Baby Mania

OK I realize I'm at that age.  About 2 years after the marriage wave hit in full force it now seems that instead of seeing all my friends announcing their impending marriages they are all announcing their expanding families.  I am not exaggerating when I say that daily I see another friend announce their pregnancy.  Its putting me in a slightly weird state of mind.  Spence and I have decided that we are not in the baby planning stage of our lives, we are focusing on enjoying our 20's and being married before we try to jump onto the expanding family boat.
The main thing we want to do before we start a family is take one big blow out Europe trip.  I was a little bored at my new job when I first started and sat down and planned a 3 week trip.  3 weeks.  That trip will take us a while to save for.  I'm OK what that for now, I know that we aren't ready to be parents quite yet.  The trip I have planned will be totally worth it though.  A good mix of tour and individual travel, we will be able to see a TON in a short period of time.  Now we just need to get to saving.....

On another note about the baby/parent/family starting issue:

I think part of the reason I am hesitant to try and start a family is I'm not sure it will be an easy process for us.  Earlier this year I was diagnosed w PCOS, which pretty much means that my ovaries do not produce a mature egg to be fertilized.  Instead they produce lots of non mature eggs that turn into cysts.  When they diagnosed me the cysts had blocked my tubes so that even if a mature egg had formed it couldn't have gone anywhere.  It's scary to me because until we start to try for a family we won't know how big of an issue this could turn out to be.   It might be something that is simple and a non issue, or it could be something that makes the process drag out and costs us tons in medical bills.

Maybe you couldn't tell from reading here, but I'm a little type A.  I like my lists, I like to know whats going to happen and when.  This whole not knowing till it happens thing kinda freaks me out.  OK really freaks me out.
So that's my big emotional pour out for this month.

Some well needed photo posts

So a long time ago I promised some good photo posts.....well this is exactly what we have going for us right now!  A while ago we went out to Louisburg Cider Mill for "Ciderfest".  It's a big weekend festival with music, cider, donuts and lots of people.  There is also a corn maze, pumpkin patch and lots of other things for the family.  We headed out and got some cider donuts, (yum), apple cider and also spent some time getting lost in the corn maze!

All the apples that are getting pressed that day for the cider, sooo many apples!

Part of the pressing system for the apples

The cider donuts getting made fresh, the ones we bought were still warm in the bag!

Thats us.

A haybale maze for the lil kids, Spence can't resist climbing!

 King of the haybale!

Where do we go from here?

I KNOW!  There just happens to be a winery just down the road from the cider mill...... just what we needed after a long line for cider and a LOT of people pushing!  The winery has live music on the weekends and fun lawn games like bocce  ball!

Beerfest

A few weeks back Spencer and I went out to KC Beerfest with some of our good friends.  It was an afternoon spent trying a variety of new (and some old favorite) beers.  The day was really nice and sunny.....

"Can I yell TIMBER?"

We have had a tree in our front yard that for about a year or so Spence has been convinced was dying.  I tried hard to pretend that it wasn't, partly because it was just sad and partly because I knew it would be expensive to take down!  Well this fall we finally decided to take it down. Spencer's good friend Tyler works for a local lawn company, and as it happens is one of the lucky employees who works on trees when they need to be cut down. So for the low cost of some specialty beer we brought  back from Colorado for him he came over and helped us out!  Heres how it went.....

Bye Bye Tree.

Day 27 → What’s the best thing going for you right now?

Best thing going for me right now is my blog! Ok no, the best thing going for me right now is the fact that I am blessed beyond measure. I wake up next to the most perfect for me man alive, I have parents who love and support me, friends who are there for me always. I have a good job, a great house (that we are planning to make better and better with time), a puppy whose whole body wiggles with tail wags when I come home from work because he is sooooo excited to see me. And at the end of the day I’m happy with the place I’m at right now.

Day 26 → Have you ever thought about giving up on life? If so, when and why?

Not in any serious way.  I’ve seen what suicide does to the people who are left behind, and even at my most depressed I couldn’t do that to the people who love me.  There have been times that I didn’t think I deserved the people that God has placed in my life.  I have messed up, been a less than stellar daughter/friend/girlfriend/wife/person at times but there has never been a time that I thought that no one would miss me, that people would be better off without me or that someone in my life didn’t believe I was better than I thought I was at the time.

Day 25 → The reason you believe you’re still alive today.

I haven’t really thought about it.  I guess I think I’m alive today because the world would be a sad and lonely place without me?  I mean, really guys, you would be super sad if I wasn’t around right?

Day 24 → The thing you are most grateful for today

I am most grateful for my amazing husband.  He is supportive of me even when I am not supportive of myself, he pushes me to do the best I can every day. 

Day 23 → Something you wish you had done in your life.

I wish I had started my IRA when I was 18……seriously. 

Day 22 → Something you wish you hadn’t done in your life.

I wish I hadn’t quit running in college.  At one point I was jogging about 5 miles a day, weight lifting 3x a week and was really fit and active.  I fractured my leg horseback riding and then had foot surgery a month or so later, both of those things had me in bed/on really reduced activity for about 6 mos while I healed.  I never really got back to the same level of activity after that and, as I’m trying to train for a half marathon currently, I’m kicking myself for allowing my fitness level to become SO LOW. 

Day 21 → (scenario) Your best friend is in a car accident and you two got into a fight an hour before. What do you do?

Sob. Breakdown. Bedside vigil.



OK but after that, if 2 people are “best” friends that a fight isn’t going to change that. (barring something like the fight being about how the “best friend” slept with my husband, killed my parents or did something else that is beyond the pale). I would hope that the longevity of the relationship would bear out that a fight doesn’t mean you stop loving the friend, doesn’t mean you stop caring and I would *HOPE* that I’d be mature enough to get over whatever the fight was about to help take care of my friend while she recovered.

Happy Halloween.....

Well now, Halloween has come and gone again.  This year was decidedly a low key "holiday".  Along with some of our good friends we decided against the big parties downtown, and had a night in.  We had Megan, Tyler, Cole and Allie over for some good old fashioned game night fun.  The girls had some wine and chatted it up for a bit.  The boys had a beer (or maybe 2) and talked sports.  We played some Buzz! trivia on the PS3 and then moved into the dining room for chocolate fondue and games.  I don't think I've ever laughed so hard.  Later in the night we were joined by Allie's cousin and her husband who were in town to watch the Chiefs beat the Bills yesterday (yay Chiefs!).
In all the fun I didn't have the camera out, I think I would have been laughing too hard to get a good picture in for the last half of the night!
I promise some picture posts soon, we cut down a VERY large tree in the front yard (it died), and I have a step by step of our friend Tyler and the BIG truck he brought to help us bring it down.  It doesn't sound so interesting now that I say it like that though.....trust me watching it fall was....kinda cool?