Tough Love

Do you think you are strong? How strong are you? Do you curl fourth graders at the gym amongst the squeals of laughter? Do you crush the extended hand when you shake it? Can you push a car by yourself?

How strong are you emotionally? My friends are as strong as the Empire State Building is tall. Who am I hanging out with you wonder. These ladies see tomorrow as both a blessing and a curse yet they progress towards their goal of taking home a baby from the hospital. My friends have suffered through the losses of their unborn children. Their pregnancy is confirmed, and sometimes as soon as that same day they find out their hope has fallen to the ground like a cannon ball. 

I wish there was a way for us to see the rush of hormones and chemicals that flood the body when a woman finds out she's pregnant. The excitement of success for a long awaited goal having been reached would just have to evident throughout her body. Her heart becomes more tender; her ego fades to the background; and she embodies her vision of what it means to be maternal. She no longer holds herself on a pedestal but instead her growing womb encompasses her number one. A pregnant woman starts planning immediately on how to face her fears and how to best maximize her joy. I'm not sure a man can relate to such an organic change like a woman can in this situation. 

Then, through no fault of her own consciousness, she's delivered a telegram somehow, some way that her dream has just been popped. Her body isn't producing the right balance of hormones. How was she suppose to know?! Now she has to muddle through the despair that follows such sorrowful news. The doctors do not know why she continues to have miscarriages. Why is her body broken while others' are baby-making machines?! What did she get dealt this deck of cards?! She continues to research anything and everything that can possibly give her insight into the mysterious cause of a miscarriage. She wants to understand what her doctor is talking about, and have an engaging conversation with him about what she needs to do going forward. 

Going forward. These women do not know how to shrivel up and quit. No. They are strong because they do everything in their power to achieve their dream of holding their child one day. Their world is a blur of numbers that give meaning to their journey. They mourn, and they make a special place in their heart for the life they created and envisioned cuddling with one day. They acknowledge that they need time to heal, and do so in their own way. Their journey comes with pent-up excitement for a positive and realistic unpleasant news with a sign of a cramp. Days turn into weeks, weeks into months, and months into years. My friends willing go through this cycle because they are strong. 

You may have strong friends too, and you never knew the source of their strength. I am not as strong as my friends, but should I need to be, I know I have them close by. 

I'm saddened too because I won't get to see the pictures that you post or the videos that you share. Now I won't have those adorable cheeks to want to pinch. I won't witness the proud smile you always wear while holding your baby. One day though, I will awe at your child in the pictures. One day I will laugh at your baby's uncanny sense of timing while being caught on camera. Not only will I tenderly nip at those cheeks, but I'll feel those little fingers wrap around one of mine. One day you'll get to introduce the world to your child, and it will be the moment that is keeping you strong today.

Doggy Trivia Party

 Last night I hosted a meetup for 7 girls at my house. I put together this lovely snack spread:
*Puppy chow (recipe from Pinterest)
*Dog themed rice crispy treats
*Black bean-corn salsa with Tostitos Scoops chips
*Pumpkin whip (recipe from Pinterest) with cinnamon Teddy Grahams
*Veggie tray (not pictured)
*Cranberry-Apple-Pomegranite Sprite mixed drink

I had met three of the six girls who came over at previous meetups. Incase anyone isn't familiar with meetup.com, it's a website where one can join or create a social group with a specific interest. The group that I'm a part of is called Girls Just Wanna Have Fun, and it's for ladies in Austin who are looking to meet new girlfriends. Most of us are transplants to this great city, are out of college, and work full time. Our group does all the work for you by bringing women who are looking for friends, looking to bond with others, and go have fun.

I joined this group back in July after visiting my best friend in North Carolina. She's a Marine wife and an elementary school teacher. Her friends are all teachers and Marine wives too. They are always meeting up to go to the gym, go out to dinner, have parties together, send over husbands to do husbands' work while one is deployed, that sort of thing. I had been feeling very lonely in Austin because I didn't know how to find the social circles to meet other girls who were also looking to make friends. Somehow I came across meetup.com when I came home from vacation, and my social life took off!

Back on track now, everyone chatted and shared about themselves. Turns out three of the girls were from Wisconsin. We shared stories about our current dogs or what dogs we had growing up. We started the trivia game, which I did in a powerpoint presentation on my laptop. The winner got a bottle of wine with a labrador on it.

Trivia ended at 10pm, and we went to Midnight Rodeo, a club about 15 minutes away. Some girls had been there a long time ago, but we were all really curious to see what it was about. So, we were a group of 7 girls with no guys around us; if that doesn't scream, "We're here to dance!" I don' know what does. We were disappointed they did not have a mechanical bull. The country music was pretty good, and they threw in about three rap songs like Gold Digger and such about once a hour.

They had one song where it was Ladies' Choice. Ladies could choose any guy they wanted to dance with and the guy couldn't so no. I asked one of the single girls with us who she wanted, and she pointed to a tall guy with a baseball cap. I took her by the arm, went over to the guy and said, "Hi, meet Kristy. She wants to dance with you, and you can't say no." Then I left to go back to the rest of the girls, hehehehe. Turns out his name was Daniel, and he couldn't dance, which is why he was standing towards the back. It was fun to watch them out there. I definitely would do anything to convince Marshall to learn to country dance while wearing his cowboy hat. *swoon

PS. With Marshall's car still torn apart in the garage, we can't move it to pull down the ladder to the attic. Thus, we STILL have our Christmas decorations up.

Fondue Party!

I'm hosting a February Fondue Party at my house next month! I'm so excited, and I have a lot to plan. It's going to be so awesome!! We'll have at least 2 cheese fondue stations and 2 chocolate fondue stations. So delicious!!

DC Arrival

Monday, September 12th we flew to DC. Marshall's plane went from Austin to Dallas to DC. Mine went Austin to Atlanta to DC. I woke up at 3:30am and got Marshall up a hour later. I made breakfast tacos. Our taxi was suppose to arrive at 5:00am, then we came to the conclusion that it would probably be cheaper for us to drive ourselves and park our car for 4 days than getting a taxi for there and back. We left around 5:10, and got a call around 5:20 that our taxi arrived. You snooze, you lose, Mr. Taxi Dude! We parked, hopped on a shuttle, checked in, made it through security and had about 20 minutes before my flight started to board. Mine left at 6:58 whereas Marshall's left at 7:15. I didn't get much of a nap on my first flight, and I'm glad I brought a book to keep me from getting bored.

 It was really easy to find each other in the airport. Marshall got some coffee, and we headed to find the metro subway system.

We found the metro and learned out to buy the fare card. Our metro exist is one block south of our hotel--so awesome. We checked in, got settled, then headed out the door to get lunch. We found a little place just a block over called Justin's Cafe. Marshall had a roasted eggplant, pepper-type of sandwich with sweet potato fries. He was surprised that they had cinnamon and sugar on them instead of salt. I had a mixed greens salad with pecans, grilled chicken, mozz cheese and green apple slices.

After lunch we went to the National Zoo, and I was surprised it wasn't larger. I didn't even see any polar bears! We did see the panda bears though. When I get back to Austin I will upload the little video I made for my mom who is a panda fanatic.

After the zoo we met up with Bonnie, who is a dear family friend of Marshall's. Her husband Rob came home shortly after we arrived, and their son Josh (who also lives in Austin) was up for a convention, and I finally got to meet him. We had some wine, hummus and bread as we chatted at their house. We went to Acre121 for dinner in Columbia Heights. It was a wonderful evening with them.

Song Stuck in My Head

"Wake Me Up When September Ends"
August flew by way to fast, but September is going to come and go at lightning speed because we have so much going on this month. I'm not even close to being ready for October or Halloween yet--help!

Monday the 29th I went to a Girl Scout council meeting for Oak Hill, a suburb of sorts in WSW Austin. I've volunteered to organize the Holiday Bazaar in December. Troops sign up to make crafts to sell at the event, which are bought by other girls and their families to use as Christmas gifts. I love crafts (and Christmas) so I decided to take on the challenge. Plus, I have a few months to get organized. Right now I'm scanning pinterest.com for craft ideas to share with the troop leaders and their girls.

Tuesday the 30th was a special day for Marshall and me. I'm officially a toddler wife (inside story). I got home from work to find a very sleepy hubby on the couch. He took a nap while I talked to my grandmother on the phone for 1.5 hours or so. It was her 88th birthday! Longevity definitely runs in her side of the family. She's doing amazing, and I'm so glad I got to talk to her. At 6:30 I jolted Marshall out of bed because we had to be at the massage place at 6:45. We were about 10 minutes late, but they didn't mind. While he was way becoming noodlefied, I went to Kohl's to look at clothes. I found a pair of jeans that fit me, and not only that, I'll still be able to wear them as a go down a size or two by the end of the year. They gave me a huge self-confidence boost! I picked up Mars and we had dinner nearby at a new (for us) Chinese buffet. I had sushi and edamame, which made me happy. We actually got the same fortune, and it fit Marshall perfectly. We had a good laugh.

Wednesday the 31st was a long day at work--8:00am to 6:30pm. It was the last day of the month and we were trying to squeeze every last dollar out of the facility as possible. I stayed late because I was waiting on a $45K purchase order, which was going to be a nice cushion for the day. It was worth it because the extra hours helped me leave a little early from work today. :) We had veggie tacos with pepper jack cheese, sour cream, bell peppers, onions, avocados, spinach and tomatoes on whole wheat tortillas. We liked it so much we're doing it again tonight, lol.

Thursday the 1st was really fun. We had a dinner date with some of my new friends, and two other ladies brought their men along; Marshall got along well with both of them, but I didn't doubt he would. We went to Milano's Cafe, which we had never been to before. Excellent, excellent Italian food. The place was BYOB, and we brought wine. We had 10 people total and it was so much fun just talking, sharing stories, and getting to know new people. I told everyone that I wanted to have a Halloween party at my house the last Saturday night in October, and now everyone is really excited. Time to get some tips and ideas from the Halloween Queen, my mother-in-law!

Friday the 2nd--the start of the long weekend that officially closes chapter Summer 2011. Time for the heat to break and let the rain wash the spiders away!! Tonight is going to be low key for us because this weekend we are going to Cypress to visit with Marshall's parents. It's going to be a great weekend because wine and cards are going to be involved. :D

Stay safe everyone!

Hostess

I recently hosted a baby shower at my house for a friend at work who is due with a girl at the end of September. We had california rolls, lumpia and edamame. I even made Weight Watchers sangria. For dessert I made rice krispie treat cupcakes with strawberry frosting. I added sprinkles and a strawberry 'A' for Alice, the baby's name. Her middle name is going to Sakura, which is Japanese for cherry blossom (hence the theme). Here are the pictures I remembered to take of my prep. I made the mom-to-be bibs and receiving blankets, and got her some things that she'll need on the first day home (aka diapers and wipes).

Back from vacation

I had a great 4 days visiting my best friend Heather in North Carolina last week. I flew out on Wednesday morning and came home on Sunday afternoon. Yes, that means I've only worked 4 days this month so far, lol. I had a great time though. I got to meet her friends, so now I can put faces to names. I got to see her house, which she's had for just over 2 years now. I met her pets Baron and Milo. Most importantly we had time to talk, ramble, giggle, and even cry happy tears. She introduced me to spaghetti squash and beat me 2 out of 3 games of Scrabble. We got our hair cut and had pedicures (isn't that the definition of Girls' Weekend?); I even colored my hair. It now has a slight red tint to it. She helped me style my new shorter hairstyle, which my husband calls my pixie cut. It was a complete surprise for him, hehehe.

I hadn't seen Heather since my wedding almost a year ago, so this was really fun. It meant a lot to me that she was part of my bridal party and flew all the way to Idaho for the weekend. I'm glad I got to take a turn and visit her this time. :)