Three Years

I'm a pretty indecisive person. But marrying Lee was one of the best and easiest decisions of my life. Mom was right: when you know, you know.

The past year has been one of the better years, since now we are three. Watching Lee be a dad is pretty much the best thing ever, and in case I had any doubts before, I know now that I have definitely picked the best partner for me.

Happy anniversary, Lee! You are always awesome, but this past year you have had to go to birth classes, watch birth documentaries, rub my back every 7 minutes for 17 hours of labor, help me assemble postpartum diapers, walk a screaming baby around the house for 2 hours so I could sleep, grill me countless hot dogs when I was too tired to cook, and comfort me when I was an emotional, sleep-deprived sobbing mess. I love you so much!

Lately

+ Our big housewarming party was a success. Having 40 of our friends and funny running the house was overwhelming, but it's always nice to have so many of the people you love in one spot. Especially if there's beer and corn hole.

+ September 6 was our second wedding anniversary. Sadly, our dinner and a movie plans were disrupted by a plumbing situation (We spent the next four days living by a "If it's yellow let it mellow" policy. Boo. But now we have a plumber that we like so call me if you need one in the Louisville area.) so we opted for Arby's and Netflix instead. Tomorrow night is the fourth anniversary of our first date so something nicer than Arby's might be in order.

+ In addition to the plumbing meltdown, our dishwasher is a fire hazard and no longer in use. The fire hazard was located while someone was trying to fix the dishwasher's leak for the fourth time. Fortunately (and unlike the plumbing situation), this is covered by our home warranty. Now if I can only decide on a new dishwasher.

+ Despite the past two items, we've reached our savings goal to get rid of the blue carpet in the living room and dining room and get some hardwood floors. Now to specifically pick the floors.

+ Lee's sister is engaged! *happy dance*

+ In two months and two days my cell phone contract will be up and when I renew I'm getting an iPhone 4 to replace my boring, not-cool, normal phone. I'm ridiculously excited. Please send app suggestions. Specifically I'll need a good Twitter app and a good note-taking app and perhaps a separate grocery list app.

+ It's college football season, the sport world's tasty appetizer before the main course arrives. The main course being college basketball of course. Go Cats!

+ I've been playing with my blog layout (again!) so if you're reading this in a reader and you haven't actually visited lately you may want to.

+ I just discovered this last night and kind of love it.

My Disqualification for "Wife of the Year 2010" (There's always next year!)

Last night Lee returned home from ultimate frisbee with quite the limp. He had, in what I'm sure was a beautiful expression of frisbee skillz, twisted his ankle. Or sprained it. I don't know the difference because I've never (knock on wood) exerted myself enough to have one of these issues. His ankle was swollen, he was hopping a lot, and there were some ice packs involved, but he's fine.

Lee's post-frisbee ritual involves taking his disgustingly wet shirt and smelly cleats to the basement for a thorough Febreeze-ing. Me, still a contender for "Wife of the Year 2010", offered to take the smellies to the basement for him since hopping is not a good way to get down stairs, especially if you're carrying things. He said he could do it, but no, it's the duty of awesome wives to take the smellies to the basement when Lee's injured.

So I start to go down to the basement, but... there is a cricket on the bottom stair.

I don't like bugs. They're at the heart of why I avoid the outdoors, why I'm afraid to weed my garden (I've heard some creep-tastic ground bees stories that started with innocent gardening.), why I'm a little sad our house came with so many plants and trees, and why the creepy unfinished part of the basement is creepy.

There was this one nasty cricket incident when I was in middle school and trying to use this red liquid from my orthodontist that would help me see where I wasn't brushing well since I had just gotten braces that resulted in red goo on the walls and blood-curdling screams in the night.

So last night Lee used his arms and good leg to get down the stairs to kill the cricket and put away his smelly shirt and cleats. After that, I took excellent care of him, but apparently my fear of crickets trumps my wifely kindness. I don't think either of us are surprised by this.

No Way Out

I think I'm running a 5K.

Lee and I decided a month ago to run the Throo the Zoo 5K together (I can't run it alone in case I give up or get lost or trampled. It's my first "big race"). But the weeks went on, we still hadn't signed up, and I hadn't really started running. (I have got to get new running shoes this weekend!) I had started to assume we would be skipping this one.

Lee calls me last week to see what we're doing the weekend of May 8 because he was wanting to play in an ultimate frisbee tournament. I reminded him it was my cousin's wedding and we had mentioned doing that race but whatever, go to the tournament if you want to.

But no, once he remembered about the race he insisted he skip the tournament so he could run the 5K with me. Because he had promised. And I was going to get my butt in gear and do this. Silly boy.

So now I have no excuse. Let the training begin! (Once I get those new shoes which I am so doing this weekend. For sure.)

Week in Review: 2/12 (Valentine edition!)

I know just enough InDesign to be dangerous...

Kasey is going on a bit of a Valentine's run. Which inspires me to run my two miles tomorrow, even though the temperature is flirting with freezing.

Party Perfect has a cute, simple way to decorate Valentine cupcakes, which could be applied to other cupcake decorating themes (monograms, sports, boy/girl).

It's not too late to print your love a Valentine or a romantic Post-It.

My favorite morning radio show was talking about the "sexiest songs of all time" this morning but they totally forgot my two: Feelin' Love by Paula Cole and Turn Me On by Norah Jones.
Oh! And Kiss by Prince. So that makes three.

Have a wonderful Valentine's Day everyone! Lee and I will be continuing our tradition of V-Day dinner at Macaroni Grill (yum!). Of utmost excitement, Lee agreed to go see Valentine's Day with me so *fingers crossed* he won't change his mind! ;) It's like they redid Love Actually with more of my favorite people! (Anne Hathaway, Topher Grace, Julia Roberts, Taylor Swift, McSteamy, McDreamy, Jennifer Garner...!!!!!)

Turning Off the Lights

There was a time in my life when I could program the VCR, take Zoey out to potty at night, and sleep with the lights off. (I have a small light on in the living room all the time. This does not count.)

And then there was Lee. (Yes, that is us wearing our 3-D glasses in line to see Avatar. We are too cool.)

Being an IT nerd, he can easily handle my technology concerns, so why bother? Why stand outside alone in the dark where it's scary, when I can make Lee do it? (We live in a totally safe neighborhood. I'm just paranoid.) And if Lee's at an overnight LAN party (Did I mention he's a nerd?), why sleep in the dark because it's scary to be alone? I've completely forgotten about that time when I lived by myself and didn't needlessly rack up my electric bill during the night.

Sometimes, this abandoning of past "skills" is the result of having someone to share the load with. Lee has taken over our technology needs and I make sure we have things to eat and clean clothes. But I do think it's a little pathetic that when Lee's not here I sleep with the lights on. For six months I lived by myself before moving to Louisville and I always slept with the lights off, with no one but Zoey. Since Lee and I have been married though, if he's not home I sleep with the bedroom lights on. Will I ever put my big married girl panties on and sleep alone in the dark?

Yes! Last Friday Lee was playing video games all night at a friend's house and I turned the lights off and went to sleep. I feel so grown up! ;)

Week in Review: 1/15*

Oops...a day late.

sunset outside the apartment earlier this week

Notes from house hunting this week:

• The house I mentioned crushing on from its pictures is apparently a dud. My realtor didn't even take us to see it because she had already seen it and essentially described it as a big hott mess. It looked like it had some cute elements from the pictures, but apparently needed more love (money) than we can give to it. We did see a couple good houses last night though and are generally optimistic.
• One house, which lost points the more we looked at it, had pictures of topless women out in the basement bedroom, adding a whole new creep factor to the "basement bedroom". From what we could gather from the short period of time it was appropriate to investigate this, they were postcard sized and looked more than just printed home photos. But also didn't look a lot like classy nude art either. Really!? Do you think people will want to buy your house with naked pictures in it? I mean, that just doesn't contribute to good feelings.
• We somehow managed (It was dark!) to look at the wrong house. The house we looked at was so horrible we didn't look at all of it. We'll see the house we were supposed to see next week, but we've joked that this will probably be the one since it has an amusing anecdote to accompany its (potential) purchase.

Moving on...

Wishcake has the cutest duplex ever (and one of my favorite blogs ever).

Up Up has the cutest Valentine's Day cards. I particularly loved the "I love you so much..." cards. (I may or may not have told Lee about the one about the farts.)

It's disturbing the ratio between the number of nursery decorating ideas I have and how long it will be before I need them. Anyway, here's another from IS*LY.

I lovelovelove John and Sherry's new vanity.

This video makes me really happy. Which is its general purpose.

My New Crazy Thought

I've had a new thought lately. I'm hesitant to tell you because I can't remember if I've told Lee. I know I've mentioned it but casual mentions don't always register with Lee so I don't know if that counts, but I will tell you all anyway.

Lee and I have always considered adoption. Now might be a good time to mention that we are not thinking about babies soon and nothing I'm about to say involves immediate actions. But yeah, Lee's sister was adopted from China when she was two so Lee has always been pro-adoption and I've always thought it sounded like a fine idea. We'll see how life goes but I've kind of figured that after two to three of our own we might adopt the rest. (We're thinking three to four total. Depending on how things are going financially, I might like more. But not so many that I have to get one of those Jon and Kate sized vans. So maybe no more than five. Are there eight-seater SUVs? I don't want a minivan. Anyways!)

But then a couple weeks ago I read White Oleander by Janet Fitch. The novel starts when Astrid, the narrator, is about 11 or 12, and is sent to foster care after her mother murders her ex-boyfriend. And it gets worse from there.

I don't want to hate on our foster care system because I'm know they're doing great work. One of my substitute teachers in elementary school had foster kids and I'm sure she was an amazing foster mom and I'm sure there are tons of incredible foster families out there. But (spoiler alert!) Astrid got stuck with some veritable nightmares. Really, there must have not been a lot of background checks or home visits going on (Granted, this is all fiction.). Or maybe they just didn't care. Or maybe there were just too many kids who needed A home that they got ANY home that would open its doors.

So now I want to be a foster parent. Because Astrid was smart, talented and kind and she deserved a better chance. And the whole time I was reading I kept thinking, "We could do a better job. We could give her a wonderful home."

image: fiskfisk

Week in Review 11/20

Love these classy bulletin boards from The Shabby Nest.

When Lee and I were registering for wedding gifts, we did not register for a wall clock. We attempted to, multiple times, but clocks are one of those funny things that Lee suddenly has an opinion on. Despite his general lack of interest in things not related to me, computers, and UofL sports, he will have surprising opinions, out of nowhere, about clocks. Lee prefers clocks with roman numerals, abstract markers, or nothing but the hands. I like clocks with twelve numbers because otherwise I can't read time. (Well, I can, but it's harder than necessary.) Long story to say, I found this clock (found via Apartment Therapy). Will Lee like it? It doesn't have numbers!

I think these hole-punch cards are awesome and could be a lot harder that it looks of fun to do yourself.

The big excitement for me this week has been the announcement of a Young House Love baby. For reals, I did a happy chair dance and interrupted a deep chat with Jenn about religion and politics with this:
me: YOU MUST GO TO YOUNG HOUSE LOVE RIGHT NOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
RIGHT NOW! RIGHT NOW!
Jennifer: [Jenn did not immediately following my directions and continued the politics/religion conversation.]
me: GO RIGHT NOW!

Have a wonderful weekend! :)

A Moment to Brag

Can I just take a moment to brag? Lee is freaking awesome.

I've been struggling with some laziness lately and to compensate I have made a ridiculous list of things I want to accomplish this week. I often ask Lee to help out, but for whatever reasons in how my crazy mind works I've spent a lot of time over thinking when I can get certain chores done this week and how Lee can help and maybe I should just do it all myself...

So this morning as we were getting ready for work I asked Lee if he could dust tonight and maybe something else, I hadn't decided, so much to do... And then -- this might not seem like much, but it meant a lot to my dorky OCD heart -- he told me, "Can you just tell me everything you want to me to do now because when additional tasks are hypothetically looming, I'm less likely to start on them." Then he incorporated an amusing analogy about needing to know how much the check needed to be made out for because once it was written he didn't appreciate requests for additional cash withdrawls. I could ask for any amount, but I needed to decide on an amount and ask. Which is totally fine with me.

Over the course of our relationship, one of the central frustrations has been me struggling to delegate yet getting grumpy that I do it all myself. And once I delegate, I micro-manage and don't understand why things aren't being done right now. (What do you mean Warhammer doesn't have a pause button?!) But lately we've really hit our chore groove and Lee has been sharing important insights, like how of all the kitchen tasks he least hates unloading the dishwasher (Oops, I forgot to add that to this evening's list. Hmm...) and he prefers a task list up front as opposed to me perpetually tagging on random things.

So tonight Lee will dust, vacuum and hopefully unload the dishwasher, leaving me plenty of time to go to the grocery, make dinner (tortellini, EVOO, garlic, parm -- both easy and delicious), laundry, and clean the bathroom. I feel so much better about my to-do list now!

We Are Now Coffee Drinkers

I think Lee and I have officially reached the point of being coffee drinkers. It seems insignificant, yet I feel like this deserves its own post.

I have always loved flavored cappuccinos/lattes (Is it time for peppermint white mochas at Starbucks yet?!), but coffee took some time, even with all the cream and sugar I add. I started drinking coffee at my first post-college job because it was free and 8 a.m. is way too early to have to be at work. Eventually it grew on me, but I left there and moved to a tea-drinking office. Then my next job required a monthly donation to join the "coffee club", but I was too cheap and lazy to join. Now I've been in a free coffee office for almost a year and my dependency has grown. The weekends are increasingly difficult since they lack coffee.

Lee has never liked coffee. Even if you put steamed milk and chocolate syrup in it. Lee survives on Mountain Dew, averaging three a day. I've suggested that this is an unhealthy amount of Mountain Dew to consume, perhaps he should try coffee, but he would refuse.

Then last week I got a call from Lee. It was during the work day. You should know that during office hours Lee generally only calls for real, pressing reasons, but last week:

Me: Hi honey, what's up?

Lee: I think I'm going to start drinking coffee.

Me: Really? Why?

Lee: I had some this morning and I am WIRED! I have gotten so much done! My hands are shaking!

Me: That's great! I'm happy for you!

Lee: We should get a coffee pot. We can make coffee at home.

Me: We do have some bank reward points we could cash in...

Lee: I don't want a crappy coffee pot. Make sure it's a good coffee pot.

Me: Well, we could get a Target gift card and go get anyone we want.

Lee: It should have one of those timers so they'll be coffee ready when I wake up....

So this weekend we got our coffee pot. We are now official "coffee drinkers".

http://www.flickr.com/photos/jenniewoo/ / CC BY 2.0

The Best Scrambled Eggs Ever

My Grandma made the best scrambled eggs ever. Mom (No offense.), could never replicate Grandma's scrambled eggs. Mom makes excellent monkey bread, pot roast, the sweetest sweet tea (which will someday have a post of its own) and the smoothest mashed potatoes in the world, but she never made it to Grandma-level with the scrambled eggs.

It was a sore point on Saturday mornings. Mom would make scrambled eggs, present them to the sister and I to taste, and the verdict was always, "Good, but not as good as Grandma's."

Grandma's eggs were cheesy and fluffy. While Mom would attempt scrambled eggs with shredded cheese, sliced cheese, cheddar, swiss, and who knows what else, there is only one cheese for this job. And by any rational arguments, it's not really even a cheese.

It's the Velveeta cheese log. Diced.



Once the egg and milk (and salt of course) are adequately whisked, you add the diced cheese and whisk a little more. Then proceed as normal.



These really are the best eggs in the world.



Lee prefers his without cheese, which I will never understand. It even looks inferior.

The Paper Anniversary

The traditional gift for your first anniversary is paper. Lee and I had previously decided to not really get each other gifts but to spend the money going to the zoo (pictures later this week, perhaps?) and to a nice dinner. However, when I saw this craft project, I knew it was the perfect present for my lolcat-loving husband.

Here is my piano-playing paper cat. He's not great at playing the piano, but is generally fun to look at.



The instructional video for this project is both informative and entertaining, if you want to watch it.

Oh, and Lee gave me some beautiful peachy roses.

 

And I forgot to share this earlier, but obviously I survived the dentist last week.Go me! I didn't even cry! Although there was a bit of flinching. 

One Year

appropriate background music

 

  

  

  

  

  

  

 

Coming Soon: Super Awesome Weekend!

Not only is it a three day weekend, but Sunday is my and Lee's one year anniversary and I am dorkily excited. Not just because we're going to the zoo, fancy restaurant and got a bottle of the sparkling wine we toasted with at the reception, but also just happy to be married to the coolest guy ever. Like seriously. Plus, we now have married couple street cred. It's almost as if we know what we're doing.

Meerkats, I will see you soon. Please forgive me if I squeal too loud, try to pet you, or attempt to keep you. My dog can make a meerkat pose you know and sometimes I watch your TV show. 




image: ConspiracyofHappiness

Extra Crispy

Apparently, those rumors that you should replace your sunscreen every year are not ploys by Big Sunscreen to get you to buy more sunscreen. Fair-skinned me went to Lee's frisbee tournament yesterday with 30 spf that was probably a little over a year old. I was outside for two hours and this is what my thighs looked like when I got home:


Ignore the arm shadows and bad lighting.

At least it was fun watching my love rock the frisbee. These pictures were actually from the last week's tournament.



PS If you subscribe in a reader, be sure to check out the real thing because I've got a new header again, surprise!

The Real Flava' of Love

So last night Lee and I were eating dinner (I had cooked some chicken (With this recipe but I just put the sauce on the chicken in a skillet.) with corn on the cob and green beans (sauteed with garlic salt and butter, a recipe I stole from Jenn). Yummy!) Anyways, we were talking and Lee (He is so cute!) said, "This is the real Flava of Love" (as opposed to this Flava). Aww... :)



In other sweet news, just in case you live under a rock and haven't seen this awesomeness yet...


Caitlin, how much would I have had to pay you to do that?! ;)

I'm on a Boat

In case you haven't noticed (here) I spend some time planning things in my non-existent house. The other day I was wandering Etsy's blog and found an interview with an artist who has a print that I want to base my non-existent son's nursery on. (I spend a lot of time planning for non-existent things.) It's a beach scene that says "If you want to know how much I love you count the waves." Beautiful.

I was telling Lee about this and how we could do a whole nautical thing around the print and it would be awesome. Lee's response?

"Then our baby could be in his crib and say, "I'm on a boat!"

Yes, the "I'm on a boat" featured below. I showed it to Lee last week and have not heard the end of "flippy-floppies." I must admit though, I love it too, and really want to ride around on a boat with this gem blaring from the speakers, while I wear my flippy-floppies.

Happy Memorial Day!

My soldier and I are celebrating by me not making him go shoe shopping with me! Exciting, I know. :)

Check us out at the Army Reserve Christmas Dinner in 2007.