Let’s Meet some Friends

While we were on Thanksgiving Break, my friend Natalie and her adorable daughter McKinley were going to be in Ohio visiting her family. We picked a spot that was halfway for both of us and decided to meet for lunch the day before Thanksgiving! Yay! I love meeting long-distance friends! Since we only have one car right now, it was best to have all of us take the roadtrip up to meet her. Plus I was happy that she would be able to meet my husband too.

You know how you are before you meet someone that you have talked with for a long time, I’m talking over a year. You are kinda nervous. You know, wondering will we get along as well as we do on FB/Twitter/Blogs etc. Am I as funny/witty/adorable as my writing and status updates are? LOL.

She is as sweet and down to earth in person as I thought she would be! She is such a pretty lady and we had a nice visit talking and catching up.

Isn’t her mini-me even more adorable! Look at those eyelashes! It was crazy to see this little baby (who I had seen growing and learning thru her momma’s pictures ) pick up french fries like a toddler. She is such a good girl!

It was so nice to meet her and I’m so glad we set something up while she was in the state. Grace was a little fussy after the longer car ride, and wanted to be held most of the time we were eating, so me and my husband took turns holding her. Hopefully if we do it again in the future, she and McKinley can play and color on some place mats or something.

Thank you Natalie for all the friendship and advice you have given me throughout my pregnancy and the last few months of learning to live and understand my baby girl.  It has meant so much to me and I am thankful for you!

Grace’s letter to McLittle

Dear McLittle,

Hi, my name is Grace. You don’t know me, but you have probably heard your mom talking about me and my mom, her name is Mendie. They are friends.  I was born less than 3 months ago, so they have shared alot of stories while they were carrying us in their tummies.

 Your mommy sent us a package when I was born, it had this outfit in it. Isn’t it cute! (Don’t worry, you are a boy so you won’t have to wear those big bows on your head. My mom thinks I look ADORABLE in them so she puts them on me all the time.)

The last 9 months while you have been busy growing into a tiny human, your mom has provided a comfy little suite for you. Well your lease is up babe, actually you were supposed to leave the premises yesterday but I guess you weren’t quite finished in there yet. I know how you feel, I wasn’t in any hurry to get out either, but one morning I started feeling the whole place shake and knew it was time to get out of there!  Hopefully you will begin your voyage this weekend and leave the little cocoon you have been wrapped in. I know I was getting cramped in my old place, it feels so good to be able to stretch your legs!

You are about to be born soon, and I know that you have no idea what that means, but since I went thru the same thing I just wanted to give you a heads up about what to possibly expect. These are just some of the things I can remember about it. 

• First, there may some strange noises coming from your mom on your way out of the womb. These can range from grunts, to moans to cries….heck she might even scream. Don’t worry its just how she is handling the whole process. She doesn’t normally sound like that. 
• Second, once you are born and the doctor holds you up for everyone to see, be sure to push all that air out of your lungs and let out a good cry. Mommy and Daddy are waiting for your first sound, so don’t keep them waiting too long!
• Third, there will be a new way for you to get your food. Don’t be afraid of it, you’ll both get the hang of it before you know it. It’s pretty neat how it works, your mommy will take care of you.
• Fourth, you are about to meet a lot of new people who have been waiting for you to make your appearance. You may recognize some of their voices. They are all so big and tall! But just be prepared, alot of them will talk in a funny high pitched voice. I guess thats how they think we will understand them. They make funny faces too.
• Fifth, when you get home you will meet your “big sister” Chloe. I had two of them waiting for me, except mine were of the canine variety. She is used to being the center of attention, so don’t be surprised if she is curious and checks you out for a while. I hear she is a big fan of your momma, so I know you guys will get along great one day!

I know my mom is excited to see pictures of you once you are here. She says that its an amazing thing to be able to finally hold that little baby that was growing in her belly for so long. And I can tell she loves it, she wants to hold me all the time and tells me she loves me like every five minutes! You will get so much love and attention too….I think you are going to be pretty happy  with the parents you have!

Your Mommy and Daddy are special people and are going to teach you so much stuff and take you lots of fun places when you are older! And don’t worry, you will be able to hear that music they have been playing much better once you are born.  At first you will be pretty tired and will probably nap alot, its tough work being a baby. But before you know it you will start realizing you can do so much….we have these things called hands that I just discovered and you can move them and make them grab things…its pretty cool!

So until you get here and we find out your real name, I will say goodbye for now McLittle. So make it quick little buddy…you have so many people waiting for your arrival! Good luck and I hope you have a quick and safe trip into the world!

Your future friend, 

Grace

Buckeye Retreat

Hope you all had a great weekend, it went by really quick didn’t it? It REALLY went by quick for me….because I got to hang out with Brooke and Bari! That’s right, in a little thing we called Buckeye Hooker Retreat. (Don’t worry the Hooker part is just a sisterhood girlfriend thing, we are all happily married women).

The girls arrived Friday night. Bari got there first and Brooke got in about an hour later. My first thought, besides how great they both looked (and how tiny they are….they do the Sisterhood proud ladies, you can totally tell they are runners and athletes!) was how cute they sounded!  We had shared countless emails and texts, but I had only talked with Bari once a few months ago. So it was nice to actually talk to them.

We just hung around and ate some sammies and sampled a few beverages that they had brought with them from some of their local breweries and chatted until it was time for bed. I’m sure they were exhausted from driving so far. We had to get up early to get our run on before the day began.

That’s right…I said our run.  I got to run with some sisters!  While we all know that both of them could have easily took off and did their own thing, yet, bless their hearts, they ran at my pace, even walking when I had to.  They knew about the trouble I was having last week when I switched to the 8/5 intervals.  Bari suggested running 5’s again since I had luck with that and decreasing the walking to a minute and see how that went.  It went really good!  I actually did a 5, then some 4’s and 3’s and made it around 2 laps in just under 30 minutes.  Much to my surprise….thanks to Bari’s fabulous Map My Run App…turns out the 2 laps that I had been calling 2 miles were actually 2.25 miles!  Woohoo…I’m faster then I thought I was!  It was great to run with them, even if I was panting like a beast.

After our run we freshedned up and headed to Granville to go to the Farmers Market. Granville is a nice college town and there are some really pretty old homes, so it was nice to walk down the streets from where we parked and look at some of the architecture.

It was a beautiful day so it was nice to walk around and see what the local vendors had.  We passed up a lot of the goodies like the ginormous whoopie cakes above and sampled a few yummies, but nothing insane. I had never been to the farmers market, but I am thinking about taking my husband back in a few weeks.  Nice little getaway.

After spending some time there, we headed out to Longaberger Homestead.  I figured when will these girls ever get the chance again to see a humongous basket, right? Plus I used to work there so that was fun.  Have you ever seen such cute babes in a basket? I didn’t think so!

Again there were tons of goodies and chocolate covered pretzels that I probably would have gnawed someones arm off for, but we were good and just sampled a few pretzel dips and strawberry lemonade.

It was fun to walk thru and see all the different products…including the cute little owl coaster that made me think of Melissa!

By the time we got home from traveling all over the county, and stopping and enjoying Subway for lunch, we had a few hours before we were heading out to the Lake.  So we sampled a few more beers and some Moonshine Cherries that were brought.

Oh my word….wow….those are some strong pieces of fruit.  You can taste the fruit for a minute, then it is covered by the burning taste of pure alcohol.  Good times!

Then it was time to head out to Buckeye Lake! Wish we had a boat we could have hung out on, but we didn’t so we opted just to sit by the water and swoon over other peoples boats.

We met up with my inlaws for my brother in laws birthday dinner.  It was really hot when we first got there before the sun went down, but soon after it was a nice night on the water.  They had a band and we had a good time before our food got there.  (stupid waitress obviously forgot to put Brooke’s order in as we were almost done by the time hers came…sorry Brooke!)

We came back and *may have possibly* sampled some more beers. *POSSIBLY* ;o)

The next day we hung out and cheered Beki on as she finished her half marathon before heading to Easton, an outdoor shopping center.

We really were blessed with good weather, it was warm and even bordered on hot in the mid afternoon hours, but it was much better then dealing with any rain or storms.  We walked around for a few hours, shopping and trying to burn off some of the lunch that we ate (yummy Five Guys).

The girls took off late that afternoon and before we knew it, our girls weekend was over.

I am so thankful that I got to meet these wonderful ladies, they are so sweet and down to earth and we had a great time just getting to know each other and talking about whatever popped into our minds.  I can’t wait to do it again.  Thanks ladies, I am truely blessed to call you guys friends….a big Buckeye mwah to my sisters!