Happiness Squared
Sawyer Nash
In my last post before my Internet siesta, I mentioned I’d be assisting in hosting a baby shower for a good friend, and that just maybe, we’d even meet her baby before I came back to the web. The shower was wonderful, a good time was had by all. I was still a bit sickly, getting over the crap part of this particular pregnancy, so I didn’t bust my camera out until it was almost too late. At least, that’s the excuse I’m going with. It’s possible that I was holed up by the cheesy potato casserole and had no time for photography. What I did capture is below. Isn’t Mikayla all glowy? Does anyone else find that extremely frustrating? Or is it just me, holed up with my cheesy potatoes filled with jealously?
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A few weeks later, Mikayla asked if I’d be willing to take some maternity photos so she could always remember how it felt to be hauling around a basketball in her stomach. I said of course. She continued to be glowy. I continued to seethe with jealousy.
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And then, a few days early, Mr. Sawyer Nash Stover arrived!!! He is adorable and perfect and snuggly and awesome. And Mikayla is still all glowy. HOW DOES SHE DO IT?!
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And now, a conversation I had with my husband last night.
T: What’s that smell? Did you make dinner?!
Me: No, that’s for Heath and Mikayla. I’m taking it over there tomorrow.
T: You didn’t make us anything? {sad face}
Me: No. Don’t give me that look!
T: Well, Heath will be over by our house tomorrow afternoon. Just give me the food and I’ll get it to them.
Me: No! You don’t understand! I need baby snuggles!
T: Sorry, just trying to be efficient.
Me: Babies are not efficient!!!!
I am fun and not at all hormonal. And I can sense I’m about to get glowy. Or sweaty. Either way, I’ll be shiny. Right? Right.
Girls Trip 2010
During my so-called “Digital Sabbatical” I was lucky enough to enjoy two amazing beach vacations. Now, I live in Kansas. You cannot be more landlocked then me. But the beach….oh the beach, I love you so! I never wanna let you go! Never gonna give you up, never gonna let you down, never gonna run around and desert you….wait. What?
(Yes, I just Rick Rolled you…I am very up to date and current. You love it.)
Sooo….anyway.
The first beach trip was with some of my best friends on the planet, who all decided (somewhat on a whim) that we needed a vacation together. I’ve never really had my own girls trip (save the B. Spears extravaganza of 2009), and I’ve never left Lucy for more than two nights in a row since she was born. The only time I’ve even gone far enough away from her that a plane transported me was for a work trip to Colorado when she was a wee babe. And yes, she’s four. So that’s FOUR YEARS. It was time, people.
You may remember last year when Trent, Lu and I decided to spring a surprise on our friend Abbie by showing up unannounced at her family’s condo in Destin, Florida. Or maybe not. But it happened. I swear. Anyway, this year we were talking about said trip and how wonderful and lovely it was and how we needed to get all of our girlfriends to head down to Destin for a long weekend of girl bonding time and sunshine. And by bonding time we obviously meant drinking vodka on the beach until we passed out. Sounded like a plan to me.
About two weeks after we all booked our tickets I found out I was pregnant with Taco John. Now, I’m not sure if you were reading this site back in the day (unless your name is Mara), but my pregnancy with Lucy was basically filled with me hanging out by myself while my friends drank heavily and had fun and acted like most 23-year-olds do. I was miserable. I was mad at them and sad for myself, and basically an all around grump. So I was a bit worried about this girls trip. Would I be all Negative Nancy again? Would I feel left out? Would all my friends ditch me unless they needed a designated driver?
I’m happy to say, apparently time changes people. Who knew? In the five years since I was a lonely pregnant loser, many of my girlfriends have gotten married and had kids of their own. And on this trip, for the first time in a long, LONG time, I really felt like I was part of the group again. We shared stories of scary in-laws (theirs, not mine, I promise!), nagging husbands and annoying habits of toddlers. We gushed over how much we missed our kids and our families, and discussed our living situations (buying houses in the suburbs, renting amazing apartments in the city, moving multiple times).
Don’t get me wrong. There was plenty of old school fun as well. Certain people (cough, cough) definitely drank themselves to sleep on the beach and several evenings were spent watching marathons of Keeping Up with the Kardashians on E!. But I, for once, just enjoyed it all. I didn’t feel left out of the drinking or partying, because I refused to let it bother me. I just had an amazing time with five of the most wonderful girls in the world, and I was never hungover. SCORE!
Many upbeat fist pumps go out to (from left in photo above) Abbie, Megan, Kristi, Hayley and Theresa. You girls made this trip one that I will remember for as long as my memory holds out. Seeing that yesterday I forgot my keys twice and forgot a conversation I had 15 minutes after I had it, that may not be long. That’s why we take pictures of things like this.
A super huge special thanks goes out to Abbie, who not only let us take over her family condo, but also forced us to take photos in matching outfits, even though I bitched and moaned and complained that it was totally dorky. It is totally dorky. But also totally adorable, and I’m so glad we did it.
On our next episode, what happened when the group above meets a minihorse on the side of a highway in Alabama? Do we save the horse? Do we scream at pitches only dogs can hear? Do we embellish stories so it seems as if we tackled said horse and returned it to its owner in the back of our big red pickup truck? You’ll have to come back tomorrow to find out….
A Whole Foot in the Water
I made it. The digital sabbatical is officially over! I’m unsure if I’m more happy to be back or sad my little journey is over, because it was a wonderful one. I truly missed sharing with all three of you who read this, but it was so very nice to keep so many thoughts, ideas and moments to myself. I have so very much to tell you, things I did, people I spent time with, but trying to get it all out in one post would just be complete insanity. So I’ll start slow. I posted a list of things I wanted to do during my break in my big farewell, and I accomplished a few of them.
– Read two novels – I read the first two books in the Stieg Larsson series, “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo” and “The Girl Who Played with Fire.” I have to say, both books were slow to start (took me weeks to get into the “Dragon Tattoo”), but once they picked up, it was hard to stop reading. More than once I found myself at midnight, unable to to switch off the light. Highly recommended, just give it a hundred pages to get good.
– Spend countless nights/weekends swimming at the pool – Done, done, dunzo. And now (since school starts this week) the pool is closed for the summer. Sad, but I’m ready for a break from the heat and the crisp fall breeze. Now, someone come rake my yard, because the leaves are already ridiculous.
– Get in some much needed girlfriend time – Have I told you all about the time I was with 5 of my best girlfriends in a giant red pickup truck on a rural highway in Alabama and we came across and minihorse that was running loose on the side of the road? No? Well, it’s coming. With photos (hopefully). In other words, yes, did this one for sure.
– Trade jokes with friends – See above. Also, had a pregnant lady movie night with fellow (former!) preggo Mikayla and non-preggo Mara. We watched Newsies. There was singing. It was good.
– Drink cherry limeades – Done, obviously.
– Laugh my ass off – Again, see “minihorse” and “Newsies.” Also, a family vacation where everyone got drunk but me and I laughed at them for days. Literally.
– Grow a new baby – El bambino (aka Taco John) is officially 22 weeks along…over halfway done cooking! Which is crazy, just freaking insane. We’ve had our midway sonogram and saw our little pirate swimming around in his oven. (Yes, I said his….it’s a boy!). I am apparently pretty obviously pregnant, as even my co-workers (who are a bit, um, unobservant) have started congratulating me. This deserves a post of its own, of course, and I’ll get to it very soon. Maybe. Hopefully.
– Have several movie nights – See “Pregnant Lady Movie Night” and most Friday nights in the past few weeks. Some Lulu favorites are The Princess and the Frog and Beauty and the Beast. Also, Annie.
– Do yoga weekly (or more…hopefully more!) – Mostly kept up with this. Also got a prenatal massage that was so awesome I refused to leave. I was just going to stay in that bed for the remainder of this pregnancy. The masseuse was very excited. OK, or not. He might have asked me to leave very politely and then shoved me out the door when I refused to budge.
– Create something – I (finally) started AND finished my Blurb book for 2009. Every year I put together a Blurb book of all the year’s photos, but I had put off the 2009 book for ages due to the sheer volume of photos I took last year, which was mostly due to the NYC + KC project. I finally forced myself to sit down and just do the damn thing, and I couldn’t be happier with the results. I name each book after one of my favorite songs of the year, and 2009’s was called “I and Love and You” after the Avett Brothers song. (You can see my other books here.)
– Cross two things off my life list – I was close to completing this one, but no dice. I even had the chance to ride in a rickshaw (No. 62) and DIDN’T DO IT because I’m a total idiot. I did however get closer to No. 37: Be content in my life. And I flew kites with Lulu on the beach, which I decided should be on my list, so it will now be No. 101. Who said a Life List can’t be edited? My life, my list, my rules.
Some items that just couldn’t get done, no matter how hard I tried:
– Make a storybook with Lulu – Chalk this one up to several vacations and too many nights at the pool to find the time.
– Teach Lu to ride her two-wheeler – The chain on her bike broke! Bummer and a half!
– Journal in a real book – I really thought I’d be in to journaling during my break, but apparently not. I carried my little notebook everywhere, but didn’t write a single word.
So, with that, I’m back! The sabbatical was something I’d recommend to anyone with lots of online activity. Removing myself from not only this website, but Twitter/Facebook/Chat was almost like a vacation, and I realized how much time I waste on those sites. I love what the online community has brought to me and my life, but I needed to reevaluate the hold that it had started to have on me. When the first thing you do when you wake up is check Twitter, that’s a problem, or at least it was for me. I needed to refocus on actually living my life, not just talking about it.
Along with that, I have to say, I really missed my online community. I missed seeing what everyone was up to and hearing jokes from friends I don’t talk with outside of this arena. I can’t count the number of times people told me to check Facebook for a photo or a social invite, and it was hard to say no. I’m slowly going back through timelines, seeing what I’ve missed, and trying to catch up, and I find myself very happy to be back. The online world is a great place, as long as I don’t let it consume me. Hopefully this is a lesson I won’t soon forget.
So, with that, what have you all been up to? Did you miss me? Don’t lie, I know you did. How could you not. I mean, look, I am basically Tyra Banks:
One Toe in the Water…
{Where I’ve been…}
