in training

my cousin and i went to the seedy-est BIGK last night to do a rundown on coupons. she made a good haul and got a lot of things that she will not need for a very, very long time. such as toothpaste....i mean, you're not giving up brushing your teeth anytime soon, are you?

going there reminded me about perspective. i showed up there a little ahead of time from my cousin and sat in the parking lot. from there, i watched...which i love to do. it was really run down, and i thought, really trashed. i mean, from the parking lot itself to the thuggish kids that were running around the lot at 7pm at night.

i expressed this to my cousin as we were leaving and she commented that she thought it was actually a fine area and was nothing bad at all about it.

it is, really, all about perspective, where you grew up, and what you are used to. this applies to a LOT of things if you think about it. really, with many things, if your perspective is just a tinge different, things can look better or worse, in a whole new light

By A.Guandalini on Flickr

the loot

i went to Kmart today on a mission. i will admit, Kmart is NOT my favorite place. especially the one where we live, but you gotta do what you gotta do.

i purchased about $140.00 worth of stuff for $60.00. now, i realize, it's STILL $60.00, but it's all things that i will eventually use/need. for instance...Kmart has double coupons right now. so, i have a coupon for $1.00 off Tide. just so happens that they have tide on sale for $5.49 right now. why...that's Tide for $3.49! that's almost stealing.

my best today, i thought was the secret flawless with olay deoderant. it's $4.49 usually. that's a lot of money. i had a coupon for $2.00. voila...$.49 deoderant.

anyway, i also bought some underware (yes, i know...i don't want to hear about underware at Kmart, but it's really quite cute joe boxer stuff). so, that upped my price quite a bit, but i really felt that i could "splurge" on $12.00 for those.

This is what i got, minus the three bottles of tide. Do not adjust your screen...yes, i WILL eventually need the 4 things of deoderant and 6 things of shampoo that you see. along with the 30 other bottles i have at home. and yes, i will need 10 bottles of Dawn dishwashing liquid....thank you very much.

the buttons

thanks pea

1. Do you like blue cheese? i did, like, was obsessed with it. then, now, i don't like it at all.

2. Have you ever smoked? Yes, but cannot stand it at all. i mean, when i say i've smoked...i've tried it.


3. Do you own a gun? no

4. What flavor Kool Aid was your favorite? i wasn't allowed to drink it when i was little and it has too much sugar in it for me to think that it would even be a little enjoyable now

.6. What do you think of hot dogs? That they are disgusting.

7. Favorite Christmas movie? don't have one

8. What do you prefer to drink in the morning? water

9. Can you do push ups? yes

10. What's your favorite piece of jewelry? an emerald that i designed the setting for

.11. Favorite hobby? reading, working out, skating, crocheting

12. Do you have A. D. D.? um, no but if it's possible to have the opposite, i think i have it

13. Do you wear glasses/contacts? No, not anymore, but i did for years.

14. Middle name? lynn

15.. Name 3 thoughts at this exact moment? i'm stiffling hot, oh, maybe it's because i have my heater on and its 60 degrees in colorado right now. prenups are strange. i need a better camera

16. Name 3 drinks you regularly drink? water, coffee, wine

17. Current worry? i don't think i have one at this moment

18. Current hate right now? not being able to run when i have plenty time to do so

19. Favorite place to be? in bed

20. How did you bring in the new year? i think sleeping...i'm not sure.

21. Where would you like to go? back to japan and italy. i will love to go to china in some years to come too. i have a hard time thinking that anything could be better than the places i've been.

22. Name three people who will complete this: i have no idea

23. Do you own slippers? yes, they are lamb slippers from bath and body works

.22. What color shirt are you wearing? plum

25. Do you like sleeping on satin sheets? NO....N...O...no. i thought that i did. my friend had them and i loved them, the look...oh, they were awesome and purple. i got black ones. let me tell you. they are NOT sexy. they are like an OVEN.

26. Can you whistle? Yes

27. Where are you now? in front of my computer

28. Would you be a pirate? um, who thought of this...no

29. What songs do you sing in the shower? i do not sing in the shower

30. Favorite Girl's Name? i love ella (it was my grandma's name), i also love (don't laugh, o.k. you can), ping as a middle name and likely that will be our kids middle name. it's a long story, inappropriate at times, but endearing. also, there is a chinese children's story with a duck named ping.

31. Favorite boy's name? Burke.

32. What is in your pocket right now? nothing

33. Last thing that made you laugh? thinking about yesterday's showings.

34. What vehicle do you drive? toyota matrix

35. Worst injury you've ever had? maybe the one i have right now...not sure.

36. Do you love where you live? yes

37. How many TVs do you have in your house? 4

the weekend

thank you everyone for your comments on the sweater. i have to say, i was pretty pleased with myself. and if anyone wants one, please let me know....i would be glad to do one for ANY of you that take your time reading this. it's very relaxing to me, and extremely cathartic knowing that someone, besides me, will actually wear something that i made, and it's super cheap to make. i will post the finished product. if it was for someone else, i found this fantastic button for the sweater. for the sweater i made the other day we found some cartoon-y frog heads for it...just because that is what the parents will like. but i found this adorable star...so cute. anyway, i digress.

this weekend was a whirlwind. my father in law was in town, we were preparing to send my husby off to the nether-regions of the world (casper, wy), and we were on a mission to show homes and find the perfect one for my cousins. it was fast and furious, and today, it's well...tired.

there were more than a few gross things that happened, and since i'm sure you are dying to know....

first off, we went to petsmart and got the toads some food. that, in and of itself is disgusting, but all in the name of toads. so, we were there hanging out and i get the little guy (butters) some little worms. it's all he can eat, since for some reason, he has some eye thing going on and cant eat crickets like all good toads should. anyway, i looked into this container marked "superworms" thinking i would find something similar to the dime sized worms that i usually see and instead see this

BUT HUGE. Like about 6 inches. i screamed and ran out like a banshee.

second story: we are at a showing in this house that we really so wanted to work because it was perfect from the outside. i mean, perfect... had all of the things you could ever want.

we trekk upstairs and notice, hmmm, maybe NOT what we want. it looks as if someone had taken 3 months worth of tabacco spit and then dumped it on the stairs. but, we are optimists, people. we go onward and upward. while my cousin is taking a look at the pee stained toilet seat in the bathroom, her boy and i are out in the bedroom, both at the same time, taking notice of a gold foil package on the window-sill. I almost thought to myself, "that looks like a condom....FOR A DONKEY or a soda can, one of the two, but no....that's not what that is, that would disgusting"

you can see the nicely printed "MAGNUM" on the wrapper. i love my job

done!

i finished this last night. i can't love it more. i need to buy a button, but other than that....finito!

on injured reserve

i hurt my leg last week. running, of course. i was fine one day, and not the next, so not quite sure what happened. i did various things to get through it, but to really no avail, so after a referral from my GP and a plethora of scary stories to scare me into never wanting to exercise again, i found myself in the orthopaedics office.

first off, if i EVER need an ego boost, i will be hitting that stop first. he went on and on about my legs. not like in the creepy, "i think this doctor is hitting on me vicariously through my legs" thing, but in a real genuine way.

secondly, we had some xrays, by the same tech that spotted my bone spur a couple years ago, he is fun and i got to wear this horrendously small/medium "paper shorts" that i could have fit 10 of me in....literally.

so, lo and behold, my pelvis is not shattered or my femur is not broken....duh. but i'm headed to the MRI tomorrow.

i'm surprisingly good with all of this. i did this with enough time that if nothing is broken, i can be fixed and can still run the marathon. if something is....well, we'll just take that as a sign that i'm not the gazelle i was trying to make myself be.

c'est la vie!

halfway done

this is my first project that someone, besides me, will actually probably wear....once. it's for the niece that just joined the fam. this picture does nothing for the color, it's actually a brighter turquoise. i'm going to go get a button for it today...i'm hoping for a turquoise and green turtle, but that may be asking for too much. i think it rocks!

you're my valentine

my dad came walking in to the office yesterday with a laptop and a 9 pound box of quaker oats, and a valentine's day card for me.

The laptop, he explained was for me, for when i start school. (thanks dad!)

the card, was obviously for me. (thanks dad)

but best of all, the oats, were for t. he is on a new health kick to eat breakfast every morning, so every morning we get up, make oats, and take a multivitamin.

dad said he paid extra for the heart on the box. LOL

irony or just plain doesn't make sense?

i sat in last night on an adoption webinar put on through this agency that we are likely going to use when the time comes.

it was really cool, lots of new information for me, even though, i have worked in adoption in various settings throughout the years.

times are changing and right now, the wait time, if we were to apply, would be 3 years, more or less. this is fine with us....we really don't want to have a child for about 4 to 5 years anyway.

what i found to be completely off the wall, crazy, insane, is that i have to wait til i have been married for 5 years in order to apply. this is because and only because, i have been married before. i get the stability issue and i absolutely honor the fact that people who have never been married before must be married for 2 years before they can adopt.

yes, i was married before...shoot me. it was, only 6 months, of my life and by god, i understand that it was a big deal, but 5 YEARS. this puts our minimum time frame to 8 years.

anyway, this isn't what floored me. what was, was that when we were discussing things that are requirements for adoption, such as, 1. not having surgery in the year that you adopt, 2. not getting pregnant while you are waiting., 3. not having major depression, 4. not taking meds for depression or anxiety, it was suggested that you LIE. o.k., not lie, but just don't tell, and furthermore you are protected by HIPA laws, so the adoption agency cannot prove it.

(one more observation) you can have up to 3 DUI's on your record and still adopt.

and i'm the criminal for being married and realizing right away it wasn't going to work.


________________________________________________________________

In other news, the rest of the webinar was really cool and very exciting. i realize this is a long ways off, but it really is a neat idea to have in my head.

i'm off to the chiropractor....i hurt my leg running the other day and haven't been able to since. this, injury, however, has prompted me to discover YOGA! i went to my first class the other night and i think i could be hooked.

you know me better than me

i have a bone to pick with people. i'm all about being myself and not really caring what everyone else has to say, especially if it is negative, and brings negativity in the whole energy. i'm usually very good about that.

when i'm not, however, is when people seem to think that they know me better and know my relationship better, than myself. i've lived in my skin for 34 years and am getting pretty good at it.

so, for example, if i were to say that i don't need a baby coming out of any of my orifices in order to feel like a mom to them......ASSUME THAT I KNOW WHAT I'M TALKING ABOUT.

i know, some people worry and worry that they would never love an adopted child more than one that they give birth to. i'm not that person (and i'm saying this in the nicest way possible).

what standards are there in friendship?

you hold standards of what you would expect in every serious romantic relationship that you have. or if you don't, i'm here to tell you, you should. but it got me to thinking, what standards, if any, do you hold to your friendships?

i have a tough time with this, because to me, it's all one and the same.

when we got married, i didn't announce it really.....to anyone, for a couple of reasons. 1. we went and signed a piece of paper that was between US. we didn't need anyone else there, and to be honest, didn't really WANT anyone else there. we did what was right for us. 2. my dad got sick at that time. it was NOT the time for celebration or for my issues to be overriding his and what was going on in my life. to be honest, and i'm not being mean, but i know that if i had to prioritize getting married vs. my dad almost dying...well, dad would win out.

after the whole thing with dad was over, my parents put out a christmas letter, full of cheer, and also full of the information that we were married. it was almost a side-note in the letter. this didn't set well with one of my friends. i got reeeeeeeeemed about it and about the fact that i had not told her.

after her own wedding, i think that she understood where i was coming from a bit. but i'd still get a snide comment about things here and there. well, she found out she was pregnant. three months ago. which is awesome....so amazing and exciting, i can hardly stand it. but the fact of the matter is, is that i have been talking to her throughout those months with NO MENTION of this. i'm more than o.k. with this...it's all about what the parents are comfortable with at this point and time, right. at least, that's my take on it. but then, i also found out that she found out about many people's situations, via, email and/or text, or not at all. i wonder....did they catch the wrath too?

oh, i almost forgot

i would have taken a pic of the sourdough that turned out not to be sourdough, but it's gone. it made a small little loaf....that we ate the entire thing of.

it wasn't quite sourdough, well, it wasn't at all sourdough. i guess i have to let the starter "rot" before it gets that sour taste to it. i'll make another batch in a week or so to check it out. maybe, just maybe then, i can take a picture before the vultures get at it.

what i've been doing with my time

new bread

trying a new loaf today. sourdough....oh, i cannot wait to eat it when it's done. at 2am...

19 things about me that maybe you didn't know

1. i met my husband on match.com
2. i'm an only child, but had NOT A CLUE about this til i was around 10 and my cousins, that lived in the house next door to me, all grew up and went to college.
3. i lost 90 pounds about 4 years ago. which is funny to me, because this is when i met my husband. he thinks that throughout my life, i always had more weight on me, and that is not true...it was only for about a year that i was that weight...the rest of my life i've been what i am now.
4. i can't sleep with socks on
5. i met the person who likely knows the most about me, on the internet, about 5 years ago. she is definitely one of the if not the closest friend. AND we didn't meet until a year ago, in person
6. i have hardly any girl friends that live in the same state as me. most of my casual friends tend to be male
7. i listen to cheesy music when i run (i.e. Britney spears, rhianna, the music from Ferris buellers day off when they are at the art musc
8. i have my masters in social work, but don't use it for my job.
9. when i went to school for my master's, i met some of the most clinically insane people that i have ever met in my life....all in a big concentrated mess.
10. i have a DVD and application from an adoption agency for China on my desk at home
11. i broke my tailbone last year in a marathon and it was one of the most painful things i have ever done...that and having to ride back 14 hours in a car to Colorado
12. my mom has massive ESP
13. i have great thoughts about my ex-husband. not in a weird way, but i think he is a genuinely good person
14. My first wedding cost tens of thousands of dollars. it was beautiful, but not me in any way. my second wedding cost nothing!
15. i'm perpetually bothered if i'm not on time for things. if i'm going to be late, i will be calling or texting within seconds of me finding this out.
16. this morning i finished two things my husband was saying, which, would not be so weird, had the lead ins had been more than, "i'm going to.....".
17. in spite of being an optimist, i have an ex that repeatedly apologizes for the way i was treated when i was with him, yet, he is the one person i remain skeptical about. i don't know that i'll ever believe that.
18. i think that i could win a food eating contest. not like the nathans hot dog one for speed, but one of those that has you put down a gigantic pizza or breakfast burritos with no time limit, or something super spicy...i could take them. but, i'll never do it because it would gross me out.
19. i will not buy things at the grocery/drug store, unless i can save at least 40% with coupons and store discounts. it is a "drug" of sorts, a dorky one, i know....but a drug nonetheless.

i love this stuff

after i signed up for the marathon, a co-worker decided that he needed to get running. he did, and then, shortly after, signed up for a half marathon in california. i got him this shirt. it's sitting on his chair at the office.

love and affection

i've been thinking a bit about the different ways that people show these two things to people. it's different, i think, in every relationship...or at least, it has been for me. i think in the past, i've been just as happy as the next girl with the obligatory valentine's surprise...which typically has consisted of something in the line of a gift, and then dinner, etc.

i've reached the point, and i don't know why, where i DON'T want that, specifically because of the fact that that could be construed as something that that significant other feels that they HAVE to do because it's February 14th. I'd much rather go out to dinner on August 28th, if truth be told. Why August 28th, you ask? i have no idea, but mostly because it's not February 14th.

we have a friend who is coming up with his girl to our neck of the woods. this is a "new" relationship and for this person, is one of the few that he's ever had "relations" in, if you get my drift. so, needless to say, there is probably some major action going on on a regular basis and by regular, i mean every 5 minutes. anyway, we are set to do something with them on the 15th, as we are seeing our favourite comedian Brian Regan then. But, the rest of the weekend, they have pushed away invitations to stay at our house, to hang out, to do just about anything. that is o.k. however, what is funny to me, is what my husband volunteered to do in order to set the romantic mood for these two. he volunteered to set up a picnic, with gourmet food, in a spot where they would conveniently be hiking.

i think that is sweet.

ewwww

i am not a fan of big chain stores when it comes to making jewelry. i much prefer to either 1. buy from someone who made the actual beads and findings or 2. make my own.

but michaels came out with a line of stuff that is fabulous. they have a great message and are beautiful and unassuming. i may just have to go back and get some to make someone a birthday present. they have things like quotes from ghandi on tarnished silver, stamped leaves, and then these types of things....

they are great.

the new one

i often find myself captivated by the thought of new projects. and by that, i really mean obsessed. so, sunday, i learned to crochet. i want to use the term "learned" very loosely. yesterday, then, i found myself with an unfinished project from sunday and lo and behold, was starting a new one...it was way beyond me. but i figured it out. it is so dreamy and soft, words can't describe. the only way that i can say it is that if you were naked and wrapped in a blanket of it.....oh jeez....heaven.

i'm not a fan, but.....

i thought he rocked last night.

photo from Yahoo

learning new things

o.k. i'll admit, not my chicest moment in the world, but i learned how to crochet this weekend. i'm doing a scarf and i love it. my cousin, who must have inherited patience from someone REALLY patient, taught us and spend the majority of the time hearing, "oh shit" "uh oh" "crap" "how did I do that?"