd scored ourselves a new apartment.
Can I just say that I
LOVE
our new home!
Jon was making fun of me yesterday because he says my level of excitement makes it seem as if we just bought a new house.
What he doesn't understand is that this new apartment is my DREAM COME TRUE in so many ways.
It's an antique! It has 2 fireplaces! Bekah will have her own room! It has no sliding doors in the shower! (I hate cleaning sliding doors, and I hate leaning over the metal railing to bathe Bekah. Ouch!) It has a stained glass window in what will be Bekah's room! It has high ceilings and beautiful large windows that let in tons of sunshine!
I could go on, my friends.
I love so much about it, down to the doorknobs! They're old fashioned and remind me of my parents' home in New York.
In fact, so much about this new place reminds me of the home I grew up in.
I just feel so blessed.
It never fails --
Anytime we just stay put, pray, and do our best to make wise decisions God always steps in and blesses us.
He knows what's best, and He loves it when His children trust in Him.
So, although the entire home isn't ours (we'll have upstairs neighbors)
it will still be a major upgrade, and I'm so looking forward to moving in in a few weeks.
Unfortunately I don't have any pictures to share but I do plan on taking a bunch soon.

Thanks for sharing in my joy, friends!

Have a fabulous rest of your weekend!

I leave you with a verse that gains more and more meaning  in my heart each time God proves Himself to be faithful:

"Be still and know that I am God..."

-Psalm 46:10

So, I decided to be adventurous

and cut my own hair.

That was about a month ago.

I was feeling frustrated by the fact that it had been way too long since my last cut, and I wasn't sure if I wanted to totally chop all of it off or keep it long.

PLUS, I'm not too crazy about the stylist I've been going to, so I didn't feel like going back for a repeat of the same types of blah haircuts.

And lastly, I didn't feel like shelling out big bucks to receive a haircut that I wasn't crazy about.

SO,

I figured I'd give it a shot myself, then blog about how I completely destroyed my hair and had to run to the salon to get it fixed.

But the cool thing is, I actually didn't destroy it!

It turned out way better than expected.

Which is why I'm led to believe that I missed my calling as a professional hair stylist.

Haha.

I don't have any before photos, but these are a few shots of the final product.

[I took these after curling my hair this morning.]

Not too shabby, eh?

It actually took me a whole month to realize I didn't create a hair catastrophe on my own head.

Looks like I'll be saving some cash from here on out!

I won't be seeing another hair stylist until I decide to go short again.

By the way, I looked up a bunch of YouTube tutorial videos before doing this myself.

I took a leap of faith and believed that the chicks in the videos actually knew what they were doing.

And they did.

[Phew!]

So, the next time you're feelin' froggy, take a leap and do something adventurous!

Not anything too crazy, though.

=)

The Story of Ian and Larissa

A friend of mine posted an amazing video on Facebook yesterday that I immediately felt the need to share with both my married and unmarried friends.
My husband and I sat down and watched it together, and we were blessed.
Hope it does the same for you.
I'm having trouble embedding it into this post, so you can just go here to view.

Have a great weekend!

I got my nails did yesterday while Bekah ate her dress.

And I've quickly come to the conclusion that every mother should have a friend who happens to be a manicurist who happens to be open to giving in-home mancicures/pedicures.

There's nothin' like planting one's rear on the living room couch for some foot pampering!

I recently received a pedicure [in a nail salon by my house] that turned out to be a total waste of my cash. Forreal. I mean, the lady was using all kinds of sharp tools the wrong way, the massage felt like abuse, and to top it all off my nail polish started turning a weird shade of dark brown the next day. It was bright summery orange to begin with.

That is unacceptable.

So, Sara came to my rescue yesterday.

She gives THE best pedicures ever.

I don't have a picture of the final product but who cares.

Just trust me, friends. =)

While on the topic of Sara I must say

I LOVE her.

So does Bekah.

But I think Bekah was lovin' her earrings more than anything else this time around.

Now, back to my original point.

If you're a hardworking mommy, make sure you either find yourself a friend like Sara or treat yourself to a pedicure in a nail salon (preferably one where they know what they're doing) every now and then.

If all else fails, do it yourself.

That's what I normally do.

But there's somethin' about just sitting back and relaxing while someone else does it for you. . .

It's amazing the boost a simple pedicure'll give you!

Your feet will be happy, your toes will look cute, and your heart will be glad.

Baby Love.

Roses are red

Violets are blue

I love this baby girl to smithereens

And the best feeling ever is to know that she loves me too.

My Marriage

"Marriage is an alliance entered into by a man who can't sleep with the window shut, and a woman who can't sleep with the window open."

-George Bernard Shaw

A few days ago I was looking through some of my old posts and came across this entry.

I immediately noticed the clear distinction between the way I speak of my relationship with Jon now and the way I spoke of it then.

When you're married, your perspective changes.

There's really no avoiding it.

Your life begins to blend with the life of your spouse and there's a deep bonding that occurs.

And, of course, the cute and quirky qualities all of a sudden become annoying:

the nighttime snoring,

the way he/she is greedy with the blankets while asleep,

the way he/she makes that little annoying noise with their throat that grosses you out,

the way he/she drives,

the things he/she says when upset. . .  

the list goes on and on and on.

Thankfully, I did not marry my husband because I thought he'd be perfect.

Heck to the no.

I knew he wasn't perfect

and

he knew I was definitely not perfect.

We had some pretty awesome arguments before we married and through those arguments we pretty much bursted whatever bubbles of unrealistic thinking existed in our love-filled minds.
That benefited us big time.
Thank God for that because we ended up getting pregnant right away, honeymoon style.
The pregnancy was the most difficult thing we've had to deal with together, thus far.
I was annoying almost the entire time, and all Jon wanted was his normal wife back. You know, the one who joyously walked down the aisle and vowed to honor, love and respect him. That one. NOT the constantly-on-the-brink-of-insanity chick I became while preggo.

Now, I'm a mommy.
And how many of you know that momies have to intentionally switch off the hardcore mommy-mode thinking in order to remember that they are actually in love with the man they sleep with at night?
'Tis true.
And unfortunately, that doesn't always happen.
At least for me it doesn't.

Which is why I'm sitting here writing this post.
This is my reminder that I'm still in love with my husband.
He's still the same one-of-a-kind, amazing guy I married and still has all of those qualities I loved before I walked down the aisle.
I need to remember that, and remember it often. 
Life is too short to stick my marriage on the back burner.

"A successful marriage requires falling in love many times, always with the same person."

-M. McLaughlin

A Great Night

Yesterday we went for an evening walk by the water in Sausalito.

Our original plan was to head into San Francisco and hang for a while, but we rerouted and enjoyed a much more quiet and relaxed scene instead.

It was perfect weather- not too hot and not too cold.

Bekah was with us and she behaved really well for it being way past her bedtime.

We stopped to eat, and baby chowed down on the entire menu, literally.  

I have a slight case of germophobia (not really, but almost) and I normally would never let Bekah put something that countless people have touched into her mouth.

However, I've come to realize that no matter how hard I try, Bekah will still put everything into her little mouth.

So, whatev.

I let her get away with it.

As much as I would love for Bekah to wear cutesie shoes all the time, I've come to realize that this, too, is pointless.

She doesn't walk yet, and no matter how hard I try to distract her from doing so, she always ends up pulling them off and (you guessed it) putting them into her mouth.

SO, the shoes became a centerpiece for our table last night.

At least we got some sort of use out of 'em.

We managed to snap one decent photo of mommy and baby.

(If I look tired, it's because I am tired.

Tired became my middle name while I was giving birth.

Tired is what I'll be until Bekah learns to sleep through the night.

What keeps me going is the fact that she's beyond worth every bit of time I spend feeling tired.)

AND

 3 cheers for me for snapping the best Daddy-Baby photo ever.

[Not really, but I still love this photo for many reasons- including the fact that 2 of my most favorite people in the world are in it.]

There's a certain almost-8 month old I know who is already wearing 12-18 month sized clothing.

Can we say growing fast?!

I can't keep up with her!

Which is why these moments are precious to me...

Just a simple night of walking by the water, chewing on menus, and taking not-so-impressive photos.

These are the nights that make me a happy woman.