Tales of Me and the Husband

cinco de mayo!


now, i know that cinco de mayo has a legitimate historical significance (the mexicans defeating the french at the battle of puebla!  not to be confused with mexico’s independence day!  my chance to show how smart i am!  or that i know how to use google!) but for most americans it’s just another chance to eat mexican food.  though, who needs one?  not i!  (really, not i.  cliche cliche cliche but i love mexican food so, so much.)
we took the kids out for a night on the town (that sounds much more social and lively and happening than we actually were) for some dinner.  not pictured: lindsey who was home making food for her own spanish school project.  also not pictured: anders who was asleep in the stroller.

i could write a whole blog post dedicated to the above nachos and how, more than almost any other food, they’re my “when i crave a food” food.  they’re my last-meal-request food.  they’re, in a word, perfect.  am i talking about my loved ones?  nope, just them nachos.  i’m really sorry you can’t actually dive into that picture with your mouth open.  when are the mac-geniuses going to come out with that option?  iOS 37.

enough with the dumb jokes.  hope you had a good cinco de mayo.

lately.

one of those must get out of the house days a week or so ago; 
even so, it remained a let’s stay in pajamas day.  
cliiiiick for more!


he’s teething today 🙁  he was a happier guy yesterday.
(p.s. some of you requested the link for the top – here it is!)
nice to know my bubble letters game hasn’t suffered too much since the 5th grade
spent the day in portsmouth recently; i love the houses there.  
parker hanging with his buds t and lu.  
i like how they’re just sitting chatting and snacking paying us moms no mind.  
(thank you for the pic, jenny!)
rainy day activity
  anders is always on his belly these days.  
he’s sort of pissed once he gets there though.
selfie-in-car-cause-we-went-on-a-date!  
it was the first in a long time and, like parents of a baby who hasn’t done the bottle yet (am i too late to introduce it??), we quickly scarfed down apps, an entree, dessert and drinks and went home with stomachaches.  #pitiful  

Have a great weekend!

Parker and Anders got matching Bill Murray shirts from one of my favorite readers (hi Christie!).  I don’t entirely get the Bill Murray thing but I like it just the same.  I think Anders does too.  First picture looks like he should be saying, “Anders in the hiz-ouse!!”  

I’m using Acure’s shampoo and conditioner now and liking it very much, thank you.  And thank YOU Acure.

I love this swim cover up.

After loving nearly anything I’ve read by Michael Pollan, this book really caught my interest.

Last time (and only time) we were in Positano, we took a boat ride to Capri and spent a few hours at this place.  It was amazing.  I hope to visit again.

Have you seen this website?!  All the caps you could ever want for your mason jar.  So cool.

I love this romper (for Anders, not me).

Don’t be fooled by its blue appearance.  Apparently this lipstick is the perfect berry shade.  (Real Simple said so.)

The Brass ladies are running a kickstarter!  I had the pleasure of meeting them a few weeks back and they are so awesome.  Check it out here.  (Their pencil dress is still one of my favorite dresses ever.)

When emotional intelligence goes wrong.  Having a high EI (emotional intelligence) can be a good thing, but those with it tend to be more manipulative, and narcissistic than their lower-scoring EI counterparts!  Interesting.

I love Kristen Wiig.  And I am certain we would get along in real life.  Kristen, do you need a friend? Here I am!

Have a good weekend!

17/52

anders, almost 5 months: every time i put him down on his back now, within seconds he’s on his belly and sometimes pretty pissed about it (though, i’m pretty certain he’s not sure how to return to his back)
parker, 3 (almost 4): we shared a chocolate milkshake.  i’m sometimes surprised at how nice he is about sharing.  
william, 15: anders’ toughest time is the dinner hour which doesn’t always make it easy to prepare something; when steve has later meetings, william often steps in to help.  he has a gentle way with babies.

taking stock / 08.

Making: Lentil Soup with Beef; really unexciting
Drinking: Leinenkugel’s Summer Shandy, my favorite summer beer I think.
Reading: If I could finish a damn book, I’d list one here.  But I have total mom-brain fog and can read nothing aside from Instagram captions and Real Simple articles (the simpler, the better).  Oh, and children’s books.  This one lately!

Wanting: the laundry to put itself away; I’m pretty good at steps one through three but putting it away?  Not so much.
Watching: Game of Thrones!  But finding it… dare I say… a little boring this season?  Or maybe it’s too much for my mom-brain.  Remember?  Gotta keep it simple to keep my attention at the moment.  This is growing more pitiful by the second.
Listening: to Pink Martini!
Eating: yogurt and granola, as alwaaaaaays
Smelling: this candle
Wishing: I could relive the moment of my boys’ birth.  And the few following weeks.  The newborn time just goes way too fast for me.
Enjoying: this baby wrap that was sent to me!  Form AND function!
Loving: watching Parker zoom by on our hand-me-down four-wheeler (a kid four-wheeler, that is); it’s adorable.
Hoping: that you guys don’t hate me after yesterday’s post.  I’d be both, “Woo-hoo for them!” and “That bitch!” if I were you.  I assure you, we’ll have plenty of living-abroad-with-small-children meltdowns and you guys can secretly celebrate them.
Needing: to smooch Anders all the live long day.  It makes me the happiest.
Feeling: like I should go to bed earlier
Wearing: these jeans a lot; forget what the naysayers said about the Gap jean (though, for many styles, they may be right).  These are awesome for summer.  (I’d say that you should size down though, I think they run big.)
Bookmarking: all of your Italy recommendations!  Lodging!  Eating!  Doing!

*I’m wearing the Ack Wrap above and it’s great.  I love the stripes and that it’s totally customizable (and that he’s high enough that I can easily kiss his head).  Go tighter than you think!

italy!

buongiorno!  the hunts have some fun news: late summer, we’ll be flying abroad and staying… for three months!!!  this trip has been a long time coming (we’ve been saving and hoping and talking since 2010 when we took this trip).  and we’re finally doing it!  the occasion is steve’s sabbatical, so while there he’ll have some research and writing to do but otherwise, we’ll be hanging out IN ITALY!  our home base will be orvieto but we hope to take both day trips and overnights in all sorts of places.
now, we’d love to have your recommendations.  (it was a blog reader who first clued me into cinque terre, which ended up being one of our absolute favorite places on our 2010 trip.).  great lodging, places to see, places to eat, things to do, savvy travel tips of all kinds.  we have our work cut out for us to figure it all out and so far we’ve… gotten passports and booked flights.  our to-do list is about two pages long!  we are flying into milan and, three months later, flying out of london so we’ll be doing italy, hopefully some france, maybe some switzerland, and definitely some england while there.  so… tell me everything!  we need your help!
thanks so much for any advice.  you guys rule.
xo!
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The things I wish I bought in the aisles of Target but didn’t or else I’d be broke, volume 03.

Annnnnd here we are folks!  Round three.  Feeding the consumerism of ‘Merica one post at a time!  I’m doing my part!  What have you done today?!  Okay, let’s go.
As always, click to read more!

Summer is coming and who doesn’t need a panama jack-like hat?  Certainly not you.


A knock-off Madewell bag!  Less cool but also… more money in your pocket!  For the Dominos personal pan pizzas, of course!

An attractive wedge.  I actually sort of want the brown ones rull bad but I buy heels simply to have them look pretty in my closet and do little to nothing more.  I am like 6’2″ with a heel.  Enough said.
Can I get through one of these posts without a comfy pant being included?  Was Rome built in a day?

This cool bag in the men’s bag section.  Called the men’s “Wanderer.”  Throw it in back of the airstream and don’t forget to pack your beard oil!  (This series is somehow becoming a spoof on hipsters, is it not?)

I call these artisanal socks.  There’s artisanal everything these days!  While some artisanal socks are stupidly expensive (like $15… for a pair of socks… for your feet… to go in your shoes), these are not.  Cool, hip, funky bear logo, triangles, aztec, crosses, stripes, YES YES YESSSS ALL THE CLICHES.  But also… $5.99!  Again, more personal pan pizzas for you!  In the men’s section, but some of us less dainty females can probably wear a man’s socks just fine.  I want the yellow and blue pair please.


I cannot pass the $5 DVD deals without being like, “Do I own this?  I might own this.  I’m not sure if I own this.  I better buy this just to be sure.  It’s only $5.”  A bunch of good ones here.  However, skip Date Night because, while I love the two of them, the movie was not awesome, no?

Target now has this whole “better choices for all” section which include everything from food to laundry detergent, and more.  I took a roundtrip around these two aisles at least twice and played the game of, “Should I?  Shouldn’t I?  Should I?  Shouldn’t I?” the whole time.  And at Target the answer is almost always I SHOULD.
While there, I took in the whole rainbow of Mrs. Meyers soaps (my favorite.  Lavender is always the winner, in my humble opinion.).  
I bought this at an end cap–caramel, kettle corn, cheddar mix and I ate the entire bag while watching an episode of Shameless that night.  Shared not even one kernel.  Cause I’m shameless!  Zing!
Found these two walking around checking out the shampoo selection, reading the label on Mane & Tail.  Pros and cons of the baby: super cute but has occasional diaper blow outs.  Pros and cons of the big guy: good kisser but sneezes unnecessarily loud (it IS a choice, Steve!).


File this one under: more places to stash your clutter!  But pretty places!  Better than those, though, are these wire ones.  But… they don’t hide the clutter as well.

I don’t know.  But I thought they were cool.

For your backyard soirees!  More fun if you’re not the person who actually builds the fire though, yes?

These blankets!  On sale!  They’re even nicer in real life.

Okay, that’s it.  See you next time.  Hand wave emoji.

have a good weekend!

This will be a quiet weekend aside from welcome William and Lindsey back from MN where they’ve been for spring break.  But it was a fun week (or so) in blogging.  First, you guys really love your face wash.  My sister was so thrilled to have you guys checking out her shop and getting your own damn good products.  She worked a triple (nights) last weekend and then got to work.  The first wave went out yesterday!  And all the sweet words on the childbirth post here, in email, and on Instagram were so nice (all of you Moms out there ready to give birth in the next few days/weeks… makes me all weepy!).  I’m glad that post resonated with a lot of you!

I keep seeing commercials for at home non-UV gel polishes.  Do they work?  She gave them a try.  Now we can just buy what she tells us to.

I got the above flowers from Bloom2Bloom.  As always, they’re beautiful (and come wrapped in brown paper and raffia just as you’d like your flowers to arrive).  They’re extending a coupon code HUNT25 for 25% off your Mother’s Day bouquets!

Times have changed (especially for women) since the 1962 Boston marathon.

I love these simple rompers with fun art.

My sappy Mama-self thought this video was really sweet.

This is what your teens are really doing on the internet.  (It ain’t good.  I don’t even know half of those apps!)

I like these.

I finally watched Mud the other day and I really liked it.  Any movie recommendations as we go into the weekend?  (Did you guys like Wild?  I want to see that next.)

10 people you will hate after giving birth.  Funny and true!

Have a good weekend!  See you back here next week.

16/52.

anders, 4 1/2 months: since i hold him more often than anyone else, i love getting the chance to look at him when other people are holding him.  in this case, across the table.
parker, 3 years: he and gracie have a definite love-hate relationship.  in one instant, he’s cuddling her, in the next he’s yelling at her for begging, for not dropping the ball, etc.  he takes such an authoritative tone with her, i can’t help but laugh (quietly).  i guess it’s something to do with him being the youngest (save for anders, who barely speaks yet).  he needs to boss somebody around.

in with the rain + out with the sun.

this time of year is a funny one, predictable, but funny.  i end up shedding the layers and dressing in outfits that are not warm enough for the day.  especially because the days can begin at 40… even if they end up around 65 by the late afternoon.  i also get sick of cooking and suggest we go out for dinner every single night to which steve says, “let’s just do peanut butter and jellies!”  (he’s better at saving… sometimes… than i am.  but he also doesn’t cook dinner so…)  who wants to be inside at 5–the warmest part of the day–to be putting a dinner together?!  if it’s sunny and the least bit warm, parker, like a moth to the flame, is in the backyard pulling every last game, ball, tool, swim floatie, bat, golf club from the shed and they become strewn about our backyard haphazardly.  and then the rains come and we stare longingly out the windows at the dark day, hoping that by some miracle (it always seems like one) the clouds will part and the sun will make itself known.  yesterday it did just that.  rainy, cold, dreary and then came the afternoon sun.  we left home to be in it.  we had to!
p.s. indeed this is the jean jacket to end the jean jacket search.  i’ve returned many before but this one’s staying with me!  it came the other day and i haven’t taken it off since.  40% off sale going on now too with code TODAY.
p.p.s. could anders’ cheeks get any rounder????
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