THANKFUL

I'm still trying to find my place in this whole being married, and 4 months pregnant thing. Some days I forget I'm pregnant because I'm still in the honeymoon stage of marriage. other days I feel like my belly is growing so quick and there are so many changes happening, I can't breathe. I do feel like I'm coming into a middle ground though. I feel like I do have balance with my everyday life, and for that? I'm thankful.


I'm thankful for so many things. I can't express that enough to the people I love and to myself. I really thought I would never be in the place I am. With cancelled weddings, miscarriages, constantly picking up our lives and going back and fourth from Oregon to California for our business. It all seems like such a blur, but I know deep down it's what's shaped me. I don't overlook the simple thing my husband does. Like, bring me cold rags when I have a migraine, cleaning out my car, rubbing my belly in the middle of the night. They are things I wouldn't have noticed before. But I'm thankful that I do now.


I'm also thankful for the relationship I have with my mom. We weren't always close. In fact, for a long time as a teenager I had a very strong hate for her. We are complete opposites. I actually went to live with my grandma for 2 years because I couldn't stand to be in the same room as my mom. I'm not sure what triggered any of that as a kid, other then having very different personalities, but it was something I was so upset about. We've always talked, we've always had respect for one another, we just didn't always like each other. It's not like that now. It really changed when my grandma passed away. I think we both made a effort to be involved and slowly but surely we built our own connection. I'm thankful we have that now. I'm thankful I can call her at anytime an she'll just listen, or vice versa. I love my mom whole heartily and I'm so thankful to be able to say that.


I'm thankful for a roof over our head. It's not my dream home, and wasn't even suppose to be our home for more then 3 months. But we've made it a home, and it's nice to come back from a long day at work or traveling to a comfy us place. It will serve as the place we bring our baby home to, and will have been pressed in our memory as the place where we spent our first year of marriage.


I'm thankful for a healthy pregnancy. I still feel like I'm in denial about the whole thing. But then we saw our baby on screen, and the next night felt our baby kick from the outside and my brain suddenly clicked on that we ARE doing this, you ARE growing a little human who depends on every ounce of your being. I'm so excited to finish our my pregnancy and welcome our beautiful baby into the world.



I'm thankful for real friends. We've had people come in and out of our life over the last several years, and the ones that stayed are the ones that mean the most. We're not the easiest people to stay in contact with, as we're on the go a lot. Unfortunately not a lot of people understand that. We can't make it to every birthday party, bar outing, dinner out, etc. We do try our best though, and I feel like our core group of friends understands and doesn't judge us.



While it's a materialistic item, I'm thankful for my iphone. It took us a while to get on the smart phone kick, but once we did? so amazing. I love my phone, and the apps I can play with. Some of my favs? Twitter, instagram, what to expect, draw something and the weather app ( what? I like to know how hot or cold it will be!)


So in the end my heart is happy. My love cup? Completely full.


What are YOU thankful for?

20 Weeks

We're half way people, WHOA! And Yes, I missed another weekly post ( 19 weeks) I just can't seem to find the time lately, which is something I'm really trying to get better at. I'll try and do better this week since I now have a full length mirror to take my own dang picture. Trying to get my husband to take one is like asking him to remodel a kitchen.


( lots of growth this week!)


How far along:

20 weeks, half way! I can't even believe it, and then at the same time, I feel like it's taken us forever to get here. I googled "20 week babies" and "20 week pregnancy bellies" and let me just say yikes. The bellies that I just witnessed online are insane. I feel like mine grows a little tiny bit every week, and can't come anywhere close to the bellies. Also the 20 week baby? looks just like a REAL baby. That for me is mind blowing. Apparently my baby is the size of a cantaloupe which is funny because I just bought one to eat this week.


How are you feeling:

I still have a runny nose which has been normal for me since around 12 weeks pregnant. I can't tell you how many napkins, boxes of tissues and rolls of TP we've gone through. I finally caved this week to buy a body pillow. My hips, back and legs have ached every single night, resulting in no sleep for me, or for Carlos with all the tossing and turning. Headaches have pretty much disappeared and boy am I thankful for that! Also, I went in for a pedicure and 2 hours later I started having braxton hicks. I'm sure that's normal, but I kind of freaked out and C has banned me from going back for awhile.

( I actually wrote this post 2 days ago, and had planned to post it yesterday, but unfortunately I was down all day with a migraine. I finally got out of bed at 8pm last night! I guess this might teach one to keep your mouth shut about improving symptoms because you just never know..)


Stretchmarks:

My belly was very itchy this week which could have been from the crazy change in weather ( hello 80 degrees one day at 30 the next) so I was expecting some more to pop up, but alas nothing more, nothing less. I have noticed the white faded one on my hips starting to pop up just a little bit more.


Weight gain/loss:

Up 8lbs. At week 19 I was hungry all. the. dang. time. I could not get enough food. Unfortunately for me, it wasn't the healthiest choices either. So I'm sure that contributed to 3 lbs gain in 1 week. This week I didn't have a gain, and I'm back on track and continuing to juice fresh fruits and veggies and eat more snacks instead of huge meals.



Movement:

Lots of pops or baby "kicks". It makes me so excited to feel them first thing in the morning, and when going to bed at night. I've also now started feeling them while sitting in my chair and relaxing. I'm hoping any day Carlos will be able to feel them! I'm sure him hearing " oh,I just felt the baby kick" is making him full of anticipation to feel his child, too.


Gender:

We'll find out in August! ( although on Friday we should get our gender ultrasound. At least we'll get to see our baby!)


What I'm loving:

We're finally fully insured! No more rescheduling appointments, no more worrying about a 10k hospital bill, it's covered and I couldn't be more relieved. On Friday we have our first appointment with our new doctor. I switched doctors right around 17 weeks, and then had to wait for our insurance to carry over so it's been a long time coming. I'll have lots of blood work to get caught up on, and I'm sure the appointment will be long with adding in the ultrasound, but it's all worth it in the end. Also, we have chosen our car seat and stroller!

We're going with the Chicco keyfit 30 for our car seat




And the BOB revolution single





We haven't made the purchase just yet as we'll be in Oregon in June and plan to buy tax free! At least it's one thing off our list. Now we just need to get our baby registry started for our end of May shower. I'm loving having things to look forward to!

18 Weeks

I feel like I look HUGE in this picture. My tummy sticks out and there is really no line drawn where my boobs, ribs and belly end. In reality I think the bra and shirt I had on made me look like a huge blob. I still have some curves left, somewhere



How far along:

18 weeks 2 days. ( I sort of dropped the ball on my 17 week post. I asked my husband to help me with the photo 4 times, then we got busy and I never got back around to nagging him about it. I need a full length mirror to do it on my own)



How are you feeling:

I feel generally good in the middle part of the afternoon. At night I have back aches and leg cramps which are no fun at all. I recently had to start sleeping with a pillow between my legs to get any rest at all. In the morning, I wake up completely stuffed up. I'm not sure if it's an allergy thing or a pregnancy thing but either way, My nose feels like it might burn itself off. I've had a few headaches in the last few weeks but that could have been my small appetite and not enough water. Overall, I can't complain. I love being pregnant aching back and all.


Stretchmarks:

Yep. And I'm okay with that. They aren't red or purple which is why I think I'm okay. I know in the future weeks they will probably start turning different colors with how fast this belly is growing.


Weight gain/loss:

I prepared myself after Hawaii for a 10 lb gain. I didn't eat terribly unhealthy, but I ate whatever I wanted which normally is not the case for me. I stepped on the scale shortly after 16 weeks and found that I had lost 2 lbs. 3 days later I lost another 1 lb. As of this morning, I'm back at a 5lb gain. Watching my pant size go up, as well as the scale, was really hard at first. I struggle in the weight department and worked very hard to loose the 25 lbs pre-pregnancy.In the last week I've accepted that my weight will go up to accommodate my healthy baby. And in the end? I'll get that weight back off plus some, and tote around a cute baby in my arms as a prize.


Movement:

This still boggles my mind. Some days I know FOR SURE it's baby. It's so strong! Then I'll go 2 or 3 days with no movement and start back tracking my thoughts. I just want a huge jab right in the belly to say HI MOM!


Gender:

We'll find out in August!




What I'm loving:

I've been on the phone back and fourth with the insurance company trying to get coverage, tis been fun ( not!) At the end of the day I know we can afford to have this baby insurance or not, it would just be nice to have a little help. Accepting that I can't control what happens has been a good thing for me. I'm also loving that I've accepted my body and all the changes it's making. This weekend we're headed to look at our top contenders for a car seat and stroller. I don't think we'll actually purchase just yet, as we have a space issue, but it'll be nice to make the decision on the model we want. More big news; We got our wedding photos back 2 days ago and they turned out gorgeous!

WEDDING DAY

February 17th, 2012


It has finally come, and today I get to marry my best friend. I've heard a lot of women say they didn't sleep the night before, they didn't eat anything until their wedding dinner etc, etc. Well I'm here to say, we slept great! Waking up next to the person I will be waking up next to, the rest of my life felt amazing.

We actually slept in until 7:30 today, and then had some cereal and toast for breakfast. We had an appointment to drive to Paia about an hour away to save ourselves a $100 delivery fee to pick up our flowers. The drive was beautiful but very windy.

Once we arrived at the shop owners home/shop we took a peek at what she had for us. We decided to use Lois for our flowers based on some photos we saw on style me pretty. I'm so glad we splurged and did this because my bouquet? was gorgeous!


(sneak peek of my flowers. this photo doesn't do those beautiful flowers enough justice.)

After we left we decided to head to a little french restaurant in Paia. The blue bible steered us in the direction of Moana Bakery and Cafe. Apparently this place is owned by a french chef and had to die for chocolate eclairs. When we got seated we both decided on a burger with french fries and some type of hand picked garden salad. We must have waited 45 minutes before our waitress realized we still had no food. She went back into the kitchen to ask the chef/owner where our food was and he started downgrading her, and told her he never got the ticket. Long story shot, their printer stopped working.She came back apologetic and offered us a pastry while we waited. Unfortunately they didn't have any chocolate eclairs so we opted for a chocolate croissant instead. The pastry was pretty good, but had a lot of un-melted chocolate inside. not 10 minutes later they delivered our food. Carlos cut is hamburger in half and realized it was still raw in the middle. We sent both back and asked for our check at that point. Two thumbs down for this place!


We headed back to the condo so we could make a sandwich and get ready for the make up lady and hair lady to show up. I showered, dried my hair and before I was even through my hair lady knocked on the door. I originally wanted my hair down, but because of the wind, I opted for it to be put up. Without doing a trial we both collaborated on what would look good and she got to work.She was finished within an hour and I absolutely loved my hair. 5 minutes after she was done Camiko the make up artist knocked on our door.

Camille was so sweet and really worked with my vision. I didn't want bridal soft because most of our photos would be at sunset. I asked for more dramatic smoky eyes and long lashed. She took a little on the longer side ( around 2 hours) but the end result was amazing. I had such a great team helping me get ready, I just felt so incredibly lucky.

Once Camille left, Carlos and I both got dressed and we loaded up the car to head to Makena Cove


(source)


(on our way to get married!)


(handsome groom not loving the slooooow traffic)

We met up with our Photographer Mariah our videographer and the officiant.

Walking down into the cove there were 4 other weddings going on. I thought by picking a Friday we could avoid that, but apparently not. Once we started our actual ceremony 3 of the other weddings we're getting finished, and we never heard a peep from the 2nd wedding going on.

Our officiant was really cool and a true authentic Hawaiian. We asked for a non religious ceremony and told him to make it about our new lives forming together, bringing a baby into our world and how this would all form us as a united family. He did a wonderful job, sang us a few Hawaiian songs, blew on the conch and 20 minutes later we were MARRIED!



(we're married now!)

We did about 1.5 hours more of photos, did a few snippets for our video and parted ways with our vendors.

We we're both wet and sandy from our water shots and decided to change clothes before heading to the restaurant. I'm SO glad we did this because my dress was literally soaked all the way up to my butt.

We arrived back at the Grand Wailea where we used their pool restroom to hose the sand off and change into our dinner attire. We had 8pm reservations at Humuhumunukunukuapuaa. Yes, that's really the name and no, I can't even say it without getting tongue tied. They call it humu humu for short. We were seated on top of a huge fish pond and enjoyed a few fruit drinks before they brought our meal.


(mine was a pineapple/coconut/strawberry drink..no alcohol of course)



(Carlos had a pineapple rum cocount type deal)

They also served bread with a sweet type of butter.

We both ended up ordering a lobster with filet mignon, garlic mashed potatoes and roasted asparagus. It was incredibly delicious and now counts as our favorite meal of the entire trip. I took more then half my plate of food home because there was just so much.



After dinner was over, we strolled the Grand Wailea one last time and headed back to valet to pick up our car and drive the 1 hour back to Lahina. It was such a long day, but amazing and full of love.

Once we got back to the condo, I washed all the make up off, took the 500 bobby pins out and we went to sleep.

Wailea on Dwellable

HAWAII DAY 3

Today, we had to pack our bags and head over to our new condo in Ka'anapali. We we're up bright and early again ( 6:30am, ugh!) and headed to the breakfast room for another delicious and free breakfast.

We had 5 hours before we had to check out and we hadn't been down to Wailea beach yet so we decided to leave our bags in our room and catch the shuttle down. Our hotel offered a free shuttle for drop off and pick up which was pretty awesome. Parking was a nightmare down in that area.



(Getting ready to head into the water!)

When we got to the beach it was pretty windy and the surf was pretty rough. Eventually after a little hesitation we both got in the water. I had read online that if you were to see a shark this would be the place you'd see them. I had that on my mind the entire time so I don't think I ever really relaxed in the water. Once I saw a lot of people just jumping in I went with the flow and came to the mind set that at least the sharks have options of who they want to bite. Seems silly, but it was true fear I had. The surf seemed to calm down a bit so we had fun splashing around and play in the waves. I guess further out they have some great snorkeling but we hadn't gotten gear yet so we decided we might come back for that if I could get over my fear of sharks.



The next thing I remember is being taken down by a 6 foot wave. There we're quite a few us that we're taken down and I was scared shitless. I remember being thrown to the ground and holding onto my baby belly before I hit, loosing my BRAND NEW Coach sunglasses in the mean time. When the wave subsided I was able to pick myself up, rationalize what had just happened and try to look for my glasses. We didn't have any luck as the waves just came pounding in and I very quickly got out. There was a guy working the beach as part of a canoe rental shop and I asked him what my chances in finding the glasses were and he said absolutely zero.I gave up but I think Carlos looked for a good hour.

We decided to lay on the beach chairs for a little bit to dry off, then head up to the shuttle pick up area and head back to the condo. We got our jeep loaded up and started the drive to the Lahaina area where our condo was located.

We stopped at Subway for lunch and stopped again at that little shave ice stand in Kihei before getting on the highway. We arrived at our new condo around 2 pm and were told check in wasn't until 4pm. We decided to start the process anyway and i'm so glad we did as there were quite a few delays. After being told we we're going to have to move rooms the next day and not be able to check in again until 4 ( on my wedding day!)we pitched a major fit and was able to get a room right away. We lost our "ocean view" suite but there was no way we could move rooms with hair and make up girls coming in. All in all I think it took us a little over an hour to get checked in ( ridiculous!)

Once we were in, we decided to walk the grounds a bit, get a feel for our new location, check out the pools, and the beaches, etc. We then headed down to Safeway grocery store to grab a few essentials. We bought stuff for lunch and a few dinners, to last us the rest of our week. The premise is Hawaii is very expensive for food. And I will say, yes, it's a bit more expensive then the mainland, and brand name restaurants could be costly but if you shop sale items at the store, and eat everything you buy, and/or if you're at a restaurant you have other options other then steak and lobster.

We took our goods home and decided to make homemade meat sauce with spaghetti and garlic bread. I didn't get any pictures because well...we were hungry.

After we finished dinner and cleaned up we went to sit in the hot tub. I've never been afraid to sit in a hot tub pregnant, because I know my body. I have a 10 minute in 10 minute out rule, or if I'm in anyway feeling too warm I'm out for much longer.

Around 10pm we headed back indoors, showered and went to sleep. Tomorrow is the BIG day and we're both so relaxed and excited for it all to come together.

HAWAII DAY 2

We woke up at 6:30 am. Absolutely not like us, but we were ready to get a good start on our day. We didn't make any set in stone plans as we had a 10:30 meeting in Lahaina to get our marriage certificate done.

Our condo offered a complimentary breakfast which we took advantage of. They had some really good items like bagels, banana bread, muffins, toast, fresh fruit, coffee, juice and water.





The breakfast room was stunning!





Once we were done eating, we headed back to the condo to grab our documents and head to the marriage license office.

it was about a 45 minute drive, even though mileage wise it was only 25 miles. With the winding roads and slow moving speed limit ( 45 to 35 to 25)we made it a few minutes late. Lucky for us she was running late too, so no harm done. The process was really simple. We turned in our forms, showed our license, raised our hand and told the truth, paid our $65 fee and we were on our way.


(filling out our marriage certificate form!)

We decided to walk front street a bit sine the office was right around the corner. We browsed a few shops, checked out a few menus at some local restaurants and watched some surfers in the near distance.





It was around noon and we wanted to get some lunch and get a little beach time in. We started our drive back to Wailea and stopped in Kihei at a little deli called 808 deli. We went based off the reviews on Maui revealed ( the blue bible!) It took us a bit to find it as it's tucked behind a big Mexican restaurant. We did find it though and our sandwich was just ok. We were also advised ( from the owner and the book) to try the pasta salad. I took two bites and couldnt gag anymore of that down. it had a weird curry powder/cream mixture and it just didn't flow well for me. Once we were finished we walked down to a little shave ice stand across from the beach and let's just say...Pure Heaven.


(sharks blood and coconut/pineapple mix )

I don't remember the name of this place, but if you're in Kehei, it's down the main street across from the beach with huge signs. you can't miss it.

We quickly realized we forgot to bring hats, so we went on a mission to at least 15 stores trying to find some. I had luck right off the bat but Carlos didnt.


Once done with our dessert and shopping we headed back to the condo to get our gear. We called the front desk to see if there was a shuttle we could take down to the beach and they advised us most beaches close at 3pm during the winter ( it was 2 pm currently) We were kind of bummed but decided to head down to the Grand Wailea and see if we could swim at their fabulous pools. We couldn't, as they only allow registered guests but we found a way in anyway.
( consider us ninjas)We swam and sat in the hot tub, and decided to head out and browse a few shops. Eventually we found a hat for C and headed back to the condo.

We were getting pretty hungry for dinner but none of the fancy restaurants in Wailea sounded good. So we did something so silly and drove to Taco Bell. I can't even believe I'm admitting we ate Taco Bell in Hawaii of all places, but it was so, so good. We headed back to the condo, watched a little TV, played on the ipad and went to sleep. The heat must of worn us out because I think we we're both out by 10:00pm.

HAWAII DAY OF TRAVEL ( Valentines day!)

I'm slightly behind on the blogging as we've had a busy week, and then 2 days of amazing sunshine and I could not bring myself to sit down and just write.

I had big plans to blog through our wedding and honeymoon in Maui, but we ended up not bringing our laptop ( we had so much other crap there was no room!) and typing a blog on the iphone or ipad is ridiculous, so we squashed that idea. I did however, write snippets so I could remember what we did and on what days we did them so when we got home I could get it all documented for us to read in the future.

I'm not sure how other people could lug around a huge camera, because I absolutely could not. We were in and out of the water so much, and had a convertible jeep we didn't feel comfortable leaving our big camera in, so a lot of our photos are through our iphone. Looking through all the blurry photos now, I sort of wish I would of just sucked it up and brought the big camera. Oh well.


DAY BEFORE LEAVING


The day before leaving to Maui, I had a prenatal appointment, and a hair appointment. Everything was running late ( stupid doctors that 'm now no longer with!) making me late for the next appointment and overall we had an extremely busy day. We decided to spend the night at my inlaws house so we could drop off the dog, and sleep in a little later as they live closer to the airport then we do. When we arrived my mother in law had decorated up the house, and made us dessert. I was already so tired, and exhausted from the day I really just wanted to go to bed. It was incredibly sweet what she did, and I couldn't be more thankful for a their well wishes.








Dessert was a multi flavored sherbert ( tropical!) with fresh fruit and a wafer cookie. It was really yummy! Shortly after we got everything cleaned up we headed to bed around 12:30am only to be up for our 7am flight at 4:00am. ugh



DAY 1 HAWAII

Once our alarm went off at 4 am I was still so sleepy I could hardly pull myself from bed. I woke Carlos up to start moving, as we still had an hour drive to the airport. We loaded up the car with a few things, then got on the road around 4:30.

We got to the airport with zero traffic and proceeded to park in the economy lot. ( at $ 15 a day I don't think it was really "economy") The parking shuttle picked up up and dropped us off so we could proceed to the check in counter to Hawaiian Air. One thing that was kind of annoying was I had checked us in online the day before. I paid for bags, had the receipt and expected them to just have a bag drop off counter. We ended up having to stand in line for 30 minutes with the people checking in just to drop off bags. What the heck is the point of getting things done early if we still have to start at square 1? Annoying, really.

One of our bags ended up being 2 lbs over weight and 1 bag ended up being 4 lbs underweight so we had to switch a few things around which just made me more antsy. By this time it's 6am and I wanted to make sure we could get breakfast before our 6 hour flight.

We moved toward security, made it through with no problems and found some breakfast. We stopped at a chili's which was nearest to our gate. C got a breakfast combo of french toast, eggs and bacon. I ended up with a breakfast burrito and home fries. Both were disgusting and $30 to end with. I couldn't eat more then 3 or 4 bites before I gave up. UGH

Within 10 minutes of getting to our gate it was time to board our flight.



I couldn't wait to get up in the air so I could attempt a nap. So SO tired.


Once we were in the air, Hawaiian Air made the announcement they would be serving breakfast. We had NO idea as every airline we've been on in the last 5 years no longer serves food, especially for free. The attendants brought us our breakfast and wouldn't you know it? a dang breakfast burrito. YUCK. I gave mine over to C and just ate the muffin. He liked the food better then in the airport but still wasn't the best.



5 hours and 30 minutes later ( we arrived early!) we were on the ground in Kahului. We found our bags and headed to the rental car counter where we picked up the keys to our convertible jeep. We actually didn't reserve that particular car because it was SO expensive, but they upgraded us for $24 a day which we couldn't pass up. We got the 2 door soft top, loaded up our bags and we're on our way to Wailea.








I decided I was starving so we looked through our Maui Revealed book and found a thai restaurant called Saengs nearby. it was pretty good, and the scenery was beautiful!





Once finished we made it to our condo in Wailea called Hotel Wailea The condo was beautiful and really spacious inside ( we plan to do a condo review as we stayed in 2!) We got situated, relaxed a bit and headed up to the pool. I think we were there 3 hours, and decided to head back to our room and shower to get ready to go out to dinner.

We knew with it being Valentines Day, we'd have slim pickings for dinner without a reservation. We decided on something simple and opted for a pizza place near our condo. Matteo's pizza was decent and really good in price. We walked right in placed our order cafeteria style, and never saw a waiter/server from then on. It was sort of odd to have to ask the busboy to fill our water glass and grab us plates, etc. But we got food, it tasted good so we really couldn't complain.


( horribly blurry photo!)


We were so exhausted, and headed back to the condo and got ready for bed. It was already midnight our time!

We have a lot planned for tomorrow, including getting our marriage license ( eeek!)