By Association

You know how when you get married the things that you love and the things that your spouse loves start to intermingle and you find yourselves loving the same things. It's the whole "coming together and becoming one" thing. In my head the Spice Girls song "Two Become One" is totally playing. Aaron loves the Dallas Mavericks. Always has. He loved them when their skills probably didn't really deserve that love. Through thick and thin this boy's fandom has not wavered. That love has spilled over and now I, too, love the Dallas Mavericks. I actually care when they lose. I cheer when they win and get anxious and nervous when the score is close.

But, my love still pales in comparison. Tonight the Dallas Mavericks won, for the first time in franchise history, the NBA Championship. Aaron was on cloud nine, happy as can be. Soaking up all the post game interviews, discussing the "awesomeness of Dirk" and feeling justified in his stalwart faith. Tonight, one of his boyhood dreams came true.

He watched the game with intensity. Eyes on the screen, pure focus. Don't let the somber look fool you. He was engaged with every play.

Day 6: From a Low Angle

Way to go Mavs!

Heaven's Chariot

I wish I had taken a good picture tonight, one full of meaning, artistry and thought. I did not. At the end of the day, at 9:00pm, with bad lighting, I grabbed my camera and snapped away.

We went on heaven's chariot tonight. Heaven's Chariot being the boat, of course. Aaron was getting ready to wakeboard and his porcelain white skin was in need of a copious amount of sunscreen. When we got home tonight we patted ourselves on the backs for our awesome sunscreen applying skills. It wasn't until later that Aaron realized his feet hurt and we had missed some spots. Our applying skills are in need of work.

However, our wakeboard skills are now top notch as we both got up on the wakeboard for the first time. Heaven's chariot, never disappoints.

Day 5: From a High Angle

It's Party Time

Did I say party? I meant potty. It's potty time.

Recently Grace has shown a serious interest in all things toilet related. She is very inquisitive about it all and privacy, apparently, has become a lost concept for her. I'm not quite ready to dive into potty training Grace. There is a vacation on the horizon and in my mind vacays and potty training don't mix (at least for now). But with all of the shirt tugging and diaper removing and "Up! Up!" from my child who desperately wants to sit diaper-less on the toilet, I can't deny that its right around the corner.

The mere discussion of the topic in a public forum makes me cringe a little. Before I had kids I SWORE up and down, left and right, near and far, that I would never say "You want to go pee pee in the potty" to my children. The phrase rubbed me so wrong when parents would say it to their kids. I thought "There are much better ways to say that." Potty related talk and I weren't really on the same page. But, as with most things with parenting, how you think you're going to do something and how you actually end up doing it tends to be completely different. Case and point, in the last couple of weeks I have said "Let's go pee pee in the potty" so many times that I've lost count. "You want to sit on the potty," "Look Mommy is on the potty." You get the point. I am no longer a "Potty Talk" virgin, thats for dang sure.

We ventured over to the store to pick out a potty. I read somewhere that you should include your child in the Potty Picking Out Process as it will make them feel more involved. "Okay Gracie, here are all the potties." (Blank stare). I located the cheapest potties. and narrowed it down to one that looked like a frog and one that looked like a step stool that would totally leak. "Gracie which one do you want?" (Even Blanker Stare). She obviously could have cared less and I felt stupid trying to make her choose one or the other, so I threw the frog one in the cart, grabbed the Dora cup that Grace really wanted, and headed home.

It hangs out around the house and is more of an accessory that Grace likes to sit on (sans diaper) every now and then. She's never done anything on it, although she checks enough times that it makes you think she knows what she is doing (she does not). I've posed the question to my sister and a few Mom friends, just to see how they did it (I love that everyone has a different method, but all have been successful). When I get enough guts to take on the challenge, I'll go for it. For now, I'm content to house our green little friend until the time is right.

Day 4: Something Green.

Clouds

Day 3 should be a picture of clouds. In my head I imagined white fluffy clouds, the kind that held shapes like frogs, or stars, or that guy with the squinty eye from WalMart. Okay, maybe not that last one. But you get my drift. I looked outside and it was a white blue haze that seemed to stretch across the entire state of Texas.

I went with plan B which involved me scrounging around my apartment looking for something with clouds on it. Bingo. "Llama Face!"

Finally, I remembered that I have something with a cloud that I'm rather fond of. Although it doesn't quite fit with the practical definition that I'm sure the host of the photography challenge was looking for, I figured it was worth a picture and a little story-telling. You know how I love my story-telling.

When Aaron and I decided that we were going to get married, looking at engagement rings became my favorite pastime. And really, when isn't it a pastime for young girls in Provo, am I right? I had gone to a few stores in the mall trying rings on and finding just what I wanted. I was so naive to the system and found a ring that was just "perfect" and informed Aaron that the $16,000 stunner was the ring for me. He about fell off his rocker. Being poor college students does not equate to a 5-digit priced ring. We kept searching and I found a ring and a band and Aaron's job was to settle on a diamond.

Fast forward to the night we got engaged, for a recap you can check out The Story of Us: Part 3. As we headed to dinner I was content to float in this romantic "We just got engaged let us stare into each other's eyes and gaze longingly into our future" cloud, and Aaron, being the extremely financially minded man that he is wanted nothing more than to explain to me what a good deal he got on my ring. He pulled out the yellow receipt. "This is how much I paid for it. Can you believe that?!" I wasn't sure what to say. "You want to know why I got such a good deal on it?" "Why?" "Because your ring is imperfect. There is a little black cloud in the middle that you can only see from the side, but looking down you can't see it at all!" He was giddy. I think he is at his happiest in life when he feels like he got a good deal on something. The words "Imperfect" and "Black cloud" bounced around in my head. Sure enough the cloud was there. In that moment, I wanted to cry.

I look back on that experience and want to laugh. Mostly because that little black cloud is now the thing that I love most about my ring. There are plenty of diamonds with perfect clarity and high letter associations, but there is no other diamond quite like mine. If I had to pick it out in a police line up, I totally could. It it unique. I love it. And as chesse-ballerific as it might sound, it's a subtle reminder that life isn't always clear and perfect and beautiful, but the imperfections make it real and lovable and unique.

Without further ado,

Day 3: Clouds

Can you spot it?

Day 2

Day 2, of the aforementioned photo challenge, required me to take a picture of what I wore today. I had plans of going to the pool this morning and racked my brain as to how I could take a picture of just me in a swimsuit and feel okay about posting it for the world. I figured a swim cover-up would do the trick. This morning, however, Grace had different plans. Her 103 degree fever required a stay-at-home-in-your-jammies kind of day. So jammies it was.

Day 2: What you wore today:

Thankfully The Sick has stayed away from us for a few months, with a brief intermission for Aaron to get a sinus infection. It's been so long that I have forgotten just how much it sucks to watch your baby battle with The Sick. We got comfy this morning on the couch and snuggled while watching a Dora DVD. Nothing on the agenda but 1. Drink Fluids, 2. Get Rest, and 3. Feel better.

Grace must have also penciled in "Sit at the table" on her agenda, as she kept pulling me by hand to the table and sitting across from me. I wish I knew what the time frame was for "sitting at the table" because she kept getting mad when I would leave to go and grab something.

The battle wages on and I'm keeping my fingers crossed that sister-friend is back to her normal happy self by tomorrow. Oh, I just love her.

It's June

"Oh my gosh, Aaron, it's June."

I have said this no less than 13 kajillion times in the past week. I'm very well aware of how hot it is outside. My sprayed on clothes and perma-face-sweat are definite proof that the heat is in the 90s and its only going up from there. But, despite the heat I am still shocked when I realize that its June. It's June people, how did that happen? What do I have to show for it? Nothing really. At the cusp of the summer Grace and I are still slumming it at home. Yesterday was one of those lousy days where I spent 12 straight hours in my gym clothes. Waking up in the morning late, rushing around, and once all the pieces were in place for me to head to the gym, I realized that my car was packed with stuff I needed to take to good will. Change of plans. By 3:30pm I still hadn't gone running, although I was mos' def' dressed for the occasion.

I strongly dislike when I don't exercise first thing in the morning. It nags at me all the live long day. "Hey Kara, you still haven't exercised. Mwahaha." It makes me very snippy.

Grace was sleeping and I desperately wanted to hush the nagging in my head so I sought motivation from J.Biebs. He said some wonderful things, like "There's just no turning back," "This is my destiny," and "Never say never." With coaching like that I squatted, push-upped, sit-upped, and lunged my way out of that funk.

Thank you J. Biebs. You're the best.

Aaron's work schedule is settling down and we're finally getting out of vacation mode which means we're now going to bed before midnight. So hopefully things will fall into place and we can begin to make some summery plans (it being June and all). Right now the only thing on my list is to go to the pool at least 3 times a week and drink out of this. My sister gave me this tumbler for my birthday and I'm definitely obsessed.

It seems like the perfect accessory for summer.

The final thing I have to show for June is that I've started a photography challenge. Presented by White Peach Photography.

I'm a little nervous about this process because A.) I, by no means, have any idea what I am doing in a technical photographic sense and B.) I'm insecure in my abilities to not look like a moron while posing in front of a camera. With those in mind, I do like the challenge of taking pictures each day and having fun with the experience. Why not, eh? So here we are.

Day 1: Self Portrait

Did I mention that it's June?

Hello Camera, I've missed you.

There are only so many pictures taken with my phone that I can look at before my retinas start to cringe. It was high time I charged the battery for my camera. With my apartment still having cave like lighting, I was willing to jump on any opportunity to take pictures that involved good lighting.

Last night Aaron worked until 1:15am. Poor guy. They were doing something audit related that involved them "closing notes" or something (Sorry Aaron, I do listen when you tell me things.) They stayed late and rolled hours over so they could come to work at a later hour. Much deserved I say. So, what do Barnards do when there is a lunch slot open and we're together? We go to Chick-Fil-A. I think we are single handedly keeping them in business. Feel free to pass judgement.

Grace and I drove through CFA a few days ago and Grace was begging for a sippy cup. Normally I keep one on hand because when sister friend gets thirsty she needs her water ASAP. Unfortunately I had forgotten one and I was paying the price for it. I ordered a water for her (DDP for me of course). I had to remind the drive-thru person that I ordered a water and she looked down and grabbed the first cup. I pulled away and took a sip to get the water from being at the brim and was greeted with the tangy sweetness of Sprite. Grace had already seen the cup, and I had already driven away, I handed Grace the Sprite, and I think it was the best day of her life. 

Now when we're at CFA she wants her own cup. I think she hopes that she'll have Sprite again. But after handling a spastic toddler with a sugar rush, I quadruple check that it's water in there.

As Grace's hair gets longer, and the weather gets more humid, it is slowly starting to curl. It starts out straight in the morning and by lunchtime she looks like a kewpie doll. There really is no stopping her hair from doing this, and to be honest I love that its starting to curl. And the face? A "smile."

She can smile for realzies, I promise, just not for the camera.

She's like Chandler from Friends in the episode of his engagement pictures.

And do I dare mention that my baby is now 21 months? Three months away from being 2. She says things like "OOhhh das Dada," while pointing to his picture, and requesting Beego (Diego) or Dough-wa (Dora). She has hair thats long enough to part and curl and her David Lettermans aren't so David Letterman-y anymore. Then, to top it all off, she takes pictures like this where she looks like a kid and not a toddler.

I love her stinkin' guts though, even if she is growing up.