October Life Update

I have felt so much more energy in the month of October. Had we been good planners Matt and I may have taken a trip out of state during an away game but it's hard to predict when I am going to feel good so it's hard to make big financial commitments to travel. We decided to "get away" the weekend of the TCU game. We went down to Matt's parent's boat down on Lake Texoma and made some stops on the way. 

We had lunch at "2 Frogs" because I had always been curious. I had seen the billboards so many times. It was good but not something I would be overly excited to return to. 

And we drove down to Hillsboro, TX for the "Peanut Festival" which surprisingly had fewer peanuts than you would think. I kept wondering how many Epi pens they had on stock for this festival.  We had a really good time because Matt and I are just into these sorts of things. There was a discussion of flea markets in our marriage vows. I kid you not.

Pistol was good and ready to pick a fight with every big dog that walked by... as long as mom and dad were there to "hold him back." 

 We also went to check out the house that Matt's parents are building on Texoma. It is Pistol approved.

I don't know if you know this about me, but I don't camp. Like, at all. My only experiences have been miserable failures. MISERABLE. The boat has a cabin where the table turns into a bed and there's a little bathroom so most people wouldn't really call it "roughing it". This was my limit. It was actually not bad overall.I liked that the boat rocked and it was nice and cool and we opened the windows so I slept pretty well overall.

 Getting ready in the morning was a little different... close quarters.

 Pistol turned 4! My little baby is getting so grown up. We gave him some wet dog food for his birthday. He was incredibly excited even if he made a mess all over my floor with it.

 We went to Walkarounds for the World's Greatest Homecoming at OSU. It was such a good year for it. Last year was INSANELY cold but it was so nice this year. This is my brother Joe in the dunk tank at the Delt Carnival which raises money for Coaches vs. Cancer. I'd like to say for the record that I hit that target twice and the silly thing just wouldn't dunk the kid!!

And I can't help but be nostalgic during homecoming because Adeepi and Delt being paired for homecoming in 2007 is the reason that Matt and I met. And well, the rest is history.

And shortly after this picture my PEQUENA GOT ENGAGED!!!!! Anna is my little in the sorority, but more importantly she is one of my best friends. She has been dating David for the same amount of time that Matt and I have been together. David and Matt grew up together and have been close friends since before high school. I was telling Matt how great of an engagement story it would be if they got engaged during the homecoming events because that is how they met too. They were both homecoming directors for our respective houses. I am so excited for them I can't even take it. 

Instead of going to the homecoming game this year, the timing for a conference took me to Portland to present some of the material for my dissertation. I have a partnership with Keep America Beautiful where they give me their data and I provide them with some reports they can use to help schools become more efficient in their operations in a competition (RecycleMania).

My dad went with me this year in case anything happened and I would need to get to a hospital (it didn't) and it was also a great opportunity for my dad to finally watch me speak at a professional event. My dad is basically the entire reason I am an environmentalist so it was really cool to have him there. 

My dad and I. Isn't he handsome?

And that night we snuck into the Keystone Speaker's address for the conference. I refused to pay $250/person for the conference and I have been enough times that I thought we had sufficient ninja like skills to make it work. Otherwise I would have totally pulled the pregnancy card and rubbed my stomach telling security I left our badges at the hotel and couldn't walk back that far. No shame.

The reason I wanted to watch the speaker was because a woman, Annie Leonard was speaking. I had already read her book (see former blog post) "The Story of Stuff" and I show her YouTube videos (The Story of Stuff )when I guest lecture on environmental issues. She is just great. I really admire her so this was an awesome experience for the environmental nerd in me.

AND I MET HER!

And she signed my book which I was super proud that it was a used copy and I had brought my own to the conference. I bet she is sipping her coffee right now thinking about how impressed she was with that girl from Oklahoma at the conference.

On Monday my dad and I rented a car and drove out to the Pacific Coast. We saw all kinds of beautiful landscapes and stopped at this lookout. This was supposed to be my first official "bump" photo which is why I was getting my arm out of the way. It doesn't look like  I have a bump at all but I didn't think my dad would have the patience to take the picture over and over.

And on the way we went to the Tilamook Cheese Factory. When you can't stop at the wineries, this is what you do as an alternative. It was like a real life "How It's Made." It was actually pretty cool.

Now I am home safe and sound. I am taking a couple days off to get organized with the rest of my life. Matt and I had date night last night. We had a nice dinner at home and then we saw Fury. It was a good movie and I recommend going to see it. We have decided we are going to see as many movies as we can before March. Many reviews to come!

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First Trimester Wrap-Up

First, I have to say that I realize that the blog is getting a little "baby heavy." I feel like I need to state that this is not going to turn into a baby/parenting/mom blog. While some topics get a little weighted from time to time, this is still the Seinfeld of blogs and it is my intention to keep it that way. I have some eco topics I want to address soon, so hopefully that will mix it up.
But for now, in consideration of time I wanted to talk about my first trimester.

The Symptoms:
So when you first start telling people that you're pregnant they very often ask you about morning sickness. To me, this is kind of funny and even startling even though I am sure I have done this myself to every pregnant friend I have ever had. It's really a way of saying "How are you feeling?" which in reality is a caring question. But for me, I hear it as, "So, are you barfing?" Then I get kind of bashful and say no. I do not have a relationship with that sort of sickness for the most part in general. I am like Ted from How I Met Your Mother, "Vomit Free Since '93" although for me it's more like 2003 (obviously there's the rare exception for the result of poor behavior if you know what I mean).

The reality is that if I did not know that I was pregnant as the result of 32 pregnancy tests (more on that later) and three blood tests, I would probably be seeing the doctor for what would be a self-diagnosed Vitamin B deficiency. This means that my only real symptom has been extreme fatigue. I mentioned this in my first baby blog post. I have never in my life experienced this type of exhaustion. The idea of sleeping all the time sounds kind of appealing and if you work from home like I do, that can be arranged. The problem is that you don't have the energy to do the things you love, or GET WORK DONE. I still have a dissertation to write, folks. That has made me feel like crud but fortunately I have been meeting my deadlines and I can answer student emails from my phone from the couch. Thank you,  Mr. Jobs.

Pregnancy Tests Can Be Too Inexpensive: 

The pregnancy tests you get at the pharmacy like Clear Blue or Error Proof Test and such are actually quite expensive, to me anyway. They are something like $10 a pop. However, I read on a friend's blog that you could buy these pregnancy test strips on Amazon where you can get 50 tests for something like $15. That comes out to $0.30 a piece. I can't think of any purchase I wanted to make that thirty cents would prohibit me from taking the plunge. So when we're talking about life changing information, I might go ahead and cure my curiosity a few times a day. It's not really fair for me to only tell you when I have good outcomes in life without being at least a little honest about when I am completely ridiculous. So I may have been a little anxious to find out if we were going to have a baby. And at the first sign of the faintest of lines I made a bee-line for my doctor's office to get a blood test. The conversation we had when she called to tell me the results was sort of hilarious. Now to be fair, I went in that moment because we were coming up on the Fourth of July weekend and there was no way I could wait 5 days to get confirmation and even though I had taken tons of tests, 500 tests wouldn't be enough to convince me until I got a doctor to confirm. I am an information intensive person (obviously) and I don't like to put myself through situations that I can't take. So she calls me and her tone is ... apprehensive. "Hi Shanna, we got your blood tests back. And well... well you're confirmed to be pregnant but I have to tell you.. I...  I just have never actually seen numbers this low (If you're in the know about this sort of thing, my HCG was 15.6). So... yeah we close early tomorrow but I want you to come in first thing in the morning so we can test you again because... yeah wow these are low so lets see what your numbers do overnight." Shanna: "OKAY!!" So we went the next day and my numbers doubled and all felt right in the world.

The evidence of how absurd I am

Would I recommend that you buy these super cheap pregnancy tests? Probably not. First, I didn't really get stressed about if the lines changed or not because I knew I was testing early. But Google told me that something like 0.6% of people find out as early as I was testing and I have always considered myself sort of lucky so maybe I was in that group! (I wasn't... obviously). Testing all the time will likely cause you to want more and more information which will cause you to Google. DON'T GOOGLE. FOR THE LOVE OF PISTOL PETE DO NOT GOOGLE. I am trying to keep advice to a minimum because it turns out advice is most circumstances is just annoying but listen to my words. Stay the heck away from Google.
I also think this is a tricky approach if you've been trying a long time. Like I said, I was testing but really just shrugged my shoulders at a negative and thought, well I can always test again tomorrow. However, if you've been trying a long time that could lead to daily disappointment when in reality you're probably just testing too early. Let your body start telling you if you're pregnant before testing. But that sounds like advice and I'm not giving advice so do what you want. Just some food for thought.

Cravings:

I had some strong cravings to macaroni and cheese (which I could eat every day anyway) and protein. One day I had a burger for lunch and a steak for dinner. I felt great about it.

Products:

Two products I have found especially helpful in the first trimester:

The Belly Band:

HAHA No this is not a picture of me

You can get these at Target for something like $16. These things are nice for when your pants are getting tight so you can unbutton them and they still stay on, but you're still too small for maternity pants. Probably about 6-7 weeks in I was wearing the belly band for some pants/shorts. I obviously wasn't showing but any pressure on my abdomen since that early has been really uncomfortable. So for me, these were a yes.

The Snoogle Pillow:

I bought mine on Amazon, it was about $50. This early into the pregnancy I have mixed feelings. It's great for the couch and taking naps. In our bed it's a lot less comfortable because I turn a lot in my sleep so I have to move this whole thing and I am under the covers and it becomes heavy and right now it's more trouble than help. However, as I grow I think this will be extremely helpful for extra support so I am good with the purchase. I'll try to address this at the 3rd trimester wrap up. 

Birthing Class: 

We are going the natural birth route. I think as women our bodies were made for this experience and if billions of other women can have a baby naturally, then I can too (I hope!). I don't have judgments about the choices of others, how you birth your baby is between you, your partner, and your doctor (or midwife). So we signed up for a 12 week birthing class. Matt and I go together and it's about an hour and a half. It's pretty interesting. The method we are following is called The Bradley Method. I am glad we are taking the class. There's so much to learn and I like to feel in control of situations so this is a much better approach for me (remember, information intensive).

The Bump:

So... a picture!! Well I meant to have Matt take a picture but I forgot. I refuse to take a picture of myself in the bathroom mirror. It goes against my code. Plus there is a big difference between morning and night time in "the bump." Or at least I think so. Now I am just about 17 weeks so the bump is there for sure. I am not convinced that I look pregnant to others, but rather a strangely proportioned chunky person. That's not like self hate or anything, I just think I look kind of funny right now. I have an app that tells you how big the baby is based on fruit and vegetables but they must have a strange produce section because it seems like over time the vegetables will be smaller than the last. So I looked up the specs on an iPhone 5 and that's about the length and weight of our baby right now (again, thank you, Mr. Jobs). 

Matt's mom bought me a tshirt that says something about the bump being a football fan. I think I am going to wear it tomorrow so if you follow me on Instragram I'll try to post a pic. 

Being Touched:

I think I am a pretty loving person, especially verbally or in actions (like gifts or random acts of kindness) but being touched is probably last on my list of Love Languages. I don't necessarily dislike being touched but I typically only initiate touching (like hugging) someone else if we are pretty close or the situation calls for it (like happy or sad news) but I am happy to return a hug. But be warned if you hug me, I am going to hug you back like I mean it because life is too short for insincere hugs. Like when people pat you on the back during a hug. Get out of here with that. So, if you would have asked me pre-pregnancy or even early pregnancy if it would bother me if people touched my bump I would have said yes. Keep yo hands to yo self. Well a few brave souls have taken the plunge and reached out. It turns out it doesn't bother me at all. There's nothing to feel right now but I think it's like their little way of hugging the baby. I don't know. So if we are friends, it's okay. But strangers beware. I have really fast reflexes and I will not be held responsible for perhaps slapping you away a little too hard for putting your hands me. That's just a survival instinct, right?

The Things People Say:

I actually deleted this whole section. Just tread lightly when talking to pregnant people. Try to lean towards supportive and away from authoritative. 

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The Baby Bucket List

I have mentioned our Baby Bucket List in previous blog posts but I haven't really been specific about what it entailed. If you have asked yourself whether or not this pregnancy was planned... well that's silly. Of course it was. I'm not saying that my planning can go beyond the Almighty's plan for my life but given what I can control, yes this was planned. Not many people have asked me that question but I have other married friends  that are pregnant who say they get asked all the time. Don't do that. What if the answer is no? Are you prepared to deal the the awkward silence spawned from asking inappropriate questions?
Speaking of inappropriate questions/comments it is my goal to write a non passive aggressive blog post about all the silly silly, uncalled for, and even irritating things that people have already said to me. I haven't figured that out yet so it may be a while. Or maybe I'll just have to tell you in person. That seems less tacky.

Anyway,
Matt could have been happy having a baby earlier in our marriage. If you know Matt personally, doesn't he have "Good Dad" just written all over him? But since the first few months of our marriage I had been commuting from Midland to Lubbock and then OKC to Lubbock so all that travel wouldn't have been safe with me pregnant. Plus I would have lost my mind with how tired I have been if I would have been trying to take classes and TA and travel and all the other odds and ends of life. No way. People also tell you all the time "You have no idea how much a child will change your life." Well, I have a pretty good idea. It seems pretty common sense that things are going to be different if another human being entirely depends on you for their survival, plus development and day to day functions. That seems like a rather large task. My imagination is powerful enough to suppose that it's going to be a stressful, expensive, time-consuming endeavor. Given that knowledge, early in our marriage I made a list of things I wanted to do before having a baby so I didn't have feelings of resentment that I had "missed out" on anything.

Here's the list:
1) Go to Disney World as an adult without children.
2) Go to Napa
3) Go ice skiing one more time
4) Surf one more time
5) See Venice


And here's how we did it.

1) Go to Disney World as an adult without children.

I had a conference in L.A. where my classmate Wes and I were presenting a paper on drought conditions impacting water usage at colleges and universities. Well, you know what's close by? Disney Land. It's not Disney World and in my creating of this list I had imagined going with Matt, but he said it would count as long as we could strike it off the list. Wes is largely a kid a heart so we had a good time, even if we had to watch the Star Wars demonstration for too long. I also got to ride the tea cups which my mom wouldn't let me do when I was 7 because she got sick when we she was little and she was afraid it would do the same to me.

2) Go to Napa

I actually didn't accomplish this one and it's high on the priority list post-baby. Maybe next fall when they do the grape harvest. But, I did get a wine country experience when Matt and I did a weekend trip to Fredericksburg, TX.

We rented a cute cabin and toured several wineries. We had such a good time together and came back with enough wine that it felt like a successful wine trip. This trip is one of my favorite married memories.

3) Go Ice Skiing Once Last Time

When I was in high school I went skiing every year. I also went one time in college. I loved it. I don't do things that are too life threatening but on the stuff I do go on, I have to say I am pretty good. Especially for someone who goes once every several years. Well for Christmas last year I opened up a box and there was a nice warm coat. And under the coat was the itinerary for the ski trip we were going to go on Valentine's day weekend. I was STOKED. It had been something like 7 years since I had been skiing.

Matt had never been. It turned out that it wasn't for him. Poor guy. 

Right Before Matt Took Out Some Kids

Lonely Skier

But he was a good sport and was just fine drinking beer while I went down runs by myself. It's just not fair to torture someone into hurling themselves down a snow and ice covered mountain if they don't want to. Hopefully this little one will take to skiing well and we can go frequently. It's actually kind of irritating how good kids are at skiing.

















4) Surf One More Time

When I did Study Abroad in Costa Rica in 2007 I fell in love with surfing. It's really hard but man when you get up on the board there's nothing like it. I wanted to experience that at least one more time before we had kids.

In 2012 we decided to go to Costa Rica for our anniversary trip which was actually my birthday weekend. We tried to make Italy work but the flights were outrageous. I figured I could take Matt around to check things out (I had already been twice) and he could have his own little tour guide. We had an awesome trip and he loved the country. It wont take much convincing to get him to go back.

 I didn't get a surfing picture from that trip but this was the beach the day before in Tamarindo. Matt did a really good job for a first time surfer. I would say he was better than I was my first time. I loved that he was willing to try it with me knowing how much I loved it. 

And then I got lucky this past year and got to go again when we went to the Dominican Republic. Matt didn't go but my friend Nicole did. She was a natural! I did get up on my first try which may have set the bar a little too high for the rest of the day... There are lots of wipe out pictures from where this one comes from...

5) And Finally, see Venice. 

I have wanted to go to Venice since forever. I thought this was going to take YEARS to accomplish. However, we put our mind to it, made a call to the travel agent, and made it happen. We actually went on a cruise and saw several countries but got to spend a day in Venice. It was a wonderful day with Matt. Of course we had the Gondola ride. We drank wine and ate Pizza and had dinner on the canal. We walked all over the place and took in all the beauty. I would go back in a heartbeat. 

As far as I am concerned, we met the criteria of our Baby Bucket List. You might be wondering how we did it or if we have some huge amount of cash at our disposal. In reality, it's all been a matter of a large amount of planning. We include a trip in our annual budget planning because we want to make it a priority to make time for each other--even post baby. What better thing can you invest in than your marriage? 

We also do things like throw money in a jar throughout the year and periodically put it in the bank. The year's trip to the Dominican was largely paid for by money we had been putting away at will. Birthday money, random reimbursements, a few extra bucks here and there. It really adds up. 

When you make a list of accomplishments, make them a priority, and pursue your goals, there's really not much that you can't do. Except the miracle of having a baby itself. I give that all to God and take only about 1% of credit for the planning part.

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Telling the Biggest News of Our Lives

I tell you, this baby business is something. I've been a pretty absent blogger for two major reasons.
1) I am too damn tired to blog. I have NEVER in my life been so tired. I miss the person I used to be.
2) It's really hard to blog without telling you that I am pregnant because my pregnancy does play a pretty big role in the events of my day to day life. Let me give you an example about my most recent blog post.
I mentioned that we spent the fourth of July weekend with Matt's parents. We found out we were pregnant on July 3rd. We went ahead and told them that night. They were so excited. We shocked them for sure.

The Day I Found Out I was Going to be a Mom

In the post I discussed the day I spent with my mom and saw the Little Mermaid. What I couldn't say at the time was that it was the day that I told my mom I was going to have a baby and her too perfect reaction.
At Love and Sarah's wedding it was the first major event we had. No one knew I was pregnant until later in the weekend... and my "Vodka Tonics with Lime" (minus the vodka) didn't fool many people.
And that girl's weekend in Dallas? I was such a downer. I couldn't drink (obviously) and I was so tired and suffering from food aversions. What a mess. It was still fun but I felt bad about not being my chipper self.
Then the weekend we went to see my parents (hay harvesting weekend) was entirely built around getting to tell my dad the news in person. An unforgettable moment in my life.
My birthday was a nice, yet sleepy event. And the windy roads of the mountain town were throwing me for a loop the whole time. Yuck.
And then our wonderful friends came to see us and once again I was so tired. And I don't mean like sleepy. I mean like sleep 10 hours and still feel like you've pulled an all-nighter studying for that test that you MUST get an A on to keep your GPA up. I once again felt bad for not being a ball of energy.

But like I said, this baby business is really something. How do you know when to tell people? At our eight week appointment we heard the heart beat and even saw it flicker on the ultrasound (another magical unforgettable moment in my life) our doctor (who I love-- and I am extremely hard to please) told us she would give our pregnancy a 95% chance of viability. But then you hear to wait until the 12 week mark to be really safe. Basically, at the end of the day the worst thing you can imagine as a pregnant person (and spouse) is first losing your baby but second having to tell everyone especially the entire internet that it didn't work out. Now as I say this, let me say that I have no judgment of those who decide to tell people early. It's your news and you should do what you want. And if you end up reporting that it didn't work out I still don't have judgment, just a prayer for your healing heart during such a difficult time.

My strategy so far has been to first tell our parents and grandparents. Then as I have spent time with friends in person if there is alcohol at the event I basically just don't even try to fake the whole thing. The jig is up! We're pregnant! It turns out we find ourselves in LOTS of alcohol-related settings. Especially considering it's the summer. The good news for me is that I don't crave alcohol at all. A lot of this already feels like a hangover so the thought of something that would contribute to a hangover is utterly repulsive. Note: I don't typically "crave" alcohol, but if we are in a social setting and there's wine, sure, I'll have a glass.

On Thursday we had an ultrasound with what I can only describe as a super computer. Our baby actually looked like a baby. It was moving and flipping around and rubbed its face and opened it's mouth. It was the most incredible thing I have ever witnessed. My little human was in there doing all that. Man oh man.

At that point we decided to tell the world...which means we put it on Facebook. We had a really wonderful out pour of kindness and love. Sometimes I wonder about the role of social media in our lives and whether or not that's ultimately positive or negative. Well in this instance, it was really heartwarming to see how many people were happy for us and this big news. There's so many ways to tell it, but now that you know it I ask that you pray for the continued growth and healthy development of our little one.

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A Little Update on Life

 Once again I open with my "It's been a while" comments. What can I say? Sometimes I have writer's block. Sometimes I just don't have time to blog. Sometimes my events or thoughts aren't worthy of a whole blog post. This summer has been a little unique. Instead of counting down the days (in a sad way) until I have to go back to Lubbock for the school year, I am here for good. One thing that remains the same is that I don't get nearly as much work done for school during the summer as I want to. I did teach an online course during the month of June that took up quite a bit of my time. That's my story and I am sticking to it.

We spent the fourth of July with Matt's parents this year. I don't really have any pictures except the one of the awesome trifle I made. If you want to see such mundane things you should follow me on Instagram. I am full of mundane things!

A few days later my mom came to the city to spend a couple days and we went to see The Little Mermaid put on by the Lyric theater. A few weeks earlier Lisa and I had gone to see Les Miserables. Both shows were fantastic.

Isn't my mom pretty? 

The next weekend we had Sarah and Love's wedding. Well, his name is Andrew but it feels really foreign to call him that. It was a nice event and we stayed pretty busy the whole weekend. I love when our friends get married because not only do we get to celebrate this special new chapter of their lives, but all our other friends come into town too. Win win!

And then the next weekend it was time to have our long-planned girls weekend in Dallas. Hasley (below) (also not her first name) came from Tulsa to pick me up and like an angel she drove all the way down because I have put a lifetime of drive time in coming back and forth from Lubbock so if I can avoid it I do. It was really nice to catch up with her. I miss her a lot.

 We met up with Anna & Megan. First night was in Dallas. We went to this store that only sold popsicles. It was amongst all the bars. What a neat concept. There was a line out the door. So... of course we had to try one. There are some really cool bars in Dallas. One was a little too crowded for my taste but it was on a roof and I could see why it was so popular. I am getting old and prefer a chair though. We went to another outdoor place that was some sort of trucker theme. It was super cool and I would happily go back.

 Then of course we did brunch on Saturday. I think there's something about crossing the 25 year old threshold that makes you totally turned on to brunch. I think it has something to do with being able to eat late and there's mimosas involved.  Then we went to this place that only sold pie. Holy cow it was yummy. But what I am learning is that we all need to open a store where we only make one thing and just make several varieties of that one thing and we will make a killing. Less is more is what I am finding out.

Saturday night we spent in Ft. Worth and what on earth is a trip to Ft. Worth without a visit to the Stockyards? 

 The next weekend we visited my parents. There are no pictures to speak of for the weekend we visited them. We did get to stay at the Hard Rock because my brother worked there this summer and got us a sweet discount. My parents bailed hay that weekend and I don't know why but I love hay bailing season.

Now that I think about it, I do have one picture. One of the best things growing up was that as an underage driver for a couple of days after the field was mowed down and the bails cleared a certain parent would let you drive their car across the field because you wouldn't be damaging next year's....crop? Gosh it was fun.

The next weekend was my birthday. You know me and you know that I love my birthday. We rented a cabin in Eureka Springs, AR because neither of us had ever been there before. The view was incredible. That was out our back door. Eureka Springs is actually a really neat little place. We would definitely be willing to go back.

We went down to the beaver lake dam to swim. We found a little spot where no one else was and just lifted the hatchback of my car and laid out towels and enjoyed the incredible weather. Matt chose to look like this in the photo. The water was really clear and perfect temperature. Hopefully for next year's lake trip we can talk our friends into traveling a little farther for a much prettier lake. 

 On our way back home we stopped at my parent's place. My mom made Indian Tacos due to my request. Moms are the best. And she made me a no bake cheesecake. She is an amazing cake decorator and I asked for a no-bake cheesecake.

And the last weekend Nicole and Steven came to visit. Remember our friends that went with us to the Dominican Republic? Well here they are being awesome again and down to hang! We took them to The Mule in OKC. We of course had to take them to Hideaway. I also took Nicole to Eskimo Joes while the boys played golf. We went to Tammy and Andy's new place to swim and grill out. We may have over programmed them, haha. We had to prove that despite what crazy Texas people think, Oklahoma is a pretty cool place.

 On Saturday we went down to Lake Texoma to ride around on Roger and Lisa's new boat. Matt and Steven were adorable. You could totally tell they were loving getting to drive a "big kid toy." I even drove for a little while when we were out in open water and there was next to nothing I could do to hurt anything.

Matt's has been in Houston for the week. I have been a total homebody and barely spoken to other human beings for the last 3 days. And for me that is well.. very strange. I am surprising him with a fancy date tonight because I just think he is worth it.

Some interesting blog posts coming.... or at least less of the same. Until then!

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Product Review: The Veggetti

If you’re on Pinterest then you have probably seen this product. You use it to make vegetables turn into a spaghetti shape. If you’re into reducing your carbs (which…to some extent we probably all should be) then this looks like a pretty cool product. Repinned!

I was shopping at Bed Bath and Beyond for the same reason that someone between the ages of 22-35 shops at Bed Bath and Beyond… to buy a wedding present. I was wandering around with the millions of coupons they send in the mail and I came across this Veggetti and it was about ten bucks. I said “What the hey!” and threw caution to the wind (and I had way more coupons than I needed).

The results? This thing is pretty cool. Now it’s not a miracle worker. Zuchinni just doesn’t taste like spaghetti. However, if you like the texture and happen to like the flavor of Zuchinni then you’re in! It’s really sharp and super quick to use. And the zucchini looks really strange after you're done. 

For the recipe I used go here. 

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