All Hallow's Eve: week 17

Maddux and Josie always stop by our house on Halloween. I loved their costumes this year--such a funny pair!

We planted this Autumn Blaze Maple the last weekend in June. I guess you could refer to it as the "Baby Tree", seeing that shortly after planting, we found out we were pregnant! (Yes, it's a metaphor.) I love that the leaves are already showing their gorgeous scarlet color. There is no tree more beautiful than a maple tree. It's one of the primary reasons why fall is my favorite season.

I've been baking up a storm lately (anything with chocolate will do) and I found the recipe for these healthy zucchini muffins and I just added the chocolate chips. I usually keep them in a container for a few days and then just freeze the rest. So yummy!

I stole this picture from Kim's blog, as Max and Vivi are our other trick-or-treating regulars. My favorite memory from this year's Halloween was watching Corey go outside and bend down to hand a little girl some candy from the dish. I knew that the next year we'd be doing the same for our little peanut. Such a great tradition to look forward to.

Trip to Ireland: week 15-16

Alas, this post is supposed to chronicle an incredibly fast but wonderfully memorable trip to Ireland with my mom--which was an amazing thing to share--and meeting our friends there, Janell and Jeff--and going to our Irish friend's wedding--how wonderful is that!? I hope to go back later and plug in some more details, but for the time being, it's about productivity. I looked back at my 2008 trip to Ireland and I was so good about writing about the things I love--food, sightseeing and the immediacy of the most important details of any memorable experience. But sometimes quantity does superceed quality, esp. when you're months behind chronicling one of the coolest trips in a long while. For now, it's snippets with pictures. It'll do for now!

Annette and me with our baby bellies. Annette's husband Declan was Ken's best man. She was hilarious! We met her that night and it was if we'd known her as long as Jane. She's due in February. Before we went ahead and booked our tickets (before I told everyone I was pregnant), I was kind of freaked out about the horrible things that could go wrong and having the stress of dealing with them while in a foreign country. Thankfully the stars aligned and it was a breeze healthwise!

Our GORGEOUS home--Darley Cottage--in Carrickmacross, Jane's hometown, with mom, Janell and Jeff standing at the front door. I wish we could have stayed here longer! The entire cottage had been gutted and restored, complete with a head-to-toe Ikea makeover. The cows from the farm next door would moo at us in the middle of the night. Dang, I love rural Irish life.

Janell and Jeff with their bevvies at the rehearsal dinner--a beautiful spread at a country pub near the Wards' house. The coziest of places. Reminded me of the place where Graham and Amanda meet in "The Holiday" (really the only movie where I have been able to tolerate Cameron Diaz). We were treated so well as guests at all of the extra wedding events.

Jane's friends and bridesmaids.

Jane's siblings, Romy and Daithi (Irish for David). The wedding party dance they did and included Romy was so touching. It's always seemed that Jane and I--and really, our mothers--had a sort of kinship with our younger sisters. So great to see Romy. She remembered me and wanted to hang out with me quite a bit while we were visiting.

The beautiful bride and the Americans--what a great lady! The pictures do not do her--or her dress--justice. She was stunning.

Ken and Jane Murphy

Their very cool ride, a vintage Rolls Royce

I love this photo of Jane showing her Gran her wedding ring.

Just me and the belly, kicking it by the fireside...Janell and I had a few good laughs running around the house posing for pictures (like her and the washing machine). I was really getting into having my belly by this point.

Janell lounging around in one our very chic IKEA-furnished rooms. She's such a poser (meaning she poses).

Mom and me at the rehearsal dinner. I'm fake drinking her cider but slightly jealous.

Modeling our new hats at Giants Causeway. The wind is no joke!

The incredibly unique hexagon-shaped rock formations, Giants Causeway

Another example of how Darley Cottage = Darling Cottage in the adorable hot water bottle covers. Can someone make me one of these? I'm definitely bringing back the hot water bottle to my bed.

Modeling some fascinators. We totally should have bought these, as people were actually wearing them at the wedding!

Some incredibly old church near Athenrye. Our first day with the Doudricks.

The first of what would be many desserts. Exquisite pavlova with fruit and cream. Hello, sweet fabulousness.

My favorite Irish city, Galway. This was our first full day after arriving in Ireland. The sun was just what we needed!

Our bedroom redo (finally)

After painting our bedroom this spring, I replaced the original, wrinkle-prone sailcloth curtains (which have been banished to the guest room) with textured, non-wrinkled (e.g. poly blend) ones, which need to be shortened. However, I kind of like the grandness of them left long. Maybe I'll just have them taken up(by mom, whose much more accurate in the sewing world than me) so they don't block the air duct. The headboard I ordered in April FINALLY arrived and I love it--its grandness, its tailored look, that my pillows don't fall into the crevices behind the bed, that I can lean up against it and read (the best part). Since the headboard arrived, we could finally incorporate our IKEA finds, including these reading lights, nightstands (since they're so small, there's room for us each to have one to stash our books and magazines), and some wall decor. I originally bought three of these to paint and create a triptych, but instead I wanted one item and decided to make this happy mod mirror and paint it the same yellow. It's definitely not a perfect project, but it's done. There is glue on the mirror but I just wanted to put it up and have the room finished. The point was to remove the clutter (and a few other pieces of furniture) and make it as relaxing as possible. The bedspread's changed as the weather's getting colder : (

The frenetic schedule...week 14

This past week was craziness at work. I sort of had to laugh at myself as the first week of school came and went, and at that time, I was feeling at relative ease with my workload and the general pace of work life. Enter this week--yikes. It kicked my ass in a huge way. First off, last weekend, which was filled with many fun, social get togethers, was still exhausing. Friday night Court invited me over for dinner, making some yummy chicken, potatoes and salad (my contribution was a very challenging store-bought French silk pie) and we played outside with Kirsten and Evan. It was really nice to catch up. She had some lovely gifts for the baby-to-be from an adorable store I have yet to visit. It was the perfect Friday evening. Saturday morning, Liz was in town to visit some friends and we chatted over breakfast and bought some lovely baby sweaters at the Chester Bowl Fall Festival--ah, fall! I do love you. That afternoon I went to Wade to watch the Alumni game and later that night, attend the banquet. It's always such an emotional evening, hearing the latest group of graduates talk about their love of this program and how much it means to them. I love to listen to Corey talk up there and it makes me very proud.

This picture of us makes me laugh. Corey can never keep his one eye from squinting in pictures, so it usually requires about three tries. By this time he was fed up and looks like a goofball.

That night my desire to continue to wear my fun shoes was quickly dying out; within a few hours not only were my feet swollen but my entire lower half felt puffy and distended. A preview of swelling to come? Sunday I met my mom, sister, nieces and cousin Mary for a righteous Eggs Benedict breakfast--such fun and mayhem. A three-hour nap followed.

It's never a good sign when you get to work on Monday and you're exhausted...it seemed like two workdays, and Tuesday and Wednesday were about 12-hour days to boot. It was so nice to come home late Wednesday night and my chicken wild rice soup was heated up and waiting for me.


Thursday night was re-energizing--I met the ladies for Mexican and to bottle our wine! (I stole this picture from Kim, because she's the only one who remembers to document said events.) The assembly line process was actually really fun and despite spraying myself with the bottle washer contraption, all in all no one was injured and each of us walked away with bottles to save while they steep for a few months (or in my case, until March).

Travel and choice comments...week 13

This was the first full week of classes and things ARE GETTING CRAZY already. In our office, we have lots of fall events so there will be some long nights. I'm reveling in the weekends already, cleaning closets (sometimes), baking, cooking, and finding crafty home projects--it helps me to balance and center :) On an even more exciting note, we booked our cottage in Ireland and we'll be there in a few short weeks! I can't believe it! It hasn't fully sunk in that we're heading across the Atlantic (avec mama and mes amies) to see Jane, and oh, yeah, she's getting married! It's going to be incredible. Not much more to get except my very sexy compression socks to wear on the plane. Maybe one pair of [expandable] pants, but other than that, I think I'm set.

Not much to report in Baby Land; I'm happy to be getting more energy back since these busy days are demanding more of me. Some friends have lent me some really great books and maternity clothes (thanks, ladies!) so it's good to have a developing collection of items to peruse and organize.

Last, a mental note of items: I know this little gummy bear inside has a long ways to go before s/he is going to visit us on the outside, and although I've only had my reveal public at work for the last two weeks, it's amazing how quickly the unsolicited comments begin to surface. I'm going to keep track for posterity, so here's the beginning, which I'm sure will continue to grow (pun intended):

"Was this a planned pregnancy?" (x2)
"Wow--you're really getting big." (After I returned from having food poisoning, fyi.)
"You're not going to be able to hide this much longer."

(P.S. I had to change so many misspellings and incorrect words in this post before I published it...apparently the work of developing a baby has left my brain unable to process some other tasks.)

There's a fetus in there...week 12

...or so the ultrasound tech says. We've been very slow to tell people but we're havin' a baby! We found out in mid-July and have been navigating through Trimester One with relatively few hiccups.

I've felt a tich guilty at deceiving some and shying away from lots of [cocktail-related] visits with others, but now I'm kind of ready to put it out there. This week I decided to tell my co-workers. Yes, I am extroverted. However, I like to keep some parts of my private life private. Part of it is that my spouse and I work at the same place and since it's rather small, it seems like everyone is on a need-to-know basis about who knows what. Also, I have boundaries, which I know I'm becoming more lax about (i.e. I told new class of freshman to call me by my first name. That was a big step for me.) I clearly realize that very soon I will not be able to hide the fact that I am growing another person inside of me, but I've held out this long.

On the other hand...I am clearly living in I-Feel-As-Though-I'm-the-First-Woman-to-Ever-Have-a-Baby Land, minus the people to whom I've been asking questions, and in that respect, I think the glow factor/public excited-ness is indeed growing. I bought this cute, tongue-in-cheek pregnancy book so I've been journaling in there and just bought a few books for reference. I'm trying to keep the websites to a minimum, but their pictures are amazing.

Some of my favorite moments in the last few weeks about our reveal:

Overhearing Corey tell people about the pregnancy. It's soooo cute. And loving. And makes me want to cry every time. Even if I can't see his face I know he's grinning by the way he talks.

Corey's brother, Brian, and wife, Carlie, who are ALSO having a baby in March. I got the giggles when I heard her jaw drop on the other line. Cousins who will be the same age! It's so fun to think about them growing up together.

My lovelies who claimed they suspected but were kind enough not to ask me every time they saw/talked to me.

The friend who screamed into the phone.

Two friends who are due right around the same time! It's been so amazing to ask questions to those who are experiencing it right now.

Corey telling his team this past weekend--they clapped. I died a little bit when picturing 42 twenty-somethings doing this. I saw one of them in the hallway this morning and he exclaimed "Congratulations!"

Getting our very first baby gift--from our neighbors (a little gender-neutral sailor outfit.) I've never bought a baby outfit for myself, even though I love to shop for virtually anything.

We've actually been to the OB three times now; the second appointment, which we thought was 12 weeks was actually more like 10.5. So we got to go back this past Tuesday and now have three sets of pictures. It's AMAZING how different the fetus looked within eight days! A skull, a nose bone, hands, arms--that was the speechless moment for me so far.

I knew I wanted to start blogging again, and blogging about the pregnancy, so this seemed like a good time/reason to have some consistency of posts. The first six weeks brought with it some serious fatigue (lots of post-work activity of lying on the couch) and nausea, which actually took place mostly in the mornings. Since about week 10, I've been getting more energy back and the nausea is more or less gone, except if I smell cigarette smoke, car exhaust or become incredibly overheated. Then I need to head for the hills.

Things I'm Consuming Regularly:
Chocolate-related items
Potato chips (the full-fat, salty kind)
Salads
Fruit
Baked goods (even though I'm trying to keep it somewhat healthy)

Checklist Items I've Completed:
Taking several bikini-clad photos (unabashedly)
Scary/gross illness while pregnant (see below)

Last Wednesday night I came down with food poisoning, which was scary and I'm assuming potentially more intense due to pregnancy. Not great luck that I missed the second day of class, but it took a good 2.5 days of consuming massive amounts of Gatorade and crackers to feel back to normal. I did, however pass the time by re-watching seasons I and II of "Mad Men" (in preparation for January's new season premiere), checking emails and concocting my harvest decor plans.

Time for bed!

Dumbfounded

Why haven't I had one of these yet this year???? That's a sad realization. And then I saw these. That's it.