As you can tell, it's kind of been radio silence around here. We were out of town this weekend for the first of our family Christmases and after one night at home I had to turn around and go out of town for work.
I always think I'll have so much time to write sitting alone in a hotel room at night, but somehow that doesn't happen. Monday nights are reserved for three hours of Love it or List it, of course. (I desperately wish they'd put that show online sometimes, as we don't get HGTV at home. If I'm ever in a hotel on a Monday night it's a big treat for me. I'm easily pleased.) Tuesday nights I realize I haven't gotten to any of the books or magazines I brought, and after that point it seems I'm too tired from working 10-11 hour days to focus on writing.
It's hard to believe this is my last work trip. I turned in my resignation a few weeks ago, did I tell you that? I told people at the Blathering and then on Twitter, so it seems most everyone knows, but I wanted to wait to really put it out there. My last day is January 10th and after that I'll be a stay-at-home mom. Kind of scary, but really exciting.
I didn't intend this to be a big revelation post; I was mainly going to explain why I don't have any Should it Stay Monday or date nights to talk about! I guess this solves the problem of when I was going to write about leaving work. See, I can get things done on hotel nights!
Anyway, I'll probably skip out on Should it Stay Monday and date night Wednesday again next week as a Christmas break and the following week my family is traveling to Memphis for the Liberty Bowl (go Cyclones!!!), but expect me to start clogging up your reader again after the new year...
I do have a book post that should be done sometime this week, but if I don't talk to you again, I hope you all have a wonderful Christmas, or a plain old great week if you don't celebrate:)
*Last night, I picked up the pillows on my hotel bed and found HAIRS on the sheet underneath. Gross.
Tuesday, December 18, 2012
Wednesday, December 12, 2012
52 Date Nights: Week 11, Re-read your wedding readings
Previous date night posts here. Free stay-at-home date night ideas PDF download here. (Not sponsored.)
While we were in the tent last week, we decided it would be a nice cozy place to tackle #25 Re-read your marriage vows and wedding readings. This one was tough, as we don’t have a copy of our marriage vows. We didn’t write our own, just assumed the church had standard ones. That was a bad idea. The pastor did not use standard vows, but wrote his own. I thought every church ceremony included the whole “in sickness and in health, til death do us part” stuff, but no. I dreamt about saying those vows for MONTHS. My whole life, really, and he didn't do them. I was really, really mad and disappointed. Still not over it, actually. This was my one wedding day and I didn’t get to say “til death do us part.”
In the interest of avoiding another rant, I won’t even get
(too much) into what he did use as vows. Let’s just say they included the lines
“I will submit to you” and gave all our guests the impression I’d never be making
a decision on my own ever again. I’m assuming the pastor’s views on submission
are more nuanced than that, but he did not do a good job communicating. Also,
in retrospect, asking him to do a short sermon without reading a transcript
prior to the ceremony was a bad, bad idea. I should point out we asked him to
base the sermon on one of our three readings (his choice as to which one) and he did not. On the plus side, pretty much everyone there remembers our wedding well! To this day we get remarks on the extremism of it. (Which I like, as it gives me a chance to clarify that's not exactly what we believe or how our marriage is structured.)
While we were in the tent last week, we decided it would be a nice cozy place to tackle #25 Re-read your marriage vows and wedding readings. This one was tough, as we don’t have a copy of our marriage vows. We didn’t write our own, just assumed the church had standard ones. That was a bad idea. The pastor did not use standard vows, but wrote his own. I thought every church ceremony included the whole “in sickness and in health, til death do us part” stuff, but no. I dreamt about saying those vows for MONTHS. My whole life, really, and he didn't do them. I was really, really mad and disappointed. Still not over it, actually. This was my one wedding day and I didn’t get to say “til death do us part.”
(Also, don’t give me that line about how being married is
the only thing that matters. Obviously the marriage is much more
important than the wedding, but it doesn’t mean the wedding doesn’t matter. If it did, why do we even have
weddings? Why not just go to the justice of the peace? We both believe in and
act upon “until death do us part” despite the fact we didn’t say it in front of
our friends and family, but that doesn’t mean there was no POINT in saying it. Also,
how belittling is it to say to someone who is planning a wedding or whose
wedding didn’t go like they planned “all that matters is that you’re married at
the end”? OTHER THINGS MATTER. Sure, they don’t have the lifelong consequences
your marriage does, but they’re not meaningless.)
(You know what else doesn’t matter? The fact some people don’t
say “standard vows”, either by not having a wedding ceremony or by deliberately
leaving them out. I made the choice
to say those vows - but didn’t communicate it well, which was my fault - and
just because some people choose not
to doesn’t mean the fact I didn’t get
to is OK.)
 |
| Let's take a break to look at me signing our marriage license! I'm still a big fan of the decision to do it during the ceremony. (I have no idea what's up with the lighting on my nose. Is that a shadow?) |
Anyway. We skipped the “recreate your wedding vows” part of this
one and just went through the readings, which were: Song of Songs 8: 6-7, Romans 12:9-13 and 1 John 4:7-12. We talked about why we chose
them and what we think about those choices now. It was quite nice, actually. I did not recreate my wedding
vow rant for Thomas. He's quite familiar with it, so that honor was given to you lucky people!
Tuesday, December 11, 2012
In case of death
Megan (a mortician) asked today what marks we have that
could be used to identify our bodies and whether our significant other could
identify us (risky question!). It made me think - I’ve always accepted without
question how on crime shows the husband or wife is always like “s/he had a
such-and-such shaped birthmark on the inner thigh!”
Seems like something a significant other would know, right? But I have no idea if Thomas has any birthmarks. Though, to be fair, I have trouble remembering where mine is, too. (It’s pretty light, but I did find it on my first try just now. I’m certain Thomas doesn’t know about it.)
So my list is pretty non-existent:
1. Stretch marks all over my stomach and bum from pregnancy and my upper inner arms and thighs from growth spurts as a kid. Though the older ones have faded so much you can’t really see much.
Seems like something a significant other would know, right? But I have no idea if Thomas has any birthmarks. Though, to be fair, I have trouble remembering where mine is, too. (It’s pretty light, but I did find it on my first try just now. I’m certain Thomas doesn’t know about it.)
So my list is pretty non-existent:
1. Stretch marks all over my stomach and bum from pregnancy and my upper inner arms and thighs from growth spurts as a kid. Though the older ones have faded so much you can’t really see much.
2. Slightly darkened skin (birthmark) on my stomach 4.5 inches to
the right of my bellybutton. (Yes, I am sitting at my desk at work with a ruler
on my stomach, so what?) (Also, that’s my right, not someone else’s right as
they’re looking down at my body trying to identify it. How am I supposed to say
that?)
That’s it. A tiny birthmark and run-of-the-mill stretch
marks. I suppose you could say I have a bunch of acne scars on my face, but
they’re not in memorable places and often fade away. I also have a mole on my
neck that might be identifiable if you compare pictures of me to my body, but
not in a place someone could describe as an identification. Plus, I have a
tendency to photo shop it out just to make everything more smooth in pictures.
(I’m usually photoshopping out acne scars and figure why not erase the mole,
too?)
I used to have a triangle-shaped scar on the inside of my right arm, near the wrist, from a cookie sheet. I was taking it out of the oven with a pot holder, but wasn’t good enough at keeping my arm out of the way. This was probably 12-15 years ago. For years and years it was a dark, noticeable scar. The pan was air-bake with a kind of lattice-y underside for the air pockets, and the somewhat distinctive pattern was burned into my skin.*
But it kept fading and fading and when I first looked just now I thought it was gone. I eventually found it, but no one would ever think it’s a burn mark – it just looks like (very) slightly discolored skin, like from uneven sunning or something. Really, it’s so light that if I pointed right to it people might say I was making it up and there was no discoloration.
Everybody cross your fingers I still have fingers in the case my body ever needs to be identified, because it looks like fingerprints are all I’ve got. That and dental records, I guess.
I used to have a triangle-shaped scar on the inside of my right arm, near the wrist, from a cookie sheet. I was taking it out of the oven with a pot holder, but wasn’t good enough at keeping my arm out of the way. This was probably 12-15 years ago. For years and years it was a dark, noticeable scar. The pan was air-bake with a kind of lattice-y underside for the air pockets, and the somewhat distinctive pattern was burned into my skin.*
But it kept fading and fading and when I first looked just now I thought it was gone. I eventually found it, but no one would ever think it’s a burn mark – it just looks like (very) slightly discolored skin, like from uneven sunning or something. Really, it’s so light that if I pointed right to it people might say I was making it up and there was no discoloration.
Everybody cross your fingers I still have fingers in the case my body ever needs to be identified, because it looks like fingerprints are all I’ve got. That and dental records, I guess.
*If I were on a really lame crime show, my mom could have
brought in the cookie sheet and the medical examiner would have matched the
marks on the bottom of the pan to my arm. Voila! IT’S HER.
Monday, December 10, 2012
Should it Stay Monday: Christmas outfit traditions
I keep forgetting to link my Style All Over posts here! Last
Thursday I wrote about what I normally wear for family Christmas celebrations.
We usually have five and I wear a nice sweater (or maybe shirt) and jeans to
four of them. Each outfit has to be different because we take LOTS of pictures.
(I suppose they don’t have to be
different, but I like it that way.)
P.S. I should say I'm talking about the picture-heavy family celebrations only. I do wear some of the same outfits I wear on those days to other Christmas parties. The set-in-stone outfit I mentioned above I wore to a Christmas party last night!
The problem is that four sweaters per year is kind of a lot.
I do repeat sweaters from year to year, obviously, but I try to at least dress
them a little differently – new jewelry, maybe a skirt instead of jeans. It’s
not that I mind wearing the same thing year after year, or even twice the same
year; it’s that I like variety. Aside from the Blathering the last couple
years, this is my one chance to really “plan” outfits with makeup and jewelry
and everything. It’s fun for me.
The main reason I go with sweaters is most of my family
dresses very casually for these things. At least half are also in
sweaters/jeans and the other half are often dressed down further. I don’t mind
this at all, but I don’t want to be the one person in a dress, you know?
Again, though, five outfits, four of them quite similar, is
a lot and usually only a couple of them end up being an ensemble I really love.
At least one, often two, I don’t feel good about at all. Take this sweater: it’s
static-clingy, yet lumpy, and, to top it off, uncomfortable. But it’s a red
sweater and therefore, in my mind, Christmassy. I think I wore it for two,
maybe three, Christmases.
 |
| Christmas 2009 with bonus baby Margaret! Also, 2009 Jessica needed to learn to accessorize. |
I don’t really expect anyone would vote for me to keep it
after I went ahead and said I just don’t like it and it doesn’t wear well, so I’ve already donated the sweater. I do want
your opinion on the overall issue, though. If I come up with two or three great
outfits, should I just wear them over and over? Or stick with my
something-different-for-every-celebration plan?
Like I said, I love planning five different options, even if
one doesn’t work out – as I sit there all uncomfortable, or at least thinking I
didn’t knock it out of the park with that one, I’m still loving the fact it’s
different and that I made an effort. I get a sort of perverse pleasure out of
it, actually, that makes up for the uncomfortable aspect. It’s not quite as
good, though, as the feeling of being in something I really love.
But the one outfit that’s set in stone already this year is pretty
dressy (meaning I might be out of place) and pretty distinctive (meaning we’ll
look back at the pictures of Christmas 2012 – which I actually do often – and
think, wow, Jessica really loved that dress, huh?), which makes me lean against
repeating it.
Basically, I’m going in circles over here. Does your family take a lot of pictures? Does that make it less likely
for you to wear an outfit more than once? What do you think I should do? Please comment!
What should I wear for Christmas this year?
What should I wear for Christmas this year?
P.S. I should say I'm talking about the picture-heavy family celebrations only. I do wear some of the same outfits I wear on those days to other Christmas parties. The set-in-stone outfit I mentioned above I wore to a Christmas party last night!
Wednesday, December 5, 2012
52 Date Nights: Week Ten, Make a Tent
Previous date night posts here. Free stay-at-home date night ideas PDF download here. (Not sponsored.)
When I read this one, I was thinking make a tent like you
did when you were a kid. A fort, really. You know: where the couch was one end of the fort and
you dragged the coffee table over to form another side, maybe stacked a bunch
of couch cushions on a third side, then draped a blanket over the whole thing.
Low tech, nothing too strenuous.
Well. Apparently when you tell Thomas to build a tent, he builds a freaking tent. Isn't it awesome? Don't ask me how to replicate it; all I can tell you is it calls for a lot of twine, binder clips, two coat stands, and a curtain rod. Also, concrete blocks (visible in the pictures below). Way at the top there you can kind of see the back end of the roof blanket is tied to the basement windows.
 |
| Clearly my contribution was vital to the integrity of the structure. |
Tuesday, December 4, 2012
November books, part 2
Three Wishes by Liane Moriarty
I picked this up because it's written by the author of What Alice Forgot, which I loved. I kept waiting for there to be some sort of plot. It's about triplet sisters and...that's pretty much it. One is having romantic troubles, one has marriage problems, and one is really stressed with her kids and small business.
The characters, especially secondary ones, were hard to keep straight. It took awhile to even be able to remember which triplet was which. I stuck with it only because I'd just returned several books to the library unfinished and I was desperate to finish something.
After that point (about halfway through), things picked up and I finally (mostly) figured out who was who. I actually liked the second half a lot. Still, I wouldn't necessarily recommend it.
Gypped: A Regan Reilly Mystery by Carol Higgins Clark
I seem to be on a roll with the 'fluff' books lately and this one is no different. I read Carol Higgins Clark's new book each year mainly because I prefer books where I know what I'm in for, even if it's so-so, over picking something new and being disappointed (see above!). Carol isn't the greatest writer (lots of telling instead of showing), but her books are fun and take a couple of hours, at most, to read. I wouldn't pay for one of them, but they're easy for me to put on my library request list. I went into this one with low expectations, as always, and was pleasantly surprised at how much I enjoyed it. Again, I don't think I'd recommend it, but if you need a beach read and agree to not expect too much, go for it.
Simplify by Joshua Becker
I got this for 99 cents on the Kindle a long time ago. Lately I’ve been desperate to pare down our stuff. I think I’m going to get this book Ashley recommended, but buying a book seems counter to “living with less,” doesn’t it? I’m annoyed the library doesn’t have it.*
I saw this in my Kindle library and thought it might be a good place to start. I figured out pretty quick why it was so cheap. It’s only 46 pages and basically an overview of reasons to be minimalist with big-picture, as opposed to detailed, advice. There were some good tips and its worth checking out if you’d like, but...it's not a book. 46 pages!
*Yes, I know I could buy a copy and donate it to the library when I’m done. That’s probably what I’ll do. But I haven’t managed to get over the “spending money” hurdle yet.
(Right now my husband is probably laughing so hard he’s choking, because I have a LOT of stuff and I hate getting rid of things. I’m one of those “But what if we need it?” people. I find the argument we could simply purchase a replacement completely unconvincing, as then I'm out money. But I’m working on it! I’m slowwwly getting rid of things I don’t need, even if they’re usable and could conceivably be helpful to have around. I don’t think I’ll ever be an actual minimalist, but maybe we won’t be swimming in every possession I’ve acquired since I was 8. My goal is to stay off Hoarders.)
P.S. Yes, I'm counting a 46 page "book" towards my reading goal. I figure since I also count 849 page books like 11/22/63 it all balances out.
After that point (about halfway through), things picked up and I finally (mostly) figured out who was who. I actually liked the second half a lot. Still, I wouldn't necessarily recommend it.
Gypped: A Regan Reilly Mystery by Carol Higgins ClarkI seem to be on a roll with the 'fluff' books lately and this one is no different. I read Carol Higgins Clark's new book each year mainly because I prefer books where I know what I'm in for, even if it's so-so, over picking something new and being disappointed (see above!). Carol isn't the greatest writer (lots of telling instead of showing), but her books are fun and take a couple of hours, at most, to read. I wouldn't pay for one of them, but they're easy for me to put on my library request list. I went into this one with low expectations, as always, and was pleasantly surprised at how much I enjoyed it. Again, I don't think I'd recommend it, but if you need a beach read and agree to not expect too much, go for it.
Simplify by Joshua Becker
I got this for 99 cents on the Kindle a long time ago. Lately I’ve been desperate to pare down our stuff. I think I’m going to get this book Ashley recommended, but buying a book seems counter to “living with less,” doesn’t it? I’m annoyed the library doesn’t have it.*I saw this in my Kindle library and thought it might be a good place to start. I figured out pretty quick why it was so cheap. It’s only 46 pages and basically an overview of reasons to be minimalist with big-picture, as opposed to detailed, advice. There were some good tips and its worth checking out if you’d like, but...it's not a book. 46 pages!
*Yes, I know I could buy a copy and donate it to the library when I’m done. That’s probably what I’ll do. But I haven’t managed to get over the “spending money” hurdle yet.
(Right now my husband is probably laughing so hard he’s choking, because I have a LOT of stuff and I hate getting rid of things. I’m one of those “But what if we need it?” people. I find the argument we could simply purchase a replacement completely unconvincing, as then I'm out money. But I’m working on it! I’m slowwwly getting rid of things I don’t need, even if they’re usable and could conceivably be helpful to have around. I don’t think I’ll ever be an actual minimalist, but maybe we won’t be swimming in every possession I’ve acquired since I was 8. My goal is to stay off Hoarders.)
P.S. Yes, I'm counting a 46 page "book" towards my reading goal. I figure since I also count 849 page books like 11/22/63 it all balances out.
Monday, December 3, 2012
Should it Stay Monday: Bubble Necklace
When everyone was buying bubble necklaces off ebay this summer I followed right along, because 1. I have very few necklaces, but want to be a necklace person and 2. I thought it would be an easy way to fancify any outfit (totally a word) - for example, for Christmas parties I could wear a nice black sweater, dark jeans, and the necklace. Basically, it was my way of getting out of having to wear a dress, which leads to heels, which leads to ouch. This is the reason I went with the red, because I couldn't really think of other occasions where an ostentatious necklace is called for and/or what color I would want the necklace to be if so.
When it arrived I realized I hadn't fully appreciated just how huge this necklace is. I've tried it on with many things and it always seemed like too much. But Christmas season is here and if I continue to not wear the necklace that has sat in my closet for six months, it's time to get rid of it.
Here is the necklace with the grey shirt I happened to be wearing Saturday. My post was going to be: See! It doesn't work! But...it kind of does. Do you think?
So I need two things: someone to tell me to just wear it already (OR just get rid of it) and an idea of what I should wear it with (Only plain shirts/sweaters? Or are patterns/stripes okay? Crew neck? V-neck? What do YOU wear it with?)
P.S. The pic is updated to show a shorter length. I finally got it to work.
When it arrived I realized I hadn't fully appreciated just how huge this necklace is. I've tried it on with many things and it always seemed like too much. But Christmas season is here and if I continue to not wear the necklace that has sat in my closet for six months, it's time to get rid of it.
Here is the necklace with the grey shirt I happened to be wearing Saturday. My post was going to be: See! It doesn't work! But...it kind of does. Do you think?
So I need two things: someone to tell me to just wear it already (OR just get rid of it) and an idea of what I should wear it with (Only plain shirts/sweaters? Or are patterns/stripes okay? Crew neck? V-neck? What do YOU wear it with?)
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