Category Archives: Random Tales

A peek into my inner most thought

Coconut Twist

Posted in Random Tales, TTC drama by

So much for blogging every day, huh? So much to working on my time management too, huh?  *shaking my head*

We had a pretty busy weekend and a fun one for once. Fun because it involved zero working on the house. Well, I shouldn’t complain, the shitty part of the reno is over. The shitty part being the incessant mudding and sanding. It never seemed to end. The best part of the weekend was when I had to work for 4 hours on Saturday while hub did the final mud and sand while I was away. Hooray!

I picked a paint colour as well. We’re going with something called coconut twist. Which is actually just white-ish but not as white as the white the ceiling will be. That’s the extent of my colour selecting prowess. I’ve never seen that many shades of white in my life. I really hope I chose the right one.

Saturday evening we had dinner with our friends. It was the first time any of us had been out in a while so we really took advantage of the situation. We ordered way too much sushi, had 2 cocktails a piece that were difficult to handle and we ended up staying until the restaurant closed like any group of married folks would do.

And just like any other couple of married folks we were promptly in bed by midnight. I really had a blast though. We hadn’t seen them in a while and I think I needed human interaction after being cooped up in the house for that long.

Hmm, I realize now that this post doesn’t have any point. I guess just an update on my rip roaring social life. It’s back to the hermit hole now until the dreaded room is complete.

So with that I’ll leave you with this clip from a Chris Rock show. The first 2ish minutes reminded me of how our double date went. I lol’d.

In IVF news… I’m on day 4 of bcp’s and they are kicking my ass. It’s never been this bad before. So dizzy. So sleepy.

One Down

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I love soup! That is all. I love cold and rainy days so that I can make soup. I’ve made two this week so far already. I didn’t take pics of the first one but here’s a quick recipe for the one I made today. Honestly, I don’t have exact ratios so just go with your heart :).

I LOVE SOUP!!

Split Pea Soup!

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2+lbs of beef. N Likes a bunch of meat in his soup so I got this 4 pack of beef. I would choose a bony, fatty cut. I think I used short rib and shin/shank.
1 package of split peas
1 Beef Stock cube (or 1litre of Beef Stock)1 Onion
5 Carrots
4 Medium Sized Potatoes
1 Packet of Onion Soup Powder
Lots of water
Thyme
Salt & Pepper

Rub any spice you’d like on the meat and brown it in a giant pot. Once brown, add the bag of split peas. Mix the beef stock cube with 2 cups of boiling water and add to the peas in the pot. Or just add your beef stock to the peas. Make sure the peas and meat are covered and set it to low and let it softly boil. (If you want a bulkier soup you can add a cup of dry fusilli pasta, barley or even spaghetti broken into thirds at this stage…your call)
Go and watch a 1hr tv show and get up to check the soup during every commercial break. Your peas should be softening up nicely when it’s over. If not then pop on another episode and keep checking during ad breaks and add water if it starts to boil off too quickly. Once your peas are softish you can start grating the carrots and potatoes. My awesome husband bought me a food processor one christmas which I used to grate the vegetables (otherwise I’d be too tired to type this). If you’re grating by hand then perhaps start grating after the first tv show episode.
Add all the grated vegetables to the pot and maybe 2 more cups of water then go ahead and wash the dishes.
When you’re done, mix the onion soup powder with one cup of water and add to the soup.
Keep the soup on a slow boil until the vegetables are soft. Your meat should be awesome and melty now as well.

Serve with some warm Portuguese rolls. I like to add a few teaspoons of Worcestershire sauce. My husband likes his with shredded cheese.

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Any day with soup is a good day in my book. And I started BCP’s today so that was pretty cool too. One down… 12 more to go :).

Fun Silly Dreams

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I know that we all have hopes and dreams for our kids (whether they be here now or if they’re still a twinkle in their father’s eyes). We hope that they’ll be happy and more importantly that they’ll be healthy. We hope that we’ll raise them well enough to make good life choices.

Then we have the less important, more indulgent hopes and dreams. Like what will your child do for a living. I really hope I’m not the only one who has picked out at least 1 dream career for eeach of their kids.  And the beauty of it is that you can get oh so creative with it.

I’m told that my father always dreamed that I would be a choreographer. I think them making me do ballet when I was younger was part of this dream. Every girl my age in my area did ballet though, so maybe it was a just a happy coincidence. I can’t remember how old I was. I think I blocked it out because boy, did I hate every single day of ballet. I did it for two years and the day they let me quit was the best day of my adolescent life. Later on when I hit high school, I went back into dancing and did modern dancing all through high school but I was certainly not going to fulfill my dad’s dream. I don’t think he was overly disappointed. Probably more relieved that I actually followed in his footsteps and studied Math at university like he did.

I have dreams about my kid’s career. I think about it from time to time when I let my mind wander. We recently finished a book in book club that really made me excited about it again. This is a job that I’ve always wanted for myself but I think I’ll force it on my child to make up for where I failed, just like any good parent would :).

I just read The Martian by Andy Weir (If you love sciencey and outter space books, I highly recommend this one). So now I want my child to be an engineer at NASA. Not an astronaut in particular, because I would miss them too much, but I want them to work in mission control in front of the big TV screen.

I know it’s silly but I get giddy when I think about it. I even think I’ll try to plant subliminal seeds like making them watch Armageddon (on of my all time favourites) and the Martian and any other space exploration movie from a very young age. Hahaha.

look how awesome!

look how awesome!

Anyway, this was a very silly quick post before I go do the dishes for my reward.

Which dream job do you have for your kid(s)?

The Thief of Time

Posted in Random Tales, TTC drama by

It has been a nutso month and a bit. It all started a rainy day in October. We were on our way to CT for a birthday present I’d bought N. He was going to drive a Lamborghini around a track for an hour. Unfortunately, the place called right before we were headed out to tell us that some doohickey snapped in the car so he wouldn’t be able to drive that day. Boo! So we did the next best thing.. We decided to re-do the dining room.

And that’s really been taking up my entire life. It’s almost done, we’ll be painting next weekend then trim then we’re done! YAY!

One thing that this past month and a bit has taught me is that I am terrible at time management. Simply terrible… And I used to be so good. I find myself walking into the house then finding myself in bed with nothing accomplished and it’s frustrating. I’m frustrated with the never-ending pile of laundry. I hate seeing 125+ unread blog posts in my inbox. I can’t stand behind weeks behind on my book club book. I’m annoyed that we ended up just watching the finale of SYTYCD because we didn’t have time to watch the entire show. I get home 3 hours earlier than I used to at my old job. How do I have less time to do everything?

I obviously only have myself to blame of course. Myself and 5 seasons of Shameless. I do not want to accept all the blame. I blame Frank. Damn you Frank!

I saw some of you are doing the blog everyday in November thing and I want to try it too. I have lots to blog about (for once) and this is our cycle month (if AF ever shows her face and this incessant spotting gives way to actual bleeding).

I’m just doing a rant about myself. I have to figure out my life. I hate to admit it but I think I need a timetable. It might even be better if I gave myself the adult version of gold stars if I manage to finish a task for the day. Wash dishes? Boom! Glass of wine with dinner. Write a blog post? Bam! Another glass of wine. Run a mile or two? Whaaat?! You’re a champ, celebrate with some wine!

Sadly, we’re in a cycle so I’ve quit alcohol for the time being but you get the point. Anyway, I just wanted to break the silence since I’m finally caught up on all blogs. Tomorrow I’ll tackle 103 youtube videos.

I’m keeping all of you in my thoughts and I’m very happy about all the BFP’s,  it’s heartwarming when one of us wins. And sending all my love to my sisters in the struggle.

Until tomorrow…xx

NaBloPoMo_2015

So this is 34

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I’ll be 34 for one month tomorrow. That’s a lot of time to take stock of my life thus far. How far I’ve come. What type of person am I? Am I proud to be me? Am I happy? What can I change?

I often have these discussions with myself when I’m driving home from work and I was meaning to write it down on my actual birthday but as with all things, I blinked and it was a month later so here’s who I am now at 34.

My taste buds have changed. Let’s start with the easy stuff. One day I woke up and I realized I can’t eat eggs anymore. I tried for a few weeks but I simply can’t stomach them. I tried all the different ways of cooking them and lately I’ve managed to find a way to choke down hard boiled eggs but even that I don’t do often. So eggs, no thanks.

Obviously, my body has changed yet again. Every year, once you hit your 30’s, things just start changing. I do feel like some things don’t have to take a downturn, though. In your 30’s you’re young enough to take control of your health so you really shouldn’t be complaining about 2 day hangovers, just stop drinking like you did in your 20’s. Stop complaining about being squishier and don’t eat like you did in your 20’s. But there are some things that change no matter what you do. My new thing? Heartburn. I just randomly get heartburn for no reason now. First it was when I drank dark coloured alcohol. But now I have to take a mental note of what I eat so that in the event that I get heartburn I can narrow it down to possible culprits. I have it narrowed down to carbs now. One of my favourite things in the whole world. It’s really depressing. Why can’t eggs give me heartburn?

I’ve said “no” to more people than my younger self would be okay with. A friend recently asked me to go to the beach with her and I was so proud of myself when I looked her right in the eye and said “no”. Okay, it was more of a “Hmm, weeell, actuallyyyy, I don’t really like the beach”. I immediately broke into a cold sweat as I imagined her breaking down and crying “Whyyy? whyyy don’t you love meee? I thought we were frieeends! I’ll never be able to forgive you!” but all she said was “really? okay”… What? The world didn’t come to a  stand still? She actually texted me a few days later to chat, so she wasn’t angry with me? So weird. I decided to try it again. Okay another lie, I did not enjoy saying no but I have been saying it lot more often, thankfully via text. My fear really is that people won’t like me if I say “no”. But it turns out people’s lives don’t revolve around me being there so I guess people pleasing is something 33 year old’s do and I’m a little relieved. Very little. Okay, I would still prefer to people please a little bit but I am happy I don’t have to go to the beach anymore. Don’t get me wrong, I love the ocean. I feel better if I live near the ocean but going to the beach is too much work. It’s too sandy, the sea water makes my skin sticky. I get motion sick when I swim. It’s just not my thing. But I digress.

I am not the best wife. I haven’t been married for a long time but it’s been real. Like really real. Marriage forces you to be introspective and it forces you to be better. Not better for yourself only but for your partner since you’re a team now. Sometimes my husband complains about things and only lately has he changed his language from complaining to explaining (because he’s trying to be better too) and now I’m realizing I haven’t been working for the team as much as I should be but now that I know, I can start trying.

I have become my mother. It happened. I thought it wouldn’t but it did. My mother and I both do this thing where we rock back and forth for no apparent reason when we’re sitting down but now I notice that aside from our mannerisms being the same, I feel like we’re intrinsically becoming the same person. I worry, like she does. I’m a big softie now. I’m always crying. I frown and purse my lips at bad behaviour like she does. My friend jokingly calls me auntie all the time now. But I also love my family so much it hurts and I care a great deal about people. Everyone loves my mother so I’m not too mad about that. I would be even less mad if I had her legs.

I am very afraid of losing my parents. This is new to me. I don’t know if it’s because I live far away from home or because my parents are always travelling and making me worry (see above about me being a worrier). They’re only 65 but I feel like they’re so fragile now. Sure they’re older and slower but they’re not at all fragile. I don’t know why, but I constantly worry about waking up to a message about one of my parents dying and I don’t like it. Thankfully, they’re always just a Skype call and a Whatsapp message away. Love those two, man.

I’m more okay with myself now. People will tell you the best thing about hitting your 30’s is that you become more comfortable in your skin and as a result more confident. I think I may have misinterpreted that a bit. I think you become more self aware (thank goodness) and hence more accepting of who you are and then more comfortable in your skin and in turn confident about who you are and what your abilities and shortcomings are. I was under the impression confident meant being able to talk to strangers and being wise and all knowing. What I’ve learned is that I am not at all good at talking to strangers. I may never be and I’m okay with that. What I’ve learned is that I’m not wise at all. I am the sum of my experiences and I have experienced only a fraction of what there is out there. How can I possibly be wise? I can appear wise to other people younger than me who have walked a similar path but honestly, everyone’s path is so different. What I’ve learned is that I probably know less than Jon Snow and I’m comfortable with that. What I’ve learned is that I know what I’m good at, I know what I’ll never be good at, I know where I can improve and I know how to do it. And that’s where my confidence lies.

So yes, thirty four has been good to me so far. I highly recommend it if you haven’t done it yet :). It’s scary that we only get to be an age once for a very short time, seeing how fast time goes lately, so we really have to appreciate every second. Haha, that’s such and old person thing to say.

What a month!!

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I know it’s not over yet but boy it’s been jam packed for once. The obvious highlight being me turning 34. I went through the usual “OMG I’m so old, I probably shouldn’t be saying OMG anymore”. But on the big day I was calm and ready and so far so good. There’s no obvious changes. I don’t feel taller like I used to when I was growing up but I’m enjoying it so far. And honestly, the one thing that made me very happy was that thought that this could be the age that I get pregnant. Nothing is certain but just the thought of it makes me a little giddy. This could be it! 34 and pregnant. I like the sound of that. Lemme give you a quick run down of the month. There are ups and downs. Get comfy.

This month was the month hubby and I decided to do something new (hopefully outside) every weekend because we spend too much time on the couch and it’s unacceptable. The deal is we each get a turn to choose on alternating weekends. The first weekend was his choice and of course he chose kayaking. We used his dad’s two man kayak and hit the river like bosses. We were out there for what seemed like 3 days but it was probably 5 hours. We got sufficiently sunburned but what fun! I think I like outside. Afterwards his father gave us a mountain of stuffed quahogs. He makes the best quahogs. I like quahogs. I like the word quahogs.

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The following weekend was my birthday and the general theme was debauchery. I drank Thursday through Sunday so I think I celebrated well and nothing was planned which was awesome. I was feeling very down that I couldn’t decide on what to do for my birthday and I’m so very happy that everything happened organically and it turned out to be a super fun weekend. The buffet N and I went to was so amazing. They bring you meat on skewers to your table and slice off pieces for you. I just want to live there.

[edit: picture removed for anonymity]

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gift from my friend. i love her. she knows me.

Dinner with hubby on the day. Brazilian buffet. Meat meat meat!

Dinner with hubby on the day. Brazilian buffet. Meat meat meat!

Saturday night shenanigans

Saturday night shenanigans

The amount of crap I ate this month was ridiculous. The lowest (and the highest I’m ashamed to say) was the lobster roll from Mcdonalds. Hey, at least I can say I did it. Here’s some of the crap I ate. Needless to say, I had to make a few cookbook purchases to help get my act together. I’m not fully motivated yet because I haven’t gone grocery shopping but I did make carb free bread and crackers so we’re getting there. This week is my turn to choose a thing to do so we’re going to the Planetarium tomorrow then Whole Foods. Yes, my idea of a fun time is grocery shopping.

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I also squeezed in a little TTC stuff. My new insurance requires me to have a primary care physician. I’ve never had one before and I needed one to get a referral to my ivf clinic. This was also the month I was supposed to have my hysteroscopy but I couldn’t get it done after my pcp appointment which was a bummer. So we’re pushing the hysteroscopy back another month but them’s the breaks, I guess. But on the upside my PCP is great. I dunno why I didn’t do this sooner.

So it was really a great month all-in-all and then on Tuesday, bad news. I woke up to messages from home. A childhood friend had passed due to complications from a surgery. He had just turned 34 last month. We didn’t speak often at all and the last time I saw him was at our wedding 4 years ago. But we grew up together so he was a big part of our lives up until they moved away when we were about 11. And even then we would visit them every holiday until they moved even further away then it was just 21st birthdays then weddings. What a great guy. What a huge loss. I wish he had lived a long full life but the short life he did live was full that’s for sure.

August will be over soon. It was one for the books. But I’m ready for September now. I think I’m ready for baby time. I hope everyone had a good August and if not, don’t worry, September will be here in 3 days. Hang in there.

Quick happy update

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Hi Everyone

I’m finally back from holiday and also I’m 3 days into my new job. The trip was beyond fantastic and also very difficult at times. I’ll write more about that in the future. In the States I think I’ve had it easy. Back home every single one of my friends has at least one child. I think if I lived at home I wouldn’t make it out of bed most days. I loved being around the kids, it was so refreshing but going home to a quiet bedroom with just my thoughts proved overwhelming more often than not.

But I don’t want to get into that now. The weddings were sooo beautiful and perfect. It was so great seeing everyone and spending time with my parents. This is the most time I’ve spent with them and it was awesome. I keep thinking of how much all 3 of us cried at the airport and I get all choked up. It gets harder and harder to leave every time. My nephews and niece are perfect. I couldn’t get my new nephew to love me though. 1 year olds are tough. But he’s so funny, like his dad (my brother), I can’t wait for him to start talking. He babbles uncontrollably has full on conversations with you but it’s all babbling. I love it. The other two are to die for. So loving and always free with the hugs. I couldn’t get enough of them. I have to stop because I have other stuff to talk about.

So this new job is pretty awesome! I have a feeling there’s going to be a lot riding on my shoulders. I was hired to back up the technology director and he says a lot or things like “I’m the only one who has access, but you’ll have access now”, which is exciting and a little nerve wracking. And the fact that I completely blanked on how to calculate Average in Excel probably didn’t look too good.

Everyone is really nice. It’s a complete change from my old company where I was the oldest in the crew by about 5-10 years. I think I’m the youngest in the little basement office by about 5-10 years now. My only gripe is that it is fuh-reezing down there. I bought all this summer professional clothes for work and I’m still wearing old winter not-so-much professional clothes. In the summer, I guess you don’t have to dress up.

What else? Oh, the hours are 7-3 and when school starts, 7-3:30. I still can’t believe it, so I hang around til about 3:10 to make sure no one was kidding about that. I’m used to getting home at 7. And of course, the best part, I just signed up for BCBS insurance. I think it’s already kicked in, I’m just waiting for my card so I can send the info to the clinic. The infertility coverage is beyond anything I could have dreamed of. I never knew how luckily/blessed I am to be living in a state that has mandated infertility coverage. I can’t get over it. I am bit worried about these hours and taking time off for monitoring appointments since they’re always at 7:30 and I still have that pesky hysteroscopy looming over me. But really, I’m going to try and not think about that stuff for now.

Now, in an attempt to be a better blogger and now that I have more free time. I have to start thinking about stuff to blog about. I keep saying this, but my life is so dull now but I spoke to N and we both agree that we should pick something to do over the weekends and then do them. That should give me something to blog about. Also, I have a few posts I want to make about our supplement regimen and then I want to bring back Sunday Smiles and my Track of the Week.

Okay, I have to go now. I’m doing trying this buzzfeed clean eating challenge for 2015. I’ve already failed because we had ice cream for dinner on Monday but I have a fridge full of healthy greens so I’m going to be better. I’ll post some pics of the meals I’m making. I always enjoy peoples food pics.

And with that, I’ll leave you. Sorry this post was a bit all over the place and a bit self indulgent. I’m just really happy right now and more so about the actual job. The infertility stuff is just icing on a very delicious cake… oh man, now I want cake. I hate cleanses. I really do. I’m not going to do them anymore.

For some reason my laptop is slow so I can’t upload some pics but here are the 2 most important anyway.

[edit: picture removed for anonymity]

[edit: picture removed for anonymity]

Saving babies

Posted in Random Tales, TTC drama by

Hey guys! Sorry, I’ve been so quiet. I really don’t have anything of import to say of late and I was going through a few weeks of bliss, ignoring the fact that I’m infertile. But things have been going on and I can finally write about it since most of the T’s have been crossed and most of the I’s dotted.

I got a new job!!!

I put in my notice yesterday so that sealed the deal but let me start at the beginning. Remember how I said I was bored with my career? I have been working in marketing/advertising research for around 7 years now and while I find the industry fascinating I’ve always felt in the back of my mind that this isn’t what I’m meant to be doing.

The seed was planted a few years ago when my colleague told me a little story (Names have been changed to protect those involved lol). He was stressed out one day dealing with angry client service people and was on the verge of cracking when he went to his manager and dove into a long tirade about these unrealistic deadlines. At the end his boss simply looked up from his desk and asked “Toby, are we saving babies here?” … “No.” Toby replied. “So don’t worry about it”.

This metaphor really resonates with me. I know there are very few people out there who actually save babies (or lives) for a living but basically what he was asking was, does what you’re doing really matter. Not only in the greater scheme of things but to you, personally. If the answer is no, then you have to re-evaluate your situation.

That really put a lot of things into perspective for me. My job isn’t always stressful but there are days when a big client has an unreasonable request with a very short turnaround time and because they pay us (and by us I mean the company because we see none of it, but that’s another story) the big bucks we have to bow to their every whim. And if I don’t remind myself daily that we’re not saving babies, I’m liable to go insane.

But that got me thinking about my job as a whole. I know I enjoy coding surveys and trouble shooting data issue and getting my hands dirty in all things data but am I affecting change? Am I waking up everyday doing something that I’m proud of? And the answer, for me personally, was no. All I’m doing is making advertising agencies richer and helping big brands who I don’t even really have any respect for. It started frustrating me to the point where I was starting to get a little depressed.

On top of that, I was not at all happy with some of the decisions my company was making. Aside from not giving us raises for 3 years straight, the nail in the coffin was when they announced that they would no longer be giving out bonuses to anyone under the level of director. We were all ushered into a meeting room with 4 directors and a VP and we had to listen to them deliver this news. However, anyone who’d been in the company longer than a year would still be getting bonuses. They said, and I quote, “We really had to fight to get you guys these bonuses”. Wow! I’m so honored that you’d managed to easily secure bonuses for yourselves but the rest of us, who are pulling all the fucking weight by the way, were shit out of luck until you “fought for us”. Thanks. Please excuse me while I don’t kiss your feet. What about Sue and Jimmy out there who weren’t invited to the meeting, who put in just as much work and who are now getting the shaft because you couldn’t “fight for them too”?

Okay, I know, I know. I shouldn’t shoot the messenger and I also realize that a company doesn’t have to give an incentive bonus but who of you out there will work for a company where there’s no incentive to work? Didn’t think so.

That’s what kicked my job search into overdrive. Job hunting is depressing work, friends. Even when you have a post grad degree and 7 years experience. I was very lucky to land 2 interviews. Both in industries I am in love with. Food and Education. My not-so-secret dream is to become a teacher one day but I’m not afraid to admit that I’m scared to death of failing at it so when I saw this position at the high school but still using my skills as a data analyst I thought the heavens opened up and angels were singing and pointing to the “apply now” button. Similarly, my other passion is food so seeing this posting for a job at a clam chowder factory felt like the seafood heavens opened up and chowder angels were singing.

As the interview process progressed I quickly learned that the chowder job wasn’t for me and thankfully I wasn’t offered the position after 3 interviews and a really silly excel test that wouldn’t let me use the short cut keys. I mean really.

I did 2 interviews at the school and each time I walked in I really felt like I was coming home. I am beyond happy to have been offered this position. Of course with an element of sadness because I love my work friends right now. I know that me leaving won’t be the end of these friendships but not seeing them everyday will take some getting used to.

I finally feel like everything is coming together in this little journey of mine because the icing on an already delicious cake is that I’ll be getting Massachusetts health insurance which comes with (queue angels singing) Massachusetts Infertility Coveraaaage! I could be counting my chickens before they hatch because I haven’t had a chance to find out what coverage I’m getting but I have a choice of three (Harvard Pilgram HMO, Network Blue New England and Blue Care Elect Preferred – If anyone has experience with these please let me know). For all I know all three could be pretty shitty but the salary increase is high enough that I’m really not too worried about and it really can’t be worse than what I have right now (2 cycles but a retrieval and transfer are counted as 2 separate cycles… rolls eyes).

Before this, we were pretty much shit out of luck with IVF. I have 1 retrieval cycle left and to pay out of pocket for any more would be months and months of saving and ramen noodle eating which I would have done no questions asked but I can’t even explain how relieved and grateful I am for this opportunity. It’s very rare that you get to check off two dreams in one go.

The job only starts in August so it’s going to be a bit of a wait, but man is it going to feel good to be “saving babies” soon.

Liebster and Versatile Blogger Awards

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My husband hasn’t been home all day so I’ve washed both cars (yikes) and had 2 drinks to celebrate. And even more important. I caught up on 188 youtube videos and finally getting around to doing this award almost a month later. I’m feeling a great sense of accomplishment, I may just get a third drink.

I hope I’m not breaking the rules here but I’m going to do both of these awards together to keep you from reading the same stuff twice and I can’t think of 18 fact about myself this close to bed time. Okay, bed time is a long way away but that’s how long it will take I’m sure of it. So here goes!

Thank you very much Sam from My Missing Ingredient is Patience for nominating me for the Liebster Award. I enjoy your blog, I hope you’ll be back soon to post something. And thank you very much Nara from From Zero to Zygote and Angela from Surviving INfertility. I love both your blogs too!

unnamed  leibster-rules

Here are my answers to Sam’s questions:

  1. What simple thing makes you happy? When I cook a meal for hubby (or anyone really) and they say it’s good… That and making someone belly laugh.
  2. What sort of music do you like? Hmmm lots? My spotify playlist is all over the place. But I guess my first love is deep house. But lately I’ve been in an Earth Wind and Fire type phase. It reminds me of watching my mom teach aerobics to the ladies from church and her school. I think I miss my mom.
  3. Are you a morning person or a night owl? Sorry, gonna go with both here. Pretty useless during the afternoon 🙂
  4. Do you have any tattoos? Not yet. I can’t decide on something so maybe never.
  5. Do you have any weird fears? Just the dark. Deathly afraid of the dark.
  6. Do you play an instrument? Just the fool… harrr harrr. I did piano lessons as a kid so I know the basics.
  7. How do you think others would describe you in three words? What a goof
  8. Where has been the best place you’ve travelled to? Australia. Great Barrier Reef. We hosted an exchange student from Australia for a year and after high school her parents paid for me to go visit her in Melbourne and do touristy thing. The trip on a whole was a real blessing and I am forever grateful. We did everything. Climbed Ayer’s Rock, Climbed the Sydney Harbour Bridge, but scuba diving in the Great Barrier Reef was a dream come true for me. I’ll never forget it.
  9. What languages can you speak? English and Afrikaans. It’s one of the 11 official languages in South Africa. It sounds Dutch-ish.
  10. Do you have any pets? We have 3 beautiful crazy cats. I’m dedicating a post to them as soon as I can get good pics of the chunky one. Can cats be un-photogenic? Because this guy is beautiful but never co-operates for the camera.
  11. How long have you been blogging for? A little over a year, sporadically, as you can tell.

Okay, I’m going to do 11 facts here instead of the 7 for the VB Award. Oh man I feel like I’m breaking all of the rules. I do apologize if you’re a stickler for rules.

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1. I’m a recovering spoilt brat… I’m getting the red squiggly lines under spoilt. Does that mean it’s spelled spoiled over here? I guess so. Anyway. I’m the youngest of three and the only girl so I pretty much get whatever I want from my parents and my brothers. This is terrible and my husband is having none of it. Don’t laugh, it’s serious. Being a recovering spoilt brat is hard work. I have to learn how I don’t always get my way. I have to be considerate. I can’t pout when people tell me no, or that I’m wrong. I have to share. Ugh, it’s not fun guys. But I’m learning.

2. My best friend and I were on a cooking show back in 2003 or 4 called Off the Menu with Ainsely Harriot. It was one of those competition shows. We had to cook something off the menu of a 5 star restaurant against another duo. We got psycho chef wife and her poor husband. We didn’t stand a chance. I had just started loving cooking and didn’t even know how to poach a fish which, incidentally, was what we had to do. Poached salmon with a lobster samoosa and lemon sabayon. Any sauce you have to make in a double boiler is a big ask so we lost pretty badly but man what an experience. If I ever get a rematch, it.is.on!

3. I’m obsessed with cook books. I request one every Christmas. I love the pictures. I find myself paging through cook books for fun.

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Some of my cook books

4. I wear glasses but only when I look at a computer screen because I get dizzy otherwise. And I have to take them off when I’m not looking at the screen or I’ll get dizzy with them on. Weird.

5. I loooove high heel shoes. My job doesn’t require that I dress up so I never wear all the pairs I just have to buy. So I have  bunch that just sit in my closet. I actually wear them around the house in my pj’s sometimes just because. My goal is to own a $500+ pair one day. I don’t care which.

6. Gonna steal Mrs MPB’s one here and say that my favourite cheese is brie as well. There’s really nothing like it.

7. I used to write poetry as a teenager. Mostly forlorn love poems. My mother has them now I think. She wants me to put them together and get them published. Mothers are always supportive.

4 extra facts for the Liebster award:

8. I’m a hair product junkie. I’ve subscribed to CurlBox and it’s a problem. I’ll never run out of hair products and I love it!

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Half of my hair stash… It’s mostly conditioner. Send help.

9. I just went through all my old posts to remove pics and stuff to make this a bit more anonymous so that I can talk about my job and my boss. But maybe I shouldn’t. I feel like as soon as I do it she’ll somehow find it and fire me. If you knew her you’d understand.

10. I have a black thumb. My mom in law and parents even tried to plant stuff for us and I just can’t keep anything alive. Even cucumbers that pretty much take care of themselves.

11. I’m a big fan of stand up comedy. Huge. We try to see a big act as often as possible. I’m very sad we missed Bill Burr this past week. We’ll get him next time.

Here are my 11 nominations. In no particular order. Just a few new ones I’ve started following and want to get to know more about. I’m sorry if you’ve already been nominated.

Feel free to do both awards or either… or neither for that matter.

1. From Zero to Zygote

2. Terrakna

3. Disorderly Love

4. New Chances, New Hope

5. Somewhere Over the Rainbow

6. Her Eggs My Nest

7. Lonely Uterus

8. My Brain’s Escape

9. Searching for the Stork

10. I’m Impregnable

11. Not the Stef You’re Looking For

And here are my 11 questions if you do the Liebster Award.

1. What is you’re favorite movie genre?

2. Who would play you in a movie about life?

3. What’s your favorite article of clothing?

4. Which mobile phone do you have?

5. What’s your spouse/partner’s most annoying habit?

6. What would they say your most annoying habit is?

7. You see a massive spider running across the floor in front of you. What do you do?

8. If you could be any animal, which would you be?

9. What’s your favorite tv show?

10. What’s your favorite book?

11. Which was your most memorable birthday?

Sunday Smiles

Posted in Random Tales by

I just have one today but it’s a goodie!

I have been sllllacking on my exercising. No insanity all week. And eating crap crap crap. And yesterday I was about to continue. Mister had to a job in the morning and as he was leaving he asked me if I was going to yoga. Queue irrational anger. How dare he passive aggressively remind me that I was neglecting a goal I’d set for myself. The nerve.

So I dragged my ass off to the gym to be there for 9am and I’m so happy I did. I can’t believe I did it. I’m so proud of myself. I did the bird of paradise pose! On both sides!! Okay, I didn’t get to the pointed toe part but that’s only because I’m human.

But I did it! I did it! I even came home and showed my husband so I did it 3 times!. I did it once before last year but I’ve been struggling to get there again so I’m very happy about this. I should have taken a pic but I tried it earlier and I am stiff as all hell from yesterday hahaha.

Anyway here are some pics of the pro’s doing it. I’ll get there. I can only get to step 4 now.

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