There’s a couple of stories that I want to post here so I’ll get those written as soon as possible.

Here’s just a few of the highlights:

• Seeing all of Nate’s college roommates
• Getting maternity photos taken by a dear friend
• A couple of chance encounters with old friends
• Tea and dinner with some of our most cherished friends
• A baby shower filled with words of wisdom and tons of love
• Family BBQ that was only missing a few people
• Lots of relaxing time with my parents and brother & sister (in-law)

Once the boat was underway, the world disappeared.  It was as if we were on a tropical island cruise… a million miles away from life and responsibilities.  It was pure relaxation.  It was great conversation and newly forming friendships.  It was delicious food with a heaping side of laughter and stories.

San Diego Skyline

A few months ago I would have viewed this boat trip as something fun to do but would have been overwhelmed by the fact that I didn’t know everyone and would have to think of conversation topics.  And with my recent gluten allergy,  was there going to be food for me?  And where is my hoodie because it’s getting breezy?  And we better get back before 5:00 so I can return those items to Costco!

For years I’ve dreaded almost everything I had to do… going to work, paying the bills, meal planning, grocery shopping, cleaning the house, maintaining our social calendar, keeping a budget.  And then it turned into dreading things that I wanted to do like going to the gym or painting or meeting a friend for coffee.  Dread was overtaking everything!  But this past March at a weekend retreat with my best friend, it finally hit me.  Right in the face.

I’m not dreading tasks and obligations… I’m dreading LIFE!

These small tasks add up to my life.  Why in the world am I dreading LIFE?!  And with that realization came the motivation that I always thought I lacked.  I didn’t need motivation to complete tasks, I just needed to change my mindset to not dread the things that make my life, well, a life.  Instead of dreading all the things I have to do during the day, I constantly remind myself that this is my life.  And I absolutely love my life.  I adore my life.  It’s not something to dread.  It’s something to celebrate.  I’m only going to get this one chance at it.

Nate and I still run our errands and do the normal stuff that everyone else does, but I try really hard to enjoy these moments instead of wishing them away.  I roll down the window of my car and let the wind mess up my hair while I breath deeply of fresh sea-air and tropical flowers.  I remember to be thankful that I’m wearing flip flops even if I have to wear a sweater to keep away the evening chill.  I take a moment to smell the fresh green pepper or juicy pineapple at the market instead of just marking it off my list.

The boat ride we went on could have easily been forgotten and left unappreciated but I made myself enjoy it and the moment we were all sharing.  So a pretty average cruise around the bay became an extraordinary escape.  And all because I decided to live my life.

Are you dreading life?

Obviously, Nate and I love to travel so not having a car for almost a year and a half was really hard.  Not because we don’t love to walk places (we always prefer walking over driving) or need to run errands or do a run to Costco.  But because we constantly feel the need to escape.  To feel freedom.  To not be confined the the schedules of buses or trolleys or people.  We love to take off on a whim and not having a means to do that has put a cramp in our proverbial style.

Shortly after we purchased the car we took an impromptu road trip to Idyllwild, CA.  Idyllwild is a beautiful little town tucked away in the San Jacinto mountains.  We left San Diego on Saturday morning and took the back roads through deserts, vineyards and national parks.  It was amazing just to drive.  To be free.  Not to be tied down to schedules or certain routes.  Freedom.

When we reached Idyllwild we were welcomed with a fresh sprinkling of snow on the ground!  It was a welcome surprise and made our little getaway seem like we were a million miles away from San Diego.  We stayed at the Strawberry Creek Inn, an adorable bed and breakfast just off the main road.  The owners were wonderful and very accommodating (they even made me gluten-free muffins for breakfast!).  We stayed in a cottage located behind the main house complete with fireplace, robes, snacks and anything else one might need while escaping the city.

We spent a few hours walking around the quaint town.  We reminisced about our childhood at a local toy and candy shop,  bought ostrich and buffalo jerky at a great little shop called “Grampa’s House of Jerky”, and sipped on local coffee before returning to the Inn.  We spent the rest of the day sitting in the sunny dining room of the main house playing board games.  We laughed and talked and relaxed.  No cell phones.  No computers.  Just us.

It was a great weekend made even greater by the ability to flex our freedom after so many months.  We’ve taken several day trips since then… along the coast and out to the dessert.  And even though Nate and I prefer to live in a walkable area, our car is now a constant reminder that we can get away whenever we want.

Nate and I are expecting our first baby! Baby Ritter is due to arrive in the middle of August which makes me 5 months pregnant (or 22 weeks for those of you who want specifics).

Baby Ritter has been wonderful to me so far and has caused no morning sickness, no crazy hormonal imbalances and I’m feeling wonderful. Baby has also been very cooperative at all my prenatal appointments:

• We heard the heartbeat at 9 weeks (about 2 weeks sooner than usual)
• We found out we’re having a BOY (!!) at 13 weeks (about 7 weeks sooner than usual)
• And I started feeling him move and kick at 16 weeks (about 3 weeks sooner than usual)

I guess he’s just very eager to let us know all about him and that he’s doing great.  He has graduated from ounces and now weighs a whopping pound and is 8 inches long.

Obviously there are some major life changes coming up for us with the arrival of this little one but for now, Nate and I are just enjoying our last 4 months with just us two. We have no idea, nor do we pretend to know, how our lives will change but after 7 years of marriage we figured we needed a challenge (hahaha).

Tilly - 4 months pregnant (18 weeks)

If you want to hear our son’s first thoughts, check out @boyritter on Twitter… he’s tweeting before speaking.  (What?! Are you surprised he has a Twitter account?  Have you met his dad?)

If you want to know the specifics about Baby Ritter, check out this pregnancy site with pictures and details on his growth.

Was high school really that bad for so many people?  I wasn’t the most popular kid.  I wasn’t a cheerleader (they were cool at my school) or super trendy.  I didn’t have a fancy car and I definitely had my awkward moments.  The town I attended high school in was a mostly Dutch community; meaning that I was surrounded by blond-haired-blue-eyed-perfect-skin-long-legged teenagers.  If you know me, you know that I’m short, with brown hair and dark eyes.  I was always overlooked by the boys because I was surrounded by blond bombshell goddesses.  But despite all of that, I had good friends.  Friends that were crazy.  Friends that were adventuresome.  Friends that did what they wanted despite what the world expected of them.  A lot of my friends were girls and a handful of them were guys.  And we had fun.  We would play board games while shoving our faces full of Doritos and Mountain Dew.  We’d sneak out to the woods at night, climb trees and repel to the forest floor.  If it wasn’t raining, we would drag my friends couch and TV out to the backyard and have outdoor movie nights.  We went snowboarding and hung out in coffee shops.  We played at the beaches, the parks, the streets of our neighborhoods.  And nothing mattered because we were carefree and full of life.  And even though the actual time spent in the class rooms and hallways wasn’t always fun, I had good friends.

So I decided to go to my high school reunion.  I haven’t kept in touch with hardly anyone but I still wanted to see them and see how their lives had turned out.  I tried not to have any expectations but I secretly hoped that it would be wonderful.  And I wasn’t disappointed.  It was probably the best reunion anyone has ever had.  Everyone was amazing and friendly and gave hugs out like they were party favors.  People that I hadn’t even spoken with in high school were suddenly dear friends from a long lost life.  It was amazing.  We enjoyed cocktails and appetizers, laughed about social hierarchy and stayed out late.  We all went dancing the first night and were out well past 2:00.  The following night was another great evening of meeting spouses and sharing photos.  Not wanting the evening to end, we decided to go sing Karaoke.  New memories were made.  Great memories were made.  I feel sorry for the people that didn’t get the experience I did.  But it makes me so grateful for my high school and the people that shared those four years with me.

Heidi, Elke, Tilly, Rob, Felicia, Sunny

Tilly, Elke and Rachel... they were both blonde in high school.

Here's just a small handful of the beautiful blondes...

For now I want to leave a link to my cousin, Dana’s, blog.  She’s moving to Haiti in 10 days to work at an orphanage.  It’s been a life long dream to help the poor and poverty striken in 3rd world countries (technically Haiti is a 5th world country) and she’s jumping at the chance.  Dana is an amazing and couragous woman and we will miss her terribly.  Follow her Haitian adventures here: myHeart.

Nate and I are really excited about 2009.  We both have so many goals for this year and even though it’s only 14 days into 2009, we can see some of them taking shape already.  Our goals vary from traveling (obviously) to finances to eating better to education.  Now please take note that these are NOT new year’s resolutions!  These are goals that we set for ourselves, our marriage, and our life.  They’re things we strive for regardless of the time of year or what happens to be trendy and “all the rage”.

This past year was a fun one.  Our major goal was to move to France which technically we accomplished… if only for a few months!  But we also did so many other things that I don’t want to forget:

• We went to spring training for the San Diego Padres and the Seattle Mariners in Arizona
• We took a boat to Catalina Island off the coast of Orange County
• We saw our first Cirque du Soleil show in Del Mar
• We spent a weekend in Vegas (seriously, what’s the draw? Hated it!)
• Took a road trip along the west coast… Mexico to Canada… in our Mini Cooper
• Nate went skydiving for his 32nd birthday
• Did the usual Southern California day trips: Disneyland, California Adventures, Sea World and the San Diego Zoo.

It was a great year but I’m hoping this year will be full of more “permanent” opportunities such as buying a home (after the market levels out) and building our retirement accounts.

I hope you all had a wonderful holiday season and happy new year to all of you!

(And don’t worry, I haven’t forgotten about my Europe Journal.  I’ll post the next entry soon.)

We accidentally slept in until 1:30!  I guess we are both still recovering from jet lag.  We didn’t have much planned for the day so it’s not that big of a deal but it’s our last day in London and I still wanted to squeeze in as much as possible.  Nate wanted to go to Hyde Park and see if we could catch the action at Speaker’s Corner.  So after we got up and got ready we headed to Victoria Station to catch the 4 different tubes that would get us to the park.  We stopped at the Marble Arch first and took some photos.  The Marble Arch is where people have been executed for hundred’s of years (luckily not anymore).  Before the prisoner was killed they had a chance to say anything they wanted before they were beheaded or hanged.  Hence what turned into Speaker’s Corner.  So every Sunday afternoon the corner is full of people speaking their mind.  Today was no different.  The people that want to speak (or yell) set up a little box or stepladder to stand on and usually they set up a sign or banner of the topic/view/religion/whatever that they want to talk about.  It seems like it usually ends up being a debate (or yelling match) between the speaker and the crowd. Most people were debating about religion or politics.  Some people give out brochures on different views or organizations to join and some were even giving out free hugs!  It was fun to be among the yelling and shouting people and share in a tradition hundred’s of years old. After the fun at the park we headed to a cafe, had a late lunch and read for the rest of the afternoon.

Marble Arch

Debating Religion

Free Hugs

We’re now sitting in the salon (aka sitting room) of our hotel.  I’m writing and Nate’s emailing and researching cell phones for use in Europe.  We leave for Nice, France tomorrow morning and have to leave the hotel at 2:45am!  We have to catch the 3:15am train to Gaetwich Airport to catch our flight at 6:30am.  If I had known how early we had to leave the hotel, I would have booked a later flight!  We’re both a bit foggy still and I don’t think tomorrow’s going to make it any better.

Cheers!

Guards at Buckingham Palace

Today was much more laid back compared to yesterday.  We slept in a little, had some breakfast at our hotel and then walked to Buckingham Palace.  The changing of the guard happened at 11:20 and even though we got there at 11:00 it was already crazy.  There were people everywhere!  It was insane.  Police on horses were keeping the crowds in check.  There was a parade with a band, there was yelling and saluting and then the guards just stood there…. DOING NOTHING!  How boring!  Why is this such a big deal?  Why do so many people get there hours ahead of time to watch guards walking in and then standing?  Nate and I kept waiting around thinking that there’s gotta be more to this thing than just standing.  But there wasn’t, so we left.

We decided to head to the Tower of London.  The tubes (subways) between the Palace and the Tower were shut down for repairs so we had to walk.  On the map it didn’t look too far but it took us almost two hours to get there.  Even though it took so long, it was an unexpectedly beautiful day and it was a wonderful opportunity to get some great pictures.  We explored alleys, took pictures of architecture and enjoyed a cappuccino and tomato sandwich in the shadow of an old church.

The White Tower

The Tower of London has been a backdrop to many of the novels I have read about London’s history.  I am absolutely fascinated by England’s history, especially the 1500′s during the time of King Henry VIII.  It was surreal to be there.  It not at all what I expected it to be like.  In fact, I was having a hard time even remembering the history and stories because it just didn’t fit with what my imagination had thought up.  There was a guard/tour guide that gave us a tour of the grounds and told us a lot of history of each place inside the walls.  It was great to have him tell us the stories and refresh my memory.  The Palace, also known as the White Tower, is not as palace-like or grand as I would have thought.  The grounds weren’t pretty and it was extremely small compared to what my imagination had painted.  The Bloody Tower wasn’t any bigger than a 2-story Starbucks and didn’t have an extensive history like I thought it would.  The only things that I thought were somewhat fitting to what I had imagined was the chapel and the house that King Henry VIII built for Anne Boleyn.  When I walked into the chapel I felt like I was entering history.  Even the air and the sunlight streaming through the slits in the stone walls felt ancient.  Anne Boleyn’s house was off to the west of the palace built in a quaint cottage style that she loved so much.  Anne was executed on the green in front of her home and next to the ancient chapel for treason against the king (although it was most likely the king’s madness that drove him to declare her death sentence).  They have built a memorial where she was executed and it takes my breath away when I look around me and realize that these buildings where the last thing she saw before she was killed.

Anne Boleyn's House

I had a wonderful time wandering through the grounds and touring the Palace.  Kings, Queens, knights, commoners, lords, ladies, prisoners and executioners have all walked upon this dirt.  Have looked at this view.  Have touched these walls.  It was a very moving experience for me and I’m so glad I got to see it for myself.

After our time at the Tower we hopped on a bus (instead of walking back) and headed for Victoria Station.  Nate has a business contact in London, Ande, and we met up with him at the station.  We walked around some of the neighborhoods and ended up at a fancy little restaurant in Chelsea.  I ordered Ahi tuna and a glass of wine.  While Nate and Ande talked business and computers, I relaxed and reflected on our life these past couple weeks.  I’m loving this time but I’m really aprehensive about living in France.  I keep thinking about it and how we don’t know the language.  We don’t know the culture.  We don’t know anyone.  Sometimes I think we are absolutely crazy and other times I’m impressed by our adventuresome spirit.  I know that total immersion into a culture and a languare is the best way but the fact that we don’t know anyone terrifies me.  It’s not like we’re going to be living with a host family that will help us.  It’s not like when I lived in Sweden and was surounded by people that were in the same boat as me.  It’s just me and Nate and no one else. I’m going to be relying on him like never before as he helps me step out of my comfort zone.