Vacation

Its already Friday. Vacation weeks go so quickly. 

Visits with 2 college friends.

2 beach days, 2 pool swims.

Salem, MA

2 pirate museums, and 1 plastic sword.

1 carousel ride, and a handful of arcade games.

Hyannis, MA

2 bowls of clam chowder, 2 meals of fish tacos, and a plate of fish and chips.

Provincetown, MA

1 walk along a very long rock jetty, and 1 unfortunate sun burn.

1 beach walk, and 2 playgrounds.

1 adorable baby!

19.5 weeks

2 fishing attempts, lots of wind, 1 fish.

1 amazing vacation thus far!

We leave Monday morning and are trying a new route home. Fingers crossed that it was be an easy trip. Until next week!!

cape cod days

A day visiting a friend in Rhode Island, a day playing in Salem, Mass., a day walking around Provincetown, and some horrid sunburn on my part, we are finally settled to Cape Cod. Home away from home. Its good to be here.

the end of summer

Its still 32 days until the official start to Autumn (not that I'm counting), but yesterday marked Gwen's last day of summer session. She is home with Trav today, and tomorrow we leave for vacation. We'll be in Rhode Island, then up to Salem, Mass., then out to Cape Cod... returning Sept. 1st. Then, our summer schedule, our summer vacations, for all intents and purposes, our summer, is over.

I'm not complaining. Its been a good one. Did we get to do everything we planned? No. Did we have a lot of fun anyway? Absolutely!

September, the start of school session, feels bigger then it has other years. This year marks the last one for Gwen in the program that she's attended since she was 12 weeks old. Its surreal and very final. My baby isn't a baby anymore, she is a kid. She is sensitive and sweet, intelligent and oh so bull-headed. I worry, oh gosh, do I worry... but I think going to a new school and making some new friends will be really good for her in the long run. Remind me of that next fall, won't you?

In the meantime, I'm going to enjoy every moment of our last summer hurrah; our time away from the hustle and bustle.

Then I'll count down the days until the holiday time off...    :-)

wordless wendesday {the belly at almost 18 weeks}

I'm now 18.5 weeks, but her was the belly last Thursday.

birthday weekend

What a great weekend!

Mine started on Friday. I hit up a yoga class in the morning, then headed home to relax and wait for Babs. It was so great spending time with her! We got fun pedicures, and finally took adequate pictures of our butts.

Ahem.

Saturday Trav and I had a wedding in the afternoon, so my mom came down around 11, and Heather, Trav, and I all left (for various destinations!) at 1.

There was a big break between the 2pm Catholic ceremony and the 6:30pm reception, so we met Tally-le for some apps and a drink. It was really nice to spend non-work time together! 

Sunday my mom headed out around 9, then Trav, Gwen, and I left at 9:40 to go scout out some houses. On the pull side, she had a great time, and apparently thinks that looking at houses is the best time. On the minus side, all three houses are a bust for us. Two were just in bad shape and would have needed a lot of money put into them, the third was in great shape, and we were thrilled with the downstairs... but the upstairs was tiny and the "two bedrooms" were really only about the size of one. Not what we need.

That afternoon we enjoyed some lazy time at home, then cooked up my requested birthday dinner (done on Sunday so I wouldn't have to cook the whole thing myself on Friday!):

Tuna turnovers and macaroni with yeasty cheese (not pictured: super yummy asparagus that was finishing in the oven). Total comfort foods. Completely delicious.

Now we're at another Monday, and another 4-day work week for me. This time followed by our Cape Cod vacation! This month has flow by as quickly as I suspected it would, and I can't believe that when we return from vacation its already going to be time for the "fall rush" at work with events almost every week.

Ah well, not rushing to get there yet! Here's to enjoying the rest of August.

32

Today I am 32.

I took the day off, and plan to celebrate with some morning yoga, pedicures with my best girl Babs, and plenty of laziness. Its a cool, but sunny day... perfect. Even Mother Nature is giving me a gift.

I like 32 already. My 31st year was good to me, but this one is shaping up to be even better. During 31 I put in the work on a lot of things, but this year is when I will see a lot of them come to fruition. Plus, 32 is just such a nice round number.  ;-)  I've never been one to dread birthdays, I've always loved them, and I'm so grateful that that continues as I get older. Its a celebration. I've made it another year, and am another year wiser.

Thank goodness.

feeling saucy

It was a very full weekend over here, but all good things. Saturday Gwen and I were up at my parent's place while I had a hair trim, and Gwenie enjoyed some Nonnie and Papa time. It was a really pleasant day, so we spent a lot of it outside. Then it was back home to where Trav had a nice dinner waiting for us.

Sunday I decided to take advantage of the plethora of tomatoes that had finally gotten ripe in both of my neighbor's gardens, and make this tomato sauce again. Its a bit time consuming (mostly the removing the skins and seeds from so many tomatoes part!), but completely worth it. We had about double the tomatoes this time, so I made a jar for us to use, a jar for us to freeze, and a jar for each of the neighbors. I also used fresh basil from my garden. Mmm...

That night I headed out for an early birthday dinner with Ro. She took my to the same place I took her for her birthday back in May. It was really nice to get out and be treated!

Now its back to the grind, though thankfully only for 4 days!
How were your weekends? 



Ps. In case you were wondering, its only 42 days until the Autumnal Equinox! Not that I googled that already or anything...

your questions, answered

To answer a few questions I've been getting: 


Is this pregnancy different? 
Oh gosh, in every way!
Physically it has been so much easier then with Gwen's so far. My nausea has been 100% manageable the whole time, no hanging over the toilet every morning. Its also pretty much gone already, while with Gwen it lingered until 19 weeks. I have already felt the baby move, which is earlier then last time for sure, and my belly popped out a bit at a much earlier time too. I feel good though.
Emotionally it is night and day too. With Gwen, from the moment I saw those two lines I was in love with the possible little life inside of me. It was MY baby and I was attached. This time around I don't have any of that. I feel fiercely protective of the little babe growing in my belly, but its more like its my brother's child or Ro's. It is just different. This baby is not mine and doesn't feel like mine. While with Gwen's pregnancy, I daydreamed about holding her for the first time, about our life with her; this time the thing I cannot wait for is seeing the mom (and dad!) hold the baby for the first time. I cannot wait to see their faces.


So you're just going to give the baby away? 
Yes and no. Yes, I'm going to hand that baby right over. But the baby isn't mine, so its not mine to "give away." This baby is theirs, I'm just "babysitting" it for 9 months, helping it to grow for them. Again, emotionally the difference is huge.


Do you think you might want to surrogate again in the future? (just curious since you said LAST pregnancy) 
I don't think that I will be matched again. Its something that I wanted to do, that I'm enjoying immensely, that I'm so glad I get to experience. But its never something that I thought I would do over and over. If this same couple wanted to go for a second (highly unlikely), or one of my family or close friends was in need of a surrogate in the future, then I would absolutely consider stepping in. But the plan is that this is it. 


As a natural mom, how can you justify doing this? They should just adopt, there are so many babies out there that need homes!!
Oh boy, where to start. Thankfully I've only gotten this question once myself, snarkily, from someone who wouldn't even use their real name to ask... but I've seen it mirrored other places, so I thought I would address it briefly. To me there is nothing more natural then the drive to want to become a parent. For me, that drive extended into wanting to help another couple become a parent. While the technology needed for gestational surrogacy is new, surrogacy in different forms has been around for millennia. The medications I took to help me achieve this pregnancy were safe, and temporary. I do try to live my life as naturally as possible, but I do not forsake science, technology, or modern medicine. I feel that there is a healthy balance that can be achieved.
So for the second part of the question there. Adoption is a beautiful thing. It is a gift to both the parent and child, I have considered it in the past, and I have multiple friends who have grown their families that way. But they would be the first to tell you that it is not easy, it is not cheap, and it is not for everyone. It was not for this couple, and their reasons are their own.


Happy to answer any other questions that arise!  :-)

august

It's August.

Wait, it's August?! I... well, huh. That's just nuts. Especially since this month is so full that its just going to fly by. Seriously.

Before looking ahead, lets look back at the weekend, though. Friday: I had off with Gwen. We were going to go to the zoo by my parents place, but they were calling for rain and I didn't want to make the drive, only to have to leave. We ended up going to Linvilla Orchards to play on their playground and feed the farm animals. Off course we had to have apple cider donuts, too. It was a big hit and we had a really good day there.

Saturday: I did my state park clean up in the morning, which was fun, but exhausting. Lots of walking carrying heavy tools. I came home and showered, made myself some lunch, then ate it in the car while we drove to the city to pick up some stuff I wanted to bring home from my office, but didn't want to carry on the train.

We got home and spent a ton of time cleaning and decluttering. Trav has made such amazing headway on the basement!! Oh gosh, that basement. It was so so so full of stuff. Some things that we need and are saving, but so much stuff that just accumulated there. This whole really deciding to move thing that kicked his ass into high gear and he's been a champ about finally getting rid of things that he's been holding onto forever, but doesn't really need. Its amazing. We also pulled out 3 boxes of books to sell at the yard sale we're having at the end of the summer. That plus baby gear, plus some clothes, plus some pieces of furniture we inherited, and we already have a good amount. There's more in the basement still to unearth too.

Sunday: The realtor came over in the morning to look at our house, tell us what we need to do to sell, and talk about comps. After a lot of discussion, the idea to rent our house for a few years before selling has been planted in our heads. We're looking into that. In the meantime, he's sending us houses to look at because we are definitely still moving forward with buying.

That afternoon we headed to Ro and Pat's place and just hung out for a few hours. It was nice.

Overall, a busy, but good weekend!

Now its back to work and busy weeks. There is so much coming up this month. Its the big push month for my class, and I have two outside classes/meetings I have to get to in order to satisfy some requirements. We also have my birthday and a visit from Babs, a wedding, a visit to my parents, then Cape Cod. After that it is September already!

So much. Thankfully all pretty exciting things!
What are you looking forward to in August?