Pros and Cons of Homeownership

We'll start with cons, because there aren't many.

Con:

• We had to buy a new fridge. That wasn't the bummer. The bummer is after it was installed, it did not get cold. Thursday after we moved was the earliest a technician could come look at it. Turns out it had no frion. Whoever let a fridge be sold without frion is a nincompoop. The good news is we have a loaner fridge while we wait for the new fridge to come (it has to be special ordered). While we waited for servicing we scraped by with a mini-fridge so it's nice to have a full size and be able to buy some fresh food again.

Um... yeah. That's it for cons. (Yes, other things may go wrong later, home ownership, blah blah blah. Don't rain on my home honeymoon.)

PROS! In no particular order:

• Attached Garage! My car is a dark blue so in the summer it reaches about 1000 degrees sitting in the sun. I love parking in a garage again! Also, I don't have to carry in/out EVERYTHING at the same time up/down 4 flights of stairs while carrying a toddler.  Shuttling stuff to/from the garage is now a delight.
• Baby has her own room! As a result, she is sleeping much better and we can spend our evenings after her bedtime in the living room, our bedroom, or both! I always heard a move can disrupt sleep for kids for a while. I'm so grateful that we've had the opposite experience. She goes down for bed an naps without a fuss and one nap a day lasts one hour. ONE HOUR. Guys! Look, I'm blogging again!
• Flowers! Our yard has beautiful and simple landscaping. All the plants are still relatively young, but I have roses and lilies that started blooming the week we moved and they are gorgeous!
• Linoleum! Namely, in the entry and dining area. It's not as ritzy as tile or wood, but it ain't beige carpet and that's what matters. 
• Shed! We have a cute, sturdy shed only a couple years old. Perfect place to keep the recreational equipment we've been keeping in our living room/cars for years.
• Kitchen Island! When we were house shopping, one of my requirements was at least one span of unadulterated counter space. I was so tired of rolling out dough and running into a wall. Now I have at least 30 square feet of unbounded counter top.
• Raised garden beds! Never though I'd be excited about that. I'm not much of a gardener, but I spent all morning pulling weeds from the flower beds and didn't hate life so that bodes well for the vegetable garden.
• Private laundry room! Past are the days of paying per load. Our situation at the apartment wasn't terrible; there was a laundry room on each floor of the building and I could do multiple loads at a time. But since I had to pay the same amount per load I always waited till I had a full load before washing anything. Now I have options galore! 
• Basement! We have a full unfinished basement. Finally space for food storage, camping equipment, and other random stuff that doesn't belong in our living space.
• Linen closet! I don't have to store all the extra sheets and towels in my closet, under the bed, or on the bathroom floor.
• No wall sharing! Every so often we catch ourselves thinking something that is no longer necessary. "Is the music too loud? Will somebody hate us for hammering/vacuuming to early/late?" Then we remember we are the sole occupants of our building and shake our heads, feel a little silly, and smile.
• Amazing shower head! We bought this for ourselves as a housewarming gift. It has like 10 different spray settings and an articulating arm so we can raise the head high enough that my husband can shower standing up straight. He's very tall, so this is very exciting.

That's all for now. There are definitely others, but baby girl is laughing in the next room which means her nap is over, which means blogging is over. 

Welcome home!

We are officially moved in! Moving day was a little stressful. I mean more stressful than it we anticipated it would be. As I'm married to Mr. Prepared, he lined up a crew of people to help load the truck weeks in advance. Then suddenly the night before/day of we learned only 2 guys could actually help after all. After some desperate calls to anyone we could think of, a couple of angels showed up and everything was loaded without working anyone to death. All the friends who committed to help me clean showed up so that was wonderful.  We definitely left the place cleaner than we found it.

At the other end, the truck was unloaded in a mere 30 minutes by 4 guys because apparently unloading goods and carrying them 20 feet is a little easier than transporting them from the 5th floor across the building, down an elevator, and across a parking lot into the truck.

I'm sure this was easiest move of our married lives, going from a small apartment to a house, so I'm fully appreciating that. I hope we don't have to move again for a long time.

Now comes the part that for some people is fun but for me is very stressful.: decorating. I'm a bit of an overthinker so facing a house full of decisions about colors, wall hangings, window treatments, bedding, pillows, etc. is overwhelming especially when I don't have a clear idea of what I like and what fits our style. It took me a year to finally decide which pictures to hang in the apartment, and where, and how, and then actually hang them.

The awesome thing about decorating though is we can do whatever we want! Paint! Hang! Nails everywhere! #nodeposit. Yay for home ownership!

BIG NEWS! No, I'm not pregnant.

I'm taking advantage of a rare moment to blog. The miniature human that lives with me freaks out when I sit down at the computer and insists on sitting in my lap for the duration of my computer task which makes typing very difficult.

Why don't you blog while she naps? you ask. Because she still takes 30-freaking-minute naps. (Please, no advice. Trust me, I've tried it.) I use that precious time to shower alone, exercise, eat food I don't want to share, fold laundry, or just do nothing because caring for a child means you are hyper vigilant pretty much every waking moment so the best thing ever is just to lie down and do nothing or something else just as mindless like play a dumb app or peruse Facebook.  Blogging takes mind work, so it does not get priority.

Why don't you blog after she goes to bed? Because my husband goes to work before I wake up and comes home 12 hours later so the only time we get to hang out is between baby's bedtime and our bedtime so anytime we get to spend together is precious, non-blogging time.

But tonight I actually have some time all to myself because baby's down for the night and my husband is sick in bed so I have some rare me-time wherein I'm limited to 1. computer stuff or 2. listening to music or a book with headphones because baby's sleeping in the living room and husband is in the bedroom. I can't turn on any lights unless I go in the bathroom or closet, neither of which is particularly cozy. Oh the joys of a one bedroom apartment... the joys of which are soon to end!

BECAUSE WE'RE BUYING A HOUSE!

I've mentioned before that once in a while I have these moments where I feel like a real adult. Getting approved for a loan and being told to start shopping for a house was one of those moments. Buying major appliances this week was another.

At the end of winter my husband ended up getting hired on as a regular employee after all at the place he'd been temping so that was an awesome blessing. He loves his job and has been working long days as he finds his groove with his team. The 60 mile commute? Not so awesome. Since our lease is up this summer we weighed our housing options going forward and moving closer to work and maybe buying a house seemed like the way to go. Turns out we had great credit and someone willing to loan us a crap load of money to buy some real estate so we proceeded full steam ahead!

After weeks of house hunting and four offers, we finally had an offer accepted. Though it was frustrating to deal with such a competitive market (houses we liked were getting a dozen offers and selling for $10-$25K OVER list price) we are so blessed with the house we ended up snagging. It's a convenient to work for my husband, it's relatively new so nothing is falling apart and the inspection went well, the sellers don't have terrible taste so we don't need to re-carpet or paint to make the place livable, it's in a nice neighborhood, we have some family nearby, and it has a yard and shed and beautiful landscaping that is pretty but not too fussy (because I'm a lazy gardener. Remember basil #1?), and a full unfinished basement so if we end up staying there forever, we have plenty of space to spread out a family. Bonus: we'll close in a comfortable amount of time to get pre-move-in-details accomplished before we move for keeps and before we have to be out of the apartment.

For privacy reasons, I'm purposefully not providing pictures or specifics about where it's at or what it looks like, but if you're dying to know shoot me a message and if you aren't a creeper I don't know I'll send you details.

It's really nice to know that though we're moving to a new town, we aren't moving so far that things will be completely unfamiliar. We'll still be in Colorado and close enough to Denver to come into "The City" for special things. I'm glad we don't have to relocate to a whole new state for a whole new job that we may or may not love.

We're at this awkward phase now where it's still too early to start packing but I feel like I should be productive doing something to make the move easier, so I made a head start on deep cleaning the apartment. Our shower tile never looked so good.

Yay for happy changes! We'll miss Denver (mostly the food... ok we'll miss the friends too. and the parks) but we are soooo ready to have a house, and soon enough it'll feel like home.

Birthday Trifecta

It's that time again wherein we celebrated our existence.  I had a great birthday because it was the first birthday my husband didn't have to work through the evening. He has always worked nights since we've been together and always had to work on my birthday. Now that he has a day job I made our evening birthday celebration mandatory for all family members. We ate steak and it was delicious.

The Birthday Girl

Next up, Baby Girl had her first birthday! We celebrated by visiting puppies. She loves puppies. We celebrated more later in the week when we met up with her dad in Chicago. He won a trip to a convention through a class his last semester so we met him in Chicago at the end of the convention to have a family trip.

Last of all it was this guy's birthday. Last year was so great he probably thought it couldn't get better, but it did. I'm good like that. Besides, how could getting a robot ball NOT make the greatest birthday a boy could want?

Hey there

I've been rereading last year's blog posts to remind myself what I've talked about. Lots of baby stuff. Understandable. I was on a steep learning curve, and it's a job that doesn't allow for many other concurrent occupations or interests.

Speaking of concurrent occupations, who has two thumbs and no longer is a regularly scheduled employee? This girl! I thought I might need to work a bit longer, but everything worked out to leave after the new year. I will provide support to the office on occasion but I'm confident things are under control without me.

As expected, my husband graduated from his university in December in what has to be the longest but most efficient ceremony I've ever been to. He's working as a month to month contract employee but looking for a full time position somewhere else since this company can't bring him on full time. No, he doesn't have any solid prospects yet, and no we aren't confining searches to a particular geographical location. He won a design competition in one of his final classes and as part of his prize the client is taking him to Chicago in March for an international product show. That will be an excellent networking opportunity for him.

The child we made is taking tentative steps already. She's still a crawler but will be walking in no time. She's so dang light she has no bulk to carry around. She's almost 10 months old and wearing size 3 MO pants today. She has 3 teeth with more coming. It's making her life miserable this week on top of having a cold, but I don't mind because she's the only thing I have to worry about and I've been getting great sleep. Starting on New Year's Day she miraculously began to sleep through the night for the first time ever. It's amazing how quality of life and emotional endurance improve after a night of uninterrupted slumber! I feel like I can take on anything right now.

I work with the young women at church now. Our congregation is so small that we combine with the young women who share our church building and there are still only a handful of girls. It's been fun getting to know them and interesting experiencing the program as a leader instead of a participant.

That brings you up to speed on our current status. This is going to be a year of big changes for us. Already it's different with me no longer working and my husband no longer in school. It's exciting and a little scary to know other things are going to happen, but have no idea what form they will take or when. Maybe we'll stay here in Colorado or maybe we'll end up on the other side of the world! Ready or not, life as I know it is changing again.

Stay tuned.

Food

I am recently engaged in learning to meal plan effectively.  Coming home from a long day of work and then deciding what to have for dinner and realizing everything we might make that could pass for a real meal requires thawing and cooking is the worst.

Second worst is actually having ideas and realizing we're missing one key ingredient for each option.

Tied for second worst is when I have lots of ideas that all involve milk or cream.  My husband is lactose intolerant and baby can't quite handle cow milk proteins yet so that makes me dairy-restricted as well for now.

After too many hangry nights and the grown-up decision to eat more vegetables, I decided to start meal planning.  It takes a bit of effort and I'm kind of lazy, but so far so delicious.  Sometimes the meals take just as much effort to execute as before, but pre-deciding what to eat and knowing all ingredients are on hand is half the battle.  With those two things taken care of, and I'm much more willing to make the meal.  

It's also satisfying to realize we aren't wasting food like we used to.  Not like it happened a ton.  My husband is a rock star at eating leftovers, but we used to partially eat something then the rest ended up in the fridge and eventually going bad because it didn't go with anything else.  Now everything we buy, particularly fresh perishables, has a plan and gets used up in time.

I realize these things I'm learning are all things people who meal plan tell you are great about meal planning, but it's one of those things you still just have to do to realize and appreciate the benefits for yourself.  Having babies is like that too.

I decided from the start I should blog about all this because I've been anemic on the blog ideas lately. Meal-planning leads to blog-planning.  How appropriate. 

When I remembered, I took pictures:

Ginger salmon with sauteed veggies and bacon

Pesto pasta with chicken and sauteed asparagus. I made the pesto myself!

Pork empanadas with quinoa and black beans

Ham and bean soup improvised from the broth leftover from slow cooking pork for the empanadas

Mini meatloaf, homemade mashed potatoes, and corn on the cob

Hamburger and homemade sweet potato fries

Fish tacos (except all we had were giant tortillas so more like fish burritos)

Meals not pictured include Waldorf salad, chicken fingers and onion rings (I've been on a deep frying kick), panini, french toast, tikka marsala, pulled pork sandwiches, and pizza (our dairy splurge when we can't help ourselves; my pizza is amazing).  

Most of the things we make take 30 minutes or less.  The most time intensive dishes are probably pizza and the empanadas. The latter has a particularly long prep period including slow cooking the pork and assembling the empanadas.  Actual cook time is like 25 minutes tops.  They can be made and frozen for later cooking, and one batch is big enough for 2-3 meals for us.  And I usually cook 4 lbs of pork at a time and use it for other dishes too.

I've also been planning healthier snacks to take to work or have on hand at home.  We've been enjoying lots of carrots and hummus, applesauce, and granola bars.  Baby girl is starting solids in earnest soon.  I want her to eat what we eat, so we better eat what I want her to eat.

Most of my recipes and improvisation inspiration comes from allrecipes.com.  If you want a particular recipe for anything seen or mentioned above, let me know.

Back to work

I went back to work when Pepper was 8 weeks old.  The first day was awful.  I could not think straight.  I did not want to be there.  I forgot words and made a mess of training the new office employee.  Things weren't much better at home with her dad.

I happened to have a follow up appointment at the birth clinic that day and I completely lost it as soon as the nurse (who was the attending nurse at Pepper's delivery) took me back to a room and asked me how I was doing.  Then the midwife came in and asked the same thing and I started bawling all over again.  I cried through most of the appointment.  Bless their hearts; they just hugged me and let me cry it out.

Pepper was at home with her dad while I was at work.  She was most determined to not eat from a bottle or take a pacifier, so when she wasn't sleeping she was crying and hungry except when my husband brought her to me at lunch to feed her.  He was pretty frazzled by the time I got home.  I was frazzled from holding back guilt tears from knowing she was hungry and upset all day.  Baby was frazzled from wondering why her routine was so jacked up when we'd had such a good thing going.

Thankfully, I am on a part time schedule, so I had the next day off where we were able to recover emotionally and physically.  The next two work days went much better.  Since my husband was in the middle of his last weeks of school, I took her with me to work those days so he could finish school projects.  Having her with me all day was wonderful.  She stayed happy and fed and I was way more productive knowing she was happy and fed.

The second week of work I had her with me half the time so my husband could take his finals.  She still wouldn't take a bottle so the time she did spend hanging out with Dad was still fraught with frustration, but we all managed to survive.

The next two weeks, school was finally over and his new internship hadn't started yet, so her daddy stayed with her all week but said heck with the bottle feeding attempts and brought her to me for every feeding.  Happiness reigned all around.  After that, his full time summer internship started and I took her to work every day.

Thankfully I work in a small office for an private employer who'd rather accommodate than lose me.  Everyone else is a parent too so they are understanding.  I've been back to work about three months now.  Pepper is getting bigger and more social so sometimes it's hard to give her the interaction she needs to stay content.  I'm learning to make myself step away from the paid work to give her my undivided attention when she starts acting out which helps her mood, and my coworkers will take her for me when she's fussy and I need to get on a phone call or finish an urgent email.  Or they take her just because.  Everyone likes to get in baby time with her every day.

I love having a part time schedule.  I don't choose to work for the sake of working, but since I do need to work for now it's lovely only working every other day.  Reduced hours, a smaller work load, and additional competent office employees have done wonders for bringing down my stress levels.  I'm not forgetting to eat and drink, I'm leaving on time at the end of the day, I'm getting in regular exercise on my off days, and overall I'm just feeling happier.

The tentative plan is to only work through the next semester when my husband can go back to full time work.  To that end, I'm busy training my replacements and teaching customers to do without me.  I've done good work at this job, but I'm ready to give all my attention to family life.

She likes to keep an eye on what's going on.

Improvising a way to keep baby sitting up while freeing both my hands to work

Tummy time is hard.

Office selfie

She found her thumbs.

The New Roommate

A certain young lady has arrived here.  She hasn't brought much luggage with her, but she evidently means to stay.*

*Anyone who correctly identifies the allusion gets my utmost respect and a mention on the blog

Schrödinger's cat, my birthday, and baby things. It doesn't have to make sense.

Schrödinger's cat is a thought experiment. To dumb it down, Austrian physicist Schrödinger presents a scenario where a cat may be alive or dead, depending on an earlier random event.  Until you observe the cat to actually see whether it is alive or dead, you have to assume it's simultaneously alive and dead.

We didn't find out if our baby is a boy or girl.  It doesn't bother me at all because until baby comes out and we can see if it's a boy or girl, we get to assume it's both a boy and a girl and have all the fun of anticipating both for 9 months.  Our baby is Schrödinger's cat.

We really have no indication of whether baby is a boy or girl.  No feelings, dreams, inclinations, or preferences sway us one way or another.  We really just want a healthy baby.  We're prepared for both and will be happy with either. I'm really glad I don't get to pick.  I have a hard enough time deciding what to eat for lunch.  BTW, we think all the tips, tricks, and old wives tales for guessing are BS, so don't even go there.

I'm at 37.5 weeks, so baby is full term and may show up anytime between now and Spring Break.  Five weeks is a huge margin for normal delivery timing. It's 12.5% of the length of an average pregnancy.  It boggles my mind.  Baby is all ready to go.  S/he's been head down since about 19 weeks and dropped over 2 weeks ago if my bladder is a reliable indicator.  This is my husband's child for sure. He's always prepared for everything well in advance.  Even if his exit isn't for miles he'll get in the right hand lane even if traffic is slower there just to be ready.  He joked last week that baby simply identified the exit and got in the right lane early.  I laughed so hard from the truth of the statement I almost coughed up a lung.

I've been so sick the last couple weeks.  I was doing so well and then bam!  Worst cold of my life.  All those things people say about how miserable it is to be sick and pregnant are all true.  Comes on easier, stronger, and stays around longer.  Not cool.  My only consolation is supposing that all this coughing has helped strengthen my sorry abdominal muscles and will aid in delivery.  I'm happy to report I'm finally feeling much better.

I was sick over my birthday this year.  Which is fine because per usual, my husband had to work that night.  Not like I would have spent my evening any different if he hadn't.  I've pretty much spent the last 10 evenings on the couch watching the Olympics, blowing my nose, and getting up to pee during every commercial break and/or special athlete highlight. I did get to have a little fun. We went out to breakfast (I had bacon pancakes.  BACON PANCAKES.) after a morning prenatal appointment, my coworker brought me cake and flowers at work, and I got a email birthday greeting from my local dentist.

Don't ask me how old I am. I legitimately can't remember most of the time and having a birthday just complicated it.

I'm going to educate you

I'm a little disappointed nobody actually answered the question, except for the two who just asked another question in turn (namely, "You're head is missing?" and "You've gained some weight?").

Guys, the answer to my question should be yes.

And by golly, why shouldn't I look different?  I've been working for every inch.  It's disheartening to be steamrolled by those who think they are doing me a favor by discounting my size when they are really making me feel like there is something wrong, or like I am some kind of wimp for feeling large and tired but only producing small results, or I'm flat out lying about being pregnant.

FACT: the 26 week gestation baby inside the woman who looks ready to give birth is just as large as the baby inside the woman who looks like she's doing a poor job hiding a football under her shirt.  And both women are uncomfortable.

Just like you should never ask a woman if she's pregnant, don't ever comment on her size (after her pregnancy is independently or voluntarily confirmed, of course).  No matter her size or gestation, 99% of the time you'll sound like a douche-bag to her when presumably you don't mean to. Err on the side of telling her you're happy for her and hope everything is healthy.

No matter how it looks from the outside, carrying a practicing human in the uterus is uncomfortable at every stage, so give all pregnant women credit for what they are accomplishing.  At the end of the day, they are making people with their bodies and everyone else is not.

For all other questions people need to stop asking, this article sums many up nicely.

Now that I've preemptively returned the favor of giving unsolicited advice, your reward for reading it, i.e. answers to the questions I know you wanted to ask:

• Due date: March 8, aka 26 weeks gestation
• Baby's sex unknown by choice.  Yes, this was a rational decision.  No, I have neither a suspicion nor a preference if it's a male or female. No, I don't have a problem calling Baby "it".
• Yes, both of us are healthy.
• Yes, husband and I are excited.
• Yes, Baby moves a lot. Within the last week it can reach my ribs when I'm seated.
• Yes, we have several names lined up.  I'm not sharing here but you can ask if you see me.
• Yes, I'll take maternity leave from work, but no I don't know what I'll do afterward.
• No, I'm not sick anymore.
• I'm 21 weeks in the blue-dress picture.  I have a more recent picture but it looks like a prison photo.  Since I'm not in the habit of publicly distributing ugly pictures of myself, if you want to know what I look like, look at the blue dress picture and imagine me slightly bigger.
• Sadly, the basil is dead.  It was a seasonal plant, anyway....

Look at me from the side...

... do I look different to you?

No Foolin' Here

Exactly one year ago my husband sent me to his kitchen to get an apple out of the fridge.   A minute later he was on his knee in that tiny kitchen asking me to marry him and he was not joking.

Of course, I said yes.  Or maybe I said "of course".  Same difference.  We're married.

It actually never crossed my mind that he was joking.  (I forgot it was April 1 till later when a few family members texted me after we spoke to make sure it was real and I had to assure them I was serious.)

I realize this is every Facebook jokester's dream, y'know actually getting engaged and announcing it on April Fool's Day because nobody will believe you and then the joke's is still on them.  But I have too much respect for my close friends and family to take advantage of this golden opportunity.  I'm also a terrible liar.

But seriously, it really means a lot to me to personally tell my own good news, and let others personally tell me their good news.  Those closest to me know they must call me to tell me important news or I will pout.  Three have called in the middle of the night to tell me their engaged.  My sister rustled me out of bed to tell me she was engaged.  My brother called me in the middle of the night to tell me I was going to be an aunt.  I wouldn't have it any other way.

After we got engaged I systematically called my mom, dad, siblings, Grandma, various other relatives, and best friends in turn.  Since there are a lot of them, it took a while.  When I couldn't get to everyone, I let the rest of my family spread the news too.  Sorry if I didn't get to you.

I actually didn't ever get around to putting it on Facebook though I did blog about it about a month later and casually referred to it occasionally.  Sometimes I almost regret not capitalizing on the opportunity for such a good joke, but then I remember were so many other things going on at this time last year that were more important than making a joke that I no longer feel bad.

In conclusion, I'm glad it was no joke.

His birthday

Guys, can I brag a little?  My husband doesn't like to celebrate birthdays, and he had a GREAT birthday and liked it.  This is an achievement.

My husband doesn't make a big deal of holidays in general, and his birthday in particular.  Now, I LOVE birthdays.  He'd hate it if I planned a party or invited people over so I don't dare, but I still wanted to make his day special.  So I made his favorite sticky buns for breakfast (which he pretended to be upset about because they take a lot of time and effort so he'd told me I shouldn't do it, but behind it all he was happy I did it despite him because he LUUUUVS sticky buns).  And I gave him exactly what he wanted and didn't ask for: LEGO Indiana Jones game for our new Wii, an extra nun-chuck so we can play together, and his favorite candy: Mini Cadbury Eggs.  He was totally impressed I did such a good job picking out presents.  I was impressed with myself.  I was way more excited than he was to open everything.  That evening we had sushi at our favorite neighborhood sushi place, and then played Indiana Jones until our hands were too tired to keep playing.

When he admitted he had a great day (in a way that meant he truly enjoyed it, and not that he just was happy I was happy doing things for him but didn't really care about the things themselves), I felt like I accomplished something really significant.  I told him every birthday can be this fun, and he did not answer with skeptisicm.

A truly happy birthday FTW.

New Addition!

Who has two thumbs and got home from work while it was still daylight?  THIS GIRL!

This is exciting, because last week I crammed the work of 6 long days into 5, didn't get home before 7:00pm four days in a row, and forgot to eat lunch a couple days.  I also worked a holiday I wasn't supposed to in order to be ready to bill 300 new accounts on time that encompass over 1300 new monthly parking customers.  All while fitting in (most of) my regular work that already fills 40 hours a week.  And as luck would have it, it was all endured midst raging mood swings and cramps.  It's like the perfect storm for loosing all semblance of sanity and patience in the workplace.  But never fear!  I prayed really hard and by the end of the week I was not suicidal which I think counts as a win with a capital W.

It's nice that business is growing, but it's not so nice to be one who bears the brunt of growing pains.

Anywhoodles, by the time the weekend came around needless to say I needed some decompressing which may or may not have lead to reckless behavior which included telling my husband we shouldn't wait for our tax return to arrive before we spent it all.  Not one to be given permission twice to do something he wanted to do last week, we headed to IKEA and Costco.  Behold the beautiful result in this crappy phone picture.

Now I can stop telling everyone I need a bookshelf. 

For the record, this is what we'd planned to do with the refund once it came.  And then the money arrived at our bank today so we aren't so irresponsible as we originally seemed.

There are these moments in my life periodically where I feel like a REAL ADULT.  

Setting up a certificate of deposit and a savings account.  

Opening a 401K.  

Shopping for and purchasing insurance.  

Buying a bed.   

Buying brand new furniture and a TV gave us one of those moments this weekend.  Almost all of our furniture was given to us or bought second hand which makes feel perpetually like poor college twentysomethings, so having something NEW has been a strange and wonderful feeling. (Having a real job and getting married didn't make me feel like an adult, just a kid getting away with stuff.)

On a sort-of-related-but-not-really-note, another reason my husband is awesome is in marrying him, my tax refund increased over 4000% (not an exaggeration).  That's all I have to say.  No wait, one more thing: my mom just became a great-great-aunt.  Her oldest brother's second oldest daughter's oldest son just became a father to a daughter.  (I dare you to say that ten times fast.) This means when my child has a child, it will already have a third cousin. That's craZAzy.

Are you mad I tricked you into reading this manic post by by giving it a leading title?  You may tell me in the comments.

Spring Accessorizing

My image needed refreshing, so I decided to explore some new accessories. Tell me what you think, and be honest please.

I heard rings are really in this season, so decided to try one of those first.

Goes well with my skintone, dontcha think?

It was ok, but didn't seem to be right all by itself.  I decided to get a dress to go with it.

Like I'm really going to show you what it looks like?

Of course, the whole ensemble wouldn't be complete without this key (and I must admit, my favorite) accessory:

ac·ces·so·ry (n); see also accomplice, partner, co-conspirator

We're going to throw a party soon to show it all off because that's half the fun of a new outfit, right?

Happy Birthday, Me.

I love birthdays.  I say that every year.  Because it's true.  True to form, this post will involve the ways I celebrated through the food I ate. 

Day-of he made me breakfast of French toast and bacon and even used raisin bread for me especially and regular white bread for himself since he doesn't like raisins.  Which is ok by me because I don't have to feel bad about not sharing the chocolate covered raisins he gave me. 

I spent most of the day just lounging about relaxing, but I did use my new birthday yoga mat, and we took a jaunt to Target to look at things I did not spend my birthday gift card from Mom on.  After he left for work for the rest of the night I tried to watch my favorite movie before I promptly fell asleep until my roommate came home from work.  After finding 25 ballons from her drifting in my bedroom, she took me out to dinner and a movie at a theater that serves food during the movie.  We gorged on junk food and Red Velvet cake while watching The Vow (which was refreshingly not as saccharine as other Nicolas Sparks films).

The next day my brother and his wife hosted a nice dinner and cake for me and a few friends to celebrate my birthday.  I like to do the cake thing with family.  We wound up the evening with a game of Ticket to Ride.

I had a handful of birthday coupons for free food/buy 1 get 1 free food at various restaurants around the area, so on the day they expired a few friends helped me share unnecessarily amounts of shakes and ice cream on a frigid night.

Here's the only thing I took a picture of:

Happy birthday to me.

Back by popular demand

I actually wrote up this post weeks ago, but work has been so busy the last few weeks I didn't have time on my lunch break to pick out and upload photos.  Things are slowed back to normal now, so no more excuses.

Christmas and New Year's were nice, though sandwiched with madness.  A water main broke in an office building in our work complex and flooded the basement level floor to ceiling and part of the garage with a million gallons (literally) of water December 23.  Our office didn't suffer any damage but power was out in the whole complex.  It took some ingenuity and merciful people to do my job that day since I couldn't use my work computer or phone.

But then I got to leave it behind temporarily to fly to the Inland Northwest and spend Christmas and the New Year at my parent's home.  Brought a Christmas surprise with me too.  Nobody knew about it till we got there, but apparently my parents were the only ones actually shocked.  I was still quite please with myself, keeping it all a secret.

The week home was mostly enjoyable as we visited some of my good friends and did lots of family stuff.  I say "mostly" because nearly everyone took turns suffering from a brief yet violent viral plague.  I will spare the details.  Or perhaps you know the details, having already become acquainted with the little bug.

Work has been very busy so far this month dealing with the aftermath of the flood and changes we're making at other locations in addition to my usual workload.  I had some flashbacks to last July and August's work insanity, but I'm happy to report everything parking is back under control and I'm officially caught up with all my work.

Birthday shout out to my dad.  His birthday was yesterday but he's on a Mexican cruise with my mom celebrating their wedding anniversary, so I didn't get to talk to him day-of and he probably didn't see my card before he went out of town.  For the record, I remembered.

And birthday countdown for me!  10 days!

Happy birthday, Blog

I was just sitting here during my lunch break thinking and decided to look up my first blog post.  I realized I started this blog 4 years and 2 days ago.  Lots has happened since then, but 4 years worth of stuff?  Hard to believe. 

I started the blog as I was preparing to leave for a sememster in Jerusalem.  It's fun to reread and remember what I was doing and feeling at the time.  I had no idea what it would be like, but I know it would be important and change me.  As I describe the feeling in my second post, "It's almost like knowing you are about to win the lottery, but instead of cash you're getting Life."

"Life as I know it" certainly changed a lot since then.  I don't think I've ever told wrote about where my blog's name came from.  It's from a line in the movie P.S I Love You.  At the end of the movie the main character is reading a letter from her husband written before he died of an illness some time before (I'm not spoiling anything; this is entire premis of the plot and the first thing any summary of the movie will tell you). 

After encouraging her to move on with life without him, he tells her:

"Watch out for that signal, when life as you know it ends." 

That line resonated with me, especially as I was at that very time face to face with one of those signals telling me this incredible and rare opportunity was ending life as I knew it.  That kind of ending though isn't a termination.  It's a transformation.  We still exist, but how we exist changes, "normal" changes, life as we know it is different than it used to be.  Just think about that.  Isn't that a thrilling to think about?  How so much can hinge on one choice?  I think so.

I've tried to make this little blog a chronical of those "signals" of when life as I know it ends, and what happens because of them.  If you've been here from the start you've followed me to Israel, to Utah, through college, to graduation, to Denver, to Europe, and to wherever else I set my mind to go and do.  Thanks for indulging me over the years.  May you take notice of the signals that change your life as you know it.

Guess what I found?

odds and ends

I don't like reading blogs with a lot of text.  If you don't either, stop reading now and I won't feel bad.  There are a few people that will read what I write no matter what.  This is for them.

• I still haven't found my camera and I'm really sad about it.  And confused, frankly.  I only keep it in maybe 3 places and it isn't in any of those places it should be.  Or the places it shouldn't be.  I've looked.  Hence more writing, less pictures.  And by less I mean none.

• I've been sick for a few weeks, but only I-feel-crummy-and-tired-and-don't-feel-like-doing-anything-but-I-can-still-go-to-work-and-get-the-job-done-sick.  It's not a fun kind of sick to be because people don't always take you seriously if you aren't throwing up.  And it's the kind of sick you feel bad complaining about because you know there are all those people with cancer, pregnancy, or some other serious physical condition that probably feel way worse than you do and they endure it like champs.  I promise I really have a bug, but it'll pass and I may be on the upswing even now.  I'm in my 3rd day of feeling normal-ish (!!!).  That will make my roommate happy.  She claims she gets unusually crafty when I'm not up and around and its wearing her out.  But the house looks lovely with all the new wall hangings.  Someone else will also be very happy when I am well so we can get back to more interesting activities than watching me grumpily lie on a couch after work.

• Halloween was fun.  Or rather, the weekend before Halloween.  We dressed up as Jessie and Woody from Toy Story for a regional YSA dance and dang, we looked good.  Actual Halloween?  I spent the evening lying on a couch with a migraine while he did homework.  Party animals.

• My little brother Scott received his assignment to serve as a missionary for our Church for 2 years.  He is heading to the New Hampshire Manchester mission.  He reports to the Missionary Training Center in Provo, Utah, on December 7.  Yay for missionaries!

• My high school alma mater had a stellar cross country season this fall.  The boys' team placed 1st at the 5A Idaho State Cross Country Championships for the first time ever!  Then the girls' team placed 2nd, edged out of 1st place by a mere 4 points, which is a heartbreakingly-slim margin, believe me.  Word is the girls team has no seniors and only one junior, so it looks like the team will stay strong for the next few years and likely win it all next year.  The last time girls won 1st at state was my senior season (and very last xc race, awesomely) in 2004.  Go Vikings!