Wednesday, November 24, 2010

Happy Thanksgiving

Sorry!  I'm apparently only showing up for holidays now. 

I'm currently 12 weeks and 5 days along and everything is going really well.  I had an ultrasound last week - baby had 2 arms, 2 legs, a head and a body.  I can't complain.  Heartbeat was 171 (which online everywhere says girl).  I still have no idea what it is and we're not going to find out.  Sometimes I have strong feelings of boy, other times its girl.  Time will tell. 

I feel like everything is going super quick and super slow at the same time.  I didn't have any morning sickness at all so I can't really complain - I've just been very very tired.  I want to go to sleep early but something always happens that makes it so I don't go to sleep until 1030-1130.  I also have a horrible time napping for some reason. 

We're picking up my sister in law (and brother in law) tonight.  Tomorrow we'll FINALLY get to tell my in-laws the double exciting news!  I feel like my parents have known so long (5-6 weeks?) that it's about time!

I also have no idea how to tell my job.  Or when.  I just moved to a new department this week so that adds to all the confusion.  Its pretty much my same boss (she just used to be my boss's boss.. does that even make sense) so it's not a huge change.  I just have NO idea when/how to do it.  I probably should do it soon.  Luckily, I was already chunky so it's not like I'm really showing yet or anything.  I'm only up 1.5lbs so I'm very very proud of myself.

Okay, well wishing you a very happy thanksgiving!  Hopefully, I update this more often once I get into the magical second trimester where I'm not supposed to be so tired. 

Sunday, October 31, 2010

Happy Halloween

We've had 3 groups of trick or treaters this year.  The first two were just two kids and the last group was 3 or 4 kids.  That's crazy!  When I was younger I would've been out starting around 1 and then came home for dinner around 5 or 6 (and to regroup and empty out my pillow case) then I'd go out again later until like 8ish or sometimes 9ish.

 My mom is short so she used to just put on a mask and pretend she was a kid too.  I just had to do all the talking.  It was great because she got candy and didn't steal mine plus I could go out later because she obviously knew I was safe since she was with me. There were even times where my dad would also put on a costume so my mom, dad, sister, and me would all go out.. and I'm talking even when I was like 14 or 15.  As long as you have a costume on, you're not too old!

But, sadly, we've had practically no one come this year.  It's so weird.  I'm glad I didn't buy any candy.  I actually went through our pantry and found sour patch kids, swedish fish, and fruit roll ups.  The fruit roll-ups are a huge hit with the few kids that did come and at least I didn't have to spend any more money. 

My husband and I took the dog on a walk through the neighborhood and we only saw 2 kids!  I heard another 3 or 4 but didn't see them.  At least we got some exercise.  Although I will admit that I did keep my eye out for anyone that had bowls outside so I could snag a peanut butter cup but didn't have any luck.  Oh well. 

Sunday, October 24, 2010

CSN Stores

Well, I had such a great outcome last time I placed an order with CSN stores, that I'm happy to be doing it again.  As I mentioned before, they have everything.  Since, it looks like we'll be staying in this house for a bit longer due to not wanting to have the address stress of renting this house, pay another mortgage, and paying for daycare.. we're looking to spruce up this place a bit.

The kitchen and dining room are definitely the first places we're going to redo.  We, without a doubt, need a new dining room table.  Currently we have a somewhat nice table and really crappy chairs that do not match at all.  The dark brownish/black circular table was in my grandmother's kitchen (so it's small) and the chairs are a blond color that I think might be from ikea from about 15 years ago and are completely falling apart.

So, my first thought was to check out CSN Stores because I love how easy it is to go through everything and how quickly it all arrived.  I figure even if I can't find the perfect dining set, I'm sure I can find a great accessory (or a few) that will look nice for once we fully redo the kitchen and dining room.  I'll let you know what I end up with!

hello!

Ok, so update time.  Sorry!

We went on a cruise and got remarried on 10.10.10.  It was fun but I don't think I would spend the extra money to go on Cunard again.  We were on the Queen Mary 2 and I guess I just expected more - better service, more opulence, more marble staircases, more water at dinner without having to ask repeatedly every night.  Silly things like that.

I started spotting on the cruise and it really freaked me out.  Called the doctor once we got back and they did an ultrasound.  We got to see the little beluga and the blinking of it's heart.  That was pretty cool.  Once I saw that, I felt much better - more comfortable.

I have another ultrasound this friday (the original one I was scheduled for) along with a dr's appt on Thursday.  Let's hope that all continues to go this well.

I'm super tired but no nausea which is great but still makes me nervous.  We told my parents last weekend and they were super excited.  Still waiting for Thanksgiving to tell husband's parents.

I'm going to try to be a better blogger but I'm just been so tired that I've been going to bed by 10 the latest cause my eyes just start closing.  I'm going to try to write at least something short and post it.

Tuesday, September 28, 2010

Review

So what did I end up buying from CSNstores.com?  I ended up going with the Le Creuset baking dish.  It came with a 9" and bonus 5" for only $24.95.  At that price, the hardest decision was picking the color.  I ended up going with Caribbean.

The order came super quickly.  Seriously, I ordered it on the night of Sept 21, it shipped the 22, and I received it the 23! 

They are, obviously, a great quality.  How can you go wrong with Le Creuset?  I've already used the larger one twice (once for baked mac and cheese and tonight to make jalapeno cheddar corn bread).  It's a great size and I can definitely see myself reaching for it again in the future.  The little one is the perfect size for a small apple crisp or something of that sort.  I plan on making meatballs in it tomorrow night to test it out.. there's only two of us so the small size is fine.

Tomorrow: heading to the doctor to confirm the pregnancy!

Thursday, September 23, 2010

!!

So, I had an appointment on Tuesday for a sonogram and meeting with a different gyno at my normal place.  I waited 2 hours and she glanced at my sonogram printout and said "everything's okay, you're good to go"  I yelled at her cause she wasted 2 hours of my life.

Today I was supposed to have an appointment with a reproductive endocrinologist because of my elevated prolactin levels.  My husband was also going to get his sperm tested.

That's all been cancelled.  This morning I took a pregnancy test and it was POSITIVE!

I took one on Tuesday and Wednesday just for hopes.  This morning I really wasn't expecting anything but I decided to take it anyway since I'm 11 days past ovulation and I have one "early response test"  It was digital so there is no figuring out if there's a line - it flat out said YES+.  I actually went back and reread the directions just to make sure that YES meant Yes!  Then I ran downstairs to find my husband who was in the downstairs bathroom.  I just sat outside the door pacing in my underwear thinking I should have brushed my teeth before coming downstairs.

I'm excited and freaking out and nervous and jumpy.  I have a vacation day today from work since my doctor's appointment was at 11 and I'm getting my hair done at 4 so I just decided to take the whole day off.  So now I have the whole day to sit here and think about it. 

I know it's too early to tell anyone and that's why I'm mentioning it here.  I want to go to the doctor first before saying anything to anyone.  I should probably call my regular gyno to get an appt.  I really don't want an appointment with that other lady I saw on Tuesday.  I pretty much hated her.  Plus, I feel like when all is said and done, I'm going to prefer going to a midwife.  I guess only time will tell.

Thursday, September 16, 2010

decisions decisions...

I kept hearing and reading about CSN Stores but, honestly, never had the time to check them out.  Well, I finally did and they really have some great looking things.  And lots of it!  CSN Stores has over 200 online stores where you can find everything from coffee table to cookware to pet supplies.

There's a lot to choose from.  I'm definitely going through and getting ready to place an order shortly.  I'm just having trouble deciding what to get!  I tend to add a whole bunch of things to my cart and then pare it down a bit.  If I always bought everything in my cart, I'd online shop my way out of my house ha ha.  As you know, we're fostering a little doggie, Hugo, and the pet supplies are right up my alley to spoil him with.  But, he won't be here forever and I deserve to be spoiled too (right?), so I may just stick to the cookware and bake ware.  How cute would this turkey cake mold be for Thanksgiving?

While clicking through, I also noticed the coffee tables and I'm tempted to order one of those too.  Currently, we have a 4 yr old $50 coffee table from Ikea that is stained and nicked to no end.  I like having storage underneath the table, because we also have to shove stuff under there.  Yes, this is our cleaning philosophy when company is on it's way.. hide hide hide!  Plus, my husband and I eat most of our meals at the coffee table so maybe we should upgrade to something nicer and more adult-like? 

Decisions decisions...

Saturday, September 11, 2010

Hugo

So, we are finally foster parents. I like to do a good deed on 9.11. Makes me feel better I guess, instead of helpless. We're fostering Hugo.  My husband is already fully convinced we're going to end up keeping him and he's the one who gave him the name. He's a little peanut. He was rescued from that hoarding situation: http://www.newsday.com/long-island/suffolk/cops-arrest-west-hills-couple-on-animal-abuse-charges-1.2254122

Don't read that article if you are at all sensitive to animal abuse. It's freaking terrible what those people did. Somewhere around 150 dogs but that can't give an exact count - for reasons explained in the article. The fostering place didn't care if we didn't have a backyard (unlike the people I tried going with last year), they were just happy I could help.

Poor little Hugo had never been outside in his life. He didn't know what grass was! Obviously has no idea what housebroken or walking on a leash mean. When you go near him, he generally starts shaking and lays down because he doesn't know what to do. He's already super excited when we walk into the room and happy to see us and he's only been here since around 2:30. This is amazing progress. I'm so proud of the little guy already.

He's definitely got something going on with his ear - it's incredibly dirty and he cries when you go near it. We've gotten it much cleaner but we'll try more tomorrow. I don't want to overwhelm him. I will say as scared as he's been, he hasn't once nipped at us or even thought about biting us. When we were going at his ears, he just cried and tried turning away.

Cooper has also been fantastic. He's the big dog now. Yes, Hugo is that small haha. Both of them sat in the kitchen watching me as I made dinner as if that's what they always did. Hopefully, Hugo follows Cooper's lead and learns leash skills and how to walk outside quickly. When I brought him out before, the wind blew, and he just curled into a ball on the ground. When I assured him it was okay and it happened again he sat up. He really wants to not be afraid and it's so cool to watch that happen.

And now, pictures all taken with my phone so they have that lovely indoor lighting/yellow iPhone quality.

They had to shave down most of the dogs from the house because they were so terrible matted. His hair is pretty short on his body but I think when it grows in, he'll be adorable. The ears kill me!

Hugo

Louie and Hugo give kisses to each other - he likes cats

Louie and Hugo

The boys watching tv. Hugo gets a towel in case he decides to pee on my couch.

Cooper and Hugo

The boys conked out as I write this.

Thursday, September 9, 2010

So my birthday came and went and, of course, I cheated.  My work brought in a coffee cake for me and it was really good and I couldn't say no.  Then we went out to dinner with friends and my husband got me a wonderful peanut butter/chocolate ice cream cake from Cold Stone - my favorite!  But I'm back on track now and all is going well.  I'm down about 4 or 5 lbs (I don't remember since I weighed this morning).  I will update with a more exact number tomorrow.

Got some not so great news from my doctor today.  I went to the obgyn about a week or so ago cause my periods have been really irregular.  They were fine the first few months off of birth control but then the past few months I've had a 54 day cycle, a 35 day cycle, and a 46 day cycle.  I wanted to know what was going on with my irregular periods.  I also have a horrid fear that I'm completely infertile.  I had blood work done last week and the results came back.  My prolactin levels are elevated.  It's not a great thing but it could be much worse.  After googling (of course), I learned that there's a pill you can take to get everything regulated, so that's positive at least.  Who knows what further tests, if any, I'll need before that happens but we'll see.

I have an appointmentwith my regular obgyn at the end of the month to go over the blood results and do a sonogram just to make sure everything else looks okay.  Then, two days later I have an appointment with a reproductive endocrinologist to go over the elevated prolactin levels.  Hopefully, it's a quick fix and we can get everything back on track.

Monday, September 6, 2010

food diary

Okay, so we've been eating out for dinner all weekend - as usual. 

Friday was the diner- I got coffee, soup, salad, entree, and dessert.  Coffee was half and half and sweet n low, soup I gave to the husband but had a few sips of the chicken broth, salad was Greek salad but I got blue cheese dressing on it so it was good, and then dinner was chopped steak, stuffed mushrooms, escarole, and creamed spinach.  Creamed spinach tasted sooo good so hopefully it wasn't terrible for me, escarole was terrible and I didn't eat it, dumped out the stuffing and just ate the mushrooms themselves so that was good.  As long as there was no filler in the chopped steak, I did fine.  I didn't have a sugar/carb headache afterwards so I'm guessing I did okay.  Gave my dessert to my husband while I had some more coffee.  All in all not terrible.

Saturday was eggs/bacon for breakfast then we went house hunting.  Afterwards, I ate my leftover chopped steak.  Then that night friends wanted to go to another diner so we obliged.  That time I just ate my broth out of the chicken noodle soup, again Greek salad w/blue cheese dressing, chicken sorentino.  It says it was broiled and it didn't taste like there was flour on the chicken so that was fine, eggplant was breaded so I picked around, prosciutto and mozzarella are always good.

Sunday we went into the city.  Had leftover chicken sorentino for breakfast.  Pumpkin coffee from dunkin donuts which I'm sure was terrible I just couldn't stand not getting it - I didn't add any sweetener so maybe that's slightly better?  We walked around the city a ton so lots of exercise.  Ended up going to Nobu for dinner and had the omakase- chef's choice.  The first three courses were pretty okay because they were mainly sushi. salad, tartar.  The lightly fried lobster and black cod miso w/foie gras were soooo worth the cheats.  Sooo good!!  Then there was miso soup and sushi.  So just the small balls of rice under the sushi weren't bad there.  Dessert was green tea ice cream and molten chocolate cake.  I didn't bother eating the cake (even tho it should be flour less lol) because I don't see the point in wasting the stomach room on something like that.  It I can get it at Chili's for $6, why would I pay $35 for it?  Too easy to make and I'd rather something more elaborate.  The green tea ice cream was really good though. 

Monday: We met my sister etc for lunch at a burger place.  I ate a salad with blue cheese dressing, burger (no bun) w/ Swiss cheese and sauteed onions, and a piece of broccoli.  Would've eaten more broccoli but I was stuffed.  Then we had a bowl of popcorn for dinner.  Could have made a better choice with that but there's a ton of fiber in popcorn and we definitely could've made a worse choice.

Tomorrow is my actual birthday so I will do the best I can.  Of course, all weekend long, I have forgotten to weigh myself so tomorrow ought to be fun.  If I eat crap tomorrow, that's fine.  After my birthday, I will be back on track.  We already have a good, low carb, Rosh Hashanah dinner planned that I'm looking forward to.  I'll probably have to go food shopping after work tomorrow to pick up the last minute ingredients though. 

How was your weekend? 

Thursday, September 2, 2010

AT&T Sucks

So, in a nut shell, we placed an order for an iPhone 4 on July 26 at 9pm and then cancelled it on July 27 at 2pm.  AT&T messed up and sent out the phone (and charged our credit card) anyway.  We received the phone and mailed it back on August 11.  We still have not yet received our money back.  The money that AT&T took even though we had confirmation of the cancellation.  On August 26, I spent 2 hours on the phone with no help whatsoever.  I was on hold for over an hour waiting for a supervisor when the phone hung up. 

My husband called back and spoke with a supervisor and they told us we'd have our credit within 24 hours.  We waited until this Wednesday because of the weekend and, frankly, we forgot.  I called and was told I'd have to wait another 10-14 days because they haven't received the phone yet.  This got me worried, what if they never received the phone back?  The phone we cancelled and should never have been shipped in the first place.  We dropped it off at the post office and used their label and it shows that it was picked up from there.  I don't want to be responsible for this phone. 

I was told there was nothing that could be done and speaking with a supervisor would be useless.  Then, the rude customer service agent, hung up on me.  I was admittedly pissed off at this point.  I emailed customer service twice telling them how terrible they were and I twittered about AT&T's suckiness.  I was annoyed and sick of wasting time on the phone. 

Someone contacted me via twitter and pretended he wanted to help.  Yeah, he has not responded back to my email yet and it's been about 40 hours.  A random person responded to my email, I explained the story and asked for my refund.  A different person responded and told me everything was taken care of and I'd have to wait 10-14 days.  It has already been a month since AT&T stole my money.  I wrote back and again reiterated my story.  A third agent responded back without helping me at all. 

Finally, a fourth person responded and again said she wanted to help.  She ended up calling my husband around noon and he had to argue because, silly us, we want our money back.  $220 isn't change.  At this point, we've had to pay interest on a credit card because of AT&T's mistake.  The woman said she would call right back.  We didn't hear anything.  I bitched more on twitter and a different woman contacted me from AT&T and wanted to help.  Yeah, she has been no help whatsoever either.  Finally, around 5pm, the woman called my husband back to say that she credited our account the $220 but couldn't/wouldn't do any more. 

Now, I may be greedy asking for a credit, but seriously?  My husband and I have have spent HOURS on the phone and sent countless emails.  From my last count, we spoke to sixteen, yes SIXTEEN, different people.  We waited over a month for AT&T to give us back the money they took even though they should not have. I want compensation for all the time and anger I spent on this stupid stupid problem.  This problem that was caused by AT&T in the first place.  I had agents specifically say it was AT&T's fault, so I know I'm not crazy. 

So, yes, we have our $220 back but I want compensation for missed time.  We have both been customers for a VERY long time and this is just a terrible terrible way to be treated.

That, in a very large nutshell, is my feelings on AT&T and the annoyance they have caused me in the past month.

Wednesday, September 1, 2010

Day 2

Today wasn't bad - just bored at work again and thinking of food when I'm bored.  I'm a snacker and, especially in the beginning of Atkins, there isn't really much fun stuff to snack on.  In a few weeks, I'll be able to add in nuts and berries and that'll help big time. 

Today's Meals:
Breakfast: The same -eggs and canadian bacon
Lunch: a bit of leftover steak and cheesy broccoli.  some fresh broccoli and tomatoes
Dinner: A casserole type dish - chicken, sausage, spinach, peppers, cream cheese, bit of cheddar on top before it went into the oven.
Drank: 72 oz of water at work and 3 glasses of crystal light at home

This morning I got on the scale and lost 3 lbs.  TMI Alert: I weighed myself "pre-potty" yesterday and "post-potty" today.  I forgot to weigh myself until I was walking out the door for work.  I know I work better when I weigh myself daily so I ran back in and did it.  I really need to do some food shopping considering the only fresh veggies I have are broccoli and celery.  I like having more options but will make this work until I get to the store.

In other, more fun news, we booked a cruise!  My husband and I got married on 05.05.05 and always joked we would get remarried on 10.10.10.  Well, that's coming up pretty quickly!  We booked a cruise on the Queen Mary 2 which I'm really excited about since I've never been on Cunard.  It took about 3 weeks of going back and forth but we finally got the guarantee that they can do the ceremony on 10.10.10.  Woohoo!  While we were waiting I just told the (very nice) woman that I didn't care if a bus boy did it, I just wanted it done.  But the Commodore agreed to do it and that's what we were waiting for.

It's a short cruise - only around 5 days. But it'll be a nice quick getaway and break from normal life.  It stops in Canada and maybe one spot in Maine?  Honestly, I don't even know!  I just wanted it booked for the date.  haha

Okay, going to go catch up on some TV  <-- very important I know!