Last Christmas

When I was at my 20 week check-up earlier this week, my Nurse Practitioner said something that I hadn't thought about until the moment it came out of her mouth. " Have a good holiday and enjoy the last one you'll have with just yourselves. Next year you will be standing in line at the toy store because the baby will be here next Christmas." Yup- I hadn't even thought bout how this is our last Christmas "just us".

I remember the first Christmas we were together- nearly 11 years ago. I had been living in San Francisco and Greg was here in Sacramento. Trading weekends when we could just to spend time together. First gift from Greg? A space heater because my room was so cold. What a practical gift, right? We still have that space heater- a little old but still works!

I remember the Christmas before we got engaged- 5 years ago. We were exchanging gifts before our whirlwind trip to Madera and then Concord. He handed me a small box and I was a little nervous to open it. I shouldn't have been because it was an iPod! It makes me giggle now because little did I know he was planning on proposing to me a few weeks later while we were in Tahoe! After the proposal, I asked him if he wanted the iPod back!

And now we are in 2011. This is our first Christmas pregnant but our last as "just us". I am so happy to share this Christmas as "just us" with Greg. As long as I can remember, I have always wanted my life- the loving hubby who gets along with my amazing Mama Smith, living in a home that is not fancy but practical and a baby. I think Santa and God has gotten my wish list spot on for this year.

It's a....

After all the anticipation, the waiting and the suspense- we finally found out what we are having...a BOY! We are so excited about knowing what is growing inside of me! We both had said that it didn't matter to us whether our baby was a boy or a girl, but we just wanted to know.

Before we found out, I had bought a handful of really cheap toddler clothing in boy and girl styles in anticipation of the day we would have a baby of our own. I had collected a few things and last week came to the realization that pink was not going to be an option ( at least not yet- and if our boy wants to wear pinks and purples later on I will gladly let him do that!) . Which lead the wheels to start turning in my head- are we going to go the traditional route and go blue and green? And what about tractors and lizards and dragons? And then will his room have to be "masculine"? And then I stopped to just enjoy the fact that we are having a little boy. And we can think about all the little things later!

We are so excited and looking forward to many more milestones during the next months.

Girl or Boy Martinez?

One week from today, we find out what we are having! Obviously a baby human, but if we are lucky and our child is not shy, we will know whether or not we have a Baby Greg or a Baby Jenny! I for one, am super stoked about finding out. Greg is, too. Who knew that this time would fly by and we are now in week 18!!

You may find yourself asking, " What are you hoping for?" I can honestly say that we are just hoping for happy and healthy- and I am not hiding anything when I state that sentiment. Since finding out we would become parents many weeks ago, we have just relished in the joy of creating a baby. I can picture a little boy or little girl running around our lawn and us loving every minute of it.

In the next 7 days we will be anxiously awaiting the ultrasound- if the baby is anything like me, it will definitely not be shy!

Pregnant ladies everywhere!

Before I was pregnant, I never noticed the pregnant ladies around me. Sure, I was one of those people who was fawning over babies and when seeing a baby bump on women would say   , " Oh, what a cute pregnant lady!" but, I was never as aware as I am now about all the pregnant women surrounding me. I have heard that your senses are heightened while pregnant. Even Greg has noticed all the expectant mothers all around us.

My baby bump has "come out" in the last few weeks and I am definitely hyper aware of it. When I look down, I can see the slow development of what will be a huge bump in the coming months. My pants are being held together by a rubber band and this cloth tube thing ( which is quite comfortable but annoying to deal with in the potty) which should get me through until I have to wear maternity pants. Incidentally, thank you to my girlfriend Melissa for letting me shop in your "boutique". You have saved me quite a few bucks!

As of this writing, I am 16 weeks and very excited to reach 19 weeks since that is when we get to find out if we are having a boy or a girl ( if they aren't shy that day!). People have asked us if we prefer one over the other and our answer is " a healthy baby". It's fun to see what people around us think- most people have predicted we will have a girl. I guess we will see on December 7th- and so will all of you!

Found a peanut...

Since it has been a while since I have posted something new, I figured why not make it a big one. After much hoping and praying and wishing...Greg and I are expecting a little one! We are 13 weeks along and very excited!

Our first glimpse of the baby  was very exciting. I was on the table and looked over and just said, " That's a baby". The doctor chuckled and said, "yes, it is." I had to see the  baby to actually believe that I was carrying a child. The moment we had been hoping for for so long, had finally come. We were going to be parents. We are parents. Wow.

There you have it- Baby Martinez will be coming in May 2012 and we cannot wait!! Definitely more blogging to come!

My other, other bestie

I have to admit, that when it comes to making friends, I am pretty good at it. Now, before you call me arrogant, hear me out- this isn't coming from a place of arrogance or self adoration, but merely an observation that many people have made and then told me. As a kid I was painfully shy. You would never know it by how I turned out. I was the quiet, sensitive child ( sensitive = crybaby) who would cling to her mom at parties or keep to herself ( mostly) at school. I didn't quite come out of my shell until Junior High School- but that is another story for another blog.

Friendship is very important to women, which makes it really important to me. The reason I bring this up is that one of my dearest friends, Kelly is leaving. Here's the scoop- we met at work almost 9 years ago. At first we were only co-workers- the occasional chat at work, the pleasantries, etc. Lucky for me, we became great friends. She is a wonderful person who has been there for me when I was going crazy planning my wedding,  stressing about running, stressing about work, rejoicing in my running, and living in my moments of happiness. Next to my husband and mom, I know that I could call her at 3 a.m. if I needed to talk . She might not be happy that I called her that early but she wouldn't tell me that until the next day!

Kelly is amazing and I am going to miss her very much. Oh, I didn't say where she was going, did I? She got a promotion in our company, and is starting her new job on Monday. Lucky for me, she is not moving out of town. I just won't see her as often. I am super proud of her accomplishment and wish her the best of luck!

Corndogs are a girls best friend

Until I lived in Sacramento, I had never been to the State Fair. If y'all have never been, let me enlighten you. The State Fair is kinda like a County fair but at least 3 times the size. At least that's my opinion, coming from a small town with an even smaller fair. There are lots of sights to see and lots of food to eat!

I love food. When I go to the fair, I have a specific menu I adhere to- always a corndog and some sort of sweet treat. Let me say, that when it comes to unhealthy but delicious food, the State Fair takes the cake ( deep fried of course!) When Greg and I decided to go to the fair this year, we actually showed some restraint. We got the brick of french fries- it literally was a brick of squiggly fries in the shape of the basket they were fried in topped with chili and cheese. Yup- and it actually went uphill from there!  We both got our corndog and the ended the day with a soft serve cone dipped in chocolate. No Pepto moment for us!

Freeze Dried Fun

Just this past week, I went on a three day GIRLS ONLY backpacking trip. Yup- 8 women in the wild for two nights and three days with no man in sight. Well, there were men, but none were allowed to help us! For those of you in the world who have never experienced backpacking let me give you a quick run down on how it works.

Backpacking is where you pack up a big backpack full of supplies for a certain amount of time. For example, you would pack things like, food, shelter, clothing, toiletries etc. When I was younger ( read: in my twenties) I have packed before. One of the times was in Zimbabwe, while I was serving as a Peace Corps Volunteer. Quite frankly, some days it felt like I was camping everyday since I had no running water and had to poop in the same place I showered, but I digress...The most recent time I went was with Greg and 2 of our friends in an area outside of Sonora/Angels Camp where we had to carry a bear cannister ( a container to put our food and anything that smelled delectable to bears)  and also filter any and all of the water we were to consume. My one requirement for this girls trip was that we didn't go to bear country!

Back in January I had made the decision to "say yes" to most things that came my way. With that in mind, I was the first person to sign up when my friend Becca asked if I wanted to go on a ladies only backpacking trip. The funny thing about a ladies only trip is that there is almost certainly going to be someone who had never gone backpacking before. so I knew I at least had a few trips under my belt, so why not!

Three days and two nights sure seemed heavy- and I don't mean in the metaphorical sense! In order to get your pack under a certain weight, it requires a bit of finagling and distributing weight and determining if you really need clean underwear for each day you are on the trail ( yup- you definitely don't want to skimp on the undies ) . Greg was not about to let me out of the house with my pack being more than 30 lbs. and I was a  little worried that I wouldn't be able to do it. When tuesday morning rolled around, my pack weighed a little over 31 lbs. but there was no way I was leaving anything behind!

Ready to take on Point Reyes!

We met up at the Bear Valley Visitor Center at Point Reyes on Tuesday a little before noon. There were 8 of us and we were all ready for our adventure.

The first day we hiked out to Wildcat Camp which would end up being almost 7 miles of hiking. During this hike we would encounter poison oak, stinging nettles, endure the hottest of the three days and test our will power not to eat all of our snacks on that first day just to get the weight down from our packs! We ended the day around 5 p.m. ready to take in the ocean breeze and chow down on some freeze dried food. I chose to bring lasagna and also bring along some red wine ( who knew?! Thank you to Platypus for making a reservoir for wine!)

Naomi, Myself and Leilani 

Sunset at the beach of Wildcat

Token Chaco shot

Little did we know that the second day would actually be the more challenging day- for me anyways! We had to do 8.2 miles in order to make it to Coast Camp. In the morning I had 2 packets of my brown sugar oatmeal and of course my instant coffee in order to start my day off on the right foot. This day would prove to be the most beautiful ( in my opinion) since it went along the ocean. We came across such gorgeous sights, a pack of teenage girls at camp, more poison oak, more stinging nettles, more bathroom stops and a great lunch spot where we saw Nessie the Lochness Monster! Ok, that part wasn't true, but we really did see something out there!

Still smiling!!

Good thing we can all read

Coast Camp was amazing. If anyone out there gets a chance to go, you should stay at Coast Camp for the amazing view getting there! And you might meet some interesting folks ( we sure did!)

Almost there!

Day three was a welcome relief. Our feet were tired, blistered, our shoulders weary, our hearts and minds ready to get out of Dodge and back home. We had a 6+ mile hike out to the cars. It seemed that this day we were all propelled by the thought of clean clothes, a hot shower and In and Out burgers! The elevation seemed more steep on this day but I think it had to do with the fact that our feet and calves were so tired! We got out of the gorgeous woods in just about 4 hours- which was amazing! If we hadn't been so sore, I would have guessed that everyone would have run out!

Woot!!

Yahoo!!

Stretch it out!

And we made it!!

Sending a shout out to Becca for organizing the trip, all the ladies for making it fun, REI for introducing me to a much bigger world of outdoor activities and of course my friend Matt Jones because without him my pack would have been the end of me and he made it fit perfect! I ended each day with a smile and my sanity intact. I got to know all the gals a little better and I got to know myself a little better, too. yup, I am definitely saying yes more!

June 20 revisited

"Mawage. Mawage is what brings us together today". That is one of my favorite lines from the movie Princess Bride and one I would deem appropriate for this post. Two years ago today, I married Greg. In keeping up with the cliche, I would say that I married my best friend, my rock, the yin to my yang, the mac to my cheese and of course the love of my life.

I am extremely lucky to have a mom who loves my spouse, a wonderful set of in laws and of course a man who loves me for who I am regardless of what may come or how weird I may be. Today we aren't going to eat any wedding cake ( see last year's post) since it has been consumed ( a good thing since frozen 2 year old cake might be a little gross) or go on a road trip down the coast of California
( honeymoon), but we are going to bask in the success of another year gone by with our sanity intact
( albeit a little tested this year) and our love for each other a little stronger and of course a good hearty laugh remembering our good times and bad and looking to the future for even more memories.

Thank you Greg for another wonderful year. I love you!

Today, tomorrow and always.

You say goodbye, I say hello

The Beatles were a mainstay in the Smith household growing up. I never truly appreciated their music until I understood the lyrics (and that songs were a little deeper than the surface suggested). Their song "Hello Goodbye" really is a bit confusing, but also kinda makes sense.

During my hiatus from the blogging world, a small heartbreak has occurred. My father-in-law passed away in early April, quite unexpectedly. He was a wonderful man. Such a loyal husband, loving dad and just an amazingly selfless human being. When I married my husband, 2 years ago ( and in the 8 years before), Lou always made me feel welcome, and treated me just like one of his own. I was fortunate enough to know him and feel the effects of his very big heart. So, it was a very sad day when we had to say goodbye to him.

Saying goodbye has always been a strange thing for me- therefore, I typically don't say it. Even when a loss has occurred, I am usually thinking to myself that I am just saying "see you later" or "until we meet again". But recently after Lou's passing, I just wanted to say hello. I know that sounds weird, but hear me out. Hello is always a great way of starting something- a conversation, a joke and even a friendship. Hello truly was a great word that described my Father in Law. He was just the friendliest person out there- striking up conversations with strangers, church goers and little kids.

So when I heard the Beatles song pop up on Pandora , I had to smile and think about good ol' Lou. He would want us all to say hello and never say goodbye.

so much for that idea!

I just realized that I haven't posted in a while and so I will try to change that with the warmer weather coming up and summertime on our brains!

have a great Monday everybody and watch out, cuz here I come!

Dim Sum Sunday

Yesterday Greg and I had lunch with my mom. In order to have lunch with her, we had to drive to Modesto. Well, we didn't have to but rather decided we would meet halfway between Madera and Sacramento. We decided to go to this place I found on Yelp . For those of you who might not know what Yelp is, it is a website that lets people post ratings and reviews on anything and everything. I had used Yelp before when choosing places to go eat, get my hair done and even reading about my workplace
( most comments were nice although a few were kinda strange).

The original plan had been for my mom to come up to Sacramento for the weekend. the awful storm that had come in on Friday had decided to rear its' ugly head through the end of the weekend, so Mama Smith decided to change her plans ( and I don't blame her since I hate driving in the wind and the rain) . When she comes to town, we usually go to New Canton for dim sum. Another side note: Dim Sum is asian cuisine where you typically have small dishes brought out on carts and you can pick whatever you like and it is relatively inexpensive.  Mama Smith loves her dim sum. I mean, loves it. We usually go every time she comes to town. This was a sad day when Mama decided to cancel the road trip. I came up with the ideal solution- let's meet halfway in Modesto.

I read the reviews on Yelp and was quite excited and impressed to find dim sum in Modesto. This place is called Dynasty Garden and it was amazing. The dim sum was made to order- which is rare in Chinese Restaurants and our waiter even recommended a soup dish for us. They had all the shrimp balls and fried foods that we typically loved, along with some other interesting things ( we passed on the chicken feet) and it was all delicious. If any of you find yourselves in Modesto looking for a place to eat try Dynasty Garden- you won't be disappointed!

What can I say- the way to my heart was spending the day with Mama Smith, Greg and fried shrimp balls!

A stout cupcake indeed

I have done it again. I am on my mission of baking like a fiend. My friend Ryan, who I worked with for the last few years, is leaving us in Sacramento. He got a promotion and is moving away. In order to send him off right, I decided to bake him some cupcakes ( of course!) I tried to figure out an appropriate recipe and I found it- Chocolate Stout cupcakes with an Irish Cream frosting.  With it being St. Paddy's day in a few days, I thought this was a great match.

The cupcakes are actually quite simple to make, so I will probably keep this one in my arsenal. These little cakes are made with Guinness beer ( or any other stout beer) and cocoa powder. For those who know me, I am not a dark beer type of gal so I have never even had Guinness to drink so I was hoping that the cupcakes would be delicious or else I was making a huge batch of nasty. To my delight, they cupcakes were delish and the frosting even more divine.

Cheers to you Ryan! We are going to miss you and wish you nothing but luck on your next big adventure!

These 40 days...

As many of you know, Easter is just around the corner. I am reminded of how quickly this has come up because of the start of the Lent season. Every year for Lent I have given up things that I deemed are a sacrifice for me. For those of you unfamiliar with the Catholic faith and the importance of Lent in the Catholic's life, let me give you a short background on Lent.

Lent is the 40 days before Easter Sunday that we as Catholics take the time to reflect on ways we can become closer to God. I am no expert on the Catholic faith, I was raised Catholic and ever since I can remember, Lent was always about the sacrifice of things that we indulged in- like sweets or cursing ( one of which was a familiar sacrifice as a kid I won't say which one ) . Every year since I was a kid, I have tried to give up something that I knew would be difficult but I knew it was only for 40 days. One year I gave up chewing gum. That was easy for me since that was the year I had braces still. Another year I gave up swearing- I made a jar that I would place  a nickel in every time I said a bad word. Eventually I would pre pay for my bad word, so that was obviously a bust. Note: I have since given up my potty mouth with the occasional bad word slipping out when I drive.

This year is different. When I went home last weekend to M town, I went to mass with my mom. This is the church that I grew up in and was married at so it seemed that my "aha" moment came to me at the right time and place. I realized that this year I would not give up chocolate or Starbuck's, but I would try to do something these 40 days that would be valuable to me. I feel that in my heart, I need to start allowing myself more time to be spiritual. Life needs to be enjoyable and this is step one for my well being.

If there is one thing I want to give to you, it is think about some "me" time and let yourself just go with the moment.

Pinkalicious Weekend

My girlfriend Shawna is vomiting pink right now. When I say vomiting, I mean she is literally surrounded by lots of little baby things in various shades of pink. After having 2 little boys in the family, she is expecting her first girl. I have to laugh when I write this because pink was never Shawna's favorite color ( that I can remember anyways) and it is coming to bite her in her cute little prego butt! 

M Town Girls

I love my M- town girls. I have blogged about them before and just feel like the luckiest girl to have such wonderful friends in these women. As I wrote before, I was in charge of the favors and decided to make cupcakes. I really enjoy baking and I think my creative juices really shined on this one. 

Decorated Cakes- Yummy!

Finished Cakes with cute boxes

We had such a great time with Shawna watching her open her pink cute gifts and we could all feel her excitement. I look forward to meeting little "O" when she decides to come into our world!

Just a thought

I realized that I finally posted on here after a few months away. I am changing that today- from here on out I am going to try to post something at least once a week and work out some rhythm to my random world.

I just got back from an all you can eat dessert bar and boy was I impressed with the level of creativity demonstrated. The fundraiser was for the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation. Who was I to turn down a $5 all you can eat dessert night if it was for a great cause, right?

The treats were all baked by the Chi Omega ladies at UC Davis. This was one of their philanthropy events where 100% of the proceeds go to the foundation. The amount of baked goods in their Sorority house was enough to make a person run straight to their dentist! All kidding aside, it was a huge success. What a great way to raise money and awareness. Cheers to you amazing ladies for doing a great job at your event. I look forward to raising my milk glass to you same time next year!

A pink cupcake type of day

I am the queen of baked goods. Martha Stewart step aside- Jenny Martinez is the new name in baking. I have often thought( several times actually) about opening my own bakery. The name: Fluffy Cakes and Rainbows - stemming from my love for fun and cheery things.

Lately I have been experimenting with different recipes and of course torturing my co-workers along the way. When I say "torture", I really mean, " thank goodness I have people to bring all these sweets to".  I decided to post some pics of my recent adventures. I do have to say thank you to Martha Stewart for inspiring me to try most of her cupcake recipes. I have been slowly working my way through her book and tweaking the recipes along the way. Here is a pic of one of my most recent endeavors:

It is a Strawberry Cupcake with fresh chopped strawberries folded into the batter and a vanilla frosting tinted pink of course. This was actually a test run for my girlfriend's baby shower. I piped the icing on and had to try several different tips before I decided on the final product shown here:

Dotted with little white edible pearls and pink sprinkles it just screams "pinkalicious"!

I made these last night and today brought them into work. Thank goodness my co-workers don't mind being my guinea pigs!

I love the color pink. When I see this cupcake it makes me smile and think about how lucky I am to be blessed with the baker's thumb ( is that even a saying?) Looking forward to posting more about m baking endeavor!

To resolve or not to resolve

I, along with millions of others, have jumped on the bandwagon every year and made resolutions. I have lists that state the following:
  
 *  I would stop biting my nails - at 8 years old this was a big deal
 *  Stop liking Chad Stanley- I kid you not, in my journal from 1988
 * Study more- every year I was in high school- although I was quite the nerd
 *  Eat healthier and run 2 miles every day- I was a little fanatical a few years back
  * Stop thinking about Greg proposing- I was obsessed for a little while and then I just stopped thinking about it- 5 days later we were engaged

This year, I have stated out loud to Greg ( and now to you my blog followers) the following:

* I am going to make a conscious effort to not overthink anything

* I am going to try to be a better wife, daughter, friend, human being, etc. There is always room for bettering oneself

* I am not going to flog myself when I give in to my sweet tooth- moderation people, moderation

* Lastly, I am going to laugh at least once a day, smile a lot more and embrace the craziness of the world without letting it get me down when times get rough


Cheers to you 2011!