From Week 6 to 7 - I took up Spinning!

Week 6 - July 16 - 24

First of all week 6 was a particularly long week...because it actually was 9 days long for me! When we went for the ultrasound I thought I was 6 weeks 1 day. In reality I was actually 5 weeks 6 days so I got to go through two days of week 6 again...(well, kind of, but it felt like it).This week I have had two challenges - one of them is just renewed as I am back to having the nom nom noms every 2-3 hours and have been crashing harder than ever if I don't eat accordingly. It's been major work to keep up!

And then challenge number two, the new pregnancy symptom and challenge - when I say I took up spinning...I didn't mean the cool cycling stuff, I meant that that my head took up spinning this week. It took me a few days to target what causes it...basically it is whenever I move! Laying down is best, but...I can't exactly do that all the time! It has definitely made the past few days interesting! One of the afternoons when I went to swim I felt so dizzy the entire time that I eventually gave up and stopped fifteen minutes early because I couldn't handle another minute of working out while feeling dizzy to the point I was borderline nauseous. One afternoon I stopped by Publix to check my blood pressure - yep - it was the lowest it has ever been. Not unhealthy low, but typical pregnant low and low compared to what I was used to.

Today I had my first big *shake my head at my pregnant self* moment. Okay, maybe not my first but the first string of smh events.

I met Daniel for lunch at the awesome Thai place near his work and finally enjoyed some of their awesome yellow curry first hand (it's seriously ridiculous!) After that I window shopped for a bit (finally stepped foot in an Ulta) and I managed to find some swimsuit options that would be more supportive for workouts (that was pretty much the first issue I ran into - I have an embarassing story about my workout swimsuit and a sports bra that we just won't go into) that were all on end of season clearance - perfect! I found some tankinis that fit but left room for my belly to grow and picked up a new pair of bottoms (cause mine were...embarassingly...decade plus old and the elastic was two seconds from crinkling).

From there I headed up I-95 to head to the gym and...needed to snack again. So I pulled out the slivered almonds and proceeded to choke so violently I nearly had to pull over and basically had a near death I-95 experience. Smh.

By the time I got to the gym, I tossed the new swimsuit into my gym bag from front seat to back seat and realized...holy cow I was so tired I didn't know if I could even attempt to workout. So, I set my timer for ten minutes, kept the AC running, and took a nap (using some of the shirts that were in the back seat to go to good will as a pillow)...only at that point I was quickly descending into a coma so I set the timer for ten again and turned the AC off...and even snoozed it for ten more.

So...after a thirty minute nap in my car in July in Florida (I know, I know...my car is super tinted though). I emerged bleary eyed, sweaty, but ready to attempt a workout. I headed in with my bag and went to change in the women's locker room only to discover that I only had half of my swimsuit in the bag. Sigh, I must have missed the bag when I tossed the clothes from front seat shopping bag to back seat gym bag? Oh well. I still had my regular unsupportive swimsuit and I sucked it up and managed to finally squeeze in a workout.

Once I finished up and drove home I took a moment to search the car for the missing, brand new, still had tags on them, swimsuit bottoms. They were nowhere. Really? I mean...with the exception of a box of tissues and my kill-a-man flashlight, my car is not a cluttered car - so it only takes a minute to determine nope, no swimsuit. I searched my gym bag thoroughly just in case. Nada.

I called the gym. "Hi, do you have a lost and found? Umm, well, I have a silly question...has anyone found any brand new, still have tags, never worn, black swimsuit bottoms?" Thankfully they didn't ask what size. Evidently someone had found them in the PARKING LOT and brought them in. (Deep, embarassed smh.) The lady said she was going to put them in a plastic bag with my name on it (awesome!) and I could pick them up the next time I come in.

I couldn't help but laugh at myself. Near choking, basically dropping my panties in the parking lot... I was officially a self-embarassing pregnant lady.

 

 

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From week 4 to 5 - Beth - the Hungry Hungry Hippo...

Week 4 - July 2nd - July 8th

So this week my symptoms were no longer a question of am I maybe pregnant or just imagining things? My symptoms were instead happy confirmation that - oh my gosh - I really AM pregnant!!!

And I have definitely been feeling it! We have wanted this for a long time, so I do not want to be one of those people who just complains about everything - this may sound ridiculous - but it has been so exciting to have moments where I am suddenly so exhausted all I want to do is stop everything I am doing and lay down. When I feel crummy I get so excited - in my head I keep thinking - "Hooray! I feel really crappy - this is such a great sign that things are going well!" In fact when I have had days when I feel pretty good I actually get really nervous - "do I feel great because something is wrong and the hormones are tapering off?!"

Very early on I had about two days or so of pretty intense, very isolated cramps - which technically coincided with further implantion. Online I read comments from other women saying it felt like "a demon creature scratching and clawing its way into place"....but I couldn't help but to prefer to picture it as more like a cute little one nuzzling up and burrowing in for a long protective snuggle.

I've had a few other fun images come to mind...as I knew the cells were differentiating and specializing and dividing up into several different roles and everything is newly under construction. I couldn't help but to conjure up images that were a cross between the cartoon exploration of the body in The Magic School Bus and a cartoon construction site. "Hey, keep the folic acid coming over here please," "we need to route the oxygen line through here." It makes me smile every time.

A few highlights from our trip to the FL Keys...

World's Largest Key Lime Pie in Key West on the Fourth of July

And...it was pretty tasty too!

Enjoying the beautiful waters of Key West - the sun actually came out for a little while!

Parasailing! Daniel, Beth, and Baby Hals! (We have used this company before and it is very very smooth and gentle)

 

Don't worry, I did actually skip the scuba diving, but despite all the crazy weather Daniel and Tom finally got in the water and had a great time!

Enjoying a dinner at Marker 88 with Tom (Daniel's cousin)

My favorite key lime pie in the world - made at Marker 88

 

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Telling the Family!

Monday, July 1st and Tuesday, July 2nd, 2013

We were going to try to wait to tell the family. Really we were. But it's such a hard secret to keep!!! We would have told our friends...but we found out Sunday and just enjoyed knowing between the two of us for the day. Monday we told the family, Tuesday Tom came to visit, and Wednesday we headed to the Keys for the Fourth of July weekend - so really, we wouldn't see our friends until the following week. And, considering we had to tell all of our family members over the phone/online we want to get to tell somebody in person!

So Monday night Daniel got home and he said "So HOW long am I going to have to wait to tell people?!, because this is really hard!" We started chatting about whether we would be able to tell our families in person and it was just going to be tooooo many weeks before we could make it home. So we started chatting about how we would want to tell them...and then I got an idea. I pulled together a video clip that looked like our "anniversary story" kinda video and progressed through me telling Daniel, his reaction, etc. It was one minute, quick, snappy, had an element of surprise, and we thought it would do the trick. We pulled it together and decided to just go for it.

Our video - (this is the original we later made one that more updated photos)
Daniel's mom - we started out by texting Michael and Stephanie and asking if one of them could set up face time on that end for us. Then we emailed her a link to this video. I think the face time gave it away - but still! It was still exciting and everyone was really happy on the other line!

Daniel's dad was at work, so Daniel decided to just text his dad the link to the video clip and say hey - check out what we made. Given that Daniel and his dad have been playing with making different video clips and photos lately, this really wasn't out of place at all. He was caught off guard. Actually I think the first text back was "Wow" (in a very good way!)

My parents - I was really worried that emailing them the video clip would ruin the surprise...but I really wanted to use it! So...I emailed both parents the link and called mom after I thought dad would be home from work. They were on speaker phone but didn't know it. I told them to use dad's phone to stream the funny video I had made. OF COURSE it had to buffer JUST before they were going to get to the good part - we had to wait for them to start the whole video over - I was practically shaking on the other end, but in the end it went perfectly and their reaction was awesome - they were thrilled!

 

It was late, we were exhausted, and so we decided to tackle telling the siblings until the next day. Daniel emailed Emily and copied me on it - similar to what he did with his dad. Within a few hours we got an email from Emily saying something along the lines of "just watched this at my desk at work and literally shouted out OH MY GOD!"

I messaged Pam and Ali with the video link through facebook, again anxiously waiting for them to click on the link with no avail. Eventually it was day time in India and I promptly heard from Pam, who was also incredibly excited and later that night finally heard from Ali who had been at work all day and watched the video with Brad when she got home.

 

Tuesday night I had to pick Tom up from the airport (Daniel's cousin) for the trip we were making to the Florida Keys from Wednesday - Sunday. We figured there was pretty much no way to not tell Tom. Think about it...hey Tom, we know you came down for a dive trip but Beth isn't diving, oh yeah, Beth isn't drinking, oh yeah, Beth snacks all the time, oh yeah, Beth has to pee all the time... yeah, like he wouldn't have figured all of that out. So we told him too!

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Mmmmm, Gelato! (A Slight Obsession)

For those of you who have been wondering what the difference between ice cream and gelato is read this NPR story that came out yesterday!

Italian University Spreads the Gelato Gospel
or a simpler explanation
Ice Cream vs Gelato:  What's the Difference?

One of our top favorite gelato places in Florence - just in view of the climb the cupola line...mmmm pistachio is my weakness!!!

Guess it makes sense that Stephanie and I decided all the best gelato comes from Florence!

Mmmm, yummy near the Duomo ice cream - one of our top favorites!

During this trip we certainly made a game of "gelato hunting" as well as trying to figure out how to arrange our tourist routes around gelato and how many times we could squeeze it into a single day! Daniel and the rest of the Hals learned that I have a finely honed gelato beacon and were pretty impressed when I could pluck delicious gelato shops out of obscurity that I had remembered from our last trip to Italy with students (we had gotten several recommendations from our guide that were just stellar). By the end of the trip Daniel and I had trained Stephanie and Michael into our little protege gelato monsters who could quickly look to see if a shop made fresh quality gelato and contained the flavors we each craved. Much fun! :)

The gelato place near the Duomo in Florence...so good we visited it twice!

Probably the group favorite, albeit the most expensive by far - a block from the Ponte Vecchio....this stuff was absolutely unreal!!! So we visited twice....their triple chocolate was AMAZING!

Chocolate and stracciatella - Stephanie's favorite

Vanilla as always!

Deceptive sign - but probably the best gelato of the trip inside - mmmmm!  (Florence, Italy)

Our favorite gelato shop on St. Mark's Square in Venice

The awesome gelato shop a block from the train station in Venice - this had Gary's favorite of the trip - a blueberry flavor

Enjoying the ice cream at Vivoli in Florence - one we visited with my students and had to return to!!!

That's some excellent gelato!

Vivoli in Florence, Italy

This place is off a side street from the Piazza Navona in Rome - is extremely inexpensive and generous with their servings - our tour guide Carmen recommended it to us last time and Daniel and I had to return! Yum!

Made it back for some more nocciola (hazelnut) ice cream!

One of Daniel's favorites - chocolate and banana

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Venice! Day 2 of the Hals Adventures in Italy!

June 9th, 2013

We certainly managed to squeeze in quite a few things while in Venice -

St. Mark's Square

Visited St. Mark's museum, enjoyed the view from the balcony of St. Mark's square, and!!! finally got to see the four horses in person!!! Just inches away from them! The horses were cast and made with copper and were seated along the hippodrome in Constantinople. During the fourth crusade the Venetians sacked Constantinople in 1204 and brought the horses to Venice where they eventually were prominently displayed on the balcony of St. Mark's basilica. When Napoleon conquered Italy he captured the horses and brought them to Paris, but they were promptly returned in 1815 after his defeat at the Battle of Waterloo. Now, to protect them, they can only be viewed inside St. Mark's museum (upstairs), but their replicas grandly overlook the square. So cool!!! We enjoyed some beautiful views and also got to hear St. Mark's choir singing for the mass that was going on below! We couldn't go down and check out the church (we did later), but listening to the mass was really neat!

Mosaic ceiling of St. Mark's basilica

Enjoying the view of the Grand Canal from the balcony of St. Mark's basilica

The Four Horses! From Constantinople to Venice to Paris to Venice - these puppies have seen the world!

These replica have horsies have a very sweet view of the square

Enjoying the square

We passed the music museum on the way - and it was free! - so we stopped in to see some amazingly old violins and other 16th and 17th century instruments

View of the Grand Canal from the Academy bridge

Michael enjoying the view of the Grand Canal from the Academy Bridge

Next we headed on a strolling walk through Venice and crossed the Academy bridge while on our quest to reach the church from the Indiana Jones film (Daniel and Michael were really excited) and we enjoyed lunch outside of the Church of San Barnaba. After a tasty lunch in the San Barnaba square we headed into the church for a really neat exhibit on Leonardo da Vinci's machines. The church contained creations of machines modeled after da Vinci's codecs - some of the exhibits were actually interactive and we were able to actually try some of the machines! I knew da Vinci was an innovative genius - but I don't think I had truly fathomed how "ahead of his time" his thoughts really were - it was really amazing! We each found different inventions astonishing too so it was fun to see which machine resonated with each person.

Church of San Barnaba

Leonardo da Vinci's machines! - checking out his amazing pulley system

Leonardo da Vinci's machines!

After that we decided to push further out onto the peninsula and visit the Santa Maria della Salute, which is the large impressive looking church across from San Marco. Seeing it from the tower and the Academy bridge made us all really wonder what was inside and at this point we were only a block or two away.

the Hals on the steps of the Santa Maria della Salute

So at this point we were quite far from our hotel - well, in terms of the pedestrian route. By water we were quite close. This was the Hals first full day in Europe so they were battling jet lag - and we were all feeling quite hot and tired. Everyone wanted to do a gondola ride at some point - and there was an unoccupied one in front of the church...so...after a few minutes of negotiations, I managed to get the gondola driver to agree to not only a rate that was 20 € cheaper than any rates from the day before but also convinced him to not just drop us off on the San Marco side - but on the Hals' hotel dock! Perfecto! And so we were off on a lovely gondola ride that brought us through the Grand Canal, under the Rialto bridge, up and down many beautiful canals, and because we were taking a slightly different route than normal we were often going "up stream" of the crowds of gondolas and were not clumped together with the "gondola packs" we had seen the previous day. Being dropped at the hotel was perfect and we were then able to regroup and head back out to St. Mark's again. Since it was Sunday we had only been able to visit the museum in the morning (mass), but there was a window of time in the afternoon when St. Mark's was going to be open and Daniel and I insisted it was a must.

the Hals on the steps of the Santa Maria della Salute

And we're off!

 

That's us!

 

Gondola ride with Rialto bridge in the background

 

I remember two things about the last time I stood in St. Mark's. It was the first European church I took my students to see and I still practically get chills thinking about the gaping expressions on my students' faces and I remember it being a very impressive church. I had completely under-remembered how magnificent and remarkable a church it is - gilded from head to toe with amazing mosaics - it is absolutely gorgeous inside! Michael and I both paid extra to get to go behind the altar - the Pala d'Oro (the altar piece that boasts 2,500 precious gems and tells the story of the crucifixion and of St. Mark) and St. Mark's sarcophagus at the altar - both were amazing!

Magnificent mosaic interior of St. Mark's basilica

St. Mark's tomb (see it beneath the altar with the greenish glow)

beautiful mosaic ceilings in St. Mark's

After St. Mark's we made our way to the Palazzo Ducale or Doge's Palace - where Daniel had a slight run in with the ticket window lady. Student ID's, ages, Daniel changing his age...begrudgingly paying full price...sigh. The palace definitely captures the essence of Venetian prowess - but was much bigger than we remembered! We spent well over an hour walking from grand room to even grander room until we had all more than reached our splendor saturation point. We had a lesson about the Battle of Lepanto in the mural room and Gary and Michael were especially excited when we finally reached in the infamous Bridge of Sighs.

Michael and Daniel enjoying the view of the Doge's courtyard

*Sigh* as we cross over the infamous Bridge of Sighs

We finished the evening with a delicious dinner that overlooked the Rialto Bridge and the Grand Canal and then enjoyed dessert in St. Mark's square - overall a wonderful, very packed, whirlwind day in Venice!

The Hals on the Rialto bridge

Enjoying dinner overlooking the Grand Canal

Daniel and Pam enjoying an evening stroll through St. Mark's square

 

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