My friend Kristin is helping me get the “look” of our new apartment put together (so many ideas but I don’t have the wherewithal to make it all work) and as we were talking about paint colors and painting she suggested something that I thought I would throw out to all of you. If you would like to come meet That Family, you can come over at 1:00 pm on Saturday and join us for a Painting Party. If you’ll email me to RSVP I’ll make sure to have some treats there for you, and of course you can give T1 as many snuggles as you please, even if you’re covered in paint.

Send me a note at thatwife {at} gmail {dot} com if you want to come over and party with T1 and TH and TW. It will make the painting go so much faster, and I would love to meet some of you Chicagoans in person! Don’t worry if you aren’t available, I’m thinking a holiday party style meetup in November/December would be fun!

Oh, and the wedding in Maine this weekend was AMAZING. After 14 hours of shooting on Saturday I was definitely exhausted with aching feet, but I admit I was a little sad to say goodbye and see it all end. Pictures of that, and my time with the Boston Weddingbee writers coming soon!

Also, I miss my blogging. I just want this week (from heck) to be over already!

This weekend I have… a really big wedding. Not big as in number of guests, big as in huge potential for me professionally and lots of possibility for growth. It’s the kind of wedding I would love to shoot every weekend if I could, bursting with details and populated with the nicest people you’ll ever meet (they even told me they wanted T1 to come along, he’s not, but I thought the invite was sweet).

Gah! I’m so excited. And a bit nervous. I’ve got the “dream team” of prime lenses though: 35 1.4, 50 1.2, 85 1.4, and 135 2.0, as well as my 16-35 2.8. Wish me luck! I’m very excited to be share the images with you in a few weeks (expect bunting and lots of it).

A few shots from mini “Mommy and Baby” winner session that I shot this week. The winner, Amy, is new to my old congregation, so we actually met each other on Sunday, she modeled for me on Monday, and then she came to my That Wife meetup at The Soda Gallery on Tuesday. Sad that this friendship won’t be continuing, I had a great time with you this week Amy!

We’re saying goodbye to a cute little bum covered in this…

and saying hello to a lot of coupon clipping for diapers and the diaper genie for containing odors (or something just as good).

We’re giving up cloth diapers for our time in Chicago, and I’m really sad. The reason it took us so long to find an apartment is that I was holding out hope that we could have a washer/dryer in our apartment, but that just wasn’t an option based on what we found. We have laundry facilities in our basement, but there are two reasons why I’ll be converting to the dark side of  diapers (ha! I really don’t judge anyone who chooses to use them, really I don’t!).

First, I don’t feel right about washing the massive amounts of poop and pee that we put in our own w/d in a community set of washers. I’m just not committed enough to change our habits, and I think sometimes we need to think about what others would say if we are going to share a space with them. Just like I don’t play DDR late at night or early in the morning for the sake of my neighbors, I don’t want to be washing my dirty diapers in the same machine they will be using without their knowledge (I guess I could post a sign, but then everyone would hate me and I want to be liked you know? ) Yes, he will still poop and pee so much that it gets on clothes and blankets, but it will never be close to the volume we are putting through the washer right now.

Second, I will be living something like 30 floors up, and though we have an elevator, I don’t want to be visiting the laundry facilities every other day. I want to keep the house up, and blog, and edit photos, and cook, and sometimes sit on the couch with TH and watch 30 Rock. I can’t do any of those things while I’m sitting in the basement waiting for the diapers to dry.

I would love to do a diaper service, but if we want to graduate debt-free that isn’t something that fits in our budget. I’m going to keep the 6 gDiapers we have in medium and large, and we have some disposable inserts for those, and you’ll probably see those show up in photos from time to time (I refuse to take pictures of him just wearing a disposable diaper, I think they look really ugly). We’re also thinking about getting some bigger Thirsties covers in white and putting them over the disposables.

At least while we’re living in our new fabulous new high rise apartment, we’re going to be a disposable family. I love, love, love cloth diapering though. And if the reasons I listed above weren’t issues for me I wouldn’t be switching. If you’re curious about them, you should try the 21 day cloth diaper trial program from Jillian’s Drawers. I just sent mine back and I loved it! Very easy, and with tax and shipping cost us like $30. Now when we go back to cloth in a few years, we know what kinds we want to buy (or maybe we’ll try it again to see what new CDs they’ve come out with since then).

I have so many questions about disposables though!

1. If you have a long and slim baby (T1 is like 90th percentile for height and 50th percentile for weight) what type of diaper do you like best? Where do you buy them? Do you use coupons? What is your coupon system for diapers?

2. What made you choose a certain diaper brand over the other (bazillion) options?

3. Do all disposable diaper parents use diaper cream? We don’t with our cloth but I’m not sure if he just isn’t prone to rashes.

4. Do you have a diaper genie or equivalent diaper oder management keeper?

5. We’re thinking about buying some more Thirsties covers, and putting them over the disposable to help prevent blowouts, since he’s never (ever!) had one in cloth. Has anyone heard of people doing this?

La la la la la! Here it is! I’m excited to give you a walk-through when we’re all moved in and it’s decorated. For now, the quick snaps I grabbed while doing my tour. For those who are curious, we’re living in Regents Park apartments in Hyde park. Since I think they have 30+ floors and two towers with a doorman who won’t buzz you in unless you get permission from a resident I feel pretty safe letting you know that’s the area I’ll be in.

The living room that I dream of every night since I left. Let’s not talk about how I let TH convince me not to take my 5DMKII body and so I wasn’t able to use my 16-35 to capture the entire room the way I could have. I won’t be listening to him again.

The view out one side.

TThe view out the other.

I took some pictures of the furnished model so TH could see how nice it looked with painted walls (and a coffee table!)

This is meant to be the master bedroom, but I think we’re going to make it the office. We spend more time at our computer than in our bedroom, and the view is a lot prettier from these windows.

I gave up a LOT of closet place for those windows in the living room. TH will get a room of his own once he’s mobile. For now, he’ll sleep wherever is most convenient!

Sick I know, but the unit hadn’t been cleaned yet when I toured it so it will be much better before we get there.

Much better with paint and real furniture, isn’t it? (Hint, hint, TH). Good news? I think we’re going to get a bed frame so our mattress isn’t sitting on the floor anymore. Fancy right?

We’ll use this as our bedroom.

The kitchen. The other downside to this apartment is the lack of light in the kitchen. It’s a bit of a hole.

Lots of cupboard space though. Hooray!

I’m really glad I took a picture of this one with all of the finishing. TH is convinced that painting is necessary in this room after I showed him this (blurry) photo.

This place has a few fun perks like an indoor pool (!!!)

A grill right by the pool.

And a fancy pants gym that even has fitness classes throughout the week!

One last look at the living room. Sigh. I’m going to put the dining room table in the far corner of this photo, so when we eat we’ll be able to look out over the whole city. The friends who put me up while I was there apartment hunting are going to be the first people we invite over to dinner. That view will contribute toward a nice thank you, right?

In Chicago, unpacked and settled. I have a few things I would love to write about, but I’m not sure if I will have time. Posting will be sporadic through the first week of September.

Lately I’ve:

Had a nakie photoshoot with T1

Traveled to Chicago

And found an apartment with a view like this out the living room window (I took that from the very apartment we’ll soon be living in!)

Did a super quick 4 month shoot with T1

Had another Aspirations sessions with the sister of a former roommate acting as a model. She has convinced me that I need to start recruiting girls from dance studios to be in front of the camera. She’s a dancer and she was so graceful in front of the camera.

The Texas Weddingbee writers got together and had a pool party! Somehow I convinced everyone to do it at my complex, and several people drove up from Austin to come. You can see Mr. Mouse having a good time in the pool reflected in the glasses of Mrs. Mouse. T1 was able to meet Baby Bop. They are only 5 days apart and when he saw her for the first time he laughed. Really he laughed!

Last night we had some dinner with friends. I thought the strawberry cake I made was going to be a bomb, but it turned out to be delicious. I’ll post the recipe so you can try it yourself.

We let T1 fall alseep in the other room while we stayed up playing rock band (I’m sure the neighbors were cursing us for it).

Today I woke up and did the session with the mother and baby giveaway winner. I have a client consultation at lunch, and dinner with some of TH’s coworkers from Company X at a place in Dallas called Central 214.

Tuesday I have the That Wife meetup at The Soda Gallery (I hope those in Dallas will come!), and Wednesday I have another shoot.

Thursday I’m getting on a plane and flying in to Boston, then driving over to Maine for a wedding on Friday and Saturday.

I’ll be having brunch on Monday with the Weddingbee writers in Boston, and the afternoon afternoon will be spent with Molly of These Little Moments, then a flight back to Dallas late that night.

Tuesday I have a mini maternity session, Wednesday the movers come, and Thursday we are getting in the car and starting our drive up to Chicago. EEEEEEEKKKK!

Basically, I shouldn’t really have time for updating That Wife. As usual though, I’m sure I’ll be stopping in daily or close to it even if it’s just to put up a few pictures. The madness will all be over soon, right?