A Sucker For a Romantic Story

Downtown Honolulu, HI, view from Punch Bowl. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Sometimes, if you’re lucky, you get to witness the unfolding of a great romantic story to be told for years to come. My good friends K and T are lucky enough to be the owners of one such story. Last week, they left for Hawaii as boyfriend and girlfriend with their families. They returned as husband and wife!

As it so happens, you can apparently propose on a Wednesday evening and have an entire sunset wedding—dress, makeup, hair, photographer, and all!—planned by Sunday. Weddings seem to be as common in Hawaii as they are in Las Vegas, which makes getting married there on a whim pretty easy to do. K and T did it, and I’m sure they’ll be telling this story to their grandchildren someday. And me? All I could do is sigh with happiness when I thought about how romantic and special the trip was for them. Their parents were there to witness the event as well as K’s sister. Married in paradise without the stress… I can’t think of a better way to do it!

Congratulations, you two! You may become the inspiration for a novel one of these days.

Beef Jerky and Buffalo Sauce

Deutsch: selbstgemachtes Beef Jerky aus Rindfleisch English: self made beef jerky made from solid strips of beef (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

I’ll admit it. I like odd foods. I always have. But it seems to have gotten worse since I’ve been pregnant! I’ve always had a love affair with buffalo sauce, but at about week six, I had to have it every day. After that, the craving went away. Now, it would seem I’ve moved on to beef jerky. And Sprite Zero. Good grief, I wanted a Sprite Zero and beef jerky so badly at work last week.And salt. Anything salty is my friend these days. Now if I could just find beef jerky coated in buffalo sauce…

But I digress.

So what’s a girl to do? Nothing at this point except enjoying the snacks in moderation! At least I’m not craving extreme amounts of sugar, right? RIGHT?!

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Who Would’ve Thought It?

Sometimes, when you least expect it, something happens to change your world.

Will and I were just sure we would become parents through adoption. Really, it’s the only way we’ve talked about becoming parents for a while now. But while we were in Ireland in August, we started to ask ourselves if that’s what God really intended—if maybe He didn’t have another plan for us. We decided to place it in His hands, and went went about our lives wondering when we’d have the cash to move forward with the adoption. In the meantime, we lived our lives as usual.

Then, on Valentine’s Day, I had a sneaking suspicion that something was amiss. I took a pregnancy test, and voilà! Will and I are going to be parents to Baby Cook 1.0 in October.

We’re excited, but I must admit I’m more than a little stressed! It’s a lot to take in, and I’m still a little bit in shock. I haven’t been sick, so I really have had a nearly symptomless experience so far—except for my extreme exhaustion lately. (Apparently, I’m really lucky—thank goodness.) As a result, I find it still a little bit hard to believe other than the little belly that’s starting to appear.

So there you have it. This is part of the reason I’ve been so quiet. How can you blog and not talk about something this big? I’m happy to share the news with you, and hopefully, I won’t be quite so absent now.

Home, Sweet Home

Landscape photograph of Chicago, Illinois. Taken from Shedd Aquarium. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)A couple of weeks ago, I had the opportunity to revisit my old city of Chicago. My friend Kim was traveling there for a work event, and since she knew about my love affair with the Windy City, she invited me to come along. Since it’s one of my favorite cities in the world—if not the favorite—of course I said yes!

Kim had never really spent time in Chicago, so I had some things in mind, particularly the food. Oh, you can’t beat the food in Chicago! Our first night, after walking miles around the city all day, we popped over to the inventor of Chicago-style deep-dish pizza, Pizzeria Uno on East Ohio. You can’t go to Chicago without experiencing the pizza, and luckily, Kim was a fan.

The next night, we were in the mood for French food. My favorite French restaurant in the city is called Kiki’s Bistro located in River North. They make a bouillabaisse to die for. Unfortunately, it wasn’t available! I settled for a great seafood dish as did Kim, and as it turns out, it was her favorite place we visited. You can’t eat at an epically delicious French restaurant without having dessert, and I made a little pig of myself on the divine crème brûlée. (I always order it at Kiki’s. There’s chocolate on the bottom!)

Finally, I took my friend to my favorite Chicago steakhouse. Select Cut is a local place Will and I frequented when we needed a steak but didn’t want to spend a fortune. It’s in Lakeview and near the frozen custard shop called Scooter’s that makes a great after-dinner dessert spot.

I guess what we really had was a food tour! But we also managed to hit the Montrose Dog Beach, tour my old neighborhood of Andersonville, and explored downtown and the Magnificent Mile. We were disappointed to miss the Chicago River being dyed green by only one day, but we managed to find a green fountain downtown. I think Kim had a good taste of the city, and I had a nice stroll down memory lane. I only hope it doesn’t take another four years for me to return.

Learning Irish…in Middle Tennessee?

Image via WikipediaOne of my goals for 2012 is taking a class to learn another language. I have an aptitude for languages, generally speaking, and after visiting Ireland in August, I chose Irish as my language to learn. Not only do I have some family history there, but I fell in love with the country and its people, making me all the more eager to learn more about the country as a whole.

After returning from our trip to County Kerry, which is an Irish-speaking area of Ireland, I started doing some online searches for local Irish classes. To my dismay, none immediately became apparent. I found places where you can learn online, though, and I started to consider that. But one day, after yet another Google search, I saw an article from a local newspaper featuring an interview with Éilís Crean, a native of Co. Roscommon, Ireland. She planned to offer Irish Gaelic classes locally soon, and thus I began an email correspondence with her to find out more about the classes. Fortunately for me, Éilís (pronounced Ā-lish) is a patient woman and tolerated my myriad questions.

Tonight, the first official class begins. Since I would love to use some of the language in an upcoming novel, this is a perfect opportunity for me. And if you’re just interested in Irish culture and language, this would be a perfect opportunity for you as well. You can find out more about the classes here. We’re using Micheál Ó Siadhail’s book Learning Irish, so come along with us! It doesn’t matter where in the world you’re located since it’s available via Skype. We have people from all around joining including Northern Ireland, Atlanta, and Boston. It should be a lot of fun for all.

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Holiday Movie Favorites

There are a couple of holiday movies that make me smile every year. I can watch them on endless loops because, really, who gets tired of holiday movies? Christmas music is another story. Christmas music should never, ever start until after Thanksgiving is over. Never. If it does, I’m way over it by the time Christmas rolls around. So with that in mind, here are some clips from some of my favorite Christmastime movies. Enjoy!

Elf

National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation

The Holiday

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Making 2012 Goals

Image via Wikipedia“Shoot for the moon. Even if you miss, you’ll land among the stars.” -Les Brown

It’s almost that time of year again. You know…resolution time.

I don’t believe in New Year’s resolutions. For me, they’re that pie in the sky I’ll probably never reach because they’re too lofty and unattainable. Instead, I set goals. I set them high enough to be within reach but still a challenge. For instance, in 2011, I set a goal to read 50 books. As of today, I’ve read 37. I’m working on #38 now. While I won’t hit 50 books this year, it was a challenge to read as many as I did, and within those 38 books, two were 600–800 pages each (the first two books in Diana Gabaldon’s Outlander series). I’m proud of myself for getting so close to that goal. That’s approximately three books a month.

So what am I shooting for in 2012? Here are some ideas I have:
 

• Meal planning and eating out less. I’m terrible at this one. If I have an Achilles’ heel, it’s eating out. I come home tired and hungry, and if Will is home, he’s my enabler when it comes to eating out. It’s part of the reason I’ve packed on some extra pounds. It’s time to get it under control, which should correlate to getting my weight under control again.
• Finish another full-length novel. What’s considered a novel? It means 80,000+ words. Here we go again.
• More quality family time with Will. Since Summer 2010, he’s been working 50+ hours/week and taking classes toward finishing his degree. This means we’ve had less quality time together, and since he’s set to graduate in May, that’s soon coming to an end.
• Attend more MCRW meetings. I’ve been a terrible member all year, attending meetings when I felt like it. My writing chapter is a wonderful place to learn and grow as a writer, and I haven’t given it nearly the attention it deserves.
• Get over my fear of query letters. I stopped at about #16, which is kinda pathetic.
• Continue working out 3-4 times a week. My health will thank me.
• Read 50 books. I will make it this time!
• Finally travel to New York City. I’ve wanted to visit there since I was a kid. I think I’ve talked Will into it.

How about you? What are your goals for the upcoming year? What do you hope to accomplish? What would you like to be different for you in 2012?

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Welcome to the Holidays

Image via WikipediaI turn into a Grinch this time of year. So…I’m apologizing for my absence from the blog. The traffic, the “gimme gimmes,” the general commercialization of Christmas…it all sends me into hiding. I’ve been hiding from social media, from my blog, even from my (*gasp*) writing. Our offices at work are right across from a large mall, and there’s an added 10-15 minutes to my commute time each evening now, which only adds to my holiday frustration. As a society in general, I feel we’ve forgotten what Christmas is really all about, and it saddens me. It makes me feel as though all the joy has been sucked out of Christmas.

I hope life will return to semi-normal after the holidays. And since Will’s final tuition payment arrived in my inbox yesterday, I (hopefully) won’t feel broke anymore! We haven’t had debt since July 2007, but making those tuition payments for the past two years has felt like debt hanging over our heads. We’ve cash flowed every bit of it, and with multiple visits from Murphy, I am so over college tuition.

Merry Christmas (bah humbug)! I hope you all have a wonderful holiday season. And if you don’t hear from me, I’ll be back in the New Year…writing.

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Plans Change

Financially speaking, the last couple of years have been difficult for me and Will. We’ve battled off multiple attacks of Murphy, paid several tuition bills in full, and took a trip to Ireland. (Okay, so the trip to Ireland was by choice, but Murphy and tuition? Those were kinda necessary.) And we still have one more semester of tuition to go before we’re done with that.

We’d hoped to start an adoption this fall. We even filed a pre-application, sure that we would move forward as soon as we returned from Ireland. But…we haven’t. Finances are one glaring reason, but there are others, too, that I prefer not to share. So for now, we’re holding off. We know kids are in our future. If anything, we’re more sure of that than ever. We’re fairly certain God is leading us toward adoption. Still, the timing seems not quite right. We feel as though maybe we’re getting a message that we’re not there yet. And so we wait.

That’s where we are. It feels like a good decision despite that pesky personality trait of mine that’s always raring to go at full speed ahead. One thing I can be sure of is that God’s timing is perfect even when ours isn’t. I take great comfort in that.

The Hunger Games

Have I told you I love the book series The Hunger Games? No? Consider yourself told.

The trailer for the upcoming movie starring Jennifer Lawrence as Katniss was released this week, and I am stoked. I read the entire series earlier this year in just a couple of weeks, completely enthralled with this dystopian fiction, which I normally don’t care for. One thing I’m happy about is how different it is from the other hot young adult novel series…Twilight. In my opinion, the Hunger Games series has much more depth and a lot more layers. While it was initially geared toward the YA crowd (i.e. teenagers), as a 30-year-old adult, I found it to be vastly entertaining. I think you will, too, and I hope the movie doesn’t disappoint. Judging by the trailer, it won’t.

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