Good Advice...

Last weekend, my best friend Marianne, who has known me since middle school, gave me some good advice. Sometimes advice from her is hard to swallow; it is typically served straight to the point with a side of blunt, but that's one of the things I love about her-- I always get an honest and loving opinion from her, and I know she's always thinking of what's best for me. I almost always hate the advice when I first hear it because it's never what I want to hear. But after a few days, I usually realize she's on the right track (thus the reason it's taken me a few days to come to this realization :) ).

During our long drive to and from Long Island, we had lots of time to catch up and after mentioning my desire to get pregnant (for probably the 40th time in the past month or two), she told me I should just enjoy how good my life is right now, to live in the moment rather than planning and envisioning how good my life might be in the future if everything goes exactly as I plan it. She mentioned that I was setting myself up for disappointment, especially with my plans that I must be pregnant by a certain month in order for life to go well. I never thought of this, but as Marianne told me, I'm an overachiever and I expect getting pregnant to be easy or something I can "get an A on" if I work really hard. And she's totally right.

I hate to admit this, but I secretly turn everything with friends into a competition , including getting pregnant (my Aries nature, I suppose). No one knows they're in a contest with me, of course, but the race is to see who gets pregnant first. And when they get pregnant first, I feel like they win, and I lose. This is the first time I've ever made a confession of my silly race to the preggo finish line (and yay to all my friends out there who are pregnant. You won 1st place!)

So, yeah Mare, you were totally right. I'm going to make a real effort to enjoy my life just as it is right now. Not how I wish it would be or expect it to be in 2 or 3 or 9 months. Because as Mare said, once things change (especially in regards to having more children), they really change. So here's a list (I guess I'm really into lists lately) of what I'm really going to enjoy about my life right now.

I will enjoy:

1. Sleeping throughout the night without interruption... mostly.

2. Copious amounts of goat cheese, brie, and raw cheeses (click here for my favorite goat cheese. It's insanely good.). I can't get enough of them.

3. Running however I want without regards to overdoing it or pushing myself beyond my comfort level which I know might not be possible some day in the future

4. 1/2 Marathon training, mostly long runs on crisp, cool days.

5. Did I mention sleeping throughout the night?

6. My hot momma boots (as I like to call them) that I can start wearing once it's cooler again. If my legs were all swollen with water weight I wouldn't be able to wear them.

7. The idea of losing 5-10 more lbs. during training instead of gaining 20 (or 30... or 40). Realize I said idea.

8. Baking with Dill Pickle without worrying about time. Today we made oatmeal raisin cookies and he ate dry oatmeal and said, "Wow, Mommy! It's delicious! Good job"! After two handfuls he asked for more. Too funny!

9.Getting a babysitter. As my friend Ursula with three kids has said, people are a lot less willing to babysit for you the more kids you have.

10. Running in the dark. I'm much faster in the dark because of two great fears: getting kidnapped off the side of the road by a man/men in a beat-up white van with no windows and spiders hanging from trees... I run faster so they don't bother me. (I know, I know... I shouldn't be running alone at night, but I'm really careful-- and like I said, fast (at night, at least).

11. Having some alone time with my hubby after Dill falls asleep, even if it's the ten minutes before we both pass out from exhaustion.

12.. Belgian beers. Enough said there.

13. Wine and mimosas. Ditto.

14. My sweet hubby giving me a "Mother's Day" (I sit on the couch or lay in bed and he serves me my favorite meal--REAL French toast with REAL maple syrup, eggs, bacon and the best part, mimosas garnished with strawberries. The mimosas continue throughout the day) this Sunday just so I don't hate Monday and the first day of having to go back to work so much.

15. I think the previous reason counts for two.

I'd say those are some good reasons to be happy with my current status. :)

Happy Thursday, everyone.