Easter!

Usually we head to Mike's family festivities in northern Indiana for Easter, but this year he really needed to stay home and study. I was sad I didn't get to see Gracie in her Easter finery last year, so I conned my brother and his girlfriend Kim into heading to Evansville! And I am so glad we all went, because I had a great time!

On Saturday we held our own little private Easter Egg hunt for Gracie. I am a little pissed at myself because I forgot to adjust my ISO for these pics so they're not as crisp as they could have been. Oh well.

Look how thrilled she looks. Haha... maybe we should have let her have a little more time after the nap to wake up before tossing her in her Easter dress and out into the back yard?

She didn't like that one of the eggs was on top of this bronze turtle my parents have in the backyard. So she signed for one of us to help her. So cute, a little kid signing "help."
I loved how her dress billowed out when she sat down. So cute! She really got the egg thing too, she was a pro.
More egg-hunting! The weather was so nice in the 'ville. It was amazing.
That basket got pretty darn full!
Grandpa had to show her what was inside a few. Yummy chocolate!
Jay took some videos too. I'm sure I looked like junk - Kim and I just got in from a run. That's the great thing about being the cameraman, though, you don't have to be in the pics!

Thinking of the future

Before Mike and I got engaged, I would look at my left ring finger and wonder what it would look like down the road. What would my ring look like? Would it look good on my finger? Would it fit right? Would I like it? Sometimes I would hold my hand out and think "Be patient. Enjoy this time. Enjoy this time where you don't have to wear any jewelry." I had never worn jewelry consistently before - I would wear a fashion ring for a few months and then ditch it for something else or for nothing at all. I wasn't sure I would like always wearing something on my left hand.

Before we got Milly I would look around the condo and wonder what life would be like with a dog. Surely there would be dog hair tumbleweeds all about, as I'm not the greatest housekeeper. Would our dog be a boy or a girl? How big would she be? Where would she like to sit? What would she look like? Would she like to cuddle and sit on our laps? Would she be good at playing fetch? Would she like me or Mike more (answer: Mike! He must be the alpha) What kind of dogparents would Mike and I be? And then I would think to enjoy this time where we don't have to vacuum up dog hair, pick up poo, walk a dog that is not very good at heeling. Enjoy our freedom.

Now I walk around our condo and wonder what our future looks like. What will this room look like in a few years? How will we balance our lives? What changes will be made? And I think to enjoy the freedoms we have - that we can take Dog to the kennel or any one of our friends at a moment's notice to head off on an adventure. That I can take a run whenever I want, stop at the grocery on the way home. Simple things that make me happy. I think enjoy, enjoy, enjoy what we have.

But then I also remember how scared I was that we wouldn't get engaged, how scared I was that Milly would be a rotten dog and a horrible decision, or that she would never stop peeing on the floor. And now I think of how scared I am of maybe our life never following the path we want it to, never being able to make certain changes.

And I repeat to myself, "Enjoy. Enjoy what you have. " And I get down on the floor and play with Milly and she licks my hand because I just ate a slice of cheese, and she looks at me like licking cheesy hands is the best thing in the world. And I think of Mike coming home tomorrow for good, rejoining our daily routine. And I enjoy.

Check out this sweet drawing of Milly!

Drawing by lmnoprint

So how's that going?

A couple of weeks ago I decided to do some things to bolster spirits and make me feel better. Here's an update as to how that's going:

• Exercise: Yoga - I've been going at least once, maybe twice a week. And so far I like it! I have been going downtown during lunch mostly but still want to try a yoga basics class on Sunday in the Gold Coast. It's so hard to make it out of the house at 10:30 AM on a Sunday though!! Lifting: I've also been lifting with Michelle every Tuesday night. Running: I have gone for about two runs a week. I'm doing the Couch to 5K program on my iphone and am going to run the JP Chase Corporate Challenge at the end of May.
  
• Photography class - I've signed up and it starts April 18th. I am so excited!
• Take other steps to mitigate stress - I've started seeing an acupuncturist and left open a few open weekends to take a beat and hang out.
  
• Healthier eating - I think I've been doing pretty good at this! I have been making big healthy meals and eating them during the week. I am currently in love with the mushroom barley soup that is this week's selection... so yummy. The thing about this one is that I know exactly what I should eat (salads, yummy whole foods) and what I shouldn't (cookie dough straight from the mixing bowl) but the execution can be rather shaky. I haven't been awesome lately but I haven't been awful. I big component of that is eating at home more than eating out - which we did all three nights this weekend! I was so proud of us!

Honestly I have felt a ton better but a good portion of that I attribute to the fact that we've gotten some sunshine! It's feels so good to know spring is here and good weather is just around the corner. The month of April is pretty temperamental in Chicago, but with Hubs home (he comes home from Detroit for good next week) I think I can handle it!

Little brother

IMG_0063, originally uploaded by agstratt.

is not so little anymore!

My brother turns 28 today! I can't believe he is so old - that makes me feel SUPER old. I love you, Jay, happy birthday!!!

Some evidence that my husband is dorky. And also super smart.

Mike sent this email to some friends this week. It's awesome so I thought I would share!

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Hi, science friends.

Jay's birthday is this weekend and I was going to get him a set of whiskey stones. (Granite or soapstone rocks that you keep in the freezer and then use instead of ice cubes) The question I was pondering was which are better? I was looking at specific heat and thermal conductivity...trying to figure out which material would hold more "coldness" and transfer it best to the liquid.

After some googling, I came up with:

Specific heat

Granite - 0.79 KJ / kg K
Soapstone - 1.047 KJ / kg K

Density

Granite - 2.75 g /cm^3
Soapstone - 2.98 g /cm^3

Specific Heat by volume (calc'd using above inputs)

Granite - 2.17 J / cm^3
Soapstone - 3.12 J / cm^3

I think this means that it takes more energy to warm up a certain volume of soapstone than it does the same volume of granite. Since they'd both be chilled to the same temperature in the freezer, I think soapstone is the better choice.

Soapstone also has a much higher thermal conductivity (6.4 W/mK compared to 2.1 W/mK), which makes me think it will absorb heat more quickly, thus allowing quicker consumption of a chilled adult beverage.

So....all signs point to soapstone, right? It's been a long time since I've thought about thermo so figured i'd run it by you guys first. Also, I know Brett doesn't actually do any work and is probably looking for something to distract him.

Mike

Well hello old friend

Had to take a picture of my old suitcase before I donated it to the Salvation Army. I probably should have just thrown it away because the handle to wheel it along with doesn't really work! But oh well. Maybe someone would want it. Regardless, this old boy has been along with me to many places - I bought it when I first started travelling for PwC. It has been to Hawaii, Italy, and all over the US to name a few. I was kind of sad to see it go.

I didn't take very many pictures in Tahoe...

DSC_1363, originally uploaded by agstratt.

... but one that was a must-take was of our friend Brett accosting a three-foot icicle. I think it was worth it, no?

Cracking me up!

Today is Chuck Norris' birthday!

Tahoe trip!

We're back from Tahoe and to say I had a great time wouldn't do it justice! I had an absolute BLAST! Now, I am not a very sporty person AT ALL. My hand-eye coordination (or hand-brain coordination sometimes) is total crap. I only learned to use an elliptical machine a few years ago. And my skiing experience is limited to one 7 day trip to Breckenridge with the family when I was 13 or 14. Now, I remember taking almost a full week of ski school, and then spending two more days running double-black-diamond runs with my Dad and brother. But that was over 15 years ago! And while I did ski in college a few times - I remember being way unsteady on my skis. While that could have been due to the fact that the hills in Indiana are covered in ice rather than snow, it could also mean that my memories are viewed through rose-colored glasses and I wasn't the complete snow-sport bada$$ I thought myself to be.

Well, I decided the first day to just go out on some greens and blues and see where I was at. And I was pleasantly surprised. I was able to parallel ski and take some turns down the mountain. The skiing did wear me out and I was ready to call it a day around 2:30. Once I was tired, it was harder to keep control and I took one big spill where I went butt over teakettle, rolling down the mountain and smacking my head and neck on it (chiro, appointment for Monday please!).

At the top of the mountain, Day 1

Shortly before this picture was taken I was checking Chad for weakness. But thought I'd be slightly more appropriate for the pic.

The second day we took an intermediate class where the instructor corrected a few small things (boots were too loose, we were committing to turns to late which caused a quicker, more out of control turn) and after that I felt on top of my game! I felt like I could have spent a whole week out on the mountain. I'm sure after a few more trips and practice I could be back on the black diamonds - I am way more cautious now than I was as a teen, and my legs are in no shape for the superquick swishing to be sure. But now I feel like I can get back to that skill level at some point, and that feels good that being good at something isn't impossible.

The thing that sucks is that I don't really like any other sports, and I can't ski very much where I live now. BOO.

So the second day we did the class in the morning, and in the afternoon we skied with the group of our friends. Chad and Stacy and I decided to head to the far side of the mountain and work our way back. At the top of the last lift, he said "Ok, on this trail to the left is blue. The right is black diamond (expert). They meet in the middle, so you girls go to the left and I'll go to the right and we'll meet up."

As he skied away, I thought: "Famous last words. We are screwed."

This is not a picture of the hillside we were going down

So anyways, we look at the hill and it's a sheer precipice - we can't see where we're going until we shove off the top of the mountain. And baby, that's not how I roll. I like to know where I'm going first. So we skiied down the side parallel to the dropoff a bit - to see where we were going. That's when we realized the area we were supposed to go down was completely ungroomed. There was a trail, but it was RIGHT under the lift only, and the place we'd skied down to had no trail, nothing. But at that point we kind of had to go down it. Great.

About halfway down that area (and stopping and discussing our options every few minutes, with the option of taking skis off and hiking back to the top sounding better and better), we finally realized that about halfway down the ungroomed hill we were on there was ANOTHER sheer dropoff. Oh yay (insert Chad-cursing here). We skied parallel to that one for a while before finally popping back out onto the trail. Whew. Only it had taken us so long that Chad thought we hadn't waited for him and had bailed on us. Boo. So we raced back to the lift and snagged it up the mountain to head back to our lodge, completely on the other side of the mountain.

Once we did the next run and got to the next lift, we had fifteen minutes to get to the top of the mountain, ski down it, and hit the next lift before they closed. So we hauled butt to the final lift and got there at 3:58, 2 minutes before closing time. We took the final run down to our lodge and walked in to cheers from the crowd that we actually made it back. It was kind of fun, like we were our own little band of heroes, just me and my friend Stacy. At least people didn't have to come retrieve us from the other side of the mountain!

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Here are another few pics of the group on the last day. Mike and I stayed in and rested up - I could have skied some more, but I didn't want to get back to Chicago all tired and sore. So we stayed in and watched movies and took naps. But it looks like the group had fun!

After they got back from skiing, the group above jumped in the hot tub. Brett said he would get Chris a drink that night if (in his swimtrunks) he jumped off the deck railing into a snowbank with a bellyflop and did a snow angel. I happened to be watching from a window up above and saw the whole thing, it was awesome. That is so our friends, making silly bets.

All in all, it was a great trip. The place we stayed at was amazing, and our friends are already talking about going back next year!

all pics stolen from my friend Deanne!

Happy Monday

Whew! I feel better just unloading in that last post. Sometimes it takes some courage to get things out there. But sometimes getting things out there makes them better already.

I went to my first yoga class last week and spent the weekend laying around, accomplishing some chores, and trying (and failing) to kick my cold. Somehow I just feel more centered.

Last week I also had some quality girl time, hitting up Perennial with three girlfriends on Monday and Piccolo Sogno with Emily on Thursday. Both were amazing, but the leftovers from Piccolo were extra awesome. My noodles were great at the restaurant, and totally hit the spot again on Friday for lunch when I was home sick.

Speaking of food, check out this week's recipes:

• I made Thai chicken soup and boy howdy was it tasty.
• Prosciutto-wrapped pork chops on Saturday was So. Freaking. Good. Don't be stingy with the thyme! I'm sure you thought pork wrapped in pork wouldn't be anything but awesome. It is. Awesome that is.
  
• Pot roast yesterday... may tweak the recipe just a bit for the fact that I don't make 4 lb pot roasts.

Man, you'd think it was new recipe November all over again! Yummy!

Maybe I'm in an extra-great mood because we leave Wednesday evening for Tahoe? Probably!!

Lately

I bought this necklace in a fit of sentimentality over the holidays. Dreams do come true, right? I've always been a person that believed in positive affirmations and the power they have in life. So I figured this would be a great reminder of what life holds for me.

Picture from Andrea Waines website

Well, I had been wearing the necklace constantly since I bought it. But things have been hard over here in the chimonkey brain. I've not had a lot of faith in myself or in life. I've been getting frustrated that things aren't going my way. It's really easy for me to fall into this tired frustrated place in the winter and that's exactly what's happened. Let's just say the whole equation results in a whole lot of crying because that's how frustration escapes my body - straight through the old eyeballs.

One day a couple weeks ago I got home from going out with friends and saw the necklace hanging around my neck in the mirror... and just got pissed. Dreams haven't been coming true, necklace! You freaking lie! I took the necklace off (being careful not to break it since I'm nothing if not frugal... I might want to wear it later you know) and threw it at the wall in our bedroom. It fell behind the nightstand and I went to sleep. I tried to wear it a few more times after that, but it mostly just reminds me of being frustrated and at the end of my rope.

For now the necklace is at home and maybe I'll wear it again someday. But until then I'm going to take some steps to make my life better. To do what I can to lift the crappy attitude I've had lately.

• I'm going to start going to Yoga a couple of times a week. Not this "power" yoga that is meant for cardio either. This will be a meditation/breathing/centering yoga. I figure I can fit it in at lunch once or twice a week and maybe once on the weekend. There is a good-looking Yoga Basics class at the FFC in the gold coast I totally want to try on Sundays also.
  
• I'm going to take that photography class. The class starts April 18th and goes for 7 weeks. I keep putting it off because there is always one class in the series that I would have to miss. I live a busy life, I need to get over it and finally take the class even if I have to miss one. I need to invest some time in myself and my interests, and this is going to be it.
  
• Take steps to mitigate stress in my life. I need to make sure I'm surrounded by people and situations that support me and don't add stress.
• I want to try and run a few times a week. I won't start this until after we get back from vacation because I have a sore throat and currently don't feel very well. And running just makes that worse for me! But I know running a few times a week will help center me.
• Try to eat healthier. This is going to include not noshing on so many sweets, swapping out Splenda for something more natural, and curbing consumption of alcohol. I'm toying with the idea of keeping wine but nixing beer and hard alcohol (I really don't drink much of the latter anyway). I'd really like to eat far more organic foods, but the price tag is a bit awful in the city. Once May-ish rolls around I have a membership in a CSA that will provide a box of organic vegetables a week that we're sharing with some friends, so that will get a bit easier.
  

So that's the deal. I've been feeling like crap, and not like my bubbly self lately. And I hate it. So I'm going to try and do something. Hopefully I'm not all talk and no action on this like I have been for the past 6 months. I guess putting it out here makes me a bit more accountable, eh?

Pictures from this week

Wednesday $5 whisky night at my favorite local bar. I don't really drink whisky, but alot of our friends do... anything to get them to go to this place more makes me happy!

Milly is learning to drive, hahaha.... If you kids don't behave, I am stopping this car right now!
And OMGOMGOMG, there is a dead squirrel outside of doggie daycare that has been there all week. Funnily enough, Milly hasn't noticed it. It's probably frozen solid which is the only saving grace. Poor squirrel!
What am I saying? Squirrels are just rats in cuter outfits. Someone pick up this cute rat for Pete's sake!

Happy Birthday Hubs!!

Today is Mike's 31st Birthday! Happy Birthday, Hubs!!
I never thought I would get married. I never thought I would want to have kids. All that changed - I changed - when I met Mike. He is my rock, my confidante, my everything. I am so glad I met him and am so glad we work so well together. No relationship is perfect, but I love that we bring out the best in each other and love each other.

Love you, Hubs! Thanks for being you!!

Happy Groundhog Day

Today there is exactly six weeks left of Mike being in Detroit and he has decided that today is his Groundhog Day.

Six more weeks, Wahooooo!!

Some more oldies but goodies

Me with my Grandma Stratton. I insisted on my Cabbage Patch Doll, Katherine, being in the picture. "Three generations in one picture!" I said, over and over. I was super excited.

This is one of my Dad's favorite pictures of all time. I have to be like 18 month old or something in this picture? I obviously like him a whole lot, you can tell!
Check out that old couch. So awesome.

This is killing me! So funny!

http://pbh3.tumblr.com/post/390543309/1938-dating-guide-for-single-women

Tuesday random thoughts

Is it sad that I get super excited every Monday to get the condo tidied up? Usually on Monday morning it looks like a tornado hit it (yeah, a Mike tornado!). So I come home, do 5 loads of laundry, load and run the dishwasher, empty it and load it again, make the guest bed if we had a guest over the weekend, cook my food for the week and balance our checking account.

Tonight not only do I get to watch LOST but I am going to do our taxes.... WHEE!!! The life of a grownup, it just keeps getting better.

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This weekend was a whirlwind of activity. Thursday our friend Chad got into town. Mike used to live with Chad, so we've grown so close that he is pretty much family (Chad even came on Mike and I's first date with us... we all three went to go see Runaway Jury).

When Chad got to our place , he immediately noticed the new carpet. Then going into the living room/kitchen area he thought the cabinets looked whiter. "I Mr-Clean-Magic-Erasered them all last week" I told him with a shrug. He responded with "Was that one word you used? Like, you made Mr. Clean Magic Eraser a verb?" He finally realized that the cabinets looked brighter because of the new paint, which is when I realized he hadn't been in the condo since about a year ago. So I walked around and showed him all the stuff that had been done... new paint, backsplash, etc. I was kind of proud that he noticed and thought it looked alot better. And I was proud of me for doing so much in a year. Go, Type A personality who misses her husband!!

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On Friday we went to happy hour at a place down the street that offers $1 beer bottles. We drank them out of Budweiser and Bud Light by 10PM, I felt kind of bad for the poor college students that rolled in around 11PM looking for a deal. But they were still offering $5 pitchers at that point so I guess it wasn't all bad news.

Around 11 I decided a round of shots was in order to close out the evening and went to the bar to buy a few Tommy-Coverdale-specials. That was when the bartender told me he was out of jager. I ordered something else and decided to give him a good-natured ribbing in the form of "Dude, who runs out of jager?!". As he mixed up our shots, he asked me if I'd ever owned or worked in a bar. As he said "So someone who has NEVER worked in or owned a bar is telling me how to run my bar" I realized that the shots he was mixing were about 85% soda and 15% alcohol. Wanting to save my shots, I said "Hey buddy, I was just messing with you! What do I know? No hard feelings!" I relaxed when he said "Oh, never mind, just a mix-up" and felt even more relieved when he reached for the bottle of vodka to add more to the drinks. I can handle paying for the shots, but not ones that don't even have anything in them!

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Chad and I both happened to watch an episode of Better Off Ted last weekend where two nerdy scientists that work at this company learn to tell people to "deal with it" from a salesman (who is the main character Ted's brother). They buy a dead body from the lab supply store and Ted asks what they're going to do with it. "We're going to DEAL WITH IT, Ted," says one. "Yeah," the other chimes in, "Just like YOU'RE going to DEAL WITH IT!" The whole episode they were telling people to deal with it in their nerdy mantra.

Of course, Chad and I spent the weekend telling other people, each other, blank walls to DEAL WITH IT. It was awesome.

This show is awesome and I love it so naturally it will get cancelled soon.

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This week marks 7 weeks left of Mike in Detroit. Next week makes 6. Ironically, he was only supposed to be there originally for 4-6 weeks. I remember 6 weeks feeling like a lifetime and now I feel like he will be back home for good tomorrow. Funny how things get put into perspective for you. I guess I've learned to DEAL WITH IT. Regardless, I am happy his time out of town is coming to a close.

Urban dogsitting legend

Yesterday I went with three girlfriends to the Indiana-Northwestern game, and we rode a bus from Kirkwood. We were cracking up because everyone on the bus was super drunk and also engaging in chugging contests, while we observed. At least it was pretty entertaining.

On the way home from the game, a guy in the seat in front of us told us a story:
"So this friend of a friend, was watching another family's dog while they were on vacation and it was super old and died while the family was gone. She called the family and told them - they were bummed but again the dog was super old so it was unsurprising. They asked her if she could get rid of the dog, and she agreed. Now this girl was like a 110 pounds, and the dog was a pretty big Golden Retriever, so to get rid of it she put it in a suitcase and was going to take it somewhere (my sidenote: maybe a vet or somewhere that disposes of pet bodies? The guy didn't say). Since the dog was pretty heavy the girl was having trouble pulling it along as she got on the subway, and some guy says "That looks pretty heavy, what do you have in there?" The chick didn't want the guy to be weirded out that she had a dead dog, so she replied that she had computer parts or something electronic. The guy promptly punches her in the stomach and takes off with the suitcase."

Granted..... the guy that told me this story didn't personally know the chick personally and parts of it don't make sense... a dead dog on a subway? Asking someone to get rid of a dog body? Putting a dead dog in a suitcase?! BUT STILL, just the thought of some thief getting stuck with a dog body cracks you up right?

You kind of wish everyone who steals stuff gets the equivalent of a dog body in their suitcase.

Ugh, another weekend

Our weekends are so busy that I'm starting to dread them. This weekend we have a friend coming into town so we have a ton of stuff going on:

• Thursday IU-Purdue basketball gamewatch
• Going out on Friday
• Saturday - making Superbowl food, dinner out at Fogo de Chao, then birthday celebrations with my friend Jaci
• Sunday - Going to IU-Northwestern game in the morning, Superbowl in the evening

I think I need a break from my weekends!!! It is stressing me out!

At least next weekend we're off to Key West for some relaxing. Thank goodness!

Yummy cupcakes

So tonight I went to Swirlz to get cupcakes for my brother's girlfriend's (Kim) birthday. Of course I had to get one for myself!

As I was checking out, I saw they had pupcakes!

Milly heard the bag crinkle and raced over to check out the situation.
The one is a bit blurry because Milly is jumping up to get the pupcake
First she had to chase it around for a bit to make sure that pupcake knew who was boss.

Finally, it was acceptable to eat... and she wolfed it down....
Ahhh, Millsters... a bit spoiled lately. Last week she got ice cream!

Facebook surfing

Do you ever surf around on pictures on Facebook and see pics of people's kids and think "This kid is going to be a Mean Girl just like her mother was in high school/college"?

Nope? Just me then?

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On a related aside, I think I need an internet sabbatical.

Millicent the OCD dog

How do people who have had blogs for years remember what they've written about? I feel like some of what I write has to be a repeat and I am nowhere near as prolific as any other blogger.
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Have I ever told you how I always sing "Hold me closer, tiny beagle" to the tune of "Tiny Dancer" by Elton John? I am constantly changing up the lyrics. This week it was "Hold me closer, tiny beagle. Please don't drag your nose, you'll huuuuurt it!"

Anyways, this week was a tough Milly week. I think she is (has?) OCD. Is it possible for a dog to be OCD? She touches her nose about a foot from whatever she's playing with, then drags her nose to the thing, touches the item quickly, and repeats ad nausem. This weekend it was a pig ear. She used to play with them for a little, then eat it. But lately she messes with the darn thing for weeks. Oy. So anyways, she hid it between our headboard and mattress, and performed her nose-touch ritual with it. She did it so much that she rubbed her nose raw and it was bleeding! And she didn't stopafter the nose was raw (ow, man, when something HURTS, stop!), so she got blood ALL OVER our bed. All the linens had to be washed. What a pain.

Then on Tuesday I had draped the duvet over a folding table to dry... with part still on the floor because it's huge. Somehow she pulled down the duvet, hid the pig ear under it, and went to town with her nose-touch ritual. Again, blood all over the duvet. I about lost it I was so angry. This time there was so much blood, I wondered how she had any left. She is so tiny! How can that happen and she just keeps on with her little nose ritual?! I guess I should be glad the blood wasn't all over our brand-new carpet.

Maybe loss of blood explains why Milly was nothing short of angelic tonight. She's weirdly intuitive and knows when to give me a break, when I'm at the very end of my rope.... just after I've texted Mike that we're selling her to the gypsies for sure! So after tonight's behavior I suppose we can put off selling her for awhile longer. :)

More organizing!

So after the great closet-clear-out of 2010, I woke up on Saturday morning with an urge to clean OUT and organize! I cleaned out my closet even more, tossing more jackets and cocktail dresses/evening gowns that I wore in 1998 and probably should never wear again. I ended up organizing all the clothes into three piles: one for the Salvation Army, one for my sister, and one for my sister-in-law. Then I cleaned out the guest bedroom and closet and did a little vacuuming. Then I resorted to organizing our two bins of random electronic stuff and cords. I wrapped up all the cords and then twist-tied them into neat little bundles, grouping them by type. Telephone cords here, cable cords here, internet cords there. I will admit, I was on a bit of a tear. Oh and I also cleaned out both cars and did some other tidying up! I was crazy. I need to have productive days like that more often. Somehow I didn't get to some of my other cleaning but oh well.

Then today my friend Em and I went to IKEA (had a nice little suburban day including lunch at Olive Garden with tasty soup, salad, and breadsticks!) and I got a bunch of cute little hooks to hang up stuff in my closet. This one has all my rubber-bandy workout headbands. This reminds me I should work out a little more but also that I don't need any more headbands.Ooh, scarves on one set of hooks here... and I got some of those individual 3M hooks to hang up my belts on the right.
It's sad how much this organization really makes me happy!!

Also, if you need a headband, I'm probably your girl!

Closet cleaning

Last night I had to give myself a talking-to.

For a long time I've been thinking of instituting a one-in, one-out policy on my closet. There was just so much stuff that I never wore, and I figured that might be a good way of getting rid of some of it. Plus I have stuff in like three different sizes: SuperAprilSkinny, NormalApril, and FatApril.

So this is how the conversation went

Me: Seriously self? You are keeping all these SuperAprilSkinny clothes? You know you're never going to be this size again. I mean, I would ONLY HOPE you never have another wedding to motivate you to both starve yourself AND run 6 miles a day. And that was the ONLY way you fit into all that crap.

Self: I don't know. I mean, I could. I looked SO GOOD in this tank top.

Me: I know, I know. You and that tank top had good times. You walked home from Metro at 3AM together, not stopping for a burrito along the way because of the previously aforementioned diet of egg whites and bud light. But listen. If you WERE to get that skinny again, you know the first thing you'd do is to log onto the Forever21 website and buy new fun clothes that fit your new skinny self. Not dig through the closet and find 4 year old clothes that are out of style.

Self: You're right, you're right. But what about this dress?

Me: You looked awful in that dress THEN and you know it.

Self: Ack. But I want to keep all this junk! What about the business casual stuff?

Me: OK, let's just SAY you get another job that requires business casual at some random point in the future. Do you really want to wear the 3 year old Target sweaters that are too short for current trends?

Self: Probably not.

Me: OK. So let's get rid of some junk. But you can keep the expensive jeans that don't fit anymore... those you might actually want to wear again!
I may have to take some pictures of the more-loved pieces in the pile to remember them by. But I have a feeling the pile is just going to grow - I just started tossing anything I couldn't remember the last time I wore, or wouldn't wear now.

Biggest lesson learned: Don't buy blazers. They don't look good on you, Self!!!

An afternoon with Gracie

I am consistently amazed by how many pictures I can take of Gracie in such a short span of time. This go-round we were only there for a few hours and I took over 400 pictures! Of course since Gracie is fast-moving and I am still learning on my new camera, I only ended up with about 170 that I wanted to upload. But still, I love them!

Playing with toys with Uncle Jay

This one is a little darker than I'd like, but I love the composition. If the pic had been a little lighter, her baby blues would have really popped out of the picture I think.

Why hello, my lovely booboohead!

For some reason, biting her bear and running towards Uncle Mike

Thinking

Playing with the tent/tunnel we got her for Christmas.

I love this one. The colors are all super bright, as are her eyes. When the settings are right on this new camera, it really blows your socks off.

Uh-oh!!!

Guarding the door during Girls' Time

Gracie ran up to Uncle Mike and put her bear and monkey on his lap. I sat next to him and stole them. She promptly marched up to me, snatched them, gave me a vicious stinkeye and redeposited them back on Uncle Mike's lap. Hilarious!

Mike must look like he knows how to care for a stuffed animal or two.

Baby pics

For Christmas I got a printer/scanner/copier/all in one thing, which I LOVE so far (came in handy scanning the first two pics). So I moved around the shelves in the living room a bit. Before the whole shelf was pretty full with DVDS so we got one big case and put all the DVDs in there. That left the top shelves completely empty, so I needed to add some things. For some nostalgia I busted out some oldies but goodies...

My grandpa gave these to me when my Grandma Stratton passed away. They are turning out to be some of my favorite pictures. I am only a week old in these pictures!! The first one is with my Grandma Stratton (look at that bond already!) and the second is with my parents (HOW young do they look? They were 22 and 23, holy smokes!).

I'm not sure how old Mike is in this one, but hoo boy how cute is he? Adorable...

So that's our new "vintage" decor... I love having these pics of the two of us around as little ones!

Diary of a refinance

Fall 2008 - "Wow, mortgage rates are low! We should refinance!"

Mid December 2008 - Appraiser comes to our house. Spends 15 minutes there. Mike suggests later that we should have given him cash money to butter him up. Oh well.

12/29/2008 - Receive our appraisal. A cardboard box on an empty lot in this neighborhood would go for more. Are outraged.

January 2009 - Is spent arguing with bank regarding appraisal amount. We send neighbors's appraisal, which is MUCH higher for exact same unit. Send comps, which are much higher.

February 2009 - Finally realize that logic is failing when discussing with morons. Shake fist at sky, scream "WHY GOD WHY" and give up.

Summer 2009 - Hear about mythical Obamanomics refinancing aid.

Fall 2009 - Call Wells Fargo. Are told we are not eligible for new refi programs.

One week later - Receive letter from Wells Fargo saying we are eligible. Call again and get that ball rolling.

October 30, 2009 Appraisal #2 of the year. We give guy kit-kats to butter him up. Mike suggests later that we should have given him cash money to butter him up instead. What's with all the good ideas after the fact?

5 days later - Get appraisal back. It is a much better amount, allowing us to move forward with refinance.

November and December - Bug Wells fargo every three days. They slowly make their way through process. Obviously there is someone manually typing up each of the 500 mortgage pages somewhere. AFter that person makes a trip to the forest and physically cuts down the tree and makes the paper from scratch.

December 21 - Get call from Wells. Woman we were working with no longer works there. AWESOME! Rate lock ends on Jan 1st, so we have to close this thing and like NOW.

December 30 - Finally get draft settlement statement, which we have been begging for for a week. It is wrong. Of Course.

New Year's Eve - Dec 31, 2009 - Mobile Notary comes to our condo with correct papers and we sign the refinance papers. Mobile notary is very nice; likes beagles. Relief ensues that we got this done. A bottle of Chateu Coufran is opened. No payment in January and February WOOT!

January 4, 2010 - Wells Fargo takes mortgage payment out of our account for the mortgage we no longer have. *SIGH*

New Year's resolutions

New Year's Resolutions

• Get to work on time. This means prior to 9:00. I am constantly missing the 8:45 train and then have to take the 8:55 which not ONLY has a mean conductor but also puts me in at right after 9. I already messed this one up on Day 2, but am going to make a concerted effort to show up on time!
• Go to Digital 2 class. And by go, I mean actually sign up for the class and attend it this year
• Save money. Hit our savings goal for the year that Mike and I set.
  

Hmmm... that's all I can come up with. I'm not going to make any gym resolutions because I never keep them. Plus the candy one last year was a total failure.

I guess condo-related I could finally get the blind in the hall fixed and paint the toybox/trunk thing we keep the linens in. But that seems hardly fair as a resolution since I've already scheduled the blind consultant guy to come in a couple weeks and have plans to paint the trunk on MLK day when I'm off work.

What are your new year's resolutions?

One more

DSC_0588, originally uploaded by agstratt.

One more Gracie pic! This one she's mealing on some Craisins and hanging with Grandpa Stratton. She definitely has him wrapped around her tiny finger, but I think he also has her wrapped around his! They kind of like each other ;)

Christmas dress

DSC_0667, originally uploaded by agstratt.

Here is Gracie in her fancy Christmas dress. She screamed bloody murder like we were peeling her skin off when we put it on her, but looked so cute! Even though this pic is a bit blurry I still love it. It's hard to get non-blurry shots of Gracie without a flash - she's always on the move!

Christmas Fun!

DSC_0725, originally uploaded by agstratt.

Mike and I got Gracie this sweet tent for Christmas. It even has a tunnel that goes off of the side of it you can crawl through. She was loving it! We put her elmo chair in there, and when she got other Christmas presents she would run back to her tent and chuck them in there. She's a big fan, and at $20 this tent was a cheap but super-entertaining gift!