That's right, we're PREGNANT! :)

Talk about a few major jumps in the action, eh? Two blog postings ago I had just met my now-husband, Chris. My last blog posting I was married to Chris and had passed the CPA exam.

I'm now a fully-licensed CPA and almost 15 weeks pregnant! Oh my goodness, when did all this HAPPEN? It feels like Chris and I just met, but here we are about 2 1/2 years later: happily married, with two dogs and a bun in the oven. We are really, truly blessed.

This seems like as good a place as any to lay my pregnancy goals right out there for the world to see. Since skiing the full Birkie next year is out (actually, ALL ski racing is out, as I'm due March 18), my goals have been revamped accordingly. My goal is to shuffle around on my trustworthy nordic skis this winter and stay on trails I know very well, possibly taking the doggies out skijoring a few times so they don't feel left out. I would like to keep my weight gain down to 25 lbs, which is on the low end of normal range according to a chart I am watching carefully.

So far I'm up about 4-5 lbs from pre-pregnancy weight and doing about as much exercise as I can get away with. Jogging is sorely limited, as it seems to bring on a pain in my groin muscles that is not unlike the feeling of shin splints (except in a different area, obviously). It feel likes the muscles are being pulled aways from my pelvic bones- not pleasant! So I'm doing pretty limited jogging, but trying to take the dogs for lots of walks and doing as much ski walking as I can fit into the schedule.

So far I've been fairly free of weird cravings. It seems like my appetite is sticking to normal foods, like apples from our home apple tree and currently, turkey and stuffing. The latter craving has not yet been fulfilled, so I think I may end up cooking a turkey this weekend. Go figure, when my one consistent food aversion for the last few months has been chicken breasts. I still have no desire to even look at a chicken breast, but turkey sounds lovely. *shrug* What can you do?

Chris has been ultra-supportive, and is SO excited to be a father in a few months! We have not yet found out what sex the baby will be, but Chris is hoping for a boy. That will be answered in about a month, hopefully!

Learning to Let Go

Talk about a blast from the past! After a 2 year hiatus from posting, I thought I'd check out my old blog posts and see what it was that I was so excited to write about back then.

The very end of my last post completely floored me. As follows:

"So let me make a toast.... To the end of squandered opportunities, to the end of bad choices, and to the beginning of recognizing a good thing when you find it."

I cannot say how completely appropos that final paragraph was. It fell about 5 days after my very first date with Chris, and two days after skiing my first half-marathon distance ski race.

Then came the big gap in postings. Why? Because as it turns out, it's difficult to find the inspiration to blog when you don't have any drama in your life. That may not be true of everyone, but it was certainly true for me. There is a part of me that wants to take the happy things in her life and keep them private- nurture them and hide them from the world, lest they fly away and disappear.

What were my life concerns two years ago? I wanted to find someone to be my true partner in life, to help me find my "true north" and (much more mundane) to pass the CPA exam.

Now I find myself happily married, considering a family, and most recently a CPA licensing candidate after having FINALLY passed that bugger of an exam.

In my past life, my inability to let go of things was the bane of my existence. I would obsess over failed relationships, bad decisions, not knowing what I wanted for dinner, you name it.

As a happy person who has recently achieved some of her major life goals, I am now finding myself obsessing over my most recently accomplished goal, which was to pass the CPA exam.

After over 18 months of studying and agonizing, I finally killed the exam with what turned out to be relatively few hiccups. However now that I'm not obsessively stressing myself about study and work, I find myself searching for ways to hold onto that aggravating exam. For example, I recently took on project to help a CPA website administrator put together a set of study flashcards to offer on his website. That's right, I voluntarily spent another month effectively studying the darn CPA exam AFTER receiving my passing grades. Even I am wondering about my sanity on that one.

My dear husband just shakes his head at me and then goes off to read a good book, which is what I too would be doing if I was halfway sane.

E.