Faith, Hope and Luggage

Nathan and I were married in the summer of 2005. Despite all of our best efforts not to have it be a stressful day, some things you just can't help. The plan was to get married in the San Antonio temple, take pictures, drive to McAllen for our ring ceremony and reception, and the following day head out for the honeymoon.

Everything went along fabulously. Up until, that is, we got back to McAllen. While I made it down (which I guess is more important) my suitcase did not. Since we were leaving for our honeymoon the very next day, all of my things were packed and ready to go. Every car that made the drive from San Antonio was checked, every household scoured and the hotel we had stayed in was called. It was nowhere to be found.

There was essentially nothing I could do about it other than pray that somehow my luggage would be found. I had more important things to put my mind on so we went ahead with the rest of our wedding celebration as planned.

About an hour or so into our reception, a good friend of ours said he had a cousin that lived in San Antonio and that perhaps he could drive to the hotel and personally inquire about a missing bag. In short, his cousin went to the hotel and found my bag in the lobby which was sitting between a chair and a potted plant (right where I had left it, naturally). After finding said bag, his cousin drove the 3 1/2 hours down to McAllen to deliver it to me. My gratitude for our friend and his cousin, a person I'd never even met, knew no bounds.

A few years later, it was one of my best friends' turn to get married. This time the location was Utah. Nathan and I and my friend's family traveled up there for the celebration. The evening of the groom's dinner, we were told that her mother had lost a bag. She remembered carrying it on the plane. Her son said he never saw her carry it on. So essentially the bag was either in Texas or perhaps still in an overhead bin.

Of course all of the avenues were investigated- a call to the airline, a call to the airport etc. What was so devastating about this particular bag was that one of the bridesmaid's dresses and her own mother of the bride dress was in this bag (I believe she had sewed both dresses herself).

As the dinner wore on, despite her best efforts to conceal it, I could tell that she was truly saddened by her lost bag. I spoke with Nathan and we decided that since we weren't directly related, it would be best for us to drive to the airport (approx. 45 mins away) and do some investigating on our own. I'm not sure about Nathan, but I know I was saying a silent prayer that we'd find it!

There wasn't much activity going on when we arrived. We did locate the missing baggage office of the particular airline. We explained the situation to them, gave our phone numbers and so on. Just as we were wrapping it up, Nathan looked down on the ground next to the wall. There were a few small bags there. The tag of one caught his eye, which was a good thing because the name on the tag was the name of my friend's mother! The pile of bags Nathan was looking at were bags that weren't claimed from the baggage claim.

As it happened, she had actually checked the bag. Since she didn't remember doing that she would have had no reason to wait by the luggage carousel for it. A confirmation of the contents of the bag was conducted and we were on our way back to the group- with great news.

If it weren't for my stressful lost bag experience at my wedding, I really don't think I would have insisted that we drive to the airport ourselves. What I'm trying to say is... sometimes sucky things happen for a reason. You don't always get to find out what the reason is, but it is important to direct your faith (and prayers) to the right person and trust in Him.

Finally...

I get to add the baby tracker thingy to my sidebar. Hooray!

Puppy Play Day!

Since we were going to be celebrating our New Year's eve in Dallas, and not taking the dogs with us, we decided to take them to our favorite dog park in Austin before leaving them. By the way, it was December 30th. While I had a bit of a bad attitude about the unseasonably warm weather this winter, you can't complain about a day like this!

Morale Booster

Today I substituted for a friend of mine. Just half a day. She informed me that when she told her class that she would be leaving at 11 o'clock and that I would be subbing for them, the class cheered.

Awesome.

Flipping Out

I'm 18 weeks pregnant right about now. I have no idea if I have felt these kids move, or not. I have experienced what could possibly be baby movement or maybe not. At any rate, last week there were about 3-4 consecutive evenings where, as I laid (layed? Perhaps my friend Emily could help me on this grammatical quandary) in bed I felt these "movements". Although out loud I was telling Nathan, "Well who knows what it is, but it could be the kids" inside, I felt sure that it was.

Around Friday night I expectantly waited to feel any such thing but without any luck. It was obvious to me what was going on. Something terrible had happened to my babies! I told Nathan that I didn't have a good feeling about this new development. He assured me everything was fine. Ya, like that was going to change my mind. I persisted. I suggested that the following day I could go to one of those independent ultra sound imaging places just to make sure. I think Nathan figured that either way, I'd have to sleep on that decision so he said, "If that's what you think you need to do, then go ahead."

The next morning, (after dreaming all night about ultrasounds and babies) I went to my most trusted source of information- Google. Google told me that at this stage of pregnancy fetal heartbeats can be heard through a stethoscope! Clearly, I spent the next hour or so investigating local businesses that sold stethoscopes.

I didn't have too much luck. Most places that showed up in my search were only internet companies that shipped medical equipment/supplies from Austin. One of my friends, who used to be a nurse in Austin, informed me of a place that could work. However by the time I looked them up online, it was after their closing time, 2 p.m.

In the end I did without ultrasound or stethoscope. I'd like to say that I've calmed down a bit but in reality I think I'm just hiding it a bit better. How on earth can you not worry though?? My plan is to just stay busy until our next scheduled doctor's visit... just 16 days away. But who's counting?

Rounding out the year

Perhaps it HAS been over two months since my last post. Big deal. It has been quite a busy two months. Rather than spelling out details of every event that has taken place since October, I'll give you a quick rundown of the happenings. Maybe then you'll agree to be my friend again. :)

Parents moved into my house
I was put on a 72 hour bed rest after a medical procedure (incidentally, the same weekend as my parents moved in)
Developed a complication to said procedure
Went to ER
Admitted to hospital for 3 days
Bed rest continued
Readmitted to hospital for 5 days
Entire family came to Texas
Brother got married
Learned I was pregnant
Parents moved to Panama
Had a paracentesis a total of FOUR times. Ick.
Learned I was pregnant with twins
Had quite a few ultra sounds... babies growing right before our eyes!
Drove to our hometown for Thanksgiving
Got sick quite a bit (thanks babies)
Decorated house for Christmas
Christmas shopping

And that about brings us to now. We are very much looking forward to our holiday time with our family. As it happens, this will be my first Christmas in 27 years that I won't be spending with my parents... I feel a little odd about that, but what can I say? Life is ever changing, certainly that past two months have proved that. A friend of mine has a favorite quote (from Helen Keller I believe) that I think sums up the attitude I've had to adopt as of late. "Life is a daring adventure, or nothing at all."

I can't imagine I'll be posting before January, so Merry Christmas friends, and a happy new year!

PBS got me here

So I was just perusing through facebook,like I do, and saw a great video starring some of my Sesame Street favorites and Will I Am. I haven't had occasion to watch Sesame Street for years but it brought all the love I have for that show right back.

I grew up on Sesame Street, among the other PBS shows. We didn't have cable growing up so as far as kids' shows go that's all we had... and that's all we needed. From Sesame Street I learned how to count with The Count as well as the stressed out bellhop who always had to take people's luggage to like the 32nd floor. (Remember him?) I also learned the importance of conserving water and to this day, I call my husband a "wasteroo" if he leaves the water running needlessly. I learned that it is good to try new things ("I said I'll taste it, I'll give it a whirl, and now I am a cereal girl!) So many good lessons and memories! Below are a few smatterings for your pleasure. Incidentally, after watching these clips I realized something else I learned from the muppets, my dance moves.
(this is my new favorite song)