oh, the things we did.

i can't even IMAGINE what life would be like with a 3-day weekend every week. we got so much done this weekend and got to spend time with good friends.

in no particular order, my top accomplishments of the weekend:

1. memorial day waffle party

2. nap

3. sleep in

4. memorial day concert at the Capitol

5. 2 batches of strawberry freezer jam (cara, you're my inspiration!)

6. nap

7. mark fixed the record player - we finally have a stereo!

8. watched midnight in paris

9. shopped

10. "helped" naomi and josh move to their beautiful new place

11. talked about iceland and guatemala to our friends. we're obsessed.

12. strawberry festival in virginia

13. nap

14. had all intentions of going to memorial day parade downtown and go swimming, but instead, took a nap. best decision ever with 100 degree weather.

oh man, i can't get enough sleep these days, i'm just always exhausted. and this little bump of mine is shrinking and growing every other day, it's the strangest thing. i'm ready to start looking pregnant, 16 weeks avocado baby, let's get on this.

polishing off the week.

...my meeting is DONE!

...TH comes home tonight!

...new magazines to pour through this weekend!

...halfway through Bossypants, and loving every single minute.

...new shoes and clothes and lipstick from my uber successful shopping trip today!

...caught up on modern family and "sexy phone" is the funniest thing i've seen in a long time.

...i love central AC. LOVE it.

now onto the weekend where we consume large amounts of strawberries, BBQ, and enjoy memorial day concerts and parades. life is good, friends.

ps rolling thunder is in town this weekend and it's secretly my FAVORITE thing on the planet even though i complain loudly every year how annoying the loud motorcycles are. whatevs, they are awesome.

baking.

my secret ambition in life is to open a bakery. i worked at a bakery during college and i loved every aspect of it. waking up early, kneading bread, the smell of baking bread and cookies, and especially the eating part. baking really speaks to my soul.

when i was living in NYC, the silver moon bakery had a bread baker come in every night around 1-2AM. on late nights out, i'd walk by to see him busily kneading away, prepping the dough to rise and feed the masses the next day. it was always really calming to see him working, and a part of me always wished i were him. inside the bakery, the windows fogging up from the rising dough and hot ovens, me kneading bread in an apron and my thoughts allowed to drift and wander where they would.

so you can imagine my disappointment that in the past year i have hardly been able to bake ANYTHING. everything i put in my oven comes out a flattened burnt/tasteless pancake. i made red velvet cupcakes and chocolate chip cookies last week and they were both ruined. i can't figure out if it's me or my oven, but for the time being i'm blaming it on the oven. but time to get to the bottom of things. with my central AC on my side, i'm dubbing June "baking month". i'll be documenting everything i bake here or at my cooking blog, gnomie cooks. can't you just not wait to see my flattened cookies and burnt banana bread? xo

blooming.

capitol hill is still in full bloom. i seriously can't remember better May weather in my lifetime of living in the DC area, it's been a dream. things are starting to heat up though...80's this week! i pray every day that i feel better the next so i don't have to live morning sickness in heat and humidity. that is seriously my worst nightmare. when i found out i was pregnant i was so grateful that i wouldn't be in the early sick stages or huge mama jamma in the WORST DC month of them all - August. i'm very grateful for my november due date!

TH and I had dinner this weekend with a couple of other pregnant friends. All three of us ladies are due within 2 weeks of each other, wow. It was really interesting to talk to them and hear how similar our experiences have been. Sharing miserable stories about eating mashed potatoes and mac&cheese for a week straight and metro sickness and haha, laying down at work in our closed door offices (guilty!).

It's just always really cool to share human experiences, isn't it? You realize we're all in this together, dagummit.

transportation news.

1. we are selling our 2006 MINI cooper.

i cannot even begin to express how this saddens my poor TH, but alas, i refuse to do the 2 door reach around for the carseat. this mama needs 4 doors! if you're in the market for a car or know someone who might be, please pass along the mini cooper blog linked here. thanks!

2. we rode our bikes to work this morning in celebration of DC's Ride Your Bike to Work Day!

it was a grand experiment and we loved it. lots of festivities at 14th and pennsylvania - giveaways, free food, a unicyclist, and lots of event photographers who wanted to take TH's picture with his fancy IRO and his tie. it was so cute.

3. the metro sucks.

the end!

Al Fresco in eastern market.

sometimes i like to pretend i have a friend named Al. Al Fresco. sometimes Al invites me to eat with him on nice evenings. so i always invite TH with me because i don't want Al to get any ideas.

last night we dined with Al at 7th Hill pizza in Eastern Market. i got my current favorite, the Garfield park and TH got the classic Capitol Hill. so there we were, newly wisdom-toothless TH unable to eat his pizza and sicko pregnant me struggling to eat mine. but i'm glad Al invited us out, it was the perfect breezy evening to eat pizza (or not eat pizza).

sofa queen.

it's true, we finally have a sofa. i love it! so soft and perfect for lounging around and also looking good in our sickly living room. we chose the perfect weekend to get it, too. TH had his wisdom teeth out and i was a little sick, so we were homebound all weekend. we watched movie after movie and episodes of 24 from season 2. and just lounged on this comfy sofa. i have actually started liking our apartment a little bit more now, and think maybe we'll stick around for a little bit longer?

oh and really enjoying the sofa today since i'm once again laying in my sick bed. it's been a tough week, but i go see my midwife on thursday and she's going to set me up with some supplements that will hopefully help calm my stomach. here's hoping.

too much of a good thing.

i guess because everything in life must have balance, this awesome beautiful weekend full of parties, movies, and hanging out with the hubs was just cancelled out by my sleepless sunday night and subsequent sick episode at work. in my office trashcan. i'm done for today.

have a great weekend.

i haven't seen it yet, but TH tells me we have a sofa! i can't wait to drape my bod over it this weekend. oh, the luxury!
while TH heals after his wisdom teeth extraction this weekend, we are taking it super easy. maybe a movie, and a couple low-key grad parties this weekend. congrats to all the graduates out there this year! we are so proud of you! especially proud of my sister, laura, who finally got her degree after being sidetracked by marriage, 2 babies, and a couple changes of her major. i swear she is super-duper woman.

hope you enjoy your 2 days of freedom, i know i will!!

turks and caicos, the video.

i'm so glad it's been a beautiful week here in DC because otherwise my heartbreak of leaving turks and caicos would have been even deeper. i loved the beauty of the blue green water and white sand beaches, and it was so nice to spend the time with my love. and eat delicious food and drink pina coladas. and every morning we got to the beach, i'd start sifting sand through my hand and say "like sands through the hourglass, so are the days of our lives" then launch into the song. who's with me? heath?

(ps - yes, we were the whitest people on the beach. so what, who cares?)

Untitled from julie rowlett on Vimeo.

best week ever.

beaches, babies, the zoo, dates with friends, best weather ever...

seriously, this week has been pretty great and will only get BETTER with the delivery of our long-awaited sofa on Friday. a sofa! in mine house! i cannot wait and also i'll believe it when i see it.

thank you for all your sweet congratulatory comments and excitement! i was dying inside every day holding that big secret in, so i'm thrilled to be sharing with friends. we only told family and a couple of close friends when we found out about baby. i thought i was about 6 weeks along when we found out but it turns out i was only 4 weeks! so waiting these past couple months has been super extra long, and i'm terribly impatient. but it was also nice to have that special little thing between me and TH for awhile.

and thanks for indulging my "i have a baby bump" teensy tiny baby bump photo. when i took that picture, TH was yelling "stop pushing your stomach out!" and i was sheepishly yelling back "i'm tired of just looking like i just ate a pound of spaghetti!" so maybe my baby bump is really teeny, but i'm still proud of it. there were about a million pregnant women on the beach at TCI (all first time mamas taking their babymoons, i'm sure) and they all had such cute rotund bellies. i would try and push mine out so people knew i was legit, but i don't think it worked. i think they all suspected a margarita and chips gut.

a little bit of news.

13 weeks

i can hardly still believe it myself, but i am pregnant! we are just over the moon about this little surprise peach! i'm finally getting out of the miserable sick days and starting to feel much better, and i'm so so excited to finally be sharing the news.

we found out very early about this little baby, but finally last week we heard the heartbeat and saw baby kicking its little legs inside my tummy. we couldn't believe it! i still can't believe it. babies are such a miracle.

turks and caicos.

we celebrated my 29th in the best of circumstances this year. TH totally spoiled me by taking me to the turks and caicos and i am ruined for all future birthdays from here on out. and just for the record, by "TH taking me to the turks and caicos" i mean i begged him nonstop for a trip and basically wore him down until he handed over the credit card. i negotiated by telling him about all the miles we'll earn on his United credit card. kind of worked.

but the bottom line is we had a completely relaxing vacation and i can't recommend this island enough. we stayed in a condo rental with a full kitchen, w/d and screened in porch. we just left our sliding glass doors open all day and let the ceiling fans keep it cool. the ocean was just a 30 second walk from our condo and we couldn't get enough of the stunning turquoise water.

i just about cried when we left and TH was kind enough to suggest that i just move there and visit him on the weekends. i am considering it.

vacation.

so we decided last week to take a last minute vacation for my birthday. last birthday of my 20's - this is a big deal, right?

we are headed to the beach tomorrow. i can't wait to stick my feet in the sand just like i've been dreaming about for the past few months. TH kinda hates the beach because he just turns into one big freckle and squints in the sun a lot, but we got him some goggles for snorkeling and other toys so hopefully he doesn't get bored.

you know how there are two types of people who vacation - the ones who just want to lay around and the ones who want to walk around and check everything out? we are definitely more of the people who like to check things out, but hey - 5 days of laying around doing nothing sounds so perfect right now. xoxo

good morning.

this weekend was relaxing and celebratory for many reasons. the streets of DC are buzzing like crazy this morning with the news of last night. the sun isn't shining, but it sure seems like it is. everyone in the office this morning has a proud smile on their face. proud to be americans, and proud to be celebrating triumph after so many years of fighting.

it's a crazy thing to be celebrating, though, the death of a human. it does make me a little nervous that we live just a few blocks from the Capitol, knowing what a target it is. but i'm hopeful. and that is something i just haven't felt, politically speaking, in a while.

i saw the celebrations in front of the white house and we were tempted to go over there last night, but decided to watch the news from home instead. did any of you go out in the streets to celebrate? it was such a cool, historic evening.