checked off: #19!

i won't lie, i completely forgot that this goal was on my 30before30 list, but I'm so excited to cross it off! #19 on my list was to visit maui for our 5 year anniversary.

we got married in maui on march 1, 2011. and since the very day we got married, we said we would go back in 5 years because we absolutely fell in love with the place. shortly after luca was born, we decided to make that goal a reality and book our trip. we debated whether or not to bring him along, and after living through a 15 hour travel day just to get there, it's probably best that we decided against him. we will definitely be returning with him sometime in the next several years...when he's ready to adjust to a 4 hour time difference, and a total of 9 hours on a plane...but that time is not now!


our week was filled with lots of maui brewing company bikini blondes, delicious food, sand in ALL the places, more sunblock than two people should go through, the worst music ever in our rental car (why maui? why??? get better radio stations!), dinners and drinks with great friends, and about 20 whale sightings. we did a sunset whale watching cocktail cruise on the 2nd night, and absolutely l o v e d it. we saw lots of mama whales with their babies and they were showing off the whole time. the sunset was beautiful, and the cocktails were way strong, so we couldn't ask for a better time.
we also ziplined in the mountains of maui, and even though I thought I was going to die on the first line, I braved it and had such a great time. that's something we definitely hope to do again on another vacation!
here is an overload of pictures for us to remember what a great time we had:

see full list HERE



checked off: #13!

goal #13 on my list is to decorate our forever home to reflect both my husband & i perfectly.

well. here's the thing.

'forever' is such a long time, right? and when you're 24 years old and creating a list of things to achieve before you're 30, you don't really realize how quickly things can change, and that 'forever' isn't very realistic at that age, necessarily. so, now 4 years later, we're moving out of the home we originally thought might be our forever home - luckily, we're moving to a house that we may love even a little bit more (didn't think that was possible), and starting a new adventure. so, in honor of this new adventure, i am still checking this goal off of my list because it's my list and i can do that.

we listed our house on tuesday morning, and i was really happy to get these pictures of the house to keep forever. as much as we will miss this house, we're both so, so excited to get to settle in to the new house (new city...new state!). this house in austin was the first home we bought together, and where we brought luca home to. but, our new house will be the first one that he remembers, and we can't wait to make it feel like home.

bye, austin house! we will miss you.

(there used to be a really cool, big world map on the wall in the dining room below but we took it down for the purposes of listing the house)

full list HERE



in which TWO goals get checked off!

oh, hi! it's only been like a year and a few months since i've posted, that's all. no big deal.

i'm upset that i haven't kept up with this blog but the thing is that so many things have happened in the past year that it hasn't exactly been on my priority list! but...the reason i'm here today is to write that i'm able to check off not one, but two things now.

 

#6 : give birth (!!!) and #29: give my husband the best birthday gift ever.

 

i'm not here to share my whole birth story, so don't worry - i won't give too many cringe worthy details, but here's a little bit about how it went down:

one month before our baby's due date, husband was in tampa for work, and i'm trying to go to sleep and realize that i feel as if i just ran a half marathon - i'm exhausted, out of breath and so thirsty that i feel like i could drink enough water to fill a bath tub at 2:30 in the morning. i am not one to go to the doctor for stuff, in fact, i avoid doctors at all costs. i don't have anything against them, i'm just cynical and feel like sometimes there's an overreaction and they're too quick to prescribe stuff, but that's for another post. but, being pregnant, i decided i would call my doctor first thing in the morning just go pop in and get checked out. so, i have an appointment set for 7:30am that next morning, and i'm dressed in a fancy skirt and heels, expecting to go to work in a few hours....

not so much.

after a few tests, my doctor tells me to call my husband, tell him to hop on the next plane, and cross the street to the hospital because i was going to need to be induced to get this baby out safely, as quickly as possible. i had pre-eclampsia that was pretty severe, so i needed to give birth fast to get rid of it. i naturally started crying immediately, because i was picturing giving birth without having my husband there in time, and the thought of that made me want to throw up everywhere. also, i know so many women laugh at 'birth plans' because, of course, anything and everything can go wrong during labor and your plan can go out the window. but, we still had a plan anyways and giving birth exactly one month early was NOT a part of it at all.

this is where i could go on & on & on & on about the 48 hours i was in the hospital before finally giving birth to luca, and the entire week we were there afterwards while he was in NICU, but i'll sum it up in a few short bursts:

bed rest for a total of 72 hours (even during labor, couldn't leave the bed!), anti-seizure medicine that made me feel like i was on fire, pre-eclampsia developing in to severe HELLP syndrome, rainbow pops from my husband that saved the day during contractions, blood draws every hour for 72 hours (even during contractions!), the nicest nurses in the universe, and a pain-med free birth all led to luca, 6lbs and 8oz of perfection, being born on march 19, 2015.

it was not at all the way we planned things or expected things to go, but man. i can honestly say that i would not have it any other way now. i am so happy he came one month early and that we have had extra time with him. he is happy and healthy and absolutely perfect in every way.

giving birth was even more empowering than i could have ever imagined and i won't lie - i felt like a complete badass after it was over, knowing i could do it on my own without medication made me feel incredibly strong and like i could do anything (seriously - like, if you need a car lifted up? call me. or maybe you would like me to fight a lion for you? i can do that). i wish everyone could have a husband like mine that made the process so much easier, too. he made me laugh when he needed to, brought me popsicles when he needed to, found the perfect pandora stations and let me squeeze his hand until it almost exploded.

 

which leads me to my next goal - i wouldn't necessarily count luca's birth as a birthday gift to my husband but he absolutely does and insists that i've crossed that off my list. i went in to labor with luca (induced) 2 days after the husband's birthday. so, in his head, that's close enough and i could never, ever top this birthday gift!

 

this was about one week before going in to the hospital:

 

 

 



checked off: #4!

i am so, so, so happy to say that goal #4 has been checked off my list: to own an original art piece.

this one was not an easy feat, guys. 

i try to give back stories with some of my goals, so here's this one:

tucker & i went to new orleans in 2012 to celebrate our one year wedding anniversary. we spent a lot of time going to art galleries, and came across a gallery that had some show stoppers for us. we had talked before about how hard it is to find a piece of art that two people agree on - i mean, if you're spending money with the intention of something being on your wall forever, it's sort of a big deal! but, this gallery had a few pieces that both of us absolutely loved.

and then we looked at the price tag. and suddenly, we didn't love them so much anymore. but the goal of owning an original piece was something that we both left new orleans with, and we thought it would be something we'd work towards over the next several years.

fast forward to december, a few months ago.

we go to guadalajara to visit my family there, and stay in one of my dad's new houses - above the master bed there is a huge painting of a tree, and literally at the same time, both tucker and i thought "i want that and i want it now", veruca salt style. so we get some information from my dad about the artist, and it turns out that she's a local artist there in guadalajara who he could get us in contact with, and who could provide a huge original for a fraction of the price of one in the states. we were able to provide her with the exact size we wanted for our wall, and pick our colors as well as talk about the style of the tree we wanted, which was great. this all sounds fine & easy & great until you try to ship a 6ft oil painting that can't be bent from guadalajara to austin, tx without an importer's license.

so, without getting in to the story too much, i will tell you that it took a little over three months to get to us once it was completed, the border agents actually wanted a photo of it because of how familiar they were with trying to ship it, my brother mario's help was crucial and we wouldn't have gotten the painting without him, and now we are so happy that it's here. 

so here is what my 30before30 list looks like now:

1. visit santorini, greece - 2. learn to speak portuguese fluently - 3. go on a girl's weekend trip to a vineyard - 4. own an original art piece - 5. learn how to bake my own bread! - 6. give birth - 7. start a movie night tradition - 8. participate in some sort of marathon or race - 9. plant a thriving vegetable garden - 10. go on an annual camping trip - 11. read at least a book a month for one year - 12. master taking photos the way i picture them in my brain - 13. decorate our "forever home" to reflect both my husband & i perfectly - 14. start a sunday night supper tradition - 15. visit spain - 16. see radiohead live again - 17. become crafty - 18. ride in a hot air balloon - 19. visit maui for 5 year wedding anniversary - 20. start teaching my children how to speak spanish fluently - 21. start a regular yoga practice - 22. sleep in a tree house -23.  see northern lights - 24. host thanksgiving at my house (insead of a parent's house!) -25. take a weekly photo of my child/children for an entire year - 26. take a road trip (more than like 12 hours of driving!) - 27. learn to tango with my husband - 28. take my own (professional looking) newborn photos of my children - 29. surprise my husband with the best birthday gift ever (still don't know what that is....) - 30. end this whole thing with a 30th birthday bash that's worthy of being blogged about

mexico trip 2014

time for picture overload. 

also, let's not mention the fact that i haven't posted in months. we'll just move on from that.

last week, tucker and i got back from a vacation that we had kind of been putting off for a long time. about 2 years ago (or maybe even more), we bought a groupon on a whim for a 4 night stay in baja california sur, mexico. it was one of those things that seemed like such an incredible deal that it'd be stupid to pass it up, and it turns out that was very accurate. i say that we had been putting it off, because with work, moving in to the house, other personal travel, etc, it just wasn't happening as quickly as we thought it would. but long story short: we made it to cerritos surf colony and completely fell in love with the place. it was one of the best trips we have ever been on, and we're so, so glad we finally made it out there.

this was one of the few beachy places i haven't been in mexico, so i was really happy to get to check another place off. i can say that i've never been to a beach that's as isolated as this one was - there were never more than about 20 people on the beach at a time, so it was like we had it all to ourselves. 

our little casita was right on the beach and we were lucky enough to wake up and fall asleep to the (super loud) ocean sounds every single day. 

we spent most of our time either reading on the beach, in the cute little town nearby eating shrimp tacos and looking at art galleries, or having a beer in the pool area. we were even able to get a massage on the beach right in front of our little villa! it also helped that there were 2 kitties that lived on-site, the food at the pool bar was amazing, and we found a top secret half-mile beach that we had to ourselves***. 

both of us really, really hope we make it back out here sometime in the next few years, it is definitely a place that has left a mark on our minds, and we hope it never gets spoiled!

***i have to give major props to my husband here. the picture below is the walk-in entrance to the secret beach that we found. not pictured is the mile-long hellish road that we had to drive down to get there. while i was saying "ummm maybe we should turn around?! i don't think our rental can take this road!!!" in a high-pitched voice that usually only dogs can hear, my husband politely ignored my complaints & drove like a champ over approximately 6,732 huge rocks, dips and cacti so that we got to this gem.