525,949 minutes, 365 days, 1 year later.

1 Year. Another trip around the sun. It's crazy what can happen and where you can find yourself a year later. A year ago I was visiting my cousin in England while Jim and I had a temporary stay in Wiesbaden, Germany. Never did I imagine a year later I'd be back in NJ without a (formal) job and the most crazy-- having a 5 month old baby!

Little Ms.

I guess I say this to help myself to realize that you can do anything for a year. Sometimes it's so easy to tell yourself that it's hard to make a change or too difficult to try something new. But if there is anything that these past 525,949 minutes of my life have showed me it's that you can never predict what the future will look like. Instead, just sit back and enjoy the ride. :)

Now, to find some of those spare minutes to blog more often! 

An open letter to Baby Girl Edwards

Dear Baby Girl Edwards/ Rufus/ Cheeks (all the affectionate nicknames we've called you),

Today is the day before your birthday and while you may have no idea what that even means in the short term or the long term I have had a lot of time to think about it. And I mean A LOT. Tomorrow is such a big day for both of us but let's be honest-- you definitely got the easier end of the deal but that's ok! :) 

I've had 10,000 things running through my mind these past few days leading up to tomorrow and so I figured I'd take a chance to write it all down to let you know how I feel and what my hopes are for you. 

Be yourself: 
Don't ever try to be like someone else or be something that you're not. First, it's exhausting and even then there's no guarantee that people will like the fake version of you. You are amazing inside and out. Don't ever cover that up, let people see the real you. 

Don't sweat the small stuff: Ok, I know your dad is totally going to call me a hypocrite here because 29 years later and i'm STILL working on this one. But you'd be stressing too stuck in a hospital bed for 2 weeks not getting to set everything up at home before you brought baby home! :) 
But in all seriousness- life is entirely way too short to worry about things that are out of your control. The sooner you realize that the energy you spend stressing about something out of your control can be used to do something amazing you'll do great things. I just know it.

Be the best friend, daughter, sister, cousin, granddaughter, niece that you can be: In this super crazy world family and friends is all you have. These are people that will love you regardless. Trust me, I've done some pretty stupid things in my life and yet my parents, family and best friends have stuck by me through it all. When it feels like everyone else has walked out on you these people will still be your cheerleaders. Take time to call them and always work on these relationships. Be a good listener, be attentive, most importantly- be the type of friend that you would want in your life.  

Take Chances: You may hear people say "don't put off until tomorrow something you can do today" and while that's true I think that's more talking about procrastinating then what I'm talking about. You are never promised tomorrow. No, I don't just mean that in the morbid sense but also that your window of opportunity may only last that one day or one week. You may think to yourself "i'll wait until things feel just right or when the timing is perfect." Trust me, there is no.such.thing. If there is ever something you want to do  swallow your fear and jump. Things inevitably always find a way of working themselves out and I promise in the end it will all be okay. 

Embrace Diversity: It is a crazy, awesome world that we live in. A world where you will get to interact with people from all different cultures, walks of life and beliefs. These people will challenge you, maybe even push you outside of your comfort zone and that's okay. Think about how boring life would be if everyone looked like you, thought like you, or was just like you. Don't ever think your differences make you superior or inferior to someone else because they don't. Embrace those differences and you will become a more well rounded person.

Lastly, I'll leave you with a quote from a book my mom and dad would read me when I was little. 

Don't ever forget that welove you to the moon and back and we cannot wait to meet you tomorrow!

Love,
Your mom & dad 

Well, that went fast!

Well, it's been 7 months since I updated my blog! Where has the time gone?! I'll try and be brief in updating you what has transpired in those 7 months to get to the real reason that drew me to want to write today! 

Soon after my last post I flew back to the U.S. Jim and I found out we were pregnant the first week I was over in Germany which was exciting and terrifying at the same time. The funniest part of the entire thing was taking a pregnancy test in German and then using google translate to see what "Schwanger" meant! I knew in my gut but I had to see it in English for it to really be real. Then I woke Jim up at the crack of dawn to tell him, it seriously felt like it was Christmas morning! Even more exciting was telling our family and asking them to learn a new vocabulary word for us. 

 Thankfully, I was able to email my doctor back and forth but after suffering a loss 2 years ago I was overly anxious to meet with him in person and the consults via email just weren't cutting it anymore. So right around Labor Day I was en route back to the great state of NJ. 

A few weeks later my parents and my youngest brother came up and my dad, brother and I got to go to Derek Jeter's last home game at Yankee stadium. All I can say is wow. How absolutely amazing it was to be there for a part of Yankees history and honestly you could not have written a better ending. I don't care if you are a Yankees fan or not, Derek Jeter is a classy, classy guy and i've been obsessed with him for a long while. I even own a Mrs. Jeter jersey custom thanks to Mamma T ;)
If you don't know how Derek Jeter won the game for the Yankees you need to watch ;)  I still get goosebumps watching it. Trust me, you'll thank me later. 

A few more weeks went by before Jim got home at the end of October, it definitely sucked going to the all the drs appointments without him and so I was so excited when he could finally come and see the little nugget at one of the ultrasounds. A look on his face I definitely won't forget! :) 

My first ultrasound looks more like a sour patch kid to me haha 

At the end of October we celebrated our 3rd wedding anniversary and went to this awesome restaurant (same venue that my sister in law and brother in law got married at!) 

Happy 3rd Anniversary to us! 

In November, we had our 20 week ultrasound and got to find out if we would be Team Tutu or Team Tie. I really thought boy but turns out-- It's A Girl! We were both so so excited and I was glad that my mom was able to be there in person to share in the moment even if she was OVERLY convinced it was a boy.  Since we had reached the 20 week mark we thought it was time to let the rest of the world know we were expecting so we announced with a little bit of help from our Furbaby ;) 

He may not look like it but Bruiser is really excited to become a big brother! 

Jim and I drove to Florida to spend the holidays with my family. The drive was long and I don't think i'll be in a HUGE rush to do it again but at least I can happily say Jim and I didn't kill each other being in the car for that many hours together. Because, let's be honest we all know how Jim feels about my driving! haha  Holidays with my family is always a fun time between annual golf tournaments, catching up with friends and just being in the warm weather! However, it is definitely weird to be eating Christmas dinner on the pool deck in a dress. That is a feeling I don't think i'll ever get used to. 

Cutting down our Christmas tree in Shelton, CT even if we didn't get to spend Christmas with it we had to have a tree in our house! 

All smiles in the beginning of our road trip even though Bruiser was a little confused! 

Christmas dinner and palm trees! 

My brother, Andrew playing Santa haha a sight I will not ever be able to erase out of my head! 

In January was the annual ski/snowboard trip to Stowe, VT that we've been doing since I can remember. This year was definitely different in that I couldn't snowboard which I was really sad about even if it's for a good reason! I got to experience some of the non-athletic things Stowe has to offer and even took a day trip to Canada with my mom. An experience in itself! :) 

Soo now to the real reason that drew me to want to post. I'll admit, I definitely have not been as good as my friend Tracy who has been doing an awesome job documenting her pregnancy on her blog. You can check it out here and I can't wait to meet her sweet little Lyon cub (ha, get it? Her last name is Lyons). 

So read on to the next post to hear my all insightful (and only) post about pregnancy before Baby Edwards makes her arrival on Monday!