Hi guys, I thought I would take this opportunity to share a little more about me. I know I have some posts that talk about my journey as a mom and of course my IVF journey, however, I thought it would be a good time to let you get to know me a little more (as my kids' are entertaining themselves at the moment and I have some time!)
I thought about what to write here and I think the most fun would be to try and share things that maybe most of you don't know about me, so here goes.
1. I was born in Louisville, KY. My parents moved there before they had me since my dad worked for GE and well there we were. I only lived there for the first year of my life and have never gone back. I do hope to visit one day!
2. We then moved to Mexico City (where my dad is from) and lived there until I was 11. A lot of people asked me if I liked it, but I mean its all I knew so I'm sure I liked it at the time. My dad's family is all still living there so we visit roughly once a year.
3. I have two younger brothers. Both were born in Mexico City. The middle brother, Jeffrey, is an MD and also practices Chinese medicine in the Berkeley area and the youngest, Jordan, just finished his PHD at Stanford. He just got married and the other will be getting married in June.
4. My parents met at the University of Texas. My mom is actually from Tulsa, OK so this was definitely the most interesting match. Both of my parents are Jewish which I realize now is also odd, a jew from Tulsa and one from Mexico, but you would be surprised as to how many of us there are!
5. I danced ballet from about 3 or 4 years old until I was in 8th grade and gave that up to join the cheer team in my high school. I loved cheer, but I definitely wish I would have stuck with ballet somehow as well. I love dancing and still go to a weekly adult hip hop class at my kids' dance studio (when I can).
6. I went to UCSB my first two years of college and then transferred to UCLA for the second two. I interned for TIME magazine while in LA and I also played lacrosse for UCSB and UCLA (don't get too excited we weren't division 1 yet) but it was fun.
7. I met Nick the summer of 2006, when I graduated college, in front of a bar in Pacific Beach (San Diego). I like to emphasize IN FRONT because we were not yet intoxicated. I actually turned to my friend and told her that was the man I was going to marry.
8. Nick and I lived together for about a year before we were engaged. He actually converted to Judaism (I never asked him to fyi). We were married on September 6th, 2009 here in San Diego and then took three weeks and traveled all through Europe (well Spain, South of France and Italy). We were living downtown in a high rise condo BUT then we found out we were expecting twins from our IUI. Definitely no space for that.
9. I owned a mobile gymnastics company for preschools for 8 years. It was called Fun Nastics. We were an enrichment program that taught tumbling classes to preschoolers on the preschool campuses. I had about 8 teachers who wo multiple preschools a week ( a day too) and teach our class. I ended up selling it when the twins turned 4 because it was a lot to manage and I felt like I was missing so much time with them. Luckily I was able to manage it from home but it took up a lot of time and stress!
10. We did our first IUI October 2010 and were lucky enough to have our beautiful twin girls from that first try. I never got sick that pregnancy and made it to 37.5 weeks because I walked into the hospital and said I was done. They induced me and I delivered the girls vaginally the next morning at 8am and 8:30am (yes took that long to push the second one out after the first).
11. I've been speaking to the girls in Spanish since they were born and sent them to a multilingual preschool where they only spoke Spanish and French and some days Mandarin. It was amazing! We actually took the girls to Paris for their 5th birthday and they were able to translate everything for us! Sadly, I'm sure they've forgotten the French, however they attend a dual immersion elementary school where 80% of their curriculum is all taught in Spanish. And its a public school which is also a win!
12. I trained to teach yoga sculpt (yoga with weights and cardio) March 2018 and then trained for my 200 hour yoga certificate that summer (during my much needed IVF break). I started teaching yoga that August, had my 3rd FET work but then had a miscarriage 8 weeks later. I stopped teaching because that was so hard to process and haven't gone back since. I hope to go back one day and I know it will always be there for me.
13. If I could move to NYC tomorrow I would. We travel there often simply because I love it. I don't know how to explain it, it just feels like home to me and I have never felt that way about any city. I know one day we will be there, luckily my husband and kids are on board too!
14. I am a show tunes freak! I love any and every musical and basically only listen to show tunes in my car. So much so that my kids love them as well, but they also know all of the top 40 songs that I have never heard before. Being on a broadway stage is on the top of my bucket list. Im not the best singer or dancer but I know I would give it my all, I love performing!
15. I am a horrible driver. I hate driving actually. To be fair I drive A LOT. And I've never gotten in an accident while driving, all of my accidents and tickets have happened in a parking lot, leaving my house, in my garage, aside from the occasional speeding tickets. If I had all the $ in the world I would get a chauffeur first and foremost.
16. Im a sucker for romantic comedies and my favorite tv shows of all time are Friends, Will & Grace, The Office and Grey's Anatomy. It's not to say I'm not addicted to the other reality stuff thats on but it just doesn't compare.
17. Im allergic to garlic and onion (and well a few other things) because I have something called SIBO (which I did go more in depth about on a previous blog post if you're interested). Makes going out kind of hard but we find our restaurants and stick to them. I've actually found that most people are actually very kind and helpful.
18. When I was pregnant with the twins all I wanted were potato wedges from Pat and Oscars and their greek salad and breadsticks. I think the restaurant is now called O's. I would actually drive myself there three times a week. One time my car broke down while I was at yoga and I was planning on going to get food after. My father in law came to the rescue since nick was out of town and told me to go straight home. Well, I actually drove to Pat and Oscars, called in my order and asked if they could bring it to my car since I couldn't turn off my car, they did. Winning!
19. I like to stay active. When I'm not mid IVF cycles I usually alternate between Soul Cycle, hot yoga and pilates. When I need to take it easier I typically still do pilates (doctor approved) walk a lot and occasionally do yoga or spin but not often. There are a lot of opinions in this realm so I try to listen to my gut and not over do it. But I do believe that if you're not starting a brand new intense exercise, then its ok to continue what you've been doing. I actually took spin class (not soul cycle though) with the twins until I was 7.5 months!
20. I gave up caffeine almost three years ago. I was never a huge coffee person. I think I did it more as a social thing, but ever since starting IVF I decided to give it up. I have decaf and decaf teas but I guess other than chocolate I don't have any caffeine.
21. I didn't share about my IVF journey until 2 years in when I felt like I needed an outlet. I had really only told a handful of people and felt very isolated and alone. Opening up has been the best thing I could have done for myself! I actually sat and wrote about 20 blog entries before even starting an Instagram account because I had so much to talk about (as you all know if you follow me LOL).
I could go on but I think that's good for now! I hope that wasn't too boring LOL and hopefully gave you a little more insight on who I am and where I'm from. Sometimes I feel like I know you all so well and other times I realize I don't even know your last name! I suppose thats normal for social media but I always like to learn more about people so there it is.