Tag: Just b/c

Just because I want to

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The little things

Today I’m wearing a necklace that has been one of my favorites for about 10 years now. It’s nothing fancy, just a little silver necklace with some purple crystals every couple inches interspersed with pale lavender freshwater pearls. I wore it every day for the longest time after I got it, but it has since come to be worn mainly when it perfectly matches certain articles of clothing, like the lavender shirt I have on. Do you do that too? Match specific pieces of jewelry to corresponding outfits? It’s like I never think of some of my jewelry until I put on that one shirt or dress. Funny. Anyway.

The reason this necklace will always hold a spot dear in my heart is because it was the first gift R ever gave me. And I will never ever forget the moment either. It was my last minute in Madison before I had to drive home to Peoria and make the big move out to NYC in the summer of 2001. I think I moved out there July 1, so this would have been the last weekend in June when I left Madison. And it was the absolute last thing I wanted to do by then. For R and I had become so close (though we weren’t “dating”, mind you. that became official later), and I had some incredibly good friends who I couldn’t bear to leave. Fortunately they all came to visit me shortly after I moved out east, but still. The actual leaving process was horrible.

The whole day I was dragging my feet, putting off leaving as long as humanly possible. R had helped me load up the stuff I was taking in my car that hadn’t been shipped out on the moving truck, we grabbed some lunch at Qdoba on State Street, then we watched a movie over at their apartment on Dayton that afternoon. And believe me, those closing credits were the last thing I wanted to see. For they meant I had to go. So we were like ok, this is it. He ducked into his bedroom quickly as we were heading to the door, then walked me downstairs and across the street where I was parked. I gave him a big hug that I never wanted to end and said something dumb like, “Well, it’s been fun.” I honestly felt like I was never going to see anyone from Madison again, as crazy as that may sound. That’s when he reached in his pocket and handed me this little necklace.

I was absolutely floored. One, I was certainly not expecting a parting gift, but two, did this mean he actually had feelings for me beyond the “friends with benefits” thing? Holy shit! And now I’m literally getting in my car and moving 1,000 miles away?? Great timing. And I thought I didn’t want to leave earlier that day. Once he gave me that necklace I would have cemented my feet right there in the street in front of him if I could have. That was one long, lonely, confusing drive home.

Obviously he did have feelings for me, and I for him, which we finally admitted when we started officially dating a little over a month later. And whaddya know? We’ve been together ever since. Awww… sappy, I know. But sometimes it’s just the little things that really do mean the most. And every time I wear this necklace I’m taken right back to that day a decade ago when I first thought hmm, maybe this could actually turn into something more.

I love that the clasp is a heart

 

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Takin’ it on two wheels

This weekend was R’s annual family picnic up in the Sheboygan area, and man was it hot. It was this exact same weekend last year, and I remember that because it was the same day my mucous plug came out (oh yeah, that again) and 8 days before D was born. It was equally as hot last year, but this year’s weather was more bearable for the simple fact that I wasn’t carrying around an extra 30+ pounds and going to the bathroom every 15 minutes. This is always a fun event, because R’s family is big and they’re a blast. His mom is 1 of 9 kids (this is their side of the fam that gets together), so all of his aunts and uncles and cousins are constantly coming up with crazy stories. Plus this was D’s inaugural appearance as an outside baby, so of course she was the hit of the afternoon.

The Murray fam (some of 'em, anyway)

Yesterday was one of our few weekend days where we had absolutely nothing planned, so we took advantage of it not being quite so hot and horrible outside and loaded D up into the bike trailer for her first ride. There is an awesome path that runs from just a few blocks from our house all the way into and through downtown, so we hopped on that and cruised along. R had her hooked to his bike and I followed, and he said she looked a little apprehensive at first. But as soon as we were halfway down our block, all I heard for the next half mile was her nonstop giggles. We rode all the way down to the lakefront and to the little man-made peninsula just out from the Summerfest grounds. It was so nice down there, too. The sun had gone behind some cloud cover and there was a cooler pleasant breeze off the lake, so we stopped for a bit at the point in the park to get D out and let her look around. By the time we got home we’d been gone for 2 hours, so that was a great ride. It was still pretty nice since the searing heat hadn’t come back yet with the sun, so R and I both got runs in after the biking, too. Talk about studs! I just did my real quick route, since the last time I had to do a bike to run transition was in the last triathlon I did, 2 summers ago. I ran 1.44 miles in 11:15, for a 7:50 pace. R did a longer run, and I called him crazy.

Ready to roll
In the park w/Daddy
More park, w/Mommy now

This is the bike trailer we got, and it worked perfectly. It holds 2 kids, so when only 1 is riding in it, the straps just turn around and make a harness in the middle of the seat. D loved it, so hopefully we’ll have many more weekend rides in our future.

Then after our runs, showers, and a Goldfish snack for D, we walked up the street a few blocks to watch the last leg of the International Cycling Classic, which happened to be running right through our neighborhood. Talk about amazing! I don’t know how those guys don’t wipe out each turn, they’re going so fast. We were there for the start, which was an awesome site as the field of riders charged down the street after the race car, then separated into a group of 9 leaders followed by the rest of the field, a gap that grew from around 20 seconds to almost being lapped by the lead pack by the time we walked home.  We stayed for about 30 laps, which was just over half the race. What a cool event, and how fun to be able to get to watch it just a short walk from our house. They have it every year, but this was the first time we actually went up to see what it was all about.

And I’m sure you all heard about Amy Winehouse’s passing on Saturday. I can’t say it’s totally surprising, but a tragic loss of life nonetheless. And I did love “Rehab”. She joins the infamous 27 Club – Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Jim Morrison, Brian Jones, Kurt Cobain… R always said he was convinced he was going to die at 27, too. Sorry babe, I love you, but you’re not exactly the second coming of Mr. Mojo Risin. Sure glad you made it to this side of that fateful age, though.

 

p.s. One week from today I’ll have a 1 year old daughter. Wow!

 

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Did you know?

That it’s unhealthy to breathe someone else’s farts? Yours are totally ok to ingest, though.

 

Seriously, if you haven’t laughed yet today, go read this. I can’t believe I’m not dead yet, you know, living with R and D and all the ass gas they produce. I’m not kidding – D definitely takes after R in this respect. In fact, one of her favorite things to do first thing in the morning is rip a couple wake up farts as she’s scooting around in her crib. Like hi Mom, my butt wants to say I love you!

And wait, there’s more! Not fart-related, though, sorry to disappoint. But look at this awesome iPhone case I got yesterday:

Hi!

Are you kidding me?? How cute is that! One of the girls I raced with in the Milwaukee Challenge last weekend had one that she’d designed with a bunch of cool words on it, so I went to their site and made my own. It’s awesome – you can upload your own art or photos, pick from their stock art, or just start from scratch and make whatever you want. It arrived just 2 days after I ordered it too! Let me know if you’d like the site; I have some 20% off coupons too if you’d like to create your own.

And wait again! Guess what I did last night and the night before? You’ll never get it in a million years, so I’ll just tell you – I hung curtains in our bedroom! Um, so what? People hang curtains all the time. No, you don’t understand. This involved a power drill, drywall anchors, and a power screwdriver, 3 things with which I am completely uncomfortable. I don’t do power tools. None of them (yes, the 4 years and counting that we’ve spent remodeling our house has all been done by r). They scare me. Because I know that if I put a hole where a hole shouldn’t be, R will kill me. And I don’t just mean that metaphorically either. I’m pretty sure I would be in a body bag somewhere if I ruin our walls that he built. As such I have been terrified to adorn them. We barely have anything hanging in our house yet as a result. There are a couple pieces here and there, but those I was able to hang with simple hooks that go through the drywall and make miniscule holes that even R said are no big deal. We do have one big framed piece hanging in the kitchen, but he did that one since it involved drilling and anchors too. So you see, my hanging 2 curtain rods, which involved drilling 10 holes plus anchors and screws, is a HUGE accomplishment for me. The curtains are just cheapie ones I wanted to use to cover the lack of trim until we replace the windows and maybe get nice room-darkening blinds, so they’re no big deal in themselves. It’s my conquering the power tools and not ruining the walls that excited me most.

Ok, now class dismissed. Have a great weekend!

 

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I’m ba-ack

Hi! Home from vaca, and I’d be lying if I said I was happy about that. Those first couple days back after vacation are the worst. But we had a great trip, D was an awesome little car traveler (something about which we were worried since it’s a 12 hour ride), it was definitely a much-needed break from work, and I’m now nice and tan thanks to our beautiful weather up there.

I’ll be back later with some more posting, just wanted to let you know I’m in the house today. And I’ll give you a nice full photographic synopsis of last week once I go through all the pictures we took and get some uploaded.

I hope you all had a nice time while I was away. Just one thing – who ordered this heat and humidity? Ugh. Coming back to 90s wasn’t so nice.

 

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NY, my thumb, and a dog

Random much, SM? Yeah, I know it’s a weird title, but I didn’t have any good way to connect the 3 totally unrelated topics I wanted to write about this morning. So there ya go.

I know this is old news, but I felt I would be remiss in not mentioning it. On Friday of last week, NY became the largest state to recognize same-sex marriages. Awesome!! This has been a contentious issue across the nation for a very long time, and probably will be for years to come, but I was very happy to see this law passed. It’s one step in the right direction, anyway, in my opinion. I know so many people feel gay marriage is wrong, since in the Bible it says marriage is between a man and a woman, but you know what? I don’t care. I’m not religious (another entire post in itself), I’ve never read the Bible (i actually did start on that endeavor years ago, but didn’t get far at all. does anyone else find trying to read that language about as enjoyable as pulling out your eyelashes one by one?), and I don’t understand why a book written thousands of years ago is still considered relevant enough to rule our laws today. If 2 people are in love, want to spend the rest of their lives together in a recognized union just like the rest of us, and are doing no harm to either themselves or anyone else anywhere on the planet, why should they not get married? I still have not heard a good answer to that question, so I personally hope the rest of the states eventually follow NY’s lead. I knew I liked that place.

So remember how I was all excited about the gardens I planted last month? The veggie plants, the veggie seeds, the mulch? Apparently my green thumb wasn’t so green after all. None of the seeds had sprouted a few weeks later, so I just kept patiently watering and waiting. I was showing R where I’d planted everything one night, and he said, “You didn’t mulch over the seeds, did you?” Well yeah, don’t you see that beautifully spread mulch before you, right where I said the bean, cucumber, pea, and lettuce seeds are? “You can’t mulch over seeds, it’ll suffocate them, just like it does to weeds.” DUH, SM. Seriously, I’m stupid. Why this obvious and most logical of facts escaped me as I laid bag after bag of mulch over the entire seeded area, I have no idea. So yeah, I totally failed at the veggie gardens. The seeds, anyway. The plants are doing swimmingly, especially now that the sun has finally decided to remember that the Earth is down here. I pulled the mulch back in those areas where the seeds were to uncover the dirt and try to resuscitate them, but unfortunately only a couple pea plants have sprouted – no beans, no cucs, and no lettuce. So I finally had to resign myself to the fact that I killed them and needed to start over. Last night I got a chance to reseed the barren areas, so I planted more beans and lettuce; unfortunately the cucumber seeds were gone, and I figured I’d take my chances with 4 pea plants up so far before planting any more seeds in that part. Fingers crossed that this round survives and the sun helps them out this week, since each day looks like it’s going to be gorgeous. I had a little helper last night as I was working in the gardens, too.

Mommy & D in the backyard

 

And now for the dog part. This morning on my way to work I saw a dog, running with its leash attached, right down the middle of the road and onto an onramp to the highway! What the?? It was a pretty small little guy (i’m calling it a guy. it could very well have been a girl, for all i know), but he was moving like a bat out of hell. I didn’t see anyone chasing him, but I did see one car that was stopped just behind where I first saw him, so maybe she was his owner and he’d gotten out of the car somehow. She had to stop since the light changed, which allowed the dog to get even farther up the ramp toward the highway, so I really really hope that lady was his owner and was able to get him once her light turned green. I felt terrible for not stopping to try to pick him up. I always think oh yeah, I would totally stop to help an animal, but here I had a chance and totally didn’t. But I’m honestly not sure what I would have done with him had I nabbed him. I guess just taken him back to wherever his tags said, because I don’t know where any vets or animal shelters are around here. I still couldn’t help feeling a touch heartless. Please little doggie, be ok and back in your owner’s care!

 

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Last post on this, I promise

This article was published yesterday about the Bernie Brewer lawn ornament disaster, and it made me feel so much better about the whole thing. I didn’t know there was a “grand prize” Bernie, but I was beyond ridiculously happy to read this story of who found it.

And apparently the hoarder issued an apology too. That’s big of her and all, but saying you didn’t know you were only supposed to take 1 because you just followed what you saw on Twitter and didn’t read the official rules? Nice try, but Bernie tweeted numerous times to share with other Brewers fans if you found many of them and only take 1 for yourself. Try again next time, little Miss Hoardy McHoarderson, and learn to play fair!

Completely unrelated, but equally as heart-warming (or should i say, belly-warming?), check out what we had for dinner last night. I saw these online last week and couldn’t believe we hadn’t had them before! So R, being the absolute gem that he is, grilled them right up for us. You can read his synopsis of them over at TinySausage.

 

The Hamburger Fatty - yes, those are grilled cheeses for the bun

 

Inside the Fatty