dearest honor...

Dearest Honor,

Today some of your biggest fans met to shower your mommy and daddy with goodies to help with your arrival.  Sorry we couldn’t make it to the party, we live so very far away.  Although we were not there we want you to know that we love you so much and can not wait to meet you.  Charlotte is so excited to be your very first friend.  She can not wait to have girly sleep overs and stay up all night talking about silly little things that little girls talk about.  We want you stay inside mommy for as long as you need to, but when you are ready to meet everyone we will be so excited!  We hope that you will love your quilt that we made you.  Please play on it, tug it all over the house, have messy picnics on it, make it into a tent, wrap it around yourself when you get chilly and play pick-a-boo on it!  We made sure that it has your name on it so everyone knows that it is yours.  We also made a sweet sign for you and mommy to share.  We thought it was the perfect saying for a brand new mommy and her brand new little miracle.  

We can not wait to meet you, love you and play with you!

xoxo, Uncle Jay, Auntie Mo and Cousin Charlotte

goodbye summer

As summer ends and a new school year is just around the corner it makes me a little excited inside.  The end of summer is always such a great time to start so many things.  How about like cleaning the house, becoming organized, running again, eating better, getting on a great schedule, so on and so forth.

This year is just a tinge different for me than in years past.  This year while I happily trot off to go set up my classroom, prepare new binders and dream of bulletin boards and lesson plans I will be leaving something very precious behind.  My little C will either be staying home with dear old dad (aka the jay in jayhess.com) or spending the day with one of our sweet friends and her lovely family.  I have had many people ask how I am doing with being apart from little C with a lowered tone to their voice and sense of somberness in their eyes.  I know that is purely out of concern and love.  To answer everyones questions is... I am very ready!

I know that to some, it might sound awful.  I am sorry.  I have been away from something I really enjoy doing (although I might not admit it come January) for almost six months now.  I have not gone six months without a job since I was 15.  I now completely understand what a stay at home mom gig entails, and I am not cut out for it!  I know, it is a full time job, but I need to go to work to get a break! I am looking forward to my own little world again that I can mostly control (key on the mostly).  I know that there will be some days that I miss Charlotte and days when I can not wait to go pick her up.  But I know that she is in a good home around good people.  I also know that a happy mommy (and in my case, working mommy) is a happy family.

So anyways, back to the starting of new things, getting the wind back in my sails, cleaning up this place, organizing, decorating, getting fit... you know... an overall fall rehaul!  I have been working slowly on some projects and have even gotten Jay involved in a good amount of them (shocking I know, but he is such a good sport).  Here are some things that has been happening in the Hess House and Mrs. Hess’ Classroom over the past week or two:

New focus wall in family room:

It is by no means complete, but the bones are up.  We pulled some of the Richmond and Cincinnati artwork from the office, the honeymoon photo collage from the master and Jay made the sign after I showed him one on pinterest. (thanks pinterest)

In addition to what is there, Jay would like to add some smaller photo’s and I would like to add these! (thank you again, pinterest)

New mantel decor:

We used to have this large swirl candle holder from pottery barn, but it was so seven years ago and always hard to come up with new ways to decorate.  This is more simple and I think the mirror makes the room look bigger.

New family room wall art:

We made our first official family trips to two of my favorite places: Ikea and uFab.  Staple gun, one cute and handy hubby and twenty minutes later we have some interchangeable (this is just for fall) and cheap wall art.

Classroom:

These are current pictures of my ever evolving classroom.

Some new things for this year are these signs, created by my super handy husband with the ideas stolen from pinterest (yep, you should really check out pinterest if you haven’t yet).

Well, that is some of things that I have been up to, not including sewing projects for new babies, old babies and around the house.  I would like to dedicate this blog to the ladies who encouraged me to sleep train my child (so now I have time to dream and create again) and of course pinterest (because really I don’t dream and create, I just copy). Moohaha!

-melissa

beach baby, beach baby, out on the sand...

Aren’t you glad that all of the Hess family beach trips are over for this year so you do not have to read anymore corny Beach Boy references!  Well, our week is up and we had a great time!  We were hoping that Charlotte liked the beach as much as we did, and she bummed it out on the beach like a seasoned beach baby!

We did all of our normal beach activities, but this year with just a little beach baby twist.

-melissa

let’s go surfin’ now, everybody’s learnin’ how....

Our family vacation is coming up in just a matter of days and I am ready. This year we are going back to an old classic for our family, Ocracoke.  Both Jay and I love it there, we love to drive our trusty subaru to our choice spot everyday, we love that there is no dinosaur or pirate themed put-put, we love that everything is closed after 10, we love that there is no chain restaurants or stores, it is just a perfect little get away from everything.  We have had some great trips here in the past and we are looking forward to one again.

Last year we ventured out of our vacationing norm and took a east coast tour of some cities and states that we have always wanted to visit.  It was a great vacation, but it wore me out.  I am not sure if it was because I was in the throws of my first trimester of pregnancy or because we essentially walked the whole east coast up one side and down the other, but I am glad that this year I can plant it in one town, in one house, for one week.  We have seen all the sites, eaten at all of the restaurants, shopped and paroozed all of the stores and galleries, but I think some nice familiarity might be fitting for this years vacation.  With an almost four month baby nothing has been too familiar in the past four months.

So needless to say we are ready!  We have all of the essentials......

sunscreen, bug spray and a new fun color of nail polish

and of course a finished beach quilt that is just begging to be relaxed on in the sun!

Ocracoke here we come!  Keep your fingers crossed that little C is a beach bum like her mom and dad!

-melissa