New Year

I’ve never been much for resolutions, in fact I’ve never made any. This year I want to make just a few.

1.) Trim a few pounds. I’m not overweight by any standard but I’m 20 pounds heavier than this time last year. My dad’s side of the family is all overweight, while I take after my mom I better get control now just in case.

2.) Start working towards a debt free life. I’m not going to use credit on anything (unless emergency) and start paying much more than the minimum payment on my car.

3.) Study!! I take for granted too often that I’m smart and skate by. I’m taking 6 classes in addition to teaching one so my goal is to actually study! We’ll see.

Have you made your resolutions yet?

Christmas

Ho ho ho! Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas Eve!

Merry Christmas Eve!

Most of you are probably getting ready for a busy weekend ahead! Not me! Jealous yet?

We celebrated last Saturday when my mom came down from Iowa. It was the first time she brought her boyfriend too (we’ve met him before and like him.) My brother and his wife were able to come as well. W and I decided to go ahead and exchange gifts when they were here, mostly because it was killing us to exchange them. W got me an iPad. I can’t lie… I was half expecting it but soooo excited.

My sister in law was the main event though, she brought homemade cake balls! These are old news to most but brand new to me. If you don’t know it’s cake crumbles mixed with frosting then dipped in chocolate. They are amazing. And helping to contribute to my winter weight gain! Here’s a pic of SIL’s:

I’m suppose to take dessert to W’s family on New Years so I thought I would try these. Tonight was the trial. I don’t cook. I don’t bake. I barely microwave. All in all they turned out well. Next week I’ll make some minor adjustments and hopefully be the talk of the party :). Here’s my first try:

ICLW Question

We had our Christmas this weekend and have 4300 pounds of leftover ham. (That may be an exaggeration.) What are some recipes and ideas to use the leftovers?

Christmas time

I finally have time to breathe! I finished finals on Friday and my mother was in town this weekend!

Finals went well. All the finals were standardized, nationwide exams written by the American Chemical Society. Standardized tests give me a little extra freak out but they all went well.

My last final was Friday morning, then it was rushing around town to pick up groceries and last minute presents. The weekend went well, my mom didn’t stay nearly long enough but she only had 3 days off and lives 7 hours away. It was great to see her and the fam.

This side of the family hasn’t exploded into pregnancy and babies yet, thank god. I can’t help but think my brother and his girlfriend will be next though. We have two more celebrations to go. Christmas at W’s family on new year’s and my dad’s sometime in January. I love love W’s family but everyone but us has kids. It’s a nightmare. At least no one this year is pregnant!

If you are TTC or living child free, how do you handle the holidays? When we were TTC and after the m/cs we didn’t go to a single family get together.

Midnight Show off!

It’s time for the weekly midnight show off! I bought this for W’s Christmas present! Shhh don’t tell 🙂

Let me know what you’re showing off!

Best Friend

“Best” friend is having the baby. I can’t believe how much joy I lack for this. Granted she lives 17 hours away so I can’t be there to maybe get excited.  I’m not sad. I’m upset. I’m angry. I’m jealous.

I’m sure she’ll have a super perfect baby that doesn’t cry and sleeps through the night. (Kidding of course) But she’s always had an easy life with no real worries. She went from her parent’s house to her husband’s house. Never paying bills or worrying about anything. She had her college completely paid for with no debt. It’s just not fair. I just want ONE thing in my life to be as easy as her whole life.

I work hard and study harder.  The only real joy I have left is Chemistry.  I just practiced my presentation again for tomorrow’s final quantitative chemical analysis presentation. I researched atomic absorption, created an ungrad lab we could actually use and tested 9 times. With great results!!  I’m determining the concentration of zinc in a multivitamin.  It was much more difficult that I initially thought but worth it! Other people in my course did easy things like caffeine in tea. Actually only 2 groups didn’t do caffeine in pop, chocolate, tea, or coffee. And I didn’t even allow myself a lab partner. Something about doing it completely alone makes the reward much greater. Oh goodness Chemistry rant! 

One more… studied my ass of for my organic II test and made a 96%. Beat class average by 40 and the next highest grade is a 72!

I like how bragging about chemistry made me feel so much better. I’ll have to thank my mentor in the morning for that.

Wish me luck on my presentation! (And on getting over the jealous anger.)

XoX – L

LFCA

http://lostandfoundandconnectionsabound.blogspot.com/

Today I am in the ‘new blog’ section of the LFCA.  For those that don’t know, LFCA is a centralized meeting spot for the adoption, loss, and infertility community.  It keeps you up to date on the happenings, like new blogs, birthdays and anniversaries, loss remembrances, loss announcements, birth and adoption announcements and general support for people in the community.  If you haven’t checked it out, I highly recommend it.

You can send in your own news or someone may send it in for you.  It was so nice when a friend on my old blog sent in my loss remembrance.  It really helped me get through a tough time and it’s a great way to find new blogs to read.

Sending thanks to Mel over at LFCA for all her hard work!

Warren Theater

I don’t usually review things but I have to tell you about our movie experience last weekend.

It was our double date with another childless couple and at their suggestion we tried a new theater.  The cost was $18 a ticket, which is a little steep in my book but was totally worth it.   They are bringing back the experience of the old theaters with ushers and a curtain rising before the movie.  We went upstairs to the balcony lounge (21+) and checked in.  We were a little early so we sat and had a drink at the bar.   Soon they announced they would be seating our show.  We check in again and are walked to our balcony seats by an usher. The whole balcony is 21+ which is an amazing idea for an infertile couple!  At this time, they gave us a menu and explained the process since we had never been.  There are little tables to every two recliners.   The usher then showed me where the SEAT WARMER button was.  We were also given a full dinner and drink menu.  The ordering process was the most fun- there was a button on our little table  for the waiter!  I had a few glasses of wine, spinach artichoke dip and apple cobbler ala mode.  It was a great experience and a nice getaway from all the kids (especially in Harry Potter.)

http://www.warrentheatres.com/moorebalcony.asp If you are ever in Oklahoma or Kansas I highly recommend experiencing this for yourself!

Harry Potter

This evening W and I will be on our first double date. Sounds silly because we’ve been together 4 years.

It was the Tuesday of our honeymoon that I found out we were pregnant for the 2nd time. The next month we weren’t allowed to be intimate, thrice weekly blood draws, a due date on my husband’s birthday and ending in a very emotional miscarriage. It was a hard d&c with infection that kept me on bedrest another month.

Needless to say we didn’t start marriage in a traditional manner and we just couldn’t be around people having children.

I work very occasionally at the local hospital and just happened upon an 8 week contract in transplant a few years ago. Lucky to find A. Her and her husband are a little older than us and have decided to live childfree.  We have such a connection through our humor and world view- it’s about damn time we get this friendship rolling!

Cut to tonight. Tonight’s double date is at the “fancy” theater to watch Harry Potter. We have balcony seats, which are 21+, with a server a button press away. We aren’t big drinkers but the option for beer or wine at the movies is amazing!  A’s husband and W will finally be meeting.  I’ve met him and W’s met A but it just hasn’t worked out to all be together.