Santa Fe Babymoon

Many people think that the last several week of pregnancy are a time when mom-to-be is exhausted and "nesting" and as such she should be pampered and cared for by her husband and family. Well, I have been feeling extra-tired, and I have definitely felt the nesting urge and have been working around the house like crazy. However, the last several weeks of this pregnancy will not be filled with foot rubs and Nick doing the laundry and vacuuming as I dreamily decorate the nursery. Why? Because on Thursday Nick had major surgery on his right shoulder and he can't move it or lift anything for 4 weeks (followed by 3-6 months of intense physical therapy before he's back to normal)! But more on that in another post.

Before you start thinking I'm being all sour about a situation Nick can't control and is frankly making him much more miserable than it is me, let me say that I only point out those things to tell you why he whisked me away to Santa Fe last weekend for a babymoon!
He made all the arrangements for us to stay in a great hotel about a block from the Plaza, planned out our daytime excursions, and treated me to several tasty meals out!
We stayed in the Hotel St. Francis. It's in a historic building, and has been completely renovated to reflect a sort of minimalist/historic mission feel, almost like a spa.  It was very romantic and perfect for a couples trip, although due to the size of the rooms (remember, it's a historic building) I wouldn't recommend it for a family excursion.  Here's a picture of Nick in the gorgeous lobby - at night it was completely lit by candles and gas lights. 

The first day there we arrived in the early afternoon.  We had a delicious lunch at Cafe Pasqual, whose chef was nominated for a James Beard Award.  We definitely will be returning to this restaurant!  Here I am outside the door with the James Beard certificates in the window.  (Please try to ignore my huge-ness in all of these pictures - I certainly do!)

While walking around the Plaza downtown, we saw this church, the Cathedral Basilica of St. Francis.  St. Francis is everywhere in Santa Fe!  I know he is the patron saint of the diocese, but beyond that I have no idea why he is so popular.

 For our first night out we started with drinks at a bar called Atomic Grill.  We were able to sit out on the deck and people-watch while we sipped tasty drinks - Nick tried the Arrogant Bastard Ale, while I enjoyed a hazelnut italian soda. 

 We finished up the night with dinner at India Palace, which was recommended by friends.  Since we can't get any kind of ethnic food (unless you count Mexican, and I don't think you can when you live in New Mexico) in Clovis, we really wanted to have something a little different while we were in Santa Fe.  We were not disappointed!  This place was great!  (Sorry - no pictures).

The next day we woke up, and following a visit to Starbucks for breakfast, (Don't judge!  We can't get Starbucks in Clovis either, so this was a special treat) we drove a bit out of town and headed up the mountain to check out the Santa Fe ski area.  We were excited to see that the mountain looks pretty decent, with lots of blue and black runs, and it will only take us about 4 hours to get to the actual ski area from our front door.  We are super-excited to try this out as soon as possible.  We may even take Baby H up there in her little bunting in February or March so that Nick can try it out.  Our main mission of the morning was to see the ski area, but we were pleasantly surprised by how beautiful the trees were!  I've included several pictures, especially for my South Carolina friends who have asked (seriously) whether or not there are trees in New Mexico. 

 View looking up the mountain

 Beautiful vantage point

 Nick on a hiking trail amid all the golden Aspen trees.

Something I haven't mentioned yet, but that is worth saying, is that Santa Fe is a very dog-friendly place!  We saw so many dogs there with their owners, and many of the hotels, shops, and restaurants (with outdoor seating) welcome furry friends.  Dogs are even allowed to hike with you off-leash on the mountain.  We will definitely be bringing Finlay with us the next time we visit!

We spent the rest of the day walking and shopping around the Plaza.  If you haven't ever been, there is a plaza downtown surrounding a monument, and surrounding it are all kinds of shops and art galleries.  It's a really interesting place with an eclectic mix of both things to buy and people buying them.  It's almost just as fun to watch the other shoppers as it is to shop yourself.  If you were ever lucky enough to visit my parents' old house, with the Southwestern themed family room, you may be interested to know that all of the Southwestern decor items, including Kaibab the Coyote, hail from these Plaza area shops and were purchased during a family vacation.

Here I am lounging on the Plaza. 

 After our shopping, we stopped into a rooftop bar before heading in to get ready for dinner.  It looked out onto the Plaza, great for more people-watching!

That night we had dinner at Santacafe, which was recommended by my lifelong friend Beth, who visited Santa Fe this summer.  It was definitely a splurge, but also absolutely splurge-worthy!  If you go to Santa Fe, I can't recommend it highly enough.  It's a mix of continental and Southwestern food - everything we had was delicious!  They also have an in-house pastry chef so be sure to order dessert.  You'll want to do two things if you eat here, though, bring slightly dressier clothes (lots of the guys were in suits although they're not required) and make reservations.  Even on a Monday night this place was absolutely packed, but we were able to make a reservation as late as that afternoon.

This trip was a great way for Nick and me to spend some time together and for me to feel totally pampered going into the next several weeks.  I'm so grateful that my thoughful husband planned this getaway and did all the work to make it happen.  Thanks, honey!

Joys of Homeownership

You may remember from a previous post that Nick and I have an issue with weeds in the alley behind our house.  As an interesting aside, these are actually tumbleweeds!  Previously, we had to clear a path to be able to access the alley dumpster.  We were perplexed by this because, to our understanding, the land outside where our fence was allowed to go is not technically ours - it belongs to the city.  However, we did it out of necessity. 

Fast-forward to this week, when we received notice from the city that our alleyway was a "public nuisance" and needed to be cleaned up within 5 business days!  So, in reasoning this out, there are two possibilities here.  Option A is that we do own the land behind our fence, but we are not allowed to improve on it in any way, i.e. extend our fence, landscape, add a storage area, etc.  Bogus!  Option B is that although the city owns the land in our alleyway, we are still solely responsible for keeping it cleaned up.  Also bogus! 

Since we don't have the time or energy to fight with the city about this, though, we went ahead and spent today cleaning up all the weeds.  We take comfort in the fact that over half the houses in our neighborhood have this same issue, so they should have received the same notification. therefore many of our neighbors are in the same boat.  To clean up, we used a chainsaw, weedeater, lawn mower, rake, and industrial gloves (all of these weeds have MAJOR stickers attached and they are SHARP!

One side of the yard before.  These weeds are taller than our privacy fence!



Another view of the mega-weeds

Nick and chainsaw in action - he did all the hard work!



Now it's all nice and clear!



My boys, so proud of a job well-done

Aside from the weed clean-up we've had a lot else going on in the past few weeks. Nick is scheduled to have shoulder surgery next Thursday, and he will have to spend about 3 weeks with his right arm totally immobilized.  His shoulder was really messed up by the heavy body armor he wore every day in Afghanistan and has been bothering him a ton since he came home so we are very glad that he's finally getting the surgery! 

However, once his initial recovery period is over I will be at full-term so we have been busy finalizing things for Baby H.  Although I'll have time (and hopefully energy) to work on many things over the next 6-9 weeks, I won't have much help with the big things, like putting up furniture, etc. after October 21st.  Our goal is to have all the necessities completely ready to go by October 31st, following a weekend visit from my parents, who can help with anything that doesn't get done pre-surgery. 

I'm sorry that I don't have any new cute belly pictures - Nick's moved to swing shifts, which means that when we're home together I'm usually in my pj's and not ready to be photographed.  I'll try to get one soon, though, because my belly is exploding!



DIY Success!

I am rounding the corner of my 7th month of pregnancy - yikes!  My nesting instinct has kicked in this week in a major way.  One thing I have been wanting to do for a while is to make a window cornice for baby girl's nursery.  Her nursery is very understated and traditional palette-wise, and almost every window treatment I've seen has been too bright or bold for her room.  This weekend Nick helped me make this:

 The material is taffeta, not satin like it looks in these pictures, so in real-life it is more pearly -shimmery than shiny.  Thank goodness.  Here's a closer look:

Here's the best part:  it only cost about $40 to make, including the sheer curtains and curtainrod.  We used a plan from the DIY network online, and it just took about an hour to put together.  I'm so happy with how it turned out!  What do you think?

29 Weeks and Waco Shower

I've held off for a few days before posting pictures about my trip to Waco because I wanted to give the South Carolina post some breathing room.  There's a lot to post about from the past few weeks!  I've also just been busy decompressing from all my travels and trying to rest. 
I guess, given my whirlwind adventures of September 10-20 it's no surprise that when I went to the doctor on Tuesday my blood pressure was up a bit and my weight gain was minimal.  Baby girl is still doing great, but the rest of my body is worn out!  Following Nick's release from the hospital on Tuesday, we flew home on Wednesday.  We got into Lubbock at 4pm, and drove the hour and a half home to Clovis.  I unpacked quickly, started some laundry, and then went off to the grocery store to stock Nick up on groceries for my Waco trip since his OxyContin prevented him from being able to drive.  I came home, made dinner, packed for Waco, went to sleep, and woke up in time to drive Nick to 7:30 sick call on base.  After he was checked out I dropped him at home and then headed to Lubbock to catch my flight to Waco, eventually arriving there at about 7pm.  All this after pulling 2 all-nighters in the hospital on Sunday and Monday nights!  It was NICE to get home and relax for a few days.
Clearly the highlight of the Waco trip was Baby H's shower!  She received so many precious gifts, and I'm having fun putting them all up in her nursery.  Thanks to all of our hostesses and to everyone who was able to come or sent a gift! 

With some of my sweet hostesses



3 of the fab five - we missed you LC!  These 3 traveled from the Big D and even Colorado Springs to celebrate Baby H - love y'all!

Edie and Grammy

Sweet sister took notes on all the gifts - thanks And!

Three favorites - Bec flew in from Baltimore for the big day!



Fabulous gift from the hostesses, her carseat.  We are now legal to leave the hospital!



Not from the shower, but these two never take pictures so I had to put it up.  Loved getting to see you during my trip!

I loved getting to see so many friends and family, but I think I may need the last 10 weeks of this pregnancy to rest up for L&D!  I've made the decision not to come back for Homecoming next month because I don't know that my preggo body can do that kind of travel again!  It was so strange to leave town knowing that the next time I come back it will be with Baby H.  Crazy! 

I hope you all have a great weekend, and I promise the next post will not be quite so long.  Sic 'em Bears and Gooo Cocks!

Columbia: One City, Two Tales

The weekend of September 11 Nick and I enjoyed a trip back to Columbia.  We arrived on Friday night and were scheduled to leave on Monday morning (more on that below).  I know you all don't want to read a novel about our trip so I'll keep it short.  I do want to include a HUGE thanks to our friends who made the weekend so fabulous.  Thanks so Rex and Paula for providing such comfy accommodations - that became even more important later on - and for chauffering us around town.  Thanks to Kelly and Michael for arranging all the details of an amazing weekend.  You guys really went all out to make sure that we enjoyed ourselves!  Thanks to Tom and B for sharing your tailgate fun with us, and to Christian and Angela for hanging out with us at the game and hosting us in your home on Saturday night.  Thank you to Laura, Lauren, and Kelly for putting on the most precious baby shower for Baby H and me!  Finally, thank you to all our friends who welcomed us back to Cola and helped us celebrate our Columbia visit and the impending arrival of Baby H.  We loved seeing all of you and already miss you sooo much!

Here I am with Laura, Kelly, and Lauren, the shower hostesses.

The TRUMC crew. 



FFF ladies with the bump.



Anna and Melissa



Outside Williams Brice Stadium



With Angela and Kelly at the tailgate





Nick with Carter, Michael, and Christian at the tailgate



At the game.  So thankful our seats were in the shade!

Now, for our second tale.  On Sunday night Nick got really sick - vomitting and in excruciating pain.  I called my mom, a former GI (gastrointerological) nurse, who told me how to do the "rebound test" for appendicitis.  Since Nick freaked out so much when I did the test, it was apparent that he had it.  We headed over to the Providence emergency room (in Columbia - not Waco, obviously).  To make a long story short, the ER staff was great, and after a few hours, lots of Morphine and Zofran, bloodwork, X-rays, and a CT scan, Nick was admitted and prepped for an appendectomy on Monday morning.  He had the surgery around noon, spent the night in the hospital, and was released Tuesday after lunch.  We stated Tuesday night in Columbia, and flew home on Wednesday. 

Again, HUGE thanks are due to our friends who helped us through this crisis!  An anonymous fairy godmother kept us in our hotel for the extra nights we had to spend in town.  Kelly rallied all our church friends to pray for us while Nick was in surgery and recovering.  Mollie, Kelly, and Laura all came to the hospital to visit, each bringing food and goodies, and Mollie who is also our pastor prayed with us before Nick went under.  And sweet Michael lent us his car for the duration of Nick's stay so that I could freely go back to the hotel as needed, we could leave the hospital promptly after Nick was released, and I was able to run necessary errands, like picking up Nick's prescriptions.  I can't imagine how different this experience would have been without all your help.

We Hail Thee Carolina...

Tomorrow Nick and I are headed back to South Carolina to see sweet friends, cheer on the Gamecocks against UGA, and celebrate Baby H.  We can't wait to get there!  Some of our best friends, the Wilsons and the Halls are hosting us, and we are so excited about our big reunion.  The two biggest highlights of the weekend will be the football game/tailgate on Saturday and Baby H's baby shower on Sunday afternoon (given by my friends Kelly, Lauren, and Laura).  Of course there will be lots of other fun times during the weekend, but you don't need me to list them all here! 

I've been super busy all week getting ready this weekend so I haven't taken any new pictures!  You can look forward to lots of SC pictures coming up, but here's a picture of the last time Nick and I were at a game together in Williams Brice Stadium. 

The biggest challenge in preparing for this trip was dealing with Finlay's boarding issues.  Not only did we have to find a place to board him, but I also had to get his Hydroxizine prescription refilled.  (That's the anxiety medicine that keeps him from having gastrointestinal fireworks).  Without this miracle pill, Finlay will be a very sick boy, and will end up at the vet's office as soon as they open on Tuesday.  However, getting it ended up being pretty complicated!  I had to have his old vet in SC fax information about the prescription to his new vet here.  The new vet here has apparently been swamped with "very sick animals" for the last two days and unable to approve the prescription, despite my calling every 2 hours for two days straight.  Finally, at 2:30 today, I took myself and Finlay up to the vet's in-person, and lo and behold the medicine was there waiting for us.  I guess my perseverance finally paid off!  The nurse who dispensed the meds did tell me that the vet was confused because I requested the medicine "to prevent nervous diarhea," but, and I'm quoting her here, "this medicine treats anxiety, not diarhea." Ummmmm......what am I missing here?  At any rate, we got the medicine, got a good recommendation for a boarding place, and now Finlay is at Waggin' Tails, playing with other dogs, in his "happy place" thanks to the happy pills we were finally able to secure. 

I hope everyone has a great weekend, and for all my SC friends, I can't wait to see you so so so soon!

And He's Off!

Nick is finally all set with his new motorcycle.  He spent all last weekend in a class that was kind of like driver's ed for motorcycles, and on Monday we got everything registered and licensed.  Look out Clovis, he's on the road now!  All kidding aside, this is something that Nick has wanted for several years.  I've had lots of surprised responses that I "let:" Nick get this bike.  My response is that A) I would never tell Nick that he couldn't do anything!  I trust him to make good decisions, and B) He spent a year on a remote deployment, not only doing without lots of things he wanted, but also earning lots of extra money.  It's his hard-earned money, and after so much deprivation I think he deserved a really nice reward, don't you?

Here he is, about to take off on his first spin around the neighborhood. 

There he goes!

Here's Baby H's 26 week shot.  My belly is supposed to be about the size of a soccer ball now.  Sounds about right, I guess.  There's not much new going on this week.  I did have to ask Nick to fasten my shoes for me for the first time last night - boo.  I'm glad that we're moving into fall shoes season since most of my fall shoes are slip-ons!  Oh, and last night I had a hard time getting my rings back on after my shower.  Good thing I have the $8 fake wedding band I bought for our trip to Mexico in May!  I'm really hoping that it was end-of-day swelling and that my rings will hang on through my baby showers.  After that, I know I'll have to swap out for the fake bling until January.  Boo!

In other news, Nick has changed back to days- wahoo!  He had Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday off so we have finally been able to hang out for the first time in a month!  This will only last until October, but I'll take what I can get.  He's now working from about 5am until about 3pm.  Not your ideal schedule?  Well, it's a lot closer to normal and waaaay better than the 10pm-8am schedule he had in August.

Finally, for my SC friends, I can't tell you how excited we are for the beginning of college football season!  Tonight, the Gamecocks have their season opener, and we'll be watching at home while noshing on shrimp and grits and pimento cheese fries in honor of our Gamecocks.  Go cocks!  Can't wait to see them play in-person next weekend against Georgia!!!