Category / Family

Thank you for all of the kind comments and emails about our news. I promise this won’t turn into an all-out baby blog going forward (and after this one, I’m done posting pics of sticks I’ve peed on!), but you’ll have to forgive the next few posts, including this one, as they’re a product of this secret we’ve been keeping the past several weeks, but couldn’t talk about!

We had a scare early on (more on that below), which prompted us to wait a while to tell even our immediate family. Because of this, there has been no one but Page to listen to my little outbursts as I’m learning my new body and lifestyle during these early months, and there have been some scary and joyful moments we had to keep to ourselves early on, neither of which I want to forget. Below are some of the little stories that I couldn’t yet share in the early weeks, but want to blog and remember…

1. The first person I told was my dental hygienist. Not that she and my dentist aren’t great people, but it was hardly the romanticized version of “sharing your news with your inner circle, first”. What can you do, I had to let them know so I wasn’t given x-rays and fluoride treatments…it was still a fun moment full of hugs. 🙂

2. Fake drinking is tricky business. Within days of learning our news, I had to master this art for a variety of events from my sister-in-law’s graduation to a work cocktail hour and dinner. It can be done — but you either commit to getting to an event dorky-early (so you can befriend the bartender and swear him to secrecy) or you team-drink with your hubby, taking fake sips off a drink that matches his, and swapping when no one is looking so they both empty over time. I think Page was okay to take one for the team on this. 🙂 I also took tacky to a whole new level on more than one occasion, carrying my drink to the bathroom with me, so I could pour it down the drain. Eventually, I got more lazy about covering it up and figured eh, soon enough people will find out anyway!

3. Decaf coffee…is bullshit. Thankfully, when I got to my nine-week appointment, my doctor assured me that I had permission to drink a cup a day of the real deal. I may or may not have resisted kissing her, and then hit up the Starbys drive-through on my way home. (On a related note…non-alcoholic wine is a total letdown as well!)

4. I didn’t cry when we found out. I always kind of thought I’d cry when the day came that a test came back positive. But we were so shocked, more than anything. And kind of just didn’t believe the test was right. We knew that pregnancy was a small possibility, but SO small that I had actually taken the test more to “rule out” that pregnancy was what was going on with me during a stomach bug. We hadn’t actually entered the phase of really “trying” yet and I think because of this, we weren’t yet in the mindset of longing and wanting enough to have tears of joy and relief. (Obviously, we are thrilled and grateful for the news, but I share that story for anyone else who might feel bad that they aren’t sobbing over their EPT stick!)

5. I had to look my mom in the eye the day after we found out. And say nothing. It was WAY too early to share the news even with family, and we weren’t even out of the woods of it being only a chemical pregnancy. I was still processing the news myself, let alone ready to process how to tell anyone else. But as events would have it, my parents came to Des Moines the week we moved, which happened to be the day after we found out with a home test. There’s something about moms… you just assume they know everything, instantly. In fact, when we were sitting at the half-packed house discussing what else was going to go/sell/head to storage, she asked about the grill on our deck. She said something like, “well, you know that’s not good for you now”, referencing some recent report about grilling and carcinogens in meat, but my brain shot straight to, “why? because I’m pregnant? because you KNOW I’m pregnant?!” I think I played it cool, but I felt like the truth was written all over my face.

6. The whole ultrasound experience was a whirl of information. We tried to make the necessary plans and lifestyle changes, but did little more than that between the time we found out, and our first appointment at nine and a half weeks to confirm there was indeed a beating heart in there. I experienced bleeding and cramping just shy of week six and was told by the doctor’s office that it was a bit too early to verify either way via ultrasound.We know so many who experienced the common, “it went away” scenario, and we approached the next weeks until our first appointment with a lot of caution. It didn’t become real for me when saw two pink lines on a stick. It became real when we finally got to see this wiggly little nugget squirming around on the ultrasound, and the flickering of its heartbeat.

It was a good moment I’ll never forget and we laughed joyously at both being able to SEE some real proof of this tiny person, and at the miracle of it all. As soon as the ultrasound screen roared to life and we saw what was clearly a moving, lively fetus (yay!), we immediately spotted what appeared to be a second (empty) sack on the ultrasound. Between that and the cramping/bleeding I experienced three weeks prior, we were told that while there’s no way to know for certain, it’s quite possible the pregnancy began as twins. From learning our baby was in great shape, to learning we likely lost a second, this was a lot of information to get in a single minute – I think I’m still processing this one – but it was all in all a wonderful memory of relief and happiness.

Baby S Heartbeat

7. Hearing the heartbeat = top ten coolest moments ever. Thanks to a friend at work who loaned us her at-home doppler, we were able to find the heartbeat in the eleventh week, at home, knowing that Page would be out of town for the next regular appointment in which we’d have otherwise heard it for the first time. We were prepared for it to not work well (the home ones are sometimes unreliable) but it came through, loud and clear, in the 170s, and we raced to record it on our phone. (You can download the sound byte by clicking the audio link above!)

8. Ah, nausea, my constant companion. I felt GREAT through my first six weeks (fortunately, since we were moving and there was no time for pause!). Then, week 7 hit and for a couple days, I thought my life was over for the coming months. Fortunately I learned some coping mechanisms, but I was nauseous at some point every single day for about six weeks. I never actually got sick, or had any crazy cravings, it was more that NOTHING sounded good , and the scale has reflected that – the one ray of light in this situation. I was also WORN OUT by the end of the day and would collapse into bed super early – 9pm became the new 11.

9. Just call me Uncle Si. You know how crazy old Si on Duck Dynasty always has his “tea cup” in his hand? That has been me, but with a huge pink tumbler of ice cold sparkling water. All. the. time. It’s what has worked for me to keep my stomach as settled as possible. My other go-to has been popsicles. God bless Costco on both counts.

10. Telling work was nerve-wracking. This was the toughest place to keep quiet, because I spend so much of my time in our small office. For weeks, I felt like I was wearing a sign that said, “I’m pregnant!” between frequent trips to the bathroom, suddenly rejecting coffee (and all food for that matter), and downing sparkling water and saltines like it was my new career path. I never worried they wouldn’t be supportive or excited, but delivering news to coworkers comes with this major sense of responsibility. It’s hard to JUST focus on the good news, without weighing it down with worries about maternity leave, hiring a temp, redistributing workloads, and not being able to travel in the later months. The time will come for those discussions (sooner than later, I’m sure!), but in the meantime, work has felt like a load off my shoulders to not be secret-keeping on top of everything else to do between 8 and 5 each day.

11. Telling our families was a lot of fun. Being married for nearly seven years, we have chosen to keep it “just us” until now, and shared that decision openly with our families. We had recently alluded to some changing priorities, but the news still brought some sincere surprise, which made it fun. It worked out well that just as we approached the end of the first trimester, we would see both sets of parents in person — mine when it just so happened that my brother and sister-in-law were visiting from Korea (the first time in a year and a half!), and Page’s parents, when he went through his hometown on the way to his guys’ trip for the year.

12. You DO start to feel better. There were weeks I thought I might never, but like clockwork at twelve weeks, I had a full day without any of the “icks”. Then the next day, I had the tiniest bit, and by the third, I was back to feeling fine. It just suddenly dissolves, food smells, tastes, (and agrees) right again, and my evenings no longer revolve around crashing in bed at 7pm to watch Orange Is The New Black as a distraction from feeling awful. Hellllloooo, second trimester. I am more than ready for you!

13. I’m excited for Page. We were never that couple that went on and on about family plans, in part because we’ve been so happy with “just us” until now, and in part I think we didn’t want to jinx anything. But now that we’re here, I almost feel like we’re getting to know this new dimension of each other and at the same time, it all feels completely natural. While he’s been very guarded during the first trimester until all checked out okay, he’s also been visibly excited, which has been fun to watch.

If you know Page, he doesn’t do ANYTHING halfway, and he hates to be out of the loop. So I ordered a book just for him, after scouring reviews (this one won major points from dad reviewers for being one that doesn’t “talk down” to fathers-to-be — seriously, what’s that about?!). I knew that, at the risk of driving me crazy with all his new “expertise”, he’d devour it willingly. The above image warms my heart — he reads it unsolicited, folds down pages, and keeps it next to the bed. It’s a small indicator of just how amazing a parent he will be to this new person on the way.

Anyone else have first trimester truths to share? I know I’m not alone! And, to play along with those who blog their pregnancy stats, here’s my current rundown:

“Adventure is out there!” — Up

Amidst the excitement of planning the next house, I’ve been reminiscing about the first one we owned together, and sold this Spring. So many moments, big and small, were celebrated in that house, and we met so many wonderful neighbors that I know we will keep in touch with as friends. We entered our thirties in our first house.  Page learned a lot about home DIY, and I learned a lot about finding my style for our home and how to pull it all together.

We also shared a very important moment, the week we moved out, and I’m eternally grateful we could do so within the walls of our first home…

It truly is a year for adventure, and while we were genuinely surprised that it happened faster than we’d “planned”, (yes, we’re cutting it close on the building of our next home!) we are excited and grateful to welcome Baby S come early January.

Cheers (with a preggatini!) to the building of our next adventure and the arrival of our greatest one yet…

 Fathers Day 2014 | 10 weeks

I almost didn’t send a card this year — I couldn’t find a single great photo I thought was “card-worthy”…but in my search for one, I realized just how much HAPPENED this year:

We visited Hawaii for the first time. Page tore his ACL and had surgery. I went to San Francisco for the first time (and DIDN’T see the Golden Gate Bridge due to the crazy fog!). Page golfed every free moment he got. I started ClickSmith Photography. We went to Iowa games. We hung out with family. We created great memories with friends.

And THAT is all worth capturing.

Wishing you lots of fun and adventure in 2014! Love, Page + Liz

As promised, after my extra-long five year post last September, I’m keeping it short and sweet this year. The celebration includes heading downtown for brunch at a favorite spot, then to the nursery to get a new tree for our backyard (they’re developing the open land behind us…nooooo!). No frills Sunday celebration. Perfect.

I’m a happy wife living a happy life. Cheers to the next six and many more!

For the first time since our honeymoon more than five years ago, Page and I made the commitment to take a “bigger” trip this year. To maximize days off from work, we spread it out over the last few days of 2012 and the first few of 2013. We chose Hawaii because neither of us had been and the climate beckoned to us in the middle of a freezing and snowy Iowa winter (the timing couldn’t be more welcome, we lost power in a blizzard just days before leaving!). A good friend of ours who had been stationed on O’ahu for a couple of years was immensely helpful in helping us know which tourist traps to avoid, where the awesome “secret” beaches were, and gave a us a list of foods and activities to try while we were there. Like any good trip, it went by all too fast, but we still managed to cross many of our to-do items off our list! I could easily load way more pictures and stories into several posts, but I’ll try and keep it as brief (??) as possible….

Here’s a photo overload of our week in paradise:

• Exploring beaches
• Stand-up paddle boarding (Page excelled at this, there are few shots of me actually getting to a standing position!)
• Dinner and drink dates around downtown Waikiki
• NYE fireworks from our hotel “lanai” (Hawaii’s version of “balcony”)
• Hiking to Manoha Falls waterfall
• Checking out the crazy North Shore waves (we had hoped to watch some surfers but the tide was too wild)
• Visiting the Pearl Harbor memorial
• Using the one rainy day to accomplish some shopping!
• Golfing (and riding along) the Arnold Palmer course at the North Shore Resort – while the weather literally went from sunny to dark skies and back to sunny every five minutes!
• Anniversary dinner

mad men marathons
finishing the basement
celebrating 5 years of marriage
{drinking more vino than we care to admit to}

HAPPY NEW YEAR 2013
We wish you all
of the things that bring you

……….    JOY    ……….

This weekend, September 29 to be exact, marks the five-year anniversary of our “I do”s.

It’s hard to believe it’s been half a decade since we were married, and in many (good) ways, it seems so much longer. I started this blog just after our nuptials without any real forethought – it was simply a way to share wedding and honeymoon pictures with family. Fortunately, its existence endured beyond the honeymoon and, in a way, this little blog celebrates its anniversary every time we do.

I originally wrote the posts just for me as a way to archive our life together. Instead, what began as an audience of maybe a dozen or so readers (our parents, best friends, and the occasional lost Googler who landed on the wrong page!), changed drastically and has grown into an audience far beyond what I could have imagined when I started this project. As Smith life has evolved the past five years, so has the content that makes it into the posts. Hopefully the photos are a bit better composed and the writing a little more polished, but mostly I hope the perspective has grown a little, from barely out of college kids to the “late twenties” we are in now. 🙂

I often forget that most of the people who follow this blog now are those I’ve never had the pleasure of meeting in person and while I try to respect that and keep things light here and not too personal, it seems okay to me, today, in the spirit of blog and wedding anniversaries, to share a little more deeply than I normally might. I admit that I, myself, often skip the more life-behind-the-scenes posts of bloggers I follow but don’t know personally. So no offense taken if you want to pass right over this particular post. 🙂

I always post something about our anniversary each year. You can read about our first, second, third, and fourth years via the links. Most years I share a few pictures and brief thoughts, maybe followed up with a later post about how we spent the day or weekend. In past years, I have kept it brief, but I look back on this fifth, most recent, year with particular fondness and joy.

I have more to say this year.

September ’11 to September ’12 brought a lot of changes our way. It was the first year in our marriage that neither of us switched jobs, either by choice or chance. We were both content and in familiar places with steady structure. That alone made it a great year and we count the blessing every day that in an unfortunate time for many careers, we get to go to jobs we enjoy where we are challenged to think and get to see our ideas come to fruition. I look forward to seeing where our professional lives take us in the next five years. We have lots of ideas and plans on which we are ready to lay some groundwork. There’s no instruction manual on how to proceed from here, and we are figuring it out as we go. It’s scary and thrilling and frustrating and exhilarating all at once.

Speaking of laying plans, the most obvious milestone of our fifth year in marriage (and consequently, here on the blog) was the purchasing of our first home. The purchase translated into our first time building a home together, a process that both tested and united us in ways I could never have foreseen. It was amazing to see something come to be out of nothing and witness the mistakes we made along the way, and high five over the decisions we stood our ground on during the process. We work together often in our freelance businesses (even our day jobs have brought us around the same conference table more than once), but this was the first real time we worked together on something as personal as a home. It was an up and down (but mostly up!) experience of which I’m so glad I got to be a part.

When I think about the little bits that make our life so happy right now, I cut to some of the more random, unseen to anyone but us moments, like an enthusiastic late night meeting with a client, sitting around a kitchen table and feeling the palpable excitement of an idea coming to life. I think of peeking out a window as Page rearranges his sprinkler configuration for the millionth time and picture him as an eighty-year-old surveying the grass. I think of stopping whatever was originally on the day’s itinerary to go have a celebratory drink when some news at work (day job or otherwise) deserves a toast. More than anything, I think of Fridays after work, when I can almost count on coming home to a drink being poured for me and the speakers turned up for what always turns into an all-out dance party, just the two of us in the living room. Anyone else might roll their eyes at the ridiculousness. I love that I married the guy who stops only to turn up the volume.

I would be remiss in writing an anniversary post and not talking about the man I married. I am constantly inspired by his, “sure, why not?!” attitude and his huge heart. He is up for anything and always the first to give when giving is needed. I am continually amazed by just how hard he works. There’s no doubt Page lives by the mantra, “work hard, play hard” but most only see the second half of that equation – the half that golfs at every free moment and gets caught by friends driving too fast around town in his favorite toy. I think some of even our closest friends might be surprised to see how a typical day for this dude might involve getting to the office by 6 to work on a freelance project, start his “regular” day at 8, use up his lunch hour to meet with another freelance client, go back to the office to wrap up his day, then head home and address whatever needs to be done there – mowing the lawn, grilling dinner, and often helping out with my latest hair-brained idea for the house. He takes his job(s) as a web designer very seriously, but his job as a husband even more so. Lucky me? Understatement.

As much as I would like to think that marriages work or don’t work based on just “knowing” the person you marry is the right one, I don’t think it’s true. I think you have chemistry, you do a lot of getting to know each other ahead of time, and then you stay present in your marriage, you don’t coast, and hopefully, you have a stroke of luck or two that you don’t grow apart and each stays equally committed – particularly for couples who got married as young as we did. As much as I thought I knew Page inside-out the day we were married at age 23, I feel so much closer to him now, five years later. I have thought more than once, “wow, it’s so LUCKY that we’ve turned out to be so similar”. (Seriously, how scary is that?! Ha!)

Whether it’s been luck, good communication, or maybe a bit of both – it has kept us on similar paths. I love that we see eye-to-eye on when to splurge and when to be frugal. That we are in sync on the topic of a future family. That we are both talkers, drawn to positive, enthusiastic people with big ideas. I love that neither of us is tied to a single thing besides each other and we could move somewhere new in a minute, take on a whole new life, and be just as happy as we are now. Who knows? Maybe it will happen in the next five!

I promise to revert to my “short and sweet” approach for the six-year post. And I’m okay if no one (except for hopefully the guy I married!) even reads this far down in the entry. Life is sweet and years from this one, I want to remember all the reasons why. Happy anniversary to my best buddy and my other half.

Cheers (*clink!)

It’s been four years, but it feels we’ve been married longer (in a good way) and yet when I hear the song to which I walked down the aisle to him, it still stops me in my tracks and I get butterflies.

I think that just about sums it up.

<3