Does This Count as an Update??

So much for that whole staying motivated to keep you updated.  I guess I’ll have to take to twitter.  It seems like the more my abdomen grows the more lackadaisical I become when it comes to my to-do list (note: nesting never set in..oops).  Also, my new life is a little lack luster.  I’m more excited for what’s to come once I have my daughter and my body back than I am about the ‘miracle’ happening inside me now.  Tim and I will be surfing together, I can finally go on all the incredible hikes I’ve been dying to take and I can continue to skip the gym every time I plan on going J

 

Norah is here in 5 weeks.  Less, if I’m one of those lucky mommas (so not going to be the case).  Her nursery looks like a tornado hit it and I freak out on a daily basis due to my lack of hospital bag and my heinously messy car (Tim’s car is a mess too…for the record). Yeah. We’re totally ready for her to come early.

 

As ready as we AREN’T, I can’t wait.  I’m ready for this next step in our lives.  I’m absolutely terrified but I’m ready.  I’m ready for people to stop grabbing my belly.  I’m ready for all of the UNWANTED advice I’m sure I’ll receive/am already receiving J I’m ready to sleep on my stomach again.  And I’m ready to meet my daughter.

Note: These beautiful pictures were all taken by my talented momma :)

Quarter Life Crisis Turned Plan Part: 2

So back in April (pre-pregnancy discovery), I wrote a piece called Quarter Life Crisis Part: 1.  Did you ever see a part two after that? Anyone? No? That’s ok…me either. Friends, that’s because karma bit me. That’s what you get for making a plan. Don’t be so silly as to think your life is in your own hands! These are quotes thrown at me by God, the universe, Mother Earth…whatever may be your deity of choice.  The point is, I so pompously made a plan that was inevitably destined to backfire right into my stupid type A face.

The silly couple who thought they had their life planned, last fall

                                               

Now I sit here, in the most uncomfortable fashion because some little tummy alien has taken over my body. And I don’t have a plan. It scares the crap out of me.  I will not be starting school this Fall to become a Surgical Tech. I will instead, be growing said tummy alien. Come January, I will be caring for the most beautiful little girl I’m sure I’ll have ever laid eyes on. That’s my plan. That’s all I know right now. Do I wish I knew more? Yes. Absolutely. But with the obstacles life has thrown my way lately, I’ve learned to just go with what’s given me and feel grateful that Tim and I are blessed with the amazing support system that is our family and friends.

Me, 6 months along, growing my sweet little tummy alien :)

Falling too early?

It’s fall! Which means it is absolutely fair game to throw up your Halloween decorations right? Right! Tim and I are blessed to live with a wonderful couple who whole heartedly share our love for the holiday season. In fact, they surprised US by having some amazing décor up when we came home the other night. I then returned the favor by dropping too much money on a sale at Michaels craft store. Here are just a few pictures that really don’t do our home justice.

Our female roomie, B made those bottles. She is so crafty! I think I have quite a bit to learn from her.









I couldn't pass up these cute little pumpkin heads! 

                                                              

 

Our badass front yard. Have to give the roomies full credit for that one. We're currently looking for body parts to throw out there as well. I'm so excited for what the other holidays are going to bring! I'm usually super cutesy and conservative with my decorations but they really like to go all out and it's so refreshing not to hold back. I'm pretty sure we'll be the only decorated house on the block (does anyone decorate for Halloween anymore?? Kind of makes me sad) and I'm ok with that.

Honestly...

I’m going to be blunt. Call me a bad mother if you want. Judge me. I really don’t care. I hate being pregnant. I hate the way I don’t recognize my body.  I miss the freedom I had in surfing, hiking, running and just BEING in nature and the world. And dammit I miss my wine.

                                   Poor girl-She never saw 9 months of abstinence coming 

Despite my animosity toward my delicate condition, I’m not hating the little wifey it is helping me slowly transform into. The other day, Tim was in the garage organizing and I was in the kitchen making lunch and cleaning. Bliss.

Ok- seriously?

Yes. I had absolutely nothing to worry about! Nothing on my mind except for the love of my growing little family.  If you knew me before, you wouldn’t recognize me now. I wasn’t ever exactly gunning for the route of domestication, yet here I am. And I couldn’t be happier.

But I swear to everything holy, once Norah is here and it’s safe to do so I will be enjoying my nightly bottle glass of wine to my heart’s content. Judge away peeps!

Did you ever think you'd be where you are now 3 years ago?

Oh baby...

So. In my unintentional 5 month absence, much has changed in my life. These changes are undoubtedly the catalyst for my absence.

My last post was a short synopsis of my dear Tim’s birthday. I didn’t go into detail. Just some photos showing us having good clean fun. Folks, I was willingly drunk for much of that trip and acquired one of my favorite memories of me and Tim. While in a haze of inebriation, we were walking the beach sometime around midnight. Appreciating the beauty the night brings to the ocean and contemplating the meaning of our lives together. You know, typical drunk chatter. Tim can’t keep secrets when he’s drunk. It’s just not in his nature. We ended the night with Tim confessing his plans to propose to me during our surf trip along the west coast in September.  Little did we know our trip would not be happening for a LONG TIME.

It’s now September. And we are engaged! But it happened on the 4^th of July while we were surfing our home beach.  And we aren’t surfing our newly engaged booties off along the west coast. Instead we are preparing our lives for Norah, our little daughter that we will have the blessing of meeting on January 10^th, 2013.  And I couldn’t be more excited.  That’s right! I’m 6 months pregnant. It took me a while to come to terms with this seemingly catastrophic life changing event.  I’ve accepted and come to love the changes it is bringing to our lives and to our relationship.  I can’t tell you how excited I am to see Tim hold Norah. He is already to most incredible father I’ve ever had the privilege of watching interact with his daughter and she isn’t even born yet. He loves to read to her, chat with her and sing to her. He makes sure I’m taking all of my supplements and the guy makes me an all fruit smoothie EVERYDAY. Seriously, I’m blessed to have such an amazing partner in life and going through such an unfamiliar situation together has made me fall in love with him all over again.

2012 brought us a pregnancy and engagement. 2013 will bring us a baby and a marriage. Baby first of course, we definitely aren’t trying to prove anything except that our marriage is out of love and not obligation.  I hope I can stay motivated enough to continue to share our experience :)

Tim's Birthday at Neah Bay...

I don’t have words that can really explain our surf trip to Neah Bay for Tim’s birthday. BUT...I do have some pretty great photos.  So instead of trying to find the correct adjective to describe the beautiful weekend we experienced, I’ll let you come up with your own.

I was pretty stoked to catch a shot of some sanddollars specifically for my blog. Also, cue the corny couple shot ;)

We had such a great group of people to surf with. I sometimes feel a great audience and support group is helpful when going out into new waters.

A friend of ours who's still pretty new with surfing was treated nicely by these waters! 

We couldn't have asked for a better camping spot! Right behind our tent, we were able to walk right out to the beach and surf.

Touch football game that started at pre-sunset and went into the night.

And when we weren't surfing or playing football, we were enjoying a bonfire right on the beach.  

We lucked out with near perfect weather (though the photo above might suggest otherwise).  With the weather and waves being the best we've ever experienced with WA surfing, we decided we'll be doing a Neah Bay rerun for Memorial Day. Next time I can promise more in water shots and some video.

Mellow Monday

I've grown fond of Mondays. They signify a new beginning to me.  A second chance, if you will. I love the feeling of making goals of all the things I’ll get done during the week and I love sitting and pretentiously drinking my coffee while doing it.

To go all alliterate on you: My Mondays are Mellow.  I don't find myself rushing anywhere. I just try to go with the flow on this particular day of the week.

 Here are a few things that made my day so incredibly wonderful today!

I started my day off in a new outfit I LOVE. New clothes are rare for me so I am incredibly guilty of wearing them too much. I just found these jeans and have been searching the world of Seattle for them! Also, my shirt makes me feel like a pirate.

I woke up with a hot guy. I’m sure you’ll appreciate me withholding a photo to go with this statement.

Panda Express gave me a wonderful fortune! Who doesn’t want to help the children!?

Fun fact: I HATE when people ask if someone has a case of the Mondays! Like you’re not allowed to be in a bad mood for no reason on this given day? Come on people. You’re giving Monday a bad name. Cut the crap.

What's your favorite thing about Mondays?

Soapbox: Bikini Bodies

A collective aversion of our bodies has swept the plant. Summer is coming. Shit- I have to get skinny.

My 16 year old cousin was lamenting to me tonight about how she ‘does not have a bikini body.’  That breaks my heart. She is such a cute little thing with an adorable figure that she should be proud of!  And we’ve heard it all before:

Be proud of your body!

Curves are beautiful!

Thin is not in!

Now I am in no way condemning thin girls or glorifying an unhealthy life style of under-eating or over-eating but COME ON! When did the rules change to only tight little fit bodies being the only thing acceptable in a bikini?  Why is it that the rest of humanity ensconces the proof that they had seconds at every holiday dinner- AND dessert, under a cloak? Don’t get me wrong- I’d love to be one of the tight little fit things but the body God gave me isn’t going to fit the exact measurements I had in mind for it.  I still have problems coming to terms with that. I suspect it’s a weakness we all have.  I might beat myself down from time to time but something I WON’T do is hide my body due to my fear of not equating to the beautiful figure of another! This summer I will work to appreciate my body. If not for me, then to set an example for those younger than me that might (if I’m lucky J ) look up to me.  I encourage you to do the same, whether you don a bikini, sexy one piece or that sporty tankini.

So here’s a flaunting of my imperfect (because let's face it, perfection is boring) bikini body along with a few more that I consider beautiful.

And one of my favorite ads: Dove Campaign For Real Beauty.

Quarter-Life Crisis Turned Plan Part:1

I can’t explain it.  Put simply, life has me incredibly stoked for the next couple years to come.  I feel like things are really falling into the places they were meant to be in.

For the past 4 years, nursing has been my nearly unattainable goal that I have been consistently striving to meet.  For the past 4 weeks, I’ve secretly changed my mind.  Yes, secretly. I guess I felt like a failure and like I was giving up.  Such is not the case my friends! In reality I was just letting go of something that wasn’t me.  Working with terminal patients and their families at my current job has really opened my eyes to what my persona contains.  The ability to incessantly bond with families and their terminal loved ones and be ok with it when sickness wins and overtakes their happiness,  is not there.

Enter: Surgical Technician.  Anyone who knows me well can tell you I love learning about the human body and dissection lab has always been my favorite.  I read about this program as an aspiring nurse and told Tim all about it.  Knowing me well, I think he sensed my change of heart before I did.  “So do that,” he said.  As if I was debating on a place to get lunch. Simple as that! And it was. I’m now on a path that will put me in school for my career THIS fall instead of a year and a half from now. And that excites me. Que smiley face:

J

Sometimes, the plan changes. And that’s ok.

                                                                                     *Photo taken by my mom of Tim and I at the Strait of Juan de Fuca

So this blog is labeled Part: 1 for a reason.  I’m committing myself to writing more on plans for the next few years.  My next one is going to require feedback from YOU! Which is why I’m writing it. Tim and I have formed a business plan out of our passion for service to others and surfing and I’m really excited to see how it’s received.

Drunk Blogging Makes For Not So Great Reading.

I'll confess to being in a rut. Writers cramp, if you will. Or maybe this was just an impromtu New Years resolution going exactly the way most do: Wondeful! For 2 months...then they fizzle out.

Anyhow. I'm feeling inspired. Or drunk enough to write? I've consumed a few glasses of wine.

I can't complain too much about life. Tim and I have gotten some good surfing in these past few months. We took my parents with us on April Fools Day and boy did the surf fool us. Poor Tim was too big to catch the weak waves of the Strait of Juan De Fuca but I managed to pop up on a few. My camera happy momma was able to catch a shot of me (my first pic of me standing up after surfing for a year and a half- yay!!)

Note: I feel super badass right here. I don't care how small that wave is. That's Tim in the background smiling his happiness. Also...rainbow in the shot! How cool is that?? Go Mom on your badass camera skills!

Tim and I also made our way down to SoCal with his parents for some sun and surf. His mom got some cute shots with her film camera but given that fact that I am impatiently blogging before recieveing those shots, all I have is this mushy couply shot of us on the beach. Sorry folks :)

Anyway, Tim has just finished my bottle of wine on me which I think is his way of saying: you've had enough. So I guess I'll have to blog about our super amazing plan we've come up with at a later time!



Impromtu surfing leads to...

...being extremely cold and slightly disappointed in my newly attained surfer girl abilities. Yes folks, we should have listed to the surf report when it said it was NOT going to be good.  Yet, we preservered into the stormy waters of Westport, Washington.

The boys picked me up (after being trapped in my apt for 3 days with no human contact, who was I to turn down a free trip??) and we set forth on our trip!

One of my goals is to start putting together surf videos for a blog.  In reaching that goal, I'm practicing with the camera (iPhone for the time being-high class I know) out of the water for now.  So here's a look-see at our pre-surf adventure/check up on my video editing skills!

Unfortunately the surf just wasn't great enough for any action shots/ I was too much of a pansy once I was out of the water to go take more photos.  To warm me up after surfing the frigid waters , there was only one thing I desired- a donut. Look at that happy face.

Cabin Fever.

While perusing the facespace today, there was one word more ubiquitous than all others.  Cabin fever.  It's everywhere. It had been 3 days since I'd seen another person until about an hour ago when I rushed outside with sheer pathetic (my dad's words) desperation (Pa said this too) to talk to a lady walking her dog.  The dry air has led me to bust out some old home remedy my mom taught me of boiling hot water on the stove.  I spruced it up with some vanilla mint herbs.  I sense my mood lifting already.

In other news, this snow-licious condition has let me to abstain from neglecting my fitness.  In the past 72 hours at home, I've spent a collective 5 hours studying! I've procrastinated my study of A&P by using my poor lonely treadmill (which has been folded up for about 2 months now).  Good things are resulting from this inclement weather!  I hate to say it but this entire post is just another means of procrastination as my book is laying open in front of me, yet my computer screen does not show my notes in front of me. Weird right?

What's going to get me through this week as a recluse? Tim and I have a surf  day trip planned for next weekend.  I'm secretly hoping for snow on the beach. Let's hope for some sweet waves and action for me to post! For now...I'm back to posing as a scholar.

Take One

Yes. This post is mainly a video slide show. But there are a couple reasons I am doing it.

I want to share one of (there are many) my absolute favorite memories of 2011 as well as prepare you for what I hope I will be posting much more on this year. 

 Tim taught me to surf in September of 2010..it's something I've wanted to learn ever since I can remember (growing up in Montana did not make that dream easily attainable).  My first time catching a wave was a feeling I will never forget.  Imagine joining with such an incredible force of nature as the ocean to fructify an amazing feeling that no drug will ever come close to creating. Memorial day weekend of 2011 was when I got to share my new passion with my closest girl friends and that meant the world to me.

Hopefuly, in this new year, I will have actual surf videos to share (my fancy phone shall make that a possibility).

Photography: D'Everaux Photography

*Note: Though I wish I could say it was me, the shots with the amazing surfing are of Tim's friend Eric :)

Slacker

If you look at it from a resolutionist's point of view, I didn't exactly get off on the right foot this New Years.
A) I had intended on posting regularly as a resulution.
and B) For New Years, Tim and I had a New Years Day surf trip planned.

Despite the lack of alcoholic consumption on New Years Eve, that surf trip did not happen. Not our fault. We can't control the ocean and nobody wants to lay on a board in FLAT water in 35 degree weather.

Back to New Years. We were total loners and we absolutely loved it. We started the night off with a Mexican feast...which involved quesadillas and tacos (how authentic!).

Tim and I love cooking together. I honestly have never really liked cooking until I did it with him (gag you now, right?) But honestly, it's a cheap fun way to spend time together and really teaches you a lot about the other person.

Like not to leave your girlfriend alone with the refried beans.

We took our feast to the carpet and set up a nice picnic on the ground on top of a blanket Tim made me for our one year. Movie of choice? Fools Rush In. *Fun fact- this is the name of 'our song'. Tim played if for me the first time he took me surfing :)

The night ended by us clambering to the top of the hill I live on and watching the fireworks at the Space Needle with, what seemed like, the entire city. Maybe it's just me, but I think this photo has kind of an apocolyptic feel to it. *Very fitting since we are in our last year on earth right??

*Sarcasm my friends ;)