Ten Things Thursday

Oh. It's Thursday. I sorta forgot.
Here we goooooooooo!!

1.  I ran again last night. Baby makes things a little slow, but I've been feeling so good after working out, that I don't think I'm going to stop any time soon. Unlike the last 487 times that I've tried to re-up my exercise routine, I've failed miserably and my 'exercise' ends up being 12 oz curls, Monday thru Sunday.  Like a boss.

Well, since there's no more booze in my life right now *sadface*, I guess I need something to do, right? Right.

Enter: The Dreadmill.

That little bastard is a mean piece of shit. And sometimes I just want to shred that little conveyor belt of death into tiny little pieces.

But I don't. I power through my 3 miles and walk away satisfied. Oddly enough.

Basically the hubby and I are going to the gym together, he does whatever he does, and I workout on the treadmill. So far we've gone twice this week, and I plan to go again tonight. And possibly Friday night too.

Here's some things I've learned:

A.  Baby makes me tired. I can only run at about a 4.5-5 pace and only for about .5 miles before I feel like my lungs will burst, or my legs will fall off. But then I walk at about a 4 pace for awhile, and then pick back up with the running. Usually I can knock out 3 miles after getting back into a routine, within a week. This time, baby say's nope, not going to happen. So i'm taking things slow. Which is ok by me. Last night I did 3 miles in about 44:00, and I ran about half of it. I'll take that!

B.  Now that I'm not turning to booze to release my stress (lush), I feel like I really need to do SOMETHING every day. And that something includes more physical exertion than walking to the toilet 13 times. I feel a lot better, mentally, now that I'm not using alcohol as a crutch, ya know? I kinda like this stress relieving gym thing. Huh. Who woulda thought.

C.  This isn't anything new, but I thought I'd put it down here anyway. Did you know that working out allows you to indulge in some.....sshhhhhhhhh.....be quiet........chocolate? Or ice cream? Or both? That makes mama, and baby, very happy.

So, I'm going to continue on this baby/exercise/train for awhile and see how things go.
Maybe I can do a marathon at 8.humongous months pregnant like that one chick in Chicago.
Pssstttssshhhhhhhh. Ya right. Bitch was crazy. I'm not. That much at least.

2.  I think I'm going to cut my hair. Right now I'm trying to grow it out. Yes, I know that doesn't make sense. Just bare with me. See, right now it's straight as a nun. It does nothing but hang there, and i'm tired of the same ol' thing. So I think i'm going to get 'The Karlie' or 'The Chop':

I like Mrs. O's style the best. Isn't that cute?!?! And I want to cut some more bangs. Mine seem thin. I'll let y'all know how it goes.

3.  Ryan informed me the other night that he'd like to go to Yellowstone this summer, possibly in June, and vacation for a little bit. Before the baby comes.

Ummmmmm.......

7 months pregnant?
In the wilderness?
Hiking around on swollen ankles and a F*cked up back?

Ya. I'd like to see you try and get me to Yellowstone. That'd be funny.

4.  I really want some Toaster Strudels. One of my employees let me have a few of his yesterday for breakfast, and that's all I've been able to think about since. I freaking love Toaster Strudels. I think I'm going to the store now.

5.  I'm back. I didn't end up getting Toaster Strudels. I got a chocolate chip cookie. And it was glorious.

6.  Has anyone used a pizza stone before???? I asked for one for Christmas so that we could cook pizza's on our Traeger Smoker/Grill, but my first attempt (w/o consulting the instructions) was an epic failure. Once I figured out that instructions are vital, I went in search of them in the box, and there are none. Awesome.

So what do you need to do? I read on google that you need to oil the stone before hand. So I did that. And I also read that you need to put down corn meal before you put down the dough. Is that right?

So basically, you spread out some corn meal, put the stone in a cold oven, heat it up to like 400 degrees, so the stone is really hot, then put your dough on it, cook that, then add your toppings, and cook again??

Does this sound right?

I soooo want to try this, but have no clue what i'm doing. HELP!!!!!


I have to go to blood born pathogens training right now (I'm so excited about this), so I'm going to cut this short.

Ya'll have a great day!!! And I think tomorrow I'll post my recap of what went down when I found out I was preggars!!!! So get excited!!!

Details schmeetails.

Well. Yesterday was kinda a big day over here in (now non-)beer land, huh? ;-)

First off, thank y'all so much for your comments and emails and congrats!!! It means so much to me to share this exciting news with y'all!

I'm sure you're wondering about all the details huh? Well, if you're not, your just going to sit your skinny asses down and read this anyway. And you're going to like it. Because this is the first baby, y'all. BIG.DEAL.CITY. And I'm pregnant, and I get what ever I want when I pregnant. So I've heard anyway. However, I just realized that I really want a nice frosty malt beverage on a beach somewhere while my feet get rubbed by Mr. Reynolds and the Magic Mike crew spoon feeds me butterfinger blasts from Sonic. And I highly doubt I'll be getting that 'want' any time soon. Shitballs.

OK, ran a little off subject there. Back to the baby!!!

I'm in the middle of my 10th week. The due date for the little whippersnapper is Aug. 18th, 2013. And you know what that means..........I'm going to be one cranky fat bitch this blazin' hot summer. So preeeeeeepare yourselves for that mess. Because it's going to be a wild ride folks.

We are going to find out the sex of the baby, but that won't happen until the end of March or beginning of April. So we've got awhile for that jazz. Which sucks balls, but what can you do.

Good news is we just had an ultrasound last week!!!

BABY'S FIRST PICTURE!!

Yes, the baby looks like a little gummy bear blob right now. But if you look at the top right pic, there's the head on the left and then little stubs for the hands and feet, then the little butt. Awwwwwwww. Isn't it cute?!?!

Baby Wiksten is about 1 inch to 1.5 inches long right now and just lovin' life.

So far everything has gone really well.  I'm feeling good, well, as good as a pregnant woman can feel while wanting to hurl all day, and peeing every 2.3 seconds.

But truly, Ryan and I are over the moon excited.

Y'all know that I pretty much let it all out on here. I don't hold back. Because, well, what's the freaking point of holding back?!?! Right? Right. Well, at least for me. That's not for everyone, but for me, I'm balls to the wall. Or boobs to the wall. Whatever.

But the one thing I haven't told y'all or even mentioned on here, is that Ryan and I have been struggling to get pregnant for over a year and a half. It's been a looooooong ass time of doctor appointments, and peeing on a stick, and periods from Hell, and straight up bitchiness that would make Satan shit a brick.

Ryan and I talked right before I turned 30 and we decided that we wanted to start a family after I turned 30. So, my birthday came and went (in April, 2011), and then the summer hit, and we decided to wait till the end of summer to start trying. I spoke with my family physician, who I absolutely want to shank, but I'll get into that in a little bit, and she said that all I had to do was go off my birth control, then the next month we'd be good to go.

Easy peezy, lemon squeezy.
Right.
Not so much. 
More like big ol' stinky mammoth bullshit.

I got off my BC, Mother Nature graced me with a small present at the end of Sept., but then I didn't get that gift again until January. Damn near 3 months!!!! And I'm sure y'all know this, but I'm going to get a little detailed. If you don't have a period, you don't ovulate, if you don't ovulate, THERE'S NO WAY TO HAVE A BABY!!!!

First, my period in January was about the worst pain of my life and I had to be taken to the ER. Yay for suped-up pain meds!!! Pretty much felt like little trolls were using a cheese grater on my insides. It was awesome.  Of course I had tons of tests done and all the brilliant doctors could tell me was that this is just how it's going to be for awhile. Well, f*ck you very much Doc. I appreciate your words of wisdom. Jackass.

Anyways, long story short, that went on for about a year. Basically I'd only get my period once every three months, and I never knew when I was ovulating. It boils down to being on birth control since I was basically 16. About 2 months after I got my first ever period, I had a cyst burst on my ovary that was about the size of a grapefruit. I had to be rush to the OR and the doctors immediately cut me open. Then I proceeded to have those little bitch cysts about every 6 months, till I was about 26. I loved life. Let me tell you. Anyway, the docs put me on birth control at the time, because they said it would help. And I guess it did, part of the year.

Anyways, to say my 'woman system' was screwed up, is putting it mildly. ***NOTE: If you want to try and have kids, get off your freaking birth control for A YEAR before!!! Especially if you've been on it pretty much half your life. You'll thank me in the long run.*** 

My family doctor finally put me on a drug called Metphormin or something, that was supposed to help with creating ovulation. We tried it forever, and that didn't really work. And I was at the point of seriously strangling that bitch of doctor, she just had no insight, didn't know what to do, and I felt like I'd just wasted a year fucking around with her bullshit. So I did what any sane woman would do, and I found this nice older man and we ran away together and lived on his yacht in Greece.

The end.

Just kidding.

I finally found an OBGYN. Someone actually smarter than a box of crayons when it comes to the woman's parts. Ironically my other doctor was female, and this dude was male. Figures.

Anyways, he did some tests and we went for a few months, and we finally decided to try and get on Clomid. That's a fertility drug. And it makes you CRAYYYYYYY-CRAY. But it helps you make babies, so you put up with the psycho bitchiness to be a mama. Give and take people. Give and take.

My first dose of Clomid was normal. No mood swings, no crazy side effects. Just normal everyday la-tee-da life. And miraculously I got my period when I was supposed to!! Yippeeeee, except that I'd been peeing on a stick everyday to see when I ovulated, before my period, and got nada. So, I was finally getting my period at the normal time, but I wasn't ovulating. Perfect. Thank you body for continuing to be jacked up.

Second dose of Clomid we went up to 100mg, double what I started at. Which is normal, since it didn't really work the first time.  I took it for 5 days, waited another week, then started the process of peeing on an ovulation stick once a day. Again, no dice. I tested for about 3 weeks, and finally got my period, without having a positive ovulation test. Shitballs. At this point I'm a little frustrated and so is Ryan. You can imagine.

So, onto the 3rd dose. The doctor kept it at 100mg and we went through the whole process again. The only thing that was different about this dose is that my bitch-factor was in overdrive. No shit, I got flaming mad at Ryan one night for drinking a beer in front of me. Like, I wanted to kick him out of the house, or I wanted to move out and become a gypsy. Ya. Psychoooooooo. I don't even know how he put up with me that month. And remember when I was having all those hot flashes like a chick going 'through the change'???? Well, that was the crazy pills. They completely fucked up my mind and my body. BUT!!! I wanted a baby, so I put up with it. And Ryan didn't put me in a straight jacket. So win, win. I guess.

Two weeks go by after I started the meds, and it was about 3 days before Ryan left for deer hunting (the week right after thanksgiving). And still no ovulation. I was getting a little nervous, because he was going to be gone for 5 days and if I ovulated while he was gone and we didn't get a chance to do the boom-boom time, we would have to wait another month. And then I would for sure stab a person. I didn't know if I, or anyone around me, could put up with another dose of the crazy ovulation drugs.

But low and behold!!!! Two nights before he left, I was getting ready for bed, and I remembered that I didn't take my little ovulation test, so I grudgingly got up and peed on a stick. Then had to wait 3 minutes. The waiting is the worst. And I was tired. I just wanted to go to bed. CHRIST, hurry up ovulation stick!!!!

TAAAAA-DAAAAAAAA!!!!!!

Smiley face!!!!

Yes, it was a digital ovulation test that gave you a smiley face when you tested positive.

YIPPEEEEEEE!!!!! The worlds have aligned!!! There is a God!!! It's a miracle!!!

I yelled at Ryan to strip, because we were finally going to make a baby!!!!

Obviously, it worked. Third time's the charm, I guess!!!!

I've decided that I'm going to chronicle the pregnancy here. I'm not going to post any creepy weekly fetus pictures on here though, because those things just scare the shit out of me. I can't even look at the pictures when I get my weekly updates on the baby's progress via email. It's a thing  I have. I'm weird like that.

But I am going to post different things about how I feel and what the baby's size is, and shit like that. Get excited.

BUT, I'm also going to continue with my Thursday thing, and the exercise thing, and the whole trying to NOT eat only ice cream and chocolate, because that's all the baby seems to want lately. So it's not going to be all pregnancy crap. I'm hoping some day that I can print all this out and make like a little book to give to the baby someday. So they know what it was like.

I'm also doing the belly pictures, so I'll put those up too. Although, the belly hasn't grown all that much yet. It just looks like I have a beer gut. But I can't drink beer. So life just sucks. Well, except for the baby part. Of course.

Anyways, there's going to be a lot of posts the next few weeks, because I started writing at about week 4, and have continued up until this week. So we'll have to back track a little before we get caught up with today. So bare with me.

So, that's it!!! I'm healthy, the baby's healthy, I have a beer gut, I want sweets 24/7, and everything else makes me want to yack.
YAY PREGNANCY!!!!!

Guess What......

RYAN AND I ARE HAVING A BABY!!!!!!!

Ten Things Thursday

Prepare yourselves. Someone pissed in my mini wheats this morning.

1.  Ya. For some reason I woke up on the wrong side of the bed. Maybe it was the fact that I got about ohhhh..................negative sleep last night. Or the fact that I woke up at 4:30 with a headache. Or it could be that I feel like I'm going to yack. I mean, chocolate doesn't even sound good. There's something seriously wrong if chocolate doesn't sound good. Maybe I should go to the hospital and get all sorts of tests done. Like, maybe I have some disease in the brain that makes me think I don't like chocolate!!! That's like a death sentence!!! Or maybe I could just sit here and trudge through the rest of the day and pretend that I'm a burst of sunshine out a rhino's ass.

2. Sooooooo, remember a few days ago I was all 'exercise badass' and was going to get up and work out in the mornings?!?! Well, that ship sunk. Straight up Titanic style. I have yet to get up. Once. I suck. Good news is I'm really going to try to get up tomorrow. And I made a running/walking date with my friend Lindsey on Saturday morning. So that's working out two times in a week. Please, hold your applause on that stellar achievement.

3. I saw this on the Trest of Pin, and thought it was appropriate for my life.

Someone needs to get that shit made for me. ASAP.

4. I find these hilarious. Just brightens my day.

5.  This weekend we head up to my Mom's for our last Christmas. Yes, yes, I'm still doing Christmas in January. But this one will be fun. We're ordering a shitload of chinese food for supper on Saturday night! Is that not the best idea ever?!?! We don't have to cook, to clean you just put the shit in the trash, and it's amazing!!! I'm so excited. Almost as excited as opening gifts. Almost.

6.  Remember when I told you that my husband 'works' at this company that 'plays' a lot? Like they had to go on a fishing trip to get fish for their company fish fry? Then they bought like $900 worth of booze for their Christmas party? And then his boss decided to take them all on a hunting trip to shoot wild hogs out of helicopters? Ya. Pretty much my husbands wet dream of a job. Anyway. The hog hunt was last weekend.

They called it Ham Slammin' 2013. It was 3 days of total boy shittasticness. They got to shoot guns at wild animals out of a flying object. They got to shoot guns at explosives, and blow up a car. They got to eat things like Moose Roast and other 'wildlife'. And they got to do it all FREE! Well, you better believe it was free, because there's no way in Hell we'd be pulling $2600 out of our savings just so he can get a 2 hour rush of shooting out of a helicopter. Maybe his next wife will allow that, but I don't' know if I can stomach that yet.

Well, to say they had fun is an understatement. I've never seen him so excited about something. Seriously. It'd be the equivalent of us (women) going on a trip to some secluded beach where we got to shop for shoes for 3 solid days and got to eat/drink whatever we wanted w/o gaining an ounce, and we didn't have to pay a single cent for any of it.

Here's them blowing up 17 pounds of tannerite. (Tannerite is a powder that you mix together, then we you shoot it, it goes BOOM.) Scroll to the end.

This is what it did to the car:

And this is what a trip in the helicopter was like:

Total I think they killed like 300+ hogs and 100+ coyotes. Ridiculous. FYI, before you get all peta on my ass, this trip was in Texas, and the hogs down there are literally taking over the land. Destroying crops and basically destroying the earth so that you can't plant anything for years. They're also eating all the vegetation so cattle and other animals have nothing to eat. Which is making the hamburger you buy at the grocery store go up in price because the cows have to be fed grain. This is not malicious or anything like that. This is a service. It's the same thing as killing all the fleas off your dog.

There. I'm off my soap box.

Anyways, he had fun. His boss deserves a metal for boss of the year, I think.
Truth be told, I make fun of it, but secretly deep down that'd be so badass to do. Maybe we will save up and go down together. How romantic. lol

But, I had fun while he was gone because I did jack-shit all weekend. Puppy and I took lots of naps. It was glorious.

7.  You know, I'm pretty sure I was meant to grow up and live on a beach. I don't know, it's just a feeling. Even though I've lived in Kansas the majority of my life, it's still not my 'favorite' place. It's flat. Some parts have no trees. The weather is a cracked out freak most of the time. And there's no beach. But, hey, it's home. 

One thing I do love about Kansas though??? Sunsets and sunrises. Each morning this winter I've gotten to see the sun rise on my way to work and it's always breathtaking. These are bad photos because I was *gasp* driving. But you get the idea.

8. Someone has found a 'new' comfortable spot when we're downstairs watching TV.

Yes. That would be the couch.
How could I say no to that face?!?! And most of the time he snuggles right up next to me. Definitely can't say no to that!
(Just for you Cat!)

9.  I'm making a public service announcement to all peeps on Facebook. STOP FREAKING SENDING ME GAME / BIRTHDAY / CALENDER / WHATTHEFUCKEVER REQUESTS!!!! I don't give two shits about playing drunk-truck-driver-farmland-candy-explosion bullshit. And if I haven't talked to you in, I don't know, since maybe high school, I really don't think you need my birthday on your calender. So stop asking. Facebook tells you it's my birthday. If you feel the need to wish me a happy one, by all means. But I doubt you need an additional calender reminder for someone that you haven't spoken to in 16 years.

That is all.

10. I really want a spicy pickle. I'm going to hunt one down.

Have a great weekend everyone!!!
Cheers!!!

First (holy shit I can't believe I'm doing this) 2013 Goal.

Hello my peeps.

Thank  you all for your sweet comments about missing me yesterday! Just makes me want to squeeze y'all!!!

So, serious question: Does anyone know if they make Breathe Right strips for Dogs? Anyone?

Because this guy-------------------->

Has a serious snoring problem. And it's starting to irritate.

This really isn't what I wanted to write about, but since I'm a little sleep deprived due to the wonderful puppy sawing logs this morning, it was on my mind.

So, I got my year-end running report from DailyMile a few weeks ago. I promptly opened it and just about shit my pants. Check it:

Ummmmm, Ya.
I did a total of 100 miles, and freaking 39 of them were in March. Clearly my other over-achieving-wonder woman-bad-ass-runner-bitch personality Mrs. Willpower came out to say a big fat WHAT'S UP BITCHES that month.

Crap on a cracker. 39 miles. In one month?!?!

I have no idea why I was a badass that month, and pretty pathetic every other month. But I vaguely remember some challenge I started last year where I had to complete a marathon in one week. 26.whatever miles in 7 days, so I'm guessing that happened in March.

Or someone hacked my daily mile profile and is playing vicious mind-games with me to make me think I am actually a runner. For at least one month out of the year.

It's a toss-up.

Anyways. It got me thinking that I really want to get those numbers higher this year. I don't know. Call it a dare to myself, or since I really have no one else to challenge, I'll just challenge myself. That's kinda the best thing anyway, huh?

My first goal of 2013 is to run more than 100 miles for the year!!!

Who just typed that?!?! Who am I becoming?!?! Batshit craziness is happening up in here folks.
Apparently I need that ho-bag Mrs. Willpower to make another grand entrance. For, like, a solid 12 months.

And I need a reward for this too. Like shoes. Or the biggest box of artisan chocolates from my favorite chocolate maker. Probably should go with the shoes so my ass doesn't grow any more than it already has, huh?

OK, Operation 100+ Miles Bitches is ON like DONKEY KONG!!!!

I'M ALLLIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIVVVVEEEEE!!

Hello there.
Nice to 'see' you again.
It's been awhile.
Because I'm a lazing, slacking heifer.
What's new, right?!

So, this little heifer hasn't died. Or gotten some great illness. I've just been busy. Busy at work, busy at life. Busy, busy, bullshit busy. Best time of my life.

And you know what, I know my blog is important (well, at least for my mother) because she called me last Friday night, and being the polite daughter that I am, I ignored her phone call. BUT! I have an excuse. I was at a bar, and it was loud, and I was leaving in like 20 minutes, so I figured I'd just call her back. Well, 10 minutes go by and her boyfriend, Hardy, calls (or Hardy called first, then Mom called, I don't remember, I've slept since then). And again, I ignored, because I'm daughter of the year. Weeeeelllllllllllllll, then my damn cousin calls, because my Mother called him freaking out that I didn't answer her or Hardy's calls. Yes, by this point I figure that something's wrong, like someone contracted the Bubonic plague & all their appendages are falling off, or one of her dogs tried to make friends with a lion, or my mother somehow electrocuted herself while using her juicer and she needs to know how to make her hair stop looking like that chick from Frankenstein (hey, that could totally happen to her), etc, so I pick up the phone. My cousin promptly rips my ass about not answering my mother. Despite my futile attempts of explaining why I didn't answer her.

Long story long, I finally called her back on the way home from the bar, approximately 57 minutes after she called the first time. Like, a lifetime. And this is her response:

"Well, Hardy called and you didn't answer, and I called and you didn't answer, and you didn't blog all week, so I was wondering if you were in a ditch somewhere or lying in a pool of your own blood or eaten by vampires!!!! You always answer your phone!!! And you always blog!!!!"

Ok, maybe I exaggerated a little on the vampire thing.

But the point of this whole novel is that I didn't blog, and I didn't pick up the phone, so I must be dead.
Note to self: blog more so your mother doesn't think you're dead.

Once a worried mother, always a worried mother.

The end.

Just kidding. I still want to write a little more bullshit.
Yippy skippy for you!!!

Another thing I noticed while absent from the blogosphere is I have like 5 new followers. WOOP WOOP!!! Thanks all y'all newbies for following. And I want to apologize that I'm a lazing, slacking heifer in the blog writing department. Trust me, it will get better from here. Or, at least I hope it will. If it doesn't you can like shank me or something. Well, that's a little harsh. Maybe just give me a stern talking to via email.

Moving on.

Lisa Marie Presley just came on my Pandora. WTF is that about? You better believe she got a big thumbs down.

Ok, that's not really what else I wanted to talk about.
Anyways. I've been trying to get more exercise in! Dolphin claps for me! I walked 5 miles last week. Pretty sure my 92 year grandmother walks further than that back and forth from the Old Folks Home Bar. That's not really it's name, but the Old Folks Home does serve booze. That's where I'm going when I get all drooly & forgetful. Oh, and old. I better throw 'old' in there too, otherwise someone might mistake the drooling & forgetfulness I experience now, at the ripe age of 31, and throw me into the Old Folks Home early. Wouldn't want that. Although they do serve booze........hhmmmmmmmm......

So, this week I'm going to make a better effort on the exercise front. I'm going to start getting up early and going to the gym. I love me some sleep like I love me some Little Debbies, but I know if I don't exercise in the morning, I'll end up repeating my stellar mileage of last week. And 5 miles just isn't keeping the Little Debbies off my pooper.

Tomorrow: Get my pooper out of bed!
Wednesday: Get my pooper out of bed!
Thursday: Get my pooper out of bed!
Friday: Get my pooper out of bed!
Saturday: Turn into a rockstar because you completed 4 solid days of exercise. But try not to eat your weight in Swiss Miss Rolls to celebrate said rockstarism.

OK. Ready?!?!?!
BREAK!!!!

I don't know why I wrote that. I'm weird like that.

I must go now. More to come soon!
Get excited!!!!

Cheers!

Ten Things Thursday

I'm BAAAAAACCCKKKKK!!!

You missed me, huh? Like shit-tons, right?

Well, I missed all you Lovey-dovey-woo-woo-shnuckems. (squeezing your cheeks right now)

1.  Well, winter break was fabulous. Absolutely fabulous. All I did was eat, sleep, eat some more. Then sleep again.  Well, that's not entirely true. There was about 1356 hours of driving in there somewhere. Which sucked donkey balls. But what can you do.

2. First, Ryan and I exchanged gifts Thursday night. We were leaving the Sat before Christmas, so we wanted to have plenty of time to enjoy our goodies before we left. I got him some slippers.....that didn't fit. A T-shirt......that didn't fit. A button up shirt......that magically fit. And some hunting bow sling carry-er thing.

He got me a really cool limestone KSU rock for outside
It kinda looks like this:


Cool, huh?! Our neighbors also got one for their front porch. So apparently there's a purple explosion on our street. It's awesome. Especially since one of the other neighbors are KU fans. (Which is our arch rivals.) Hehehehe.

He also got me KSU earrings and much needed Amazon gift cards. I was a good girl this year.

3.  Second, was the trip to colorful Colorado for my dad's side Christmas. 8 hours in the car with a husband who changes the radio station more than Miley Cyrus changes her hair and a puppy that snores. Oh the joy.

We had beautiful weather and took advantage with many a'hike. HEY! I did actually do more than sleep and eat. Badass!

Wyatt having a joyous time in the snow.

View of Pikes Peak from the back of my parents property. Their house is on the right side of the photo in the middle.

Digging for treasures. AKA, sticks.

Another view.

Pike's Peak again.

The front of my parents house.

The Christmas was pretty standard. We opened gifts. The grandkids got waaaaayyyyyy to much shit. My dad got a little tipsy. Oh, and we had the typical dysfunctional family drama, that tends to happen almost every year. Basically my step-brother's a drunk asshole. I'm not going to get into it, but he's definitely on about everyone's shit list.  Thank the Lord his wife is amazing and is the best mother to their son.

We also ended up going to Breckenridge. But I suck and didn't get any pictures. It was beautiful though. Big ol' fat flakes were falling as we strolled through the extremely high priced ski stores, drooling over purple puffy vests that cost more than a boob job. It was lovely. It also just solidified the fact that I am never going to be  one of those people that look cute in their fur boots and stay at places like that and just spend money willy nilly. Yup. Forever poor. Super.

Then the best thing ever happened on our trip home, the day after Christmas. I got the stomach flu. Best.Thing.Ever.  Pretty much had to pull over 3 times, puked twice, and I wanted to just crawl under the car while it cruised 70 mph and die a slow death. It would have been less painful.

4. Then it was a short 2 day break at our house before we packed up the car again and headed to Kansas City for Christmas with Ryan's parents. It was a good trip. We got to see his aunt and uncle and cousins, which is always nice! His cousins are just out of college, and another is still in college, and it's fun to hear about college life and ambitions and secretly thank God that they didn't know me when I was in college because crazy booze-hounds with no ambitions don't exactly fit in with that side of the family. ;-) Good thing I grew up and am now a responsible booze-hound with employment.

5.  After returning home, the husband got the brainy idea to organize our office. Or as I lovingly refer to it as Satan's clusterf*cked outhouse. It was like a Christmas wrapping paper and paper bill bomb went off in there. But, it needed to get done. I know that. And I organized, and shredded, and wiped down things, and shredded some more, and filed till my little heart was content. And I did all this sober mind you. You know, we shouldn't waterboard terrorists, we should just send them into suburbia with a dust rag and file boxes and have them clean out people's home office's. That's torture enough.

And in true husband fashion, the office wasn't enough. Next was the pantry, then onto our closet, then moving downstairs to the spare bedroom and closet. 

It was an epic day. Epic.

But now I'm oh so organized. It kinda feels good. 
And it'll probably last 2.I'mAClutterFreak seconds before I demolish all our hard work with all my precious collectibles. Such is life.

6.  Oh, one other thing that happened over break, or just before break, or.....whatever, sometime in the last month, is I got on my happy pills again. Hip Hip Hooray for Moi! 

Some of you may know, but some not, that I've suffered from depression, most likely my entire life. There was a doc in college that determined that I had a chemical imbalance and would need meds my whole life. Well, when I met Ryan and we started living together, I was feeling pretty good, so I got off them. Because I have a medical degree and all, and can diagnose myself. That was about 5 years ago. Weeeelllllllll, I think I was OK for the first few years, but the last 2 I've been struggling. Really struggling. For some reason I didn't want that doc to be right. I wanted to deal with things on my own. Can you say Control Freak?!

And what really didn't help things, was a lot of major things happened in those few years that I probably needed to be on my meds for. My dad, Mike, getting cancer, and eventually dying. Getting married (not that that's depressing or anything!! It was just stressful, and typically my depression is centered around my stress anxiety.) New jobs, and stress at those jobs. Blah blah blahbity blah. 

So anyway. With help from Ryan and my besty Draz I decided to take the plunge and get back on some antidepressants. I've been on them about a month now, and I can tell you that I feel SO MUCH BETTER!!!

Maybe I'll write a separate post about how bad I really was, but for right now, just take my word that I was not myself for a very long time. And now I finally feel......normal. And it's exhilarating! And you know what, it doesn't make me less of a person to take pills to help me, or abnormal, or different, or strange, it just makes me smart. Smart that I realize that I can't function sans a little chemical help in pill form. And it makes me ballsy that I can admit that I do need help. And to take the help.
So there.
I'm happy now.
Woop woop!!

7.  Can I just tell you how bad it sucks moldy blowfish balls that I have to work?! 
I mean, it should be a crime to come back from 11 days of sleeping in and eating shit, to preform actual work on a WEDNESDAY. And then repeat that for 2 days before you blessedly hit the weekend, where you relapse into your pre-work holiday coma of napping twice a day for a measly 48 hours before you have to grow up and put on something other than stretchy pants and crawl your fat ass behind your desk again.

I think I shall go on strike.
At the local Dairy Queen.
For the next 12 years.

8.  Uggghhhhhh. And I'm wearing this sweater that I haven't worn in years today (that I found buried during the re-organizing debacle), and now I know why I haven't worn it in years. It's ITCHY!!! I just want to tear my skin off right now and I still have 6 hours to go in the work day!!! Kill me now!!

Wow. Lovely face Laura. Just lovely.

9. I got a new Miche Bag too!!! This might have been a little Christmas gift to myself. Because, like I said earlier, i've been a very good girl this year.

It's so purdy!!!
It's navy blue with grey. Kinda a snake print type thing happening. I lurve it sooo much! I just lurve Miche Bags in general! Well, except that I never clean out the inside because I can just swap out the outside. Thus the inside is a menagerie of crap. Oh well, the price you gotta pay.

10.  I went to the gym last night. It was eventful. But not in the way you think. This is what I posted on FB about it:

There's a dude at the gym thats clearly running faster than his little legs can handle. Im just waiting for him to nose dive & fly off the treadmill. Bonus in all this he's literally screaming to himself some sort of gibberish. I can hear him thru my headphones & a vacuum running. Freaky Park Shity people.

Seriously. It was weird. The little guy was pumping his tiny legs so fast I thought they were going to fall off!! And I know i'm going to hell for making fun of people at the gym, but really, any dude that shouts to himself in a gym that has a total of 4 treadmills and 8 ellipticals and is the size of an outhouse, deserves to be be made fun of. Plus it's Park Shity and you just can't make this shit up.

Back to being at the gym in the first place.  Yes, yes, that was my first experience with the dreadmill from Hell in a long long longlonglong time. Dolphin claps for me.  I just walked 2 miles, at a 5% incline, and at a relatively swift pace (faster than 300lb trucker moves while Christmas shopping with his wife, but not much more than that.)  My plan is to get some sort of exercise in at least 5 times a week. I'm shooting for every day, but I know that's just not going to happen. Just being realistic here.

And once my body gets used to the added exertion, I'll pick up the pace and start the running again. YAAAAYYYYYYY.  (Yes, Lindsey, I'll be posting in Buns on the Run!!! Sometime. I swear.)

10.5. Ok, one more thing!!!!!

My KSU Wildcats are playing the poopy Oregon Ducks tonight in the Fiesta Bowl!!!!! I expect you all to watch and cheer on my Purple!!!! Seriously. Cheer for them. Or I will hunt you down. Hahaha, just kidding.
Maybe.

Cheers!!!!