The accident

Yesterday afternoon, I was involved in a car accident. I was driving home from Lake Hopatcong (totally out of my way, but once in a while I take care of my ex-neighbor's dogs because she and they are so nice and I don't mind going out of my way for them) at around 4:30. It is a 2 lane road on both sides. I was in the left lane, going about 35 mph. I had actually just checked the speed limit and my speed, plus there was someone riding my tail who passed me, so I definitely wasn't going too fast. As I was driving along, minding my own business, I saw out of the corner of my right eye, a blue car gunning it out of a parking lot of a restaurant. I could see the car heading straight into my passenger side. Without any time to react, I tried to turn my wheel to avoid him without swinging my car into the oncoming traffic. He didn't even brake and at full acceleration hit the back side of my car. My car proceeded to spin out of control, through the two lanes of oncoming traffic (which had cleared at precisely the right time) and continued to spin into the exit driveway of a Dunkin Donuts. I was trying to turn the car out of the spin and brake and the car finally stopped a few inches short of a metal gate separating the DD from another parking lot. I remember putting the car in park and then looking out onto the road to see where the other car was through my rearview mirror. There was all this debris in the road and I thought for sure the entire side of my car must have fallen off. Usually after an accident I will grab my phone, or jump out of the car to assess the damage. This time, I just sat there in shock holding my belly. There were people gathering all over both sides of the street, like onlookers of a parade. A woman and a man ran over to my car and told me not to move until the paramedics came...which made me cry, because why would they tell me that unless it was really bad. The woman happened to be an off-duty nurse and she stayed there with me and did wonders calming me down until the ambulance got there. I was really lightheaded and shaken up but other than that I felt okay. First time ever in an ambulance! They checked me out on the scene and I turned down their offer to take me to the hospital (there were visions of medical bills dancing in my head). The police were nice enough to put my donut wheel on my car and when I was clear-headed enough to look at the damage I couldn't believe it wasn't worse. The other car needed to be towed and all the street debris was from his car, not mine.
My car needs to get fixed (hopefully it is not totaled). I don't even care about any of that. I am unscathed, the baby is fine and I was able to go home and sleep in my own bed. I have been effected by how lucky I really was. There were no cars in that other lane, there were no cars exiting the Dunkin Donuts, there were no pedestrians walking on the street or in the parking lot. There was no telephone pole in my way...there was a clearing that let my car spin and stop without hitting a thing.
Last night when I tried to sleep it was hard to get the vision out of my head. My mind blocked out a good part of what it had really felt like but when I closed my eyes last night I kept reliving it over and over.
I'm glad I have some guardian angels looking out for me.

Here's the kicker

This week I saw my doctor for my official weigh-in. I am not sure I go there for any other reason. I refuse to weigh myself at home on our scale. This time, the nurse had to move the slider on the scale up one more notch. Is there anything more frightening than seeing the slider go all the way to the end and the bar doesn't move down one bit?! So onto the next notch we go, on the scale and on my belt loop. My doctor remarked "Oh my God, you had a growth spurt!" I tried to explain it away that we went on vacation...but really I have been eating an awful lot of ice cream. :)
Baby G has been kicking up a storm. This past week the little flutters have become full on kicks! Each time it happens, I jump! It is startling! I think she has also had the hiccups a couple times, which is a more rhythmic thumping.
Tomorrow my mom and I are going to Babies R Us to start my registry. I invited Gene but he is trying to get out of it :) I don't blame him. I feel a little overwhelmed with all we have to buy.
Summer is almost here! My first attempt at making pickles (or is it called pickling cucumbers?) was a success. I made 3 jars and have polished off almost 2 already. So the next time I make them I will try to make a pickle tutorial on here. It is easy and fun and they are ready in three days!
Here are some recent pictures. My niece Arianna who fell asleep on me while we were listening to someone play guitar (music is so soothing for dogs and babies!) and then of course, the latest belly pic. My doctor says my belly is "perfectly round." If you are going to call me round, it most better be preceded by "perfectly."

Team Pink!

Today we went in for the anatomy scan and imagine my surprise when the tech told us..."It's a girl!" I was SO certain this was going to be a boy. My intuition is usually spot on, but I guess this baby is already full of surprises! When she told us, I started to cry. I didn't think I wanted a girl as much as I apparently do! I don't think I would have cried if she told us it was a boy. I was so prepared for a boy that even calling him a her now is taking some getting used to! It was Gene and my running joke that everytime we said "he" or "him" our little girl would roll her eyes and be saying "Hellllloooo! I'm a girl! When are you guys going to figure this out?" Gene says I need to start training her in-utero to be the next tennis star :) In-womb coaching...now that is a new concept!

Aloha!!

We are back from our vacation in...or is it on?...Maui! What a fabulous time we had! It was the first vacation in a while where we didn't just sit on the beach the entire time. We actually did a lot of cool things! I'll sum it up with a time line of our trip:

Thursday, May 13th: We left Newark Airport at 7:30 am and arrived in Dallas for a short layover. We arrived in Kahalui at around 3:00 pm Maui time, which was 9:00 pm EST for a total travel time of 13 1/2 hours. It honestly didn't seem that long. We were very entertained with our ipods and a nap or two. We picked up our convertible rental car (a must for first-timers to the islands!) and made our way to our hotel. It took about a half hour to get there, but the ride itself was beautiful with the green mountains and sugarcane fields to our left and right. That night we walked on the beach and took in our first sunset. We ate a late dinner at the hotel restaurant and fell asleep by 10, to the sound of the ocean right outside our balcony.



Friday, May 14th: We decided to take it easy on our first day and spend it at the hotel pool & on Makena beach. 5 am wake-up call from the birds that gathered in the hotel open air atrium. Started off the day with fresh waffles and coconut syrup, my new favorite condiment. The beach was nice, not too crowded and even some shade to be found under the trees. We witnessed a live turtle rescue by the government. It was a Hawksbill turtle they were rescuing out of the water off our beach, that had a possible tumor. We saw them bring him out of the water and we took lots of pictures. It was cool to see this type of turtle up close, since they are so rare! The rest of the day involved drinks by the pool (make mine a virgin, please) and tanning on the beach. We explored the rocky coves and found some cool sea creatures to play with (crabs, snails, an urchin).



Saturday, May 15th: After another 5 am wake-up call from nature (the birds, and yes, I had to get up to pee anyway) we had breakfast on our balcony (or lanai as they call it). Today was pancakes with coconut syrup :) Our first stop today was the Maui Ocean Center which is an aquarium and science center of sorts. We learned all about the fish & sea creatures of Hawaii. After lunch, we drove to Lahaina. Along the way we stopped at a fresh fruit stand to buy some fresh mangos and papayas. We were also amazed to see the beaches along the highway packed with surfers...it seemed like an endless stretch of tents and barbecues and surfboards! Once in Lahaina we did some shopping (got our ukulele), ate our first shave ice, saw the giant banyan tree, did some more shopping...later that night we attended our first Luau together. The show was great and the food was abundant! Driving back to the hotel that night, the stars in the sky were beautiful. And all the beaches were still packed with people partying around their campfires! We were tempted to crash the party!



Sunday, May 16th: We drove back to NE Maui today to take a Helicopter tour of Hana and Haleakala. The tour was great, a state-of-the-art helicopter and amazing views of waterfalls and the coast.





Afterward we drove into Pai'a with a couple we met on the Helicopter, Julie and Bill. This was their 8th time in Maui, so they took us to a great seafood joint for lunch, followed by the best Gelato I've ever had. Pai'a was one of my favorite little off-the-beaten-path towns. It was just a few blocks, but the Hawaiian lifestyle was uber-apparent here. I don't think it gets much more laid back than here!



Monday, May 17th: We did a snorkeling tour at 8:30 am that took us out to Molokini Crater (just a 15 minute sail away). We swam with lots of fish and saw some nice coral. The water was cold! And I was getting easily winded out there. Back on the boat, sailing to our 2nd stop, we ran into some spinner dolphins swimming alongside us. It was so cool to see them out in the wild, just doing their thing, jumping in and out of the water.



When we got to our next stop, which was close to Makena Beach we got to swim with sea turtles! We saw three altogether. They tell you to stay 10 feet away from them (for their protection) but they are so friendly and social, it is hard to keep that distance. They want to swim right up and say hi! This was quite a memorable experience!

Later that night, we went out for our "Anniversary" Dinner. It wasn't technically our anniversary. May 18th is our 13th "Dating" Anniversary which Gene says doesn't count anymore. But if it can score us a nice table and maybe a free dessert...? We went to Spago at the Four Seasons, so we were afforded a nice table and great view but not a free dessert. The food was very good but I think the atmosphere made it even better. I had my first Molten Lava Cake, which ironically is not called a Lava Cake in Hawaii. After dinner we tried to go see the adults-only pool where Modern Family filmed, but it was closed. We did see the elevator where they lost Lily.

Tuesday, May 18th: We shuttled over to Wailea Beach today, home of the Four Season and Grand Wailea. Our shuttle driver told us the pool at Grand Wailea was amazing and suggested we "accidentally fall" into it. We went to the beach first which was beautiful but offered no shade. The water was nice because we were able to walk out fairly deep and the waves were behaving. After a while we made our way to the pool area which turned out to be a water park! I think the pool was in the shape of a volcano or something, with water slides making up the sides and waterfalls cascading down. I finally convinced Gene to "fall in" with me. We went down the slides a couple times and swam around the connecting pools (you don't even have to swim, there is a current that moves you right along!). Finally we were spotted by a lifeguard/photographer who asked us if we "forgot" to get our bracelets. Yea...we forgot...that's it...



Wednesday, May 19th: We took a tennis clinic in the morning and relaxed the rest of the day.
We played some mini golf at our hotel and got in some last minute tanning and relaxation. For dinner we went back to Kihei, about 10 minutes from the hotel. Cheap food and a cool shore kind of vibe. We had pizza (Shaka pizza, so yummy) and frozen yogurt at Tutti Frutti and coffee at Starbucks (nothing screams authentic Hawaiian coffee like Starbucks).

Thursday, May 20th: Our last day in (on?) Maui. We visited Big Beach, which was the next beach over on the other side (Big Beach; Little/Makena Beach; Wailea Beach). It is the biggest undeveloped beach on Maui. It was really nice but it was a windy day so the sand hurt just blowing onto our legs. Our flight was going to be 2 hours late, so that gave us just enough time to drive the hour and a half toward Haleakala to visit the Lavender Farm! I was excited because I had given up on my hopes of visiting it...an hour and a half seemed a long ride just to see lavender. The drive was actually much shorter that predicted and it was a scenic ride as we ascended 4000 ft above sea level. The farm itself was so peaceful and it was lovely to be surrounded by lavender!



We missed the walking tour so we opted to play their "treasure hunt" game instead. It took us about 2 hours but we did it and won ourselves a free cookie! The red-eye flight back was rough. They expect you to sleep and they turn out the lights, but we both couldn't sleep. We were tired when we got to Dallas at 7 am and actually slept on the flight back to Newark. That probably messed up our sleep schedule because we couldn't sleep that night and have been jet-lagged since!

All in all, it was a perfect getaway--just what the doctor ordered!

May 2010

I've made it through 17 weeks! Pregnancy is growing on me (physically obviously, but also mentally). I really like how I look (bloated) and feel (nauseous). And I say that without and ounce of sarcasm! How can I enjoy tossing and turning all night? How can I be happy not being able to button my pants? Oh, that's because I am still crazy...crazy in love with this life growing inside me!! We saw the baby sucking its thumb on the last sonogram...it is the cutest thing ever. It is hard to make the connection that the baby on the screen in actually living in me. On the 2nd, I felt the baby move for the first time. It happens every so often, but only for a couple minutes and then it stops. I wouldn't describe it as a flutter. In fact, it isn't really all that comfortable! When I feel it, I get this image in my mind of the baby scratching it's nails on my insides...if that helps give you a picture of what it feels like to me! But just like when I am throwing up, I smile after it happens because I know what it means :)
Tomorrow is Mother's Day and although I don't feel like an official "mom" yet, I guess in some way I am. I am more excited to celebrate all the other moms out there (my mom, mother-in-law, sister, sister-in-law) who have been there and done that. I am still living in my pre-natal fantasy world with no dirty diapers and 4 am feedings (aside from my own).
On Thursday we leave for Maui. I didn't choose Maui, it chose me. I had about 10 other choices of places to go when Maui came calling my name. I don't know why I need to go there, but I do. Sounds silly but sometimes you have to let the universe talk to you! I hope to post some pics and have some great stories to tell when we get back.
Here's a picture of my new nephew Evan, born on April 24th. Another cousin for our baby to play with!

April 2010

April was a pretty quiet month for work, as it usually is. This was good because I needed a break so I could rest. I was exhausted! I took a lot of afternoon naps. I finally got a handle on my "morning/all-day sickness." I realized I have to eat every 2-3 hours or I throw up. Sounds like an easy solution, except when you are the type of person who is used to working all day without eating more than a few snack foods and then gets home and cooks dinner at 8 and eats at 9. I can't do that anymore. I need to eat, real food, and a lot of it. Snack foods (including fruit, granola bars, cheese) will only keep me satiated for 15 minutes or so. This baby demands meat, and at all meals. I have to eat meat for breakfast??! That is craziness! Luckily, I am growing quite fond of sausage, egg and cheese sandwiches. But that is my second breakfast. When I wake up in the morning, I have to eat a bowl of cereal first. Then I shower and get ready, and after that I cook second breakfast (is this reminding anyone of Pam's pregnancy on The Office?). Then there is first lunch and second lunch and luckily I've been getting away with one dinner and then of course, dessert. Baby loves Edy's ice cream in a cone. With lots of chocolate syrup. Really it is no wonder I now weigh more than I ever have before. In fact, last doctor's appointment I weighed my "carnival weight" as I like to call it. When I was in college, Gene and I went to the Meadowlands Fair and played the "Guess Your Weight/Age" game. The guy guessed my weight was WAY more than I actually weighed and from that point on Gene always joked that was my actual weight. Well, all jokes aside....that is my weight now. WAAAHHHH!!! :(

March 2010

March was spent mainly with my head in the toilet. Even after I got over the "stomach flu" I was still nauseous every day and would throw up a lot. Luckily the doctor gave me a script for Zofran which made me feel better.
My niece, Katelyn Grace was born on the morning of March 12th. I visited her that afternoon. She is a beautiful baby! It was interesting to see my sister go from being my sister to being a mom just like that! Here's me with Katelyn at the hospital:


We had some really bad rain storms after this and my sister-in-law's house got flooded. Gene's parents were living with her and they got displaced into our house for the next month. At least I didn't have to worry about cooking or cleaning...although food was still the last thing on my mind!

Here's my belly at the end of March, still not really showing a bump...more like bloated!