(Almost) Wordless Wednesday

I can't remember if I have shared this pic with y'all already or not...thought you might need a giggle today. :)

This was from the first street fair that J and I went to right after we moved to San Antonio in 2009.

Recap of my long weekend

Howdy Y'all! I thought I'd give you a recap of my long weekend...I will be mentioning the pregnancy, so if you'd rather skip today's post, I understand.

My Mom flew in last Thursday to come visit us for the weekend...it was so much fun having her here. We all had a great time...the puppies were super happy to see "Grammie" and did not stop the puppy kisses all weekend.

My Mom flew into Austin so J and I drove up to get her...really should have left San Antonio a bit earlier as we were 50 miles away from Austin at the same time her flight was 3 minutes away. Ooops! Thankfully, my mom is super laid back and did not mind waiting for us. I think she only had to wait about 30 minutes. We started the weekend off with BBQ in Lockhart. The BBQ capital of TX! The food was so good! We also were in for a treat as they were filming the latest version of Transformers while we were there. This is what we saw when we went to Smitty's for some brisket:

J didn't realize until I showed him this picture that the gentleman was in the movie. When he saw him at first he just saw the "magazines" the actor had strapped to his vest and thought they were camera batteries. lol

It was pretty funny to watch heads turn in the restaurant as the gentleman walked through.

On Friday we tackled the baby registry...oh my! It was pretty overwhelming, but I think we did okay and we all kept our sense of humor during the process.

Saturday we took my mom to Sea World...aka Sweat World here in San Antonio!! Another good time was had by all! It was a great day...we saw almost all of the shows and only missed one exhibit.

Sunday and Monday were spent hanging out together and running errands. We purchased a shelving unit for what will be the baby's closet. J and my mom put it together yesterday and we are really happy with it. Now to get some baskets for it. I think I'll be using my Hobby Lobby coupon for those. :)

Mom headed back this morning...thankfully we were both able to keep our emotions in tact because we realized it's only another month until we get to see each other again. We'll be going home next month  for our baby shower. There are still times where I am truly in awe that it looks like this pregnancy should result in a take-home baby!

We had one major sad moment for the weekend. One of J's turtles died. Both of the turtles spend the summer out in the courtyard. We've done our best to make sure there are shady spots and to make sure they always have fresh water. Well, on Saturday while we were off at Sea World, Bertha, the aquatic turtle, managed to get herself stuck in the grate for the grill and did not survive. J is having a really tough time with it and really feeling guilty about it. We are doing our best to keep moving forward and J said that it was both good and bad my mom was here when it happened. It forced him to not become a slug for the rest of the day/weekend.

I'd like to try to end this post on a happier note...let me see what little tid bit I can share that is happy. This may not seem like a big deal to most but I had blueberry pancakes yesterday for breakfast!! Since I got my lecture from Dr. H about my carb intake I have not gone anywhere near pancakes. Yesterday, we took Mom out to breakfast to one of our favorite spots and there was just no way I could not get the blueberry pancakes. Oh my...they were so yummy and worth every carb! Tomorrow I am back to my protein shakes for breakfast...

So in a really big nutshell...that was our long weekend.

Need your thoughts/advice

I am in a quandry about a friendship and I thought I would turn to y'all for your thoughts and advice. Long story short, a good friend of mine stopped talking to me after I was unable to see her while we were home visiting over the holidays.

Now for some of the details...I had messaged her prior to our traveling home to MA asking about getting together. She said sure, maybe some night after work...said she'd get back to me. Well, she never did. As a result, I ended up seeing some other friends...some friends that I had not seen in almost 4 years. We did the best we could with the limited time we had at home and unfortunately, that meant we could not see everyone. (I should have/could have reached out to her again while we were home, but did not.) When we got back to TX she said she was sad she did not see us. I emailed her and apologized for it not working out and asked if we could try harder to stay in touch this year. (We sort of lost touch last year...we both had a lot going on in our lives...I was going through treatments and the loss and she was going through a divorce that was years in the making.) I never heard back from her. In March I messaged her again asking if I had done something wrong. She said she was just sad that it seemed like when we were home there was never time to get together.

I think she forgot that when I was home last year it was never for anything good, except for when we were home in December. We flew home 4 times last year (including the holidays). In March J's dad was diagnosed with Stage IV lung cancer...3 weeks after the diagnosis J lost his dad. Then we flew back again in June for the memorial service. She knew the reasons for our trips home and I thought she knew social visits would be severly limited for me.

This friend, M, is one of my few IRL friends who knew anything about our struggles and losses. She only knew about the 1st two losses, as I did not advertise when we suffered a loss and she never really reached out to ask how we were doing. She is also one of the few friends has been to visit us in TX.

In May, I emailed her to let her know we were pregnant and received a message back that said: Congrats.
I've tried contacting her several times via email and Facebook but have not received any replies.

I just don't know what to do at this point. Part of me thinks I should just pick up the phone and call her, but there is a big piece of me that is anxious about trying that. I also wonder if she'd even bother answering the phone. I know my Mom included her on the save the date for our baby shower, but she has not heard anything either. My Mom, the eternal optimist, said not to worry, there is plenty of time.

I feel like she's broken up with me and I am chasing after her. It's so bizarre.

Sorry, for the long babbling post today...any thoughts/advice are welcome. :)

(Almost) Wordless Wednesday

I have another peek into my life for you today...one I am guessing you might not be expecting! No pictures of Belize or tropical locations today. Instead I present you with pictures of Bull Riding!! Not just any bull riders but PBR!

I really wish I had labeled these pictures when I took them because now I cannot remember the names of the bulls or the riders!! Oops!! BUT the picture in the middle is one of the announcers, but not just any announcers...the one in the blue shirt is JW Hart and the one in the green shirt is Adriano Morales. I used to love to watch them ride. Then TLC did a reality show, Beyond the Bull,  about them along with Brendon Clark. LOVED watching that show. :) I got my Mom hooked on watching it with me too...so during the week we'd watch the reality show and on the weekends we'd watch bull riding. Back in the day, I even had two favorite bulls...Little Yellow Jacket and Blueberry Wine. It's so funny to think about now. I don't watch bull riding nearly the way I used to but would love to go back to see it live again.

Happy Loopy Friday!

Why Happy Loopy Friday you ask?? I am beyond exhausted and feeling a bit loopy...I had someone ask me this morning if my boss was on PTO and I heard "Do you have an update?" Oh my...could be a looong day!

Wednesday night I stayed up to late thanks to the Bruins and their triple overtime. (I did not make it to the 3rd OT - I thought I'd take a nap during the intermission and didn't wake up until I heard the sirens from the Blackhawks scoring.) So last night because I was beyond tired J sent me to bed early - which was most appreciated until.... J came in at 10:10pm not ready for bed but to tell me that the hot water heater just blew! The water was pouring out of it into our garage. J got to it not 5 minutes after it blew so the water damage was minimal. We got the gas and the water shut off pretty quickly and worked on getting the water out of the garage.

When I got out to the garage J told me to be careful of the spider - he wasn't sure if it was dead or not. Turns out it was alive and it was not an ordinary spider...it was a TARANTULA!! He was small and almost cute but there was no denying that he was a tarantula. After a few minutes of trying to get him to leave on his own J relocated him to our flower garden.

So today we have the plumber coming out to replace the hot water heater...the amount of money we could be paying in fees to the city is insane. It's almost half of the total  quote we received from the plumber!!

I leave you with a super short video of the hot water heater...

Stormy weather

I thought I'd share a few pictures from my ride home yesterday afternoon.

We've been lucky here in San Antonio in the sense that we've actually been getting rain for the last couple of days. It's been in the form of thunderstorms, but we'll take it! It means we haven't had to water our lawn/flowers for the last week or so which has been great. Really hoping it means we saved some money on our water bill this month!

Thankfully my ride home was not too bad...as soon as I heard the thunder while I was at work I knew I wanted to leave soon. Ever since my accident a couple of months ago I have a new fear of driving in the rain, so I wanted to try to beat the storm home. It was raining a bit during my ride but nothing compared to what was to come...the skies opened up about 15 minutes after I got home.



Almost home




Getting closer
(BTW - this is where I get cut off some night...people like to travel in the right lane until the last possible moment.)




View of the hood looking down into the cul-de-sac



(Almost) Wordless Wednesday

Surprise! Another picture from Belize. :)

This is a loggerhead turtle we saw when we stopped to snorkel where some fishermen where cleaning their conch. He was HUGE! He swam up under J and lifted J out of the water. It was so cool getting to swim with him. :)

Monday...Monday

This post is mostly about my pregnancy...please feel free to skip today if that would be easier for you.

Garnett after our rainy walk on Sunday morning...we were rewarded with going out to breakfast at a spot where dogs are allowed on the patio. :)

We had our appointment with Dr. W on Friday afternoon and I am very happy to report that all went well!! It's such an odd feeling to have everything going so well and to have her treating this like a regular pregnancy. She's been so good with us in terms of spending the time we need with her.

We had quite a few questions for her this time around and we were able to get answers to everything. The biggest question was about me being on proges.terone for too long. Apparently, when Dr. A tapered my dosage I was only supposed to stay on it for one more week. Well, I don't remember that ever being said to me and I find it hard to believe that both Jason and I missed that. As a result, I was on the steroid for an extra 10 weeks or so. THANKFULLY, Dr. W said there were no concerns for Cinco...it was more related to me. I was afraid Cinco was going to come out with roid rage!!

Next up for me is the glucose tolerance test. I gag just looking at the bottle of stuff I have to drink! I need to get back in touch with the dr's office to find out exactly when I need to have the blood test done. The nurse who gave it to me wasn't so great at explaining it...she mumbled the instructions and handed it to me just before taking my blood pressure.

We had A LOT of good laughs with Dr. W talking about my appointment with my endo, Dr. H. Especially when I told her what she said about estrogen and cruciferous vegetables. Dr. H looked at me during my appointment and said "You have BIG boobs so you are making A LOT of estrogen and could really benefit from eating more broccoli and cauliflower." It was really funny.

The best part was when J asked Dr. W about me exercising. She highly recommended it and said I could walk a block and jog a block. I chuckled and said there is no jogging with these things attached to me!! She laughed and then said we might want to talk about a reduction once I am done breastfeeding.

I feel like I've babbled enough for one day...hope y'all had a great weekend...good luck with making it through your Monday!

Happy Friday!

Hello Ladies! After receiving the Sweetest Blogging Award this week it made me realize how much I miss y'all and how much I want to try to blog more regularly. I feel like I became that girl who got a boyfriend and put her group of girlfriends on the back burner. Well, maybe not exactly...but for some time I felt like I just didn't fit in anymore. I worry about talking about my pregnancy for those of you who are still in the trenches. I don't want to hurt anyone's feelings. So instead of trying to figure it out I just stepped away. So here I am saying I am going to try harder!!

Let me update you on our little part of the world bullet style. :)

• J received a promotion yesterday!! I am very proud of him. There was some drama at his company this week that necessitated things change quickly. J's boss is expanding his role, which in turn opened up an opportunity for J to expand his role. There will be a "trial period" of sorts for the next 90 days - I have no doubt that J will succeed!
• We went out last night to celebrate! We brought the dogs along with us and went out to the Flying Saucer. I tried to get J to let me pick a beer for him but he wouldn't let me. I had a major fail in picking a beer for him in Belize so I have been banned. 

  

  Garnett enjoying the patio :)

  
  

  

  J and Sadie

  
  

  

  Garnett and Sadie

  
• I saw my endocrinologist, Dr.  H, on Monday about my wonky thyroid and thankfully all my levels were looking good! Two of them were on the low end of normal so she upped my dose just a bit... I am now at 112mcg.
• I got a tongue-lashing from my endo about letting carbs slip back into my diet. It wasn't really fun to listen to her rant but she got the point across. I need to severly limit my carbs. My breakfasts this week have been protein shakes. Gone are my Green Monster Smoothies - too much fruit and sugar and not enough protein. She also suggested adding more cruciferous vegetables (when she said this all I could think of was Sheldon and the Big Bang Theory! lol) into my diet...if any of you have any recipes for cauliflower or brussel sprouts that make you forget you are eating cauliflower or brussel sprouts, please feel free to send them my way! I am not a fan of either veggie.
• Dr. H was pleased with my lack of weight gain...since my first visit with her during this pregnancy I am only up 1lb. She said there is a good chance that after I deliver I will be down 20lbs from where I started. That really blows me away!
• We have a check up with Dr. W this afternoon. I have a bunch of questions for her this time. Will let y'all know how it goes.
• We had our anatomy scan a couple of weeks ago and Dr. W said everything looked "perfect". Only thing she was concerned about was Cinco's size...he's on the larger side right now. She wants to make sure he'll fit on the way out! I am not surprised he's bigger. All three of my nephews and niece were over 9lbs when they were born.
• Cinco has been bouncing around lately. It truly blows me away still that we are where we are.
• My Mom is coming down to visit in 2 weeks - both J and I can't wait for her to get here! BUT that means spending time this weekend cleaning the room she'll be staying in. We spent the last two weekends emptying the closet in that room and fixing the shelves. Now it's time to put it all back together.
• Tomorrow is J's company picnic - should be fun and it looks like the weather will cooperate. It should only be in the low 90s F, which is great, because we've had more than one year where it was 100+ F during the picnic.

Wow I had a lot to say!! Sorry for the long post...
I hope y'all have a GREAT weekend!!

Super Sweet Blogging Award

I've been nominated for this award by A Place Where I Can Be Me...THANK YOU!!

Here are the rules:

Thank the blogger who nominated you.

Answer 5 super sweet questions.

Include the Super Sweet Blogging award in the blog post (I changed up my picture :) )

Nominate 12 other bloggers.

Thank you!!! Thank you so much for nominating me!! It truly made my day. There have been many times during this pregnancy I have felt lost with blogging and what to say. The words to describe me from A Place Where I Can Be Me really touched me (and J as I shared it with him - he said it almost made him cry!) It's motivated me to try to blog more and keep you a bit more updated with what's going on outside of me wishing I was in Belize.

Super Sweet Questions:

1. Cookies or Cake? Cookies! Preferably homemade chocolate chip cookies :)

2. Chocolate or vanilla? I think it depends on what the treat is...if it's ice cream, vanilla...if it's cake, chocolate.

3. Favorite sweet treat? Ice cream!! When I lived with my mom we'd typically have at least 5-6 containers of ice cream in the freezer at a time. A girl needs options when it comes to ice cream. :)

4. When do you crave sweet things the most? Any time after breakfast and even then I prefer sweet breakfasts over salty. I'll order blueberry pancakes instead of eggs any day!

5. Sweet nickname? Honeybear - somehow J and I adopted the nickname Honeybear for each other and we use it quite regularly. During our wedding week we were leaving the restaurant and I asked him something while calling him Honeybear not realizing someone was behind us. Well, the nickname got a good laugh from our friend! We still giggle thinking about when she overheard us!

Nominate 12 other bloggers:

Here are my nominations...I cannot thank these ladies enough for being there for me with their comments, support and love during the last year...what a roller coaster it's been and I don't think I could have done it without you!! THANK YOU!


Just T

Searching for Our Silver Lining

Sprout

Yeah, Science!

Just a Little Off Kilter

Non Sequitur Chica

Invincible Spring

A Place Where I Can Be Me

(Almost) Wordless Wednesday

Belize style again :)

This is one of my favorite fish to see when we go snorkeling. It's a juvenille yellow damsel fish. They are so pretty...dark blue with neon blue spots. They are so fun to watch as they dart around the coral.

Here is a professional up close picture of the fish:



http://www.focusonnature.com/Marine40.jpg

I am hoping this link to you tube works...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=1w8KjSi2odE

It's a video that is sure to make you giggle today. J built a camera stand out of PVC for our trip this time and while we were snorkeling at Shark Ray Alley he had it set up to video the sharks and rays. We cannot stop giggling at this one.

One more picture for you:



This is a nurse shark we saw while snorkeling at Hol Chan...it was searching for food in the conch shell. I love how the grouper is waiting patiently to get into the shell as well.