Today sucks.

OK maybe not like the whole day, but this morning definitely.

I think I'm generally pretty easy-going and level-headed about this whole baby funk, but today I'm just OVER it. We were supposed to start our first IUI cycle last month, but the hub's surgery recovery screwed that up. We gave it a good try or four on our own, but uh... -0- for 4. I think his meds were interfering with his ability to do the deed. It was pretty funny actually.

So anyway, we were gearing up to start our first cycle this month, but then I noticed the hub is going to be out of town during my most fertile period - good one, hub! Now the nurses are thinking he's totally trying to duck out of this... hahahhahaa.... Well we went to the doctor today anyway for labwork and to see what our options were with this timing conflict. We can actually probably still do it this month, but the real blow this morning was finding out the cost of all of it. I'm not sure what I was thinking - and it was dumb of me not to have researched more clearly - but apparently my insurance covers nothing on this... IUI is certainly way less expensive than IVF, but it's still no chump change.

I don't know... the whole thing just put me in a funk this morning. We're already thousands of dollars in with my surgeries and countless other "procedures" so it's just like, when is it gonna end? How much is my big fat belly gonna cost? Hub is going on an insurance rampage today and seeing what he can find out with them. If anyone can get something done, he sure can. As time goes on, my patience seems to be wearing thin... I'm trying really really hard to just trust God here and go with the flow. I know he has a plan for us. I know we'll find a way financially, and we gotta do what we gotta do, but ugh. I'm over it.

A great new find...

Well, I was waiting till my order arrived before I gave props to this site. My big box was delivered yesterday and I am ready to RAVE!!! Add this one to the list of fabu gift ideas...

The site is called UpDone, which makes me think of hair, but it's all about photos. What they do is take your uploaded photos and print them on canvas and wrap them around a gallery frame. It makes a beautiful frameless picture -ready to hang - no framing required. You can choose to have the photo wrapped around the edges (as pictured) or to have the entire photo just on the face of the frame. And the beautiful thing? It's so affordable. My dad is pretty big into photography, so I uploaded 9 of his pictures from our Maine trip this summer and had them printed on 14 x 10 canvas frames (you can pretty much choose whatever size you want). No shipping costs - they were running a promotion at the time (and still are) - and no sales tax for GA. So I got these 9 photos done for less than $120 total.

I was amazed at the price, and naturally a little skeptical. But the goods arrived yesterday and they look fantastic!!! I can't wait to see my parents' reaction on Christmas. They all look SO great and professional. I totally have this site bookmarked because I will definitely be using them again. It does take a while to get the order - allow 2 or 3 weeks for delivery. And it looked like a 5 year old taped the box together. But other than that - Fabulous! I totally have visions of black and white photos hanging in a baby room... or how cute would a collage of these be in a dorm room or college apartment? OMG the possibilities are endless. Go check it out and have fun! :-)

Chocolate Cream Cheese Cupcakes

As promised, here is the yummy cupcake recipe I made for my co-workers last night. I originally got the recipe from one of my girlfriends and I've used it a million times over - it's so easy. You should know it's only 9:23am and I've already gotten several rave reviews. These are always a huge hit. One chick at a bridal shower once called them edible sin (the pic above is from that shower). They're a little rich for me, as I'm not huge on sweets, but who am I to deny others the yummy goodness?

Chocolate Cream Cheese Cupcakes

1 box Devil's Food cake mix (plus ingredients required for mix - usually 3 eggs, oil & water)

1.5 cups chocolate chips (I use the Ghirardelli semi-sweet)

1 block cream cheese

1/3 cup sugar

1 egg (in addition to those required for the cake mix)

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

2. Prepare the cake mix according to the package directions.

3. In a separate bowl, combine the chocolate chips, cream cheese, sugar, and egg and mix together. (I usually dump whatever choc chips I have left in the cake mix.)

4. Fill muffin tins about 2/3 full with the cake mix, then drop a spoonful of the cream cheese mixture on top of each muffin.

5. Bake according to cake mix directions.

Yields 18-24 cupcakes (or you can do mini's too of course).

The cream cheese goodness drops down in the center of the cupcake when it bakes - so fun. Enjoy!

5 Things.

1. I haven't wrapped the first Christmas gift. (I'm starting tonight.)

2. I pulled a muscle in my neck this morning when I sneezed. (It still hurts like hell.)

3. I'm wearing my replacements for the first time today and they are freakin' fabulous! (Perhaps my broken heel was fate?)

4. I'm baking cupcakes tonight for my co-workers. (I'll share the yummy recipe tomorrow.)

5. Christmas bride was 40 minutes late to her own wedding rehearsal because she and her fiance were out getting their marriage license. Hehehehe... Her momma was not happy.

Fun on Amazon...

Amazon is one of my favorite sites. And now I love it even more. I've gotten back into my Luna bars lately. They're so great if you're not familiar with them... they are yummy bars packed with vitamins and nutrients specifically for women. And I'm very picky when it comes to those health bars - in fact, the only flavor of Luna I've tried is the Nutz over Chocolate. The others sound scary. I'm weird about sweets. Anyway - love them, and I have one each day, but they're pricy. They average $1 each. Even if you buy the box of 6, it's not really discounted much (if at all).

Well, I remembered that Amazon carried some grocery items so I decided on a whim to check their site today to see if they carried my Luna's - and they do. The price is about the same as in stores, BUT I can get them tax-free and without shipping costs via Amazon. Plus they have a bigger box of them than what's available in groceries. So OK, not really a better price, but hey - tax-free. That helps a little. But then I saw a little blurb on the right side of the screen about their Subscribe & Save plan. Basically, you can have a product scheduled to be delivered to you in whatever frequency you choose - and by doing so, they knock off 15% of the purchase price every time. OMG sold! Plus you get free shipping - no matter the cost. Normally you have to spend $25+ to qualify for free shipping. It's the little things, you know? I'm so super excited. It's going to save me $6-7 every month on my bars. And that's one less thing on my grocery list. If there's something on your list that you buy week after week, you should totally see if Amazon has it - it could save you a few bucks.

In other news... CB's wedding went really well. It was a looooooooong weekend and I'm SO glad to be off bridesmaid duty for a while, but all was great. These two weddings this fall/winter have me pooped!

The Replacements.

I just ordered these Charles by Charles David pretties to replace my bronze Via Spigas (R.I.P.). I so am not supposed to be shopping for me right now, but I literally do not have anything else to wear with browns this time of year, other than some hooker boots - and I think those are in my Goodwill pile anyway. I was totally reasonable though. I saw several pairs that would be great, but I went for the $49 sale pair! 60% off! I think they're pretty darn cute and I love me some Mary Jane's. I do think I'll have the hub contact Via Spiga to see if there is anything they can do for my sad little shoes. If anyone can get something done, he can.

What a week.

I don't have much time on my hands to blog lately - obviously. But just wanted to pop in and say hello! The hub is on the mend from his knee surgery last Friday. He is on the couch (and has been for the last 5 days) in this knee bendy contraption thingee that keeps bending and straightening his leg. Super fun, he says. He did get out of the house for lunch yesterday with a friend, but it quickly became a bad idea. He was very uncomf and soon retreated back to the couch. The dogs are loving this "fun" time with daddy though. They are expert snugglers and caretakers.

So with all that going on, last weekend was definitely low-key. I did have a party Friday night that I had to co-host. The hub's mom came down so she was able to babysit the patient while I went to party. Sounds fair, right? I bailed on Saturday night's party that we had scheduled. Just no fun without the hub... I don't really know many other people at that party. I made an appearance at our small group party on Sunday, but vacated after dinner to return to my ailing hub. Aside from the parties and a grocery run or two, I was at the house all weekend. Which seems to be a rarity, sadly. We had so much fun though. OK the hub really would not say as much, but I mean, just "being" together all weekend was so much fun. I worked on Christmas cards while he popped pain pills and dozed off. We watched a ridiculous amount of movies. The tree was lit and the fire was going... it was super cozy and Christmassy. And I got SO much done. I was rolling through laundry, whippin' through my Christmas card list, cleaning up, organizing... I really got a lot done.

Then on Monday, I had to leave the hub behind and return to work. I actually was out of the office all day at a continuing ed class. So I'm walking into lunch - this huge ass banquet room with probably 30 or 40 round tables - and I suddenly stepped on something... or in something? I heard this pop and looked down to see what I had just crushed under my foot. Nothing there... hmmm.... so I kept walking and whoah! Did I just step in a hole? Nope. A few more steps and I realized what had happened...

Oh the horror! And of all my shoes, why these?! My bronze Via Spigas that I wear like ALL the time in the fall and winter! Now I seriously have no shoes to wear with browns, etc that aren't peep toe. OMG! I guess I need to call Santa back and update my list. I'm so mad. These were such great shoes. I wore them probably 2 or 3 days a week (to work) and they don't look a day older than when I first wore them last year. And this is so not fixable. I mean I just don't see how. You can't tell in the pic, but it is all kinds of jacked up inside (what used to be) the heel. I suppose I could have a cobbler redo both heels with a stacked heel? But wouldn't that cost a ton? And I don't think it would look great. The wrapped heel really looks best on this shoe. OMG. So sad... so very sad. Now I will have to say that I did um... run up my concrete driveway that same morning in those heels... perhaps that was the straw that broke the camel's back? Or maybe that in itself was enough to kill the heel?! Well I assure you, no more running in heels on hard surfaces for me! Dumb move on my part. The spot on my shoe shelf where these lovelies lived is now empty. *Sniff.*

So that was my own personal drama for the week. Now this weekend is Christmas bride's wedding. I just got my bridesmaid's dress dropped off with my seamstress yesterday. I know - but she's fast and I literally got the dress two weeks ago. She couldn't do it till this week anyway. Got my dyeable shoes which, of course, don't match the dress. They'll be fine though. OK so then yesterday I get to work and Christmas bride has left a gift box in my chair with a big card. Fun - I like presents! So in the card she's going on and on and then asks me if I will be her MOH. What?! Yes - 4 days before the wedding. So while I am super duper flattered, I'm also feeling very lousy - I have not at all done enough to qualify for the MOH position! And it's not like there's time for me to do anything now! We did try to put together a bachelorette thing but it never panned out. So OMG, now I'm the MOH. So my responsibilities have like quadrupled. And do I have to do a toast now? I gotta ask her about that. I'll totally do it, but OMG - scary. I just feel like I'm such a lousy MOH.... but hey, I was kinda given short notice! And I'm a virgin MOH - any advice on how I can MOH-it-up these last few days???

Well I better run... work is finally picking up, so I'm sure they'd appreciate me getting some billable hours in. I'm outtie.

Oh P.S. - I guess you figured out that we didn't knock it out last month, but we're on for on-our-own try #2 this week. We were supposed to start IUI this month, but with the hub's surgery, I knew it wasn't going to be good for him timing-wise. Nothing like spewing your goodies in a cup while recovering from an uber painful surgery! So if he's *up* to it, we'll be giving it one last shot this week. Fingers crossed applesauce!

Catching up.

I have been so absent from blog-world lately! I have missed reading all my favorite blogs and need to catch up. This time of year is just so nuts - as I'm sure it is for all of you. I love it though. It's without a doubt the most wonderful time of the year!

So let's see, where did I leave you? Well my bestest and I had lots of good girly fun together last week. We had a great time at the Georgia/Georgia Tech game that Saturday. Although, we did have a really scary experience trying to get to our seats and missed the entire first quarter in the process. Those Georgia Tech grads are always chanting about being a "hell of an engineer" or whatever. Well it was one hell of an engineer (or crack-smoker) who designed that damn stadium. We apparently went in a gate where we could not get to our seats. The people taking our tickets didn't bother to tell us this. And we didn't think it mattered - I mean, our beautiful stadium in Athens is user friendly. Well, we soon figured out that there was no direct access to our section from where we entered. So we found the section closest to ours with access and decided to go in there and we'd scoot on over to our section once inside. OK so apparently what we were heading for was the student section. And everyone else there had the same idea I guess because it was packed in the corridor and got more and more packed - yet we weren't moving forward. It then got to the point where we were being crushed. It quickly went from "OK this is nuts" to "OK this is SCARY." I felt like my ribs were going to be crushed because the idiots behind us kept pushing and pushing. I definitely see how people get killed in these situations. Finally the cops broke it up and started forcing people back. I don't know what the hell took them so long. A few girls were shaken up. It was definitely scary - I'm sure you could pick up your feet and be carried along with the crowd. If I had been pregnant, I would've been terrified. And being surrounded by drunk idiots only made it worse.

We did finally get to our seats though - at the 2nd quarter. This involved being escorted out by stadium security to the proper gate. So I'll say it once and be done with it... Attention Georgia Tech fans - your stadium sucks ass!

So that was Saturday. We were of course beat by the end of the day. Sunday, bestest and I hosted a trunk show/open house. I need to upload those pics... her stuff was displayed so beautifully! Lots of fun goodies! We had a disappointing turnout, but the weather was crappy and it was a holiday weekend. We still managed to have fun though!

Monday morning we had fun being lazy. We got going finally and went down to Phipps and then later to Discover Mills. Bestest scored a Lilly dress for less than $30 at Off 5th, so she was thrilled! Monday night we went with the hub to our favorite little Mexican joint by our house. Tuesday was more of the same... just piddling around. We hit a few stores and then we stopped by Atlantic Station on the way to the airport and had a quick dinner at The Grape. We had such fun but it was all over so quickly! It made me miss you more, bestest! Such a tease, you are.

What else is going on? Well, the hub is once again trying to one-up me by having knee surgery this Friday. It is now definitely official... this household wins the 2007 Medical Disasters Award. By Christmas, we'll both have had two surgeries this year (he had hernia surgery back in March - not sure if I ever mentioned that one). Mine were more expensive though, so I totally win. His surgery comes at the worst time possible though - Christmas season! I'm co-hosting a party the night after his surgery, so I'm going to have to leave him at home. What a horrible wifey I am! His mom is coming down though, so I'm not leaving him alone. Then we have another party Saturday night. I was planning on not going, obviously - but the hub is insisting that I go. So who knows - that may be a gametime decision. Then our small group is having its Christmas get-together Sunday evening. I really don't know if he'll be up for it or not. Poor thing! And then if that isn't enough, Christmas Bride's wedding is the following weekend. (And my dress, by the way, is GINORMOUS. At least 3 sizes too big. Let's hope my seamstress lady can work a miracle.) So will the hub be tagging along on crutches that whole weekend? I just don't know. We don't really know what to expect. I just hope he can come to the wedding at least... I really don't know much of anyone else there. Selfish reasons of course for wanting him to be there!

Well I'm making progress on my Christmas shopping, but I haven't wrapped the first thing. I really need to get started on that this weekend. So much to do though... I'm finishing up a Christmas card order this week. It's good money, but they're kinda boring to make. Ho hum. I've got some other items for some spring brides that I've got to get out this week. Once I get those things done, I'm pretty much in the clear for a while. Then I can totally focus on Christmas stuff.

So I also wanted to tell y'all about my latest online obsession! (This is the most random post, I know.) I just got into this last week... Spark People. It's like myspace for health and nutrition. I had never heard of it before, but there are a ton of people on it! Maybe some of you are on it! I actually just stumbled upon the site because I was on google trying to find a good online daily calorie tracker/counter. SparkPeople definitely had the best one. A lot of sites want to charge you - which is just dumb. So I initially signed up on SparkPeople just to use the nutrition tracker thing, but now I'm totally obessed with the whole site! It is super fun. And you can also track your vitamin intake and whatever else you want to track. It amazed me to see how I'm not getting enough vitatmins in each day. I added some Luna Bars this week and that has helped a ton. And my prenatal vitamins also help. I add those in as a "food" so the nutrients are accounted for each day. I'm not trying to lose any weight - I really don't even know how much I weigh as I never step on a scale (except when forced to at the doctor). I'm just trying to be generally healthy and maintain my weight. I mean I'm 30 now y'all. It all goes to hell from here. Anyway, check it out if you have any weightloss, nutrition, or fitness goals you'd like to keep up with online - it's a very cool online community.



This post is entirely too long and random, I know! But I had several things to spit out. Well I best get back to work and also catching up on your blogs... I'll be back later with some trunk show pictures and such.

Finally, a winner!

After two photo sessions, who-knows-how-many treats, and near tears, we finally got the winning Christmas card photo over the weekend! I love how it looks so effortless. It's a good thing the hub and I are not pictured, because our sweaty looks of frustration would not be so festive.

The doggies had such a fun play day yesterday. The hub blew all the fallen leaves in a big pile and they just had a ball. The hub got a new camera for Christmas - yes, for Christmas. He apparently "needed" it before Christmas for various reasons that he rattled off to me before our trip to Best Buy a couple of weeks ago. So he has been taking pictures left and right. He got some great shots of Gertie (the yellow lab mix). Can you believe this sweet girl had double hip surgery back in May? Look at her go! I'm such a nut for our sillies... I seriously tear up when I open these pics. I need help! I'm going to be positively mental when we have actual people kids!

Weeeee!!!

We're about to leave for the airport to come get you, bestest! I can't wait to see you!!!

And guess what - we totally scored tickets for the GA/GA Tech game! We were planning to just watch it at home or at our friends' house, but we (OK, the hub) managed to get tickets! We're going to freeze our red and black butts off, but we'll be doing it in style. We've gotta bring it for this game, so I decided it was time to get some red chords...

And I'll be wearing these shoes - they are SO much cuter in person - so fun.

I'm wearing a black sweater - possibly with a collared white shirt underneath - not sure yet. And then a black and white houndstooth headband. SOOOOO Dawg-a-licious!!! GO DAWGS!

Gobble, gobble!

I probably will not be on the 'puter much this weekend with all the festivities going on. The in-laws arrive today. We've got a pre-Thanksgiving spaghetti dinner over at a friend's house that we go to every year. I did not make my grocery run yesterday (the balls of my feet were worn out from my Hobby Lobby run and I can't concentrate at the grocery in heels). So I've got to go this afternoon on my way home from work. My list keeps growing. For tonight, I'm making my yummy spinach artichoke dip. There are tons of different recipes out there for spin-arti dip, but this one is sooooo easy and quick, and it's always a huge hit...


Hot Spinach Artichoke Dip

Ingredients:

1 can quartered artichoke hearts, drained and cut in half (you can cut up into smaller pieces, but I like mine chunky monkey style)

1 -10 oz. package of frozen chopped spinach, thawed and drained

1/2 cup sour cream

1/2 cup mayo

1 garlic clove, pressed (I just spoon in some of the jar kind - I'm lazy.)

3/4 cup grated Parmesean cheese



Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 375F. Combine all ingredients and spoon into a pie baker (I also add shredded Parm to the top before sticking it in the oven.)

2. Bake 20-25 minutes or until heated through.

3. Serve immediately with pita chips or bread slices. Yields 10-15 appetizer.



Yum-O!

So that's tonight... then for tomorrow I'm making horseradish mashed potatoes and macaroni & cheese. I use Patty LaBelle's mac and cheese recipe. It's cardiac arrest on a plate, but it's delish! And I've totally gotten into mashed 'taters with my new mixer! So fun. I'm experimenting with all different kinds, but so far horseradish is my favorite. Plus I don't use any butter at all with those, so I figure it'll save a few calories on Turkey Day - just a few. It's basically gold yukon potatoes with sour cream, prepared horseradish, and salt and pepper. So yummers. Oh and my chair cover/sash thingees turned out great - I put one together last night and cut the rest of the fabric for the others. I'll take a pic once they're all set up. I'm rather proud of myself - it's my first project with fabric.

After Turkey Day, we are gearing up for midnight madness at the outlet mall not far from our house. Most of the stores open at midnight and it is craziness. We don't really do any serious shopping here - it's more for the fun and the experience. But Pottery Barn is doing 40% off the entire store... Banana Republic is also 40% off... J Crew has some specials but honestly, that crew outlet sucks ass. I'm always totally disappointed when I go in there. I can get better sales through the main store and all that junk is "made for the outlet" anyway - it's not like actual discounted J Crew stuff. Anyway... we'll be heading up there, Starbucks in hand, to join the madness! The hub is totally leading the way - believe it or not, he loves it. Some of our friends even bring walkie talkies - too funny.

Then Friday I will be recouperating and getting ready for my bestest's arrival EARLY Saturday morning. She's flying into town at 6am - yikes - from Hawaii. So the hub and I will pick her up at the busiest airport in the country and then head to breakfast. I'm hoping the airport won't be too bad at 6am! Then Saturday is the Georgia/Georgia Tech game - so we'll be watching that somewhere and hopefully celebrating a big win over those socially inept, calculator-loving nerds. Go Dawgs!

THEN, Sunday afternoon, bestest and I are hosting a trunk show at my house. So we will be going nuts getting ready for that. I've been putting stuff together for it all week and I'm hoping I can get it all done! The trunk show is really 80% her stuff - she does beautiful handbags, accessories, items for baby and kids, and all kinds of stuff. And then I'll be selling some stationery packs and gift tags and such. My stuff is made-to-order, so this is the first time I've made stuff ready to sell - so it will be interesting to see how it goes! I also made these display boards showcasing a selection of my past work. They turned out really cute! And we're also going to have a ball decorating... we're going for the whole preppy pink and green feel. I've got my pink Christmas trees ready and I'm also making a ribbon topiary (Belle-ah - you totally encouraged me with your daughter's birthday pics!) The topiary is almost there - it's looking great so far. We also are serving up cosmos during the trunk show - keeping with the "pink" part of the pink and green. And we'll do a few munchies to keep our shoppers' tummies happy. Any suggestions for some easy and fun girly treats? Emphasis on the the *easy* part as we have so much else to do!!! I will take lots of pics of our setup - I'm uber excited.

After Sunday, I'm taking Monday and Tuesday off to spend some quality girl time with my bestest. Monday, we're going to Intimacy at Phipps for bra fittings. Then we'll probably hop around in Buckhead and probably Atlantic Station too, since she hasn't seen that yet. I'm not sure exactly what all our plans are, but I do know they'll be good and girly!

And perhaps at some point this weekend we'll attempt to get that Christmas card shot again... we'll see. Well, I wish all of you a wonderful Thanksgiving Day tomorrow! May you take a moment to reflect on all of your many blessings and say Thanks! And in keeping with that, I wanted to name five things that I'm especially thankful for...

1. My wonderful husband who makes me smile everyday. He is the biggest dork and I love him for it!

2. My amazing parents who love me endlessly and would do anything in the world to make me happy.

3. Our three silly doggies that put joy into all of our days (and sometimes poop).

4. My fabulous girlfriends that encourage me, laugh with me, and cry with me.

5. My amazing God who loves me and without whom, I'd be one hopeless lunatic.


OK and one more...

6. The amazing deal I got today on these Kate Spade's I've had my eye on... Thank you, Nordstrom. And thank you, Shop-it-to-Me, for your timely sale alerts. I love you.

I heart Hobby Lobby.

So it's pretty bad when the cashier checking me out today says, "Weren't you here yesterday?" Yes... yes I was. Well I needed more stuff, you see. Their wrapping paper is on sale this week - although it's not on the weekly flyer and they don't have the usual sale signs up next to it. But it is 50% off. If y'all have a Hobby Lobby near you and need some more holiday wrap, this is totally the place to go! Rolls are $5.99 for 100 sq feet of wrap - so only $3 at 50% off! And they have really beautiful paper. I'm a gift wrappin' fool and I LOVE good gift wrap. This probably isn't the thickest of papers, but it's definitely not the cheap thin crap. And it has that grid on the back side (like at Hallmark) that I LOVE. And several of their "Christmas" papers can be used year-round. Like the black paper with big white polka dots that I got - omg SO cute! I don't even plan to use that for Christmas. They also had a black and white houndstooth print - super cute! Lots of fun preppy ones... a red and green argyle. Tons of foil papers if you're the metallic loving type. Those are also priced at $5.99 regularly but are only 60 sq feet instead of 100 - still a major deal. They also have tons and tons of bows for packages. I don't really use those a lot because I'm a big ribbon person, but they have some really good ones - like nice looking ones and ones made out of grosgrain - super cute. So anyway - if you're in need of more holiday wrap, definitely seek out your local Hobby Lobby! The rolls are going fast!

I also bought my first yards of fabric there today. I was soooo excited. I often creep by the fabric section, but I've always been so intimidated by it. Bolts and bolts of fabric... and what the heck am I supposed to do with them? I'm learning to sew (slowly but surely) and Santa is bringing me a sewing machine for Christmas, so I've got to get comf in the fabric section. Although I don't have a sewing project, I needed fabric to dress up some rental chairs my mom got for the "kiddie" table at Thanksgiving. I found this great fall pattern on clearance. I had no freaking clue how much fabric I needed, so I just guessed and hopefully I got enough. My mom rented those white wooden folding chairs and wanted something to make them more fall looking. I'm running by my parents' house on the way home to grab one of the chairs so I can play with it tonight. In my head, the sash I have in mind looks awesome. We'll see how it translates in real life...

Oh and on another unrelated topic, we got up early this morning to try and capture "the" Christmas card picture of the 3 dogs. After about an hour, we had a nearly empty box of treats, two pissed off parents, and no picture to show for it. We may have to get in the picture afterall, if for no other reason than to hold the damn dogs still. Charlie, the boy, was a total gem. He stayed and looked at the camera and was the perfect little gentleman he always is. OR usually is. Belly and Gertie, however, were total spazzes and refused to cooperate! I will have to post some of the blooper photos because they're rather hilarious.

Gotta run by the grocery on the way home tonight also... SO much to do for this week! The in-laws are arriving tomorrow and then my bestest arrives on Saturday!!! We're planning to do the midnight shopping madness Thanksgiving night... I hope I can stay awake. So much to do! So much to do! More on all that later...

Doodie. And the boys.

So I apparently spilled a crumb or two from my little Ghiradelli dark chocolate square on my lap while munching on it after lunch. Because... I just looked down and saw not one, not two, but four chocolate smears on the crotch of my light grey pants. Great. Now it looks like I have doodie stains all over me! Thank goodness this occurred after my lunchtime run to Hobby Lobby.

While at Hobby Lobby, I got a call from one of my doctor's nurses about the hub's test on his boys. Poor thing had to spew his goodies in a cup once again. All is good but the volume is still a bit low. I'm sure he loves me sharing this information. Low volume, but ULTRA manly, honey! Anyway, as with our plan - not sure I mentioned this before - my doctor wanted to skip the whole "on our own" portion of the plan if the boys were low again - meaning we'd go straight for IUI. So the hub is calling the doctor today again to see if that is indeed the plan. Well, we still were able to get one try in, so there's always a slim chance we got the job done on our own. Only time will tell! :-)

Doctor, Doctor, give me the news!

OK so we had the follow-up consultation with my doctor early this morning. He told us pretty much what I was expecting to hear, as far as what's going on up in my uterus. I really hate the word uterus, by the way... I hate saying it. It's just an icky word - which is why I often refer to it as my "oven" instead. Males especially cringe at the term. Anyway, there does appear to be a residual septum left in my oven - which may or may not be an issue. I love those open-ended answers. Nothing is ever black and white in the world of infertility, I've learned! So in other words... a 3rd surgery may be necessary.

BUT my doctor recommended, and we agreed, to just give it a go on our own for a few months and see what happens. He really wants to attack the fertility issue and not worry too much about the septum issue right now. The septum, as it stands alone, is not necessarily an infertility issue - I could get preggers having a septate uterus - er - oven... but I would most likely miscarry, as it makes for a not-so-suitable environment for the bun. So here is our plan of attack...

• Try (completely) on our own for 3 months (and our recent try counts as month one, so really just 2 more months) and if that doesn't work...
• I'll be put on Chlomid and we'll start trying with IUI (turkey baster) for 3 additional months, and if that doesn't work...
• We'll move onto IVF (groan!) and if that is the case, we will definitely have to do the 3rd surgery to get me as "perfect" as possible before shelling out the big bucks. I have no idea where those are gonna come from... haha!

So, we're of course *really* hoping for some success within these next few months. I'm really excited about trying again and if we could get it done on our own, that would be SO great. Nothing is cheap about any of these treatments, and we are already thousands of dollars in. Mission number one is to get preggers soon... and then mission number two is to hold on tight to my baby because I will certainly be a high-risk pregnancy. If I do get pregnant, the plan is for my fertility doctor to keep a super close eye on me through the crucial first trimester. If we make it out of the 1st trimester, he's confident any residual septum I have will not be an issue. So even though I would be SUPER excited to get a positive pregnancy test in the next few months, it will also be a long first trimester.

I have had so many friends lately that have miscarried and I told the hub that we are NOT sharing any baby news till we are in the clear. I just don't want the attention of "OMG you're finally pregnant - yay!" only to make those "nevermind" calls a few weeks later. So yeah - the first trimester is going to be a LONG one. Which is another reason I'm so happy to have this blog as an outlet, because believe me I'll be shouting it from the rooftops (of my blog) when I see that double line or smiley face or "pregnant" on that pee stick. So of course my bestest will know - shoot, I wouldn't keep it from her anyway... but we're really going to do our best to keep it on the DL till we're "safe."

So here's to a productive few months ahead! I'm praying I'll have some fun news to share before too long! I know we'll get there someday. Someday soon is extra fun though. :-)

Custom Baby & Kids' Bedding

One more quickie before I do some real work... I came across this site last night and I am IN LOVE! I just saw a random blurb about the site on Posh Cravings - a great site about mommies with style (since I'm a wannabe posh mama!). It's associated with Posh Tots - a great site for baby bedding and all kinds of decor. (And also good for a laugh - check out the playhouses.) Anyway, I linked over to this custom bedding site - Javis Davis - and drooled. SUCH fun fabrics and color combos and I love the way they do the bumper ties. Look at the fabric combos as well as the quick pick crib sets to see how it all comes together. I totally bookmarked this one for future consideration. And the great thing about it is that it is really affordable. I've seen lots of beautiful bedding at some of these high-end boutiques selling for $600+ per set (on the low end). And most of the sets on Posh Tots fall in that range too. The sets on Javis Davis fall into the $300-400 range - which I think is very good for what appears to be really good quality bedding. Has anyone ordered from this site before? I'd love to hear about your experience if so!

Edited 6.28.09 to add: It's so funny looking back on this post from almost 2 years ago. Javis Davis has grown SO much and I'm proud to now be the design partner for Atlanta! For custom crib and big kid bedding, come check me out over here!

This made my day...

I strolled into work (a bit late) and found on my chair 3 yoga DVD's with a sticky-note attached. At first glance, I thought Christmas bride (who is a co-worker) left them for me because I just started going to yoga again this week. I figured she had some old DVD's she thought I'd be interested in borrowing. After throwing my coat and bag aside, I picked up the note and realized they were all pregnancy work-out/yoga vidoes. And the note was from another one of my co-workers who is a mommy of two, and it read...

"Everytime I come across this stuff, God keeps telling me to give them to you! So who am I to argue with God?!"

This put an immediate smile on my face and totally warmed my heart. And how funny that I received these the day after my previous post - hahaha! She has already given me her Baby Wise books - which she swears by. Anyway, it's the little things that get me going! I really feel like God is preparing the hub and me for some big changes. Maybe it's a baby, maybe something more, but I just really feel him tugging at my heart these days. I'm just trying to be patient and listen...

Bow chica bow bow!

Guess who (FINALLY) got a positive reading on her ovulation test this morning!!! Fingers crossed applesauce, ladies. Not counting on anything, but hey - it's the first time we've been "allowed" to go for it in about 6 months - so we're gonna give it the good ole college try!

We still haven't gotten the full report on my HSG results yet from my doctor. We see him early Thursday morning - so we'll learn more about all that then as well as whatever the next steps are for us. I'm hoping all news is good and that we can be pretty much on our own from here on out, but who knows? Hopefully we don't have to resort to IUI (the turkey baster method), etc - but if we do, we do. Positive thoughts for now!

In other news... I barely made a dent into my closet project this weekend. We ended up running around so much on Sunday that I seriously had only a 2 hour window to get anything done. I did get started though and made sure to get some "before" shots - so more on that later...

Countdown to the weekend!

Oh TGIF, people! I woke up in a great mood today - it's Friday! Woot woot! I was trying to get off to work early, but of course that didn't happen. Partly because I hit snooze a few too many times, but really because our doorbell rang as I was drying my hair. What in the world? It could be one of only two people... our strange neighbor asking us to water his plants because he'll be out of town this weekend (why he never thinks to ask at a normal time, beats me), or the hub's redneck buddy Glenn coming over for some reason. Well it couldn't be the first one since we're in a total drought - no outdoor watering. It must be Glenn. What the heck does he want? Turns out it was one of the little girls down the street, with her new dog, Mango, in tow. She shows up randomly sometimes asking to play with our dogs - but usually in the evenings (and certainly not at 8:30 in the morning). My three dogs were going NUTS so I quickly shoved them out the back door so I could see what the girl wanted...

Me: Hey Courtney, what's up?

Courtney: Hey, I was coming by because my family is going to a cabin this weekend and we were going to take the dogs, but the cabin is really small and we can only take Dewie and my mom said we can't take Mango because she's not totally house-trained and it's a really nice cabin and we thought we were going to take them both, but now we're not, so I was wondering if you could watch Mango while we're gone? I'm sorry it's really late notice.

Me: Oh wow, that's fun... when are y'all leaving?

Courtney: At about 6 o'clock tonight. I'm sorry it's such late notice. My parents just changed their minds last night. I'm really not happy about the situation [that line cracked me up - she's 9].

Me: Oh well I understand, and we're in town so it should be OK.

Then she goes on to tell me all about Mango and how she plays well with others and what they do with her during the day and at night, etc, on and on for a good 15 minutes. And of course we said yes - the dog is a total cutie and we keep friends' dogs all the time (I mean, when you have 3, what's one more?). But here's the thing... why the hell did her parents send their 9 yr old daughter (at 8:30am the day they're leaving town) to go ask a neighbor if they could watch their dog over the weekend? We've never kept her before and she's never been around our dogs. I find this very strange. The hub is calling her parents today to synch up and get phone numbers and such and now we have to make sure one of us is home at 6pm to take the dog. Doable, but it involves one of us leaving work a tad early to make sure we don't get stuck in traffic. And she's lucky she caught us - we're usually gone by 8:30am. They should be thanking my snooze button and toasty electric mattress cover. But seriously is it just me or does that seem totally inappropriate to send over your 9 yr old to do your bidding? I'm not a parent yet, so I don't like to point fingers (out loud anyway), but share your thoughts please.

...Oh and just for reference, this sort of thing has happened before with this same family. Not quite on the will-you-keep-my-dog-over-the-weekend scale, but one afternoon Courtney came by and said her mother instructed her to come play in OUR backyard till she (the mom) got back from the store. OK... translation - we just got trapped into babysitting for half an hour. We were home and staying home that evening, so no biggie - but we don't have kids and our schedules are not at all predictable... many times we're not at home on weeknights. Stop dumping your kids and dogs off on us! Don't get me wrong - we love little Courtney, but seriously... they're taking advantage of the childless, dog-lovin' fools in the neighborhood.

Alright I feel better after that little rant. Now in other news... I spent half the afternoon on Horchow since they're having a killer sale! 20% off sitewide and no minimum purchase required! (Enter code DREAM at checkout.) Well I've blogged before about their monogrammed towels and how it's one of my all-time favorite gifts to give. It's my staple wedding gift but I also am getting creative with them for Christmas gifts too. Well not only is the entire site 20% off, but they are having their "event" pricing on the towels currently - so they are already marked down to their lowest price. So let's just discuss this whopping good deal for a minute...

Monogrammed Bath Towel at Horchow (with event pricing and 20% off) = $7.99
Monogrammed Bath Towel at Pottery Barn (regular price) = $24.00 + $6.00 for mono

Yes these are different towels, but I own sets of both. The PB Classic towels are definitely much thicker, heavier towels - but I personally like plush, soft, and cozy towels - and that is what the Lauren by Ralph Lauren ones at Horchow are like. I've bought these countless times and they've always turned out beautifully - they do a beautiful job with personalization and they have a ton of thread colors to choose from (much more than PB). I love creating fun color combos. Here's what I ordered today...

For my godmother who just got remarried in September (I'm always late with wedding gifts) - two hand towels in vanilla with a light brown "F" on them for their new last name. I always use the single letter for marrieds as I'm anti-married-monogram, and I LOVE the script/style they use for single letters at Horchow. So pretty! And then I'll get some fun hand soap to go along with the towels - just a little set for their powder room. I think this makes a great shower gift. They asked for no wedding gifts as they're both in their 60's, but I thought this would be a fun little treat. So the price for the two hand towels? $12.78 - BAM!

For one of my girlfriend's little 2 yr old daughter for Christmas - 5 washclothes monogrammed - all in different pastel colors with different pastel threading. So each one is different, but they all go together. I can't wait to see how they turn out!!! And it's something that is timeless - so she can use them till they fall apart. Now I must say it took some patience adding these to my basket because I had to do them one by one. I jotted down the colors and what thread colors I was pairing them up with so I could keep it straight and not duplicate any of them. I plan on rolling them up cute and securing them with a fun ribbon - oh I can't wait! Total for the 5 waschloths.... $21.96 - POW!

And for moi.... (couldn't resist!) - a couple of Christmas hand towels for our powder room... I did one in red with a light/sage green thread that reads "Ho Ho Ho" - I tried to get a little creative, I mean it doesn't have to be an actual monogram! And another one... I think the light/sage green with my monogram in red. Oh and then another one - the peony pink with my monogram in orange (for our guest bathroom upstairs. Bestest - you will get to use those when you come down in a couple of weeks!). What are some other fun Christmas words or phrases I could put on a hand towel? Can't be too long of course.

So go get you some towels while they're hot! One of my all-time favorite bargains, for sure! Do any of y'all have any staple gifts that you go back to time after time? Do tell! And of course Horchow is good for more than just monogrammed towels! They have lots of fun gifts. Here are some other cutie items I found today...

Painted hair dryers - so cute for a little girl! Kinda pricy... but hey, 20% off!

Adorable Christmas gift labels and return address labels - great price too.

Lots of fun labels for kids too - so cute!

Closet clean-out!

Well my Paige maternity capris came in yesterday (though I didn't notice them on our front porch till this morning - the poor things must've been freezing!) and they are awesome! And Awesome with a capital *A* since I only paid a whopping $43 for them! I tried them on and they're perfect. Which for me, is so rare with jeans since I have SWBB syndrome (that's Small-Waist-Big-Booty syndrome, for you skinny minnies). They fit great and I have a little room to grow too when I get preggers. So after getting these jeans, I am suddenly inspired to clean out my closet and do a major overhaul on my wardrobe.

Now my closet stays pretty neat and organized for the most part, but just beyond the borders of my closet is a disaster of dirty clothes, unmatched socks, and clothes to be dry-cleaned. None of these piles ever seem to fully go away. (And I won't even go into the perfect storm that is the hub's closet.) Also, in our spare bedroom (which I'm hoping will be a nursery someday soon) is my "someday closet" - which is a total mess. All kinds of crap is thrown about in there. It's pretty much a junk closet right now and it's driving me NUTS. The junkiness is contaminating my cute someday pieces! And the room itself is empty but for some random crap on the floor. A bag started for Goodwill... more sweaters to be dry-cleaned... gifts we received for Christmas last year that haven't been put away/put to use (holy cow are we a little behind or what?!)... etc, etc. That room has kind of become the dumping ground, and I'm just over it. There's also a bathroom in there that the hub likes to sneak off to - so the room is a dumping ground in more ways than one. There are also bathroom fixtures we bought forever ago at the Pottery Barn outlet that are still sitting in their boxes on the floor by the tub. So there's a lot of help needed in this room! And for some reason, I'm suddenly inspired to get all of this done once and for all!

This weekend, I'm going to go through my closet - item by item - and pull out stuff for Goodwill and also stuff I think they might take at Plato's Closet. I have some Paper Denim & Cloth jeans that I wore all of one time before wondering why the heck I bought them (they didn't fit great). I'm sure they'll take those. Much of my other stuff I'm sure they'll think is too "old lady" for their teeny-bopper clientele, but maybe I'll find some stuff. There's just so much in my closet that I never even touch - it's time to give myself some tough love and part with it.

So I'm getting this out now so I can hold myself accountable! This is my major to-do for the weekend and I will take some before and after shots so you can appreciate the madness. We've also got to do the same overhaul with our basement, but that's a whole other, truly embarrassing issue. Baby steps...

Chicago pics!

As promised - some pics from our wonderful few days in Chicago!

A great shot the hub took during his two day museum fest.

A pic from our architectural boat tour.

A great tour - I definitely recommend!

A shot of Michigan Ave from outside our hotel.

A cool view of the Sears Tower (from the boat tour).

Our hotel is the tall building here in the middle.

We were on the 33rd floor, overlooking the river - a GREAT view!

A Kuntry Wedding

So kuntry bride's weekend was lots of fun and I'm finally taking a minute here to blog about it! Gosh I haven't danced that much in I don't know how long... it was a whirlwind weekend for sure and I was truly exhausted come Sunday. As it turns out, the bride didn't require any drugs on her wedding day (though I was tempted to slip some in her water bottle Friday afternoon).

I left work around noon on Friday to drive down to the bridesmaids' luncheon. The restaurant where the luncheon was held was really nice and the food was pretty good. So that was a good time... Oh and side note - during the luncheon, the hub sent me a text message saying he had spoken with my doctor about the HSG films and my doctor said not to worry at all - that it was totally normal. So that set my mind at ease on that issue. We're supposed to talk to my doctor again this week - more on that later.

After the luncheon, we spent the afternoon running errands. Kuntry bride was clearly stressing. She wanted to go to the hotel where the rehearsal dinner was being held to see if the room was ready. Apparently Miss Valerie (the groom's mother) was supposed to get flowers for the rehearsal dinner, but this seemed to have slipped Miss Valerie's mind. So anyway, since bride was unsure of how the rehearsal dinner room was going to come together, she had a couple of the bridesmaids and one other girlfriend go ahead and start putting the tables together and such. One of the groom's aunts, Aunt Kathy, was evidently put in charge of this task originally... because when Aunt Kathy came in the room and discovered these three girls working away (two of which are preggers by the way), she gets this look of absolute horror on her face and screams, "I'M GONNA KICK YOUR F*CKIN' ASSES!" Yes. Now keep in mind she has never met any of these three girls, nor them her... so these literally are the first words out of her mouth. I guess she was offended that her "job" had been taken over. So the girls quickly vacated and handed over the reins before further attack. The funny thing is... no one has told kuntry bride about this little incident yet. We certainly didn't want to stress her out any further. So that will be a fun one to share when she returns from her honeymoon. Even more funny, Saturday morning she was going on and on about how *sweet* Aunt Kathy is.

The rehearsal went OK... it was just rather cold because the ceremony was outdoors. And something kuntry bride and her hometown clan always do is have a stand-in bride. Does anyone else do this? I'd never heard of doing this till her wedding. She has a friend stand in as the bride and she sits back and watches the whole rehearsal. Towards the end of the rehearsal we noticed Miss Valerie was on the phone a lot and she didn't look happy. Turns out the caterers "got lost" and the food had yet to arrive at the rehearsal dinner site. It was supposed to arrive at 7:15. They didn't have it set up and ready till 8:30... so we were starving to say the least! The groom was pissed and kuntry bride was certainly not pleased, but it all came together in the end and it was fine. It was actually really yummy - not sure if that's just because I was on the brink of starvation or not... but it was damn good. They had their favorite local Mexican joint cater and it was yummers - a fajita bar complete with cheese dip. Mmmm!

After dinner we went back to the bride's house for the night. We stayed up while she finished packing for the honeymoon and just had some good late night girly time. Then kuntry bride got a call from her fiance letting her know that he invited someone else to the wedding. WTF? Men are freaking clueless! So she had to drag out her seating chart and figure out where the heck to put her. And seriously, what kind of person accepts an invitation to a wedding that takes place in less than 24 hours? An obvious afterthought - goodness. Anyway, we finally called it a night around 1:30am. I was excited to get a bed all to myself and some peace and quiet for a few hours... but then I felt something strange in my bed. A sippy cup that had spilled all over the bed - her nephew apparently had left it there the night before. Yikes... there's no telling what else her nephew and niece left for me in that bed. I stuck to the dry side of the bed and tried not to think about it. I was exhausted.

The wedding day started early. The hair and makeup girls were arriving at 8:30am... keep in mind the ceremony didn't start till 6:30pm! So I had to get up much earlier than I would've liked to. I was a bit nervous about having my hair put up by people I've never used, but it was all good - they did a good job. I didn't have my makeup done, but they did have an extra pair of faux eyelashes, so I totally had them put those on me! So fun! I've always wanted to try them. They felt weird at first, but as the glue dried, they didn't bother me at all. Kuntry bride also had some put on - hers were even more va-va-voom. The wedding day went pretty darn smoothly. And of course we had time to spare since we started so early! So it was nice to not have to be so rushed. We arrived at the venue around 3pm, got dressed, and did pictures and such before the show started at 6:30. Everything went well and most importantly, the bride and groom had a blast. We really had lots and lots of fun! But wow, I'm glad it's over. I know the bride is too. She's probably googling at her new husband across the table at a romantic dinner on the beach right about now... I'm so jealous!!!

Here's the bride getting her face on.

Rolling in to the venue...

Here's the bride writing sweet nothings to her soon-to-be-husband.

Tomorrow, one of the other bridesmaids (my girlfriend who also ventured down to the kuntry with us this summer) is going with me to sneak in to the bride's house and decorate it for the newlyweds' return. We're going to put up streamers and other silly stuff and leave out everything they need to make an easy pasta dinner when they get home. Plus we'll do whatever cleaning we can so that the house looks nice when they get back. There's nothing worse than coming home to a messy house from vacation. It's like a punch in the face - welcome back to reality!

How precious...

...are my babies?! Just came across these photos from this summer and I had to put them up really quickly. And if you haven't guessed yet, we have decided to keep our foster doggie afterall (surprise, surprise), so we are officially parents to three doggies now. So our house is a total zoo.

Gertie (our former foster, now forever dog) is the yellow lab/pit mix. Charlie is the brindle one... and Belly is the little black one (and the leader of the pack - most of the time).

OK for realz... I'm posting more tonight on the wedding and also Chicago pics... back soon!

Five Years!

Today is our 5-year wedding anniversary! Woo-hoo! And we'll be celebrating... at kuntry bride's rehearsal dinner! Hahahha... yeah that's why we had a fun dinner last week while in Chicago. But wow, I can't believe it has already been five years. And my parents share the same anniversary (which is why we picked the date) and they hit 39 years today. In this day and age, that it such an accomplishment and such a testament to us. So Happy Anniversary all around! :-)

Yesterday afternoon was quite the downer, but I'm feeling better today. I have kuntry bride's wedding weekend to distract me. It's going to be a fun-filled weekend and I'm super excited. Let's see if I can dig up my outfits for today... I think I still have the old pics (I refrained from buying anything new!)...

Well I couldn't find my old pics of my luncheon dress and shoes, but the dress and shoes above are what I'm wearing tonight for the rehearsal dinner. And instead of the black sash on the dress, I'm wearing a purplish colored sash. Not like grape purple - I'm not a fan of purple really - this is more of a warm violet. Anyway - super fun and I'm carrying a SUPER cute clutch my bestest made that has a Pucci like funky pattern. So fun!

I'll recap the weekend on Sunday - I'm sure I'll have some good stories. And I promise I'll get those Chicago pics up then too... Have a great weekend!!!

HSG Day!

Did you know it's HSG day? Well, it is on my calendar anyway. I'm leaving in about an hour and a half to go have what I *hope* is my final "procedure" with this infertility mumbo jumbo. But I'm certainly not counting on it being the final one... just hoping!

For you Fertile Myrtles, an HSG is the "dye test" where they shoot this colored dye all up in your girly parts to see if all is in order, if your tubes are clear, etc. I've had one before and it's not exactly fun, but it's not all that bad either. The worst part (besides lying on a cold exam table with your nether regions exposed) is the insta-cramps it gives you. Not super fun... so I'll be downing a few Tylenol pretty soon here to prepare.

From what I understand, if all looks good, my doctor plans to give us the green light to start TTC again. Which is exciting, yet somehow totally weird-feeling because it seems like it's been SO long since we've been able to actually "try." I've got to stock up on ovulation kits and all that jazz again... so it's really like we're starting over. I'm hopeful and certainly optimistic, but I'm really not expecting to get preggers right away. There's that little seed of doubt in my head that says it's still not going to happen... that we're going to discover something else is wrong... I'm trying my best to suppress that doubt, but at the same time, I don't want to be overly optomistic! But I have faith that it will happen when it's meant to happen. It would just be really cool if it was meant to happen soon.

So.... to calm my nerves a bit, I caught an irresistable sale from my daily shopittome.com email and snagged a pair of these...

Paige Denim Maternity Capri's - originally $179, and I got them at Bloomingdale's for... wait for it........ wait for it........ $43!!!

(All their sale stuff is an additional 40% off when you enter code SV111 at checkout. Actually it may just be women's... but who cares about the men's stuff anyway?)

So my insanity for buying maternity jeans before being prego can be overlooked when the price is that darn good. And hello - totally Ebay-able if I never am able to wear them. Totally. (This is what I'm telling myself, so don't rain on my parade!) I think I'm going to have to do a dedicated post to my someday closet... it's become quite the closet as of late.

I'll let you know what, if anything, I find out today about my HSG. The last time I had one, the radiologist just said a bunch of big words and "you'll have to talk to your doctor." So who knows if I will really have any solid answers this afternoon... I'll check back in a little later!


P.S. I'll post some Chicago pics and also some Halloweenie pics later tonight...

Update: Just got back from my appointment... nothing much to report. It was a little discouraging actually because the image on screen looked no different (to me) than the first time I had an HSG. In fact the radiologist says, "OK looks like we have a broad septum here..." Um, isn't that what I just had removed in surgery? WTF... The results are being sent to my doctor so hopefully I'll know more soon. I'm trying not to read too much into it before I speak with him. Back to twiddling thumbs for now...

Mondays always come too soon.

We got back in town yesterday. We had a blast in Chicago! Well my continuing ed classes weren't super exciting, but the hub and I had lots of fun. And just as I had predicted, he spent Thursday and Friday going museum-crazy while I drank ridiculous amounts of coffee trying to stay alert in class. By Friday afternoon I was reduced to doing Sudoko puzzles while they lectured on and on... And as per usual in these seminars, I'm reminded that I'm far too cute to be an accountant.

We stayed at the Club Quarters hotel, off Wacker Dr - right on the river - such a great view! And the hotel staff was great. The hub asked if they had any rooms with a view when we arrived and they upgraded us to the 33rd floor! We got a killer rate too. Always helps to call and ask! The hub got a better rate over the phone than any sites like expedia or hotels.com offered. I'd definitely stay there again. Thursday night the hub and I found a local pizza place so we could have some true Chicago-style pizza. We went to Gino's East and had a sausage deep dish pizza. The hub had never had real deep dish pizza, so we had to do that one night. Then we went to a comedy club later that night, which was fun. I was wearing my UGA sweatshirt because it was about the warmest thing I had packed. The weather report showed highs of 60 each day, but it got pretty darn chilly at night and my little hoodies and blazers weren't cutting it. Anyway, we walk into the club to find a seat and this couple spots us and says, "Hey, are y'all from Georgia?!" Apparently the girl was super excited over seeing my sweatshirt. Turns out she is about to graduate from UGA and is exploring different cities to see where she wants to go. Oh how fun is that... good for her for checking out all kinds of fun options! Oh to be young and able to pick up and move wherever again... but I'm old and 30 now, so I can only live vicariously through those crazy kids. To be 29 again....*sigh*.

On Friday, the hub spent five - yes, five - hours at the Museum of Science and Industry. This is why these little work trips work well for us. I would never want to spend five hours in a place that had "science" or "industry" in its name. Though they did have a Star Wars exhibit I would've liked to have seen. Nerdy I know, but I do love me some Star Wars. So later that afternoon we found a good restaurant online and made a reservation via Open Table - a great site if you've never used it. Our 5th wedding anniversary is actually this coming Friday, but we decided to celebrate in Chicago since I'll be on bridesmaid duty all this weekend for kuntry bride. We went to a great spot called Boka in the Lincoln Park area. Super swanky and fun - it was excellent. Defintiely a bit of a splurge, but we had a great meal, good wine, and good laughs. And we also decided to go ahead and stick it out together another 5 years and then regroup (a running joke we have which I'm sure is only funny to us).

After dinner we... OK wait - the comedy club thing was Friday night. I'm getting my nights mixed up. Thursday night after pizza we did the John Hancock observatory. (Definitely recommend that over the Sears Tower... I've done both before and JH is way faster and a better view, in my opinion.) Yeah, so after our fun dinner on Friday was when we did the comedy thing. OK, I'm straight now. Then Saturday we slept in a little bit before heading over to Navy Pier to catch our boat tour. Our tour guide was GREAT. They can really make or break a tour, and he was so funny. I'll share some pics once we get them uploaded. I think we got some really good ones! After the tour, we walked over to N. Michigan to the shops. I'm trying to be good, so we didn't do much of any shopping... except a stop in J. Crew at the 900 N. Michigan shops (Remember going there, bestest? I thought of you!) Against my better judgment, I walked out with these...


Well I must say that I thought they were on sale because they were displayed with some other sale shoes - apart from the other colors in this same shoe. But no, they weren't. And it was too late... I had already fallen in love. I love their driving mocs and this year's version is just too cute. They're the most comfortable waking shoe EVER. And the gold was just too fun... Soon afterwards we were in a cab on the way to Joe's Sports Bar to catch the GA/FL game. I threw my Fall 06 driving mocs in my bag and put on my new gold ones. I told the hub they would be my lucky shoes. And was I right or was I RIGHT?!


We had such a great time watching the game with fellow dawgs. Although my hair smelled like a cigar butt when we left. I've gotten so spoiled by the smoking bans in restaurants here that I find it annoying when we end up in bars or restaurants where they allow smoking. But what a game! It was truly awesome and what did I tell you about us having good luck when the hub and I leave town?! We're currently trying to decide where we should go next year.

After the game we walked over to the Land of Nod store - just a block or so away. I love that catalog so I was super excited to spot the store in the cab ride over. I was hoping we would come across it, but I wasn't sure exactly where it was. We smelled so awful though, that we quickly left. I felt like we were contaminating the cuteness of the store.

After tearing off our smoke-infused clothing and freshening up a bit, we headed out to Navy Pier to catch the Saturday fireworks. But apparently, they don't do Saturday fireworks anymore. They do Friday night fireworks. Well that would've been nice to know on Friday, but whatever. It's not really a super fun place to hang out unless you have young kids or if you're 14 and like to scream a lot. So the no-go on the fireworks was a little disappointing. No biggie - we had fun anyway. We went ahead and called it a night since we had an early Sunday morning flight. Overall, a fantastic trip! It was the hub's first time in the windy city and I think he really enjoyed it. I will post pics soon.

So now that we're back, we've got a busy, busy week ahead. Kuntry bride's wedding is Saturday! I've got lots of last minute things to do tonight and tomorrow... I've got to get her escort cards done and table numbers... and my color printer totally crapped out on me right before we left on Wednesday. I haven't looked at it yet. Hmm... probably would've been wise to take a peak yesterday. Hopefully we can get it to work or I guess I'll be running to Office Depot. I've got a brow wax and haircut scheduled for Wednesday at lunch... I really hope I don't get caught in the Halloween traffic on the way back - there's no telling when that will start. And yikes - Halloween! Omg I'm so behind on decorating for Halloween... gotta grab pumpkins tonight and candy and all that. Carving is definitely out this year. So sad! We've just been all over the place lately! Um... oh and Auntie Flo made a suprise visit while we were on our trip, so I talked to my doctor today and scheduled my HSG for this Thursday! It has to be done this week, so I had to squeeze that in too. Say little prayers that we'll get the green light to start trying! I'll let y'all know what I find out... Then Friday I'll be all tied up with kuntry bride, so I'm a busy, busy bee!

Well, I better run and make my grocery list for tonight. Back soon!