Happy Fourth of July from the Holts - still just two of us... for now!
Wednesday, July 4, 2012
Saturday, June 23, 2012
Ready & Waiting
It's been a few months since we've posted - our New York trip simultaneously seems like ages ago and yesterday. Time has flown! We've been busy feathering the nest - a cliche, but true! With my parents' help and that of friends we repainted our whole flat. Dique and his dad have been busy updating all the wiring in the joint. With refurbishing furniture, getting new furniture or just rearranging furniture our place looks nearly new!
It probably goes without saying, but the most fun has been putting the nursery together. There isn't really a theme, we just wanted to create a cheerful and bright space for Des to play and grow that would also be soothing. Here's a sneak peek with more photos to come. We love being in there and hope he will, too.
Alphabet cards hung by my dad, animal and sailboat bedding, Star Wars books and toys, a sweet rocking horse... all that's missing is a little boy.
See you soon, Desi.
It probably goes without saying, but the most fun has been putting the nursery together. There isn't really a theme, we just wanted to create a cheerful and bright space for Des to play and grow that would also be soothing. Here's a sneak peek with more photos to come. We love being in there and hope he will, too.
Alphabet cards hung by my dad, animal and sailboat bedding, Star Wars books and toys, a sweet rocking horse... all that's missing is a little boy.
See you soon, Desi.
Friday, March 30, 2012
Week 20... came and went and, oh yeah, we're having a boy!
Dique and I celebrated our 3rd wedding anniversary on February 21st - conveniently this date fell during the 20th week of the pregnancy. For you experienced folks at home this means our anniversary fell the week in which you can find out your baby's gender. Some people find out beforehand or later - it depends on your ultrasound schedules and your baby's modesty. Luckily for us, our son had no shame and we confirmed boy status almost immediately. Not that anyone was surprised; Dique and I both thought we were having a boy, most everyone we talked to also agreed, there's a woman at my work who can't keep her hands off my tummy and told me every day leading up to the ultrasound "boy, definitely, boy!" Well, we were all right. Look at that cute little profile! We can't wait to kiss that little face and meet our boy, Desmond.
The weekend leading up to our anniversary and the big baby gender reveal was an excellent one. Dique and I wanted to sneak in a final trip together (what some folks call a "baby-moon") and after debating Mexico and Hawaii, we headed east instead. We took the red-eye to New York on Friday the 17th of February and arrived in Manhattan on a crisp and clear morning. We flew Virgin America which we both love for the WIFI and entertainment options, Dique can even rest a bit stretching his long legs in an aisle seat and I was as comfortable as one can be in a middle seat at 20-weeks pregnant. We dozed on and off and that was fine. The cold air and energy of the city kept us going all day Saturday, anyway. The only disappointment was that our flight was delayed and thus our plans of getting in line to see that night's taping of Saturday Night Live were thwarted. We still got in line, but we were WAY back on the waiting list. Spoiler alert: we didn't make the taping of the show, though we did try to get into both the dress rehearsal and the live show. Alas, all we saw of the NBC building was the lovely Art Deco lobby. So we picked up some cupcakes from Magnolia Bakery and watched the show from our Waldorf Astoria hotel room, a mere six blocks away from where it was happening.
Friday, March 9, 2012
Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes
So, yeah. I turned 30 last year and we had a great day with friends and family. Dique and I walked San Francisco's infamous Bay to Breakers race without costumes but with camouflaged libations. It was sunny and warm - a perfect Spring In The City day - and I was so happy to be living my life exactly how and where I was.
Summer began and we started thinking about the future: our home, our family, our lives. We didn't just think, though, we actively got going on some longtime plans. By which I mean we got pregnant and our upstairs tenant moved out, thus commencing work on our units.
We are so overjoyed to add to our family and can't wait to meet our little boy in July. Desmond Michael MacGregor Holt is due 7/7/12 but we'll be happy to see him whenever he arrives. Thanks to the powers of modern technology we've seen his little face on 3-D ultrasounds (I think he looks like his daddy) and we feel him kick with more strength every day. Baby D (or Des) is joining the world at a time when many of our friends are also welcoming little ones so we're thrilled to be experiencing this at the same time of other couples we know and love.
We continue to work on our home - can't decide what to do with the upstairs space - rent? Use for ourselves? Sell? Either way, we're so excited to move forward - I'm transitioning to a new role at work, Dique also has been promoted and our house is coming along.
It hasn't been all work and planning - we've snuck in some really fun times, too. I'm hoping to get back in the habit of writing regularly so we can share all the good times had here at Camp Dique and Tuni.
Hope you're well and I hope this is the last time I apologize for a year's sabbatical. :-)
xx
Tuni
Friday, April 15, 2011
They say it's your birthday..
Dique and I are big fans of the forever inappropriate comedian, Patton Oswalt.
In one of Patton's more mild monologues he discusses the Birthday Rule. You can listen to the whole (explicit) thing here, but this is a quick recap.
Birthdays you can and cannot celebrate.
1 thru 9 — YES. You’re a little kid, and kids should get to celebrate birthdays.
10 — YES. You’ve entered the double digits. Something different has happened, you get a birthday.
11-12 — NO. Nothing special about those years.
13 — YES. Now you’re a teenager, and that’s worth celebrating.
14-15 — NO. Again, nothing special here. I can make a learner's permit. Big deal.
16 — YES. The laws have changed. Now you can drive, that’s worth celebrating.
17 — NO. What’s special about being 17? Exactly.
18 — YES. Awesome birthday. You can vote and own a gun. You can shoot a bullet through your ballot sheet. Now that is worth a party.
19 — YES. It’s your last year as a teenager. A little whistful, but true.
20 — YES. You’ve entered your twenties. Congratulations.
21 — YES. Awesome birthday, you’re as adult as you can get. Hit the bars, hard.
And then…only one birthday every 10 years (30, 40, 50, 60 and so on) until you hit 90. All those years in-between? Who cares. Big deal, 47. However, after 90, the rules change again and you can start to party more frequently - mostly because you could drop dead at any given time.
I am a believer of celebrating EVERY birthday, but do feel the decades should get special treatment. Dique and I struggled to think of what to do for my thirtieth coming up in May. I'm too much of a Charlotte to have a Dirty Thirty. Not enough of a Samantha to have a Flirty Thirty. And too much of a spelling snob to have a Purdy Thirty.
I was inspired when I recently saw this blog post about a Beatles-themed party for one-year-old babies. I know, I know - it's amazing! And so adorable!It looks like a LOT of fun and something that would be easy to put together. I instantly thought we could "grow it up" a bit and put an adult twist on it.
So, today I'm sending out these Save The Dates, which I slapped together last night.
Next week I'll send out the hard (Day's Night) invites.
I love it when a party Come(s) Together!
In one of Patton's more mild monologues he discusses the Birthday Rule. You can listen to the whole (explicit) thing here, but this is a quick recap.
Birthdays you can and cannot celebrate.
1 thru 9 — YES. You’re a little kid, and kids should get to celebrate birthdays.
10 — YES. You’ve entered the double digits. Something different has happened, you get a birthday.
11-12 — NO. Nothing special about those years.
13 — YES. Now you’re a teenager, and that’s worth celebrating.
14-15 — NO. Again, nothing special here. I can make a learner's permit. Big deal.
16 — YES. The laws have changed. Now you can drive, that’s worth celebrating.
17 — NO. What’s special about being 17? Exactly.
18 — YES. Awesome birthday. You can vote and own a gun. You can shoot a bullet through your ballot sheet. Now that is worth a party.
19 — YES. It’s your last year as a teenager. A little whistful, but true.
20 — YES. You’ve entered your twenties. Congratulations.
21 — YES. Awesome birthday, you’re as adult as you can get. Hit the bars, hard.
And then…only one birthday every 10 years (30, 40, 50, 60 and so on) until you hit 90. All those years in-between? Who cares. Big deal, 47. However, after 90, the rules change again and you can start to party more frequently - mostly because you could drop dead at any given time.
I am a believer of celebrating EVERY birthday, but do feel the decades should get special treatment. Dique and I struggled to think of what to do for my thirtieth coming up in May. I'm too much of a Charlotte to have a Dirty Thirty. Not enough of a Samantha to have a Flirty Thirty. And too much of a spelling snob to have a Purdy Thirty.
I was inspired when I recently saw this blog post about a Beatles-themed party for one-year-old babies. I know, I know - it's amazing! And so adorable!It looks like a LOT of fun and something that would be easy to put together. I instantly thought we could "grow it up" a bit and put an adult twist on it.
So, today I'm sending out these Save The Dates, which I slapped together last night.
Next week I'll send out the hard (Day's Night) invites.
I love it when a party Come(s) Together!
Thursday, April 14, 2011
Aaaaaaaaaaaaand, we're back. Again.
This time with the promise of more posts!
2010 was a bumpy year for us - my work was in flux, we made big changes around our house and decided, for once and for all (of the next 5 years, at least) to stay put.
2010 was a great year for many reasons - we spent a lot of time with our family and made some wonderful memories with our friends. A night with a fun group at the Pelican Inn in February, Dique's 35th birthday at Tommy's Joynt, my birthday bbq, Outside Lands, our friends from Nebraska coming and sparking a spontaneous dinner party at our home. What fun! The happiest part was an expanding family. We didn't help any, though, the new additions who joined the fold are our biological and honorary nieces and nephews. It's made us (fine, me) even more baby crazy than I previously was. As long as I get to hold other people's babies, though, I can simmer down.
The job thing was tough for me, and for us both. I wasn't very happy at McCann in early 2010 - working at a much smaller company within a huge company without a path for advancement wasn't satisfying. I pressed on and used the downtime to work on our home. We recovered the kitchen and bathroom floors, repainted/redecorated the guestroom and our bedroom, Dique built us a bed with storage. Yes, he built it. From scratch! I painted the fence out back and pulled up a strip of lawn to plant a veggie garden. The work yeilded a successful bounty of green beans, zuchini, tomatoes, rhubarb and lots of herbs. Seriously, we have so much mint. Still. would you like to come over for a mojito? Please do. Today. And then take home some more mint.
In June I learned my job was dissolving and by August had moved back into the advertising side of McCann, supporting two new execs. This wasn't the perfect fit either so when a girlfriend mentioned a role at AOL I took an interview. The pros? Instantly connecting with the people, the goals and vision of the company and the path they saw themselves on. And I'd be a liar if I said salary wasn't an plus. Not having a raise or bonus in three years had been tough, so the idea of an increase was very exciting. The cons? The office is in Palo Alto, a 45-60 minute drive from our home. And we didn't own a car.
After much deliberation, I accepted the job and Dique and I headed to Honda to lease a Fit Sport. I started work on October 18th, waking up before 6am to cruise 280 before traffic hit. I support three execs in the Applications and Commerce Group - which means I support three execs who actually are making cool stuff. My main boss is the head of Marketing for our division; we hit it off instantly. I've told him before that I feel like we're siblings. We have a great time, but can be totally honest with each other when things go wrong. He's been a big supporter of mine - giving me more to do than just book meetings and schedule conference calls. I get to write copy and plan events - two of my favorite things! My other two guys are the heads of Mobile and Messaging, which means if you have an AOL ap on your cell phone, my boss' team created that. And if you use AIM for computer chat/messaging, my other boss is making that a better product for you. I've never worked at a company that actually *builds* things, and creates products. I love it here. I hate that the office is in Palo Alto, but I love this company.
Dique's job survived the market crash - thank goodness. We definitely worried about the real estate market in San Francisco. It all turned out for the better, however, as he even managed to close a sale in January 2011. It was his first sale in San Francisco to close, he was thrilled and I was so proud of him. We experienced our own troubles with our property at the end of 2010 - needing to refinance our mortgage from an interest-only loan to a 30-year ammortized. Our building has lost value (like every other place out there) since the bubble burst, and we were faced with some tough decision in December. Do we sell and walk away, at a loss? Do we keep renting the top unit even though we don't want to? Supportive families, an excellent mortage broker and prayers to everything high and holy made it all come together just before Christmas. We could stay, we could take over the whole building later in 2011 and stop renting out the top. We could continue on as planned. Whew.
Now that it's actually April, we're on the cusp of having more house news - but I can't count any chickens before they hatch! Rest assured it won't be another year before I let the cat out of the bag.
Hope the last 12 months have been good to you and yours. :-)
2010 was a bumpy year for us - my work was in flux, we made big changes around our house and decided, for once and for all (of the next 5 years, at least) to stay put.
2010 was a great year for many reasons - we spent a lot of time with our family and made some wonderful memories with our friends. A night with a fun group at the Pelican Inn in February, Dique's 35th birthday at Tommy's Joynt, my birthday bbq, Outside Lands, our friends from Nebraska coming and sparking a spontaneous dinner party at our home. What fun! The happiest part was an expanding family. We didn't help any, though, the new additions who joined the fold are our biological and honorary nieces and nephews. It's made us (fine, me) even more baby crazy than I previously was. As long as I get to hold other people's babies, though, I can simmer down.
The job thing was tough for me, and for us both. I wasn't very happy at McCann in early 2010 - working at a much smaller company within a huge company without a path for advancement wasn't satisfying. I pressed on and used the downtime to work on our home. We recovered the kitchen and bathroom floors, repainted/redecorated the guestroom and our bedroom, Dique built us a bed with storage. Yes, he built it. From scratch! I painted the fence out back and pulled up a strip of lawn to plant a veggie garden. The work yeilded a successful bounty of green beans, zuchini, tomatoes, rhubarb and lots of herbs. Seriously, we have so much mint. Still. would you like to come over for a mojito? Please do. Today. And then take home some more mint.
In June I learned my job was dissolving and by August had moved back into the advertising side of McCann, supporting two new execs. This wasn't the perfect fit either so when a girlfriend mentioned a role at AOL I took an interview. The pros? Instantly connecting with the people, the goals and vision of the company and the path they saw themselves on. And I'd be a liar if I said salary wasn't an plus. Not having a raise or bonus in three years had been tough, so the idea of an increase was very exciting. The cons? The office is in Palo Alto, a 45-60 minute drive from our home. And we didn't own a car.
After much deliberation, I accepted the job and Dique and I headed to Honda to lease a Fit Sport. I started work on October 18th, waking up before 6am to cruise 280 before traffic hit. I support three execs in the Applications and Commerce Group - which means I support three execs who actually are making cool stuff. My main boss is the head of Marketing for our division; we hit it off instantly. I've told him before that I feel like we're siblings. We have a great time, but can be totally honest with each other when things go wrong. He's been a big supporter of mine - giving me more to do than just book meetings and schedule conference calls. I get to write copy and plan events - two of my favorite things! My other two guys are the heads of Mobile and Messaging, which means if you have an AOL ap on your cell phone, my boss' team created that. And if you use AIM for computer chat/messaging, my other boss is making that a better product for you. I've never worked at a company that actually *builds* things, and creates products. I love it here. I hate that the office is in Palo Alto, but I love this company.
Dique's job survived the market crash - thank goodness. We definitely worried about the real estate market in San Francisco. It all turned out for the better, however, as he even managed to close a sale in January 2011. It was his first sale in San Francisco to close, he was thrilled and I was so proud of him. We experienced our own troubles with our property at the end of 2010 - needing to refinance our mortgage from an interest-only loan to a 30-year ammortized. Our building has lost value (like every other place out there) since the bubble burst, and we were faced with some tough decision in December. Do we sell and walk away, at a loss? Do we keep renting the top unit even though we don't want to? Supportive families, an excellent mortage broker and prayers to everything high and holy made it all come together just before Christmas. We could stay, we could take over the whole building later in 2011 and stop renting out the top. We could continue on as planned. Whew.
Now that it's actually April, we're on the cusp of having more house news - but I can't count any chickens before they hatch! Rest assured it won't be another year before I let the cat out of the bag.
Hope the last 12 months have been good to you and yours. :-)
Wednesday, April 7, 2010
Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaand
We're back!
That was quite a hiatus there, wasn't it? Six months and counting! A lot has happened since we left off...
- we have a new nephew!
- we met Tom Jones!
- we installed new kitchen floors!
- Tuni perfected a cioppino recipe and started making her own granola!
- Dique tore down walls in our home, then put them back up AND started building A NEW BED. FROM SCRATCH.
Yes. It's been a bit busy at the Hey Judah House. We're working on the cheapest yet most impacting home renovation for our little space. Painting the hallway (twice!), re-painting all the crown moldings and base boards and doors and cupboards and ceilings and chairs and tables and OH MY HOLY HELL. I think I can *almost* smell again. Though I definitely lost some brain cells along the way, all the home improvement projects were well worth it. Updates over at HJH.
As for The Goings On Of Us, I've vowed to take the next couple of weeks to write about what the hell happened over the last 8ish months. It was fun, if not crazy, to live it - so it should be fun, if not crazier, to relive it in writing.
Stay tuned - or should I say, "tuni'd"???
You know I can't let a little piece of cheese get away from me.
xx
T
That was quite a hiatus there, wasn't it? Six months and counting! A lot has happened since we left off...
- we have a new nephew!
- we met Tom Jones!
- we installed new kitchen floors!
- Tuni perfected a cioppino recipe and started making her own granola!
- Dique tore down walls in our home, then put them back up AND started building A NEW BED. FROM SCRATCH.
Yes. It's been a bit busy at the Hey Judah House. We're working on the cheapest yet most impacting home renovation for our little space. Painting the hallway (twice!), re-painting all the crown moldings and base boards and doors and cupboards and ceilings and chairs and tables and OH MY HOLY HELL. I think I can *almost* smell again. Though I definitely lost some brain cells along the way, all the home improvement projects were well worth it. Updates over at HJH.
As for The Goings On Of Us, I've vowed to take the next couple of weeks to write about what the hell happened over the last 8ish months. It was fun, if not crazy, to live it - so it should be fun, if not crazier, to relive it in writing.
Stay tuned - or should I say, "tuni'd"???
You know I can't let a little piece of cheese get away from me.
xx
T
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