Charlie Bob

This is not the shortest story, and I share some personal information (which Chuck supported my sharing), but it's got a really good ending if you have the time to read. :)

As many of you know, our journey to have a baby has been anything but easy. We experienced 3 horrible losses in the span of a year and a half that were all related to the babies having chromosomal issues. We were tested for what feels like a thousand different things to find what could be causing our losses, met with specialists in Cincinnati to talk about our options (which included either a) keep trying naturally or the extreme opposite option b) do IVF with pre-genetic screening), and have just been on an overall terrible rollercoaster of the some of the highest highs and lowest lows you can face in life. After our 3rd loss, we were undecided about whether or not we would try again and risk another loss, or do an almost sure (but insanely expensive) thing and do IVF. Around that time, we decided to start house hunting. We had been talking about it for over a year, but it finally felt like the right time. And we needed a change.

Enter: Melody. (Last name not being shared for privacy purposes.) Melody was our realtor who was recommended to us by a loan officer whose number Chuck found randomly on Zillow. The loan officer told Chuck this woman specialized in finding East End homes (which is primarily where we were looking) and that she'd be great for us. Soon after, we met Melody and she was great. She is an older woman, very experienced, very honest and straight forward and VERY Christian. We got close with Melody fast and we shared our pregnancy struggles with her as we had just experienced our 3rd loss right before we bought the house. She asked our permission to share our struggles with her Bible study and some of her other friends so they could all be praying for us and of course we said we didn't mind.

It didn't take us too long to find a house, and when we did it was a partially unfinished new build that still needed some finishing touches. For everything the house still needed, landscaping, blinds, mirrors, whatever, Melody would tell us "oh I have a guy for that. I'll give you his number." Melody seemingly had a guy for everything.

Enter: Charlie Bob. (I'd like to note here that I am not leaving off his last name to protect his privacy or identity. I actually don't know his last name and now I'm thinking he may not have one, like Madonna.) Charlie Bob was Melody's "blinds guy." While we were under contract, Melody would constantly tell us, "Go to Lowe's. Ask for Charlie Bob. Tell him you're a friend of Melody's. He will take care of you." Whenever we talked she would ask me at the end of our conversation, "have you called Charlie Bob yet?" Finally, one Saturday, Chuck and I went to Lowe's and looked for Charlie Bob. We found an employee and asked about him and his response was "Ummmm, Charlie Bob hasn't worked in here in FOREVER...." I texted Melody. She responded "Oh! Ok well here is his cell number. Just call him. He'll take care of you." She always added that part at the end.

I finally called Charlie Bob and set up a time for him to come measure our windows and tell us what kind of blinds he recommended we buy. On the day he came to the house, Chuck wasn't home yet so I met with him alone and walked him from room to room making a plan. Charlie Bob was an elderly man in very worn overalls with the sweetest, realest, country accent. He told me his life story about growing up in Western Kentucky and how he knew Melody as a teenager and how he and his wife raised their kids in a small home in Indiana and moved several years ago to St. Matthews to be closer to their kids and grandkids. We talked as we went from room to room and he wrote down measurements, starting with our first spare bedroom that we use currently as an office.

When we got to the 2nd spare bedroom, he asked me "Now what should I label this room?" I casually said "well, you can just call it the 2nd bedroom I guess. We're hoping we will have a baby someday and this will be the nursery." As soon as I said it, Charlie Bob stopped in his tracks as he was lifting his measuring tape to the window, turned around and looked me square in the face, deep into my SOUL, and said "Oh. You WILL. I'm writing Baby's Room." Then he turned around and continued measuring. And he did write Baby BR. (See pic below for evidence.)

In that moment I had major chills. He said "oh you WILL" SO confidently and so sure, almost like he knew something I didn't. Obviously our friends and family and doctors had all said this to us at some point, but something about the way this stranger said it to me felt different. I thought about it for the rest of the day, and told Chuck about it pretty much the minute he got home. He agreed it was kind of eerie and wasn't sure why he would have said that so confidently, or even at all.

Charlie Bob came back a few weeks later and installed our blinds during a work day, so my mother-in-law met him at the house for us and hung out while he put all the blinds up. He texted me the next day to see if we liked his work and after that interaction, we never saw him or talked to him again.

Ok. Ready for the part that makes the story? I found out I was pregnant a week later.

Now, I'm not claiming an immaculate conception or anything because we obviously know how we got pregnant. But for two years we tried to have a healthy baby and couldn't, and then suddenly Charlie Bob shows up at our house and BAM. Without doing anything different than what we've been doing, we are blessed with a chromosomally, as far as we know from tests we've done so far, healthy baby.

So that is the story of the magical Charlie Bob. Chuck and I are convinced that Charlie Bob is our Clarence (from It's a Wonderful Life.) We're convinced if we tried calling him again, his number would be disconnected. We're convinced that Melody has a direct line to God, that she asked him to send us help, and He did. He sent us our guardian angel, who apparently is an older man named Charlie Bob who wears overalls and does a seriously great job hanging blinds.

Chuck Turned 30

A couple weeks ago on February 17th, Chuck turned 30.

I tried to make his entrance into a new decade special and memorable, starting the night before his birthday when after everything he did I would say something like "ohhhhh it's the last teeth-brushing of your 20s!" which may have been more annoying to him than memorable but, it was fun for me! But in all seriousness, I did try to make it as fun and memorable as I could because he deserves a memorable goodbye to one decade (which was pretty amazing for him) and a big welcome to the next decade (which will probably be even more amazing.) Also, he's just pretty great and I really like him and planning celebrations for people is my love language.

On his birthday, he had to go into work for a little bit that morning but I got him to leave by lunchtime and we met up with his sister Shannon and 2 of our nieces to start the weekend of celebrations.

With a couple of hours to kill before our dinner plans, we weren't sure what to do so we ended up at a bowling alley where I obviously let him beat me 3 games in a row since it was his birthday. :)

That evening, we met up with our family at a Hibachi grill, where we surprised Chuck with our group gift of a ping pong table that was not only already purchased, but already set up and ready to play on in our basement because our awesome dads snuck in and set it up that morning while Chuck was at work!

As you can tell, he was pretty excited.

Then it was on to the next surprise location, Great Flood Brewery where a bunch of our family and friends were waiting with beer, cake, balloons, and some I Heart Chuckie stickers- a throwback from when Chuck ran for Class President as a freshman in high school and handed out stickers with that slogan on them for his campaign. (Yes of course he won the election, and stickers were soon banned from Eastern High School because those things were on EVERYTHING in the building.)

Henry got to stay out late and party, too!

Of course the celebrations didn't stop there, because there's always a party after the after party! A bunch of friends came back to our house from Great Flood to help us break in the new ping pong table. We played from about 10:30pm until 3am so I'd say the table got broken in pretty well. We created a bracket and held the very first tournament on the table. And because our basement is still mostly empty because we need a lot of furniture in our house and furniture is expensive, all our friends got to sit on the floor when they weren't playing! (sorry, friends)

The tournament came down to the final 2....

and the birthday boy emerged victorious! (Please pay close attention to the region names and ignore the fact that we don't know really how to draw a bracket for 13 people.)

Even though his birthday was technically over, I had one more surprise for him on Saturday which was to go to Breakout Louisville with some of our friends I had convinced to celebrate Chuck's birthday for a second day in a row. Breakout Louisville was SO. MUCH. FUN. and we all wanted to go do another one as soon as we were done. We broke out of our room but with only 4 minutes to spare. It was way harder than I anticipated and also way more fun. We felt just like Nicolas Cage in National Treasure.

And that pretty much sums up his birthday weekend! I'd say it was definitely one to remember.

Oh and if you're wondering if I spent all of his birthday reminding him of things like "awwww, first french fries of your 30s!" the answer is DUH.

A Post About Cookies

This blogpost is all about cookies.

On Friday, I hosted my 4th annual Holiday Cookie Swap Party. I hosted my first Cookie Swap in Boston with some of my girlfriends there, and it was so much fun that I've continued it every year since. The idea is this- you bake one kind of cookie. Invite your family and friends to make one type of cookie and bring it to your house. Everyone swaps cookies and then gets to go home with a variety of cookies after only having to make one! Whoever came up with this idea is genius.

Of course, you also have to test all of the cookies during the party and then vote on them too. Or is that just us?

This year we made everyone go around and say which cookie they brought and what it was. People got really into it this year as far as trying new and more difficult recipes. Some turned out really well, and some... not so much. Whether their cookie turned out great or not so great, everyone seemed very stressed by the whole process this year. I have a feeling people may not be as adventurous next year.

Baby Henry got to join us at the party even though he didn't get to try any of the cookies. :( Maybe next year, Henry!

And while we're on the subject, can we talk about how freakin' cute Henry is ALL THE TIME?!?!

After we ate entirely too many cookies, it was time to vote. This year we voted on Best Looking cookie, Best Tasting cookie, and a booby prize for "Aw, at least you tried. Maybe baking isn't your thing."

Of course there were prizes.

And the winners were.... Jennifer for best tasting- SHE MADE HER OWN CARAMEL. WHAT?- Anna for Best Looking -she made the polar bear cookies - and Laura for "aw at least you tried" because her cookies somehow became one giant cookie that was kinda collapsed in the middle and may or may not have fallen apart if taken out of the pan. It's ok. She owned it.

We had such a good time, and even though I was awake with a stomachache most of the night from too many sweets and felt like I had a hangover the next day, it was totally worth it. I can't wait to do it again next year!

(The group minus one- Pat had left already when someone said "hey we should take a group picture!" If I knew how to photoshop I would put her in but just imagine her standing to my right.)

Summerness

Remember when I said the blog would now mostly contain cute pics of our nieces and friends' babies? Well. I'm about to deliver on that promise. 

We've spent the last month enjoying our summer, spending time with friends and family, and traveling. Here's a summary of July in pictures. 

We spent 4th of July in Virginia Beach with Chuck's sister and family. It rained most the time we were there so we made the most of it anytime the sun was out!

Colonial Williamsburg

Fireworks on the bay!

I love how their dog sleeps on the steps.

We've been trying to utilize our apartment complex pool this summer more than we did last summer. We've spent a lot of Saturdays at the pool and a super fun Friday night pool cookout with friends.

Chuck's other sister (who lives in Louisville) got a new puppy and he is ADORABLE.

The whole family got together to celebrate my Grandma's birthday!

We went to the lake with friends to celebrate Jen's son Brendan turning 13!

And last but not least, we hung out with this little dude a lot. I CAN'T STAND THE CUTENESS!

That's all for now. An update on the house hunting process coming soon......

My Mom Took a Skull on an Airplane

In April our family took a trip to Denver to see Sami and Austin where they moved this past August. It was the first time we've all been on a trip together since Myrtle Beach in 2009! Sami planned out our entire trip and made sure we saw all the best parts of Denver, and also took us outside the city to Rocky Mountain National Park, Boulder, and Golden. We had perfect weather the entire trip and we ran our butts off. While the parks and restaurants and sites were all glorious and unforgettable, perhaps more memorable were some of the things that happened just in our Air B&B or in the rented minivan that we all 7 rode around in for the long weekend. (Shout out to Dad who drove the entire time and endured the opinions of 6 backseat drivers!)

First of all, on Day 1 of the trip, we were exploring the Red Rocks Amphitheatre when my mom got a news alert on her phone. "Prince died!" she told us. We were shocked! You see, the last time we were all on vacation together in the summer of 2009, Michael Jackson died. Our entire beach trip became unintentionally Michael Jackson themed as every radio station played his songs, stores put up tributes to him, TV stations played his videos and movies about him... Well, sure enough, our Denver trip quickly became Prince themed. The minivan bumped "Kiss" and "Party Like it's 1999" that week more times than I want to remember. Now we are worried to go on another vacation all together because it seems every time we do, a pop star dies. And we can't lose Justin Timberlake!

Another memorable event was on Day 1 when we noticed that the spice cabinet in our Air B&B was meticulously organized, labeled and ALPHABETIZED. The owner of the Air B&B was a 30-40 something year old single male. We became convinced we had a Dexter situation on our hands. Who else is that anal and organized besides a trained, skilled serial killer?

And speaking of creepy things, I should tell you about the skull. You see, Sami is in Denver to get her Masters in Anthropology. She is an archaeology nerd, so naturally we often buy her things like Laura's most recent Christmas gift, a skull painted with chalkboard paint that is also a piggy bank! When Sami flew back to Denver after Christmas, she didn't have room to take all of her gifts, so my mom made sure to pack the skull with her to bring to Denver. But instead of packing it in her suitcase like most people do when they travel with skulls, she brought it in her carry-on. Imagine the look on the TSA guy's face when he saw this thing go through the scanner at the airport.

Because Denver is spread out and we visited places outside the city, we spent a LOT of time in the car together. (We flew to Denver, just FYI. That would have been a serious road trip to drive from Louisville.) The time in the car gave lots of great conversations. We learned about how Laura's friends supposedly led "an uprising" against her in the 4th grade and she's still not over it. We discussed Sami's fear of boats and Mom scared her by saying she thinks her fear of water comes from when she was "submerged in ice water as a baby" before her heart surgery, which led Sami to believe she was killed and brought back to life until Dad chimed in with the important detail that just her body was put in the ice water, not her head/face. On the last day, I had an outburst in the backseat when my sisters were trying to convince my dad to stop for restrooms 20 minutes from home. I was arguing that we should not stop so close to home and when they kept trying to overrule me I shouted "I NEVER GOT SWIM LESSONS AS A KID AND YOU TWO DID!" I have no idea how stopping for the bathroom and swim lessons are related, but for some reason I had a middle child moment and needed to know why I was never taught to swim and only taught to float. And now that I'm thinking about it, like Sami I should probably ALSO have a fear of boats because if one I'm on ever sinks, everyone else will swim to safety and I'll just have to float until someone rescues me.

Austin and Chuck are brave men.

Besides sight-seeing and riding in the van, we did a lot of other things too. We played a lot of games in bars. (Side note: if you have never played the card game "Exploding Kittens," do yourself a favor and order it on Amazon NOW and play it ASAP.) We walked a LOT and Austin lied to us constantly about how close certain destinations were to keep us from getting discouraged. We ate a ton of good food. We toured a whiskey distillery (because, duh). We climbed a mountain, sort of. We looked for Peyton Manning. We debated the origin of elk (are they a mix between donkey and deer?). We went from place to place with a schedule but also with no real agenda at the same time.

Of course the mountains were breathtaking and the elk everywhere in the park were amazing and the food was great and getting to see Sami and Austin's new 'hood was fun... but the best thing about the vacation was knowing that our family could go literally anywhere in the world together and have a good time.

But, unfortunately we'll never get that chance, you know- because of the whole pop star thing.

The Last Three Weeks in Boston

Chuck graduated from MIT on Friday, June 6th. The three weeks leading up to that day were CRAZY. A lot of "end of the year" activities happened and we were busy non-stop. If we weren't at a school activity, party, dinner with friends or some other fun thing, we were at our apartment trying to pack. Sleep was always the last thing on our list of to-dos.

Some days we had so many activities, we had to run (or I should say "Uber") back and forth between events. Like the night we went to Sloan Follies because Chuck sang and played with the Rolling Sloans, then went to Fenway Park for a retirement party for Don Rosenfield, the LGO director and then back to Sloan Follies because Chuck had to sing with the a capella group. Phew. I'm exhausted by it all over again just thinking about it!

The view from the room where Don's retirement party was held.

While the rest of the MBA class flew to the British Virgin Islands for a graduation trip, we flew to Louisville over Memorial Day weekend for my cousin's wedding and our friends Shane and Liz's wedding shower and bachelor/bachelorette parties. My cousin's wedding was AMAZING. Most of us cried through the entire ceremony because it was so sweet and then the reception was awesome too.

As Matron of Honor, I was in charge of the planning for Liz's bachelorette party and had to plan most of it from Boston. Thank God for my sisters and cousins who helped me pull it off! That weekend was way too much fun.

Liz's parents and mother-in-law accidentally crashed a part of the evening. So we took a picture with them.

When we got back to Boston, I finished up my last week of work and that's when the lack of sleep really began. Chuck's dad came in that Sunday to stay a night and then head to Foxwoods for a few days. My sister and her boyfriend Austin arrived in Boston Monday to spend the week sight-seeing and exploring both with us and on their own in the city. Tuesday we got a break from driving to the airport, but Wednesday we were right back there to get Chuck's mom and sisters, and on Thursday we picked up my parents, Laura and my Grandma!

With Gold at some Sloan party on the Harbor.

My last sailboat picture. :(

Besides the actual graduation on Friday, Thursday of that week might have been my favorite day. During the day, Sloan held a convocation just for Sloan graduates (the graduation Friday was for ALL MIT students- undergrad, graduate, etc.) at a theater in downtown Boston. The Dean spoke, a student speaker gave a speech that made everyone laugh and cry and want to change their lives, and there was pretty music.

Chuck and his classmate/friend Marcus

Selfie in the T station

After the convocation, we ran back by our apartment for a short bit before heading back into downtown Boston to the Prudential Center to go to a Sloan reception at the top of the Pru. Besides the top floor of Eastgate apartments, the top of the Pru offers some of the best views of Boston. It had been raining all day so I didn't get many good pictures, but did snap one of MIT's campus from the top.

Like all good Sloan events, there was tons of free food and of course, drinks. Oh and this sweet ice sculpture.

After the event at the PRU around 10:30 (told you, sleep was always last) we headed to one of our most frequented spots in Cambridge, the Asgard. On Thursday nights they always have live band karaoke. So naturally we had all of our visiting family meet us up there where we caught up on our day and enjoyed some karaoke. Of course we participated, too.

All the siblings!

Around 2 am when the restaurant closed, our ginormous group wreaked havoc on the streets as our family felt inspired to create the human MIT and then human LGO in the middle of Central Square.

Yep, that's my Grandma- enjoying watching our crazy antics at 2 in the morning.

Can't stop laughing at Austin as the L.

Then we walked home and quick anecdote:I decided to take my shoes off and walk barefoot through Central Square and then spent the following 3 days convinced I had contracted a disease from it. I do not advise walking through Central Square barefoot, ever. I think Chuck and I finally crawled into bed around 3am and set our alarms for 6am because he had to be somewhere a little after 7 to get in line for Commencement. 

I'd say we made the most of our time in Boston in the final weeks.