The deets: Le Specs sunnies; Zara dress (not maternity - just went up a size! These similar styles would also be great here, here, and here) & heels (similar in a flat version); Topshop jacket; Kate Spade bag (similar, super cute under $17).

Surprise! I'm pregnant. This actually may not be a total surprise to many as I have been pretty MIA on the blog and social media for the last couple of months due to a very rough first trimester. People kept saying that I seemed to be sick a lot and had a sneaking suspicion that I could be and, well, that was absolutely true! I could barely be vertical most days so blogging was a mountain I just couldn't climb for a minute. We don't know what we are having yet but we do know that baby Soybel or my little "soybean" is the size of an avocado now that I am in my 16th week. I wanted to include my husband in the announcement photos and since normally he's my photographer I tapped Erin to take them for us (which is why they are so pretty). I love how they came out so sorry in advance for how photo heavy this post is! I feel so lucky to be doing this with my husband who truly is my favorite person in the world. You don't see much of him around here (except for maybe a wedding post or two) because he's very camera shy but I couldn't love him more. We are filled with both excitement and a little terror for being first time parents - the baby is coming a little sooner than we thought and will be bringing him or her home to our one bedroom apartment for a few months until we make a plan to move (will blog more on this later). On the plus side I am physically feeling much better these days so I hope to be able to share more of our experiences with you. The blog won't become a full on "mommy blog" but I do hope to incorporate our life as it's always changing and I like to keep it real. Thank you for all the love and support all these years (and for sticking with me when I go off the grid)! 

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Instead of talking about this outfit and how much I like, totally still dig the crop top trend, I am going to tell you a true story. I have been reading some inspiring things recently and have decided I need to sprinkle in some more insightful posts to balance out much of the fluff that gets shoved up in here for the sake of having some words to go with my weekly dress & shoe choices.

To start, I am a real person. What is posted here are snapshots of this-es and that-s which an uninvested onlooker could string together and easily fill in the blanks with good to boring assumptions of what happens between these frozen moments in time. This (to which every other blogger out there can attest) is not true. We have good days, we have bad days, we have excruciatingly unremarkable days. Every once and a while I catch myself the elusive "white whale" of days where I feel straight up unstoppable. When all my work is done, my blog posts are drafted, my skin has called a cease fire, I am rocking some sick new pair of heels, and my hair is falling in just the right way, there is JUST NO MESSIN' WITH ME. On those days I listen to music on my way to the metro and feel like I'm DJ-ing the soundtrack to my super awesome autobiography turned movie staring myself playing myself. Those days are the SHIT.

On the flip side, there are long stretches of time where I want to just curl up with my pets, pull the covers over my head, sink past the mattress and down into the floor beneath to hibernate for at least the next couple of months. I literally sometimes wish I could magically disappear into a different realm where no one knows me at all and I can start all over. I honestly get sort of sick of myself. It's like that feeling you got as a kid when you slept over your best friend's house one too many times in a row. You begin to feel that shift from excitement to homesick and annoyed, the only problem is back then you could just go home. There is no escaping yourself. You are suck with you.

The point of me rambling on about all of this is to get to this part of the story. I am someone who is a true believer signs ("Fools Rush In" is like one of my top ten favorite movies for this very reason). During one of my rougher stretches that only seemed to get worse by the day, I happened across a fortune cookie. Okay, OKAY. who am I kidding, I didn't happen across shit.. I ordered WAY to much Chinese food and was definitely six episodes deep into an ABC show about fairytales, whatever. Anyway, I held this little cookie in my hand and immediately decided it was time to take shit up with the universe. I spoke out loud, "Seriously, is this it? I need to know that things are as they should be, I am right where I am supposed to be, and that I have lots to look forward to in this life of mine. Oh, and it can't  just be some generic crap,  I am already feeling slightly insane for even participating in this exercise so I am going to need the number 6 to appear in that little lucky number list to believe this is, in fact, the universe answering me back." I crack open this cookie, eat it, and then read the little piece of paper to myself.