Self Portrait Tuesday

We're home safe and sound...and my fall adventure begins with Self Portrait Tuesday. Yes, I have decided to participate after becoming intrigued with the whole thing while reading some of my friends' blogs. I admit it was tough deciding just what to post on this big day, especially since I dont have any recent photos of myself ALONE. It seems every photo we have of me around here is with Luxie or Nate. I look forward to seeing what I come up with in the next few weeks!

This particular shot was taken in June of 2002. Nate and I decided at the last minute to use my one week of summer vacation from work to go on a cruise. We are somewhere along the Mexican coast in a newly developed port that I cant remember the name of. What made this cruise so special? unique? was that we had just found out we were pregnant with our first child.

That day at work (a Friday) I started feeling kinda woozy off and on, but thought it was just jitters about the trip. We were leaving around 6pm that evening to drive 10 hours to Cape Canaveral to board our cruise the next morning. I assumed I was anxious and nervous--after all, it had been a last minute decision and pretty expensive! By the time I got home from work I had some suspicions about just what kind of illness was coming on. I talked Nate into getting a pregnancy test before leaving town, and he agreed, assuming it would be negative like it had been so many times before. But it wasnt! The line was just faint enough to detect and both of us were in shock. Needless to say the 10 hr drive was not quite as happy-go-lucky as we had imagined it would be. Nate still didnt want to believe the test, and upon boarding the cruise ship I submitted to two more pregnancy tests--both positive.

The week was wonderful, despite our minds racing over what the next 9 months would hold. I guess I see this photo as the "girl" me, before I really became a woman. I seem so carefree, so rested, so young...even though it was just 3 years ago. I feel so much older now, and wiser. But I've always loved what this picture represents. The last days of just me and Nate.