It Takes a Village

It may have seemed a bit quiet around these parts lately, but I assure you there was plenty of action happening off-line. After the big purchase (Oh, have you heard? I may have mentioned it once or twice.) it was time for some big changes. Namely: four of the rooms needed to be repainted. But we only had a weekend to get it done, so we had to call in reinforcements.

So a HUGE Bowdenisms shout out goes to the following (in chronological order of arrival because we're all about fairness):

Tis, Tina, Mom, Vern, Jay (lending a ladder counts!) Rachel, Rick, Sean, Carrie, Lowe, and Hannah, Lance, with their pup Tate (our backyard totally needed a dog's touch) We absolutely couldn't have done it without you all. Having our friends and family around made everything go so much faster, but it made it so much more fun as well. We are so blessed to have such generous friends. We barely had to ask, and they showed up in droves! 

Some of the action was documented (I would have been happy to put down the brush in favor of documenting the process, but I don't think my companions would have been to thrilled about that.) Check out some of the highlights:

If you are sad you missed the fun....Fear Not! For the painting may by over, but the big move is still to come. Great seats are still available! (And by "seats" I mean hours of slave labor for which you will be compensated in beer and pizza.) You know you can't resist that opportunity; I will see you all at noon on Friday...right?

Where the heart is...

So, um....guess what we bought today....

I'll give you a hint; It rhymes with mouse and starts with an "h".

Correct-a-mundo! We closed on our house this morning! I want to tell you all about it, but I'm super busy. I have to direct the movers (i.e. Dustin), test out the sun exposure on the new deck, and edit the low-budget version of cribs we shot today. I know....I know...but someone has to do it!

Stay tuned for updates (and maybe, just maybe, some non-real estate posts sometime in the future.)

In the meantime....Wanna come over? Our door's always open! (figuratively, that is. Note to robbers: doors are locked. Securely. I am not interested in using our newly acquired home owners insurance so soon!)

Tag- I'm it.

My friend and fellow blogger, Megan tagged me with some fun questions on Sunday. Ummmm, last Sunday. With all the babies and boxes news, I just didn't get around to doing it. But I don't want you (or her really) to think it was because I wasn't excited! Some people probably think of tagging or memes as the blog equivalent of chain letters, but I think they're fun. They inspire you to write, and help people get to know each other and learn things they might not normally find out. This is my first one though, so

1) What was I doing 10 years ago?

Brace yourselves: I was 14. A wee little baby 14. I just blew my own mind a little there....Recently I’ve had moments where I start to think I’m getting old, but for some reason 14 doesn’t seem that long ago. It was the summer before my freshman year of high school. I don’t remember a ton of specifics but I do know I was “going out” (do kids still call it that? Or have they moved on to the more sophisticated “dating”? I am old.) with a boy a year younger than me. We met when we were put in the same square dancing group in our gym class...sweet right? That summer was also the first time I went to Young Life Camp, at Lake Champion. (My do-si-do beau went too; coincidence?) That trip solidified a few things in my life that have endured throughout the last decade: I love Jesus, I love Young Life, and I love kissing boys at Young Life camp. Well, now the only boy I kiss is Dustin, but we met at Lake Champion, so I feel my ten year story has come full circle.

2) What are 5 things on my to-do list for today?

• pack
• clean
• cook
• go to the pool?
• have a sleepover with the Young Life girls I lead
• (Tasks 1-3 are preparation for the main event of task 5 . Task 4 is just because i love some sunshine!)

3) Snacks I enjoy:

cheese, tortilla chips and sour cream, yogurt, Coca-cola (not diet!) and mayonnaise (which doesn't really count as a snack, but I love it too much to leave it off!) There are a ton of others, but this list contains about 90% of my weekly food intake. Clearly I'm a health nut.

4) Things I would do if I were a billionaire:

Travel! That's such a cliche answer, but it is totally true! Top picks would be: Italy, Greece, Bora bora, and Japan. I'd probably get a vacation home too....somewhere in the states so it's easy to get to, and it would have a ton of room for friends and families to come visit (oh- and and outdoor kitchen and shower, because those are my dreams in life!) Then I'd buy a new car, and maybe a truck for Dustin (his latest scheme...don't even ask) I would also save a ton, and donate to our church, Young Life, and other various missions and give to our friends and family (remember that when you are billionaires...)

5) Places I have lived:

Columbus (and surrounding suburbia), Cincinnati, New York City (Manhattan- and because people always ask: west-midtown, and the financial district), Dayton (seriously), and Pittsburgh

6) Jobs I have had:

Hostess at Red Robin, OR- "Home of the Smiling Burger" as I was forced to inform customers, clerk at the Bureau of Motor Vehicles, designer intern at various brands, and currently a creative coordinator (yes, that's a real title...) at a company that we try not to mention, even though you all already know it for fear of some blog-based lawsuit. (It happens!)

7) People I want to know more about: Lib, and uh....that's about it. Maybe I should get more online friends. I'd say Brian, but his personal blog has (understandably) gone more baby centric these days. (BP- If you read this, consider yourself welcome, but not obligated, to join in the fun)

Thanks for including me Megan!

Stuffed.

“We have to move in a week!” Dustin recently exclaimed to me with panic in his eyes. And although we have a bit more time than that (closing is July 15th, but our lease isn’t up July 31st), his feeling of alarm is justified. The primary reason for concern? All of our junk. We just seem to have so much STUFF. Thankfully the new house is considerably larger than the space we’re in now, so we know it will all fit. But there is still the little detail of packing it all up and transporting it to our future junk collection site. Umm….I mean our new home. Now, we are by no means out of control with the volume of our possessions (have you seen Clean House? Yikes!), but it does seem overwhelming at times. And moving forces us to pull all of those forgotten treasures out of their hiding places and face the reality of our situation.

We’ve just begun the process and already I am surprised by the sheer amount of we’ve been able to accumulate in our (relatively) young lives. I shutter to think what will happen when I take back permanent ownership of all my childhood mementos and random keepsakes from my long-term storage facility (otherwise known as my parent’s basement!). And when we finally have children? I imagine it’ll be a struggle not to throw in the towel in the battle with clutter. (If we can even find a towel to throw at that point!)

Last weekend, on a trip to the mall (because we needed to purchase new things?) we stopped to check out the Container Store. I surprisingly have never been there, or to any of its organization-mecca cousins (of which there are many). It was about what I expected: rack after rack of shelving solutions, decorative boxes to hide less-decorative contents, and an array of disturbingly expensive trash cans (how much money should one spend on storing garbage? Dustin- “but it has a foot pedal opener and a lid that slowly lowers on its own!” Touché, my good man.) For the most part the store experience felt a little bland to me. I expected to feel that neurotic brand of joy that comes with the possibility of creating a hyper-organized space, but instead I was a little disarmed by the overall meaning of the store’s existence. I remarked to my step-father Vern that it seemed a little out of whack to spend so much money on items to organize other items that you’ve already spent money on. We keep buying more stuff, so we have to buy more organizers. Bins, shelves, boxes and hangers all designed to corral the vast collections of things that we can’t, or won’t, live without.

But I seem to talk out of both sides of my mouth, as I continue my love affair with Craiglist purchases, and refuse to part with my (vast) collection of magazines. In many ways I am the stereotypical pack rat, justifying my piles saying “but what if we need this someday?”

Soooo, all that to say, we’ve got about 9 packing boxes. And about 90 boxes worth of stuff. It’s not going so well. I leave you with a video from the front lines of the war on junk...(As you will see, neither one of us make very good organizational "soldiers"- despite Dustin's Army t-shirt)


Packing: Volume 1 of 1,001... from Courtney Bowden on Vimeo.

Baby love

Guess what time it is.....Bowdenisms Shout Out Time! And this is a big one, so get ready. My sister Shayne and her husband Peter had a baby!

Isn’t he precious!

Theo’s Arrival Details...Theodore Greig was born in London on June, 29th. He was week early...Guess he couldn’t wait to meet his family!He’ll go by “Theo” although my grandmother already has announced she’ll call him Teddy, “because that’s what they called Teddy Roosevelt”. (This is the same woman that calls my sister-in-law Kristi “Chrissy”, and called our old dog Maddie “Millie”. She knows better, she just chooses to call them what she likes. When you’re 92, I guess you can pretty much do what you want.)

Call me what you want, just don’t call me late to bathtime.

For those of you into baby stats: He weighed 6 pounds 8 ozs and is 20 inches long. (Although Dustin says they should really just measure babies’ head sizes. That’s the impressive part to him!)

Head looks normal to me. And by normal, I mean beautiful!

My sister and Peter are thrilled, and say, “He is as sweet and lovely as we could have possibly imagined and, of course, is absolutely adored.” So, congratulations to the new family! Can’t wait to meet him in person!

If only that pram had wings...

And p.s. I know I’m a bad aunt for waiting so long to post this, but I wanted to be able to share pictures of the little bug.

1st Pittsburgh 4th

We had gracious hosts:And some delicious dessert (if I do say so myself!):There was bike riding:And tree climbing (due to a rogue "ladder ball" throw):

Some of us loved the fireworks:

And some of us were more into the holiday's accessories:

But above all there was love:

Thanks everyone for making our first Pittsburgh 4th of July a great one!

Sideways Glance

I loooove these silhouettes by Carter Kustera. I've seen similar ideas all over, and have wanted to make them for a while. My favorite part though, is the captions. I think mine would be:

Regularly eats m&m's until she gets sick.

Or: Still isn't sure what she'll be when she grows up.

Or maybe: Thought way too long about this funny tagline.

What would yours say?

Found via Oh Joy!