Hard Time Getting Up

I had a hard time getting out of bed this morning. I hit snooze too many times, which caused me to have to rush to get ready to catch the vanpool for work.

I was having a very pleasant dream that I went and visited Ree Drummond and her ranch she shares with Marlboro Man (her husband) and their kids. Ree is the author, photographer, cook and writer of one of my favorite blogs The Pioneer Woman. View it at www.thepioneerwoman.com. I think she is amazing!

In this dream I picked out my horse for the weekend. A beautiful Grulla mare with a long mane and stocky build (like the one pictured above). In the lodge the smell of freshly baked bread was in the air as Ree had baked some rustic sourdough bread.

The funny part to me was that Marlboro Man (MM) was teaching me how to cook a piece of salmon that was coated with some type of crumb and cheese mixture. When he flipped it on the griddle he made sure to explain that I needed to scrape the cooked crust that formed around the fillet and then place it on the top of the salmon, as this was "manna from heaven".

I thought it strange for two reasons, Ree is the one that cooks in their family and they raise beef, so salmon is not something they would normally eat. Must have been a special occasion!

Getting away from Spokane, if only in a dream to smell the country, be around horses again, see the grasses blowing gently in the breeze and to meet Ree Drummond is TOTALLY worth rushing through my morning once in awhile!

Another Milestone

Abigail is becoming stronger with each week that passes and her kicking/movements have become increasingly more noticeable. So much in fact that sometimes it almost hurts a little in a shocking strange ticklish alien way!

She is most active in the mornings and anytime after I eat. Drinking juice or eating anything with sugar makes her crazy too! Well each night I have been placing my hands on my belly hoping that I could feel her on the outside when I feel her moving on the inside. And finally Friday night I felt the first little thump. Only one, but it was still a thump.

Then on Saturday Gabe was able to feel her for the first time. Again only one little thump. But by Sunday morning he was able to feel several little thump thump thumps and I was even able to feel her pushing me with what was probably her little foot!

On a side note, I am definitely "showing" now. My belly seems to have popped out in the last two weeks.
It was pretty neat. I am glad that Gabe was finally able to feel his daughter. Each micro event like this makes it more and more real that she is there and making her presence to us known.

We are now at 21 weeks, which is more than halfway ~ another little milestone that was important for us to reach.

It's A.....

March 10, has been a date Gabe and I have waited for, for what seems like an eternity. As the date drew near the waiting became more and more unbearable. Like being a kid and waiting for Christmas morning.

This was the date of my fetal survey. A little over an hour of looking at different parts of our baby, it was revealed with 99% certainty that we are having a baby girl. The one and only time we prayed for

Although it should have been quite a shock to me, in my heart I kind of already knew. A few weeks prior to the survey, I woke from a pretty heavy sleep and a peace came over me in which I just knew her name and that our baby was a girl. It was really strange, and could be a complete coincidence, but her name was decided before we knew she was a girl.

What name did we choose?
Abigail Laurel-Josephine Strine

Why this name?
For, what seems like forever, I have always thought I would name a girl Isabella. But as my pregnancy progressed it seemed that name wouldn’t suit. And then, like I said, I woke up and knew she was Abigail.

The more I pondered Abigail, I realized that this was the name that Gabe chose for his little sister. Unfortunately, his sister had fatal complications, came early and lived for only a few short hours.

So not only did I love the name, Gabe already chose it for someone close to him, and it is a way that we can honor his little sister.

The middle name Laurel-Josephine is hyphenated because it honors both of my grandmothers, Laurel (Joan Degerstrom, mom’s side) and Josephine (Joe Myers, dad’s side). Both of whom have made a substantial impact on my life and whom which I admire and idolize in many ways. They are very strong, caring, giving, and self-less, loving women that put family first. I am glad that they sound nice together.

I am getting excited about having a daughter. It will melt my heart to hear her call Gabe, “Daddy”. And I can’t wait to see my own dad with her. Thinking about that always get to me and it brings me such joy knowing that she will have two of the most amazing men I know in her life.

Other than finding out that we are having a girl, we learned that she is exactly where she should be for growth, weight, and all her development was normal with no visible abnormalities. It was really interesting to see the four chambers of her heart, her brain, kidneys, stomach, etc. My friend Nicole would have loved to see it (since she is in Med School right now learning how to save lives)!

The downfall is that my placenta has not moved AT ALL and I still have previa. Which means another ultrasound around 30 weeks to see if we will have “complications” with that. But I am not worried too much as long as Abigail stays healthy! The next ultrasound will hopefully give us a profile picture to show off. When we did the last ultrasound she was facing my back and moving around too much to get a good profile shot.

Make today count!

WICKED

The first weekend in March some of my friends (Lisa, Tricia, Katie, Quyann, Emily) and I flew to Portland to see WICKED, the off Broadway show that is the most mind blowing-ly amazing show I have ever seen in my life, hands down.

Think of the complete opporsite of story of the Wizard of Oz and you might be on the right track. It is the story of the Wicked Witch of the West (Elphaba). Of course you couldn't tell Elphaba's story without also telling much the story of Glinda the Good Witch because the two have parallel stories and their lives are intertwined, and it showcased how great a story can be when you place two perfect opposites together on a stage. How nicely they compliment one another. So far in my lifetime, it is the best show ever written about friendship, sprinkled with a little love, lies, betrayal, forgiveness, and hope.

I will keep this brief since I could go on and on about it I will spare you from the babble.

Wicked was so so so so good! The Portland cast was superb, the singing was phenomenal (better than the original soundtrack in my opinion), the lighting and sets were insane and the music was fantastic.

I have listened to the soundtrack everyday since and each time I hear it something else will catch my ear and put me in awe of the composers.

I laughed, I gasped, I cried and by the end of the show every single person in the audience was in tears, men included! I started getting emotional about 3 songs into the show and I was hooked in almost immediately. I knew it was going to be amazing after the first song started and the curtains opened and I heard the cast and saw the sets. BINGO! Twists, turns, suspense - this show had it all!

If you haven’t seen it, you simply must go. If you have seen it, then you get it and know exactly what I am talking about. I am now in the cult following of WICKED and intend on seeing as many times possible in my lifetime!

I have a playlist on the right hand side of the blog that has a snippet of songs from the show. Although the original cast are great singers, I think that the Portland cast did a better job!

Visiting Portland, one plate at a time!

Along with girlfriends in tow, we took Portland by storm and had the most fantastic weekend.

The flight down was quick and I think I spent the entire flight laughing. If I were to have died, at least it would have been next to the two funniest women on the planet!

We checked into our newly remodeled Kimpton Hotel Vintage Plaza that we were able to book at a discounted rate thanks to my best friend Betty's friends rate. The room was spacious with nice linens and Aveda bath products. We weren't there very long and heard the neighbors crys of passion. Ackward? Yes.

The first order of business was to hit happy hour at Jake's Famous Crawfish. Now those of you that know me, know of my fondness for food, especially good food. Well, I have had Jake's on my mind since Dustin (my ex husband) and I visited in 2001. Of course everyone else in Portland also had the same idea. We waited for about 15 minutes and it appeared the happy customers eating were going no where anytime soon.

I have learned that it never hurts to ask. I asked if there was any way possible to have our group of six sit just outside the bar, but still enjoy the happy hour pricing (which is OUTSTANDING by the way) "since we came all the way from Spokane and have had them on the radar since 2001," I pulled all the cards!

A short wait later we were sat in a cozy little nook just outside the bar. And the fun began! We feasted on Calamari, 2 or 3 orders of BBQ Ribs, 2 orders of Salmon Cakes, 4 orders of Sweet Potato Fries, Potstickers, Fish tacos, and a California roll. This is what I could remember off the top of my head. It was fantastic! And the most food I have been able to eat since becoming pregnant. I was one happy girl.

We walked around for a few hours, burning off some of our dinner, visiting the local erotic shop, and looking for dessert. We ended up at the little restaurant just off our hotel for coffee and dessert. I ordered the "replacement" dessert that was a Pistachio and Caramel tart with Vanilla Gelato. It was to die for delicious, and so rich that I insisted on sharing with Emily. Who was more than happy to oblige me. We are food soulmates, I am pretty sure.

After all the walking and eating, we were all more than happy to part to our rooms for the night. Well, I should have known better than to eat that much food, and I suffered ALL night long thinking I was going to have to dash out of bed and see my food again. But thankfully I did not, and just suffered aimlessly throughout the evening, without much sleeping in between.

The next day we all got up and headed out for breakfast at a local favorite, Mother's Bistro. They were booked out three weeks, and we decided not to wait that long and continued on our journey for our second choice, the Bijou Cafe.

On our way we found Voodoo doughnut, which is famous for their crazy doughnut combos like Maple and Bacon bars (ew!) - Tricia wanted to snap a picture of Marcel (the sock monkey) with the sign.




This had to be the BEST breakfast I have had since my breakfast at Multnoma Falls Lodge or the Breadline Cafe.

I became very excited when seeing the food coming out. I got up from the table I and asked the man at the bar that was happily reading his morning paper,
"How is the muffin?"
"Very good", he replied. And then to my suprise and utter delight he offered me a generous taste of the crown (which is the best part of a muffin. And it was delicious!

Nothing makes me happier than a complete stranger coming to my level of excitement about food and wanting to share that experience with me. It is strange, I know, but you have to be one of us to get it. The girls all thought it was quite entertaining. Lisa likes to relate me to Sally from When Harry Met Sally.

I ordered sides - skillet potatoes, thick cut hickory smoked bacon and that freshly baked oatmeal muffin. The coffee was good, the company was great and the food was top notch. A half plate of potatoes and 6 pieces of bacon, enough to share! Everyone at the table was more than happy with their breakfast and had nothing but compliments. Sometimes, a blessing comes when your first choice isn't available!

Off to the Saturday market. By now the frigid winds picked up and the items purchased at the market included scarfs for Quiyann, Lisa, Tricia and a wool hat with ears for me. Completely worth the $8 and lack of style that comes with it.

We split up from Katie, Quiyann, and Emily while they went back to the hotel to get ready for Wicked. Lisa, Tricia and I walked to Starbucks, then across town to the theater.

I will post about Wicked in a different post later.

After Wicked we headed back to the hotel for a complimentary wine hour to start the evening off with a bang. We made reservation the night before at Typhoon, which is Emily's favorite Thai restaurant that happened to be located 10 steps from the hotel's main entrance. Our waitor was adorable and had a perfect personality to match our lively group.

I couldn't decide between the Yellow Curry and Phad Thai, and since becoming pregnant, I just don't know what will taste good on any given day anymore. I asked our waitor for a sample of the Phad Thai, and that was what I wanted. I ordered the Calamari, Phad Thai and Thai Iced Tea. The tea was brewed fresh and on the house because I had to wait, which was really no big deal, but appreciated nonetheless. Everyone else ordered something different and share amongst themselves. Happy eaters once again.

After a few bottles of wine and 3.5 hours or so, we thought it time to move on. I was exhausted from the fun and festivities of the day, and called it a night. The ladies went on to Rite Aid for more wine, and headed back to Katie's room for more chit chat.

The growling of my stomach woke me Sunday morning, and I had to get up and eat. Although all I wanted to do was be lazy and stay in bed, but my stomach had other plans for me.

I wanted to give Tricia and Lisa some time to get up leisurely since they had a late night, even later with the time change. I went off for breakfast at Pazzo by myself. I ordered the Sourcream coffee cake and potatoes and bacon. Real variety in my breakfasts, I know. As I was waiting for my food, Katie, Quiyann and Emily came down and I joined their table. They were flying out at 1pm and were leaving right after breakfast, so I was glad I had the opportunity to visit a little while longer.

One last stop at Starbuck's with Lisa, back to the room to pick up Tricia, and then we headed out to Whole Foods, the Container Store, Sur La Table and then back to the hotel. While waiting for the Max Line to the airport Lisa, Tricia and I helped the bell hops rearrange the furniture in the lobby area. What a marked difference that made!

Then off to the airport we went.

I have to say, it has been a long time since I have laughed that hard as I did throughout that weekend. I woke up Sunday morning and my stomach muscles were so sore from laughing! It was such a fun, exhausting weekend with a group of women that I am SO lucky to call my friends. I would do all over again, anytime!

Shopping

Yesterday Gabe and I spent the entire day shopping. I was EXHAUSTED by 8pm and was done for the night. We ordered our bedroom furniture, so that our furniture can go in the baby's room.

And then we went maternity clothes shopping. Gabe was a saint for being so patient, and he helped me pick out some cute tops. Pants are going to be challenging to find, because I am big already even the XL maternity pants are too tight for my comfort with gigantic waists. Argh.

We are going to try Motherhood in the valley mall the 21st since we will be out at Direct Buy that day anyways. They have a plus size maternity section that I hope to find pants.