The 20/20 Experience

First of all...

HAPPY BIRTHDAY ALBERTO!!!! 

I LOVE you with everything that I am and I wish you nothing but the best in your next year <3

Returning to your regularly scheduled post...

I’d been waiting for this day for months. 5 months, to be exact. Although I’ve recently been to a Justin Timberlake show, it was a co-headlinded tour starring both JT and Jay-Z (The Legends of the Summer Tour) I flew down to California to go to the show with my sisters R and J and my niece T and we had a BLAST. It was an amazing show, but, I found myself longing for the JT shows I am used to. Nothing but him…for 2.5-3 hours. His voice, his moves, his cute, cheeky comments. Just absolute bliss. So, when it was time to head to Seattle to see Justin Timberlake in the 20/20 Experience show, in front of a sold out crowd, in front of me…I was just ready. So, so ready. Oh, and…I should probably mention that this show was going to be very different because for the first time, I was going to a JT show without my little sis J. My “concert buddy”. This time, I was going to get to experience JT’s show with another man who has my heart…my amazingly awesome husband Alberto! What a joy…two of my very favorite men in the same space with me for 2.5-3 hours – YES. YES! 

So, after waking Isla and getting her dressed for school, we said goodbye to her (we flew my mom out from Southern California to stay with Isla while we were in Seattle overnight) and hit the road for Seattle. It was a nice, easy drive and we arrived in Seattle at around noon. After checking into the hotel (we got a sweet deal on Groupon for a small hotel/inn about 3 blocks from Key Arena) we decided to explore the area surrounding the arena. First stop? The Space Needle!

It was such a quick walk from our hotel…it felt like it took us 5 minutes. We paid for our tickets (felt kind of expensive, but, we paid anyway) and made our way inside. At the top of this windy ramp, we took a picture (which we got a digital copy of – you’ll see it below) and then jammed ourselves into the elevator with like 25 other people, which would take us to the observation deck of the Needle. Holy COW that elevator goes fast. REALLY fast. Almost nausea inducing fast (for me, anyway…since I am about 6 weeks pregnant). The attendant told us a bunch of stuff while we were enroute to the top. How fast we were going, something about the cables that were taking us up, blah blah blah. I won’t bore you with the details…mostly because I don’t remember them at this point. Anyway, the view, even though it was a cloudy day, was amazing. You can see the waterfront, the city, Mt. Rainier. I mean, 360 degrees of the Emerald City from the best vantage point possible. Super cool. However, it was super COLD…I mean FREEZING outside. Since I’m a wimp from Southern California, we didn’t spend much time outside. That was just fine with me, because, when I am pregnant I am even more of a wimp when it comes to the cold. Like, sleep with two blankets kinda wimp. Anyway, we enjoyed our time (although brief) on top of the beautiful city of Seattle. But, since I am pregnant…I was hungry. You know, cause you’re always hungry when you’re pregnant. No? Well, I am always hungry when I am pregnant. So, down and off into the street we went to find our next destination – somewhere to stuff our faces.

I have a good friend who lives in Seattle and I’d asked her for recommendations for yummy places to eat around Lower Queen Anne. She lives in a different part of the city, so, she didn’t have a whole lot to contribute. But, she did recommend a place to us called Phuket. Thai food – YUM. Thai food is one of my favorites, so, I was delighted to try it. Even better? It was like a block from our hotel! We walked from the Space Needle to Phuket and had an amazing lunch. I know we had two noodle dishes…probably something similar to pad kee mao and pad see ew. I just remember being STUFFED…to max capacity. Thank goodness we only had a block to walk before making it back to the hotel. I’ll give you two guesses to guess what we did when we got back to our room. Have sex? That’s a big NEGATIVE! Who the hell wants to have sex with a belly so full they could barf at the slightest push on it? We took a NAP! ha Yes, we spent 3 hours of our precious child free time napping. But, I really needed a nap anyway, because, the concert was likely to go into the 11/12 o’clock hour and I am notorious for falling asleep before 9p while in my first trimester. And that’s only because we have Isla now. When I was pregnant with her, I’d be asleep in Alberto’s nook (you know, that great space between a man’s shoulder and his peck) at 7/7:30p. So, 9p is pretty good for me! 

Anyway, when we woke from our nap it was time to get all dolled up for the show. We blasted JT’s music from the DVD player in our room, we showered, got beautiful, and headed out the door for what was sure to be a night to remember. I won’t bore you (aka brag) with all the details of that night. But, it was absolutely amazing being in JT’s presence with my husband and getting to share that with him. A couple things though: 1. Our seats sucked. So, we splurged on upgraded seats and it was WELL worth the money. 2. We sat next to a couple with a girl who had a mini crush on me. She was tipsy, of course, but she couldn’t stop telling Alberto how much I rocked and how awesome I was 3. I HATE Seahawks fans. Justin mentioned them a few times and the arena almost busted at the seams with cheers of “SEA-HAWKS!” To make matters worse, Russell Wilson was at the show. Seahawks overload for me, an avid, like long Dallas Cowboys fan. 4. Mackelmore was there, too. All things considered, the show was fabulous, and, it’s a memory I’ll never forget. 

Once it was all over, we made our way back to our room (yes, yes…there was some hanky panky) and got some shut eye.

The next morning we woke, packed, and headed out to a late breakfast at another recommended eatery…Toulouse Petit. OMG. We waited for like 45 minutes for our table, but, wow was it worth it. This place was SO DAMN GOOD. Alberto had an eggs benedict with dungeness crab (holy crap it was decadent), a side of biscuits and gravy (Andouille sausage gravy…to DIE for), and I had crème caramel French toast (the caramel sauce was insanely delicious). All this topped off with French pressed coffee (not too much for me since I am preggo) and OJ (the juice, not the dude). The atmosphere was even nice, too…we will definitely have to go back to that place.

So ended our little excursion to Seattle, and, back home to went…to good ole Portland. We got home just in time to wake Isla from her nap. It was so nice to see her sweet, happy face. She was excited to see her mommy and daddy, and, we were excited to see her too. 

A few pictures of our trip...

And a video..."I know you like it, I know you like it..."

Further Confirmation...

I took another pregnancy test...

Yup - I'm still pregnant. I didn't think I wasn't but, Alberto and I wanted to tell my Mom about our newest little love. So, we decided I'd take a test and show her the positive result. Kind of funny how she reacted...the first thing she said was "But what about nursing school?". ha Guess I'm more like my Mom than I thought, since that was my initial thought too. I explained to her that the baby would be due in mid-September (September 12th, actually...only 4 days before my birthday) and that I wouldn't have to miss school to have the baby. Unless there was a c-section. In that case, I don't know what the hell I'd do. But, I'm thinking positively and hoping for a VBAC. So, yeah...that's what's going to happen. Anyway, after explaining ourselves, my Mom reconciled everything in her head and was happy for us. She expressed congratulatory words and said she would be here to help us with Isla and Baby Bear # 2.

A Surprise

I woke up feeling like something was off. Like I was off.

Maybe I should back it up just a little…

I remember the day before, being paralyzed by an overwhelming feeling of exhaustion sometime in the afternoon. Like I was powerless to move my body off the couch it was laid upon…even if I gave it my very best, my all. Thank goodness my wonderful husband allowed me to lay, and eventually nap for what felt like hours. He’s good about that…taking hints from my ques and entertaining Isla while I do whatever it is I need to be doing at that time (in this case, being a lazy ass and sleeping on our not super comfy great room couch). Anyway, I woke up at some point and there was talk about going to dinner. I wasn’t feeling great…my tummy was mildly upset. But, we rarely go out to dinner with the babe, so, I decided to suck it up because we were going to one of our favorite restaurants in Portland: Blue Olive NW. After a quick drive, we made it downtown and walked a few blocks from a parking garage to our little slice of Mediterranean heaven. Not before lots of talk of the weather though – it was COLD. But, we made it, jackets, boots, scarves and all. When ordering our food, the waiter asked if we were going to have anything to “drink”. You know, an alcoholic beverage of some kind. Usually, I would be all about it and like “YES, I’ll have a whiskey sour!” or “Definitely, can I get a vodka tonic?!?” But, tonight…I just politely said “No thanks…can I have a sprite?” Alberto, once again, followed my lead and asked for water. We enjoyed our dinner (as much as we could, since Isla wasn’t exactly an angel) and headed home. Mostly, that’s all I remember about that day…except, how I randomly though “I wonder if I feel so tired because, dare I say it, I am pregnant?” (I think I may have even texted a friend and asked if she had a pregnancy test - in hind sight, I shouldn't have done that). 

So...that brings me back to the 5^th. Something was off, and, because nothing about how things had been going in our life the days leading up to that were different, I thought we should get a pregnancy test and just see. You know, confirm one way or another that random thought I’d had in my head. So…I peed on the stick, waited the 3 minutes and then called Alberto downstairs to check it with me. I held Isla as the three of us stood in our master bathroom and I repeated over and over in my head “please say no, please say no”. But, at some point I must’ve said that aloud because Alberto looked and me and said “really?” and showed me the test. It was NOT negative, it was POSITIVE. Apparently, that paralyzing exhaustion I was experiencing the day before happened because my body was busy making a human! 

I AM PREGNANT. 

Shit, I thought. Shit. This is absolutely NOT what was on the agenda for right now. I JUST finished all the pre-req requirements to apply to nursing school. In fact, I was going to submit the damn applications in the coming week. SHIT! Then, the panic settled in and I just started bawling. Bawling because of the plans we’d been working towards, because it was a surprise that I was not prepared for…because I was scared. See, the holidays had just passed and I had been drinking. A LOT. I drank mimosas ALL DAY on Christmas. I had many drinks on many days between then and New Years Eve. I drank LOTS on that night, too. Hell, I woke up and drank on New Years Day. So, I bawled because I was scared I’d hurt my baby before I’d ever even known there was a baby. I bawled because I hadn’t been taking prenatal vitamins in preparation for becoming pregnant. I bawled because I was bawling after finding out I was pregnant, which, is such a gift from God. Alberto, on the other hand was happy. Excited. Positive, and…just happy. He’s wanted another child for quite some time now. Definitely before I knew I wanted another child.

Eventually, after the panic subsided and I moved on with the things I have to do on a daily basis (make dinner for Isla, try to find something for Al and I to eat, bathe/clothe Isla, etc.), I settled into the fact that I was pregnant and I said “fuck it” and decided that it wasn’t that bad. That I could do this. That I could go to nursing school and have an infant and a toddler and a husband and make it all work. Because, I’m awesome like that. Oh, and I’d recruit my mom to come back to live with us and she’d help too. It would be great! And so I stopped worrying and I decided to smile and relax…and take joy in the fact that we’d did it again. We’d made a baby from our love and that was something to be proud of and be joyful about.

PS - here's the proof...