tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-91756009985907327702024-03-12T19:32:50.104-07:00A hopeful lifeWhitney Starksenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17884657967611292135noreply@blogger.comBlogger79125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9175600998590732770.post-16744437731471314322015-06-20T22:59:00.003-07:002015-06-20T22:59:44.460-07:00Words of wisdom challenge<a href="http://tombowusa.com/" target="_blank">Tombow</a> USA is holding a giveaway for some lovely pens that I have had my eye on for quite some time. They have challenged people to jot down words of wisdom to enter. So, below is my attempt at words of wisdom for the perfectionists out there (or maybe it is just for my special breed of perfectionism.)<br />
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Like I said above...maybe it is just my special breed of perfectionism but I often find myself shying away from things I am really passionate about because I can't do them perfectly. I forget that every single person I see that inspires me has years and years of practice behind them. Not only do they have years of practice but they have about a million mistakes to show as well.<br />
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So, these are my words of wisdom to myself and anyone else who might feel the same. Learning is not failing. Mistakes are not failing.<br />
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Heres to holding your head high and putting yourself out there for the world to see as you stumble through the learning process of whatever it is you are passionate about.<br />
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With love,<br />
WhitneyWhitney Starksenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17884657967611292135noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9175600998590732770.post-81269332039542818052015-01-19T21:10:00.001-08:002015-01-19T21:12:44.761-08:00Welcoming Isaiah<div>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; letter-spacing: 0px;">Before we get too far away from when my little man was born, I want to write down a bit of a birth story so I can always remember what that day was like. This is mostly for myself, but I know some people enjoy reading others birthing experiences. So, if you are one of those people, enjoy my novella (but seriously...its a lot of words). If not, you can always just scroll through and look at the adorable pictures of the sweetest boy in all the land (I tell Isaiah that he is the sweetest boy in all the land on a daily basis while I attack his cheeks with kisses).</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">Anyone who knows me at all knows that my entire pregnancy I was practically begging for my baby to be born on any day except Christmas. My due date was January 7th which </span>was<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"> good enough for me to </span>convince<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"> myself that he definitely would not be born on Christmas. In my cranky pregnancy state, I would roll my eyes every time someone told me it would be hilarious to have a Christmas birth because Noah works at a church. I would have to stuff down my strong opinions and just smile every time someone would talk about how it would be ‘the best Christmas gift ever’ if he came on Christmas. So...needless to say, I absolutely did not want a Christmas baby. I wanted him to have his own special day and not have to have a birthday filled with joint presents and combined parties for the rest of his life.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Well Christmas eve I had a doctors appointment and I had been in a bit of pain all day but after the appointment I felt really crummy. We had a family get together and I kept just chalking my not feeling well and mild/irregular cramping and contractions up to the doctors appointment. Everyone else that night apparently was pretty sure I was not feeling well because this baby was going to be coming…and soon.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">Sure enough, Christmas morning I wake up at 4am to use the restroom and as I am <strike>very gracefully getting</strike> rolling out of bed I feel like maybe I had wet my pants. And lets just be honest, when you are that pregnant and using your abdominal muscles, wetting your pants a bit is not entirely out of the question (I know, I know, I am making pregnancy sound so glamorous. You're welcome). However, it kept happening and that is when I figured out that I was not </span>repeatedly<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"> wetting my pants but that my water had broken. I was in quite a bit of denial because after all, it was Christmas and I refuse to have a Christmas baby! So there was lots of googling and lots of denial. I finally decided (with lots of convincing from Noah) it was at least time to call the doctor, she told me to come to labor and delivery around 11am to get checked out.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; letter-spacing: 0.0px;">So I slowly got ready, packed up my hospital bag, and we headed to the hospital. Once there, they checked me out and confirmed my water had broken and just like that Christmas plans were done and we were in it for the long haul.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; letter-spacing: 0.0px;">We started making the obligatory phone calls to family and friends letting them know that the day had arrived and our little boy would be here soon (but not really). Noah's mom hopped on the first plane she could catch and my parents came to the hospital to keep us company. My dad also brought me a cinnamon roll. I had made a whole delicious pan of home made cinnamon rolls for Christmas and I was not about to let labor stop me from enjoying one (or three...don't judge)!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; letter-spacing: 0.0px;">I was laboring for a while, contracting on my own and they were increasing in intensity but around 5pm I had not progressed at all (and so I cried) and they hooked me up to Pitocin to help move me along. That stuff is no joke. Up until this point I had not used any sort of pain medication at all but after a while on Pitocin decided it was time to try something for the pain. I did not want an epidural, not because I wanted a ‘natural’ birth but because the idea of a needle going into my spine was absolutely terrifying. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">Anyway, they gave me some other pain medication to try and help take the edge off…but maybe 5 minutes after they gave me that, it felt like my water broke again. this time it was not just a little bit, I felt a sort of pop and a huge rush of fluid (this time I did not mistake it for maybe wetting my pants). I thought I was crazy until I came home and did some googling. Sometimes Google makes you feel a little less crazy. What I found was that often when you just have small amounts of your water coming out that the baby’s head is blocking the rest of it (what I found on google was it being called the fore water and the hind water). Let me tell you, the difference in pain once my water broke for what felt like the second time (the </span>hind water)<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"> was absolutely a million times worse than what I had been feeling. Where I had previously been able to breathe through the contractions and maintain control, I now could not focus on anything and was having a lot of trouble controlling my breathing. I went through what felt like hours of these contractions (not sure how long it actually was) before deciding on getting an epidural. I needed to get over my fear for the sake of my sanity. </span></span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">I think this was pre epidural...trying to decide if I could muster up the courage to get one.</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Here is the thing, I absolutely love that anesthesiologist, but when I was writhing in the worst pain I have ever felt and she was telling me I needed to sit perfectly still while she did this, I wanted to punch her. Somehow by the grace of God I was able to sit still, which is no easy task when the contractions are that strong and coming one on top of the other. But I did it. Somehow between the nurse and Noah helping me breathe through it, I sat still. I also did not punch the anesthesiologist...I think it was a win win for everyone.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Everyone was much happier after that epidural. I was able to rest a bit which was absolutely necessary after being awake since 4am and still not even to the hardest part of the whole labor process. </span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">much needed rest thanks to that epidural!</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">the cheering squad (Noah's mom and my dad). But seriously...you should have heard them during my labor.</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; letter-spacing: 0.0px;">It all seems like such a blur between getting the epidural and when they checked me and I was at 10 centimeters and ready to push. It was around 11:30pm or so when they had me try to start pushing. We all figured that the 26th of December is as sucky of a birthday as the 25th so why not aim for the 25th. That thought came a went as my pushing was making progress, but very slow progress. During all this pushing my mom and husband were counting with each contraction for my pushing and I oh so kindly accused them of counting too slowly...labor clearly brings out the best in me.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; letter-spacing: 0.0px;">I had absolutely no idea how long I had been pushing but later came to find out that I had done a solid 2 hours of pushing. Somewhere in the midst of pushing there was mention of assisting me with a vacuum because my kid has a huge head…my stubborn self was not going to let that happen so I dug into the energy reserves to push even harder. When the nurse finally said those wonderful words of asking for the doctor to come in to deliver I was over the moon knowing this was almost over. She asked me to stop pushing, and to everyones amusement I very seriously said ‘I can’t stop pushing, he will go back in!’ Looking back this is clearly not logical and a very silly thing to say, but after you've battled that long you want zero movement in the wrong direction. Go figure, the nurse knew what she was talking about and he didn’t go back in and I soon had my perfect baby boy laying on my chest. </span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">We loved our wonderful nurse! She was amazing.</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; letter-spacing: 0.0px;">It was and is the most surreal experience I have had thus far. To finally meet this little human that I have been working so hard to keep healthy and safe inside me is now out in the world and the job of keeping him safe and healthy seems even more daunting. I am so completely in love with this little man and cannot get over his cheeks and the funny faces he makes. I love his little toes and his perfect little lips. Everything about him is perfection to me and I am so proud to be his mom.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; letter-spacing: 0.0px;">One last thought about birth in general, a lot of people talk about having a natural birth and feel really disappointed in themselves when things don’t go as they planned. I did not plan on having an epidural. I was not opposed to it and I did not have a ‘birth plan’. I had ideas of what I wanted but ultimately knew that this whole thing is so unpredictable and things change so quickly. I did not want to have this plan set so rigidly that I felt like I had somehow failed in this birthing process. Let me tell you, no matter how you have that baby, you did not fail. You carried and grew that little one for nine long months, so I don’t care how they come out, you are a bit of a superhero in my book. All of that to say, had I not gotten that epidural I think that I would have absolutely worn myself out just trying to get through those contractions and not had the stamina to push once it was time. I am convinced that Isaiah’s birth story would have been a much different one, probably involving a vacuum or maybe even a c-section, had I not chosen the epidural. I will sing the praises of the epidural as long as I live!</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Here are some more pictures from our time in the hospital </span></span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0KAdw61iF6IFJFqps0PHQVZmKvSr5-SOD6AEFZtWraMZ3vt0dTl_SvqWPeUBNCE6fFMLaIvUha5jA80hgi2r4oeUPd7saUiqgVQ8hCzjF8Bu-fbzPSsv-xJlhxjxuEkIqwTj2AHBLtAnV/s1600/_MG_1424.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0KAdw61iF6IFJFqps0PHQVZmKvSr5-SOD6AEFZtWraMZ3vt0dTl_SvqWPeUBNCE6fFMLaIvUha5jA80hgi2r4oeUPd7saUiqgVQ8hCzjF8Bu-fbzPSsv-xJlhxjxuEkIqwTj2AHBLtAnV/s1600/_MG_1424.jpg" height="426" width="640" /></span></a></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjjmPB9-5iNHt2NSc9qAHG1ZnRdA6GFHJoAjRT2JvErjbyL3tchNtYff5hzzzttfA2oDlolZWbXGFiewgaKo4PV-g1eoQIWBetuDd5G2Zx6kzIS8YnG0ByxVlQZGQjCYYOCm1FjMCeSEDoS/s1600/IMG_1779.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjjmPB9-5iNHt2NSc9qAHG1ZnRdA6GFHJoAjRT2JvErjbyL3tchNtYff5hzzzttfA2oDlolZWbXGFiewgaKo4PV-g1eoQIWBetuDd5G2Zx6kzIS8YnG0ByxVlQZGQjCYYOCm1FjMCeSEDoS/s1600/IMG_1779.jpg" height="640" width="480" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">After he had his bath, warming back up with me</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">snuggles with dad</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">Our little family going home :)</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; letter-spacing: 0.0px;">I hope that this finds you well. We are 3 weeks into this whole parenting thing and so far things have been great. A few rough nights but we are hoping those are the exception and not the rule. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; letter-spacing: 0.0px;">With love,</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; letter-spacing: 0px;">Whitney</span></div>
Whitney Starksenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17884657967611292135noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9175600998590732770.post-2544008786567964202014-12-03T21:05:00.002-08:002014-12-03T21:05:47.419-08:0035 weeks<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Well, the countdown is on. 5 weeks until my due date...and it is definitely becoming more and more real by the day. I am counting down the days until I am on maternity leave and get to rest a little more. Other than being tired though, things are pretty darn good over here, so I really can't complain.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I've been terrible about taking pictures of this belly of mine. I am huge though. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Anyway, enough of my jabbering...all the way back at the end of October my wonderful Mamma and mother in law threw me a baby shower and it was perfection. I thought I would share some pictures of it.</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiW03IjzJhnGgBmt1w_MmbWDDWsfUhyphenhyphen_pcUd7LAabqnHhCRccvTT3gx9Po5tHRFRDIM0Hw1B7jpd91DNFreLFiz3WfpeUiNGgORbk1bIwfzXc6-HCjmnbQx4sBq89JHK8F6YPGCJDfw3J4G/s1600/IMG_2691.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img alt="" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiW03IjzJhnGgBmt1w_MmbWDDWsfUhyphenhyphen_pcUd7LAabqnHhCRccvTT3gx9Po5tHRFRDIM0Hw1B7jpd91DNFreLFiz3WfpeUiNGgORbk1bIwfzXc6-HCjmnbQx4sBq89JHK8F6YPGCJDfw3J4G/s1600/IMG_2691.jpg" height="640" title="baby shower boy" width="480" /></span></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimAxorp0M1HxCyt0GxzhuLENyEDnCaOzEEyGff7TKtXbZ3XelBEJR5h1UaDJDukCW0LEOdozFcpvA8J3NHxeEQE-On6osVmDz62KqjeD-qh4ul5DZVdDu3DimsSLgJP9iCIB4PuP-1ggdw/s1600/IMG_2692.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimAxorp0M1HxCyt0GxzhuLENyEDnCaOzEEyGff7TKtXbZ3XelBEJR5h1UaDJDukCW0LEOdozFcpvA8J3NHxeEQE-On6osVmDz62KqjeD-qh4ul5DZVdDu3DimsSLgJP9iCIB4PuP-1ggdw/s1600/IMG_2692.JPG" height="480" width="640" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This was in the entry way, we had the classic guess how big around I am game. Some women hate this game...I really don't mind it for whatever reason. How awesome are those circular fans in the window? I loved them!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">My mom pulled out all the stops with decorating for the shower. It was so much fun to walk around the house and see little details she thought of. All the little shoes in the pictures above were mine when I was little, that was fun to see. The bassinet has been passed down through our family and all the names of who has slept in it is written under the mattress, it's fun to know another name will be added very soon! My mom also put together that display on the wall of clothes, some of which were mine or hers when we were little, others are just vintage shirts she has collected for this little guy. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">One of my favorite parts of the shower was having the guests paint a letter of the alphabet for an alphabet wall! I wasn't able to get a picture of all of them, but you get the general idea. It is so great to see all the different colors and styles. I can't wait to see them all hung up on a wall.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Anyway, thats a lot of words....but incase you want to read more about whats going on in week 35, here is an update...and to appease the people, a picture of my belly (although it was from halloween so only 30 weeks)</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>How far along: </b>35 weeks</span></span><br />
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Baby is the size of a:</b> Coconut<b> </b> </span></span><br />
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Showing:</b> Definitely </span></span><br />
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Gender:</b> It’s a boy!</span></span><br />
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Maternity clothes:</b> For sure. I can get away with some tops that aren’t still, but maternity tops are way more comfortable at this point.</span></span><br />
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Belly button in or out:</b> still in, but on the brink of popping out.</span></span><br />
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Symptoms: </b>So tired. All. The. Time.</span></span><br />
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Sleep: </b>I wake up a lot just because I am uncomfortable…it’s making work tough.</span></span><br />
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Cravings:</b> Peanut butter puffins! I refuse to admit how quickly I have gone through boxes of this cereal… </span></span><br />
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Queasy or sick: </b>Not at all.<b> </b></span></span><br />
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Best moment this week: </b>Nothing great stands out, but he is always really active in there and I always love that….even when he kicks me in the ribs :)</span></span><br />
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Worst moment this week:</b> Nothing too scary this week. We had a scary moment a couple weeks ago where he had not been moving and had to go into labor and delivery to be monitored. Of course as soon as we got there and that strapped the monitors to me he started kicking away. We are so thankful he is a-ok!</span></span><br />
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Miss anything: </b>Sleeping normally, not having heart burn all the time, my normal clothes…there are many things I am missing these days.</span></span><br />
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Movement: </b>Definitely. He is super active in there. I love it.</span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Looking forward to: </b>Being on maternity leave and having more time to get our apartment ready for him.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I hope this finds you well.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">With love,</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Whitney</span></div>
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Whitney Starksenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17884657967611292135noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9175600998590732770.post-90486307210074504112014-10-23T18:07:00.000-07:002014-10-23T18:07:45.200-07:0028 (and kind of 29) Weeks<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We are just going to swiftly move past the fact that I have not posted and update since week 24. So, here I am at 29 weeks...tying my shoes and keeping my toes looking decent is becoming more difficult by the day. Someone please convince my husband that this is reason enough to get a pedicure on a regular basis!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Anyway, life is pretty good these days. The general stress that comes along with having a kid hits me every now and again...especially as my due date slowly creeps up on me. I mean seriously guys, I only have 11 more weeks until he is due to arrive! That just seems insane. I figure that ready or not, he is coming so I better just get it together and remember that we have amazing support systems ready to help us as we stumble through figuring out what it means to be parents.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">So, this is kind of a combined post I suppose...a picture from week 28 but all the info from week 29. This picture also happened to be the same night the Giants clinched their ticket to the World Series!!</span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>How far along: </b>29 weeks</span></span><br />
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Baby is the size of a:</b> Acorn squash<b> </b> </span></span><br />
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Showing:</b> Definitely </span></span><br />
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Gender:</b> It’s a boy :)</span></span><br />
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Maternity clothes:</b> Definitely pants and I am in serious need of some shirts..I am stretching out all of my normal ones!</span></span><br />
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Belly button in or out:</b> still in.</span></span><br />
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Symptoms: </b>A bit of swelling in my hands and feet and I am definitely starting to feel the extra weight in my knees, hips and lower back. Over all though, I feel like I have been really fortunate and </span></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">can't really complain.</span><br />
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Sleep: </b>Not the best, but also not the worst. </span></span><br />
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Cravings:</b> I do not like eggs for the most part but for whatever reason, over the weekend I could not get enough of hardboiled eggs! </span></span><br />
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Queasy or sick: </b>Not at all.<b> </b></span></span><br />
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Best moment this week: </b>I love seeing him move and getting to know when he is most awake and active.</span></span><br />
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Worst moment this week: </b>Nothing really this week, we had a scary moment with him in week 27 where I had not felt him move for a decent amount of time. Luckily he finally moved and has been just fine ever since.</span></span><br />
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Miss anything: </b>My normal clothes</span></span><br />
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Movement: </b>Definitely. He moves a lot when I am lying on my side trying to sleep!</span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Looking forward to: </b>Meeting this little dude. But since that is still far away, I am excited for my 34 week appointment and getting to see him on the ultrasound again. </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I hope this finds you well!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">with love,</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Whitney</span>Whitney Starksenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17884657967611292135noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9175600998590732770.post-11106010325332048852014-09-22T22:03:00.001-07:002014-09-22T22:03:37.715-07:0024 weeks in Kauai<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Today was the first day back to work since last Friday! What a wonderful break we had from our day to day lives while we were in Kauai. I'm not even sure I should admit how many slices of pie I had (if you are ever in Kauai go to The Right slice!!) or how many iced vanilla chais I consumed (Go to Hanalei coffee roasters and drink this, you may want to also have their waffles in the morning...so good!)</span><div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">So as you can see, Kauai was a great time for me to eat my way around the island...it was a little depressing stepping on the scale at my 24 week appointment today. Oh well, we are back to our normal boring (aka healthy) eating now.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">So, here are some pictures from our trip and a little 24 week update too :)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">You can't go to Kauai and not get shave ice (and yes, it still kills me every time to say or type shave ice instead of shav<u>ed</u> ice...). They sure know how to make one monstrous dome of ice!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">One of our favorite things we did all week was go to Queens Bath! There was a lovely little trail down to it and while we were trying to take a picture with the GoPro the below picture happened...it might be the best worst picture ever. We think it is absolutely hilarious. (hello belly!)</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7nzI2aytD_bP-CzaNVzF1vIwu-8gWxJdwK5mD6EJcPuPsOI-37Hl68LvWniTtrAzUOr7qOjcUGLwBWTR0U3WAAyuZHU0WrUKZV4RBxX5fOD97P6E7tFllhghoo_BsSZ1-SruM7iQZrL04/s1600/G0094454.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7nzI2aytD_bP-CzaNVzF1vIwu-8gWxJdwK5mD6EJcPuPsOI-37Hl68LvWniTtrAzUOr7qOjcUGLwBWTR0U3WAAyuZHU0WrUKZV4RBxX5fOD97P6E7tFllhghoo_BsSZ1-SruM7iQZrL04/s1600/G0094454.JPG" height="480" width="640" /></span></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhYwEP9P72fNd8I9qSKh-ZwULGKaI5i9QdH6GqwJR-7qjtjmrDQio1KK6j_WSGsTO209Ms8o5rH8HDgFw0MZQgfCbHSVDQ0czxhv2PUp2FUKOTdrsIhkh0EORjXUxZLaD3we3V0bTsAJQzU/s1600/G0114471.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhYwEP9P72fNd8I9qSKh-ZwULGKaI5i9QdH6GqwJR-7qjtjmrDQio1KK6j_WSGsTO209Ms8o5rH8HDgFw0MZQgfCbHSVDQ0czxhv2PUp2FUKOTdrsIhkh0EORjXUxZLaD3we3V0bTsAJQzU/s1600/G0114471.JPG" height="480" width="640" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The above picture was when we were actually in Queens Bath looking at the little fish that made their way into it and the below picture is just of Queens bath and the amazing view you have from it. The go pro was a bit fogged up but I love this picture anyway.</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNDoyHbYgTb4gJFnFgRDm0YoYfPKKRYYolISoLEOrrFAhfPCRkZKclhmoWM9c50dmevfiW2bQX9o1ltd1_Pa52ZeQT87TfJ8YdbelhWpNW81QydPInzey3SUWZSMJZIlP3wJ5D1URMaJgj/s1600/G0104461.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNDoyHbYgTb4gJFnFgRDm0YoYfPKKRYYolISoLEOrrFAhfPCRkZKclhmoWM9c50dmevfiW2bQX9o1ltd1_Pa52ZeQT87TfJ8YdbelhWpNW81QydPInzey3SUWZSMJZIlP3wJ5D1URMaJgj/s1600/G0104461.JPG" height="480" width="640" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We went mini golfing at a place that doubles as a botanical garden. It was so hot by that 18th hole I did not care anymore about the plant life. I don't do pregnant and humid well ;)</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQq8Ui1D8LsC4Ba09rzcL9x45z1kIhl5l9nA7rVT2fdQQ21Qe6g-qp5tBNYjrPZ-rILCP0j_QllU9hrZvmLmhwf_NHx9Jv_kX4_rAYs8Cb4bKmkT7iI0Vm-4npkqEznPbXM2ND0w_80oKZ/s1600/IMG_2637.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQq8Ui1D8LsC4Ba09rzcL9x45z1kIhl5l9nA7rVT2fdQQ21Qe6g-qp5tBNYjrPZ-rILCP0j_QllU9hrZvmLmhwf_NHx9Jv_kX4_rAYs8Cb4bKmkT7iI0Vm-4npkqEznPbXM2ND0w_80oKZ/s1600/IMG_2637.jpg" height="640" width="480" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Probably one of the best things we did was go on a helicopter tour. Seeing the Na Pali coast was absolutely stunning from up there!</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEirb4hyphenhyphencqq1e6jekTkBbbrcSGRw6NJw-wnBj3Sct288TnAV_rYay6BSgcd0P5izmEhQFfgPjVfECjtY8QB3uCevyH6F8eUxyKa3n6ERxotRbEP4FcU4VqJY-bE6cGwl_V6YCgNNjV8WhHmf/s1600/Helicoptertour.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEirb4hyphenhyphencqq1e6jekTkBbbrcSGRw6NJw-wnBj3Sct288TnAV_rYay6BSgcd0P5izmEhQFfgPjVfECjtY8QB3uCevyH6F8eUxyKa3n6ERxotRbEP4FcU4VqJY-bE6cGwl_V6YCgNNjV8WhHmf/s1600/Helicoptertour.JPG" height="640" width="640" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Did I mention the pie? Because let me tell you, this stuff is what dreams are made of. The cheesecake was to die for as was the little cherry number on the bottom of the picture...can we just say buttery macadamia nut crumb topping? I do not think it gets any better. If anyone is wondering what to get me for christmas, they ship their pies to the main land for only $57...no big deal.</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgdKdVtN3WXUwmoHk_DzudDRyStFzVdWj6fhprqisjtdVi6bbWeuAWHV3-vYMMzmjjceOIs2XYkTqmgqMwjBpqLP4hlgadEupWe8dNaEN9uFFsmoj5f8MXt8p7DDSD8ciy6R2KScBYHJTi7/s1600/TheRightSlice.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgdKdVtN3WXUwmoHk_DzudDRyStFzVdWj6fhprqisjtdVi6bbWeuAWHV3-vYMMzmjjceOIs2XYkTqmgqMwjBpqLP4hlgadEupWe8dNaEN9uFFsmoj5f8MXt8p7DDSD8ciy6R2KScBYHJTi7/s1600/TheRightSlice.JPG" height="640" width="640" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Lastly, one of our favorite things to do is stand up paddle board so we did that for a couple hours one day. It was all fun and games going up the river with the wind at our back. Coming back was a bit more work than I wanted to do on vacation...but it was still fun and gave me an excuse to eat more pie ;)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">So, not my typical belly picture with the sign and normal clothes...but check out that belly! That is a 24 week belly right there. He is still growing and moving around more every day.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>How far along: </b>24 weeks</span></span><br />
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Baby is the size of a: </b>Cantaloupe </span></span><br />
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Showing:</b> Definitely </span></span><br />
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Gender:</b> It’s a boy!</span></span><br />
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Maternity clothes: </b>Only bottoms….although some shirts are getting a little short.</span></span><br />
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Belly button in or out:</b> still in.</span></span><br />
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Symptoms: </b>Nothing too crazy, just some swelling in my hands and feet</span></span><br />
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Sleep: </b>Not the best, but also not the worst. </span></span><br />
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Cravings: </b>Nothing that really stands out…when we were in Kauai there was a cheesecake and vanilla chai that I could not get enough of!</span></span><br />
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Queasy or sick: </b>Not at all.<b> </b></span></span><br />
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Best moment this week: </b>Not only being able to feel him move but starting to see him move around too! He has been super active lately.</span></span><br />
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Worst moment this week: </b>Nothing really. Things are going really smoothly with this little one and I am incredibly thankful for that.</span></span><br />
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Miss anything:</b> This week there isn't much that I am missing…things are pretty darn good.</span></span><br />
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Movement: </b>Yes! He has been really active and I love it!</span></span><br />
<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Looking forward to: </b>Being able to see more movement.</span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I hope this finds you well</span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">With love, </span></span><br />
<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Whitney</span></span></div>
Whitney Starksenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17884657967611292135noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9175600998590732770.post-1689202715394600712014-09-01T11:34:00.000-07:002014-09-01T11:34:53.980-07:0021 weeks!<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Well, here we are, a little over half way through! In honor of that, I went out and bought none other than some Ben and Jerry's...half baked of course (because our little one is half baked...get it?) ;)</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Here is the belly picture of me at 21 weeks. Definitely getting bigger!</span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>How far along: </b>21 weeks</span></span><br />
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Baby is the size of a: </b>Pomegranate!</span></span><br />
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Showing:</b> Definitely </span></span><br />
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Gender:</b> It’s a boy!!</span></span><br />
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Maternity clothes: </b>Only bottoms….although some shirts are getting a little short.</span></span><br />
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Belly button in or out:</b> still in.</span></span><br />
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Symptoms: </b>Some definite round ligament pain (ouch!), hand and foot swelling and some lower back pain. Over all though, it is hard to complain…so far this pregnancy has been pretty easy on me and I am very thankful.</span></span><br />
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Sleep: </b>Not the best, but I know that it only gets worse so I am trying to keep perspective.</span></span><br />
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Cravings: </b>Freebirds burritos!!!</span></span><br />
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Queasy or sick: </b>Not at all.<b> </b></span></span><br />
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Best moment this week: </b>When our little boy decided to have a party in my belly and Noah was able to feel him move around for the first time! He has also learned to do a little tap dance on my bladder.</span></span><br />
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Worst moment this week: </b>Some of the round ligament pain was pretty bad, it was tough being at work with it.</span></span><br />
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Miss anything: </b>I could really go for a margarita….but that will have to wait a while longer.</span></span><br />
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Movement: </b>Yes! He is still small so it isn’t super consistent yet and that makes me mad haha but when he does move it is the coolest thing and brings me instant joy.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b style="letter-spacing: 0px;">Looking forward to: </b><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">Him continuing to be healthy and just growing! I'm excited for more </span>consistent<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"> movement too.</span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">And incase you had not seen, this was the day we found out that we are in fact having a boy!</span></span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiBScmDnYkPJ4JOHiHvN0Zf-QBPJ2U1uqaFksPQqyVdPs2f8whO0d1lyv1K47m6J5g2mirA5h05-6NAaiWJKvsDJ3FVygtVmoh12m2DCORq48H0wlZiUFGoRZEP4IaQsmSMTjn6TiBa8NSK/s1600/IMG_2604.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiBScmDnYkPJ4JOHiHvN0Zf-QBPJ2U1uqaFksPQqyVdPs2f8whO0d1lyv1K47m6J5g2mirA5h05-6NAaiWJKvsDJ3FVygtVmoh12m2DCORq48H0wlZiUFGoRZEP4IaQsmSMTjn6TiBa8NSK/s1600/IMG_2604.JPG" height="480" width="640" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We plan on bringing him home in that little outfit. We are hoping he fits haha! Noah and I were both little butterballs when we were born (8lbs 8oz and 8lbs 6oz). We are so thrilled to get to know this little human and we cannot wait until January! </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I hope this finds you well on this beautiful Labor day!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">With love,</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Whitney</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 12px; letter-spacing: 0px;"><br /></span></span>Whitney Starksenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17884657967611292135noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9175600998590732770.post-64095058230358673092014-08-10T21:10:00.000-07:002014-08-10T21:10:01.445-07:0018 Week update!<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It is so odd to think that in just a couple weeks I will be halfway through being pregnant (that is, if the baby comes out at 40 weeks and doesn't get too comfortable in there!) I feel like this week and the next one will be weeks with some fun milestones (getting to feel the baby move and finding out what we are having). We are so over the moon about this little one and the next big thing we are looking forward to is Noah being able to feel the baby move too...hopefully that comes soon :) </span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>How far along: </b>18 weeks</span></span><br />
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Baby is the size of a: </b>Sweet Potato!</span></span><br />
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Showing:</b> Same as the last update…showing for those that know me but no brave strangers yet :)</span></span><br />
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Gender:</b> We will find out in 6 days! We have everything we need for our little reveal and we cannot wait to find out!</span></span><br />
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Maternity clothes: </b>For the most part, yes. I have some jeans I can get away with putting the belly band on still…but I have a feeling those days will be over soon.</span></span><br />
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Belly button in or out:</b> In.</span></span><br />
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Symptoms: </b>Some pain from everything stretching, but nothing too crazy yet. I have been really tired again too, I think all of baby’s growing is making me tired!</span></span><br />
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Sleep: </b>Still been ok, wake up to adjust in bed and go to the bathroom more than I used to.</span></span><br />
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Cravings: </b>Nothing too specific…this week all I wanted was an iced chai from a coffee shop by us.</span></span><br />
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Queasy or sick: </b>I think that is all behind me now…</span></span><br />
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Best moment this week: </b>Feeling baby move for the first time! So incredibly exciting!</span></span><br />
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Worst moment this week: </b>It is just tough at work when I am feeling so tired.</span></span><br />
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Miss anything: </b>We were at a party last night and I do miss being able to have some wine or a margarita at those events.</span></span><br />
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Movement: </b>Yes!!! Finally!</span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Looking forward to: </b>Knowing what we are having and Noah being able to feel this little gem move too!</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">Well, that is all...but I will leave you with this lovely blooper picture haha. I was so tired </span>today! I definitely took a nap right after this :)</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Have a great week!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">With Love,</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Whitney</span></div>
<br />Whitney Starksenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17884657967611292135noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9175600998590732770.post-20404921638637972572014-08-04T17:38:00.003-07:002014-08-04T17:38:25.930-07:0016 week update!<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Well, I am up to date with all the pictures we have now. Hopefully we will get an 18 week picture soon so I can try to keep record of my belly growth! But for now, here is my 16 week update that is finally being posted!</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhKXQXIu3y3B27gnEvnIAzbfgZsTVASuN8KhgzQ57w_wLhe0rN-gCjYvNP7lOG294rnXJiUcgZxUPFDEgH0hPYoWvJ4PJNTrZHLcYYXOwbvSNL6KTYYyUxLWRrxuoH6LS6iB9WQDQDQfJe9/s1600/16+weeks.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhKXQXIu3y3B27gnEvnIAzbfgZsTVASuN8KhgzQ57w_wLhe0rN-gCjYvNP7lOG294rnXJiUcgZxUPFDEgH0hPYoWvJ4PJNTrZHLcYYXOwbvSNL6KTYYyUxLWRrxuoH6LS6iB9WQDQDQfJe9/s1600/16+weeks.jpg" height="640" width="425" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>How far along: </b> 16 weeks</span></span><br />
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Baby is the size of a: </b>Avocado!</span></span><br />
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Showing:</b> Not enough for people to be brave and ask when I am due, but definitely have a belly to those who know me :)</span></span><br />
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Gender:</b> We find out this month!!!</span></span><br />
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Maternity clothes: </b>Yup. Finally had to put away the last pair of non maternity work pants that fit until now.</span></span><br />
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Belly button in or out:</b> in</span></span><br />
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Symptoms: </b>My skin is still trying to figure out all these hormones and decides breaking out is a great way to deal with it….(so not cool). Other than that, feeling pretty darn good!</span></span><br />
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Sleep: </b>I wake up about 2 times a night to go to the bathroom…that isn’t my favorite but I know it will get much worse as I get bigger haha.</span></span><br />
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Cravings: </b>Nothing really…I definitely want savory foods more than sweet which is totally opposite of what I typically want.</span></span><br />
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Queasy or sick: </b>Not at all</span></span><br />
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Best moment this week: </b>Knowing we will know so soon what is growing inside me!</span></span><br />
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Worst moment this week: </b>This week has been great, nothing bad to report :)</span></span><br />
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Miss anything: </b>Mmm a good glass of wine or a margarita would be nice haha</span></span><br />
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Movement: </b>Nothing yet!</span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Looking forward to: </b>Feeling movement and finding out if we are having a little boy or girl on August 16th!</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">With love,</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Whitney</span><br />
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Whitney Starksenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17884657967611292135noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9175600998590732770.post-89873313637672273172014-08-04T17:27:00.000-07:002014-08-04T17:27:06.966-07:0013 week update<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Clearly taking a picture each week is my strong suit (sense the sarcasm)...We took a picture at 6 weeks one at 7 weeks then another at 13. oops.</span><div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">So here is what I looked like at 13 weeks!</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgD7xetGdDAKvz9cPBxrv0ZZLDWIVglfTVBxJUyBCnff8bGDc7mnyqy4NqUg8DknLWUyiH0xI_zFRzBaE5DQHW4qwcOM6rP1nHjbmWFJzIRQvLAmEN9kM1e7X12mSXqLyKMO3D2MD8ijFQQ/s1600/13+weeks.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgD7xetGdDAKvz9cPBxrv0ZZLDWIVglfTVBxJUyBCnff8bGDc7mnyqy4NqUg8DknLWUyiH0xI_zFRzBaE5DQHW4qwcOM6rP1nHjbmWFJzIRQvLAmEN9kM1e7X12mSXqLyKMO3D2MD8ijFQQ/s1600/13+weeks.jpg" height="640" width="491" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>How far along: </b>13 Weeks</span></span><br />
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Baby is the size of a:</b> Peach</span></span><br />
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Showing:</b> I think so (after looking at the picture, I sure hope this is considered showing!! haha!)</span></span><br />
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Gender:</b> We will have our ultrasound on August 7th and find out on August 16th.</span></span><br />
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Maternity clothes: </b>Some, mostly able to get away with just a belly band for now.</span></span><br />
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Belly button in or out:</b> in</span></span><br />
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Symptoms: </b>I feel like some energy is coming back but I am still pretty tired.</span></span><br />
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Sleep: </b>It has been a little tough, waking up in the night a lot.</span></span><br />
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Cravings: </b>I still am just loving fruit. I can’t stomach veggies right now which is odd…I typically love them.</span></span><br />
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Queasy or sick: </b>Not really, every now and again I eat something that will get my stomach upset but overall pretty good.</span></span><br />
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Best moment this week: </b>Getting to tell everyone! </span></span><br />
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Worst moment this week: </b>Nothing really, everything has been pretty good.</span></span><br />
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Miss anything: </b>Not really.</span></span><br />
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Movement: </b>Not yet, excited for that first time I feel something though!</span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Looking forward to: </b>Finding out what we are having and feeling movement for the first time!</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I hope this update finds you well :)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">With love,</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Whitney</span></div>
Whitney Starksenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17884657967611292135noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9175600998590732770.post-78823158945102252162014-07-29T18:38:00.003-07:002014-07-29T18:38:56.014-07:00#BabyStarksen<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I am pretty sure this will not come as a surprise to anyone at this point, but I wanted to document this pregnancy from the beginning. So, while these are intended to be weekly posts....I have already been terrible about taking a picture each week. However, I figure some is better than none! So here it is from the beginning!<br />The day we found out! (May 3rd!)</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiYLpqP9u_c-UZbbg-S1cPcM3l2XEbLjmaN7eH4YzzbG4x30jNVQJintdVqVkSjBle7hQdujwzJqQLxzlvSbEk80dh6OgKlzepshINqSvFyV34VZx9aLfDy2TDwwD9YXJMRnDpEPppjuEkQ/s1600/photo.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiYLpqP9u_c-UZbbg-S1cPcM3l2XEbLjmaN7eH4YzzbG4x30jNVQJintdVqVkSjBle7hQdujwzJqQLxzlvSbEk80dh6OgKlzepshINqSvFyV34VZx9aLfDy2TDwwD9YXJMRnDpEPppjuEkQ/s1600/photo.JPG" height="400" width="300" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It was so difficult keeping this a secret up until a little less than a month ago, and when we finally told the world, this is how we did it</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhMi_Ny5kO03UEJZUgWEVR628IAz4mRdOrmVkvBfStgA3VBcfWfZhUqmExmqRlqA1CWN_vxxzu8SETrfBiUSr6Np8TtpOMpf4pbWjVnl13LS1Rg9iRiSdN6q7WqKDp5F0pO8lbiU1OXwGbY/s1600/BabyStarksen!.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhMi_Ny5kO03UEJZUgWEVR628IAz4mRdOrmVkvBfStgA3VBcfWfZhUqmExmqRlqA1CWN_vxxzu8SETrfBiUSr6Np8TtpOMpf4pbWjVnl13LS1Rg9iRiSdN6q7WqKDp5F0pO8lbiU1OXwGbY/s1600/BabyStarksen!.jpg" height="275" width="400" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">As I said in the beginning, I am trying to do weekly updates...but that hasn't exactly been happening but here is the first picture I took at about 6 weeks</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZcf3yYK6M9SIKqRefxxalmY-Dj46ajjL_r_o-a6n1_XfnIRuLizIaJCTVjAKGALsEQdBKQUilNgjpJVbjVL9_T0GsSTLrMPgNSgnPxPst_0noLw4cx9B38aNCY94Ez7IqdhQze_2VJJ4B/s1600/6+weeks.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZcf3yYK6M9SIKqRefxxalmY-Dj46ajjL_r_o-a6n1_XfnIRuLizIaJCTVjAKGALsEQdBKQUilNgjpJVbjVL9_T0GsSTLrMPgNSgnPxPst_0noLw4cx9B38aNCY94Ez7IqdhQze_2VJJ4B/s1600/6+weeks.jpg" height="400" width="345" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>How far along: </b>6 weeks</span></span><br />
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Baby is the size of a:</b> Sweet Pea!</span></span><br />
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Showing:</b> nope</span></span><br />
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Gender:</b> not sure yet<b> </b> </span></span><br />
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Maternity clothes:</b> nope.</span></span><br />
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Belly button in or out:</b> in</span></span><br />
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Symptoms: </b>Tired all the time! Feeling sick whenever I eat, luckily eating fruit has seemed safe and my belly has been ok with it. Oh and the breaking out...that can stop any time now.</span></span><br />
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Sleep: </b>It has been good, a few nights of lower back pain made it tough but nothing crazy.</span></span><br />
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Cravings</b>: Fruit and Mexican food</span></span><br />
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Queasy or sick: </b>Unfortunately, that started this week....womp womp.</span></span><br />
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Best moment this week: </b>Realizing that my birthday next year I will be a Mamma!<b> </b></span></span><br />
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Worst moment this week: </b>The sickness catching up to me.</span></span><br />
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Miss anything: </b>Energy </span></span><br />
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Movement: </b>Can’t feel anything yet!</span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Looking forward to:</b> Our first ultrasound!</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I know that hearing about my growing little one is probably terribly boring for most people...but I need somewhere to document it, and this is where it is going to be :)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I hope this finds you well, and hopefully you will see a bit more of me here on the blog now that I have something really fun to post about (for me anyway)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">With Love,</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Whitney</span></div>
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Whitney Starksenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17884657967611292135noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9175600998590732770.post-22670826019280112072013-11-13T19:15:00.001-08:002013-11-13T19:15:25.522-08:00A little bit of everythingSo, it has been a while. I think some of that was on purpose...I didn't want to just word vomit all over the internet.<br />
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Life has been good. Full of change and challenge, but good. Since I last wrote I have a new job! How I loved being a nanny and looking after such a fun and vibrant little boy, but the change was welcomed and I am enjoying my new job as well. I now sit in an office all day, which I am finding is not ideal...I need my vitamin D! But I love the predictability of my hours and the fact that I am learning and growing and growing a skill set that will be so helpful for me in future job searches.<br />
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Things have been good and challenging. I have been learning how to be kind to myself. I am learning how to make mistakes and not let them be devastating to me. I am learning that there is no such thing as a balance between work and everything else you want to do. Finding that balance, or rather not finding it, has been incredibly difficult for me.<br />
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The time I do find to do the things that breathe life into me, is spent a lot on my long time desire to learn calligraphy. I think in a lot of ways, calligraphy is teaching me that there is no such thing as perfect. It challenges the perfectionist in me, and I think that is a good thing.<br />
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More than anything right now, I am searching for God's purpose in my time here. Not my time here on earth as in the purpose of life...but the purpose of my physical location. My job, my church, my neighborhood. It is something I have struggled with a lot here and I recently read from "Jesus Today" by Sarah Young that "There are many different ways to wait, and some are much better than others. Beneficial waiting involves looking to Me continually-trusting and loving Me." So, I am trying to find what it means to wait where I am beneficially. Waiting is hard.<br />
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Anyway, I would post some pictures but I literally have not been taking any. What is wrong with me?! The last picture I have of Noah and myself is from our 2 year anniversary....all the way back on September 4th. What the heck.<br />
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I hope this finds you all well. Not sure what this blog will be or turn into...I have projects that I have been doing but as I said, finding work and life balance has been difficult and so who knows when those things will be posted. But it does feel good to write again...writing can be therapeutic.<br />
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With love,<br />
Whitney<br />
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<br />Whitney Starksenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17884657967611292135noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9175600998590732770.post-64694813460551302452013-05-22T16:35:00.000-07:002013-05-22T16:35:14.954-07:00Thin PlaceI would not be a real APU girl if I was not in the <a href="http://www.shaunaniequist.com/">Shauna Niequist</a> fan club. Luckily for me, she is an easy person to be a fan of. I have read two of her books, most recently finishing Bittersweet. Saying that I loved it would be an understatement.<br />
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As I was reading this book I literally felt like she knew me and my life and how everything that has happened and is happening makes me feel. I love when I feel understood. One of the chapters in the book has continued to resonate with me and I just can't tell enough people about it and how they should read it.<br />
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The chapter I am talking about concentrates on the idea of a thin place, "A thin place, according to the Celtic mystics, is a place where the boundary between the natural world and the supernatural one is more permeable-thinner, if you will. Sometimes they're physical places. There are places all over Ireland where people have said, if you stand here, if you face this direction, if you hike to the top of that ridge at just the right time of day, that's a thin place, a place where the passage between heaven and earth is a short one, a place where God's presence is almost palpable." (from Bittersweet) I could read that over and over again. I immediately thought of 2 physical places for me that feel as though they are a thin place.<br />
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One of those places is a little camping spot my parents and I happened upon one year when I rolled my ankle backpacking. We had a different destination in mind, but instead had to find somewhere closer, and we scored in a big way. We continued to go back to that place year after year and every time I am there, I feel like things are right in the world. I feel a peace that I usually don't, I feel God in a big way.<br />
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The second place might sound strange, but there is a sense of peace and hope that I get every time I visit Oregon. This last time as I ate at Nearly Normals with Hilary and Noah, and then the next night cooking dinner with Hilary in her cute little house, that was a thin place. As Noah and I spent time in our favorite sleepy little town outside of Ashland, that was a thin place. And as we ate dinner around a table at Tom and Elaine's little cabin on a hill, spent a dreary day wine tasting, and Noah teaching Elaine the art of the slack line, that was a thin space.<br />
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I love that I can identify a couple physical places for me that I know I feel that peace and hope and joy. What is hard about that, though, is also becoming fully aware of where those thin places are not. As Noah put it, the thick places. Places that feel really hard and impossible to feel much of anything at all...those places exist too. Right now, I am living in one of those places and days, weeks, months are battles to break through to something.<br />
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And I guess that all leaves me wondering if it is possible to make a thick place into a thin place...and if so, how on earth do you go about doing that?<br />
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Here are a few pictures from my time in Oregon. I didn't take many at all, I was too busy enjoying the peace and joy and the presence of people I love dearly.<br />
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With Love,</div>
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Whitney</div>
<br />Whitney Starksenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17884657967611292135noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9175600998590732770.post-45611807302635498882013-05-15T20:13:00.001-07:002013-05-15T20:13:38.817-07:00#FitchTheHomelessA few days ago I ran across an article talking about Abercrombie & Fitch and, in my opinion, their appalling marketing techniques. The CEO of A&F, Mike Jeffries was quoted in an interview some time ago saying "In every school there are the cool and popular kids, and then there are the not-so-cool kids. We go after the cool kids. A lot of people don't belong and they can't belong. Are we exclusionary? Absolutely."If you haven't yet heard about all of this, here is a short <a href="http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/video/abercrombie-fitch-sizes-fire-critics-normal-sizes-sold-19141661">news video</a> to catch you up for what this post is really about.<div>
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Here is the thing, I read an article about all of this nonsense first and it really upset me. I was floored that someone would so blatantly talk about being exclusive and only wanting 'cool kids' to wear the clothes. However, other than not buying their clothes (not a problem, I never have, but you can bet I won't be buying their number 8 perfume anymore) and encouraging others to do the same, I wasn't sure what there was to do. Some people are protesting outside of stores, others are sending their purchased A&F clothing back to the company in protest. And then there is this guy, he <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O95DBxnXiSo">made a video</a> with an idea of how to change the image of A&F. </div>
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His idea if you have yet to see the video is to go to thrift stores and purchase every pice of A&F clothing you can find and give it to the homeless. Ask your friends to look through their closets and look through yours too and give all the A&F apparel away to the homeless. I can appreciate his heart (I am assuming it was a good natured thought) but I REALLY disagree with the message it is sending. I feel that the video is just saying that the homeless don't fit that cool kid mold either but we are going to really piss Jeffries off by having all of them wear his clothes. While I love the idea of making that guy super upset about his brand not being what he wants it to be, I feel that giving the clothes to the homeless just further confirms the idea that they are less than, or beneath an ideal. I think the idea of clothing the homeless is great. But I think clothing them for this purpose does more harm than good.</div>
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I know these thoughts aren't totally coherent...my brain is still processing everything. But I felt that something should be said to the contrary. I will not be joining the #FitchTheHomeless movement. I will continue to look at the homeless as people with hopes and dreams and stories, not just a means for me to get my point across. And I would hope that you would join me in not supporting A&F.</div>
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Whitney Starksenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17884657967611292135noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9175600998590732770.post-77289901014069862032013-04-19T22:51:00.001-07:002013-04-19T22:51:52.871-07:00A wonderful accident (recipe)So, you know how it is...you're browsing through Pinterest around lunch time and stumble upon a recipe that makes you drool. You go through the ingredients and a mental check list of what you have on hand and go to make it, because obviously you have everything. (I was going to add, 'oh wait, this is just me?' but lets be honest here, I know you all food gawk on Pinterest too.)<br />
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But let's be real. That is not how it goes. I found <a href="http://www.justataste.com/2011/07/quinoa-with-corn-and-scallions/">this recipe</a> and had everything but scallions, and that was ok because I had some onion in the fridge. To make a long story short, I had no onion, it had gone bad (yuck!). Without onion I felt the recipe would be super bland. But I had already started cooking the quinoa, so I had to come up with something to do with it. And lucky for me, not having scallions or onions made for a delicious surprise. And, well because this was unexpected, I have zero pictures. Sorry about that.<br />
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So here is what you will need<br />
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1 cup uncooked quinoa (rinsed, don't be lazy.)<br />
2 cups vegetable broth or 1/2 vegetable bouillon cube<br />
1/2 can black beans (or about 1 cup)<br />
1 cup corn (frozen, fresh, canned...whatever you have)<br />
Olive Oil<br />
salt<br />
pepper<br />
1/2 tsp onion powder<br />
1/2 tsp garlic powder<br />
1/4 tsp chipotle powder (I think this was the star of the show, such a great smoky/spicy flavor!)<br />
1T butter<br />
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Rinse your quinoa and put it into the 2 cups of boiling vegetable broth and reduce to a simmer. Cover and come back to it in a bit.<br />
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As you are waiting for the quinoa to cook, put a little olive oil in a pan and put the corn in. I cooked mine over medium heat until it was a little charred....or 'fire roasted' looking. I love the flavor it gives the corn. Once the corn is getting a bit golden, I added the black beans and cooked it on low just to warm the beans. Then comes the myriad of spices. I did not measure at all...but I would start with what I put above, remember, that if it seems like a lot for the black beans and corn alone, it will be added to the quinoa and not as strong as it may seem. Anyway start with the above measurements and add more if you need. As for salt and pepper, I just added a pinch of each and called it good.<br />
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Once the quinoa is done, just mix it all together and add the butter. The Butter is definitely not necessary and could be omitted so easily, I just enjoy a little butter in my cooking every now and then.<br />
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I hope that you enjoy it. Have fun with it and change it up. I loved using the leftovers as a salad topper along with some cottage cheese. Sounds odd, I know...but try it!<br />
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And if you do not like the uncertain measurements blame my mother! She taught me to cook and we come from a long line of measure-ers who answer the question "how much should I add?" with "until it looks right." Much to my husbands dismay, I have inherited this trait and have maybe 3 things I cook that I actually measure. So, blame my wonderful, loving and amazing mother for this fault in me.<br />
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I hope this finds you well, and having a fabulous start to your weekend.<br />
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What happy accidents have you had in the kitchen? Any favorite recipes born from just experimenting?<br />
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With love,<br />
WhitneyWhitney Starksenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17884657967611292135noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9175600998590732770.post-16413627929768076162013-04-01T20:14:00.000-07:002013-04-01T20:14:38.261-07:00a little bit of lifeIt has been so long since my last post! What do I even talk about after so much time has passed?? Ha!<br />
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I guess life has been pretty good. Things are changing around here for us soon. I will be looking for a new job come July, and hopefully not as a Nanny again. I am ready to move on to other things. Which is why I am applying for a dream internship that will put me in a position to become a Certified Child LIfe Specialist, which is a job I have wanted for some time now. I will hear about that in mid to late June....until then prayers and positive thoughts are more than welcome!<br />
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I still have some projects to share at some point....but lately I have just been trying to find joy and contentment where I am at, which is far easier said than done, unfortunately. But enough of that, there have been some great things happening lately too.<br />
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Last weekend we had some fun with friends in San Francisco, I didn't take too many pictures...I was too busy enjoying the day. We were able to be local tourists for the day. I had to go to Miette and get my favorite French Macaroons. Walked to Pier 39 ate some delicious Boudin food and then walked up to Ghiradelli Square and of course everything there is fantastic! We ended the day with some wonderful time on the slack line and in the hammock. Such a great day!<br />
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So, not much of an update...but hopefully it finds you well. We are Oregon bound this week on a mini vacation and could not be more excited! I am sure I will have plenty to talk about after we get back from Oregon, along with lovely pictures because Oregon is just beautiful! Do you sense my overwhelming love for Oregon?<br />
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With love,<br />
Whitney<br />
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<br />Whitney Starksenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17884657967611292135noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9175600998590732770.post-90731440596992914812013-01-27T22:36:00.000-08:002013-01-27T22:36:09.250-08:00Over due thank you. (Way over due!)I am realizing that I never thanked Kalie over at <a href="http://www.kaliedub.com/">Kaliedub</a> for my lovely new banner...I guess it is no longer 'new'. It has been up there, gracing my blog for a while now. Kalie keeps up a lovely blog over there with ever changing headers and wonderful posts full of lovely pictures, recipes, DIY ideas and life thoughts. You would definitely not be disappointed if you traveled on over to her corner of the blogging world and stuck around for a while.<br />
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Maybe one of these days I will be talented enough to make my own banner, but for now this one is lovely and is sticking around. Thanks Kalie!<br />
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With love,<br />
WhitneyWhitney Starksenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17884657967611292135noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9175600998590732770.post-47300657683938149872013-01-21T21:19:00.000-08:002013-01-21T21:19:48.275-08:00Life is slow. And that is good.Today was slow in the best way possible. For Christmas we bought a Hammock, a very portable hammock (you can find it <a href="http://ticketothemoon.com/en/tttm-shop-hammock.html?size=double">here</a>). Today it had its maiden voyage at the park and it was great. Noah used his new slackline at the park too. He was quite the circus act with all the kiddos walking around asking what he was doing. Friday we took a drive out to Pacifica after work and got to see the sunset. The sky was just electric that evening. Life is good. Oh, and of course I have been knitting some too. I am working on some socks, I used <a href="http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/2-at-a-time-toe-up-short-row-heel-socks-on-2-circular-needles">this</a> pattern. Here are just a few snapshots into life lately.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">This was a part of our wedding and now it hangs in our kitchen for our tea and coffee area (see it in this <a href="http://whitneymarie19.blogspot.com/2012/03/wedded-wednesday-thrifting.html">post</a>)</td></tr>
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If you are interested in making something like the chalk board wood slice pictured above all you need is a piece of wood you would like (mine is from Michael's), a paint color you want and I also used some primer to save some coats of paint. Here is a post over at <a href="http://www.abeautifulmess.com/2012/02/how-to-mix-chalkboard-paint-in-any-color.html">A Beautiful Mess</a> all about making your own chalkboard paint.</div>
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lets end with a picture of my parents adorable Puppy, Yuba. Doesn't she make you feel better just looking at her? I love her!</div>
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I hope this finds you all well. I have a few projects rolling around in my head that might come to fruition at some point and end up on here :) but for now, life is slow and I am enjoying that.</div>
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With love,</div>
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Whitney</div>
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Whitney Starksenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17884657967611292135noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9175600998590732770.post-59090034864474440822013-01-03T22:58:00.001-08:002013-01-03T23:57:04.747-08:00Life in picturesI hope you all had a wonderful time with family and friends during this Christmas season. I had almost 2 weeks off and I managed to go to Disneyland, see family, finish knitting <a href="http://www.knitandbake.com/2012/03/09/one-skein-one-night-seed-stitch-tall-cowl-easy-free-knitting-pattern/">this</a> cowl and start knitting some socks! Oh, and I cannot forget spending lots of time drinking hot tea, one of my favorite past times. Thought I would share a few pictures from life in December, better late than never!<br />
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Snow globe DIY found <a href="http://whipperberry.com/2011/12/anthro-inspired-snow-globes-tutorial.html">here</a> and Glitter reindeer found <a href="http://justdaisydreaming.blogspot.com/2011/11/glitter-reindeer.html">here</a></div>
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I hope the new year is treating you well thus far. </div>
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What did you do during some time off for Christmas? Whatever it was, I hope it was relaxing and rejuvenating.</div>
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With love,</div>
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Whitney Starksenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17884657967611292135noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9175600998590732770.post-60105558632618035282012-11-27T23:39:00.000-08:002012-11-28T08:10:48.329-08:00Simple Wreath DIYSince last Christmas I have been wanting to make a wreath but I wanted something really simple. You would think something simple would be easy to find...I have not been so fortunate. So, as the saying goes, if you want it done right, do it yourself. So I did. If you want to as well, here is what you will need.<br />
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</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">I found that scissors were slightly useless in this process, luckily wire cutters are very helpful. This whole process is super simple. The green berry branches you see above were plastic and each little sprig just popped right off. No need for scissors or wire cutters, it was great! And as for the red berry branches, those are wire based but are super easy to take apart.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
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</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Once you have done that, it is time to assemble your wreath.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
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</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">This type of wreath base is perfect for just weaving the wire ends into it with the hot glue. It is all up to you how full you want your wreath to be. So just keep gluing until you have the perfect wreath for your front door! </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
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</div><span style="text-align: left;">I am in love with ours (my wreath came a bit lop sided...but I think it just adds some character). I hope you enjoy some wreath making of your own. What kind of wreath will you hang on your door this year?</span><br />
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</span><span style="text-align: left;">With love,</span><br />
<span style="text-align: left;">Whitney</span>Whitney Starksenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17884657967611292135noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9175600998590732770.post-81890533921691307472012-11-04T13:27:00.004-08:002012-11-04T22:04:03.023-08:00Finding restWhew it has been a long time since my last post! oops.<br />
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I guess this time around when I had a week off I took advantage of doing absolutely noting. Seriously. I think I can confidently say that outside of dishes and basic cleaning there has been zero productivity. And honestly, I feel great about it!<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, serif; line-height: 22px; text-align: left;"> </span><br />
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I read <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/exhaustion-is-not-a-status-symbol/2012/10/02/19d27aa8-0cba-11e2-bb5e-492c0d30bff6_story.html">this article</a> not long ago and it really struck me. I would venture to say that what I am going to say about it wont do it justice and you should also go and read it when you have a chance, it is refreshing to read. Probably one of my favorite quotes from this article was this "One of the things that I found was the importance of rest and play, and the willingness to let go of exhaustion as a status symbol and productivity as self-worth."<br />
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Although my life is not always crazy busy, it can be some times. And often, ask my husband, during my time off I struggle with sleeping in (at first) or taking a nap. I feel like if I don't get the dishes done while he is at work I have somehow failed. I think that this last week I put a bit of this article into practice. I feel like I did things that made me happy and tried to mix in some productivity...but most of all I relaxed! I read, and drank tea. I tried new recipes and did some Christmas crafts. I took naps and went to the gym less than I probably should have...and that is just fine with me today. Because today I feel rested.<br />
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I hope that you read the article. But more importantly, I hope you start to let go of feeling like your worth or status depends on your exhaustion and productivity levels.<br />
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Have a happy and well rested Sunday.<br />
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With love,<br />
Whitney<br />
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Oh and I just have to post a picture of the new puppy my parents got! Her name is Yuba and she is a Vizsla (sorry for the grainy phone picture...but you can still see how adorable she is!) I am in love with her and want to steal her!<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6XoVQShT-mibWC_lUgpq4Xnx03SwkO7ADaoMWNM-aHfTjkSLZySc-cbtVFbOOzg0LX_u0N7-ZEUOjqK_OZ9a5uWmjvr3jKX3zTTTxOqtgWFtDb7B9uPjCvAfEvITANDb35Q1L4C-0e8CS/s1600/IMG_1455.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6XoVQShT-mibWC_lUgpq4Xnx03SwkO7ADaoMWNM-aHfTjkSLZySc-cbtVFbOOzg0LX_u0N7-ZEUOjqK_OZ9a5uWmjvr3jKX3zTTTxOqtgWFtDb7B9uPjCvAfEvITANDb35Q1L4C-0e8CS/s640/IMG_1455.jpg" width="480" /></a></div>
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Whitney Starksenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17884657967611292135noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9175600998590732770.post-4256019189481439752012-10-01T21:30:00.001-07:002012-10-01T21:30:42.408-07:00Lately: in picturesHere are just some pictures from the past couple months of life :)<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgdEOnLditFHNzodl2zofY-d20o4WzXe6NHnoI5QSMWOb_R2ncLGcleEvJKdMfT-cWpntbMkKqsIVQr2VU80OMPkZoMAWqmilIScRQ8T7LVSVmuyO7P1gbnBHp6-rdzVJi1E-L4Kflxuej-/s1600/to+be+blogged.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgdEOnLditFHNzodl2zofY-d20o4WzXe6NHnoI5QSMWOb_R2ncLGcleEvJKdMfT-cWpntbMkKqsIVQr2VU80OMPkZoMAWqmilIScRQ8T7LVSVmuyO7P1gbnBHp6-rdzVJi1E-L4Kflxuej-/s640/to+be+blogged.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjmF206Da3BaPWlLFvSnUxUA0BeQEjWHnZmIsP0F9sLT07QHaegjKBAdXpIexVni22ZmTn3zPx7Nu2aqvzuRMZ2DU5ccf8kymHG3CKKOSMde7q0hL4qATfjwUpFiYLqD7JIqjFxT8e70wug/s1600/life+lately+pics.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjmF206Da3BaPWlLFvSnUxUA0BeQEjWHnZmIsP0F9sLT07QHaegjKBAdXpIexVni22ZmTn3zPx7Nu2aqvzuRMZ2DU5ccf8kymHG3CKKOSMde7q0hL4qATfjwUpFiYLqD7JIqjFxT8e70wug/s640/life+lately+pics.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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Also, if any of you are praying people or just like to send positive thoughts. We have recently requested to be allowed a small dog here in our apartment building. We found a 3 month old little german shepherd mix today that we have absolutely fallen in love with. We are hopeful but any prayers or positive thoughts would be greatly appreciated!</div>
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I hope you are all doing well, hopefully enjoying cooler fall weather than I am currently (it was 90 degrees today!).</div>
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With love,</div>
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Whitney</div>
<br />Whitney Starksenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17884657967611292135noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9175600998590732770.post-3321725496944141582012-09-26T13:48:00.001-07:002012-09-26T13:48:19.575-07:00Current LovesI have a DIY I am working on but figured in the mean time I would just share with you some of the current loves that I have with ideas, or things etc.<br />
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First, I found <a href="http://www.womenshealthmag.com/fitness/half-marathon?cm_mmc=pinterest-_-womenshealth-_-content-fitness-_-HalfMarathon">this</a> plan for training for a half marathon. I have been tossing around the idea of running one of these for a little while and maybe sometime soon-ish I will find one to run and use that 10 week training guide...maybe ;)<br />
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Here are just some odds and ends that I would love to grace my closet some day :)<br />
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I found this site, <a href="http://www.balielf.com/">ELF</a>, and they make each item for your order so you can specify if you don't want a certain aspect or see if they can add something. So great! I love both of these items from them!<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9fG1yBifVJrDAyLVFslxl4nfjmORoZdWBO5LxY7EHHWA0ru9VEmLfMAFLBehsTY0Q2mBcLvnU_Q3LhrJBL1cVhUQLfKozX3gDHSs8RDEPoP8l7sIa38e-iBuTg6j_JL4Idu4zLF9oeQ_7/s1600/Screen+Shot+2012-09-26+at+12.59.04+PM.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9fG1yBifVJrDAyLVFslxl4nfjmORoZdWBO5LxY7EHHWA0ru9VEmLfMAFLBehsTY0Q2mBcLvnU_Q3LhrJBL1cVhUQLfKozX3gDHSs8RDEPoP8l7sIa38e-iBuTg6j_JL4Idu4zLF9oeQ_7/s320/Screen+Shot+2012-09-26+at+12.59.04+PM.png" width="244" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhB5nXm_iicojiESVrc5jBVBEMlYB4JF8GPaJ3JUcGfLouGu-aTgl7ZlIL7o_mp9V-L1-IQHxWw_L7hdnKXeqwL5rb14mbJjrFqC226uZe0gw7yaXCd4us_8OsnC6gDwl7NgOUaFSCyrK8R/s1600/Screen+Shot+2012-09-26+at+12.57.43+PM.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; display: inline !important; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="235" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhB5nXm_iicojiESVrc5jBVBEMlYB4JF8GPaJ3JUcGfLouGu-aTgl7ZlIL7o_mp9V-L1-IQHxWw_L7hdnKXeqwL5rb14mbJjrFqC226uZe0gw7yaXCd4us_8OsnC6gDwl7NgOUaFSCyrK8R/s320/Screen+Shot+2012-09-26+at+12.57.43+PM.png" width="320" /></a><br />
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I also came across this darling DIY from <a href="http://blog.freepeople.com/2012/09/diy-lace-doily-bowl/">Free People</a> today and think this could be a perfect little decoration or catch all for a watch, keys, rings etc.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjxPrszPxCVCd-PhyHwLw_Gt8a8Gnym8IZOAlmwbbdrOxopV_gxRY4PJhmUFXJAqgv29nT7_Dp0B20IBSMEG6PfJIGnnu1cyD-HoLf_j7-WR3KT92ZNLd80EMqeuRps7B9yqSb3fXMZ9XlQ/s1600/Screen+Shot+2012-09-26+at+1.37.26+PM.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="425" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjxPrszPxCVCd-PhyHwLw_Gt8a8Gnym8IZOAlmwbbdrOxopV_gxRY4PJhmUFXJAqgv29nT7_Dp0B20IBSMEG6PfJIGnnu1cyD-HoLf_j7-WR3KT92ZNLd80EMqeuRps7B9yqSb3fXMZ9XlQ/s640/Screen+Shot+2012-09-26+at+1.37.26+PM.png" width="640" /></a></div>
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I also found these lovely <a href="http://www.bloomtheorystraps.com/">camera straps</a>, however they are a little out of my price range, so I am attempting a DIY combing some ideas I got from these lovely ones.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiLBkOOCd5JiZlo70XBkKXVQIVNfXNS2pMsdchMsRYVU0gywfa2nMpr8gKlYJLEJbvHhGIWOERdsaDWkV0IyQX6WIS4lu2X6lDGl-PQhCSQbzmpQJtIulHKQPF-lZeYtXvxUw9UECnxaDGo/s1600/Screen+Shot+2012-09-26+at+1.40.30+PM.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiLBkOOCd5JiZlo70XBkKXVQIVNfXNS2pMsdchMsRYVU0gywfa2nMpr8gKlYJLEJbvHhGIWOERdsaDWkV0IyQX6WIS4lu2X6lDGl-PQhCSQbzmpQJtIulHKQPF-lZeYtXvxUw9UECnxaDGo/s200/Screen+Shot+2012-09-26+at+1.40.30+PM.png" width="130" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjSEXPlVmLorbljx2F5vXfUAsW42_KcDgBIoA49zFVUoqHUDK4tpLc9gvipOineanJbYBAJr5pNtnK-Ql9FhUNOIosGLN83Sth3BZ9YiML-NjyCYvF73fg6yFGL36W0wCUfs4VXo8MYxa0X/s1600/Screen+Shot+2012-09-26+at+1.40.13+PM.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjSEXPlVmLorbljx2F5vXfUAsW42_KcDgBIoA49zFVUoqHUDK4tpLc9gvipOineanJbYBAJr5pNtnK-Ql9FhUNOIosGLN83Sth3BZ9YiML-NjyCYvF73fg6yFGL36W0wCUfs4VXo8MYxa0X/s200/Screen+Shot+2012-09-26+at+1.40.13+PM.png" width="130" /></a><br /> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUNFWEZE2djsQa0MZO3eJ5p3JI7id0SAkYhovFhgmBwdCIFByXm7Rb369a270uRr2HBfToMYObAFSWoqO_Uu0BHzLBPnoT2tv1NBJkYWlNbwOFP-IJZH0pTC77GQ2ECYbP87_sLDfg-66W/s1600/Screen+Shot+2012-09-26+at+1.39.24+PM.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUNFWEZE2djsQa0MZO3eJ5p3JI7id0SAkYhovFhgmBwdCIFByXm7Rb369a270uRr2HBfToMYObAFSWoqO_Uu0BHzLBPnoT2tv1NBJkYWlNbwOFP-IJZH0pTC77GQ2ECYbP87_sLDfg-66W/s200/Screen+Shot+2012-09-26+at+1.39.24+PM.png" width="131" /></a></div>
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<span style="text-align: left;">I hope you are all having a great week! What are you currently loving?</span><br />
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With love,</div>
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Whitney</div>
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p.s. sorry for the pictures being so lame and small. Blogger is going to make me die prematurely of stress because of how dumb it is when you are trying to add photos to a post. Again, I beg, if anyone had insight on how to make more than one picture fit in a row (and not be microscopic) I would be super grateful. </div>
Whitney Starksenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17884657967611292135noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9175600998590732770.post-12085236055574092362012-09-18T09:23:00.000-07:002012-09-18T09:23:03.881-07:00Dapper little onesSo way back in April or so, I mentioned making a little onsie for a friend who was having a baby as well as for the little boy that I watch (See post <a href="http://whitneymarie19.blogspot.com/2012/04/now-that-wedded-wednesdays-are-over-i.html">here</a>).<br />
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It has been a while since I mentioned it but I finally have a picture of a finished one on the adorable little boy that I get to watch three days a week! Once I made one I found myself making many more for people who are having little boys, because every little boy, no matter how small, deserves a dapper little outfit :)<br />
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Isn't he just precious? And I think he has a future in modeling...clearly a natural with the posing :)</div>
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I hope you are all having a great week so far.</div>
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With Love,</div>
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Whitney</div>
<br />Whitney Starksenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17884657967611292135noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9175600998590732770.post-67567515432014419052012-09-10T17:40:00.000-07:002012-09-11T15:54:10.964-07:00Disasters and tragedyThis post has been written, deleted, re-written, added on to and mulled over a lot. It is something I was not sure if I should or would post because it isn't a DIY or something cute....it's life. It's a bit vulnerable and a little bit guarded too. But here it is.<br />
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I think often about people who are a part of or affected by terrible natural disasters or just simply terrible tragedy. Their lives are forever changed. Perspective forever shifted, ideas of God radically changed- for better or worse. We move so fast. Our thoughts so fleeting, but these moments, days, months and years that these people live after a tragedy are anything but fleeting.<br />
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Tragedy struck my family almost four months ago.<br />
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It is difficult for me to even say that it has been four months. It feels like it could have been just yesterday. The pain is still real. There are moments of anger toward God and then in another quick moment I turn from anger to simply crying out to him and praying for things I don't even quite understand....praying for things I don't even know how to pray for. Tears still come when you least expect it. They sneak up on you just when you feel like life might be getting back to normal. Whatever normal is. Days keep moving. The pages of the calendar keep turning and all you want is life to pause. Just stop for one second. Let me catch my breath. Let me take time to feel this tragedy. Let me have time.<br />
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Life doesn't work that way, I really wish it did. I feel like often we don't allow ourselves to truly feel the pain that is so necessary for grieving and the healing process. The world moves so quickly and hardly gives any grace in these times to be able to stop, not to pick yourself up and compose yourself, that implies pretending you are ok or that you have had adequate time to grieve. But rather we need grace to be able to take the time to sit in the ashes and pain, not to dwell on forever, but to heal. We need time. We need grace. You deserve time and grace.<br />
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I think on the other end of that we need to remember to give grace and time to people. We are all moving through life and in and out of tragic times. You may never know what someone is going through, but you can certainly offer kindness and love no matter what. I am not saying that I am good at this always. I am not. But I try. One of my favorite quotes that is attributed to Plato is this "Be kind; for everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle."<br />
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Lets be kind.<br />
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Tragedy is not easy. The world moves too fast.<br />
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With love,<br />
WhitneyWhitney Starksenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17884657967611292135noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9175600998590732770.post-23387977705746645882012-09-05T11:33:00.000-07:002012-09-05T11:33:46.376-07:00Adventures in refinishingSo, remember that one time way back in May when I mentioned a project of refinishing my sewing desk? Ya, I barely remember too. Anyway, I may have just finished this project on Sunday....oops :) Who knew it takes 5 months to paint furniture? Thanks parents for putting up with my crap in your shop for 5 months...<br />
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Anyway, lets get on to the lovely before and afters and a a little of how I did it.<br />
*you will want to at least scroll on to the bottom to read how this little story ends*<br />
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There are so very many tutorials out there on how to refinish your furniture I will not bore you with another super detailed one. I will however give you a few tips on how I did it.<br />
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First off, do yourself a favor and get the best primer around. In my opinion (read: my Dad's opinion and experience/expertise) Zinser 1,2,3 primer is the best. This piece of furniture is mostly laminate...only some parts are real wood.<br />
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The desk was ok before, but it was dark and it had stains on it (it was thrifted). It was time for a facelift.<br />
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When you use a good primer, sanding can be fairly minimal....do a good job, but don't get too hung up on it.<br />
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There were parts of it around the top edges where the laminate was peeling off....I just peeled it off and put some putty on there to even out the surface. And you can prime and paint that just like the rest of it.<br />
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once all that is done you just have to paint and add some stenciling :) I love the detail of the stencils on here. I did not worry about making my stencils perfectly crisp...that's just not my style. I like the little imperfections. My stencils were bought from Home Depot incase you were wondering.<br />
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On the inside of the desk there are spool holders and scissor holders etc. These were way too intricate to sand, prime and paint so I opted for a little pop of color and used a spray paint that I had on hand. Trust me....save yourself if you have pieces like that and use spray paint.<br />
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I love my little pop of the aqua color. I think it is just a fun little surprise when I open it up.<br />
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Who knew something this simple could take 5 months huh? :)<br />
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Now this desk was perfect and I anxiously anticipated its return to my apartment so I could sew on my lovely table....little did I know this was going to happen as we drove home<br />
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Yes that is primer spilled at least 1/2 inch thick...in the back of my car. Yes I cried. Yes I cried some more. And no, it was not one of those little cans you see in the picture....it was a gallon sized can of primer at least 3/4 full that spilled....in my car...the can is now empty. Did I mention it spilled <i>in</i> my car?<br />
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I was not happy. I was panicked. The thing you need to know about me is this, my car is simple. It is a 4Runner that I have had for about 7 years and was purchased used. But I love my car. I have an irrational attachment to this car, so when anything bad happens I freak out. This is the worst thing that has ever happened to it thus far.<br />
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The good news is this, carburetor cleaner works wonders on bumpers for getting paint off. And water based primer comes out well with...you guessed it lots of water. It also helps to have a wonderful set of parents (who drove 30 minutes to help!) and a fantastic husband who keeps you sane and helps clean up the <i>massive</i> mess.<br />
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My car is almost as good as new. Phew. And my desk is fine too after literally scooping paint out of it...like at least 3 cups of just paint....what a nightmare! Glad it is all pretty much over.<br />
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With love,<br />
WhitneyWhitney Starksenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17884657967611292135noreply@blogger.com2