Friday, December 23, 2011

I'm Halfway Through My Pregnancy!!!


How far along? 20 Weeks!

Total weight gain/loss: 12lbs

How big is baby? The size of a cantaloupe

Maternity clothes? 90% of my clothing is now maternity. Most are hand-me-downs or from the gap! The gap has great deals on good quality and stylish maternity clothing!!!

Stretch Marks? Nope!

Best moment this week? Feeling the baby move!

Movement? The movements are so soft and sweet. They happened after I have been very active. For
example, after I go through a cleaning/nesting spell.

Food Cravings? West Indian cuisine!

What I miss: Alcohol!

What I am looking forward to: I love visits with my midwife where I can hear the baby’s heart beat or see the baby on an ultrasound.

Nausea/Vomiting? Not since October!

Belly Button in or out? It’s starting to move on out.

Wedding rings on or off? On

Sleep? It’s so hard to stay sleep on my side even with my snoogle.

Weekly Wisdom: Embrace your changing body!!!

Friday, December 16, 2011

Gender Reveal!

Today was the day we were supposed to find out Baby Texan’s gender. However, Baby Texan had other plans he/she crossed their legs and refused to show the goods. Womp! Womp! He/ She also refused to show the ultrasound tech their heart chambers so we are scheduled for another ultrasound in a few weeks and hopefully then Baby Texan will cooperate!

Wednesday, December 14, 2011

Holiday Season!

I know I haven’t talked about it much, but I LOVE the Holiday Season. To me, the Holiday Season means fun, family and sooooo much good food. MT and I started the Holiday Season with a trip to my mother's home in Florida where we spent Thanksgiving.

For those of you who don’t know, I was born on the Caribbean Island of St. Lucia, so every holiday always has a Caribbean touch. Here are a few pictures to give you an idea of our St. Lucian/American Thanksgiving.

First we start with a brunch…

Bakes (a puffy fried bread)

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Fish cakes and Salt fish/salted cod (The salt fish is in the back, I didn’t get such a good picture.)

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Avocado and cucumber salad

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Then we play games like cards or Dominos. We also shop and sleep then it is time for dinner!!! We had some traditional Thanksgiving dinner meals like turkey,ham, stuffing, cranberry sauce, mac& cheese and salad. But we all know what those foods look like, so the following are pictures of St. Lucian dishes that were added to our Thanksgiving meal.

Roasted Bread Fruit (This Bread Fruit came straight from St. Lucia. My grandmother brought it with her from St. Lucia because she knew I was craving it. Bread fruit taste something like a potato. )

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Oxtail, Coconut Rice & Peas, Greens, Cabbage

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Christophine (Is another fruit, I find it taste like a watery potato… I don’t like it but my family loves it!)

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This is a picture of my Thanksgiving plate

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This is a picture of 16 year old nephew’s Thanksgiving plate

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And this is MT, Me and the baby bump…. Happy Holidays!!!

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Thursday, December 8, 2011

Nesting has started…

Hey moms, dads, childcare providers and friends… I need your opinion. I’m starting to nest. My recent obsession is baby gear. The following are my favorite strollers. I love that they have the car seat adapter, they are multifunctional and some even grow with your family. Please check them out and give me your opinions.

Single seat stroller

Source: google.com via Bree on Pinterest



Single or Double seat stroller (you can add an extra seat for baby #2)

Source: amazon.com via Bree on Pinterest



This stroller not only grows with family but I think its jogger too!

Source: toysrus.com via Bree on Pinterest

Sunday, November 20, 2011

House Hunting Update!


This week was the week we were supposed to close on the house that I mentioned in an earlier blog. However our plans have changed! Soon after we went into contract for this house we learned that the builders planned to build a house with the exact same floor plan two blocks away for a better price. So we canceled our contract and entered into a new contract for our new home that will be completed in May!!! The only draw backs are that we have to stay in the apartment much longer then we wanted and the house won’t be completed by our baby’s expected due date. So Baby Texan will have to co-sleep with mama and papa until the construction of our new home is completed.

Friday, October 21, 2011

Check out my Birthday Surprise!!!

Today is my birthday and I felt moved to share with you our great joy...

WE ARE KNOCKED UP!


MT and I are 11 weeks pregnant. I was going to wait unitil I was in my second trimester to share the news but today I woke up (on my birthday) and said this is the day. Since I was 23 years old, birthdays have been hard for me. Every birthday since then, I would wake up and evaluate my life and I never felt satisfied with where I was in my life. However this morning I woke up feeling so blessed. This is my first birthday in a very long time where I just feel complete and wouldn’t change one thing. I love my life.

Friday, October 14, 2011

How is your day going?

I hope all of you are having a great Friday. I know I am!!! Guess what MT and I did today? We handed in our Earnest Money check for our new house! That’s right after 3 or 4 counteroffers we finally came to an agreement with the seller and we are officially in contract! Whoooo Hoooo!

As if that was not enough fun, MT and I were invited to a luncheon in order to support the development of parks in and around Houston communities and to my surprise...The Honorable Annise Parker, the Mayor of Houston was a guest speaker and she was awesome.

I hope everyone is having a great day because I sure am!

Wednesday, October 12, 2011

House Hunting in Houston TX!

MT and I have been busy house hunting. House hunting is fun but it's a lot of work. The hardest part for us was narrowing down a location. Before we moved to Houston we thought we would live in suburbs but after MT had a taste of Houston traffic we decided that having a shorter commute would be best for our family.

It's hard for me to explain how Houston is set up but I’ll try. The center of the city is called the inner loop because a highway called 610 circles the center of the city like a loop. In the center of the inner loop is downtown and we knew that if we lived within the loop we would be pretty close to MT’s job which is downtown. That sounds easy but the loop is quite large and full of tons of neighborhoods. However, with the help of family, friends, a good realtor, twitter and the Htownbloggers we finally decieded on a neighborhood called the Heights.

The Heights is a cute and eccentric community. It has a small town feeling even though you are in the heart of the city. It's full of craftman style bungalows and large victorian homes. Most of the homes were built in the turn of the century but there’s also new construction. The new construction homes are built to look like the older victorian homes, so they match the neighborhood. Last week we found one home really liked and put a offer on it. Wish us luck!

Tuesday, September 6, 2011

Driving!

Today I am extremely frustrated because I am sick of being afraid to drive. I keep hearing stories about how people faced different types of fears and then their fear was magically concurred, but that just has not yet happened for me. I’ve been in Texas for two months now and I am still afraid to drive. Last week, I decided to push through my fear and drive by myself every day and I thought once I did this the fear would go away, but guess what…the fear is still here. Every time I leave my home and have to get behind the wheel, the fear returns. I'm constantly afraid that my husband is going to make me drive places or that he won’t be around when I need to get places and I will have to drive myself. This fear is tiring and stressful.

I get so frustrated because I so desperately want to explore this new city without this heave fear in my passenger seat. I look at people driving and they look so relaxed. They pull in and out of lanes, speed down the highways, and park their car without repeatedly pulling in and out of the parking spot. How do they do it? I want that freedom!! But instead I’m constantly afraid I’m going to hit someone while changing lanes, lose control of the car because I'm not accustomed to driving fast, or someone is going to be slam into me because I am driving going too slow.

I once heard that true courage is facing your fear and doing it anyway... well I'm tired of being courageous... I just want to be confident!

Monday, August 29, 2011

Month 12: I am no longer a Newlywed!!!!



A couple of weeks ago MT and I celebrated our one-year wedding anniversary. We had an absolutely amazing anniversary weekend! The weekend started with a bang because we christened our nephew! I am the Godmother and MT is the Godfather. I was so honored when my sister in law asked me to be the Godmother to her son. What a perfect way to mark a year and celebrate as a family.

The next day MT and I said our goodbyes to the family and we went to a hotel for our anniversary night. My wonderful followers on Twitter and my friends from H-town bloggers gave me a bunch of awesome places to celebrate our anniversary and we ultimately decided to go to the Houstonian Hotel/Country Club. I chose the Houstonian Hotel because it was a short drive from our apartment and sits on a large property, so we felt like we where no longer in the city but in the country on vacation. They also had a great summer sale going on and I love to save money. :-)

After we got to the hotel, we sat out by the pool and had lunch. I made reservations to play tennis in the indoor tennis court that the county club makes available to all guests of the hotel. MT has been talking about teaching me to play tennis for a long time and now I finally had my first lesson. He told me that I was pretty good for my first time playing since a child, but we had a great time.

Because I love a good deal, I chose The Capital Grill because they participated in Houston Restaurant week and offered an awesome prefixed 3-course meal for $35. I was really happy with this choice because the staff at The Capital Grill took such good care of us. As soon as I gave my name they wished us a happy anniversary. When the host walked us to our table we were pleasantly surprised to see that they decorated our table with little hearts. The waiter was always ready and willing to take pictures of us enjoying our wonderful night. They also gave us a complementary glass of champagne.

To say the least we truly enjoyed our first year wedding anniversary!

Thank you to all those who helped me plan it!!!

Monday, August 1, 2011

Month 11: One month in Houston, TX

This week makes a month since MT and I moved to Houston. So much has happened yet I feel there is so much to do.

-After 3 weeks we finally found an apartment.
-We received our things from N.Y. and moved into the apartment.
-I’m almost done unpacking.
- I have been practicing driving and discovered it’s much harder than I thought it would be.
-I’ve learned to really appreciate my MIL, since MT has been so busy with the bar exam and work. She has been taking me around when she has the time. I don’t know how I would have survived this month without her.
-I have been blogging a bit more since I moved to our new apartment and guess what? I actually went to my first bloggers meet-up with the H-town Bloggers. The group met at Max's Wine Dive (http://www.maxswinedive.com/houston/index.php) It was great to get out of the house and actually meet people here in Houston. Everyone was very nice and the food was yummy. *See picture below!

brunch


Now looking a head into the future!

I decided that if I want to progress at a faster rate here in Houston, I need to set some goals. I find that I lose too much time out of my day trying to decide what to do. The following are some things I want to make happed during the month of August.

-Drive in my area without any passengers.
-Purchase a car.
-Start house hunting.
-Work on my writing.
-Research and start the paperwork on employment and volunteer options.
-Read more fiction and non-fiction. I also want to start reading sophisticated news journals.

Thursday, July 28, 2011

Month 11! A letter to my preschool students in NYC!!!

Dear Purple Penguins,

I’m just writing a short note to say hello and to tell you that I miss you very much. How are my Purple Penguins doing? What exciting things have you done this summer at *****? Things are going well for me and my husband in Texas. We are very happy. We live in a city called Houston which is very different from New York City. Most people in Houston live in houses and not in apartment buildings. It’s also warm all year round. There are no subways in Texas so right now I am learning how to drive. I’m also busy meeting new people and making new friends. Just like many of you will be doing this fall in kindergarten. I know a lot of you will be going to new schools and I’m very proud of you. I am also very proud of those of you who are staying at ***** because I know you will make the new students feel very welcomed. Do you know how to make friends feel welcome? You make them feel welcome by making sure they always have someone to play with. Okay friends, I won’t keep you any longer, I cannot wait to hear back from you.

All My love,
Ms. Breanne

Wednesday, July 13, 2011

Month 10: PARIS!

Somewhere between saying goodbye to New York and saying hello to Houston we were able to sneak in a quick trip to Paris, France! This was not our first trip to France, but we had never been there together. Since we were not pressed to go sightseeing we spent most of the time relaxing, having fun with friends and just spending time with each other eating and walking through the streets of Paris. Unfortunately, on our first day I broke the camera, so most of the pictures below were taken with my IPhone. Since I am new to blogging, I still haven’t gotten a full handle on posting pictures, so below are just a few shots that I thought you might enjoy.

Thanks to our friends who let us claim this as our home for a week!

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~ Some of my favorite & fun French foods ~ I bet you can’t say that 5 times real fast :) ~

Crepes
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Escargot
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Raclette
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~ Good time with friends… dinner parties and more dinner parties…and some (…wait for it…) Sing Star ~

Our friends have the sweetest kids!!!
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Yummy food!
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…and some serious Sing Star!
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~ Now Just of the Two of us!!! ~

MT!
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Even when we weren’t sightseeing we couldn’t help but run into beautiful Parisian/Egyptian monuments!
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Just hanging out at a street fair…
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I love this man!
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Having fun!
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The top of the tower!
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Wednesday, July 6, 2011

Month 10: About that apartment! WE GOT IT!!!

Here is a sneak peek of our new place… I’m so excited!!!

BTW our things have not arrived from NYC yet so we will be camping at my in-laws until then.

Tuesday, July 5, 2011

Month 10: My first Week in Houston, TX

My first week in TX was full of ups and downs. First, I am happy that MT, the cats and I all got here safely. We have two cats that had to fly cargo. MT and I were both very nervous about having our cats fly cargo but it was the only way we were able to transport them. Ultimately they survived after a short period of adjustment. One cat hid under the bed for a couple of days, but now he is out and up to his old shenanigans. Both cats now seem to be adjusting well in TX.

Right, now we are living with MT’s parents until we find an apartment. Our goal is to live in an apartment for 9-12mos while we explore and research different neighborhoods where we will buy our first home. Finding an apartment shouldn’t be hard because you can just drive up to an apartment complex during business hours and ask to see a place. In NYC this process would be much more complicated because you have to make appointments with real estate agents to see apartments. We saw 5 apartments last Sunday and I fell in love with one apartment complex because it's a beautiful new building. Most apartments in TX are garden apartments like in Melrose place. I want a NYC style building and this one reminds me of a new high end apartment building in NYC but for a third of the rental rate. Additionally, unlike most NYC apartment’s buildings (even the high end ones) this building has a real gym and a beautiful swimming pool with BBQ pits. When we visited they had a lot of tenants using it so it will be a good place for us to make new friends. Oh and I can see MT’s office building from the corner. I think this apartment building would be a great transition for me instead of renting a house. I've lived in New York most of my life, so I feel more comfortable in a building then a house.

I know everyone who has lived in a house or suburbs takes certain things for granted but I’m very much out of my element in the suburban setting. I realized this not only from my own feelings but from people’s reactions when I tell them this is my first time using a dishwasher, home security system, garbage disposal, etc. The big kicker is that I am still learning how to drive. Lucky for me I have my driver's license, but I've never really needed it before now. The last time I drove on a highway was 10years ago. Basically, I’m still a new driver and driving on the big roads of TX scares me. The side roads and avenues are so large out here that they are comparable in size to freeways in NYC. I drove us to dinner Monday night which was 10 minutes away from the house and for me, that was 10 minutes of hell! I had to merge into different lanes with on-coming traffic and that freaked me out. I nearly caused and accident and just wanted to give up and cry. After that incident, MT started taking me to an empty parking lot at a nearby high school to practice driving after he gets home from work each day and each day my driving improves. Yesterday I drove on the freeway by myself! I was following MT who was in the car directly in front of me and we were on speaker phone the whole time just in case. I was so proud of myself.

P.S. Unfortunately, MT’s parents internet has been going in and out so I’m not able to upload pictures

Sunday, June 12, 2011

Month 9: My thoughts on moving to Houston!

WE ARE MOVING TO HOUSTON! On our first date MT (my husband) told me that he wanted to move to Houston one day. Somewhere between that date and our wedding his dream of moving to Houston became my dream too. The Friday before this past Friday MT was offered a great position in Houston, so our dream has come true and we are MOVING TO HOUSTON!!! You may ask, why Houston? There are so many reasons! We live in NYC one of the most expensive cities in the world. We love this city, but we are spending so much money to live here. Given the cost of living in NYC, you would expect that the education system and the housing would offer a fair trade back, but, unfortunately this is not the case. So we are now moving to a state where there is no state income tax, a relatively stable economy, low cost of living and where a large part of his family is located.

Logically, it is the best possible move for our family, but emotionally I’m dying. This is the most painful move I have ever had to make. My family and I moved to NYC from St. Lucia when I was 3 years old. I have no memories of living in St. Lucia, so NYC is the only home I know. This is where my father taught me how to ride a bike, where my father taught me how to skip rocks in the Hudson River, were my family took long drives down 5th Avenue to see the store windows light up at night, where I went to my school dances, where I bathed in fire hydrants on hot summer days, where I had my first job, where my entire family became American citizens, where my parents voted in American elections, where my mother learned she had cancer and became a survivor, and where I learned that my father past away. I can go on and on, but basically this city has been everything to me and I love it. I will miss NYC dearly. I will mourn my departure from New York like the loss of a close family member. Thank you New York, I love you!

Monday, June 6, 2011

Month 9

What did you do for Memorial Day?

We went camping!!! It was my first time sleeping out in the wild in a tent. It wasn’t that wild since we were at a campsite that had the basic amenities. My husband married his total opposite. He is an athlete, I run into walls (and I don’t care). He loves camping and being outside; I dropped out of day camp (and I don’t care) and can be described as a homebody,

but one thing we do have in common is our love for trying new things, so even though I had never been camping, he knew that I would be willing to give it a try and I did! We invited another couple to go with us and on Friday, May 27, 2011 he picked me up from work and we all headed north to Lake George, NY. Lake George is about a 3.5 hour drive from New York City and is definitely worth the trip. Lake George is beautiful, sweet and the campsite administrators were very organized. The camp site looked a bit like a suburban subdivision, but with tons of trees and no houses. We had a bare plot of land surrounded by trees, a cooking pit, a picnic table and one tap of running water. The campsite did have bathrooms and showers on site but you had to walk a short distance to get to them.

My favorite part of camping:

1. Sleeping in a tent rocks! I don’t know why but I slept like a baby. It rained both nights and it didn’t bother me. In fact, I found the rain drops hitting the tent soothing.
2. The showers - Yes it was a pain in the butt to walk to the showers and a bit awkward for me to share showers… but the water that fell from those pipes did amazing things for my hair, which really helped make up for the fact that I looked like s*&t! Getting dressed in a tent is not for me, but I will discuss that more in the “not like” section below.
3. The food- We only had 3 seasonings with us: olive oil; salt; and black pepper. We cooked so simply and healthy and everything tasted great. Something about using wood for grilling food made everything taste much better.

Things I did not like about camping:

1. I really missed having a dresser. Something about having to sort out my clothes on a floor in small tent was too much for me.
2. Cold Rain. A lot of cold rain during the daytime sucks anywhere you are, but especially when camping. It rained on and off for most of the weekend. You can’t cook outside if it is raining too hard which means you can’t eat. Lucky for us the rain did break every so often, so we didn’t starve to death. The rain also limited us from doing some outdoor activities like jogging because if all of our clothes got wet would have no place to dry them. That was a bit disappointing because I really wanted see what it feels like to jog on soil as opposed to the streets on New York.

Overall it was good couples’ weekend and I can see why my husband loves it… So yes, we will camp again!!!

Sunday, May 15, 2011

I’m back!!! Month 4-8

Hi guys I’m back! [Sorry I have been away for so long, but there have been several developments that have required me to make some adjustments.] Yes, I’m still married and still madly in love. I’m also still cooking but I don’t have as much free time as I used to because…. I GOT JOB!!!! I was working part-time as a bookkeeper when I started this blog and on January 2 I started a new job as a pre-school teacher! I have been really enjoying my new career but I also promised my bookkeeping client that I would still work until he found a replacement, so from January to April I had been working 6 or 7 days a week! I have never worked this much in my life, so my new work schedule coupled with married life significantly reduced my free time, so during the period I was not able to write my blog. Now, I’m finally back and I’ve missed you guys!!! More to come soon…I promise.