We have been keeping a secret!

My apologies for the lengthy absence from our relatively new blog but I promise I have a good reason, we have been keeping a MAJOR secret around the G household for about the past....mmmm 13 weeks.

WE ARE PREGNANT!!!

That's right, Mr. G and I are expecting our first bundle of joy around

July 11, 2014 and to say we are thrilled is a massive understatement.

 

Here is the story, finding out and telling Mr. G:

 

On Friday 11/08/13 I was two days late and very anxious to take a pregnancy test, Mr. G and I had chatted about it and thought it would be best to wait until the following Tuesday to test just in case.  However, me being the ever impatient woman I am I absolutely could not wait any longer.  So I made a quick trip to Walgreen's (luckily there is one 5 blocks from my office) and bought a test that had two sticks included.  Thankfully I was the only person in the office that day so taking a test wasn't very difficult.  The test indicated that I should wait three minutes for an accurate reading, HA, it didn't even take two minutes and the most amazing two pink lines showed up.  I was in shock and full of excitement, I laughed and cried and did a little happy dance in my office.

Mr. G was on his way to my office via the bus and I was bursting at the seams to tell him, I kept texting him asking where he was...I'm sure I was annoying him with all of my inquiries but oh well.  While waiting for him I decided to take the second test just to be sure, again definitely positive!

 

In preparation of getting pregnant (yes we were definitely trying) I purchased the most adorable white sleeper from the college Mr. G attended and tucked it away in my office desk drawer for that perfect moment.  So when Mr. G arrived in my office I told him I had an early birthday gift for him, I presented him with the sleeper and at first he was a little confused but when I handed him both pregnancy tests he was over the moon!  He also laughed and cried and celebrated with me, it was a fantastic moment that I will never forget.

 

I am working on additional posts from the last 13 weeks including Mr. G's birthday party, telling our parents & siblings, Christmas, NYE 2013 and a first trimester post.

 

So now that you are in on our little secret...any advice?

 

 

With love,
Mrs. G

 

Birthday Celebrations - just the beginning!

My birthday is in one week and birthday celebrations began last night with a wonderful dinner at a little Italian restaurant in Edina, MN called Arezzo Ristorante. This birthday dinner was part of my gift from my new in-laws.

Arezzo is a charming little Italian restaurant, they have a lovely patio and we enjoyed our dinner outside last night as the weather was perfect.

The waiter suggested a bottle of Rizzi Barbera for the table and all four of us enjoyed the wine, it was easy to drink and went very well with our dinner choices.

We started the meal with Strangolapreti (oven baked spinach and ricotta dumplings, topped with fresh tomato sauce, fresh mozzarella and grans padano) and delicious bread with olive oil to dip.All four of us thoroughly enjoyed the appetizer.

My MIL ordered the Tagliatelle di Pollo e pinoli (house made tagliatelle pasta tossed with chicken, tomatoes and pine nuts in white wine sauce, topped with goat cheese).

My FIL enjoyed the Torteli Padrino (spinach tortelli hand stuffed with a blend of ricotta cheese and fresh spinach, finished in a tomato and eggplant sauce).

Mr. G ordered the Pollo alla Marsala (sliced chicken breast sautéed in Sicilian Marsala liqueur, served with mashed potatoes and asparagus).

I ordered the Farfale alla Gorgonzola e Salsiccia (butterfly pasta tossed with gorgonzola sauce and spicy Italian sausage).

All four of us loved our meals and shared the tiramisu for dessert. We were very full and enjoyed the evening immensely.

Each year I often say that I'm going to scale back on the celebrating but then another year rolls around and I celebrate with my in-laws, my family, Mr. G, some girlfriends, a birthday weekend at the cabin, etc etc....and by the time August is done I've had 7 "birthday celebrations", drank too much red wine and probably gained 7 pounds.

So to say I'm grateful for amazing people in my life is an understatement...I love celebrating with all of them and wouldn't trade it for the world.

How many birthday celebrations do you have?

Check back next week after Mr. G and I return from our couples weekend at the cabin. 4 couples are accompanying us to the cabin, lots of food, drinks and great company!!

 

With love,

Mrs. G

 

 

Ring Shopping

Believe it or not, shopping for a ring that not only will your bride where forever, there's the added stress of whether or not you picked the right style etc.  I have trouble picking out clothes in the morning so picking out a ring was a daunting task.

As it turns out, my engagement saga starts out with me going to purchase the ring.  I was fortunate enough to be gifted my Grandma's solitaire which was near perfect.  I took a long lunch from work to go pick out the ring.  Mrs. G and I had looked at rings before on several occasions and had basically decided on a style however when I saw her future ring I knew it was the one!  Two weeks later I was picking it up.  No one ever tells you that buying a ring is a nerve wracking ordeal.  I remember paying for it and my hands were shaking and I was sweating.  The lady handed me the bag and receipt and said "thanks and good luck."  I stood there perplexed with a dumb smile on my face.  I think I was only there for seconds and didn't say anything.  Very awkward.

I walked through the mall with my bag in hand very covertly nearing the exit still quite shaken and sweaty.  A whole range of emotions were going through my head.  Excitement, nerves, excitement for the future and also joy about how the beautiful the ring turned out.  (I still am quite proud of it to this day.)  I just knew I had to get out of the mall and back to my car and back to work!  All of a sudden I hear my name yelled!  Did I hear that correctly??  Someone's yelling my name.  It was my college roommate and good friend who was at Big Bowl waiting for his computer to be fixed.  He asked me "whatcha doing here?"  Well, I showed him the bag and took out the ring and said "you tell me."  His reply, "Sweating a bit, are ya?"

Now, that evening my family and my future bride's family were going to a social event.  Plus, I had to go pick up the future Mrs. G after work.  What to do with the ring????  I can't have it kicking around in the back seat.  Someone had told me to put it underneath the spare tire in the trunk.  Panicked, I did it.  Soooo, unbeknownst to my future bride, her engagement ring was underneath the spare.  Other than getting a flat tire, I figured it was a safe hiding spot. That evening a whole crew of people were in that car and we had to park it in a parking lot for the event.  It made me very nervous out there and I kept trying to look out to see if was safe.

That evening getting home it was pouring rain.  I didn't want to leave it in the car over night even though it was in a garage.  Getting home around 10 PM, I pulled the lame excuse, I'm not sure if I closed the garage door.  I zipped upstairs and put on my baggiest pair of shorts with big pockets and ran into the pouring rain.  She thought I was crazy but I wasn't going to leave it out there over night!  Came back in soaked and found a hiding spot for the ring until the big event.

Which is a post for another time......

Sincerely,

Mr. G

Red Letter Days

One of our most memorable and treasured wedding gifts came from a good friend of mine, Maggie; she presented the gift to me the morning of our wedding.  To say it was a special and very sweet moment for my friend and I would be an understatement, this gift was one that came from the heart and meant so very much to me.

Here is the story leading up to the opening of the gift and the gift itself.

On the morning of the wedding all of the incredible women in my wedding party joined me in a hotel suite to get ready for the big day, this included my maid and matron of honor, bridesmaids, personal attendants, sister in laws, flower girl, my mom, future sister in law and some other special guests that popped in.  There was a lot of hustle and bustle, to say the least.  We all enjoyed the morning, getting hair and makeup done, the gals that are already married sharing fun stories from their wedding day and maybe a few little tears of joy and nerves snuck in there.  I was having a blast, this was exactly what I imagined; all of the most important women in my life were surrounding me and I just sat back and enjoyed….not thinking or worrying about anything. 

That is, until I realized it was 10:30am and my florist hadn’t arrived to deliver my flowers nor had anyone heard from her.  Now I had the most incredible florist, she was my 7^th grade home economics teacher and I absolutely adored her and knew I had nothing to worry about.  I was always confident that she would show up but what I realized is that I had no contact information for her with me, ABSOLUTELY NOTHING!  No home phone or cell phone and all I could think was, “what if she got lost?”  Most of my friends and family members called me one of the most organized brides ever; I tried to make sure I covered my entire basis as to make our day go as smoothly as I could.  So having forgot her contact info was sort of out of character for me, I was so confident in her I never worried or thought I’d need the number.  Long story short, she didn’t get lost, my flowers were incredible and I ultimately should not have worried.

In order for the gals to keep my mind off my little melt down Maggie suggested I open her gift to Andy and I.  GREAT IDEA:)

She presented me with a beautiful turquoise and silver box, I carefully opened the box and on top of the tissue paper was a poem.  Maggie suggested that I read the poem out loud.  As I began to read the poem titled “Red Letter Days”, the tears began to flow.  All of the love and happiness I felt just poured out of me as I read the following poem aloud.

Red Letter Days

Every now and then in life, each of us deserves a place of honor for a Red Letter Day.  Enclosed in this box is a place setting to help celebrate your special occasions.

It is my prayer that these dishes will make many appearances throughout the years.  They can be used to celebrate a milestone in your careers or to cheer one on who is facing a challenge.  They can be used to celebrate a birthday, to recognize a goal reached, or simply to say, “I love you.”

And of course, when the time comes, these dishes can be used to celebrate your children…when one of them earns an A, wins a race, or does a good deed, out they can come.

My hope is that these dishes will help you and Andy recognize and celebrate the good times ahead, both the large and the small moments and that these moments will be many over your years together.

In the box was a red bowl, red plate, red mug and red napkins; this gift is something that Andy and I will cherish for years to come.

Two nights ago the table was set with one typical place setting and one red place setting; I had received great news at work regarding a promotion.  My wonderful husband remembered the “Red Letter Days” and set my place with the red dishes.  It was so much fun to be eating off of this setting and to know how proud my husband was of my hard work and dedication at work. 

I don’t know where Maggie found this poem, maybe she wrote it or maybe she found it somewhere….but either way this gift was from her heart and something that I intend to pass along to other couples in the future. 

Maggie, thank you for always being the supportive wonderful friend every woman needs!  I hope our story continues for many many years….we could already write quite the amusing book:)  Love ya lady!

Here are some photos of me opening the gift on our wedding day, I forgot to take one of me using the dishes a couple of nights ago.

 

With love,
Mrs. G

The Male Rebuttal

For the record, Mrs. G makes some very good points about the difference in male and female and wedding pictures.  And it is true, I may not have been as into them as she had hoped and I hope my beautiful wife can overlook my male pattern indifference. 

I would like to point that I did well up a few times myself.  They are beautiful pictures and April at Sophisticated Grace did an absolutely amazing job.  She is extremely talented and it shows.  The pictures were very moving and it did bring back wonderful memories for me.   It was truly a blessed event but I will turn to an issue that Mrs. G and I have been struggling with for years.  I don't like the way I look in pictures.  Very critical of myself and prior to the wedding I think I put on 15 pounds.  Most people before their wedding lose weight.  Apparently I missed that memo. (When my family has a wedding there is at least a week's worth of celebrating of different kinds all involving heavy food and drink. And I indulged generously.)

Heading into this wedding I had hoped to look like Justin Timberlake however I more looked like our 27th President, Howard Taft who is best known for his ample size and 300 pound frame.  Type in President Taft into Google and the top suggestion is "president Taft weight."  (Did you know he was Chief Justice after his presidency? Wonder what he weighed then?)

As I looked at these pictures, it wasn't that I didn't think they were wonderful, it was I was seeing something I didn't expect.  A much heavier me!  True, I didn't have as much gusto and excitement as my blushing bride but I think that is common however the weight thing did get to me.

Sooooo, I hope my wife can forgive me.  It's not the first time we've had this discussion.  But I did hit the gym this AM so maybe that underwear modeling contract is around the corner.  Right, Mrs G??? 

Mr. G