Inspirations

Jason and I are on the SixthMan advisory board for the Phoenix Suns and their season ticket holders. Our first meeting was last Saturday before the Utah Jazz game. We are 2 of about 45 people, some of whom have had tickets for all 41 years, some of whom are in their second year, some full season, some half season. We met in one of the Suns War Rooms that sits right over the Casino Arizona Pavilion. The first meeting was mainly introductory, we all introduced ourselves and gave one suggestion or gripe that we had. Many ticket holders complained about the lack of leg room and when people need to get by them to get to their seats and the fact that their season tickets no longer come with perks when its time to renew their tickets. Sure, those are complaints, but they are not going to tear down the arena! And, they haven't needed any perks for renewing because there has been a wait for a few years for tickets thanks to the D'Antoni era. Silly people. I hope they wise up and learn to suggest something else.

In other news, a friend of mine decided recently to participate in a women's only sprint distance triathlon this coming May. I was listening to her talk about it and I thought, that I would not do a marathon, (no way I would want to run 26 miles!) but that a triathlon (especially since I did swim for so many years) sounds doable. This triathlon has a 1/2 mile swim, 14 mile bike ride and a 3 mile run. Not too bad. So, after some thought and talking with Jason and my mom, I am going to aim to do it as well. I hope she doesn't think I'm stealing her thunder, because that is not how I intended it. She just inspired me to jump in and do it too. The only thing standing in my way is getting a bike for the race. The bikes can be pretty expensive... I don't want to spend a whole lot of money on a bike if this is only going to be a one time thing. I figure if I do like it and enjoy it, I can always upgrade later. Anyone know where I can get a bike from? Nah, that's ok. I'll keep checking out craigslist and ebay for one. Hopefully that will do the trick.

Well, I'm off to a Wrapping party, time to hang out with friends and wrap presents and drink cider!

Christmas TIme is Here

Jason and I after hosting Thanksgiving in our apartment last year for 12, decided to spend it alone, just the two of us. I don't see us doing that often as I think it is meant to be spent with your family but that is what Jason wanted to do and my family flew to Mississippi to be with my grandma and Jason's parents were thinking of going camping.

It was a nice relaxing day though. Jason cooked a turkey breast for us to eat and some of the traditional sides. We spent the rest of the day putting up some of our indoor Christmas decorations and getting our game plan together for how we were decorating the outside of our house.

Black Friday came, we were up at 4am. I had never participated in Black Friday before and it was something I really wanted to do. Especially as the economy is not great right now and we knew the sales were going to be really good. Jason went to Best Buy to get presents for his parents and then when he got out (20 minutes after they opened) he met me in line at Target waiting for them to open so we could buy presents for my family. With that, we were done shopping early Friday morning. Not too bad! We came home and put up the lights outside (I'll post pictures at some point) and then crashed for a nap.

One thing that we started for the holidays 3 years ago now was buying a new cookie jar each year. Our first one was the year we got engaged. It is a little snowman. The first year we were married is a penguin in a scarf and Santa hat. This year we found a cookie jar that looks like a holiday present. If we were to have more than one kid, automatically, each kid gets the one from the year they were born (unless we have multiples, in which case we would probably buy 2, one for each). The rest would have to be decided on at some point. We like this idea though as it is something that we started together as our own family tradition to add to the traditions we are bringing from our own sides (like my dad's cookies on Christmas Eve). 

We are preparing for our 2nd annual holiday party with our friends. I don't think we'll have as many this year due to how close it will be to Christmas, but with our schedules (ok, Jason's schedule), it was almost impossible to find a time to have it. The other thing we have to find time for is when we want to go to the Phoenix Zoo Lights. Last year we went on Christmas Eve, and I think when we spend Christmas here, that is what we'll do. But, this year we are leaving on Christmas Eve to spend it with my family, so we'll have to find a new time to do it.

Now I think it is time to wake up the sleeping husband, and our two kittens.

Game time!

Well, the Suns season is in full swing, I guess its time to actually ramble about the Suns.

Leave it to Stern to continue to make Suns fans hate him. I had no problem with Nash being suspended. I don't think he should have been suspended, but whatever. My problem was that Nash (who didn't touch anyone until he was pushed to the floor) got suspended but T Mac, the one who pushed Nash to the ground, did not get suspended, and Shaq, who pushed the entire fight, did not get suspended. I read an article where Houston was pissed that Alston got suspended for as many games as Matt Barnes, but then I also read where the Sacramento Kings (who got the game against the Suns without Nash) watched the highlight and they also can't believe that Nash was suspended and that T Mac and Shaq were not.

Yesterday was a good game against the Pistons. It was probably their best outing yet. The Shaq hit, I don't know too much on that. I have yet to see a replay of it but it looked like it was all ball (minus the arm sticking out). Shaq I think needed to get off the court and not argue so much, but I don't think it was a flagrant foul.

At least we have the entire team back for tonight's game against Utah. They play so well at home.

November is here

And, I'm sick. Yuck.

But, the Suns season is here! They have some work to do still, but at least they didn't embarrass themselves during the first week. I just hope that this new system pays off. Oh well. 

So, I am at home sick today and watching the TV. The new Guitar Hero, World Tour ad just came on, the one with Kobe singing (he looks like he's in his element), Michael Phelps on guitar (who looks very uncomfortable), Tony Hawk on drums and A Rod on the other guitar. Kobe makes that ad. 

In other news, marching band season is almost over. Finally. It seems like it went by really slow this year. Jason's band performs at 11 Saturday morning for the last show of the season. I hope they do well, but he has quite a few punk kids in his band this year that makes me hope that they fail. Jason almost cancelled the rest of the season a week ago because of them.

And, lastly, with November being here, if Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince had not been pushed back, it would have been coming out in less than 3 weeks.

Oh well.

Living with PCOS

I got the results of my blood work from last week and they said everything is consistent with Polycystic Ovary Syndrome so I had to fast last night and go in this morning to have more blood drawn. As soon as I heard though that I match up so far with PCOS, I knew it was really time to start reading up on it and  find out more than what the pamphlet they gave me said. The more and more I read, the more and more I think I have it. There could be worse things to have. And, I'll have that kick I've needed to change my lifestyle and have some time to get all of the questions that I have written down so that I can ask about it when I am told that I officially have it.

In other news, we are officially going to Paris! We have booked our hotel right in downtown Paris for the week of Jason's spring break and I am so excited!

The deposit is in!

Yesterday was the first day to book a room on the Disney cruise ship for the big 12 night European capitols cruise over the summer of 2010. We are all set! We have until March of 2010 to get a full refund if something should happen and we're unable to go. I'm really excited.

Next up though, we are looking at where to go for one last just us vacation. We are debating between St. Thomas, Costa Rica, and Paris.

Costa Rica is our third option.

St. Thomas is Jason's first choice, he really wants to go to a beach over his spring break in March. That is fine with me, but it is not my first choice.

I really want to go to Paris. And, now knowing that Jason, the guy that said the only time he wants to go to Paris is to see the Eiffel Tower fall, says he wants to go - I want to jump on that before he changes his mind! But, it is not a beach, and it would still be over spring break - so mid March - like a high of mid to upper 50s. That sure is not St. Thomas spring break weather.

So, we are just trying to decide where to go. It will cost us next to nothing as my parents are letting us use a week of their time share and we will just fly out stand by to where ever we decide to go so it would be a rental car (if we get one), activities and food to pay for.

Thoughts?

Went to the Dr today

I had made an appointment last month to be seen since I hadn't had a period in 3 months. Well today was that appointment.

It seemed like your normal yearly exam except for the fact that I hadn't had my period for so long when there was no chance that I could have been pregnant. So, they had me go to the lab to have some blood drawn. I can't even begin to tell you the last time I had blood drawn. But, they were testing for polycystic ovary syndrome. I guess in a nutshell what that is is this: in a normal ovary, one follicle matures an egg to release it each month but in polycystic ovary syndrome, many follicles are around but they do not mature or relase an egg, thus not starting or restarting your cycle.

They say it is genetic but I do not know of anyone that has it. I also do not know what this means in the future when I do wish to try for a baby. I do know that insulin plays a big factor in PCOS as it is called. They say that women that have this either have too much insulin or it doesn't do what it should. They say many women that have PCOS gain weight or have a hard time loosing it along with an increased risk of diabetes. And, PCOS is something you are born with, you just may not see signs of it until later in life. The downsides is that PCOS is linked to heart disease and high blood pressure. 

Interesting. I don't think I have it, but some of it would add up to this. We'll see. They should get the first test back around the end of the week.

I'm here

I've been staying busy with trying to finish unpacking everything before our house warming party this next weekend. I feel bad because we are not keeping our laptops downstairs, we are keeping the power cords in our office, so when my battery dies, that is it unless I go upstairs, and lately I have no battery power in my computer. So, that is mainly why I haven't posted anything real recent.

We are settling in quite nicely though. Tonks and Lupin both seem to be doing pretty well now. They love exploring things here and trying to get into new things. They will be 7 months next week and they still squeak, Tonks actually meows more than Lupin, if you can call what they do meowing. I don't mind though, I think its cute.

We have our living room unpacked, our kitchen pretty much in order, our dining room in order (except for some things that need to move upstairs) and most of our upstairs. We just have to do the decorating touches and putting up pictures and such. We have some things we have to buy still but that might not be happening right away as we wait to see what comes of our economy. 

Anyway, that's a run down on our happenings right now. Now it's time to love on the kitties and show my face of disgust at the VP debates.

I'm in!

I'm in! I'm glad that is over. I need to do some more unpacking, but we tried to go with the move and unpack as we go method. So, really, we have our office (which we don't need right now and are waiting to buy a new bookshelf) and our bathroom to finish. Once that is done, we are pretty much settled.

Not much of an update, but trying to actually give a more detailed post just takes too much thought for a Monday.

Crossing the threshold

We had our final walkthrough on our house yesterday afternoon. We had a list of items that we had noticed that needed to be addressed and we made sure that they were marked with blue tape to be fixed before Wednesday.

Today I hope to finish packing. We can't do all of it, obviously, but I hope everything else we plan to pack that we won't need prior to Friday will be done.  Wednesday we sign the papers. Right after we sign them, we have to head to our house to see our customer service guy so he can make sure that everything we had marked to be addressed before closing was. Then we go to our sales office to get the keys to the house.

That aggravates me. 

On our wedding night, Jason went with his parents towards the end of the reception to our Honeymoon suite to help them pack everything up (gifts, candy jars, etc) as they were leaving early the next morning to drive back to Phoenix. I hung out to the end of the reception talking to guests and thanking them, saying bye and such. I then proceeded to walk across the hotel property by myself, get in the elevator by myself and head to our room. I get there and the door is open, you see him, his parents, and the Eva (her stuff was in the room since that is where his side got ready) in the room. I walk in. I wanted him to carry me over the threshold but I wasn't going to ask them to leave the room, watch him pick me up and basically follow us right back in. Just a tad bit weird. 

So, I have been telling him since almost day 1 of house building that he was to carry me over right after we signed, as home owners. Now, here we are, our first visit to our house as official home owners and we are meeting this customer service guy. Sure, we won't have our keys to unlock the door and go in as he will already be in the house waiting for us. But, I did not want to have business to do first thing after we sign. All I wanted was to have him carry me over via piggy back (that is how he said he would carry me), eat pizza or panda express on our floor then start painting.

Now I'm trying to decide if I even want to bother with it. Sure, seems silly, but it is something I have always wanted. 

I hate packing

I just want to be done packing. We close a week from tomorrow on our house and we move a week from Friday. We have a fair amount of boxes stacked up in our living/dining room right now, I've emptied some of my drawers with clothes I will not wear between now and then, and most of our stuff in our spare bedroom is packed up too. I just know that if I don't keep going little by little, day by day, that there will be so much to pack the night before while I'm trying to paint. Or, so much to come back to get when all I want to do is unpack and make our house our home. 

Our Labor Day Weekend

Well, the end of summer has come. We had a good weekend to say goodbye till next year. Friday night was a good friend's birthday. We met her and some friends for dinner and a few drinks. 

Saturday took us to San Diego. We fly standby for a major airline since I work for one. We actually didn't think we were going to get on the plane. Friday night, everything was fine, we were about number 15 for standbys and there were about 25 open seats. We wake up Saturday morning for our 7:30 flight and it jumped to having 62 standbys waiting and we were pushed down to number 30 in the line. We still went to the airport, we had to give it a shot. And, sure enough, we got on. We bought a day pass for the bus and first went to Seaport Village for breakfast and walked through some of the shops along the waterfront. Once we finished, we headed to Horton Plaza and the Gas Lamp district. We met a couple who we went to NAU with for lunch at Rock Bottom Brewery.  We actually hadn't seen them since our wedding some 15ish months ago, so really you could argue that we hadn't seen them since we visited them while they were in New Mexico 2 years ago. After lunch we thought we would try out Balboa Park. We decided to walk to it from the Gas Lamp district. That was a mistake. It was quite the walk and it got so hot. I wore jeans and was really regretting that decision. Then, we get there and had no clue what was there or what to do. We saw the museums they had and decided to head pack to Horton Plaza. Shortly after that we made our way back to the airport and headed home.

Yesterday we had lunch with the in-laws. My mother-in-law's birthday is today so we took them to see our house before we move and spent some time with them. Then it was just normal Sunday errands (groceries and laundry). I did however manage to convince Jason to help me pick out paint. Yay!

Today we headed off to Home Depot for the last day of their paint sale. But, we ended up not buying Behr paint (we went with Evermore) and the sale was only for Behr. I figured anything will help when we move. So, Wednesday night next week, I will start painting our master bedroom. We chose a grey with hints of brown for the main color of the walls. That will probably be the main color throughout the house. We chose an accent wall color of green to pull out a shade of green in our duvet. Thursday I hope to move on to the guest bedroom. Once again the grey/brown color and we have an accent wall of light purple. The third bedroom will stay white for now until its time to paint for a baby! We did some wandering around at Bed Bath and Beyond and Target, just brainstorming more. I am so excited knowing we only have 9 days before we close on our house and 11 days before we move.

Now I am off to finish watching coverage on Gustav before starting the week.

I have to feel lucky

I often times take things for granted. My job, my love, my situations, and my life overall.

I work with other people that are struggling to make ends meet. This one lady in particular has been in a real rough bind. She and her husband moved into this 1 bedroom shitbox in a very bad area. That was an upgrade from the trailer that they lived in in Oregon that had no running water and no heat.  They live off of her less than $10 an hour paycheck as her husband doesn't work. Not because he can't, he just takes jobs, works them for about 10-14 days, then quits because he doesn't like it. He is not contributing to their well being and the lady at work is getting sick and tired of it. They are behind on bills and she is continuing to beg him to take any job so they can get back on track. He won't budge. She is thinking that she will soon have to file for legal separation from him in order to wake him up.

Another girl at work who is about the same age as me was supposed to be getting married in October. She lived with her fiance. Thursday night they had a fight she came to work on Friday. She finds out towards the end of the day that her fiance is a coward and instead of working things out during a disagreement, he packed up everything and ran out the door and was headed for Texas.

Hearing other people's stories really makes me stop and think and realize how good I do have it, and I'm thankful for that.

The little one is off to college

My sister moved into her dorm room today. There is a 9 year age difference between us but she is the only sibling I have. I really wish I could have been there for it. It is such an exciting time for her, to be moving into her freshman dorm with her new roommate, Patty, a fellow swimmer from Connecticut. To see the excitement on her face, and to see her being ready to leave her hotel room at 7 (she never wakes before 10:30 if she can avoid it). Apparently she bought out all of Target. My sister was talking to me around 10:15, after meeting with a couple of people and moving her first batch of stuff to her room. It made me sad. I want to be close with my sister. Well, I am close with her, but I want to stay close. She will do a lot of growing up in school and I'm afraid that she will grow up and away when I want her to stay close. Sure, she will have her own friends and family some day. I, I guess I'm just sad that this will be the beginning of the end of our close relationship, and that makes me sad.