goal update

Here is another update on my 101 in 1001.  I'm making pretty good progress I think.

Goals:

31. Find a great shade of red lipstick and feel confident wearing it.  - in progress

I bought this tube of red Cover Girl lipstick on a whim at Walgreens one day. I slapped it on casually one evening to try it out and it wasn't exactly met with rave reviews.  Isaac and Ryan both had reactions that can only be described as "disturbed", which certainly didn't make me feel confident about wearing it.  They both seemed genuinely upset by the color. I thought it was a bit too orange but not THAT bad.

  I went to take it off but found that I couldn't. It must be a long wearing formula because it would. not. come. off. Even the next morning it was still quite visible on my lips. I ended up taking a makeup removing wipe and aggressively scraping it off my lips. My friend Diana sells Mary Kay and gave me a ton of samples of lip stuff so the search continues.

61.  Get a physical.  Completed 1/21/2013  Not too much to report.  It was fine.  It has been a while. 

93.     Watch 5 football games with Ryan without complaining.

• Superbowl 47 - 2/3/2012  - I wasn't too impressed (aside from Beyonce's half time show-- LOVED that).  I mostly browsed blogs and surfed the net, but Ryan seemed genuinely excited that I was watching with him.  It occured to me that he often does things with me that aren't of much interest to him, for the sake of spending time with me, but very rarely do I do him the same favor. 
 

YOLO Monday

I posted before about how I was starting to feel just overwhelmed with things. The universe decided to give me a bit of a break. The court case I was going to be a witness in was settled, so I don't need to devote time to prepare and go to trial. I am a little disappointed, because I thought it would have been a fascinating thing to be a part of, but it is nice to have something instantly taken off my plate. I sorted out my health troubles, and am on some huge horse pills antibiotics that left me feeingl much better. I finally made progress on some things for the wedding that I just felt stuck on thanks to my devoted and patient mother.  Also Isaac is on a new medicine that seems to be helping with his vomiting. So those are all big improvements from this time last week.
 
Ryan, his mom and his sister joined me for the Home Show in Philadelphia. The night before I decided to make some oatmeal chocolate chip cookies to bring along as a snack.  Typical me though, somehow I forgot to put the flour in and this is how they ended up.  Whoops.

We got up nice and early and drove into the city for the Home Show.   There was a groupon for admission tickets so we ended up getting two tickets for free.  Ryan's mom was so excited to see that  Action News from Channel 6 was there.  She volunteered to be interviewed and we were all tickled to see that they included her interview on the 11:00 news.

 Here is a picture of the a screenshot.  You can see me and Ryan and his sister Katherine behind us.

The Home Show was a lot of fun.  There were so many neat displays and my "Maybe SomeDay This Might Be Within the Budget Wishlist" keeps growing.  I ended up getting some cleaning products, a soup mix, scheduling some consult appointments with a home security system and an organizer.  We also spent quite a bit of time at the Sleep Number Bed display.  We might be buying one of these in the near future.

It was a fun day and nice to spend some time with Ryan's family.

What else?

How fun is this sweatshirt I got from super clearance from Forever21?

I don't remember exactly how much it was... definitely less than 10 bucks.

I actually watched the whole Superbowl for the first time, ever, I think, since Isaac and Ryan really wanted me to join them.  I really enjoyed Beyonce's performance, especially her all girl band.   Fingers crossed this week goes quickly.... Only a few more weeks till our wedding!

Random Thursday

Hey, hey! It's not Friday yet, but welcome back to another

 

I have my very own Random Thursday button now.  How frickin' sweet is that?

 

When I met Ryan, there were probably about two shows I watched with any kind of regularity.  Ryan loves TV and he has hooked me on so many more shows that I really enjoy: Under Cover Boss, CatFish, Switched at Birth, The Carrie Diaries, Joe Schmo Show to name a few...  He also has a penchant for truly *bad* TV (American Idol and The Bachelor, I'm looking at you...) 

 

At any rate, the topic for this week is  
 

Here are some I wasted my life on... (and I hope I am not dating myself too much with a few of these)

1. Who Wants to Marry a Mult-Millionaire?
Long before The Bachelor and The Bachelorette, there was Who Wants to Marry a Multi-Millionaire?  This aired when I was in college and is one of those shows I remember us all piling into a tiny dorm room to watch.  It aired as a two hour special.  I remember as I watched it feeling partially fascinated and partially disgusted.

2. Dinosaurs
Creepy Jim Henson Dinosaurs.  The main joke was the baby always hitting his dad in the head with a frying pan shouting "Not the Mama!"  Fun fact: the series ended when an asteroid hit the earth killing all dinosaurs and had a "Warning, this may be disturbing to young viewers" message before it aired.



3. Dora the Explorer
I was lucky that when Isaac was a preschooler he took only a fleeting interest in this show.  It could have been so much worse.  She addresses her viewers directly and then stares creepily at you during an uncomfortably long pause while you have to decide if it is less bizarre to answer her or ignore her.

4.  American Idol
I'm sorry but this show just needs to end.  I have never gotten into the series really.  When I worked at a group home, the staff would often put it on in the evenings, so I have sort of followed other seasons in a disinterested way.  I have caught a little bit of this season and it has hit a new low now that this is the panel of judges:

Nicki Minaj is HORRIFIC.  Enough said.

5. A Baby Story on TLC.
 It pretty much has the same plot: a lady is pregnant and excited and then she has a baby.

Quickly

• I ended up in the emergency room Friday night after I finally called my doctor about a nagging ache in my side.  That combined with my low grade fever, nausea, and general feeling of "blah" left him convinced I could have appendicitis.  Two rounds of blood work, an IV bag full of fluids and a CAT scan later, it turns out I just have a terrible UTI. 
• Wedding planning is still causing me to lose a lot of sleep.  There are a few important elements still aren't in place, RSVPS that haven't been returned, things I still need to do, people that need to be called, etc, etc, etc.  I either can't fall asleep at night and/or I wake up at night for whatever reason and then my mind starts racing and I can't fall back to sleep.  No bueno.
• Isaac is also throwing up all the time in school (but never at home...).  Their policy is barf = you have to go home that day which has necessitated a lot of juggling around of schedules on the part of me, my mom and Ryan.  One of us has to drop everything to pick him up, and then watch him for the rest of the day as he runs around the house, fever free and full of energy, eating everything in sight.  I dunno if he is making himself throw up, or faking it, or if he might have some kind of reflux or what, but it's getting old.  Yesterday when the school nurse called me at work again, she sort of got the brunt of my anger.  I was like "I'm a working mom!  I'm a teacher! Did anyone actually see him throw up?"  He got a big lecture from me last night about faking it, and I scheduled him a doctor appointment later in the week to rule out reflux or something.  Any suggestions or ideas on that front are welcomed. 
• In addition to all that I have going on in my life, in a moment of temporary insanity I agreed to be a witness on a courtcase.  I was just served my subpoena last weekend. A lady I worked with when I bought my house was fired from her company for shoddy work performance and is now suing them claiming she was fired because of her race and gender.  The company I guess started going through their files and found my scathing write up of my experience working with her and now wants to use me as part of their defense.  Which I think is actually really interesting and I would like to be of assistance.  It is unfortunate that the timing is early February.  
• Anyways, this isn't meant to be a list of complaints.  There are so many good things happening in my life right now too. My parents and Ryan's parents finally met each other at a nice dinner hosted by my parents.  I think everyone was a little nervous but all was well and the world didn't end.  We also had a nice birthday dinner for my dad on Sunday and played Apples to Apples.   My brother Tom inspected my car, so miraculously the 2003 Alero remains roadworthy for another year (or until she is replaced by a minivan or SUV crossover, you know, whichever comes first).  There was a Groupon deal on tickets to the Home Show in Philadelphia, so we are taking Ryan's sister and mom next weekend and they seemed so pleased.  Ryan and I have seen some great movies: Argo and Silver Linings Playbook.  Highly recommend both of them.  Finally, my brother gave the three of us tickets to the car show in Philadelphia and we had a great time.  Here is a picture from there:

 

So that's the update!

 

the end of an era..

I saw this on Pinterest and it totally cracked me up.

Source: mlkshk.com via Lee on Pinterest

This is so my life right now.  Case in point: when Ryan and I go to the movies now, we opt for the 6:45- 7:00 show instead of the 9 or 10:00 show.  And when I look around, we are the youngest people in the theater.  It feels like going a late movie is just too exhausting anymore or something, which just makes me feel ancient.  What's next?  Eating my dinner at 4:30 and going to bed at 8:00?

 

The second piece of evidence over the weekend that reminds me of my age is the fact that I test drove one of these bad boys over the weekend:

 

My little Alero is still going strong, but it won't run forever, and Ryan and I really feel it is important to have a vehicle that can fit all four of our kids. I went in with my heart set on the Traverse, but a minivan is considerably more afforable than the Traverse.  It was just a test drive though, cause they only had two white minivans and I won't drive a white car.  So that change is potentially on the horizon in the next few months.  My kid may play soccer, and I may end up driving a mini-van but I still WON'T wear mom jeans.  I promise.

Seriously.

I bought my Alero when I was 22.  It has been the car all through my 20's.   Minivans are for people in their 30s and 40s and that is me now I guess.  It's a major mind shift.

Random Thursday

Wow.  Well first of all I know if I found 100 dollars I should do something boring with it, like put it towards a bill or Isaac's lunch account or something.  However, I am approaching this prompt from a pure fantasy angle.  What can I blow 100 bucks on?

I love to buy make-up....  I have had my eye on this little palette since it came out.  I love the Naked eyeshadow palettes, so I am curious to try some of their new face products like this little number..

and there would still be plenty left for a set of these 24/7 eyeliner pencils, in, like, every color. 

And if I wasn't going to go hog wild on make-up, I would love to pick up some shoes.  I have been craving pink sparkly Tom's since the summer.  They would leave money to spare...

If I was feeling a bit more practical, I would probably put it towards a purchase for the house.  There have been several times in the past few months (fishtank leak, dishwasher plumbing deluge, Christmas tree needle explosion) when I wished I had one of these...

 What would you do if you found $100?

Goal Check Up

So I have started in on my 101 in 1001.

9.  Try 50 new recipes. 

When Isaac was home "sick" the other day, I made copycat Starbucks Lemon Pound cake.  Ryan loves all things lemon and had specifically requested a lemon pound cake.  I found this recipe when I perusing Pinterest and it got rave reviews.  It is moist and sweet. I don't think her blog permits me to post her pictures here, and I didn't take any of my own, but check out her post.  It's fool proof! The icing didn't turn out as pretty as hers did, but this recipe was definitely a success.  I only have one loaf pan, so I used my jumbo muffin tin for the other half of the batter and they turned out great as muffins too. 

62. Go to the eye doctor. 

While this is relatively dull to blog about, I thought it would be an easy one to cross off the list and get the ball rolling, so I called and made an appointement to knock this one out over Christmas break.  I hadn't been to the eye doctor in years.  Fortunately, everything is great.  My vision is good and my eyes are healthy.  Apparently my over the top obsessiveness with wearing sunglasses has paid off.    One item down, 100 more to go!

81. Visit 10 museums. 

Ever since Ryan and I met each other, he had talked about how much fun it would do some of the touristy things in Philadelphia-- he specifically wanted to go to the National Constitution Center. So we finally carved out some time yesterday and headed into the city.  It was a bright sunny and warm day (for January) and we really enjoyed ourselves.

As usual, there was a protest going on outside the Constitution Visitor's Center.  I love a good rally and Ryan humored me and let me hang around for a while, and sport my sticker.

First we hit up the Liberty Bell, which I don't think I had visited since probably middle school.  They have totally renovated the little building that houses the bell, and it was interested to read all about it.  I always think of the Liberty Bell being a symbol of freedom during the revolutionary war, but it was interesting to read how the abolitionists used the bell in their campaign against slavery and how it became a symbol of civil rights.  Visiting the Liberty Bell is also totally free. 

From there it was a short walk to the National Constitution Center, a huge white building with the words "We the people..." written across the facade.  Ryan and I found all of the exhibits to be so uplifting and inspirational.

 

It really made the whole Constitution come alive.  Our favorite exhibit was all about prohibition and the roaring 20's.  It was really well done.  Here I am campaigning for women's right to vote. 

And getting booked with some notorious gangsters...