Anniversary Weekend

They say, that sometime during the beginning of your third trimester, you should plan some down time for you and your partner. Time to clear your head, focus on baby, things you need to do, etc.

April 13th, was our 6 year wedding anniversary. Neither of us can believe it’s already been six years, but it apparently has. So, we bought some Living Social deal and spend a couple nights out in Leavenworth, which we love. We spent our honeymoon out in the woods in that area and it was fantastic. I love the woods. I love not having an agenda and just living in the moment. I love being on vacation, it’s always amazing.

We made a couple lists while we were at dinner, with things we wanted to accomplish this week and in the next few weeks. I think we made pretty good progress last night.

Knowing it’s probably the last time we’ll have a weekend together before we have a child, is a little wierd. We’re soaking up every minute of it.

Bladder Issues?

(That’s my friend and I who are 1.5 months apart in our pregnancies. She’s due in April 19, even though I look just as huge)I’ve been having terrible bladder problems. Meaning, I can’t make it an hour without having to go. This became beyond evident at Easter Vigil on Saturday, a 2.6 hour mass. I had to excuse myself twice and told Adam I’d leave if this baby caused me to pee my pants. God would have to understand. This leaves me very concerned for the weekend. I have to drive to Portland with my MIL for my first baby shower. I would feel more comfortable driving myself, so I don’t inconvenience others by having to stop. Such is life, though.

Here are some gorgeous pictures of my friends quilt I talked about. How beautiful is that? I’m beyond in love with it.

I cut all the pieces for our baby quilt for our beautiful baby boy scheduled to arrive on June 6th. I’ll start trying to naturally induce labor 2 weeks ahead…just kidding! (maybe). I just have to start sewing it all together, which I’m avoiding, but whatevs. I sold more stuff on eBay this weekend, netted $250, but there is still lots of cleaning out to do. I’m sad to get rid of my table in my craft room…We have a crib now, so I need it to go, though. I also have a rug I’d like to set up and give a good thorough vacuum/steam. Still haven’t decided if we’re getting a glider or not. I also want to put cute little stencils on the wall of little sailboats, or anchors or something. (In stained glass windows anchors are the symbol of hope.)

I’m super pumped with how my eBay auctions did this weekend, now I’m just eager to sell more stuff, but I have no idea how to categorize stuff.

Some other pics from the super nice Easter Weekend:

Embarking on the Digital Age

My dear friend Becky (with Lindsay, and Baby Kieffer’s help) has pushed me into the digital age of scrapbooking. I feel a little liberated that I won’t need all this physical “stuff” to look through and put together, and purchase. I spent some time tooling around with it. I have Photoshop on my iMac, but on my new MacBook it’s not installing properly for some reason. This lead me to download the trial version of Photoshop Elements. I’ve found that it’s perfectly functional for the purposes of scrapbooking, creating digital flyers and what not. It has all the things that I actually use, and not all the extra garbage that I’m sure took up tons of space on my hard drive that I never touched, like Bridge. I don’t even know what that is. I learned all kinds of new things just tinkering around on my own with the above layout. It’s pretty geeky exciting. I got totally jazzed working on this layout. Since, I’ve only done one other layout, that I’m not perfectly happy with, but there has to be an end to messing around with a layout, or you could spend eons.

Yesterday was a fairly good day. I got really worked up at work completing this master project I’m working on. I felt really good about it, and then ended my day with a terrible meeting that just made me angry. BUT, it’s also those types of meetings that make me feel like I’m super good at my job. It’s a double edged sword.

My evening was pretty nice. I went home, and took a million calls to deal with some work escalations, but then it was great. I went on a walk with Adam, which I’m told, is the right kind of exercise for a pregnant woman to be getting. Afterwards, Adam and I made breakfast for dinner, which was pretty delicious, but I always love breakfast. After we settled down from dinner a little, we started work on our Europe scrapbook. We kept countless receipts, coasters, pamphlets, etc of all the cool things we did in Europe, and since those are physical items I decided this would be my last physical scrapbook. I bought a Smash Book, which I think will be ideal for putting it all together. You basically just glue and tape in pictures. The problem is that we have a bazillion pictures. So – I’ll likely want a physical and NON physical scrapbook to document our last expedition (the expedition of a LIFETIME) before we went down this path of having children.

A note on getting pregnant: We knew we wanted kids, and that we’d start trying sometime in the near future. When we planned our Europe trip, we knew this was probably going to be the last truly special thing that we did with just the two of us. We decided that we would start trying to make our little family while in Europe, because that could only add to the excitement. We figured it would take a couple months to get pregnant, and I was prepared to feel the sadness of getting my period every month, knowing that this time I actually didn’t want it to come. Our trip was beyond amazing. The things that we experienced together, and the memories that we made will be something we’ll have for our entire lives. Experiencing life really makes us much closer to each other and we both have the same appreciation for travel, new experiences, and each other. We came out of this trip more in love than we’ve ever been, and very fulfilled with all the choices we made while travelling. I don’t think there is a single thing either of us would have done differently (ok, maybe I wouldn’t have kissed that girl, or let Adam sit at the train station while I went in search of a bathroom, but it was all part of the trip).

When we arrived home, after 32 odd days of being gone from US soil, I realized I hadn’t had a period. It had crossed my mind in Europe, but I’ve always been irregular, and sometimes my red tides are 40 days apart. So, I pushed those thoughts aside and figured we could figure that all out when we were home. I took a pregnancy test the day we got home, after a nap. That sucker showed up positive! We were both so excited, we didn’t really know how to react. The realness wasn’t really sunk in yet. I proceeded to take 4 test over the next couple days, and then called the Dr. We were immediately advised we were pregnant if we’ve taken that many all positive tests, and they scheduled us to come in 3 weeks later. Those were 3 excruciating weeks of waiting for official confirmation. I think once that blob showed up on the screen and we saw our bean, a new level of really hit us.

New Phase of Life

I realize that I don’t post on here very often. For the past two years I’ve been very busy developing my career and have zero craft time. I find that depressing, like I’m losing a sense of myself. I still really enjoy crafting, I just find that it’s not really conducive to an on-the-go type gal like myself. I travelled 40% of the time in 2012. How would I lug that stuff all over the world. Let’s face it, I wasn’t even with it enough to pack something to embroider on my trips. So, now that the traveling has almost completely stopped, I find myself missing my old self.

Update on me: While we were in Europe, we started trying to get pregnant. We’ve been married over 5 years and felt like timing was finally right. Adam did turn 30 this year, after all. We don’t want a geezer daddy for the babes. Going into that mindset, I was prepared to spend months trying, constantly be disappointed and keep trying. Adam was excited for the trying. Well, the good Lord blessed us and BAM, pregnant after our first month of trying. We found out the day we got back from Europe, and we were both amazed, terrified and very excited.

Now, I’m 23 weeks pregnant, over half way there. We know we are having a beautiful little boy, complete with uncircumcised weenie and all, per the pictures, and we have a name picked out. Baby is due on June 6th and we can’t hardly wait.

Now, this brings me to my present situation, of crafting. I’m really feeling like crafting (did I mention I’m pregnant?). We live in a two bedroom condo, and bedroom two is switching from my beloved home office/craft room to a baby room. I need to get rid of approximately half of my crafting goods. That is depressing. Everyone keeps telling me this will be worth it. Where will I paint? Where will I craft paper cards or scrapbook? Where will I sew? Where will I make jewelry? I’m just having a hard time mentally processing what things to get rid of, how to get rid of them, and if it’s worth the time and energy of selling it.

Awhile ago, my friends Becky and Lindsay, and I all got together so Lindsay could teach us the ins and outs of digital scrapbooking. What a wonderful girl Lindsay is?! Not only did she take amazing pictures of my hubby and me (of course we paid her!), but she also taught me how to continue to craft without needing all the stuff. So, Becky and I have been diligently building our shared drop boxes, and starting to go down this road of the digital craft age. I’m already in love, but have done about 2 things. My Christmas card, and one half done page from my team retreat at work. I think documenting life helps me enjoy it and remember that it’s all been worth it, so I’m very excited to continue. My wonderful, amazing husband let me go buy a MacBook Pro. Yes, I have a really fancy gigantic computer, but I can’t take that where ever I go. I do love that dang thing though! So, now I have this mobile device that I love, and I’m loving more each day, and that I can continue my crafty journey on.

I listed all my stamp sets, and only 5 didn’t sell. I’m excited that was a quick $100 to pay this beast (MacBook Pro) off. I have to keep selling, and dwindling the piles of stuff. I don’t want to be a hoarder, but when it comes to crafting, it’s almost impossible not to hoard. Anyway, that’s my woe of the moment. More pregnant girl problems to come.

 

Dublin – Day 3 Game Day

Day three we woke up super early. I’m talking roughly 7:10AM. We showered and headed to O’Brien’s for a quick breakfast and coffee. Then, we joined a bunch of other Notre Dame fans and headed to Mass. How often are you going to be able to attend Mass with the Archbishop of Dublin, in the courtyard of a castle? Probably NEVER. I’m so glad we were both amped about going.

For Adam there were two highlights. 1) holding both my hands as I stood in front of him while we sang Our Father. Most people weren’t even holding their hands up. 2) In his words: I just think it’s pretty cool in general that you can have a football team so far away, in a different country, where everyone is so united in faith that we could spend a Mass together and turn to each other and say, “Peace be with you” to every fan standing around you.

For me, it was being with a million priests on stage, in fantastic robes that had this amazing orange fade thing going on, scouting the crowd for crazy, wonderful old ladies in awesome Notre Dame gear and going to Mass in Dublin Castle, and praying for my future, my family and friends. Sometimes, I feel like I lose a little faith, not consistently going to mass with all the work travel. One wonderful thing like this, is really centering. Hearing all the tumultuous Irish history and the role Catholicism, The Vatican and Britain had in either rising, pacifying or restructuring this land has been really fascinating.

After Mass we were led through the gates of Dublin Castle by the Notre Dame Marching Band straight onto Castle Street and down Dame Street to Temple Bar. It was absolutely incredible, again, to be a part of an American Mob (35,000 Americans) to set down on Dublin, close down the streets and follow an American College Football team band through town. People watching from their windows and tourist trains thought we were bonkers. We tailgated through Temple Bar, which was probably 95% ND, and 5% Navy. A lot of bars just had ND stuff up, probably with our Irish connections. Notre Dame became known as the Fighting Irish in the 1920’s as a result of a huge influx of Catholic Irish Immigrants to the US, often downcast by fellow immigrants. The University turned it into a positive phrase, to show that the University would fight, just as the Irish, through tough times and come out on top. Recent football seasons show otherwise, but eventually, we’ll be good again.

Caught a shuttle to Aviva Stadium, and then wandered around aimlessly looking for the stupid Will Call. Literally FOREVER. Finally made it in. It’s fascinating how the load that place. You have to go into the proper gate, or you can’t get to your seats. It’s super weird, but a little efficient. Five flights of stairs and we made it to our level. Seats were comparable to our Seahawks tickets. The only down side was we couldn’t actually see a scoreboard, the stadium was weird, so we left not knowing the final score. It was pretty cool. I was amazed by the amount of respect both teams showed for each other. I have to admit that every time I see a Seaman in uniform it brings back fond memories of my brother, his time in the Navy, and the extreme patriotism I have for my country. That being said, we totally slaughtered them. 50-10. That’s what, we in the know, call a slaughter.

Caught a couple cabs to take us to a couple bottle shops and we totally bought some awesome things, or so Adam tells me. I told him there is very few a wife that would allow this kind of trolling through Dublin, for beers, let alone be the one leading the flight to find them! Please feel free to remind him what a catch I am whenever you see him.

Back at the hostel now, planning Sunday in Dublin.

Love, Asia

Day 2 – Dublin

We didn’t even wake up until 9AM, which was incredible! I think we’re over jet lag already…or at least I hope. After we ate a terrible breakfast at the Hostel, we started our way toward a walking tour that Rick Steves recommended. A guy named Peter led us through Trinity College, House of Lords, Old Parliament, Dublin Castle, City Hall, Christ Church, Four Courts and Temple Bar. This extraordinarily educational peek at Dublin and Irish history was work every Euro. 12 EUR per person, and I would have much preferred the dollar be spent on something like this, rather than Guinness Storehouse. At roughly 2.5 hours, he answered any questions you had, gave us directions to our next stop and was overall just really pleasant.

After the tour, we headed to Porterhouse. A place with a good tap selection that was recommended on Beer Advocate. I have to say i’m not disappointed, because they had Peach Lambic, and a beautiful label to boot. Those of you that know me, know that I’m not much of a beer drinker.

We walked through Grafton Street -a beautiful, if a bit expensive, shopping area. It was fun to look at and some shops were fun to walk through. Ran to a bottle shop near the end, Celtic Whiskey Shop, and bought a few bottles of beer and a couple mini bottles of whiskey. We asked Darragh – who owns the shop, if he knew of any other shops that had a bigger beer selection. He was immediately and sarcastically offended, but told us about a shop that is literally on our way to Aviva tomorrow for the game. Turns our, they have over 250 bottles of beer, and his brother owns that shop. He had a ND hat, so of course we loved him. It’s really true what they say about the Irish having that gift of gab, because if you stop two seconds, or ask a question, you should be ready for a bit of a chat. Especially from taxi drivers.

We sat at the hostel to try and figure out what we wanted to be sure to see. Around 7:00PM we headed to the O2 for the Notre Dame Pep Rally. It was about a 30 minute walk, when all the locals said it was about a 15 minute walk. I’ve just resigned to believe that I should always double the time a local says it will take, because the Irish walk with purpose (fast). We met up with a lovely couple while we were walking, from Dallas. They were retired, but boy could they walk. I had a tough time keeping up with them. They were fun though.

Sat next to Patricia at the Rally, she’s an alum that lives in Chicago. It was probably the weirdest pep rally ever. It was televised live in Ireland and via YouTube for the US contingent. There were a ton of performances with famous Irish celebrities. So of course, we had no idea who they were. There was a guest appearance by Martin Short, who has had two of his sons graduate from Notre Dame. He was hilarious. Other than that, very weird. No players or coaches were present. The plus side was that the price of a Guinness was very comparable to what you’d spend in a pub. The US should take a hint that they shouldn’t overcharge at events. The most humorous part was the guys selling in the stands were trying to sell you Bud Light for 6.50 EUR. Absolutely hilarious, very few people were purchasing.

The walk back took FOREVER and I had to pee very badly. It was very stupid not to go before we left the stadium, but the line was unreasonably huge. Clearly, I thought it was better to chance possibly urinating on my person, over standing in a line. I make very logical choices.

Wandered and found a Papa Johns, which took to long to make a personal sized pizza. Then I ate it in my bed, and Adam, who wanted to go out, fell asleep before me.

Europe Trip

Long time no talk, everyone! To bring everyone up to speed, we are in Europe, from today, through Sep 30th!

Background – Notre Dame (and anyone who knows me, knows I married a huge Fighting Irish fan) is playing their season opener in Dublin, against the Navy. So, we wanted to go. The problem was that we also wanted to go to Oktoberfest, near the end of September in Munich. Total conundrum! So, I told Adam to ask his boss if he could legitimately take one month off, cause my work has the amazing flexibility of allowing me to work all over the world, and remotely when necessary. His boss said yes. So – we planned an amazing month in Europe, and have just begun our journey.

We left Seattle around 6AM on Wednesday, flew through Atlanta and Dusseldorf, Germany, on to Dublin! We are spending 4 nights here. After landing at noon today, we got straight to our hostel, checked in and booked it via foot to The Guinness Storehouse. You take a self guided tour that lasts an hourish. If you already know how to brew beer, and the basics around it, the actual exhibit wasn’t that exciting. Breweries always want to tell you how the brewing process works. Anyway, the icing on the top was The Gravity Bar on the top of the 9 floor exhibit, with panoramic views of Dublin. The view were beautiful, we got a free pint each, and I dropped my lens cap into my beer, while attempting to put my lens cap on the top of my beer, mistaking it for my camera. I swear I wasn’t drunk!

After hitting up the gift shop, we headed over to Kilmainham Gaol. A historical prison in Ireland that is most famous for the political prisoners that have lived, and been executed there. Many of these Irish Freedom/Independence Fighters have strong roots in Irish history. Thought the movements for independence were not widely popular, til 1916, one execution in particular caught the attention of the Irish and countries throughout the world and they began to understand and empathize with the Irish independence movement. James Connolly, who was the leader of socialist Irish Citizen Army and a big part of the Easter Uprising, was executed at a different end of the stone yard. He was so injured that he could not stand before the firing squad, so he was sad in a chair, tied to it, and then executed. The tour was very thought provoking, and I highly recommend it, even if you aren’t Irish. My old age makes me tear up a lot more these days!

I then headed to a meeting across the street, where I basically got yelled at for 30 minutes. Awesome way to spend the end of the day, after a depressing, awesome historical sight! It was alright though.

Ate dinner at Quay’s and it was delicious just like I remember it. Guinness Stew and Penne with Smoked Salmon. Walked around Temple Bar, grabbed some beers to take back to the hostel and am just updating this site. Apparently, they were doing roof stuff, so the Wi-Fi isn’t working on our building. We’re sitting in a frigid common room while I type. The tiny-ness of our Hostel is comical. But hey – it’s a bed with an ensuite. Who can complain? We’re mapping out what tomorrow looks like. Take care, love you all!

Asia

Two Week Mark

 

It’s been two weeks since my first weigh in, which means I completed my third weigh in today. The first week, while we were detoxing in, seemed to go pretty well. I lost 2.4 pounds that week and completed 5 days of detox. We would have kept going, but we ran out of the shake and my Dr. didn’t have any more.  Detox wasn’t terrible, but I did start to feel larthargic as the day went on. After dinner, the only time I would actually chew protein, I would feel fine.

Week 2: 207.4 (-2.4)

Saturday we headed to the Methow Valley and camped in in the town of Winthrop. It was my first time there and we were celebrating my brother’s girlfriend’s birthday. It’s actually a pretty cool little town. A bit of a trek compared to the short 2.5 hours to Leavenworth, this is 3.5 hours. However, it’s like a western version of Leavenworth, and somewhere that I definitely think I’ll return to so that I can explore to my hearts content.  We got back on Monday.

Wednesday I had a charity golf tournament at Washington National Golfcourse, down in Auburn. Even though it’s an hour away, I couldn’t turn down free golf at Washington National. It was a great golf course, rather short, but good. I’ve been preparing for my work travels to Europe. I am sad that I’ll be going on this adventure without Adam. He just makes new experiences so much more fun when we’re together. However, it is my first trip to Europe so I really hope that I can just take it for what it is, and enjoy the experience. Today, I’m finishing preparing for the trip, picking up a few last minute items, and doing some laundry. I haven’t exactly been healthy this last week, but I still lost 0.2 pounds! And that, my friends, is better than gaining.

Week 3: 207.2 (-2.6)

Pivotal Moment

A little over two years ago, I decided that it was time to leave my job. I felt I had reached the ceiling I wanted there, and there was no more challenge. There were also that small thing of having new superiors that I didn’t particularly jive with. I became bitter, started talking badly about my company and hated every minute I was in that office.
 
I found a new company. A big company. I knew there were endless possibilities for advancement even though I was taking a pay cut. I started at this company in August 2008, and 4 months later I had switched positions to something more challenging. Within two more months I was bored, taking on endless projects and an opportunity came up to contract for a major company. This position could open the door for me. I jumped at the chance, and got the role with fairly little effort. I worked on that contract for 19 months. I love the people I worked with, but none of them worked for my same company. I found my job challenging and loved being a part of a growing program. I was the team lead and felt I had accomplished creating a successful program. I found myself a little bored again, and dissatisfied with my employer. They hadno desire to invest in their employees to elevate them to become better employees who feel some sort of loyalty to their employer. It took them over two years to recognize my worth and give me a raise, tacked on to a promotion. It wasn’t a very good raise. I know firsthand that 90% of the employees there are/were unhappy and moral is/was super low. It’s depressing. My only solace was that the people I actually worked with (employed by other companies) are great people. I wanted to start looking for something new, but did not actually put any effort out there. I figured, after the holidays is good enough.
 
I got a random email from a recruiter wondering if I would be open to having a conversation. Of course I said yes, we had a nice chat, and she sent me the job description. After reviewing the job description, I was still interested, and spent some hours updating my resume, polishing it and sent it off to her. Turns out, the person hiring the position was going to fly through Seattle, and really wanted to meet me. I called my friend who already worked for this company to have a chat, and it turns out that he gave them my info and asked them to reach out to me. He thought I would be a slam dunk for the position and was super pumped about the opportunity. I got some slacks dry cleaned, bought some dress clothes and off I went to meet her. We had a nice hour long conversation that seemed to flow really well. I touched base with my friend afterwards and he said to hang in there, he heard that I interviewed really well and was impressive. He also went on to tell me that I was highly regarded in my industry, and not just within my own company, but anyone who knows of me. High as a kite, I’m a screamer and jumper when something exciting happens. I was thrilled to know that people were taking notice of the caliber of work I did, my professionalism and me as a valuable asset. Regardless of how this thing was going to work out, people know who I am and I’m on the radar.
 
My boss sent me a sched+ requesting a “quick chat” with me. She asked me questions about where I saw myself and the direction I wanted to go in. I laid everything on the line, was pretty honest and told her what I was lacking in my current position. She went on to tell me that my name has come up several times about a new position that she was designing. It was a pseudo management, executive consultant role. She told me that I was the only person in the center that she thought had the stuff for this new role, that it would be a promotion from what I’m doing now, and that it was basically mine if I wanted it. I left the meeting intrigued.
 
I got a job offer from this other company. It was pretty impressive and honestly everything that I could have hoped for. I talked to their benefits person, mainly to learn about vacation. I called back my contact, negotiated on vacation, and happily accepted the offer. That was a Friday, and I gave notice to my, at the time current, employer the following Monday.

 
Why am I writing this all out? I want to remember this pivotal moment in my career. I have the chance to be at the forefront of a big shift in my industry and personal career. I am excited about the possibilities that have come my way and to make a real difference in a program. This opportunity is amazing and I am blessed to have it. I am shifting, from just an employee, back to an actual professional, and I am pumped!!
 
I am excited for the future!!
 
Adam took me to dinner and a movie to celebrate, and I bought myself two jackets as congratulation gifts for myself. Then I later bought a new purse and a work bag, ’cause hey, I deserve it.

Committed

Sorry for no picture, but this has to get posted before I have a chance to upload a photo to this.

I’ve just officially committed myself to hosting my very first Thanksgiving Dinner.

1. I have never cooked a turkey, or a chicken for that matter, because my hubs is allergic to poultry.
2. I have a 1,000 sq ft condo with very little space.

However, there are several benefits to this little venture.

1. I get to set a table.
2. I have a ridiculous collection of dinnerware, serving dishes, silverware, flatware, etc. that I will finally get to utilize.
3. I am pretty good at cooking, baking and following recipes.
4. It will make me really clean my house.
5. Don’t forget, I will get to set a table 🙂
6. Getting the first one out of the way will be good for me.
7. There has kinda been this Thanksgiving hole in my life since my parents moved to Texas. I grew up in a house where Thanksgiving was ALWAYS hosted at my parents. So it will be great for peeps to get together at my house.
8. I won’t have to drive anywhere.
9. Did I mention I’ll be setting a table?!?!

I’m running through Martha Stewart’s Thanksgiving issue with a fine tooth comb. There is a lot to clean, plan, do….decide against…replan….do (and on and on with that vicious cycle.)