Posts Tagged With: monogram

April gratitude

Posted on May 2, 2022 by robynbird

As we move into May (my most favorite of all the months) I want to take a moment to look back on April and celebrate.

April was busy. Especially the week it shouldn’t have been.
But the good kind of busy.

I’m grateful for:

two of my three alternative healthcare providers
brunch and bellinis with Mike and Josie
Oscar Isaac (we’re watching Moon Knight or as I call it ‘the moon guy’)
Essie Geranium polish
Smithsonian museums
dinosaur bones
the Smartless podcast
my dad’s windchimes

my friendship with Thing 1
a clean home
Bards Alley Bookshop
YBW’s sense of humor
kick ass charcuterie boards
free oil changes
working just the right amount
talking to my brother on his birthday
skeeball and air hockey (I’m excellent at one mediocre at the other)
time with YBW’s brother and sister-in-law
sunny afternoons
roof terrace time (#porchlife much?)
books
Harp Lager
monogrammed rainboots
afternoons with friends
weekday bubbly with Holly
reading
a really great dermatologist
Natasha Lyonne (we watched the second season of Russian Doll)
snow in April (three times)
celebrating Baby K’s third birthday
being the hostess with the mostest (for YBW’s work fam)
calling it like I see it
Old Navy Super Cash (Baby K outgrew all her warm weather clothes)

Dear April,
Thanks!
(heart) Roby

Categories: me | Tags: #porchlife, books, daughters, essie polish, granddaughter, grateful, grateful life, gratitude, love, monogram, reading, Smithsonian, writing, YBW | 2 Comments

grateful for the sprinkled in good

Posted on March 23, 2022 by robynbird

This month got me like:

However…
I took some time to explore the good sprinkled within the madness and found myself feeling grateful.
So, I made a list.
I mean, of course I made a list…
Imma call it ‘Gratitude: get you some’ (or something like that)

With all sincerity I’m grateful for:

celebrating Thing 1’s birthday
freak snow storm
Baby K weekends (even when she doesn’t sleep and we switch to EDT)
being a helper (and earning money doing it)
the honor of knowing some seriously wonderful humans
peanut butter toast
black elderberry – echinacea – C vitamins – acetaminophen – ibuprofen – sudafed
vodka lemonade
warmer days
working well with YBW
Essie Bustling Bazaar polish
discovering The Bitter Southerner
being handy enough to patch and paint closet in preparation of new system installation (also grateful for upcoming closet porn but that’ll be it’s own post)
the group chat with Thing 1 and Thing 2
kick ass laundry machines
cleaning roof terrace and setting up rugs and furniture in anticipation of all the #porchlife
work schedule flexibility
air travel (Thing 2 arrives Thursday)
YBW’s nurturing and caregiving
driveway chalk playtime with Baby K
the ability to read
H2BAR box
orange juice (with calcium & vitamin D – no pulp)
AT&T offering FREE Samsung S22 devices (new phone who dis?)
Ryan Reynolds (we watched both Free Guy and The Adam Project this month)
Shuttle Art G-Line pens
my monogram hoodie

Categories: me | Tags: #porchlife, books, daughters, essie polish, granddaughter, grateful, grateful life, gratitude, love, monogram, writing, YBW | 7 Comments

Baby K

Posted on December 26, 2018 by robynbird

Thing 1 called me late last week with some pretty spectacular news.
Her baby is a GIRL!
Y’all I will readily admit to squealing with joy!
And I mean squealing!

I’m over here like Kay Thompson, singing, ‘Think pink when you shop for summer clothes!’
But, I’m respectful of my daughter’s choice to not inundate her child with gender specific colors. Honestly, I don’t give a damn what color she decides to love.
However, I’ll see to it she has some baby-size pink Chucks for sure!

Interestingly enough, we had a conversation earlier that week in which she shared the girl name they settled upon.
I’m already working on her monogram.

Off the cuff, YBW referred to her as Baby K and I knew it would be her name here in my nest.

Baby K is at her halfway point as of Christmas Eve.
She’s expected the second week of May. Just in time for my birthday.
Now, I’m sure if you’ve been reading this blog for any length of time, you know that I am all about my birthday. But perhaps I could share that day with my first grandbaby…
My birthday is Mother’s Day this year. What a treat it would be for me to share a birthday with my first granddaughter, and for Thing 1 to become a mommy on Mother’s Day!
Stay tuned, y’all!

Thing 1 sent sono-pics of Baby K.
I think she looks a bit like baby Groot in this one.

Categories: me | Tags: baby, Baby K, becoming a grandparent, celebrate, excitement, I am Groot, it's a girl, joy, love, monogram, pregnancy, Thing 1, YBW | 13 Comments

according to my research

Posted on July 4, 2018 by robynbird

Check out this shiny new ride in our driveway.

That’s right, y’all, I got a new car!

The last ‘brand new’ car I had was in 2002.
YBW and I finally decided to bite the bullet on a new car. We’d been talking about it for a while, did some planning when it came to the financial aspect, and realized we would be able to with more ease than we originally anticipated.
I’d done all the research on mid-size crossovers. (Y’all, I know more about this type of vehicle than you can shake a stick at, though why you would is beyond me. Must research that idiom…)

and an exceptionally great test drive, the Hyundai Tucson is the one for me.

Costco has an auto buying program which presents it’s members with deep discounts and oftentimes cuts the haggling. There’s only one Hyundai dealer in Maryland or Virginia the program uses. Fortunately for me it’s right here on the other side of town.
So back the end of May, I’m talking with a guy at the dealership about what I want and what I’m willing to pay. The beauty of it is I’m at home in my jammies on the phone with this guy negotiating.
Score 1 for YBW and me.
When it finally comes down to it, his ‘bottom line’ price is a thousand dollars more than I’m willing to spend. I thank him for his time, assure him I’ll not be making the purchase and hang up the phone.
He calls the next day and asks if after sleeping on it we changed our minds.
Um…nope.

Fast forward a month, I get an email with a price to which I can’t say no.
Et voilà!

The first thing I did was put my monogram in the back window. Only it wasn’t quite right, it was red vinyl over the red of the tail light and was just too much red and black all together.
So I peeled it off and am waiting for new monograms in the proper color to arrive. I’ve decided on white…we’ll see how that goes.

Mostly, I’m still in squee and full on oodgey goodgey mode.
But I am enjoying the features like air cooled seats in this ridiculous heat. And being able to talk to folks hands free via the car itself. And the lift gate that opens when you show up at the back of the car, this came in handy when I had a huge, heavy box of pots and pans (Calphalon at a great price at Costco) and didn’t have to bother with the key at all.
I’m getting used to the fact that it’s easy to go faster than I realize…with my lead foot, that may come back to bite me in the ass, but I’m paying attention.

Speaking of paying attention, I placed these on my visor as a daily reminder.

Living my intention is more comfortable in my new car!

Categories: me | Tags: Costco, costco auto buying program, do everything in love, Hyundai, Hyundai Tucson, living my intention, monogram, new car, oodgey goodgey | 5 Comments

random “Baby Outbursts”

Posted on February 11, 2018 by robynbird

I’m having random “Baby Outbursts” all over the place.
YBW is beginning to get a kick out of tracking them. Luckily for me he’s super patient, because most of these occur in the least convenient times and place. And they look a bit like I may be having some sort of attack of palsy.

I experienced one yesterday afternoon while engaged in a text conversation with Thing 2!
We can get the bebe a load of Nats gear!

I shared that with Thing 1 in a phone call yesterday. First we oodgey-goodgey(ed), then I expressed my hope that people in Georgia wouldn’t be ‘mean’ to the bebe because he or she is a Nats fan. She laughed and said even Braves fans wouldn’t be ‘mean’ to a bebe…maybe to the parents, but she could handle that. Then we laughed again.
It’s tricky being a Nats fan in Braves territory, but she’s on top of it.
We’re idiots, but we have fun.

Another such outburst took place last night.
We went to dinner with M and J. M and YBW were fraternity brothers, and he and his precious wife are my most favorite of all YBW’s friends.
We four have a monthly date. Last night we were meant to go to this new (to us) amazing burger joint, only when we arrived, it was slam-jammed with folks and no place to sit. So we ended up at a little Mexican restaurant instead. (Even though Mexican is some of my fave food, I spent a great deal of time looking at Melt’s menu online and was more than mildly disappointed we missed out on burgers.)
It ended up OK, we enjoyed our dinner. We enjoyed each other’s company. I oodgey-goodgey(ed) about the bebe. And they joined right in on it!
We finally decided to leave the restaurant and head over to M and J’s house. YBW wanted coffee so we stopped off at the coffee shop before we got in the car. My random “Baby Outburst” happened in the coffee shop while YBW, J, and I waited for our coffees.
I realized if the bebe is a girl, I’ll be able to have things monogrammed for her!
Y’all this brought me much joy! Neither Thing 1 nor Thing 2 give a rat’s ass about their monogram. Now partly this is because they each have a repeating letter which makes a monogram look lopsided, and partly it’s because they went to high school surrounded by ‘basic white girls’ who plastered their monograms on anything that didn’t move.
And my girls are anything but basic.
While I absolutely adore my monogram, I am ‘preppy’ not ‘basic’. Because I actually lived through the 1980s. A point I’ve had to make to my girls more than once.

Anyway…
If the bebe is a girl, she too will have a repeating letter in her monogram. But I do not care. And she won’t care. She’ll be oblivious for the first few years of her life. And while we aren’t about gender norms for this bebe, I will sure as hell make sure she has something(s) with her monogram so she and I can be goofy, girlie, and oodgey-goodgey about it together!
If the bebe is a boy, well…he’ll still have something(s) monogrammed, but I suspect there will be less oodgey-goodgey(ing).

I’ll continue to have random “Baby Outbursts” because I honestly don’t think I can keep a lid on this much joy! Or perhaps when the newness wears off, I’ll just present “Baby Thoughts” in a less palsied looking way?
Stay tuned.

Categories: me | Tags: baby, baseball, basic white girl, daughters, excitement, fun, grandmother, love, monogram, new baby, outbursts, preppy, random thoughts, silly, Washington Nationals | 1 Comment

bite the bullet (journal)

Posted on January 15, 2017 by robynbird

So I’ve begun a new (to me) way of getting and keeping myself organized. I spent a great deal of time and effort at my work table planning and executing this organizational process and I think I’ve finally got it just right!
With many notes, and even more lists, and a collection of pinterest photos for inspiration, I tentatively began to consider actually writing in the new book…
It kind of reminded me of Thing 2. I gave her a red moleskine notebook for Christmas one year, just like Dash and Lily’s and she was crippled by it. She couldn’t bring herself to write in it in case she “messed it up”. #perfectionist
I felt the same way. I even went so far as to reach out in journaling groups for advice on how to quell the anxiety about getting started. I didn’t want to bugger the brand new book. #spazz

And that’s applicable to both myself and my second born child.

I finally bit the bullet (Ha! That’ll be funny in a minute to you too!) and actually got started. Of course, I had to make several lists and mock up pages before I could begin work in my actual book. I’m a freaky planner. #madskills

It’s a bullet journal.
If you’ve never heard about it, check out this vid:

I use my phone calendar, but I’m a pen and paper kind of girl and rely on an analog way of keeping myself well sorted. YBW likes to tease my by calling me a luddite. I don’t hate technology…I just like colored pens and paper. #artist
I bought a Leuchtturm1917 notebook.

Like all good Southern girls, I monogramed that s**t. #preppygirl

The Leuchtturm has dotted pages. Now this is not at all like any other journal I have. I prefer lined pages. But the cool thing about the dots is that with a ruler and pen, you can create pretty much any sort of form you need. #crayola

I built a calendar first thing. Month at a glance and then a weekly calendar.
Built in many calendars…some things must be planned in advance. #organizationgoals
The more research I’m doing and the more posts I see about bullet journals, I’m realizing most people don’t build out their calendars so far in advance. But that’s the beauty of the bullet journal, you can build it however it works best for you! And this is how it works best for me.

I built a page to track my weight loss.
I mean, hey, it’s not the simplest thing to get your body at it’s healthiest. If a cute little spread in your journal makes it more fun, then it’s that much easier! #healthyeating

I also think my reading prescription needs to be adjusted…I was having a bit of trouble working on these pages even with good light.
That’s OK though…it’ll give me an excuse for adorable new reading glasses! #sexyat45