Merry Christmas 2014!

Reduce, reuse, recycle was the theme of our Christmas this year.  That's code for "why don't we not wrap each others presents this year and instead bring them out one by one."  See, I told you we were a bit of bah humbugs!  :)

The truth of the matter is we have three dogs and a cat and one of our dogs insists on peeing on anything that is out of place, so therefore, presents don't get stored under the tree!  So, another easy out for not needing to make the presents looks pretty.

I did cheat a little, I wrapped his travel case, which what stuffed with The Art of Shaving supplies and I put the shirts I bought him in Christmas theme printed boxes.  The rest went in a stocking.

The morning started with breakfast of our choice, mine being a bowl of gf spaghetti!  What?! Its Christmas, so it was a gift to myself. He-He.  Next we moved on to presents!  We opened the presents from Mitchell's parents first and they were so thoughtful and very generous.  We were overwhelmed. Included in the gift was a beautiful story called Time Is All We Really Have, So Use It Well.  The back read...

We paused a moment on this and hugged, reflecting on our year.  We had a lot of rain this year.  It was tough.

After we finished up with gift giving, we were off to get ready.  I put on my new MAC eyeshadow (thanks hubby!) and we hit the road to my aunts house.  This year we were short an aunt, my cousin and her husband and her three kids, so the house wasn't as full physically, but still full of love!

and silliness...

I try to stay pretty healthy.  I'm gluten free, soy free, and low dairy and sugar.  My aunt is the host-est with the most-est and got me special crackers and earth balance butter and made me a special chili so I didn't feel left out.  I thought that was so so thoughtful.  Thoughtful things like that always remind me to think about others more! :)

My mom and dad really hooked up the gifts this year.  In sticking with my healthy cooking, I really wanted All-Clad pans!!  My parents got us a 7-piece set, a tool set, lasagna pan, cook book and oven mitts!  Score!  They were so so generous and I was beyond thrilled!  We spent the whole next day cleaning out the kitchen to make room for the new set and of course trying them out!

My sister got me the sweetest gift too.  She got me a bird feeder and all necessary supplies!  I love watching the birds!  I was thrilled, I really wanted another feeder for outside my bedroom window and this one has a bigger catch on the bottom, which will be great since the scrub jays will dump the feeder out in a day!!  The birds are really my zen and my sister appreciated that and bought me another feeder.

(Looking out my bedroom window!)

Earlier this year I bought a  bird feeder and made my own bird bath with vintage finds from the antique store.  I love listening to the birds chirp and watching them frolic for food of play in the water.  Ill often look up the birds online and learn about them and we have the same ones come back everyday, so I look forward to seeing them!  We have finches, scrub jays, hummingbirds, doves, quail, woodpeckers, and we had a tawhee for a while.  

Here is a pic of the birds this morning, anxiously awaiting me to refill the feeder!  

(look hard... they blend in, but there are at least a dozen in the pic!)

And the good news just kept pouring in on Christmas... On the way home from my aunts I noticed I had some missed voice mails and texts.  I listened to the voicemail first and heard a very excited sounding voice on the other line.  So excited in fact, I couldn't tell who it was.  When I clicked on my text messages I realized that excited voice on the phone was one of my best friends, Mimi...she got engaged!!!  Yay!!

I cant wait to talk dresses and venues and all things happy!!!

Guess Who's Pregnant!!

I'm so so so happy to be pregnant!!  Ive already purchased a journal to write down my thoughts as well as cute stickers and stamps and I have been scouring the Internet for cute ideas on how to record the pregnancy.  (Apparently I need to purchase and learn Photoshop!)

I took a pregnancy test on 12/12/14 and saw the worlds faintest line.  I had used a Clinical Guard Internet cheapie so I decided to pull out my one and only big gun the next day and use the First Response test.  I stared at that baby for 3 minutes straight willing that second line....and it faintly appeared {finally!}.

I couldn't wait to tell Mitchell...but being it was Saturday and I wake at a ridiculously early hour, I knew I would have plenty of time before he got up.  OK, truth be told I had already planned out how I would eventually tell him we were pregnant and had everything I needed sitting in a drawer in waiting.

After he woke and ate and showered I got ready to execute.  I had purchased a little charm that was no bigger then an earring back that had the word DAD and on it.  I had also bought a cute little card with strollers and buggies on it to write him out a sweet dad-to-be letter.

"Mitchell" I called "Can you please help me?  The back of my earring fell off and I cant find it."  I casually had my cell phone in my hand with the record button on and it would only move it casually when he looked up from searching from my earring back.  He had grabbed a flashlight and I swore it was pointing right on the charm, but he didn't see it.  Then he flipped the bath mat it was sitting on and there was a brief moment of "oh jeez, now we both don't know where it is!"  Finally (probably within 1 minute but it felt like I was holding my breath forever) he spotted it.  He picked it up, looked at it and handed it to me.  NOTHING!  "What is it?"  I ask.  He looks again and then I see the moment of recognition flash across his eyes.  "Heart dad. (Then a laugh) Is this?  Are you joking with me?"  "Surprise!"  I say.  "Did we get a second line?"  He asks.  "Were pregnant!!" (Followed by more laughing from Mitchell).  Then we hugged and hugged and hugged some more!  I gave him his card, pulled out the stick and asked him about 20 times "You see it, right?!"

Yep, we're pregnant!!!

The legend of the Scorpion and BFP!

Last August I was taking a shower one morning and happened to glance down and saw a scorpion scurrying towards me, tail up.  I let out a scream, did a hop back and then thought OK now what do I do?  I'm soaped up and my hair is full of shampoo.  I turned off the water to hop out but then Jewel's song ran thru my head "I never leave wet towels on the floor anymore..."  I'm only half kidding, b/c I did decide to just finish my shower with the scorpion while keeping one eye on him.

So, I quickly rinse and  hop out and think, well I think that's a scorpion, but I've never actually seen one, so I better take a pic as proof.  I snapped a pic and then crushed him with our Heads & Shoulder bottle.  I couldn't wait to tell my husband!

Two days later I got a positive pregnancy test!  At the time all I thought was thank goodness he didn't sting me while I was pregnant...but then things got weird!

My beta was looking great, I was more then doubling each day but then one morning I just felt like something was different.  I called my Dr. and he told me to go ahead and come in and he did an ultrasound and said "we see see two sacs, but no heartbeats...this probably isn't good.  Come back in a few days."  I was crushed initially but then started feeling hopeful and then came another scorpion!!  

This scorpion looked like the first and was again in my shower.  I'm not superstitious necessarily but I have really good intuition and I think there are definite signs if your open to seeing them.  So I immediately thought, well this must be good news b/c last time I saw a scorpion I got a BFP (Big Fat Positive Pregnancy Test for those of you who don't have trouble conceiving and don't speak the language)  Sure enough on my appointment two days later we had 1 heartbeat!  After crying out in joy the Dr. let me know that the heartbeat was slow and only gave it about a 50% survival, only time would tell.

Well another scorpion later returned, this time in my kitchen on the other end of the house.  I saw his pincher sticking out of the side of the light socket, so I smashed him and then unscrewed the socket to discard him.  I thought, well this has to be good news!  But then, there was a fourth scorpion above my bed and I had a feeling that seeing two back to back didn't mean good news.  Our baby didn't survive.  

We had never seen a scorpion before, and after the news of the loss, we never saw one again.  The only time we ever saw them was when I was pregnant.  We've lived in this house for many years.  I was absolutely sure therefore that there was something to my theory that scorpions are related to pregnancy.  I Googled but found nothing.  I don't know if they are attracted to a scent or maybe they imply something, but it was awfully strange.  

Tonight I was walking past my dark bathroom when I caught a glimpse of something dark and large on the ground.  I clicked on the light and found this!

He was huge and black and a different type of scorpion then we saw before so I don't know what exactly this means...but Ill definitely be testing to see if I'm pregnant!!

Happy Weekend

This weekend was full of hustle and bustle (and some holiday cheer!).  My good friend Virginia was visiting from Paris!  Virginia and I met thru a mutual friend in 2005 and have been close ever since.  No matter where life has taken us we have always been very connected.  In fact, Virginia was living in another state when I had my wedding and she drove about 800 miles to surprise me on my big day (despite having a ton on her plate)!  Boy was I stoked!  Luckily my photographer caught the moment she surprised me!

My friend Mimi helped Virginia pull the surprise off!

I digress, back to this weekend.  So, Virginia was in town dealing with the Consulate and so on Friday night we headed downtown to have some quality catch up time.  We noshed on seafood, spoke with interruptions from the occasional crazies downtown and we took selfies.  I couldn't stop laughing b/c selfies and I aren't an item, but this weekend we were and it was fun.  When I'm with Virginia she reminds me to let my hair down.  You know those good ole long time friends who just make you feel more like you when you're with them.  It was fun!

Then she taught me the art of Instagram affects!

    Lobster roll for her and a salmon burger sans bun for me!

Saturday morning I was up bright an early for a full day of hair appointments, grocery shopping, grabbing my hubby the burger and fries he was craving - Ive heard it makes football watching complete - and finally doing a bunch of cleaning and cooking.  My mom was heading down to see me this week to keep me company while Mitchell went underway with the Navy for the week, so I wanted it to be nice and relaxing while she was here.

I made some stuffed cabbage with heaps of sauerkraut (I'm slightly obsessed with Bubbies Sauerkraut - it has live cultures and is so delicious) and I also made a lentil bruschetta dip.  My hubby who is a phenomenal cook made me his famous "sausage meal" and also these egg breakfast muffins.  SPOILED!  We had a smorgasbord and mom and I were in heaven rotating between the meals all week.  Every time I bit into my yummy sausage meal I remembered that the extra ingredient hubby put in, love!!

So hubby and I are a little bit of Christmas scrooges.  We like it and all but we don't really get as festive as most.  Every year we say "next year we'll get a tree..."  and then next year comes and still no tree.  Well with him heading underway we again forfeited the tree, but I did blast the Christmas music, asked Mitchell to pull down the boxes of cheer and I hung the stockings by the chimney with care, put up the nutcrackers and made do with my Christmas tree I have had since my college days.  Yes, you will laugh but this tree has made it with me across many states, it went with Mitchell in his 9 month deployment and so yes its weak, and maybe a little pathetic looking, but its been well loved (and holds all of the few the decorations we have!)

      Ive been collecting nutcrackers since I lived with my parents.  

                  Luckily they had stored them all these years and gave me the box last Christmas.

    This tree isn't pretty but it has history!

       It was a very merry weekend!