Reason # 926 I love Whole Foods

So I'm grocery shopping at my fav and a lady comes on the speaker:

"Attention shoppers, Whole Foods is now offering a class on juicing starting right now in the room west of the cafe"

So I parked my cart at customer service and went next door. Great little class, I learned a few new things. The best part is that the lady who taught it is a midwife and offers more classes about prenatal nutrition, etc. Eeek! That's really exciting to me!

In other news, it's my Grandma Ross' & Laurie's Birthday today!! Happy Birthday, ladies!

A Family Manifesto

After making very little headway on our family mission statement over the last few months I came upon some inspiration last week via Oh Dee Doh

(Also found on Esty and aardvarkonsea.com)

And this book Jason is reading that he asked me to read too:

I wikipedia-ed "manifesto" yesterday and came up with this:

A manifesto is a public declaration of principles and intentions, often political in nature. Manifestos relating to religious belief are generally referred to as a creed. Manifestos may also be life stance-related.

I like that line about life stance related. a lot.

So, I think I'm going to be writing a family manifesto instead.

I have lots of notes written down, now I just need to consolidate them into an artful piece!

week four

Today marks four weeks out from losing our baby. It feels like it was four months ago already. Time is so funny like that: slow going when your in the trenches yet so distant once it's in the past.

The time has not come for us to try again yet, so I've done my best to look on the bright side. My mom said some of these were a stretch, but way to be positive! ha!

I've worn that pair of shorts that didn't really fit in June and July

I've gone boating twice

I've supported and encouraged a friend who miscarried last week

I've had red wine

I've jumped off a cliff at the lake

I've stayed up late

I've finally said yes to assisting Brenda with her photography business

I've continued to peruse the "xs" rack at Target

"You will find what you are looking for in life: are you a humming bird seeking out sweet nectar or a vulture scanning for rotten stuff?" -Craig Groeschel

SUNday at Grand, part II

Jason and I joined our pals Robert and Rachel at Grand Lake this past weekend.

Saturday evening we cruised over to Driping Springs and jumped off the cliff there- I didn't take my camera, so this is just a photo I found online

Rob gave us all jumping instructions, "Jump straight and stiff- arms to the side and toes down. No flailing." I got those instructions right...but here's what pretty much happened to me

My whole back side is quite tender and I have a ginormous blue bruise on the back of one of my legs. I've gone cliff jumping a couple times over the last 5 years and never had that happen! My little body acted like a feather on the way down- ouch!

Then we also went sailing one afternoon- Rachel, Jason and I became part of the dam touchers club.

(Pensacola Dam at Grand Lake)

I wish I had a pic of us four in the sailboat- but my camera battery died right after I took this pic...me and the camera just couldn't quite make it together on this trip.

I came across this awesome quote for our weekend since we did both:

There are two ways to travel on the water. A motor boat gets you from point A to point B in the most expedient fashion, with the objective of the ride being just the destination. A sail boat on the other hand, may have point B as a secondary goal, but its primary purpose is the pleasure of the journey. It may zigzag through the water at an indeterminate rate of speed, and may or may not get to the other side in a timely fashion, but the sailor has the pleasure of the experience.

And a pleasurable experience we had! Thanks Rob & Rach!

Wedding Bells for KB!

A snapshot from my college roommate's recent wedding reception-

Kara (I call her KB)- has been teaching English at a college in China the last 2 years. There she met Peter, who was there teaching Korean. It was so cool to finally meet him- I've been following her blog (ok, she has two) since I discovered what blogs are!

Kara & Peter got married in her backyard with their two families present- I got this pic from her America blog...it's just so darn cute. So Kara.

I told her at her reception- I've always known she wouldn't marry an American!

She responded that she knew the same :)

~~~~~~~~~~~~

And here's a couple oldies for the fun of it!

(I've known Kara her whole life!)

Kara's mom, Erin (left), is holding me as an infant, winter '84. I'm 14 months older than Kara, so she's probably not even in existence yet here! (My mom is on the right)

I'm in the pink star ensemble and Kara is the girl with the long hair in the back

Most likely Christmas '89 or '90

SUNday at Grand

I got to see some of my cousins from Texas again this last weekend! They came up to spend the weekend with my parents at Grand Lake, so Vanessa and I snuck away to spend Sunday with them.

Charlee came and 'helped' me out of bed kinda early that morning, so then she showed me how to make a 'mocha' coffee. Mostly milk, chocolate, and whipped cream! Not much coffee!

At least half of our mochas were filled with whipped cream!

Charlee caught four fish that morning with my dad!

Cousin Kennah, with Vanessa and me.

This was on Saturday- Stephen and Charlee tubing

My mom helped Charlee fry up the fish she caught- we each got about 1/2 a bite! Charlee was just thrilled we were eating her fish, even if they were small!

(thanks to Kennah for sharing her pics with us!)

Sweet Summertime!

One of my summertime faves...

Sally Hanson Insta-Dry nail polish!

(My finger nails are "mint sprint" turquoise!)

(my toe nails are "brisk blue"!)

Jason says he doesn't understand the obsession- oh but my sister and girlfriends do!

Eat my words...

...so maybe we do live on a farm. Scratch that last post about the nice neighborhood...the very next day after that blog published we found a POSSUM in our house!

I was already asleep (at 12:30am) when Jason ran in our room, flipped on the lights and hollered at me, "Andrea come QUICK! There's a possum in our bathroom!!"

I was less than amused at him waking me up over a possum, but I obliged and got my camera to watch him corral this thing into a box. I had visions of a big nasty possum- wondering how it got in our house- but it turned out just to be a baby. We concluded it must have come through the plumbing access in the hot water closet. Finnigan has gone under the house that way before, but all we did to solve that problem was nail the door shut. Finn is too big to go under the gap beneath the door to that closet...he is however constantly interested in what is going on in that closet, now I know for good reason!

I got a great laugh out of my giant husband perched on the edge of the tub trying to poke the possum into a box! Jason was a bit concerned as he didn't know what possums can do- can they jump? do they have rabies? So he stayed a safe distance back! (The bowl was our first thought at trying to capture the creature, we ended up with a broom and a box.)

Apparently they must be able to jump- the little guy was no longer in the box on our front porch in the morning. (Jason was going to show the neighbor kids if it was still there.)

too good to pass up

a comment that is...via email our friend, Rob, responded to my chicken post:

I feel as though there should be some note about the chickens and the squash. Like "Note: we do not live on a farm but instead in the middle of one of the nicest neighborhoods in Tulsa..."

tis true...

(this morning's bounty)

...Elizabeth doesn't call them the "Mapleridge Egg Factory" for nothing!

Sneak Peek!

My mom's brother & sister's families visited Tulsa this past weekend in celebration of my Grandparent's 60th wedding anniversary- so here we are, the whole gang!

I was so thrilled it worked out for us to have Brenda Horan take our family photo before she left on vacation. Here's one of the sneak peeks she emailed me before she left!

Ross Family 2010

processing

Today marks 2 weeks since the miscarriage started. It did it's thing, it's over. Now it's strange to think that today I would be 14 weeks. In the blink of an eye life is back to how it was in April. It's hard to not think of these last 3 months as time lost, all for nothing. But they're not- our lives happened then too...they were just different.

My next door neighbor told me something her dr. had told her- "basically humans just aren't very good at reproducing"- Elizabeth's had 4 miscarriages.

I'm finding that to be more and more true as people have offered their sympathy. I never had a clue to the miscarriage world prior to this- my mom never had one, Jason's mom never had one, my aunt with SIX kids never had one...but now that our news has made it's way around SO many moms (and even a few fathers) have told me they lost their first and then one, two, three, and even four more in the midst of all their kiddos. At least 3 new people told me yesterday about their losses too.

I wonder why so many don't make it? After Googling, it's not really known why so many women miscarry (most within the first 12 weeks), pretty much because it's never investigated or a woman didn't even know she was pregnant. Just chalk it up to life happening and move on. That's what we've had to do. We will never know why our little babe didn't grow right and didn't get to enter this world.

I've had a tremendous amount of peace about it all. I cried deep and hard Thursday night 2 weeks ago, but that's it. Everyone keeps telling me how emotional it can be...but it just hasn't been terrible for me. I'm so grateful it hasn't.

I wonder how long it will take to get pregnant again- but as Jason always tells me- we aren't "trying", we'll just let it happen. I think that's easier for him to say, his body doesn't run on a cycle...time is just different for a man in that regard. I'm definitely nervous about being pregnant again. I just have to shut the "what ifs" off right as they begin. Only time will tell.

We both love the movie "Meet the Robinson's" (It's a Pixar film- we highly recommend it if you you haven't seen it!)- from it, we have a big quote in our living room: Keep Moving Forward. And that's exactly what we are doing.

(Photos from our family pics with Brenda last week- more to come!)

Chick Chick Chick-a-dee!

Remember my neighbors baby chicks!?

Well they've become big chicks that lay eggs! We take Dan & Elizabeth some squash, they ring my doorbell and give me eggs! I have GREAT neighbors!!

Here's a few cuties!

(these became an omelet right after I snapped the pic!)

Melt my heart

Just melt my heart, sweet husband!

It was really bittersweet to watch Jason be so interested in holding

baby Katy at Michael & Megan's wedding.

1- cause we both knew we were losing our baby that day and

2- cause I've never known Jason to seek out holding a small baby