Why We’re Still Not Unpacked

So a month ago we bought a brand new house that’s never been lived in before. We should be all settled in now, right?

Well, not exactly. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a fine house. But if we’re going to have a newborn on our hands in just a matter of months, when will we ever find time to make the place look the way we want? We’re taking on the project now since we won’t have as much time for it later. Not to mention, it would be a lot trickier to do anything once the furniture and belongings were in place.

The house is currently peachy beige (ceilings aren’t even white, why) with beige carpet, grayish-white tile floors, and a small section of hardwood.  I admit, it could be a lot worse, but it’s still not ideal. If they had put hardwood everywhere downstairs instead of just one tiny section, it would have looked great, but unfortunately the three different types of flooring material make for a fairly disjointed look. On top of that, it has random nooks and arches galore – okay not terrible, but they certainly don’t add any aesthetic value and are a pain to work around. I’m a fan of minimalist design, open spaces, and functional living. The new home may have a lot of square footage, but it’s certainly not utilized efficiently. We constantly find ourselves wondering what the home builder was thinking when designing the place.

Several impracticalities have been bugging us lately. Take for example something simple like light switches. Every single one of them is placed just a little beyond comfortable reach (unless you have really long arms). Fumbling in the dark sucks, especially with arms fully extended. Also the kitchen is the most poorly laid out cooking space I’ve ever been in. It looks grand, but it is not designed for anyone that actually prepares food. To access the pantry, you have to open a large door into a small room, maneuver your body around the door to close it to grab what you need from behind the door, and then try not to run into the door trying to get back into the kitchen (so now I want one of these). Once you’re in the kitchen, a long island sits directly between the stove and the sink, tripling the distance one needs to walk to get from one major work area to the other. When you’re cooking, you take for granted how much you travel between those two spots until you find yourself running into something every time you try to do it! I think the island will be perfect though if we remove a third of it. While we’re at it, we’ll need to address the shelving that’s detaching itself from every single base cabinet – why is this even a problem in a new house? And don’t get me started on the pretty yet so very unpractical appliances. Instead of installing a full range, they took a wall-mount oven and placed it at waist height underneath the stove. Sure it looks good, but you have to stoop to eye level with the tiny thing to set it, and then hop around to keep the vents at the bottom of the unit from burning your feet while you’re cooking. I’m not exaggerating – the fan blows scalding hot air into the kitchen while the oven is on and then continues to do so for an hour after it’s off. Never mind that it never drops below 100 degrees in Texas in the summer, Whirlpool says this standard “feature” in its newer ovens can’t be shut off because it extends the oven’s life. And the dishwasher sucks too. It can’t dry things and smells awful. Everything stays perpetually drippy and steamy, one of our glasses even started growing mold! We haven’t spent much time on the phone with Whirlpool on this one yet, but that’s something to pursue soon. Our seven year old appliances in the old house may not have looked as nice, but at least they were built with some practicality in mind!

The weird inconveniences don’t stop in the kitchen. The elevated back patio is covered and that’s great, but unfortunately it’s about the size of my cubicle. It looks kind of stumpy behind such a large house. And it’s not like there was a shortage of space for them to extend it. On the floor plan there’s actually a dotted line indicating where a normal sized patio can go, but I guess if you’re building to sell it’s better to go the cheap route since the listing would say “covered patio” regardless of the size. So now if we want to make it a usable covered patio, we’ll have to find a way to match the building materials of the roof and drill rebar into the sides of the base to extend out the concrete. Not an urgent priority, but something else to attend to at some point in the future.

All in all, these issues are very minor compared to the older homes we saw. After writing this out I feel like we have it pretty good because this kind of stuff would be the least of our worries anywhere else. Hopefully we’ll get the floors changed out and the house painted in the next couple months. We already have the bamboo acclimating now, but prepping the floors is going to be a lot more work than the last time we did this. Ripping up tile is tough, but it’s super easy compared to pulling up glued down wood. We currently have a mess of splinters stuck to the slab in one of the rooms. Had the builder opted for floating wood, this wouldn’t have been an issue. Good lesson in flooring: go with glue down not only to save money, but also to seriously punish whoever attempts to remove it one day. Chris has already put some serious sweat into this and there’s more to go. I guess the other option could have been to rent a ride on floor eater for $1,300 per day, but if we could afford that we probably wouldn’t have needed it since we’d be too busy with other things like sipping lemonade on the porch of our custom beach house.

So here goes with the home improvement journey. We originally got pushed back in our plans to start since we were waiting on a contractor to widen the entrance between the living room and the dining area. After he left us hanging, we hired someone else and were really excited that the wall was finally coming down. If I wasn’t pregnant, this is something we would have attempted ourselves, but it’s a good thing we didn’t because when Calvin started yesterday, he realized that the wall was way too full of wiring, plumbing, etc. to be moved. We were disappointed, but it wasn’t a total loss since he did move the kitchen light switch onto the correct side of the wall (it was in the living room before, why). So now the ball’s back in our court. We’ll be able to get rolling once we undercut the stone fireplace to slide the wood underneath. Wish I hadn’t just read that during construction it’s easy for masonry to be built with that gap in place ahead of time, ugh. Anyways, we’re looking forward to finally starting.

Can’t wait to share the results!

The Fire in Wells Branch

As if becoming pregnant wasn’t serendipitous enough, finding our new home was also connected to natural forces. Like I mentioned earlier, all of the neighborhoods that we were interested in were built in the 1970s or 1980s. Unfortunately, all the homes we could afford in those neighborhoods needed serious remodeling if we were to live in them. So when we discovered that there was a newly constructed house for sale in an older, established community, we were a bit confused. We soon learned that the serious drought last summer contributed directly to a fire that destroyed two neighboring houses in Wells Branch. Luckily no one was physically harmed, but both houses were leveled and one was rebuilt. The home that was rebuilt first was the one that we bought. The other one is just an empty plot of land right now, but it looks like they will be putting in a foundation soon.

The fire originally sparked in the neighbor’s backyard just last summer on Monday August 22, 2011. The neighbor had used a charcoal grill earlier in the day, and it is thought that an ember must have blown onto the dry grass. He was asleep when the fire began raging, but was luckily awoken by someone pounding on his door. There’s footage of the fire here (our property is on the left): http://www.kvue.com/home/Investigators-look-for-cause-of-Wells-Branch-destroying-a-home-damaging-another-128220638.html

Interestingly enough, the couple that lost the property next to ours found a very spiritual take on the whole disaster. This story gave me chills, watch the interview here: http://www.kvue.com/home/Wells-Branch-couple-counting-blessings-after-house-fire-128274198.html

All in all, this seems like a fitting place for a new beginning. Even the street address is symbolic – 2013: the year we expect our first child to be born.

Becoming Landlords

I never envisioned us becoming landlords so soon. Maybe one day when we paid off a house, but not now. So when the suggestion of renting out the condo came up, it seemed totally out of the question. I anticipated a lot of stress and headache with managing a property. It could be worth it if we were making a profit, but as of that moment in time, the rental value of the neighboring properties was significantly lower than our personal expenses in owning the condo. After totaling the property insurance, HOA dues, taxes, and mortgage payments, we kicked ourselves for not having rented all along. We were paying more each month to own than our neighbors were to rent! After a hefty down payment and five years of home ownership, we had no equity to show for it. In fact, we now owed more on the mortgage than the condo was even worth. That’s what we got for buying it at the peak of the real estate market before everything crashed. And we were stuck with very few options.

Chris and I dejectedly admitted that we were going to lose more money on this condo no matter what we did. So we could either take a large hit up front by selling it right then, or we could rent it out and spread the loss out over time. Considering we would need cash readily available for our inevitable upcoming expenses, spreading out the loss was the more viable way to go. Also, this way we would at least get tax benefits and slowly work towards paying off the mortgage while waiting for the market to improve.

In calculating how much to charge in rent, we were surprised to learn that the monthly expenses of living in the new house in Wells Branch would actually be lower than the cost of the condo even though the new loan was over $50k more. But because the interest rate was 3.65% instead of 5% and because there was no more HOA, suddenly we would be paying a lot less money for a lot more house.  We also realized that if the rent we charged on the condo was similar to the monthly cost of the new house, it wouldn’t feel like we were losing as much since our expenses wouldn’t change a lot.

Yusuf got our condo listed on the rental market and we had showings in no time. We knew that we were priced higher than the neighboring units, but after we checked out the competitors’ pictures, we were certain that our place was worth the extra money. On top of having extra features and being more spacious (a lot of the listings claimed to be bigger than they really were), our place was just all around nicer. We had spent a lot of time, effort, and money making improvements to our place and it really showed that we were renting out a home that we cared about – not some dump. By the end of the week we had a lease signed. We were worried about the kind of renters we would get, but after meeting them, our fears were put to ease. The new tenants were sweet and seemed responsible, not the type to destroy a place (hopefully).

The week of July 25, we moved out and they moved in. The former owners of the Wells Branch house were kind enough to allow us to move our stuff in before closing so we were able to take things over in carloads instead of having to do everything in one day. Since then, everything’s been pretty good in landlord land, hope it’ll stay that way!

House Hunting

Chris and I started house hunting about a year ago. We were comfortable in our two bedroom townhouse condo in north Austin, but we knew that in the next few years we would start to outgrow it. We thought it would be better to buy another place sooner than later since interest rates were so low and also because it would be good to take care of renovations before getting pregnant. Also, we were getting increasingly dissatisfied with the property management for our condo community’s HOA and thought it would be best to sell and move on (avoid Pioneer and Paul Meisler - contact me if you want reasons why). Unfortunately our home search dragged on for quite awhile since everything within our price range was either too small, too far away from things, too rundown, or in too undesirable of a neighborhood. Luckily our realtor was super encouraging about us taking our time as he put up with our super tight search constraints and our endless changes in what we wanted. In fact, if you ever need a realtor in Austin, I highly recommend Yusuf Johnson.

We actually met Yusuf and got to be friends with him long before we even thought about moving, but it would be hard not to befriend this guy. He’s just so genuinely warm and personable. But on top of that, he’s very good at what he does. I was amazed at how low-stress and low-pressure the whole process ended up being for us. Also, he was super accommodating of our busy schedules and last minute plans. Before I get too carried away in raving about him though, let me tell you about our search.

The biggest problem Chris and I ran into was that we wanted to live in a cute neighborhood near central Austin, but we also wanted a suburb-sized family house (4 bedrooms + loft+ study + open floorplan + garage). Unfortunately, all of the homes that fit that criteria cost at least three to four times more than what we were willing to spend. It didn’t help that we also wanted to be near a park or a trail and in a good school system. Time and time again we got frustrated with the search, finding that the only places we could afford required absurdly expensive renovations. And even then, most of them lacked the open floor plan I wanted since they were built back when boxy homes were the norm. Before I got pregnant, we almost put an offer in on a home in Oak Knoll, but didn’t follow through after we realized that the immediate upgrades the home needed would cost more than what we had in savings. Every few months we’d throw in the towel and drive up to Avery Ranch to talk to the builders there about custom homes. But with each time we visited Round Rock, we just got that much more frustrated because the base prices were so inflated. On top of that, we knew that with anything we got custom built, we wouldn’t see a return on for a very long time since builders in that area can offer way more incentives than an owner trying to sell. And the new construction in that area isn’t going to stop anytime soon.

June 23, 2012: Chris and I decided to pick out a lot in Avery Ranch. Yes it wasn’t ideal, but it seemed like the only remaining option. All of the houses in Oak Knoll that we’d been looking at for the past year needed a LOT of work. Everything a reasonable distance from work and downtown was also in the same shape. Now that I was pregnant, it was really important that we get a newer home since I was in no condition to be working on major home renovations. Unfortunately the Avery Ranch development we liked best had starting prices that were unreasonably high, so we went down the road to a less expensive development and started looking at lots with no backyard neighbors. We thought we had an okay lot picked out, but we soon realized that we wouldn’t be walking distance to a park or trail. The only reason we initially considered living in a subdivision like this was to have easy access to a community pool or some area where you could meet other young families. But because this location didn’t have any of those things, on top of being a needlessly far drive from central Austin, we sadly admitted that this just wasn’t going to cut it.

That afternoon when we got home, I declared that it was over. I said to Chris that we’d have to stay put to raise the baby because what we wanted didn’t exist. I was sick of looking and was tired of wasting our time. I also couldn’t stop stressing over the fact that our condo was worth much less than what we paid in 2007 before the housing market crashed. We would have to pay a large difference to the bank if we were to sell it. As I fumed about the situation, Chris got back online and resumed browsing Redfin. I thought it was pointless, but within minutes, he said he found our new house.  When he talked about it, it sounded too good to be true. It was a brand new construction in Wells Branch, just the right size and price, located less than 2 miles from our condo.  It backed up to a 5 mile running trail and was less than a block from the community center, pool, playground, and sports fields. The mortgage would be something we could handle on one salary if I needed to stop working, and we wouldn’t ever have to be house poor. On top of that, it only added a minute or two in drive time to the places we frequently went to.

We went to see the house the first thing the next morning and Yusuf told us that unfortunately there were already two other offers pending on this house. The realtors were going to review the offers that day, but Yusuf asked for them to wait until we had visited the home. Just minutes after we walked around the place, we were sure that this was the only home that could work for us. We told Yusuf that we were ready to bid and he asked us countless times if we were sure. We were.

Over the course of that very same day, Yusuf got everything set up for us. We decided to bid over the asking price so we’d have a better shot at getting the house. In a whirlwind of emails, pdf contracts with digital signatures, and cell phone pictures of checks, we had submitted the offer without leaving our house. That very night, Yusuf called and let us know that our offer was the one that was accepted. The closing date was set for July 25. We were in disbelief! Just the day before, I was convinced that we wouldn’t find a place. And now, less than 24 hours after initially seeing the listing online, we had a closing date! We were excited that we would be moving in a month, but also a bit concerned because that would leave a very short amount of time to figure out what exactly to do with the condo!

More details on the new house and the old condo to follow…

Deciding on Prenatal Care

The week after returning from France, I started researching birthing options and prenatal care. I had heard of birthing centers, but didn’t know specifically what set them apart from hospitals. It seemed more appealing than having a baby in an institution ridden with germs and sick people though, so I started looking up birthing centers around town. Apparently they are popular and super busy, it was quite a pain to get a hold of anyone and I was a bit worried about being thrown in with the masses.

Then, on a recommendation from a friend, Chris and I watched the documentary The Business of Being Born, thanks to the instant streaming capabilities of Netflix. EXPECTING OR NOT, EVERYONE SHOULD SEE THIS FILM. I wasn’t looking forward to it, envisioning lots of screaming and gory footage, but this was far from it. It was engaging, enlightening, empowering, and really educational. Labor and delivery is portrayed in mainstream media as downright hellish. And yes, it can certainly be that way, but this taught me that knowledge and preparation can go a long way. Knowing your options and having a plan helps immensely with staying in control and avoiding future regret.

As we both have very strong opinions about the hospital industry (only strengthened by this film), Chris and I agreed that it would be ideal for us to avoid the hospital unless I needed surgery or someone’s life was in danger. After looking at the other options, I learned that there was not much of a difference between giving birth in a birthing center vs. at home with a certified midwife. Both situations involve the same exact providers, medical equipment, resuscitation supplies, etc., except in homebirth those things come to you. Also, with both the birthing center and home, if you or the baby is suspected of having any complications, you are transported to the hospital. After some deep consideration, it made more sense for me to labor at home so long as we could find a good midwife that I felt comfortable with. The day of the labor, we could always arrange for a hospital transfer if a medical need arose. So Chris and I interviewed some certified midwives and at the end of the week we decided on a really sweet lady named Brielle: http://www.moonstonebirth.com/faqs.htm

Brielle has been really great so far and I’ve had two appointments with her since our initial meeting. She’ll be providing comprehensive prenatal care including basic lab work and monthly prenatal visits until 28 weeks, bi-weekly visits until 36 weeks, weekly visits until birth, and one home visit at approximately 36 weeks. She’ll also provide clinical, emotional, and physical support during labor, birth, and the immediate postpartum as well as six weeks of postpartum care and breastfeeding support. She has extensive experience working as a doula and incorporates that in her practice. If for some reason I need a hospital transfer, she will accompany me and take over that role.

Before all this I wasn’t quite sure what prenatal care involved. My mom didn’t go to the doctor until her eighth month of pregnancy, even though she was 35 and I was her first child. But she didn’t smoke or drink and she was fairly healthy, and everything was fine. I did end up being breeched and required birth by C-section, but that wouldn’t have changed with more prenatal doctor appointments.

I learned that for a healthy, active person, there really isn’t much involved other than some initial blood work plus blood pressure and urine checks once a month until you’re closer to your due date. I had already started on a prenatal supplement (New Chapter Organics, completely vegetable based) and I’ve always been pretty active, so I wasn’t worried. I also learned that everyone has the option to test their unborn baby for birth defects, but I found out that those procedures are not risk-free. On top of that, if the little one does have a potential problem, there isn’t much a doctor can do besides have you wait, take more tests, or remove the baby. If you’re like me and determined to not willfully terminate a pregnancy, the tests (which aren’t always accurate) could cause needless anxiety and lead to accidental injury/death of the baby. All in all, I came to the conclusion that there was no benefit for me to run these tests before birth since babies can’t be treated until after they’re born anyway. So why subject your body and theirs to harm in the process?

Aix-les-Bains and Lyon

May 30, 2012: After our hill town experience, we drove into Aix-les-Bains to camp and experience the National Thermal Baths. Chris and I remembered how much we enjoyed the natural hot springs in Colorado when we went skiing at Steamboat in March and were looking forward to some soaking and relaxation. Again we were met with disappointment. The ruins from the original ancient baths were completely closed off but we managed to sneak a peek at them through an elevator shaft in the tourist office. On the way to the new baths we saw advertisements for its healing properties just about everywhere we turned. The price to get in was pretty steep and on top of that, we were expected to purchase hair caps and a stretchy spandex bathing suit for Chris. But we chalked it up to foreign policy and went through all the hoops. The place was set up like a gym pool and they mandated we get lockers and shower before entering the baths. After all that, we finally arrived at what looked like any other indoor swimming pool. It was a little green tinted but other than that looked completely manmade and the water wasn’t even hot. There was a more bluish pool outside, a sauna downstairs, and a steam room as well. But what about the hot springs? Nope. Just a bunch of eerily quiet elderly people in spandex and swim caps standing in a lukewarm swimming pool trying to absorb magical healing properties…

It’s probably for the best that we never did find hot springs since pregnant women are highly discouraged from using hot tubs – something I learned after returning from vacation. We did venture into the sauna and steam room but I got uncomfortable really quickly and we left. There wasn’t much worth sticking around for considering the facilities at 24 Hour Fitness are pretty comparable. Actually, I’d venture to say that they are better since they actually do have hot tubs and there aren’t tons of elderly people to navigate through if you want to do laps. What about natural healing waters? I can name several spring-fed pools around Austin that are way more natural than what we experienced at this place.

After heading out, we found our way to a campground situated near Lac du Bourget, a gorgeous lake that feeds into the Rhône River. We enjoyed some gelato as we walked around the lake and signed up to do a yacht dinner cruise that night. We decided we had saved so much money in lodging that we might as well treat ourselves to something fancy so that’s exactly what we did. After taking a nap and rolling out of our tent, we threw on some nice clothes and walked hand in hand to the dock. No one would have ever guessed that we weren’t staying in a classy hotel! On the cruise, as we admired the sights along the lakeshore, we had some good seafood. Unfortunately I had a hard time stomaching my Coquille St. Jacques dish (sea scallops). Scallops are usually one of my all-time favorite gourmet foods, but these were served with the “feet” on. I never really realized that there was more to these creatures than their meaty medallion centers. But dangling off each white medallion was an equally large orange member that I think was meant to be eaten too? I ate some but was pretty grossed out and haven’t really enjoyed scallops since…

The next day, May 31, 2012 to be exact, Chris and I decided to visit the local pharmacy to grab a multi-vitamin. I had been unusually tired and just wasn’t feeling myself. I felt like I was overheating all the time and got fatigued way too quickly whenever we walked. I was convinced French cuisine was to blame. I don’t eat red meat and the leafy greens that I typically rely on for iron just aren’t popular menu items in French restaurants. When talking to the pharmacist, who didn’t know a word of English, I managed to tell her in French that I thought I was anemic by making up the word anémie which was spot on! She pulled out some fer… Ferrous things have iron in them, yes, this is what I needed! While we were there, Chris suggested we buy a pregnancy test and in broken French we were able to get one of those as well. I didn’t see the urgency of us buying the test though, thinking I wasn’t too late, but vacation messes with your sense of time and there’s no harm trying. Upon requesting the test, the pharmacist immediately had us switch out the vitamins we were buying because if it was possible I was enceinte (pregnant), the vitamins could be bad for the baby. She gave me a prenatal iron + folic acid supplement instead and we were on our way.

To Chris’s dismay, I didn’t need to use the restroom right that second, so we decided to drive to Hautecombe Abbey, a monastery situated on top of the mountain on the other side of the lake. We had seen it from below on the dinner cruise the night before and now wanted to take a closer look. After we’d been driving for awhile up a winding road around the lake, I said I could use a bathroom break and Chris pulled over at the first scenic overlook we came across.  There weren’t any people around so I grabbed the test, hopped over a little ledge, and walked down to some bushes where I could find a little privacy. Apparently I didn’t need much time though since the test gave a positive reading the second that it got wet. I guess I must have been REALLY pregnant.  I joined Chris back at the top of the ledge and we hung around for a bit in complete disbelief. We were amazed that this happened before we started legitimately trying for kids considering couples who really want children typically wait months, if not longer. I see this now as an amazing privilege since so many couples struggle with infertility - we’re so lucky that it came so easily for us. At the time though, we were a bit freaked out at the notion of having to start acting like responsible adults. We’d need to buy a larger house and I’d need to decide what to do about my job. I also needed to find prenatal care and do some research on pregnancy and birth because I had no clue what I was getting into. We still partied like college kids… were we ready for this? There wasn’t much we could do from the side of the mountain so we hopped back in the car. We decided to save the worrying for when we got home and made the most of the last few days we had remaining in France.

French Pregnancy Test: Enceinte = Pregnant

5 1/2 Weeks Pregnant!

The next day, we drove to Lyon. Walking along the river there is quite an experience. No matter the time of night, you’ll find an endless stretch of college kids picnicking along the banks. The city seemed kind of like Austin, young and vibrant, but not overpoweringly huge. Chris and I had a nice time biking around, checking out the park, and touring the city. I thought the notion of a “mini-Paris” was kind of silly, but once we got there, I found myself really liking it. Chris and I decided that if we ever moved to a city in France, this would be it.

After leaving Lyon, we wrapped up our trip with a night in a hotel in the outskirts of Paris. We weren’t thrilled with our choice of campgrounds, but on top of that, I just wasn’t feeling very well. By this point, my occasional fatigue had ramped up to full on “I’m so tired I can’t to do anything” mode. Also, the minor food aversions I’d been experiencing were not just aversions anymore. As we drove around looking for campgrounds, each minor turn made me want to wretch. The nausea lasted pretty much all day and despite being ridiculously hungry, there wasn’t any food that I felt like I could keep down. I nibbled on crackers wondering how long this morning sickness could last. It turns out that I’d continue to feel this way all day every day for the following 9 weeks, awesome.

Flying back home was a little uncomfortable, but everything went smoothly and I was back to work the day after we got in. At 6 weeks pregnant, it was about time to embrace real life and figure out what to do next.

All in all, it was an amazing babymoon, especially considering we didn’t know it was a babymoon. Also, I’m so glad the timing worked out to where I didn’t start feeling sick until the very end!

Southern France & “Hiking” in the Alps

May 26, 2012: Eventually we were on the road again and this time we made it to France. We got in late in the evening and chose to pitch our tent at a campground just outside the walls of Avignon. Tired and hungry, we walked into the city and strolled around the cobblestone pathways trying to find a good place to eat. Unfortunately everything just seemed way too expensive and we settled for a restaurant on the main plaza. We probably should have turned back since there were photos and English translations on the menu, but we stuck around and soon enough we were taken in by our first tourist trap of the entire trip. I guess it had to happen at some point since we were pretty spoiled by good food and experiences up until then. I ordered a fish dish and Chris ordered duck – both items came out unseasoned and with the rubbery texture of something frozen and thawed a few times before being and microwaved. This led to our first French altercation. Had this happened in the US, we probably would have gotten our meals comped with very little argument. In this situation we eventually got Chris’s meal comped, but not without a scene. Chris alerted the server that his meal was not edible (this was an understatement) and the waiter proceeded to theatrically blame him, loudly. We found it odd that the server chose to do this in French when moments earlier he used perfect English to talk us into taking a seat at his restaurant to begin with. So long story short, we left Avignon with a bad taste in our mouths, but we did manage to enjoy some of the other small towns around the Provence region and try some Côtes du Rhône wine before driving on towards the French Alps.

The original plan was to go to Grenoble and find a place to go hiking. Once we got there though, we realized that it was actually a pretty bustling city and we were really overwhelmed by the tram cars and super confusing roads. It seemed like a fun college town, but we weren’t on foot and decided it would be best to get out of downtown and find somewhere more scenic. Chris and I eventually made our way to a campground called Les Sept Lacs (the Seven Lakes) and thought it would be promising, but it turned out that the advertised lakes were several miles apart and none of them were very easy to get to. Reminded me of the time we went looking for waterfalls in Marble Falls, TX – I hate misleading names! But even with no lake, the campground was still really nice. It felt kind of like Sound of Music, we set up on a patch of soft grass and enjoyed cheese and bread while looking out onto a picturesque hillside.

The campground manager was a nice man who spoke no English, but we managed to talk with him in French about his younger days when he had mountain biked to the top of a snow covered peak. He showed us the crampons that we’d need if we wanted to hike to the lake (imagine strapping razor sharp ice picks to your shoes) but we explained that unfortunately this would be a little more intense than anything we had time for. Apparently we had arrived in between seasons. All the ski resorts around that area were shut down, but it was still too early for the outdoor enthusiasts they expected for the summer. And even though it was comfortable and warm at the foothills where we were staying, it was apparently still quite frozen at the higher elevations. When we asked where to go hiking, he gave us a couple hand-drawn maps, but all of the trailheads were a bit of a drive from where we had camped. Another weird experience about camping in France: they don’t camp in parks. National parks are meant for protecting wildlife so camping isn’t allowed – if you want a true wilderness experience, I’m not really sure what you would have to do. So we drove 30 min on winding roads through tiny villages to the trailhead he suggested and once we started walking up the mountain, we noticed that the trail was unusually wide.  After getting farther ahead, we realized that we were on a snowless ski trail. There were deep tractor tracks everywhere and all the trees that weren’t cleared were very sparse. We checked the map and were sure we were in the right place, the trails were marked easy, medium, and hard… perhaps in the same context as green, blue, black, and double black? Frustration kicked in. This is where a local outdoor enthusiast suggested we go hiking? I was disappointed since I had envisioned us meandering through dense woods or pristine wildflower fields with the Alps as a backdrop. Unfortunately all the pictures I had based this off of were taken in Switzerland, but we just didn’t have the time to go all the way out there.  We figured the French side of the Alps might be just as pretty, but unfortunately our experience didn’t confirm this. Maybe we were in the wrong area? As we climbed the barren mountain, I began to profoundly appreciate the park system that we have in the good old USA.  There certainly isn’t a shortage of undisturbed places to go hiking. Even the trails in the middle of the desert have character, wildlife, and natural beauty.

The mountain “hike” left me feeling way more fatigued than it should have. But it meant for some sound sleep in preparation for driving to Aix-les-Bains the next day.

Spain

May 22, 2012: After Bordeaux, we set off for the Pyrenees Mountains. We originally intended to camp somewhere in the mountainous French-Spanish border, but because of our extra day on the Atlantic coast, it made more sense to go straight to the home of host #3 in Barcelona. After passing through some extraordinary scenery, including waterfalls and snowcapped mountains, we eventually hit the Mediterranean cliffs surrounding Barcelona.  

Suddenly it was beach weather and after settling in with our new hosts, we hit the bars with them. This time we were staying with a French girl, Laetitia, and her Polish boyfriend Kamil. They invited along another Polish friend and the five of us wandered the town which was still buzzing long after dark. This Polish friend had an interesting sense of humor and one of the most memorable parts of the night was when he randomly said, “I know only one word in German…” [dramatic pause] “HITLER!” He later justified it with stories of his family getting raped in WWII. Prior to that night I had no clue that the Polish (or other Europeans for that matter) still harbored such deep anger at the German people. Travel abroad is quite enlightening! Well anyways, we ended up taking some bottles of wine to the beach and stayed out until 5 in the morning before making our way back to the apartment. Over the course of the next couple days, Chris and I went running, swam in the sea, and just enjoyed the relaxed city. Also Laetitia just happened to be an art history major and knew a whole lot about the city’s architecture. Our last day in Barcelona, she walked the whole city with us as she explained the significance of the buildings. She was super sweet and we had a great time. We were sad to leave but were also excited about what we had left on our itinerary.

The next morning when we pulled the car out of the parking garage, I went to program in our next destination when I realized the GPS and all its corresponding accessories (ones we wouldn’t move) were completely gone. We deduced that it must have been stolen during a two hour period when Chris had left the car unlocked. Luckily nothing else was missing, but frustrated and mapless, we drove around Barcelona until we found a mall and bought a new GPS at FNAC, a European equivalent of Best Buy. It was probably for the best though because this new GPS knew where all the speed cameras were and would warn you exactly when you should be careful to drive the speed limit. So after our little detour, we drove along the Mediterranean coast back towards France. Amusingly enough, we didn’t even make it halfway to the French border before deciding to stop. The breathtaking views from the cliffs above the coves and beaches along Costa Brava were just too much to pass up. We were allured to pull over for a dip at Tossa de Mar and we eventually found a campground called Camping Pola just outside the city. We nabbed a site right next to the beach and ended up spending two nights there just because it was so relaxing. The first night, we went to a bar and watched a Barcelona soccer game with a sweet German couple that was camping at the site next to ours. In contrast to the American camping facilities we’re used to, almost all of the European campgrounds we stayed at on this trip were equipped with a restaurant, grocery store, wi-fi, swimming pool, tennis court, and other amenities along those lines. It really wasn’t much different from a hotel since Chris and I are already super comfortable with camping. We have pretty stellar backpacking gear that promotes sleeping soundly outside. Plus I’m sure we saved at least a thousand dollars in lodging expense over the course of the trip just by camping so much!

The next day, Chris and I hiked up the cliffs surrounding the cove we were camped in and walked down into a neighboring cove. That’s where we found an over-the-top resort that was buzzing with French vacationers. We meandered past an outdoor jazzercise class and ate lunch on a large deck overlooking the sea. With all the elaborate sports courts, swimming pools, and sun tanning areas, it looked exactly like a cruise ship had vomited on land. We took it all in and were impressed that we were spending significantly less than these other tourists to do essentially the same thing – enjoy the beach. After lunch we waited on the shore to embark on a glass bottom boat tour of the caves along the coast. We had trouble figuring out where exactly to wait though because we were told to wait on the beach, but the beach had no dock and the sand sloped gradually into the water. So we sat and eventually a boat appeared at the mouth of the cove. It then came straight towards the shore and plowed right up onto the sand. Within minutes, the boat crew dropped a ramp right next to a young couple that was napping on the beach. The woman, who had been sunbathing topless, unhappily awoke to a crowd of fully dressed tourists stomping off the boat and onto the sand right beside her. I felt bad for her as she and her spouse quickly packed up and left. Not too long after watching this go down, we were on the boat and on our way. The tour itself was pretty cool, you’d never guess from the cliffs above that there were so many reefs and underwater caves just below.

After our boat tour, we hiked back to our more primitive cove. It was a nice contrast from the commercialized resort we had just come from as the beach here was undeveloped and not crowded at all. When Chris and I cuddled in our hammock back at the campsite, we happily noted the date and mused that we couldn’t have picked a better spot to spend our 4 year wedding anniversary. Spontaneity alone led us to this secluded little oasis somewhere on the Mediterranean coast of Spain.

Paris and Bordeaux

May 17, 2012: After picking up our rental car, we zipped around Paris with no problem. When traffic wasn’t standstill, Chris had a blast because he’s just as crazy of a driver as any Parisian. Soon enough, we met our Airbnb hosts in Paris. Airbnb is the same program that we use to rent out our guest bedroom over SXSW each year and we’ve found that paying to stay with a local can be much more fun and much less expensive than getting a hotel. It can also be more exciting. When we got to our hosts’ apartment, we noticed an abundance of erotic shops nearby and later learned that we were staying in the red light district of Paris. It actually ended up being a fairly convenient location and we didn’t mind at all. Our hosts were also super helpful at answering questions. My favorite was regarding what a “hammam” was. We saw a plethora of them around the neighborhood and learned that a hammam is typically just a steam room. But apparently in that part of Paris, these grimy public baths with saunas and hot tubs are usually crawling with swingers. We chose not to investigate what it was like first-hand but found it amusing nonetheless.

Chris and I were easily able to see the major sights in Paris in just a couple days: Le Tour Eiffel, Sacre Coeur, Notre Dame, Arc de Triomphe, etc. We also wandered the city and got a good feel for Parisian living. 

One night we went to Crazy Horse. We wanted to see at least one cabaret show while in Paris, but tickets to Moulin Rouge and all the other big shows were absurdly expensive. We managed to get discounted “same day standing room only” tickets for Crazy Horse and luckily enough, ended up on some really comfortable bar stools. The best part was that the stools elevated us so we could see perfectly. We were in the back, but the theater wasn’t very big and we were seated right in the center. Also, a photographer let us have a keepsake photo for free. We told her in our best French that we loved the pictures she took but couldn’t afford them, and she sweetly told us not to worry about it. This was an interesting contrast to how she reacted to a couple American girls that we met in line for the show. The two girls were clearly sorority girls that hadn’t changed much since graduation. Although they were really nice to us (even shared their champagne with us), they didn’t know a word of French and ordered the waiters around in English. I was mildly embarrassed just to be talking to them because I could tell how put off the staff was by them. When the girls saw the photograph Chris and I had gotten taken, they complained that no one had taken their picture and asked me to call the photographer over, but I hadn’t expected the sorority girls to fuss at the photographer and felt terrible when they started doing it. The photographer held her own though and briskly walked off. Later that night after the show was over, I found her and thanked her for everything – I hope she realized that we weren’t with those girls and that we certainly didn’t advocate the rudeness or cultural ignorance that the two of them shared.  The next day was our last in Paris and we began our journey southwest toward Bordeaux.

For all the major city to city travelling we did on this trip, we chose to take the toll roads. Even though they were quite expensive, they were well worth it. We consistently got to our destinations in good time with no traffic. It also helped that all the drivers there simply drove in the right lane and only used the left lane for passing. Hypothetically that’s supposed to happen here in the U.S. too but it never does. I honestly can’t think of a time I drove down an interstate without getting stuck behind two cars going the same speed side by side. But apparently the French are capable of living without that stupidity. Typically everyone maintained a constant speed in a single lane just at the speed limit and if they chose to pass, they would spend only a few seconds in the left lane before immediately returning to the right lane. Never once did we see anyone hog the left lane and for this reason traffic flowed incredibly smoothly. It was fantastic.

On the way to Bordeaux, we stopped at Château de Chambord which is the largest castle in the Loire Valley. It looked like something right out of a fairytale. Chris and I spent a good amount of time just standing on the balcony and looking out beyond the castle grounds.

It was fun pretending to be royalty from the 16^th century, but it was getting late so we hopped back in our rented Volkswagen Golf and within a few hours arrived at the home of Airbnb host #2 in suburban Bordeaux. This host was an absolute sweetheart. Her name was Steph and we really hit it off. When we said we wanted to see downtown Bordeaux, she went with us and we briefly met up with some of her friends. Unfortunately they were ready to call it a night when we had finally found them, but two of the guys stayed back. One of them, a DJ, suggested we go to an after party that he had exclusive access to. So Chris and I proceeded to follow him, Steph, and the other guy in the group (who also happened to be stoned out of his mind). We eventually arrived at a bar and before going in, the DJ started talking to some strangers outside the entrance. One of these guys started conversing with me and Chris about how awesome America was and how he had lived there for awhile. He also mentioned an ex-wife and estranged children. I felt bad for him, his entire persona was that of a washed up rock star that was now old and alone. At some point, too shaky to roll his own joint, he shoved the supplies into Steph’s hands and asked her to roll it. She did as he asked, but unsure of whom to return it to, ended up handing it to the DJ. At some point we finally went inside the club, although I’m not sure what was holding us up in the first place - wish I understood French better. To our disappointment, what we saw when we went in was simply an empty bar. The bartenders were putting things away and looked like they were almost done cleaning up. Some after party! The DJ started conversing with the bartenders, but Chris and I didn’t really understand what was going on so we waited. Meanwhile, shaky rock star came in and asked the DJ for his joint back, but the DJ pretended he didn’t have it so the rock star left. All the while, I didn’t have a good feeling about the place and was ready to go. I stood with Steph as the DJ tried unsuccessfully to hit on her.  The rock star came back and before I could comprehend what was happening, he had flipped a switchblade out right in front of me and had it pointed at the DJ. Chris pulled me back as I stood there confused and the DJ returned the stolen joint before the rock star was dragged out of the bar. At that point, Steph came to the same conclusion we did - it was time to go and the three of us left. Chris and I later came to learn that the two guys we followed to the club that night were just random people her friends had met that very same night. We shouldn’t have gone with them in the first place but luckily things worked out alright.

The next day, Chris and I went to Saint-Émilion and did some wine tasting. It was supposed to be our last night in Bordeaux, but Steph insisted we stay another night for free so we could see the Atlantic coast. We agreed and that night, we parked on the street in front of her place.  The next morning, the car that was in front of our car was missing and in its place was shattered glass and skid marks. The store front next to the missing car was also destroyed. We came to learn that at some point in the night, a driver went through the T intersection we were parked on and instead of turning right or left, crashed head first into the car in front of us, totaling it and pushing it onto the sidewalk and through the store window. Our car was left with a tiny scratch on the bumper, but it could have been far worse… the parked car belonged to Steph’s friend.

Since there wasn’t much else we could do, we drove to Lacanau and admired the Atlantic from the European side. It was brisk and windy, but that didn’t stop us from enjoying the view and having some delicious seafood. That night, Steph made dinner and we hung out with some of her friends. All in all, it was a really nice and relaxing way to conclude a crazy time in Bordeaux.

Babymooning without knowing you’re babymooning

Over Memorial Day this year, we celebrated our four year wedding anniversary with a three-week road trip through France and Spain. I already know a good amount of Spanish from high school, but we thought it would be fun to take French classes at the local community college so we started doing that last year. In fact, I took my French II final and exactly one week later, Chris and I were on the plane! After stops in Dallas and London, we were finally in the city of love, embarking on a fun journey that we had started planning a year ago. But we had no idea we were on a babymoon. I didn’t even know what a babymoon was. I admit that the vacation was originally inspired by us wanting to go abroad before starting a family in the next year or two, but little did we know, Baby Garyet was growing the entire time we were driving around Europe. I didn’t have much alcohol during the course of the trip to play it safe, but had I been sure I was pregnant, I wouldn’t have had any wine at all. I’m taking extra precautions now (cutting out products containing phthalates & toxins, trying to eat mostly organic food, avoiding unnecessary medical interventions, etc.), but I’ll elaborate more on the health stuff later. For now, I’d like to tell you about the trip!

It all started with an attempted camping trip

Let’s go back a few months to Cinco de Mayo of this year, Saturday May 5, 2012: Chris and I went to Arkansas Bend Park (on Lake Travis) and spent the afternoon playing in the water and soaking in the sun as we waited for our friends. Later that evening, Jaidev, Stephanie, Carol, and Josh joined us. We set up camp on the edge of the lake (actually a sandbar that was exposed by the long drought we’d been having) and enjoyed the perfectly warm and breezy weather. We sat around a fire, had dinner, and played with Josh & Carol’s daughter, Suria, who was just learning to walk. As we took turns passing her around, it dawned on me that I wouldn’t necessarily have to give up camping after having kids – being outside is one of my favorite things in life and it was really comforting to realize that Chris and I would still be able to do this when it was our time to start a family.

As the night progressed, we gazed at the sky and admired the “supermoon” – the closest the moon had been to the Earth since the previous year. Eventually the full moon wasn’t the only thing to look at. Clouds began forming in the horizon and before we knew it, we were in the middle of a spectacular lighting show. The weather was still quite serene where we were so we sat contentedly like kids at a fireworks display. But as the wind started shifting, we realized that this storm would probably close in on us at some point in the night. With the gusts picking up, and being camped right on the lakeshore, we made a quick decision to pack up and head home. In a mad dash we threw everything in the car just as big drops of rain started pelting the ground. As we drove back to our house, the storm was in full force and I couldn’t shake the feeling that nature was telling us to go home. We made it back safely and Jaidev and Steph joined us soon enough since they had been staying at our house that week. The camping trip was supposed to be a mini-vacation for them since they had been renovating their own house nonstop, but they left first thing Sunday morning to work some more and Chris and I had our place to ourselves for the day.

The next weekend we threw an engagement party for Michelle and Josh at our house – it was a potluck style brunch that was super successful. Everyone brought some really great dishes and it was one of the best brunches I’d had in awhile. It was also our last weekend in Austin, at least for a little while.

On Wednesday May 16, Chris and I flew to Paris. We took an amazing road trip through France and Spain to celebrate our 4-year wedding anniversary. I’ll tell you more about that trip later. But in short, towards the end of the vacation, I wasn’t doing too well. After feeling extremely fatigued from a short little hike in the foothills of the French Alps, I decided it was time to pick up a multi-vitamin. I was convinced I was getting anemic since I don’t eat red meat and the leafy greens that are so prominent in my diet back home aren’t nearly as common in French cuisine. But upon arriving at the pharmacy, Chris suggested we purchase a pregnancy test as well. I didn’t realize how late I was because I was so caught up with being on vacation, but we went ahead and bought it in conjunction with some prenatal iron + folic acid supplements. We conducted this exchange completely in French too as the pharmacist spoke no English – but she was super nice and extremely helpful, insisting that I take the prenatal pills since the other iron supplement I was about to buy could potentially hurt anyone enceinte (pregnant).

Later that day as we were driving through some gorgeous mountains overlooking a lake in Aix-les-Bains, I needed to make a rest stop. Chris’s eagerness to know the test results overrode the need for facilities so we pulled over at a scenic overlook and I hopped over the ledge and found myself a nice little shrub. Pretty much instantaneously, the test turned positive. Two lines = enceinte, glad I learned that word in French class!

We were definitely surprised and after a mild panic attack regarding the need to grow up, we decided to enjoy the rest of the vacation and save the worrying for when we got home.

So how does this all tie back to the rained out camping trip? Well let’s just say that it was the next morning at home when the magic happened.

Welcome!

Hello and welcome to my new blog! I’m glad you’re here and I’ll try my best to keep it updated. I used to do a great job with blogging through high school and early college, but then life got in the way. I met a boy in statistics class and our fun adventures led to us getting engaged senior year and moving to Austin, TX after graduating. We were married on May 25, 2008 and have been acting like the same crazy kids we were back when we met in 2005. Sure we own property, have stable jobs, and even support another life (an adolescent doggy named Pepper), but that hasn’t slowed us down. We just have more excuses to keep busy, pursuing fun stuff to do!

And fun stuff is what leads me to starting this new blog. Unfortunately I never detailed much of our awesome life as newlyweds, but it’s important for me to start documenting our current life ASAP since we’ve hit a new milestone. As of today, I am on Day 117 of my first pregnancy. 16 weeks and 5 days. Chris and I have always wanted kids (one day in the distant future since we’re so young and all), but the blessing came a little earlier than we originally planned. Although the more I think about it, the more I realize that now couldn’t be a better time. We are in a really good place after four years of marriage. Also, Chris is so excited about being a daddy… he’s been cooing at strangers’ babies and playing peek-a-boo with random toddlers for as long as I can remember. Also, this has already brought us a lot closer together - didn’t know that was possible since we’re already so tight.

Well, stay tuned! Over the next few weeks I’ll catch you up on all the details!