You can now find me here:
Fantastic Mrs. Ford
This is where the Husband and myself will keep you all up to date on what is happening with us. And I'll probably continue my rants there as well.
Happy Fall!
Thursday, October 25, 2012
Wednesday, October 17, 2012
Before I Continue...
Ok so I came here today thinking I would tell you all why we've been so crazy busy, but then I have about a million other things swimming through my head today and I just can't concentrate on that right now. What I am going to do is a mental dump so it's all out there and you can read it or not but it will hopefully make me feel better.
So let's start with a big question- should I start a different blog now that I'm married? I feel like there's a fundamental life shift that happens when you get married (even if nothing else actually physically changes) and that it may warrant a new blog completely which means I may dump this one ... but I'll link it until the 3 of you who read this can change your bookmarks or links. Even though I highly doubt the Husband will ever post anything at all I feel like the blog should include him. Am I being weird? It's almost like I need to shed all "singleness", if that makes sense. Pondering.
Moving on, I'm starting a bucket list. It's the tail end of marathon season (I guess) and I'm seeing everyone's pictures and posts on Facebook about their marathon adventures so I threw a little hissy fit and said to myself, "Dammit! I'm going to run a marathon!!!" even though I completely hate running more than 5 miles. So of course I called my mom and told her that I was going to run one next year and she laughed and said that it was on her bucket list so we should do it together. BUCKET LIST?! Perfect. That's what I need, so I can reference it and actually have a way to track that I'm doing things that I actually want to do. I am actually super excited about thinking up what I want to do and see in my life. Of course, I'm also excited about a marathon. My friend Jenn just called and in the course of our conversation said she wanted to do a marathon (totally unprompted by me so this has to be destiny) next year so looks like I have 2 buddies!
Let's revisit the newly married thing again; it's insane to change your name. There, I said it. Could they make it any more of a hassle? There was never a question that I wouldn't change my name, but now that I'm in the middle of getting it all done it's a big fat suck fest. I got like eleventy million copies of our marriage certificate so that I would "easily be able to change my name" (so says the clerk at the county office). Let me tell you that the copies make no difference and that everywhere you go to change your names has a whole different set of hoops you have to jump through to prove you are who you are and you are a newlywed JUST. TRYING. TO. CHANGE. HER. NAME! They act like I'm a criminal trying to steal someone's identity. If only Heather F had more money than me, I'd be happy to take her identity. Gah! I cannot wait until it's over. Apparently that takes like a year before everyone gets with the program (according to friends).
Also, LET'S ALL FREAK OUT ABOUT HALLOWEEN!!!!! You guys, I effing love Halloween through New Year's Day. It's the best chunk of the year. It's when all of the awesome happens. I especially love Halloween, mostly because it's an excuse to dress up, but for many many more reasons. First, you get to dress up. And I'm not talking about "It's an excuse to get a slutty costume" but more of a "who can I transform myself into" thing. If I could legitimately dress in costume on a regular basis I would. Let's also note that I don't do slutty costumes (in public or where anyone but the Husband will be) and it irks me to no end to see women showing their goods like I want to see them (I don't, mostly) in the namesake of Halloween. If you are going to be slutty, be it and don't blame it on Halloween!
Secondly, I love decorating. LOVE IT! I will find pretty much any excuse to decorate my house for an occasion. I've always been drawn to darker and creepy decor so Halloween is the time when I let my creepy side take over. I literally spend my whole year from January to September looking for darker odd objects to decorate with for Halloween. I'm talking macabre trinkets like taxidermied creatures and old apothecary jars I can place around to creepy-looking antique photos I can replace my photos with. I the Husband would let me I would decorate my whole house in a slightly-Harry Potter- meets-haunted-house theme. He pretty much finds it ridiculous that I could want more Halloween decorations than Christmas, but I'm getting close!
Yet another reason I love Halloween is the mood it puts me in to watch scary movies. There is nothing better than curling up on the couch with a comfy blanket, a cup of hot chocolate or cider and getting scared of out of your mind. It's the best! And the Pacific Northwest is awesomely foggy this time of year which adds to the scary factor.
So those are the oh-so-important things banging around my brain today. I'll be back tomorrow with some more life updates!
So let's start with a big question- should I start a different blog now that I'm married? I feel like there's a fundamental life shift that happens when you get married (even if nothing else actually physically changes) and that it may warrant a new blog completely which means I may dump this one ... but I'll link it until the 3 of you who read this can change your bookmarks or links. Even though I highly doubt the Husband will ever post anything at all I feel like the blog should include him. Am I being weird? It's almost like I need to shed all "singleness", if that makes sense. Pondering.
Moving on, I'm starting a bucket list. It's the tail end of marathon season (I guess) and I'm seeing everyone's pictures and posts on Facebook about their marathon adventures so I threw a little hissy fit and said to myself, "Dammit! I'm going to run a marathon!!!" even though I completely hate running more than 5 miles. So of course I called my mom and told her that I was going to run one next year and she laughed and said that it was on her bucket list so we should do it together. BUCKET LIST?! Perfect. That's what I need, so I can reference it and actually have a way to track that I'm doing things that I actually want to do. I am actually super excited about thinking up what I want to do and see in my life. Of course, I'm also excited about a marathon. My friend Jenn just called and in the course of our conversation said she wanted to do a marathon (totally unprompted by me so this has to be destiny) next year so looks like I have 2 buddies!
Let's revisit the newly married thing again; it's insane to change your name. There, I said it. Could they make it any more of a hassle? There was never a question that I wouldn't change my name, but now that I'm in the middle of getting it all done it's a big fat suck fest. I got like eleventy million copies of our marriage certificate so that I would "easily be able to change my name" (so says the clerk at the county office). Let me tell you that the copies make no difference and that everywhere you go to change your names has a whole different set of hoops you have to jump through to prove you are who you are and you are a newlywed JUST. TRYING. TO. CHANGE. HER. NAME! They act like I'm a criminal trying to steal someone's identity. If only Heather F had more money than me, I'd be happy to take her identity. Gah! I cannot wait until it's over. Apparently that takes like a year before everyone gets with the program (according to friends).
Also, LET'S ALL FREAK OUT ABOUT HALLOWEEN!!!!! You guys, I effing love Halloween through New Year's Day. It's the best chunk of the year. It's when all of the awesome happens. I especially love Halloween, mostly because it's an excuse to dress up, but for many many more reasons. First, you get to dress up. And I'm not talking about "It's an excuse to get a slutty costume" but more of a "who can I transform myself into" thing. If I could legitimately dress in costume on a regular basis I would. Let's also note that I don't do slutty costumes (in public or where anyone but the Husband will be) and it irks me to no end to see women showing their goods like I want to see them (I don't, mostly) in the namesake of Halloween. If you are going to be slutty, be it and don't blame it on Halloween!
Secondly, I love decorating. LOVE IT! I will find pretty much any excuse to decorate my house for an occasion. I've always been drawn to darker and creepy decor so Halloween is the time when I let my creepy side take over. I literally spend my whole year from January to September looking for darker odd objects to decorate with for Halloween. I'm talking macabre trinkets like taxidermied creatures and old apothecary jars I can place around to creepy-looking antique photos I can replace my photos with. I the Husband would let me I would decorate my whole house in a slightly-Harry Potter- meets-haunted-house theme. He pretty much finds it ridiculous that I could want more Halloween decorations than Christmas, but I'm getting close!
Yet another reason I love Halloween is the mood it puts me in to watch scary movies. There is nothing better than curling up on the couch with a comfy blanket, a cup of hot chocolate or cider and getting scared of out of your mind. It's the best! And the Pacific Northwest is awesomely foggy this time of year which adds to the scary factor.
So those are the oh-so-important things banging around my brain today. I'll be back tomorrow with some more life updates!
Tuesday, October 16, 2012
18 Days and It Feels Like Months Ago
BF and I got married 18 days ago and it's been a crazy hurricane of events ever since! Also, I realize that I can no longer call him BF but it's such a habit and nothing else has a good ring to it... so it'll change when I become clever and figure it out.
Anyway, so the last you heard from me it was a couple of days before the wedding and I mostly wasn't stressed out except for a couple things that ended up working out, but I got over it all and everything went so extremely well I couldn't hardly believe it. Thursday afternoon BF and I packed our cars full of suits and dresses and center pieces and pomanders and, of course, our luggage. We had to drive separately to fit it all and then I drove across town to pick up the bouquets and boutonnieres from our florist which were AMAZING and fit perfectly our venue and the attitude of the wedding. I had forgotten that there was a music festival happening the same weekend as our wedding at Edgefield and was wondering why there were masses of dreadlocked wanderers bedecked in tie dye attire roaming the streets and the McMenamins property so it made for some fun people watching the entire weekend. We checked into McMenamin's Edgefield Hotel and lugged all of our stuff to our room. We then changed for the rehearsal dinner, met with our family and the Reverend and then ate some awesome food! We decided that since some of our friends were staying at the hotel that night we would go out with them for a bit to catch up. I don't think we stayed out that late because we knew Friday was going to be long, so we called it a night after a few drinks and a round or two of pool.
Friday morning was an early one! We got up and ate a hearty breakfast around 7am and I met with my hair and make-up magic-maker, Courtney, at 8:15am. She got to work on me while BF and the boys played the short course (golf) at Edgefield. I spent my entire morning sitting very still and trying to not blink-cry as Courtney delicately placed individual false lashes on my lids (not something I could do very often) and then as she expertly airbrushed my make up on. My Matron of Honor, D, awesomely brought me some sort of hot chicken sandwich and fries which I was so thankful for but then only ate 4 bites of because I was a bit jittery. I want to say that in my case, I wasn't at all nervous to actually get married, but I was nervous that things wouldn't work out the way I wanted them to... but I think I'm so used to being in control of events at work that letting other people handle things for me was really what stressed me out about it all. So the morning kind of crawled by because I had to be still for hair and make up, but it was so worth it because it turned out amazing! Our photographer showed up to take "getting ready" photos of the girls around 2pm and that's when it started to feel real.
After the pre-wedding ceremony photos I about died of boredom because I had over an hour to wait before I could do anything at all. My mom stayed in my room with me while the bridesmaids rounded up the groomsmen and got in their places and ready to walk. I finally got to walk up to the area where our ceremony was and wait in the hall; I got all sorts of congratulations from the masses of hippies wandering around which helped distract me from being bored and nervous. The music and our processional finally started and then I surprised myself and got super emotional! I don't even know why, but walking down the aisle with my dad was really hard... and I have never really been a daddy's girl and I haven't lived at home for YEARS so I don't know what it was. We finally made it down the aisle and then the ceremony started. Because BF and I worked with the Reverend ahead of time we already knew what he was going to say, which made it feel super slow to me, but everyone else thought it was a pretty quick ceremony. I was afraid to make eye contact with BF for a couple of reasons, 1) because I was a little emotional 2) because I was afraid he would made a weird face and make me laugh inappropriately 3) because I sort of caught him looking at my cleavage and 4) because the sun was shining at an angle that made it hard to look that way anyway. I think it was a good thing I couldn't look because I had a hard time making it through part of the vows (oh, emotions) so the Reverend told me just to nod which got a few chuckles, but worked! A few times throughout the ceremony we were serenaded by the music festival sound checks which was pretty funny and then a plane took off during our reading of "Oh, The Places You'll Go" by Dr. Suess and went straight up behind us (we were told it looked really cool, but we didn't get to see it) so it was a memorable ceremony.
Finally the ceremony ended and we were off to sign the license, take more pictures and get back to our guests. We LOVED LOVED LOVED the reception. Not only did we have BBQ chicken and brisket for entrees, but we had pie and cake! I cannot tell you how much I love pie (too much, in fact). My friend Paul was our awesome DJ and a couple of my high school friends came and played an hour of live music (including our favorite The Darkness Song, which was so awesome I couldn't stand it!). I did a quick change into my "party" wedding dress which was just longer than knee length and a lot lighter so I could dance more freely. All in all it was an incredible wedding day and we were exhausted by the end of it all.
We drove home after another hearty breakfast on Saturday and spent the rest of the weekend recovering at home and trying to get ready to go back to work on Monday.
Pictures to come soon (hopefully) and more about our hectic few weeks! It definitely does not feel like it's only been 2 weeks, but marriage has been good so far and we cannot complain.
Anyway, so the last you heard from me it was a couple of days before the wedding and I mostly wasn't stressed out except for a couple things that ended up working out, but I got over it all and everything went so extremely well I couldn't hardly believe it. Thursday afternoon BF and I packed our cars full of suits and dresses and center pieces and pomanders and, of course, our luggage. We had to drive separately to fit it all and then I drove across town to pick up the bouquets and boutonnieres from our florist which were AMAZING and fit perfectly our venue and the attitude of the wedding. I had forgotten that there was a music festival happening the same weekend as our wedding at Edgefield and was wondering why there were masses of dreadlocked wanderers bedecked in tie dye attire roaming the streets and the McMenamins property so it made for some fun people watching the entire weekend. We checked into McMenamin's Edgefield Hotel and lugged all of our stuff to our room. We then changed for the rehearsal dinner, met with our family and the Reverend and then ate some awesome food! We decided that since some of our friends were staying at the hotel that night we would go out with them for a bit to catch up. I don't think we stayed out that late because we knew Friday was going to be long, so we called it a night after a few drinks and a round or two of pool.
Friday morning was an early one! We got up and ate a hearty breakfast around 7am and I met with my hair and make-up magic-maker, Courtney, at 8:15am. She got to work on me while BF and the boys played the short course (golf) at Edgefield. I spent my entire morning sitting very still and trying to not blink-cry as Courtney delicately placed individual false lashes on my lids (not something I could do very often) and then as she expertly airbrushed my make up on. My Matron of Honor, D, awesomely brought me some sort of hot chicken sandwich and fries which I was so thankful for but then only ate 4 bites of because I was a bit jittery. I want to say that in my case, I wasn't at all nervous to actually get married, but I was nervous that things wouldn't work out the way I wanted them to... but I think I'm so used to being in control of events at work that letting other people handle things for me was really what stressed me out about it all. So the morning kind of crawled by because I had to be still for hair and make up, but it was so worth it because it turned out amazing! Our photographer showed up to take "getting ready" photos of the girls around 2pm and that's when it started to feel real.
After the pre-wedding ceremony photos I about died of boredom because I had over an hour to wait before I could do anything at all. My mom stayed in my room with me while the bridesmaids rounded up the groomsmen and got in their places and ready to walk. I finally got to walk up to the area where our ceremony was and wait in the hall; I got all sorts of congratulations from the masses of hippies wandering around which helped distract me from being bored and nervous. The music and our processional finally started and then I surprised myself and got super emotional! I don't even know why, but walking down the aisle with my dad was really hard... and I have never really been a daddy's girl and I haven't lived at home for YEARS so I don't know what it was. We finally made it down the aisle and then the ceremony started. Because BF and I worked with the Reverend ahead of time we already knew what he was going to say, which made it feel super slow to me, but everyone else thought it was a pretty quick ceremony. I was afraid to make eye contact with BF for a couple of reasons, 1) because I was a little emotional 2) because I was afraid he would made a weird face and make me laugh inappropriately 3) because I sort of caught him looking at my cleavage and 4) because the sun was shining at an angle that made it hard to look that way anyway. I think it was a good thing I couldn't look because I had a hard time making it through part of the vows (oh, emotions) so the Reverend told me just to nod which got a few chuckles, but worked! A few times throughout the ceremony we were serenaded by the music festival sound checks which was pretty funny and then a plane took off during our reading of "Oh, The Places You'll Go" by Dr. Suess and went straight up behind us (we were told it looked really cool, but we didn't get to see it) so it was a memorable ceremony.
Finally the ceremony ended and we were off to sign the license, take more pictures and get back to our guests. We LOVED LOVED LOVED the reception. Not only did we have BBQ chicken and brisket for entrees, but we had pie and cake! I cannot tell you how much I love pie (too much, in fact). My friend Paul was our awesome DJ and a couple of my high school friends came and played an hour of live music (including our favorite The Darkness Song, which was so awesome I couldn't stand it!). I did a quick change into my "party" wedding dress which was just longer than knee length and a lot lighter so I could dance more freely. All in all it was an incredible wedding day and we were exhausted by the end of it all.
We drove home after another hearty breakfast on Saturday and spent the rest of the weekend recovering at home and trying to get ready to go back to work on Monday.
Pictures to come soon (hopefully) and more about our hectic few weeks! It definitely does not feel like it's only been 2 weeks, but marriage has been good so far and we cannot complain.
Tuesday, September 25, 2012
3 Days. I Think I'm Allowed to Have at Least 1 Meltdown...
3 Days until the big day! I'm insanely anxious because I don't really have anything to do and I had preemptively taken the entire week off of work just in case I had a million things left to do. So I've been cleaning the house and packing/ re packing our bags for the weekend and finding the minutiae to do around the house.
We've been relatively drama free, no major Bridezilla moments... unless you ask my Mom. For some reason my mom has it in her head that I am stressing out beyond belief about this wedding. I did have a little freak out when I went to pick up my 2nd dress at the shop and they told me they already gave it to someone (if you showed up at a dress shop to pick up a wedding dress and it wasn't there, would you freak out a little? Indeed) but it turns out they gave it to my mom when she was there picking up my sister's reordered bridesmaid dress. I think I had a valid reason to get upset... and I didn't get upset at the lady at the shop, I just tried to get to the bottom of what had actually happened. Note to bridal salons: DON'T give the bride's dress to anyone but the BRIDE unless the BRIDE tells you that someone else will be picking it up. That's what made me mad- I had no idea my mom picked it up and they didn't actually know she was my mom, they just saw she was picking up the bridesmaid dress for my sister and OFFERED to give her my gown as well. I think that is insane.
Anyway, what I've had a bigger freak out over is my sister. I love my sister to death. She has a tendency to be irresponsible and a total ass. Case in point: She told me that she would be the designated driver for my bachelorette party. I thought that was pretty awesome and she even paid for a bunch of the bachelorette party favors and decorations and made cupcakes. This seemed to show that she was being responsible and awesome, but then the night in question happens and my other friends tell me that they think she is way to drunk to drive so one of my other friends had to drive us home. We made it safely and I didn't get mad at my sister because those things happen, but since that was something she volunteered to do I am a little miffed.
Secondly, my mother informs me last night that my sister won't be at the rehearsal dinner. Let me say that again... My Sister. Won't be at. The REHEARSAL DINNER. WHAT? BF and I have had our wedding and rehearsal dinner dates and time since JANUARY. Everyone involved in our wedding has had at least 7 months notice as to when they needed to be available for the rehearsal dinner and for the actual wedding. I even asked my sister last month if she had requested the days off for the dinner and for the wedding and she said yes. Apparently she did not and has to work during the dinner. I'm not worried about her not rehearsing because, let's face it, it's not that difficult to walk down an aisle and stand there. What I am pissed about is that this is a bridesmaids duty to be at the rehearsal and the wedding ON TIME and to make things easier for the bride. Am I totally wrong here? Also, I want my family at the rehearsal dinner!
My mom says I'm overreacting, but I think it's just plain rude to totally disregard your bridesmaid duties, especially when we gave everyone MONTHS of advanced notice. My parents keep telling me not to stress about it, but I'm not stressed I'm just angry that again my sister can't be a responsible adult and manage her schedule properly.
This whole thing boils down to the fact that I hate having to accommodate my sister ALL THE TIME. It's been this way our whole lives. She doesn't plan ahead and doesn't manage things very well and then expect people to accommodate her or to bail her out of her problems... which my family does for EVERY. SINGLE. TIME. I want her to know that it is not ok to flake out on her responsibilities and that she needs to figure it out! What do you guys think?
My opinion is that I have a right to be upset about this; I'm not letting it ruin anything but I think my sister needs to know that she is letting me down and that it is not ok.
We've been relatively drama free, no major Bridezilla moments... unless you ask my Mom. For some reason my mom has it in her head that I am stressing out beyond belief about this wedding. I did have a little freak out when I went to pick up my 2nd dress at the shop and they told me they already gave it to someone (if you showed up at a dress shop to pick up a wedding dress and it wasn't there, would you freak out a little? Indeed) but it turns out they gave it to my mom when she was there picking up my sister's reordered bridesmaid dress. I think I had a valid reason to get upset... and I didn't get upset at the lady at the shop, I just tried to get to the bottom of what had actually happened. Note to bridal salons: DON'T give the bride's dress to anyone but the BRIDE unless the BRIDE tells you that someone else will be picking it up. That's what made me mad- I had no idea my mom picked it up and they didn't actually know she was my mom, they just saw she was picking up the bridesmaid dress for my sister and OFFERED to give her my gown as well. I think that is insane.
Anyway, what I've had a bigger freak out over is my sister. I love my sister to death. She has a tendency to be irresponsible and a total ass. Case in point: She told me that she would be the designated driver for my bachelorette party. I thought that was pretty awesome and she even paid for a bunch of the bachelorette party favors and decorations and made cupcakes. This seemed to show that she was being responsible and awesome, but then the night in question happens and my other friends tell me that they think she is way to drunk to drive so one of my other friends had to drive us home. We made it safely and I didn't get mad at my sister because those things happen, but since that was something she volunteered to do I am a little miffed.
Secondly, my mother informs me last night that my sister won't be at the rehearsal dinner. Let me say that again... My Sister. Won't be at. The REHEARSAL DINNER. WHAT? BF and I have had our wedding and rehearsal dinner dates and time since JANUARY. Everyone involved in our wedding has had at least 7 months notice as to when they needed to be available for the rehearsal dinner and for the actual wedding. I even asked my sister last month if she had requested the days off for the dinner and for the wedding and she said yes. Apparently she did not and has to work during the dinner. I'm not worried about her not rehearsing because, let's face it, it's not that difficult to walk down an aisle and stand there. What I am pissed about is that this is a bridesmaids duty to be at the rehearsal and the wedding ON TIME and to make things easier for the bride. Am I totally wrong here? Also, I want my family at the rehearsal dinner!
My mom says I'm overreacting, but I think it's just plain rude to totally disregard your bridesmaid duties, especially when we gave everyone MONTHS of advanced notice. My parents keep telling me not to stress about it, but I'm not stressed I'm just angry that again my sister can't be a responsible adult and manage her schedule properly.
This whole thing boils down to the fact that I hate having to accommodate my sister ALL THE TIME. It's been this way our whole lives. She doesn't plan ahead and doesn't manage things very well and then expect people to accommodate her or to bail her out of her problems... which my family does for EVERY. SINGLE. TIME. I want her to know that it is not ok to flake out on her responsibilities and that she needs to figure it out! What do you guys think?
My opinion is that I have a right to be upset about this; I'm not letting it ruin anything but I think my sister needs to know that she is letting me down and that it is not ok.
Wednesday, September 19, 2012
This Week's Lessons
Oh the things you learn in life! Or, really, the things you learn while trying to be proactive about having to change your name a million different places because you are getting married.
Why is it so hard to change your name? Getting married is the easy part and saying you have a new name is cake, but then trying to get everyone to change your last name in their system is one giant headache.
There are some things that I cannot change my name on until after I have the certified copies of our marriage license like my drivers license, social security card and bank/credit card accounts. But in the spirit of being organized and ready to be married I found a few things at work that I could start the process of changing my last name before I had said license. So that's what I aimed to do.
On Monday I notified work and submitted the proper forms to have my email changed and my login account information changed to my new name. They asked when I would like the change to take effect since while they change it I will not be able to login to any systems at work. I said this coming Friday after business hours would be great and they said perfect! And everything was perfect until this morning. I came into work and found that I couldn't login to my email, so I called our help desk. The help desk researched what was going on and found that my email and login information had actually been changed super early this morning and they had not, in fact, waited until Friday. Fine, I thought, this works too! But no, it did not. Because they prematurely set up my new email and login, they deleted my old profile... the same profile with which I access pretty much every other system that I need to work in during the day. That means that no matter how hard I tried I could not get anything done because my old login was now defunct and my new login was not yet in the system.
I've spent quite a chunk of my day so far on the phone with various departments trying to get my old/new information updated and corrected so I can actually DO SOME WORK. This also means that I cannot track my actual work hours either, which may end up impacting my pay unless they get it fixed before I'm out of the office for a week. I'm sure they will, but I'm a little worried right now! Don't worry, I'm keeping notes on my hours worked so that when I can access the system again I can update my hours.
They make this quite hard on those of us who choose to change our names.
So this week I've learned the importance of waiting to do things until they actually have to be done because sometime proactivity isn't helpful.
Why is it so hard to change your name? Getting married is the easy part and saying you have a new name is cake, but then trying to get everyone to change your last name in their system is one giant headache.
There are some things that I cannot change my name on until after I have the certified copies of our marriage license like my drivers license, social security card and bank/credit card accounts. But in the spirit of being organized and ready to be married I found a few things at work that I could start the process of changing my last name before I had said license. So that's what I aimed to do.
On Monday I notified work and submitted the proper forms to have my email changed and my login account information changed to my new name. They asked when I would like the change to take effect since while they change it I will not be able to login to any systems at work. I said this coming Friday after business hours would be great and they said perfect! And everything was perfect until this morning. I came into work and found that I couldn't login to my email, so I called our help desk. The help desk researched what was going on and found that my email and login information had actually been changed super early this morning and they had not, in fact, waited until Friday. Fine, I thought, this works too! But no, it did not. Because they prematurely set up my new email and login, they deleted my old profile... the same profile with which I access pretty much every other system that I need to work in during the day. That means that no matter how hard I tried I could not get anything done because my old login was now defunct and my new login was not yet in the system.
I've spent quite a chunk of my day so far on the phone with various departments trying to get my old/new information updated and corrected so I can actually DO SOME WORK. This also means that I cannot track my actual work hours either, which may end up impacting my pay unless they get it fixed before I'm out of the office for a week. I'm sure they will, but I'm a little worried right now! Don't worry, I'm keeping notes on my hours worked so that when I can access the system again I can update my hours.
They make this quite hard on those of us who choose to change our names.
So this week I've learned the importance of waiting to do things until they actually have to be done because sometime proactivity isn't helpful.
Monday, September 17, 2012
I'm Almost a Mrs....
That is so strange. I am so excited to be marrying my best friend and frankly, the best person I know on this earth, but I'm a little sad that I'll be losing my "maiden" name. (Quick side tangent, stay with me here: Have you ever stopped to think about the phrase "maiden name"? Because I did this weekend and when I actually gave it some thought I had quite a literal picture pop into my head of a young maiden who all of a sudden is an old maid. Anyone else? ... nope? Just me? Ok then.)
It's not that I'm super attached to my name... it's not a bad name at all, I just never really gave it any serious thought beyond this is my name and it connects me to my ancestors and identifies me from other Heathers out there. And now all of a sudden I'm like how do I preserve my maiden name so it doesn't get lost for time and all eternity!? Don't get me wrong, I definitely want to take BF's name, but I'm waxing nostalgic about my own last name. I'm contemplating getting my family crest in a necklace or ring to wear... or maybe a new tattoo is in order?
Also, it is already raising issues at work. Because I am taking time off before the wedding I requested a new name plate and a name change on our roster so that when I return it'll already be done. We abbreviate most people's names around here and on our upcoming conference roster we have everyone's initials next to their conference responsibilities. In a meeting the other day one of my coworkers was talking about how we've divided up the work and then paused mid sentence for a few seconds and then continued with, "I see that we've given H.F. a few things to do, but I've never met them! Who is that?". Followed by the silence of me not realizing that those were MY initials and that we had already changed my name on this list as well.
But really everything is going well and BF and I have finished the last of our little "to do's" before the wedding so we are literally just waiting to get to the wedding and be married.
11 Days!
It's not that I'm super attached to my name... it's not a bad name at all, I just never really gave it any serious thought beyond this is my name and it connects me to my ancestors and identifies me from other Heathers out there. And now all of a sudden I'm like how do I preserve my maiden name so it doesn't get lost for time and all eternity!? Don't get me wrong, I definitely want to take BF's name, but I'm waxing nostalgic about my own last name. I'm contemplating getting my family crest in a necklace or ring to wear... or maybe a new tattoo is in order?
Also, it is already raising issues at work. Because I am taking time off before the wedding I requested a new name plate and a name change on our roster so that when I return it'll already be done. We abbreviate most people's names around here and on our upcoming conference roster we have everyone's initials next to their conference responsibilities. In a meeting the other day one of my coworkers was talking about how we've divided up the work and then paused mid sentence for a few seconds and then continued with, "I see that we've given H.F. a few things to do, but I've never met them! Who is that?". Followed by the silence of me not realizing that those were MY initials and that we had already changed my name on this list as well.
But really everything is going well and BF and I have finished the last of our little "to do's" before the wedding so we are literally just waiting to get to the wedding and be married.
11 Days!
Wednesday, September 12, 2012
Waking Up to Fall
This weekend was a strange one, in weather terms at least. It was summer-warm and then autumn-cool; it rained, then shined, then sprinkled, then shined, then 5-minute-thunderstormed, then sun again. But in the midst of the weather-mania is a constant that I'm starting to remember- cool evenings and changing leaves. I'm totally excited.
I LOVE Fall. I say it every year, and every year it becomes truer and truer. This year especially so. I find myself pining over the cozy sweaters and tall boots that are daily being presented in store windows and shelves. I am craving soups and stews and searching for new recipes to bolster our old favorites. I am itching to bake some fragrant goodies and I'm perusing the craft and decor websites for new items to add to my collection. My mind wanders frequently to Halloween costume ideas, possible seasonal party opportunities and how in the heck I can make my house look like Hogwarts without my neighbors and friends thinking I've totally lost my mind.
Also, we are getting married in 18 days. I'm more excited each day! Just a few small details left to nail down (like actually putting the center pieces on the tables the day of the wedding) but we are set! This coming weekend I have my trial run hair and make up. She said it could take 4 hours... but will be much faster the day of. I have never just sat for 4 hours so this will be interesting. I had the hardest time finding a lipstick since I don't wear a lot of make up normally; who knew that that would be my most manic point in this whole wedding thing so far. I did happen to find an absolutely awesome mascara (not all natural and eco-friendly like I normally like to use) at Sephora- Diorshow Black Out Waterproof mascara. Boy-Howdy is it waterproof! I tested it on Saturday and it is BLACK BLACK BLACK. It didn't smudge or flake off at all even though I was running all over town and got a little sweaty doing yard and house work in the afternoon. It did not come off with my regular face wash, so I slept with it on (after washing the rest of my make up off; I will need to get a heavy duty eye make up remover for this stuff!) and woke up sunday looking like I had just put the mascara on. Totally perfect for a possibly-teary wedding day!
What are your favorite things about Fall?
I LOVE Fall. I say it every year, and every year it becomes truer and truer. This year especially so. I find myself pining over the cozy sweaters and tall boots that are daily being presented in store windows and shelves. I am craving soups and stews and searching for new recipes to bolster our old favorites. I am itching to bake some fragrant goodies and I'm perusing the craft and decor websites for new items to add to my collection. My mind wanders frequently to Halloween costume ideas, possible seasonal party opportunities and how in the heck I can make my house look like Hogwarts without my neighbors and friends thinking I've totally lost my mind.
Also, we are getting married in 18 days. I'm more excited each day! Just a few small details left to nail down (like actually putting the center pieces on the tables the day of the wedding) but we are set! This coming weekend I have my trial run hair and make up. She said it could take 4 hours... but will be much faster the day of. I have never just sat for 4 hours so this will be interesting. I had the hardest time finding a lipstick since I don't wear a lot of make up normally; who knew that that would be my most manic point in this whole wedding thing so far. I did happen to find an absolutely awesome mascara (not all natural and eco-friendly like I normally like to use) at Sephora- Diorshow Black Out Waterproof mascara. Boy-Howdy is it waterproof! I tested it on Saturday and it is BLACK BLACK BLACK. It didn't smudge or flake off at all even though I was running all over town and got a little sweaty doing yard and house work in the afternoon. It did not come off with my regular face wash, so I slept with it on (after washing the rest of my make up off; I will need to get a heavy duty eye make up remover for this stuff!) and woke up sunday looking like I had just put the mascara on. Totally perfect for a possibly-teary wedding day!
What are your favorite things about Fall?
Tuesday, September 4, 2012
24 Days
WHAT?! I'm getting married in 24 days. This is starting to get real, you guys.
Ok, so I feel like I need to play a little catch up because I haven't been posting regularly. Here's what we've been up to:
1. BF got a full time teaching job for this year! YAY! He starts teaching the 4/5 blend class at Atkinson Elementary. We are so excited, but a little stressed out. BF spent most of last week cleaning his class room, trying to get his supplies in order and planning out his curriculum and lesson plans. FUN. But we are grateful that he has a full time permanent position.
2. BF got a new (new to us) car! Woohoo! We knew we were outgrowing BF's car when we moved into the new house and started making frequent trips to Home Depot and Lowe's. He started looking around a few months ago and decided that he didn't want another small car, but rather like Honda Elements. They stopped making them a year or so ago, so he's been looking at used ones. We found a couple we liked, so went for a test drive with one and BF decided that was it! He's sad to sell his car, but happy that we will have a larger vehicle.
3. We got our marriage license. It was kind of boring, but it made things feel more real and official!
4. I figured out how I want to style my center pieces for the reception and ordered all of the vase fillers and flowers to go in them. Expensive and time consuming, but insanely more affordable than having a florist do them. There is no way I'm spending more than what the food costs for center pieces, which is why we are doing them ourselves ahead of time.
5. I learned how to Kayak. Yesterday, being the Labor Day holiday, my parents decided they wanted to go to the lake. I've never been kayaking and got to try it for the first time yesterday. It was so much fun! I think BF and I need to invest in a couple of kayaks and go regularly. What an ab and arm work out!
In a nutshell, that's what we have been up to. I getting super distracted and can't even write a full post without switching over to browse at Bridesmaid gifts. 24. Days.
Ok, so I feel like I need to play a little catch up because I haven't been posting regularly. Here's what we've been up to:
1. BF got a full time teaching job for this year! YAY! He starts teaching the 4/5 blend class at Atkinson Elementary. We are so excited, but a little stressed out. BF spent most of last week cleaning his class room, trying to get his supplies in order and planning out his curriculum and lesson plans. FUN. But we are grateful that he has a full time permanent position.
2. BF got a new (new to us) car! Woohoo! We knew we were outgrowing BF's car when we moved into the new house and started making frequent trips to Home Depot and Lowe's. He started looking around a few months ago and decided that he didn't want another small car, but rather like Honda Elements. They stopped making them a year or so ago, so he's been looking at used ones. We found a couple we liked, so went for a test drive with one and BF decided that was it! He's sad to sell his car, but happy that we will have a larger vehicle.
3. We got our marriage license. It was kind of boring, but it made things feel more real and official!
4. I figured out how I want to style my center pieces for the reception and ordered all of the vase fillers and flowers to go in them. Expensive and time consuming, but insanely more affordable than having a florist do them. There is no way I'm spending more than what the food costs for center pieces, which is why we are doing them ourselves ahead of time.
5. I learned how to Kayak. Yesterday, being the Labor Day holiday, my parents decided they wanted to go to the lake. I've never been kayaking and got to try it for the first time yesterday. It was so much fun! I think BF and I need to invest in a couple of kayaks and go regularly. What an ab and arm work out!
In a nutshell, that's what we have been up to. I getting super distracted and can't even write a full post without switching over to browse at Bridesmaid gifts. 24. Days.
Wednesday, August 29, 2012
Hawaii, 30 Days, and Feminism
Hawaii, you guys, is totally awesome.
In case you didn't know, BF and I got to take a little vacation with his family to the island of Oahu for a week. Apparently it was a great week to be there because here in the Pacific Northwest it may or may not have rained and kind of turned into Fall a little early (by most accounts, it totally did). We flew out last Tuesday, which I was pretty nervous about because, little factoid, I am not so great on airplanes and it was an almost 6 hour flight from Portland to Honolulu. I should probably clarify that I may be prone to getting a little panicky when I am not in control of a vehicle. This is not limited to airplanes, and is something that mostly rears is ugly head when I am in cars. Strangely I'm ok on boats. I have gotten better at managing my panicky moments (sometimes much better than others) but flights generally make me a bit jumpy. Because I have traveled a lot the last 2 years for work I have gotten 200% better than I used to be, but it's still not that fun and I almost always get stressed out before a flight, even if it ends at a tropical island.
So moving on, BF decided that before we got on the flight what I really needed was a good lunch and a few beers. You know what? BF is a smart man. We ate at Gustav's at the airport and filled ourselves with fondue and bread and some delicious cold beer. Don't even worry, I only had 2 hefeweizens and in combination with the cheese and bread I was feeling relaxed and a little sleepy. We boarded our flight and I was in such a good state that I didn't hardly notice that we had taken off - also, the pilot was awesome. You can always tell by the take off and landing if the pilot is super experienced or not. This take off was crazy smooth and the whole ride there was easy going.
We arrived in Honolulu and picked up the rental car (which was not awesome... not a big fan of Jeep vehicles) and drove to our rental home in Kailua. Boy am I glad we stayed in a small town instead of downtown Honolulu or Waikiki. It was so relaxed and homey feeling and we were a block away from the beach! The beach was amazing with white sand, the clearest turquoise waters and was barely populated each day so we had plenty of space to lay out. Kailua is a great little town as well that we explored a bit for restaurants and shops when we didn't have things planned.
Instead of going day by day I mostly want to hit the important things we did, which means I mostly want to tell you what we ate so I'll start there! We went out for breakfast to a little place in Kailua called Cinnamon's which served Red Velvet Pancakes with white chocolate drizzle. If I can basically eat cake for breakfast with a side of bacon I am one happy girl, so that's what I did. You guys, those were some amazing pancakes! They were light and fluffy and wonderful and I would eat them every day if it weren't for the massive amount of weight I would gain doing so. BF chose differently and got some weird omelette which he sort of regretted because it had some strange unidentifiable green stuff in it. We also stopped by Rainbow Drive In one of the afternoons, which I guess is famous, but mostly we wanted a good plate lunch and that is exactly what we got! BF got the mixed plate and I got the Shoyu chicken plate lunch and I can honestly say I've never had better plate lunch in my life. Ever. The chicken was out of this world and the mac salad... well, I can see why they sell it in buckets.
I had shrimp multiple times because, duh, I was in Hawaii, where shrimp is plentiful and delicious and I love me some shrimp! We also, of course, had to stop by Matsumoto's Shave Ice for a famous shave ice on a hot day and then while at the Dole Plantation we got the World Famous Dole Whip after a quick trip on the Pineapple Express. One of the days I also had a burrito that was bigger than my head which I did not even come close to finishing (not even a little bit, I maybe ate 1/4 of it). Also, Mexican food in Hawaii is sort of adorable because it's not quite what we know as Mexican food, but it's close. Case in point: my mexican rice had green peas in it and more closely resembled fried rice, but it was still delicious.
So pretty much everything we ate was good! Which now leaves me room to describe what we actually did besides eat all week. We visited the Valley of the Temples and went to the Biyodo- In Temple, a buddhist temple with an awesomely large bell we got to ring for luck. It was beautiful and peaceful and I am so glad we got to go. We also visited the Dole Plantation, because how can you go to Oahu and not? I was baffled at how a pineapple plant grows. Basically it looks like a pokey ground plant and the pineapple come up out of the middle on a stalk, almost like the plant is presenting you with this strange little fruit. BF, myself and his family hiked up to the top of Diamond Head one afternoon which was an amazing view, but I forgot to bring my inhaler and felt kind of crappy as we ascended struggling for breath. It's crazy how a little heat and humidity can impact your breathing. We also got to see the show at the Polynesian Cultural Center which was pretty neat and we got a canoe ride around it as well.
One thing that we did that we will probably never attempt again is Scuba Diving. I have no idea what possessed BF and I to try it, but we both like boats and thought seeing things underwater would be a cool experience. I will tell you this right now- if you are not good in the deep end of the pool you probably shouldn't scuba dive (I'm referring to BF on this one). Also, if you get panic attacks, you also probably should not scuba dive (this one's all me). Here's what happened: a friend of ours in Portland has family in Oahu, one of which is a dive instructor so he offered to set us up with scuba diving. We thought it was a great idea and agreed to do it. We arrived at the docks and got fitted with wetsuits and fins as we waited for the boat to arrive. The instructors explained the rules of scuba diving and how to use the equipment and then we loaded a boat that had other dive instructors and other divers heading out with us. As we were heading out to our first dive spot the instructors helped us put weight belts, masks, vests and air tanks on, which weighed about 2 million pounds (ok, maybe 50, but trying to move around with it all on and flippers on your feet makes it feel like a lot more weight). I was starting to feel sick, but not seasick. It was hard to describe, but I was feeling weak and light headed, not nauseous. I think it was from the heat of being in the sun with a full wetsuit and 50 lbs of gear on. We got to our dive location and one by one dropped into the water. BF dropped into the water and wasn't super comfortable, but tried to get there. I dropped into the water and was fine until they started trying to take us down. I went down a few feet but then started to panic because the water pressure on my lungs made me feel like I was having a heart attack and the regulator in my mouth was such and uncomfortable feeling that I couldn't get over it. I went back to the surface to start over, but just couldn't get passed the awful feeling in my lungs. Then I noticed that BF was nowhere to be found. I surfaced again and found BF on another line floating at the surface with another instructor and BF looked how I felt. We looked at each other and wordlessly decided that we were DONE. We kindly asked to get back on the boat and quickly took off the gear and unzipped our suits and felt immediately better.
I felt a little bad for not doing better, but you know what- I just cannot stay calm when I cannot breathe properly because breathing techniques are usually what get me through my panic attacks. Also, there was no freaking way I was going scuba diving without BF . So there. So BF and I got a lovely boat ride while other people dove, but we were perfectly fine with it because it was a lovely day and when we anchored for the next dive I just swam around the boat at the surface and looked at the turtles and fish. We also learned on this boat excursion that some people get crazy seasick, even though the water was relatively calm that day. I felt so bad for this one girl who was sick to begin with, then dove and was fine and then, as soon as she got back up from her dive and got on the boat began puking pretty immediately until we reached the next dive spot. Actually, the majority of the people on our boat got seasick. I asked one of the instructors if that was normal and he said, "No! We hardly ever have multiple people get sick. Usually it's just one every few times out". We were so glad it wasn't either of us.
We also did a ton of shopping in Waikiki, Honolulu, Kailua and at the Aloha Stadium swap meet. One of my favorite finds was my wedding band! I picked out a white gold band that has a wave and Maile leaf pattern on it. I was hoping BF would find a similar one, but the patterned rings looked a little girly so he ended up finding a great titanium band as well.
And speaking of weddings... 30 days. Oh. My. Gosh. I may have thrown up in my mouth a little as I typed that. Here's what I'm working on now:
1. Finding garters. I forgot this was a thing! Like, you know, towards the end of the night when I throw my bouquet and BF is supposed to throw a garter? Well, that means that I actually have to have one or two which I realized the other day. I've looked around online and haven't found anything amazing yet. Any suggestions?
2. Underwear. I need to find some comfortable underwear to wear underneath my dress. I haven't really started looking so I probably should. Gah. Again, Suggestions!!!
3. Meeting with our DJ. One of my old friends also DJ's on the side and has agreed to be our DJ so I just need to get together all of our music and give our song selection to him.
4. Get a facial. Sometimes my skin is great and sometimes, like when I'm stressed, it explodes. Right now it's mostly contained, but I need to make sure it stays that way.
5. Even out my tan. Oh the TAN LINES! If there is one thing I should have done better in Hawaii it would be to have completely gone topless (LOL!) or worn a tube top because I have a million different tan lines of varying degrees that aren't going to look great in my strapless dress.
6. Figure out the final head count. I have a spreadsheet that I'm using to track this, but it's really down to the fact that people don't send RSVP's in a timely manner which is so frustrating. BF and I are trying to track down the stragglers and get straight answers. So. Much. Fun.
7. Not stress over the little things. Up to about a month ago things were peachy and then BAM! One day I started getting stressed out over this wedding so I'm making a conscious effort to NOT STRESS over the things that I cannot control or that I shouldn't even bother with.
So that is just the top few items on my list, but mostly I feel like it's all under control for the most part.
I was going to tell you about this book I read on the flight and my new thoughts about Feminism, but I am thinking I should save that for it's own separate post, but I will leave you with a recommended read: How to Become a Woman by Caitlin Moran. Read it.
What's new with you all?
In case you didn't know, BF and I got to take a little vacation with his family to the island of Oahu for a week. Apparently it was a great week to be there because here in the Pacific Northwest it may or may not have rained and kind of turned into Fall a little early (by most accounts, it totally did). We flew out last Tuesday, which I was pretty nervous about because, little factoid, I am not so great on airplanes and it was an almost 6 hour flight from Portland to Honolulu. I should probably clarify that I may be prone to getting a little panicky when I am not in control of a vehicle. This is not limited to airplanes, and is something that mostly rears is ugly head when I am in cars. Strangely I'm ok on boats. I have gotten better at managing my panicky moments (sometimes much better than others) but flights generally make me a bit jumpy. Because I have traveled a lot the last 2 years for work I have gotten 200% better than I used to be, but it's still not that fun and I almost always get stressed out before a flight, even if it ends at a tropical island.
So moving on, BF decided that before we got on the flight what I really needed was a good lunch and a few beers. You know what? BF is a smart man. We ate at Gustav's at the airport and filled ourselves with fondue and bread and some delicious cold beer. Don't even worry, I only had 2 hefeweizens and in combination with the cheese and bread I was feeling relaxed and a little sleepy. We boarded our flight and I was in such a good state that I didn't hardly notice that we had taken off - also, the pilot was awesome. You can always tell by the take off and landing if the pilot is super experienced or not. This take off was crazy smooth and the whole ride there was easy going.
We arrived in Honolulu and picked up the rental car (which was not awesome... not a big fan of Jeep vehicles) and drove to our rental home in Kailua. Boy am I glad we stayed in a small town instead of downtown Honolulu or Waikiki. It was so relaxed and homey feeling and we were a block away from the beach! The beach was amazing with white sand, the clearest turquoise waters and was barely populated each day so we had plenty of space to lay out. Kailua is a great little town as well that we explored a bit for restaurants and shops when we didn't have things planned.
Instead of going day by day I mostly want to hit the important things we did, which means I mostly want to tell you what we ate so I'll start there! We went out for breakfast to a little place in Kailua called Cinnamon's which served Red Velvet Pancakes with white chocolate drizzle. If I can basically eat cake for breakfast with a side of bacon I am one happy girl, so that's what I did. You guys, those were some amazing pancakes! They were light and fluffy and wonderful and I would eat them every day if it weren't for the massive amount of weight I would gain doing so. BF chose differently and got some weird omelette which he sort of regretted because it had some strange unidentifiable green stuff in it. We also stopped by Rainbow Drive In one of the afternoons, which I guess is famous, but mostly we wanted a good plate lunch and that is exactly what we got! BF got the mixed plate and I got the Shoyu chicken plate lunch and I can honestly say I've never had better plate lunch in my life. Ever. The chicken was out of this world and the mac salad... well, I can see why they sell it in buckets.
I had shrimp multiple times because, duh, I was in Hawaii, where shrimp is plentiful and delicious and I love me some shrimp! We also, of course, had to stop by Matsumoto's Shave Ice for a famous shave ice on a hot day and then while at the Dole Plantation we got the World Famous Dole Whip after a quick trip on the Pineapple Express. One of the days I also had a burrito that was bigger than my head which I did not even come close to finishing (not even a little bit, I maybe ate 1/4 of it). Also, Mexican food in Hawaii is sort of adorable because it's not quite what we know as Mexican food, but it's close. Case in point: my mexican rice had green peas in it and more closely resembled fried rice, but it was still delicious.
So pretty much everything we ate was good! Which now leaves me room to describe what we actually did besides eat all week. We visited the Valley of the Temples and went to the Biyodo- In Temple, a buddhist temple with an awesomely large bell we got to ring for luck. It was beautiful and peaceful and I am so glad we got to go. We also visited the Dole Plantation, because how can you go to Oahu and not? I was baffled at how a pineapple plant grows. Basically it looks like a pokey ground plant and the pineapple come up out of the middle on a stalk, almost like the plant is presenting you with this strange little fruit. BF, myself and his family hiked up to the top of Diamond Head one afternoon which was an amazing view, but I forgot to bring my inhaler and felt kind of crappy as we ascended struggling for breath. It's crazy how a little heat and humidity can impact your breathing. We also got to see the show at the Polynesian Cultural Center which was pretty neat and we got a canoe ride around it as well.
One thing that we did that we will probably never attempt again is Scuba Diving. I have no idea what possessed BF and I to try it, but we both like boats and thought seeing things underwater would be a cool experience. I will tell you this right now- if you are not good in the deep end of the pool you probably shouldn't scuba dive (I'm referring to BF on this one). Also, if you get panic attacks, you also probably should not scuba dive (this one's all me). Here's what happened: a friend of ours in Portland has family in Oahu, one of which is a dive instructor so he offered to set us up with scuba diving. We thought it was a great idea and agreed to do it. We arrived at the docks and got fitted with wetsuits and fins as we waited for the boat to arrive. The instructors explained the rules of scuba diving and how to use the equipment and then we loaded a boat that had other dive instructors and other divers heading out with us. As we were heading out to our first dive spot the instructors helped us put weight belts, masks, vests and air tanks on, which weighed about 2 million pounds (ok, maybe 50, but trying to move around with it all on and flippers on your feet makes it feel like a lot more weight). I was starting to feel sick, but not seasick. It was hard to describe, but I was feeling weak and light headed, not nauseous. I think it was from the heat of being in the sun with a full wetsuit and 50 lbs of gear on. We got to our dive location and one by one dropped into the water. BF dropped into the water and wasn't super comfortable, but tried to get there. I dropped into the water and was fine until they started trying to take us down. I went down a few feet but then started to panic because the water pressure on my lungs made me feel like I was having a heart attack and the regulator in my mouth was such and uncomfortable feeling that I couldn't get over it. I went back to the surface to start over, but just couldn't get passed the awful feeling in my lungs. Then I noticed that BF was nowhere to be found. I surfaced again and found BF on another line floating at the surface with another instructor and BF looked how I felt. We looked at each other and wordlessly decided that we were DONE. We kindly asked to get back on the boat and quickly took off the gear and unzipped our suits and felt immediately better.
I felt a little bad for not doing better, but you know what- I just cannot stay calm when I cannot breathe properly because breathing techniques are usually what get me through my panic attacks. Also, there was no freaking way I was going scuba diving without BF . So there. So BF and I got a lovely boat ride while other people dove, but we were perfectly fine with it because it was a lovely day and when we anchored for the next dive I just swam around the boat at the surface and looked at the turtles and fish. We also learned on this boat excursion that some people get crazy seasick, even though the water was relatively calm that day. I felt so bad for this one girl who was sick to begin with, then dove and was fine and then, as soon as she got back up from her dive and got on the boat began puking pretty immediately until we reached the next dive spot. Actually, the majority of the people on our boat got seasick. I asked one of the instructors if that was normal and he said, "No! We hardly ever have multiple people get sick. Usually it's just one every few times out". We were so glad it wasn't either of us.
We also did a ton of shopping in Waikiki, Honolulu, Kailua and at the Aloha Stadium swap meet. One of my favorite finds was my wedding band! I picked out a white gold band that has a wave and Maile leaf pattern on it. I was hoping BF would find a similar one, but the patterned rings looked a little girly so he ended up finding a great titanium band as well.
And speaking of weddings... 30 days. Oh. My. Gosh. I may have thrown up in my mouth a little as I typed that. Here's what I'm working on now:
1. Finding garters. I forgot this was a thing! Like, you know, towards the end of the night when I throw my bouquet and BF is supposed to throw a garter? Well, that means that I actually have to have one or two which I realized the other day. I've looked around online and haven't found anything amazing yet. Any suggestions?
2. Underwear. I need to find some comfortable underwear to wear underneath my dress. I haven't really started looking so I probably should. Gah. Again, Suggestions!!!
3. Meeting with our DJ. One of my old friends also DJ's on the side and has agreed to be our DJ so I just need to get together all of our music and give our song selection to him.
4. Get a facial. Sometimes my skin is great and sometimes, like when I'm stressed, it explodes. Right now it's mostly contained, but I need to make sure it stays that way.
5. Even out my tan. Oh the TAN LINES! If there is one thing I should have done better in Hawaii it would be to have completely gone topless (LOL!) or worn a tube top because I have a million different tan lines of varying degrees that aren't going to look great in my strapless dress.
6. Figure out the final head count. I have a spreadsheet that I'm using to track this, but it's really down to the fact that people don't send RSVP's in a timely manner which is so frustrating. BF and I are trying to track down the stragglers and get straight answers. So. Much. Fun.
7. Not stress over the little things. Up to about a month ago things were peachy and then BAM! One day I started getting stressed out over this wedding so I'm making a conscious effort to NOT STRESS over the things that I cannot control or that I shouldn't even bother with.
So that is just the top few items on my list, but mostly I feel like it's all under control for the most part.
I was going to tell you about this book I read on the flight and my new thoughts about Feminism, but I am thinking I should save that for it's own separate post, but I will leave you with a recommended read: How to Become a Woman by Caitlin Moran. Read it.
What's new with you all?
Monday, August 13, 2012
Oh, THIS is What Everyone Was Talking About
Holy Shit, I'm having a meltdown today for whatever reason. Well, for like a million reasons, really. Everyone's been asking how wedding plans are coming along and how things were going and up to yesterday they were GREAT! I feel like we have been so far ahead of things in the planning department that all there was really left to do was wait for the wedding. I mean, there are always a few little details to figure out, but for the most part all of the big stuff is taken care of and I don't have any (knock on wood) last minute issues to figure out.
Despite all of my organization and planning I am having a full on freak out about this wedding and the fact that it is only 46 days away. I can't even really pinpoint what my issue or issues may be. Everything I can control is taken care of. I cannot control other people or affect the outcome of things unplanned. So what's my deal? This must be what other brides have told me about- the total stress that sneak-attacks and takes over. Doesn't even make sense.
Also, I'm freaking out about the bridal shower this week. My MOH invited around 40, but we've only heard back from 4. So now I'm thinking, "Am I completely unlikable? Why aren't people RSVP'ing? Is it because it's on a Friday afternoon? Because that's the only day and time most people said they were available!!! OMG!!!!! Let's have a heart attack about it! I've already ordered cupcakes!". I know I'm being a total idiot, but I don't want to have her plan this thing and spend time and money on it if no one is going to come.
Tomorrow we are supposed to meet with our officiator so that's one more thing I can cross off of my list of to do's. I'm not sure if I want to write my own vows or what, but I guess after tomorrow's conversation I should have a better idea.
We leave for Hawaii in a week, and I'm super excited and I think I'll be able to relax for that. I'm a little nervous about having someone new stay at the house with them, but I think they'll be ok for the most part.
Someone give me a sedative.
Tuesday, August 7, 2012
My Little Problem Resurfaces
I've discussed this before with you all, but sometimes I have an issue I like to call the "Eeeee's". The Eeeee's are characterized by a high pitched "eeee" sound, followed by uncontrollable giggles pretty much any time I see something insanely cute (like micro mini pigs) or sometimes even when I think of something really really cute (like 5 minutes ago at my desk when I thought about our dogs at home and how Rudy makes this cute scrunched up face and ducks his head when running up to us when we get home in the afternoons and it's so cute I started hysterically giggling by myself in my cube at work). So yeah, it's a problem sometimes.
I don't know why this happens. I'm not a crazy emotional person (anymore, good riddance teenage hormones) for the most part so it makes no sense to me to have such a crazy strong reaction to cute things. It's like I see something so adorable my brain short circuits and my body doesn't know how to handle it so it makes a warning noise (the "eee") and then in a fit of confusion I giggle. Logical? Not at all.
I bring this up because a couple nights ago I had a raging case of the "Eeee's" while surfing Facebook to see what was new with the folks I haven't seen in a while. It seemed to me to be the day when everyone on Facebook was required to post a cute animal picture and I pretty much sat on the couch "Eeee"-ing for 30 minutes until BF looked frustrated and I was purple from giggling so much.
Then, today, as mentioned at the beginning of this post, I was at my desk minding my own business when I thought about our dogs. Yeah, even THINKING about cute or adorable things is making me hysterical.
There has to be an actual name or medical/scientific term for this. Also, someone save me from myself. Poor BF is pretty much committing eternity to me and this is only part of what he has to put up with. God bless that man.
Someone else has to have a similar problem.
I don't know why this happens. I'm not a crazy emotional person (anymore, good riddance teenage hormones) for the most part so it makes no sense to me to have such a crazy strong reaction to cute things. It's like I see something so adorable my brain short circuits and my body doesn't know how to handle it so it makes a warning noise (the "eee") and then in a fit of confusion I giggle. Logical? Not at all.
I bring this up because a couple nights ago I had a raging case of the "Eeee's" while surfing Facebook to see what was new with the folks I haven't seen in a while. It seemed to me to be the day when everyone on Facebook was required to post a cute animal picture and I pretty much sat on the couch "Eeee"-ing for 30 minutes until BF looked frustrated and I was purple from giggling so much.
Then, today, as mentioned at the beginning of this post, I was at my desk minding my own business when I thought about our dogs. Yeah, even THINKING about cute or adorable things is making me hysterical.
There has to be an actual name or medical/scientific term for this. Also, someone save me from myself. Poor BF is pretty much committing eternity to me and this is only part of what he has to put up with. God bless that man.
Someone else has to have a similar problem.
An Open Letter to the Olympics
Dear Olympics,
It has come to my attention that there are some events within you that do not make any sense. Seriously. Last night BF and I hunkered down to watch Olympic Events as we do each night, ready for some awesomeness and do you know what was on? The indoor cycling races also known as Velodrome racing. Do you know how confused I was at first? Very. Those guys start pedaling SO. SLOWLY and keep looking back at each other like "whose gonna make the first move? Are you?" and I'm like "What the hell?! This is supposed to be a RACE! You should just go fast!". Also, it's the best out of 3. I feel like this is a race my sister and I made up when we were in elementary school. I'm sure those guys train hard, but seriously, let's give them a more competitive and serious race to compete in. In the end I was just mad and starting watching tv reruns. Lame.
Also, dressage. Really? And the weirdest part of it all is that the horses do all of the physical work and the person riding them gets the medal? Let's just have an equestrian olympics or something because the people aren't athletes, they are horse trainers. This is silly. In no other "sport" is the athlete not given a medal for placing, and since the athletes are animals and not people I say that doesn't change anything and the horses should get the medal.
I feel a little underwhelmed this year and it is disappointing. Maybe for the next ones lets make some changes.
Thanks!
Heather
It has come to my attention that there are some events within you that do not make any sense. Seriously. Last night BF and I hunkered down to watch Olympic Events as we do each night, ready for some awesomeness and do you know what was on? The indoor cycling races also known as Velodrome racing. Do you know how confused I was at first? Very. Those guys start pedaling SO. SLOWLY and keep looking back at each other like "whose gonna make the first move? Are you?" and I'm like "What the hell?! This is supposed to be a RACE! You should just go fast!". Also, it's the best out of 3. I feel like this is a race my sister and I made up when we were in elementary school. I'm sure those guys train hard, but seriously, let's give them a more competitive and serious race to compete in. In the end I was just mad and starting watching tv reruns. Lame.
Also, dressage. Really? And the weirdest part of it all is that the horses do all of the physical work and the person riding them gets the medal? Let's just have an equestrian olympics or something because the people aren't athletes, they are horse trainers. This is silly. In no other "sport" is the athlete not given a medal for placing, and since the athletes are animals and not people I say that doesn't change anything and the horses should get the medal.
I feel a little underwhelmed this year and it is disappointing. Maybe for the next ones lets make some changes.
Thanks!
Heather
Monday, July 30, 2012
The Day I Thought I was Going To Completely Lose It... Also Known as Thursday
I'm not even exaggerating when I say that, either. Do you ever have a day when you are so angry over the littlest things and by the end of the day other people's breathing even gets to you? That was my Thursday last week.
Driving to work it seemed like no one really knew how to drive or what they were doing. I got cut off multiple times, I got stuck behind a guy going 25 miles an hour on TV Highway (where it is supposed to be 45) but couldn't get around him because of a city bus, and someone stopped IN AN INTERSECTION and then got stuck there when the light changed so the whole line of cars I was in didn't get to go during our green light. Awesome. And the best part was when I was sitting at a red light and I noticed the guy in the car in front of me was moving around in a weird way. I didn't think anything of it until he opened his door and puked. everywhere. Oh my gosh, you guys, even typing that it makes me feel sick! I hate hate hate vomit almost more than anything in the entire world. Not only does it make me feel sick to see it but it makes me angry- it has ever since I was a little kid.
When I got to work things seemed to settle down for a bit until I started getting the dumb questions like, "Where is the tape?" and "Do we have staples? I'm out". For the eleventy-billionth time, I AM NOT THE SUPPLY CABINET, YOU KNOW WHERE THE DAMN CABINET IS... WALK OVER TO IT AND LOOK BEFORE YOU ASK ME FOR SOMETHING. Not that hard. It's akin to being at home and sitting in your living room and asking aloud , "Do we have cereal? I could totally eat some right now" and expecting someone to appear and magically pull it out of their ass and hand it to you. Does that happen in your home? NO? Huh, because that is pretty much what you are expecting to happen at work.
The dumb questions kept coming all day and it was a mad rush to get some of my projects semi- completed which stressed the hell out of me. I ran some errands after work and it felt like everywhere I turned someone was doing something stupid. I finally got home and was grump beyond belief so I decided it was high time for some Facebook surfing to relax and see what was going on with everyone else. Worst idea ever. Pretty much every post I saw was about how someone's baby had slept more than 2 hours at a time or how another baby took their first solid poop, and even better how this other baby rolled over and he's only 2 months old! Holy crap, you guys... I want to see cute pictures of your baby, I do not need a minute by minute recap of what he did in his day. If you want to capture the moment he took his first solid poop, Facebook is not the place to be posting. Please put that in a scrapbook and write about it. I want to see cute babies and cute baby animals and witty posts from my friends about politics and entertainment, not posts about freakin' baby poop and babies rolling over.
So BF and I decided that we were going to counter attack all the damn baby posts with our own "baby" posts. Each day going forward one of us will post a picture of the other person doing something normal and then we will caption that picture explaining what we are doing and HOW AWESOME it is and how PROUD we are that the other person is doing that. We've already started this and you may have noticed my "Rian eats solid food" post on Saturday. I don't care if people don't like it, it makes me feel better by barraging their newsfeed with stupid updates when I'm assaulted by theirs.
Anyway, so instead of cooking dinner BF and I decided we needed to eat at our favorite place, Pho Tango, because we didn't have the energy to cook anything nor the energy to clean up after cooking. After dinner I was in a much better mood and then realized that other than my oatmeal at breakfast I had not eaten carbs AT ALL that day and was thusly causing my foul mood. It's amazing what some noodles can do.
The evening quickly turned around (go figure) and the weekend was much better. Tomorrow I will tell you all about how I made up for my lack of carbs last week over the weekend and also how I met BF's family from Oklahoma.
Driving to work it seemed like no one really knew how to drive or what they were doing. I got cut off multiple times, I got stuck behind a guy going 25 miles an hour on TV Highway (where it is supposed to be 45) but couldn't get around him because of a city bus, and someone stopped IN AN INTERSECTION and then got stuck there when the light changed so the whole line of cars I was in didn't get to go during our green light. Awesome. And the best part was when I was sitting at a red light and I noticed the guy in the car in front of me was moving around in a weird way. I didn't think anything of it until he opened his door and puked. everywhere. Oh my gosh, you guys, even typing that it makes me feel sick! I hate hate hate vomit almost more than anything in the entire world. Not only does it make me feel sick to see it but it makes me angry- it has ever since I was a little kid.
When I got to work things seemed to settle down for a bit until I started getting the dumb questions like, "Where is the tape?" and "Do we have staples? I'm out". For the eleventy-billionth time, I AM NOT THE SUPPLY CABINET, YOU KNOW WHERE THE DAMN CABINET IS... WALK OVER TO IT AND LOOK BEFORE YOU ASK ME FOR SOMETHING. Not that hard. It's akin to being at home and sitting in your living room and asking aloud , "Do we have cereal? I could totally eat some right now" and expecting someone to appear and magically pull it out of their ass and hand it to you. Does that happen in your home? NO? Huh, because that is pretty much what you are expecting to happen at work.
The dumb questions kept coming all day and it was a mad rush to get some of my projects semi- completed which stressed the hell out of me. I ran some errands after work and it felt like everywhere I turned someone was doing something stupid. I finally got home and was grump beyond belief so I decided it was high time for some Facebook surfing to relax and see what was going on with everyone else. Worst idea ever. Pretty much every post I saw was about how someone's baby had slept more than 2 hours at a time or how another baby took their first solid poop, and even better how this other baby rolled over and he's only 2 months old! Holy crap, you guys... I want to see cute pictures of your baby, I do not need a minute by minute recap of what he did in his day. If you want to capture the moment he took his first solid poop, Facebook is not the place to be posting. Please put that in a scrapbook and write about it. I want to see cute babies and cute baby animals and witty posts from my friends about politics and entertainment, not posts about freakin' baby poop and babies rolling over.
So BF and I decided that we were going to counter attack all the damn baby posts with our own "baby" posts. Each day going forward one of us will post a picture of the other person doing something normal and then we will caption that picture explaining what we are doing and HOW AWESOME it is and how PROUD we are that the other person is doing that. We've already started this and you may have noticed my "Rian eats solid food" post on Saturday. I don't care if people don't like it, it makes me feel better by barraging their newsfeed with stupid updates when I'm assaulted by theirs.
Anyway, so instead of cooking dinner BF and I decided we needed to eat at our favorite place, Pho Tango, because we didn't have the energy to cook anything nor the energy to clean up after cooking. After dinner I was in a much better mood and then realized that other than my oatmeal at breakfast I had not eaten carbs AT ALL that day and was thusly causing my foul mood. It's amazing what some noodles can do.
The evening quickly turned around (go figure) and the weekend was much better. Tomorrow I will tell you all about how I made up for my lack of carbs last week over the weekend and also how I met BF's family from Oklahoma.
Tuesday, July 24, 2012
SIXTY. SIX. DAYS.
You. Guys.
Life is so busy, but also so good. I don't even know where to start. I always think I'm going to update and post more often and then I forget about it and 3 weeks have gone by and I realized I haven't even touched an update! So back to what is happening.
BF and I finally finished our backyard patio. That took way longer than we expected, but mostly because re reused the paving stones that already existed so we had to clean each one. by. hand. UGH. I don't ever want to scrub stones again. I have also neglected to take pictures. We now have to clean up the yard debris created by this project and de-weed the yard so we can lay down new grass seed and finish up the yard. It sounds easy, but I don't think it will actually be finished until September.
In wedding news we have T-minus 66 days. That's right. Sixty. Six. Days. Less than three months and I will no longer be a "single" lady. This is motivating and exhausting at the same time. I'm motivated to keep working out and eating healthy so I look awesome on our wedding day, but I'm also thinking, "two more months of working out hard and eating right and working a lot of hours at the office before I get to rest... how will I make it?"
Our Hawaii trip is at the end of August so I'm really looking forward to that, and it's the perfect excuse to buy a few new summery things! I cannot enjoy a luau properly if not in a cute cotton dress. That's just the way things are.
Oh yeah, and I got to meet a lot of BF's mother's side of the family two weekends ago at their family reunion. It's a pretty large side of the family and I know I won't remember everyone's names, but I'm sure they won't mind. This coming weekend BF's grandma is throwing us a party to celebrate our wedding because a lot of his father's side of the family won't be able to make it out in September. So it's sort of a family reunion/ wedding shower BBQ all rolled into one. It should be fun, and pretty entertaining if I believe the descriptions of family members from BF and his dad.
So much more is going on, but I don't even have the mind space to sort it all out and put it into words right now so this update will have to do. But I promise I won't forget to keep up with the updates!
Life is so busy, but also so good. I don't even know where to start. I always think I'm going to update and post more often and then I forget about it and 3 weeks have gone by and I realized I haven't even touched an update! So back to what is happening.
BF and I finally finished our backyard patio. That took way longer than we expected, but mostly because re reused the paving stones that already existed so we had to clean each one. by. hand. UGH. I don't ever want to scrub stones again. I have also neglected to take pictures. We now have to clean up the yard debris created by this project and de-weed the yard so we can lay down new grass seed and finish up the yard. It sounds easy, but I don't think it will actually be finished until September.
In wedding news we have T-minus 66 days. That's right. Sixty. Six. Days. Less than three months and I will no longer be a "single" lady. This is motivating and exhausting at the same time. I'm motivated to keep working out and eating healthy so I look awesome on our wedding day, but I'm also thinking, "two more months of working out hard and eating right and working a lot of hours at the office before I get to rest... how will I make it?"
Our Hawaii trip is at the end of August so I'm really looking forward to that, and it's the perfect excuse to buy a few new summery things! I cannot enjoy a luau properly if not in a cute cotton dress. That's just the way things are.
Oh yeah, and I got to meet a lot of BF's mother's side of the family two weekends ago at their family reunion. It's a pretty large side of the family and I know I won't remember everyone's names, but I'm sure they won't mind. This coming weekend BF's grandma is throwing us a party to celebrate our wedding because a lot of his father's side of the family won't be able to make it out in September. So it's sort of a family reunion/ wedding shower BBQ all rolled into one. It should be fun, and pretty entertaining if I believe the descriptions of family members from BF and his dad.
So much more is going on, but I don't even have the mind space to sort it all out and put it into words right now so this update will have to do. But I promise I won't forget to keep up with the updates!
Tuesday, July 3, 2012
Holy Updates
It's been FOREVER since I updated this dear old blog, and not for lack of post material.
We've been busier than ever so I'll start from the beginning. When I last updated we had just attending our Garden Themed wedding shower thrown by BF's amazing coworkers and it was a blast. A few days after that BF and I headed downtown with our photographer to get our official engagement photos done. It was fun, but also super awkward for a multitude of reasons. Reason #1- it was the same day as the Portland Pride Parade so while our photographer was trying to get us to be serious and look at each other, we were busy trying not to crack up looking at the crazy outfits as they passed us by. Reason #2- I don't naturally smile all day long, so smiling for an hour was tough work! I had to take a few "face breaks" and stretch my cheeks and face out the other way because I was starting to cramp up! Reason #3- posing is hard because you don't naturally just hold a position for very long so holding a pose and smiling and trying not to laugh was interesting. But the pictures turned out great! Some to come shortly.
A few days after the engagement photo session I drove to Utah to visit my best friend, D, who is also my Maid (Matron) of Honor. It was so awesome once I actually got to Utah (driving through Idaho is not my favorite thing to do) because it was hot and sunny- basically the total opposite of Oregon during that week. I even got a tan! We shopped for a MOH dress for D (and found a great one!) and then mostly hung out and talked about houses and marriage and babies and bachelorette parties (because all of those things are happening to us at this stage in life... except the babies for me, we will wait on that for now). It was so great to see her and spend time with her and her husband, M, I'm just sad that BF had to miss it.
Oh yeah, and BF got a cool summer job teaching some of the camps this summer at OMSI! One of them is a Science School of Wizardry class reminiscent of Harry Potter but based around actual science experiments the kids can do. I have to admit that I am slightly jealous.
We have also completely removed all of the sod from our backyard so it is now the unending dirt pit in which the dogs get completely filthy and then come inside and dirty up my clean house. Ugh. But now we can move on to actually planning and putting together our patio with paving stones and then reseeding the yard so by the end of summer it will be a beautiful backyard oasis of awesome where we can sit and make s'mores and hang out until it gets cold and rainy again. We are thinking about throwing a work party this coming Saturday so we can get the last of the prep work done and actually start laying the pavers! Free pizza and beverages, and possibly popcicles if you are interested!
I'm also in "Holy Crap, we are going to Hawaii in a month and a half and we are going to get married in just under 3" mode so I am refocusing my exercise efforts so I feel comfortable in a bathing suit again. I got started but I have a lot more work to do in the next 45-60 days! Lunges and squats are now my life. Also, planks. Gah, I hate ab stuff but it is totally necessary!
So there is the quick version update! I am so happy that it finally feels like summer. What are your plans?
We've been busier than ever so I'll start from the beginning. When I last updated we had just attending our Garden Themed wedding shower thrown by BF's amazing coworkers and it was a blast. A few days after that BF and I headed downtown with our photographer to get our official engagement photos done. It was fun, but also super awkward for a multitude of reasons. Reason #1- it was the same day as the Portland Pride Parade so while our photographer was trying to get us to be serious and look at each other, we were busy trying not to crack up looking at the crazy outfits as they passed us by. Reason #2- I don't naturally smile all day long, so smiling for an hour was tough work! I had to take a few "face breaks" and stretch my cheeks and face out the other way because I was starting to cramp up! Reason #3- posing is hard because you don't naturally just hold a position for very long so holding a pose and smiling and trying not to laugh was interesting. But the pictures turned out great! Some to come shortly.
A few days after the engagement photo session I drove to Utah to visit my best friend, D, who is also my Maid (Matron) of Honor. It was so awesome once I actually got to Utah (driving through Idaho is not my favorite thing to do) because it was hot and sunny- basically the total opposite of Oregon during that week. I even got a tan! We shopped for a MOH dress for D (and found a great one!) and then mostly hung out and talked about houses and marriage and babies and bachelorette parties (because all of those things are happening to us at this stage in life... except the babies for me, we will wait on that for now). It was so great to see her and spend time with her and her husband, M, I'm just sad that BF had to miss it.
Oh yeah, and BF got a cool summer job teaching some of the camps this summer at OMSI! One of them is a Science School of Wizardry class reminiscent of Harry Potter but based around actual science experiments the kids can do. I have to admit that I am slightly jealous.
We have also completely removed all of the sod from our backyard so it is now the unending dirt pit in which the dogs get completely filthy and then come inside and dirty up my clean house. Ugh. But now we can move on to actually planning and putting together our patio with paving stones and then reseeding the yard so by the end of summer it will be a beautiful backyard oasis of awesome where we can sit and make s'mores and hang out until it gets cold and rainy again. We are thinking about throwing a work party this coming Saturday so we can get the last of the prep work done and actually start laying the pavers! Free pizza and beverages, and possibly popcicles if you are interested!
I'm also in "Holy Crap, we are going to Hawaii in a month and a half and we are going to get married in just under 3" mode so I am refocusing my exercise efforts so I feel comfortable in a bathing suit again. I got started but I have a lot more work to do in the next 45-60 days! Lunges and squats are now my life. Also, planks. Gah, I hate ab stuff but it is totally necessary!
So there is the quick version update! I am so happy that it finally feels like summer. What are your plans?
Monday, June 11, 2012
Garden Party Wedding Shower!
Friday night was pretty sweet, you guys. The teachers at BF's school threw us a little Yard and Garden themed wedding shower and it was AMAZING.
One of the teachers hosted at her house which is the cutest stone house ever in the West Moreland area. Ever. Anyway, so when BF and I arrived we walked up the stone steps and on the front door we were greeted with this picture:
I laughed until I cried, it was an awesome joke on BF. Those ladies are so funny! Anyway, because it was a garden themed party we had all sorts of garden themed goodies and a dessert of Dirt Pie which was an adorable pot filled with layers of pudding and crumbled cookies made to look like dirt with gummy worms coming out of it. And we got some pretty amazing gifts as well! We got lots of yard and garden tools (shovels, hoses, water can, etc), an amazing wheelbarrow, a glass pitcher for tea and libations, cute citronella candles and LOTS of Home Depot/Ace Hardware gift cards!!!
I cannot thank those awesome teachers enough because over the weekend BF and I started tearing out our backyard sod so we can start over (now that most of it is dead) and we definitely used most, if not all of the gifts we got plus we had a very fruitful shopping trip to the Home Depot. After we got all of the yard stuff we needed, we even had enough gift card money left over to buy two wooden Adirondak chairs and a little side table for our front porch!
Once we have accomplished more in the yard I will take pics.
I also feel like we are officially getting married now- once there's a party in your honor it's a done deal! We are so excited and I can hardly stand it!
One of the teachers hosted at her house which is the cutest stone house ever in the West Moreland area. Ever. Anyway, so when BF and I arrived we walked up the stone steps and on the front door we were greeted with this picture:
If you cannot read the "caption" it says , "Llewellyn Dress Code" as in, that is how he dresses for teaching (NOT).
And then they had more all over the house with different hilarious captions:
 |
| "Taco, Burrito, What's that in your Speedo?" |
 |
| "Don't bring your guns to school!" |
I laughed until I cried, it was an awesome joke on BF. Those ladies are so funny! Anyway, because it was a garden themed party we had all sorts of garden themed goodies and a dessert of Dirt Pie which was an adorable pot filled with layers of pudding and crumbled cookies made to look like dirt with gummy worms coming out of it. And we got some pretty amazing gifts as well! We got lots of yard and garden tools (shovels, hoses, water can, etc), an amazing wheelbarrow, a glass pitcher for tea and libations, cute citronella candles and LOTS of Home Depot/Ace Hardware gift cards!!!
I cannot thank those awesome teachers enough because over the weekend BF and I started tearing out our backyard sod so we can start over (now that most of it is dead) and we definitely used most, if not all of the gifts we got plus we had a very fruitful shopping trip to the Home Depot. After we got all of the yard stuff we needed, we even had enough gift card money left over to buy two wooden Adirondak chairs and a little side table for our front porch!
Once we have accomplished more in the yard I will take pics.
I also feel like we are officially getting married now- once there's a party in your honor it's a done deal! We are so excited and I can hardly stand it!
Friday, June 8, 2012
EOTW (End of the Week)
Ah, you guys, it has been quite a weird week so I don't even want to rehash all of that. But it wasn't all bad, either. Here are some of the highlights of the week and what I'm looking forward to for the weekend.
1. I made some kick ass bread. BF and I have always tried to buy the best quality bread we can, but sometimes it's expensive and sometimes you find that good ingredients are hard to come by so we decided we should try making our own. A couple weeks ago I made my first batch and followed the directions to a T and my bread was heavy and didn't have the best flavor. It didn't taste awful, but it definitely didn't meet my standards. I tried again 2 weeks ago using a different recipe and then modifying it slightly to what I thought I should do and it turned out great! I had to stick it back in the oven because the recipe called for a baking time of 20 minutes (How about it's more like 35-40 minutes, but whatever, recipe) but other than that it was pretty tasty and much lighter than the first batch. This week I did it again and man am I really getting the hang of this bread thing. It was even lighter and fluffier and tastier than the previous batch and it came out golden and awesome. I will post my modified recipe soon if you want to try it for yourself. See my lovely loaves in all of their glory:
2. Continuing my domestic streak, I successfully made yogurt. For real. I didn't realize how easy it was, especially with an awesome yogurt maker that my mom found at Goodwill for $4. All you have to do is boil your milk, add the yogurt cultures, pour them into the jars and let them sit in the heated yogurt maker overnight and boom! Yogurt. We priced it out and making a batch of yogurt costs less than 50 cents per serving container. That's WAY more cost effective than buying our favorite yogurts for $1.25-$2.00 a serving. I'm going to keep my eye out for a second yogurt maker so we can do double batches because BF and I like yogurt pretty much everyday for a snack. Sorry, no pictures but maybe next time.
1. I made some kick ass bread. BF and I have always tried to buy the best quality bread we can, but sometimes it's expensive and sometimes you find that good ingredients are hard to come by so we decided we should try making our own. A couple weeks ago I made my first batch and followed the directions to a T and my bread was heavy and didn't have the best flavor. It didn't taste awful, but it definitely didn't meet my standards. I tried again 2 weeks ago using a different recipe and then modifying it slightly to what I thought I should do and it turned out great! I had to stick it back in the oven because the recipe called for a baking time of 20 minutes (How about it's more like 35-40 minutes, but whatever, recipe) but other than that it was pretty tasty and much lighter than the first batch. This week I did it again and man am I really getting the hang of this bread thing. It was even lighter and fluffier and tastier than the previous batch and it came out golden and awesome. I will post my modified recipe soon if you want to try it for yourself. See my lovely loaves in all of their glory:
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Dough! |
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| The finished product. |
2. Continuing my domestic streak, I successfully made yogurt. For real. I didn't realize how easy it was, especially with an awesome yogurt maker that my mom found at Goodwill for $4. All you have to do is boil your milk, add the yogurt cultures, pour them into the jars and let them sit in the heated yogurt maker overnight and boom! Yogurt. We priced it out and making a batch of yogurt costs less than 50 cents per serving container. That's WAY more cost effective than buying our favorite yogurts for $1.25-$2.00 a serving. I'm going to keep my eye out for a second yogurt maker so we can do double batches because BF and I like yogurt pretty much everyday for a snack. Sorry, no pictures but maybe next time.
3. I read the last book in "The Immortal Nicholas Flamel" series by Michael Scott calle The Enchantress. This is a young adult series and I absolutely love it. The entire series takes place over about a week and a half, but boy is it action packed. I would highly recommend it for some summer reading. A friend of mine just gave me the 50 Shades of Gray books, but I'm not sure if I'll like them. I'll start the first one this weekend and we'll see.
4. Zumba- When I first started this class with my friend Stancy I thought, "Eh, it's good cardio so I guess I'll do it, " but now that I am getting a hang of the moves and know the songs I freaking love it! Well, to be more accurate I love SOME of the songs and I love that I'm getting an hour of cardio in without running. I'm really committing to running, however I'm starting to develop shin splints in my left leg so I'm trying to add in other cardio to increase my stamina and that way my running can be less frequent but I'm still making progress. The downside is I think I'm going to have to break down and buy a pair of dance sneakers because I've tried several different kinds of footwear for this class and everything causes some sort of discomfort. I'm pretty sure it's because they aren't made to support jumping around and lateral movement, just forward running movement.
5. Tonight will kick off our first official wedding related event! The teachers at BF's school decided to throw us a garden themed wedding shower which is awesome! They thought it was a good idea since we pretty much have most of the house things we need but we really wanted to focus on getting the backyard cleaned up and in a usable state. This afternoon after school one of the teachers is hosting the party at her house and I cannot wait! Because the weather is kind of iffy I cannot wear any of the cute floral skirts or dresses I had planned to wear to a wedding related event, but if that's the downside of this whole party I'm living well. I will definitely be posting pictures! Also, I LOVE BF's coworkers and spending and evening with them is sure to be entertaining and fun.
So that's what is going on with us! Here's to a great weekend.
Thursday, June 7, 2012
Venus is Messing with Everything
Maybe you've heard and maybe you haven't, but this week something rare and crazy happened and it was the planet of Venus passing in front of the sun. I guess it only happens every hundred-some-odd years and this year it was going down. I remember early on in the week hearing about this phenomenon and I thought to myself "Sounds awesome! I should check this out since it's not going to happen again in my lifetime!" and then I promptly forgot all about it.
I need to pause here and tell you a few other seemingly random things, bear with me.
Random tidbit #1- I used to be a crazy nail biter. I'm not even joking. I used to bite my nails until they were sore. My mom called it a nervous habit, but I wasn't a nervous child and I think it was a way for me to use up excess energy without disturbing anyone else. I literally cannot remember a time when I wasn't a nail biter until 2 years ago when I quite for a few months and actually grew my own nails out and painted them pretty much daily. Sometimes I would pick at them or bite a hangnail, but for the most part I've stopped biting my nails. This past winter I had pretty much completely stopped even picking at hangnails, etc. My nails were long and pretty and strong and I wasn't even focusing on them.
Random tidbit #2- BF and I go to bed between 9:30 and 10:30 every night and we almost always get 7 hours or more of sleep because we are healthy and awesome. I haven't always been a "go to bed early" type of person, but since I'm and "adult" now and I work full time and have a pretty full life it's pretty easy to go to bed earlier than I used to. In high school it was rare for me to even be ready for bed by midnight and I had a zero period and had to be up at 5:20am to get ready for my before-school class... I pretty much averaged 4-5 hours of sleep a night and then come saturday morning I wouldn't even roll over in bed until 11am or so. I would try and try to go to bed at a decent hour, but it just never seemed to work out that way. I no longer sleep that late on the weekends, I can hardly sleep past 8:30! Anyhow, our sleep patterns nowadays are pretty regular and good for us.
So anyway, back to ole' Venus. Apparently she passed in front of the sun just like she was supposed to but what no one told me was that she was going mess shit up this week.
Exhibit A: I randomly started biting my nails this week. Don't even try to tell me it's stress related because that's what my acid reflux is for! I mean, I didn't go completely crazy and bite them down to nibs, but it was a little shocking. I did finish reading a pretty entertaining book series that had me enraptured, but still! Why did you even bring that up? No other reason for me to bite my nails.
Exhibit B: I have gone to bed at my normal time every night and gotten up at my usual time each morning but HOT DAMN am I freaking tired. Like, to the point where I almost left work to go to my car and sleep in the parking lot instead of eat lunch. I chose to eat lunch in the kitchen like a normal person, but whatever. Every single day this week I have felt like I just want to die I am so tired. I've been eating pretty well and getting my sleep and not doing anything that I can see would disrupt my sleep so therefore VENUS + Passing in front of the SUN= FEELING TIRED.
Exhibit C: It is mother-effing JUNE and it rains like a Hurricane every few days and mists on me constantly and if I don't see a glimpse of summer I'm going to quit Oregon. Full on quit. You tell me what means. I say it's Venus's fault. Somehow her path in front of the sun has screwed up the summer weather that was on the way and replaced it with RAIN. Way to go, Venus. You stole my summer weather.
BF was texting me today and also thinks that it's "Making everybody crazy!". I don't exactly know what he means, but I will ask and let you know. Also, I assume it's what I mean when I say Venus is cocking it all up.
I need to pause here and tell you a few other seemingly random things, bear with me.
Random tidbit #1- I used to be a crazy nail biter. I'm not even joking. I used to bite my nails until they were sore. My mom called it a nervous habit, but I wasn't a nervous child and I think it was a way for me to use up excess energy without disturbing anyone else. I literally cannot remember a time when I wasn't a nail biter until 2 years ago when I quite for a few months and actually grew my own nails out and painted them pretty much daily. Sometimes I would pick at them or bite a hangnail, but for the most part I've stopped biting my nails. This past winter I had pretty much completely stopped even picking at hangnails, etc. My nails were long and pretty and strong and I wasn't even focusing on them.
Random tidbit #2- BF and I go to bed between 9:30 and 10:30 every night and we almost always get 7 hours or more of sleep because we are healthy and awesome. I haven't always been a "go to bed early" type of person, but since I'm and "adult" now and I work full time and have a pretty full life it's pretty easy to go to bed earlier than I used to. In high school it was rare for me to even be ready for bed by midnight and I had a zero period and had to be up at 5:20am to get ready for my before-school class... I pretty much averaged 4-5 hours of sleep a night and then come saturday morning I wouldn't even roll over in bed until 11am or so. I would try and try to go to bed at a decent hour, but it just never seemed to work out that way. I no longer sleep that late on the weekends, I can hardly sleep past 8:30! Anyhow, our sleep patterns nowadays are pretty regular and good for us.
So anyway, back to ole' Venus. Apparently she passed in front of the sun just like she was supposed to but what no one told me was that she was going mess shit up this week.
Exhibit A: I randomly started biting my nails this week. Don't even try to tell me it's stress related because that's what my acid reflux is for! I mean, I didn't go completely crazy and bite them down to nibs, but it was a little shocking. I did finish reading a pretty entertaining book series that had me enraptured, but still! Why did you even bring that up? No other reason for me to bite my nails.
Exhibit B: I have gone to bed at my normal time every night and gotten up at my usual time each morning but HOT DAMN am I freaking tired. Like, to the point where I almost left work to go to my car and sleep in the parking lot instead of eat lunch. I chose to eat lunch in the kitchen like a normal person, but whatever. Every single day this week I have felt like I just want to die I am so tired. I've been eating pretty well and getting my sleep and not doing anything that I can see would disrupt my sleep so therefore VENUS + Passing in front of the SUN= FEELING TIRED.
Exhibit C: It is mother-effing JUNE and it rains like a Hurricane every few days and mists on me constantly and if I don't see a glimpse of summer I'm going to quit Oregon. Full on quit. You tell me what means. I say it's Venus's fault. Somehow her path in front of the sun has screwed up the summer weather that was on the way and replaced it with RAIN. Way to go, Venus. You stole my summer weather.
BF was texting me today and also thinks that it's "Making everybody crazy!". I don't exactly know what he means, but I will ask and let you know. Also, I assume it's what I mean when I say Venus is cocking it all up.
Tuesday, June 5, 2012
Stupid Things People Say and Do at Work- 1st Edition
Welcome to the very first edition of "Stupid Things People Say and Do at Work!" Because of the frequency of these occurrences at my place of employment you will probably see more of this same post going forward. And I just had to write it all down because it's so stupid and crazy all I can do is laugh.
Preface- I am not in the IT department, I am not anyone's mother at work, I am not the office handyman or maintenance person, I do not keep the supply cabinet at my desk and I am not anyone's personal assistant. All of this will be important.
1. "Can you fix my computer?"
2. Coworker- "Can you fix the printer?"
Me- "Probably not, but what's wrong with it? Did you call the number listed on it?"
Coworker- "I don't know, it just won't print. No, what number?"
Me- "What did the screen say when it wouldn't print? Also, the number is listed on the printer and right above the printer on a bright red and white sign."
Coworker- "Um, it said something about toner?"
Me- (very sarcastically) "Hmmm... I wonder what that means?" turns back to computer and keeps working.
3. "I like certain kinds of pens/pencils/purple highlighters. Can you order those for me?"
4. "Where am I supposed to hang up my coat?"
5. "The meeting you scheduled is right before lunch, from 10:30 to 11:30... are you going to provide lunch after the meeting?"
6. "Do you have batteries/dry erase markers/sticky notes/etc ?"
7. "Would you run an errand for me? It won't take long."
8. "The printer is jammed!"
9. "The bathroom is out of toilet paper/paper towels."
10. Walking by the recycle bin in the copy room I noticed empty takeout containers slimy with food residue all over them. There is a kitchen with a trash can and compost bin 5 steps away. Gross paper food containers with grease and sauce on them are NOT recyclable.
Just a little glimpse into my day some days.
Preface- I am not in the IT department, I am not anyone's mother at work, I am not the office handyman or maintenance person, I do not keep the supply cabinet at my desk and I am not anyone's personal assistant. All of this will be important.
1. "Can you fix my computer?"
2. Coworker- "Can you fix the printer?"
Me- "Probably not, but what's wrong with it? Did you call the number listed on it?"
Coworker- "I don't know, it just won't print. No, what number?"
Me- "What did the screen say when it wouldn't print? Also, the number is listed on the printer and right above the printer on a bright red and white sign."
Coworker- "Um, it said something about toner?"
Me- (very sarcastically) "Hmmm... I wonder what that means?" turns back to computer and keeps working.
3. "I like certain kinds of pens/pencils/purple highlighters. Can you order those for me?"
4. "Where am I supposed to hang up my coat?"
5. "The meeting you scheduled is right before lunch, from 10:30 to 11:30... are you going to provide lunch after the meeting?"
6. "Do you have batteries/dry erase markers/sticky notes/etc ?"
7. "Would you run an errand for me? It won't take long."
8. "The printer is jammed!"
9. "The bathroom is out of toilet paper/paper towels."
10. Walking by the recycle bin in the copy room I noticed empty takeout containers slimy with food residue all over them. There is a kitchen with a trash can and compost bin 5 steps away. Gross paper food containers with grease and sauce on them are NOT recyclable.
Just a little glimpse into my day some days.
Monday, June 4, 2012
I O U
I got paid on Friday, like I do every other week and for the first time in my entire adult life I could not go out and frivolously spend a single penny of it. This is brand new to me. Champagne problems, I admit that, but DAMN! I like to get a pedicure if I feel like it or buy a new book at Powell's. Almost the entire thing went to pay for something, and none of it was things we could do without (ie. mortgage, HOA dues, gas for the car, credit card bill) and the money that didn't go to pay for something is being reserved for gas money for the next week and a half. I blame this wedding. No seriously, I do. Every time I turn around we are having to pay for something or pay the deposit for something. Gah. I hate having debt at all... it just makes me so uncomfortable! I feel like I'm just throwing out IOU's at this point. Not that we are too bad off, I'm just not used to pinching pennies so tightly!
BF and I were talking the other day and if we had really thought about it and thought no one would care I would just elope and come back and throw a giant barbeque to celebrate our marriage. We also know that had we have done that both sides of our families would be outraged and probably crucify both of us. Small price to pay, I say.
We've been trying to save money where we can so I started making our own whole wheat bread and it turned out great! 1 batch of dough makes almost 3 full loaves, so I just freeze 1 loaf, put the other in the refrigerator for the next week and eat the 3rd in the current week. We've also been trying to use coupons more, but I don't even see how people who want to eat the healthiest foods can even do this successfully. There are no coupons for fresh seasonal produce so we just have to watch ads for grocery stores to see who has what on sale. Also, we've noticed that the items that do get coupons are typically super processed foods that we don't normally eat anyway. Frustrating! I also have started checking the Frugal NW blog a few times of week to see what deals folks are finding.
Anyone have good couponing tips? Send them my way!
BF and I were talking the other day and if we had really thought about it and thought no one would care I would just elope and come back and throw a giant barbeque to celebrate our marriage. We also know that had we have done that both sides of our families would be outraged and probably crucify both of us. Small price to pay, I say.
We've been trying to save money where we can so I started making our own whole wheat bread and it turned out great! 1 batch of dough makes almost 3 full loaves, so I just freeze 1 loaf, put the other in the refrigerator for the next week and eat the 3rd in the current week. We've also been trying to use coupons more, but I don't even see how people who want to eat the healthiest foods can even do this successfully. There are no coupons for fresh seasonal produce so we just have to watch ads for grocery stores to see who has what on sale. Also, we've noticed that the items that do get coupons are typically super processed foods that we don't normally eat anyway. Frustrating! I also have started checking the Frugal NW blog a few times of week to see what deals folks are finding.
Anyone have good couponing tips? Send them my way!
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