Anxiety

We joked all weekend about Michael's "mantuition" that Baby Franco will be arriving on Wednesday, Dec. 2 because of the full moon. 

It didn't help that I had lots of Braxton-Hicks contractions all weekend because I was doing a lot more walking and moving around than usual. 

When it comes down to it, though, I hope Baby Franco stays "in" for as long as he or she is supposed to, but I really, really hope that D-Day isn't this week! 

Back when I was competitive Dressage Queen, I often struggled with my "mental game" when I was warming up to go into the show ring. Having a sometimes-unpredictable, slightly-paranoid 1,300lb horse thundering around beneath me definitely gave me grounds to think twice about how much I liked being alive, but in general, I struggled with letting my emotions get the better of me. 

My mental game has improved since my Dressage Queen days in high school, especially as I have matured in faith and experience. 

I know that God is constantly pouring out floods of graces to help me be peaceful, calm and strong--especially right now. I absolutely believe that He does that for all of us, all the time. 

The trick for me is threefold: (a) choosing to believe that it's there, (b) humbling my heart to accept it, and (c)  forgiving myself and others in order to use it. 

Thanksgiving culinary home run - an Acceptance Speech

After two home-run dishes at Thanksgiving with the Perrymans today, I need to recognize some key "ingredients":

First, I'd like to thank Aunt Mary and Uncle Rick for giving me their delicious recipe for Spinach Madeleine (and my parents, for making me try this traditional Berryhill family dish every year until I started liking it as a teenager.)

Secondly, I would like to thank Southern Living for printing a fantastic recipe for Chocolate-Praline Cake in their 2001 holiday issue. I am not ashamed to confess that I absolutely picked out the cake from the picture. I am also not ashamed to confess that my cake looked AND tasted every bit as good as the picture below--yum!

I need to thank Trey Perryman for scrubbing all of the dishes I used this morning. He would vehemently deny it, but he is a saint in the making for all of the dishes he did without complaint just today.

I'd also like to thank my husband for slaving over these two dishes with me this morning. Our cooking teamwork this morning was wonderful.

Finally, thank you Baby Franco for enduring all of the squeezing from the numerous Braxton-Hicks contractions I had all day while I cooked. You are such a good sport and a sweet baby already!

The Belles--er, Bellies--of Houston

My friend Betsy and my friend and boss Laura threw me a wonderful baby shower in Houston a couple of weeks ago. In attendance were two good friends of mine who are both pregnant and just a couple of months behind me: Kristin and Betsy. Aren't we cute with our little bellies?

On another note, how is that I always become good friends with people who are at least a head shorter than I am? Maybe it's a subconscious ego or self-confidence thing...

On yet another note...I am LESS THAN ONE MONTH away from having a baby--wow!

Michael is ready for Baby Franco to arrive any day now--quite literally. He says that he has a "Man Intuition" that Baby Franco will arrive on Dec. 2. Today, he looked up the weather and happened to see that Dec. 2 is the date of the next full moon. Full moons are apparently famous for being busy times for baby arrivals. What I'm worried about is that Dec. 2 is NEXT WEEK.

We're not even done taking our hospital classes and reading all of the books I bought...I don't know if I'm ready for this quite yet...

Gorgeous Blogger Award

One of my wonderful college roommates, Emily, surprised me with this “award” the other day, so I thought I would pass it on and recommend six other “gorgeous” bloggers to my little Humble Handmaid following.

The “rules” are as follows: Rules: list six little-known facts about yourself, then recommend six more bloggers that deserve the title.

1. I like the smell of new tires, leather and horse barns.
2. One of my dreams is to spend a month or so traveling all over Europe.
3. I adore Jane Austen movies, and will never, ever tire of seeing “Pride and Prejudice” (either the BBC version or the Keira Knightley version).
4. I lived and modeled in New York after high school and on breaks during my first couple of years of college. I did some work for Tommy Hilfiger and Lancome, as well as some small jeans designers and salons. I met many interesting people and had many interesting experiences that I promise to blog about sometime.
5. I was so painfully shy as a child that I frequently pretended to be sleeping just to get out of having to talk to anybody.
6. One of my goals is to own and ride horses again one day—and to teach my precious brood of little Francos how to ride!
 
* * * * *

My Gorgeous Blogger Recommendations:

I only have four right now--but I'll add more soon! :)

 
Witnessing Hope
First, back to Emily :) Emily writes Witnessing Hope, a blog about her life and adventures as a Catholic lay missionary with the Missioners of Hope in Honduras.
http://witnessinghope.wordpress.com/

Matthew Warner - Fallible Blogma
http://www.fallibleblogma.com/

A Year of Slow Cooking
In 2008, this blogger pledged to cook one crock pot dish every day for the entire year--and she did! This blog has helped me score some real home runs with meals lately, thanks to her yummy crock pot recipes and great sense of humor.
http://crockpot365.blogspot.com/ 

Feminine Genius
Catholic writer Genevieve Kinecke writes this blog, which is a combination of little-heard news from around the world, inspirational posts and social commentary.
http://feminine-genius.typepad.com/

St. Peter, calling all apologists :-)

"...always being ready to make a defense to everyone who asks you to give an account for the hope that is in you, yet with gentleness and reverence." --1 Peter 3:15

Calling all Catholic apologists--yes, that means you

Since moving to Houston, both my faith and my religion have been verbally challenged by others. I can name several specific circumstances this year in which I have been asked to explain and/or defend the Catholic Church's doctrines and teachings on controversial issues.

Homosexuality and same-sex marriage. Divorce and annulments. Natural Family Planning (NFP) and birth control. Celibacy for priests. The Blessed Mother. The saints. Premarital sex. The Catholic liturgy.

Yes, I have been tested on what I believe this year, and I fear that my Catholic Christian GPA is nowhere near impressive.

As Christians, but especially as Catholics, we should always be able to explain and defend both our faith and our religion. I haven't always been able to do that--and I'm sorry to say that I am still not knowledgeable enough to do so well.

It is always unexpected and surprising when you are challenged on your faith, something that is so fundamental to your identity. When we can't explain ourselves or our religion, we look like people who have  never "grown up" by challenging ourselves to assess what we believe. In my experience, many Catholics are known for their "cafeteria-style" faith or apathy. That is so, so sad to me! I don't want to be one of those Catholics anymore. The Catholic Church, and the goodness and truth that God has blessed it with, don't deserve my ignorance and apathy.

There is so much depth to Catholicism. I think that a lot of Catholics get scared or apathetic about diving below the surface of this religion. I have talked to a lot of people who have a "me and God. He likes me. I like him." kind of faith. They are apathetic or dismissive of things like theology or sacraments.

Not that simplicity is bad. In fact, the basic message of Christianity and the basic relationship we have with God is gorgeously simple. But sometimes the line between "keeping things simple" and letting God grow you into the man or woman He created you to be--body, soul and mind--is very fine. And I don't care if you're 16, 48 or 87. If we ever think we don't have more growing and learning to do, we're seriously deluding ourselves.

In my own spiritual journey, going deeper has made all the difference. For example (and I have MANY more where this came from), I wouldn't be waiting to meet one of the biggest blessings of my life in five weeks if Michael and I hadn't had the courage to dig deeper into the Church's deeply loving and respectful teachings on marriage and birth control. (On a side note, for those two particular topics there is so much misinformation and misunderstanding about what the Church really teaches!)

I love having this blog because I love to write about topics like this. Writing makes me challenge myself to let God keep molding me into the woman He created me to be. I hope that, in challenging myself through this blog, you will let me humbly challenge you to let Him mold you into the man or woman He created you to be. He has amazing, awesome plans for each of us, and part of that plan is letting His Church on earth guide and support us lovingly through our lives.

Read through that list of controversial issues I listed above. I promise that you'll be surprised and blessed when you seek God's will and His Church's true teaching on each one. As for  me, I pray sincerely that the next time somebody challenges or asks me about one of them, I will have an educated, loving and respectful answer that makes that person take both me and my beautiful religion more seriously.

* * * *
Houston's Matthew Warner does a fantastic job of breaking down the Church's teaching on controversial issues. Search through his Website, http://www.fallibleblogma.com/, to read his solid and respectful discussions on many tough issues.

5 weeks to go...and some special news

Wow! I am due to have a baby in a little over five weeks!

I had a wonderful baby shower today, thrown my dear friend Betsy and wonderful boss, Laura. I feel so blessed that God has sent me friends like these here in Houston. I haven't lived here full-time for even a year yet, so He's been hard at work helping me make a group of truly amazing friends here. 

I must say that my husband is going to be super-excited about the Chicco travel system (infant carrier, infant car seat, and stroller all-in-one) that his coworkers at NASA got for us. He might be a little disappointed that the room full of female NASA engineers already put it together for us, though. :)

Now for the special news: 

I am so proud and happy to announce that Michael was recently hired by Booz Allen Hamilton to work as a business and technical consultant on NASA's Constellation program. Michael has known for a while that working as a flight controller for the International Space Station was not the job for him, and we are both so excited to have this opportunity to have him still work with the space program, but in a different capacity.

The best part? Among other things, we don't have to move! AND Booz Allen Hamilton gives daddies two paid weeks off when they have a new baby in the family--how incredible is that? :)


Blessings are raining down this holiday season! :) Onward toward Baby Franco's birth day, parenthood, the enriching of my marriage and family vocation, and a future Diaper Diva certification...

"Director of Planned Parenthood Resigns after Watching Abortion Ultrasound"

I wanted to pass this on: http://www.catholic.org/national/national_story.php?id=34748

After having my own ultrasounds, I know what powerful visuals they are.

Baby Franco's debut on YouTube

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B51g0wWJL80

Lockport baby shower

Modeling the Bump at the shower

All of my moms and sisters :)

Mignon, Shell, me, Lucie, Rivers and Shannon

What image of God do you want to give to your children?

Michael and I attended our first baptism class at St. Clare last week.

One of our discussion questions for the evening went straight to my heart: "What image of God do you want to give to your children?"

We are all created for either motherhood or fatherhood. Even if we are not physical mothers or fathers, we can be spiritual mothers and fathers to others. Catholic priests, brothers, sisters, nuns, and consecrated lay persons do not have physical children, but they often have many, many spiritual children.

Even people who are not married or don't have children are called by the nature of Christianity to follow Christ, to grow in faith and relationship with Him, and to help build up the kingdom of God by living a life that is an example and a blessing to others. 

So, I do think this question applies to all of us. What image of God do we want to pass on to others?

Everyone in our class had powerful answers. Someone said that he wants his children to especially know that God is a forgiving God, and that he does not live up in Heaven keeping a list of all of our bad deeds. Another person said that she wants her children to know that God is always there and will never leave us.

I thought I would share my own answer with you.

I want my children to know that going through life "God's way" will make them happier, more successful and more fulfilled than any possible plan they could come up with themselves.

I want them to know that God has great plans for them, "plans for good and not for woe, plans for a future full of hope."

I want them to know that God listens to their prayers, and that they can always trust that He has perfect reasons and perfect timing for everything He does or doesn't do for them, in them, through them and despite them.

I want them to know that God will never give them more than they (and God) can handle, and that God is neither too big nor too small for any of their problems.

I want them to know that giving God their heart first means that they will be able to love others more perfectly and powerfully than they ever could on their own.

You can post comments now!

Note that I was able to change the settings on the blog recently, and now anyone can make comments on my posts. In other words, you don't need to have to have a registered account of any kind. Just click on "anonymous" in the drop-down menu when you go to type a comment. If you want me to know who the comment is from, just type something like, "--Lucy" at the bottom of whatever your comment is.

Fitness models, hot tea, lawyers, ninjas and happy babies

On Wednesday, I had a long and interesting day.

Michael and I had two doctor's appointments in the morning: a checkup with Dr. Taylor and a meet-and-greet appointment with our chosen pediatrician, Dr. Bellah. Both appointments went great. No problems and "the two of us" are still doing very well. Baby Franco is growing very rapidly and so has been somewhat of a pain-in-the-ab-domen lately (pun intended :), but I'm OK.

I have recently stopped looking at the scale. It's just too unbelievable.There is absolutely no way that any normal person can miss that I'm a very pregnant young woman these days.

It was great to meet Dr. Bellah. His office is five minutes from our apartment, and he practices alone with one nurse and one receptionist. There is almost never a wait to see him apparently, and the office is a children's playground, complete with climb-through walls, bright colors, beautiful children's murals, toys and a jungle gym. The exam rooms are stocked with wrinkled, well-used little books with names like Franklin Visits the Doctor.

Both Dr. Bellah and his nurse, Angelle, are extraordinarily friendly, look-you-in-eye people. Michael and I felt comfortable with both of them. We were too shy to verify the following information with Dr. Bellah on this visit, but a yes-I'm-an-OCD new-mom Google search on him brought up the fact that he is a 1st degree black belt and martial arts instructor in Clear Lake. Our pediatrician is a ninja, just like Michael and I's rowdy in-utero little baby. In other words, we both think Dr. Bellah will be able to handle whatever Baby Franco can throw at him.

After the morning of doctor's visits, I headed out with LP to meetings downtown and then to work a client event, a fitness fashion show, at Champps Americana. I haven't been out on meetings with LP in a while, and I normally don't see anyone but my friends, LP, Michael and grocery store clerks during the week. So, I had a little bit of a hard time with how conspicuous I felt all day.

Our meeting with a law firm client was fairly quiet and uneventful, but when we headed out for coffee with a networking contact at the fashionable Uptown Park Starbucks, I got a lot of double takes. I wore a black maternity dress all day that I now realize probably makes me stand out even more, considering my pale white skin, above-average height and enormous belly.

I haven't yet mentioned that my curse of badly burning myself has sneaked back to haunt me again: My piping hot peppermint tea burst all over my hand while I was trying to take off the top at the Starbucks condiment station. I have a big, angry red splotch on my left hand now. Goodness gracious.

Now for the fitness fashion show. We've been helping our client promote the event for a few weeks now, and last night was the big event. Champps Americana is a big sports bar with a delicious-but-will-swiftly-clog-your-heart menu and exceedingly large televisions placed every few feet along the walls. The clientele seemed to be mostly 20s to 40s businessmen and guys-night-out groups.

I would know because I got sent around to ask for business cards and names to put in the jar for event door prizes.

Oh yes. They sent ME. This young, very pregnant girl had to walk around the restaurant for 30min and walk up to large tables of men and ask for business cards or names for the door prize drawings. Of course, very few of the plentiful tables of men at Champps knew there was even a fashion show about to happen. SURE THEY DIDN'T.

Anyway, anyone who knows me can probably guess how much I LOVED that particular little task last night, but I hope they also can guess that I made the best of it. The good news is that I quickly learned to pull out my sense of humor. Once I started making fun of my obviously-pregnant belly and having good comebacks for the "why did they send you out to do this" comments that I got from nearly every table, I got many more people to agree to put in their names or cards.

I haven't mentioned the models for the event. There were ex-pro football cheerleaders, top triathlete competitors, and some swimsuit models. The funny thing is that I was taller, much taller, than every single one of them. Most of the girls looked like they were between 18 and 21, and they were all 5'6" or shorter from what I could tell. No runway models among them for sure. Most of them were promotional models for beer and alcohol companies and fitness magazines. They were all very nice, but just didn't fit the "tall" requirement that I often think of from my brief New York modeling experiences. Apparently, all of them do well with modeling gigs around Houston and Dallas though.

I liked the guys a lot. The four male models were much older and more "seasoned" than the girls. All were very nice and gentlemanly, and I liked them a lot. In fact, most of the guys working and behind-the-scenes on this event were absolute gentlemen.

The fashion show wasn't all that bad. It was just tiring and challenged my vanity a little.

Oh, I forgot to mention my annoying photographer friend. I am changing his name on my blog in case he does regular Good searches on himself, which I am sure he does. I will try to preserve the uniqueness of his chosen name, however.

His name is Belgium Patriot. He is a Clear Lake-based event photographer of Asian descent . He has a long black ponytail all the way to his waist, and wears an ill-fitted black suit and an art car t-shirt wherever he goes. He talks 100 miles a minute, sometimes spits when he talks, and has no conversations less than 25min. He is "friends" with everybody--especially if they are female and very good looking. He also has little sense of personal space and will share his personal history with just about anyone.

He has shown up at several events I have worked for Pennino and Partners and for my Houston internship at bareCommunication. I don't think he is ever invited to these events--he just finds them on the Internet and shows up. Another problem is that he is actually a decent event photographer.

Anyway, Laura and I were sitting down to order some food after the show when Belgium came up to Laura and me to take a picture of us. He actually sat down with us at the booth, right next to me, and proceeded to sit with us for 40min while talking nonstop to me about 100 different things and progressively "spreading out" with his gear and posture in his seat so that I was crushed against the wall of the booth, trying not to touch him and trying not to let my face get too close to his spit-spurting mouth.

I feel really and truly like an ugly person to dislike this poor guy, but I did pray for him a lot while he was talking to me. Somebody who doesn't know they are that obnoxious and annoying needs prayers. God loves Belgium Patriot just as much as He loves me. Besides, I couldn't understand three quarters of what he was saying because of the noise in the room and how fast he was talking.

Wow! This is quite a long post, but again yesterday was a long day. At least LP told me to sleep in and work from home today, so I got to rest and work on my blog this morning.

"Baby University" Class #1

On Tuesday night, Michael and I attended the first of our "Baby University" classes at Clear Lake Hospital. The class is a 6-week, all-in-one overview of labor and delivery, prenatal care, breastfeeding, infant care and hospital procedures.

I think it will be a good class, even if it's necessarily a little X-rated!

Michael and I wanted to get to the first class 15 minutes early, per our thorough reading of the instructions handout they mailed us. We had the room number and floor memorized, and dutifully brought our two pillow for Lamaze class.

Too bad neither of us read in what building the classes were being held.

Instead of being 15 minutes early, we were about 10 minutes LATE, and had to walk shamefaced into a room full of happy couples who had the pleasure of deciding whether they were smarter or just more punctual than we were.

The only seats left were at the front and center of the room, right in front of the huge video screen. You can start laughing now, because we got the best view in the house of our first X-rated labor and delivery video.

I thought Michael was going to faint when he realized what we were about to have to watch. Poor guy. He does not do well with blood, the explaining of medical procedures, and seeing females in pain.

I am very happy to report, however, that Mr. Franco did not faint and did great during the video. I saw him squirm once or twice, but he was very brave and took it like a man. I'm very proud of him!

It may have helped that we have an understanding that he is not required to stand or view anywhere below the equator during the delivery of Baby Franco if he doesn't want to.

Great iced sugar cookie recipe

I had an end-of-pregnancy energy burst on Tuesday night, and decided around 7 p.m. to start making decorated sugar cookies from scratch. I found a recipe online with good reviews and went to work. These came out great, complete with pink frosting. They delighted our friend Annie, who was visiting us for the evening from the Woodlands.

Yet again, however, my husband wouldn't really touch these for some reason, so I pretty much have eaten half of the batch or more by myself. Unfortunately for my poor, expanding body, I am starting to also get into that end-of-pregnancy stage where I don't care..

Sugar Cookies

* * * * * *

A simple sugar cookie recipe with a tender, flaky texture and a buttery taste. Makes about 24. Yum!

1 cup butter, softened
1 cup granulated sugar
1 large egg
1-1/2 teaspoons vanilla
3 cups all-purpose flour
1-1/4 teaspoons baking powder

<>Beat together butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add egg and vanilla, mix until just combined. Add flour and baking powder in intervals. Dough will seem as if doesn't have enough moisture but continue to mix with mixer until combined (it will come together when chilled).

Divide the dough into four equal parts, shape into four disks, wrap with plastic wrap and refrigerate about an hour or until firm. Preheat oven to 375 F.

Lightly grease baking sheets or line with parchment paper or a non-stick baking mat. Roll out dough between 2 sheets of waxed paper, about 1/4 inch thick for crispier cookies and 1/3 inch thick for softer cookies. Cut out shapes with cookie cutters and place on prepared baking sheets.

Bake for 7-8 minutes or until edges just start to turn a golden color. For softer cookies, do not allow the cookies to take on color. Remove from oven, let cool for one minute and then transfer to wire rack. Allow cookie sheet to cool thoroughly before placing uncooked dough on it. Decorate cookies when cool with icing recipe below. Delicious!

Can be stored in freezer undecorated for 2 months. Dough also freezes well.

Powdered Sugar Buttercream Icing

* * * * * *

1 cup of powdered sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 teaspoon melted butter
milk
food coloring (optional)

In a bowl, combine the powdered sugar, vanilla, and melted butter. Stir well. Then add milk 1 teaspoon at a time until the frosting is of desired consistency to frost cookies. If you make it too thin, you can add one tablespoon of powdered sugar at a time. Add several drops of desired food coloring and stir well.

Our Halloween costumes

For Halloween, Michael and I decided to be "Jon and Kate Plus Eight," of TLC fame. Of course, our costume was based on the pre-publicly-unraveling-marriage version of the couple and their eight children (God bless and help them!).

Michael spiked his hair, wore his sleek, square-toed special occasion shoes, and wore our Maya wrap with two Cabbage Patch dolls from Goodwill peeking out. I wore a big white teeshirt with six little pairs of footprints on the front (Pio Coles kindly lent his feet for the project). I also donned a pair of 3 inch heels and pinned my hair to mimic Kate's short, spiky style.
 
In general, we had a comfortable and clever costume, but nothing groundbreaking, especially for my costume-loving husband.Michael swears he is going to be an astronaut next year.

 

Parenting Practice

My husband and I spent all day Saturday babysitting two REAL babies: precious John-Matthew and Pio Coles (2 years and 4 1/2 months).

We knew we needed the practice.We didn't know how much we needed the practice!

I wish I could have had a video camera on us to capture every hilarious episode of the day. From gagging while changing nuclear waste-filled diapers to arguing in passionate whispers over whether a crying Pio needed a diaper change or a walk in the Maya wrap (it was a diaper change), we had a day full of funny--and first--experiences.

Michael in our Maya wrap with Pio:

I think that one of the biggest lessons I learned from the day was the power of being calm.

Lucy Coles  seems unfailingly calm with her family. Her voice is always low, sweet and unbelievably patient. I tried to model my voice and actions after Lucy's calm example, and I was amazed at the results. The day was much calmer and quieter than I thought it would be. I never lost my cool even though I had literally never been responsible for feeding and burping and entertaining an infant before.

Well, I almost lost my cool during the gag-inducing diaper change episode I mentioned above. If I hadn't been laughing so hard and hollering for my suddenly-busy, laughing husband to help me, I would have succombed to the fumes for sure.

Michael and I are so thankful to have had this experience. Taking care of an infant and 2-year-old wasn't quite as overwhelming as I thought it might be.

I think that Michael and I are about as ready for Baby Franco as we'll ever be. I think we are kind of like two people about to jump off a cliff together. We've read the right books and are taking the right classes on the techniques and theories of swimming, and we've even gotten to swim in a real pool a few times.

In the end, however, our confidence mostly comes from lots of prayer. That and the knowledge that between the two of us, we should be able to keep at least one of our heads above water most of the time.