They like me!

I sent some Russian chocolate to my favorite chocoholic-podcasters - Dori and Val from More Hip than Hippie and they reviewed it on their last podcast. :)

Glad you liked it, ladies!

Coupla pics

I lost my camera for a few days so the Christmas pics are late, but here they are! :)



Our tree that was waiting for us when we got home from Russia. What a nice suprise :)



Andrei's Christmas display that he made after he found all of our other decorations in the basement. Then he added a few animals to the party.



An ornament that Andrei made. Actually it is a craft left over from when he was in VBS during the host visit. An Easter ornament on a Christmas tree, though, why not? I did try really hard to make him put the sign on right side up.



This was another surprise waiting for us when we got home. Our lovely friends put this up for us on our front window. I procrastinated too long though, and on a very windy day, all but two signs blew away. The America one is half torn in half and hanging in Andrei's room.

Early Riser

People with children or cats do not sleep in.

Not bad for a 3 year old, huh?

I painted my niece's toes, so she painted mine. I'd leave it on if I didn't have to go to a funeral today. So since I have to take it off, I thought I'd share :)

Backyard camping

For Memorial Day we had some friends over for a campfire and set up tents in the backyard.




Food


Fire


Homemade Ice cream


And the few of us that made it through the 40 degree night had french toast for breakfast. Mmmm.


Brent's dad called us 'cheap', but we had a lot of fun. :)

The Controversial ABCs

Animal testing: For or against? Against
Bush, President George W.: Like him or dislike? Both
Corporeal Punishment: Yes or no? No
Death Penalty: Yes or no? No
Euthanasia: Yes or no? No
Flag burning: Okay or not? Don't care - don't think it should be illegal
Global Warming: Exists or not? Not as bad as they make it out to be
Harry Potter: Read it or not? Read it and loved it
Iraq: Stay or get out? Finish what we started - undecided I guess
Jam: Strawberry or Grape? Strawberry
Kids (do you want them if you don't already have them): Yes or no? Yes
Legalization of Marijuana: Yes or no? Don't care
Minimum wage: Raised or not? Not flat out - maybe in some situations
Nuclear weapons: Should they be banned or not? Banned
Operating System: Windows or Mac or Linux? Mac
Politics: Which party? Undecided - I prefer not to affiliate with one or the other anyway
Quebec: should be own country or not? Don't care
Routine Infant Circumcision: For or against? Against
Stem cell research: For or against? Against fetal stem cells, for otherwise
Tobacco: Illegal or not? Not, Don't care
UN: good or bad? Don't really like them
Vaccinations: All, some, or none? None or very very few
Wal-mart: Great store or Evil Empire? EE
Extra-terrestrials: Yes or no? No
Year round school: yes or no? Sure
Zero Tolerance: Good idea or not? Not


No flaming now
Post your answers on your blog - and if you don't have one, start! :)

Weekend Review

I spent a lot of time in the kitchen this weekend - felt inspired I guess. Here's what I made and did:

Rockin' pizza - best I had ever made.


Bread


But it kind of stuck to the pan a bit


Tortillas


Mmmm granola


The rest of the weekend I spent on the couch with a box of kleenex and a yucky cold


Church Sunday morning


I stayed in the sound booth by Brent so as not to spread my nasty germs


And then Brent and I went to a lovely dinner theatre put on by the church drama team - great job everyone!


I say a dee-lish-us weekend :)

When you can't afford a KitchenAid mixer

Geocaching today

I spent the morning surfing and looking for cheap things for Brent and I to do around town now that the weather is getting nicer. I found a ton of stuff - lots of local fesitvals and nature walks among other things.

Also, we decided to go geocaching and found 4 caches. Here are some pics of our day :)

First cache was by the VFW memorial

Found it!

What's inside?

Hey, here's a friend of ours. (Thanks for serving, Mr. Behr!)

Second cache was in a park right by our house.

Just a log inside - not room for anything else.

Third cache was inside here - muddy.

Last cache was down a cliff by the lakefront.

Found it!

Fun day!

Not to leave you hanging....

Here's what Brent got me

It's purty. I love it.

Thanks, babe!

Phantom trucks

I know what I'm getting from Brent for my birthday (although he keeps denying it), and I keep hearing phantom UPS trucks driving by my house.

When will it be here for real?!

Woohoo!

I'm 27 today! :)

Little Brag

I entered my first Worth1000.com contest and got 9th place out of 31. :) Way better than I thought I would do.

Merry Christmas

Handy people we are not

Our shower drain has been clogging lately. Well it's clogged a lot because I have a slight shedding problem, but I clean it out as much as possible every couple of months, and then it's fine.
But not this time. I did everything I could but it just would not drain properly. And then the tub would start to fill up during my morning shower, and that is just nasty. I should be able to enjoy my shower, not be hopping up and down and hurrying because of all the icky water around my feet.

I got out the home repair book that my parents got us for Christmas last year (probably so we wouldn't have to call them every time we had a problem) and it said to clean the drain trap - the U shaped thing under most drains.
So Brent and I went to work. We managed to get the drain trap off - and removed what looked to be a dead animal from inside. I'll spare you the pictures - you should thank me for that. But then we couldn't get it back on. I'm not really sure what the problem is, but we couldn't get a good seal and it was spraying water everywhere.

I called my dad. He said he'd come over right away, but it was 8:30 and they live a half hour away so I told him it was too late. He's coming over this morning. Which means I didn't get a shower today. I had to wash my hair in the sink. Not fun.

Sorry dad, apparently you can give someone a book and some tools, but that doesn't make them a handy person.

Dumb thing of the day

Yesterday I ran a ton of errands, and bought Brent's last Christmas present. I was very proud of my accomplishments.
So when I got home and checked the mailbox, I found a package - with the same thing I had just bought for Brent at the store. I had ordered it online last week. D'oh!

First day of December means Christmas parties!

Last Friday was our church's Worship Team/Tech Team Christmas party. So much fun! Carmen (Worship Pastor's wife) and I decorated the room at church and made it as fancy and nice looking as we could. Another lady cooked delicious pasta and steamed asparagus, and there was various cheesecakes and other rich deserts to fill us up at the end.

On Sunday night our sub30 group had a concert by Sean Feucht. That was pretty cool too. The band sounded awesome, even though I sat up in the sound booth the whole time. After the concert we all had Christmas cookies and hung out in the church's Cafe.

After that, Brent and a friend watched Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift, while I sat next to the stereo and had to adjust it because some connection would fail every time it got too loud (which was often).

Yesterday I took my last vacation day and Brent and my mom went out to lunch. Then in the afternoon I finally got around to putting plastic on the windows and worked on cleaning the spare bedroom. The bedroom should be cleaned out soon and then we can paint. Of course that means we have to agree on a color, which might be a while...

That's it - now I'm back at work. Today I have a couple of meetings at church, and then I hope to finish our Christmas shopping. Any last minute ideas would be appreciated! :)

Ew Ew Eeeeew!

My cube neighbor reported to me this morning, that yesterday after I left, a bird got into our office and was flying around, knocking dust off the rafters and causing general havoc. The bird also decided to do his business on my keyboard. Yech!!!! My co-worker assured me that my desk-mate spent about a half hour scrubbing and spraying it down, but I think I will still have to scrub extra well when I get home.

*shiver* Yuck!

First Game Night

Brent and I have been meaning to start playing games on Tuesday nights instead of watching movies like we do every other night. Finally we got around to it.

First we played Thuder Road which Brent had picked up at Goodwill. I didn't really like it. It seemed kind of easy. It is a kids game, so what did we expect? One game lasted about 15 minutes and I quickly boxed it up before Brent could set it up again. Brent liked it pretty much though. I chose to play Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego. Dumb. Boring. That game is going to Goodwill. I have no idea why I even owned it. Although I did learn that the island that the Statue of Liberty is on is in fact Liberty Island, and not Ellis Island. And that people in Japan speak Japaneese (yes that was a question).

Even though both games were pretty cheesy, it was a fun night. I'm looking forward to our next board game night.

Small cooking mishap

Brent left some coffee in the pot and it got cold and undrinkable so I decided to try a recipe I saw online for Espresso Jello. Sounds good, right? It's not. Don't try it unless you really really like black coffee.

It turned out, that wasn't the mishap.... The mishap was making it in the evening and eating it at 9 PM and then expecting to go to bed any time soon.....

Back from 1 month of vacation

So I was chastised by my Sister-in-law for not posting. So here's a quick update post before I probably disappear for another month. Well maybe I won't, we'll see.

Happy Thanksgiving to all of you Americans - hope your day was yummy and fun. We went to my parents house with my uncle, aunt, two cousins, and another couple from church. Brent lost at Snakes and Ladders, and I kicked butt at Pick-up-Sticks. Then we went to see Casino Royale, which I didn't really like, but Brent loved. Then we came home and watched Netflix movies until I fell asleep on the couch and Brent had to drag me to bed. Good day all around.

Today we slept until noon, then Brent and I laid in bed with our respective laptops and did most of our Christmas shopping. Then we got up and ate lunch and went to take a nap. Then we watched a movie and now we're eating KFC and pushing the cats away from my potato wedges.

Lessseee, what else.

I designed a catalog for an acquaintence's business - that was an experience. I really learned a lot and would love to do more of that kind of thing in the future. I'm reading Brent's college Art History textbooks and trying to read about all different kinds of design and learn as much as I can.

We really haven't started with the adoption yet. We're hoping to start the homestudy part in January. First we have to pay off some debt and get our home ready. Currently the boy's room is a junk room, and that's the biggest project.
Still haven't picked a country or an agency or have decided anything yet. Only thing for sure is International and hoping for a boy. Beyond that we have a lot of discussing and praying to do. I'm still at a loss as how to even begin to decide this kind of stuff.

Oh yeah, Brent and I went on vacation to Iowa. That was super fun. We stayed in a nice B&B with a lovely fireplace and claw-foot bathtub. I took a bubble bath every morning :) There wasn't much to do for tourism so we just shopped and drank coffee and drove around. Eastern Iowa has really beautiful scenery and is not all flat and cornfields :) the only bad thing that happened is my nosering popped out on a towel when I was drying my face. I couldn't get it back in until the next day and I think I basically repierced it. Oh boy did that hurt! Brent was very queasy and grossed out by the whole experience.
Then on the way home we met my parents at Ikea and went shopping. It was a fun vacation.

Brent's employer got him a new laptop and since his old one belonged to him, I inherited it. Yay me!

Our church album finally is finished - you can listen to some of the songs here - www.myspace.com/praisefellowshiprock If you listen really really close you can hear me in the background. I'm the really loud soprano.

That's about it. I think I'm going to shut this down and watch Netflix movies until I fall asleep on the couch and Brent has to drag me to bed.

:)

Looky look what I got today!

Just in case you don't know me, that metal thing through my nostril was not there yesterday. :)

That's what love is for

This morning I got up at the crack of dawn (ok, only 8 AM) and got in line to pre-order a PS3 for Brent. I invited my mom along and she also pre-ordered a PS3…. also for, uh, Brent…. …
Anyway, Brent would have gone there himself, but he had his yearly planning meeting for work and couldn’t get out of it. Luckily I was able to waste my time standing outside for an hour for a insanely overpriced gaming system. Hopefully it will be worth it.

So, anyone not get a preorder and want to buy a PS3? For a fair price, of course…. :)

Happy Blogiversary!

My blog is one year old! Yay!

Boots!

I was having a hard time finding boots for my skirt suit, because none of the ones I tried on would zip up around my calves. I was just about to give up, when I tried these on a whim at Target. They fit perfectly. I almost squeeled I was so happy. Then I made up some excuse about toothpaste so I could call Brent and tell him.
That was the highlight of my day. :)

Monday Road trip

Mondays are Brent's day off, and we went to Milwaukee for the first time in a long time. I wanted to get a nice outfit for next weekend, and we weren't finding anything by us, so we ventured out to Boston Store. I found a great skirt suit on the $100 rack, but when we went to buy it, we found that it was a bit more than $100. It wasn't $475 like the one in the link, but it was more than usually pay for clothes. I bought it anyway. I really liked it and we had to get back home. It was a good purchase, I think.

After that we had dinner with my parents and my sister and her husband who just got back from his tour in Iraq :) Yay!

Crazy electric

This morning I am thankful for battery backup on alarm clocks. I'm not sure when the power went out, but all the clocks in the house were blinking - except mine.

Then on my way to work, the sky was filled with lightning - literally every 2 seconds or so. It was awesome. I wished I could have just pulled over and watched for a while, but I was already running late.

I'm also thankful that the torrential downpour that had ben going an all night stopped exactly the time I had to walk from my car to the front door of my workplace. That was nice.

What I did today and yesterday and other meaningless fodder

Last Monday I was a little sick. Then my third shift co-worker said that he was sick and wasn't coming in on Tuesday. So I tried to sleep all day (but didn't), and went to work the night shift. By Tuesday morning I was a lot sick. Wednesday I stayed home sick from work myself, and by Thursday I was only a little sick again, but Brent was a lot sick. It has been a long week.

Yesterday I met a friend for lunch (hi Wendy!) at Field to Fork - yummy yum yum! We saw a lady from our church that works there and she gave us 2 cheese samples - Fresh Ricotta and Stravecchio. And then she gave us a sample of their Balsamic Vinegar. Man, I am such a sucker for that kind of stuff. If I had all the time in the world and all the money in the world, Brent and I would only ever eat gourmet, homecooked, mouthwatering meals. But instead Wendy and I then went shopping at the Dented Can Store. Not much gourmet there. Oh well. I did find some Orgainic Microbrew Rootbeer, which made me happy.

Then last night Brent and I sat and watched Desperate Housewives for 4 hours. But the second episode did not play, so we downloaded it from iTunes and watched it on my computer. It just happened to already be in the living room because I was working on other stuff, so that was very convenient.

This morning I had to work (still am), but thankfully this is the first weekend in a while that I have been able to go to bed at a normal time and wake up at a normal time. I should be done in the next hour or two, and then tonight I sing at church. I'm not really sure how that's going to work since I still am still sucking on cough drops every other minute. I'm sure I'll be fine.

After church is Starbucks with our church's newly formed sub30 group, but I'll talk about that more Monday.

Bye!

Photoshop elements

So I have been restless for quite a while now because I have had no creative outlet. I tried knitting and crochet and drawing, writing, home decor - all kinds of things, but nothing was doing it for me.

I also am the webmaster (webmistress?) for our church website, and the time came when I really needed to buy Photoshop. Brent has it on his laptop, but I can't use that during the day. I tried Gimpshop, but hated it. So I gathered all our Amazon Credit Card Rewards certificates together (which I was saving for Christmas) and bought Photoshop Elements.

Photoshop Elements saved me.

I now have no time to be bored, a place to use my creative energy, and a hobby I thouroughly enjoy.

Yay for Photoshop Elements!

A typical day

What I do all day (exciting, I know!)....


During the week:
3:45 - Alarm goes off
4:00 - Actually get out of bed
4:01 - Shower, eat breakfast, put load of laundry in, surf until I have to leave
4:45 - Curse at myself for being late, scramble around for my purse and water bottle, leave for work
5:00 - Arrive just in time
9:00 - Hopefully leave work on time
9:15 - Get home and try to get Brent out of bed. Fail and crawl in bed with him instead. Talk or take a nap.
9:45 - Get back out of bed
9:46 - sometimes make breakfast for Brent, otherwise turn the computer on and time stops because I am addicted to the internet
Soon after - Brent leaves for work and I get around to cleaning the house, making the bed, doing the dishes, all that domestic crapola
12:00 - Brent comes home for lunch
1:00 - Brent goes back to work. I spend most of the afternoon finishing chores, working on other projects, play the latest flash game on Digg.com, whatever. I'm trying to start helping Brent at church, but I never seem to get around to it.
5 or 6:00 - Make and eat dinner.
Evenings - Spend time with Brent, watch a movie, go out for coffee, do whatever.
9:00 - Ideally go to bed at this time. Brent tucks me in and we end up talking for too long
10:00 - Finally get to sleep.

Mondays are Brent's day off, so I usually do minimal housework and we go out on a cheapy date, or spend the day relaxing together
Tuesdays is the vacuuming, mopping, super cleaning day
Wednesdays sometimes is church in the evenings
Thursdays is knitting at 5:30 and worship team practice at 7:00
Fridays I sometimes have to work third shift so I spend the day trying to sleep when I do have to work
Saturdays is worship team practice at 3:30, church at 5:30
Sundays is choir practice at 7:00, church at 9:00 and 10:45. If the choir doesn't sing, I make Brent breakfast and go back to bed.

Whew!

7th Annual BADCALFF - Milwaukee, WI

Location: Silver Cinemas Budget South
4475 S. 108th St. (between Beloit &, Greenfield, WI
When: Monday, September 4, 12:00pm
Phone: 414-529-3012 (Office)

BADCALFF 7
Brent and Dale's Cheap-Ass Labor day Film Festival 2006

What the critics say:

"A jumbled, joyless affair that neither entertains nor enlightens." -- Shawn Adler IGN FILMFORCE
"Richly silly, but also solid, with something for the kids and the adults" - Les Wright CULTUREVULTURE.NET
"It's predictable, often tedious, and sounds funnier than it plays." - Urban Cinefile Critics
"Eventually, the build-up of ridiculousness just got to me." - Jeffrey Chen WINDOW TO THE MOVIES
"Hollywood cannot pollute the ozone with anything more idiotic, contrived, amateurish or sub-mental"- Rex Reed NEW YORK OBSERVER
"Again?" – Brent Homer, when asked about BADCALFF in 2006
"I giggled and laughed until I urinated." – Carolyn Baker, while daddy was tickling her

(With the exception of the last two statements, which were pure fabrication, the above comments only tangentially relate to BADCALFF.)

We managed to come up with a good run of five films and they are of sufficient quality that we're really looking forward to them. No Dark Waters, Herbies, or Garfields on the list. Here's the rundown:

The Da Vinci Code 12:00 TRT 2:30
Based on the best selling book of the same name Robert Langdon is brought in to help investigate a murder in the Louvre.

Nacho Libre 2:50PM TRT 1:40
A Mexican priest secretly moonlights as a masked wrestler in order to save an orphanage from closure.

Cars 4:35PM TRT 2:00
Lightning McQueen, a hotshot rookie race car driven to succeed, discovers that life is about the journey, not the finish line, when he finds himself unexpectedly detoured in the sleepy Route 66 town.

Dinner 635 – 715 Be quick, or you'll be late for Click – I'm going to brown-bag it.

Click 7:15PM TRT 1:40
A workaholic architect, overlooking his family in favor of his career, comes across a remote that allows him to perform TiVo-like functions on his life.

Lady in the Water 9:25 TRT 1:50
A modest building manager rescues a mysterious young woman from danger and discovers she is a character from a bedtime story who is trying to make the treacherous journey from our world back to hers.

All movies are only $2 each! You can’t get more entertainment for $10.

Silver Cinemas Budget South policy states no one will be allowed admittance to the theatre 15 minutes after the show starts – don’t be late and expect a line. We will have printed cards with the schedule to make it easier for the cashiers.

Theater info:
Silver Cinemas Budget South
4475 S. 108th St.
Greenfield, WI 53228
Message: 414-256-1321
Theater office #: 414-529-3032


Disclaimer: BADCALFF is in no way related to or sanctioned by Silver Cinemas Budget South, Associated Bank, DGA, or Peter Bart.

A fun TV series

The Good Neighbors (or The Good Life)

I can't remember where I heard about this, but it finally came to the top of our Netflix and we started watching it this week. It's a British TV show from the 1970, and it's pretty funny. The show is about this couple who live in the suburbs. On the husband's 40th birthday, he suddenly decides that his life is boring and he has not accomplished anything worthwhile. So he and his wife decide to turn to a life of self-sustainability. By the end of the first episode they have tilled their entire lawn to plant crops, and soon thereafter they buy a goat and chickens, much to the horror of their uppity neighbors.

I have never seen it anywhere else but Netflix, so good luck finding it - but if you do, it's oddly inspiring and really worth it.

A Crunchy Link

Here.

Lots of good reading about non-mainstream topics on here. I agree with most of them - can you guess which ones? :) I suspect that only Brent would be able to really know what my views are since my true hippie self is still in the closet...

Freakin' hot hot hot

I have reached my hot weather breaking point. During the day when it gets to be 85 F, that's when I need to turn on the air conditioning. In the evening it can get warmer because we're just sitting on the couch with the fan blowing at our faces, but during the day when I'm cleaning and cooking, I can't stand much more than 85. Of course I was wearing long pants and shoes, so I probably could have shed some clothing and been okay, but I think it was a reasonable temperature to turn on some cool air.

Yesterday was only the second or third time we turned the air on, and we turned it back off a few hours later, so that's not bad for being mid summer already.

Here are some of my tips for not dying of heat stroke.

- Wear less clothing, turn on fans, all that usual stuff
- Drink a crapload of water. Your body's natural cooling system is sweat, so you have to replace all that water you're losing
- Close the curtains - and get insulated curtains if you can. Insulation is just as important in the summer as in the winter. We have a west facing picture window and our living room would become a sauna in the summer - even with the air blasting. Now, with an insulated curtian, it is much more tolerable. Still the hottest room in the house, but not unbearable. I'm amazed at how well this works.
- Better yet, don't have a west facing picture window.
- Take a quick cold shower. For bonus cooling; don't dry off and lay nekked and dripping wet on your bed with the celing fan on high. Feels soooo gooood.
- Try to avoid using the stove and the oven (not an excuse for take-out), but if you must, you can still eat outside away from the hot kitchen. I don’t know why people only eat outside when they're grilling. It's so nice!
- Build a fridge tent - Simpson style. Okay, this one doesn’t help with the energy bills, but it sure seems like it would work :)

Halfway done with my first knitting project

Redecorating

So Brent and I were talking yesterday, and we both expressed interest in wanting to redecorate our house a bit and make it more inviting. Some friends of ours just bought a new house, and Brent's parents are thinking about their next home too, so it's hard not to get the jealousy bug when we sit on our Goodwill couch and look at all of our Ikea crap furniture and clutter. But we do have to remember that we are not in the life stage that these other people, and it's not worth it to fall into debt on this stuff. Especially since we rent, we don't want to go all out, and then have to move in a few years - and then want all new again.

So we drew up some plans and ideas for some of the rooms and talked about what we wanted to do. Some of the things were free - like moving a table from the Living Room into my office. Some things cost a little more, and will be put on the back burner until we can find a really good deal.

Here are some cheap things we plan to do to redecorate....
- Repaint my office (all the other rooms we repainted when we first moved in)
- Fix all of the gouges in the walls from our cats and the furniture
- Switch the rooms around (Brent's office will become the library/media room, and the junk room will become the guest room)
- Declutter! C'mon, we don't need all this stuff!
- Slipcovers for our mismatched furniture - although I'm not sure how cheap it will be, it will be less than new furniture.

I'll let you all know how this goes.

Every Tuesday is Christmas!

Here is a pic of my awesome CSA box and what I got this week. Getting this farm share is some of the best $360 that Brent and I have spent this year. Every Tuesday on Brent's lunch hour, we drive over to this person's garage, where a box of fresh organic veggies are waiting for us. We get almost more than we can eat in a week, and our fridge is always full now.
I also have a new zest for cooking - trying new things I've never cooked or eaten before. This week I get to try kohlrabi for the first time ever. Last week I cooked sugar snap peas - wow, how did I never eat those before?
The cost comes out to about $12 a week - a lot less than I would pay for that in the grocery - and a lot less than I would pay for some of the delicious dinners we have been having at our house!

Find a CSA near you - Local Harvest.org

Makin' babies, baby.

When a man and woman love each other very much, sometimes they decide that they want to be a daddy and mommy. The man and woman have a very special (and fun) evening, and nine months later, they have a new baby.
Ah, but sometimes it is not that easy....

If you are going to start down the road of trying to make a baby, here's a few things that Brent and I have learned on our journey.

-Best book in the world - Taking Charge of Your Fertiltiy. Do not borrow or go to the library for this book - buy it for yourself. I would recommend it for any woman even if you are not thinking about pregnancy (preventing or acheiving). It is so informative on menstrual cycles and many other women's issues. This is money well, well spent.

-After a few months of trying, the addiction to pregnancy tests may occur. Pee On A Stick.com is a great website with a lot of information on how pregnancy tests work, which are the most sensitive, and ratings on which are best. Also there are places to buy bulk pregnancy and ovulation tests online for about $1 each instead of $10 at Walgreens.

-If you are in the market for a basal thermometer, look for a thermometer that keeps a record of the last few temperatures taken. This is very nice for when you fall back asleep after temping at 5 AM. Also, if anyone finds one that is backlit, please tell me - turning on the flashlight at dawn to read the thermometer is not so easy on the eyes.

After a while, you may realize that it will not be an easy road to parenthood. It is not an easy thing to deal with infertility - it is not only emotionally draining, but costly too. Tread carefully - each decision will have to be made with total communication between you and your spouse. If both of you are not on the same page, it will be a trainwreck in your relationship. Here are some more tips if you get this far....

Just to clarify, if you have failed to concieve after one year of trying, it is considered infertility and you should see a doctor to find out what's up. If you are over 30, you should start thinking about doctors after six months of trying.

- Dudes, get tested first. It's cheaper and far easier for the guys to get their sperm levels tested first. There are many invasive and expensive tests that women will have to endure - for guys, only one. And it could be actually fun too....(okay, not going to comment too much on that)

- Consider getting a job that will cover infertility testing and therepy. It may seem a little extreme, but it will lessen the sticker shock when you get that doctor bill.

Well, I wanted to say more, but it's late and I can't think straight. In the future, I'll share part two of the Makin' Babies topic - Immaculate Conception - How to Get a Kid Without Actually Having Sex. I'm sure you're all looking forward to it - I know we are.... (rolls eyes)

Random Post to let you know I still exist

Sorry it's been a while. I have some posts mulling around in my brain, but they are actually intelligent so they require a little bit more thought and I can't just bang them out on my lunch break...

So here's some meaningless filler....

Five sites I check multiple times daily:
1. Treehugger
2. Hugg
3. LifeHacker
4. PFBlogs
5. Straight Dope

Five things I need to do today:
1. Trim the grass by the fence
2. Pick dandelions
3. Go to the library
4. Meet a friend for chai
5. Go to knitting class

Five things on my desk right now:
One Barcode Scanner
Two Water bottles
Three staplers
Four Binder Clips
Five Pens

Five interesting news items in my life:
1. The album recording (see below)
2. I'm going to Texas the first half of June for work
3. I'm going to the Midwest Renewable Energy Fair in June
4. Brent might be able to sell some of his equipment which will help a lot toward our debt repayment
5. It's Thursday (sorry, ran out of things)

Come to our live album recording!

On May 20th, our church is having a live album recording/rock concert, and you all are invited! Trust me, it will be an awesome time. And if any of you reader people come, and find me afterward, I will send you a copy of the album after it's finished. What a great deal!

Are there any of you who even live within driving distance of Sheboygan?

Hope to meet some of you there!

Praise Fellowship Church

We're Back

Did you miss me as much as I missed all of you?

We had an absolutely wonderful vacation. We went to Madison - not too far, but far enough to get away from normal life. We stayed at the Arbor House Inn which was beautiful and peaceful and I would recommend it to anyone. We went to the state capital, but didn't really do any other touristy stuff. Mostly we took walks, napped, and read books. It was great.

I will proudly say that this is the first vacation we have gone on when we didn't use our credit card or dip into our savings to pay for it. The biggest thing we did to save money was that we went to the grocery store first thing and bought some bread, meat, cheese, chips, and chocolate. After that we didn't really have to buy lunch or snacks. The one day we did eat lunch out, we bought from street vendors so it was cheaper than a regular restaurant.

All in all, I think we spent about $600 for gas, food, entertainment, and lodging. It was well worth every penny. :)

Have you Hugged a Tree Today?

Today is Arbor Day in Wisconsin!

Since I didn't plan enough ahead for Arbor Day, I don't have a tree to plant. I did, however join the National Arbor Day Foundation for $10, and they will send me 10 baby trees to plant. We don't have room for all 10 in our yard so we'll probably give some away to family and friends.


What can a tree do for you?
- Reduce your air conditioning cost in your home by providing shade
- Prevent erosion and soak up extra water in the event of heavy rainfall
- Sucks up Carbon Dioxide and sends out oxygen
- Reduce noise pollution by acting as a noise barrier around your home
- Looks pretty and gives you warm fuzzies inside

Of course it wil be a few years before my itty-bitty sapling will be able to do all that, but everybody has to start somewhere.

Find out here when Arbor Day is in your state.

Geocaching

Brent and I went geocaching for the first time today. It was super fun! We found the first one by a light post in a parking lot - took nothing, left a House on the Rock token. Second one we couldn't find - it was a multi-cache and I think we got the coordinates wrong somehow. The third one was stuck inside a tank.

The weather was sunny but a little windy. It was good to get outdoors, and Brent enjoyed driving around the city. We will definitely do this again.

Here is a pic of me signing the log at the third cache.

My Birthday

My birthday in pictures

Click on each individual picture for the description.

Happy Birthday to me!

Happy Birthday to me!
Happy Birthday to me!
Happy Birthday dear Tracy!
Happy Birthday to me!

That's all I really have to say. I can't think of anything else interesting for now.
:)

First of March

Happy March!
March is a wonderful month - my favorite, in fact. So many great things happen in March that you have to admit that it is specifically blessed by God.
Who can deny that March is the best month of all. :)

It's not you, it's me

Yesterday I couldn't find anything I wanted for breakfast, so I left a few minutes early and ran by McDonalds. Yes, I know that eating McDonalds is not healthy, weathy, or wise, but y'know, sometimes you just don't care.
Anyway, I ordered an egg and cheese buiscut, a hashbrown, and a small Coke. And it didn't really taste very good. I hadn't had a McDonalds breakfast in probably about six months, and I was actually looking forward to the salty, greasy goodness. The sandwich was too salty, the hashbrown was bland, and the Coke... well, the Coke was good, but you can't really mess that up.
So, did McDonald's change their recipe, or did my tastebuds change because we have been eating less processed foods and more homemade stuff?
I don't know the answer to that, but I do know that McDonalds is much less of a temptation after yesterday.

Should I stay or should I go?

So, do you all think I should go into work tomorrow or not?

Happy Valentine's Day

I hope everyone had a great day yesterday, and found something frugal to do with (or to) their lovers. :)

Brent and I had a romantic dinner of taco pizza and peanutbutter swirl ice cream. He said that my cooking was better than a restaurant's. Awww. He knows just what to say. :)

Hi Dori and Val!

I sent an email to the More Hip Than Hippie Podcast, and they read it on the air! Woohoo!

I have to say again how much I love this podcast. It is so informative about so many ecological issues. It really shows how you can care about the earth, but still lead a relatively normal life. I have been listening to the back issues non stop for 2 weeks now and I am almost caught up.

If you can't/don't listen to podcasts, their website has very extensive show notes with lots of links and information. I highly recommend it.