Category Archive

Today I am home from work for what I am calling a physical health day. You’ve heard of mental health days? Well today I am home taking care of my pregnant self because I stupidly over did it yesterday. I don’t regret our decision to travel into NYC for the day to catch up with and meet so many of our fellow blog buddies, but if I had it to do again, I would do it differently. Pre-pregnancy I was a go go go go go go type of person. I could push and push and do ridiculous things (like spend 11 hours in a car in one day). You could also call this stubbornness. But now that I am growing a human and have physical needs, not to mention nutritional needs, I just can’t keep that pace. And when I try to keep my old pace, I end up as I was this morning, feeling hung over and run over by a truck, and certainly not capable of going to work and being productive. So I emailed in sick.

We did have a really great time in the City yesterday. We also learned it’s not a day trip. This was only my third time ever to NYC! I’ve never been a big fan of cities - they are too big and overwhelming to me. Yesterday it was really nice to be in the company of so many folks who knew their way around, which made the whole experience so much easier and fun.

We’ve meet several of our blog friends in the past, but I’ve never met so many at once or gathered with that many at once. It was so wonderful to sit and talk in person to people I’ve been talking to on-line for two plus year and to meet some new folks (my bloglines has already been updated…). It was so comfortable and I felt like I already knew these people and yet, in most cases, it was only our first meeting. I wish we had been able to spend more time together. The suggestion that we rent out a floor at a hotel for the weekend next year was genius…(not sure who to credit here) but I second the motion.

On to other ramblings about my life (sometimes I am amazed people read my blog). You’ve read me bitch a lot lately about people always leaving this area for greener pastures and most recently about how we too will jump on that band wagon. Well today another good friend bites the dust. He’ll be moved out of here in two to three weeks. He’s moving on to a truly amazing opportunity that would never present itself here and that will position he and his wife to move forward in creating their family. But he is probably my closet friend here, and just another in a long line of close friends to leave. I am sad he won’t be around for Moon’s arrival. And sad in general that he’ll be gone. I am so happy for him though.

Now I am off to try to be semi productive since I am at home and there are lots of house hold things I could be doing…

I don’t really have much to say and have been pretty uninspired when it comes to blogging lately…

We had a good weekend. We took a day trip out to the Berkshires. I hoped for more foliage than we saw, but it was still a beautiful drive as always. My dad called and said he found a condo we may be interested in and went to the open house. It looks pretty good. I may go down and see it next weekend. It’s in my second choice town (second because I like the beaches in my hometown better than this town). We had our host student over for dinner and she taught us how to make dumplings (yummmm!). I had to work for a few hours this morning. That sucked. Then we went to see a this movie. It was really good. Now Moon is kicking the hell out of me. How come nobody ever told me about this phenomenon called Cervix Dancing?! Ouch.

I am getting more and more uncomfortable and resisting the urge to complain all the time. Sleeping has become painful. Trying to stay on my left side leaves me with a painful left hip and a stiff body. So I am rotating from side to side, even though preggos aren’t supposed to sleep on their right side. I’ve also noticed that every movement just takes more out of me and I get tired quicker than normal. It’s all worth it and I know that. 3 1/2 months and we’ll meet our little Moon and this will all be a distant memory.

My best friend who lives in Alask@ told me she bought her tickets to come meet the baby! I am so excited that she is coming. She arrives a month after Moon’s due date. I would love to have her here for the birth (she’s a L&D nurse) but she can only come for a week so she can’t really chance me going late. It’s just great that she’s coming. It’d be better if she moved back East (nudge nudge, if you’re reading!).

That’s all I’ve got. Now I am off to organize my sock drawer. I kid you not. We bought a bunch of socks and my drawer is a mess and I want to be able to open it and find what I am looking for.

Enjoy what’s left of the weekend.

Happy two year blogaversary to me!

It’s hard to believe I’ve been writing in this blog for two years. I am often shocked at how freely I publish my deepest thoughts on growing our family. I had no idea when I started that the love and support of fellow bloggers would be so essential in helping us get through the darkest times our journey. I am keenly aware that we are one of the lucky ones who after much heartache are now gleefully awaiting the arrival of our child. While my blog has moved from sometimes bitterly trying to conceive to the ups and downs of pregnancy, I remember, just like it was yesterday, how devastating it was to experience negative cycle after negative cycle for nearly two years. I am pretty sure that with out this blog and all of you, this experience would have been far lonelier. Thanks to everyone for all your support over the last two years.

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A. and I just returned home from a trip North for her aunt’s funeral. Her family lives about five hours from us. I am five months pregnant. I pee a lot. Let me be clearer, I pee very little, but very often. Our traveling has changed dramatically. We used to get in the car and go. Make one stop. Maybe. Now we stop every hour or two. Not only do I need to stop to use a rest room but also to move my body and keep the baby moving. On the way up I drove, and Moon lodged into me in the most uncomfortable way. Being a passenger on the way home seemed to help because I could move a lot, but we still stopped a lot.

Our time there was as good as it could be considering we went to attend a funeral. And I had a new experience. I was raised Catholic but haven’t really been practicing anything for most of my life. I’ve attended UU churches on and off but never joined any. A.’s father’s side of the family is Baptist. I’ve heard all sorts of things about being born again and saved and all that. But I really had not experienced a service. Until her aunt’s funeral. First, I must say the tribute in the shear number of people, more than 500, speaks to the many lives she touched. And the celebration of her life was quite nice, but there was this one part where the pastor, after paying tribute to her aunt, began down the road of offering his services to anyone who wanted to know more about accepting Jesus Christ into their heart. He let everyone know he’d be available at the reception to talk more to anyone who is ready to accept Jesus. I don’t remember the exact words but it went on for a bit too long and in my opinion, felt incredibly disrespectful to the family. This was a funeral after all. Sitting in the front row, I was trying to behave, but A. turned to me and whispered, seriously? I nodded in agreement. It certainly was an interesting and different experience for me.

Later on, after A. and I returned to our hotel and began talking about religion and spirituality. We were both still pretty blown away at the pastor’s remarks - me more than A. though because she was at one time ’saved.’ I’ve always struggled with this concept of God. I always rejected my parent’s religion. My mother dragged me to church but I was never happy there and got nothing from it - other than a community, but I didn’t really understand that at the time.

My experience was such that I pushed all religion away. My father only went along with my mother because she wanted to raise us in the church. But as I got older it became apparent that he was not really into it and now I have come to understand that he does not believe in God. He points to certain unfortunate events in his life that he believes would not have happened if there was a God. So for him, the very things that deepen other’s faith have driven him further from faith.

I must admit, I am more closely aligned with my father’s beliefs than my mother’s. I don’t point to tragic events as a reason not to believe, but more of a how do people really believe this stuff. On an intellectual level it does not make sense to me. I think I’ve always wanted to believe in a “higher power” and I am pretty sure that from time to time I’ve even said that I do. But at this point I’ve come to realize I don’t believe in God and I don’t feel spiritual. When I try to understand what people get from their beliefs I really am confused. And please excuse my brutal honesty here, but I think I’ve always kind of felt like believing in God is a display of weakness. Maybe that’s the point. You are surrendering yourself to faith. I am glad to have figured out that I really don’t believe in all this stuff. I think it took all this time removed from the Catholic church for me to really let go of all the baggage and realize I don’t have to believe in anything. And yet, I am still very open to A.’s wishes that we raise our child in the UU tradition. It’s the most open and challenging house of worship I’ve been to. And if nothing else, I think our kids would grow up knowledgeable about world religions, and maybe find some faith along the way. And who knows, maybe I will too, but for now, that fact that I don’t have to believe and that I don’t think I do, is settling in and I am enjoying the clarity.

I created this blog in September 2005. A. and I were embarking on our TTC process, after having had a failed jump start the previous fall. I found myself reading TTC blogs, and blogs in general for the first time. A. was in India at a conference and I had a lot of time on my hands, so I created this blog.

I did share the URL with my two best friends, but I don’t think they read it with any frequency. So I began writing with the idea that no one I knew in real life was reading. I am not really sure if I would’ve done it any different. But I do think some of my earlier posts were incredibly raw at times.

Last spring I told a good friend and co-worker about the blog. He was the only one at work who knew I was TTC and would often help cover me when I was on-call and needed to go in for midwife appointments. We were drinking buddies and talked about a lot of stuff. Eventually I emailed him the link to my blog. It was kind of weird but felt totally cool. And when I found out I was pregnant, he was the first one at work to know…I told him in person before he read it on the blog.

Then a few months later my cousin found me on Fertility Friend. My blog is linked in my FF signature. Again, it was no big deal that she found me because really I’d been tempted to share it with her, but only held back because I was not ready to cross the line and have family know about it. I was glad when she found it.

My cousin then started her own blog, let me introduce you to her. Her sister, also my cousin, found my blog through her blog. She was kind enough to email and ask if it was okay for her to read/comment, and of course it was. But they are probably the ONLY two family members that I’d ever want reading this. (So why do I publish it for ANYONE to access? Good question.)

Since becoming pregnant my two best friends mentioned above seem to be reading more often.

I do think I am a little more thoughtful in what I write knowing that people I know read, but I don’t think I’ve censored myself. I still bitch and rant, and share too much information, and sometimes write with no attention to form.

So who do you know in IRL -that you didn’t meet through your blog- who reads your blog?

A friend of mine, in real life is getting married today - half way across the country. Due to A.’s school schedule we decided we could not make the trip, even though we’ve never been to Ohio! But this friend reads my blog and I just wanted to put it out to the universe that I’m thinking of him and his soon to be wife on their wedding day. I hope it’s beautiful but no too hot, and that the day is fun, sacred, and stress free (ok not possible, but as little stress as possible)! Love to T & K!

Being a grown up is hard sometimes.

Yesterday my very good friend who lives near by told me she may move out of town. Two plus hours out of town. The reasons are complicated and the decision is hard. This is not just any friend, this is my best friend. Someone I’ve known since I was in first grade. We made plans to have dinner last night to talk about it and weigh out the pros and cons, but she ended up sick from thinking about it and couldn’t come. Today we had lunch. Of course what I wanted to say was “No. You can’t go. You have to stay, I love having you here.” But I said none of that. I just asked questions. Tried to help her process the reasons to go and the reasons to stay. I am 99.9% sure she’ll go based on what she said today. But she’ll make a final decision by Monday of next week.

It’s so hard to put your own desires aside and objectively help a friend make a decision that makes you sad (only sad in that she’d be gone, not that she’d be doing anything wrong). I left lunch knowing it will likely be the last lunch break we’ll share. If she goes it will all happen within the next two to three weeks. I know two hours isn’t that far, but it feel like forever after living so close and I can’t help but think having this baby won’t help us travel.

Sigh.

Well two and a half to be precise. No this has nothing to do with the apple seed growing in me, it’s my count down till my summer break!!! Two weeks from this Thursday is my last day of work till August. Graduation was Saturday and the students moved out on Sunday. I love this time of year, when we have the campus to ourselves and we can sleep with the windows open with out hearing students walk below our windows. And the effing bell has stopped ringing - a graduation rite of passage here. After students pass their thesis they ring the bell…and keep ringing it…and ring it in the middle of the night. It gets to the point where you can’t tell if the bell is ringing or not. But now, it’s so quiet so very very quiet! Ordinarily once the students leave we’d enjoy a beer on our deck, but not this year.

I am soooo ready for this break! This school year was really difficult. We opened over capacity with hundreds of students in temporary housing - both on and off campus. I had two new supervises. I also went form having 250 to 500 students. My first on call weekend was the second worst/busiest in three years. Monday morning I turned my pager off for at least three months and waved good bye to the few remaining students. Some how we all made it to this date, when we can start to relax as we try to tie up all the loose ends before heading out for the summer. Per usual I have another years worth of crazy stories but the I think the best story of this year was learning some of my students were collecting road kill to skin and then make a fur-lined keyboard. I kid you not. It was gross. And the carcasses were discovered the same day we had our first adoption home visit, thank god the inspector did not see them!

A. and I are getting away for this weekend. The first of our summer travel plans. In a couple more weeks we’ll head to Maine for A.’s brother’s high school graduation and then on to New Hampshire for a little birthday / wedding anniversary get away. Once home from that I head to the Cape for the summer, with A. joining as she can. She hates that I leave her, but maybe this summer she’ll be happy since she won’t have to take care of my pregnant self so much! Have I mentioned that I am tired and she caters to my ever need? Love that woman.

I took this photo from the local Cape newspaper. It seems as if the last Nor’Easter left part of the outer beach broken. This and other erosion really freaks me out.

I have this friend who I met about three years ago. We remained more acquaintance-like for the first year we knew each other and then all of a sudden became very connected on some weird spiritual level. I can’t really explain our friendship, but we equally nourish each other and have had some freaky connections. He’s truly a very special person and our connection is unexplainable.

Last night I dreamt of him. He came into the dinning hall where I was eating lunch, wearing an outfit that he wore when I last saw him in February. I was not expecting him, and was overjoyed to see him. We hugged for a long time and given our height difference and the tenderness of the hug, he lifted me off the ground. I felt so totally embraced, and so loved, and so happy all at the same time. As we started chatting he told me his sister in law had her baby.

Now, I am not a person to remember my dreams and this one connected me to him in a way that made me feel I needed to call him today. I rang him and told him of my dream. He replied how interesting my dream was because he’d conducted a whole dream ritual last night, drank teas and burnt herbs and fell into a deep deep slumber and was able to wake and write about the experience. He also confirmed that his sil had her baby two weeks ago.

I can’t help but hope that my dream connection to him is all part of the magic that will result in pregnancy this cycle. I’ve really taken a whole new approach this time around and I’ve done a lot of self care and also feel like I may be ready to actually get pregnant, where as before, it scared the hell out of me (and I am sure it will again). I’ve tried to put myself out to the universe, to accept the love, support, and help of all those rooting for us, to let go of trying to control it, and above all else, just be.

I’ve never had more hope than I do right now. I’ve never felt so at peace with a cycle as I do this one. From the time I told this friend that I was ttc, he’s always said, “relax and send the vibe that your body is a safe place and is ready to grown and nurture life.” We’ll I’m finally there and he was with me in my dreams.

T minus 2 hours until the iui, so I am relaxing, sipping a glass of red wine, and above all staying zen.

My friend, H., makes sock creatures. She’s been making them for a while. She and I were hanging out today (after we went to the gym, yea us!). To the right you see photos of my, yet-to-be-named sock creature. I am certainly taking suggestions! She had a particular set of socks in mind for my creature, they are yoga socks with the text “I am calm.” I kind of want to take it with me to my hsg tomorrow, to keep me calm, but that would be quite juvenile. H. did however give me some medication to help keep me calm. Wish me luck and don’t forget to make a name suggestion!

Speaking of socks: I still need three people to play in the great sock exchange! Please, now is the time to join the fun and receive lots of cool socks!  Email me or drop a comment, do it today!

Your help is needed!

As you know A. is in grad school studying elementary education. She also works full time and volunteers one afternoon a week at an after school program. Her grad program is designed for working adults, which means the classes are Thursday nights and Saturdays. This means she can’t ever do anything! No weekend trips, no tagging along with me to conferences…zip nada, zilch, zero travel for a whole year.

Her classes end in December and since she started, I’ve been telling her we’ll take a trip when she’s done. She needs something to look forward to when she feels discouraged or left out through out this year. Plus our last real vacation, by this I mean, true vacation, not a couple days tagged onto a work-related trip, was a two week trip to Alaska in summer 2005. We saved up for a year and paid for it in cash (a first for us). We started buying sperm shortly after we got home and have not stopped…have not gone on another vacation. Do ya think there’s a correlation? (Just to be clear, the trip I am taking to Florida next week is a work trip that I extended, and A. can not join me…school, but I do realize it is a mini vaca for me.)

In visualizing our trip we’ve tried to keep our finances very much at the forefront of the planning, our baby making and house down payment saving plans pretty much leave nothing left over for a vacation fund. But we are determined to make this work. Our ideal would be a Caribbean beach vacation, and we also though a week at our favorite retreat spot would be wonderful, and less expensive (but the opposite of a beach vaca). After looking at our favorite Aruba destination (where we exchanges rings, the first time) I started wondering if I could find any of what we’re looking for domestically (read: cheaper)? So I started looking here, which made me dream here, only to realize we’d be going at the wrong time of year. Then last night we tossed in the idea of Belize. And I think I am in love! Per usual, our taste is quite expensive, so this is where you come in. I am appealing to my internet friends for suggestions of where you would go if you were taking a beach vacation sometime between late December and mid February? Please share beach destinations you’ve enjoyed…have dreamt about…places you’ve heard about…any place warm and worth a visit, won’t you please?

Effective at 4:30pm today through 9:00am on Tuesday, APRIL 10th! I’ve never needed a break from work like I do right now, and I’ve never been out for this long.

I’ll be kicking around here next week (and having the dreaded HSG on Tuesday, but I’ve already mentioned that a few times…). A week from today I fly to Florida where I will attend the annual conference put on by a professional organization I belong to, and then I will enjoy FIVE lovely days laying on the beach, sipping fruity drinks with my two oldest and dearest friends. I am so happy right now.

I have today off. Prior to today I had not left the house since Friday, with the exception of leaving to have my hair cut on Saturday. (Which took 1 1/2 hours, but my hair salon experiences are a whole other post.) I love being at home, and doing nothing, but there comes a time when I need to get out. Today I managed to get myself out of the house a little before 1 o’clock. I headed to Target. There were some household items we needed and I’ve had my eye on a bathing suit there for a while. So I thought I go and wander around.

I am leaving for Florida in a little less than two weeks (five nights for work plus four nights added on for vacation!). I needed a new bathing suit, because I hate the one I got last year. Maybe I wore it too much, or maybe I was high when I bought it, and now I hate it. About a month ago I saw a really cool bathing suit there, and since I didn’t really want to spend a lot of money on a bathing suit, I decided to try it on. I was prepared for them not have my size, after all it’s been a month! Mixed in with many ugly suits, I found the one I’ve been thinking about, and there was only ONE left, and it was MY size! I tried it on, and I thought it looked okay (as okay as a bathing suit can look on me, in March, when I’ve neglected my gym for far too long). I bought it, but now I feel I need a second opinion. Hopefully A. will like it too and my bathing suit search will be over (it’s never been that quick)!

While I was perusing the bathing suits several other articles of clothing caught my eye. Before long I found myself in the dressing room trying on shirts, pants, skirts, dresses…and knowing I shouldn’t spend the money on any of them. But so many of them fit me and I am in dire need of some new clothing. Once I had filled my cart, I finished the household shopping and started to feel very crampy. I decided that I could buy all the clothes and then bring back some of them after showing them to A. She can help me decide what to keep. This was my little form of retail therapy. My grandmother always said, “when the going gets tough, the tough go shopping.” Today I gave myself permission to soothe myself with new clothes. And I want to go out for dinner tonight too!

I am in love with our piano. I came home from work today, immediately sat down to play and didn’t get up for over an hour. I didn’t even get on-line!!! I think playing will help me in so many ways…and mostly around stress release. It was so calming to sit and play for an hour, to use my hands, to hear the music, to rest my thoughts and focus only on the notes and music I produced. It’s so wonderful.

In other news, I am hanging out here at 7 dpo. Just a few more (ok, five more) days till I can test. I’ve convinced myself it did not work, but that is just my defense mechanism. If I did, I’d be over joyed, and if I didn’t, well I’ll be disappointed again, but at least I won’t have spent the previous two weeks building myself up for the fall. Nothing else going on. But I do l-o-v-e day light savings!

It took four hours, five of us, a lot of push, now wait, okay push again…language to get her out of the former owner’s house and into ours, but our piano is finally home. We named her Francis B. Since I still can not figure our how to upload pictures to my posts, you’ll have to click on my flickr account if you want to see it.

She is beautiful and I’ve had so much fun tickling the ivory tonight! It’s been way too long, and I forgot how much I enjoyed playing.

I am exhausted! Work was crazy this week. I slept till 9:30 this morning and feel like I could go back to bed now, after being awake for only two hours. I pushed myself through this week because I knew I had to do it, and had no idea how tired I was. Next week will actually be worse…Monday - Thursday will be 12-13 hour work days, every day! You better believe I am going to try to sneak out early on Friday to jump start a long weekend! The following week is spring break and I’m only working four days, then I am out of the office for 11 work days! I soooo need this break!

The pace at work has helped to completely distract me from the tww. Mostly, I forget that I am waiting. This has never happened before. It’s fitting that the insanity will continue almost up to my test date, 3/19, a holiday for me (made up spring break holiday at the college I work at). I rather like the fast pace. I usually torment myself in the tww so this is a nice change. There’s also the fact that I have lost hope that this will work, and refuse to psych myself up, yet again, just to be let down for the seventh time.

Work is not the only distraction this time. We are hanging out (and eating Indian food!!!) with a friend of mine form high school and her husband tonight, they are visiting from out of town and with H, my very best friend (also from high school), who lives here. Tomorrow we pick up our piano with the help of a friend/co-worker and one of my students. I can’t wait! I only wish I had some music, all my sheet music is at my parent’s house and I have no immediate plans to visit them.

Between the killer week coming up and playing around with the new piano, I hope the tww continues to remain chill.

Hey look who else is in the tww!

Only recently did I start reading Craig’s list. It has changed. my. world!

I was perusing the site this morning, not looking for anything in particular, but I always check the “free” section. A 1920’s, upright piano was listed, in very good condition, for FREE!

I immediately emailed and within hours was talking with the owner to set up a time to see it. A. and I took a drive tonight to see it and it is just what I want! I love that it’s upright, dark wood, from the 20’s and free! The family that is getting rid of it recently purchased a new piano and really just want it to go to a good home.

Now I need to figure out how to get the piano to our home. I think I have a plan but need to coordinate some people to help move it.

Why do I want a piano? Well all my childhood I wanted to play piano. I thought it was the most beautiful instrument. But my parents could not afford one (where was Craig’s list back then?). Instead I played the viola, a much more affordable instrument. Eventually I stopped playing, but missed having music in my life. Around ninth grade I again expressed an interest in piano. My dad, a very gruff man, came home the next night and presented me with a receipt for a piano he’d bought for me! I was in shock and it was soooo hard to wait for it to be delivered. I played all through high school, but then had no opportunity to continue playing once in college.

I never really thought I’d ‘own’ my own piano, since they are soooo expensive, until this one literally feel in my lap today. I hope to have it home in the next week and then the task of relearning everything I once new will begin. I can’t wait to have music in my life again!

The walk ways out side were really icy this morning. I thought I’d do a good deed and throw down some salt. I spent a good amount of time covering what I could with what I had. Then headed out for my aforementioned walk. As I reached the end of the sidewalk, I fell. Smack dab on my butt! My phone, camera, sunglasses all went flying. Luckily I did not hurt myself. Oh the irony.

My costume for tomorrow night now includes chaps! My trusty friend whom I borrow shirts and a hat from remembered this morning he had chaps. I hope they fit….I am off, ’see’ y’all Sunday or Monday. Heehaw!

I took tomorrow off (just like I took last Friday off)! The only way I can keep sane these days is through using vacation time, too bad it’s so freaking hard to take time away from my office…

I am leaving tomorrow morning to visit a very dear friend of mine in NY (not the city). He’s invited me to a cross dress valentine party. The event is on Saturday night and is the offshoot of what was formerly a private party that grew too big to be hosted in a house, so it’s been turned into a fund raiser and will be held at a performing arts theater. I am going in full Western wear, and will surely have pictures to post next week. I borrowed some cowboy shirts and a huge belt buckle from a co-worker, after ransacking his closet. I am also borrowing his cowboy hat. I’ve got my own boots (which were the inspiration). The friend I am visiting promises he’s found me the perfect facial hair. It’s sure to be a blast!

If you have not already, you should stop by my wife’s blog.

And you should also go congratulate Lois and Holly, welcome Andrew!

Our trip to Maine was fun-filled with many visits with lots of old friends. After spending time with A.’s family we traveled north to Orono where we stayed with our good friend J. We got to spend lots of quality time with our favorite dog Jake (pictured with me). A. and I would get a dog in a heart beat if we could be assured it would be as wonderful as Jake. We even got to steal away with him one day and played doggie moms. Since we last saw him, he got a brother, Nyak, that’s the back of his head in this picture. For some reason this is the only picture we took in Orono. I guess we were having too much fun!

After leaving Orono we continued east to Southwest Harbor. We only got one Kayak trip in while on the island. Here’s A. just before we put the boats in. We ventured out onto Echo lake. It looked like a great day for it, but shortly after getting into our boats the wind picked up and the clouds rolled in. We felt like we’d been dumped into the Atlantic Ocean, white caps and all. I was literally only paddling on the left side just to keep the boat going forward. It didn’t help that I tipped my boat - for the first time ever getting in and was soaking wet!

There are too many picture from the wedding weekend to share but here are just a few… To the left is me and my best friend, Abby, sharing fresh from the dock lobsters two nights before her wedding.

These are mine, Abby, and Hilary’s pretty toes after our relaxing pedicures.

This one is of Abby and I later on after the wedding, and several hours into the open bar…………….

And this is Hilary and I. Abby, Hilary, & I grew up together and have been best friends for a really long time!