Thursday, July 9, 2009

My Favorite Tree

This is a prelude to many more pics I'll be posting in the near future (hopefully!). No time to post today but here is a pic:


This is my favorite tree in our yard. It is at the front left hand corner of the house, facing the house from the street. I was so excited that it was there when we bought the house. I love watching it change from season to season.

Thursday, July 2, 2009

I've Been a Blogger for 6 Months

and I am a crappy blogger!

There's no doubt about it. I'm a much better blog reader and commenter than an actual blogger. I think about posts I want to write all the time but I just don't end up doing it.

It takes me a long time to write a post. I write, edit, rewrite, re-read, edit, etc about a million times. I've always been like that. Slow but thorough and detailed. I don't really know if that's a good thing or a bad thing but it makes me avoid posting because it takes so long. (Yet, then I spend hours upon hours reading other blogs - haha)

In my first post (yeah, ever) I listed some current events and I never updated on them. And, updates are fitting, since today is my 6 month blog anniversery (just realized that!).

Current Events Update
-Grandmother visitation isn't going so well. I said I wanted to make it a point to visit more often and I've been twice this year. Granted, that is more often, it's not as often as I planned. My grandma and our communication are an entire post of thoughts in and of themselves. I won't get into it now but I am going to make a note for a possible post (that probably won't ever get written) about it later.

-Basement renovation is still dragging on and on but it's coming together. We kicked out our crazy contractor and will not ever have him in our house again. Everything is painted (by me), except 3 cabinet doors and the trim/door of the main room entrance. We bought some nice furniture, a soft area rug, and moved our entire office into the basement (it stays the coolest down there which is all the better for my eskimo husband and his beloved electronic equipment).

It's really a nice space now (if a little dark) and I'm actually happy it flooded. It gave us the motivation to get it done and now it's a lovely, usable space. I'm always intending to take and post pics... someday maybe.

Our house is box-free with everything now stored in the storage part of our basement. It's so nice not to have clutter everywhere like there was back in January.

-Our Christmas tree actually was taken down within a reasonable time (hah I'm blogging about my tree on July 2nd!), then had months to dry out at our friends' house, and then we set it on fire at our annual tree-burning. I have great pics and a video of that, too... must start posting pics!

~~~+++++++++++++++++++++~~~

A Few More Things
(aka bloggy 52-card pick-up; or, things-I've-meant-to-blog-about-but-didn't)

-I haven't started running again. I came VERY close this past Tue but then I didn't go. I'm still planning on it and feel closer to actually getting out there than I have since I stopped at the end of May. C'mon Jill! Yes, it sucks but you LIKED IT! Don't you remember? YOU LIKED IT!

-I've never been to a wedding (except my own). Is that weird? R and I have been invited to a friend's (I say "friend" very loosely as we do not regularly talk to this person anymore) wedding in August. I'm not sure if we'll end up going but I'd say chances are good. It's in western Ohio, which is not close, so I'm not even sure how we'll get there. One time, we drove to and from Chicago in 3 days... that was unpleasant. This upcoming wedding, with a bunch of people I don't know, gives me some more motivation to get back to running.

-I go through moods (common, I'm sure) of happy - our life is really good, to moods of sadness/regret - life is not going well. This past weekend was one of the good ones. I was mostly caught up on work and did not have to work from home much, I got some good housework done (major cleaning of all the cat-boxes, dishes, laundry), we spent some time playing video games with R's friend, and our new living room couches were delivered (which we love). Everything was so nice and my mood matched.

-My mood went downhill as the week progressed. I've been contemplating a post on regret lately. It may be my next very "Pity Boat"esque post (beware). Wallowing in regret makes me feel very lonely. *big, dramatic sigh*

-My b-word is very soon and I'm not looking forward to it. This is weird since I normally love that it's on a holiday and am glad to celebrate with the people I love. This year, I want to hide from it. People keep asking what the plans are and I don't want to decide.

-Currently in the "no hope" point in my cycle. I never know when or if I will O so I mostly try not to think about it. There's nothing I can do. I've tried everything and am so sick of it all - especially the obsessive nature of it. I'm thinking about going back to the RE to ask them some more questions and see if I can get some additional blood work. Since ART is not an option for us, I'm at a complete stand-still and just waiting for a "miracle" cycle that will prove that MYTH wrong.

-R's father had some issues in early June which ended up showing that his heart was randomly stopping for up to 30 seconds at a time (something like that). He finally went in a few weeks ago and had a pace maker put in. He is doing well. Last weekend we went to their house for a "Yay, I'm not dead" barbecue that he wanted to have. R's parents are older and always remind me of the fact that I wanted to have children in my 20's, not my 30's. (totally no offence meant to the 30+ mom/TTC crowd - it just wasn't in my plans and is proving hard to accept)

-Still taking River to weekly agility classes. It's an hour of mostly enjoyable time per week for him and I to spend working together and bonding. He does really well - it's me needing to learn to direct, more than him needing to learn the obstacles. Competition may be in the future for us.
(if you don't know what agility is, and you like dogs, watch this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xWMS8kEBLdo&feature=related - it's not awesome quality but it gives a great idea of what River and I do for an hour every week! :) btw, it's just a random video - not us and no one we know)

If you made it this far - Thanks for reading! I hope everyone has a wonderful, long (hopefully!) weekend :)