Happy 2nd Birthday, Clo!

Two years ago today, our silly little lady was born. She didn't come home to live with us until 8 weeks later, but still. Today is her birthday, a momentous day for sure.

She's changed so much since last year. For starters, she's actually house broken. For the most part. Having a yard and a dog door did wonders in that regard. But her personality is different, too. Last year, she wasn't much of a cuddler. She was far too busy for affection unless she was exhausted. Now, she's a little lover, giving kisses and cuddles. She's still busy, but she takes time out of her busy schedule of collecting sticks and chewing tree pods to toss some affection our way. She still loves on Paisley endlessly. She licks her ears and her eyes, and always lays down as close as she can possibly get to her big sis.

Clover is still as funny as she's ever been, and has her particular little quirks. She doesn't sit down to scratch her ears, but rather balances on three legs. She races to the kitchen every time she hears the dishwasher open and "helps" me pre-wash the silverware (only when it's dirty, of course). She still loves buttons, and ruined a brand new comforter after only 7 days of use when she ripped a button off and kept right on going with the chewing. She loves when I break out the Hulk Hands and when Dan pretends to be an auctioneer a la Storage Wars and gets excited and barks playfully at us. At meal time, she follows me to the garage door, doing jumps and spins the whole way as she waits for me to fill her bowl. She loves to stand on Dan's chest and give him kisses, and she most often rests her head on his shoulder as she sits behind him on the back of the couch.

Our little Bug is just as sweet as can be, and I can hardly believe it's been almost 2 years since we brought her home with us. Tonight we'll celebrate with some special treats and extra kisses and hugs. Happy Birthday, Clover!!

Cafeteria Challenge Update: Day 24

This is the last week of the 30 day Cafeteria Challenge, and the last week and a half have been so-so. I did great with avoiding breakfasts and sodas, but I had lunches a couple of times in the last 12 days since the last update. One night, Dan decided he wanted sushi; another night, dinner didn't turn out so well. This past weekend, I didn't shop on Sunday, so I didn't have a salad for Monday. So I haven't saved as much. However, like I said, I haven't bought a single cafeteria soda in 24 days, and I've limited myself only to salads when I do get lunch from down there. So despite not pulling through on the savings, I've at least made better lunch choices and saved roughly $2 a lunch compared to the expensive entrees. In the last 8 work days (which equals 12 calendar days), I've saved $57.95, bringing the 24 day total to $150.45. Not bad. The goal is to finish out the remaining 4 work days strong and bank the last $24.

At least he didn't buy horses

When I was 9 or 10 years old, my mom went away to Kansas City for a teaching conference for several days, leaving me and Megan with our dad. From what I remember, it was an awesome week. We went to Grandma's for dinner a couple nights, and got to eat McDonald's. One night we had "yellow food day," where Dad made us corn, mac'n'cheese, and hotdogs with mustard. Awesomely clever. I don't know if it was inspired by his special dinner, but he also decided to paint the living room yellow that week. Like lemony sweet sunshine yellow.

In addition to yellow-ifying our lives, Dad also surprised us with something really special. Ponies! Er, horses. Like every little girls asks for. We got to go see meet them, and Dad traded our neighbors a case of soda or beer for use of their trailer to move the horses to a nearby friend's horse property where they'd be kept. Apparently, my parents had discussed this, but it was a big surprise for me and Megan. And when I say they had "discussed it," evidently my dad had mentioned he wanted horses "at some point." So you can imagine my mother's surprise when she came home a week later to find that her living room was painted yellow and she was told that we now owned not one, but two, Arabian geldings. Surprise!

This weekend, I headed to Tucson to see my friend, Rachel. I'm her maid matron of honor and she wanted to get the bridesmaids all together. When I asked Dan if he wanted me to take Paisley and Clover with me, he told me that he had big plans for their time together. He'd bought nail clippers and planned to give pedicures and baths. He also planned to do some other things around the house, but was kind of vague.

When I showed up at Rachel's house, her parents with there with their two dogs, whom Rachel and her fiance would be keeping for the night (in addition to me). Her mom was talking about how Rachel's dad had brought each of the dogs home without cluing her in, and I told her about how my dad had done the same but with horses, so it could be worse. We kind of laughed about how husbands are silly and forgot about it.

When I got home yesterday, I instantly noticed something was different. Dan had cleaned the carpet (yay!) and clipped a grand total of one dog nail ("but they're getting used to it")(yay, Clover!). I then glanced down the hallway and saw this:


That is my new blueish grey wall, a paint color that we apparently discussed - and I dismissed - back in our apartment-living days. It looks a lot more blue in the photo than it does in person. Dan decided it was the perfect wall for the color because it would make the pictures stand out more, and I have to agree. I really love it. But you'd better believe I checked the yard and the rest of the house for any more surprises, horses in particular. Don't worry, there weren't any.

Have your husbands every surprised you with a home decorating project and/or pet purchase?

My delusions will become reality

Dan and I watch a lot of cooking shows. Our favorites are the competition shows, especially with Gordon Ramsay. His flair is "stunning." We love when a mystery ingredient is revealed - we look at each other and ask, "what would you make?" When we're bored in the car, we play "Chopped" where we try to come up with the most jacked up combinations of foods (ribs, Cheerios, passion fruit and Jello, anyone?) to see what the other would make with them. It's a nerdy little thing we do, and cuisine is something we're both interested in.

All the cooking shows have ignited this fabulously inflated perception that I actually could cook like a chef. The reality is, we eat crock pot chicken weekly and I sometimes over-cook asparagus. While I may never actually get to go to culinary school, I'm inspired to at least try to expand my horizons and learn some new techniques. I've been keeping a mental list of things I see that I want to learn to make, and I've decided to create a sort of bucket list and challenge myself to learn them. Not perfect, but try. It may not be fabulous, but I want to at least give these foods a shot. Now some of these may make you say "pshaw, I make that in my sleep." Well, I don't. Feel free to share your recipe :)

My Cooking To-Do List:

• Risotto


• Lemon curd


• Ravioli from scratch


• Mascarpone


• Live lobster


• Tiramisu


• A grown-up Mac'n'Cheese


• Cornish game hen (just 'cause it sounds fancy)


• Beef Wellington


• Caesar dressing


• Ceviche


• Crabcakes


• Trifle


• Red wine reduction (I know! I should know how to do this)


• 3 gluten free dessert recipes


• Shrimp tempura sushi roll


• French onion soup


• Hollandaise sauce (I don't like it, but I feel like I should know how to make it)


• Stuffed french toast (a Chopped staple)


• Homemade tortillas


• Caramel

This list will, I'm sure, be expanded. These are just the items I've added to my mental list over the last few weeks, and I'm sure I'll come up with more. But I think it's a good starting point.

What's on your cooking to-do list?

Cafeteria Challenge Update: Day 12

Today marks day 12 of the cafeteria challenge. Last week was better. I had breakfast at work once this week because I was running late and didn't have the time to make my egg whites and turkey sausage breakfast. I also had a salad from the salad bar for lunch that day. That'll teach me for hitting snooze too many times. The rest of the week, though, I stuck to it. I saved $41.36 this week, for a running total of $92.50. That's scary. It's not always fun eating leftovers when there aremore tasty looking options downstairs (which I often get a sneak peak of when I go to refill my water). But it's worth it when I have the extra money we'd rather put toward other things.

In other news, have a house guest this week. My parents are in Seattle visiting my sister and brother-in-law, so we have their chocolate lab staying with us. it's been a bit of an adjustment. Emmy was anxious (understandably) the first couple of nights going to bed in our house and did some pacing. Yesterday when my alarm went off, she was right in my face at 5:30 wanting to play. She's such a sweet girl to have around though, and she certainly keeps Clover busy. I'm hoping I'll get to sleep in tomorrow, but I'm not betting on it - Emmy's got my dad trained to feed her early. But hopefully I'll be able to get a nap in.

Gallery wall: check!

I finally got something done I've been saying for weeks that I need to do: my gallery wall. I'm really happy with the balance and arrangement, and it's put together in a way that stuff can be added later. Check it out:





I didn't do it quite the way I'd intended. I read on Young House Love that they made a newspaper template for each frame, arranged the templates on the wall with painter's tape for the proper placement, then measured and nailed so that each frame would hang precisely over its template. Great idea in theory, but it wasn't visual enough of the actual finished product for me. I had a collection of mix'n'match frames, photos from 3 occasions, and black and whites to balance out. So I laid all the frames out on the floor behind the couch to see what they would look like, and moved frames around to get everything balanced: no alike frames next to each other, no pics from the same occasion next to each other. Then I called Dan over to see what he thought because he's got a great eye for balance. We only swapped two frames and then got to nailing.

The great part is that this project didn't cost me much. The four wedding photos were a gift from my mom. The three large 8x10's from our This is Life Photography shoot were framed with Michael's coupons for a total of about $45, most of which I used a gift card for. The remaining 6 frames were bought for $4.49 each at Target, and finished with $2.50 mats from Joann Fabrics. Not bad for a display that I'm pretty darn happy with.

Show Us Your Life: Marriage Advice

I haven't participated in it in a while, but today's Show Us Your Life on Kelly's Korner seemed fun. Today's topic is marriage advice. Now, mind you, I've only been married 21 months and 6 days, so I don't know everything. But I do know a few things.

- Laugh a lot. We laugh all the time. Dan is a funny, funny guy. Sometimes he just gets in these moods and his only goal seems to be cracking me up. Those are fabulous moments. And keep in mind they don't have to be funny to anyone else. Some people just would not get our humor, and that's okay, because we do.

- Never go to bed angry. People debate on this one. Some folks think that if you're mad, you should just go to bed and rehash it when you're rested and the emotions aren't so fresh. We, however, are strong believers in not going to bed angry. That doesn't mean we solve everything before bed and that we don't have more to discuss the next day, it just means we get ourselves to a point where we can calm down and discuss things enough that we still want to cuddle up to each other.

- Be each other's best friend. I know, another cliche. But this one is so true. I've heard people say it annoys them when wives claim their husband as their best friend. I have some wonderful girl friends, but to me, Dan is everything a best friend is supposed to be. He listens, solves problems, is my rock, and my shoulder. He knows my secrets, fears, hopes, and dreams. He can tell me when I'm wrong and I can respect that. I trust him above all else, and know he always has my best interest at heart. He's the first one I call/text (we're more texters than callers) when something happens. He's my favorite person to do just about anything with. And I'm all of those things for him. I know that's what a spouse is supposed to be, but to me it's also what a best friend is.

- The last bit of advice is from a person I love very dearly, my late uncle. He passed away three days before my sister's wedding, and I shared this piece of advice in my maid-of-honor speech. He told me that marriage is a journey, and it's a long one. It isn't meant to be perfect. There will be good times and bad times. There will be times when love falters, and that doesn't mean you give up. At times, you may fall out of love, but so long as you never fall out of love at the same time, you'll find each other again. I know, it sounds kind of Debbie Downer for marriage advice, but I think it's a good thing to keep in mind over the life of our marriage. We can't expect that every moment of every day of our life together will be bliss. We've been fortunate that so far things have been wonderful, but knowing that sometimes there will be low points when one of us struggles makes me feel a little more assured that everything will end up okay so long as we never both give up on each other.

Cafeteria Challenge Update: Day 4

I know I'm only 4 days into it, but I was just doing the math on my little challenge, and I'm amazed. I have only bought one thing from the cafeteria so far this week, and that was a salad today because I misjudged on my meal size last night, didn't have enough for Dan and I both to have lunch, and gave him the leftovers. Seeing as I have a cafeteria with relatively healthy options, and his non-leftover choices are fast food establishments, I'd say that was the best option for all parties involved.

Anyway, on to the numbers so far. I've saved $3.50 a day on sodas by bringing my own. Not to mention, I'm drinking less soda and more water, which is never a bad thing. I figured the average price per meal in the cafeteria is about $5.99, assuming a mix of salad bar days and hot entree days. That's just shy of $18 as of today. I tend to get a breakfast burrito once a week, and also do a weekly trip to Starbucks (makes Mondays better). Eliminating those saved another $9.60. Assuming I keep up the good habits tomorrow, I'll have saved $51.14 by the end of the day. Holy crap!

It's amazing to keep track and watch what's staying in our pockets because of making a solid effort to eliminate the cafeteria from my life. I've started dropping the daily savings into our savings account so I can literally watch my efforts add up, and that only adds to the motivation.

The Cafeteria Challenge

For the first time in far too long, I connected my checking account to Mint.com and started really looking at where my extra money is going. I was a little shocked at what I was spending on food in the cafeteria at work, especially considering that I buy plenty in groceries each week. My sodas alone were costing me about $3.50 a day (eek!) and I don't need that much soda anyway. It's rare to get out of the cafeteria with an entree for less than $7, unless I have a salad, and even then, salads here are for more expensive than they ought to be. And so, I made a mid-year resolution. My challenge for the next 30 days: no more cafeteria.

First, I went to Costco, and stocked us up on drinks. For 3 days worth of my cafeteria soda habit, I bought a 32 pack that should last me three work weeks, assuming 2 a day: on in the morning, and one with lunch. Comparable cost in the cafeteria: $56. Eek. I also stocked Dan up on Monster Energy drinks and Gatorade G2s. He drinks one Monster a day and 1-2 G2s with electrolytes to keep hydrated in the heat, so that should last him 2 weeks or more, as well. Savings to him: about $38. So if we're diligent and dedicated to drinking only from our little stockpile, we stand to save ourselves about $80 every 2-3 weeks. Scary.

On to the cafeteria food itself. It's convenient, but it comes with a price. It's expensive, first; and secondly, unless I get salad, I don't really know what's in it. And let's be honest, I don't want salad every day. I have some cafeteria favorites, but for the next 30 days at least (oh, panini bar, I love you), I'm challenging myself to eat only lunch that I bring in. The exception: I'm grilling chicken tonight for my own salads and I'll use the cafeteria's salad bar for some of the toppings. For $1.49 I can fill a small cup with egg whites, sunflower seeds, and olives. In comparison, a full salad would probably run me $5. I figured out that I can spend, on average, an extra $8 a week to make a large enough dinner to have lunch leftovers, and therefore save myself $6 a day. It's easy when put in terms like that.

Now of course, this is all stuff I knew. It's not like it's big news that I'll save by bringing in my own lunches compared to buying them. But it's a matter of setting a goal for myself and sticking with it. Amanda over at It's Blogworthy is doing an eat-in challenge - as in NO retsurant food - and, along with the evidence in my Mint.com account, inspired me to challenge myself to something similar. Not to mention, the extra money in my bank account will be nice. My goal is to save an extra $150 a month, and this challenge will go a long way in getting me there.
Wish me luck!

And now, we wait

Yesterday was our appointment with the infertility specialist. I was anxious all day. I didn't sleep well Sunday night because I had a dream that I overslept and got to work late, then couldn't finish work in time to go to the doctor. So I was wide awake at 3am freaked out about over-sleeping. So yeah, anxious.

Basically, some things were as I expected, and some things were better. I had a feeling that our game plan would include working on Dan's numbers first. The specialist wanted to re-test him right away (like, this week) but we both feel that it doesn't make sense to test again before making improvements. Even if we saw a 10% increase in results, we'd likely have to make improvements anyway, so why pay for 2 tests (I have coverage, but Dan isn't on my plan, so we're out-of-pocket for him)? So we were given a list of vitamins and other supplements for him to try. We're thinking we'll test again in 10 weeks, as that's about how long it takes for sperm cells to mature, and we want to see the full effect of the changes we make. The doctor thinks it's realistic to hope that we could improve the counts enough to make IUI successful, which is exactly what we hoped for.

So basically, we get a break. And we're actually okay with that. It's been fifteen months of thinking about timing and testing and everything. The last month or two have had the added stress of worry about test results and what they mean for us. We agree that taking the next 10 weeks (or longer if we want) to just live life is best for us. Once we get started with whatever treatment plan we go with, things tend to get more stressful and emotional than just "seeing how things go," so we want to be in a good place.

And no, we're not at all thinking that "taking a break" will lead to pregnancy. As of now, if none of the vitamins or supplements or other lifestyle changes make any difference, we have about a 5% chance at spontaneous conception (as in, not in a cycle, but ever), and even with some (say 30%, which may or may not be realistic depending on the cause of the deficiency) improvement, our chances are still far less than the average couple, and we also have my issue to contend with. So please, I know people are hopeful and rooting for us and I appreciate that so much, but please spare us the "see, you stop trying and it'll happen!" We have options, and we'll get to those. For now, we just wait.