Eat, Pray, Love

If you know me at all, then you probably know that Eat, Pray, Love is seriously my favorite book. Not because it was a best seller and not because it's well written, but because this author, Elizabeth Gilbert, did what I have always wanted to do: drop everything, pack up and move halfway across the world to experience life! I have ALWAYS enjoyed travel and lucky for me I have been very blessed to have had several amazing opportunities to take advantage of this love and passion of mine. I've been to Europe, Mexico, Costa Rica, across the U.S. and I still yearn to see more. There was once a time in my life, not so long ago that my goal was to become a fashion writer and travel around the world to cover all the top stories relating to fashion. I was offered an internship at Women's Wear Daily the summer prior to my last semester at Baylor, but passed on this opportunity to stay in Houston near my boyfriend who had been battling lukemia. Do I regret this decision - not necessarily, but I often wonder what would have been if I had taken that internship?

Unlike Elizabeth Gilbert, at the time of this story - I am happily married and would want to take my amazing husband and beautiful baby girl with me on my journey. I can think of nothing more exciting and fulfilling than to take my family and experience life eating new foods, experiencing new cultures and meeting new people. We could spend a few months in Thailand, hop on over to Russia and Poland to show Blake where our families come from. After a while we could check out the beaches of the Greek Isles (and stuff ourselves silly with food). There are so many places I want to see, so many things I want to do and shocker here - stay in the bubble of Dallas, Texas is not one of them. No offense to Dallas - it's a perfectly good place - it is just so cookie cutter and well quite frankly materialistic!

Just imagine - a life of simple pleasures - great food, great experiences all shared with my great family! Chris and I had talked several years ago about trying to find jobs in London and live there for a year or two. We looked briefly and then gave up. Here I am 5 years later still squashing out that desire. Why is it so scary to drop it all and go? Why do our heads often guide us instead of our hearts? Hopefully some day down the road we'll grow enough courage to do the unthinkable and sell our house, our cars, pack up just the necessities and just sail off to some unforeseen life adventure. Realistically I know this will probably end up some pipe dream or missed opportunity much like my fashion writing career.

How sweet it is...

I will preface this by saying I know I am horrible about keeping up with this, but truth be told, I often forget that I have a blog to keep up with. I am losing my mind...or at least my memory. I'm midweek thru my first week as a stay at home mom. I have to say I could get used to this gig. I love waking up to my beautiful girl smiling at me and knowing that I don't have to rush around to get her dropped off in time for me to get to work. I love just enjoying a morning cup of coffee in my ol' worn out jummies watching her play and giggle. Seriously - it is awesome! I also have to say the days go by surprisingly quickly. I have never been so busy in my life- I realized today when I sat down at 4:00 that it was the first moment in 3 days that I have really just sat down and relaxed with no pressing matter to attend to.

My grandparents are in town for the next few days and talk about perfect timing to arrive - Blake is starting to teeth and poor thing was up pretty much ALL night last day - so lucky for me Gigi was able to be here to help out with all those late night rocking sessions! I am praying that tonight is a better night for all of us though - sleep deprivation and me are not friends!

I know I have touched on this subject before - but I still don't understand those people in this world who can function on only a few hours of sleep. I am seriously borderline mental patient when I am sleep deprived.

In all seriousness though - I am so very grateful and blessed to have this opportunity and I plan on not taking any of it for granted.

Glutton for nourishment

Now for all of you who REALLY know me, you know that I LOVE LOVE LOVE food. I find extreme joy in eating. In fact to a certain extent I am obsessed with meal time. Dining is one of my all time favorite most favorite things to do in the whole world. It's up there with travel and people watching. Eating out has quickly become one of my guilty pleasures in life, but now that well we're going to be on a super duper crazy tight budget I am now channeling the granddaughter of a restaurateur self to try to create tasty and fun dinners at home. I have now found another new obsession that ties in closely with food and that's reading blogs about food! I wanted to share a few of my new favorite dishes because I feel that if I can make one person have one great meal b/c of a recipe I shared that good food karma is going to come my way!

Saláta Horiátiki (Greek Salad with Feta, Tomatoes & Olives)

Nutrition

Per serving (about 6oz/182g-wt.): 200 calories (160 from fat), 18g total fat, 5g saturated fat, 20mg cholesterol, 480mg sodium, 7g total carbohydrate (2g dietary fiber, 4g sugar), 4g protein

Ingredients

6 tablespoons olive oil

3 tablespoons red wine vinegar

1 tablespoon chopped oregano

Salt and pepper to taste

2 cucumbers, peeled, halved lengthwise, seeded and cut into bite-size chunks

4 ripe tomatoes, cored and cut into bite-size pieces

1 green bell pepper, cored, seeded and roughly chopped

1 small red onion, peeled and thinly sliced

4 to 6 ounces feta cheese, cut into cubes

1/2 cup pitted Kalamata olives

Directions

In a large bowl, whisk together oil, vinegar, oregano, salt and pepper to make a dressing. Add cucumbers, tomatoes, peppers, onions, feta cheese and olives and toss gently to combine. Serve immediately.

These next two recipes I got from my new favorite blog: Bitchin' Camero - there is a link on my page

The first recipe I got from my new favorite blog: Bitchin' Camero - there is a link on my page

SUMMERY BAKED TOMATOES

4 large tomatoes
2 ears sweet corn, shucked
1 15 oz. can black beans, drained and rinsed
1 zucchini, diced
1/4 of a red onion, diced
juice of 1 lime
1 tbsp. olive oil
1 tsp. sea salt
1 cup chopped cilantro leaves
1/2 tsp. ground coriander
1/4 tsp. ground cumin
3/4 cup breadcrumbs
1/2 cup grated Cotija cheese (about 1 oz.)

Preheat the oven to 350° and grease a baking dish. Slice the very top off of your tomatoes, then use a spoon to carefully hollow them out, making sure to save the inside for another dish (soup, sauce, etc).

In a large bowl, mix together the corn, zucchini, black beans, onion, olive oil, lime juice, cilantro, salt and spices until evenly combined. Carefully, spoon them into the tomatoes until over-stuffed. If you have extra filling, place in the dish around the tomatoes.

Top each of the tomatoes with breadcrumbs and generous grating of Cotija cheese. Bake for 20 minutes, or until golden brown.

Serve with a side of crusty bread, pasta or rice.

WHEAT BERRY GREEK SALAD

For the dressing
1/4 cup olive oil
3 tbsp. red wine vinegar
1 tsp. salt
juice of 1/2 a lime
2 tbsp. tahini
1 tsp. dried oregano

For the salad
1 pint grape tomatoes, halved
1 large cucumber, diced
1 bunch green onions, thinly sliced (or 1/4 of a red onion, thinly sliced)
1 15 oz. can chickpeas, drained and rinsed
2 cups cooked grains, such as wheat berries ( I USED COUSCOUS)
1/4 lb. feta cheese, crumbled
1/2 cup chopped black olives (optional)

Place all of the dressing ingredients in a bowl and whisk together until emulsified. Set aside.

Combine the remaining ingredients in a very large bowl, drizzle with dressing and toss until thoroughly combined.

Home Home on the Range

So I've been really bad about keeping everyone in the loop, but here's the skinny what's happening in the Andry household. The Lord has really been laying the desire to stay home with Blake on my heart since she was about 10 weeks old. I really thought that when I went back to work I would get back into the swing of things and that desire would go away. Well, long story short it didn't - in fact it got worse with everyday that went by. So I started seriously praying...my prayer was that if it was God's will for our lives for me to stay home that God would soften Chris' heart to the idea and give us both a servant's heart to make this arrangement work. Insert sarcastic tone here, "I know this a shock to most of you, but we're not rich." haha. I continued to pray that if it was His will for me to work that my heart toward work would change and my desire to be home would diminish.

After 2 full weeks of devout prayer and 2 full weeks of work, I created an in depth powerpoint presentation for Chris to discuss this arrangement. That's right ladies and gentlemen, I went inside the head of Chris Andry to figure out what I would need to analyze, calculate and evaluate in order for him to 1.)take the proposal seriously 2.) see if it was even remotely an option 3.) see what sacrifices we were realistically talking about and 4.) foresee questions that were going to come my way. I have to say at the end of the day I think my powerpoint was pretty amazing...if you're interested in seeing my masterpiece let me know! haha. Anywho, I presented my idea to Chris one Friday evening a couple of weeks ago and of course, he saw it coming and of course true to my prayers - God softened his heart to the idea. I told him to continue to pray about it, look at the numbers and really think about it before saying anything....So another week went by before we decided that it was worth the sacrifice (no more vacations, no more eating out every weekend, no more shopping - gasp). I turned in my 2 weeks notice at Medassets this past Friday and my last day of work will be August 6th. HOLY HOTDOG!

Now don't go thinking I'm going to be come some stepford wife and never work again...I'm only taking off until Blake reaches 1 year old and then she'll be going back to school and I will be going back to work. In the meantime I am in charge of all the mundane household tasks that Chris and I both hate (laundry, grocery shopping cooking dinner, cleaning the house). I also promised to try to bring in some extra funds to help offset a little of what we'll be missing out on so I decided to start selling Stella & Dot Jewelry. So true to Alicia Andry form - I'm brining on loads of change and new obstacles all at once - BRING ON THE CHANGE!

I am actually so very excited to have this opportunity to not only spend the time with my amazing daughter, but to also try to start up a business that's not only my own, but FUN! I've been sacrificing my passion in the workforce for years to make enough to actually make a living and I really hope and pray that this new venture will eventually take off the ground and be my NEW full time gig once the year is over.

If anyone is interested in buying some fun jewelery, starting up a Stella & Dot business of their own or just want to come to one of the trunk shows to play around let me know and check out my fancy new website! www.stelladot.com/aliciaandry

So basically we're in a state of constant change with new obstacles to overcome and new adventures in store. I can't wait to see what God is up to now. He always throws me a curve ball when I start to make my own plans in life. Prayers are very much appreciated as we face this new chapter in life. It's going to be interesting that is for sure!

chchchchchanges.

So Blake is 3 months old tomorrow and has been in daycare for a week tomorrow, and I have been down in the dumps for 1 week tomorrow. I knew it would be hard to leave her precious little face and go back to work, but I figured that after a couple of days I would start transitioning back into my old role and be happy for the adult interaction and work responsibilities. BOY WAS I WRONG!

I seriously never pictured myself being a stay at home mom until Blake arrived. Once I met her I instantly changed my entire perspective and feeling on staying home. Going back to work has been the hardest thing I've ever had to do and all I do all day while at work is think, "I hope they are taking care of her, I hope they are loving her, I hope that she knows we love her since we're not there, I hope she doesn't forget us, and most of all, I hope I don't miss any of her firsts." It would probably make things easier if I was in a career that I loved, but much like most of the world out there - it's just a job and nothing more.

Enough about the sob story though - let's talk about firsts.....this past Saturday Blake had 2 major accomplishments: 1) she giggled out loud

it was the most adorable, happy sound in the world. I only wish I could get her to giggle all day everyday.

2) She rolled over from her tummy to her back. Now, I have to preface this with the fact that I think it was a fluke, but little chick just rolled over like it was easy as pie. She hasn't done it since, but just in case you think I'm lying Trimble was here and witnessed the entire thing. As you can see Saturday was a really big day for us! Also, as you can see - our lives have changed exponentially - who would have thought a year ago that I would be blogging about how excited we were to see a kid roll over! haha Actually who would have thought a year ago that I would be blogging period or have a child!

I love that I can see her change everyday and develop personality and learn new things. It seriously is one of the best things in the world!!!

Please continue to pray that I get used to her being in daycare and stop crying everyday over not being with her.

Here is Blake's 3 month picture. She is getting so big!

2 month check up

So yesterday was Blake's 2 month checkup with the pediatrician and our little monkey is growing like crazy! It was a good checkup overall, but she had to get her first round of vaccinations and it was sooooooooo sad. She cried the loudest, hardest and longest I have yet to see! It broke my heart, but Chris and I being the weird people we are also found it absolutely hysterical. One minute she was fine and then all of a sudden her face got super red and she just started screaming haha. She's cute even when she's upset. So here are her growth stats:

1 month:

Weight: 7 lbs. 15 oz. (15th percentile)

Length: 21 3/4 " (75th percentile)

Head size: 14" (10th percentile)

2 month:

Weight: 9 lbs. 7 oz. (15th percentile)

Length: 22 1/2" (55th percentile)

Head size: 14 3/4" (10th percentile)

She is holding her head up so well...it will be no time at all before she can hold it up completely by herself, which I guess is one of the bonuses of having a small head haha. She is also loving standing on her legs - so we hold her up and let her push up on her legs often...I have a feeling crawling might come early for her as well, but who knows.

T-minus 27 days until D-day...

Only 27 days left of my maternity leave -which means only 27 days left until I have to send our precious little monkey to daycare. I have such mixed emotions over it all. If you had asked me a month ago if I was ready to go back to work I would have whole heartedly said yes. That being said, it's amazing how much has changed in the last 4 weeks....she's started interacting with me, recognizing me, smiling with me and bonding with me. It hit me like a ton of bricks on Monday as I realized I had less than a month left and there are small little things she does each day that cause me to break down in tears knowing I won't get to share in all of these little moments starting in July. I got to witness her first grin, her first coo, her first mimic of me sticking my tongue out at her. How much am I going to miss once I go back to work? Will she be taken care of?

I know that it's not really an option for me to stay home, and I at the end of the day I know she will be fine, but I just hope and pray that she gets enough attention and affection and that we won't lose the bond that we have. This is definitely going to be a very difficult transition and one that I am dreading deeply.