Let's Play Catch Up

Since it has been a very long while since my last post, I should bring my dear readers (do I even have any anymore?!) up to speed. The past few months have been quite eventful!

I'll start right where I left off... just back from a lovely weekend at hotel in Cork...

• Upon our return from our little holiday I felt a little off and decided to do a test to see if what I suspected was true... August 3rd, 2009, was the beginning of a new chapter in our lives:

Yep - Pregnant!

• Not long after The Morning Sickness From Hell showed up at my doorstep. This ALL DAY sickness left me incapacitated and couch ridden for much of the first 5 months - hence my lack of communication in the blogging world.
• In October, I decided to quit my job due to an unhealthy working environment. Suffice it to say I chose my integrity over a paycheck. Times are tough, financially, but I do not regret my decision for a minute
• Later that month we debated whether or not to go on our 5 day trip to Northern Italy as planned. I was still feeling quite sick and now that we were out a paycheck we weren't sure it was a good idea. Since the plane tickets were already purchased and we really wanted to see the the country, we went anyway. We saw beautiful scenes like this around every corner:

Lombardy, Italy

• Granted, I was sick for the whole trip, but gosh darnit I saw Northern Italy!
• On November 22nd we celebrated my 26th birthday - we had lots to celebrate with our little buddy on the way!

Me on my birthday

• A week or so later it was Thanksgiving. AKA: The best holiday ever. We made a lovely feast and invited a few close friends over.

r to l: Kara, Jo, Beth, Me

• The next weekend Liz had all the girls over for our Secret Santa party - great times had by all! Liz was the hostess with the mostess. My gift? A lovely Irish ornament from Newbridge Silver and an Irish cookbook. Thanks, Aisling!

Hail, hail, the gang's all here!

• Good friends, Candice and Brian came to visit shortly after. As always, it's fun to see the city like a tourist again :-) (Also, Congratulations to Candice who is pregnant too!)

Us at Stephen's Green

• On December 18 we celebrated Hub's big 29th birthday - what an old man! We went to dinner at Maia, one of our favorites. And the next day we went to the David Gray (special guest, Regina Spektor) concert. David Gray was fantastic and played loads of his old stuff, which we LOVE. Brought back so many memories from the good old college days. I could have done without Regina - she has a couple of cute songs but she is no entertainer.

Happy 29, Hubby!

• A few day later we were off to the USA for Christmas! It was a fantastic trip. We saw lots of family and friends and then we got sick of them and came home. Just kidding! Hubs left 2 weeks before me, I got to stay a whole month! (sorry I don't have any pics from Christmas on my computer yet)
• While I was home my mom gave me a lovely baby shower where we received so many wonderful, thoughtful gifts for our little one!

Hubs especially loved the football themed clothes!

• Now I am back in Dublin, living the life :-) I've seen several friends that I missed while I was gone and have signed up to volunteer at a yoga studio (they give free class passes with each shift worked!). I'm also in total "nesting" mode - the nursery is coming right along!
• That pretty much sums up the last few months, more or less. I will leave you with a picture of me at 29 weeks pregnant...

29 weeks!

Comeback Kid

I am making a comeback to the world of blogging upon my return to Dublin in late January! Be on the watch for a whole new look and updates on my comings and goings. See you all soon!

Away From it All

Over the weekend Hubs and I visited a lovely secluded hotel in Cork. It was just what we needed - a break from the hustle and bustle and a breath of fresh air.

Let Agreed

It's official! Hubs and I are movin' on up - out of our tiny one bed apartment and into a slightly bigger two bed (in the same neighborhood)! The lease was signed yesterday and we couldn't be happier to begin moving into our new place in just two short weeks. Pictures to come!

Lovely Dublin Weekend

Another lovely Dublin weekend out and about for hubs and I! We didn't do much but weekend flew by anyway. Saturday night we participated in a pub-quiz at the Waterloo to benefit a friend of Hubs going to India with Habitat for Humanity. With the help of Simon and Liz (and not much help from yours truly) we won first place! We proudly took home the bottle of [cheap] Brut champagne... yum!

Saturday was pretty low key. We strolled through the city stopping in a few shops, and even ran into good friends Larry and Beth! Ha! Small city :-) We took a pit stop for a bite to eat at one of Dubliner's top rated spots Lolly and Cooks. The sandwich was just okay, but the lemon cupcake after (I know - totally not on the diet plan!) was divine!!

Pausing to admire the pretty door/bird/plant

While walking back home I was drawn to the local flower man and these glorious sunflowers! Just €10... They are now sitting on the kitchen table. Lovely :-)

Sunday we decided to take a walk (turned out to be a very looong walk) to scope out prospective apartments. Our lease is up soon and we've been lurking on daft.ie so we were curious to see where our favorites were actually located. One of the places we liked was very near the Irish Sea, so we took a stroll down Sandymount Strand.

Sitting on the rocks by the Sea... Ahhhh...

By the time we got home it started to rain and we were famished, so we didn't feel one bit bad staying in the rest of the evening and watching a few episodes of the last season of the Sopranos courtesy of Larry and Beth!

Now that's how to have a very pleasant weekend and not spend more than €20.