Post Smith

A New Decade

2012-02-09T07:00:00.000-05:00

Hello, long lost blog friends. It's me. Do you remember me? Here's a recent photo just in case you have forgotten about me. I wouldn't blame you, after all. It's been almost six months.

Lots of things have happened in the last six months. Most importantly, I started playing around with hot rollers (see above). Okay, that's probably not the most important thing. I don't really know what the most important thing is, but all I can say is ... you know you go too long without logging onto Blogger when every time you log in, the format has changed. I must say that I am LOVING this new Blogger. Nicely done, Google!

Anyway. Today, I turn 30. Another decade down. It feels weird ... yet exciting. I love birthdays, and I have never shied away from aging. Seeing a new decade (you know, the one that starts with a 3) is definitely going to be an adjustment, but it's not one I'm unhappy about. Every year of my life thus far has brought joy, new adventures, new experiences, and new friends.

These last ten years have been good to me. I graduated from college, earned my graduate degree, moved to Virginia, got a job, quit that job, met the love of my life, got another job, became a puppy parent to Oscar, got another job, moved from Virginia to Indiana, got married, got a new job, said goodbye to my husband for a year and dealt with deployment, welcomed him home again (which remains one of the best days of my life), got ANOTHER new job (definitely the best yet), and ... bam. All of a sudden, ten years have passed.

I'm not exactly where I thought I would be at 30. If you would have asked me ten years ago what my life would be like now, I would have guessed that I would be happily married (check), have a house (nope) and a couple of kids (nope, unless you count the furry one with a tail), and feel settled (nope).

The happily married thing, I've had down for over three years now. But the rest has proven to be a bit of a challenge. We don't have a house, because we're not really settled. Our future is very up in the air right now, and we're not quite sure where we'll be a year from now. Our journey to become parents has been filled with challenges, heartache, and loss instead of joy and excitement, and this is something I'm struggling with every day. I'm really hoping that the stars align for us soon, that 2012 is our year for so many things.

That being said, I'm happy. I have Matt.

I have my sweet friends and family. I have the best dog a gal could ask for.

Overall? Life is good. Life is great. I may not be where I thought I'd be, but I remain content and optimistic that the future holds good things for our little family.

Now. My goal for this year? Smile more with my mouth open. :)

My 30th birthday plans are to go to work, have a fantastic dinner with Matt (I'm thinking sushi ... our go-to special occasion pick), and snuggle. I'm throwing myself a 30th birthday party next week, and I'm having tons of fun with some planning and decorating and crafting. I'm hereby considering February my Birthday Month - why celebrate a day when you can have a whole month?! - and will ring in 30 with style!

So, hey everyone. Not sure if I'll be back for real or not ... but know that I'm here, I'm alive, I'm on Twitter, and I'm keeping up with your lives ... I'm just not so great at commenting these days. xxoo

Friday Mishmash

2011-09-02T02:00:00.000-04:00

So, first of all ... wow. Just checked out the new Blogger and it's kinda rocking my world a little bit! As in, I am really confused and stuff. But I like it, I think! I think. Hmm.

Anyway, I am finishing up my second week at work and I still love it. It's seriously fabulous. I love being on campus, and have figured out the bus situation a little bit better - now I take the bus from our apartment, and I don't have to drive at all! Very exciting stuff. Really. :) My office still looks as sad as it did last week, but I think Matt and I will be heading on campus this weekend to change all of that. Stay tuned for photos of my new decorated office sometime next week!

In other news, I haven't been sewing as much as I would like (and must remedy that) but I did work on a little craft fun for Oscar recently. I don't remember why exactly, but I was talking with Lisa online about something related to dogs, and I was on Etsy so I searched for "husky" to see what kind of fun handmade husky gear I could find. Well, amazingly enough, one crazy thing popped up. It turned out to be a digital image I could buy for $1 and then use for ... well, whatever. It was so incredibly that I snatched it right up, swung by Hobby Lobby, and grabbed a canvas tote bag and some iron on transfer paper. And the result? Is kind of amazing.

Hmmm. Let's take a closer look, shall we?

Seriously. I don't know who thinks something like this up (oh wait, yes I do - I picked this bad boy up from Graphique), but it is spec-tac-u-lar. It's a husky. With a crown. And wings.

No, I don't understand. Yes, it looks almost exactly like Oscar. No, Oscar doesn't really need his own tote bag. Although yes, he does pack a bag when he goes to stay with Mamaw and Papaw.

So yes. Clearly it was necessary. I find it absolutely hilarious and often look at it hanging in the closet and giggle.

Anyway - I can't believe we're already at Labor Day weekend! And I can't believe it's September. We don't have any plans this weekend, besides watching college football and babysitting sweet baby Madeline. What about you?

New Job and New Office!

2011-08-25T20:49:00.005-04:00

This is the face of someone who is happy going to work in the morning. It's a new feeling, so I'm still getting used to it. This morning I took this photo with my computer on my way out the door, wearing my fancy new IU polo shirt for Welcome Week festivities. This job? Is so much fun. There's a lot to learn, but nothing that I can't handle. The people? Are fantastic. Everyone in my school is incredibly friendly, open and welcoming - something I really craved at my last job but never encountered. After three years in an extremely hostile work environment where nobody really seemed to like each other, this is such a breath of fresh air.

My first day was Tuesday, and I jumped right in and tried to start learning stuff. My boss took me out to lunch (thai food ... delish!), which was fun, and this morning they had a welcome breakfast for me. So nice! I actually got to meet some students this afternoon at the open house we hosted for freshmen. We had a great turnout, and it was lots of fun.

Working on a college campus is the best part of this job - I absolutely love taking the bus to work. Strange, I know, but there's something so enjoyable about sitting down, opening a book, and zoning out for the ten whole minutes it takes me to get there. I love spending some time walking outside, and yesterday - despite the crazy heat and the fact that it was dorm move-in day - I walked across campus to downtown to go to the library. Just the fact that I could walk there, and then walk to a different bus stop and take the bus home, totally made my day. Sometimes, it's just the little things, you know?

Anyway ... so yeah. All in all, the new job is fab. Still have a ton of stuff to learn, but that's okay. School starts next week, so I better learn quickly!

Another awesome part about my new job? My new office. For those of you who may not remember, here is a photo of the entirety of my office at the high school:

Yes, that really is all of it. Not pictured: the electrical box for the school, another smaller electrical box, and a small fried-looking box plugged into the wall I was told never to remove because it was linked to the school's alarm system.

Behold: my new, grown-up office, full of all sorts of excitement:

It definitely needs a little bit of decoration ... hopefully will have some stuff hung on the walls by next week.

I have my own thermostat! How awesome is that?!

Trust me ... after spending my summer sweltering at the high school (you know, not too many people there, so they weren't worried about keeping it cool), having an office with my own personal thermostat is muy exciting.

To be honest ... once I got used to my tiny office at North, I really grew to love it. It stopped seeming tiny to me (until I had more than one other person in it, of course). But, um, now? Just looking at that photo makes me feel claustrophobic. It doesn't take long to feel spoiled, eh?

Anyway, just wanted to give you an update on the new gig. In a word: lovely. :)

All Done

2011-08-20T12:50:00.001-04:00

Well, it's all over. All done. Yesterday was so much harder than I thought it was - it was very busy, and I kept thinking at the last minute of more kids I didn't get the chance to see and say goodbye to. There are a couple of kids - two girls, two boys - I feel extremely close with, and saying goodbye to them was torture. After giving one of them a hug, I teared up and then was in tears on and off the rest of the afternoon, culminating in some awkward sobs while saying goodbye to coworkers. Awkward. It was about infinity times harder than I thought to leave a job I have been so desperately trying to get away from for so many months.

BUT! But. Enough about that. It's over and done and now I am enjoying a three day weekend before starting my new job on Tuesday. Special long weekend activities involve: reading, laundry, cleaning, blogging, having breakfast on Monday with my friend Kyle, and possibly taking myself to see the last Harry Potter movie in the theater. I am currently rereading all of the Harry Potter books - gosh, they are just so good! I just read the first one last week and I got the second one from the library yesterday. I'm sure I will have that one done by the end of the weekend. What are you reading right now?

In other news ... I'm on Pinterest and it's so fabulous. Click here to follow my Pinboards. I also run the Pinterest page for Fantabulously Frugal Weddings, so if you want to see a bunch of beautiful wedding inspiration, click here and follow us too!

That's all for now ... must get back to my Saturday tasks of making roasted tomato soup (recipe to follow if it's tasty) and watching Party Down on Netflix. :)

Last Day!

2011-08-19T07:00:00.001-04:00

Well, this is it - today is my last day of work at the high school. Lots of feelings and emotions, most of them very very joyful. Although I still have a couple of nagging icky feelings, mostly about making sure someone is taking care of my kids when I leave. And that's hard. But I need to let go. I need to concentrate on my own life and what's ahead of me, which is all good stuff!

I am beyond excited about my new job. The staff there is already more welcoming and more interested in what I have to bring to the table than my coworkers at my current (soon to be old) job ever were. I will have a real office, not a closet without ventilation. I will have real coworkers who are ... nice to me. I will be part of a team. It's definitely time.

What will I miss? A couple of coworkers, but only a couple. A lot of students. Saying goodbye to them has proven to be extremely difficult. The thought of never seeing them again is really hard - I mean, okay, I'll probably run into them at the mall or Walmart or something, but it won't be the same. And that's okay, it's just an adjustment.

But you know what I will miss the most? The students who drop by just to say hi, the ones who came in before school started this week to see how my summer was, the kids who smile from ear to ear when they get a passing grade. Those couple of coworkers - now friends - who helped keep me sane over giggling lunches and eye rolling sessions.

Sigh.

But enough of that. It seems only fitting that today, on my last day of work, I leave you with one final "Overheard from my Office - High School Edition."

Girl walking into counseling department: "Hi, I need to change my lunch from A lunch to B lunch."

Me: "Why?"

Girl: "Ummm because, um, there's this girl, I think she's a lesbian, and she won't stop staring at my boobs."

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaand scene.

Saying Goodbye Sucks.

2011-08-11T21:22:00.002-04:00

Even when you're excited about saying it.

I was planning on telling y'all that I was taking a blogging break ... well, an OFFICIAL blogging break, at any rate. I have clearly been taking quite the break over the past several months. Like I say every time I come back ... I just haven't felt like it. But, suddenly I have a bit of inspiration. So, here I am again, trying again. If it doesn't work, I'll take an official break until life seems blogworthy again.

So, who am I saying goodbye to? My kiddos at school. I just got an absolutely amazing new job at Indiana University as an academic advisor. I am THRILLED. So thrilled I am counting down the seconds until my first day of work. More excited than I have ever been for a new job before! The hard part, of course, is saying goodbye to everyone at the high school. School starts on Tuesday the 16th, and my last day will be Friday the 19th. I will have four days to say my goodbyes.

I have started telling some people - I called a parent I am incredibly close with and told her my news today. She cried and I felt awful. :( Then one of my fave students came in to handle some schedule changes and to fill me in on her summer, and I had to tell her, too. And she was way more bummed out than I thought a teenager would be. I am really struggling with feeling like I'm letting these kids down by leaving them ... but at the same time knowing that I'm doing what's right for me, for my career.

But still. So hard.

Ever leave a job you cannot wait to say goodbye to, but have a hard time with it anyway?

I don't know ...

2011-07-09T19:34:00.005-04:00

... why I can't stick with consistent blogging anymore. The urge just hasn't been there. It's not enough for me to want to quit the ole blog, but it's enough for me to only come by here once every few weeks. And man, that last post was depressing! My bad. I will put pictures in this post so you have something to look at. :)

So to catch up from the last few eons or so ... Matt and I went up to Michigan back in June to celebrate the wedding of a college friend of mine. It was basically like a college reunion, and we had such a great time! Here are a few fun pictures. And no, I don't have any photos of the bride and groom. :)

There was surprisingly little drinking involved in (most) of these photos ... but we still had a great time! We are scattered all over the place, from NYC to Chicago to LA, so it's rare that we all get to be in one place!

I have some other stuff to blog about, but every time I say that, I disappear never to be seen again. So we'll just leave it with ... I miss you guys. I have about 5729385729385 blog posts starred to comment on in my Reader. None of that will probably happen, but the intentions are there. So, if you are reading, please pick one of the following comments - whatever applies to you.

1. Congratulations on your pregnancy! This is so exciting! ---> applies to about 70% of the bloggers I follow right now

2. Congratulations on your beautiful new baby! This is so exciting! ---> applies to about 10% of you

3. Mmm, this recipe looks amazing. I can't wait to try it! ---> applies to the remaining 20%

There. That's settled.

Happy weekend! I will {hopefully} be back soon for some real blogging. But in the meantime, don't forget to check out Fantabulously Frugal and Fantabulously Frugal Weddings!

We want to make you famous!

2011-06-26T15:33:00.002-04:00

I've talked a little bit on here about our brand-new wedding site, Fantabulously Frugal Weddings and how blogging over there and at Fantabulously Frugal is keeping me muy busy. But now I'm back over here on my poor, neglected blog to ask you for some help! Every Wednesday, we feature a real wedding on FF Weddings, and we'd like to feature YOUR wedding. We are still growing our site and want to be able to post some beautiful weddings - they need not be frugal. :) If you are married and want to gain internet fame and notoriety, click here and fill out our real weddings submission form!

I KNOW there has to be someone out there still reading my little blog, and I know a lot of y'all are happily married ladies. Do me - and our readers - a favor, and submit your beautiful wedding to be featured as part of our Real Wedding Wednesday series!

Is Bloomington Dangerous?

2011-06-09T21:59:00.002-04:00

So, lots of bad things have been happening around here lately. Stuff that's got me down, and stuff that has Lisa telling me I need to move to Chicago to make sure I'm in a safe city. Ha!

First, I'm sure most of you by now have heard about IU student Lauren Spierer's disappearance. It's very scary and unfortunately I fear the worst, but I hope that no matter what the outcome, they find her quickly. Back in 2000, an IU student disappeared when she was on a bike ride and her body wasn't discovered for four years. Thinking about what her parents went through, just not knowing, for years - I wouldn't wish that on anyone. Lauren has been gone almost a week now and I know that the chances she's okay are slim - especially when you add in her heart condition. Bloomington has been swarming with news crews, volunteer search parties, and posters with her information. It's all very heartbreaking.

And then ... I found out yesterday that the mother of one of my students was stabbed to death. Ahhh. Her ex-boyfriend got out of jail on Monday and stabbed her to death on Tuesday. Neighbors witnessed him trying to break in through a window with a butter knife. While he was still working on the window, she came home and they had an argument. He forced his way into her home and neighbors heard several thumps and a "loud commotion." He then came outside and drove away in her car. Nobody - nobody - called the police. Instead, her 16 year old daughter came home from school with her grandma and found the door locked and her mom's car gone. They had maintenance unlock the door for them, and ... yeah. She found her mom's body. According to the newspaper, mom was stabbed nine times in the neck and upper chest with ... the butter knife.

This man is still at large, and that freaks me the hell out. Can I just add that there were two other stabbings in Bloomington that day? Can we all just ... put the knives down? Please?

The whole situation is just awful, but I think what bothers me the most is that nobody called the police. According to the newspaper, several neighbors witnessed all of this (minus the stabbing of course, which occurred inside the apartment) and nobody reacted. Nobody did anything. I wonder if someone would have called 911 the second they saw him trying to break in through the window, would she still be alive?

And then ... our neighbor's apartment got broken into! As in ... our immediate neighbor. He lives upstairs from us, and just happens to be a cop. A bunch of kids were hanging around the other day and got into his apartment and stole his duty gun. Thankfully the gun was recovered only a few hours later. The girl who stole it? One of my former students. Well, that is kind of a stretch - she was referred to me but I don't think I was ever able to see her because she skipped so frequently. She dropped out last year, and that was the end of that.

I reeeeally don't like something like ... a robbery involving a stolen gun happening at my home. Despite it not being my apartment, it sure hits close to home. Literally. No more leaving the apartment (ever) without locking the door. A few cars at our complex were broken into recently, as well ... leading me to wonder what on earth is going on around here.

ANOTHER student of mine (a current student) is in juvenile detention because he was involved in an armed robbery. And ANOTHER current student of mine is also in juvenile detention for threatening her mom and sisters and running away to stay with a drug dealer when she has two pending criminal charges (unrelated) and a failure to appear in court.

The last day of school was yesterday, but I'm having a hard time de-stressing. It doesn't help that, unlike 99.9% of everyone else that works in the school, I don't have my summer off. Nope! I'll be right back on Monday morning to check in on my kids who are doing summer school.

Someone ... anyone ... pass the wine.

Overheard in my Office: NSFW Edition

2011-06-01T22:00:00.003-04:00

This story is rated R. Consider yourself warned.

A dear student of mine whom I am very fond of had to have ... a procedure done last week at Planned Parenthood. That's all I'll say about that. I checked in on her today to see how she was feeling, both physically and mentally, and she talked about how painful the whole experience had been. We talked about it for awhile, and then she said:

You know how sometimes, when you're having sex with someone, they go too deep and hit your cervix, and it really hurts? You know, has that ever happened to you?

I was caught a little off guard, and replied something along the lines of "Ummm. I don't know." Then she continued on to tell me that it was "like a million" times more painful than that.

Sigh. I am so, so very thankful that so many of my students feel comfortable enough around me to say pretty much anything, but at the same time, I think ... wow! I would have never ever ever ever asked an adult anything like that when I was in high school. Are students different these days? Or has it always been like this? I know I have some teachers and some people who work with teens out there reading ... what are your thoughts?

CSA Week 5. I think?

2011-05-27T21:33:00.002-04:00

Happy Friday! What is everyone doing for Memorial Day weekend? Matt and I are hopping in the car tomorrow morning and driving to South Haven, MI, where we will spend a long weekend with my parents to celebrate my mom's 60th birthday. We are really looking forward to getting away for a few days (even though it sucks making yet another long drive with gas prices as high as they are) (can you believe how expensive it is to fill your tank? holy moly!).

Anyway! My dad had to work tonight, and I had to work today, so our long weekend is running from Saturday-Tuesday. I took Tuesday off of work and I am realllllly looking forward to the three day work week. School is almost out (THANK GOD) and I'm trying to stay calm and not focused on the 6 (S-I-X) students I had in court yesterday morning. OY.

Since we aren't leaving until tomorrow, we had time to go pick up our veggies this afternoon! Here's what we ended up with:

Salad greens (no close-up because by now, you know what lettuce looks like) ...
... some adorable little radishes ...

... garlic scapes (ever heard of them?) ...

... and glorious, glorious shiitake mushrooms. MY FAVORITE. Yessssss!!!

I was in the mood for a light little evening snack, so I chopped up the radishes and made a little radish salad. For those of you who are wondering, radish salad = radishes + olive oil + sea salt. The end.
It was good, I guess, if you're into radishes. To be honest, I'm really not. But the mushrooms? Oh yeah, baby. I love them so much.

Have a wonderful Memorial Day weekend, friends! xxoo

History of a Blog Friend

2011-05-25T21:31:00.003-04:00

I started blogging back in 2008, before I realized that blogging - and the friends I would make through blogging - would be such a huge part of my life. The next year, on a roadtrip down south with Lisa, I managed to be in Nashville at the same time as Jenny from Lucky in Love.

July 2009

We had a great time eating pancakes and hanging out, and I thought ... wow, it's pretty fun to meet a blog friend!

So I did it a few more times. In February 2010, to help celebrate my 28th birthday while Matt was deployed, we had a little blog weekend in Chicago.

... then, in July 2010, I went up to Canada to visit Lucy, and Jenny came too. Here we are, very shiny, at a Brazilian barbeque place. Delish. Jenny was relatively newly pregnant at that time while Lindsay was nearing the end of her pregnancy, and we had a lot of fun thinking about the blog babies that would be born soon.
Fast forward to two weekends ago. The place? My apartment in Bloomington. Jenny, her husband, and their beautiful baby girl Natalie came to visit for an afternoon and we had SUCH a fabulous time. It seems like blog friends get to a point where they're not blog friends anymore.

They're just friends.

Sigh

2011-05-18T12:00:00.000-04:00

Well, I disappeared again, although this time there was a reason. Right after my last post, my grandma passed away at the beautiful old age of 90. It was both sudden and expected - as once you get to 90, things happen. She had a heart attack over the weekend and was stable for awhile - I was able to talk to her, and she told me that it was all "very exciting" and that she got to ride in a helicopter for the first time (she had been airlifted to another hospital). A few hours later, she was gone. It has been hard, but I know that Grandma lived a long, wonderful life so it makes me feel a lot better about her not being around. Lots of mixed feelings and emotions.

So. That's that. We missed a week of veggies, and got a double share this past Friday, which of course I forgot to photograph - but we got two big bags of beautiful lettuce, giant bunches of beets, green onions, and some mint. I never know what to do with mint - thoughts? Ideas?

Matt is done with school now for the summer, and just got a job working at a research center on campus so he is staying busy. I am, of course, counting down the seconds until school lets out for the summer. I believe we only have 14-15 days left! Then I get to work part time over the summer. RELIEF!

In other news, Jenny came to visit this weekend and I got to meet beautiful Natalie! I have some photos but that will be a separate post, hopefully tomorrow. :)

Also, here's a shameless plug: we just launched Fantabulously Frugal Weddings on Monday, and we're dying for you to check it out! And if you hop on over there today, you'll catch a glimpse of my wedding as this week's featured Real Wedding. Check it out!

CSA Week 2

2011-05-01T11:25:00.003-04:00

Okay, I tried to do a little better with this week's CSA photography. A LITTLE bit.

This week: more beautiful (and slightly blurry) salad greens,

shiitake mushrooms (yayyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy!!!!!),
green onions,
and arugula! Yes! I LOVE arugula!!!
On the menu this week: not totally sure yet, but I will probably make some arugula pesto and lots of salads with sauteed shiitakes. Deliciousness!

How has everyone's weekend been? My mom came for a very quick visit to see my orchestra concert last night, which went very well. Her car battery died on the way here, north of Indy, and she had to wait for AAA to come with a new battery, which delayed her trip a bit. So all in all, she was here less than 24 hours. But we had a fun time, and a good concert, and a tasty brunch this morning, and that's about it!

Now, it's raining again (surprise, surprise) and Matt and I are relaxing. I have to work out at some point today, but I'm going to put it off a bit longer until brunch has more time to settle in my tummy. :)

How are YOU?

More CSA Cooking!

2011-04-25T21:16:00.003-04:00

Things I need to work on:

1. Cleaning

2. Laundry

3. Working out

4. My food photography skillz ... or lack thereof.

I am seriously almost embarrassed to post these photos. Food bloggers seem to have the most amazing food photographs ... so perhaps my new goal will be to work on that! I think the first stop towards achieving beautiful food photographs is to use natural light.

Whoops.

Well, here is tonight's dinner, somewhat courtesy of my CSA:

It consisted of eggs, Laughing Cow light swiss cheese wedges, caramelized onions and mushrooms, and wilted beet greens. On the side: a piece of that soggy sesame bread we got (don't worry, it's not soggy anymore) toasted with some Maranatha almond butter.

It looks incredibly ... brown and boring and stuff. But in reality, it was delicious!!!! Pinky swear.

I also roasted the beets and now they are marinating overnight with some onions in olive oil, apple cider vinegar, sea salt, and a drizzle of honey.

Here is the worst photo ever of my bowl of beets. It's so dark!

I picked up some organic strawberries today and they looked so perfect that we had to eat some right away. So, for dessert: vanilla bean ice cream with strawberries, drizzled with this chocolate balsamic vinegar. Which was absolutely incredibly amazing.

Mmmmm.

Tomorrow for lunch: greens with the marinated beets and some feta. CSAs RULE!

CSA Week 1: Kale. And Kale. And some other stuff.

2011-04-24T22:02:00.004-04:00

I seem to have lost some of my food photography skillz since last summer ... I will try to work on making my veggies prettier. :)

Matt and I drove to pick up our very first CSA share of the season on Friday, and I was so very excited! Except that it was pouring rain. And our (cardboard) box of food sits outside in someone's driveway for pickup. And when I got there, I saw that there was a loaf of bread inside. In a paper bag. A very, very wet loaf of bread. But hey, there it is! You can almost see it. This week, we received:

-Kale! Some really curly small-leaf kale. I forgot to take a photo of it before I made it into kale chips (recipe below) - which are in that plastic bag in the last photo.

-More kale! A different kind of kale. I forgot to get it out of the fridge for the photo, so just imagine MORE KALE.

-A half loaf of soggy sesame seed bread. Okay, it didn't end up being very soggy, and tasted very good heated up with some almond butter. Yums.

-BEETS!!!! Yes, I really am that excited about the darn beets. I used to think I hated beets ... then I got some in last year's CSA, learned how to roast them, and realized that they are one of my new favorite things. These beets are pretty weeny, but I am looking forward to roasting them tomorrow and having them with some salad. Yums.

-Greens - beautiful, beautiful salad greens. Seriously - don't they look fresh and delicious? I cannot wait to make myself a good salad Monday for dinner while Matt is at a decades-long group meeting for grad school.

Last year, the CSA share started kind of weak, with only salad stuff and other greens, and gained momentum as the growing season progressed. I am really looking forward to all of this deliciousness!

I got lots of kale last year, and never really knew what to do with it. Unfortunately, a lot of it went bad before I figured out what to do. But not this year! I am determined to not let ANY of this produce go bad. I had heard about kale chips last summer, but just never got around to making them. But since I had not one, but TWO giant bunches of kale, I decided to give it a shot yesterday. I went with a recipe from Smitten Kitchen:

Kale Chips

Ingredients:

kale (duh)

extra virgin olive oil (I used spray evoo because that's all I had on hand - worked great)

sea salt

aaaand of course I added a little garlic as well

Preheat oven to 300.

Wash and dry kale in a salad spinner to get out all the moisture (I had done this the night before, so the kale was nice and dry already). Cut or rip into bite-size pieces, removing the thick stems. Toss in olive oil, sea salt and whatever other herbs/spices you would like, and lay on a baking sheet covered in parchment paper. Or not. I am out of parchment paper so I didn't use any, but I guess that would have been easier for clean-up.

Bake for 15-20 minutes or until crispy. Mine were perfect at 15 minutes - and wow, I was really surprised about how fantastic they are. They really satisfy the salty chip craving - only it's kale! Which is amazingly good for you, and has a ton of health benefits. I am hooked, and I'll definitely be using the pounds and pounds of kale we get this spring to make kale chips!

Day 2!

2011-04-21T22:00:00.003-04:00

Hey, look! I'm here again! For the second night in a row! Weird, right?

To be honest, I've got nothing. I just finished writing two posts for FF and now it's bedtime. But I am really trying to get back in the habit of blogging - I remember when I used to just LOVE sitting down to blog and I want to get that feeling back! - so I am going to leave you with a photo of my two main men:

Oscar LOVES to be picked up. Duh.

Guess what happens tomorrow? Week One of our 2011 CSA share! This season, I hope to actually blog about our CSA every week ... you know, like I did last year. Ha. Ha ha. Okay, so that didn't really happen. But I'm certainly going to try. Wish me luck!

Tap tap tap

2011-04-20T21:28:00.003-04:00

...is this thing on?

I seriously don't know why I never want to blog on here anymore. Well, actually, I do. It's because I blog six days a week over at Fantabulously Frugal, and then I don't feel like blogging over here.

But, stuff is happening. Matt's been home almost 6 months! Which is insanity.

Oh, and I got a second job! Yes, job #2. Because one just isn't enough, right? I am working for a home health company as their social worker, doing in-home assessments and stuff. I got hired a few weeks ago but still haven't had a visit to do, so I can't say much about that, I guess.

In other news ... I am just trying to make it to SUMMER! When my schedule goes back to working part-time. And sleeping in. I have been so exhausted lately ... and this is that tough stretch of school between spring break and summer when there doesn't seem to be an end in sight. My kiddos at school have been acting up ... I've had 6 students in court in the last 8 days. Ridiculous.

And ... I just remembered another reason why I haven't blogged over here for awhile - I don't have anything to say! I need to try to get back in the habit of blogging ... how does one do that, exactly? Any suggestions?

Wrong Number Text, and Police Beat

2011-03-31T20:36:00.004-04:00

I have a lot of stuff I want to blog about (shocking, I know, considering the fact that I seem to average two posts a month or so), but that will all take a back seat to the wrong number text message conversation I just had with who I can only assume is a junior high student, somewhere in Virginia, with a 540 area code.

It all started with this text, last night:

Wrong number text: I THINK I JUST MADE THE CEDAR HILL MIDDLE SCHOOL TEAM!

Me: No response

This evening:

Wrong number text: Oook so I found out today tht I made the team im so excited 8-D

Me: I think you have the wrong number, but congratulations!

Wrong number text: Wat

Me: I don't know who you are. Wrong number.

Wrong number text: Whos this

At this point, I gave up. I didn't feel like texting back and forth with someone who doesn't know how to spell the word "what."

Sigh.

Also, I've been reading the Police Beat of our local paper, and I've copied and pasted some of my favorites for you:

1100 block South Clarizz Boulevard, midnight Thursday, someone vandalized a car with pancake batter. No suspects.

Burchell Villa, 56, of 620 S. Walnut St., arrested Wednesday by Bloomington police on preliminary charges of battery, battery by bodily waste and public intoxication; booked into Monroe County Jail at 1:30 a.m. Bond set at $5,000 surety, $500 cash.

Complete Nutrition, 2894 E. Third Street, 5:39 p.m. Sunday, four juveniles shoplifted bottles of hormone supplements that employees warn should be sold in a set of three and could cause serious health issues for juveniles. Officers plan to review surveillance video and take inventory of the stolen items to find the suspects.

1000 block South Walnut Street, 3:27 a.m. Friday, officers responded to a complaint of nude people in the area and found a 21-year-old man and 20-year-old woman who were "engaged in inappropriate behavior." They were both arrested. Alcohol was involved.

700 block West Country Club Drive, 1:52 a.m. Monday, after feeling ill effects from snorting bath salts, a 22-year-old woman was taking to Bloomington Hospital for evaluation.

320 block East Second Street, 3:07 a.m. Thursday, a woman reported that someone threw a rock through the window of her car. The car door was left open, but nothing was missing. She also reported finding feces on the steps near her apartment door.

2100 block North Walnut Street, 2:18 a.m. Saturday, officers stopped a man pushing a stolen vehicle down the road. The man, 56, was arrested, but said his own car had been stolen as well.

Oh my gosh. I get the biggest kick out of this stuff!!! Who vandalizes with pancake batter? Who steals a car after his own car was stolen? What the crap? Does this weird stuff occur in regular cities too, or just small towns?

Inquiring minds want to know.

Dog Party. I mean, Surprise Party.

2011-03-15T22:09:00.005-04:00

A few weeks ago ... okay, I think it was a month already, Matt and I headed up to Grand Rapids, MI for a surprise 30th birthday party for Randy. Randy is my BFF Lisa's boyfriend, and he's also a good friend of mine from college. Lisa put together a great surprise party for him, and we had such a great time hanging out with college buddies.

Here is a photo of Lisa and Randy, post-surprise:

Aaand that's pretty much the only photo of just humans that I have. Because the hosts of the party, Joe and Laura (more college friends) have the cutest French Bulldogs, and Lisa and Randy have their adorable little Bacon pup, and it was a total dog fest. They were cute. Like, really cute.
The Frenchies look like little yodas. Or something. This is Vinny, I believe.
Dog party!
Mmmmmm Jimmy Johns ....
Partiers

Matt isn't really this pissed ... I think.

Birthday monster!
Dog face-off
Just chillin ...
This is Lou. Lou likes to be held and cuddled when he's sleepy, like a baby.
Such cuties!!! All in all, we had a great time at the party - it was so good to see everyone, and even though it was a brief trip (we drove 6 hours there on a Saturday and 6 back in a blizzard on Sunday), it was absolutely worth it. Yay!

More creepiness

2011-03-09T21:01:00.002-05:00

This ad was on the side of my Facebook screen today. Not only did I just write a post about Tory Burch for Fantabulously Frugal, but the above pair of shoes is actually the exact - and only - pair of Revas that I own.

SO creepy.

Small Town News

2011-03-08T22:03:00.002-05:00

Remember this post about small town news headlines? Well, I came across this amazing news story in our good ole local paper yesterday and just HAD to share it with you.

An incident late Sunday night drew police officers from several agencies to West Eighth Street, around the 1600 block.

A neighboring resident reported hearing what sounded like a gunshot, and later seeing at least three people taken into police custody. Several police cars were seen speeding into the area, and a white pickup truck was stopped.

By 12:15 a.m. today, the situation seemed to be resolved.

So, my dear readers, I ask you. What was this? What happened? Do you find any actual facts in this NEWS story at all?

Just wondering.

5 Years!

2011-03-08T06:10:00.005-05:00

Five years ago from, er, yesterday (can you believe I actually FORGOT until Matt reminded me?), I went on a really great blind date with a really great guy that ended up working out really well. We met through some mutual friends (Jenn and Ryan) who thought we could maybe be friends. Ryan sent us each other's contact information and, to be honest, I wasn't really interested in dating someone who played with EXPLOSIVES for a living. But then, this adorably awkward email arrived in my inbox and I was powerless to resist:

Shaina,

Ryan M gave me your email address so I thought I would see what you are up to. What sorts of things do you like around here? Do you like hiking or are you more of a city person? Ryan didn't tell me much about you but if you would like to grab lunch or dinner sometime that would be all right. Again, I don't really know what you like to eat but I am sure we could find something. I hope you have a good week. Matt

After a few more awkward emails traded back and forth and a phone call that made me wonder if I was detecting a southern accent (it turned out to be southern Indiana ... ha!), we met up for a sushi dinner that was MORE than superb - the food and the company. One thing quickly led to another and soon, we were pretty much inseparable. Two years from that first date, we got engaged and a few months after that, we got married. And here we are, five years later. We've made it through a cross-country move, unemployment, a deployment, and lots of other fun stuff. And I wouldn't want to do it with anyone else!

And for your viewing pleasure ... some photos of us from 2006.

ABCs

2011-03-02T21:41:00.003-05:00

This seems like a good filler post. Plus, it's been so damn long since I have blogged regularly that you probably forgot who I am. So, here's a reminder. :)

Age: 29. The last year of my twenties ... amazing! Sometimes I forget how old I am and I think I am a recent high school grad. Or a recent college grad. I frequently catch myself saying things to my students like, "I wasn't in high school THAT long ago." But considering the fact that I graduated 11 years ago, I probably can't be saying stuff like that anymore.

Bed size: Queen.

Chore you hate: Hmmm, where to begin? I will start with cleaning the bathroom. Unloading the dishwasher. Mopping the floor. Laundry. FOLDING LAUNDRY. All of them.

Dogs: Yes, I have one. His name is Oscar. I believe most of you are familiar with him.

Essential start to your day: Cell phone alarm. And standing in the shower for a couple of minutes in hot water. Ahhhh.

Favorite color: Blue. And pink. And purple.

Gold or silver: Normally, I would say silver, but lately I've been way into gold. So how about ... goldver.

Height: 5’6

Instruments you play: Violin since I was 3, piano since I was 4.

Job title: Graduation Coach

Kids: Yes please!

Live: I have no idea how to answer this question. So ... yes. I am living.

Mom’s name: Judy

Nicknames: None, really. Although my dad sometimes shortens my name from Shaina to "Shaine." And I have been called the Shainster. And Shaina-Baina.

Overnight hospital stays: None.

Pet peeve: Oh man, there are SO many. I hate when people use the wrong letters in a name to make it sound cute. Like ... Krazy Kat's Korner. AGH I HATE THAT. I also hate when people make up names for their babies by ruining perfectly good normal names. Like the other day, I heard of someone naming their kid Jaxsyn. It just hurts my eyes. Also, I am kind of militant about spelling and I have an issue when people spell "ridiculous" with an e: "rediculous." It happens more than you'd think.

Quote from a movie: They've done studies, you know. 60% of the time it works, every time.

Right or left handed: Right.

Siblings: None of my own, but I have four sister-in-laws.

Time you wake up: 5:35am on weekdays, earlier if I work out before work. On the weekends ... more like 8-9ish.

Underwear: Yes. I wear them.

Vegetables you dislike: I love pretty much every veggie except zucchini. I find that icky.

What makes you run late: Fatigue. I am so tired in the mornings that sometimes I get out of the shower and curl up on the couch under a blanket while I stare blankly into space. And staring blankly into space can really take up a lot of time.

X-Rays you’ve had: Hmmmmm ... quite a few I guess, although I have never actually broken anything.

Yummy food you make: A lot! I am very good at cookies. And breakfast foods. And I am very talented with creating really tasty meals out of whatever is laying around.

Zoo- favorite animal: Giraffes!!!

Music-filled weekend!

2011-02-27T20:09:00.002-05:00

Whew. I'm exhausted! This weekend was busy, and filled with music. And fun!

On Friday morning, a teacher at work emailed out that he had tickets for the Lucinda Williams show that night that he couldn't use - the first person to respond could get them for free. Well, that was me! Matt and I both really like Lucinda Williams and I couldn't wait to see her live. She did not disappoint ... it was a great show, and Over the Rhine showed up at the end to play a couple of songs with her too! Definitely a great night in Bloomington. If you aren't familiar with Lucinda, look her up ... or check out my favorite song, Essence.

I had my first orchestra concerts today and yesterday, which kept me busy with rehearsing and performing. Matt came to my concert last night, which was actually down the road at his high school. Not only was he in the audience, but most of his family came to support me as well, which was just great. Especially great because I think there were only about twenty people in the audience total, so it was nice to know fifty percent of the audience. :) Also, Matt ran into a friend of his from high school that he hadn't seen since they graduated. Fun times! He and his wife (who is in the orchestra with me) also live in Bloomington, so I think we're going to try to get together.

Today, the concert was at the high school I work at, and we had a much bigger turnout. And I'm beat! We also had some great brunch this morning over at Kyle and Rob's - Kyle made Pioneer Woman's baked french toast and it was mmmmmmmmm so delicious!!!

How was your weekend? Anyone else watching the Oscar's?

Creepy.

2011-02-24T21:47:00.002-05:00

You know how the internet is creepy sometimes? How gmail always posts an ad for something you are emailing someone about, or how your name pops into spam emails?

Well ... this ad series popped up on the side of my screen when I checked the weather the other day.

I don't know what's more creepy ... the fact that they know I live in Bloomington, or the fact that they think I'm a mom.

29.

2011-02-09T22:09:00.002-05:00

Today is my 29th birthday. Crazy ... the last year before a decade change. It has been a good birthday - I went to work (blah), came home (yay!), relaxed for awhile and opened presents (got some cash and a Sephora gift card from my man - finally ordering my Clarisonic!!!), and then went out for sushi dinner. Here is a semi-okay photo of us with our sushi. Mmmmm!

This is why I do this.

2011-02-08T20:23:00.002-05:00

Today's quote of the day made me tear up. This time, it's something a student said to me.

You're such a good person. You're one of the best people I know. And if I had been surrounded by more people like you when I was growing up, I think my life would have been so different.

I think this is possibly the best, sweetest, and simultaneously saddest compliment I have ever received.

And being that person in this teenage boy's life? That's why I do this.

Welcome to the D

2011-02-07T18:20:00.003-05:00

Like any good Detroiter, this commercial rocked my socks off.

My other fave was definitely this one. I literally squealed at the insane cuteness. I LOVE THIS ONE.

What were your favorite commercials from last night?

Superbowl Party!

2011-02-06T21:58:00.004-05:00

Well, we really partied it up tonight for the Superbowl! If by "partied it up," you mean had our neighbor besties over with their beautiful three week old daughter, Madeline.

On the menu: Spinach Feta Dip, Grilled Beer and Cheese Paninis, and Mini Football Brownies with Cream Cheese Icing.

Aren't the little brownies adorable?!

This one is a bit too dark, but I had to throw in a photo of sweet little Madeline!
Oh, and the Superbowl? Welllll to be honest, I didn't really have an opinion about it, but I HAVE loved the commercials. And now? It's bedtime. :)

Sewing!

2011-02-03T20:08:00.004-05:00

So, awhile back I decided I really wanted to learn how to sew. So! I got this Brother CS6000I Sew Advance Sew Affordable 60-Stitch Computerized Free-Arm Sewing Machine and unpacked it on our dining room table and stared at it. And realized that I don't have the faintest idea what I'm doing.

But then, I started reading the instruction manual. I figured out how to wind the bobbin and thread the needle. Huge things, ya know. And then I started trying to figure out how to sew straight lines.

And then I went to Hobby Lobby, looked through the pattern book for something in the Easy Sew section. I settled on an apron with contrasting fabric pockets.

Then I unfolded the pattern and realized that I had no idea what they were talking about. So I watched about 80 YouTube tutorials on how to read a freaking pattern, and I asked my friend Jenn about a million questions. I finally figured out how to pin the pattern to the fabric and cut everything out ... but then I still had no idea what to do.

So I video chatted with my mom about three times, holding up portions of the pattern to the webcam so that she could interpret all the sewing lingo.

And ... voila!

Not too shabby for my first project, right? I should add that I cannot even sew a button on ... so this is a pretty big deal. Now ... what should I sew next?!

Ice storm!

2011-02-02T18:42:00.005-05:00

Oh man. Blogging. It's just been tough for me lately. I wonder how many times I've said that in my last few posts? Probably every time! Ha. Oh well. Anyway, y'all might have heard that there was a bit of a storm throughout much of the country the last couple of days ... not that the weathermen have been talking it up or anything. Oh wait. Yes they have. We were told we were getting a "CRIPPLING AND POTENTIALLY CATASTROPHIC" ice storm.

Really? Crippling? Catastrophic? These are pretty serious words. We did indeed get an ice storm, though, and it's pretty crazy out there. School was cancelled yesterday and today, and I just got notification they are closed tomorrow as well. Over 10,000 homes in our county are without power - thankfully we escaped that! - and they have turned the school I work at into an emergency Red Cross shelter. Even the grass is a slick sheet of ice ... scary stuff! I took a few photos, starting yesterday when the ice was just beginning.

This is my car ... covered in ice yesterday. It's way worse today - I tried to open the driver's side door and the handle was frozen shut. Matt yanked on it a bit and finally got it to open, so that's good.

So pretty!

Aaand the rest of the photos are from today - I think we got 2-3 inches of snow today on top of our 1 inch of ice.

Oscar and I ventured to the mailbox today and it is definitely much less slippery out now - in fact, things are getting a bit slushy out there. The temp is supposed to dip pretty low tonight though, so I fear that a lot of that will freeze right back up.

An ice storm funny: in the middle of the night, Oscar woke me up because he had to go to the bathroom. I let him go outside and he pooped. I know, exciting right? Well, I didn't pick it up because it was crazy scary windy and icy out. So this morning, I went out to take care of it ... and his poop was frozen solid to the ground. Gross, right? Yet also really funny.

I did take all this extra time off to finish my very first sewing project ... and I think I will attempt to blog TWO DAYS IN A ROW to share that with you tomorrow! For all of you caught in this crazy storm with 2 feet of snow ... pleeeeease be careful and stay safe. I know a lot of people on Facebook are all "It's just snow, get over it people," but if you aren't careful in this weather, bad things happen. And that's today's Shaina PSA. :)

Giveaway Winner!

2011-01-17T20:21:00.002-05:00

Okay ... whoops. I know I said I would announce the winner of the giveaway on Friday, but to be honest, I totally forgot. On Saturday morning, Matt and I drove to Michigan for a quick trip to celebrate my grandma's 90th birthday. Plus - how exciting!!!! My friends Kyle AND Jenny both had their babies on Saturday morning! Which is just amazing. I am so excited to meet both of these sweet little girls!!!

Anyway. Anyway! See how easily distracted I am these days?!

Drumroll please.................. the winner of the $45 gift card to CSN Stores is:

B.E.G.!!!!! Excitement! Girl - you know what to do. Drop me a line and I will email you your code!!

One year ago today...

2011-01-17T08:43:00.003-05:00

January 17th is just one of those days I can't get out of my head. It just sticks there, you know? This time last year, January 17th 2010, I took Matt to the airport and we said a very tearful goodbye. We didn't have any idea when we would see each other again, not really knowing when this deployment would come to an end. We didn't really know anything about, well, anything. It was the beginning of our very first - and hopefully very last - deployment.

Saying goodbye was so hard. I don't even know how to describe it. It was like ... not being able to breathe. I think that's the best way I CAN describe it. Like having something ripped away from my body. Like something very, very wrong.

And all the small talk and retail therapy with my MIL afterwards didn't even hit the surface. I went home, curled up on the couch, invited Oscar to curl up on the couch with me (it only took a couple of hours for me to break all of our house rules for the dog...), and cried. The beginning of a deployment is a terrible feeling - I know that a lot of you can relate. It just feels so ... so vast, so never-ending. So damn long. And I felt so damn empty.

But now, one year later, all of that seems like a distant memory. As I sit here, with my husband safe and sound beside me, I sometimes wonder if this year even happened. It didn't take long after his return for me to feel like he had never left my side. I know I didn't imagine it - I certainly have the muscle knots and frowny wrinkles to prove it. I still remember what it felt like to get in bed that night ... wondering how long it would take me to get used to an empty bed. Tonight, I will curl up a little closer, hug a little tighter, kiss a little longer. And I will be so thankful.

Small Town Headlines

2011-01-14T07:00:00.000-05:00

Most of you know by now that we live in a pretty small town. It isn't considered a "traditional" small town because it's a COLLEGE town. But to be honest ... there's a lot of very small town-y stuff about Bloomington. Perhaps the biggest small town-y thing about Bloomington is our local newspaper. I have gotten in the habit of scanning the newspaper online each day for local headlines, and wow. There have been several gems lately. Here are a few of my favorites - often amusing, misleading, and just generally ridiculous.

Authorities believe that thousands of gallons of vegetable oil in garage fueled fire.

Man arrested for having sex with girl.

Wrong number text offering drugs accidentally goes to prosecutor.

And, drumroll please, my new favorite:

Man jailed in Daviess County tells police he didn't know woman was dead during sex.

Just lovely! Any fun small town headlines from your neck of the woods?

It's Sew Exciting!

2011-01-13T10:00:00.000-05:00

Y'all, I have such exciting news! I have ordered a sewing machine, and with any luck, it is already on its way to my house.

True story: I have no idea how to sew. But lately, I've reeeeeally been wanting to learn. I have all sorts of things I want to make (apron! dining room chair cushions! dog polo shirts!), and I can't wait to learn and get started.

Do any of you sew? How did you learn? I am considering taking a 2.5 hour long intro to sewing class at Joann's - would you recommend doing something like this?

Okay, here's the super duper exciting part. I am starting a new blog that will chronicle my quest to learn how to sew! Yayyyy. But I need your help. Clearly, it must have some sort of creative name. But I'm stumped as to what it should be. Any suggestions??

New blog alert!

2011-01-12T22:21:00.003-05:00

Wow, this is crazy ... somehow this is my third post today. Can you tell it's a snow day??!

Anyway - Matt and I have started a new blog! We have been getting a kick out of weird eBay auctions and the accompanying photos, and decided to make a blog out of it. Add us to your Readers:

Treasures of eBay

And, we're taking submissions! If you've seen something hilarious on eBay, drop us an email at ebaytreasurephotos@gmail.com.

Happy hunting!

Birthday birthday birthday!

2011-01-12T18:17:00.004-05:00

In just shy of a month, on February 9, I will be turning 29. 29! The last year in my 20s. How fun! I have never dreaded birthdays or aging - I say, bring it on. I hope there is never a time in my life that involves me dreading a birthday.

You know what's REALLY fun about birthdays? Making a fun birthday list! This year, I have two main things on my birthday list. First and foremost, I am DYING for a Clarisonic Mia. I switched up my birth control a few months ago, and ever since, my hormones have been out of whack. As in ... my skin has been an absolute nightmare.

I went for a facial last night (pure bliss!) at Aveda, and I was so excited when she used a Clarisonic on my face! I have been obsessing over the Mia for a couple of months now, and it MUST be mine. I have even gone so far as to read every single review on the Sephora website. What ... you don't do that? Hmmm. I am convinced this thing is a miracle worker, and will cure all of my skin ailments.

I probably won't receive this as an actual gift, but I am working on a small collection of Sephora gift cards. I will probably be asking for MORE Sephora gift cards so that I can purchase this bad boy. I really, really, really, really, really want one.

The other gift on my list? A pair of these super awesome Hunter wellies in violet. Aren't they just so fabulous and happy?

My old wellies split up the back (thanks, J. Crew) and I have been wellie-less for quite awhile now. Here's to hoping that they might someday soon be mine!

Hmmmm remember me?

2011-01-11T09:25:00.002-05:00

I have sucked at blogging lately ... so, so much. I feel like I've been trying to get back in the swing of things for MONTHS. What is up with that?! So I will try to make it up to you ... with a GIVEAWAYYYYYYY.

Did it work yet?

CSN stores is generously giving away a $45 gift certificate to one of my lovely readers! If you have been living under a rock and haven't heard of CSN stores before, they literally have everything under the sun - especially kitchen stuff - from adjustable bar stools to a panini press to Le Creuset to, well, literally everything.

To enter: just leave me a comment about what your favorite kitchen item is! Extra entry if you are a follower - just let me know! Enter by Friday at 5pm - winner will be announced that evening!

The fine print: you can use the gift credit for any CSN store, but it does NOT cover shipping costs.

Looking Back on 2010

2010-12-30T19:31:00.009-05:00

I've noticed a lot of lists lately on your blogs ... people are rounding up their favorite recipes, etc, from 2010 and I just had to jump on the bandwagon. I thought I would look back on 2010 in photos and talk about my favorite moments.

Taking down the Christmas tree, shortly before Matt deployed.

No photos of deployment ... because it was NOT one of my favorite moments of 2010, and also because we just didn't take any photos. Because it was very teary.

Spending my birthday weekend with my BFF Lisa, and my bloggy BFFs Jenn and Jenny.

We had lots of snow days ... and Oscar and I did a lot of this.

Met my other bloggy BFF, Lindsay.

I met my friend Anna's beautiful daughter, Mae, back in March when she was around 7 weeks old.

My mom taught Oscar how to play cards ... or maybe it was the other way around?

And for 5 glorious days, I got to vacation in Destin, FL, with Matt before he headed to Kuwait.

At the end of April, I met my friend Jenna's sweet son Corbin just two days after he was born.

I got an organic farm CSA share!

With the help of my mom, I picked out plants, planted, and successfully kept this beautiful potted plant arrangement alive.

I took a DSM-IV class - and aced it with an A.

I went to the Great White North to hang out with Jenny and Lindsay.

While in Canada, Oscar picked up some sort of allergy that involved him licking some hot spots on his tail. Okay, definitely not a highlight of 2010, but I do love this sad little photo.

I vacationed in northern Michigan with my parents on Bear Lake, which was absolutely gorgeous. Oscar loved it too, and spent several hours a day swimming.

Bear Lake at dusk ... just amazing.

I grew my own little herb garden - basil, sage and oregano.

I went to Chicago with d.a.r. and MTM, and had an awesome time wandering around the city!

Oh, and we ran a little race, too.

And a couple of weeks later, I ran another 5k with my friend Jenna.

I got to meet my friend Jenn's sweet baby girl, Cora.

Oscar helped me make some welcome home signs for Matt, as we started to think about his return ...

I attended my friend Kyle's baby shower (she's due next week - so excited!!!).

And then, after ten long months, it was time for me to hang up the welcome home signs. This one was my creation:

And my Little Sis, S, made this one:

Hands down, the best moment of 2010? Was this one.

I saved all sorts of stuff and food items all year to show Matt when he came home. For whatever reason, I felt the need to pull absolutely everything out that first night he came home to show him. I have no idea why.

Happy, happy mess! The mess of Matt unpacking.

Our 2nd anniversary, November 8, 2010. Self-portrait. Duh.

Surprisingly, Matt teaching me how to shoot was a total highlight of 2010. It was just TOO fun.

Sweet puppies, perfect light.

Matt and I took a tiny post-deployment vacation (i.e. one night) to Asheville, TN and had this amazing dinner at Tupelo Honey.

Best. Drinking chocolate. Ever.

Matt and I got to spend some quality time with our sweet friends Anna and Tim, and their baby girl Mae - who was then 10 months old. So much personality!
The rest of my highlights don't have photos, unfortunately.

-Spending a weekend in Chicago with Lisa, Randy and Bacon was incredibly fun and relaxing, as always.

-Spending the holidays with our families.

-Just spending time with Matt, in general.

The end. I wish all of you a peaceful (or party-filled) New Years Eve! Matt and I will be relaxing with Kyle and her husband Rob, and our dogs, thinking happy "baby-come-out" thoughts for Kyle.

Talk to you next year!

Christmas = Awesome!

2010-12-26T13:15:00.009-05:00

I don't know about y'all, but Santa was very good to me this year. And by Santa, I mean my sweet husband, family, in-law family and friends. I was totally and completely spoiled. Here is just a sample of some of the amazing things I found under the tree this year:

Yay! And now, if you'll excuse me, I am going to play with all my new stuff. I hope you are having a wonderful holiday season! xxoo

Happy Holidays!

2010-12-23T23:00:00.002-05:00

Snow day, handy husband, and Christmas decorations!

2010-12-15T22:36:00.005-05:00

1. Snow Day - I have a snow day tomorrow! We are having all sorts of winter storm warnings, and they preemptively closed school for tomorrow. No complaints here! So now I'm staying up too late, having fun, and tomorrow I will sleep in, clean, do laundry, and pack for vacation. Woot!

2. Can I just say how awesome it is to have such a handy husband? Not only am I married to someone who can fix almost anything, but he can also build stuff! He has been hard at work the last few weeks, building this beautiful chest/coffee table. What do you think?

Isn't it amazing? I am so happy to have a nice, strong, solid piece of furniture that Matt built - it will literally last forever, and it's something that can stay in our family for, well, a long time!

3. Christmas decorations! Yes, I did decorate a bit for Christmas despite not getting a tree. And for those of you who are concerned we don't have a tree ... well, I'm pretty sad about it. But since we were just on vacation, and we leave again on Friday, there just wasn't a point. I did a few little things to make me feel more festive.

Like put these cute little dishes out ... for no reason, because we are not entertaining. It's strictly because I never use them and I think they are so cute.

This is actually a Christmas ornament of the place Matt and I had our wedding reception. It's massive, so I put it out on the counter instead of on our nonexistent tree.

I filled my fave kate spade rose bowl with a ton of glittery ornaments, and that vase o'glitter makes me very, very happy.

Oh, and we can't forget Oscar's stocking!

I tied this super cute mistletoe to ... the uber romantic ceiling fan that is on top of the dining room table, thus ensuring Matt and I will never, ever be directly under it. Seriously, where do people hang mistletoe? The only other viable option in our apartment was Matt's pull-up bar. Talk about romantic.

I just threw out some more cute Christmas dishes on the table, along with my other fave kate spade vase with some sparkly Christmas tree-y branch dealies.

Aren't those cute?

Wellllllll that's it. Like I said, I didn't do much, but the tiny bit I DID do makes me feel warmer and fuzzy-er inside. That's all for tonight ... if you live somewhere in the midwest and you're also getting this snow storm, stay safe out there! xxoo

Holiday Blahs

2010-12-14T21:08:00.003-05:00

Hello friends! I am having the hardest time getting the motivation to blog lately. Which is why you have probably forgotten about me. I don't know why ... I just feel like I have nothing to say. So instead, I will just throw out a few randoms.

1. Our sweet friends Kyle and Rob gave us the FarmBloomington cookbook for Christmas, and I am in love with it. Farm is our favorite restaurant in Bloomington, and the cookbook has so many of my favorite things! I am really enjoying all the beautiful photos and tips - it's really the loveliest cookbook I have seen in a long, long time. If you're looking for a great holiday present for someone, check it out!

2. Is it okay that I'm watching the Biggest Loser finale while looking through said cookbook?

3. We had a 2 hour delay yesterday and today, and I don't want to get up and go to work tomorrow at the normal time. I want to sleep in again. It's going to be a rough, rough morning.

4. On Friday, Matt and I are heading to Chicago after school and staying the weekend with Lisa and Randy! I'm so excited. We have a great weekend planned, full of fun and good food - and even a blogger event on Saturday involving manicures. Score!

5. It's been kinda hard to get in the Christmas spirit this year, mostly because we decided not to get a Christmas tree. Over the weekend, I finally got out some decorations and made the place feel a little more Christmas-y, and that definitely helped. I am going to take some photos tomorrow maybe and I'll share them.

6. It is blasted cold here (hence the delay today - yesterday's was for snow, today's was because it was too cold for kids to wait for the bus). When I woke up this morning, it was 7 out. And then when I left for work, it had gone down to 5! Not fair. I guess there's a warm spell coming through tonight because tomorrow, it's supposed to be 28! Wowsers. It is currently 9. UGH.

7. Aaaand wow. That's it. I told you I didn't have anything to say! I'll try to distract you with some photos over the next couple of days, and then I think it's time for a bit of a blogging break for the holidays.

Vacation!

2010-12-06T19:44:00.006-05:00

Matt and I got back last night from our North Carolina vacation - so much fun! It was hard coming back to reality today (i.e. going to work), but somehow I managed. Plus - in two weeks, it will be Christmas break! Yay!

We left last Tuesday and drove to Asheville. The weather was AWFUL. I drove through the mountains, at night, in the pouring rain. Awful awful awful awful. I think Matt and I went about two hours without talking, and I was clenching the steering wheel so hard that my entire upper body was sore afterwards. True story. But. BUT. We made it there in one piece, checked into our hotel, and then headed back into the deluge for the most amaaaaazing dinner at Tupelo Honey. I had shrimp and (goat cheese) grits with andouille sausage, spinach, roasted red peppers, and mushrooms. And a very large glass of wine.

Matt had something else ... and I don't remember what it was. But I'm pretty sure he loved it!

I convinced Matt to pose for a photo with me. It was tough, but eventually I convinced him it was worth it. Okay, I didn't, but I DID force him.
The next day, we went to a most amazing place - the French Broad Chocolate Lounge. This place is the real deal. CHOCOLATE CHOCOLATE CHOCOLATE as far as the eye can see. Or ... in these display cases. The place had the most extensive hot chocolate (ahem, drinking chocolate) menu I had ever seen.

Oh, and we bought a bar of Mast Brothers chocolate. These dudes are serious about chocolate. We haven't had this yet - because it was kind of expensive for chocolate and we feel like we should save it for a special occasion. Like ... Christmas maybe. I absolutely LOVE the packaging and design on these chocolate bars - they are so beautiful. I had to take a photo because it looked so amazing!

Mmmmm! My drinking chocolate. It was seriously amazing. I had to take photos. This was called something like ... a liquid truffle, in "pure dark." Drool.

See how cute?
Can you tell how thick this stuff is? Kind of amazing. No, make that ... really super duper amazing.

After walking around Asheville for awhile, we got back in the car and drove to Charlotte to spend time with our friends Anna, Tim and their beautiful daughter Mae, who is 10 months old now. I am totally and completely in love with her. Here she is, hanging out with the boys:

Matt and Mae, having some play time.

All bundled up and looking OH so adorable for a walk in the cold!

So adorable in her santa jammies!!!

Matt and I are posing as surrogate parents here. Ha! We had so much fun with her. Matt was amazing with her - she LOVED hearing his voice and looking at him. She would always stick her tongue out at Matt, and it was the cutest.

Ahhh. So cute.
Matt and Mae, hanging out again. Just chillin.

Anna and Mae! Such a happy, happy baby.

Le sigh. Perfect, perfect baby.

And that was our trip! We hung out and played with Mae and it was fabulous. Thankfully, we had an uneventful drive home yesterday and now ... back to the grind.

At least until next weekend, when we're off to Chicago to spend the weekend with Lisa and Randy, and then off to Michigan to spend Christmas with my fam. Can you believe it's almost Christmas???!

Puppies!!!

2010-12-03T08:00:00.000-05:00

I can't believe I forgot to blog about this! I guess I've been a little distracted or something. Anyway ... around 6 weeks ago, my SIL's dog, Macey had puppies! Kyle and I went out to see them the day after they were born. Adorableness.

Aaaand on Sunday, Matt and I went back out to see them again, since they are ready to go to their new homes this week. LOOK HOW CUTE!!! Oh my gosh, cannot handle the cuteness. They are lab puppies - chocolate and yellow.

Isn't this one cute? He is saying goodbye to one of the puppies as she goes to her new home. Awwww.

When in Rome...

2010-11-30T06:15:00.000-05:00

Or, should I say Indiana?

On vacation the rest of the week (heading to North Carolina in just a few minutes!). Have a great week!

Tasty Leftover Idea

2010-11-29T20:24:00.004-05:00

First of all - how was your Thanksgiving? Good? Mine was great. We spent Thanksgiving here in Indiana with Matt's family, and we had a wonderful time! Have you ever had Thanksgiving at a cemetery before? No? Me either ... until this year. Matt's dad's side of the family gets together for Thanksgiving at a building in a cemetery, for reasons unbeknownst to me. I believe it's because it's the only place they could find that fit everyone? Unsure. What I DO know is that there isn't a bathroom - only an outhouse type deal outside. In the cemetery. No thanks! The cemetery was also on a "dead end." Giggle.

Anyway, I made a giant batch of cranberry sauce because I LOVE it and must have it smothered all over my turkey and stuffing. I always forget that not a lot of other people like it, though, so I had a ton of cranberry sauce leftover. That's when I discovered this recipe over on the Panini Happy blog: Pulled Turkey Cranberry BBQ Sliders. I modified this a bit (would you believe we didn't have hardly any turkey leftover? so I used a rotisserie chicken), and I absolutely LOVED it. So did Matt - it definitely got the Man A-Okay.

Ingredients:

1 tbsp canola oil (I used EVOO)

1/2 yellow onion, finely chopped

1 tbsp jalapeno pepper, finely chopped, seeds removed (I forgot both the onion AND the jalapeno)

1 clove garlic, minced

1 1/2 cup whole berry cranberry sauce

1/2 cup ketchup

1 tbsp prepared mustard (we used probably more like 2 tbsp of horseradish mustard - gave it a great kick!)

roast turkey, shredded (or umm rotisserie chicken)

Hawaiian dinner rolls, halved lengthwise (we didn't use buns and just ate it alone)

Heat the oil in a medium saucepan. Add onions and jalapeno (or, you know, don't) and cook over medium heat until the onions have softened. Add garlic and cook for another minute or so. Add cranberry sauce, ketchup and mustard and simmer for around 15 minutes, stirring often to prevent burning.

The original recipe says to remove it from the heat and THEN mix in the turkey/chicken, but we just shredded the rotisserie chicken and then tossed it in the saucepan. Since the chicken was cold, I left it on the stove for a bit, stirring occasionally, to heat it up.

The verdict? Delish! You can make it as sliders and put the turkey/chicken on buns, or not. I reheated it today, served it over a salad with romaine, cucumbers, green onions, corn and black beans for a little bbq tex mex salad. Delish!

How was your Thanksgiving?

Thanksgiving Recipe Swap

2010-11-24T20:31:00.003-05:00

Okay, I realize that it's probably a little late for a Thanksgiving recipe swap, but I am late in reading my blogs (per usual) and just came across b.e.g.'s recipe swap post. I usually make my grandma's chocolate chip pecan pie for Thanksgiving, but this year I made Pioneer Woman's chocolate bourbon pecan pie to try something new.

Instead, I will post the recipe for one of my family's Thanksgiving traditions - noodle kugel!!!!!! Now, I realize a lot of you probably aren't familiar with kugel. What can I say? It's a Jew thing. :) My parents always make kugel for Thanksgiving, and this year I thought I would make it to take over to my in-laws for dinner tomorrow. Kugel is basically a baked noodle pudding type deal. I know it might sound weird, but the main ingredients are egg noodles, eggs, cream cheese, butter, and sugar. CLEARLY you can't go wrong.

Ingredients:

1 pound medium egg noodles (I always use the No-Yolks)

1/2 cup butter, softened

1 8-ounce package cream cheese, softened (I always use Neufchatel cheese)

1 1/4 cups sugar

8 eggs, well beaten

4 cups milk

2 tsp vanilla

1 tsp lemon juice

dash salt

Topping:

2/3 cups graham cracker crumbs

1 1/4 tsp cinnamon

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Cook noodles according to package directions. Drain and set aside.

Cream together the butter and cream cheese. Add sugar and mix well. Blend in eggs. Add milk, vanilla, lemon juice and salt. Add noodles and mix thoroughly. Pour into a 9x13 inch baking dish. Mix graham cracker crumbs and cinnamon and sprinkle on top of noodles. Bake for 1 1/4 hours or until nicely browned and crusty on top. Let cool at least 30 minutes before serving. Cut into squares.

Just give this a shot - trust me, you will love it. Even though it is kinda sweet, I serve it as a Thanksgiving side. Enjoy!

So Very Thankful

2010-11-24T20:12:00.002-05:00

I am so very thankful for so many things this year:

...My husband, returning safe and sound - and early - from deployment.

...A loving family that supported me emotionally this year.

...My amazing friends who talked with me day and night, came to visit, welcomed me into their homes, and kept me company while my husband was gone.

...A snuggly pup who kept my feet, and my heart (cheesy, I know!), warm this year.

...And so many other things. I know I am not alone in saying that I am very, very thankful this year. I hope that all of you have a wonderful Thanksgiving tomorrow with family, friends, pups, you name it.

Monday Happiness

2010-11-22T06:22:00.002-05:00

There's a lot of happiness going on today - yes, even though it's Monday. It's the Monday of Thanksgiving week! Which means that not only is this a short work week for most of us, but it's also the week of my absolute favorite holiday.

I don't have a lot to say this morning (it's almost 6:30 and I'm heading out the door to work in a couple of minutes), but I was catching up on Glee over the weekend and just watched last week's great episode with Gwyneth Paltrow. Did y'all see this episode? I am not a huge fan of hers usually, but I thought she was great on Glee. I loved her character - so much fun.

Anyway, their Umbrella/Singin' in the Rain number at the end has to be one of my all-time favorite Glee performances! Something about the water on the stage and the rain coming down in the background ... it just seems almost like a dream. I love!!! And just in case you missed it ... why don't you watch it here this morning so that you can start your Monday on a happy note.

Oscar's New Bed

2010-11-18T06:52:00.004-05:00

I thought I would show you cute photos instead of writing a real post ... since it's early, and I'm out the door on my way to court (for a student, not me!), and I'm still struggling with motivation because work has been such a shitshow lately.

Without further ado ... Oscar curled up here this morning, and it was TOO CUTE not to photograph.

I'm trying!

2010-11-14T19:06:00.002-05:00

Trying to get back to normal life. It's been harder than I thought! Work has been hell lately ... so much crap going on with my students that I am just so stressed out, all the time. This past week was especially awful, with this really terrible situation involving SEVERAL of my students. And then a few more fights broke out (once again - my students) and in the end, I believe I had 3 students expelled and 4 suspended this week alone. I am so frustrated with so many things right now that all I do is stress about work. In the car in the morning ... stress stress stress. On the way home ... stress stress stress.

Thank goodness that Matt is home! At least I can come home and be so damn happy. Because I am. I still think it's crazy that he's there every day when I come home from work - it makes it all bearable lately! But when I'm home, all I want to do is hang out with him. I know I have been neglecting my friends (both real-life and internet friends!) and I'm so, so sorry. I am trying hard to remember how to have a husband at home AND talk to friends! I know I successfully did it pre-deployment, and I've been told it will come back to me soon. In the meantime, try not to forget about me! I've been so stressed about work stuff that when I get home, all I want to do is curl up and cuddle and just relax. No computer, no nothing.

So. That's that. How are all of you? I miss you, I really do!

Veterans Day

2010-11-11T22:45:00.002-05:00

This post was obviously supposed to go live yesterday, but I had some serious blogger issues resulting in me giving up on the computer for the day and going to bed. Even though it's late ... the sentiment remains the same, no matter WHAT day of the year it is.

To my favorite veteran and all veterans,

today and every day,

thanks. America remains the land of the free because of the brave.

2 years ago today ...

2010-11-08T05:57:00.002-05:00

... was a really good day. And today I'll be celebrating our 2nd anniversary with my husband, which we did not think would be possible this year! Happy Anniversary, Matt! I love you. <3

I'm alive!

2010-11-01T05:39:00.003-04:00

Hello, friends! I certainly disappeared for awhile, didn't I? But I think I had a darn good reason (see previous post). Matt is home yayyyyyyyyyyyy!

Sorry, the excitement hasn't passed yet. I just can't believe he's home - and so early! But I'll let you in on a little secret - we've known that he was coming home early for the last month and a half or so. We kept this to ourselves, really only telling our families, in case something went wrong and he couldn't come home early after all. We just didn't want people asking us all the time when he was coming home.

And even though this seems to never happen with the Army, his return date kept getting ... earlier. I know - weird, right??! I thought so too. He made it to Kuwait about two weeks ago, and we were hoping that he could get out of there pretty quickly. By a week ago Saturday, he was on a plane to Ireland, and the next morning he called me from Atlanta. Craziness! He got to Camp Shelby in Mississippi late that night and we were maybe hoping he would get here on Thursday or Friday. Last Monday evening, he called and said that he was going really quickly through all his paperwork etc and thought he would be done midday on Tuesday, but we didn't think he could get a flight out until Wednesday. Eek! Wednesday! Amazing!

And then on Tuesday, he called late afternoon and said "I hope you don't have plans tonight!" I only had 5 hours notice before his plane was landing - which REALLY meant 3, since it's about an hour drive to the airport and I had to get there super early to make sure I could get a gate pass and get through security and everything.

Okay, I guess I didn't HAVE to get there super early, but ... well, it's just hard to sit at home twiddling your thumbs when your husband is coming home after being away for nine and a half months. You know?

So anyway. I got to the airport and the second I walked in, checked the arrivals board - his flight was getting in THIRTY MINUTES EARLY! Amazing! Good thing I got there so early, because once I got my gate pass, went through security, and got to the gate, I only had about 20 minutes before his flight landed.

Those twenty minutes consisted of me furiously pacing back and forth, alternately sweating and freezing, and texting various people. You know, the usual. Imagine my surprise when he walked off that plane in uniform! Matt HATES wearing his uniform and had planned to change at the airport in MS. However, he got so little notice about his travel plans that he didn't have time. That's okay, it made for a good photo op. :) So he walked off the plane ... and looked right past me! He didn't expect me to be there, so he was pretty surprised (don't worry, he eventually realized it was me). It was amazing.

And it still is! But you know what's not amazing? Having to go back to work. I was on fall break last week, so I was off Thursday and Friday - which was amazing, just perfect timing. I took Wednesday off at the last minute since he was getting in so late on Tuesday, plus I knew we'd be up half the night talking (we were). So after 5 glorious days off with my husband, I am up nice and early to go back to work today. And absolutely dreading every minute of it.

So - here's wishing that the week flies, and it's Friday again before we know it!

Wordless Wednesday

2010-10-27T14:34:00.001-04:00

DEPLOYMENT = OVER.

Deployment in Review: Month 9

2010-10-17T22:22:00.002-04:00

Nine months down! THIRTY NINE WEEKS. That is a long time, y'all. A really, really long time. I am keeping my fingers crossed that I don't have many of these monthly updates left! Then again, it's the Army, so who really knows for sure?

For some reason, it seems like the end of deployment is harder than anything else. I can't really describe it, I can't really explain it, but my Army wife friends agree with me that for some reason, it sucks extra. I have definitely been on an emotional roller coaster, and have been stuck in a funk for quite awhile. I am trying very, very hard to shake it and just be myself.

This month, I ...

-Enjoyed a fun day out in the country at my SIL's house! Oscar and I always have such a great time out there. It is dog heaven, so he loves it - and I love just relaxing and playing with the animals and hanging out with the fam.

-I started writing for Fantabulously Frugal!

-I got water stuck in my ear and had the worst day ever.

-I cut my thumb open and had to go to the ER to get it glued back together ... and then the garbage disposal broke and my sink backed up and it was a nightmare. Possibly tied for worst day ever?

-I went to the Covered Bridge Festival ... aka White Trash Fest

-I finally, finally CLEANED OUT THE CLOSET! And I found some crazy shit in there.

-I started trying to raise money for the Wounded Warrior Project over at Fantabulously Frugal.

-I attended my friend Kyle's baby shower (yesterday).

-And today, I drove down to my SIL's to see puppies! Their dog, Macey, had 9 puppies yesterday and they are so adorable. I have some photos to post tomorrow, probably. She is a yellow lab and they bred her with a silver lab. The result? 4 chocolate pups, 3 yellow pups, and 2 dark yellow labs.

So, this month feels like it's been pretty busy. I have also started nesting ... that's the best way I can think of to describe it. Just trying to get the apartment ready for Matt to come home! I have lots of projects and am quickly going through my list. When I'm done, the apartment will be cleaned and organized to a T!

Christmas List

2010-10-16T11:37:00.003-04:00

I have seen a lot of bloggers lately posting about what they want for Christmas, so I thought I'd do the same.

That is all.

Wounded Warrior Project Fundraiser

2010-10-13T22:38:00.004-04:00

Hey y'all! I interrupt your regularly scheduled programming to tell you about something really cool that's happening over at Fantabulously Frugal.

Fantabulously Frugal is a site about one of the happiest things on the planet – bargain shopping. However, sometimes it’s important to take a step back and think about those who can use our help. This year Fantabulously Frugal is giving back to the Wounded Warrior Project … in a fantabulously frugal fashion, of course!

Why Wounded Warrior? I know many of you are military wives, or come from military families. The military touches all of us, so why not give back to those who have given everything to serve and protect our country? WWP is a nonprofit and nonpartisan organization that seeks to help injured service men and women. We are so happy and honored that they have agreed to partner with us over the next couple of months.

Beginning November 26, 2010 – aka Black Friday – Fantabulously Frugal will be hosting an auction on eBay and 100% of the proceeds will be donated to the Wounded Warrior Project. Our hope is that this is a great opportunity for many of you to get some holiday shopping done while seeing 100% of your purchase price go toward a great organization.

Here’s where we need your help: We are looking for items to auction off. Small items. Large items. Any items. Do you work for a company that would like to get involved in donating an item, or multiple items? Please contact us! Are you an Etsy artist that’s interested in donating an item? Please contact us! Let’s all work together to support a great organization. Aside from helping out a great charity, anyone that donates an item will get free advertising on FF from Nov. 15 – Dec. 31 + a post just about them and the item they’re donating!

The tentative fund raising goal we’ve set is $2,000, but I know that we can blow that out of the water! While the auction won’t go live until Black Friday {for those of you that don’t want to brave the stores, we hope you’ll come out and brave eBay}, please feel free to make a donation to Wounded Warrior at any time. Click here to go to the Fantabulously Frugal Team Page. Feel free to join the team and make a donation of any amount… every little bit helps!

Please mark your calendars for the auction on November 26 – I know we are going to have a lot of great items!

And please, if you have a new item you would like to donate or you just want to learn more about the auction, send me an email or leave me a comment with your contact information.

Obviously, you know that this charity hits close to home with me - the Wounded Warrior Project is such a good cause. I know a lot of you have Etsy stores - this is a great chance for some free publicity and amazing advertising while donating to a great cause. PLEASE consider donating something, anything, for this auction!

Why men usually aren't social workers

2010-10-12T20:51:00.004-04:00

I was having one of those days today - one of those days when I just felt really ineffective with my students. I mentioned to Matt on Google Chat that I was feeling really frustrated about some students who just can't seem to do anything, ever, no matter what. He offered his two cents to try and help.

Me: I am having one of those days where I feel like I don't know how to do my job. I have this group of kids and I am just out of ideas for them.

Matt: waterboarding

Me: hahaha. I love you.

Matt: It works.

Me: :) I feel like I could get fired for that.

Matt: Picket their houses and start blogs about them*

Me: HAHAHAHA definitely would get fired for that

Matt: you clearly don't appreciate my innovations to your field.

Me: I'm sorry. :( Thanks for the suggestions though.

And that, my friends, is why men usually aren't social workers. Gotta love it. Of course, me? Well, sometimes I feel like I would like to pull an Airplane on some of these kids!

*This is referring to the super awful Michigan Assistant Attorney General Andrew Shirvell, who has launched what seems like a hate campaign against the openly gay student council president at the University of Michigan, Chris Armstrong. If you haven't heard about this story, you can read more here. It is a really weird story - Shirvell started a blog bashing this kid, calling for his resignation, and admitted to going to his house and protesting. Ridiculous. I seriously, seriously hate people sometimes.

Is it Monday Yet?

2010-10-10T20:48:00.006-04:00

I can't remember the last time I was looking forward to a Monday ... but this, folks, is the day. I woke up this morning feeling great. I had a good night of sleep, woke up and took a great long walk with Oscar. Then, I decided that I would make Lucy's butternut squash soup. This is about when my day started going south.

I peeled and chopped one butternut squash, and then started in on the second. It was really hard to cut through, so I was kind of holding it at a weird (read: dumb) angle. And then, in a split second, I thought to myself "holding the squash like this is stupid and I'm going to cut myself." One millisecond later, I cut myself. Bad. Really really deep. I sliced right into the pad of my thumb. And it would NOT stop bleeding. It bled a lot. For awhile. I was talking to Matt on gchat, and he told me to superglue it. This scared me ... plus I couldn't find any superglue.

Eventually, Kyle and Rob came over to pick up this week's veggies (they were out of town) and I had them assess the situation. I ended up going back home with them so that Rob (or should I call him Dr. Rob?) could put some liquid bandage on my thumb and then he stuck a bandaid on. He thought it would be fine, but also exclaimed "wow, that's really deep!" when he was patching it up.

Seemingly all better, I headed back home to finish the soup. I peeled and chopped 3 squash, 2 apples, and 2 onions. Then I went to put it all together, when I realized I didn't have any broth. Aaaaargh. So I had to go to the store in the middle of all of this and get some damn broth.

I got home finished the soup (fiiiiiinally ... hours later) I noticed that the thumb was bleeding through the bandaid. Crap. I took off the bandaid and washed it out and WOWSERS it hurt. Bad. I put some more liquid bandage on and oh my gosh, I was in tears. I put another bandaid on and desperately started to google how to tell if you need stitches. I also asked my twitter pals, and a couple of you said I should go to the ER, stat. At this point it had been about 4-5 hours since I had cut myself ... and it was still bleeding. And it was right at this time that my garbage disposal started leaking all over the kitchen floor. Excellent!

Well, crap. I packed a snack and a book in my purse and headed to the hospital. I was there for two hours and, thankfully, luckily, did NOT need stitches. Instead, they used some of that fancy skin glue and now I should be good to go. So ... Matt was clearly right when he told me to just use superglue, but somehow I felt much better having medical professionals there to clean it out a few times and put actual skin glue instead of superglue. :)

SO. I came home, finally had a bowl of the damn soup (which was delicious, by the way) and called it a night.

And on that note, I am totally ready for this day to be over. So I will leave you with some funnies - yesterday I went to the Covered Bridge Festival in Middle-Of-Nowhere, Indiana. I wasn't sure what I was expecting, but ... it surely wasn't the giant white trashfest that it turned out to be. Thankfully, I brought my camera, and documented several of the more perplexing sights.

1. Have you ever wanted to get a medical scooter, but were concerned about how your significant other would travel alongside you? Well, folks, wonder no longer! Simply attach an office chair, circa 1970, to some sturdy wheels and attach it to the back of the scooter. Voila! A scooter made for two.

2. Batman was there! Along with his girlfriend. My SIL and I spent quite a bit if time trying to figure out if she is Catwoman.

3. Ever wonder where Santa spends his offseason?

4. This is my BIL, David, and my nephew Cooper. Cooper is an infomercial junkie, and was concentrating very hard on a demonstration about how wearing a little magnetic bracelet can improve both your energy AND your balance.

5. Donut burger. I really don't have anything else to say about this, besides ... well, no. Nothing.

6. Well, finally! I have spent YEARS looking for a stuffed animal that is both cuddly AND microwaveable. Thank goodness!
I sent these photos to Matt, along with a detailed description of what a crazy shitshow this whole place was. His response: "I would never have believed there was a white trash fest in Indiana had it not been for the pictures! I am shocked! BTW, I guess I am going to have to cancel the order for our tandem scooter. Oh well. I try to do something nice for us and you always have to make fun of it."

Ha! Too much. Anyway, hope these made you giggle. And I hope that, for the most part, you had a better Sunday than I did! So today ... I will say, thank goodness it's almost Monday!

Strike

2010-10-08T16:58:00.006-04:00

I've been wanting to write about this subject for a couple of weeks now, but I wasn't sure if I had the right words. I'm still not sure, but I'm going to speak (write?) from the heart and hope it all comes out okay.

Little Girl Shaina, practicing her "clarinet"

I started playing violin at the age of 3 (and piano at the age of 4!). I begged my parents to let me start playing these instruments because I grew up surrounded by beautiful music. Why? Because I was an "orchestra brat." My dad plays clarinet in the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, and my mom is a piano teacher. Growing up, I thought that EVERYONE'S dad played an instrument! I was surprisingly old when I figured out that this just isn't the case. I realized, then, that my parents were special - they had this thing, this talent, this special gift that a lot of other people don't have. And I thought (and continue to think!) that was pretty darn cool.

My mom still recounts one of the first times she took me to a DSO concert - it was at Meadowbrook, a great outdoor pavilion, with lawn seats and ice cream and all sorts of fun things. I was maybe around two years old, and we had lawn seats. My mom brought coloring books to keep me occupied as the DSO played what I'm sure was a wonderful concert. Miraculously, I stayed quiet and occupied throughout, until I heard a familiar sound - my dad playing a solo. I stood up, pointed, and loudly proclaimed, "clawinet!" My mom was mortified, but she said that people around us were very impressed that I could identify the instrument. :)

A year or so later, I came home very frustrated from preschool one day because I had created a lovely drawing and my teacher couldn't decipher what it was. I apparently kept saying what she interpreted as "clean-up pail," so eventually the drawing was labelled as a "clean-up pail." At

home, my parents realized that I had drawn a "clarinet player" - definitely something new that my preschool teachers weren't used to hearing! I've been told I had some trouble saying the letter R at that age, which probably led to some of the confusion.

Daddy + Daughter practice time, 1984

Growing up as a DSO kid, I went to countless concerts, rehearsals, tours, and I even got to go up on the scaffolding when Detroit's Orchestra Hall was undergoing renovations back in 1988ish. And yes, I still remember my dad lifting me in the air so that I could touch the place where the giant chandelier would be wired to the ceiling. Some of my favorite summer memories involve spending weeks out in Vail during the summer music festival and hanging out with my friend Jillian, another "DSO kid." I remember tours to the Upper Peninsula and concerts at Interlochen.

My childhood revolved around music and concerts, and as I grew older and became a more competitive violinist, my life started to revolve around MY concerts, performances, lessons, rehearsals, etc. Playing violin was a huge part of my life growing up - and it always will be. While my competitive playing tapered off around college, I still love to play (and just recently joined the Bloomington Symphony!). Being so involved with music has done nothing but influence my life in a positive way. I have made amazing friends, learned from amazing teachers, and visited amazing places.

To be honest, I could go on for days sharing all the ways music has influenced my life ... but instead I'll turn to the subject at hand. The Detroit Symphony Orchestra is in serious trouble. Despite being consistently ranked as one of the top ten symphony orchestras in the United States, money is tight. Contract negotiations went nowhere, with management asking for a 28% salary cut, drastic cuts in health insurance, elimination of contributions to the musicians' retirement accounts, and a reduction in the number of musicians. The musicians agreed to a 22% salary cut - but that wasn't enough. Finally, at a negotiation standstill with an expired contract, the musicians made the painful decision to strike.

At this point, the future of the DSO is in jeopardy. The thought of the DSO not being around - and my dad being out of the job he loves so much - is more than heartbreaking. There has been a ton of press around Detroit - and the country - about the DSO strike, and I saw a great quote in a Letter to the Editor of the Detroit News, written by Bruce Ridge (Chariman, International Conference of Symphony and Opera Musicians):

Of all the great artistic institutions in Detroit, none are more visible internationally than the Detroit Symphony. There can be no doubt that if the management is allowed to implement their proposals, the reputation of the organization will be irreparably damaged. With the arts meaning so much to Detroit's economy, the question cannot be "can Detroit continue to support its world class symphony?" but rather "how can Detroit afford not to?"

I realize that several of you might not care that much about classical music and the arts - but I know that many of you probably played instruments in elementary school, junior high or high school. Perhaps some of you participate in your community orchestra, teach music lessons on the side, or participate in a musical group at church/temple/whatever. Perhaps some of you are part of a union - maybe you are a teacher, maybe you or someone you know works for GM, maybe you know what it's like to be in this position. I am asking you now to reach out and help support the Detroit Symphony. It doesn't have to be monetary - just take a moment to click "Like" on the DSO Musicians' facebook page. You can access it here. That's all it takes. Let the DSO musicians - and management - see that their support is growing daily.

If you are interested in learning more about the situation, please visit the Detroit Symphony Musicians' website. You can also follow the musicians on Twitter @dsomusicians.

If you live in the Detroit area, please consider supporting the DSO musicians by attending their October concert series! You can learn more about that by clicking right here.

Thanks.

The Closet ... Part 2

2010-10-05T20:01:00.002-04:00

Okay, so when I was cleaning out The Closet, I brought in a notebook and made a huge list of all the weird shit I found in there. And then I set it aside for blogging purposes (OBVIOUSLY) and then totally forgot about it when I blogged my photos yesterday.

SO. Without further ado. THIS is what I found in The Closet.

-Matt's social security card

-Matt's pipe and pipe kit (yes, Matt is an 80 y/o man who enjoys smoking a pipe)

-Various valentines from Matt's nieces/nephews over the years

-Movie ticket stubs dating back to 2005 (these were Matt's)

-A combination to a lock - lock whereabouts unknown

-Lease information from when Matt lived in the barracks when he moved to DC ... circa 2005

-An envelope labelled "wedding gift cards" that did, indeed, have a few leftover wedding gift cards - with money! - inside

-Wedding magazines (I have been married for almost 2 years now)

-A bullet

-Ticket to the 2004 University of Michigan Commencement Ceremony (i.e. my college graduation)

-Menu for the sushi restaurant Matt and I had our first date at and, two years later, got engaged at

-Recipe for eggnog, hand written by Matt

-My birth certificate

-Every paper I wrote in grad school

-13 Bed Bath and Beyond coupons

-Grant proposal I wrote in grad school to add a college counseling curriculum to the subsidized housing development I worked at (hmmm foreshadowing?)

-An entire duffle bag of clothes that never got unpacked from when we moved here ... in September 2008. Hey, I was wondering where that stuff was!

So, there you have it. Have you ever found some weird stuff in a close YOU have cleaned out? Do share ... it got to the point where I just had to laugh!

Finally ... THE CLOSET!

2010-10-04T20:50:00.004-04:00

So ... cleaning and organizing the Closet of Doom and Despair was Numero Uno on my big deployment goal list. Then I tried for several months to put The Closet out of my mind ... because, well, it sucked. And then, one day in February, I started pulling things out of The Closet. And it looked like this. Please note how the photo below is not actually of The Closet but, instead, the guest room. The Closet had spilled out. Everywhere.

The closet didn't look so bad then ... cough cough.

The problem was that ... people came to visit before I could actually do any work on The Closet, so instead of doing anything to fix the problem, I just threw everything back in The Closet.
So anyway, it took until September to start working on The Closet. I took some photos after I had taken almost everything out and, well, basically just piled it around the guest room. It looked scary. Like this.
But The Closet looked a little better ... like this.
I had a huge trash/recycling pile. It looked like this.
I sent these "in the process of cleaning The Closet" photos to Matt so he could see that I was really working on it. He told his mom afterwards that he saw the photos and was upset - had he known I was in Iraq, he would have tried to meet up to say hi.

Ha ha. Very funny.

Anyway, it took around a month, but I am happy to say that The Closet of Doom and Despair is now The Closet of Peace, Love, Happiness and Organization! Voila!

I know, I know. You're impressed. I am, too. Sometimes I just go in the guest room and walk in the closet for the sake of, well, walking in the closet. Yay!

So ... cleaning out The Closet? CHECK!

Friday photo

2010-10-01T09:05:00.000-04:00

This is what Oscar wants to be when he grows up ... and to be honest, I think there's a lot of similarity. :)

Happy Friday, y'all! Any fun plans? My parents are coming into town late tonight and we are headed to the Michigan v. IU game tomorrow. Cannot wait - this will be the first time I've been able to get to a Michigan game since college. I've never been able to afford it! But since nobody cares about football down here in Bloomington, I snagged game tickets for $20. Gotta love it!

Anyway - head over to Fantabulously Frugal today to check out this week's Target post and shop for a good cause!

Overheard in my office ...

2010-09-30T11:46:00.003-04:00

Background: I abhor a silent office, so I always bring my iPod to work with me. I have a little iPod stereo on my desk to keep me sane during the day, and always have some background music playing.

Teenage girl: Are you listening to Lil' Wayne?
Me, confused: Ummm ... no. This is Dave Matthews Band.

Teenage girl: Oh.

Sidenote: Are there two "musicians" any more different than Dave Matthews and Lil' Wayne? I invite you to ponder this for a moment.

and, later, with the same girl...

Teenage girl: Do you have headphones for your iPod?

Me: Well, I do at home.

Teenage girl: Oh, dang. I like your music, I wanted to take it and listen to it during class.

Me: ??? Um, no, I don't think so.

Confusing. Very, very confusing.

Things I don't understand: Work Edition

2010-09-29T21:37:00.002-04:00

1. If you told me last semester that you left your backpack at a friend's house, and that's why you can't ever do any homework again, do NOT come to me this semester and tell me that your backpack got STOLEN. Do not also add that you had completed several hours of missing work that you were JUST about to turn in when your backpack got stolen. The thing is ... I don't believe you. The backpack excuse really only works once. I'm just saying.

2. When you are going to a meeting at school with your child, your child's teachers, your child's counselor, and your child's assistant principal, why can you not find anything to wear besides a pair of pink flannel cartoon character pajama pants?

Water, water everywhere ...

2010-09-28T22:04:00.004-04:00

... and it's all in my freaking ear.

I got water stuck in my ear this morning in the shower, and 16 hours later, IT'S STILL THERE. I haven't been able to hear out of my right ear ALL DAY and it has really, really messed me up. I have consulted the internet AND various swimmer friends, and guess what? None of those methods worked. I tried putting a few drops of rubbing alcohol in my ear to dry up the water ... to no avail. I tried laying on my side ... FOR TWO HOURS ... to no avail. I even called my doctor to make sure I wasn't permanently losing my hearing. Yes, I know, this probably sounds ridiculous. But this. sucks. hardcore.

I have felt a little off balance all day, complete with a nice throbbing headache. I am desperately hoping that when I wake up tomorrow morning (after a night of sleeping only on my right side, of course), I will be able to hear out of my ear.

Oh, and my doctor (or rather, her triage nurse) said that the water should work itself out in the next day or so, but if I start having pain, I need to go to the walk-in clinic. Also, if I still can't hear in two days, I have to go to the walk-in clinic. Argh.

Anyway, that's what I've been dealing with today.

Oh, and guess what? I have now crossed TWO things off of my deployment goal list:

1. Finish the Closet of Doom and Despair - CHECK! It is now the Closet of Peace, Love, Happiness and Organization.

2. Audition for the Bloomington Symphony Orchestra - CHECK! I auditioned last night and they called me a couple of hours later to tell me that I got into the first violin section. Yay! I am really excited. Not sure when I'll be able to start, as I have a bit of a scheduling issue for the next concert, but I am really looking forward to getting back into the swing of playing. :)

Okie doke, that's all I've got right now. How are you?!

UPDATE: I woke up this morning (Wednesday) and I CAN HEAR OUT OF BOTH EARS!!!!!!! Freaking finally. Thank goodness.

I hope this is the last time I will write a post solely about a part of my anatomy ... but then again, I can't promise anything.

Sunday Funday

2010-09-26T20:44:00.002-04:00

Aren't weekends the greatest? I had what seemed like a very rough, long week last week - you know, the kind where every day seems like a Monday? It sucked. I think it's just been allergy stuff that's been getting me down ... every morning I have woken up and my eyes have felt really swollen. Despite getting good sleep, I would wake up feeling exhausted - but it was all in my eyes. Know what I mean? Also, there MAY have been a couple of nights that involved late bedtimes because I couldn't put down The Hunger Games ...

But anyway. The point is, I was just DYING for the weekend. And I have to admit that it's been a good one. On Friday, after picking up my CSA share (it was a really crappy one this week - totally not photo-worthy), I finally did what I had been daydreaming about all day ... crawled in bed with The Hunger Games, read for awhile, and then took a nice long nap. I woke up, finished the book, and then ... went back to sleep. It was glorious!

On Saturday, I woke up and went to a pilates class - I had just gone to another one on Thursday, and wow, my abs are s-o-r-e. It's awesome. :) The rest of the day was spent watching football, and then Becky and Kyle came over for a little girls night. So fun!!!

And today? Well, today Oscar and I played in the country. We headed out to my SIL Meleah's, which is always so much fun. Meleah, my BIL David, nephew Cooper and I rode horses, while Oscar and their dog Macy ran around in the woods with us. Oscar got SO dirty, as he always does out there, and had fun chasing various animals (goats, roosters, geese) and swimming in the pig pond. The usual. I had to give him a bath when we got home (Kyle came over to assist ... talk about a true friend!!!) and now, for some reason, he is limping. Excellent. Yet another dog health problem? Let's hope not.

In other news (if you have made it this far in this boring post), I got bloodwork done at the doctor the other day, and my calcium and iron are low. Perhaps this is why I am always so damn tired? Unsure. Anyway - I knew calcium would be a problem since I have gone primarily dairy free. The nurse suggested a calcium supplement, so I went to GNC yesterday and got one they recommended.

So, besides calcium, I take a prenatal as a multivitamin, omega-3, vitamin b-12, and magnesium. The doctor also said that, despite my issues with dairy, yogurt should be okay to eat. So, I went out today and restocked up on yogurt - thank goodness! I love yogurt and it has been sad without it. SO. My question to you is - where can I get more calcium and iron from? I don't eat a lot of meat, and I don't eat a lot of dairy anymore. Please help! I have always been a bit anemic, and I'm also pretty tired a lot of the time. Matt always used to make fun of me when he was home, because every time I sit down on the couch to read a book, I fall asleep. Could this be from my lack of iron??! Anyway, just a few thoughts. Any helpful hints/tips you have would be much appreciated!

How was your weekend?

Whoopsies

2010-09-25T15:16:00.001-04:00

So, due to me being a Wordpress newbie, I kind of messed up my first Fantabulously Frugal post. BUT now it's up, for real! So check out a few Shaina blurbs about the Tucker for Target collection. :)

Debut

2010-09-23T23:01:00.002-04:00

Hello, friends! I am so sorry that I've been so absent this week. Every day, I try to upload photos of The Closet to show you, but for some reason they aren't showing up and so I keep putting the post off.

So. Instead of blogging about The Closet, I will direct you over to Fantabulously Frugal. Tomorrow (Friday) morning, my very first FF post will be going up about Target! And we all love Target, right? So be sure to head on over there tomorrow morning. And really, you should be reading FanFru anyway. You seriously cannot beat the amazing deals!

Happy almost Friday!

Deployment in Review: Month 8

2010-09-17T20:24:00.003-04:00

Wow. Eight months. 35 weeks. Matt has been gone a long time! And it's suckier than ever. That being said, this has been a pretty fun month!

-The school year started! Time has definitely been flying, thank goodness!

Hmm. Okay. Upon review of my calendar and blog, I just realized that literally the ONLY thing I did this month was go to Chicago for the 5k and girltime.

Well. This is a short post.

OH. And guess what else I did? I CLEANED OUT AND ORGANIZED THE CLOSET OF DOOM AND DESPAIR! I finished this afternoon. Life is good. I will take some before and after photos sometime soon so y'all can be impressed.

But for now, I am going to enjoy a roasted acorn squash with some apples from my CSA. And tonight, Jenn, Ryan and Cora are coming into town for the weekend! And I'm running another 5k tomorrow with my friend Jenna - she is a beginning runner so we are going to just take it slow and have fun. I hope everyone has a fabulous weekend!

I love Swagbucks

2010-09-17T12:49:00.003-04:00

Do you use Swagbucks? If not, you should. It's a search engine site, and you earn points (called, erm, Swagbucks) while searching or doing normal internet stuffs. You don't win points every search, but you will usually strike gold at least a few times a day. You can also earn Swagbucks by doing things like ... trading in old cell phones, shopping, taking polls and surveys, etc. Fridays are MEGA Swagbucks days, which means you can earn a ton of Swagbucks at one time!!! Today I searched for something simple and won 50 Swagbucks. Nice!

Now ... what's the point? Well, you can redeem your Swagbucks for a multitude of awesome things - anything from gift cards to DVDs to health and beauty stuff. So basically, anything under the sun. If you don't use Swagbucks ... well then, CLICK HERE and sign up! It's free! And you get stuff! For doing things you already do! It's kind of amazing. Go. Now. Do it. Trust me, you won't be sorry.

Fantabulously Coveted

2010-09-16T21:47:00.002-04:00

Hey y'all! Do you read Fantabulously Coveted? You should. I have recently started contributing to this site and it's so much fun! Basically, we just post pretty things that we love. I know. Fun, right?

Anyway - check it out!

Chicago Recap

2010-09-15T19:47:00.008-04:00

So, Chicago was super duper amazing. Which I believe I said the other day ... but you know, it's still true. d.a.r. has some amazing recaps HERE and HERE if you wanna check them out! For some reason, Blogger is refusing to post some of my photos tonight, so I am missing some super cute ones from Friday night. Hopefully I can get those to upload tomorrow!

Anyway - on Friday, I picked up d.a.r. from the airport and we had some awesome sushi for lunch. Yums! Afterwards, we headed back to the airport to get MTM and then we went to check out our hotel, the Palmer House Hilton. So fancy! That night, we walked downtown and ate some superfantabulous pizza at Lou Malnati's. So delicious ... I can almost taste it. It was the perfect night - girlfriends, pizza, and a pitcher of Blue Moon!

Okay, these photos are out of order, but ... this was from Saturday afternoon on the way back to the hotel after an 8 mile walk - er, shopping trip. This is one of my favorite photos from the weekend!

Unfortunately, the weather on Saturday morning was kinda crappy - we made it about halfway to Navy Pier to head to the race expo but then gave up and cabbed it the rest of the way. We were freezing and soaking wet from the rain - ICK. Before we gave up and hailed a cab, we had to take the obligatory bean self-portrait. Clearly.

Saturday night, we had some AMAZING sushi - man it was so good! MTM totally approved of her mini spring rolls. Yums.
More food, more booze ... we basically ate and drank our way through Chicago. It was awesome.
Race morning came WAY too early ... we had to get up at 4:30am in order to catch the shuttle to the start! Ridiculous. It was cold - really cold. Here is a lovely photo of us huddling together for warmth in the hotel before heading out into the cold. We look so happy and awake, no?
Loooooong line of school busses for us. The shuttle left at 5:30 despite the fact that the race didn't start until 8! So, needless to say, it was a reeeeeeeally long morning.
MTM, trying to stay warm - and awake - before the race started. What can I say ... it was kinda tough.
Finally, hours later (and still before the race started!), MTM and I enjoyed some pre-race cokes. Tasted like heaven.
We're ready to run!!!
And ... ta da! We're done! With our finishers medals ...
... and some free cookies. DELISH. I am STILL so excited about my 32:37 PR!
We had a great time relaxing after the race ... at least, I THINK we had a great time. It's kind of hard to tell. :)

Afterwards, we boarded the shuttle back to the hotel. It took EIGHT HUNDRED YEARS. Okay, maybe not, but it was a really long ride and I think we all had a little trouble staying awake. It was tough. Really tough.
Thankfully, we crashed afterwards and enjoyed some down time!
Aaaaaand once we got out of bed again, showered and checked out of our hotel, we had the most deeeeelightful brunch at Southport Grocery and Cafe. Yummmmmmmmmy.
One last pose before I had to take these wonderful girls back to the airport. Sads. Oh, and yes, we DID wear our medals all day. :)
The weekend fun didn't end there! I headed over to stay with Lisa on Sunday night, where we watched the RHONJ reunion and ate some good bbq. Unfortunately, I didn't take any photos. Except this one, of Lisa's dog, Bacon. Bacon tends to steal things. I walked into the guest room and found him enjoying his new favorite toy ... my bra. Sad.
Anyway, that's it! I realize that this recap kinda sucks ... but it has taken me about 2 hours to upload the photos and pay attention enough to write it up. So basically ... go read what d.a.r. wrote. :) All in all - Chicago was great. It was SO nice finally "meeting" d.a.r. and MTM - two girls I talk to ALL the time. d.a.r. has really helped me through some deployment downs and I think we have talked pretty much every single day since Matt got his deployment orders last July 2009. MTM and I met more recently ... but still, we talk pretty much every day too!

The best part about blogging? The amazing friendships I have made. The worst part? NONE OF THEM LIVE BY ME.

That being said ... I am already counting down the minutes until I get to see these girls again!

Chicago!

2010-09-13T08:04:00.001-04:00

Well my darling readers and friends, my weekend in Chicago with d.a.r and MTM was SO AMAZING! The best part? It's not even over yet. I've been hanging out with Lisa since yesterday afternoon, and we're heading to brunch this morning before I head home.

I wish I could put this weekend into words ... but frankly, it was so fabulous that I'm not even sure words would appropriately describe it! Spending the weekend with these amazing women was fun, fabulous, and exhausting. And that was just the shopping! Ha. I don't really have any photos yet - we let d.a.r. take all the photos with her fancy camera. But yeah, just know that we had a really great time.

Oh, and the race? The reason we went in the first place? We all had our best 5k race! My official chip time was 32:37 (beating my previous 5k time of 37:44 ... wow!!!!) and I couldn't feel better about it. Now, one day later, I'm only regretting that we were all so happy/excited/exhausted afterwards that we basically just sat around and never stretched. I can't move. Oh well! Totally worth it.

I will definitely be blogging more about this weekend ... still trying to come down off of this high! :)

Chicago bound!

2010-09-10T04:45:00.003-04:00

Well friends, I'm off! I am leaving in a few hours for Chicago ... CANNOT WAIT.

I wish I had some profound things to say about the weekend, but to be honest with you ... it's 4:45am and I woke up this early to do laundry and pack before I get on the road around 9. Because I went to bed at 8:30. Because I was sooo sleepy that I couldn't possibly GET READY TO GO. Because I am totally ridiculous.

So, here it is, before 5am, and I'm awake and getting ready to put a load of laundry in. Sigh. Sometimes, I wonder if I will ever get the hang of packing ahead of time ... ? Any other last minute packers out there?

Anyway - to say I'm excited about heading to Chitown today would be a gross understatement. I cannot wait to get there, see Lisa and d.a.r. and MTM, and just have a really fabulous girls weekend. Because you know what? I really need it. Oh yeah, and I think we're going for a run in there somewhere, too. :)

So on that note ... off to throw in some laudry. And I guess tidy the place up a bit. And maybe I have time to color my hair? Hmmm. Have a GREAT weekend!

Football food?

2010-09-05T12:11:00.004-04:00

I was SO excited to watch the first Michigan football game of the season yesterday! And while I thought about making some tailgate food for myself, in the end ... all my beautiful fresh veggies won me over. The other day, Kyle showed me this recipe from Smitten Kitchen for roasted carrot and avocado salad, and ... I wanted it!

First, I took my beautiful carrots and scrubbed them clean ... and then I peeled them because they were still kinda dirty.

I chopped them up into 1-2 inch segments and threw them in this pretty red bowl.
Then, tossed them with olive oil, cumin, salt and pepper...

Preheated the oven to 400* and threw them on a foil-lined baking sheet. Okay, this is actually a roasting pan. But you know ... whatevs.
Around 35 minutes later, they looked all pretty and tasty and browned, like this!
I put the carrots in a bowl, sliced half an avocado and threw it on top ... then cut a lemon in half and squeezed it over the carrots and avocado. Drizzled with more olive oil, threw a little more salt and pepper on top ...
... and, ta da! DELICIOUSNESS! This was really, really, really good.
The flavors were really interesting - I don't think I've ever had avocado and carrots together before. YUM. My only regret was that I didn't get more carrots from the farmer's market. They're all gone now!

CSA + Farmer's Market

2010-09-04T12:50:00.003-04:00

Is it just me, or is food SO pretty sometimes?

This week from my CSA: potatoes, green peppers, eggplants, sweet potatoes, summer squash, zucchini, and POPCORN!

This morning from the farmer's market: beets, lemon cucumbers, carrots, San Marzano roma tomatoes, butternut squash, onion, apple.

Eight Questions!

2010-09-04T08:23:00.004-04:00

Wow ... I hope it is as perfect of a Saturday wherever you are as it is in Bloomington. That sounded awkwardly wordy, but I think you know what I mean. It is in the mid-high 50s right now, and I am gearing up to head out to the farmer's market and then an art fair. Fun!

b.e.g. tagged me to answer the fun little 8 questions things that's been going around the interwebs. But before I tackle that, I want to wish my dear, sweet friend Lucy Marie an amazing birthday!!!!!! Now go on over there and wish her a happy birthday, too. :)

Okay, here goes nothing ...

1. What is your go-to source for gossip - celebrity or otherwise?

I get all of my important gossip from Crazy Days and Nights. It's a great gossip blog!

2. What actress would you like to play you in a movie?

Well, a lot of people over the years have told me that I look like Julianne Moore - I'll take that as a compliment. So, I choose her!

3. What size shoes do you wear?

9, and 9.5 in athletic shoes. Wah.

4. Would you rather be rich and miserable or poor or happy?

CLEARLY I would rather be poor and happy. If I had wanted to be rich and miserable, I wouldn't have gone into SOCIAL WORK for gawd's sake. :)

5. What is your favorite meal in all the world?

Oh goodness ... this is a really tough one. For normal, every day stuff to eat, I love pizza. For my favorite restaurant meal, I would have to say all the sushi at Yamazato in Alexandria, VA. For my favorite meal experience EVER, the tasting room at Restaurant Eve in Alexandria, VA.

6. What was the lowest grade you received in school and why?

In college, I failed my statistics class. Because it was hard, I never understood it, and both my professor and TA had incredibly heavy accents that only complicated things. However, I basically took the same class in grad school and got an A. Go figure. :)

7. What did you do on your 21st birthday?

Can you believe that I don't really remember? And not because I was so drunk that I CAN'T remember. I just ... don't know. But I believe my parents came and we went to dinner. And a couple of months later, my dad and I went to London for a long weekend - that was my birthday present from them. And it was fabulous!

8. What item is on the top of your "I want!" list right now?

Well, that's an easy one. I want my husband home ... asap.

I realize that I'm supposed to make up 8 more questions and tag 8 more people, but I'm not going to. Because I'm lazy, I don't feel like it, and I want to leave to go to the farmer's market now. SO - have a great weekend, friends!

A touch of the sads

2010-09-01T18:57:00.002-04:00

I've been feeling a touch of the sads lately ... just ready for this deployment to be over. And in all fairness ... I have been ready for it to be over since before it began. But lately, I'm even MORE over it. If that's even possible! I sent Matt a mix CD last month and this song was on it ... and I think it's become a bit of a deployment anthem.

I'm tired of being in love and being all alone

When you're so far away from me

I'm tired of making out on the telephone

Cause you're so far away from me

Sigh. Such a good song. So seriously ... is it November/December/whenever-coming-home-time is yet?

Work has been so busy since the kids came back to school ... I have seen my old kids, a bunch of new kids, sat in on a bunch of meetings, completed a bunch of home visits, done a ton of notes, and I've started my data spreadsheet. Whew. Over the summer, when I got to work I would frequently try to open my office door with my apartment key.

Today? I got home and tried to open my apartment with my office key. A coincidence? I think not. I'm ready for the weekend.

A few things...

2010-08-31T16:00:00.003-04:00

Wow ... I have been absent from the blog lately. Sorry. Busy!

My parents came to visit over the weekend, which was really great. We had some good meals, played some good games (they taught me how to play Dominoes ... obsessed now!), and did some shopping. It was a little busy downtown thanks to it being IU Welcome Week, but I fit in perfectly - just another "kid" hanging out with her parents downtown. Ha! Also, I was out shopping with my mom when I was asked what grade I'm in. That was a tough question to answer.

I made a big decision over the weekend ... one that was definitely difficult. Next weekend when I meet up with the lovely d.a.r. and MTM in Chicago, I'll be running the 5k instead of the 1/2 marathon. Sigh. I have been training for what seems like forever ... and yet, I'm nowhere near prepared. I have had a lot of trouble with my long runs, and I haven't been able to run longer than 6 miles. It probably doesn't help that it's been the hottest summer since 1988 ... 95+ degree temps every day has made it really difficult for me to stick to my training plan.

As the weeks ticked by and I got more and more behind on my training, I still thought I would be able to pull it off ... this was a very big deployment goal for me and I was determined to see it through! However, I've been stressing. A lot. All the time. You have to maintain a 13 minute mile during the race, or they pick you up in a "support bus." During my longer runs, I have been averaging around an 11 minute mile. I was having nightmares about being picked up by the bus.

Last week, d.a.r. suggested that we run the 5k instead of the half ... and I said ABSOLUTELY NOT. I can do this. I have to do this! But over the weekend, my parents brought it up and I just burst into tears. I felt so overwhelmed by my training - and about how behind I am. And through my tears (at a restaurant, no less), I realized that running the half this time around was just not realistic. I started to think about it, and I talked it over with d.a.r. She reminded me that running is supposed to be a fun hobby - it's not supposed to be stressful. We decided to run the 5k and immediately, I felt like a huge weight had been lifted. I think I was far more stressed out about this race than I had realized. As soon as we made the decision to run the 5k instead, I got excited about the race! And most importantly, I felt - and currently feel - confident.

Am I disappointed? Incredibly. And I struggled for much of the weekend with feeling like a total failure. Running the half is something I really, really wanted to do - and I still do. But guess what? I still will. This just isn't the right time. The important thing is that I have made running a habit. I have come a long way from where I started - and I feel better and more confident than ever. Just last week, I was thinking about how much I was looking forward to the half being over so that I could just comfortably run 2-3 miles, three times a week without worrying about increasing my mileage. So? For now, that's exactly what I'm going to be doing. I may train for the Indy Mini Marathon in the spring, or possibly the following spring. We'll see. I still want to do it ... and I'm still very serious about it.

You might be able to tell from this confusing blog post that I'm still really disappointed that I'm not running the half ... and I have a lot of mixed emotions. Still trying to sort them all out, I suppose. :)

On that note ... I'm off. To go running!

Real Housewives?

2010-08-26T17:52:00.003-04:00

Is anyone watching the Real Housewives of DC? If so, do you actually ... like them?

I was SO excited for the series to start, but I am not loving it - or the ladies. In fact, the only one I like is Stacie - she seems nice, normal, and funny. Lynda? Is a meanie. Michaele? Well ... I'm not even sure where to start, really. Do we think that's her real name, or do you think she was born Michelle? Or maybe Michaela? Just curious. Cat seems like a royal bitch. I kinda sorta like Mary, but I feel like you have lost all concept of reality when you install a biometric lock on your closet door.

I was hoping this would become a favorite along with RHONY and RHONJ, but I'm just not feeling it. Thoughts?

Overheard from my Office

2010-08-23T21:27:00.003-04:00

One high school girl to another: "My counselor is such a f%#&ing b@#%h. She told me there are NO open sections of biology! I was like ... shut the f@%# up, you are so full of crap."

Customer Service

2010-08-22T20:10:00.002-04:00

About a month and a half ago, I ordered a new bathing suit from Lands End Canvas - it was drastically on sale, and I've been wanting to try something from LEC for awhile. The bathing suit came and I LOVE it. It's great, high quality, and fit perfectly.

Imagine my surprise when, a few weeks after my suit came, I received the following hand-written - and hand-addressed - note from LEC.

Dear Shaina,

Just a note to say thank you for your purchase and remind you that everything is guaranteed. Period. If you have any questions or need help in any way, please let one of us know. Our email is ----@landsendcanvas.com.

Katherine

Customer Care Specialist

Um, wow. What a surprise! I was certainly impressed ... what a kind gesture. Anyone else order from LEC and receive this amazing customer service?

Deployment in Review: Month 7

2010-08-21T12:00:00.001-04:00

I'm a few days late with this one ... but I guess you'll just have to deal with it. :)

July 17-August 16

Once again, it doesn't really seem like much happened over the past month, but looking back on it I guess I was kinda sorta busy. As cliche as it sounds ... things just aren't QUITE as fun as when Matt is around. Even though I do fun stuff with people I love, I still feel like time is just slogging by. Is slogging a word? Blogger didn't underline it, so I guess it is. It just seems right.

That being said ... I DID have fun this month.

-I went to Canada and hung out with two of my fave bloggy friends and yeah, we had kind of an amazing time!

-That same weekend, my friend Jenn had her beautiful baby girl, Cora Claire, accidentally at home.

-I kept running and kept preparing for my 1/2 marathon - now only 3 weeks away!

-I went on vacation to Northern Michigan with Oscar and my parents, and had an amazing time just relaxing and doing nothing.

-I completed my DSM-IV class ... and got a big fat A!

-I went back to work full-time! School started on Wednesday, and I'm back in the game. Wait - that doesn't count, Wednesday was the 18th. Ignore that. :)

Okay, so maybe I didn't do that much this past month. But I'm SO thrilled that school is back in session. Time always flies from now until Thanksgiving, and this year that's even more important because that's around the time Matt should be coming home! Excitement!

Weeeeeeekend!

2010-08-20T20:03:00.005-04:00

TGIF, y'all! Any big weekend plans? Tomorrow, Kyle and I are heading to Indy so that she can help me finally use the Anthropologie gift card I won way back in March from Jane. I still have no idea what I'm going to get, but of course I perused the website a little bit this evening and found a few fall things that are on my radar ...

Lady's Choice Cardigan - LOVE LOVE LOVE THIS ONE

Split Decision Cardigan

Encased-In-Vines Cardigan

Dwarf Quince Cardigan

Arte Cardigan

Kirklees Sweater Coat

Tea House Cardi

Fall Foliage Cardigan

Talavera Cardigan

Which do you like the best?

Is dairy the enemy?

2010-08-18T19:34:00.002-04:00

Lately, I've had a lot of difficulties with dairy. Stomach issues that I won't get into because you know ... I'm a lady and all. It's really been bumming me out. I started taking lactaid pills with dairy but it does not completely take care of the issues. Plus, half the time, I forget.

Here's the thing. Like most people, I love things like ... cheese and yogurt. Ice cream. Dairy stuff.

But you know what? No matter how much I love dairy stuff, I love feeling good even better. So I am going to go completely dairy-free for the next few weeks and see what happens. Do any of you avoid dairy? What are your tricks? I am going to pick up some stuff like hummus to use on sandwiches instead of cheese, and some almond milk. I want to stay away from soy as well - I had a soy latte this morning and I got just as sick as I get with dairy. PLUS I got a migraine. So - no dairy, no soy. I need help!

If you're dairy free, I'd LOVE some tips. What do you like to eat instead of dairy stuff?

*image found here*

Exciting birth story!

2010-08-16T18:50:00.005-04:00

Hi friends! Happy Monday! I hope that everyone had a great weekend. I pretty much spent the entire weekend watching Season One of ArmyWives and now am going crazy because I can't get ahold of seasons two and three! Does anyone have them and feel like sending them to me? I promise I will send them right back ... probably within 24 hours.

Anyway, I have a very special guest post today! My dear friend Jenn gave birth to a beautiful baby girl just over three weeks ago. She had quite the birth experience, and the whole story is just so incredible that I begged her to write it up for the blog. I know so many of you bloggers out there are pregnant, just had a baby, or are thinking about trying for a baby soon. Trust me ... you will enjoy this story! Thankfully, Jenn agreed to write it up, so ... without further ado, read on for an exciting birth story!

Hello to Shaina’s blog friends! I’m Jenn, one of Shaina’s fabulous friends from outside of the blog world. You may recall my previous role as Matron of Honor at Shaina’s wedding (Shaina's note: I was also Jenn's MOH. Here are some fun photos!).

For years, I’ve been Auntie Jenn to Oscar. Now Shaina is Auntie Shaina to my baby of the non-furry variety. My husband and I welcomed our sweet girl, Cora Claire, on July 25. The story of how she got here is slightly ridiculous, so Shaina thought it would make for good reading on her blog.

Things You Should Know Before We Go Any Further:

-I am EXTREMELY long-winded. This could take a while. Shaina should probably edit heavily or post in many parts (Shaina's note: I didn't).

-I had strong personal opinions and desires for MY pregnancy/birth experience. With my knowledge that this pregnancy was low-risk and the education I exposed myself to, my main desire was to do everything possible to avoid a C-section. I felt like major surgery required more pain and recovery time than an uncomplicated labor and vaginal birth. So, my main goals were to avoid IV/saline, epidural, and induction/pitocin – all things that increase the odds of ending up in the OR.

Pregnancy

My pregnancy was generally uncomplicated and uneventful with a due date of July 9. This due date was probably several days off; I’m not one of those women who marks the arrival and departure of my monthly gift in my daily planner. I guessed the date of my LMP, and I guessed a little early to make it seem like I was further along. Don’t ever play mind games like this with yourself and your midwife/OB. It will come back to haunt you.

I knew early on that I was interested in working with a doula. I hoped for an unmedicated birth and low intervention birth and knew I’d need the extra support. My husband wanted the extra support, too, because he was freaked out about birth. If he had it his way, he would have been sitting in a waiting room smoking cigars while I got knocked into a coma and someone besides us handled every aspect of getting this baby into the world. They would then present us with a nicely wrapped, clean, pink baby and my husband would spread the word to our families via telegram. And I’d be wearing my lovely strand of pearls the whole time.

I was assigned to a midwife at the clinic where I received my prenatal care. Being interested in a natural approach to pregnancy/childbirth, I initially thought this would be great! Midwives are friendly to people like me, right? Wrong. The most basic definition of a midwife is: someone trained to assist with low-risk pregnancies/deliveries. They don’t have to be all granola about it. The second I brought up my birth plan, my midwife started telling me how unlikely it was that the hospital would allow my labor/delivery to progress according to any of my wishes. And then she tried to scare me, saying that if I denied all of the hospital’s standard interventions I would end up bleeding to death (I’m paraphrasing, but that was the basic idea).

The day my midwife put the kibosh on my birth plan (I was over 6 months pregnant at the time), I freaked out a little. I called my doula and asked her opinion on other birthing options. My husband is in the Army and we have the basic health care plan that costs us almost nothing. That plan had me receiving my prenatal care at the OB/GYN clinic at the Army hospital at Ft. Campbell; I would deliver there also. I looked into changing insurance plans and paying tons of co-pays to deliver at a different (preferred) hospital, one that might be friendlier to my plan. I considered paying fully out of pocket to deliver at a birthing center that was a two hour drive from our home. I considered paying several thousand dollars to have a granola midwife assist at a home birth. My husband never gave that last option a second of consideration. We ended up sticking with our non-granola midwife at the Army hospital and hoped we’d be able to be assertive enough to stick to our birth plan. We decided to take a series of childbirth classes (beyond the typical hospital 2 hour hospital class) in order to be as educated and empowered as possible. This turned out to be a wonderful idea – my husband gained a greater appreciation for the childbirth experience I hoped for, and we both had increased acceptance of the physical process of labor and delivery (read: we came to terms with the ick factor).

It’s My Due Date – Friday, July 9

And no baby yet. I started having Braxton-Hicks contractions around 30 weeks, and they got increasingly frequent as my due date approached. But, they were never stronger, longer & closer together (the magical trifecta that signifies early labor). At my 40 week prenatal appointment, my midwife warned about “old placentas” that wear out and cease to support the baby, ending in stillbirth. She was so exact with dates and with the baby’s gestational age that it drove me crazy. As if the arbitrary date I guessed as my LMP made my due date set in stone. Keep in mind that a woman isn’t “overdue” or “post date” until after 42 weeks.

My midwife made me “pencil in” an induction date of July 23, exactly two weeks after my due date. She let me know she was being “generous” to go “so late”, because they “never” let women go past 41 weeks, 3 days. My husband actually said, “Well, you can schedule an induction, but that doesn’t mean we’ll show up for it.” You should have seen the midwife’s face – she immediately left the room to consult with someone. When she came back, she informed us that she was transferring my care to an OB because she “doesn’t deal with high-risk pregnancies,” which she now considered mine to be. Since I was past my due date and obstinate about it, she had no desires to deal with me anymore. And she must have made quite the note in my medical chart, because in future interactions we had with hospital staff, they almost always started by saying, “Now, WE KNOW you don’t want an induction…”

I tried almost everything to get my baby out. I joined the 65+ crowd and walked at the mall to avoid the searing July heat. I went up and down the stairs in our house 71 times a day (or so it seemed). I did so much nipple stimulation that I thought they would fall off before I got a chance to breastfeed the baby that was never coming. And my husband and I tried sex until the mere thought of doing it one more time made me cry. But, even in all my desperation, I refused to try castor oil: “The indecency of it!” I thought.

Oh, please. By the end of this whole thing, every last scrap of my dignity was gone.

It’s My Induction Date – Friday, July 23

During weeks 40 and 41, I had several non-stress tests and amniotic fluid checks that came back showing a perfectly healthy baby and perfectly healthy placenta. But, everyone at the hospital was still super anxious to get my baby out while I grew super anxious about the interventions involved in an induction. The night before my scheduled induction, I had more Braxton-Hicks contractions than usual. I called my doula with cautious excitement, thinking this could be early labor. My doula, husband and I decided that we would call the hospital and tell them that I was in early labor and would like to sleep as much as possible, meaning we would NOT be calling at 6am to check in for my induction. We went to sleep, and I didn’t not wake up again until my phone rang at 9 the next morning – clearly I was NOT in any kind of labor if I got 10+ hours of uninterrupted sleep. The phone call was the OB at the hospital calling to check on my progress, as they were greatly concerned about my “past due” pregnancy. Knowing that my labor had not progressed to stronger, longer and closer together contractions, I tearfully decided to throw in the towel. I was tired of being hounded by hospital staff and tired of waiting, waiting and waiting with nothing to show for it.

So, we meandered on up to the hospital for the induction. And then they told us that I didn’t have to have an induction because they knew we didn’t want it. What???? They did another NST and AFI and again found the baby to be perfectly healthy. The OB warned me about the risks of carrying a pregnancy past 42 weeks by saying, “I really don’t want to deliver a dead baby.” Followed by, “But I do want to follow your decisions for your medical care.” I elected to have the OB strip my membranes and to go home. But they wouldn’t let me leave until I scheduled another date for an induction, 48 hours later on Sunday, July 25.

It’s My Induction Date, Take 2. No, Wait. It’s My Delivery Date!

After having my membranes stripped, I had good, strong contractions that were at pain level 3 (you know how they ask, “On a scale of 0-10 , with 0 being no pain and 10 being the worst pain imaginable, what is your pain level?”). But those good, strong contractions disappeared after just a few hours.

I watched the clock constantly, dreading every passing minute as one minute closer to an induction. On Saturday, my husband and I went mall walking AGAIN, had sex AGAIN, went through the natural induction list AGAIN, and I still refused to drink the castor oil. Even though my husband knew what the castor oil would do, he still encouraged me to give it a try. And I refused AGAIN. If you don’t know what castor oil does to the human body, Google it. Shaina’s blog doesn’t want those details written on it.

I called my doula on Saturday night and we discussed how things would go with the induction. My husband and I gave the house a once over, rechecked hospital bags, charged phones, and each had a glass of red wine. We were watching an episode of that new spy show with the girl from Coyote Ugly, and towards the end of the episode, I had the first Very Serious Contraction. Out of nowhere. It was 9:30.

I fumbled around for the next 30 minutes, finding it impossible to get much relief from the contractions. I’d give those early ones a 4.5 on the pain scale. My husband did not seem impressed and paid more attention to the Coyote Ugly girl. When the show was over, he decided to mess around on the computer for a bit. I followed him around the house like a puppy dog with my giant exercise ball, having to stop for contractions regularly. Around 10:00, I convinced him that we needed to start timing things. I pulled up contractionmaster.com and we soon realized they were 2-3 minutes apart and 45 seconds to a minute long.

So, you’re probably thinking, “Isn’t that when they say it’s time to go to the hospital?” Well, the contractions had only been around for about 30 minutes. Since I had so many starts and stops with contractions, I just wasn’t convinced that I would ever go into labor. So we kept timing things at home. I got in the tub around 10:15 and got a little relief, but the contractions still got more intense. At this point, my mind was doubtful of the seriousness of the contractions, but in my gut I just knew things were progressing quickly. My husband was responding to my requests for help and support, but still seemed oblivious to the fact that this was really it. While I sat in the tub, he was reading an article in The Economist in between timing contractions. Remember, it’s still not even been an hour since the first Very Serious Contraction. And every childbirth book/class will tell you that it just usually doesn’t go so fast.

In the category of “Things They Say You’ll Do But You Don’t Believe Them,” I started vocalizing through the contractions (read Ina May’s Guide to Childbirth). My husband (his name is Ryan, BTW) finally clued in and called our doula. She heard the all moaning I had going on in the tub and said, “Yup, sounds like labor! Call me when you need me!” We called her back 15 minutes later.

Our doula lives in the north Nashville area, and we were about 45 miles away from her in Clarksville, TN. So, we knew it would take a while for her to join us. I spent less than 30 minutes in the tub because Ryan thought I was getting light headed from the hot water – I’m going to say the light headedness was from PAIN! Once I was out of the water, things got super serious. Contractions were still 2-3 minutes apart and a minute long, but I’d up the pain scale number to an 8. At this point, I remember saying to Ryan, “How am I going to stand up, walk down the stairs, sit in the car for the 25 minute drive to the hospital, walk into L&D, and actually survive?” I just couldn’t imagine how, but I knew that our doula would get here any minute and save me.

I’m now having Very Very Very Serious Contractions, and I’m going to give them a 10 on the pain scale. In between contractions, I begged for an epidural. As if Ryan could go pick one up from the store or the guy next store is an anesthesiologist. It’s probably around 11:30 by now, and our doula wasn’t here yet. Ryan and I talked about trying to get to the hospital, but I could barely make it through contractions that were almost incessant while sitting on our comfy bed. I felt like we needed our doula’s help to get there. I think Ryan and I still believed we’d somehow get to the hospital; we just didn’t have any idea how that would happen.

At midnight, my water broke. Actually, I’m going to say it was more of a pop – lots of pressure behind it, I guess! I was really paranoid that there would be meconium (more likely to be present the longer a pregnancy goes), but Ryan said the fluid was clear. I felt a lot of relief from the contractions, but I gained an urge to push that was unstoppable. I decided to try to labor on the toilet (I’ll take “Things They Say You’ll Do But You Don’t Believe Them” for $400, Alex), and when I stood up to walk, I realized that the baby was RIGHT THERE. You know what I mean.

Being on the toilet was horrible, so I hobbled back to bed (water still leaking). Ryan threw down a towel over my popped water puddle, and once I was settled on the bed, the uncontrollable pushing started again. I tried to feel for the baby’s head (I was convinced that I wasn’t fully dilated for some reason and that there wasn’t enough room for the baby to come out), but it just felt like a crazy mess. Ryan let me know that he could actually see the head and that the baby really was coming, like, RIGHT NOW. He delivered her, untangled the umbilical cord from around her body, and plopped her down on my stomach. We estimate she was born at 12:15, 15 minutes after my water broke. He called our doula, who was to arrive within minutes, and then 911.

Ryan grabbed stuff out of the linen closet to cover up the baby and keep her warm. I just held on for dear life (SO slippery) in a complete haze. When our doula arrived, she grabbed more stuff from the linen closet for me and the baby – I was majorly shivering all over (a hormone thing, apparently). She tried to coach me through delivering the placenta, but I was having a really hard time. Turns out the thing was massive. Part of it didn’t detach, which can be a concern for possible hemorrhaging.

The paramedics arrived, along with firemen to carry me down the stairs in a stretcher. They were all awesome, assuring us that we did a good job and that we were all okay. They clamped off the umbilical cord and had Ryan cut it with a scalpel, though the spot they chose for the cut left about a foot of cord dangling from poor Cora. My doula was massaging my uterus in attempts to get the placenta to let go. It would have really helped to have the baby breastfeed (to induce more contractions), but for some reason the paramedics asked me not to. They wrapped me and my still attached placenta up in more sheets and towels from my linen closet and got me down to the ambulance. We all decided to go to the local hospital instead of the Army hospital, due to proximity.

Ryan drove behind the ambulance and made a few brief phone calls to our family. The ride was bumpy and seemed so long. I really felt light headed and found out later that my blood pressure was slowly dropping (darn placenta). I was also in a lot of pain from a horrible saline IV in my arm. And I was sad because Cora was sucking on anything she could get in her mouth, looking for an opportunity to breastfeed, which I was still not allowed to do.

When we arrived at the hospital, we were not kindly greeted. Since I got all my prenatal care from another provider through a different hospital, they knew nothing about me. I was also an ‘unexpected emergency’ added into an already busy night for the staff. And, they all thought that I delivered at home on purpose, with insufficient support, and now they had to clean up my mess. As the OB & nurses untangled all the blankets and sheets, I got some pitocin to stimulate more contractions. The OB had to end up applying traction to the placenta to get it all out – so unpleasant! And then the OB started in on a few stitches accompanied by the comment, “Next time you deliver your baby alone, do yourself a favor and support your perineum.” Dislike!

While the OB worked on me, an evil baby nurse worked on Cora. She kept the baby away from me for ages, despite Ryan’s and my constant requests for the baby to breastfeed. She also administered the vitamin K shot and eye ointment without consent, two procedures we were likely going to decline. When I inquired about those procedures, she just said, “Oops! Too late!” I dislike you, too, evil baby nurse.

The Aftermath

I guess that’s the end of the most interesting parts. But I’m going to keep going just a little longer so I can answer the question every single person wants to ask – what about the mess? Because you know there was a mess. Here’s the scoop… Ryan and I were concerned about the possibility of my water breaking while I was sleeping (even though this is statistically a small occurrence in labor). A few weeks before my due date, we put a waterproof mattress cover on the bed. And it did its job. Our mattress remained completely mess-free. Ryan was also very concerned about the path of carpet between my side of the bed and the bathroom, so he bought a cheap shower curtain. The shower curtain was to be transferred to the car to protect the seats during the trip to the hospital . I had to walk on that stupid shower curtain for over a month, and I hated it SO much, but it saved our carpet.

You might have noticed that in the above story, I noted several times that various people raided my linen closet. And, apparently, the most convenient pile of linens was the stack of carefully folded, much loved, wonderfully nice sheets that were given to us from our wedding registry. A stack of beach towels also got ransacked, and one lovely hand towel (also a wedding gift) made it into the massive bundle of material that wrapped up me, the baby, and my placenta.

On Monday morning, while Cora and I tried to get a bit of sleep at the hospital, Ryan left to run home and survey the damage. The sheets on our bed, the waterproof mattress cover, and the shower curtain went straight in the trash. Ryan cleaned up the bathroom and put the furniture back into place (paramedics moved several pieces in order to maneuver the stretcher through the house).

When I got unwrapped at the hospital, the staff kindly set aside the whole mess of linens in two plastic “Patient Belongings” bags. And I was stupid enough to think that I was going to take them home and somehow magically save them. I did take them home, where I opened one up and reached in for the hand towel. Stupid, stupid, stupid. At some point, my doula mentioned to me that there were “some solids” wrapped up in there. She didn’t get more specific, and I didn’t ask her to. But I’m pretty sure this is one more thing that falls into the “Things They Say You’ll Do But You Don’t Believe Them” category. After a bit of gagging, I took both bags straight down to the garbage. Ryan later wondered if the trash guys suspected homicide when they got to our bin.

When I write it all out like this, it really seems nuts. It’s hard to convey (and probably for you to believe) how calm everything felt (except the pain of course; that part was NOT calm). I’m going to give a ton of credit to my wonderful husband. Despite being a little slow to jump on board (seriously, remember the part where he was reading The Economist?), his affect was steadfastly composed and confident that we could handle this. Later on, he admitted to being quite jarred by the whole thing, but I never would have known. As much as I was in pain, I truly never felt panicked or helpless about the situation. I actually remember thinking, “Why am I so okay about all this?” Maybe it’s because there just wasn’t time to get myself worked up. From the time of the first Very Serious Contraction until Cora’s birth, it was less than three hours. Geez, it probably took you longer than that to read all this.

As I sign off, here are three pregnancy/childbirth lessons to be learned from all this:

-Waterproof your couch/bed/carpet/car. Just in case.

-Be careful what you wish for. I wanted an intervention-free birth. I sure as hell got one.

-In all seriousness, educate yourself about your body and your baby. There’s so much to be gained both physically and mentally as you prepare for your sweet one’s arrival, however they decide to get here!

Welcome back!

2010-08-13T16:41:00.001-04:00

Student: You know, I'm a senior this year!

Me: Yeah, I know! That's exciting!

Student: You know what you should do for me?

Me: Ummm no, what should I do for you?

Student: You should bring me a white chocolate mocha from Starbucks on the first day of school

since it's the first day of my senior year.

Me: Hmmm. Actually I probably won't do that. But it's a really nice thought.