I’m 13 weeks on the dot today, which means only one more week of the dreaded first trimester! I say dreaded only because of morning sickness. I know that I am incredibly lucky to be pregnant and to have gotten pregnant so quickly, but morning sickness is still the pits.

But thankfully the 24/7 nausea is starting to fade, my energy is creeping back and I’m able to start enjoying some of the better parts of pregnancy … like a growing bump!

Everyone has told me I won’t show much because I’m tall, but so far I can’t tell if I’ll show a lot or very little because literally every day my stomach is different. Case in point, this was taken last night at a friend’s clothing swap party.

Pretty big bump for 13 weeks!!

Then this morning I had Luke snap this one…

Just a bitty baby bump. Quite a drastic change. Maybe I just get a food baby later in the day? :)

Other than the belly, there’s been a lot of other changes happening to my body, moods, eating habits and definitely to my sleep. I already slept an average of 9 hours a night, but lately I can’t get enough sleep. I go to bed at 8pm and am still sleeping deeply when my alarm goes off at 6:45am.

Luke’s been taking all my quirky changes in stride and has changed his life in more ways than one to support me. For example, the smell of meat cooking seriously grosses me out, so the poor guy hasn’t had a proper meal in quite awhile. He’s been subsisting on eggs, canned sardines (his choice!) and vegetables.

My diet has been so bizarre too. Morning sickness has made me have aversions to meat, most vegetables and chocolate (???). My nausea friends have been popcorn, fruit smoothies, Lara Bars, greek yogurt,  sour fruits like grapes and kiwi and Luke’s famous banana pancakes (made with coconut flour). I’ve been doing a pretty good job of eating healthy despite my limited appetite.

The past three months have been quite a roller coaster, but I have a feeling the next six and beyond will be even more interesting!

This morning I found out I am pregnant.

I had a feeling it was coming. We started “trying” this month and although I never thought I would get pregnant right away, my body felt different and I was four days late. I decided I was going to wait until the morning to take a test so I would be following the instructions on the pregnancy test to a T.

I woke up at 5:30 am needing to go to the bathroom. I think it was mainly in my head because I was so anxious to find out.

A few moments later, I sat on the toilet lid watching the pregnancy test like a hawk. Within a mintue or two there were two dark, distinguishable lines. There was no doubt…I was pregnant! I felt a rush of excitement and a smile permanently plastered on my face.

Luke was downstairs making his coffee. I walked into the kitchen carrying the stick and I set it down in front of him. I temporarily forgot that Luke is a man and would have no clue how to read a pregnancy test. He stared at it and asked me “what does this mean?”

And I blurted out “I’m PREGNANT!!!” With the biggest smile on my face I think I’ve ever had.

I immediately fell into his arms and burst into tears.

Luke wasn’t sure why I was crying. Crying to him means upset. He asked me “how do you feel?”

And I replied between sobs into his shoulder “I’m so happy!!”

And I meant it with my whole heart. I am so happy to become a mother. To start this stage of my life. To start a family.

I’m not sure if it was our state of mind or just luck, but this weekend everything seemed to go right and it was indeed the “best weekend” I’ve had in a long time.

Friday: 
- I got home early enough from work to whip up a delicious dinner before bowling – mexican stuffed peppers
- We won our bowling league and I scored a weekend high 167 in the first game.
- Ohio University (my alma mater) defeated Michigan!!

Saturday:
- Woke up to four feet of powder! Made it to Heavenly for almost first-chair and skied knee-deep snow all day. (only fell twice and it was in soft, soft snow)

- Got home totally exhausted by 3:00 pm and watched Indiana (Luke’s alma mater) beat VCU!
- Went to all-you-can-eat sushi with Luke’s brother and gorged ourselves on delicious maki rolls

- Went to bed really early and got a good 10+ hours of sleep

Sunday:
- Woke up to another foot of new snow! Went “stash hunting” (looking for untracked snow) in the trees at Heavenly for a few hours before our legs went out

- Came home and Luke whipped up delicious egg and bacon sandwiches for lunch
- Watched Ohio University beat South Florida! BOBCATSSSSSS!!!
- Ate the most delicious meal of the weekend: roasted pork belly with veggies. Amazing!

- Watched Eastbound & Down by the fire with a glass of wine
- Went to bed by 9:30 pm

From the looks of my Facebook, Twitter, Foursquare and Instagram feed it looks like most of my friends/family were also having the “best weekend ever!” with the warm weather, St. Patrick’s Day parties and awesome basketball.

Here’s to recognizing how awesome your life is right in the very moment!

Just some fun things he could open and be surprised by. Here’s what he got:

Batman & Robin t-shirt, because he’s my favorite side kick. :)

Man soap, because my guy likes natural body products and this one smells like black licorice

Coffee canister, because Luke takes pride in his coffee. We’re talking full on drip method every morning.

And finally a sweet belt buckle, because we live in NV and every man must have a belt buckle.

I put all his presents into a “bag of surprises” as I called it and watched with a smile on my face as he opened each present. Sure, they aren’t the most practical of presents, but for Valentine’s Day, they were just the right way to say “I Love You” with some quirk.

What did you get/give this Valentine’s Day? You can click on any image above to go to the site where it was purchased.

Luckily my favorite Paleo cook book “Paleo Comfort Food” had a recipe I adapted to meet my craving. It’s called a “shrimp skillet” in the book, but that’s not quite descriptive for me. How about “Shrimp & pepper & tomato & onion & feta-goodness skillet?” No? Ok, I can live with “Paleo Shrimp Fra Diavolo” :) Here we go.

Shrimp Skillet Ingredients:
- 2 lbs peeled, deveined shrimp
- 1 medium onion
- 1 red bell pepper
- 5 garlic cloves, minced
- olive oil
- 2 tlbs fresh chopped oregano
- 1 lemon
- Feta cheese
- 4 medium tomatoes
- Red pepper flakes

Lemon Parmesan Pasta:
- 1 spaghetti squash
- 1 lemon
- Container of Parmesan cheese
- Olive oil

First, put the shrimp in a medium bowl. Add the minced garlic, chopped oregano, zest of the lemon, juice of the lemon and two tablespoons of olive oil. Mix and let marinate for 15 minutes.

While you wait, slice the red pepper into long thin strips and set aside. Do the same to the onion. Cook the pepper and onion in some olive oil in a skillet until the onion is translucent, about 10 minutes. During the cook time, chop the tomatoes into large pieces and clean out the “wet” seedy part so just the tomato meat is left behind.

Once the onion is translucent, add the shrimp and the marinade to the pan and cook just until the shrimp is pink. Then add the tomatoes and cook just until the tomatoes are warm. Top with feta cheese and a bunch of red pepper flakes.

This dish can stand alone as it’s own meal, but if you want to tackle the lemon parm “pasta” I mentioned, here’s the recipe for that. It’s SUPER easy and tastes just like the tangy, cheesy pasta I remember from my grain-eating days.

Prick holes in a spaghetti squash and place on a baking sheet. Bake at 375 for one hour. Remove the squash from the oven, cut it in half, remove the seeds and then scrape with a fork to make “pasta.” Add the juice of one lemon, 1 tablespoons of olive oil and a cup of Parmesan cheese. Mix and serve.

Here’s the final product:

Really yummy and really easy for a week-night meal. Enjoy!

He is strong.

He is silly.

He loves nature.

He looks good with his shirt off, but gets embarrassed when I tell him so.

When he laughs, he laughs with his whole face.

He does things he normally never would to make me happy.

He eats like a man.

Babies love him.

He cleans up well.

He rocks a side part and looks good doing it.

And finally, I love that he makes my heart flutter every day.

Unfortunately snow in Chicago caused my flight to be cancelled on Friday and the earliest they could get me into Toledo was 11pm on Saturday night. Since I had to leave Monday, it just wasn’t going to work out. I decided to refund my money on the flight to use for another time when I can stay longer.

Driving away from the airport, I had tears in my eyes. Situations like this, when I am missing something important to the people I love because of distance, makes me feel terribly homesick.

I still haven’t figured out a way to balance the amazing lifestyle we have here in Tahoe with the distance it puts between us and the people we love.

On one hand I imagine us starting a family out here and not having anyone there for first birthdays or baptisms or summer days at the beach. That is so sad to me.

On the other hand I imagine life in Ohio and see jobs we aren’t excited about and a lifestyle that is missing on all the things we love to do like skiing, hiking, being on the lake etc.

I want it all and that is impossible it seems.

When I got home, I found Luke sitting on the couch by the fire. I curled up in his arms and told him about all the worries I was having. He let me talk it through and empathized with how I felt. I appreciated that he didn’t try to “find a solution” but instead just said:

“Babe – there’s just no way to know where life is going to take us right now. But I do know that life is about being happy and we’ll do whatever we need to do to feel that way. So let’s just see what happens and not worry too much about things down the line.”

Then we talked about how I could go home more often to see my family and to make sure I’m able to be there for special moments I don’t want to miss.

I love that just when I’m feeling sad and filled with worry, Luke is able to calm me down and help me see that nothing is permanent or binding. And that together we’ll figure it out.

I feel like having him by my side is going to mean that I will always be able to be happy no matter where we are.

The house itself is VERY Tahoe, as you can tell by the Christmas Tree porch.

The interior has a lot of nice, light pine wood on some walls, banisters, cabinets etc. The floor is dark hardwood and the kitchen has dark green granite. Automatically, you’d think that this house should be decorated in a “mountain” theme like most homes here are.

But this:

Is pretty much my worst nightmare! Yuck! (sorry if you’re into mountain decor)

My style is much more cottage, country, shabby. I love big, comfy couches. Antique furniture made new. Light furniture with a punch of color. And a bit of mountain flair thrown in. And for the most part, Luke agrees.

I’ve been trolling Pinterest gathering my inspiration and I think the best way to describe what I like is “Rustic Chic.” Here are some of my favorites:

You can see all my “rustic chic” inspiration on my Pinterest board.

I have so many ideas running through my head:

- Floor to ceiling white, sheer drapes to frame the 20 ft windows in our living room
- Two big comfy chairs right by the fire place for reading
- A chandelier hanging down from the high ceiling in the entryway
- An old trunk that’s been in Luke’s family as a coffee table in the TV room

My mind is filled with ideas to make this house feel like our home. Finally after 10 years of renting, living with other people’s furniture and only buying IKEA, I’ll be able to make this place feel exactly like “us.”

Case in point- our house situation. We’re going on 6.5 months since our offer was first submitted and I’m seriously losing my patience.

Everyone told us a short sale can take on AVERAGE six months, but this is starting to feel ridiculous. Especially because ALL we’re waiting on is the second bank to complete the paperwork for their approval.

They’ve already verbally approved it. We did the inspection. We’re just waiting on two pages of paperwork to sign. Two measly pieces of paper.

And yet it’s been three weeks since they verbally approved and nothing. Super frustrating. I’ve gone into full on stalker mode, emailing our real estate agent almost daily asking for updates, calling the bank mediator, annoying the crap out of Luke.

I am just SO excited to finally have this home be ours. I want to decorate and finally own my own furniture and be able to have friends and family visit and not deal with landlords anymore.

Anyway, while we wait, we are keeping busy. This weekend we have a lot of fun things planned:

- Friday night: Bowling league then mustache birthday party for Whitney!

- Saturday: Republican caucus* then skiing at Northstar with our friends Kelly & Mike, then all-you-can-eat sushi

* It’s true, this Democrat officially changed to Republican so I can vote for Ron Paul. He is the bomb.com. Read up on his beliefs to see if you agree: http://www.ronpaul.com/

- Sunday: Skiing at Heavenly then to colleague Jen’s for a Superbowl party. I’m making my bacon-wrapped jalapeno poppers. 

And in between all that I’ll likely be doing one of my favorite things … researching dogs we can adopt once we do own our home and repeatedly asking Luke if we can get one even though I know he is 100% against getting a dog. Now or ever.

But come ON look at this guy…his name is Tripod for peets sake!

And this one is like the angriest-looking, old man dog ever. I must have him.

okay, things are getting weird in this post. I think it’s time to wrap this up.

Have a great weekend!

Starting last Wednesday through Saturday I was helping organize and host a social media conference here at Heavenly called Snowcial. (we’re pretty cute, huh?)

We had about 120 influencers across the ski and social media industries come to Heavenly for the conference, which included two days of speakers, three days of skiing and a lot of parties inbetween.

Here’s me trying to be smart by asking a question during one panel. :)

Although a team of about six of us have been planning the conference since June, it still was a beast to manage. Imaging planning a conference AND a ski vacation for 100+ people. There were so many details like – lift tickets, rentals, shuttle buses, hotel rooms, cocktail parties, conference badges, speaker presentations – to coordinate.

While at times I felt like everything was coming apart at the seams, I was happy to hear from attendees that they were impressed with how smoothly everything flowed. That’s the key to events – keep everything rolling smoothly and when mistakes happen, just smile and move on.

For those of you in the industry who read my blog, I have to say I was really proud of the caliber of speakers we had at the conference including: the founders of Klout and Foursquare, the CEO of Vail Resorts, the former CMO of Virgin America, as well as panelists from Google, eBay, Micorsoft, WOMMA, IMG, Pabst, and professional skiers Daron Rahlves and Michelle Parker. On the entertainment side we had a special performance by Young The Giant.

Making things even more interesting – we happened to get our first big snow storm of the season right during the conference, which meant our team had to do double duty marketing the snow through photos, social media, PR and emails all while also  organizing Snowcial.

Like I said – last week was INSANE!

At the end of the day though, it all came together and everyone had a great time. Now I can relax a little and enjoy the three feet of powder we got this week!