November Photo A Day

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Day 12: Drink

Mexican Martinis, heaven in a shaker :)

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Day 13: Where you slept

My comfy bed!

November Photo A Day

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Day 10: Can't {won't} live without

My husband....who by the way HATES having his picture taken, which is why he is looking like a goofy man...this was the best I could get.

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Day 11: Night

Beautiful sunrise :)

November Photo A Day

My cousin, a fellow blogger, sent me this November Photo A Day challenge....and I thought what the heck, why not?!?!

Day 1: Something beginning with "C"

I chose Coffee ....because I cannot live without my cup in the morning

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Day 2: Colour

beautiful warm colors of Italy (painting I have in my dining room)

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Day 3: Breakfast

Breakfast of champions...Lucky Charms 

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Day 4: TV

Gilmore Girls, my favorite show

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Day 5: 5 O'Clock

It's 5 O'Clock somewhere...right?!

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Day 6: A favorite thing

My wedding ring...it was my grandmothers

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Day 7: Reflection

Using my antique mirror

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Day 8: Something you do every day

Tell my hubby I love him

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Day 9: Small

Small tattoo

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two is better than one

On November 11th my husband and I will celebrate our second year anniversary, boy how the time flies! As some of you know there are certain traditional gifts that you give your significant other based on which year you are celebrating....

1st Year: Paper

2nd Year: Cotton

3rd Year: Leather

4th Year: Flowers (some will say Linen or Silk)

5th Year: Wood

6th Year: Candy

7th Year: Wool or Copper

8th Year: Bronze

9th Year: Pottery

10th Year: Tin

And the list goes on. 

For our first year anniversary (paper) I decided to give my husband season baseball tickets to the University of Florida baseball games. Baseball is his favorite sport and UF is his favorite college team, and lucky us we didn't (at the time) live too far. The first year seemed obvious to me, an easy way to make the traditional gift unique....but what in the world am I going to do with cotton?

I searched and searched and searched online for some creative inspiration, something that could help me to figure out a way to make something he would love and something that would be unique. After many hours searching on the internet I came up with nothing!! Everything that I came across, he already had. So I decided I would sleep on it and clear my mind...

Then it hit me! Our sheets were getting old and faded.... and I thought, why not get a new set of really nice sheets that he and I can both use?.....but, that isn't very unique. How could I turn this into something meaningful and special? I thought about getting them monogramed, but my husband isn't the "monogram type." He would have thought it to be cheesy...but I was on the right path....

I started to think about the day we got married, and our last dance together popped in my head. My husband chose the song that we danced to, he chose his favorite "us" song, Chasing Cars by Snow Patrol.  He loved this song, but specifically this particular verse:

"If I lay here,

If I just lay here

Would you lie with me 

And just forget the world?"

This was it! I am going to get our pillows embroidered with this verse..PERFECT!  Now I was on a mission to find sheets, good sheets....then to find someone to make my vision come to life. After running all around town here is the final product...

Each pillow case has the verse embroidered on the cuff of the pillow. On one side it has the first two lines and then on the back side it has the last two. I am so happy with how it turned out! I just hope he likes it too.....

Mini MEEE (to be, one day)

So I have been debating with myself on whether or not to write about this emotional quest of mine, questioning if it is too personal for me to share. But then I realized that while I am couping with this internally that maybe writing about it will help me. Right now it seems like a very lonely road, and I know that there are people out there going through the same thing so maybe this will help you too.

Right now you are probably wondering what in the world I am talking about.....well to get there I have to tell a story first...

While my husband and I were dating and even right after we got married having kids to me wasn't really something I wanted. I used to think that if I got pregnant that it would feel unnatural, as if there was an alien inside of me. The thought of it grossed me out and I wanted nothing to do with it. I figured if my husband and I wanted kids that we could adopt or figure out some other option, but me pushing a kid out was completely out of the question.

A little over a year ago during a time of mourning from the loss of a family member, my maternal instincts kicked in high gear and hit me like a ton of bricks. I was holding my cousins new baby girl in my arms, and while she was sleeping on me I felt a longing to have a child of my own. Right after that I told my husband that it was time, I was going to get off of birth control and we weren't going to prevent anything .  I had the "talk" with my Lady Dr. so that they didn't ask those annoying questions of why I am no longer on birth control and the effects it can have, blah blah blah.....My Lady Dr. proceeded to tell me to just keep doing what I am doing but if I didn't get pregnant by Thanksgiving last year to come back in. The problem with this is that after getting off of birth control mother nature never kicked in. So after many months of not preventing but not trying, I had yet to receive my "monthly gift" (if one could ever call it that) nor a positive sign on a pee stick.

When I was getting ready to go back to the Dr. I had a flashback of a conversation that my best friend and I had many years ago, before children were ever in question. She asked me what I would do if I couldn't have kids. The funny thing is, is that I always had this feeling that it was going to be me. That it was going to be difficult, but I brushed it aside and put on a smile and told the truth. For my best friend I would do anything, and I told her I would carry her baby for her if she couldn't have kids and if I couldn't I would adopt. Thinking about this brought back that hunch, that inclination that getting pregnant was going to be a battle.

As I arrived to my appointment it was the typical Dr setting. You sit and you wait and wait and wait, even though you had a scheduled appointment 3 hours ago, but you can't just walk out and leave. As my name got called and I was finally in my room and I over heard the Dr saying that he had an emergency and needed to leave the office. The nurses told him that he needed to see me and to take the time to talk to me, and so he did reluctantly. I told him how my husband and I were trying to conceive but my monthly 'ahemm' had not come. He said very shortly that "it SOUNDS like you are not ovulating" and then continued to explain to me that he was going to prescribe this medication for me to take and gave me strict step by step instructions on when to take the medication and when to "get busy." This all seemed so very strange to me, why hasn't he ordered me to do some type of testing its not normal to not get a monthly surprise? why is he just assuming that this is what is wrong? But I did what I was told, and again it failed. 

Many trips back to the Dr and over a year later they finally decided that it was time for me to see a fertility specialist. I told them that I was not going to see a specialist in Florida, but I was going to wait until I got to Texas since I was moving in just a month. After having my Dr ASSUME what was wrong I was fed up with the Dr's in Florida and wanted to have a fresh start.

Just a few weeks ago I had my first appointment with the Texas Fertility Clinic, and we sat and talked about everything I had been through with my Dr in Florida. They were just as curious as I was, why hadn't anyone tried to figure out the reasoning behind my lack of cycles, since still to this date I have yet to be normal? As we talked they explained to me all the different testing they were going to conduct, and though it was VERY overwhelming I finally felt like I was going to get some answers, like someone finally cared what I was going through. Although we were going to have to start from square one, I finally feel like I am getting somewhere. 

This is where my journey begins. I want to write about it, to help myself and others who find themselves in the same boat as me. To try and cope with this emotional ride.

Maine Event

Just this past weekend I went to Maine to visit one of my oldest friends. She and I met in middle school and were inseparable from the start. She was more than a friend, but a sister to me and I looked to her family as my own. When her and her husband got married, they decided to spend their honeymoon in Maine. After that trip they were determined to move there. We all thought they were crazy to leave their life in Texas behind and take a leap of faith to move to the freezing North with no job and no place to live. After this weekend I can see why they fell in love with their new home. If you have never been to Maine, it is absolutely breathtaking. It feels old world, as though it has yet to be discovered. Coming from the city and going to a State full of nothing but small towns it felt liberating. Everything and everyone moved at their own pace with no worry in the world. 

I felt relaxed, calm, and at peace.

 

Like any friendship with time and distance, phone calls and conversations become scarce. But the thing I love about us and about certain friends is that no matter how long you go without talking, the moment you do it feels like you never stopped, you can pick up where you left off. The last time she and I saw each other was almost 2 years ago, but once I arrived in Maine it seemed as if it were yesterday. There are only a handful of friends that I could feel like that with, and she is one of them. To me those are the friendships that will last a lifetime. That was my first trip to Maine, but it certainly won't be my last.

Birthday Shannanagins :)

A couple of weekends ago I got to celebrate my quarter life crisis with the most amazing girl in the world, my best friend. I know most people have mid-life crisis, I am almost certain I am having a quarter life crisis. I mean who would just leave a job, move half way across the country, decide to have a change in career and go back to school without having some sort of life crisis, right?!.......now to top it all off I should get a boob job and a really expensive car......OK just kidding about the plastic surgery and the car, but seriously...... 

Now back to my best friend, ever since we have known each other, we celebrated our birthdays together. When I left Texas to move to Florida, every year on "our" birthday it felt as though there was some sort of void that couldn't be filled, no matter how many glasses or bottles of wine I had. Now that I am back in the good ole state of Texas it was only fitting that we had a celebratory weekend full of festivities. I don't know about y'all, but I LOVE College Football, especially my Longhorns....I look forward to this time of year all year long.....when I found out that UT had their opening game on my birthday, it was fate! I felt like a kid on Christmas.....I couldn't sleep the night before, I was too excited. Of course we had to spend the day immersed in everything UT Football!

 After having a very long day of drinking and driving {full disclosure, that did not happen at the same time and we had a DD--my wonderful hubby} all over the city to find a place to watch the game, and the lack of food and mustaches, we survived! The next day was dedicated to shopping, concerts, and wineries (of course more alcohol)....but I guess we thought we could party like we did in College, my body tends to disagree....

It is in moments like this that I know I made the right decision to move back to Texas. There are days where I question my decision, but after having this amazing weekend I know in my heart this is why I moved home. I wanted to be closer to family, and though we are not related by blood, she is still my family and I am so happy to be home.