Grace in Small Things, October 10, 2011

Snow at my brother's, southwest of Denver. He lives where we grew up...so cool...

Hi Everyone! Happy Monday!

I'll be doing my usual weekly pregnancy post tomorrow...today there's a lot of good things I want to share! :) I usually list small happinesses here, but some of today's are big:

1. Spent the night at my brother's Friday night (he lives in the foothills outside of Denver), and woke Saturday morning to snow. And I wasn't expecting it at all. I felt like a little kid...delighted...it was magical

2. My parents had two dogs, Jack and Comic. Comic died a short time ago, from a freak illness, which made my parents sooooo sad, but they kept saying, "At least we have Jack."

Well, they went on vacation and left Jack with my brother (who is amazing with dogs, by the way). About a week ago, Jack went missing. And he wasn't wearing a collar/any ID. My brother spent so much time last week, and my husband and I helped this weekend searching for him...ads online and in newspapers, flyers posted all over the place, checking the shelters, going door-to-door looking for him, etc., etc., etc. No luck.

It hit me hard when we checked into our Denver hotel Saturday...we were planning to have Jack with us as we were going to bring him home with us when we came back (we live near my parents, my brother is about 4 hours away from us). The hotel is super dog friendly and had a little chalkboard that said, "Welcome, Jack!" and a dog bed and dog dishes and treats in the room. But we had no dog to check in with. I was feeling so sad. I just couldn't imagine my parents losing BOTH their dogs in such a short time, you know? 

But today--finally--Jack has been found! Don't know the details, but so, so, so happy about that news! :)

(By the way, if you want to make yourself sad, go check out the lost-and-found rooms at your local animal shelter. So many, many sweet, hopeful dogs looking up at you and wagging their tails as you walk by...I hope most of them get found...)

3. Closed down a hip Denver restaurant with good friends of ours on Saturday night (after visiting the coolest little bar [I am of course drinking non-alcoholic beer and water these days, just FYI])...you know it's been a fun night when you suddenly notice it's just you and the wait staff (we left a big tip, BTW).

4. Foo Fighters Denver show last night. Absolutely lived up to my hopes for it (and my hopes were BIG). What an awesome night. They played until almost midnight and there was so much good energy, the crowd was great, the band was great, they played every song but one that I wanted to hear (and that one's pretty obscure, so not surprising). Made me so happy. 

5. Have I mentioned I'm feeling better?!? It's like I was living in black-and-white and the whole world is now Technicolor. I didn't realize how much I was struggling, how down I was feeling just because I was so sick 24/7. Not being sick like that has had a HUGE impact on my mood, how I'm feeling about being pregnant, and I'm feeling like I can handle actual babies (it's hard to picture being any good as a mother when you can barely get out of bed.) I'll talk more about the medication I'm on tomorrow, but bottom line is it has made such a HUGE difference...

Hope everyone has a lovely week!

XOXO

P.S. Courtney, I promise to post pictures of the aspens sometime this week. :)

Minturn

Hi Everyone and Happy Friday!

Thought I'd share some pictures today from yesterday's little mountain getaway. I had such a good time! :)

I met a friend of mine, Donna, in Minturn, which is just outside of Vail, CO. It's the cutest little mountain town, with a totally charming Main Street (top picture). It's built right next to a little creek fronted by a park (bottom)...after lunch and a little window shopping, Donna and I sat on rocks by the creek and talked and talked and talked and talked.

I thought these flowers poking out from the fence were so charming. And here's Ms. Donna...love this girl. I met her when she was dating my roommate Chris in college at CU Boulder, and then she was part of the group of us that all moved to San Francisco after college was over. She and I have also done countless hiking and backpacking trips...she's super strong and along with my parents probably my favorite person to backpack with. 

Love the colors of the flowers with the blue trim outside one of the stores on Main Street (top picture). And I am in love with this cute little house (bottom). My husband and I could live here and I could snowboard in Vail every day, the kids could throw rocks in the creek in the summers and my husband and I could have date nights in the little saloon/Mexican restaurant down the street with the biggest fireplace I have ever seen...

Hope everyone has a fabulous weekend!

XOXO

Baby's/Babies' First Camping Trip :)

Hi Everyone!

Today I thought I'd share a few pictures from my camping trip this past weekend!

My brother and I met in Seargent, CO, which is off Highway 50 at the Western base of Monarch Pass. This is a great halfway meeting point for the two of us. We went up a dirt road towards Marshall Pass and found this great campsite in the National Forest. There was no one around, which was great, and a stream right across the road for our dogs (left, and the road was essentially untraveled, so no problem letting the dogs run loose).

Usually when I meet my brother to camp we hike and/or hit the hot springs during the day/evening, but right now I'm not allowed to do either of those things, so my brother brought his dirt bike and went riding (right) while I took a super easy walk, read and napped.

So my preferred mode of camping is backpacking, but I'm no snob about car camping (I'm always just happy to get out in the wilderness!), and camping with my brother's pop-up camper (top picture, in the background)) is the best thing ever when you're pregnant (and I imagine it's going to be awesome with babies/young children, too.) By the way, that's our new family-sized Jeep in the foreground (last time I was pregnant my husband had us trade in my 2-door for a 4-door.)

Lots of cows this trip (bottom picture; it's an open range up there). Noisy cows. And my littlest boxer rolled in cow poop the minute we got there...yuck! He and the rest of the dogs slept in the bed of my brother's pickup, instead of in the camper like they usually do.

Gorgeous sunset as seen from our camp (top), and of course a campfire (bottom)...love, love, love having campfires.

We're planning on going back in the fall when the aspen are turning...to a little spot we discovered up the road in this huge aspen grove...should be amazing.

Hope everyone's week is going well.

XOXO

It's My Birthday!

Yay! I love birthdays! 

This morning, my husband gave me the loveliest gift--the horseshoe necklace, above. It's tiny, tiny, tiny...the horseshoe is about half the size of the nail on my pinkie...perfect for me, as I don't generally wear flashy jewelry. We saw the necklace shopping in Seattle a few weeks ago...I tried it on and my husband shook his head and said, "Don't like it." So I put it back, and he secretly went back later and got it to surprise me. Love him...he does so awesome in the gift department. A good luck symbol is such a perfect gift right before our FET, too.

After that had a massage...lovely.

Then went to the bookstore and got a big stack of books (love going to the bookstore. And I'm going to need something to entertain me while on bedrest...a girl can only watch so many episodes of The Bachelorette, you know?)

And later, we're going to the Morrison Inn to have Mexican food with my brother, and then to Red Rocks Amphitheater (above) to see a local band and a screening of the movie Twilight. What's not to love about vampires that sparkle?

XOXO

Photo Credits: Twist; Red Rocks Online.

A New Friend, Italian Food and the Sublime James McMurtry

An almost-full moon rising over the hills outside Paonia, Colorado.

So part of my strategy for dealing with the endless waiting associated with IVF is to plan some fun things vs spending all my time moping around the house. Last night, as part of that, we went to Hotchkiss and Paonia.

Hotchkiss was to visit with a new fried of ours (a lovely woman my husband met in film class last semester)...she lives in a little cottage with a view of mountains and sky, a wooden fence carved out in twigs and birds, a huge screened-in porch out back and a tiny cabin on the other side of a lush green lawn that if I lived there I'd turn into a writing studio. Plus the whole house is furnished with one-of-a-kind vintage everything, photographs, the picture she's currently painting on a easel...she had snacks for us and glasses of wine for my husband and it was lovely to be in her presence.

After, we drove the short distance to Paonia, which is a little hippie town at the base of the mountains that go up to Aspen. We had Italian food in an outdoor garden with hollyhocks and a burbling fountain, nicoise olives as dusk fell and then we went to the tiny Paradise Theater to see James McMurtry, whose music I've loved since I spent a couple years in Austin, Texas back in the '90s. He was at his best when it was just him and his red acoustic guitar, singing "Ruby and Carlos"...the whole place was just spellbound:

"Holding back the flood, just don't do no good

You can't unclench your teeth, to howl the way you should

So curl your lips around the taste of tears and hollow sounds

Than no one owns but you, no one owns but you."

There's so much pain in the world.

And so much beauty, too.