ugly sweater party

we had an ugly sweater party at work.

i couldn't find one, so ended up making an ugly long sleeve shirt. i used jingle bells, felt, fabric paint, googlie eyes, and creativity and came up with this.


mr c brought the girls into work and we had them wear their ugly sweaters too.

christmas tree

well, we went and cut down a tree this year. i was told we HAD to, cuz we're in a house now. so, we did. then we set it up in a stand. 2 days later, i came home from work, and the stand had tipped over. we got a different stand, and the tree has been solid since.

we put lights on, and didn't quite get to the ornaments this year. time got away from us. we ended up getting home from our parent's houses and opening our presents upstairs anyway since they never made it down to the tree. next year will be better.

burrows & blankies

doxies are burrowers. it's an instinct, and boy do they exhibit it. more often than not, we look at their beds and wonder if they're even in there!

(look how BIG hazel got!)

UPDATE!

ok. i'll be posting a TON tonight. lots happened this month.

i started on the next dose of the metformin. so now i'm on 2 500mg pills a day, one at breakfast and one at dinner. so, now it's been 40 days since my last cycle. we'll see what happens as i continue on the medicine as to any changes that i might notice. so far, it's been pretty uneventful as far as side effects go.

last year at our church's goods & services auction, i auctioned off gift wrapping services to 2 families. so, i did a whole bunch of wrapping, and this past weekend i hit walmart for their clearance to stock up for next year.

Christmas went really well. we got some great stuff for us and for the house. and of course, for the puppies. we were very impressed with them on christmas day. we took a litter box with us to our parents' houses. we had brunch after church at my parent's house, and we had dinner at mr. c's. hazel did great as i figured she would, but i didn't know about ginger. she ended up doing very well, she used the box on her own and that was THRILLING to us. so, i think we're making huge strides with her.

dec 3rd

it's snowing out! even though the doggies are trained to litter boxes, i'll still have to get a video of them out in the snow to see how they react. we'll have a few months for that though!

here are Hazel and Ginger playing and talking to eachother. Ginger has the same worm that Hazel had when we brought her home from the pet store, but a MUCH lighter case than what we went through with Hazel thank God. So, for now, they're in separate areas, since it's contagious, and we don't need Hazel sick with it again.

these two videos show how active Hazel is. i feel like i need a nap after just watching her run around.

nov 29th

hanging out with daddy.

mr c was taking turns holding the girls while he was watching football. thought it was SUPER cute, and had to take advantage of the photo op!

nov 28th - 2

here are a few pictures with the girls and a tennis ball to help make their size a bit easier to visualize. Hazel is now between 7 and 8 pounds. Ginger came home with us at 2 pounds, a full pound less than what Hazel was at the same age. she is TEENY!

unfortunately i caught Hazel mid-yawn. but, i thought it was HILARIOUS, so i decided it was a keeper :)

nov 28th

well, mr c and i had been talking quite a bit since i went to the pet store to get a new collar for Hazel (since she chewed hers off) and there was another litter from her breeder there. after a week and a half of discussing and getting opinions from our parents, we went to the pet store for mr c to meet the one puppy i had my eye on. she was still there, and on first glance he was sold. so, we have a NEWER new puppy.

Ginger born on 10.2 is 12 weeks younger than Hazel who was born 7.12. so, we're officially crazy, and should probably be checked into the nut house.

see more pictures here: GINGER

nov 24th - 2

give your dog a rawhide as big as her head, keep her entertained for hours...

nov 24th

we finished putting the lights and outside decorations up on sunday afternoon. we took full advantage of the great weather!

here's the house during the day:
here's the house lit up at night:

nov 21st - 2

after 4 and a half months i finally got a period on my own yesterday. it just so happens that my ob/gyn is a member of our church, as well as a member of choir. so we've been discussing the course of action to take for me to ovulate - since that is a pretty important part of making babies. there are a couple of different medicines that are a usual start to fertility treatment. we were thinking of starting the medicine in late winter/early spring because i have some work projects that are in fully swing right now. but, when it came down to it yesterday, we thought, work will never be perfect, so i called the ob/gyn office.

if i wanted to wait, then if i didn't get a period on my own again, i'd have to take medroxyprogesterone (was on it for a few months before) to trigger one in the spring.

so i opted to start the first dose of metformin now. metformin (glucophage) is a drug primarily used by diabetics to help regulate blood sugar. it's very commonly used in the Trying To Conceive (TTC) world. apparently, the regulation of blood sugar helps bring on ovulation. so, this first does is 500mg a day, then next month is 1000mg a day, then the third month is 1500mg a day which is what's considered the "therapeutic" dose. a couple of friends at work had successful tries with metformin, so we'll see what happens.

the bad side effects: GI issues. i haven't noticed any of that yet, but i've only taken one pill so far. the good side effects: possible weight loss, since it's helping the body regulate blood sugar.

so, i'll be tracking with test strips to see if this has any effect.

nov 21st

a few things. mr c. is off hunting so i feel like i have little bit of time to write an much needed update.
hazel is doing SO good. she just got her rabies and some other shots yesterday at her 18 week checkup. she is now just under 8 pounds. she's definitely thriving. she is ALMOST fully trained to the box. she still does great when she's in the kitchen by herself, and now when she's out in the house, #1 is almost always done in the box, and #2 is not quite that consistent yet. we went over to my parents' house last night to hang out, and i took a litter box & litter to keep over there. she played SO well. she #1 & #2 in the box, with no accidents anywhere else. this a huge step in the right direction. her final puppy class is today. we'll continue to take her to puppy party, so she can keep socializing. i'm going to talk to the trainer today to see when would be a good time to introduce a new puppy to her so she can have a companion. she gets pretty lonesome and i think that'd be really nice for her.

nov 12th

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won't appear
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Thanks for your support!

nov 6th

well, i had the baby gate down last night so hazel could run all over the place, while working on the "come" command. she was doing SO awesome...until she pooped & peed on the carpet. now keep in mind the litter box was about 4 feet away. when i yelled BAD DOG! she took off for her bed, and stayed there the rest of the night. ahhh dachshund stubbornness. gotta love it.

---

my mom and i are going shopping tonight at Jo-Ann Fabric's. they're having a friends & family event for 20% that was advertised through their email marketing. i'm very excited to get some more things for the house.

---

PHOTOS:
Halloween | Hazel

nov 5th

happy birthday to mr. d! the big 2-5!

nov 3rd - house tour 2

we had the "blue star room" ceiling scraped, sanded, retextured and painted last thursday. we have now primed it and it's ready for paint. before that unveiling you can take a look at where we're at on the house as of thursday night.

nov 3rd

hi all. man it's been a crazy busy last couple of weeks.

my dad is having his spleen removed on the 16th. my mom and i will be updating his caringbridge site when that time arrives: http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/mattgatchell

---

hazel is doing so good. we have her completely litter box trained. currently, it's in the kitchen with her, and she goes in there all day. but, now we have to be super consistent with her when she's in the house to make her way to the box when she has to go and she's not confined to the kitchen. she's doing really well with puppy class, and we also take her to puppy party at the dog training center. she get's to spend an hour with puppies her same age, and play and run and socialize. i guess that it's SUPER important to get them socialized at this age so they don't turn into crazy dominant doggies.

---

mr. c's aunt & uncle came to visit from virginia the week before our anniversary. they got the grand tour of our house, and we had a great time with them.

---

for our first anniversary, we went SEVEN hours north and stayed at a cabin in Iron River, WI. it was SO relaxing. before we knew it, we had to pack up and come back home.

---

mr. c got news at work that there's a good possibility he'll be promoted and moved to a different shop. he'll probably still be on second shift, but the chances of him moving up are much greater at the other shop (non-union) than the shop he's at (union).

---

we had our first trick or treaters! we had about 50 kids, and we had plenty of candy which was good. we even had some unopened leftovers to return to the store!

---

i'm now down 5 pounds. i've been having trouble staying consistent, but it's definitely going in the right direction. all of the food is in the basement pantry. so, there's no eating just out of boredom. you have to go over the baby (puppy) gate into the kitchen, then go down to the basement to get something. so that really helps curb the snacky monster attack.

--- pictures to come.

oct 9th

o m g. i've been awful!

first of all, congratulations to ms. z! mr. b proposed (finally!) on a hot air balloon ride. how romantic. so super excited for them!

hazel is doing pretty well. she's still fighting coccidia. she's on another round of medicine for it. when she's feeling good and her innards are behaving themselves, she asks to go out, and hardly has any accidents. we start puppy kindergarten tomorrow! the first one is just for mr. c & i, then after that we take her with for 6 weeks. we've gotten her bunches of toys, and a fleece jacket and a hooded corduroy jacket...i'll have to load up some more pictures.

mr. c's aunt and uncle are visiting this weekend from virginia. we've been trying to get the house in more order in preparation of them coming. we got a few new pieces of furniture, and since we bought them, we got a free 40" samsung lcd tv. mmmm. i can't wait to hook up the wii!

we went apple picking a couple weekends ago, so i've been making a lot of apple dishes. i also finally got the 2 dehydrators out that we got for the wedding and will be making a bunch of apple chips this weekend.

our first anniversary is next weekend, and we're going way up north to the delta lodge at iron river and renting a cabin for a long weekend. they allow pets, so hazel will be coming to join us. i think the leaves will be beautiful, and i can't wait to take tons of pictures.

well, i should get back to work, but i HAD to get an update out here!

sept 23rd

hazel went to her first puppy visit at the vet yesterday. she's got 2 parasites (more commonly referred to as worms). this is a pretty common occurrence for puppies. so, she's on 2 medicines that i give her at night. unfortunately this makes housebreaking a much more trying experience. she doesn't have control of her #2's and therefore the kitchen floor is being cleaned almost every 2 hours.

mr c and i are pretty tired. we've been getting up around the clock taking her outside to get her used to the concept. she gets treats for doing her business outside. when she's done she saunters on over the the stairs and hops right up to the front door, waits for us to open it, then hops right into the house.

the vet said that we need to give her baths to help keep her clean and fight the worms. so, i gave her a bath last night. she was terrified!! but she got lots of treats and praise. i think the next time will be better.

i really hope that this medicine does the trick and she can have a normal potty experience.

sept 19th

well. mr c & i expanded our family today. we now have a little girl named Hazel. she's precious. she's an 8 week old chocolate piebald miniature dachshund.



click here to see more pics.

sept 16th

not only is it Mexico's Independence Day from Spain, but it's also my birthday today! so here's wishing a happy labor day to my mom! whew. a quarter of a century down, many more years to go!

sept 13th

some promised links and pics and such...

take a look at the edited pictures of the wedding from our photographer here. i still have to go through the raw disks and get the reception photos loaded up.

this is a picture of my beta, fuego. he's real spunky and i love having him as a part of my work environment.
a blurry picture of a little of my cubicle at work. i'll try to get more of it in a better shot sometime.

house - master bedroom

note our KING bed!! woo hoo!

house - room 2

not so affectionately called the "blue star room". note stars all over the ceiling...stuck up with none other than sticky tack (the stuff that teachers use to stick things on cinder block, remember?). we have to pay a painter to sand, retexture, and paint the ceiling before we can repaint the rest of the room. the colors have already been picked out.

house - room 1

currently this is serving as a changing room/clothing storage room. whenever it comes time for that, this would be a nursery.

house - bathroom

note the little changing room.

house - staircase

sept 10th

there has been some progress made in the house, and i'll be taking more video this weekend. i also just picked up the CDs of the wedding pictures from the photographer, so i'll have a link to those soon too! woo hoo! let me know if you want any prints made, and i'll get those to you.

sept 8th - 3

time for bed. you get to see upstairs tomorrow. GOOD NIGHT!

house - sunroom/den

note all of the windows!

house - living room

note ... all the stuff everywhere.

house - dining room

note the woodwork and the chandelier.

house - kitchen

note our new dishwasher that is awaiting installation!

house - basement

note the lovely stand-alone toilet, and the laundry station for folding and hanging.

sept 8th - 2

holy moly. SO MUCH HAS HAPPENED.

ok. so, even though it's not how i wanted to do it since we have our apartment til the end of the month; everything got moved over from the apartment to the house on saturday and sunday.
however, everything is pretty much in 3 rooms. YIKES. i can't wait to unpack and organize so i can start decorating!

i'm going to be posting videos of the house as of Monday morning, and also some other pics tonight, stay tuned!

sept 8th

Happy Birthday Debbie!

sept 1st

i can't believe that it's september already.

in recent news: i'm pretty disappointed. they took down the for sale sign at our house sometime yesterday. for some reason i thought they left them up for a little while with a sold sign. maybe realty companies don't do that anymore. i really wanted to have a picture with mr c and i in front of the house by the sign. oh well...we'll just need to get a picture without it.

i also forgot to mention that i went with a coworker last week to get beta fishes for our desks at work. i found a really cute one, and named him Fuego. he's super fun to have, and it's quite nice to take a break and watch his antics during the day.

aug 30th

we have a house!

ok, so it really doesn't seem real yet. but, we took our parents over to the house on saturday night. we took a quick carload over that consisted of a folding table, folding chairs, all of the king bedding, and bathroom necessities (toilet paper, hand soap, and even the shower curtain).

oh yeah, and i've done a few loads of laundry without having to use quarters!!

yesterday, mr c and i took another load over. the futon (which we're using as a couch for now), a tv tray, my 19" flat screen tv, the little dvd player, and the stuff to make dinner. so, we put the futon back together, then i started on dinner while mr c played out in the garage and measured different places to make sure that his toys will fit out there. we had chicken marsala on linguine with some pinot noir, and watched training day with denzel washington. i had never watched the whole thing before, and needless to say, it was a bit disturbing.

the bed is being delivered on friday, so we won't stay there until then, but this week i'll be taking carloads over. so hopefully, we'll only have to move the big stuff next weekend. i don't think it's actually going to hit us until the apartment is empty, and we're brushing our teeth and doing all of our routines at the house.

i'll get pictures and maybe a video walk through posted soon.

aug 27th

while i'm eating my breakfast (eggs and watermelon) i figured i'd write an update.

well, kickball the other night wasn't a win. we lost, but we did score 6 runs. so it wasn't a shutout! i guess we're having practice tonight, which will definitely be beneficial. i got 4 singles and almost a double. which is super exciting, seeming as how i haven't played kickball since grade school. although i'm SUPER sore. i'm not sure about my teammates yet (i only know one of them) but i think it'll get better as we keep playing.

well, if all goes well, we're closing on our house tomorrow. (i'm totally tearing up while writing that) the walk through went really well on tuesday, and it got me even more excited. my dad came with, so he's the only parent who has seen the house. everyone else will have to wait until maybe saturday night, or sunday for sure. (the sellers are renting it from us for tomorrow and saturday)

there's only one room that we have to paint, and i can't wait to start taping off the woodwork! we already have the paint colors all picked out, but i'll be sure to post before and after pics. and i'd like to post a video walk through of the house as well.

we got the call yesterday that our KING mattress came in. this is a vital part of our new house. mr c isn't the best at bed sharing, and currently we're on a FULL. so you make the judgement on that. we need more room. and since we were getting a bigger bed, we figured we'd just go for gold and get a king. so we already got all the bedding for it, and for once in my life i can't wait to make the bed.

ok, gonna finish my watermelon and go to work!

aug 24th

i'm joining a co-worker in a co-ed kickball league, and the first game is tonight. i'm super excited. our team name is "kick tease", not sure if i'm as crazy of the name as i am of playing kickball. the jury's still out on that.

went to the dermatologist today cuz i've been having acne problems on my face, especially my cheeks and jawline. so, got a prescription. gonna see how that works, the dr. said that it could take at least 6 weeks to start noticing a difference! yowza. i just hope that it clears everything up in the long run.

aug 22nd

here's a few from our trip to nebraska & iowa:

to see all of the pictures, take a look here.

aug 21st - 2

found out yesterday that my daddy is sick.

he's had 2 surgeries on his left knee in the past 7 months, which in itself is crazy, but we found out more news yesterday. his blood tests came back a little funny before the second surgery, so last week they took like, 13 vials of blood, and did a CT scan. his blood seems to be normalizing, so that was probably trauma related to the surgeries. on the other hand, his CT scan came back with spots on his spleen. the doctor at this point is fairly certain that it's non-hodgkins lymphoma.

so, they're going to keep monitoring him, and do more bloodwork in 3 months, and for sure another CT scan in 6 to see where the spleen is at. i think at this point it's not if he has his spleen taken out, but when. and the doctor doesn't want to disrupt his blood more my doing a surgery too soon, before they know totally what's going on. needless to say, please keep him in your prayers.

aug 21st

happy birthday to mrs. s!

aug 19th

well, we just got back from a 4 day trip to iowa & nebraska. mr.c. got to meet friends and family members, and reconnect with some that he met at our wedding. we still have the day off today, and i'm taking matthew to six flags today. i'm super excited!

i think tomorrow night and friday night i'm gonna work on a lot of freelance, and knock it out of the park so i don't have to have it in the back of my mind anymore.

also, we got some crazy news on monday. are you ready for this? we get to close on our house next friday! (the 28th)

i guess the sellers already found their house, and want to close earlier than we had expected. we're SO thrilled. it still doesn't seem real, but i'm very glad that we'll have more time to move. we'll have a whole month to move stuff out of our apartment and get everything set up at our house. i can't believe it! pretty soon, i'll have to take reservations from all of you to come visit and stay at our new abode!

aug 12th - 3

man, aren't you LUCKY?! 3 posts in one day. whew!

i'm still at work. i have a bunch of stuff to get done before we leave on vacation saturday morning. i'm gonna be working till i can't stand it, and coming in as early as my body will let me. i'd rather be a little tired than thinking about stuff the entire time i'm gone. i just stopped over at my parent's house (7 minutes from work) and grabbed the back to the future trilogy to have on my mac playing in the background while i work on my pc. i'll have to post a picture of my cube set up. it's quite remarkable.

in other news, the cleaning guy found my driver's license last night! sure enough, i had left it on the copier last week when i made copies to send to the mortgage company. he found it on the floor by the copier, and couldn't remember where i sat, so he'll bring it in for me tomorrow. i'm overjoyed by this. no trip to the DMV for me!

aug 12th - 2

So we're (mr. c & my mom and dad) leaving this weekend for nebraska to visit family. and of course, i went to pick up some groceries last night for dinner (mr. c was on first shift on monday and tuesday! it was lovely) and i got a bottle of wine. went up to the register, they asked for my ID, and it wasn't in my purse! WHAT!? i have no clue where it is. the last time i know i used it was last monday the 3rd. so...not sure where it is. we tore the apartment apart, and i'm so frustrated. i keep it in a zipped pouch in my purse, and everything else is in it, so i'm racking my brain trying to remember if i've seen or used it since last monday.
the thing that most sucks about this, is i have to go to the DMV tomorrow (since they have extended hours on thursdays) and get a replacement for $14 if i can't find it by then. SO dumb. especially since i just got this new one last fall when we got married. oh well.

aug 12th

Happy Anniversary to Mr & Mrs D, 3 years today! i can't believe it!

aug 7th

WOO HOO! just got word that the appraisal came in higher than our accepted offer! that's SUPER great news. so we should be one step closer to getting our house :)

august 2nd - 2

one of my co-workers brought in a big bunch of gladiolas from her garden, and i took some shots. here are some of my favorites.

august 2nd

well i just worked out on the wii fit for a whole hour! i did a bunch of balance, aerobics, and some yoga.

i feel so GOOD! i've lost 1.8 lbs since last weeks check-in.

i really enjoy some of the aerobics work outs and the yoga is nice and calming, but the balance games are definitely my favorite.

for those who don't know, you can set goals for yourself by BMI. by goal is to be down about 5 pounds at a time which i set to be like 4 weeks. as i start working out more regularly, i'll increase those to more, but for now, it makes me feel so much better about myself by setting little goals that i can stick to.

july 31st

ok, so the inspection went off with flying colors...now to wait for the appraisal. the bank said that should be happening this next week. once that's out of the way and we get the results of that, we'll be super excited. that's the only real hiccup in the whole ordeal. if they appraise it for less than we offered the sellers, we have either: 1. renegotiate the price 2. come up with the money to close the gap 3. find another house.
obviously we're hoping it'll come at or above what we offered, only time will tell.

i'm really feeling the baby fever. i was watching the mtv show "16 and pregnant", and just watching these kids that just accidentally got pregnant, and thinking, how come that hasn't happened to us yet? i was in a very bad way, just sobbing, after one episode where the girl and her boyfriend decided to give their baby up for adoption. all i could think of was that if we are in the position of adoption, that someone would be that selfless and give such a precious gift to us.

i know that my condition makes it this way, and mr. c and i have discussed heading to the doctor after our year anniversary and getting on the medication that stimulates ovulation to see if we can get that party started. it would also make me feel better to get going sooner rather than later with medical measures and tests. it's just something that i've looked forward to for such a long time, and you never think when you're little, "i bet i'll have to use fertility medicine".

it's in God's Hands, and He knows the time when everything will come to fruition, and we definitely can take comfort in that.

we got it!

so, friday night at 5:45pm the sellers accepted OUR offer! how exciting! i scanned in the real estate brochure take a look at the pics here. i'll have better pics when we go to the inspection this week.
i'm so thrilled, but i don't think it'll totally sink in until we've signed all the paperwork. we close on september 18th, which just happens to be 2 days after my birthday, and 2 days before mr. c's half birthday (i know i'm super lame for that), so think it's a good present!

this was quite the week with grandma passing away and getting the house. her service was saturday morning and it went very well. the flowers were beautiful. we were over at mr. c's parent's house all weekend visiting with family which was really nice.

countered counter...

so we received a counter-offer last night. we responded this morning, and we'll know their response by 6pm tonight. unfortunately there are multiple offers on the table. we REALLY want this house. ARGH! this process is exhausting.

our house

we went and saw 6 more houses last night. as soon as we walked into the 5th one i knew that it was our house. it's gorgeous. a colonial built in 1925, with original woodwork, and a great layout.

we put an offer in this morning, the sellers have until 6 pm tonight to accept. so we're crossing our fingers.

Dorothy

Mr. C's maternal grandmother Dorothy passed away yesterday. She turned 88 this spring. Please keep his family in your prayers.

fourth of july

You can check out the pictures from the fourth here.

people to see; places to go

yesterday mr. c's cousin's family was in town. we spent the day at his parent's house hanging out with everybody.

we came home to do laundry, then we went back over, and went to the fireworks display at sussex park (i'll post pics soon). when we got back from the display, we lit some fireworks of our own!

today we're headed down to northern illinois to my godson louis' first birthday party! i got some super cute things for him, and i'm very excited to hang out with everyone. when we get back from that tonight, we pack, then leave in the morning to go with his parents to stay at a cabin up in eagle river, wi.

so we're excited to have a mini-vacation and relax. also, to take BUNCHES of pictures.

but for now, i've got to finish wrapping presents!!

my "issues"

too much information:

as most of you know, i haven't been ovulating. therefore, i don't get my period on my own.

so, the doc had me on 1 week of progesterone to make me keep on a regular cycle. it had nothing to do with ovulation, but i didn't get all bloated and feel super crappy. well, i did 3 months of that, and then i decided to stay off the medicine and just see what would happen.

well, lo and behold, after 61 days since my last cycle, it came completely on its own! woo hoo! i had normal pms symptoms, and didn't feel crappy except for this last week. and i was able to get my rings on and off, so i didn't retain water like i had been in the past.

i'm not going to say that this is a breakthrough, but it's a very good step in the right direction.

grrr

so there's a house that we really really really like. it was the first house that we saw, and we can't get it out of our heads as we've seen like 50 more houses in this process.

now of course, we can't get ahold of our realtor. super frustrating.

through my bank (usaa) they have a moving program where you get assigned a realtor in their network, then by using them we make $950 bucks after closing. that's a pretty big incentive!

so we got our realtor, mrs. s, and we've been having a pretty hard time with her, and it's making this process SUPER exhausting.

still prowling

well, thankfully the first offer fell through. we would have been paying way too much money for a house that we weren't crazy about.

we're still on the hunt, and looking for things WAY cheaper than what we had been. there still seem to be some promising ones out there.

the most important thing to do is to be able to save $$ and build equity. in 5-10 years, we'll be able to really find something great to settle into.

fatso update

i just weighed myself, and i'm down 2 lbs from my start weight! it's finally starting to move in the right direction. i just hope it continues...

the house hunt

so, after hitting some pretty extreme ups and downs over the past few weeks with looking for a house, we are going to be making an offer tomorrow morning. whoa. i can't believe it.

so, we'll see what happens. i don't want to get my hopes up. but mr. c & i decided that it would be ok to live there for at least 3 years (the length you need to stay in a house to keep all of the $8K tax credit).

it's 4 bdrm, 1.5 bath and a little over 1,300 sq ft. nice backyard, and decent landscaping. we wouldn't NEED to do anything right away, but we can see things that we'd WANT to do over the years. (extend the depth of the garage, remodel the kitchen)

i'll keep you posted. we're just SO exhausted by this process. i just want it to be over. (so we can start making babies!)

it's not if, but when

cancer. WTF?! ok, so i know SO many people who are undergoing treatment for cancer right now. i've come to the conclusion that it's not if we're going to get cancer, but when. what a pessimistic view of it i know, but it's so depressing!

i just hate that people have to go through getting poison shot into their bodies at the hope that it's going to kill off the attacking cells that are killing them.

among all of those people, these are a few:

a family friend of ours who is 23 years old is battling bile duct/liver cancer. they just went in to try to take the tumor out, and when they got in, they found mets on her diaphragm and pelvis. so she has to just keep going through chemo.

my uncle (mom's brother-in-law) has lung cancer and was given a deadline of about a year to live after already surviving the first deadline he was given of 3 months.

a member at church just found out on friday that she has uterine cancer and has to undergo a total hysterectomy in the hopes that they can get everything and that it hasn't spread anywhere else yet.

my dad just told me today that another uncle (his brother-in-law) who was given a clean bill of health that his prior cancer was in remission, went in to have routine hernia surgery and when the doctor cut him open, he was just full of cancer. how does that HAPPEN?!

i'm so saddened by all of this. it just seems like such an epidemic/plague. it used to be, even just 10 years ago that you sort of knew someone who knew someone that was sick with cancer, and now you'd have to really struggle to find someone who doesn't know someone affected by the nasty stuff.

God has a reason and path for all of us to follow, and through all of our struggles we need to keep our eyes fixed on the Cross and trust in His mercy and grace.

sleep deprived

get your minds out of the gutter!
throughout this beginning 8 months of marriage, i've slept completely through the night less times than i can count on my 2 hands. this isn't because of any newlywed funny business; it's purely because of the fact that mr. c gets home at midnight. so most of the time i would fall asleep on the couch, then he'd watch tv & go on the computer. around 1:30am he'd wake me up and tell me to get ready for bed.
so, i'd reluctantly get off the couch, stumble down the hall and into the bathroom. wash my face, take out my contacts, etc.
by that time i'd be wide awake again, and it takes me a while to fall back asleep. so, i was not getting good, quality sleep.
since we got married, i kept wanting to get a tv for the bedroom so i could just fall asleep in there. well, we watched the prices at wal-mart and over memorial day weekend there was a pretty nice sale on little flat screen hdtvs. so, after talking it over with mr. c, i went an got an emerson 19".
mr. c had an extra little dvd player, so i hooked that up. there isn't a cable hook-up in the bedroom, so that works just fine. i just watched a selection of my MANY animated movies. so far, aladdin, madagascar & toy story. i'll start the movie while i'm getting ready for bed, then i set the sleep timer, and off to la-la land.
i absolutely LOVE it! it makes it so much better at night. i slept straight through the night TWO nights last week! it's awesome. i'm getting to work on time, and i feel better. so, i hope to reap the benefits.

the Next Big Step

so big news. mr. c & i were pre-approved for a mortgage. so, we're on the hunt for THE house. i know it's not an instant process, but it is proving to be pretty overwhelming. there's so much to consider! so, we just have to keep looking. there's are plenty of prospects, and it's a great time to buy, so we're praying that God leads us to wherever we're supposed to end up!

Fatso Update

well, the good news is, i'm not gaining. the bad news is, i'm not losing. that is totally my fault. i've been eating very well with few exceptions, but i just haven't been increasing my activity levels. so that's a HUGE goal that i'm focusing on now.

great holiday weekend

mr. c & i had a fantastic weekend camping in wisconsin dells. we stayed at the Arrowhead Resort Campground. we had some interesting LOUD neighbors, so that was not the best thing. oh well. more details are below.

saturday:
we did some final shopping & packing and got to the campground around 1:30pm.
the first thing we did was figure out where to put the tent. mr. c's parents got us a new 2 bedroom cabin tent with a screened in front porch. here's the final product:

the rest of the day we just set up camp, and ran to walmart to get towels, tiki torches/citronella stuff & a new air mattress pump. for dinner we had burgers on the grill. then we sat around the fire for a while, walked to the bathroom building and then went to bed around 10.

sunday:
we got up around 9 made bacon & eggs on the coleman propane stove with fresh raspberries on the side. we hung around the site had turkey pepperoni pizza pudgie pies for lunch with peaches on the side. after we did the dishes, we ventured into the dells where we went horseback riding and go-kart driving. the horse ranch had a petting zoo as well, so here are a few pictures from that:

the little bunny that i wanted to bring home.

the ass that kept coming up and nudging us in the butts so that we'd give him food over the other animals.

the two of us in front of the waterfall at the horse ranch.

mr. c on his horse. i think he looks pretty good up there!

when we got back from our adventure we made brats, baked potatoes & grilled asparagus. we sat around the campfire, then walked to the bathroom building to get ready for bed, and went to bed around 11. the next door neighbors were drinking and LOUD as i stated earlier. more and more people were showing up to their site, as well as the neighbors on the other side of us. i sort of fell asleep and woke up cuz i had to pee REAL bad. i woke mr. c up around 1 and he drove me to the port-a-potty in our site area. we got back to the site, and mr. c fell back asleep right away, but the neighbors kept carrying on - it was after 4 the last time i checked my phone. that was super lame.

monday:
we got up around 8 and had strawberry pancakes, eggs & bacon. mmm. it was delicious. after we cleaned up, we packed up the site and headed for home!

once we got home we unpacked the truck, washed all the dishes, and repacked the stuff. then we did our grocery shopping for the week. when we got home from that we grilled bbq chicken and corn on the cob. i made a spinach & strawberry salad to go with. YUM! then we did laundry.

man that was one CRAZY long weekend!

cute green & brown stuff

a couple of weeks ago mr. c & i went through a bunch of stuff that was just collecting in our spare (guest) room. i really want it to be a room where i can have my sewing machine and a place to go and relax and read a book on our AMAZING verlo futon. so we got a really nice bookshelf from home depot and a bunch of storage stuff from target. here is the result:

the big bag down on the floor is a goodwill bag of stuff that mr. c didn't want anymore. way to go purging!

_____

along with that, we have a platform bed frame from crate & barrel. so, with a platform frame, you don't use the boxspring from your mattress set. so...ashamed to admit, we had the boxspring propped up against the wall in front of the window in our bedroom for like...6 months. YIKES! so in this great purge that i spoke of above, i found the extra fabric that i had ordered of the bridesmaid fabric in the off chance that one of the girls (mrs. d, ms. z & ms. s) would need some. so, since it's a really nice brown color, and totally goes with our bedroom, i thought that i could fashion some type of window covering out of it. my parents got me a new "singer advance" sewing machine for christmas 2007 and i haven't really used it very much, but it has cute decorative stiches. so, last night i just sort of came up with something, this is the result:

Memorial Weekend Plans

i'm SO excited! mr. c & i are going camping in the dells for the holiday weekend. this weekend also happens to mark 2 years since we started dating. so that's pretty special, too. it's going to be so nice just spending time with eachother since it's such a rarity with our different shift lifestyle.

we planned our menu last night, and i'm going to run out and do some grocery shopping in a bit. then, i'll go to our storage locker in the building and pull some stuff out that we'll need.

it looks like it's only supposed to rain tomorrow morning, and after that the weather should behave beautifully. so, i think we're going to go horseback riding, go-karting, maybe mini-golfing & probably some hiking. i'll be taking tons of pictures, so i'll post all of that when we get back.

i'm especially looking forward to trying out the new tent that mr. c's parents gave us for Christmas. it's a 2 room tent with a screened in porch! so we'll see how that goes.

Macro Photography

while in NE with my aunt, i played some more with the macro on my digital camera (a Canon PowerShot SD1000 - Digital Elph). here's a sampling of my favorites:

Week 3

was on a road trip with my mom most of the week. had to try to make good decisions when there really aren't good decisions available.

i haven't weighed myself yet this week. but, here's how i did on vacation. there was a lot of water drinking in the car, and some 100 calorie packs, and fiber granola bars eaten as road snacks.

my mom and i left for IA / NE (the flatlands) on saturday morning.
i had a quizno's salad for lunch. saturday pm i got to meet my only full cousin on my mom's side for the first time! the last time my mom saw him, he was 4 ... now he's 33. my uncle is a hunter and a super good cook. he brought vennison loin to grill for dinner. along with that my mom and i split a twice baked potato, and there was a delicious spinach salad with strawberries, almonds, and vidalia onion dressing. for dessert there was rhubarb cobbler.

sunday there was continental breakfast at the hotel. i splurged and had a waffle. that afternoon brought a personal sized hawaiian pizza (my favorite) from Lansky's in Omaha. sunday pm, my mom's cousin Linda put together a very perfect portioned roast beef sandwich, a handful of potato chips, and a nice glass of milk.

monday brought a bowl of raisin bran & coffee of course! lunch time on monday i had a chef's salad wih a raspberry vinagrette at Petro's in Omaha. monday night i splurged and had a beef quesadilla and a strawberry margarita at a hole-in-the-wall mexican restaurant called La Hacienda in Omaha.

tuesday morning was another delicious bowl of raisin bran (i love that stuff!). i can't for the life of me remember what we had to eat for lunch. tuesday night we had dinner with rachael and andrew in Iowa City at a super cute place. i had a super good bok choy salad, and a mushroom pesto pasta. also, a bit of red wine. i had a bite of andrew's creme brulee.

wednesday we drove home and had continental breakfast. once again, raisin bran and i had an english muffin with peanut butter. for lunch i had a kid's meal at culver's with applesauce instead of fries. i did have gummi worms for a driving snack. they were just loaded with sugar and not much else.

so basically that was our trip, and i didn't do great, but i could have done A LOT worse.

"well I'll be darned!"

grandpa: you're married now right?
me: yeah, we got married on your birthday last fall.
grandpa: well i'll be darned!

(he doesn't have the greatest short-term memory anymore. in the fall he thought it was super special that we were getting married on his birthday.)

Moral Support

so, mr. c has historically just gone to wherever to get his haircut. inevitably, a few days later when getting ready, he rants about how much he hates his hair. we both have SUPER thick hair and it grows pretty quickly. he would get very upset about the sides getting poofy. so i made an appt for him at the salon that i go to. mr. c, being the somewhat shy person he is, wanted to make sure i would be there with him. due to unforseen circumstances, our stylist had to be out of town the weekend i had made the appt, so we had to reschedule during the week. due to mr. c's work schedule, i had to take my lunch hour and go sit at the salon while he got his hair cut. i also got my eyebrows done, so it wasn't a totally lost cause i suppose.

mr. c and his new "big boy" haircut.
i think that it's super cute.

Week 1

well i'm 1 week into making a conscious decision to make a change.

big news! i'm down 3 lbs from last week! there's a huge table of candy at work for a fundraiser, and i walked past it ALL week! i didn't get ONE thing! i'm so proud of myself. i never thought i'd be able to do that.

i had salad for dinner 2 nights this week, and had way more fruit than usual. what a good week. it was a pretty stressful week at work, and that wasn't the best, but i think i actually coped with that pretty well.

along with all the other changes/improvements, i really need to work on going to sleep earlier so i can get a full night of sleep. i also NEED to get to work on time.

i'm huge

i didn't intend for this to turn into a rant, but i need to get all of this out.

ok, for everyone who knows me, you know that i've always struggled with my weight. i'm 5'5" and the biggest that i've ever been. i've gained close to 60 pounds since i started at my big kid job. i was a size 14 when i graduated college, and now an 18 is getting tight. when i was 180 i thought, wow, i won't let myself get bigger than 200. then i hit 200, and told myself, well, i won't get over 225. i hit 225 and swore i wouldn't get any bigger. well now i'm 240 (39.9 BMI) and i'm to that point that i can't even fathom being any bigger.

i've got TONS of clothes that don't fit. CUTE clothes that don't fit. i hate feeling that mr. c. will look at me one day and think, 'why am i married to a whale?'. he's incredible, he is so supportive and i don't deserve it. he thinks i'm beautiful, and i have a very hard time believing it. i have some very bad self-esteem days where i try to fit into everything in my closet and feel like going to work in sweatpants because there is absolutely nothing that fits without me looking disgusting. so i try to hide it by making jokes, but that just masks it and doesn't make me feel any better about it. hell even my wii fit calls me obese.

mr. c. and i want babies. cute, healthy babies. i don't want to get pregnant at this weight. i have a feeling that why i'm not ovulating, cuz my body knows how unhealthy it would be. there are so many more risks for being overweight and pregnant. i will already have a less than normal pregancy since i have a bicornuate uterus (it's heart-shaped). i do not want to be super high risk.

so, i'm going to dig out the book my dad gave me (Eat to Live) in college when he lost like 70 pounds when he was doing it whole-hog. since then he's only gained a little but still kept a ton off. so i'm going to join in a friend's (mr. d.) quest to not be a fatso, and start my journey to being happy with my body, and to be healthy.

to follow in mr. d's footsteps here are my longterm goals.
Goal 1: 10% from original weight : 35.9 BMI : 216lbs
Goal 2: 20% from original weight : 31.9 BMI : 192lbs
Goal 3: 42% from original weight : 24 BMI : 140lbs

Body Mass Index:
Underweight = less than 18.5
Normal weight = 18.5-24.9
Overweight = 25-29.9
Obesity = 30 or greater

Getting Started

well, it looks like i'm finally breaking down and getting one of these started.

for now, i suppose we'll leave the blog public, and try to concentrate on not sharing super private information.

we've been married almost 6 months this month, and so far we're fairing rather well. we work different shifts as most of you know, and that has definitely proved to be a strain from time-to-time. i think this will be a good thing for me to do in the evenings.

work has been a little stressful lately. and i'm in a salaried position now which brings good and bad points along with it.

i've started getting little freelance projects here and there. so that's going to be receiving a lot of my attention in the upcoming weeks.

for anyone out there who has lived with me, i'm not the best at finishing tasks, or doing cleaning chores in a super timely manner. so, along with getting adjusted to being married to mr. c (more on that in later posts), i'm trying to get into some type of cleaning routine. hell, i would even welcome a regular eating routine at this point! (it's 9pm and so far i've had a few spoonfuls of nutella)

well, i'm going to go scare something up for dinner, but it'll be fun to populate this blog and fill people in on my musings.