In Her Own Words

Melissa, one of my best friends from high school, sent me an email last week that had me crying at my desk. She and I wrote back and forth several times and I encouraged her to post these thoughts on her blog because I knew it would benefit others. Several of you have opened up to me about your own miscarriages so I wanted to include the link to her blog post, which covers what she put in her email.

On a similar note, I'd like to encourage each of you to tell people when and how you pray for them. I'm not saying you need to send out daily emails, but Melissa will never know how much her email meant to me.

Click HERE to read her post.

San Francisco - Day 1

Thursday, October 20, 2011

Our flight took off at 6:30 am so we’d set our alarms for 4:00 to make sure we’d get to the airport in plenty of time. Due to our excitement, we both woke up with no problem and had quite cheery dispositions. The flight was uneventful except for the strangest flight attendant we’ve ever encountered. She was totally passive aggressive. I’m not sure if she’d had a fight with her husband, boyfriend, or dog that morning but everything that came out of her mouth had us tilting our heads in amused confusion. We were both expecting her final words to be, “Thank you for flying United. You can all go to hell.”

Once we arrived in San Francisco we took a taxi to the rental car agency and picked up a brand new Impala (holla). We were on our way north! We drove over the Golden Gate Bridge and straight to Muir Woods National Monument. What I thought would be a quick side excursion turned into one of the highlights of our trip. Muir Woods was absolutely breathtaking. We were there early enough that we didn’t have to share the path with many others, which meant a nice relaxing stroll in the middle of a redwood forest (“to the gulf stream waters”). As I mentioned in an earlier post, this was where we celebrated our 4th anniversary. Not bad!

Do you see me?

And a short video if you're interested... (Michael was making a funny noise in the background. You might not be able to hear it but that is why I say, "That's Michael." I did not name the tree Michael. Thank you.)

We stopped by the gift shop and picked up a ceramic mug commemorating our time at Muir Woods. By this point we’d worked up an appetite so we drove south to Sausalito and had lunch at Le Garage. This place was terrific! While it was actually in a garage (French garage?), the place was pretty upscale and the food was delicious. Michael had a Kobe beef burger and I had lobster salad, all the while enjoying the boats docked right outside.

We did a “driving tour” (navigated by yours truly) of Sausalito and then continued north to Healdsburg (wine country). Healdsburg was one of the coolest towns we’ve ever visited and I highly recommend it if you are visiting the area. It was quaint without being cute, busy without being touristy. If that makes sense. We checked into the H2Hotel (another highlight of the trip) and then walked around the Town Square. La Crema was one of my favorite wines from my waitressing days so we made sure to stop at their tasting room. The sommelier was new and decent at best but we had a great time and the wine was delicious. Afterward we walked to Williamson Wines, which is a tiny vineyard in Healdsburg. It was there we met Reese, the sweetest guy ever. He knew so much about their wines and paired each tasting with a bite o' food. In case you are curious, there are two very large differences between wine tasting in wine country vs. everywhere else: The pours are very generous and oftentimes there is no bucket. You don’t love it? You still drink it. That being the case, I was feeling FANTASTIC by the end of our second tasting. At one point I told Reese I couldn’t feel my face, which was immediately followed by an “Oooook, Reese could you give us a moment?” from Michael. I got a “lock it up” lecture (haha) and then we proceeded to join their wine club for a year. (Sidenote: we received our first shipment last week and I was so scared the wine would taste terrible sober. Wrong! It was still delicious!)

After walking around a bit more, we went back to our hotel and got ready for dinner at the Spoon Bar. It was the restaurant inside our hotel and they’d opened the walls (windows) since it was such a pretty evening. We had a lovely view of the Town Square as well as the Rangers game. We were both tired by this point so we asked that dessert be delivered to our room. I had two bites before falling asleep. It was the perfect first day.

H2Hotel (Highly recommend--amazing and environmentally friendly!)

Bamboo floors

Lobby

The Spoon Bar (Hotel Restaurant and where we had dinner)

10,000 spoons (when all ya need is a knife)

Up close

View of the balconies

The bottom of this picture is the "green living roof" of our hotel (filters rainwater and reduces the amount of heat the hotel gives off. Learn more here!)

Park in Healdsburg

This is probably 5 minutes before I couldn't feel my face. Lovely.

Stay tuned for Day 2, the day we traveled through wine country!

Friends

Warning: This post is ridiculously sappy. I don't know what came over me but holy cow get ready.

We've been out of town the past two weekends and while we're both fairly tired, the visits were absolutely worth it. Two weekends ago we traveled to Tulsa and had a reunion with several of my college friends, and this weekend we traveled to Mount Magazine (Arkansas) to visit one of my high school best friends. You probably noticed that both visits were to see "my" friends, but Michael said one of the nicest things on our drive home today. He talked about how glad he was that I'd made (and kept up with) such wonderful friends, and in turn how happy he was that they'd each married amazing guys who he now considers his friends as well. Music to my ears. While I know family comes first, I'd have a hard time marrying someone who didn't love and support the relationships I'd made before we married. He's quite the opposite and is constantly encouraging me to give one a call or find out how another is doing. To see him talking and laughing with each of them is one of the greatest gifts he could give me. And while this post is about the past two weekends, let it be known that I feel the same way about his friends--we're both so fortunate.

Tulsa

We left right after work and headed to Kait and Steve's house. Leighton was already asleep so we sat around their dining table and caught up on the past few months. Kait is constantly updating their house with beautiful furniture or awesome throw pillows so it's always great to see the place. Saturday morning we met up with the rest of the group at Dilly Deli (aahhhhh, I love that place so much!) and were introduced to beautiful baby Siena. I know it's so cliché to say, "We picked up right where we left off" but I don't know how else to describe it. Let's just say if there was a television reality show for the best set of friends I'd submit us in a heartbeat. Mostly because I'm so competitive and would love to retire early... But I really think we'd stand a good chance. The girls (Summer, Emily, Kaitlin, Siena, and myself) split from the dudes and went to Utica Square so we could visit our favorite Starbucks. I've known these girls for 11 years and it just gets better every time we see each other. While a visit doesn't go by without discussing our crazy college antics, it's clear we've all grown up a bit and our "new" stories are just as fun and fascinating as the old.

We drove back to Kait's place and the boys picked up some steak, fish and chicken for a grand cookout. Food was delicious and the night ended with Oklahoma's largest earthquake. Perfect way to end the night. :)

On Sunday Leighton found my phone, which has a picture of our favorite fat feline, Thumbs Magee. She looked at me and said, "Kitty? Kitty!" and I swear I almost took her to a cat store (yes, I said cat store) to buy her a kitty. It was precious. She'd leave my side to play and then come back moments later and ask to see the kitty again. I missed that girl the moment we got in the car to drive back to Dallas.

While we were there I took some pictures of Summer's beautiful family. I also managed a 2-minute photo session with the sweetest ginger I know.

Mount Magazine

Last October the two of us along with Leslie, Julie, and their counterparts met in Fort Smith and together we visited Arkansas wine country. We named it Altoberfest (Altus, Arkansas) and decided we'd do it every year. Unfortunately, Julie and Mark weren't able to make it this year due to their recent move to Charleston. We missed them so much. The trip got pushed back to November and Leslie had the excellent idea to switch it up and head to Mount Magazine State Park. Seeing that she is 19 weeks pregnant, a winery tour would've been a bit boring. We met up yesterday morning so Michael and I could see Riggs before we drove east. When he's excited or surprised he gets a huge grin on his face and yells "Oh wowee!" It is absolutely adorable. We had a great lunch at Grapevine Restaurant in Paris (not that I really need to clarify but I'm not referring to the city in France), and then made our way to the Mount Magazine lodge. The foliage is breathtaking right now--I couldn't get over all of the colors. I'm used to Dallas, which has a lovely mix of green and dead. It's gorgeous.

The wind was ridiculous so our plans of hiking turned into sitting inside the lodge and staring at the beautiful view. Dinner was "meh" but I'm not sure any of us really cared. I love that couple so much (and I think they should write a book on parenting). When Leslie found out about my miscarriage, she asked if she could come to Dallas (after dropping off Riggs in Fort Smith) so she could be with me. You guys, the girl lives in Memphis and was ready to jump in a car and drive 10+ hours so she could cry with me. Of course I told her it was not necessary but what made it so special is I knew she would've done it in a heartbeat if I'd said yes. How did I get so lucky?

Sorry for the brief side story. Back to Mount Magazine. After dinner we watched Bridesmaids and then had a delicious breakfast this morning with the same beautiful view. It was SO great to see them.

Both visits just made my heart hurt and soar at the same time. I miss those girls like crazy. I learn something new about each of us every time we're together. Regardless, I ended each weekend feeling so content. Of course I wish we all lived on the same street and met each other for coffee each morning (did I mention my high school and college friends all get along too?!) but I know that will never happen. What I DO know is my Prius better be prepared for a lot more road trips because these visits are never going to stop.

Shutter speed is fun...