So This Is The New Year....

...and i don't feel any different. Ok, so that is from a song and not entirely true. I do feel different. Time to get down to business.

Ahh 2012. Is the world going to end? I think not, so let's talk about New Year's resolutions. This is a hot topic every year for many people, but how many actually follow through with their own resolutions? I know I'm guilty of not doing so. I decided to switch it up a bit and instead of going along with the most popular choices such as exercisinig more, eating better, quitting smoking, etc. I wanted it to be more personal and this is what I have come up with.

Resolution #1: Be more creative
In my opinion, I don't have a creative bone in my body. One thing that I would love to do with little miss when she is older is to do lots of fun arts and crafts. With a growing child, you can never think of too many things to keep them entertained. Even though I say this every year, I really want to start making homemade gifts. This is the year I promise to do it. I also started to teach myself how to crochet and my goal is to make at least 1 item this year, start to finish.

Resolution # 2: Start a vegetable garden and keep it up
Mr G has started them before and some crops actually did quite well. Then he would go on tour and I would forget about it and it would all die. Same with flowers we planted and any other plant that needed water to live. So come spring, I want to clean up the beds and start planting. Luckily, my family loves vegetables so why not save some money and grow them ourselves. Plus, it will be something new I can research and learn more about. Little miss will start to experiment with different foods soon and I would love to make her food myself. The more fresh veggies I have access to the better.

Resolution # 3: Read more books
This one is simple. I have so many books to read at home. I would like to try and read one book, once a month, then pass it on. Not only will I be exercising my brain, but I will also be recycling and freeing up some much needed space in my home.

This is all I have so far, but I'll be sure to post about other as I think of them. So tell me, what are your New year's resolutions?

Fat Bottomed Girls

I've been thinking a lot lately about how women who have had babies get a bad rep when it comes to post baby bodies. I think this is a load of crap. I feel and look better now than I did before I got pregnant. I loved my body when I was pregnant and I was surprised by how fast I lost weight after my girl came. That could have been a result of the lack of eating time I had when she first came though. Nonetheless, I feel great. I hope women stop thinking that a baby will ruin them and just enjoy the whole process.

So this brings me to a comment my doc said to me a week or so ago and it has stuck with me. I had a CT scan done of my mid section and my oh so wonderful back muscles, or lack there of, showed up on the scan. The doctor literally said my muscles were puny and that they looked like the muscles of a 60 year old woman rather than a 29 year old woman. I was totally embarrassed. I was informed I should exercise and make sure I include lots of back and abdominal exercises. So I immediately started researching fitness centers in my area and decided I needed to be a body builder. That thought didn't last more than 5 minutes though because I truly do not see how paying a monthly fee to exercise is worth it. All I need is a good pair of sneakers and a pair of weights and I'm good to go. I'd like to start with walking and condition myself enough to run and maybe do a 5K in the near future. That's my goal as of right now. Who's with me?

Diamonds On The Souls Of Her Shoes

Last Saturday I had the MIL watch Sophie and I ventured out with Mr. G and a couple other family members to see Paul Simon perform. I must be honest here and say that I really don't know too much of his solo stuff. Simon & Garfunkel songs sure, but Paul on his own, not so much. Some songs I did know were Rhythym of the Saints, Only Living Boy in New York, Graceland, S&G's Sound of Silence, and the amazing George Harrison's Here Comes the Sun. The only disappointments were that he didn't play that You Can Call Me Al song during one of his two encores and he ended on a slow song. I don't understand why anyone would end on a slow note. I'd rather go out with a bang. Despite my lack of sing along abilities, I though it was a good show. It was good just to get out and bring my family along as well.

And speaking of shows, guess who is coming to town in March???!!! Radiohead! Finally! One of my absolute favorite bands is coming to Austin and I can't wait. I just hope I can get tickets and it doesn't sell out in 2.5 seconds. I'm sure it will but I will be ready at 10am sharp to make my purchase. Another show coming in May is Roger Waters performing The Wall Live. I saw this show last year in Dallas and it was amazing. I hope to make it again this year since it will be coming to Austin. This will be the closest I will ever get to seeing Pink Floyd perform so I will take what I can get. The Wall is a fantastic album and it is the album of choice for my car right now.

Also hoping to go see Morrissey and The Kills in the coming months, but we will see. Hope you enjoyed the sneak peak into my musical calendar!

You Are What You Eat

Recently, I have had a bout of bad health. Instead of being down about it, I've decided to take control and change my bad health habits. I am not one to exercise, loathe it actually, but know the benefits of it. I have always been interested in nutrition so this part comes easy to me. I know what I should and shouldn't eat. This is common sense really. Lucky for me, I love my fruit and veggies.

The dilemma I am having is whether or not I should follow a vegetarian/vegan diet. Mr. G has been vegan for a few months now and says he is feeling great. My issue with it is that it is a little more time consuming than maybe a vegetarian diet. You have to look at ingredients closely to make sure there is no dairy or animal products of any kind. I don't have time for this. I think becoming mostly vegetarian for the time being will be the better option. I use the word mostly because I am a foodie at heart and when I have the chance to get to a decent restaurant, I would like to eat what I want.

Most of the time I will cut out all meat, poultry, and seafood (please know that I am dying inside, just a little). I don't really want to eat dairy, especially cheese, because of the saturated fat. Need to keep my arteries clean, know what I mean? Milk is not a problem since I refuse to drink a glass of regular milk, only with chocolate in it, but the sugar has got to go. I do like my cereal, but almond milk will suffice. Finally, I am not a big egg eater, so this shouldn't be a problem. Although, a breakfast taco sounds pretty good right now...

Moving on.

I won't go to the extreme to look at ingredients to make sure there is no milk or other dairy in certain items. For example, bread. There are so many bread options in the grocery store. Most of them contain milk. I spent 15 minutes in the bread aisle one day looking for a loaf of bread that didn't contain milk for Mr. G. When he is home, I don't have a choice in the matter, but when he's not, forget it. I may change my mind eventually but for now it's baby steps. I don't want to find myself at the nearby Whataburger at midnight getting my meat fix.

Of course, I will try to eat organic as much as possible. I would even like to start a garden since it's a little cooler here in Little Mexico. Wish me luck on my path to good health. Keep yah posted!

The Kids Are Alright

Holy crap! The chaos has begun. Two fun filled weeks of two year old craziness. My sister and her two year old daughter Olivia are visiting for the next two weeks. My mom and Mr G both arrive tomorrow and my dad gets in a few days after that. At one point there will be 8 people staying in my house!

Kinda wish the girls were closer in age so they could play together, it would be adorable. In a few more years I guess. I can now envision what it will be like to have a two year old running around and I am so excited. I know it will be exhausting, but so much fun. 2 year olds are excited about everything. They are miniature people who can talk and express emotion. Even Sophie, who is only 2 months old, is starting to show her personality and is a lot more vocal. I love every second of it.

I still can't wait to go out on the town though.....

Electro-shock Blues

Is it wrong of me to think about keeping my identity even though I'm a mom now? I know my main priority is now my daughter, but I still want to make sure that I do the things I love and maintain important relationships.

The past couple of weeks have been challenging to say the least. Mr. G and I have had to spend the last month apart and I have been busy taking care of baby so seeing friends and getting out and about has been hard. Obviously, I have had a lot of time to think! I find myself talking about baby all the time and wonder if this is now what my life is going to be like.

Mr. G is in Canada right now on tour and has been able to do some cool things. What have I been doing? Changing dirty diapers all day long. Working on a relationship is hard in general, but having a long distance relationship takes extra work, in my opinion anyway. Since I don't get to talk to Mr. G all day long and have limited access to him right now since he is in his homeland, I'm driving myself nuts knowing that I don't have anything interesting to talk about. And my poor friends, ha! I welcome every opportunity they have to come and visit, but man do I worry I have turned into this total loser! I know, I know. They don't think that. This is just what has been going through my head so I constantly try and change the subject to something other than baby when they are around.

Ahhh I wonder if every parent goes through this. To make sure that I don't lose myself, I am already making plans to do as much cool shit as possible, both with and without baby. Thank goodness for grandparents who actually WANT to babysit so Mr. G and I can spend time together as well as with friends. I feel like maybe I should go downtown and hit up a club just to get it out of my system...

I must say though...I really don't know what I would do without my family and friends. They have given me back my sanity over the last couple of weeks and to them I say thanks.

Cat scratch fever cat nap

Death by Chocolate

If anyone is interested in making a delicious, VEGAN, chocolate cake, here is the recipe I used for Mr. G's birthday.

Recipe makes one 8 inch circle cake:

1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar

3/4 cup granulated sugar

1/3 cup canola oil

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/2 teaspoon almond extract

1 cup all-purpose flour

1/3 cup cocoa powder, Dutch-processed or regular (or a mix of both)

3/4 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 cup almond milk (or your favorite non-dairy milk)

Preheat oven to 350?F.

Whisk together the soy milk and vinegar in a large bowl, and set aside for a few minutes to curdle. Add the sugar, oil, vanilla and almond extract and mix well.

In a separate bowl, sift together the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. Add in two batches to wet ingredients and beat until no large lumps remain (a few tiny lumps are OK).

Lightly grease an 8 inch springform pan. Pour in the batter and bake for 32 to 35 minutes, until a toothpick inserted through the center comes out clean.

Chocolate VEGAN buttercream:

2 cups organic powdered sugar

1/2 cup dairy-free soy margarine, softened

1/4 cup plain unsweetened almond milk

3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Using an electric mixer, cream the powdered sugar and margarine together until well combined. Add the milk, cocoa, and vanilla and continue to mix until light and fluffy. This makes a good amount of frosting and I was able to frost two 8 inch cakes with it.

Enjoy!

Teenage Wasteland

So last night I got to enjoy a few hours off from mommy hood. Thank goodness, I was about to go mad. Luckily, my mother in law saved the day so I could go enjoy one of my favorite pastimes: going to a show!

I bought tickets a while back to go see Roger Daltrey, from The Who, play Tommy live. I actually tried selling the tickets when I found out Mr. G would be on tour and wouldn't be able to go. Surprisingly, no one wanted the poor tickets so I went with my roomie MB. A pleasant time was had by all. The music was great. We saw many fascinating people such as the man with the amazing mullet, two younger fellas totally rocking out and playing air guitar, and some very talented older folks dancing the night away. Still wish I had gotten some pictures to post.

I'm a big live show lover and last night was a much needed time away. Parts of the show were so loud and fantastic I got chills. Now I am completely obsessed with The Who and Johnny Cash, as a result of Mr. Daltrey playing a medley of Cash songs. Off to youtube I go and don't be surprised if you see me posting some tunes on FaceBook....Or CrackBook as I like to call it. Stay tuned....

Lip stick junkie

So a lot has happened over the last few months since I started this blog. Sorry for magically disappearing for 2 months but I had to pop out a baby. And pop out she did. Read about my birth experience below!

Sophie is finally here and we are adjusting to life post daddy leaving to go back on the road. And what an adjustment it has been. After I got over the crying for 2 days straight because I didn't know what to do with my 1 month old baby, by myself I might add, we are rolling with the punches. Sure, I've had numerous breakdowns. A family that cries together, stays together. That's the saying right? But let's get real. I had to get over that really quick if I was going to pass the time. Let the countdown begin to when Mr. G comes home and we can share in parental duties once again. Aka: mommy gets to hand over baby when she has a hissy fit :)

Song of the moment: The Adventures of Rain Dance Maggie by The Red Hot Chili Peppers. Check it!

Life can't get any better than this...

Meet Sophie Roscoe Gagnon

For the Record...

It's that time again...the husband is away on tour. This time is a little different though. We now have a beautiful 1 month old daughter Sophie. Fortunately, both Mike and my mom were here for the first month of her life. Now for the second month, it's just me and her. It's a very new, scary, and exciting time for the both of us. All I can say is that it has been an adventure since the beginning.

I told you I would post my birth story so here it goes.

For those that don't know, I had a pretty exciting birth. I went into labor on September 2, 2011 around 1am. Contractions were nothing more than cramping, but it was something I hadn't felt yet in my pregnancy. I ended up falling back to sleep until my alarm went off for work around 6am. I was still having contractions so I decided to call in and wait it out a bit.

When I originally found out my due date, August 29th, my husband kept saying he wanted her to be born on his birthday. His birthday just so happens to be September 2nd. So we both had a chuckle when I started having contractions on his special day. The bummer was that I felt like poo so his birthday plans didn't go on as planned. I was going to cook him a nice dinner, have his parents come up to the house, exchange presents. Well the dinner was a no go since I was not in the mood to go to the store and cook. I spent the majority of the day lying in bed relaxing and trying to get some sleep. I eventually got up when his parents arrived and we tried to figure out what to have for dinner. At this point, I was not thinking about food. I did manage to make the frosting for the cake I had baked the night before and Mr. G finished frosting it for me :)

I had been timing my contractions all day and they were anywhere from 20 minutes to 5 minutes apart. Around dinner time, I was getting more uncomfortable but was hesitant to go to the hospital, especially since the contractions were still erratic. Finally, around 8pm, I decided to go in to get checked out. It is about a 20 minute ride to the hospital, so I brought everything I may need in case I was going to be admitted and my mom tagged along as well.

When I got there, they brought me into the triage room to get monitored. The nurse checked me and to my disappointment, had not really progressed much since my appointment 2 days prior. They timed my contractions for about 20 minutes and they were about 3-7 minutes apart. Needless to say, they sent me home. The entire car ride home was uncomfortable and I felt like the contractions were getting stronger. As soon as I got home I started timing them again. At this point, I was in a lot of pain. For the next hour, my contractions were 2-3 minutes apart. I tried getting in the shower to alleviate some of the pain which helped a bit. I would rock in my glider chair until I had another one, then would get up and walk around until it was over. I knew something was going on since I was in so much pain and the contractions felt like they were on top of each other. I decided to go back to the hospital.

The pain was so bad in the car, I was literally trying to stand on the seat. I kept telling Mr. G that I couldn't do it, but him being the best in my time of need, kept telling me that I could do it and that I WAS doing it. So I held his hand with one of mine and started hitting the car door with the other. About half way to the hospital, I felt a weird sensation, a lot of pressure. I started saying the baby was coming out! We were about 2 minutes from the hospital when we approached a yellow light. Sure enough, I yelled, "you are going through that fucking light!" We made it, but I was contracting so bad and feeling a lot of pressure. We went through the emergency room entrance and they made me fill out paperwork before going upstairs. I told the lady at the desk that I was just there an hour ago and I needed to get upstairs. Can you believe it? All of this was happening within an hour. An HOUR! Mr. G started filling out the papers and I ran to the bathroom because I could not sit down. I felt so weird down below I decided to feel myself and I swear I could feel the baby's head. I got into a wheelchair and the nurse ran me upstairs to labor and delivery.

I was wheeled into a delivery room and I told the nurse that I could feel the baby's head. A second later, my water broke. The nurse told me she didn't want me to push, but if I felt like I had to she wouldn't stop me. I got onto the bed lying on my side so the nurse could check me. Immediately she said she could see the baby's head. She told Mr. G I would be delivering soon. I was so uncomfortable so her attempt to check didn't work. By this time, there were three nurses in the room with us and Mr. G. My mom and Mr. G's mom drove separately to the hospital, but we had them go to the waiting room. After a third attempt at an IV, one of the nurses finally got it in, while another nurse checked me again telling me I was complete.

The amazing part of this whole process was that I really wasn't paying attention to anyone in the room. My body just took over, and I knew what to do. I was still on my side. Mr. G was behind me, and I was holding on to him so I wouldn't fall off the bed. The contractions at this point were to get the baby out. When I felt a contraction, I would push. Then I would have a minute or so break, with no pain at all. There was no time for medication, although I managed to ask for it!

I arrived at the hospital around 11:30pm on September 2nd. My beautiful Sophie Roscoe was born at 12:04am September 3rd. Only 4 minutes shy of sharing a birthday with her daddy. Only 30 minutes shy of being born at home or in the car. I couldn't have asked for a better birth experience :)

New Day, New Me

Well here it goes, friends and foes. I decided today was the day I started my blog. I have a lot of changes coming up and thought it would be a good idea to share the craziness with all the crazies on the internet.

It almost feels like January 1st and I'm making New Years resolutions. I'm about to bring a child into this world and all I can think about is creating the best possible environment for my family. I have a husband that travels for a living so it is important to me to make sure our daughter still has a stable home environment. My goals over the next year and for many years to come are to have as many adventures as I can with my child, my husband, and with myself. I welcome the challenge of rediscovering myself. Not only as a mother and wife, but also to find my true place in this world.

I also hope to share all of my loves and weirdness. Music, cooking, baking, and traveling are just to name a few. I am going to make sure I incorporate these things into my daily life. Makes it a lot more interesting!

So here's to all the new adventures I hope to have and share with you.