Posts

This is the End

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 Happy 20th Anniversary to this blog!!   I've dragged this thing along for 20 years. I can't believe it. You can clearly tell which years I had more free time. Blogging once a year is almost worthless at this point, so I'm following the rules of the new golden age of TV and shutting this baby down while it's still (sorta) good. This. Is. It.  For my final act, I will relay some wisdom I have learned in the last 20 years, in no particular order: ~ You can't rely on other people to define who you are. You should know the things you like and don't like, the things you are good at and you aren't good at. You will be a stronger person if you use those things to define who you are, and not other people.  ~ It's ok to be less excited about things as you get older. That's why you have kids and/or pets. So they can get excited about things for you.  ~ Communication is VERY important, especially for people who live together. I'm not the best communicator,

Pen-Ultimatum

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     So...the covid 19 pandemic is STILL happening, because people are dumb and the virus is stubborn. None of my immediate family have gotten it...yet. Well my mom, brother, and sister-in-law got it last December, right before Christmas, which was not ideal. My brother lost his taste and smell for like 5 months afterwards, but luckily they were all alright. The vaccine came out about a month after that. I came VERY close to catching it about a month ago, and I mean like I was breathing the same air as an infected (non-vaccinated) person for hours. But the Pfizer vaccine I got in April must be still active in my system because I was spared.       This is not what I wanted to talk about today, and it's still a depressing subject, with most people knowing at least one person who has died from covid at this point. Oddly my former best friend Becky died in September 2020, but from liver failure, not covid. Even though I hadn't seen her in person in years, I had been messaging with

The Apocalypse Has Arrived

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For a number of years now, I've had a feeling that I would be living in a time when the world would change drastically. I didn't know how; maybe a nuclear disaster, maybe an magnetic field shift, maybe even extreme climate change activity. But I didn't actually stop to consider that maybe it would be a pandemic. Well, we are now in the midst of a global pandemic. A coronavirus called Covid-19, to be exact. It's been officially in the US since March, but was probably here much earlier. It started in China, but is now everywhere in the world (except New Zealand, another reason that country has it good). Back in March, they shut down poor Simon's school, and most of the schools around the country as well. Most businesses closed, and people were going crazy for toilet paper (?). I felt so bad for Simon. He had a lot of friends, he was finally in a groove with his routine for the day, and then it all just ended so abruptly that he didn't really get a chance to say go

Here Comes the Sun

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 And I say  it's all right... This post was meant to be written in the summer, when the title would still be appropriate two different ways, but this is how blog writing always goes with me. Anyway...we have a new(ish) baby!! Her name is Inara Mae, and she is named after the Firefly/Serenity character Inara Sera. I still remember the night that Mike and I agreed on that name for a girl baby; it was the week after we got engaged. We were out at a bar with some of his Tastings coworkers, and we were talking about baby names. We couldn't decide on a boy quite yet (Joshua got brought up at one point, he liked Zach) but we both heartily agreed that our girl would be named Inara. Now that we have her, I know just how many people never watched Firefly, because a lot of people have never heard of the name. But most people love it, and it did come from a real name. Inara is Arabic for "ray of light", and Inara was also an ancient Hittite goddess of the wild. Our Inara

Getting Back on Track

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I've decided that I don't want to write two travel blog entries in a row, so you will have to wait a bit longer for my tales of beautiful Bermuda. Instead, since I feel compelled to write a post in the last days of every year, I will write about more of my medical journey to motherhood. Yes, I know I'm already a mother, but that had a nice ring to it. This will be my one (and hopefully only) IVF post. And away we go... May-August 2017 Directly following the April 2017 miscarriage, I was determined that I would get pregnant within a few months without medical intervention. I had this misguided notion that the miscarriage reset my body and now everything would work really smoothly, and BAM, instant pregnancy. This did not happen, and I became more and more despondent. September 2017 I finally gave in and called Strong Fertility to set up an appointment for myself. Their first new patient appointment wasn't until November. Boo. November 2017 I finally went to se

International Travel Advisory

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I had wanted to post about my recent trip to Bermuda, thinking that I always post when I take a big trip somewhere special. But then I realized that I completely missed my chance to post about my trip to Costa Rica. This was back in October 2016, soooo yeah I really missed that boat. But I'm determined to write about it. If only so that I can maybe post like 3 times this year and really feel accomplished. (Even though I posted literally 0 times in the last 11.5 months.) Well, I'm gonna make up for that now. So back in August 2016, my good friend Charles informed me that he was taking a trip to Costa Rica with our other high school friend Chris, and Chris' wife Em. I said "Aww that sounds awesome, I wish I could go." Charles said "You should come!" The trip was two months away and I'm usually not THAT spontaneous, but I went over the details with Mike and he thought I should go. My friend Jenn of Ben n Jenn was staying over at the time, and she to

A Setback in the Life Plan

 Disclaimer: This post is about me attempting to handle pretty serious emotions, which I don't do well (ask my husband). If the story is too much for you, go read my hilarious story about trying to kill a spider in my shower.  ____________________________ I guess if you don't know me and you just read this extremely sporadic blog, you think my life is pretty great. Which it is, for the most part. Plus I'm a positive person. I really can't help but to look on the bright side of a situation. This attitude has kept my stress level down for many years, although at times I do bury negative feelings that I don't like experiencing. I know I do it because if I think about my grandparents who have passed, or holidays I celebrated with both of my parents together when I was young, I'll just instantly tear up. So I just don't think about those things. Along with pushing away negativity, I also like to control my life as best I can. Most people do it, just in diffe