{coffee table}

Reasons not to buy a coffee table (all from Tim, mind you):

• Our house is gingerbread size. 
• Mason needs room to lounge.
• We would have to buy more stuff to put on it.
• It's a waste of money.
• What's the point of a coffee table, anyways?
• I just don't want one.

Reasons to buy a coffee table (me):

• It completes the room. Every "finished" living room has a coffee table.
• Mason will be just fine. I will make sure he still has a path to the window to bark his head off at the mailman AND has space to lay down.
• I can't wait to decorate it - I have stuff in the basement just waiting for its spot on a coffee table. 
• Plus, this is the EXACT one I've been looking for. 
• We can use it when entertaining.
• It can double as an ottoman.
• I just want one. BAD.

Anyone willing to guess how this turned out...?

In all fairness, Tim and I both really liked this coffee table as soon as we saw it. What Tim didn't like most about it was the price. So, I talked the manager down and got it for half what it was marked at (yay for me!!)

I really do love how the light, unfinished wood compliments the mostly heavy and dark furniture in the living room. It just pulls everything together. I am looking forward to playing a mean game of Monopoly and drinking too much wine with friends over this coffee table. I can just see it now...it will be the centerpiece of a million more memories to come.

The base is my favorite part. Can we say, Restoration Hardware look-a-like at 10% of the price?

Mason still has all the room in the world to sprawl out, while I now have a place to set my glass of wine.

PS. Will somebody buy that chair, already?!

{no words needed}

{day one of those pink little pills}

Let's hope it works!!! Also, I wonder if I'll ever be mature enough to stop saying "omg!" every time something exciting happens? Doubt it.

{things we love}

Even while on summer break, I wake up at the crack of dawn to spend my mornings with Tim. We have the same routine almost every day- breakfast and coffee together on the patio with blooming flowers and little white butterflies all around us. Some people don't like routine. But me? I love it. My whole day feels a little off if we don't have that time together.

That leads me to the most essential item of our mornings (besides the two of us, of course). It would be our Nespresso espresso maker. When we got married, my aunt bought us a Krups manual espresso maker. I was so excited about it. Being a former barista, I had the whole "make our morning lattes" down. The problem? The shots were never consistent and it always took about 15 minutes from start to finish to brew our shots, steam our milk, and put everything together - which is a little long by my standards. About six months after getting the machine, I took it back to William-Sonoma with the compliant that the shots weren't consistent and they reluctantly took it back. That is where Nespresso comes is.

Tim had come home a few days before after a trip to W-S and told me about  "this espresso machine that does everything for you" and "has these little pods that hold a shot of espresso that is ready to brew". I told him I wasn't interested in anything like that - It sounded cheap. Plus, I wanted to brew my own shots! Little did I know that as soon as I saw the machine in action, I was in love! We bought the Nespresso Le Cube with an Aeroccino (milk frother) for about $350 and to this day, I will defend it to be the best product we have ever bought. For the last three years we have been making two perfect lattes every morning. It never takes longer that five minutes from start to finish and it is ALWAYS guaranteed to be perfect.

Nespresso sells 16 capsules, varying from Ristretto, intensity 10, to Lungo, intensity 3, which is to be had like a normal cup of coffee. We like Arpeggio. It is intensity 8 and has no added flavoring.

The top bar opens and that is where the capsule is dropped.

Push the "one shot" button and out comes a perfectly brewed single shot of espresso.

The Aeroccino is their fancy frother. Pour the milk, push the button, and in one minute you will have warm, frothed milk. This is the one thing that keeps our lattes from being too perfect - the milk is frothed with air, and not steamed.

Drink up!

{bathtime}

Tim and I have lived in our house for over four years. In that four years I have never ONCE taken a bath.
While engrossed in Jen Lancaster's Bright Lights, Big Ass I decided that the book would be even better if I was soaking in the tub with scented candles and classical music playing. It helped that at that point in the memoir Jen herself was basking in the oasis of a spa, lounging in the sauna, getting a body scrub, and sweating in the hot tub. All of that perfection led me to believe that I, too, deserved a spa treatment in my very home.

First thing - clean out the tub. Our tub is always relatively clean, but I wanted it sparkling for my first soak. Once the tub was clean I grabbed my book and some spa-like bath soaps we made off with from our swanky Chicago Hotel and started the tub. Not two minutes later I was calling Tim for help. Why, you ask? Did I need "help" taking my clothes off? NO! The stupid drain broke and my dreams of taking my very first bath in my very own home with a very good book were OVER!

After a frantic "Gosh dangit!" and "How do we fix this?" I searched the net and found our answer. From the 60+ years of hard water running over it, the drain/no drain thingy had eroded and broken in half. Just my luck.We pulled it apart and I remembered - It's Sunday and every single hardware store with 2 miles (yes, since living in the city I have noticed that my world is a two-mile radius) is CLOSED.

Conclusion...I will have to wait for another day to take my very first bath in my very own tub. Urgh.

{table rock}

My family has been going to Table Rock Lake for about a million year now (well...20 at least) and we have been wanting S+C to go with us for a while. They finally got the opportunity to this last weekend. Really, who could say "no" to pure relaxation on a clear blue lake with a few of your best friends?

Here are some of my favorite shots from the weekend....Thanks Carlos for the great photos!

 

{good news}

Tim and I went in for my post-op visit. We went in expecting what we heard last time...

I would be given Lupron, a drug that would prevent any ovulation or period for three months so that my lady parts could heal and prepare themselves for a baby. The drug would essentially induce menopause and all of it's lovely effects.

Instead we heard this...

Lupron is only given to patients who are either stage three or stage four. Since I am only stage two, I don't need it. Instead, we will be going on a drug called Letrozole. This drug would induce ovulation and prevent my body from producing too much estrogen , which in turn, makes my body release and egg and also prevents the creation of endometrial tissue that could prevent the egg from finding its way down the fallopian tube. Dr Starks prescribed me 5mg of Letrozol for 5-days at the begining of my cycle. On day 15, I will go in for a sonogram to be sure that the egg has reached its way down the fallopian tube. At that point, the doctor can tell if an egg is ready to be fertilized. If it is, from what Dr. Starks implied, we will go home that evening and make a baby, guaranteed!

Long story short....in a few weeks Tim and I will be with child (for some reason I think that phrase is funny..."with child" heh). We walked out of Dr. Stark's office like giddy kids, jumping up and down and smiling and kissing!! The high hasn't left us since. I know it might take a few cycles, but knowing that we will be parents within the next year is an amazing feeling.

I feel so blessed that we got the good news that we did! 

{kids in town}

We have another thing to check off of our summer "to-do" list. Our niece and two nephews are growing, growing, growing and Tim and I have been wanting to get in some fun time with them before they get too old and start thinking we're obnoxious and weird (which might, actually, be an appropriate thought). They came to visit last weekend and we had a blast.

Who doesn't love a Royals game on Friday night when it just so happens to be BUCK NIGHT!?! and....wait for it...FIREWORKS!! We decked the kids out in Royals gear and headed to the game. The Royals didn't pull a win, but the fireworks made up for it. It would have been a total winner if we hadn't been to excited to go in that we didn't look to see where we parked - the five of us wondered aimlessly around the parking lot for a good half hour. Not the highlight of our night. 

Saturday morning we headed to Swope Park. Our plan was to hike for an hour, grab lunch at the Whopper Bar (classy, I know), and go to the movies. We ended up hiking for 3 hours, missing lunch, and racing to the movie. Kids can live without food, right...?

Following our full afternoon, we decided we just needed to relax. We ordered pizza and sat on the patio playing Monopoly until midnight.

Oh yeah, and I decided I wanted sons...lots of them! Andrew and Cody amazed me by putting together our table decor (I was in heaven). I hate to admit, but watching them cut flowers and arrange leaves was, BY FAR, my favorite part of the weekend! It even beat out watching Tim hang like white-Tarzan from the vines with a smile reaching from ear to ear.

Thanks Gwen and Tessa for letting us steal your kids for the weekend!!!