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Lemongrass Pork Burgers

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Happy Friday! What a week it’s been. Watching the devastation caused by the flooding from Hurricane Harvey in Texas has been awful. It’s crazy to think that not even a year ago our own beautiful island was turned upside down by Hurricane Matthew. It was awful and the flooding in Houston looks so much worse.  I didn’t think Hilton Head would ever look the same, but almost a year later, it almost does. It’s amazing how people came together and so many wonderful incidences of compassion and aspects of humanity emerged from such a terrible storm. I know the same thing will happen in Houston, but the process will be long and heartbreaking for so many who lost so much.

As hard as the Harvey coverage has been to watch, Robert and I had something to celebrate this week as well. We are officially half way through this pregnancy, a milestone that seemed unimaginable at the beginning of it all. Hitting the half way mark this week also meant we got to experience our anatomy scan, which was indescribably amazing. Modern medicine is nothing short of miraculous, and watching an anatomy ultrasound is the perfect example of this. We saw tiny fingers and toes, the ventricles of the brain, two tiny kidneys (which honestly just looked like little black spots to me), a long spine and ribs, and best of all the 4 chambers of a rapidly beating little heart ❤

baby feet
Precious Baby Feet

I was apprehensive going into this ultrasound since we opted not to do any genetic testing prior to this appointment. A few days before the test I wondered if that was the right decision and if we would get shocking news once the ultrasound began. Thankfully, all appears to be well, and the doctor reassured us that anything life threatening would have been picked up. I’m sure I’ll find brand new worries in a few days but for now I am feeling thankful and relieved.

We also got confirmation that we are having a little girl. Or as the doctor referred to the picture, “yep, three lines, that’s a hamburger!”. Awkward.

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Canada Part 1: Yoho National Park & Lake Louise

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Our trip to Canada started off with a bang. Or perhaps a better word is ‘bust’. I woke up at 3:30 AM to an email alert from United that my 6:30 flight had been canceled and I needed to call to reschedule. My original flight was supposed to take me from Savannah to Chicago where I would meet Michelle, then Chicago to Calgary where we would arrive in time for lunch. The problem was the weather in Chicago, so the only option they could offer me was an even earlier flight (6:00 AM) to Newark, Newark to Houston (wrong direction!!) and finally Houston to Calgary where I would now be arriving around 5 PM. Poor Michelle got an even crazier re-route through San Francisco and didn’t get in til nearly 8! So much for exploring Banff on our way to Golden that first day. Disappointing but luckily we had built a free day into our itinerary just in case, and after all, we did both make it to Canada, with our bags! No small feat after all that rescheduled nonsense.

We stopped for a late dinner at the Cactus Club Cafe. Our waitress raved about the Prawn Ravioli which she said was the winning dish in a Canadian version of Iron Chef. We ordered the appetizer version and it was definitely delicious as was the rest of the meal.

Cactus Club
Cactus Club Cafe: Dark lighting<delicious food

Post dinner we stopped at Wal-Mart to pick up a few groceries and then hit the road for Golden, arriving just after 2 AM and immediately going to bed after 24 hours of travel.

We woke up the next morning to discover that our Air BnB was really adorable and incredibly well appointed. The owners had left us toiletries, coffee, candy, a bowl full of fruit and even a dozen eggs! So yes, the stereotypes are clearly true, Canadians are really nice.

After breakfast we packed our lunch and headed for Yoho, our first park of the trip. As we drove we got our first daylight glimpses of Golden, a cute and fairly quiet little ski town surrounded by huge snow capped mountains.

Here, I feel it’s appropriate to take a minute and get this out of the way, as I’m sure to be repeating it 8 million times throughout these posts: CANADA IS BEAUTIFUL! Like breathtakingly, mind blowingly beautiful in a way that only mountains and wilderness can be. If you want to see a piece of the world that still looks exactly as I believe God must have intended it, go to the Canadian Rockies. You won’t be disappointed.

Tiny Town

Ok, so back to Yoho. Our first stop was a short walk to the Natural Bridge.

Meesh at NB

The Natural Bridge is a natural span of rock over the Kicking Horse River that houses a small waterfall.

NB Other side
Kicking Horse River

The water, like most of the water we saw throughout the parks, was the most beautiful shade of green/blue due to mineral deposits that run off from the glaciers.

NB 5
Pool at the foot of the Natural Bridge

Our next stop was Emerald Lake, which just so happened to still be frozen solid. Continue reading →

Oh Canada

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Good day eh! My google search informs me that this is a common Canadian greeting, so I’m practicing. I realized that I got so wrapped up in beef tacos and Mexican food menus last week that I forgot to share that Michelle and I were no longer hypothetically going to Canada, we ARE going to Canada. Tomorrow!

I used that exclamation point after tomorrow to denote both excitement and panic. Excitement because of course, Canada! and poutine! and beautiful wilderness! Panic because if you’ve been reading for any length of time you know that I am quite the planner, and this trip has been particularly difficult to plan in great detail. And also bears. Always bears.

This trip came together quickly and I feel like I am as prepared as I can be, but not quite as prepared as I would like to be. The weather looks like it will be in the high 40’s low 50’s which is great, I certainly prefer cold to freezing. I did purchase these babies just in case..

aclk

So at least my feet will be warm.

Our rough itinerary is as follows:

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The Easiest Way to Shred Chicken EVER & Musings on Life

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Happy Belated President’s Day! I celebrated the under appreciated holiday by attending a Professional Development Day at school. Sitting through seminars isn’t really much of a celebration at all so if you were lucky enough to be off I sure hope you enjoyed it!

Even though my holiday was less than, I have had a pretty enjoyable last couple of weeks. I got to catch up with my girlfriends from graduate school at a speech convention. Then Robert and I attended the lovely wedding of a family friend complete with an Elvis impersonator which was pretty entertaining to say the least.

After that I got to spend a few days in Charleston visiting and volunteering with my Aunt Vanessa. She is my decorating guru and we have very similar interests in cooking and healthy eating so time spent with her is always lots of fun (and tasty!). We shopped, enjoyed a lot of delicious meals out, a few delicious meals in (including these delectable overnight oats topped with agave, fresh fruit and freshly ground nutmeg…drool!)

oats

*Has anyone ever seen a nutmeg grinder? This was new to me and I think I need one…

AND last but not least, milkshakes from a magical milkshake machine!

You choose your flavor, pop the top off and the machine sucks your cup up and returns a perfectly thick milkshake to you. So. Good. Thankfully I don’t know where one of these exists in Hilton Head or otherwise I’d be in trouble.

We did do more than just eat (hard to believe, I know). We also spent Friday evening volunteering at an event at Vanessa’s church called Night to Shine. Night to Shine is sponsored by the Tim Tebow Foundation and is an amazing prom night experience for individuals with special needs. There’s dinner, dancing, a red carpet, limo rides, paparazzi photos, make up and shoe shines, literally everything you can imagine to make the attendees feel like Kings and Queens. Vanessa and I were food servers which was wonderful since we got to interact with many of the adults as we served them their meal. It was truly a magical night and I can’t wait to volunteer again next year. If you hear of this event taking place in your area and you have a heart for people with differing abilities I HIGHLY encourage you to find a way to help out. You will not regret it!

I came back from that trip to Charleston with a renewed desire to cook! I love to cook, but after a sad December and thus a few weeks feeling awful mentally and physically and doing minimal cooking, I really hadn’t had a huge drive to get back in the kitchen. It was exciting to finally be feeling like myself again. My immediate thoughts were, ‘Oh hello old friend! I’ve missed you! Let’s make something!’ But then the age old question, what exactly to make?

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Bittersweet: Learning and Love after my Misoprostol Miscarriage

~ atastytrip ~ 2 Comments

This is not what I normally write about. Traveling, recipes and photos of my dog are things that I love. This, is a thing that I hated. But, it is a real thing, an authentic experience that I had and will continue to have for a long time and something that I’ve thought long and hard about sharing. You see, when I was in the thick of everything, I desperately wanted information. And not just the web MD type. I wanted to read other women’s stories. I wanted to know what to expect, if what I was experiencing was normal, what came ‘after’ for them. I wanted to feel a little less alone in what has to be one of the loneliest experiences there is. I scoured the internet and the stories I found either on old message boards or on blogs, were few and far between. So here is my story, my experience, this chapter that I hate in a life that I otherwise love. I wish that no other women would have to go through this, but the reality is that many will, and if it can help inform or prepare or even just help someone feel less alone, then I won’t regret sharing it. So here goes ❤

Today marks exactly one month. One month since I woke up excited to see our baby for the first time. One month since I drew a little heart next to ’11 weeks’ in my planner. One month since I sat on that exam table and found out there would be no baby. One month since I cried on Robert’s shoulder with my paper gown still on, saying “it’s ok, everything’s ok” and “how could this be” all in the same breath. It seems like a long time ago, but it’s only been one month.

I’ve learned a lot in one month. But first things first. First, I want to share my experience after the appointment, in all its gory detail. It was unpleasant to experience and will be unpleasant to read, so skip this part if you’ve no interest. The reason I want to share this in detail is because I got NO information from my doctor (I’ve since found a new one) and had no idea what to expect other than first hand accounts I found online. There weren’t many of them, so here is one more, hopefully it will help prepare someone or inform a choice.

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