One Year in the Rear View | Pt.3

This post right now is the definition of ‘in the eye of her storm.’ Ellie has fallen asleep (for now) and I am seizing the opportunity to enjoy some dessert and blog writing!

I’m picking back up with the series of posts I was working on earlier about our first year  marriage. Obviously, I’m not going to talk about every single priceless moment but I am trying to hit the HUGE, life-altering moments. Last post was the wedding. This post is the day we found out about our little bun in the oven! 

September 14, 2013. I’m pretty sure I took a test the day before too but this is when we knew it was official! We were so excited! More excited than nervous but that is because we thought we were pregnant the month before. It’s amazing how being scared to death in August changed how I took the news just a month later. I had a feeling I was pregnant but I’m not sure why. I took the first test. It was very light but I ran to the bedroom and woke joey up by waving the test in his face and asking repeatedly, “What does this look like to you? One line or two? Joey, what does this look like to you?” It was the fastest I have ever been able to wake him up! We were both super excited and could not wait to tell people. But then the questions started in my mind… Is my makeup safe to use? Is it ok for someone to use nail polish remover in the same room as me? Are there other things besides raw meat I shouldn’t eat? I felt totally confused and unsure of what to do. I wanted to ask someone but we had decided not to tell anyone yet. We waited just in case all 200 pregnancy tests I took were all false positives. Ok. I didn’t really take 200 but I did take a lot of them. And I kept taking them “just to be sure”. I tried nonchalantly asking my mom my questions but that didn’t work. She guessed. I’m not surprised though. I’m a terrible lair to start with and on top of that I was so excited I thought I would bust! After she knew Joey and I decided to invite everyone to my parents’ house for dessert to share the news.

Mom took care of desserts. Joey and I bought cards to give everyone for the announcement. The funny thing about this whole dessert business is everyone (with the exception of my little sister and out of town relatives) guessed what was going on. There were giveaways though. I can admit that. My mom made what seemed like ten different desserts. Joey called everyone to invite them and was very persistent that they ALL had to come. I couldn’t stop smiling and was blushing as red as a fire truck! When anyone would ask me what was going on, I just smiled. I didn’t even have a good answer ready. But it was still fun! We all got our desserts and then passed out the cards. Everyone opened them at the same time and the baby confetti that I stuffed the cards with flew all over the floor. Everyone was super excited! 

The best reaction was my sister. She just stared at the card then asked me if it was a joke. She was so far beyond shocked. I told her she was going to be an aunt and she just stared. She almost started crying but later told me if there hadn’t been so many boys in the room (Joey’s brothers) she would have. For the rest of the night she just kept staring at me in unbelief. When we told everyone we were less than eight weeks along and decided not to find out the gender or tell our name choices. Baby Thomas was only the size of an orange seed. Thus the nickname was born. Kenzi called our little one Orange Seed for the rest of the pregnancy.

We did an ultrasound at the New Hope Center at eight weeks. I started off going to them for my prenatal care but later we decided to find a midwife and do a homebirth. The first ultrasound was amazing! Our baby was bouncing all around and looked like a little gummy bear! Baby Thomas was super active and remained that way for the duration of the pregnancy. (<-- My ribs would support this statement.) That moment was one of my favorites of all time. I loved seeing the look on Joey’s face as he realized for the first time that we really were pregnant and that there was a tiny person growing in my tummy! That is a moment I will cherish forever! We left from the ultrasound in complete and total baby bliss. Coincidentally, we went and bought the movie “Back-up Plan”. I really wanted to see it again now that I was expecting and we couldn’t find our copy.

My first trimester was uneventful as far as morning sickness goes. Actually it was uneventful as far as anything goes. No home-cooked meals. No grocery shopping. No laundry. No cleaning. I literally woke up twenty minutes before work, sped out the door, drove very cautiously, and got to work just in time. Then after work I would get home, maybe take a shower (if Joey was lucky), fall into bed and be out in two seconds. In the beginning, I couldn’t get enough orange juice, pickles (I know, cliché), avocados, peanut M&Ms, Ramen, frozen lemonade, and wedge salad. That was about all I ate for a few weeks. And all Joey ate too because I never bought anything else at the store. I was just too tired to think of what else might sound good to him.

The second trimester I got a cold and it all went downhill from there. I didn’t really enjoy much food at this point. I know that I really craved pizza. All the time! You can ask Joey, I almost asked him to drive out in a terrible snow storm just to get a pizza! It was bad. But I didn’t. I realized it was not worth it and he stayed home with me. His job had told him not to come in that day. So you know the roads were bad. I went to see a doctor at the beginning of my second trimester because my cold turned into a sinus infection or something like that. The doctor gave me an antibiotic and I then got a yeast infection. It was a terrible cycle, and it didn’t really right itself until my third trimester. The timing was impeccable because then a different area of my life spun out of control. A date opened for Joey to go to Basic Training. From that point on, things were not anything like what we would have expected…

Trimester 3

Trimester 2

Texas de Brazil

As I mentioned earlier, my husband and I celebrated our anniversary this month. It was our first and no we didn’t eat any of our wedding cake fresh from a year in the freezer. There are multiple reasons for that. The first is because the top tier was a little bit, well, lost. I know. I know. Cake doesn’t just walk away, but my wedding cake did. That brings me to the second reason we didn’t re-enjoy our cake. Even though the top layer grew its own legs, the rest didn’t. There was a ton of cake left! When I say a ton, I mean the whole kitchen table was covered. Way too much for our families to eat. So we have a freezer full of cake. It’s just 1200 miles away. I decided it was not worth the drive to Kentucky to retrieve the leftover cake and so now you know why we didn’t eat freezer burned wedding cake on our first anniversary. We did however celebrate with a much more delicious dinner!

This post is named after the restaurant itself because it was just that amazing! Seriously! Let me just tell you about the world’s best dining experience that can only be beat by Momma or Grandma’s home cooking! Texas de Brazil is “an authentic Brazilian-American ‘Churrascaria’, or steakhouse, that combines the cuisines of Southern Brazil with the generous spirit of Texas.” What that means is they have a salad bar with over  fifty seasonal items that contains meats, cheeses, olives, vegetables and so much more. If you only want the salad bar you can dine that way, but the real experience is in the main course. When you sit down to your table there is a card that is green on one side and red on the other. This is how you let the servers know you would like to enjoy more of their delicious cuts of meat. The red side stops the servers and green means, “More meats please!” In the salad bar area, there are also side items to accompany your dinner such as rice, mushrooms, au gratin potatoes, and soup. As though you don’t already have enough options, your server provides you with garlic mashed potatoes, fried bananas, and traditional Brazilian cheese bread on the table. Yes, this is for real! 

At the San Antonio location, there is also a huge wine cellar where you can watch a server on a harness find your wine selection. If you haven’t had enough to eat by the time you’re done with dinner, they also have very attractive dessert options.

After giving you an idea of how a Brazilian steakhouse works, I’ll tell you about our experience. It all started with making a reservation with Open Table. It was a super easy process. I had never used Open Table before, but being a Saturday in downtown, I wanted to make sure we wouldn’t be late for Joey’s curfew. I knew from my research that they had valet parking and since we are unfamiliar with the area, and would most likely have to pay close to the same amount for parking anyway, we went for it. I’m so glad we did! You literally drive up to the front door on a main road downtown and there is not even a pullover area. You jump out, the valets jump in. The atmosphere in the restaurant was cozy, warm and inviting. We were seated right away, and our server explained the whole process to us. He was really thorough and very friendly.

Joey and I both took trips to the salad bar where we tried all sorts of appetizers. My favorite was the thinly sliced pineapple with basil. It seemed like a strange combination but worked really well! When we had finished starters, Chris (our server) offered us clean plates and brought the mashed potatoes and bananas to us. Now I’m not sure why they serve mashed potatoes, other than that they’re delish and probably keep guests from eating all meat, but the bananas have an interesting job. Apparently, fried bananas are a palate cleanser that allows you to taste the difference in the cuts of meat. Then the real fun began.  Joey switched his card to green and immediately we were approached by several different servers offering us bacon wrapped chicken, filet mignon, strip steak, lamb chops, pork ribs, and the house special, Brazilian picanha. These meat servers are apparently called Gauchos and they carry the more than 15 meat selections around on sword-like spears. But warn the others at the table when you flip your card because you are about to get bombarded! Everything was amazing! My favorite cut was the picanha. It was a top cut of sirloin. Joey’s favorite was the filet mignon. The service was so impressive. Every last detail was attended to. The manager introduced himself to us. My water glass never reached half full. Whenever we got up from the table, someone came by and re-folded our napkins. They remembered how we both preferred our meats cooked. We were never rushed. Chris even took our picture for us! We were too full to try dessert, but I’m sure it would have been just as amazing as everything else!

My advice? Try it!! It is the perfect dining experience for a very special occasion. I don’t think you’ll regret it. If you do decide to go…you have to try the cheesy bread, pineapple with basil, and picanha. You will not be disappointed! Joey kept on saying how much he loved the restaurant. I’m pretty sure he would have lived there if he could! The atmosphere was perfect for an anniversary or even just for a night out with friends. I’m glad we went early (around 6) because when we left there were tons of people waiting for tables. Who knows, maybe we’ll go for our anniversary again next year too!

Even Ellie enjoyed dinner!