Ten on Tuesday

1. What is your favorite decor item in your house?

probably the picture frames we have...I don't have much in the form of decor right now as it seems pointless to spend time and money decorating so we can turn around and move again

2. What is your favorite hair product?

A good conditioner, which I haven't found yet, i try a new one every time and just cant seem to find one i love yet

3. Are you a good dancer?
Not so much

4. You get some good news, who’s the first person you call?
Mark, definitely. Then my mom.

5. Would you rather take pictures, or be in pictures?
I would rather be in a picture for sure!

6. What is your shoe style?
anything super cute!!

7. How often do you eat out?
we actually don't eat out too often I like to cook so we usually eat at home and maybe eat out once a week

8. If someone has food in their teeth, do you tell them?
Yes, even though its super awkward to tell them, i do.

9. Do you fold your underwear? 
yep. but then when i put it in the drawer i just throw it in so really its pointless to fold in the first place

10. Milk, dark, or white chocolate?
Dark chocolate for sure!!!

On How Things Came About

It is so amazing how God works sometimes.  I knew all I needed to do was completely trust in Him, and that's all it took! I'm referring to the little blessing (or huge blessing) He has given us recently!

Back in Feb we decided to chuck the bc pills and try for a baby, even though we were recently married we had been together 6 years already and weren't getting any younger, WE felt that our life was stable and perfect to bring a baby into.  I tracked and charted everything, as others around me became pregnant I became frustrated and every period that came every month came with more frustration and I knew I should be trusting the Lord, that  He is in control yadda yadda...easier said than done I guess.  I had fears that maybe something was wrong with either one of us and maybe I would be one who had to wait years to finally have my precious baby.  Finally, in August I started my period for the 6th time since starting to try and I was more frustrated than ever, but I knew that obviously what I was doing wasn't working and maybe I really needed to hand it over to the Big Man, I had a half marathon coming up in a few weeks so I threw myself into training and being healthy. We had so much in September to look foreword to I was able to stay busy and distracted...This cycle I didn't track anything I didn't count anything, I didn't check any cervical mucous or position..this was all God I was done!

On the seventh cycle since starting to try for a baby I realized a few days before work that my usual routine of waking up having coffee and going to work without eating anything was causing me to feel slightly dizzy and sick to my stomach...but nothing majorly noticeable, I had no idea when I was supposed to start my period as I wasn't tracking anything this month, but I figured what could it hurt I would just take a test for the heck of it...but I was so scared, I had learned that the best way to make your period come sooner was to take a pregnancy test, so I did, I just wanted to get it over with.  That thing was so faint at first I thought it was negative but then when it dried there was the faintest line I could only see if I held it up to sunlight just so.  I figured it was an evap line from letting the test dry.  I went to work, and of course googled the crap out of super faint lines.

The next day(Sept 16, 2010) I thought I would be brave and take a digital test, I had heard those need a higher level of Hcg to detect a positive but i just wanted to give it a shot, what did I have to lose.  whelp sure enough!!

I really was just in disbelief...was this seriously real, I think I paced through the apartment a million times and kept walking back to look at the test, I seriously couldn't believe it!! Unfortunately the hubby was at work and I had to go to work as well so I had to keep this a secret as there is no way I was going to text him this crazy big news!!

I took more tests the next day, you know just to make sure and I asked my manager to take me off the schedule since our census was low. I knew they were cancelling nurses anyways and holy moly I could not go four days knowing this and not telling the hubby, due to our work schedules I would not have seen him for 4 days!! So on the third day I told him, which will come with another post :)

The month I finally let go and let God be TOTALLY in control was the month I got pregnant.  He knew this was the perfect time in our Life.  Being due in late May (May 25, 2011 to be exact) was perfect for us, we were already planning to buy a house in Feb or March, the hubby is hoping to get a promotion come spring, and I have always wanted to be pregnant in the winter/spring months.  God knows what He is doing, and I love when things like this happen as more reassurance why I need him in my life.  I know in the big scheme of things 7 months of trying is not much at all, some people try for years and still cant get pregnant on their own, for me it felt like an eternity and I feel so blessed beyond all recognition that it took us ONLY 7 months.

SURPRISE!!

Today I leave you with a lovely little picture from our chicago trip...more updates and info to come

Chicago P2

Sorry, I kind of forgot I was going to do Part two of our trip, I got a little distracted, anyways here we go.

On Thursday we decided to check out the Lincoln Park Zoo, it was only a two mile walk from our hotel and the weather was so nice so we decided to take the trek.  On the way we came across the Chicago History Museum but they wouldn't let us bring our drinks in and I was not about to dump a full pumpkin spice latte, so we decided to come back.

The zoo is free to get into and probably was one of the nicest zoos I have ever been to, even better than many of the zoos you have to pay to get in to.  The way they had the cages set up you can almost see the animals from every angle so if they are hiding in a little corner in the back you just walk around to the other side and you can see them.   Many of them had an inside portion of the cage so if the animal was sleeping inside all you had to do was walk to the inside part and check him out.  The weather was so nice that pretty much all the animals were out and frolicking so it made it that much more fun.  Also since its a free zoo and anyone can come in there were lots of these people, I don't know if they are homeless or just street musicians playing music, but they were playing some of the most beautiful music I have heard, it really added to the whole experience!

After the zoo we wanted to try this hot dog place that I had seen I think on the travel channel or food network and Mark really wanted to just eat a hot dog so we ventured out to find it, it was kind of close to the zoo, but ended up being about a 30 min walk.  The place was called Wieners Circle and I remember on the show I saw them on, they are notorious for being rude that's what they are known for, well Mark was unaware of this and we got our dogs and sat down and he goes man they are so rude here! I was like yeah I think that's their "thing" he was kind of confused and not impressed, and said the hot dog didn't taste like anything special...I am not sure what he was expecting but to me a hot dog is a hot dog?  

After lunch we decided to head back and stop at the museum we had passed earlier.  We go in to get our tickets and they let us in for free as they were closing in 30 minutes.  we went upstairs and covered the whole upstairs and part of the downstairs...we don't dwell long in museums as it is so I guess it worked in our favor.  We headed home to rest and decide where to eat for dinner.

That night we didn't want to walk far since we had done so much walking that day so we went to an Italian restaurant by our hotel.  The food was so good! I honestly don't even remember what I got, I was too busy eating I guess.

Friday we headed out to check out Soldier Field, the Shedd Aquarium, and The Adler Planetarium.  We walked half way and decided to take a cab the rest of the way as this location was a pretty far walk and by this time in the week we were not into the walking thing so much anymore, also becuase we were running out of time. Mark saw Soldier Field, it was all locked up of course but he just wanted to see it so we did, then headed across the street to the aquarium.  We kind of got gypped on this one we said we wanted a basic admission so that's what she gave us it was $8 and all we got to see was a few fish and sea creatures in tanks...we didn't get to see any of the big animals like the sharks or whales or dolphins :( oh well on to the planetarium we went.  

The planetarium was pretty nice, I liked how it was layed out but I am not really into planets and outer space so this was more for Mark he really wanted to see the planetarium so we did.  From the top steps to go in to the planetarium though you got an amazing view of  the city skyline!

We went through the whole museum and by the time it was over we were so exhausted! We took a cab almost all the way back home but got out a little before home because Mark wanted to do a little shopping before we went to dinner, so we shopped a little and then walked back to the hotel.  We had some time to rest before we got ready for dinner.

That night we had reservations at the Signature Room on 95th.  Its a fancy restaurant on the 95th floor of the John Hancock building.  The sun was setting and the view was amazing! The food was also delicious.  I had a pork tenderloin and Mark had the Salmon and then we shared the sides of cheddar potatoes and a seasonal vegetable mix which was summer squash and zucchini.  For desert we shared this little apple cake thing.  We thought it was weird when we ordered the desert and the waiter asked if we wanted just one and we said yes just one and he then asked if we wanted two spoons, we said yes and he looked at us a little crooked.  Well when the desert came out it was like the size of a Ritz cracker haha! no wonder he thought it was weird we wanted to share that little desert.  In reality though it was perfect because we were so stuffed by then we didn't need to eat that much more. It was a prefect ending to an awesome vacation!

please excuse the blur the waiter wasn't very good at using the camera 

Chicago

I'm back from a blogging hiatus, I just felt there was nothing too interesting worth blogging about so I just took a break.  However while I was on that break, we went to Chicago for our little family vacation.

We like to go on vacation every year and there are so many cool cities in the US that neither of us have seen so this year we chose Chicago!

We got there very early last Tuesday and decided it would be much cheaper to take the EL (the city train subway thing) to our hotel.  Well we got mostly to the hotel and once we got downtown we decided to take a taxi to the hotel because the subway was a little confusing once you got into the city.  We got to the hotel and settled in some then headed out to explore. We kind of wandered around a bit and found some place for lunch.  We settled on Giordano's.  I ordered ravioli as I am not a fan of Chicago style pizza but luckily they had personal sized pizzas so Mark could have one, He loved it, I tasted it and was not such a fan, just something about all that stuff in the middle of the pizza I just do not enjoy.  After lunch we wandered some more and Mark wanted some new sunglasses so we wandered through the mall they had on Michigan Ave and he got his fancy new sunglasses and then we just decided to go back to the hotel and take a nap as we were both tired from all the early AM traveling.


OH I almost forgot before we went back to the hotel we decided to stop at the John Hancock building where you can go up to the 96th floor and look out over the city while you have a drink or a bite to eat

and then from the women's bathroom this is the view:

the whole wall of the women's bathroom is a huge window!!

After our nap we decided to head over to Navy Pier to check things out and find somewhere to eat dinner, we decided on Bubba Gumps it was right at the entrance and we were starving, plus Mark wanted seafood, so we had a shrimp feast!

Wednesday we wanted to check out Millennium Park and the Chicago Fine Arts Museum.  The weather was beautiful so we walked there and wandered through Millennium Park

Checked out the Jay Pritzker Pavilion

Checked out the Cloud Gate statue also known as "the bean"

Then we went over to the Chicago Fine Arts Museum, which is HUGE but we didn't really go through the whole thing as it would have taken all day so we looked on the map and hit the rooms with paintings we were interested in checking out.  The lady at the coat check was surprised when we came back to get our coat only two hours later...but when you have a city as big as Chicago to explore theres no time for checking out old pots and Asian statues, no offense, were just not into that kind of art.

After the Art museum we wanted to check out one of the Architecture boat tours.  So glad we did! It was probably one of the highlights of the tour, the guide had so much great information and it was a nice rest for our feet...although once the tour was over I had a massive headache and neck ache from forgetting my sunglasses thus squinting and also from looking up at the sky for an hour and half at all the big buildings..at that I will leave you with some pictures of my favorites from the tour:

 skyline

 Chicago Tribune Building

 Massive hugeness, once had its own zip code

 Sears (now Willis) Tower

And I will leave you with that for today, I will be back tomorrow with more of our trip!