Wonderful Friends

As we head into the great unknown of parenthood, we are grateful for the advice of wonderful friends who have gone before us. In May, I was blessed by a wonderful visit from Adrienne who traveled all the way from Pittsburgh to have a girls' weekend in Tucson with me. We saw "Sex and the City", hiked, ate ice cream and talked...a lot. It was the perfect girls' weekend. I'm so grateful for her honest advice and straightforward approach. She is a wonderful source of practical advice and an amazing friend. I am so grateful for her presence in my life.






This past weekend, I traveled to the East Coast for a reunion with my suitemates from college. So much has changed since we were last together a year and a half ago! Between the four of us, there are now 2 babies, and 2 more on the way this fall! As you can imagine, the weekend was full of "baby talk" with lots of advice and tips and tricks. It was such a wealth of information that I took notes! We even took a field trip to Babies R Us where Christina and Deb helped Jenn and I navigate the overwhelming amount of baby stuff out there. Above all, it was a sweet time of catching up with beautiful friends and cooing over beautiful babies.

While I was away lounging and enjoying myself with friends, Ben was hard at work getting the nursery ready. Our selfless friends, John and Erin, came over and helped him move furniture and gave advice to tackle his first-ever paint job. He worked hard all weekend and I came home to a beautifully painted nursery! What a guy!

Cinderella

This past week we were visited by a fairy tale character. She cooked, cleaned, baked, scrubbed, and washed all week long with a smile on her face as bright as the yellow rubber gloves she wore. Cinderella, also known as Natalie, was an amazing help in checking off many of the items on our ever-growing “Before Baby To Do List”. Aside from the multitude of tasks she accomplished, she pampered me to the hilt with backrubs, foot rubs, cookies and anything I could possibly need or want.

We did our best to treat our little servant girl to as much fun as possible (after she finished her chores, of course!). We dined on fantastic Mexican food, ate a LOT of ice cream (three words that changed my life: Thin Mint Blizzards), and Natalie was able to witness her first-ever desert monsoon. To celebrate the 4th of July, we escaped the miserable heat by heading up to Mt. Lemmon, the tallest peak in Tucson. There we grilled out at a friends cabin and enjoyed the unusual sensation of being chilly outside in Arizona. On our way down the mountain, we spotted fireworks exploding all over the city below us – what a beautiful sight!

Above everything else, it was wonderful just to have Natalie’s smiling and cheerful presence around the house, excited about every detail of her nephew or niece-to-be. Thank you, Natalie, for a wonderful visit!