Oh Sun...I miss you so!!

We are back from Mexico. We got back last Saturday. We had an amazing time. It is just so beautiful there. Neither myself nor Andrew had been to Cancun before. We've been to Cozumel but not Cancun...and Wow what a difference! Cancun has the most beautiful water, white sand beaches the water is so warm. We stayed at the Riu Palace Las Americas, an all-inclusive resort. It had a great beach, the food and drinks were good and we got a great deal for a weeks stay. The only 'excursion' we did was a day trip to Isla Mujeres on a Catamaran including a stop for snorkeling. I love swimming in the ocean and watching the fish and sea creatures swimming. It is so calming just floating there while the waves move up and down over the top of you meanwhile below the surface it is calm and beautiful.

I am a member of a couple of groups who have endured baby loss. Before going to Cancun I had asked if any of the mom's would like their baby's names written in the sand. I had 28 responses! I was so glad that we had so many to write and with each one that we did I tried so hard to make it perfect. To people who haven't lost a child this might seem weird, pictures of names...they are just words...but to those of us who have buried our children this is all we have. All we have are pictures, memories, names...We can't hold our baby each day, we can change them, feed them, love them, look into their eyes...we can't make any more memories with our children, and pictures of our child's name are ways that we can continue to make memories and to remember them and how wonderful they were.

This weekend is our friends Jamie and Lee's wedding. Andrew and I are both in the wedding (groomsman/bridesmaid) and I know it will be so much fun...albeit a bit chilly. The highs for this weekend are in the 60's and everything is going to be outside. They'll have heaters so it will be fine, but it is just such a shock from being in Mexico....I'm like I was in 80 degree weather a week ago, where did all of this cold come from? I've had to raid my guestroom closets for my sweaters and wool pants.....I miss the warm weather, the beach and the sun!!

We laid out near the pool or beach everyday. It was so relaxing just to lay on the beach, listen to the waves and read a good book or take a nap....I also miss the incredible salsas and guacamole which I ate everyday at every meal...including breakfast.

Thanksgiving is coming up, and Andrew and I will be spending it apart. :-( Andrew and I split up holidays with our families. Last year we did Thanksgiving with my family and did Christmas with his family. So this year we are supposed to go to St. Louis to spend Thanksgiving with Andrew's family. When we found out we were pregnant we both had planned on taking the entire week of Thanksgiving off of work and driving up to visit his family with Aidan spending as much 'family time' as possible....Well the best way to make God laugh is to tell him your plans. Needless to say that won't be happening this year. In fact, we aren't going to be in the same state. I will be in Tulsa with my family and my grandparents, and Andrew will be in St. Louis with his family. My grandmother isn't doing very well with her chemotherapy so I want to spend as much time with her as possible. I'm hoping to be able to visit her next weekend if she is feeling up to it.

My grandma is an amazing cook. Most if not all of her recipes are those she learned growing up from her mother, friends or from church cookbooks and most are either in her head or written down on little pieces of paper that she keeps in a drawer in her kitchen. I don't want those recipes to leave with her, some of which are from her grandmother (my great great grandmother) so my hope is to be able to visit her next weekend and get all her recipes and my computer to write down those that are not written down and make our family a cookbook to hand out for Christmas. I'm going to include some of mine and my mothers too....especially my mother's special "Spaghetti a la Jan" (this includes cooking frozen meatballs from a bag, cooking spaghetti and pouring on jarred tomato sauce; if you want to fancy it up then you can sprinkle on some Kraft parmesan cheese) ~ sorry mom I had to..LOL).

OK, now I'm rambling....

Hope you have a good weekend and thanks for reading!

Love, Me.