it's basically the only reason i married him.

last night husband was reading from his expectant fathers book, and i told him to read to me & the baby too so we could learn. he actually really enjoys doing this, but last night he hit a couple snags in the content. he is, shall we say - extremely squeamish, about the simplest things. and i found complete hilarity in his reactions.

husband (reading about things to pack for the hospital): "don't forget a box of extra absorbent maxi p...ooooookay".
me: laughing hysterically.
husband (leans over to my belly): "dude, be glad you're not a chick".

later on in the pages, i was reading ahead as he was going along and i noticed he was about to stumble on a bit about the umbilical cord stump. since he has little to zero experience with newborns i had a feeling he'd be clueless about this...and i knew he'd react to it when he got there. as expected...

husband: "....the umbilical cord stump....WHAT! WHAT THE HELL IS THAT?! A STUMP?!!?!"

cue me laughing hysterically again. i used this opportunity to ask him if he planned on cutting the cord (knowing full well what his answer would be) and without a second's hesitation he shouted NO!!!!!!!

as he read along, if he stumbled over something he didn't want to know he'd kind of la-la-la for a second, as if doing so would make him un-read what he just saw? oh that husband of mine. he sure is good for a laugh, though. one of the suggested things to pack was a birthday cake & a bottle of champagne to celebrate after the birth. he thought this was hilarious. through laughs he was reciting situations like, "hang on hunny! just keep breathing i gotta bake this cake before we leave for the hospital!". he also imagined packing up all the ingredients as an alternative & asking the hospital if he could use one of their ovens while i "finished up".

if nothing else, he will keep me laughing through all of this :)

2/3rds there.

i was just thinking...how nice it is, that i can get up in the morning and cruise through the internet, perfectly content with a few hunger pangs...and not fear TEHBARF. for a while there, i thought i'd never be able to enjoy a quiet morning of educating myself on everything pointless with a hot cup of whatever-i-chose-that-morning. i'd be okay for a second, and then every passing moment would bring me closer to puke-land. until eventually, i'd be rocking back and forth in front of the toilet wishing it would just happen already so i could get on with my day. it made me sad, because i love mornings. i love being up before the sunrise, experiencing the chill in the air, and watching the world wake up. i love seeing the sun slowly filter itself over everything and into my window. but pregnancy was having none of that. for the first 17 weeks*, anyway. i was no longer a morning person.

*to be completely accurate, nausea didn't start until i was 6 weeks, and ended at 17 weeks...so it was really about 11 weeks of hell.

the worst part, was knowing if i didn't eat something bland and dry i would surely start on my journey towards puking. but eating anything, let alone something that tasted like cardboard and stuck to my already dry mouth, was just....not appealing. eventually i learned which cereals were easiest to get down, and how fast i needed to take my anti-nausea meds, and i'd function. but even so, i was never "quite right". i don't know why i even expected to feel "normal" - my body was, after all, gearing up to grow a human. not an easy feat.

but then the 2nd trimester hit, and it was a whole other ball game! this is when i learned to enjoy pregnancy. don't get me wrong. it still....sucks, in general - just, the ever-growing list of things that don't work the way they used to, and they're all in the less favorable sense. but, i could spend my mornings normally - without traveling with a baggie of dry cereal, without looking pale & green (not saying i look(ed) good, but certainly better than near-death), and without plotting where the nearest toilet was. i started to feel my baby move, and i saw his face on a sonogram. i found out that he was a boy. my belly started looking cute, and comments started rolling in. and the realization that, holy crap, there really is something in there, MY baby, and he's ALIVE! INSIDE ME!! My excitement finally came bursting through (and i say it like that, because i felt so utterly miserable during trimester #1 that it was hard to show anything other than, "don't get too close i could barf on you").

and so....here we are. 3 days left of this glorious trimester, about to embark on the scary 3rd. the one where aches & pains hit their peak, doctors visits increase, and the pressure to prepare kicks in. i am a little scared for this phase - excited, but a little scared. i'm hoping, that i still have a little while of sleeping well - because until now (knock on wood) that hasn't been a problem for me. and the discomfort has been slowly setting in for the past couple weeks, so i think i've been slowly preparing for that. aaand my nursery hasn't even been started, but i can't feel badly about that since it's kind of out of my control. but ya know, this means i'm getting closer and closer to meeting my little man...and after this point, his chances of thriving should he be born early for whatever reason, just continue to increase. so that, is reassuring.

all of this is worth it. every stage, every moment. every time i feel him kick and flip i remember why i'm having to go through all of these less than favorable things. because the reward, is worth so much more.

ARE you kidding me.

here's a little diddy about the constant outpouring of cash from my home.

i told you all about the mold room, correct? that's going to be about $1,000 out of pocket when they finish their stupid work. the same time the mold construction started, we had to get our gutters cleaned. charlotte suddenly decided rain was cool and started pouring it over our over-stuffed gutters & rolling off the side of our house. not cool. within a few days, the windshield on my car grew a massive crack. too big to be filled. north carolina, in their total awesomeness, does not cover glass in their insurance policies. sweet. i also i had to buy a crib for the fetus i'm growing.

let's recap.

mold room - $1,000
gutters - $125
windshield - $255
crib - $200

total wallet raping - $1580

sweet right? well guess what. yesterday within 10 seconds of my commute on the thruway, a massive rock shot out of.....i don't know, someone throwing massive rocks from a bridge? flying out from a dump truck? all plausible - but it looked to me like it came straight down from heaven like a mini meteor with my car's name on it. SMACK in the middle of my windshield. where there is now, a lovely crater, in my 4 week old windshield.

what, the, hell, murphy's law. i'm about sick of you.

weekend love.

as usual, i have work to do and i'm slacking like a super star. instead of being productive, i'm sipping some pepsi (making goop get a little work out in the depths of my belly), jamming to peppy ghetto songs, aaand contemplating updating you on my fantastic weekend.

ps, i'm pretty close to choosing a prettylicious purple purse, but humor me anyway and tell me which one you think is worth your hard earned monies. there was this gorgeous, so-purple-i-could-eat-it dooney at macy's, but for $345 - uh, no.

friday night husband & i went out with some friends from work. i was all excited that i had an actual experience to write about, and now that i'm thinking of it...i have nothing to say. it was really a simple night. we went to a wine bar...which, was pretty cool actually. its a very free-for-all place, where tables and couches & loungey areas are set up in random order, and you just kinda come in and claim an area. all through the whole place there are endless shelves of wine, an enormous beer cooler (all individual bottles), and other random coolers with safe-for-preggo's drinks, like...uh, water. you just kinda walk around til something jumps out at you (i went for the water), bring it up to the counter to pay for it, and return to your little corner. husband was making trips to the beer cooler and sampling bottles of random brews. the other guys joined him later in the night, but for the most part they'd just pick up a glass and share bottles of wine.

it was a pretty cool night. there wasn't much room for potential friendship building with G. for one, because she left within 30 minutes of us getting there...i'm not really sure why. that, and i wasn't seated anywhere near her. but, it was still a lot of fun. it was great to get out of the house for once, and cool seeing my co-workers in a different setting. conversation was never-ending, usually touching on hot topics (and thank goodness the guys all seemed to agree on things) and usually coming back to my pregnancy in some way shape or form.

the only "sticky" part, was when my co-worker's wife asked me who i was voting for. i'm pretty sure it was a total side convo, because the boys were talking (pretty intensely) about alternative energy and didn't really hear her ask me. i would have opened up had it really just been me speaking to her & no one else...however, i know her husband is very hardcore one-sided. i was afraid that if i didn't answer "correctly", he'd either suddenly hear & protest my answer, or she'd tell him later and...well, no thanks. i just don't like getting involved in politics. instead i said i was still unsure, and it seemed like a good response. she even agreed that it was a tough decision this year. however, her next sentence included something about how in 2 years she will be able to vote (both she & her husband, my co-worker, are natives of venezuela and i'm pretty sure she's only been here as long as they've been married, which is about 2 years). she said something about being proud to do her civic duty, and then i felt a little guilty that i wasn't tripping over myself with opinions.

overall though? a really great night. we even discussed future plans - including a baby shower/ football party combo, dinner out, and a day trip to the mountains (pregnant me probably having to skip the latter). but, baby certainly made me pay for being awake after 11pm.

saturday morning was the true start of chilly fall. it was glorious! we decided to celebrate the start of the chilly weather with our favorite cold morning breakfast tradition. warm drinks, asiago cheese bagels, and snuggly conversation by the fire at panera's. we did just that, with hot chocolate being the warm drink of choice. once our bellies were sufficiently full, i did a bit of maternity clothes shopping at target before heading home. most of the day was filled with naps and relaxing, but we had a date night planned. none of the actual date had been chosen, just simply that...we needed a weekend full of relaxation after our tough week. we settled on going somewhere close to target, since the D cup bra i bought earlier that day was STILL not enough to hold my preggo tatas (yes, they have ballooned THAT much) and i needed to return it.

dinner ended up being olive garden, and OH yum. i don't know why, but with a very round belly touching the table our waitress looked directly at me & tried to upsell us on "yummy fruity wine!", as she put it. i, once again, went with water. we shared 2 rounds of salad (because mmm this baby LOVES salad and you don't get much better than the OG), and decided to order something "different" than our usual. i went with the chicken carbonara - it was delish!

after dinner, we returned my bra and husband offered to buy me a new pair of fuzzy pj pants. it was completely random of him, but he said he wanted me to be comfortable. i wasn't protesting! i got a really cute grey pair with black polka dots. they are SO comfy, mmm i can't wait to get this day over with and put them on. we finished off our date with a trip to starbucks. hellooo decaf caramel macchiato. i have always been obsessed with the regular caffeinated version, but stupid me thought they were off limits until bff informed me that decaf espresso was, in fact, a real thing. oooh, heaven. husband just went with straight up coffee, and we split a slice of pumpkin loaf for dessert. we sat chatting for a while, and i noticed that every other patron was 50+. it was just strange...usually starbucks attracts such a different crowd. is that changing? and if so, purposely or not? interesting.

sunday was really...a lazy day. we did nothing. no, lies. we went to kohl's...where i found a fitting bra, and 2 more maternity shirts. husband found a really nice dress shirt & tie. then we attempted to get a new phone for moi, and had a run-in with the most SUCK salesperson i've ever met. so that was a no-go. the rest of the day, i went through all of our paperwork & filed absolutely everything. it took so long, all i had time for was dinner & dh before it was bedtime. but, at least it will be a lot easier to keep the paperwork organized from here on out.

so, speaking of organization...i should really...do work now. i have to figure out if i'm training G some more, or if she's a lost cause (in the work sense). that's, a whole other issue for another day. basically she's not really excelling here, and i'm getting stuck in the middle considering my job is one she's supposed to be learning...at the same time i'm semi-jump starting a could-be friendship. it's sticky. and too much thought for a monday.

oh purple!

purple is my faaavorite for fall & winter. i love it. just, LOVE it.

(don't mind the kitty - he always sneaks into pictures when the camera is out)

last october, when the weather started getting cooler - i loved it so much i painted my bathroom purple. i prettied it up with a nicole miller damask shower curtain, white pillar candles, white shabby chic accessories, and new black & white fingertip towels. i've since added a few things, and i have just recently picked some black & white flower photos i've taken & put in black frames. they haven't made it to the wall yet, but they're waiting patiently for my motivation.

this year...i want to cover my ever-expanding body in it. i wish i could. but, i'm conserving money. i did buy a long sleeved maternity shirt in my favorite cool weather shade, but being that my belly is growing so insanely large i can classify it as a necessity.

really though? i really want a purple purse. bad. i almost dropped $17 on a purple wallet at kohl's yesterday. i still...may go back and get it, or order it online, if i'm taunted enough. but i thought, save the $17 and get a purse so i can see the purpliciousness more than just when i need to pay for something. i've been drooling this morning. which one would you splurge your monies on?

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confessions of a bitter pregnant lady.

i am seriously about to explode if people don't stop irritating me. yes, i know, the hormones and such have run me a little ragged...and the inability to breathe normally has left my brain a little deprived & frustrated. but, how much can a girl take?! if i had zero respect for people, and a little more confidence, i would love to say these things flat out....


dear mr. XXXXXL shirt open-door-door-knocker,

how do i put this nicely? you're annoying. you talk way too quiet and way too slow, and i seriously get bored waiting around for you to get to your point. SPIT IT OUT! the truth is, i could handle your slow explanations if you didn't smell like you soaked in rancid 30 year old cologne. STOP BATHING IN IT! the smell lingers for 10 minutes after you walk out, and with my super-sonic pregnancy nose, i gag until it clears out. and while you're quitting bad habits, how about walking in my office instead of knocking on my OPEN door? ps, you could probably fit in Medium clothes, what's with the shirts 4 sizes too big?

sincerely,
bitter pregnant lady

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dear grossest hands in the entire world,

i don't know if anyone has ever told you this before, but you have the most disgusting hands on the planet. for being a slim guy, your fingers are thicker than hot dogs, and your skin feels like extra coarse sandpaper. ever hear of lotion? i wouldn't give a crap what your hands felt like if you didn't PUT THEM ON ME ALL THE TIME! it would be sweet if you just, stopped touching me. i'm getting sick of dodging corners when i see you coming just so you can't reach me. and whoever told you it was kosher to put your sandpaper hands in a random girl's head of hair? well here's some news. IT'S NOT! it's also extremely annoying when you try to copy my tone of voice, or repeat things i say often. i don't care if you think you're cute, it's freaking annoying. and when i get quiet & standoffish - that means KNOCK IT OFF! how about just, leaving me alone altogether?

sincerely,
BPL

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dear weird skiddish guy,

you, too, take an eternity to get to the point. i freaking hate when you walk in my office - i almost want to get up and leave you standing in here alone, just so i can avoid your stupid conversations. the part that gets me, is you're almost always confused about your point, and someone else has to fix it. if you're gonna suck so badly, could you just let someone else come to me please? it would save me a lot of frustration and irritation. and you know, saying things like "so, you're busy? well, i'll only be a minute..." and then breaking into what YOU need, regardless of my current work situation - is NOT cool. pointing out that i'm busy doesn't mean it's okay to make me busier, just because you recognized i was already slammed. especially when your issue is never correct to begin with. ps, saying things like "wow you just keep growing!" is a really, really, really....stupid thing to say to a bitter pregnant lady.

sincerely,
you know who

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dear douche bag,

i have been annoyed by you for the last year and a half, and you only continue to make it worse. you smell like a bar. your chester the molester laugh makes me sick. and you need to stop picking your nose and ears while using other people's computers. it's freaking disgusting. i'm sick of soaking everything i own in antibacterial spray after you get near it. also, popping your dentures in and out of place is really, really sick. no one wants to hear that. you also need to shave your ears, because not only are they the size of my hands, and more red than a tomato, they look like they are covered in pubes. and since we very unfortunately have to see you so often, it'd be nice not to see such horrible sights. but most of all, you starting to do your job would just be FANTASTIC. i know you've enjoyed milking a nice paycheck from the owners while doing nothing but chain smoking and spouting off computer jargon to try and confuse people while making yourself sound like you know what you're saying. but it's time to do your damn job.

sincerely,
i hate your guts. hardcore.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

dear stupidest guy to ever exist,

how do you get to be your age, and not know how to make a copy of something? it's not even like you're over the hill and beyond the technology generation (though even my grandma could make a simple copy!). you're probably only 5 - 10 years older than me. and following simple instructions like, put paper in tray, hit Go - shouldn't be so hard to follow that i have to repeat them 3 times. and even worse, that you still can't get it after 3 times and i have to physically walk my big pregnant ass to the machine and do it for you. yes, the paper DOES need to get sucked into the machine. simply placing it on top does not tell it what you need a copy of. and before bringing me what you think is your copy, look at it. is it exactly like the thing you copied? no? then guess what. it's not your copy. HELLO!

sincerely,
get a clue

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dear every truck driver & dispatcher in the greater charlotte-piedmont region,

you people......are the most annoying, frustrating, aggravating people to deal with. DON'T just show up without an appointment, DON'T expect an appointment without giving me a PO number, and DON'T deliver crap on fridays since i've told you 147, 680 times WE ARE CLOSED ON FRIDAYS! if you don't follow the rules, you'll be pushed to the end of the line - pretty damn simple.

sincerely,
about to loose her cool receiving lady

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dear everyone who feels the need to make comments about my pregnancy,

yes, i am pregnant. yes, that means my stomach is growing. you may say things like "oh you look cute", or "congratulations", or "how far along are you?", or "when are you due?", or "how are you feeling?". all perfectly acceptable and reasonable. however, saying anything in regards to my size - totally uncool. some examples of phrases you may want to avoid:

"wow you look like you swallowed a watermelon this weekend!"
"geez you're starting to look like the broad side of a barn"
"damn, you're getting big girl!"
" you're only 6 months?! by the time you make it to 9 months you're gonna need bed rest!"

and yes, all of these things have been said to me - along with many more. i also get physical mocking, where people will pretend to waddle in front of me (and for the record, i have not started to waddle). oh, and...everyone at work now calls me "big mama" (insert not amused face here). so make note of these examples, remember common courtesy, and take a social etiquette course if you still can't find it in you to keep the comments to yourself.

sincerely,
REALLY bitter pregnant lady.

houston, we have a crib.

this is quite a milestone, wouldn't you say? over the past couple months i've collected lots of things - baby clothes, bibs, toys, books, bottles. not in any mass quantities, but a nice starter collection of hand-me-downs and gifts. they've all been sitting in boxes, awaiting a home in my son's will-be nursery. and no, at 6 months pregnant - one has not even been started. not because i'm procrastinating - because a little company i like to call service douche bags has control over a room in my house and will not finish up their stupid job. this may be a good time to fill you in on the mold epidemic. but first, the crib.

though all the little baby nick-knacks i've collected so far will certainly help me with my growing baby, a crib is the first piece of useful "equipment", if you will. being that i needed a crib to get the nursery going, i made it my goal to acquire it before anything else. husband's sister was insisting that we find one on craigslist - that it was the "cheapest possible way", and our baby will probably only use it for 6 months - a year, so don't spend a ton, blah blah blah.

well, i humored her (and husband, since he always takes her advice to heart) and searched craigslist. the only criteria it had to have, was be white. that's it. nothing fancy. iiii found nothing. every single white crib was listed at $200 - $300. not to mention, i had to pick it up - and since my choices of moving vehicle were hybrid-whose-back-seat-doesn't-fold-down, and mazda-3-with-even-less-cabin-room, it wasn't gonna happen.

so then i found this lovely white crib at babies r us. brand new, as in no other rugrats have gnawed on the railings. as in, meeting all current safety standards. it transforms into a toddler bed, and can morph all the way into a double-sized kid's bed. and, the best part of all, it was only $160-some! even with tax & shipping included, it was only $200 - and there was no personal picking up, shipping, moving to be done on my part. so naturally, i had to have it.

so did every other pregnant mom to be. i first had to battle husband to let me order it, because he was stressed about the costs of the mold and didn't want to spend more. but as i told him, baby is coming....we need a crib, with or without mold, and $200 is going to leave one of our accounts between now and january. might as well be now in case it takes a decade to ship and we have time to get a back up. so, he scoured reviews on the crib (he researches every single purchase to death, and really, i'm not complaining - i take comfort in that he's making sure we make safe & valuable purchases). once he was satisfied - he gave me the okay. i tried to order it at work that day, the website crashed, so i decided to wait until i was home to try again. i get home, and it was out of stock.

i was shocked that it sold out so quickly. this "online only" item was suddenly saying "not available online". hmmm. so i signed up to be emailed when it was back in stock, and waited. a few days later it was in, i ordered it, received my confirmation, the end. right? no. 2 days later i received another email saying they canceled my order. i was confused as to why this happened, so i called. she told me it's their policy for when things run out of stock. ever hear of back ordering?? so she advises me to sign up for an email again, i do - and what do you know, it's back in stock at 6am the very next day. you couldn't back order it for 12 hours?! GAH! soo i ordered it again, by some miracle it shipped the next day, and yesterday....the 60 pound box arrived.

YAY! quite a hassle. and, as of the moment it's only a step in the right direction. considering even if i squatted this baby out today and had matt put the thing together, there's still no mattress or box spring. but, it is a start! and it frees up a $200 item from the massive list of things i still need on my registry.

so, the mold epidemic.

august 29th, a friday - i decided to start clearing out the closet of what would be my baby's room. i was, 4 months pregnant at the time, and decided it was high time i get started on a nursery. my house, unfortunately, has very little storage - so all of our seasonal things, wedding gifts, and the few memory-like things we allowed ourselves to keep, resides within our closets. being that goop needs use of his closet, my goal was to consolidate down to the one in the guest room. so. i got to work, and i figured one of the first things i should do is free up space in the guest room closet for the incoming junk. only....upon moving the first box, i found mold. and that was only the start of it.

i quickly left the room, washed my hands, told husband, and he came home from work immediately. we called our insurance company & some plumbers, and the chaos that has become my life for the last month and a half, began. we have had so many visits from insurance adjusters, plumbers, contractors - ugh. and they are taking their sweet time getting the room fixed. the good news is, the mold has since been removed. the bad news is, my guest room is missing important things like - carpet, and drywall. we have been waiting for WEEKS for the work to be completed, and still....it sits.

i started making nasty calls last week, using my 6 months of pregnancy as a weapon. usually that either earns me some sympathy or fear, and either one tends to at least get things moving a little. we received a call yesterday that the contractors would be coming out on thursday. only, this morning, husband was on his way to work and they called to say they were on their way to our house. um, it's tuesday?

soo, now they are coming tomorrow, apparently - but there have been many occasions where they say such things and never show. and we never heard anything about our carpet being ordered, or being ready to install anytime soon. so, really....i have no idea at all, when this room will be complete. and you may be wondering, where did the contents of this mold room go during the construction? oh yes. they are all in my baby's room. taking up so much space, it's difficult to even set foot in there. so my attempts at putting a nursery together were pushed back about 10 steps, and sits there in non-production land.

and my new, un-assembled crib, will probably sit in it's box in the dining room for another month, at which time nursery will be husband's responsibility. because, i will be a house.

triples, fall decor

as you can see...i did another triples run. this one was really only meant for a few things - and, i didn't end up with nearly as good of a savings percentage as the first round, but i was happy with it nonetheless! i actually did a 3rd round - one quick trip to bloom, but i only bought 3 or 4 triples items, the rest of the trip was intended to be meat & produce for the week. so, it ended up being our usual $60 trip. here's the deals on the above....

Texas Toast Garlic Bread $2.99, $0.85 oop
Scott 4 pack Toilet Paper $4.15, $1.99 oop
Betty Crocker Warm Delights (2 of them) $1.95ea, $0.38 for both ($.19ea)
Ziploc Quart Zipper Bags $3.25, $1.00 oop
Renuzit Pearl Scents Air Freshener $3.79, $1.14 oop
Spray 'n Wash Max $2.95, $0.70 oop
Shout Liquid Stain Remover $3.15, $0.90 oop
Dawn Original Dish Soap $1.65, $0.90 oop
Jet Dry Liquid Rinse $4.75, $1.17 oop
Arnold 100% Natural Bread $2.79, $0.54 oop
Soft Scrub Deep Clean Foaming Spray $3.35, $1.49 oop
Pillsbury Ready to Bake Cookies $3.65, $2.15 oop
Comet Long Grain Rice $2.69, $1.04 oop

Total Retail: $41.11
Total oop: $14.25

so, during triples we bought $100 worth of groceries & cleaning products, and spent about $32. i'm happy with that! now i'm happy to relax for about a month til the next triples comes around. it gets really tiring!

this weekend was really nice. friday the sabres won their home opener (WHOO HOO!). we got a pizza from taste of buffalo to celebrate. i tried really really hard to stay awake through the whole thing, but crazy hyper-active baby was having none of that. i made it through the 1st period, and half of the second before i passed out. but, husband woke me up for the shootout and i watched us win. YAY sabres!!
saturday morning husband & i finished up the puzzle we've been working on all week. it was a hard one! 5 trees whose pieces all looked the same. water pieces that were virtually impossible to tell apart, about a million rocks. we've only had 1 puzzle in the past that's defeated us - it sat out on our kitchen table for 3 weeks before we were sick of looking at it and put it away. for a while i thought this one might be #2, but we pulled it off. yes, we are dorky...and this is the kind of thing we do together. puzzles, crosswords, sudoku.

husband said something cute during our puzzle-ing. he was like "last night when i was trying to hold you, i had my hand on your belly and the baby was kicking so much it kept waking me up every 2 minutes. how do you sleep through the night with that?!". so cute. i love that he can realize what some of the challenges are. honestly though, i'm always SO tired at night, and i'm just SO used to him moving 24/7 at this point - that i sleep right through it. unless....he's kicking my bladder, or right behind my belly button - because both hurt.

after the puzzle, we did some shopping. we went to birkdale for starters so i could get some wallflower refills. i ended up with a set of pumpkin, spiced cider, and creamy nutmeg. all fall-y and yummy. after that we went to kirklands, and i got the cute little sign you see above (that's found it's home ontop of the tv). it was only $7! or...$8? either way, you'd pay like $20 for something like that from target. anyway, we walked around a bit more, checked out a little baby boutique (and husband actually gets excited to look in those places now!), and then set out for home depot. we were in search of shelving for the garage to get it cleaned up in there, and we bumped into one of the owners from my work. he was getting shelving for his closets. we ended up finding two $25 shelves, plus a huge orange mum for $6 - and only paid $25 for all of it because of an old gift card we had. not bad.

finally we stopped at the ATM, and then a little corner produce stand down the street from our house. we were the only ones there, and we both love fall so much - we went a little overboard with what we got. 2 good sized pumpkins for us, a pie pumpkin for odin (we debated over getting another for goopy, but decided it would be more fun to get his first pumpkin once he was outside of the womb), and a handful of mini pumpkins. aand then we got 2 small yellow mums, a hay bale, a bunch of indian corn, and some homegrown tomatoes. we almost topped it all off with a corn stalk, but decided against it mostly because of room in the car. however...i think we may be going back to get one to put behind the display we created on the porch. i suggested getting a scarecrow (they have adorable ones right now at michael's for only $6!), but husband said they look too much like clowns and he hates clowns lol.

i love the way the porch looks now. with our little display, and my little scarecrow man wreath, and the welcome mat, and the orange lights. cuuuute. just out of frame to the left is our flag, which right now is a sabres flag (whoo go buffalo!), and on sundays is our bills flag. but...i'd really like to get a fall one to tie it all in. we'll see.

later that night we decided to go out for dinner. it was really cool out, and i just felt like being out in the nice weather. i made a stop at michael's to check out their discounted fall fake foliage (ha) and got a few things. which, i decorated my mantel with.

while we were out during that trip, an employee asked me how far along i was. i told her 6 months, and she says, "and you're still wearing heels? damn, you go girl, do your thing!" (thing sounding more like thaaang). you know - that's the 3rd or 4th time i've heard that! i think it's a sweet compliment, don't get me wrong, but i'm not exactly stomping around in stilettos. i just happen to have a little heel on my fall/winter boots. and so far i haven't lost any balance, nor have i started to "waddle", so i haven't really seen the problem in wearing them. i guess that's one victory i have this pregnancy!

i cheese-ified my kitchen window. more mini pumpkins, and window stickies! remember me wondering where all the window stickies of the world went? my lovely friend shmoe sent some in her package. the funny thing is - they were made in charlotte. so they were shipped up there, where she purchased them, and shipped them back to me. yet....i can't find any here! also, it's kind of hard to see because of the reflection of my fridge in the window...but the trees in my backyard are starting to turn and it looks so pretty!


my halloween note pad made it to the fridge recently. i'm totally dorky and have one for every single season. that's last week's menu on it.....which reminds me, it's menu planning monday....iii should do that.

monday:
tuesday:
wednesday:
thursday:
friday:

yeah....i'll fill that in later as my mind catches up with me. it's still way-too-early on monday morning to be doing things like, thinking! and with that...i will shut up now, because i've given you far too much boringness for one day :)

ps - the high today is 87, and tomorrow is 89! what the heck!!! we've been steady in the 70s and i've been LOVING it! i don't want this heat crap. luckily, mother nature is making up for it this weekend with 60s and rain, whoo hoo!

"this shall be a love day"

i don't know how this much time has passed, but 2 years and 2 months ago - i sat in the living room of my apartment (obviously pre-house), making a -1 anniversary card for my soon-to-be (obviously pre-marriage) husband. it was august 11th, 2006. and one year from that day, i knew i'd be walking down the isle to marry my best friend. i still remember the card - it was pink & orange, just like our wedding colors - and i'd rigged it up like a pop up book somehow. on the front, i used a quote sticker from a set of scrapbooking stuff i had that said, "this shall be a love day". i could have sworn it was by shakespeare - but in an attempt to be completely accurate, i tried googling it and haven't come up with anything. so....i suppose...take my word for it? :)

anyway, i surprised husband with the card when he got home from work that day, and we went out for dinner at chili's to celebrate. most people called me dorky for celebrating a -1 anniversary (and, yeah, it was dorky...oh well). but i loved it. i loved that we were pre-celebrating a day that would remain special to us for all of our future days.

the quote stuck with me. i think about it every 11th of every month. because, to me, the 11th is a love day. it's some minute anniversary of the day i promised everything i am, to one wonderful person. a day that i remember fondly - for all of it's beautiful chaotic moments. and so, i've decided to pay homage to my special love day. every 11th of every month, i'll post a love day entry. i'm expecting it to include a wedding picture (or 2, or 3...) and a memory (or a few). it's not only nice to remember those special little moments - but to document them now, while the whole thing is still just a year in my past. instead of trying to come up with the details 10 years from now and just finding foggy snippets.

i decided to kick this off with my favorite part of the wedding vows. it holds an extra special meaning for husband & i. right after eating dinner at our reception, husband's 92 year old grandmother wanted us to open her present. so we made our way to her table, and did just that. it was a cross-stitched picture, in such beautiful detail - it was incredible that her 92 year old fingers could create something so beautiful. it ended up being our absolute favorite gift.

unfortunately, she passed away this january. just 5 months after our wedding. during our last visit with her, she told us that we were such a good couple and she was so thrilled to be able to make it to our wedding. it meant so much to me to hear that. we have her picture hung at the base of our stairs, easily viewable from the living room - and the first thing you see when going up the stairs. i often pause and study it. paying attention to the detail, and reading the words to myself. "to have and to hold, from this day forward." it's such a simple statement, with such profound meaning. beginning on our wedding day, august 11 2007, we will always have each other. we will always be there to hold each other - in good times & bad. i am so thankful that his grandma made us something to remind us of that.

ode to buffalo hockey

this is...the best day, ever. okay no...not ever. it's the best day since.......it's just a really good day! and why? because, at 7:30pm, my boys are coming back to the ice!!! WHOO HOO!!!!!

my goodness how i've missed my sabres. you see, i'm not that big of a sports girl. i know squat about football, find baseball boring, won't even give basketball the time of day - but hockey? oooh hockey. the day my child is born i'm going to start saving up for equipment in hopes he will be my little sabres wanna be. i LOVE buffalo hockey!

my obsession started shortly after exiting the womb. in fact, my very first memory EVER is of watching the sabres play. i was being held by my dad, in our old recliner, drinking milk (i'm assuming from a bottle - all i remember is the taste of milk) and watching the sabres play on tv at night, with no other lights on in the room. til this day, when i watch sabres games at night - in this same way, i crave milk. conditioned much?

growing up i could take it or leave it, really. i was more interested in dolls. i had like 20 of them, and i'd pray to God every night to make them come alive. but as time went on, i was pulled back in. somewhere in the 90's, i became interested again. and when i was in 7th grade (hmm, roughly 11 or 12 years old), i became obsessed. aaand that's about where it stands today.

some of my very best memories are of sabres games. house parties during playoffs. i, of course, was one of the many who stayed up all night watching the multiple overtimes & no goal mishap many seasons ago. the whole neighborhood was awake & would step outside for a drink between overtimes. i remember going to multiple home openers (which, i'm sad about not being there for this year, but give me a couple more years and i won't miss another one!).

husband & i went to this game in december of 06, rockin the old school jerseys. my love was drunk, and hilarious. it was SUCH a good game. we had 6 consecutive goals only 9 minutes into the 1st period! it pissed off the opposing goalie so badly, he broke his stick over the net in a hissy fit. it was amazing.

my lovely friend shmoe came to this game as well. this is one of my faaavorite pictures of us everrr.

speaking of shmoe! her birthday was yesterday, and ironically enough - a packaged arrived for ME on HER birthday (from her, duh). shmoe, if you are reading this, THANK YOU!!!! you totally read my mind with the window stickies (it's that twin thing), and the clothes for goop are ADORABLE! i am so so in love with the tigger one. there are few people in this world who know how excited i get over tigger!!

i'll post pictures of that loot later on, but....i saw her face and had to mention it. back to sabres praise!!


one of my very favorite memories of the sabres is from this year's new years day ice bowl! so, yeah....we lost. boo. we lost in typical buffalo fashion (losing in typical buffalo fashion = there's no reason we should have lost, and it was one of those games we needed to win, but buffalo can find a way to loose). but i'll tell you what. if i knew we'd loose ahead of time, i'd still do it all over again! it was such a fantastic day. and i say that, even though i was sick & outside in 30 degree weather all day long. it was really that great of an experience. (the picture above is husband & i all decked out in our sabres gear, shortly before tailgating. below is the whole fam, tailgating our hearts out. notice the snooow.)


if you have no idea what i'm talking about, here's a quick run down. basically...they took our football stadium (the bills) and plopped an ice rink down right in the middle of the field. it was a totally outdoor NHL hockey game (the first one in american history - they did do this in canada before). there were over 71,000 people in attendance. do you know how insane that is for a hockey game?! it was just so so so amazing to be there, in the middle of making history. it snowed steadily all day and it was just absolutely gorgeous in only-a-buffalonian-can-get-it way.

you see? beauty. gosh that was such a great day. i wish we could have the opportunity to host another ice bowl (or as the NHL calls it, "winter classic"). but...we probably won't be so lucky. i hear the only reason we "won" the first one, is because we had the most merchandise sales the year before. but - i think that's to be expected, because we changed jerseys that year & everyone had to re-buy them.

well. here is to, hopefully, a wonderful season. though our team's been tested with the loss of briere and drury (waaaahhh i still miss them), we have a brand spakin' new captain this year - and maybe he'll bring us back to #1. yay for hockey!

GO SABRES!!!!

yay for triples!

warning: i'm about to bore you with couponing babble :)

guess how much that lovely collection of yummies cost me. go on, guess. it's a pretty good load of stuff, right? i mean....i didn't even compare to some of the ladies i saw with absolute mountains of stuff in their carts. i have no idea how they work that out - especially with the 20 coupon limit rule. but i was pretty pleased with my collection. there are only 3 things from my list i didn't get. two of them were out of stock, and the third - i'd already reached my 20 coupon limit. so, i'm going back friday morning to pick those things up. and perhaps a few other things, depending on what other deals i uncover & have coupons for.

this is my first hard core triples experience. i did participate in harris teeter's recently, but that was my very first week of couponing ever - and....well, i wasn't very good. i still saved 40% off my bill, but i'd acquired zero skill at that point so i'm counting this as my first real triples.

i broke it down for you in quite a bit of detail. the starting price of each item, minus bonus card savings, minus store coupons, minus manufacturer coupons tripled, equals total. but you know...it was a lot of numbers, and a lot of senseless abbreviations so, here's just the original starting price (as stated on my receipt), and the price i paid out of pocket.

(OOP = out of pocket)

Cottonelle 4 Pack Toilet Paper $4.15, $1.00 oop
Thomas' Plain Bagels $3.99, $1.34 oop
Windex Antibacterial $3.65, $0.74 oop
Country Crock $2.19, $1.44 oop
Betty Crocker Frosting $1.85, FREE
Betty Crocker Cake Mix $1.85, $1.00 oop
Betty Crocker Cookie Mix $1.99, FREE
Knorr Sides (2 of them) $2.15 x 2 = $4.30, $2.05 oop for both ($1.02ish ea)
Lipton Tea 24ct Tea Bags $3.69, $1.00 oop
Betty Crocker Flavored Potatoes (2 of them) $1.75ea, $0.60 oop for both ($.30ea)
Total Cinnamon Crunch Cereal $3.99, $1.74 oop
Lucky Charms Cereal $3.55, $0.35 oop
Dial Foaming Hand Wash $2.45, $0.60 oop
Cascade Gel Dishwasher Detergent $5.65, $3.24 oop
Renuzit Adjustables (3 of them) $1.49ea, $2.10 oop for all 3 ($.70ea)
Softsoap Antibacterial $1.95, FREE
Progresso Soup (2 of them) $2.69ea, $1.50 oop for both ($.75ea)
Ronzoni Pasta $1.89, $0.25 oop

Total after everything was scanned = $61.63
Total paid OOP after coupons = $18.63 (!!!!)

70% savings! i'm no pro just yet, but i'm so excited about this! one thing that messed with my numbers was the cascade. it was still a deal, but had i left it out it would have made my percentage better. however, we needed it. we only have like 2 loads of dishes left on our current bottle....so better to get it during triples than not.

also, husband came with me. this is good, and bad. it was good because he helped me juggle the coupons, and he kept tabs on the store coupons we collected as we walked in (matching them up with my coupon list, tearing them out and such). however - a few of the things he wanted (though reasonable) also messed with my numbers. but, i'm not complaining - i'm totally happy with this.

you should have seen his face as we were walking out. he had this HUGE smile that would not fade. he couldn't believe how much he saw the numbers drop. when we got home he kept saying "baby, i'm SO glad you got into this". so him coming along was worth it, just to see how happy it made him.

oooh this is addicting :)

mrsLack-o-friends. for now.

so, okay.
as i mentioned yesterday, i'm not from around here. i've lived in charlotte for over 4 years now, and find it quite difficult to make friends. i suppose the biggest issue, is that most people my age are still thrilled by spending half their income on perfect clothes & modeling them in night clubs. and me? well....i'm 85 years old at heart.

a few years ago, i made roughly...3 charlotte friends. one of them was a real actual friend. we did things together. we went shopping, and went out for lunch, and would get coffee at starbucks. we'd work out together and attend little gatherings at her apartment. she even surprised me with an adorable hot pink cake, festooned with sugar martini glasses for my 21st birthday. but when i traveled back home for a year of college, she met a man who took her down a path i couldn't understand, and we drifted. i still attended both her bridal shower & wedding the following year, but she had changed. we didn't click the way we used to. conversations and get togethers were no longer easy & free flowing. and when she moved an hour away from charlotte, i knew things would never be the same. in fact, this year - i emailed her in april, and didn't get a response until august. and even when i told her i was pregnant, she didn't say a word.

that situation was the most disheartening, for me. she was a friend - one that felt very similar and familiar to the girls i knew back home. she was there for me in every way i needed her to be...and for no other reason than, life happened, she's hardly in my life at all anymore.

the other two girls...i was never quite as close with. one of them was also a co-worker, and although sweet and hilarious - our fun rarely went outside of the work place. sometimes she'd accompany me and the previously mentioned used-to-be-friend for coffee at starbucks, but that's about as far as it went.

the third girl was my neighbor from our old apartment complex. she can be a little overbearing and intimidating, but i found out that we had loads in common just days before she moved out. of course it happens that way. she'd stopped over to offer me left over cake from her bachelorette party, and when we sat down to talk we realized we shared a handful of the same hobbies. i immediately started to regret taking advantage of our close proximity and what could have been a good friendship, but you know...it was a little late. and as you may have suspected, she got married, moved into a house in the opposite direction we moved in, and now i hear from her once every few months. i've suggested meetings and such with her, and while she'll always agree to them in theory - they never happen. it makes me sad, because she's pregnant now too. and perhaps, if i was a little less shy, and a little more open when we used to be neighbors - we could be going through all of this together.

the thing is...i know that i am a little...hmm, picky. i get annoyed/intimidated/aggravated (pick your negative emotion) very easily, and it seems as though there's a very small group of people i get along with. and maybe, it's the culture differences down here that keep me from feeling completely comfortable with people? or i suppose i'm just used to my friendships having history - ones that started when i was 8, 10, 13 - those are the people that i treasure with all my heart. and i'm so lucky to still have some of them in my life. so why can't i find that here? 10 years from now i could say "i met them when i was 24!" and boom, there's a decade of history. but i can't seem to...get it going.

i do have a few things going. gosh, i hate talking about it like that....it sounds like i'm dating around, searching for mr. right. or working on some business ideas that may or may not pay out. really, it's not that. it's just....i'm desperate for a circle of friends, and while i could really forget about it before, it's not so easy now. in the day-to-day, i'm cool with husband & odin being my only social interactions, mixed in with the crazy people at work that i get to leave behind at the end of the day when they annoy me. but now, with a baby coming, and with me about to embark on a new journey of "rarely leaving the house", there's a new panic to find people to fill my life with.

charlotte mommies has been a great outlet. and with the big sister program, i met a really great person who i'm excited about getting to know. she seems like my kinda girl. and then, there's a couple prospects at work. however...i'm not so sure how much they'll love me after i leave (being that this is quite a tight knit group), and....well.....there's issues.

in fact, the whole point of this post was to compare two girls (from work) that i thought could lead to a friendship, but i just about wrote a novel already soo....i'll try to keep it short.

the first girl is almost exactly my age. she's funny, she's sarcastic and witty, and she likes many of the same things i do. for a while we were getting along really well...despite many of her annoying habits (like, for example, breaking out in tears over tiny things like - someone stealing her pop from the fridge, or not having $20 to drive home for the weekend). her hometown is about 1.5 hours from here - and she goes home at least every other weekend. it's almost closer to every weekend. she comes in here homesick on mondays (and everyone handles her with kid gloves), wah-wah-ing about not living at home. HELLO! do you know what i would give to live 1.5 hours from home? if i had the opportunities to see my mother and my sisters and my friends every single weekend, i would do it, i would love it, and i would shut up about it. i wouldn't be crying like a baby, i'd be thankful i wasn't 11 hours away from them (like, i am now).

i felt bad for her at first (believe it or not) because i know what it feels like to be away from the ones you love & have always known. iiii get that. been there, still doing it, practically wrote the book. so one day i told her if she ever had to skip a trip home and she felt lonely in her apartment, she could always call me. i warned her of my lameness and said the most i could handle while pregnant is lunch or shopping, but at least it's company. and do you know what she said? "nah...i don't know why everyone thinks i need to be out doing stuff, i'd rather let home be the best place there is and just deal with it when i have to be here".

okay then. is loneliness really that much better than my company? sheesh. thanks for the ego boost.

i found out later on, that other people had offered her similar things & she turned them down with the same cold response. so, i don't take it quite so personally now. but, really. come on.

another potential friend is G - the girl who hand crafted me a pad of post-its. i'm still trying to figure her out, because she's new, and very confusing. i swear, every time i talk to her i'm left with a totally different impression. they're almost always positive ones, which is a good thing, but like i said...i'm just not sure what makes her tick. last week i spent quite a lot of time talking to her. we had a blow-off day of sorts, and we discussed a lot. she agrees with so much of what i think, and talking to her was almost exciting. it was one of those situations where you just suddenly realize, "hey, this person's pretty cool", and visualize the potential for a friendship.

she is sweet, and very kind hearted. though a little flighty, she seems like a truly good person - one that i may not always relate to (because, she doesn't want kids & i'm about to have one, and although she's in her 30's, she still acts/talks/dresses like she's in college), but that i would really enjoy spending time with. she invited me out this weekend - actually i still need to see if that's happening. it was sort of a casual, loose plans invite. so we'll see. but a person like her is what i need in my life. someone who has a positive outlook and can always put a sunny twist on things (i'm kind of captain pessimism). someone who loves life for the simple things it offers and always points them out. oh, and there's the whole thing about her being a pilates instructor that hands out free sessions to her friends (hellooo post baby body). kidding, of course. the only "gain" i care about in a friendship is a social-emotional one.


to give you an example of her cheery nature, i introduce mr. praying mantis. he was chillin outside my window yesterday (and i wish i'd gotten a better picture before he decided to scale the whole thing and almost make it to the top). i mentioned to G that there was a praying mantis the size of a kitten on my window, and she popped out of her seat to come and see. she kept ooh-ing and ahh-ing at how cool he was. and with total sincerity in her voice she kept saying "those are good luck, jenn! you have some good luck coming to you!". and while it's just "one of those things" people say - the optimism in her voice brightened my day. i could read so much about her in those few short moments (i suppose i should have caught on earlier when she'd say things like "look how you cute you are, your face is so lit up it's adorable!" when i got a scoop of ice cream at the chinese buffet one day at lunch. or how she never hesitates to let me know, "you are so tiny still, that baby must be the only thing growing!" on days where i swear she reads my mind and can tell i feel like a beached whale). but really - it's like she lives to make other people smile. to point out the good. to make sure she's doing the best she can. like when i told her my tumor was bothering me and she asked if she could help (lol). i said "sure, wanna take it out?".

so, my goal? to not be afraid to come out of my shell a little. to try a little harder. and really, i am making some sort of progress. when i was set up with my "big sis" on charlotte mommies i ventured out to meet a stranger that i'd never seen before in the middle of a mall, and that turned out to be such a great day. i'm SO glad i pushed myself to do that. the old me wouldn't even think of it. but a new life is about to begin for me, and for husband - and things are going to change. and i really want to reach out & hang onto some of these great people.

so, wish me luck.

wanna see my bowling ball?

i just realized i never introduced you to my goop, at least via my belly. so, today is your lucky day. as you can see....the child is large. im only 25 weeks...and look at that belly! gah. i am convinced he will come out 6 foot 11. my sister kept saying that while she was shopping for him, she skipped over newborn sizes because she's positive he'll be born way too big for them. funny, how she thought so already seeing as i haven't seen my sister since july & she hasn't seen the belly. oh, right....did i ever mention...i don't live in my hometown? yeah. long story short (i'll make it longer some other day...) i moved to charlotte, nc with husband over 4 years ago and happily ever after. we're both from buffalo, ny - aaand, we will be again in a few years.

here's the fully-clothed belly. everyone tells me it looks like i'm literally carrying a bowling ball under my shirt. sweet. thanks guys.

last night hubs and i rocked dinner. he finished up work right when i got home, and came downstairs to get the grill fired up. it was a sick 80-some degrees (we're so ready for full-blown fall it's not even funny), so we figured we'd do the grill thing. when he opened the door to the deck, however - a hilarious 20 minute battle with the spider from hell ensued. i love husband, and despite what i'm going to say he is plenty macho. he is terrified of spiders. as am i - to the point where i can't even get close enough to kill them, so in his defense...he at least has the courage to murder the bastards. this thing was unnaturally enormous, and exceptionally disgusting. he armed himself with a can of raid and a broom....and switched between spraying at it, swatting it, and squirting it with water. by the time he finished attacking this thing (to the point he felt safe being anywhere on the deck in order to grill), i had already made the applesauce for the next night's (now tonight's) dinner. i don't know why i've never made my own applesauce before. it was seriously easy, and seriously DELISH!

my bff, the queen of homemade baby food told me how to make it. her daughter loves it (and since husband's taste buds resemble those of a 5 year old) i knew he'd love it too. i wanted to make it last night so it had plenty of time to chill for tonight's dinner. and, to free up some time considering i've never made homemade mac & cheese before and im going to venture into that world tonight.

pregnancy suck of the day: last night, i peed right before bed (hot right). and as much as i searched my brain, i couldn't recall drinking much in the evening. yet, around 3am i had to pee SO BAD my entire body hurt (i have this weird pregnancy thing, that instead of getting the urge to pee like normal, i just get pain. lovelyyy). my whole belly was cramped, yet i was fighting with myself since my alarm was due to go off in not long anyway. i finally got up and went, the pain decreased - but never went away completely. it STILL hurts! and i'm afraid it might have shifted my tumor (yeah, another story for another day...) because it hurts the most right where the tumor is. im walking like an old lady with a brand new hip replacement.

ps - bloom is doing triples this weekend! what the heck, grocery stores! are you trying to kill me!! i'm going to plan on skipping that one...unless, i don't make out as well as i plan to at lowe's this week. they'll be my weekend back up plan.

monday menu garbage

i keep seeing those menu planning monday banners all over the place. i cannot plan every single meal & snack husband and i will eat, because i'm way too lazy to think that far ahead. but, this whole grocery shopping pimpness that has become my hobby lately is saving us money. and planning dinners ahead of time will do the same, seeing as it cuts down on those pesky $20 trips.

this week i was able to make my menu post-shopping (well, shopping round 1, because triples is still to come) with things i have on hand. before this new style of shopping? i never had things "on hand". i always thought rachel ray and her "ya know, whatever kind i have on hand" comments were bull. but it's incredible, the things you stock up on when you get them for nearly-free.

yesterday, i got my first free item. granted...it was sort of "cheating", because it wasn't that i mixed a sale & a coupon....it was that i had a coupon that literally said "free". i decided to go ahead and get it now, because i figured with triples coming it would be cleared out of there. it was...a bottle of french's worcestershire sauce (did i spell that right?). there are so many recipes that call for a dash of that stuff, and i've always just skipped it because i never thought to buy it.

i have yet to enter the world of overages. and i hear lowe's doesn't honor them during triples. so, possibly during the november HT triples.

oh, oh! another deal. have you heard of those febreze candles? they were on the shelf at lowe's originally priced around $7.50 if i remember correctly, and it was closeout priced at $5.00. i had a $.75 coupon (that doubled, taking it to $1.50 off)...so i got it for $3.50 - not bad. i thought about waiting until wednesday or friday, because the coupon would triple instead and then cost me $2.75 - but i figured there will be a lot of couponing ladies in the area that hung onto that coupon & would scoop up the closeout priced candles. soo, i took a chance. if i could find that coupon again, though...i'd get another. i got the apple spicey whatever it's called candle, and we lit it last night - it smelled like an apple pie was baking. sooo yummy!

oh, right, the menu...

monday: steak, baked potato, green beans
tuesday: pork chops, homemade mac & cheese, broccoli, homemade applesauce
wednesday: ham steaks, mashed potatoes, corn
thursday: spaghetti, meatballs, garlic bread
friday: pierogies, fries, corn (subject to change based on triples trips)

i'm not thrilled about the steak tonight, because you know...me and beef = enemies. but, it was freaking $3.50 for a huge one at the store yesterday (and i eat such a small portion, that i just hack a chunk off and it still sufficiently fills husband's belly). plus...ya know, the whole iron thing. boo.

further proof of my lameness.

as a kid, i never really cared about halloween the way i did christmas, thanksgiving, or easter. i just didn't have that spooky creativity. i did have some excitement about it. you know, endless free candy...the stupid little parties my elementary school put on. but i just never really got into it, the way i see so many people do.

i remember starting out as a witch around 5 years old. i had some strange obsession with the wizard of oz, and i always wanted to be the witch. i pulled that off every year til i was about 8 or 9, which is when i became a pilgrim. boy did i test the limits of that home-sewn costume each october 31st. somewhere around age 12 or 13 i wanted to do the more popular thing, and dress like my friends - you know, as a hooker, stripper, or britney spears. i pulled off the britney spears costume one year, and my mom wouldn't let me leave the house. my senior year in high school, i was a pink fairy. that was the thing to do back then. groups of friends would get together & plot what they'd be - so you'd see 10 or 15 of the same thing in the halls each halloween. it was kind of gang-like. my friends & i wore glittery wings, plastic tiaras, and carried kid's princess wands.

that was the last time i dressed up. which, is...ya know, reasonable. i was 17. it's not like i was trick or treating anymore. it's just that i was never invited to those crazy halloween college parties or anything. so, what little excitement i did have for the holiday definitely died off.

this year, though? i can't stop thinking about it! i'm not exactly sure why. part of it is that i'm carrying a little one, and the gears are already turning for his first round of holidays next year. i already looked through all the infant costumes at target (and find the chili pepper, bag-o-cash, and woopie cushion particularly amusing). and i already can't wait to see what kinds of things charlotte mommies puts together so i can get an idea of what we can do as a family next year. but i also think, it has something to do with my current surroundings...and my experience from last year.

last year's halloween, was one of the nicest, most relaxing nights i can remember. my house wasn't exactly sparkling, so after work i went to town on the living room & kitchen, in hopes that any trick or treaters wouldn't see my clutter. i did such a fantastic job of it, in such a short time, and it left me feeling relaxed. so, in the name of relaxing...i slipped on my fuzzy black slippers, lit a pumpkin scented candle, and poured myself a glass of wine. i settled in on the couch (closest to the front door), and just soaked up the night. trick or treaters came like a steady flow (husband was upstairs "hiding" - he says he doesn't "do" trick or treaters). i'd get up and answer the door with my big bowl of candy, awwing and oohing at every little one dressed up as something adorable. between knocks i'd sit on the couch with my wine & watch tv. it was a warm-ish night, with a slight crisp breeze - and the smell of my pumpkin candle and the warmth of my yummy wine just sent me into lala land. it was wonderful.

it was somewhat exciting, to participate in a "real" halloween experience. we'd lived in an apartment for the previous 2 or 3 halloweens, and never got 1 knock on the door. i suspect it was because we were on the 4th floor, and you know how "active" kids are these days. now, however, we live in a suburban development with a plethora of little ones. it gets me excited to celebrate. maybe i'll even "dress up" as something this year? probably not. or, i'll just be a pregnant chick.

today, in an attempt to get ready for the holiday....i pulled weeds, swept up random dirt, power washed my front porch & everything on it, power washed the sidewalk leading up to my front door, and hung orange halloween lights around my porch railing. the fall welcome mat also made it's 2008 debut. i'm thinking next weekend, we will get a hay bale or two, a corn stalk, a mum plant or two, and pumpkins - and i'll create a little display in the corner of our porch. then i will feel sufficiently decorated, and not like one of the lame houses people pass over. i'd love to find some window stickies too - but it seems like everywhere only has those gel things nowadays. whatever happened to the window stickies? they were the best part of decorating when i was a kid!

i'm kind of exhausted from doing all of that. i also did 2 (about to be 3) loads of laundry, transferred pages into a new scrapbook, made lunch, cut coupons, updated my coupon spreadsheet, researched sales, and made a temporary shopping list (saving the big one for triples later this week). now i must shower, do the shopping, finish up laundry, straighten up the kitchen, straighten up my bathroom, and make dinner before desperate housewives tonight. i'm thinking meatball parm subs tonight, mmm. husband made his famous spaghetti sauce & meatballs last night, and a nice cheesy gooey sub with the leftovers sounds absolutely delish.

3 cheers for slacking!

i declare this, slacker day.

usually my friday mornings go like this. sleep in (as in 7am...since my usual alarm goes off at 5am), take a ride to dunkin with hubby & get a decaf iced mocha latte. upon arriving back a la casa de licky's, husband gets to work (he works from home, usually) and i take in a little regis & kelly. (there was an episode a few weeks ago i still can't stop laughing about. david duchovny was guest-hosting [before his sex addiction rehab business] and they did the trivia crap they always do. the caller was from a place called effingham, illinios. david asked her if it was effinghot there. ha, yeah...i'm lame). once that's over, or when my ADD kicks in (whichever comes first) i relocate to my "scrapbooking area"* and scrap, scrap, scrap.

*right now, it's a pile of my supplies in our bedroom, arranged in a semi-circle behind where husband works, and i sit in front of said supplies. on the floor.

i totally get the award for most parenthetical side notes in one paragraph.

on this friday morning, however, i am at work. how dare my employers rain on my friday parade!!! it's not their fault, really. we switched to four 10 hour days not long ago, and forgot to tell our certification auditor. i work at a steel factory (i do a girly job, don't go picturing me in a jumpsuit tossing rebar around). there's some kind of certification (iso...something) that puts you at a "better" level. kind of like a college being accredited or not. he does these audits 2-4 times a year, where he tracks our processes and such. in the 2 years i've worked here, the man hasn't so much as acknowledged my presence - but since i'm in a different department this time around, he may. so i might get a little badgering...i might not. it's yet to be seen.

in the mean time, slacking, whoooo!

on my way into work this morning, i saw husband's dream car. he has this thing for corvettes...and there's actually a certain year he's obsessed with but you know, it's man speak. i don't remember these things. anyway, his father had one when husband was a kid. it was this ugly, pukey, beige color. apparently "ugly" was the thing to be in the 70's. this was a rare color, and from what i hear it's pretty well hunted. husband has a strange obsession with it, and can be caught googling for one at any given moment. he even used a picture of one for sale on ebay as our desktop background on the lap top. boooys. anyway, i saw that car....and i knew that he would be highly jealous if i just said "hey hubs, i saw your car on my way to work this morning" - so graceful me stumbled through my bottomless pit of a purse, pulled out my camera, and snapped a picture. going 70mph. that's talent. safe? no. probably the dumbest thing i've done in a long time. and as you can see, my photography skills at such a speed are not exactly "good".

i did get a slightly "better" picture - aka, not crooked. but my flash refused to go off this time and you can't see crap. but, whatev. his license plate says "peewee08". hmm. interesting. there are so many things that could mean.


this picture....is my smile of the day. there has been one way in which this pregnancy has been nice to my body (instead of ravaging it like it has to the rest of me). my nails grow! anyone who knows me in real life will know....i have the worst nails in history. ever! for serious - horrible, horrible. but look at those puppies! husband asked me to scratch his back the other day and he exclaimed, "omg! you have girl nails!". yes, yes i do :)

oh! OOOOH! oh-oh-oh. my fellow charlotteans, have you heard the good news? lowes foods, triples next week? oh my gooosh. i thought i was going to have to wait months before i could try out my new found couponing obsession on a full-effort triples experience, but here it is!! and the best part, lowes is the very grocery store i have around the corner from my house. i just hope that all the domestic goddesses from charlotte mommies that are living in highland creek don't clear the place out! considering, they are far more skilled than i am. i figure i will take a trip wednesday night, and then probably another 1 or 2 on friday when people are working. ooh yay, i'm so excited to get the sunday paper and plot out my purchases.

seriously, i'm getting lamer by the day.

the short version.

things i really hate:
1. new software that doesn't work and causes 80 issues a day.
2. stupid know-it-all chain-smoking idiot computer douche bags.
3. truck drivers with thick redneck accents and an inability to read.
4. open-door door knockers*
5. paranoid off-site employees with a telephone addiction.

things i wish i had/could have:
1. a shot gun
2. a valium
3. a few shots of vodka
4. ear plugs
5. my sanity

*annoying people, who come to my office and even though my door is ALWAYS WIDE OPEN and they are STARING RIGHT AT ME, feel the need to knock on my open door and wait for me to address them before they speak.

makeover!

i feel like i'm in junior high, and i just had a slumber party with my friend, mrs. lovah,
and she gave me a makeover and now i feel all pretty. yay pretty blog!

thank you for zapping your creativity on me, lovah friend :)