Fun Little Saturday

Yesterday we headed out to Alexandria to have Kona groomed at PetSmart. We had time to kill so we headed to Target and TJ Maxx to buy some snow gear for our upcoming ski weekend. It started out as a serious shopping trip and progressively got more ridiculous.

First we hit up the boots section of Target. I have small feet and can usually fit into the largest kid's size, so I checked them out first since they are usually cheaper. I found a cute pair that fit really well. I didn't get an up close picture and they aren't on the Target website, but they are dark brown with light pink trim. I really liked them!

We then headed to the girls' section to check out snow pants. They didn't have any in the women's section! As soon as we saw these pants we knew I had to have them. If I am going to attempt to ski I might as well go all out, right? Plus they were only $17!


We then found the matching jacket. Awesome, no? I would have bought the jacket just to make the ensemble complete, but it was $35 and I don't NEED it. Sad.


I ended up not getting the boots because the pants have black in them and I don't want to mix black and brown. (But I will wear ridiculous plaid snow pants...crazy I know). I'm now on the lookout for cute black boots!

Next we headed to TJ Maxx where AJ found this amazing hat set. I almost died of laughter in the middle of the store. I think he would scare the children on the ski slope, so we opted to not buy the hat.

I'm not sure what got into us yesterday, but we were so silly and ridiculous. It sure was fun though!

It's Christmas Card Choosing Season!

I love sending Christmas cards, especially since we live away from our families. We were able to spend time with my extended family more than normal this year because we were in NY for the summer, but we still only saw most family members a couple of times. Most of AJ's family we haven't seen since 2008. We also have friends all over the country that we only get to see maybe once a year. For this reason, I really enjoy including a photo in our cards. I know our friends and family like receiving the pictures because I have seen them on their refrigerators and cork boards. And not just our picture....other people's Christmas photos are up there too (Don't worry I know I'm not that important!). This year I am combining the card with a photo and plan to use Shutterfly because they have so many pretty options! They even have some that are printed on premium card stock. Pretty and great quality? Yes, please!

I am currently trying to decide between these three cards:

Flourish Elegance Holiday Card

Royal Elegance Christmas Card

Elegant Cranberry Damask Christmas Card

I love all the damask options! Now I just need to decide if I want to go simple or choose a design that is a tad more ornate. Oh and take the perfect photo!

You can get 50 free Christmas cards too...just click here!

Disclaimer: I will be provided with 50 free holiday cards as a result of this post. All opinions expressed are my own.

Where do we go from here?

We are now in the stage of "where do we go from here?". I am not sure I can definitively answer that question, but we do have a few things planned that are helping us look to the future instead of dwell on the past. That doesn't mean we will ever forget what happened or the baby that we lost, just that we need to move forward and go on with our lives.

So what do we have to look forward to in the coming months?

Attending the Penn State vs. Indiana game at Fed Ex Field. We didn't attend Penn State, but I have a few friends that did and I went to a bunch of games back when I was in college. We are going with one of my friends that we haven't seen since our wedding! It will definitely be a fun time.

Hosting our parents for Thanksgiving in DC. This whole experience has really opened my eyes to the importance of family. I really miss my parents and can't wait to see them in a couple of weeks. We are lucky that our parents get along with each other pretty well despite their differences. We have spent two previous Thanksgivings together, and we always have a nice time.

Seeing Elf on Broadway at Christmas time. AJ surprised me with tickets the other night. I cried (tears of joy). Elf is my favorite Christmas movie of all time and I have wanted to see the show since the day I heard it was coming to Broadway. We are just going up for one night, but it will be a great holiday getaway.

Renting a house for a ski weekend with friends. My work friends and I just booked an awesome house in Western Maryland for a ski vacation over MLK weekend. And it is an amazing deal to boot! The house has a hot tub and a pool table and is only a few minutes away from the ski resort. It should be an epic weekend.

Vacationing in Grand Cayman with my parents. Instead of getting us a bunch of stuff we don't need for Christmas, my parents are paying for us to go with them to Grand Cayman over President's Day weekend. We haven't been on a "real" vacation since our honeymoon, so this will be a perfect escape before a stressful spring and summer (what with buying a house, moving, the bar, and all).

So where do we go from here? Apparently we go on a lot of trips and spend a lot of time with family and friends. But seriously though, being around those that love, support, and distract you really does help. And being in fun places doesn't hurt either. We will also be spending a lot of time enjoying our last few months in DC. After all of that maybe we will be ready to start trying for another baby. Until then, we are just a normal couple soaking up all the fun that we can!

Two Weeks Later

It has been two weeks and I am happy to report that I am feeling a little better.

This has been one of the most difficult emotional experiences I have ever had. I still have moments where I get sad. I sometimes cry. In general, though, I am doing okay. My doctor told me that it can take months, years, or even the birth of a healthy baby before I fully accept what happened to our baby. That is tough information to hear, but I am just trying to remember that it should get easier every day.

I am not going to go into great detail about the miscarriage, my reaction to the meds, my follow-up appointment, the emotional roller coaster, or any other graphic information, but if you would like to know about my experience, I am more than willing to email with you. I found great comfort (and hope!) in the stories other women have shared with me. Each woman's experience really helped me to feel less alone and also helped me to understand my own thoughts and feelings. I hope no one has to go through pregnancy loss, but realistically I know that some women will. If it does happen, know that I am here to listen or chat.

Thank You

I chose to write about my loss because I wanted sympathy. Maybe that makes me selfish, but sympathy is what I truly needed at that point. What I got was so much more than that. I can't even begin to express my gratefulness for all the love and support I received from you all. This has been the most difficult week of my life, and each and every comment, tweet, email, text, and phone call has helped me to grieve the loss of my first pregnancy and slowly pushed me toward the path to acceptance. Thank you all from the bottom of my heart.

Sad News

Today was supposed to be the day that I announced my pregnancy to all my blog and twitter friends. Instead I am here writing with a heavy heart and tears streaming down my face because I found out this morning that my pregnancy is no longer viable.

I have so much going through my head right now, that I don't even know where to begin. I guess I'll start with feelings. Devastation, sadness, anger, disappointment, and embarrassment are the first ones that come to mind. I'm also confused because we had two positive ultrasounds. One at 7 weeks and one at 8 weeks. Warning: the rest of this paragraph is TMI. I had my first ultrasound at 7 weeks because I was spotting and cramping and we ended up in the ER. I didn't get to see the sonogram at 7 weeks, but we were told that the baby was measuring on track and that there was a strong heartbeat. I stopped spotting a couple days later and when I had an ultrasound at my OB's office a week later, again, everything looked great. I started spotting on and off the next week and it continued for the rest of the pregnancy. Up until this weekend, the spotting had all been brown. As my doctor repeatedly told me, brown blood is old blood, and I shouldn't worry too much. On Saturday, I started spotting more heavily and the blood had a reddish tint. Still, I tried not to freak out. This morning, however, I knew something was wrong. I passed a small clot and there were gobs of dark red blood. I cried the entire time I was in the shower, but there was still a small part of me that thought the baby might be okay. After all, I had been spotting before both of my previous ultrasounds and everything was fine. We decided to go to my appointment this morning, which was in the perinatal center, not my OB's office, because I would be getting an ultrasound for the first trimester screening. As soon as the ultrasound began, I knew it was bad news. The fetus only measured 7 weeks, 6 days and there was no visible heartbeat. The rest of the morning is a blur. The director of the perinatal center came into the room to deliver the bad news because the on call doctor was dealing with an emergency in another part of the hospital. We were both already in tears at that point, but I guess she had to officially go over the results of the ultrasound. Then the doctor came in and told us the same thing. She also noted that the gestational sac was way too large for 11 weeks. I am not really sure what that means and at this point, I can't remember what she told me. The director then walked us upstairs to my OB's office and we were seen by one of the other OBs since mine wasn't there today. The doctor walked us through our options and did a quick internal exam to check my cervix. It was still closed, so she reported that the miscarriage probably wouldn't happen on its own at this time. I opted for the medicine that will induce the miscarriage instead of a D&C. I know it will be emotionally and physically painful, but I think it is the best option for me. We then left the hospital and headed home.

I don't really know where to go from here. We have already told our family and friends the sad news. Everyone has been loving and supportive, but there is only so much anyone can say. I guess I will pack up my pregnancy books, maternity clothes, and the baby stuff I bought. I will put it all in the back of my closet. Hopefully it will come out again soon, but I sure don't need to see any of it right now.

Homemade Bread!

A while back I posted that I was going to review a product from CSN stores. Well I am just now getting a chance to review my product! I decided to order the Oster 58-Minute ExpressBake Breadmaker, which came with a free Zwilling JA Henckels International Eversharp Pro Deluxe 8" Bread Knife. The breadmaker comes with an Oster manual/recipe book as well.

We've made bread twice since receiving the breadmaker. Both times the process was super easy and the bread was delicious. I used this Rosemary bread recipe for the ingredients and mixing instructions and left the rest to the breadmaker.

I added the ingredients to the bin:

And added the last cup of flour while it was mixing:

All mixed and kneaded:

3 hours later:

All done:

Using the knife:


We have only used the standard 3 hour bread cycle, but as the product name reveals, there is a setting to make bread in 58 minutes. Pretty convenient for a week night bread making session. My only complaint about the breadmaker is that it is kind of noisy when mixing and kneading. However, I have never used a breadmaker before and they all might be noisy during this part of the process.

Also of note, the breadmaker shipped right away and was at my door in 3 days. Not too shabby. The knife, however, was shipped separately, and didn't arrive until the first week of October. I'm not sure why there was such a delay, but I guess since the knife comes free with the breadmaker purchase, I shouldn't complain too much. Especially since it is such a great knife! We didn't have the knife the first time we made bread, and it wasn't a pretty sight.

If you are in the market for a breadmaker, I definitely recommend this one! Thanks, CSN!

Disclaimer: I was provided with one $40 gift certificate to use toward any product available through CSN sores so that I could review the product. The balance of the bill was paid by me. All opinions expressed are my own.

Clueless Saves the Day

I've had a pretty crappy day. Things were not going my way at work and when I got home this afternoon I had to deal with a washing machine repair man. Boo. Once he left and promised that the washing machine will work this time AND won't spew water all over our new hardwoods again, I settled into the couch to relax and watch some TV.

Luckily things got much better once I found Clueless on HBO. I mean, is there a better movie in the history of teen movies?? I don't think so.

Oh, Clueless. I didn't see it in theaters (I was 10 when it came out) and instead stumbled upon the movie when it was playing on HBO back when I was in 7th grade. (Thank you HBO for picking up what would become one of my favorite movies.) I would scan the little magazine (remember that thing? Oh the days before digital TV!) to find out when it would be playing and attempted to watch it every. single. time. it was on. I somehow did this without my parents knowing that I was watching a PG-13 movie without their approval. I finally got up the nerve and begged my mom to buy the movie for me once it was off HBO. I distinctly remember the Christmas I received the VHS and my mortification when I watched it with my mother at the tender age of 12. Yes, it led to awkward conversations, but i guess I brought it upon myself and can't complain too much. After that day, I kept the tape in my bedroom and only watched it with my girlfriends. Funny how the "embarrassing parts" pale in comparison to some of the stuff on TV and in movies today. But that is neither here nor there. Let's talk about my full on obsession with this movie. You already got a taste, right?

In 8th grade, my two BFFs (one is still my BFF!) and I printed the script and spent an entire sleepover watching and pausing the movie so that we could memorize every line. Do you remember what printers were like in 1998? It took us HOURS to print the hundreds of pages of script. We would replay parts of the movie until we had the next part of the script and could move forward. Why we actually needed the script, I don't remember. It's not like we couldn't have memorized the lines without it (holy triple negative). At the time we thought it was super important to have the script and obviously that it made us cool. We spent the next year quoting the movie non-stop. I guess at some point it became uncool to say "as if" and we reeled in the crazy, but now that Clueless is back as a cult classic, I fondly recall the crash course we took that night.

Needless to say I can still recite the movie to this day. And although many things went over my head back when I watched it in 1998 and there may be slightly different reasons that I love the movie now as compared to then, I still think Clueless is one of the best movies ever. And it will always brighten even the worst of days. Thanks again HBO!

Pizza and Pasta at Oro Pomodoro

A few weeks ago a woman emailed me asking if I would like to try one of the restaurants participating in Rockville Restaurant Week. I of course said yes, so yesterday AJ and I ventured out to the 'burbs for our date night. We decided to try Oro Pomodoro, an Italian restaurant situated in the middle of Rockville Town Square.

Since the weather was so perfect in DC this weekend, when we arrived at Oro, we decided to sit outside. We had a view of everything going on in the square, including a group of guys that were breakdancing on the stage, the millions of kids playing in the rock garden, and the huge group of angsty teens that I'm guessing meet up in the square every weekend. Okay, maybe there weren't a million kids and all the teens weren't angsty, but there were definitely a lot of both and the atmosphere was very different than the one AJ and I are used to in DC. If you are cool with that scene, sit outside and enjoy the weather, otherwise you should take your meal inside. We didn't mind the action at all, but it might not be the right fit for some people.

Onto the food! We were served warm bread with olive oil after ordering and it was so good that we almost ate the whole basket. If we hadn't ordered an appetizer, we definitely would have eaten it all. The appetizer, Bruschette Pomodoro e Mozzarella (grilled rustic bread served with fresh diced tomato, mozzarella, garlic, oregano and basil), was very good (we ate it so fast I forgot to snap a picture), but if we had known we were getting delicious bread for free, we probably would have skipped the Bruschette.

For our entrees we decided to order a pizza and a half order of pasta to share. We went with the Polpettina (fresh tomato sauce, mozzarella, meatballs, parmesan cheese) and Rigatoni alla Sorrentina (rigatoni with fresh mozzarella and basil in a light tomato sauce). So good. In fact, the pizza dough and the free bread appeared to be one and the same (and we all now know how much I loved that bread) so the pizza was a big hit. I definitely recommend both the pizza and the pasta.

The best part? We ordered lemonade, a glass of wine, an appetizer, a pizza, and a half order of pasta and our bill was less than $50 including tip. Yummy, reasonably priced food? You can't beat that. Oro Pomodoro FTW!

If you live in or near Rockville you should definitely check out Restaurant Week. It runs October 4-10, 2010 and features prix-fixe menus at 31 Rockville restaurants. In its’ second year, restaurants are offering either $8 Lunch/$15 Dinner OR $10 Lunch/$25 Dinner pricing options.

Disclaimer: I was provided with one $25 gift certificate to use toward our meal so that we could provide our opinion before Rockville Restaurant week. The balance of the bill was paid by me. All opinions expressed are my own.

MmMMmMm Soup

The forecast for this weekend calls for temperatures in the 60's. I am so excited! The heat has been so oppressive (particularly at an outdoor wedding we attended this past weekend, ugh!) and I am ready for all things fall and winter. Particularly, soup. MmmMmm.

My two favorite homemade soups are vegetable beef soup and my grandma's chicken soup. I posted the chicken soup recipe for the DC Ladies a while back, but the recipe is so good I just have to share it again. I hope you enjoy them both!

Grandma's Chicken Soup

Ingredients:
1 package boneless, skinless chicken breasts
16 oz. chicken broth
Celery, chopped into 1-2 inch logs
Carrots, chopped into discs
Heaping handful of acini de pepe (pasta that looks like tiny beads)
Salt and pepper
Water

Directions:
Fill a soup pot half full of water and bring to a boil. Cook chicken breasts in the boiling water until white throughout. Remove chicken from water and cut into small pieces. Put chicken back into water and add chicken broth, celery, and carrots. Simmer covered for an hour. Add a heaping handful of acini di pepe and cook over medium heat for 10 minutes. Add salt and pepper to taste. Enjoy!

Vegetable Beef Soup

Ingredients:
1 lb ground beef (or ground turkey)
1 medium onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
28 oz. can crushed tomatoes
6 cups water
6 beef bouillon cubes
1 1/2 cups frozen mixed vegetables (corn, peas, carrots)
Heaping handful of orzo
Salt and pepper

Directions:
Cook beef, onion, and garlic in soup pot. Drain grease. Add tomatoes, water, and beef bouillon to beef mixture. Bring to a boil over high heat. Reduce heat to low and simmer uncovered for 20 minutes. Add orzo and frozen vegetables and simmer for 15 minutes. Add salt and pepper to taste. Enjoy!