Moved

Just a reminder that I have moved to http://www.mrsandmister.com/!  I'm working with @japster24 on a new blog design and I hope to have it up soon.  Come visit me at my new site!

The Pioneer Woman

If you want to read about the time when I met The Pioneer Woman, click here.  And make sure you update your links to my new blog.  http://www.mrsandmister.com/

Thanks!

I'm Moving

I'm moving my blog--yay!  I'm moving over to www.mrsandmister.com .  It's still very much under construction, but I'm very excited about it.  And I'm working on making it fabulous.  So, update your bookmarks!  Change your subscriptions!  Come on over and follow me!  You wouldn't want to miss out on a moment of my exciting life, right?? :-)

Mother's Day

Another Mother’s Day has come and gone, and with it, another year that I’m not holding my baby in my arms. I was down about Saturday—so down that I picked a stupid fight with the Mister. Completely my fault. And because of that, I’ve called my doctor and upped my meds.

So, after a miserable Saturday, I decided Sunday was going to be a good day, no matter what, and I started thinking about all the good things I have to celebrate on Mother’s Day.

• The best mom in the world. She is my biggest supporter, my friend and my confidante. She’ll hold me while I cry and cry and cry. And she’ll serve me up a big bowl of ice cream for dinner when I’m all cried out.

• My mother-in-law. While she can be opinionated, she loves me and welcomed me into her family.

• My sister, who has grown into a wonderful mom, for giving me 2 beautiful nieces and 1 awesome nephew

• My sister-in-law, for giving me another awesome nephew

• My friends, for their numerous children that call me Aunt.

• I treasure being a Godmother to three of these precious children

• My Mister, for putting up with me, even when I’m a horrendous, miserable bitch


So, looking at my list, I think I’ve got it pretty good. There are many, many blessings to be thankful for. And I am every day—but especially on Mother’s Day. They give me strength to get through it.

Crazy Eights

So, tomorrow, I'm meeting awesome ladies!  Can't wait.  In the meantime, a peek into my life...

8 TV Shows I Like to Watch


1. Grey’s Anatomy
2. Private Practice
3. Glee
4. Brothers & Sisters
5. Real Housewives—OC, NY & NJ
6. Amazing Race
7. Dancing with the Stars
8. American Idol

8 Favorite Places to Eat and Drink
1. Beef & Bottle
2. Showmars
3. Providence Cafe
4. Just Fresh
5. Chick Fil A
6. Mama Ricotta’s
7. Village Tavern
8. Cosmos

8 Things I’m Looking Forward To
1. Meeting my Twitter friends tomorrow
2. Meeting The Pioneer Woman tomorrow
3. A friends birthday party tomorrow night
4. My Godson’s birthday party
5. A fun get together on Saturday
6. A wedding in Memphis in October
7. Gamecock Football season
8. Sleeping in tomorrow!

8 Things that Happened to me Yesterday
1. Fielded a call at work from debt collectors looking for my ex-husband
2. Had lunch with a good friend/co-worker
3. Worked
4. Emailed ex-husband
5. Gave myself a pedicure
6. Tweeted
7. I did the dishes
8. exchanged phone numbers with internet friends

8 Thinks I Like About Winter
1. Christmas
2. Sweaters
3. Snow
4. Comfy fleece
5. Roaring fires
6. Scarves
7. Bowl Games
8. New Years

8 Things I am Passionate About
1. My family
2. My friends
3. My friends children
4. Reading
5. Finances
6. The golden rule
7. my job
8. Gamecock Football

8 Words or Phrases I Use Often
1. Y'all
2. What is wrong with people?
3. Really?
4. Seriously?
5. Yay!
6. M-F’er
7. OMG
8. WTF

8 Things I Have Learned From the Past
1. You really do need algebra later in life
2. You do not need calculus
3. Every second matters
4. Don’t give up your friendships for a boy
5. If it walks like a duck and talks like a duck…
6. Don’t co-sign a loan for anyone
7. Effort in=results out
8. Mom & Dad find out everything

8 Places I Would Like to Visit/See
1. Napa
2. Turks & Caicos
3. Cancun
4. Australia
5. Venice
6. Paris
7. London
8. Austria

8 Things I Currently Want/Need
1. a day off
2. a platter
3. to lose 10 pounds
4. the mister to get a job
5. a new house
6. more time to pursue my interests
7. my #2 niece to move back home with my sister
8. more time with the mister

What's been keeping me from blogging...

No good answer. I blog for me. I love it that people read and comment, but it’s really for me. (Now, don’t all of you unsubscribe at once…) Life has been busy lately, and I’ve been tired. Plus, I don’t have a cute pet or baby. I can’t amuse you with their antics…and I'm not very amusing... So, what have I been up to??

• Girls weekend 2010 in the ATL. It was fun and relaxing—our most tame girls weekend to date. Maybe we are getting too old??? Did I just say that? Anyway, we’ve already mapped out 2011 and 2012 locations—NYC and Napa respectively. We wanted to do Napa this year, but some people might be knocked up, so we pushed it off a year. Fine with me—we can celebrate a milestone birthday of mine out there. The hubby’s might actually go on that one too, which would be fun. First up though—NYC! I can’t wait—I absolutely love NYC. Any recommendations? Restaurants? Clubs? Hotels? Shows?

• Baby Shower, Charleston style. The weekend after ATL, we headed to Charleston for a wonderful baby shower. It was a couples shower, which I think is way more fun. After the shower, we headed out to celebrate a birthday and we had a great time. Too much fun, as the mister was hungover the next day. That’s OK, because my allergies kicked my ass as well. I could not breathe. So, instead of heading into Charleston to see the sights and shop, we headed home to drugs and couches. I was bummed, but Charleston is an easy 3 hour drive, so we’ll go back this summer sometime.

• We went to a horse race this past weekend. I’d never been to one—and I really did not want to go. I didn’t know the majority of the people there, we’d been traveling the past two weekends, and I just wanted time at home to chill and clean. Well, I have to say, I had a really good time! Everyone was really nice, and there was some quality people watching opportunities. Horse racing is very much like tailgating for a game, with an occasional horse race thrown in. Plus we were betting on the races, and I won $30! Yay! It was a long day, but fun, and now that I know what it’s all about, I look forward to going next year.

So, there you have it. What I’ve been up to. Next up?? A weekend off this weekend—yay! And then, the day we’ve all been waiting for…May 7th! The Pioneer Woman is coming to town and is signing books! There is quite of group of us getting together to attend the signing, and I can’t wait to meet these fabulous ladies! There will be a blog post about that—and several tweets I’m sure. So if you’re not already following me on Twitter, get on it!

Hope you’re all doing well…and thanks for reading this long, photo-less post.

Keeping It Real--the Twitter Home Tour

So, some Twitter friends of mine came up with an awesome idea...

I wanted to participate...I really did.  But with the week I've had, there was no way this house of mine was going to be presentable.  So I resigned myself to the fact that I would not be showing off my house.  And then I started looking at pictures of everyone's gorgeous homes, and I thought to myself "screw it."  Show them how you really live.  So...here you go.  Pictures of my house in it's current state.  Please don't judge... 

The spare bedroom--aka The Mister's dumping grounds

My corner of the spare bedroom

The Mister's bathroom--we don't share.  You'll see why.  Also, we do have a bath mat--it's just in the washer.  I really do clean!

The master bedroom--library books, lampshade askew, glasses stacked up, and Liquid Plumr.  What?  You don't keep Liquid Plumr in your bedroom??

Another view of the master.

The smallest master bath ever.  I put the seat down for y'all.  See that glass doorknob?  They are on every door--my favorite things in the whole house.

Super boring hallway

The living room.  Where we hang out with our laptops, drink wine &/or beer &/or Firefly, and watch TV

Another living room view

Our dining room...or where crap goes to die.

The table is or communal dumping ground.  And yes, that's my winter coat sitting out that I haven't worn in 3 weeks.

Our kitchen.  Love our kitchen.  We redid it when the mister bought the house.  Love it!

Another kitchen view

And the weirdest room in our house.  It's a laundry room, with a half bath.  And it's large.  Whatever--it has

room for four drying racks--woo hoo!

So, there you have it!  Our house, exactly as it is right now.  Maybe I'll clean next weekend...maybe. :-)

Apologies...Again

I feel like I'm often apologiznig for not updating or writing as often as I feel I should.  And I'm doing it again tonight.  Life has had it's way with me this week.  I'm in charge of my company's Annual Meeting tomorrow (UGH), and Im co-hosting a baby shower Saturday (yay!).  A lot of work is going into both and I'm spent.  I'm just ready for Saturday's shower to get here.  It's in one of my favorite cities, Charleston, with some of my most favorite people in the world.  Plus, it's a couples shower--yay for the husbands being at the shower!

Anyway, if you've stuck with me, thanks.  This blog is mainly an outlet for me, but I do appreciate all 2 of my readers! :-)

Hope you all have a wonderful weekend!!!

Oh--and I tried the Netti Pot tonight for the first time.  Freaky!!!  Has anyone else used it?  Thoughts?

Fun Weekend Ahead

I won't be around this weekend.  I'm taking a trip with my girlfriends from college...which is ALWAYS a good time.  I hope you all have a fabulous weekend!

The One Where NoStylePoints and Alena29 and TheNextMartha Inspired Me

As you all know by now, I do not have children.  And I may never have children.  And that's OK.  Maybe I'm not strong enough.  I know I'm not as strong as Adrienne Jones.  She is an amazing woman, raising a beautiful child fighting bipolar disease.  I admire her strength and determintaion to bring this disease to public attention and do something about it.  If you see fit, please go here to help her fight.  The wonderful company, The Little Bean, is donating $2 from the sale of every coffee, tea, cocoa, and chai product through their website--amazing!  Please support this wonderful company and Adrienne's important cause--or at least spread the word.

Thank you Alena29 and TheNextMartha, for inspiring me to write this post, and for bringing Adrienne's plight to the forefront of my Twitter feeds.

The One Where Jennandtonica Inspired Me

So, it's a random Saturday night and we are home. Thanks to my chronic aversion to pollen, I am drugged on anti-histamines beyond belief, and I will not go out in public with a dripping snotty nose. Because that’s just not hot.


One of my friends on Twitter, Jennandtonica, did a great vlog tonight about her 10 most played songs in her iTunes library. I'm copying her.

My 10 most played songs ever in my iTunes library are:

10. Dancing Virginia by Jump Little Children--this song reminds me of fun college friends
9. Just Like Heaven by The Cure--I love this song--a real mood lifter and I often listen to it as I'm pulling into work
8. Bizarre Love Triangle by New Order--I don't know why, I just like this song
7. A Little Respect by Erasure--What can I say, I love the 80's
6. Yesterday by The Beatles--I was raised on Beatles music. I love them.
5. Me & Honey by REM--besides Superman, hands down my favorite REM song
4. Paradise City by Guns N Roses--Take me home Axl! Haha!
3. Pour Some Sugar On Me by Def Leppard--I watched hours and hours of MTV waiting for this video to play--back when MTV actually played videos
2. Blister in the Sun by Violent Femmes--this song reminds me of high school, my first boyfriend, and swim meets
1. You Give Love a Bad Name by Bon Jovi--Who doesn't love this song??

And a bonus for you all...the 5 most recently played songs in my iTunes library are:

5. Love Story by Taylor Swift--my nieces love this one and played it a gazillion times when they were over last. I like it too....
4. Seven Bridges Road by the Eagles--I love the harmonies in this one
3. Alone by Heart--the Glee version--I love Kristen Chenowith and Matthew Morrison singing this song. I belt this one out in my car.
2. Girlfriend by Avril Lavigne--this makes me want to dance
1. Tik Tok by Ke$ha--this one actually makes me dance--but I don't care for the dollar sign in her name.

So, there you have it. I wouldn't say this is an accurate depiction of my musical taste, but this is the most popular according to my iTunes. What songs are your top ten??

An Anniversary of Sorts

Disclaimer: This post is long, not funny, and has no photos. And you may cry. You’ve been warned.


April 5th marks the 5th anniversary of the day that changed my life, my world, my marriage, forever. It was the day that my dreams of becoming a mother, the good old-fashioned biological way, were destroyed. Ripped to shreds. Smashed to smithereens. We asked the kind doctor if we had a chance of being one of those lucky couples—you know, the ones you always hear about. They started the adoption process and then got pregnant. They were told it would never happen and once they stopped the meds, the stress, the regimen that infertility treatments bring to your life, they got pregnant. The answer was not a chance in Hell. Never. That’s a hard thing to hear, when you’ve already had your gut kicked in, your heart ripped out, and you are crying so hard you’re in danger of dehydration. I will never forget that moment.

It’s been a tough five years. Many pregnancies—friends, co-workers, family members. People pregnant on purpose. People pregnant by mistake. And with each pregnancy—a baby shower to attend. To celebrate. The one thing I would never have. They killed me at first. In fact, I missed my BFF’s shower for her first child. It was 2 weeks after we found out. Too soon. The cuts were still wide open—and I didn’t need salt poured in them. It’s gotten a lot easier since then. I attend baby showers all the time now. Hell, I’ve even planned and hosted a few myself. Because that’s what you do. You stand by your friends, in happy times and in sad. And every one of my friends has been there for me. I’m lucky that way.

I’m still dealing with the idea that I’ll never be pregnant. I will never POAS and think of a clever way to tell the Mister that we did it! We made a baby! I will never see the wonder in his eyes and the joy on his face that moment brings. That breaks my heart. Every time someone announces to me that they are pregnant, I am genuinely thrilled for them. I really am. I’m just also a little bit sad for me. Why does it happen so easily for some? Why do they get to be parents, once, twice, three times over? Why can’t I have that???

I’m sure some of you are thinking, “what about adoption?” It’s in the cards for us, I’m sure…but it’s a long road that is emotionally trying. Plus it’s expensive. And, we’re just not there yet. We have some healing to do still. It didn’t just affect me. The Mister has been very affected by our diagnoses. So, we will wait until we are ready.

Through all this, I have to say, there has been a silver lining of sorts. We were married October, 2004. We started our fertility process in Feb of 2005. By April 5, 2005 we knew that no amount of treatment, IUI or IVF would work for us. We are lucky for that. We did not have to go through the months of hoping this was the month, only to be disappointed over and over again. I have friends who have gone through that—IUI, IVF, miscarriage—and I see the heartbreak… I’m not very religious, but God really does only give you what you can handle. I’m not sure I could have handled that—I’m not that strong. I admire those of you who have the strength to endure infertility treatments. And I pray that you are successful and hold a baby in your arms soon.

The other fortunate thing is that the Mister and I are both infertile. It’s not one or the other of us. We are fairly unique in that aspect and I feel so lucky to have found him—he is my rock.

So…when I started this blog, I wasn’t sure I was going to write about our infertility. It’s been weighing on my mind a lot lately though…so, here it is. Our story as to why we are not parents.

In case you are wondering here are our diagnoses…

The Mrs

The Mister  (link contains anotomical pictures) (OK, so there are pictures) (sort of)

All Hail Broke Loose

We had some pretty significant storms last night--there were tornados in the area.  Tornados.Freak.Me.Out.  I grew up the next town over from this.  I was almost 2 when that happened, but I swear it scarred me for life.  So, when the warnings were issued that the tornados were headed straight for us, I, or course, freaked out.  A lot.  My husband cleared out the closet under the stairs for me.  And then came the hail.  I have never seen hail like this...we went from no precip at all to a hail covered deck in 5 minutes.  Thankfully the tornados missed us and we had no damage.  This time...............

Some pictures...sorry they are crappy quality.  I was too busy freaking out to take fabulous pictures.

Our hail covered deck

The hail river down our front walk.  I have no clue why the street light is green...weird!

Blah....

That's how I'm feeling these days.  I've got a post about some pretty heavy stuff brewing in my head, and I'm having a hard time putting it to paper.  In the meantime, my weekend in bullets...

• hair appointment--love the color, jury is still out on the cut
• met with friends to plan a baby shower in a city three hours away--not an easy task
• basketball
• Steel Magnolias
• Twitter
• Harris Teeter triple coupons
• rain
• no motivation
• tornado warning
• Breaking Dawn

How has your weekend been?

My Random Addiction...aka I Love Mascara

Hello, my name is The Mrs, and I'm addicted to mascara.  I don't plan on recovering from this addiction for a very long time.  Here are the mascaras currently in my arsenal...

And the four I use most often--CG lash blast, Maybeline Big Great Lash, Bare Minerals Flawless and L'Oreal Voluminous Naturale.  Don't ask me to pick a fave--I love them all!

Do you see your favorite among my treasures?  Am I missing a must have?  And, seriously, what do y'all use to remove your eye makeupm, because some of these really like to stick around.... I'd love to hear your recommendations!

Not a real post

Just a drive by to say hi!  It's a beautiful day outside!!  We've been busy--but I have some post ideas that I'm pumped about, including an addiction I need to confess to, a Nerd Alert post, and the post about the birth of our nephew, which I witnessed. 

We are going out tonight for a friends b-day--it should be a great time.  Tomorrow our nephew--on the Mister's side--is being baptized.  I hope to be able to do a real post tomorrow, but if it's as gorgeous tomorrow as it is today, I'm not making any promises!

Hope you are all having a lovely Saturday!

Look What I Made!

Green beer--delicious!!  I think the Block C glass gives it a little something extra too.  Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Photography Week 3

Week three talks about white balance.  Once again, Meredith does a good job explaining it.  Click here for the full lesson.

My first set of pictures didn't really come out that great, so I turned off the flash...gasp!  I took these pics at 7:00 in my room that has all the windows and with all the lights on.  I thought the pictures without the flash demonstrated the idea of white balance better.  I used a shutter speed of 1/3 also.  What do you think??

Auto White Balance

Incandescent--my camera's answer to tungsten

Custom White Balance

And last, but certainly not least, a picture of my new nephew!

Photography Week One: Revisited

Since I've got my new camera, I went back to Week One, as described here on Meredith's blog, and played with aperture/f-stop.  My camera only goes from 2.8 to 8, so I used 3 examples--2.8, 4.5 and 8.  I think the difference between 2.8 and 4.5 is noticeable, but the difference between 4.5 and 8 is negligible.  What do y'all think?

Also--how do I get my pics bigger without them being cut off by my blog layout??

f-stop 2.8

f-stop 4.5

f-stop 8

Photography Week 2

Now that I've got my nifty new camera, I can participate in this weeks lesson.  I'm under the weather, so this post will be short.  Head over to Meredith's blog for a great run down on this weeks lesson on ISO and shutter speed.

I played around with the shutter speed on my camera quite a bit, and here are the results.

Picture 1--shutter speed of 1/60.  The shutter is open longer, so the movement of the water is not frozen in time.

Picture 2--shutter speed of 1/100.  You can already see individual drops of water.

Pictrure 3--shutter speed of 1/1000.  The water looks frozen.

Picture 4--shutter speed 1/2000.  This is as high as my camera goes and I wanted to see what it looked like. :-)

So there you have it--my shutter speed lesson.  This is pretty cool, and setting my shutter speed faster actually helped me get some great shots this weekend of my niece holding her new brother while she was rocking him.  More to come on my new nephew, once I kick this crud I've caught from my co-workers...