GTKY 6/13 Edition!

2MamazInSeattle

Sorry so late! I'm off today and forgot it was Friday .

1. When you have guests for dinner, do you always put folk, knife, spoon...or, do you only put out what is necessary? Are you more formal or practical?
2. Something that you got excited about lately?
3. What are the three colors you wear the most?
4. 1 thing you love, and 1 thing you don't like about where you live.
5. What's up for the weekend???

PIP's always fun and welcome!

rkbo

1. When you have guests for dinner, do you always put folk, knife, spoon...or, do you only put out what is necessary? Are you more formal or practical?
I definitely only put out whats necessary. No need to wash extra dishes! I'm lazy!! lol

2. Something that you got excited about lately? 
We got our Harmony results back yesterday and all tests came back very low risk and we are having a GIRL!!  There are no little girls in either of our families so everyone is very excited. 

3. What are the three colors you wear the most?
Black and Purple I wear the most, then I have a good mix of all other colors. 

4. 1 thing you love, and 1 thing you don't like about where you live.
We just moved into an apartment community because we are selling my condo. So the thing I don't like about it is that its an apartment community and I will not have a tax write off. But one thing that I love about it is that its much closer to my wife's work. She will no longer have a 2 hour commute to work every day. 

5. What's up for the weekend??? 
Going to dinner tonight with some friends at the Cheesecake Factory. YUM! Sunday I am going to a bbq for fathers day. Pretty low key this weekend. 

JGY

1. When you have guests for dinner, do you always put folk, knife, spoon...or, do you only put out what is necessary? Are you more formal or practical?

I always do fork, knife, spoon, wine glass, water glass, etc.  I'm pretty formal that way.

2. Something that you got excited about lately?

For our anniversary, S surprised me with some really nice bath/body products (somewhat unlike her) and a "Renewable" coupon for some alone time in the evening so that I can put them to use.  We typically tag-team stuff in the evenings because Gabe and the dog are such a handful, so it's a really nice gesture.  Also our awesome jet-tub is on the other side of the wall that Gabe's crib is on, and it's noisy.  So I can't just soak in the tub after bedtime because it would wake him up.  I thought it was a really thoughtful gift and I'm looking forward to using it.

3. What are the three colors you wear the most?

Blue, Brown, Black

4. 1 thing you love, and 1 thing you don't like about where you live.

We are both about 5-10 minutes from our respective workplaces, and an equal distance from daycare, which is AWESOME.  I used to spend about 2 hours a day commuting.  But ... the crime rate is reasonably high in our neighborhood and I feel like I'll never be totally comfortable with Gabe playing outside without me (this coming from a woman who grew up in a not-so-nice neighborhood in NYC, and who took the public bus to/from school beginning at age 6).

5. What's up for the weekend???

Nothing fun as of right now.  We finally finished the repair work on our house (from ice dam damage) so we need to put a few rooms back together.  That is decidedly NOT fun work).

 

StacyLH24

1. We only put out what is necessary. If we have my parents plus her Mom and siblings over...we use paper plates if possible. None of us are fancy folk anyway and I do not want to have to do all of those dishes as we have no dishwasher.

2. C and I put out our very first geocache Wednesday night. It hasn't been published to the site yet, but we are so excited for it!

3. Brown, black and purple are probably what I wear most often.

4. I love the space/land we have living in a rural area. I do not like that there are many services that we do not have access to simply because we are in a rural area...LGBT specific anything, forget it!

5. It looks like we are going on a women only motorcycle ride tomorrow. It is free. We ride 90 miles (plus the 100 that it will take for us to get to the starting point and home) and stop for shopping, lunch and ice cream. C isn't thrilled about the shopping part, but I am . Sunday we are taking my Dad out for dinner. That's all we have planned. We always manage to cram a million things into a weekend, so I'm sure there will be other stuff.

Jazibel

1. When you have guests for dinner, do you always put folk, knife, spoon...or, do you only put out what is necessary? Are you more formal or practical?
Usually practical, just what's necessary.  Occasionally I'll be more formal (holidays, etc.).

2. Something that you got excited about lately? Looking for a job.  I'm 100% on board and applied for a position the other day.  I'm going to continue to send out resumes, and network, etc.  I can now strongly visualize myself as a working mom, and although I know it will be really hard I can't wait to rejoin the workforce, earn money, interact with adults and get to be creative.


3. What are the three colors you wear the most?  Black, blue and gray.

4. 1 thing you love, and 1 thing you don't like about where you live.  I love all of the parks.  There are more than 50 for a town of 60K.  I don't like the lack of diversity.  For our house, I love that I have two french doors that open onto the patio/yard so Kaden can play outside.  I don't like that the house is poorly insulated and gets incredibly hot.

5. What's up for the weekend??? We're going to a Pirates Festival on Saturday and maybe to the beach or Discovery Museum on Sunday. I"m also going to text my brother & sister-in-law to see if they're free.  We found out their baby will be a boy. Our sister-in-law was really upset, she had a her heart set on a girl for various reasons.  Anyway I'd love to see them, maybe go to lunch - we'll see.

redrockmama

1. When you have guests for dinner, do you always put folk, knife, spoon...or, do you only put out what is necessary? Are you more formal or practical?

Definitely practical, I only put out what is necessary. 

2. Something that you got excited about lately? 

My placenta migrating away from covering my cervix! I can't even begin to express how exciting this is. And our midwife said she'd be our "doula" for a hospital birth. It's been a good week.

3. What are the three colors you wear the most?

Pink, black, and white probably or blue

4. 1 thing you love, and 1 thing you don't like about where you live.

I love that it is so close to everything, but it's still quiet and residential. J and I can both bike to work and we live right next to an awesome and huge park. I don't love how small it is. We only have 2 bedrooms and 1 bathroom in about 1000 sq ft right now. I imagine we'll grow out of that pretty quick with two kiddos, we already feel pretty cramped. We are going to have to decide in a year or two whether we want to finish the basement (it needs to be dug out and excavated) or move. 

5. What's up for the weekend???

We have a nanny interview tomorrow morning, pick up our CSA share, more house stuff, garden stuff, work on the mural. It's been a pretty busy week so I am looking forward to some down time, J is too, she's been working way too much. 

Amber&Reva

@2mamazinseatle Happy belated Birthday and enjoy your day off.

1. When I have company I normally go as practical as possible (serve yourself) we have yet to invest in a dining room set so company typically eats on sofas. 

2. It was exciting yet bittersweet to finally start getting IUI's again.  Hoping for a BFP so I don't have to switch donors.  It is also exciting to be planning for my 30th birthday party. 

3. I wear a lot of black, white and blue.

4. I love having a large fenced in back yard for the dogs to run in.  I also love the additional space because everything is so much more less cluttered.  I miss living 2 miles away from work and the commute to work.  Although my commute still isn't bad I would love to shorter commute again.

5. Tomorrow I work and then I am going out to dinner and drinks with friends.  I am going to need to think up a good reason why I am not drinking with them.  Then I am coming home to clean the house because my dad is going to be coming in from out of town and will be at my house on Sunday.  It happens to be fathers day but he is coming over to draw up plans for the deck he is helping Reva and I build starting the following week.

2MamazInSeattle

1. When you have guests for dinner, do you always put folk, knife, spoon...or, do you only put out what is necessary? Are you more formal or practical?
Depends on the guest. I usually do fork, knife, water glass, wine glass - and will do a salad fork or spoon if the food commands it. Holidays definitely more formal!

2. Something that you got excited about lately?
My birthday was fun, and J got me a really pretty moonstone necklace in honor of Simone's August birthday. Seeing she's due on the 20th and my MFM won't let me go more than 7 days past dates, we feel pretty confident she'll be born in August as plans.

3. What are the three colors you wear the most?
Pinks, purples, black/white.

4. 1 thing you love, and 1 thing you don't like about where you live.
I love Seattle is so overall liberal and accepting and has all the variety of a big city but doesn't feel too big. I miss living in the east, where a days drive could get you to 8 different big cities! From here, we basically have Vancouver BC or Portland - both great, but next up is San Francisco at 14 hours in a car. For our house/neighbordhood, I live in a very well-located, convenient area (it's tagline is "Fremont- the Center of the Universe" because everywhere is easy to get to from here!). I don't like that, like you @redrockmama, we have 1000 sq ft. house, 2 bedroom/1bath and feel cramped, etc. even now... but we're only having 1 kid, so we're hoping we can make it work!

5. What's up for the weekend???
Tomorrow yoga and helping my sister pick out a gemstone ring at our favorite perfume/jewelry shop for her 40th bday (we gave her $ as a family toward it, and it's a big purchase!). Sunday we're getting the perfect armoire I found on CL for Simone's room, and today I organized the crap out of the loads of clothes we've been given - so it's all ready to be put away once I have the furniture! Then I want to finalize the crib location so I can hang her name and stuff above it, etc.

Himee33

1. We like to keep it simple in our house. If we can use paper plates and plastic silverware then we usually do. Especially if we have a big group over. Occasionally we use the "fancy" stuff.

2. That we are going home to Portland in a few weeks. Counting the days! Can't wait to see my family, friends and especially my 7 year old niece Sanieya!  We also just switched our Civil Union over to a marriage last week!

3. Black, black and usually black. I always joke that I'm the female Johnny Cash. 

4. I love that we live so close to the beach and in the summer there are street fests almost every weekend. With good music, food and a good selection of beer. I don't like that its so far away from Portland and I can't see my family and friends whenever I want to. Also the weather. The nasty gross humidity and the long months of snow!

5. We are going out to L's parents house tomorrow and they are all going to do the Warrior Dash while I watch the kids. Then we are having a BBQ to celebrate Father's Day. 

ATXmommas

1. Only what's nesessary. We're not even formal on holidays - I didn't grow up in a very formal household.

2. A couple of nights ago, I had Ash in the bathtub with me. I was leaving back and he was sitting on the bottom if the tub in between my legs. He leaned over to take a sip of water (I think that's what he was doing), but then he figured out he could blow bubbles! So, of course, I called Z into the bathroom and we squealed and laughed as he repeatedly blew bubbles in the water. Ah, it's the little things.

3. Black, grey, and blue

4. I love that Austin is such a progressive, beautiful, active, and vegan-friendly city. I don't like that it's in conservative Texas. As for our house, I love the location, but it's small (~1000 sq ft) and we are bursting at the seams.

5. Meeting a friend for brunch, then taking to Ash to his first swim lesson this afternoon! I put our CSA on hold for a few weeks because we were traveling a bunch, but will head to the farmers market tomorrow to pick it up and do some cooking. And, I'm gonna have to get some work done. Boo.

healz413

1. I love how different some of us are from one another. It would never have occurred to me to put out silverware that we weren't going to use with the possible exception of a knife. You don't necessarily know when someone will decide something needs to be cut up.

2. I was really excited to start my new job this last week. I've been doing my PhD for 6 years and my MA for 1 year before that, so it's been 7 years since I've had a full-time office job. It has been such a nice change of pace from working on my dissertation.

3. Black, purple, blue with gray as the runner-up.

4. I love Toronto and where we live in Toronto because there is so much green space-- parks, ravines, forests, etc. I don't love that we're a 15-20 min bus ride from the nearest subway stop.
In terms of our apartment, I love the layout, the fact the kitchen has a dishwasher and has doors on it so I can keep the dog out, the two walls with windows in the sunroom (guest room/office), the view we have from the 12th floor, and the face that we're not responsible for any property maintenance. I don't love that we don't have a backyard.

5. There's only so much we can do with @Manada on bedrest. This morning I'm heading to Ikea for when they open (so many fewer people there) so I can get a few things we need for the babies' room and a laptop desk for M. Then I'm going to try to get some work done for a research assistantship I'm doing for a professor this summer (which I signed up for before I got my full time contract). Tomorrow is the first anniversary of our Love Party. We will probably watch TV, play a game or two, and eat something special (maybe ribs).

PIP: Here are a few of the photos from our Love Party last year.

ball.and.chain

1. When you have guests for dinner, do you always put folk, knife, spoon...or, do you only put out what is necessary? Are you more formal or practical?

Practical.  Regardless of how formal the meal is, I typically only put out what I expect people to need.

2. Something that you got excited about lately?

Well, wallpaper is going up in the baby's room as we speak and I am SUPER excited about that.  It is not going as smoothly as hoped -- the paper itself is sort of delicate, and is tearing when it is supposed to be cutting, even with brand-new blades -- but my rock star Martha Stewart stepmother is making it work.  It will not be the most perfect wallpaper job in the world but it will be done, and Mr. Baby won't know any better anyway.  P.S. the pattern looks even more adorable on the walls than it did on the rolls!

I also just put all our bottles, nipples, and baby eating gear (some kiddie dishes for when he's a bit older) away in a cabinet so I am feeling great about baby prep progress!

3. What are the three colors you wear the most?

Grey, navy, and black.  I do actually wear a lot of color, but a lot of my basics are in those colors because they are versatile.  Between weight loss, weight gain, and pregnancy, I've been a lot of difference sizes in the past five years, and I haven't ever been able to afford to completely replace my wardrobe all at once, so everything I've bought needs to be able to go the distance.  I tend to stay away from white and really light colors because I am a slob.

4. 1 thing you love, and 1 thing you don't like about where you live.

We are 9 miles from Boston, in a town that has green leafy suburban neighborhoods (one of which we live in) but is also a city in its own right with lots of restaurants, a movie theater, a diverse population, and other things that many of the other burbs around here don't have.  We have a historic estate, a community farm, public transit, a farmer's market, just lots of good stuff going on.  We can drive downtown in about 20-25 minutes on a weekend, and even at rush hour on a weekday it typically doesn't take more than 45 minutes.  The downside is that it takes a LONG time to get downtown on public transit.  Because parking near my office (financial district) is prohibitively expensive, that is how I get to work.  For the past 5 years or so, it's been taking me about 90 minutes each way.  It is time sucking and soul sucking!  I think I have finally hit on a solution (express buses) that will shave a good chunk of time off, but it just kills me that it's so difficult to make it work given how close we are to the city.

5. What's up for the weekend???

I got 11 hours of sleep last night and I feel like a rock star.  Apparently THAT'S what it takes to kick 3rd tri fatigue.  Took the cat to the vet for the first time today -- she was a total dreamboat, no hissing or growling, even for shots.  Wallpapering is happening.  I may go through our bag of baby bath stuff and see whether we need more or less for bath linens.  Someone gave us a baby robe with slippers that is adorable but I see it getting used...oh, never.  Later S and I will go through our coupons, gift cards and registries and order everything we really need to have on hand pre-baby.

Tomorrow: yoga, walk with a friend, and rest.

shelly2314

1. When you have guests for dinner, do you always put folk, knife, spoon...or, do you only put out what is necessary? Are you more formal or practical?

I only put out what is necessary. Formal or practical depends on the situation for guest dinner, but we are mostly casual with our dining
2. Something that you got excited about lately?  Our 2 year wedding anniversary was this weekend and we had a lovely time. M planned a surprise trip to Animal Kingdom and then staying at the Disney Boardwalk hotel (it helps that I have family that work there so hotel discount and free park entry). She chose Animal Kingdom b/c she figured that would be the best "pregnancy friendly" park. It rained for a bit, but that was great b/c it cooled everything off so I was able to stay and enjoy the time. Animals loved it too and we saw a lot more on the safari ride b/c it was cool for them.
3. What are the three colors you wear the most? Blue, Green, and Black I think
4. 1 thing you love, and 1 thing you don't like about where you live. I love being close to the water. I dislike the tourists and senior citizens that clog up the roadways and do not know how to drive
5. What's up for the weekend??? only just posted about last weekend b/c I am late posting LOL

2brides

1. When you have guests for dinner, do you always put folk, knife, spoon...or, do you only put out what is necessary? Are you more formal or practical? What is necessary. I am 100% practical.

2. Something that you got excited about lately? I was excited to go to NYC this past weekend. I hadn't been in 8y and I was excited to show the kids the city and meet up with friends.

3. What are the three colors you wear the most? Black, blue, khaki

4. 1 thing you love, and 1 thing you don't like about where you live.Love that there is so much to do here. Hate the traffic.

5. What's up for the weekend??? We took the kids to NYC!