LIFE IN A HOLDING PATTERN

Punta Cana Trip: Day Three

2012-01-26T22:11:00.000-05:00

If you missed my first recap, you can see it here.

Saturday started with another yummy buffet breakfast. I believe I had an unpictured bowl of oatmeal with honey, nuts, and raisins, and some fresh fruit that day. Yum!

After breakfast, we decided to head down the beach. Punta Cana Resort has a sister resort called Tortuga Bay, which is located right next to our resort and is walkable by path or by beach. You're allowed to use some of their amenities, like their restaurants and pool. There are also three golf courses between the resorts and we passed a couple holes on our left.

Soon we reached the beach and walked the rest of the way there with our toes in the sand.

Probably my favorite thing about our resort is that it has so much beach and lot of it is empty. Paradise.

Ridiculously beautiful...

Eventually we got to the Tortuga Bay clubhouse and pool. Our plan was to hang out at the pool and have lunch at the clubhouse grill.

Our plan was derailed when we realized the pool was closed as the staff set up for what looked like the wedding of the century...

They were setting up several stages, tables, and a slew of wedding reception decor.

Oh well, obviously it was still worth the gorgeous beach walk over.

We still looked around the clubhouse for a little while before heading back.

Next stop was one of the beach restaurants, called La Choza.

We split a burger, greek salad, and some fried plantains (which I'm addicted to).

The rest of our afternoon was pretty lazy. We went to the beach and laid there for a while.

I made a lot of progress on my book- The Girl Who Kicked The Hornet's Nest.

Then we went to the pool and laid there for a while...

I might have gotten a little bit sunburned...

We had a low-key dinner back at the non-fancy pool restaurant and split veggie pizza, a salad, and some ravioli, before calling it a night. Just another day in paradise...

Punta Cana Trip: Days One and Two

2012-01-24T22:13:00.000-05:00

Hi! I didn't mean to not blog for so long. I have much to report! Last week was pretty busy and before I knew it I was on a plane to the Dominican Republic! A couple months ago Greg got his vacation for 2012. Pilots bid for their vacation each year, much like they bid for their monthly schedules- they rank their choices and it goes by seniority. He actually hoped to get his vacation as soon as possible because he hadn't had a vacation in a while, so when he got his two weeks off in January, he was fine with it. We decided to go ahead and look at vacation options and Greg suggested DR because it's one of the places he flies to and he knew the resort the crew stays at there was nice. I was all for it as I really wanted to go somewhere international. We booked a package through American Airlines (not my husband's airline, I know), that was a great deal, less than $1500 for the two of us for airfare, hotel, and breakfast at the Punta Cana Hotel and Resort for a 4 night stay.

On Thursday we flew from Charlotte to Miami, waited a few hours, then flew the rest of the way to Punta Cana, which is actually an hour a head of Eastern Standard time, making it about 3pm DR time when we landed. To be honest, I was kind of overwhelmed when we arrived. As much as I've craved international travel, customs was chaos. It took a while to get through, and once we did, we realized there was no hotel shuttle to take us to our resort. Normally when Greg flies there a shuttle picks up the crew, so he assumed it was the case all the time, but it wasn't. If you stay at Punta Cana, prearrange a shuttle or you end up taking a taxi like we did. It wasn't a huge deal, but it was a little sketchy being bombarded with random taxi drivers pressuring you to let them drive you.

Anyway, the stress of our chaotic airport arrival was relieved upon check in when we were each handed a complimentary fruity drink. Calmed me right down.

Yesssssss.

We headed to our room to regroup. It was nothing fancy, but clean, decent accomodations. The room had an iron and hairdryer, which was what I was most concerned with. Yes, I'm a freak- I need an iron when I'm on a tropical vacation. I'm totally normal.

Punta Cana Resort is not all inclusive like a lot of resorts are. We actually didn't mind this, maybe even preferred it in the end, but it took a little figuring out in the beginning. There are about eight restaurants and you can eat at which ever ones you want, but you are supposed to make a reservation at some of the fancier ones. The first night we opted for one of the casual ones you don't need a reservation for- a pizza place near the pool.

I kept the fruity drinks flowing...

We split a simple cheese pizza, nothing fancy. It was fine.

There were random cats around the resort, and this one we nicknamed "pizza cat".

After we (and pizza cat) enjoyed our pizza and drinks, we walked around to check out the resort.

Pretty wonderful scenery.

Being the old fogeys we are, we crashed pretty early.

Friday morning I was excited to see the breakfast buffet included with our stay. I had heard from Greg that it was pretty awesome. The buffet included rows of pastries, deli meats, cheeses, breads, oatmeal, cereal, yogurt, tons of tropical fruit, an egg/omelet station, and a fruit juice/smoothie bar. I went with the veggie and cheese omelet, some potatoes, yogurt, and fruit.

I told my waiter to surprise me with something from the juice bar and I got this smoothie, which I shared with Greg.

Dining at the resort was awesome, because all the restaurants are open air and had incredible views.

After breakfast our plan was to take the hotel shuttle to a shopping center nearby and get some groceries to nibble on while staying at the hotel.

The little village shopping center had a couple stores and restaurants and a grocery store. We bought bottled water, juices, bananas, pita chips, and hummus.

Back at the hotel we assembled a light lunch with our groceries on our balcony.

Then it was time to explore!

We headed down the beach.

Our resort had a cool ecological reserve with nature trails through the forest with many fresh water pools.

The pools were awesome, so clear and pristine.

There were tilapia and turtles hanging out in the pools.

Ok, I'll admit, I wimped out on going in. The water was cold, and though the fish and turtles were neat, I wasn't too keen on swimming with them. But Greg got in!

I hung out with the duck on the dock...

We hiked around for a while longer, before heading back to the room to get ready for dinner.

We had a reservation at La Yola for Friday night, a restaurant overlooking the marina.

The restaurant was gorgeous.

I went with shrimp and lobster risotto with grilled vegetables.

So good! The risotto had HUGE chunks of lobster in it. They were not stingy!

Greg had a steak and mashed potatoes that were also delicious.

We loved La Yola, it was the end to a great first complete day in Punta Cana.

Phew! More to come on the rest of the trip!

Smalls Food and Spirits

2012-01-16T09:08:00.000-05:00

Last Wednesday night, I attended the opening of a new Charlotte restaurant, Smalls Food and Spirits. I was invited to a friends and family preview at the new restaurant located in the Elizabeth neighborhood of Charlotte.

We had a little trouble locating it, as the entrance is a bit hidden, but once inside, it felt like we were in kind of a modern lounge setting, with black walls and red and white accents.

They have a fun martini menu and also a list of North Carolina craft beers. I started with a Mother Earth draft to kick off the night (served in a OMB pint glass).

Greg was actually able to come with me, so we decided to split a bunch of items. We started with a Mulled Pear salad: Arugula, Butternut Crème Fraiche, Roasted Walnuts, Spiced Citrus Vinaigrette.

I loved this salad- one of the best I've had anywhere lately. The butternut creme fraiche was actually inside the pear, and the pear was floating in a syrupy balsamic reduction that was delicious.

We opted to also split an order of onion rings, which were light, crispy, and delicious.

We also had the pimento cheese sliders. I didn't really taste much of the cheese, but the beef and buns were yummy. Apparently they grind meat and bake bread in house, which is cool.

Lastly, we went with some of the Whipped Garlic and Chili Infused Yukon Gold Potatoes at Greg's request. He's a mashed potato nut.

Everything we had was good. It took a little while for some items to make it to our table, but I figured for the test night that it was my job to be patient and cut them some slack so that they could effectively get themselves used to the flow. They also gave us some complimentary fried pickles while we waited, which went unphotographed, but were great. I'm hoping that they worked out the kinks and that the process will run smoothly for them from here on out.

Shutter Bug

2012-01-14T09:44:00.000-05:00

Sunday I went for a short two mile run, had a quick lunch (leftover spaghetti), then went over to pick up Kelly. Last week I had seen a deal for a photography class on Eversave. I've been thinking about taking a class for a while and this was a good deal, so I quickly bought a class, signed up, and asked Kelly if she'd like to join me.

The photography studio that held the class was Northlight Photography. We arrived at the cozy location and settled in to listen to our instructor. One of her main points included use of lighting. I think for those of us that are not pro photographers, it's something we have to conciously think about when taking pictures. Depending on where the light is hitting your subject from, it can really change the picture you are capturing, so it's something to think about when you are a playing with photography.

A while back, at the first Healthy Living Summit, I attended a photography class and I learned that use of other light rather than flash is preferable when taking pictures, so I try not to use my flash unless I'm in a really low light situation. You kind of have to look for good light or make your own with light sources around you, so I usually do that unless I'm somewhere (like a dark restaurant) where it's hard to.

I usually shoot in either Aperture-Priority which helps blur the background for me, or "P" which stands for Programmed Auto, and lets the camera choose shutter speed and aperature. This makes sense, because ISO is the one setting I sort of understand and adjust myself. Basically the less light you have, the higher you need your ISO to comensate for lack of light. I rarely use Auto (unless I'm letting someone use my camera to take a picture with me in it), or Manual, because I don't understand how to adjust ALL the settings correctly to take a great picture. I was hoping this class would help with that, and it did.

We were each given kind of a "cheat sheet", which is this:

I love this sheet and think I will bring it with me and refer to it when I'm out taking scenic pictures to see if I can learn more about my settings and functions. We went over each function a little bit more and saw slides that showed examples of the different kinds of photos you can get with different settings. Then it was time to head out and try to apply our newly learned knowledge. We went to Plaza Midwood, which is a funky and colorful area of town, great for photography.

Kelly in action.

I dove in, trying to mess with settings I don't normally use and shoot in manual instead of my beloved "P" and "A" modes. Basically, I've never touched the light meter or exposure setting on my camera til this class. I'm still not sure I completely understand this setting, but I will play with it more...

We also played with shutter speed, and I combining these two functions, you can take a picture with that neat blur/streak effect, like this:

You need to have a slow shutter speed to do this. My teacher kind of helped me with my camera settings and then I got the shot. I'm not sure if I can recreate this by myself without a lot of thought, but it was cool to try!

The rest of my time was spending snapping away. Here's some of the shots I got...

I ducked into a thrift store and found some fun things to get shots of.

I think I still have a long way to go, but this class got me thinking about what I should be thinking about when I'm snapping pictures- light and the settings I need to use to get good pictures. I'm not saying I'm ready to shoot in Manual all the time, but I'm more willing to play with it more.

Kelly and I followed up class by sharing a big beer, some babaganoush, and pita chips at the nearby Common Market.

Yum! I thought this was a pretty fun Sunday afternoon, and need to do things like this more often to tap in to my artistic side.

Have you taken any artsy classes lately to tap into your artsy side?

Unseasonably Warm

2012-01-08T09:45:00.000-05:00

Yesterday the high was almost 70 degrees in Charlotte! Less than a week ago we had a high of about 40, so this was quite the contrast!

I started my Saturday by making a loaf of banana bread. I actually subbed half the flour for oat flour by grinding some rolled oats in my food processor. I like this recipe because there's no eggs, so I don't worry quite as much if it's slightly undercooked. Sometimes breads give me trouble because I tend to worry that it's not cooked enough and over cook it. The honey in this recipe makes the bread kind of chewy too, which I like.

I spent most of the morning engrossed in my Kindle book, The Girl Who Played With Fire, but finally put the book down and got out around noon and to take Clyde for a walk. I think the trees are confused about the warm weather too- check it out, the cherry blossoms are already out!

We walked for about 45 minutes. It was actually warmer than I thought it would be and I was hot in my yoga pants and fleece vest.

I came home and decided that having a salad on the deck sounded great so that I could continue enjoying the weather. I found this one, an apple, walnut, goat cheese salad, on Pinterest and basically made it the same except using spinach and green leaf lettuce as my base.. I've been eating a lot of walnuts as I heard they're good for fertility.

This time I put shorts on, before heading out to the deck to eat.

Ahhh, I'm so white! This made my next task incredibly unpleasant: bathing suit shopping...

Greg and I are taking a trip in a couple weeks and am in need of some new bathing suits. Target actually has bathing suits out already, so I headed there to take a look. Biggest gripe? You can only take 6 items at a time into their dressing room, which adds up quick when you have bathing suit tops and bottoms. I had to go in twice to try everything I wanted to try on. I hate that! They did have some cute suits though, so I got two tops and three different bottoms.

I'm not sure if I should be wearing bikinis anymore, but I couldn't find anything else I liked and you can't beat the price, I think each piece was around $15. I really want to get a tankini, but I have a really short torso, so they always come down past the top of my bottoms, which is silly looking. The one piece suits weren't looking too promising either. Anyway, I'm just glad that's over with.

On the way home I drove with the sunroof open. Still pretty warm!

Shortly after I got home, some rain came through, and I suddenly wanted soup for dinner. I made soup using these beans we got at Costco recently.

You boil one cup in three cups of liquid for 5 minutes, then let them sit for 10 minutes and can use them any way you want. I have a good recipe for split pea soup, so I decided to try and use the beans in that recipe.

Pea Soup

Cook time 4-4.5 hours

1 lb bag of dried split peas

2 quarts water

1 teaspoon salt

1/8 teaspoon of pepper

1/8 teaspoon of garlic powder (I used minced garlic)

1/8 teaspoon cumin

1/8 teaspoon poultry seasoning

1/2 teaspoon basil

1/2 teaspoon dill

1/2 teaspoon rosemary

1 chopped onion

1/2 cup chopped carrot

2 stalks of celery, chopped

Boil peas in water 2 minutes. Turn off head and keep covered an hour. Add seasonings and simmer 2 hours, add vegetables, then cook for another hour.

Since I didn't have 4 hours and I was hoping these beans would cook faster, I cooked the beans as directed (5 minutes, then sit for 10), I just sauteed the onions and carrot til softened, added the seasonings, then put them in the pot with the seasonings and cooked it all together for another 40 minutes or so, then used my immersion blender to try to puree it.

Honestly, it probably needed more cooking time, but I was hungry and it was decent this way, the beans just weren't as soft as they might be if they were cooked longer. I love the seasonings in this soup.

I spent a quiet night in with this pup.

We watched the movie Up, which I hadn't seen. So cute!

I think it's going to rain today, but I'm hoping not, because I have some fun stuff planned for the afternoon. More on that next time!

Home Improvement

2012-01-05T20:08:00.000-05:00

Hey guys! How goes it? I feel like this has been kind of a long work week, despite it being only four days. Is it Friday yet??

Lately, when Greg has been home, he's been newly motivated to do stuff around the house, so I thought I'd show you a few things we've done at the house.

Let me preface this with the fact that I feel like our house has been in a holding pattern (ha) for a while. After moving in a little over 5 years ago, we initially did a few things, but then Greg got furloughed, and progress kind of came to a screeching halt. We didn't want to do much while Greg was furloughed and money was tight. Although, as you'll see, none of things I'm going to show you are really expensive things, I think we just kind of shelved doing anything with the house for a while.

Probably one of the more major things we did was to get new blinds for our sunroom. We love the light in there (it's where I usually take food pictures), but not having blinds up in there for the past 5 years has limited our privacy since we have neighbors fairly close by. We got these brownish colored roller shades from Lowe's a few weeks ago. They are Levolor brand, and you can get them cut to size. Greg is pretty handy, so he installed them in the windows himself once we got them all. We ended up having to get ours from two different Lowe's since each only had a few, but we found them all and really like them. I think we might eventually need some valances or some kind of window treatments above, but for now, they're nice!

Next to the blinds you can see a picture. That's another thing Greg has been doing- hanging up pictures that we probably should have hung a while ago.

Here's one he put up in my office. I took this picture in Hawaii and we had it blown up and framed a couple years ago. It's been sitting, unhung for a while!

We also put up a couple pictures that Greg's Dad took and had framed, in various places around the house.

This one is on our second floor outside our bedroom. Closer look:

And one other one we put near our entry way.

Another little thing we did in the sunroom was to put little shades on our chandelier. These were another Lowe's purchase. The fixture wasn't bad as it was (just naked with no shades), but this kind of makes it look a little bit more put together. Also, it's hard to tell from this picture, but they actually match the new shades.

Another thing I had Greg hang was my Runner medal hanger, which I've had for over a year, since Greg gave it to me for Christmas of 2010! We put it up in my office and I just have my three half marathon and one full marathon medals on it for now. :)

Obviously we didn't do anything too major, but hey, it's the most we've done in about 4 years, so I'm psyched to see any progress!

Some things we want/need to do:

Install a backsplash in our kitchen
Paint more rooms (we have one bedroom, a half bath, and an accent wall painted, and the rest of our house is WHITE!)
Possibly redo our floors to all hardwood downstairs.
Organize/decorate our basement.
Landscaping
Get nice office furniture
Redo our deck and make it bigger

Right now all of these things are kind of...not happening, but hopefully eventually we'll do some of them!

How's your home improvement situation?

New Year

2012-01-02T08:07:00.000-05:00

Happy New Year (again)! Greg was gone for New Years Eve this year, which was definitely a bummer, but the good news is that he came home last night- New Years day. For New Years Eve I went to my friend Kelly's house for a pretty low-key gathering. I knew the food spread would be fantastic, since Kelly isn't capable of entertaining with anything less :)

Kelly and Brad

I contributed the same caprese style salad we had at my parents' at Christmas: Ricotta in the middle, warmed tomatoes (I microwaved mine with a little garlic, EVOO, salt and pepper for two minutes), fresh mozzarella, fresh basil, drizzled with EVOO and Balsamic vinegar. Served with french bread.

Our friend Josh made two kinds of brownies, peanut butter and chili flake. I believe they were from the Southern Living cookbook. Incredible...

I'm always impressed by men that cook, since my husband only makes cheese fondue!

Many people came and went, but there was a pretty good turnout.

Sarah and I- she's getting married in 2012!

I'm pretty excited for Sarah and Tim's wedding :)

Some of the guys: Grant, Tim, and Josh. Josh is the one that made the brownies. He's single ladies... :)

Kelly, me, and our friend Jess.

Brad and Gibson.

Jess, Kelly, Katy, Jen, Me, and Mandy.

And of course Rascal was there!

I'm pretty sure he had a full belly by the end of the night, after doing tricks for food for all the guests!

I somehow managed to make it til midnight, which was a feat for me since I usually pass out around 10pm!

I watched the ball drop and toasted with my non-alcoholic drink, then headed home. I had a glass of champange punch at the beginning of the night, but then switched to water and non alcoholic beverages since I had to drive.

Anyway, it was a fun night! Thanks to Kelly and Brad for hosting and it was so great to ring in the new year with so many good friends!

How was your New Years Eve? Who did you celebrate with?

Summing up 2011

2011-12-31T16:40:00.000-05:00

Last year, I did a post summing up 2010. It was funny to read through it and see where I was, with my assessment of the year and my hopes for 2011, last year. Mostly, I just remember feeling like I was on the verge of some pretty exciting things- running my first marathon and trying to get pregnant, finally after waiting years to even try. I guess technically I accomplished both of these goals in 2011, but I really didn't accomplish that second goal the way I'd hoped to. I didn't know trying to get pregnant would define my year so much. Anyway, here's this year's version of the survey.

1. Your 2010 in three words: Trying, Pregnancy, Coping
I hate to say it, but when I think about this year, that's what really stands out to me. Trying to get pregnant, being pregnant for a short time, and then coping with the miscarriage and trying unsuccessfully to get pregnant again. It's been a really hard year trying to make it happen and it really took a toll on me, emotionally.

2. Your top 10 best moments/nights/events/etc. of 2011:
Not including the day I found out I was pregnant and the time I knew I was pregnant, I would say these were my favorite times of the year:

Visiting New Orleans with Greg.
Running the Charleston Marathon!
Weekend in DC visiting my friend Alison and spectating at the National Marathon.
The weekend I went to Albany for a wedding and then to NYC to see my brother.
My friend Melanie's baby shower.
Healthy Living Summit
Visiting NH
Smoky Mountain Trip
Spectating at the Savannah Marathon
Meeting my niece and doing early Christmas with my fam.

3. The best purchase you made in 2011?

Probably my IPhone. My first phone with internet on it. Life changing! I can tweet, play Angry Birds, or read blogs anywhere. Good times!

4. The music that defined your year?

Coldplay - Mylo Xyloto
Adele
The Damnwells
Lady Antebellum, Taylor Swift, and lots of other country- I listened to a lot of country music in the car and at work.

5. Your best kiss of 2010: Oh I don't know... Pretty much anytime my husband is home to kiss it's a good thing!

6. The night you felt the best/prettiest all year: I felt pretty good when Greg took me out for my birthday...

7. The best meal you ate in 2011: The one I had with my Mom at Vivace during Charlotte restaurant week stands out! Yum!

8. The people you missed the most in 2011: I was lucky that I got to see both of my long distance best friends this year, so that was cool! I would actually say Greg, because he had a tough schedule this year with only 12 days off a month and he missed a lot, unfortunately. It also, as a lot of you know, made it that much more difficult for us in our efforts to conceive that he was gone so much of the time.

9. The best movie you saw all year: I thoguht Crazy Stupid Love was great.

10. The person you got to know the most in 2011: Probably Cindi and Erin. We hung out quite a bit this year.

Cindi is funny, down to earth, and easy to talk to. Oh and her baby is CUTE, so that doesn't hurt!

Erin and I roomed together at the Healthy Living Summit and even shared a bed, so that right there took our relationship to the next level ;) Just kidding! Seriously though, Erin and I had many long talks about my TTC efforts this year, she was a great friend to listen to me whine about it and get together with me when Greg was traveling. I enjoyed our time together all year!

11. The person you grew apart from the most in 2011: Thankfully no one really. I've mananged to maintain some pretty strong friendships!

12. The biggest risk you took in 2011: Maybe blogging about my miscarriage? I just felt like I needed to get it out and wanted other people dealing with this to not feel alone.

13. The biggest change you made in 2011: Last year it was running more, this year it was running less. I spent a lot of time worried this year that running would interfere with my efforts to conceive, so I cut way back on running. I kind of regret that... I've picked it up more since October/November though, consistently running at least twice a week or more, so I'm glad to be back at it. I did about 3.5 miles this morning and felt great.

14. Your biggest accomplishment in 2011: Running my full marathon!

15. What you’re hoping for in 2012:
To get pregnant AND carry my baby to term (just so there's no confusion about that!).
For Greg's job with the airlines to be stable and continue on an upward trend.
To be happy!!! (I wish for that every year)
To visit family and friends I didn't get to see enough this year.
To continue working out, probably a little more than I did this year.
To try not to let TTC take over my life as much and dictate my happiness.
To take a few fun trips. We have one coming up in January! More to come on that...

To sum it up, I'd be lying if I said that 2011 felt like a great year for me, it was a really hard year, and I'm not really sorry to see it go. A lot of tears were shed, a lot of days were kind of dark for me... But I did have some great times too. It's been hard for me to remain optimistic and keep the momentum of hope going this year, but I will say that while running this morning, I felt a glimmer of hope for the new year. I really, really hope this is the year we add a baby to our family. I've never felt more ready. Here's hoping this is a great year, and I'll do my best to make it a great one!

Happy New Year to you guys and thanks again for reading my blog all year!

A Merry Christmas

2011-12-27T06:14:00.000-05:00

You'll all be happy to hear that I mustered up some Christmas spirit and had a great weekend with my parents. My mom left the following comment on my last post after reading what a lump I was being:

I can't wait to come and celebrate an encore Christmas with you! We are going to watch Love Actually, eat potato pancakes, have some kind of Christmas cocktail & I got you another present!!!

You better have that Christmas music playing when we arrive tomorrow missy.

Love, Mom

So I really didn't have a choice, but to have a good time. :)

I started my Christmas Eve by breaking in one of my Christmas presents, my new Asics from my brother.

My friend Kerrie is training for the Miami half marathon, and I offered to run 4 of her 9 miles with her at a local trail.

It was pretty cold out, but it felt great to get out there. I let her set the pace since it was her training run, so she kept track on her Garmin.

Four plus miles done, I headed out to get prepped for my parents' arrival.

They rolled in mid afternoon and we headed to the town center nearby to get some coffee and walk around. If I was in doubt about my Christmas spirit, the unexpected fire truck parade, with Santa a top, helped.

Santa! I KNOW him!

Filled with spirit, we headed back home and had a little snack and some cocktails...

Then we headed out for Christmas Eve dinner at Vivace. We thought it would be fun to go out one night and stay in the other since my parents were in town for two nights. My mom and I went to Vivace for restaurant week over the summer and it was phenomenal.

My mom and I went halvsies on the seasonal salad: roasted beets, gorgonzola, candied walnuts, red onion agrodolce, lemon vinaigrette. Excuse my crappy IPhone pic. It was pretty dimly lit in the restaurant.

Anyway, this salad rocked. I seriously can't get enough beet salad, in case you can't tell.

We also split the CHILI-CAPELLINI & Crab roasted garlic, lemon, melted tomatoes, spinach, frutti di mare brodo.

Spicy seafood deliciousness.

And lastly we split the Veal Saltimbocca: fresh mozzarella ravioli, porcinis, brown butter. I'm definitely morally wary of veal and think it's kind of wrong to eat it, but my mom really wanted it. I eat it very infrequently and never order it myself, but I've tried it when other people get it. It was good, but I'd be just as happy with chicken, or a meatless entree. I actually loved the ravioli that came with it, and could have eaten a whole plate of those with the incredible mushroom sauce.

Bellies full, we headed home and watched one of many movies watched this weekend, Hall Pass.

I have the worst track record ever for watching movies with unexpected nudity with my parents, and this was no exception. If you have seen this and remember the scene where Owen Wilson passes out in the hot tub and the naked guys in the sauna save him, you know what I'm talking about...

Christmas morning was a low key affair. My parents exchanged stockings, and I opened a few gifts sent from friends and family. We decided against a big breakfast and just had fruit, yogurt, and danish.

We went on a brisk walk in the neighborhood after breakfast. The temperature in Charlotte finally dropped some, and even though it wasn't a white Christmas, it at least felt like winter.

Lunch was panini sandwiches with turkey, cheese, tomato, and spinach with a handful of chips. My mom and I also split a Shiner Bock Holiday beer, which are awesome.

We headed out to see a matinee of The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, which both my parents have read and seen the Swedish movie versions of.

I have wanted to read the book the book for a while, but haven't, and decided I could see the movie and then maybe read the other two books in the series if it pulled me in. The movie is VERY intense. If you're not familiar, be warned that there is a graphic rape scene in it that was pretty disturbing (again with watching awkward stuff with my parents...). One couple actually got up and walked out. The movie was good though, and I immediately went home and downloaded The Girl Who Played With Fire on my Kindle (Christmas present from my parents), so that I could continue reading what happens.

My mom and I cooked Christmas dinner at my house, which was a roasted beef tenderloin, potato pancakes, apple sauce, and green beans.

Yum!

My mom and I watched Love Actually after dinner, while my dad caught a football game in the other room.

Monday we just ate breakfast, went on a short shopping trip (I got some silver nail polish for New Years Eve), and then they headed home, while I read my newly downloaded Kindle book and enjoyed my day off :). Greg made it home around 7pm last night and we got to have Christmas dinner, round two, together.

That pretty much sums up my Christmas this year. How'd yours go??

Where's My Christmas Spirit?

2011-12-21T18:39:00.000-05:00

It happens to me every year. I blame the early Christmas we have with my brother. We had a great time. Presents were exchanged, babies were snuggled, food was consumed, there was lots of Christmas spirit, and lots of love. Then the weekend was over.

Avery looks pretty hardcore, huh?

I also celebrated Christmas early with Greg (and Clyde) this past weekend since he's going to be gone on Christmas this year. Clyde enjoyed his candy cane rawhides.

I am enjoying my new (unexpected) IPad from Greg!

It's a been fun and festive season. Parties were attended, decorations are up, and I have like 5 containers of Christmas cookies sitting on my kitchen counter. Please come over and eat some.

But, I'm kind of over Christmas already. I feel like I already celebrated it, so the actual day of Christmas has lost its luster now.

Last night I forced myself to bake a double batch of candy cane cookies for my work friends... while watching The Haunting of Sorority Row. Not exactly a Christmas movie (it was pretty dumb, if you are wondering).

Today, I watched some of Christmas Vacation on my lunch break with some co-workers, who are still getting excited about this weekend.

But while I feel like others are still gearing up and getting excited for Christmas, I'm kind of slowing down. I don't mean to be a Grinch about it. I LOVE Christmas! It's just that even though it's more important to me to celebrate with my family when they are able to, it's still hard to not do it on the actual day when most people do. It just sucks a little of the fun out of it.

My parents are coming to hang out with me this weekend, so that should be fun. Hopefully I can keep the Christmas spirit alive just a little longer and be festive with them one more time.

I say bring on New Years Eve. I'm ready for the next holiday!

Cookie Exchanging

2011-12-17T06:49:00.000-05:00

After tearing myself away from my adorable niece...

I arrived home from Hilton Head on Tuesday night around 8pm. After unpacking my car, the first thing I did was start getting out cookie ingredients and start whipping up some cookies. I had two cookie exchanges (you can read about the one I hosted last year here) coming up, and knew I needed to get a jump on things. Enter, a gazillion batches of spice cookies.

I love making my orange chocolate pinwheels, candy cane cookies, sugar cookies, and a few others during the holidays, but these cookies are probably the easiest homemade Christmas cookies I make each year, so they were a logical choice since I knew I had a busy week going on and many of the other cookies are way more labor intensive and time consuming with multiple stages of chilling, rolling, etc... The spice cookies are cool because you pretty much mix the wet stuff, mix the dry stuff, and then mix them together. Perfect!

Armed with 6 dozen spice cookies, the first cookie exchange I went to was at Brittany's house. She had out some festive wine glasses, so I helped myself to a glass of red while checking out the cookie spread.

We did a bunch of chatting about babies, book club (which we haven't done consistently in a couple months now), and all other fun girl stuff, before we got in there and collected up our cookie hauls.

We of course got the obligatory group shot. Love these girls.

(borrowed from Brittany)

That's me on the end looking awkward as usual...haha.

Cookie success!

The second cookie exchange I had this week was at work yesterday. This one only required 2 dozen cookies, but you only got one of each other kind of cookie. I had my box sitting my office and had to shoo a few people away since I only have one of each kind to try!

I will tell you that there used to be a coconut macaroon in there that was promptly devoured. I need to learn how to make macaroons.

Good thing Greg is home this weekend. I need his help in gobbling these babies up!

Did you attend (or host) a cookie exchange this year?

It's Christmas Time

2011-12-12T13:13:00.000-05:00

Hey all! Long time no write! I know I say this all the time, but it's been insanely busy, as I began to prep for and start celebrating Christmas! It's such a busy time of year.

Greg and I finally started working on our decorating, putting up the tree, shopping, wrapping presents, and cookie baking.

I feel like this stuff kind of takes over this time of year, and a few free hours on a week night (to blog) become non-existent!

We also did Christmas pictures of Clyde. I had seen a picture of a dachshund with Christmas lights around it and decided to try and recreate it.

We have a winner :) Christmas cards ordered!

My side of the family devised a plan a couple years ago to get together sometime in between Thanksgiving and Christmas, since it's difficult for my brother to travel on actual holidays. It works pretty well. Usually everyone comes to my house in Charlotte, but this year we mixed things up and decided to get together in Hilton Head. This created a slight glitch in that Greg's December schedule came out after this plan was devised, and unfortunely he wasn't able to make it, since Hilton Head is a 3 1/2 hour drive from Charlotte and commuting got in the way. Saturday, he headed back to Houston and I headed down to see the fam.

Christmas with my family was special this year, because this was my first time meeting my new niece Avery, who is now 3 months old!

Yeaaaaaaah... I'm in love.... *sigh*.

She's a little angel, and I've really enjoyed getting to know her the last few days. It's really been a joyful experience and it's been great for my jealousy issues with it all. I'm so glad!

Aside from fawning over my niece, we've been having lots of great family meals together. One night we had this awesome appetizer, which is a mixture of marscapone and ricotta cheeses, with roasted tomatoes, fresh basil, fresh mozzarella and drizzed with olive oil and basil.

You spread it on toasted baguette. It's tremendous...

We've also had seared scallops, shrimp, roasted turkey, and all kinds of good stuff.

Well, just wanted to check in! I'm headed out to have a little more fun with everyone! Hope your holidays are getting underway and you are having as much fun as I am!

My Christmas List 2011

2011-12-03T09:43:00.000-05:00

You all know that the thing I most want for Christmas is this...

Fingers crossed!

In terms of tangible items that I told my family I'd like, here's my list.

Amazon Kindle. I'm kind of behind the curve on the Kindle, but since I actually did read a lot this year, I think it would be fun to have one. I am not that familiar with all the differences in the Fire and regular Kindle, but I trust Santa to figure it out.

New running shoes. My Asics are in desperate need of replacement. I know a new version has come out since last time I bought some, so I'm hoping for these Asics GT 2160 in the purple color. Cute, right?

Wire whisk attachment for my Kitchen Aid stand mixer. My mixed just came with the standard attachment, so this would be a nice alternative and good for whipping things.

Photojojo IPhone lenses. My husband is skeptical about these, but I think they look really cool and want to try them!

Vegetable Mandolin. Even, thin slices. Sign me up! I just hope I don't lose the tip of my finger...

Pretty camera strap from Etsy.

Camera bag. I actually asked for a similar one from the same Etsy shop last year.

A nice light box. I have kind of a crappy one I made and this one seems so much nicer.

That's about it. Obviously, I'd trade all these objects for a healthy pregnancy, but these would be a fun diversion! What's your hot ticket, must have item this year?

Adventures in Basal Body Temping

2011-12-02T07:01:00.000-05:00

Hey all. So here's a bit of an update on TTC. I'm still trying. Still not pregnant. Still frustrated. Yeaaaaaah.

I decided to try something new this month, just for kicks. Basal Body Temping. I've avoiding this method thus far in our attempts, because I heard it can be tough with a lot of variables that can influence the accuracy, such as alcohol, not taking the temp at the EXACT time every day, etc... But, I decided to give a shot anyway, because what do I have to lose?

Basically, (this is just my interpretation of how it works), you get this special Basal Body Thermometer that measures your temp down to the tenth degree. Before you get out of bed everyday, you take your temperature by just sticking the thermometer in your mouth like a doctor would. You wait til your thermometer beeps, get a reading, and then record it on a chart (some thermometers come with charts, or you can find one to download online). On your chart, when you see an increase in temp, it is supposed to indicate when you have ovulated. So in theory, if you keep doing it, you're supposed to see a pattern of when your temp raises each month and the couple days before that are when you should try (baby dance, as they say).

Here's an example of a chart:

(source)

Here's my first month...

Not very pretty is it? I'm actually pretty confused in looking at this on when my real "spike" that I ovulated was, since there were kind of two on here. I got a positive OPK (ovulation predictor kit result) kind of in the middle of the first spike, and the other spike was a couple days after that. They were both gradual, not a sharp spike like the example graph. Also, I was under the impression that your temps usually stay elevated after you ovulate (from what I read) and I was surprised to see mine kind of dip back down to about where they were in the follicular (before ovulation) phase... So yeah, I'm confused.

I did happen upon something when locating information for this post... Apparently the Basal Body Thermometer I've been using sucks... It was a Walgreens one, and a lot of people complained about it here. Awesome. So I might have wasted a month with a crappy BBT....

Last night, I bought a new one...

Hopefully this one is better.

Really, all of this doesn't matter that much, because as usual, we can really only try when Greg is home, which is never as often as we should be trying. In a perfect world, he'd have two weeks off at the right time of month and we could try all during that time to optimize our chances. I don't see that happening any time soon. I think I just feel such a lack of control over it all that I am willing to do anything to feel a little more like I have a handle on things. Also, if my chart is right, maybe something is wrong with me and having charts to show a doctor will help them figure out what it is so that I can actually get pregnant. That's my theory.

In the meantime, I'll just look at other people's cute babies, and hope that I turn into a success story like they did!

Wyatt is so cute and tiny :) I loved holding him!

Thanksgiving Part Deux

2011-11-30T06:56:00.000-05:00

Even though Greg and I each had a couple Thanksgiving dinners between eating on the actual day and some leftovers my mom sent home with us, we hadn't yet had our Thanksgiving dinner together. I told Greg last week that I would make him some of his favorites for dinner sometime this week, so last night I did just that. Greg's Thanksgiving favorites are really the mashed potatoes and the green bean casserole (which we actually don't do in my family). Feeling like we might need a little Umami in there, I decided to make an entree to go with it- Mushroom Wellington ala Vegan Faith.

I changed it slightly by using small white and baby portobello sliced mushrooms instead of the big portobellos and sauteeing them with the spinach, onion, garlic, and wine. This made them all kind of liquidy (I may have gotten slightly heavy handed with the wine) and I kind of had to drain everything before adding it to the puff pastry. For creaminess, I opted to add some goat cheese, which I thought was a great addition. I also had too much filling to fit, so I reserved some and made a gravy out of what didn't fit in the pastry, by adding a little flour and stock to the pan and stirring with a whisk. I had a few snafus with the puff pastry coming apart on me, but eventually, I got the whole thing assembled, in the oven, and it came out great!

I used baby red potatoes for my (s)mashed potatoes and I always use frozen green beans for the green bean casserole because I think canned ones are gross, even though Greg disagrees. Don't ask him about the time we were at Costco and he insisted on buying the giant can of canned green beans. Ewww.

Anyway, we both loved the meal and I was glad to have a little bit of Thanksgiving with my husband. We're very used to holidays apart after ten years together with this lifestyle, but try to make an effort to set aside some time for ourselves to celebrate together.

Do you ever spend holidays apart? How do you handle it?

Tweeting And Trotting

2011-11-25T18:43:00.000-05:00

Happy belated Thanksgiving! I'm back in Hilton Head to spend the weekend with my family.

I took a half day on Wednesday, headed home to pack up, and gobbled down this salad of spinach, goat cheese, pear, walnuts, and vanilla balsamic, before hitting the road for the 3+ hour drive to Hilton Head.

Traffic wasn't to terrible, and I arrived in time for dinner with my fam, which was a nice bean pasta soup my mom made.

And some easy cresent rolls on the side.

Oh and we got into the pumpkin cheesecake early.

We turned it fairly early because we had to be up early on Thanksgiving for my Turkey Trot! After being indecisive about running and racing ALL YEAR long, I decided to go ahead and do this race, since I had a great time running it last year. Last year I was already entrenched in marathon training and ran the 10K, but this year I opted for the 5K, deciding I wasn't quite ready for 6+ miles just yet. 3.1 sounded fine though.

I had the typical pre-race breakfast.

It was much colder this year, so I was kind of bundled up pre-race and cold in my shorts!

My parents were good sports for hanging out in the cold with me!

I think the cofee helped! We amused ourselves by watching many people ready to run in costume.

We loved this guy in the full turkey suit!

I really had no plan for this race. I know my running has been sporatic all year, and looking at my only other two 5K times, I estimated I'd fall somewhere in between 33 and 27 minutes- my other two finish times. I guessed I'd finish in about 30 minutes... I really didn't care. I actually forgot my Garmin in my jacket, so I didn't even time myself. Really, I was just out to have fun and get a 3 mile run in before consuming mass amounts of Thanksgiving food so I didn't put any pressure on myself to PR.

I underestimated myself. I felt pretty good on the out and back course, and just ran as fast as I was comfortable with. I ended up finishing with a gun time of 27:33, which is a 5K PR for me (my previous best is 27:48)! I also love that this race gives medals! Fun to add another one to my race bling :)

After some water and a small hunk of bagel, we snapped some quick pics with the blow-up turkey, and headed home for breakfast.

My mom whipped up a frittata with goat cheese, spinach, pepper, and mushrooms. We had that and leftover crescent rolls with Nutella, and some fruit.

While eating we saw in the paper that Old Navy was open, so we headed over there to check it out after breakfast. I got a pair of jeans and a pair of running crops for pretty cheap!

Mini-shopping trip done, we headed home to start the turkey/stuffing prep. A little story behind my turkey, I won it from EarthFare (Huntersville) on Twitter! It was a fresh, organic, veg fed fella. Thank you EarthFare!

Clyde looked on with interest as my mom cleaned it.

Once the bird was prepped and in the oven, we decided to head out on a walk on the plantation trails to enjoy the beautiful weather. It was in the low 60s, sunny, and generally gorgeous.

I love these bridges over the marsh to the island in the plantation, gorgeous...

About 3 miles covered, we headed back and actually changed into bathing suits to go to the pool for a dip! The pool is heated, and it was a little chilly, but not too bad!

Mom and I finished making dinner after our dip. The EarthFare turkey came out great!

We made turkey, stuffing, sweet potato, mashed potato, mac and cheese, green beans with almonds, and cranberry (from the can- love that stuff).

With more pumpkin cheesecake for dessert.

Thanksgiving is by far Clyde's favorite holiday. He knows the word "turkey" because it's his favorite food. He made out like a bandit.

A great day was had by all, even Greg, who was stuck in Houston and didn't make it home. He was invited to a friend's house for some food and had a good time too. We're planning on a mini Thanksgiving of our own next week.

Hope your Thanksgiving was as great as mine! I'm thankful for all of you who read and support me, you guys rock!

Scenes From the Weekend

2011-11-22T06:52:00.000-05:00

To answer your comment questions, yes, I liked Breaking Dawn. Some parts gave me chills (wedding) and other parts were cheesy (wolf pack scene), but overall I thought it was pretty good. It's been so long since I read the books now that I kind of wish they'd just wrap it up and can't believe it'll be another year til part II comes out though! I'm also addicted to this song...

Most of my Saturday (aside from my morning run) was spent at Kelly's new house "helping" (if you call standing around drinking beer and watching Kelly cook, helping ;) with their move. Mostly the guys did the burly work and the girls hung around her gorgeous new kitchen.

See, guys working, girls standing around...

Eventually we all assembled back in the kitchen and started chowing down.

Kelly made pulled pork sandwiches with mango salsa and black bean soup.

We ate, drank, and talked, and watched Rascal with an empty PB jar...

Then he got to lick about 10 soup bowls...doggie heaven!

I called it a night fairly early, so I could get home to Clyde and check on him.

Sunday, the weather was warm and Clyde and I took an hour long walk.

I don't think we'll have many more days like this, I can feel fall pulling away...

My walk was followed by a trip to a new brewery: The Noda Brewing Co. My friends and I had heard about it from a bartender at Big Ben last week and wanted to check it out.

Graffiti on the backside of the brewery.

I scoped out the choices and asked if they had a sampler. They said they're working on that, but would give me a sip of each one so I could decide what I wanted.

I ended up liking the porter best, which was called Coco Loco and had chocolate and coconut flavors!

This actually shocked me, because usually I hate dark beer!

You can tell they're still working out the kinks, but I liked the place. There was a good crowd of people there watching the Panthers game, and also a brewery tour that the girls opted out of, but the boys really liked. I hope they add food eventually, we need more breweries with good food in Charlotte.

That's pretty much the rundown of my weekend. I think I need some downtime now!

Things I'm Into Lately

2011-11-21T06:44:00.001-05:00

Hi there! Hope everyone is well. I've had another busy weekend over here! I went to see Breaking Dawn Friday night, ran, went to a move party, visited a new brewery in Charlotte, and of course, snuggled the pup lots. It was nice! I figured I'd mix things up and give you a rundown of some stuff I'm into lately.

Chocolate Peanut Butter Hot Cocoa

I found this stuff at Target recently and it's awesome. I still like to drink something warm in the morning, even though I've been off caffeine for a while (because of TTC), so this is a great alternative.

Butternut Squash

It's officially my favorite squash. I especially love it cubed and roasted or in this soup.

Clyde's boots

Even though he won't keep them all on at once, they are truly adorable! Here he is with one on...

Chobani Mango

I'm not even a huge fan of mango and this stuff is awesome!

Indian food

I'm totally addicted to Indian food lately. I've had it out twice in the last week and then made myself some at home tonight. So good!

Beer

The fall weather has really put me in the mood for beer lately!

I'm bummed that pumpkin beer season is over though :(

Running

Well kind of. November has been the month with the most consistent running I've done all year since my marathon in January. I decided to just go for it, since being paranoid about running has gotten me no where with TTC. I've been running at least 2-3 times a week all month. And I signed up for a Turkey Trot!

What are you into lately??

Pumpkin Lasagna

2011-11-16T06:38:00.000-05:00

The other day I saw this recipe for pumpkin mac and cheese on Jenna's blog. YUM! I got home and figured I would try it, only I had NO shells or pasta resembling shells. I did have two boxes of lasagna noodles though, and thus, I decided to create pumpkin lasagna. As it turns out, I changed a bunch of other things along the way too, adding garlic, using dried herbs instead of fresh, etc. So here's my adapted version of Jenna's mac and cheese turned into pumpkin lasagna.

Pumpkin Lasagna

Feeds about 3-4 people.

Prep time: about 30 minutes, Cook time 25 minutes

Ingredients

Lasagna noodles (It depends on what size pan you are using how many you'll need. I used about seven for a square pan by cutting the noodles to fit on two layers of lasagna)

3 tbsp butter

3 tbsp flour

1 clove of garlic, minced

3 1/2 cups milk (I used skim)

4-5 oz grated parmesan cheese (use the good stuff, not the powdered can)

¾ cup pumpkin puree (1/2 15-oz can)

1/2 tsp dried rosemary

1 tsp salt

½ tsp pepper

¼ tsp cayenne

1/3 cup breadcrumbs (mine were Italian seasoned)

Directions

1.Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

2. Cook noodles in boiling salted water. Drain. Set aside.

3. In a saucepan over medium high heat, melt the butter and add the flour. Whisk together and cook for thirty seconds. Add 2 cups milk, rosemary, and garlic and whisk until smooth. Add another cup of the milk and continue to whisk as the sauce thickens.
4. Add 3/4 of the grated parmesan cheese (you're saving some for the top) gradually and stir well so that the cheese melts. Add the salt, pepper, and cayenne followed by the last half cup of milk and the pumpkin puree.

5. Spray baking dish with cooking spray. Spoon a layer of sauce into the bottom, then layer with lasagna noodles, then sauce, then noodles, then sauce. I only got two layers out of mine, so if you want more layers, you may want to double this recipe in it's entirety. On top of the last layer of sauce, sprinkle the bread crumbs and the remaining parmesan cheese.

6. Bake for 25 minutes until bubbling.

Even my husband, who is ready to kill me with the amount of pumpkin I keep putting in everything, loved this.

I still want to try Jenna's version, but I thought this was really delicious and will make it again!

How To Cram As Much As Possible Into A Weekend

2011-11-15T09:24:00.000-05:00

Hi! I had a really busy three day weekend. I actually had Friday off for Veterans Day, which was awesome. I REALLY needed one of those extra days off to get stuff I've been putting off done, like closet cleaning. I had a pretty productive day and let's hope I can keep my closet somewhat cleaner. I'm definitely a do-laundry-keep-in-laundry-basket-way-too-long kind of girl, so I need to get in a better habbit of putting my crap away!

While cleaning, I made some pumpkin bread using a Trader Joe's mix and subbing mashed banana in for the oil.

I also ran 3.75 miles on Friday, which was great!

To celebrate the conquering of my closet and my run, I met some friends out at Big Ben, a British Pub in South Charlotte.

Nice photo bomb Tim :)

I decided to try this Crispin Cider, which came in the biggest glass I've ever seen!

The bartender assured me that it was actually the same amount of liquid that fits in a pint glass. Phew. I would have had to call it a night right there if that wasn't the case! It was really delicious.

Gibson insisted on getting the Scottish Eggs, which I have never seen or heard of before. They might be the most bizarre food I have ever seen. I tried a bite. They weren't horrible, but I wouldn't run right out to make them or have them again!

I Googled them, to find out more: A Scotch egg consists of a de-shelled hard-boiled egg, wrapped in a sausage meat mixture, coated in breadcrumbs, and deep-fried. Ewww... Ok, now I'm kinda grossed out.

I ended up getting a pretty standard grilled chicken sandwich with fries.

We stayed out a little while longer and discussions about politics and the economy ensued. Finally the debates broke up and I headed home.

I wish I could say my productivity continued into Saturday, but it didn't. I had one of those loungy, TV watching days. I finally got out later in the day to help my friend Gibson with some furniture shopping and it did help break me out of my funk.

Sunday was another busy day. My friend Alison was in town for a visit with family, and we made plans to meet for breakfast at Flying Biscuit.

I couldn't make up my mind if I was more in an eggy mood or bready mood and kind of wanted a little of everything so I ordered The High Flyer, which included eggs, bacon, grits, a biscuit, and a pancake. It was WAY more than I could eat though! I ate about half of everything and quit!

We made a trip to Trader Joe's following breakfast, and I got a bunch of goodies :)

Before parting ways, Alison gave me this present for Clyde.

Um, how cute are these?? So far I have tried unsuccessfully to get them on him, but while Greg is home this week, I might try again. I think it's a two man job ;)

I later met Sara, Erin, and our friend Kirsten for a light lunch at Reids. Reids is kind of like Dean and Deluca, a high end specialty store with some food to order. I got a cup of black bean soup since I still wasn't that hungry from breakfast. Blogger fail- none of use got pictures!

Between lunch and my next event, I killed some time at the South Park mall. I thought maybe I'd do some Christmas shopping, but I couldn't get into it. I kind of need to come up with a list and game plan for that, so nothing was jumping out at me screaming "this would be perfect for so-and-so!" I ended up with three pairs of socks. Hey, it's something!

My next event was Katie's bartending adventure for BeardsBecause at Cowfish.

It was highly entertaining watching Katie make drinks.

She was ready to kill me when I ordered this martini, but I told her it was meant to be easy since it had three ingredients in it: pinapple juice, Malibu rum, and vanilla vodka.

I knew you could do it Katie!

I ordered some coconut covered onion rings for anyone that would eat them, since I had a appetizer coupon to use. They're ridiculously good...

I also got a chinese chicken salad, which I could hardly make a dent in.

It was delicious and crunchy though!

I did order one more drink since this was a bartending gig and all. I got a glass of Reisling, thinking that would be easy for Katie to pull off. I was wrong.

This would be half the cork...

I did get my glass of wine after the struggle had ended. :)

I had a great time watching Katie in action and all the more since the event was for a good cause. She's also having a bake sale to benefit BeardsBecause on her blog today, so go over and bid on my spice cookies! They are awesome!

Hope your weekend was as stellar as mine!

After The Savannah Marathon

2011-11-11T08:54:00.000-05:00

Phew, I got really behind this week and started this post a couple days ago, but haven't had time to finish it. After the Savannah marathon, Kelly, Brad, and I headed to Gryphon Tea Room, which is a place I went to with my parents years ago, but hadn't been back to in a while. The last time I went it looked more like an apothocary, but now is more resembles a library inside.

In any case, it's still a great restaurant.

The hungry marathoner and her husband got vichyssoise (ie potato soup) to start.

I opted for one of the specials- a salad with goat cheese, pears, almonds, cranberrys, and greens. Tell me there's goat cheese and I'll probably order it...

These goat cheese medallions were ENORMOUS. Both were the size of crabcakes and my goat cheese to salad ratio was sort of out of control.

Kelly was already talking about dessert before we even entered the restaurant, so I knew I'd probably get something. I opted for coconut cake.

It was dense and delicious.

Full of food, we headed to the buses to get us to our car.

We were finally on our way back to Hilton Head but it was already around 4pm. We realized a planned blogger meet-up back in Savannah at 6:30pm was probably not going to happen.

After showering and relaxing for a while, our new game plan was to head to my favorite wine bar in the area, Corks.

I got a flight of interesting reds.

None of us were starving, since we'd eaten lunch late, so we went with two big appetizers a cheese plate and hummus.

Both hit the spot!

We called it a night fairly early, after our long day.

Sunday, I wanted to go for a walk on the beach, as per usual on my visits to the island. Kelly said she felt okay to do it, so she, my mom, Clyde, and I headed over.

It was VERY windy and cold, so we kept it short.

Brrrrr!

Our walk completed, I really wanted to take Brad and Kelly to the clubhouse at my parents' plantation and show them around the rest of it. Greg and I got married there, so it's special to me.

We had brunch at the clubhouse, which includes a free mimosa and coffee.

I ordered an omelet with veggies and ham. Unfortunately, the service was less than stellar on this visit (I'll let it slide since I love this place and got married here!), and my omelet had sausage and bacon in it, both of which I didn't want, but I picked around it.

After breakfast, we showed them the rest of the plantation, including the pools...

And the docks...

Which prompted some people pictures.

It was a little windy...

And that concludes our weekend fun in Hilton Head and Savannah. It was great to share the experience with my friends!

Savannah From The Sidelines

2011-11-08T20:11:00.000-05:00

Saturday morning alarms went off at 4am at my parents' house in Hilton Head. Kelly, Brad, and I scrambled to make coffee, eat, get dressed, and prep for the marathon. By 4:50, we were all in the car, and after a brief run back into the house for my phone (that would have been bad), we hit the road for Savannah.

Since I'm fairly familiar with Savannah, I knew that Savannah Mall was quite a ways from the start and that we'd need to build in a lot of extra time just for the bus ride to the start. When we got close to the mall there was a ton of traffic going in to park, but we eventually made it in and then walked to the buses.

I actually met a really nice guy on the bus and we chatted about various races we'd done, our dogs, and Savannah on the way over, so it was a pleasant ride. When we arrived I told him and his wife good luck in their races and headed to the porto potties with Kelly and Brad.

Mission bathroom accomplished, we headed to the start on Bay Street and then decided to duck into a nearby hotel to stay warm for a bit. Once inside, we looked around and then I spotted Allison! Random! She and her boyfriend, Ryan, came over and pictures were taken.

Excuse my desheviled look. It was early.

When it got close to start time, we headed outside. Kelly was in corral ten, so she got into the corral then waited on the side near the fence so that Brad and I could ~~take many pictures of her~~ hang out with her.

At some point there was some shuffling and Kelly ended up in corral nine, but decided to just stay there. We waited about 5-10 minutes til her corral finally crossed the start line, then she was off!

A few minutes later we saw Allison in her corral.

This worked out great because Ryan was right there on the sidelines too, so Brad, Ryan, and I were able to hang out while the girls ran.

Once they were both on their way, we made our way towards mile 8, which we'd picked to be a good spectator location. We decided to get warm and get some breakfast at J Christopher's, which definitely was participating in the marathon spirit.

I got a hot chocolate, which was a little too sweet and had more whipped cream than I knew what to do with on it.

I also got some pumpkin pancakes, but only could finish about half.

The Guys!

After chowing down, we headed over to Mile 8 to watch for the girls.

A bunch of people in funny attire ran by...

I don't know how people run in stuff like that!

Fairly soon after we got to our spot, we saw Kelly!

See her in the back, just right of the middle with the white hat?

She looked strong!

A few minutes later Ryan got this text from Allison, which cracked me up!

Nice Allison!

Soon after her text we saw her come running up.

Allison wanted lip balm from Ryan.

Lips lubed, she headed out on her way.

With both of them past us, we decided to head to the finish area at Forsyth Park. On the way we past this table of GU.

Soon we arrived at the park and found a spot in the grass to hang out.

We were only there a couple minutes when I turned around and saw Tina!

Tina had just run the half marathon, her first, and killed it with a time of 1:50!

We chatted for a bit before her and her husband moved on, and Brad, Ryan, and I collapsed in the grass to wait for Kelly and Allison. To kill time, the guys explained the rules of football to me, which some how I still haven't grasped even though I'm in my 30s! I think I might have a better understanding now though! We also tracked Kelly using Brad's phone and Ryan's map to see where she was on the course.

We had lost touch with her weren't sure where she was.

After a while we decided to head to the finish line and prepare for the girls to come across it. We knew around the 4 hour mark we should be on the look out.

We cheered a ton of people on as they finished their last .2 miles. I was excited when I saw Meghann pass me! She looked happy and strong!

We were worried about Kelly since we'd lost touch and the last thing we'd heard from her was a text message that she wasn't feeling well. Then we saw her!

Her time was 4:38, which is 13 minutes faster than her Disney Marathon time!

Brad and I split from Ryan to go to her and found her under a tree in rough shape.

She told us she'd had shortness of breath and foot pain and had struggled through much of the race. :(

After a few minutes of Brad and I telling her how awesome she did, she perked up and we took some victory pictures of her.

I liked the medal, it has the Forsyth fountain on it.

Before leaving Forsyth Park, we got in one last photo.

My feelings about the marathon were mixed. There were times when I wanted to be a bigger part of it and be running in it. But part of me did feel like I WAS a part of it, and that because I'm a runner and a marathoner, I was still part of everything because I had been through it. I actually had a great time at this race and would definitely spectate again. I also do want to run in another major race someday, and a big race like this one would be really cool. I noticed a big difference in the size and energy of this race than some of the smaller ones I've run in, and it would be really cool to be a part of that. For now, I'm going to keep trying to start a family, but someday I'll hopefully be back at running long races again.

To read Kelly's recap, click here.

Pre-Race Activities

2011-11-06T07:09:00.000-05:00

Hello from Hilton Head! I'm down here mainly for the Savannah Marathon. No, I didn't run it. I'm here in support of Kelly, who ran her second marathon! It's been a whirlwind weekend. To back up a little, Thursday night Kelly, Brad, Clyde, and I drove down from Charlotte to stay the night at my parents' house. Hilton Head is about 45 minutes from Savannah, so I invited Kelly to stay and to be her chaufer for the weekend for her race. We got in kinda late Thursday night and pretty much headed to bed upon arrival.

Friday morning I did my own little run, getting in 3.15 miles around my parents plantation, it's no marathon, or even marathon training run, but I'll take it. Hilton Head is probably my favorite place to run!

Clyde and I posed for a picture, post run. Kelly had a little trouble with my camera, so it's a little blurry.

We had a light breakfast, got ready, then headed out to lunch at one of my island favorites, The Boathouse.

Kelly and I both opted for Shock Top pumpkin beers.

Mmmmm.

We got the shrimp tempura sushi appetizer to all share.

It was AMAZING. Not sure how they made it crunchy/fried on the outside, but I loved it.

Kelly and I split two things, the Thai salad with shrimp...

...and the fish tacos with grilled mahi mahi and sweet potato fries.

Both were yummy!

After lunch, we dropped Brad off at Starbucks so he could get some work done and Kelly and I headed to Savannah to pick up Kelly's packet and check out the race expo.

The place was mobbed! It took us a while to park and wade through all the people to get Kelly's packet. This was by far the best race expo I've been to. Apparently I need to do a Rock N' Roll or bigger race someday. Totally cool!

There was lots of cool merchandise to check out.

I was kind of tempted to buy this dachshund hair band, but refrained.

We also sampled the new MGD 64, which tasted like a combo of really light beer and sparkling water.

Ehhh, not too bad.

We watched the course tour on the screens set up and I didn't recognize too much, but then again, I don't know a lot of Savannah all that well.

Packet in hand we headed out of the convention center and traffic going out wasn't as bad as the traffic coming in. Our next stop was Target and the Tanger outlets to pick up a few things. Lately I seem to be finding pretty good stuff at J Crew and I found a sweater and cute belt on this visit.

After a little shopping we picked up Brad went to dinner at a pizza place called Paulie's. I had seen a Living Social Deal for it earlier in the week and since I regularly get pizza there with my parents I know it's good coal fired pizza. Yum!

We got a veggie pizza with spinach, onion, tomato, roasted red pepper, and mushroom. So good!

And with that, we were all fueled and ready for the marathon!

A Date Night and Pumpkin Cheesecake Brownies

2011-11-02T22:45:00.001-04:00

After our Halloween prep on Sunday night, Greg and I had a rare date night at Growlers Pourhouse. I had a Living Social deal set to expire in about a week, so it was imperative that we get it spent! I've been to Growlers once before with friends and we had a great time. I knew Greg would dig it since they have a good beer menu and bar food.

There's my date!

In keeping with my mission to sample every pumpkin beer out there, I found out they had a pumpkin beer on tap, so I had that. I can't remember what kind it was, but it was probably the second best one I've had this season, and it had cinnamon and sugar on the rim. Sweet!

We decided to get an appetizer to start with since we needed to use up my Living Social deal. Greg wanted the homemade chips and beer cheese dip.

They were delicious with sharp flavor and creamy texture, but ended up really filling me up!

I ordered a pesto portobello sandwich (with red pepper and goat cheese) as my main course. I loved the combination of flavors in this sandwich, and must make it sometime at home! I only got through half because I was full from the chips and dip though!

I also had some pretty purple slaw on the side.

Greg had the rest of my sandwich and slaw for lunch the next day, so it all worked out fine.

After our date, we headed home and I realized I had to make something to bring to work for a Halloween event on Monday. I wanted to make pumpkin cheesecake swirl brownies, but didn't have a recipe and wanted something kind of easy. I decided to take a chance and use a boxed mix (Ghiradeli) for the brownies, and found a recipe for the pumpkin cheesecake part.

For the cheesecake I used this:

Cheesecake Batter:

6 oz cream cheese, softened

1 egg

1/3 cup sugar

2 T flour

1/2 cup pumpkin puree

1/4 tsp vanilla

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1/4 tsp each ground ginger and ground cloves

I preheated the oven to 350.
I mixed the brownies as directed on the package, then placed about 2/3 the batter in a greased pan. Then poured the pumpkin cheesecake batter over it and smattered the rest of the brownie mixture on top. I ran a knife back and forth to swirl, then baked it for about 40-45 minutes.

The recipe worked out great!

I think there were like 2 brownies left when it was over, I'll call them a hit.

Pumpkins and Parades

2011-11-01T19:51:00.000-04:00

The Halloween fun continued into Sunday. Greg got home late Saturday night, around the same time I got home from the party, so even though he missed that fun, we crammed in as much Halloween stuff as we could on Sunday. In keeping with tradition, we decorated our house late. Happens every year! We also waited til the last minute to carve our pumpkins.

As per usual, Greg chose a complex design and I chose a silly face.

The finished products...

Pumpkin seeds were roasted...

So good! I haven't been able to stop munching them...

After pumpkin carving and decorating, it was time for our neighborhood Halloween parade. Our little banana was all set to go.

Clyde was a big hit as usual, all the kids came running when we walked over.

I swear more people in our neighborhood know his name than mine ;)

Super dog loves him too.

Off we went!

Clyde thrives on these events, it's so cute how he runs to keep up with everyone!

Gorgeous fall day.

How cute is he??

Hopefully next year we'll be in the parade with another little one...

Bite Night

2011-10-30T09:29:00.000-04:00

Hey friends! I'm happy to report that I'm doing better the last few days. I wanted to mention that for me this blog has always been sort of like a journal. Sometimes I need to vent and that's what my last post really was. I think trying to conceive is just a big roller coaster of emotion. Right now I feel okay about things. I still think it'll happen, it's just the WHEN that will continue to drive me nuts. Anyway, thanks again for listening, commenting, and being supportive. I really appreciate your comments and knowing that people out there care and are hoping for me. It helps.

So anyway, I had a pretty excellent Saturday. I woke up and realized I needed some granola in my life, and decided to make some pumpkin granola. It's tasty! Here's the recipe.

Pumpkin Granola
Makes about 3 1/2 cups of granola (but you can double the recipe if you want more).

2 cups of rolled oats
1/2 tablespoon pumpkin pie spice
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/3 cup pecans
1/2 cup canned, pureed pumpkin
1/4 cup maple syrup

Preheat oven to 250 degrees. Spray a cookie sheet (I lined mine with foil) with cooking spray. Mix all ingredients well in a medium sized bowl, til clusters start to form. Spread evenly on cookie sheet. Bake for an hour, but stir mixture every 20 minutes. Enjoy!

Following consumption of some granola, I went for a slightly longer than 3 mile run.

I also made a loose training plan for a turkey trot, so hopefully you will see me doing some more consistent running this month and getting ready for a race finally!

I assembled a salad with arugala, leftover grilled chicken, artichoke hearts, and apple for lunch.

I ran some errands for my Halloween costume, picking up markers and double sided tape, then got a hair cut. I actually did something slightly more drastic than I have for a while. I kind of wanted a long bob, and to get rid of layers, so that's what I asked for. My hair is kind of short again, and I'm not really sure I've grasped that yet!

Here's a picture of me in my costume, you can kind of see the hair under my hat.

(Photo from Caitlin)

Do you know who I am?

I'm Mario, from Super Mario Brothers! This one came together pretty easily, because I have these overalls from like 1996, a red shirt, some cheap white gloves, a red Ohio State hat that I covered with poster board and an "M", and some brown boots. I decided I didn't care about going the sexy route this Halloween, obviously ;)

I attended my friend Michelle's Bite Night party. There were some fun costumes.

Top: Black Swan, Olive Oil, Clemson fan, drunk Rachel (from Friends), vampire.

Bottom: German girl, me as Mario holding Cooper dressed as a squirrel, masquerade mask, and a stag.

Jen and Jen.

Caitlin and Kristien.

Sara and Kevin as Popeye and Olive Oil. The even had cans of spinach they used to hold their drinks!

Nicole was a late arrival, and came as a dark fairy. I loved her wig!

We had a chili bar with all the fixings.

I had a blend of meat and veggie chili with cheese, sour cream, and avocado.

And some of Jen's apple crisp with Breyer's Vanilla ice cream.

I also had a pumpkin beer and some cider.

It was a fun night!

Did you dress up for Halloween this year? What were you?

An Angry Run

2011-10-27T20:52:00.000-04:00

So this month was another failed cycle in TTC (trying to conceive) for us. Needless to say, I'm having a rough time with it... I know, if you break it down, I got pregnant in about 5 months last time (which isn't bad by any means), and that we've really only been trying for again for about 2 months (since I could start trying after the miscarriage), but just to be at this point in the year and not be pregnant or closer to a baby than we were in January when this all started is something I'm really struggling with. I can't help but see the totality of the situation and feel like we're failing at this.

The worst thing about this month was that it seemed like almost the perfect cycle. We had more chances to try at around the right time than usual and I just felt like we kind of gave it our all and had a really good chance. I know some people thought I was crazy to go to Houston, but when you've been trying for close to a year and your husband is home like one night a week most of the time, you're chances for getting pregnant are not that good. Besides, I wanted to go and see his new apartment and hang out anyway, and people have been suggesting I follow him to try pretty much all year long. I figured it was worth a shot. That trip, along with his next group of days off gave us a lot of time together, which is rare these days. Greg doesn't get schedules much better than this month's, so if any cycle was going to be possible for it to happen, it should have been this one. I already know that Greg's schedule for November doesn't look that good in terms of our chances to try.

So...I'm frustrated. Last night I was actually ANGRY. I don't understand why this is so difficult. I hate not having any control over any of it, and I think that's one of the biggest things bothering me about all of this. I'm doing everything I can to help this happen, and it's still not happening. I really don't know what to do anymore. I feel like giving up.

So last night, sad, confused, and angry, I decided to take it out on the pavement.

Yeah, I'm slow right now. I've sacrificed many days and weeks of pushing myself in running this year, to try to take it easy in case that would help me to get pregnant (or stay pregnant). But it hasn't helped anyway. I downloaded some new Coldplay (which is great) and went running. Even though it was tough, it felt good. Running is something I DO have control over. I can push myself and see results. It's nice to have control over something. Sure, it wasn't my best run ever. It was short, my legs felt heavy, and it's frustrating to not be as fast as I used to be, but I did feel better after my run. I'll take it.

I don't know where we're going to go from here. Greg and I have had a couple conversations about it and part of me is at my breaking point with it all. I want to throw in the towel for a while and focus on something else. But this nagging part of my brain wants to keep trying. Maybe needs to keep trying... I do think I want to train for a race again. Even just a 5k or 10k. I'm thinking a turkey trot. Since I know our chances in November aren't that great anyway, I figure what the hell. I need to feel capable again. I need something that is mine.

So I have running...

And cupcakes...

And a dog in a banana costume...

Yeaaaaaaaah... I guess that'll have to be enough for now.

Touring Homearama and the US National White Water Center

2011-10-25T21:03:00.001-04:00

Well, I'm entrenched in another work week (good times), but I thought I'd share some of the activities I did with my in-laws while they were here on Sunday. We started off with a batch of french toast, made by yours truly. It's all about the bread people- use good bread :)

Next up we decided to go to Charlotte Homearama. It's basically a tour of a bunch of model houses, decorated to the nines. Looking at model homes is something we frequently do with my in-laws when they come visit anyway, so I figured it was a great activity to do with them. It was also a chance for us to possibly get some decorating ideas, since my house is pretty under decorated. I am seriously missing that creative gene...

Anyway, off we went to tour the homes.

Here were some of the highlights. Did I mention I have all of one room, an accent wall, and a half bath in my house painted, and we've lived in it for 5 years. See? I need all the help I can get with decorating ideas...

Love this wall paper...

Beautiful kitchen.

Great bathroom.

I love that stone wall and the chandelier in this dining room.

I love this shelving in the pantry. So much nicer than my wire shelving.

Awesome backsplash.

We need this patio and fire pit...

I dig these curtains, we just have blinds in our bedroom.

I loved the outside of this house, but the inside was a little weird, kind of a strange rustic look that didn't really work for me.

I left the tour pretty inspired, but I'd need tons of cash and a lot of people helping me to make the changes we want to make to our house!

After the tour, we decided to get a late lunch at the US National Whitewater Center. It's dog friendly so we figured we could take the dogs (my in-laws had theirs with them too) and walk them around there after getting a bite to eat.

I had a cream ale.

And a black bean burger with sweet potato fries.

After lunch we walked the pups around the white water center while watching the kayakers and white water rafters battle the river.

I think my in-laws were kind of fascinated with the whole place. It's definitely unique with its river, ziplines, and rock climbing walls. Greg and I really like the facility and were saying we need to come there more.

That about sums up my Sunday.

Oh, unless you count the slice of pumpkin pie I had later that night.

Mmmm, ending it on a high note!

Runners Trials' Baby Shower!

2011-10-23T08:23:00.000-04:00

Hey all! Hope your weekend is going well! My in-laws are visiting so that's keeping me pretty busy. I'm up earlier than the rest of the house, so I thought I'd get in a little blogging before my day turns into a circus.

Yesterday my day started with a trip to Flying Biscuit for some breakfast. I opted for the veggie scramble, which is three large farm fresh eggs scrambled with white cheddar cheese, onions, spinach, mushrooms, and red & green peppers, and it also comes with fruit and a biscuit (of course).

I had a cup of hot apple cider as well.

After breakfast I used a Groupon about to expire at my favorite jewelry place in Charlotte, the Jewel Box. I got two necklaces and a pair of earrings.

Then I headed to Jen's house for her baby shower! I had to get there a little early to set up this crazy contraption...

Yup, a chocolate fountain. You know how when you register for wedding presents, you tend to go a little nuts with the scanner gun? Yeah, this was one of those moments. Anyway, people seemed to enjoy it!

Caitlin threw the party, and had the guest of honor hide upstairs til we were done setting up. Once we were set and people were arriving, she made her glowing appearance.

Other than book club, we haven't had a ton of blogger gatherings lately, so it was great to see most of the crew :)

Sara and Erin!

Erin actually MADE this awesome diaper cake.

Perhaps she should add crafter extrodinaire to her resume!

People brought food, so once everyone had arrived, we started to eat. I had a bit of quiche, orzo pasta salad, and butternut squash quinoa.

After eating we played several games.

We had to guess the size of Jen's tummy and how many miles she's run since week 14. I was way off on both. I was told there would be no math! We also sniffed diapers with candy bars melted in them and had to guess each one. Pretty funny :)

Jen opened her presents and got some cute stuff. Also, notice the race bibs- the shower was "iron baby" themed because of his Ironman Dad and triathlete/racing mom!

I got her some swaddlers, burb pads, bibs, and this froggy onesie :)

As a parting gift, we all wrote messages on diapers for Jen so that when changing the diaper is rough, she has a little something to make her laugh or smile :)

I headed back to my house to see how everyone was doing. I guess I missed naps and a walk with the dogs, so not too much. We headed to dinner at a local tavern with outdoor seating so we could bring the dogs. I had a salad since I was still pretty full from the food at the shower.

It was a nice Saturday with my friends and family.

How was yours??

Girls' Mountain Weekend

2011-10-17T21:54:00.001-04:00

First off, I want to thank all of you who read for your comments on my last post. I definitely feel a little better than last week. You guys made me not feel like I'm not alone, which is nice because sometimes I do feel alone in this. I also think the process, in general, of blogging just helps and is therapeutic. I've always been a journal writer and I know from past experience that when something is bothering me, writing it out and getting it out of my head (well at least a little), helps.

Another thing that helped was getting away this weekend. A while back my friends Kelly and Candace had brought up doing a girls' mountain trip and it seemed like a fun idea. I have to admit that after my meltdown last week it wasn't sounding as appealing to me as staying home, sitting in pajamas, eating ice cream, and watching Twilight, but I'm glad I went, because it really did take my mind off things a lot, and Kelly and Candace were great company.

Friday night after work we set out on our adventure to the mountains of West Jefferson, NC, which is a pretty long drive from Charlotte. I had thought that our cabin in Tennessee was kind of remote, but this took it to another level. We're talking dirt roads, over the river and through the woods, to get to this location! Kelly was a champ and drove us all the way there. We had a couple mishaps with our GPS, but eventually found our way and arrived around 11pm Friday night.

We had stopped at a grocery store on the way up for the essentials. You know, wine and popcorn...

We got other stuff too, but this hit the spot after our long drive. :) I somehow managed to stay awake til about 1am chatting with the girls, which is waaaaaaaaaaaay past my usual bedtime these days.

Saturday morning, we got up and made breakfast. I had scrambled eggs, toast with apple butter, half a banana, and some decaf Chai tea.

The cabin was nice and rustic but still new :)

We had a minor issue with the water heater when we realized the cabin had no hot water, but after a call to Candace's grandfather the issue was resolved (which involved driving to a neighbor's house since we had no cell phone reception!).

The scenery from the cabin was absolutely gorgeous. It's peak season in the mountains right now.

Kelly also participated in the photo shoot :)

And Clyde explored the deck.

We got ready and headed to West Jefferson to explore.

Our first stop was Ashe County Cheese, where they make their own cheese.

They had every different cheese combination imaginable, and some cute novelty cheeses, including Dachshunds!

And planes!

Kelly and I had each got a Dachshund cheese, and I also got some pecan syrup and pumpkin butter.

We explored a bunch of shops after our cheese adventure.

I was tempted to get some of these fun Doxie figurines, but held myself back. Kelly joked that we could have cabinets full of them. Yikes!

I ended up getting this cute piece of pottery, which is an apple baker.

We headed to lunch at a place called Frasers Pub with a huge menu.

I went with a chicken pesto sandwich.

After a little more browsing we went to Bohemia, a cute coffee shop.

I ordered a pumpkin pie latte. I can't get enough pumpkin lately. I admit it...

We hung around the shop for a while and drank our coffees while chatting.

Then we headed out of town and back to the cabin to check on Clyde.

We took him for a walk down the dirt drive, had a sample of some mango habero cheese (from Ashe County cheese), with apple, and relaxed for while.

Eventually, we headed to J&J's Chophouse to get some dinner. I ended up having a Shock Top to start.

And then a sirloin with baked sweet potato and sauteed green beans and red pepper. I haven't had a steak out in a long time. It kind of hit the spot.

We headed back to the cabin and I didn't last much past 10pm. I was tired!

Sunday we got up and Kelly made us french toast, which went unpictured. We cleaned up the cabin and hit the road for Boone.

We just walked around a little so I could see it, since I've never been, but soon headed out to the outlets in Blowing Rock. I ended up with two shirts from J Crew and a pair of jeans from the Gap.

And that concludes my great girly mountain journey. Thank you to Kelly and Candace for having me! It was just what I needed to get my mind off everything!

A Low Point

2011-10-14T06:24:00.000-04:00

Yesterday was a really rough day for me for some reason. I actually cried a couple times at work which is very unlike me. Luckily my office is kind of remote so no one saw me. I'm just at a really low place with everything right now and trying to get pregnant. I should feel hopeful since we actually had a couple chances to try at right around the right time this month, but I learned a long time ago that hope is a tough thing when months keep ticking by and you're still not pregnant. I never thought 10 months ago that this would consume my mind and my life the way it has. It's just so so hard...

I'm sorry if my blog has recently taken a turn into depressed-ville. I really wish I could stay upbeat and positive, but I'm just having a hard time right now.

I was saying to my friend the other day that I miss the old me. A year ago I was entrenched in training for races, healthy living, and much more optimistic about the future when we found out Greg was getting recalled. I knew that we were going to have the chance to try to conceive when he went back to his main airline, which we hadn't felt like we could do when he was furloughed because of the instability. I remember thinking about the fact that we were going to get to try soon while running my marathon in January and it making me smile like crazy to know that we were going to start trying in a matter of days. I couldn't wait.

I feel like that hope and optimism has been stolen from me. Month after month wanting a baby and not getting pregnant and then getting pregnant only to find out things were dicey and then ultimately not viable... It's just been a really long year, and not a really good year for me. Things just didn't go the way I'd hoped or planned at all.

I really just don't know how to be happy right now. I know it's irrational and that I have a good life with my husband and cute dog,, a nice house, a good job, plenty to be thankful for, and I am, but I just feel like I don't know how to not want a baby anymore now that it's in my line of sight. It's just so difficult to make it happen with my husband's career and life style. I am so jealous of women who have a husband home every night and the opportunity to try with them whenever they want. I just can't fathom it now that I've spent time following my husband around the country, waiting for him to come home, and basically doing everything I can to try and make this happen, but never feeling like it's enough. Sure, we tried a bunch last week and this week, but what about the three days before I ovulated when he was away and we didn't get to try? Was that our window and did we miss it?

I'm driving myself nuts, I know. I know I need to live my life and not let this continue to consume me, but I'm not sure how. I have never wanted something so much or felt like anything was more difficult to acheive than this. I'd train for and run a hundred marathons and say it was easier than trying to get pregnant. I think it's really about the control, or lack of it that I have in this situation. I just don't know how relax and leave this up to fate. I have way to much fear that it'll never happen if I do that, since we have such a problem with Greg being away. I feel like I have to be proactive, think about it, and concious of it or we don't have a chance.

Anyway, I'll be ok. I know I will, and I know I'll get back up, dust myself off, and keep on trucking along. I don't feel like I have a choice in the matter. I have to keep fighting for what I want.

Wife Of The Year?

2011-10-10T10:58:00.000-04:00

What does a woman trying to get knocked up do to maximize her chances? She follows her husband to Houston. Last month we only really had one shot at TTC (trying to conceive), because Greg's schedule SUCKS! This month was looking to be much the same, so I decided to take matters in to my own hands and go to where my husband was, hoping to give us another opportunity to try.

Greg was home two nights last week, but I'd really only count one (Tuesday), since Monday night he got home after 11pm. He headed back to Houston Wednesday. Frustrated, I looked at my options: 1) Stay in Charlotte with zero extra chances to TTC or 2) Go to Houston in the hopes of having more chances. Obviously option two seems like the better choice. The problem? He's on reserve (on call), so I didn't know if he'd even BE in Houston to try. Thursday Greg didn't get called and we were cautiously optimistic that he might not get called and we might actually get to spend some time together in Houston. Then scheduling called and assigned him a four day trip starting Friday at 5pm- ughhhhhhhhh. I decided to go ahead and fly out there anyway on Friday morning, since we had at least part of the day Friday before he had to leave. Better than nothing.

Friday morning Clyde and I hopped a plane to Houston, and Greg picked us up at the airport when we arrived. He recently changed apartments in Houston, so this is the new "crash pad".

He did a big shopping trip to Ikea a couple weeks ago and this one is a lot more furished than the previous apartment, which pretty much consisted of an air mattress, and bistro table and chair.

He still has the air mattress, but now it's on a bed frame.

It's a decent little home away from home.

Clyde seemed to approve after a thorough sniff down.

Well, and after peeing on the closest fire hydrant.

We got some lunch, then went for a drive around the area, which ended up involving chocolate dipped vanilla comes at Dairy Queen. Necessary.

We had pretty much the whole afternoon together, but before I knew it I had to take Greg to the airport. :(

Before I left to fly to Houston Friday morning, a thought occurred to me. Greg had driven his car out to Houston a couple weeks ago, because he wanted to bring some stuff from home for the new crash pad. He hasn't had time to drive it back to Charlotte though, so it's been sitting out there for a few weeks and he really wants it in Charlotte, since he's got another car in Houston. I figured I'd offer to drive his car back since I have a long weekend and time to do it. He was on board with the idea. I figured I'd leave once I got up on Saturday morning, and start heading east. This problem was foiled when I realized a half hour after dropping Greg off that I had HIS keys! He had driven himself to the airport and left them in the ignition, so I had both of our keys, and he had none!

I quickly called him and explained the situation. He told me that he was going to be flying back through Houston on Saturday around 11am, so if I waited to start driving, I could drop his keys off to him at the airport first. Not the end of the world, but I knew it would set me back a little in what would already be a long drive.

Friday night Clyde and I hung out at the apartment. We went for a walk in a nearby neighborhood.

I then assembled a dinner from Greg's apartment freezer: green beans with almonds, and a bean and cheese burrito.

Eaten on Greg's balcony while reading Mockingjay. I'm pretty engrossed in the third Hunger Games book and spent the rest of Friday night reading it.

Saturday, I packed up the car for the long trip and went to the airport to meet up with Greg and give him his keys.

At least we had a little extra time together, even though it wasn't much, because he had less than two hours on the ground before he had to head out again. We grabbed a quick lunch and then he was off, and so were Clyde and I on our long car trip.

Had I been planning better, there are a bunch of things I would have done differently. I would have brought my GPS, since Greg has an ancient Sony one that isn't always accurate and takes forever to find its location. Between that and my IPhone I made it work. I also wish I'd brought some books on CD or loaded more new music on my Ipod. I didn't really pack much, because originally I thought I would be flying back to Charlotte after just one night in Houston. I did throw in a couple extra things just in case and I pretty much wore the entire contents of my suitcase over the course of the trip. I also had booked a hotel in Montgomery, Alabama for Saturday night, which would have been fine if I'd left earlier on Saturday morning, but because of the key fiasco, Montgomery was a really long way to drive since I didn't leave til around noon.

Clyde spent a bunch of trip in this pose, checking out the sights. When he wasn't propped up looking out the window, he was curled up in his carrier.

The first leg of the trip was through Texas and was loooooooooooooooooong. I was on sort of a random two-lane Texas road and there was not a lot to see. I was happy when we crossed into Louisiana and the scenery got a little more interesting. After more driving, we finally hit Mississippi, and crossed a bridge near Biloxi.

I finally got to Mobile, and stopped for some dinner. I couldn't stomach the thought of fast food, so I saw a nice shopping area with a Newks, and headed there. I was dying for a Greek salad, so I ordered one to go. I figured I'd eat it in the car so I could sit with Clyde.

Eating this salad in the car was nearly impossible though. I squirted a grape tomato all over myself, kept getting the dressing all over and it was just a big ol mess. I probably ate about a third of it and then put it in the cooler to deal with when I got to the hotel. Salad in the car = mess!

I got to the hotel pretty late- around 11pm. It was a pet friendly La Quinta, and it ended up being kind of ghetto- doors on the outside, right near a highway, with a number of sketchy people hanging out nearby. I didn't care though, because I was just tired and glad to be done driving for the day.

Sunday morning I threw together some last minute plans to stop and see my friend Melissa in Atlanta. I also was going to try and meet Lindsay, but because my plans were so last minute and disorganized, it didn't happen. Sorry Lindsay! I did see Melissa though. We went for coffee near her place.

I love it when the do a design in the cream :) I had a decaf raspberry mocha.

Melissa and I know each other from UNH. She was my little sister in my sorority. She also, coincidently, married a commercial pilot, so we have that in common. I haven't seen her in a while, even though Atlanta isn't that far from Charlotte. We are both just so busy!

After a couple hours with Melissa, I hit the road again and finally made it back to Charlotte around 8pm. Not bad for a two day drive. Greg's car is now back in Charlotte. I'm ready for my wife of the year award! And a nap...