What I've Been Up to Lately

As I mentioned before, I’ve been doing a crummy job of posting regularly over here on my lovely little Tumblr.  Instead of going crazy with my excuses, I figured I’d make it easy with a bullet point list of what I’ve been doing for the past week or so:

• This weekend, two of my closest friends came up to hang out.  We spent most of Saturday shopping in Milwaukee’s Third Ward (aka where my favorite stationery store is - I managed to walk out without spending too much money!).  We also talked a bit about planning a girls weekend getaway this summer to either St. Louis or the Mall of America.


• I followed through on something!!  I made a few felt crafts (mentioned in the previous post), and I also made some really cute string-tie envelopes that I found via Pinterest (here’s the tutorial) - B totally didn’t think I was going to make these (I may have promised that there would be thousands of them around our house) … he was wrong!

• General laziness.  Lots of it.


• I finally ordered the wedding pictures that my mother-in-law picked out a year and a half ago.  I also ordered pictures from our honeymoon road trip that we went on last March.  I think I finally found some motivation for putting together a honeymoon scrapbook - just in time for our trip this April!  Hopefully the motivation continues and I can get that trip scrapped right away when we get back.  I even mapped out some ideas for a wedding scrapbook … I might even start working on that this weekend!

Hopefully my motivation to follow through continues and I get back in the groove of posting on this boring ass blog.  I kinda love it.

Results Are In!

I got the call yesterday letting me know that the lab results from my appointment on Monday were available.  But of course I didn’t get the message until after the lab had closed - I have the worst timing ever.  So I had to wait until this morning to call back and find out …

Everything is normal.

On the one hand, I’m relieved that there’s nothing wrong with my reproductive system.  On the other, this means that there is no medical explanation for why things are irregular and annoying.  Ugh.

According to the nurse I spoke with, we’re supposed to just keep going at it (haha, I’m so classy) for another few months to see if we can get pregnant on our own, and if we aren’t successful after a year of trying (September/October) then I’ll need to see an OB/GYN for further analysis.

A little bit of good news with a side of frustration … not quite what I was hoping for from this appointment, but … I guess I’ll take it.

Waiting

I hate waiting. It’s been especially torturous this week as I’ve been waiting on my lab results from my appointment on Monday. My NP ordered various tests to see if there is a cause for my long cycles, and I was under the impression that I would be getting the results at some time on Tuesday. That has not been the case (obviously). Even if I’ll be getting bad news (and I’m almost certain I will be), I want to know sooner rather than later - the more time we have to remedy the situation the better. Hopefully I get the call tomorrow letting me know what’s going on - I’d like to get the baby making show on the road!

Be Mine

Because Valentine’s Day fell on a Tuesday this year, we decided to enjoy an early Valentine’s celebration over the weekend.  On Saturday, we ran some errands, ate at one of our favorite burger places, saw a movie (Chronicle - it was goooood!), and did a little shopping.  It was pretty perfect.  Then on Monday, B surprised me with my Valentine’s card early.  Inside, there was an extra little note and love coupons.  So sweet.

Today, I gave B my love coupons.  That’s it.  My poor Valentine didn’t get anything special :(.  He shouldn’t feel too bad about it though, because I didn’t take any Valentine’s for my kids at daycare either.  I’m an awful teacher.  I had the best intentions - hell, I even started putting some together (the plan was to DIY that stuff using some of the materials I already had at home) - I just never got around to finishing them.  Making 26 Valentine cards by hand is a bitch.  I should have just bought some cheap ones like I usually do.  The kids were kinda naughty today, so that made me feel less bad about not bringing cards.  Hahaha.

I have to say that this year, Valentine’s day was pretty great.  We didn’t do anything fancy - like our trip to Chicago a couple of years ago - but it was nice to eat a homemade dinner and sit on the couch and watch tv with the man I love.

Guilty Pleasures

Everyone has them.  To be honest, I think mine are pretty common, but I’m going to share them anyway :).

I really enjoy bad TV.  Hubs does too … to a point.  We watch some crappy TV together - Jersey Shore, anyone?  Ugh, it’s so bad, but it’s soooooooooo good.  And WipeOut.  We just can’t resist it.  There’s nothing funnier than watching other people fall or get hit by random doors on obstacles.  Seriously, we both have been to the point of crying from laughing while watching WipeOut.  It’s just great.  But B can’t stand to watch most of my shows.  Like, I’m obsessed with several of the really crappy and ridiculous ABC Family shows.  Pretty Little Liars?  Jane by Design?  Switched at Birth?  Yes, please.  These shows are all ridiculous, but I am addicted.  They sucked me in, and even though I try to resist them, they’re usually the first DVR’d shows I watch when given the opportunity.  When they go on hiatus in the middle of the season or at the end of the season, I get really sad.  I may have even dreamed a PLL story line once.  Pathetic.

My taste in music is about as bad as my taste in television shows.  Most of the time, I listen to the regular Top 40 songs - you know, the ones the radio stations play on a steady rotation of the same 15 songs over and over for all of eternity.  I actually really love folksy singer/song-writer type music too, but I can’t stay away from pop music.  There’s nothing like awful boy bands or cheesy songs from the 80’s and 90’s to break me out of a really awful mood.  Listening to *NSYNC, Vanilla Ice, and Wilson Phillips immediately turn my day around; I would have been supremely disappointed if they didn’t play Sir Mix A Lot and the Macarena at our wedding.  I just love the cheesy pop music.  I think I love awful music because those songs remind me of a simpler time - being in my teens.  They make it feel like summer break, hanging out with friends, and being carefree - all things that I would like more of in my adult life.

Who can resist celebrity gossip blogs?  Not this gal.  I have actually cut back on visiting these sites in the past year or two (I no longer have them in my Google Reader), but I still check in occasionally - mostly to see what celebs are pregnant or recently had babies - I’m fascinated by the names they choose for their children.  And of course I have to check in occasionally to make sure that Britney is still out of rehab and to verify that different celebs have passed on.  I didn’t believe MJ died until I saw it on a famous gossip website.  It’s like watching the news, except not really all that reliable. 

To round it out, there is one video game that I am kind of ashamed to say I own … for the Nintendo DS and the 3DS.  I am a grown woman.  I have had several pets in my life.  There is no reason why I should love Ninendogs (and Nintendogs + Cats) as much as I do.  I’ll be honest, I don’t keep up with it as much as I should, but I just love those digital furry faces.  I’m really quite picky about which breeds I adopt, and the colors and markings have to be just so for me to find a breed cute.  It’s ridiculous - they’re not flesh and blood real animals, but that doesn’t stop me from loving them.

I may need an intervention.

Even though I have a lot of guilty pleasures, there is one that never snagged me:  Twilight.  No. Thank. You.  Harry Potter all the way.  Expelliarmus!

When Hubs is Away ...

The wife will craft [and in this wife’s case, fail miserably at it].

B had a work dinner tonight, which meant not only was I on my own all day on my Monday off, but I also had most of the evening to myself as well.  This makes for a very dangerous situation (no supervision all day = I’m productive.  No supervision for over 12 hours = I get antsy and make bad choices).  I spent the whole day doing laundry, cleaning, and other household-y things (and managed to spend 2 and half hours on the phone with B’s aunt - yeesh).  But then, around 7:00 pm, I. Was. Bored.  Super Nanny wasn’t playing on Style Network anymore, so I needed to find a way to entertain myself.  After about 5 minutes on Pinterest, I came across a pin linked to this tutorial using an old t-shirt to make a woven headband.  I thought to myself, “I can do this, no problem” and ran upstairs to grab an old stained tank top out of my girl cave garbage (don’t worry friends, all that is currently residing in that garbage is old shirts that Goodwill would turn down - no nasty dumpster diving for me!).  I brought the tank top downstairs, cut my strips, and then things got really interesting.

I planned on just hand-stitching the strips together until I realized I could probably figure out how to use the sewing machine my mom had brought up here for me a year and a half ago.  I pulled the machine out, checked to make sure it was already/still threaded (it was, thanks mom!), plugged it in and took ‘er for a drive.

The first time, my threads got all knotted, the fabric didn’t move, and I had to do surgery to free my strips from the machine.  I reconfigured the thread and went for attempt 2 - success!  All five strips were sewn together!

Then … I looked at what was left of my little tank top and thought, “hey, I think that might make a cute mini pillow.  There’s some poly-fil in the cabinet in the laundry room.  I could even sew little fabric flowers on it.”  So I cut out two rectangles, placed them right sides together, and started sewing around the outside of my rectangles.  I got one long side done with no incidents, turned the fabric and started sewing again - the thread wasn’t sticking.  I pulled it out and - oopsie - the bobbin was out of thread.  And so ended my plan to surprise B with a mini pillow when he got home.  [Insert sad trumpet sounds here]

Oh well, back to my original idea (the headband) I went.  I taped my long strips of t-shirt down, pulled on them … and the edges didn’t curl.  Ugh.  I’m not really sure what I did wrong - I think I cut them the wrong direction? - it was a hopeless case.  So I threw away the 5 strips that I had managed to put together, went back into the dining room to clean the bobbin-threadless sewing machine up (aka get rid of the evidence), and went to sit back on the couch to watch House.  Until … inspiration struck again.  Dun dun duuuuuuun!

I ran up the stairs to the girl cave, dug into our wedding crap box (yes, we’ve been married almost 2 years and we still have a wedding crap box … we’ll get around to putting things away in due time, thankyouverymuch), and pulled out one of our many empty picture frames.  “Perfect,” I thought, “I’ll use some of that cute Valentine’s wrapping paper from the Target bargain bin and make a cheap and easy Valentine’s picture to hang.”  I opened up the back of the frame, hoping for a piece of cardboard to wrap my wrapping paper onto.  I was disappointed by what I found - a flimsy piece of cardstock-ish paper.  I took the paper to cut out the shape from an old cereal box, but the box was too small.  Damn.  So I decided to just use the flimsy paper, cut my wrapping paper so it could be wrapped around, taped it up, stuck it back in the frame, and stepped back to admire my work.  And then I realized the paper was crooked.  [More sad trumpet sounds here].



I don’t think we’ll end up hanging this up, but it was a good effort, if I do say so myself.  And this evening’s craziness was well worth it because I found out I still know how to work the sewing machine.  Perhaps the next time Hubs is at a work dinner I can use a new bobbin (with lots of thread on it) and actually complete my cute mini-pillow.  Haha, probably not - but I’ll keep dreaming!

5 Year Dating-versary

Today marks the 5th anniversary of the day when B asked me if I’d “maybe wanna go out sometime or something” and I said “yeah, sure.  Sometime.  Or something.”  And we’ve been together ever since.

Awwww, we’re so romantic.

Seriously, I love that man.  He’s the best.  He’s seen me at my worst (we’re talking ugly cry, screaming my brains out at him, completely hyper and obnoxious and nonsensical … the works ) and stuck around (I think that makes him legally insane) … I couldn’t ask for a better guy.

Blah blah, sappy.  Wrapping this up now.

Love you potato.