BBQ Photos

Just got done watching American Idol and here are my thoughts:

- Trenyce didn’t deserve to go home. She chose some really good songs to sing and she sounded great!

- Kimberly Locke was awesome! I loved her rendition of “Where the Boys Are” and I also loved that she sang one of my all-time favorite songs during their 60′s music medley, “To Sir With Love.”

- I can’t believe Clay sang “Buttercup” — I love that song! It always makes me think of one of my favorite movies, “There’s Something About Mary.”

- They should have sent Josh home. He performed the worst. This just goes to show that America is on crack and totally clueless. Pia say it was racism. I think the voters just have no taste. LOL! Kidding aside, I think they just felt bad for Josh because Simon was really rough on him but Simon was just giving his opinion. It was crappy. It reminds me of how they kept Carmen for several weeks and got rid of the other people first when she was really one of the worst ones.

- During the brief time that I saw Julia during their group performance with Burt Bacharach, I was totally taken by her. She looks even more amazing now that she’s not on the show. I guess with all that free time she has more time to go tanning. She was hot!

- I want a Nokia 3650 camera phone!

Anyway.. Here are some pictures from our barbeque last Sunday..

Dave’s Birthday

Some photo highlights from Brian’s father’s birthday a couple of weeks ago..

Want to see the rest?

Pregnancy Scare

And the saga continues..

Brian and I couldn’t wait another day to find out if I was indeed pregnant or not so when he came home from work on Saturday night (which is around 12:30 am because of his crappy schedule) we both drove to Wal-Mart to pick up another pregnancy test.  Normally we go to Dillons, which used to be open 24 hours also, but the two that are near our house close at midnight now.  We found it out the hard way, one very rainy evening too.

Anyway we normally get Ept but in doing my research the other day, I found out that the Wal-Mart brand Equate pregnancy test kit was not only less expensive but also more sensitive (it can sense lower hCG levels thereby detecting pregnancy much earlier than other brands).  So we got a two-pack this time — just in case I screw it up again.

In case you were wondering how I screwed up, my big mistake was drinking all of that water — big no-no.  When you drink a lot of liquid hoping to force pee out, you actually dilute the hCG in the urine.  And even though it says on the box that the test can be taken at any time of the day, it is best to use your morning urine.  The sample has to be in your body for at least four hours in order for it to contain the highest level of hCG possible.

On Sunday morning I woke up anxious to take the test.  I didn’t want to miss my pee or not have enough on the test so as soon as I sat down, I put the wand between my legs and counted, “One Mississippi.. Two Mississippi..”  According to everything that I have read, you also must have five seconds worth of pee because not enough pee may render the test invalid.  Or, worse yet, the test result will be negative when you are in fact pregnant.

The test, once again, came back negative.  I will not describe to you what I found when I got up but if we would have waited another week, we wouldn’t have had to buy another prenancy test kit.  Another $20 down the tubes.  But as they say, better safe than sorry.  Brian and I are actually thinking of putting me on the birth control patch because this Billings thing is starting to be more trouble than it’s worth.

Before we move on to that, however, Brian still wants to make sure that I’m really not pregnant.  At this point I’m convinced that I’m not but he still has doubts.  A couple of minutes after I went back to bed, he got up to pee and double-checked the results (still negative) — this, even after I told him that I got my period already.

He’s like, “Are you really on your period?  Are you bleeding a lot?”  Still unsatisfied he goes, “Let’s see how long your period lasts.”  As if there is some magic formula which states if you only have an ounce or two days of bleeding then you really are pregnant — despite what the pregnancy tests tell you!  This whole pregnancy scare has turned my husband into a superstitious old lady!

I can’t say I blame him.  After all, this has been the closest of all our close calls.  

The Case of the Missing Period

Brian and I have a dilemma that we are both trying desperately to solve.  I call it “The Case of the Missing Period.”

My period usually comes sometime around the 20th of each month.  It’s been as late in coming as the 24th but never :this: late.  Brian can always tell when my period is about to come because he can sense simply by the way I smell.  Sometimes I think that he knows my body even better than I do.  He said that I had period smell sometime during the week but it just came and went.  It lasted about a day he said.  Brian described it this way: it was as if your body said, “Hey, it’s period time!  Oh wait.  Nevermind.”  His theory: I’m pregnant.  With us being successfully on the Billings Method, which is kind of like Natural Birth Control Method only better because you have fewer days to avoid, for the last eight months now and with only the ocassional condom pregnancy is a bit of a concern.  Brian has never really had total faith in the method so everytime my period is even just an hour late he always deems it to be the culprit.

So there we were, laying in bed, discussing our options.  We both agree that having a child right now would be completely wrong.  With me finally returning to school in the fall, it was just bad timing.  But as they say, it hardly ever is the right time when it does happen.  We are both praying that my period will miraculously come and we won’t have to worry or discuss it any further.

Last night we had to do some grocery shopping for our barbecue this coming Sunday (and just grocery shopping in general because our refrigerator and pantry are practically empty).  We decided to buy Ept.  We only bought the single pack and now that I’m thinking about it, we should have bought the double pack because as it is I have to take the test again anyway.  It would have been more cost efficient.  I think Brian and I both had ourselves convinced that I’m really pregnant, even before taking the test, that we felt one test would be good enough.

I was so nervous last night that I couldn’t get myself to pee.  I had to drink half a liter of water and wait almost three hours before I could get it to come out and when it finally did, it was like “Whooosh!”  My bladder was full but my body was so tense that it wouldn’t come out.  When I finally got a few drops out, my body relaxed and just let it all go.

I followed the instructions and lay the Ept on the counter.  The lines were very slow to develop.  Brian said to just leave it alone for three minutes as it said in the instructions because standing there and watching it was like watching water boil: really stupid and boring.  I told Brian that this could be a good sign because the last time we were in this situation and I took the exact same test (almost four years ago) the lines came up and became fully developed within ten seconds.  Like a lightning bolt, the lines appeared before I could even lay the test down on a level surface as it instructs you do to.  I remember telling Brian to wait three minutes like it said in the box to see if the line would disappear.  He laughs about it now but it wasn’t funny then.  Once the line shows, up it’s time for Final Jeopardy.  It’s not going to disappear.  When it’s there, it’s there for good.

It seemed like I was checking on the progress of our test every thirty seconds.  Brian finally got fed up and called me to bed.  He said, “Leave it alone baby.  We’ll check on it later.”  I checked one last time after the allotted three minutes was up: still no line in the round box and a distinct but faint line in the square box.  You figure that I’d be rejoicing but something deep down inside me tells me that I screwed up the test somehow.  As I told you before, Brian and I have ourselves thoroughly convinced that I am.

We lay in bed and watched tv for a little bit.  Ten minutes later I’m begging Brian to check again, just to make sure.  He grumbles but complies.  Still negative.  But I’m thinking, “Then where the hell is my period?”

This is where the thought that we should have gotten the double pack comes in because it would have been more cost effective.  Brian and I agreed that if my period is still MIA, I am to take the test again next week.  It said in the instructions that if the result is negative and you feel that this is wrong (e.g. because your period is MIA like mine) to take the test again.  If it is still negative and your period still hasn’t come, it tells you to check with your doctor — because your body is totally fucked up.

I’m hoping that I’m not pregnant.  Brian is praying for the same thing also.  I’m taking the test again in a week and let you guys know if the outcome is good.  I’m just hoping that (a) I’m not pregnant and (b) there is nothing seriously wrong with my body.  My body is probably just revolting against all of the exercise.  After all it is possible to miss your period due to (mental or physical) stress, right?

Tricked

Easter Sunday has been a real blow to my diet.  The whole holiday weekend has been a blow to my workout regimen period. 

Friday was actually somewhat okay.  We woke up, had some McDonald’s breakfast (I usually have a sausage and egg McMuffin with a folded egg when I eat McDonald’s breakfast; this was early enough in the day that I knew I had plenty of time to burn it off), then proceeded to Ashley’s because I promised her that I would help her with her class project.  We worked on it for a couple of hours and took off at a little past eleven to go to Shooters (free pool with lunch) to meet his dad and Don for their lunch break.  I skipped lunch because I just had breakfast and kicked serious ass at pool (as in Brian lost to me three times and I only lost once to Dave and almost won cut-throat if I hadn’t scratched and put Don, who actually ended up winning after having been out of the game for a while already, back on table).

Next on the agenda was WSU.  I knew this was trick from the very beginning but I told Brian (he’s the one who really wanted to go back to school, I had no intention of going back up until that fateful afternoon) that I would go with him anyway because I was more familiar with the buildings and stuff.  In the middle of getting re-activated he gets a phone call so I had to complete the re-activation process for him.  The lady was just updating information on the computer prior to the re-activation anyway and I told her that I would be able to answer on his behalf.  After we finished and he was still on the phone, I asked her in passing if it cost anything to get your school account re-activated and she said no.  I thought, well if it’s free then might as well re-activate me too.  I’m already here.  It’ll save me time when I get a bug up my butt and decide to return to college later on.  So she did.  She then sent us to the College of Fine Arts office, which was in the same building, so we could get a printout of all of the courses that we had taken (since it wasn’t an official transcript, it would be free).  The lady there was really super-nice.  She printed Brian a list and, instead of sending me to another place, she printed me a list also.

Brian and I took a minute to pause and ponder our lists.  I had 86 credits already (should have 100 or so, because I went for four consecutive years, but I ended up losing a whole semesters worth of credits due to slacking off and stupidity — meaning, audits and withdrawals) and Brian thought it would be such a shame to waste all of those credits.  We ended up talking me into returning to college (I’ll be one of those returning adults who used to creep me out when I was a freshman — yikes) in the fall.  I’m actually excited because lately I realize how much I loved going to school and I really miss it.  I hate doing homework but I love doing projects and helping Ashley on hers just made me realize it even more.

After our campus shennanigans (which consisted of a lot of walking around, good calorie consumption right there) Brian took me to this gown/dress store.  It was crappy.  I knew there was a reason that,although they’d been in business for several years, I’ve never been there.  We ended up looking for dresses (for the upcoming June Filipino ball) at the mall and I actually found one at Maurices.  We did some more walking around in the mall (burning more calories, yeah baby) until I finally started getting tired (and cranky).  We went to mom’s house in the afternoon and had some leftovers.  She had fried tilapia and nilagang manok for me and some fried chicken for Brian.  It was so yummy!  It was before five o’clock too, so it was the perfect time to eat dinner (for me anyhow, Brian would still need to eat at around ten-ish because of his biological clock).  After showing mom my dress and being disappointed to learn that she did not have any shoes that would match my dress in her almost Imelda-like collection, we ended up going to Payless and KOHL’s in vain.  I ended up just ordering a pair from the Spiegel website when we got home.

I don’t remember working out on Friday but I did work out on Saturday morning before Brian and I started our day.  We both had to work that day.  Normally I wouldn’t have to but I traded my Friday (so we could hang out that day) to work on Saturday instead.  I remained faithful to my diet and workout regimen through Saturday.

Sunday was the killer.  I did not work out at all and Brian refused to allow me to remain within the bounds of my diet (at the risk of offending his mom who was our Easter Sunday dinner host).  I can’t say I was averse to it either because I took full advantage of my food freedom.  Needless to say, I ate a lot!  As in, totally pigged out.  And I’ve been pigging out on leftovers since.

I told myself that it was no big deal because it would only be for one day and I would be working out on Monday anyway.  Well, guess what.  My friend Pia caught me as I was coming home on Monday night and I ended up walking her through a successful installation of Moveable Type and an unsuccessful attempt at installing Image Magick (I finally told her to just email her webhost about it) on her server.  I was with her from eight to midnight (two hours on the phone until my cellphone finally ran out of battery and then the rest of the time on Yahoo! Messenger — I’m afraid to ask what her cellphone bill is like) working on her photoblog idea.  I didn’t get to work out as planned but I did get some laundry done.  So it wasn’t an altogether unproductive evening for me.

Today is a new day and, by golly, I’m really going to work out because my belly is getting super-big again!

Stuck

I got stuck in the dress from hell for almost two hours.  It would have been funny — if I didn’t feel so retarded.  My regular workouts deluded me into thinking that I can fit into a SIZE 3 again.  In my dreams!  The reality of it was a total nightmare..

I was having a hissy last week so I ended up buying these two Ruby Rox party dresses from Dillard’s.  I’m partial to strapless dresses (if I could only count how many I have — different styles from different stores — yes, I’m a clothes whore — err, clothes horse) so I bought two of the same style.  I got the periwinkle one and the black and white print pictured left.  I had seen similar dresses in the Victoria’s Secret catalogs last season but they cost twice as much.  Naturally, I thought the less expensive Ruby Rox dresses were a steal!

To tell you the truth, the material isn’t that great — the black and white print one is actually a white screen-print (seemed like screenprint anyway) on black fabric — it wasn’t even woven.  The material on the periwinkle dress is different and, I think, is much better quality — although I haven’t taken it out of the plastic yet, so I haven’t inspected it all that well.  I can see why they are selling for a much lower price.

So anway, anytime I get a package in the mail I get super-excited (I get three times more excited these days because my mail order shopping has become less frequent due to financial woes) and I feel compelled to try on my new outfits.  I did a quick eenie, meanie, minie mo as I undressed.  The black and white print dress won the toss up, so I eagerly took it out of the plastic, slid it off the hanger, untied the belt and unzipped the back.  I stepped into the dress and pulled it up only to find out that my hips were too wide.  Rather than risk tearing the dress by forcing the issue, I decided to try putting it on the other way — through my head.  I couldn’t just slip it on because the opening wasn’t wide enough (frankly a longer zipper in the back would have worked wonders) so I had to force the dress on, sliding one arm at a time.  Getting the dress on wasn’t even nearly as challenging as getting it zipped up.  Not even close!

I finally just gave up on it because I couldn’t get it zipped.  But then I couldn’t take it off!  I couldn’t slip it down to my feet because my hips were too wide and I couldn’t take it off through my head because it was too tight.  I was stuck!  I really wished that Brian would come home so he could help me get it off (I own a couple of other dresses that require collaboration between Brian and I to get on and off so he’s used to it) but he was running late coming home for his lunch break tonight.

Alright fine, I thought.  Since I can’t take it off, I might as well wear it.  After struggling for almost thirty minutes I finally had it zipped up almost completely in the back.  Looking at the glass as half-full, I thought I might as well forget about working out tonight because I can’t take the stupid dress off but at least I had a thirty-minute workout out of the whole ordeal.

Brian finally came home for dinner (on his lunch break) at a little after nine and he helped me out of the dress before he returned to work.  Whew!  What a fiasco!

I really love the dresses and I want to return them for ones that fit better but the SIZE 3′s are just a teeny bit tight (they fit as long as I don’t wear a bra and someone else has to zip them up for me and help me take them off at the end of the day) and I’m worried that the next size up (5′s) will be too big.  It’s a strapless dress so that’s a big no-no.  I wouldn’t want them falling off (specially since I have no boobs to hold them up).  I guess just chalk this up to even more motivation to lose weight!  ~sigh~

Mirror Project Photos

Here are the Mirror Project pictures that we took at the mall before this mean store clerk at Hotline ruined our fun and told us we couldn’t take pictures anymore.

Have you guessed the theme? These pictures were taken the weekend that Brian and I went shoe shopping — an even that has been a major blow to my spending freeze. Once I get started, I can’t seem to stop! Hopefully, I can start taking control of my spending again..

Militaria Show

Went to the Militaria Show at the Cessna Activity Center today to show our support for the Mid-Kansas Military Vehicles Preservation Association today. It was a lot of fun! Even though Brian and I don’t have a vehicle of our own we usually come to their functions to help and hang out (mostly just hang out for me) because his dad is the president of the organization. The turn-out for the Militaria Show wasn’t great but they actually managed to recruit three new members to the club. We took lots of pictures — and that’s always fun for me! Here are some of them..

Weekenders Party

I left my burgundy-red AE leather jacket at work!  It wasn’t as cold as I thought it would be so I didn’t even think anything of it.  I hope it’s still there tomorrow.

Just kidding!

I’m sure it will still be there.  There aren’t any kleptos at work — it just that lately there’s been things disappearing from my drawer (food), desk (activity schedule) and bookshelf (my Nerve Full Frontal Fiction book).  Whatever.

I don’t really care.  They are merely material things.

They can take away my stuff but they cannot steal my mojo!

Anyway, I’m going to wear something neutral tomorrow so I can wear my red leather jacket home without looking terribly retarded.  I figured I would wear my white tweed linen pants which I bought at my mother-in-law’s Weekenders party and one of my black button-front blouses from Express.  I hadn’t worn the pants yet because Brian told me I looked like a thirty-year-old woman when I tried them on (they’re not the most flattering).

Why in the world would I buy such unflattering clothing, you’re probably wondering.  Well, my mother-in-law invited me to her party (it’s kind of like a Tupperware party but only for old-lady-type knit clothing) and I really had no business going because I’ve been broke for the last few months now (I may never recover from this state).  Brian insisted that I go to lend moral support to his mom, so I did.

I was hoping that lots of people would show up and that I wouldn’t have to buy anything but, as luck would have it, only two other people showed up so it was kind of hard to blend in.  I felt really sorry for my mother-in-law because of the poor turn-out that I felt I just had to buy something.  Anyway, I didn’t even have a credit card with me (because I didn’t think I was going to buy anything) so I ended up using “invisible” money from my checking account.

Those things aren’t cheap either!  I ended up spending $100 on a drape-neck tank top and a pair of pants that make me look like I’m ten years older than I really am.  Fucking beautiful!

I could have spent the same amount of money at Old Navy and ended up with a closet full of clothes.  What’s worse is that I had to spend “invisible” money that I had set aside because I had been saving money (little by little each paycheck; I only have a few more paychecks to go before his birthday and I don’t think I’m going to have enough saved for his birthday gift; life without the ability to use your credit cards is really hard) so I can get Brian a PDA for his birthday.  He can kiss that goodbye!  If he gets one, I’d have to charge it — and I’m really against charging stuff right now.  Although after my mini shopping spree over the weekend I can feel my disease (as Brian puts it) returning.

So we got there at around 7:30 pm.  Brian and his dad decided to watch Dreamcatcher while us girls were doing our thing.  Since there were only five of us (including the clothing distributor), the whole thing was over before their movie even began.  I told Brian later on that I thought I got the raw end of the deal.  I would have much rather spent $10 on a movie than $100 on ill-fitting clothing.

Sometimes it’s just easier being a guy!

Mirror Project Photos

Here’s a recap of some of the pictures we’ve taken for the Mirror Project. Some of them have been submitted (these are linked), while the rest haven’t been. I’m putting them all up here for shits and giggles.

The first set of pictures were taken at the Exploration Place when Kevin, Keith, Brian and I went in February.

The next set were taken at Bradley Fair when we had a brief warm spell. It was the perfect day for a picnic and so Brian and I took our picnic blanket, bought some Taco Bell and, armed with my digital camera, we drove to our favorite spot.











These two were taken just this morning. I submitted them just now but I don’t know if they’ve been accepted yet. I guess we shall see. [ update: The last two just got accepted so I added the links! ]

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