Random talk thread!

[audball]

Hope you've got your grades back and did awesome! Sounds like you've got nothing to worry about

Busy weekend! Exciting that you've got the pictures up!

Got it back on Friday, I got an A!

And yes! I'm loving our wedding galleries (shots below).

 

[audball]

Things are crazy here. Not really bad. Just busy.

DH is home all day. He's in our office for 9-13+ hours each day working on getting some projects done. We may try to sell them somewhere of may just stick them on his resume when he starts looking for work.

"A" is home all day. She's on summer break for another three weeks.

I am home all day. Still on summer break.

So.... all three of us in the house together ALL DAY
It ranges from boring to "OMG I CAN'T TAKE THIS"..... and then I go to the grocery store just to get out for a bit.

It will be better once "A" gets back to school on 9/2. She follows me around when she is bored...

Back to our exercise group. I'm up to 220 but I can move (mostly) again. Pain in my ankle so I have to ice for an hour or two after each exercise session, but then I have an excuse to lay with the cats and read

That is a lot of family togetherness! I hope you're able to cope for the next few weeks until 'A' is back in school!

DH and I haven't been great with our diets lately either and as our first anniversary is approaching in less than 3 months, I'm very sad I definitely don't fit in my wedding dress right now. Working to remedy that (at least as much as possible) over the next 10-12 weeks!

 

[audball]

Got my books for fall quarter. Registered in a couple already. Wait list for another -- #2 so likely to get in

I'm watching zucchini grow and hoping the rabbits will leave me at least a few. They've been munching them as they start to form...
They also ate the blueberries down low.... and the deer took care of the rest --- I got ONE blueberry

The tomatoes (2 so far) were delicious and more on the way. The cucumber was super yummy too.
Need to get the blackberries picked still.

That's good! I'm registered for the one class I'm taking in the Fall semester. I haven't gotten my textbook yet...don't know what it will be! Class starts for me a week from today.

I hope the critters leave you some of your home grown fruits/veggies!

 

[TooPatient]

Beautiful galleries! I love the progression of sizes you picked.

Yeah... Lots of togetherness...

It hasn't been too bad (except for the 9+ hours I spent alone in a car with two teenage girls )

"A" has a sleepover tomorrow night then all day Sunday with friends. We've got half a dozen teenage girls coming over next week to stay the night. All day orientation for her.
Lots going on.

We're trying to keep her busy and around as normal as possible. Her mom is having problems and we're trying to sort that out now. Waiting to hear update so I can keep our attorney up to date and get his input on visits for now. Ugly stuff...

 

[audball]

Beautiful galleries! I love the progression of sizes you picked.

Yeah... Lots of togetherness...

It hasn't been too bad (except for the 9+ hours I spent alone in a car with two teenage girls )

"A" has a sleepover tomorrow night then all day Sunday with friends. We've got half a dozen teenage girls coming over next week to stay the night. All day orientation for her.
Lots going on.

We're trying to keep her busy and around as normal as possible. Her mom is having problems and we're trying to sort that out now. Waiting to hear update so I can keep our attorney up to date and get his input on visits for now. Ugly stuff...

Thanks! We're really happy with how it came out. We bought two matching gallery sets from Bed, Bath, and Beyond (20% completion coupon through our wedding registry). Each set had 7 photos, one 11x14 matted to either an 8x10 or 8x12, two 8x10 matted to 5x7, and four 5x7 matted to 4x6. It also came with a hanging template to hang in the orientation we chose so it was SO MUCH EASIER than doing all the measuring ourselves. The template is for the 7 images in the middle of our living room gallery. With the other set, we used two of the smallest ones and added them to the ends of the living room one. So we did have to measure to get the spacing for those, but adding two to the end wasn't bad. For the bedroom, we had to create our own template to do them in that way, but since they tiered from biggest in the middle to smallest on the outside, it was easier than the orientation in the living room that was done for us via the template. It was a great little gallery set if you need frame suggestions! It was $50 for one, but with the coupon, just over $40 each. Frames are good quality with real glass and good matting. It came in lots of color choices, we just chose black since we're not in our permanent home and figure black goes more easily house-to-house until we're settled more.

I'm sorry that A has been so tiring! At least she's got a group of friends and is staying out of trouble herself I hope? Sorry the mother is causing trouble. I can only imagine it's no fun to deal with.

 

[TooPatient]

Great price on those frames! I may have to take a coupon and look. Everything I saw at the couple of places I looked was either really expensive or nasty and flimsy.
The template sounds awesome! We have all sorts of measuring and leveling gadgets including a laser thing that puts a level line around the entire room, but it is a pain to get the just so. And DH is either more picky about precise hanging than I am or totally okay with lopsided depending on the day

"A" has done pretty well for the most part. She has memorized the periodic table, done every problem in my college intro chemistry book for the first 7 chapters (so far -- covering unit conversions, mols, solubility, chemical formulas, balanced equations, and more), practicing her Spanish, re-learning Hebrew, and even starting on pre-calc stuff with her tutors. All while still doing lots of fun stuff with friends.

Her mom.... Yeah. Likely going to be held for involuntary psychiatric care (again).

 

[audball]

Great price on those frames! I may have to take a coupon and look. Everything I saw at the couple of places I looked was either really expensive or nasty and flimsy.
The template sounds awesome! We have all sorts of measuring and leveling gadgets including a laser thing that puts a level line around the entire room, but it is a pain to get the just so. And DH is either more picky about precise hanging than I am or totally okay with lopsided depending on the day

"A" has done pretty well for the most part. She has memorized the periodic table, done every problem in my college intro chemistry book for the first 7 chapters (so far -- covering unit conversions, mols, solubility, chemical formulas, balanced equations, and more), practicing her Spanish, re-learning Hebrew, and even starting on pre-calc stuff with her tutors. All while still doing lots of fun stuff with friends.

Her mom.... Yeah. Likely going to be held for involuntary psychiatric care (again).

This is the set we bought. It comes in black, natural, silver, walnut, or white.
http://www.bedbathandbeyond.com/sto...set/3244219?skuId=41795163&registryId=6863798

Looks like the black is currently out of stock online, but it'll come back. We at first only ordered one and bought a second one later. We had to wait for it to come back in stock, but it did. They were not available in store in our area, but they may be in yours. We ordered them at the store which gave them free shipping. I really like the look of the walnut colored frames, but we went with black since it's safer/easier to match in the future if we need additional frames. They came with a template in the layout as pictured and even had options for angling it for placement along stairs with instructions on how to manipulate the template. For the price, we were very happy with quality of the frames.

I hope things at home continue to get better!

 

[TooPatient]

I think selecting woods is an ongoing challenge. Maybe if you can afford new floors, cabinets, furniture, and frames a at the same time it might be easier?

We had to get a new door for the office. Which wood? What will look okay now but not be a problem when we do new floors? Wha won't look goofy with the furniture... But what about when we get new???

I dream of someday tearing down the house and doing it all over in stuff that looks good together. And adding a level and fixing funky layout issues...

 

[audball]

YES!! It's one of my pet peeves when watching things like House Hunters on HGTV. When all the wood flooring in a house is different widths, laid in different orientations, and is a different stain...no no no no no!!!!! And it really bugs me when the stain of cabinets clashes with the stain of the floors. And then throw things like moldings (assuming they aren't white), picture frames, FURNITURE...geez, how does anybody ever have anything that looks like it "goes" together!?! Hence why we went with the black frames...but I do really love the color of the walnut.

 

[TooPatient]

My grandmother did amazing getting it to all look right.... But she always bought in sets. The whole house was done at one time and then when she was ready again it ALL got replaced. The only thing I remember staying was the gorgeous dining room set in their big dining room.

Hard to get that same look if you buy a piece now and another later and half a dozen frames today and a dozen next year and...


The nurse from the life insurance company came out today. Poor lady is allergic to cats
All four of our cats love to shed.

 

[audball]

Seriously! It seems that's the only way to get everything to go, but jeez that would be pricey!! Poor insurance lady! Those with cat allergies definitely suffer in feline homes. And we only have one!

 

[TooPatient]

On the up side, I never saw an insurance person move so quick

We sat at the table rather than cloth couches to try to make it a little easier on her. I even put any cat who walked near her in a separate room and closed them up. We had just (day before) washed all of the couch covers and we do vacuum/sweep at LEAST once per day. The house filter gets changed once a month or more (despite "3 month" supposed life).
Even with all that, she started sneezing all over and clearly having trouble.

As soon as she could, she shoved what she had to in her bag and headed for the door. Not so much as a good-bye to DH. Thanks to me as I opened the door and she ran
She stopped long enough to grab a lint roller out of her car and brush the fur off before driving away.


I hate to see anyone suffer. I did feel bad for her. It hadn't occurred to me to mention the animals and they didn't ask. "A" has several friends with cat allergies and they are usually fine in our house (even sleeping on the floor) because of all the heavy duty air filtering and stuff we do. Even our vacuum is Heppa filtered and purchased as it was rated the best around for pet fur.

 

[TooPatient]

Oh!

Made it off the wait list and into the class I need!


Now the hard part ---- I have to make it through the quarter without getting terribly sick or injured
(I've had bad luck that way the last few quarters...)

 

[audball]

Oh!

Made it off the wait list and into the class I need!

Now the hard part ---- I have to make it through the quarter without getting terribly sick or injured
(I've had bad luck that way the last few quarters...)

Yay for getting in! Congrats! I start the Fall semester tomorrow...dreading having class after work for the next 16 weeks

 

[TooPatient]

Oh!

Made it off the wait list and into the class I need!

Now the hard part ---- I have to make it through the quarter without getting terribly sick or injured
(I've had bad luck that way the last few quarters...)

Yay for getting in! Congrats! I start the Fall semester tomorrow...dreading having class after work for the next 16 weeks

Hope your classes are going well!

I'm off for another month still. Which sounds sort of nice but I'd much rather do your semester system! With only 12 weeks in a quarter (sometimes a bit less thanks to off days and finals) it doesn't take much of anything to end up behind and unable to finish. Like the flu that is always brought and shared around school...

 

[audball]

Hope your classes are going well!

I'm off for another month still. Which sounds sort of nice but I'd much rather do your semester system! With only 12 weeks in a quarter (sometimes a bit less thanks to off days and finals) it doesn't take much of anything to end up behind and unable to finish. Like the flu that is always brought and shared around school...

Thanks! First class was last night. It's once a week on Monday nights for 16 weeks. We're off next week for Labor Day. Seems pretty easy/straight forward. So far grad school has been cake vs. undergrad -- totally different worlds! I'm only taking one class this term. My tuition waivers from work cover up to 6 credit hours per term and this course is 4 credit hours. I'd have to pay for 1 credit hour out of pocket in order to take 2 classes this term (~$500) and since I'm trying to do this Masters for FREE, I decided to just take the 4 hour class. I'll double up on classes when I can take two 3 credit hour courses and have them fully covered. I did one 4 credit hour over the summer, one this Fall, and that only leaves one 4 credit hour course left in my program (the Masters seminar which you take your final term). So starting Spring on out, I can take 2 at a time until the last term. It's only 11 classes total (36 credit hours) so part-time isn't so bad.

Tentative schedule:
Summer 2014, one 4 credit hour class
Fall 2014, one 4 credit hour class
Spring 2015, two 3 credit hour classes
Summer 2015, one 3 credit hour class
Fall 2015, two 3 credit hour classes
Spring 2016, two 3 credit hour classes
Summer 2016, one 3 credit hour class
Fall 2016, one 4 credit hour class (Graduate)

I'm debating double up in the summer even though the terms are shorter (either 6 or 10 week options), but they're SO LONG at night after work that I can't imagine doing it for two classes. Not to mention the masters seminar (final class, 4 credit hours) is only offered in the Fall term. You don't have to take it last (though it's recommended), but you do have to take it in the final year of your program. So if I opted to take it in Fall 2015 by itself, I could graduate one semester earlier by doubling up in the summers, but then I take the final seminar and competency exams two semesters before I finish (meaning I won't have taken 4 of the 11 classes in the program).

Alternative schedule:
Summer 2014, one 4 credit hour class
Fall 2014, one 4 credit hour class
Spring 2015, two 3 credit hour classes
Summer 2015, two 3 credit hour class
Fall 2015, one 4 credit hour classes
Spring 2016, two 3 credit hour classes
Summer 2016, two 3 credit hour class (Graduate)

I guess we'll see! If some online options are available for Summer 2015, I may go for it and try to graduate a term earlier. That would be nice. And either plan gets me out with the Masters in just over two years going part time and having it cost me nothing but my application fee to the program and textbooks.

 

[TooPatient]

Two classes in summer is a lot. I can see the benefit to finishing sooner, but you also don't want to wear yourself out. I did two classes one summer (economics and Spanish) and ot wasn't too bad but they were pretty easy. Still lots of work in a short time.

Finishing early is always good though. If you get tuition through your work, finishing sooner would mean you could change jobs if you wanted to.

How difficult is the exam? Is it something you feel you could pass before finishing the program?

 

[audball]

Yeah, I think it will largely depend on what is offered in Summer 15 and whether or not it seems manageable. The College of Education often does "Alternative Calendar" courses that may make doing two in the summer easier. Some examples are having 4 Saturday meetings that last 8-5, but then the course is over. They may also have a 1 week study abroad deal to Sweden when we get credit for a 3 hour course in a week...that would be sweet (though would cost me something out of pocket).

I don't think doing the exam early will be a problem. The entire "course" that is the final seminar is a series of exercises and assignments to prep you for the exam at the end. They permit you to register for it in the year you'll graduate even if it isn't your last semester so as long as I graduated in Summer 16, I can take the comps in Fall 15. I can't imagine they'd permit it if students weren't successful. The major professor who conducts the final seminar said she's never had someone not pass yet and has had students take it with all of the program done, and not. She said she thinks it may be slightly harder the less you've had, but everyone has passed. So I'm not worrying about that part, especially as it would be the only class I'd take in that term. I'm more worried about the shorter summer terms and balancing two classes with work (and life!). I'll just have to wait and see what is offered and go from there!

 

[recordaras]

Hi TooPatiend and Audball! Audball invited me over here, since we are now 11 days married.

I actually have a question for you - how long did it take you to get back to "normal" after the wedding? I still feel like everything is moving at 8 000 000 miles/second, and it doesn't help that we leave for our honeymoon in a week AND I've been raiding the Container Store Elfa sale and reorganizing closets AND on Wednesday my wedding gift is going to be coming in and getting installed - a Miele washer/dryer set.
Almost feels like we haven't had a free minute to catch our breath and actually feel married, you know?

 

[TooPatient]

Hi TooPatiend and Audball! Audball invited me over here, since we are now 11 days married.

I actually have a question for you - how long did it take you to get back to "normal" after the wedding? I still feel like everything is moving at 8 000 000 miles/second, and it doesn't help that we leave for our honeymoon in a week AND I've been raiding the Container Store Elfa sale and reorganizing closets AND on Wednesday my wedding gift is going to be coming in and getting installed - a Miele washer/dryer set.
Almost feels like we haven't had a free minute to catch our breath and actually feel married, you know?

Hi!

Congratulations!


I've got to run, but will be back later to chat.

 

[audball]

Hi TooPatiend and Audball! Audball invited me over here, since we are now 11 days married.

I actually have a question for you - how long did it take you to get back to "normal" after the wedding? I still feel like everything is moving at 8 000 000 miles/second, and it doesn't help that we leave for our honeymoon in a week AND I've been raiding the Container Store Elfa sale and reorganizing closets AND on Wednesday my wedding gift is going to be coming in and getting installed - a Miele washer/dryer set.
Almost feels like we haven't had a free minute to catch our breath and actually feel married, you know?

Welcome recordaras!!

I TOTALLY feel you on the post-wedding stress! You'd think that it would be all "it's OVER, back to REAL life", but I SWEAR it was a good 3-4 months of post-wedding activities related to having gotten married before we truly felt somewhat settled. And then we decided to move so the last 4-6 months have been busy for other reasons! It was a local move to a new place, but still. We're coming up on our first anniversary already in just over 2 months and I can't hardly believe it! I'm glad to see some new traffic with us over here!

 

[TooPatient]

Hi TooPatiend and Audball! Audball invited me over here, since we are now 11 days married.

I actually have a question for you - how long did it take you to get back to "normal" after the wedding? I still feel like everything is moving at 8 000 000 miles/second, and it doesn't help that we leave for our honeymoon in a week AND I've been raiding the Container Store Elfa sale and reorganizing closets AND on Wednesday my wedding gift is going to be coming in and getting installed - a Miele washer/dryer set.
Almost feels like we haven't had a free minute to catch our breath and actually feel married, you know?

Back to "normal"? What is "normal"

To some extent it happened for us two days after the wedding. "A" stayed overnight with us in her own suite the night of the wedding and then someone took her home so we got one night alone. When we got home from our one night alone, we found that "A" had set fire to the microwave, made a mess of dishes, re-programmed (scrambled) the tv equipment, and more. Spent HOURS cleaning up smoke damage in the kitchen.
Then (of course) Thanksgiving came along and our getting marriage was a forbidden topic. Not even ONE person even congratulated us. Most just sort of looked uncomfortable and tried to stay away. Some went out of their way to make us uncomfortable.
Since we'd also lived together for 8 years prior to getting married, we were pretty well comfortable in our routines and life so not all that much changed.

But when did we actually feel married?
We're coming up on one year and there are still times where I almost forget. (not in a bad way like interested in someone else or anything! Just like this is what our life has always been like and I spent so many years thinking about what we'd do for our wedding that it is a hard habit to break! (like buying artsy stuff to use for the wedding ))

I was thinking about this the other day and wondering what we can do special for our anniversary to make it all more real somehow.

I'd love to hang some pictures (I've got a few I love and remind me of the good instead of the miserable drama) and our ketubah. Maybe finally pick the name we're going to use. We (should) already have reservations for a night at the winery. Looking forward to that...

 

[audball]

Back to "normal"? What is "normal"

To some extent it happened for us two days after the wedding. "A" stayed overnight with us in her own suite the night of the wedding and then someone took her home so we got one night alone. When we got home from our one night alone, we found that "A" had set fire to the microwave, made a mess of dishes, re-programmed (scrambled) the tv equipment, and more. Spent HOURS cleaning up smoke damage in the kitchen.
Then (of course) Thanksgiving came along and our getting marriage was a forbidden topic. Not even ONE person even congratulated us. Most just sort of looked uncomfortable and tried to stay away. Some went out of their way to make us uncomfortable.
Since we'd also lived together for 8 years prior to getting married, we were pretty well comfortable in our routines and life so not all that much changed.

But when did we actually feel married?
We're coming up on one year and there are still times where I almost forget. (not in a bad way like interested in someone else or anything! Just like this is what our life has always been like and I spent so many years thinking about what we'd do for our wedding that it is a hard habit to break! (like buying artsy stuff to use for the wedding ))

I was thinking about this the other day and wondering what we can do special for our anniversary to make it all more real somehow.

I'd love to hang some pictures (I've got a few I love and remind me of the good instead of the miserable drama) and our ketubah. Maybe finally pick the name we're going to use. We (should) already have reservations for a night at the winery. Looking forward to that...

Hah, oh goodness! I remember that story. What a start to married life! Reality I tell 'ya!

I think it's a great idea to get those wedding pictures and your ketubah officially hung. I absolutely love seeing our pictures on the wall when I get home. And your anniversary trip will be lovely!

We've been trying to decide what to do for our anniversary. We've talked about a long weekend back in Savannah to celebrate, but the rates are a lot higher this year than what we paid last year and I'm not sure we want to spend that much for a long weekend. We could go somewhere else, but hadn't given it much thought. I guess we'll see!

 

[recordaras]

Thank you both for chiming in! This is probably one of the few things I wasn't prepared for - I was kind of expecting the post-wedding blues, since I really enjoyed the whole planning process, but that has yet to set in. I kept thinking that once the wedding is over we would magically be able to exhale and relax, but oh was I ever wrong!

Audball, congrats on the move! I know how stressful it can be, but my does it always feel good to get rid of a bunch of stuff you don't need. Somehow moves always make me sort out the important things and trash/donate everything else, something I never get around to in normal life.

TooPatient, oh wow! Talk about "support", ugh. I often wonder what is wrong with people, and why do weddings always bring out these kinds of things?.. I wonder if it gets even worse once you decide to have kids, haha.

In any case, one week before we leave for the honeymoon and what a RELIEF that it's a short work week due to Labor Day. Nothing is packed yet, but I think I spent all my packing energy on the wedding weekend and will just kind of wing the honeymoon. On top of it all, apparently I'm not allowed to bring my regular sized suitcase, since we will be without a car the whole time, and jumping on and off trains, so I won't even be able to fit everything I "need"! I still want to figure out a couple of dressy outfits, though - we will probably do a nice dinner for our one month "anniversary", and I really want to be able to wear something nicer than jeans.

 

[TooPatient]

Had A's 15th b-day party this week. Some of her friends came over for homemade pizza, junk food, movies, nail painting, etc.

I burned myself on the oven (big blister across my arm where I touched a 550 degree oven rack...) but the pizza was great and breakfast (apple cinnamon coffee cake) was a huge hit. They apparently all talked after about how great of a cook I am
No nail polish on the floor this year (at least none I've found!).

One friend (the only I hadn't met before) is a bit.... odd.
She stood there with another of the girls talking to the mom/dad of the second girl and pulled her pants down. Not all of the way. Just about to the bottom of her underwear so that you could see her entire pair of bikini underwear
All while trying to lean on the dresser and make eyes at the father!
Ummm..... In front of me and the guy's wife! (FWIW, the guy was NOT encouraging in any way and was looking only at his own daughter as they chatted about the school orientation)
Yeah.... DH heard about this and decided he was safest staying in the office or bedroom as far away from them as he could get.

What has happened to kids?!?!?


Other than that weird friend, the b-day was a great success. "A" has her ears pierced now. She had friends over for 28+ hours of food and fun. Got lots of great art gifts (acrylic paint set, great brushes, origami set, scrapbooking stuff, etc).
And.... we got her earrings -- including her first diamond studs and pearls! (nothing too fancy -- she lost her wallet that day and threw her new necklace in the trash the day before.... something cheap but real is enough to learn on!)


Oh....
Yeah. She bought herself a new necklace and managed to throw it in the trash as soon as we got home. Didn't realize for about two days and then had to go digging for it
Then she went to order something with her debit card and discovered she had lost her wallet. I had seen it on Monday so it had to have been at her orientation. Anyway, SHE got to be the one to call the bank to report it lost. (I was careful to set up so we aren't exposed on any of our accounts!) She was horrified! Hopefully that will be enough to scare her into watching it when the replacement comes.

 

[TooPatient]

I'm up to 46 tomatoes this summer! (and more ripening!)

Plus 2 cucumbers (with 2 more growing), 2 zucchini, a handful of blueberries, and a couple of cups of blackberries. There are a few more zucchini growing and a couple of acorn squash. We're also still getting huge amounts of herbs

 

[audball]

Nice!! I hope the bunnies keep out so you can enjoy them all!

 

[TooPatient]

Nice!! I hope the bunnies keep out so you can enjoy them all!

Thanks!

I cooked up a couple of the zucchini on Friday and we munched a whole pile of tomatoes Thursday for dessert

One acorn squash ready and another almost ready. Giving them a few more days so I can cook both for dinner!
Another zucchini ready to pick. May pick it today or let it go another day to see if another is ready to go with it.
Need to go look at tomatoes, but I think some more of them are ripe too.

 

[audball]

Awesome!

 

[TooPatient]

Starting school in a few weeks. Nervous about classes. Worried about getting sick again.

Not much to do but be ready!

DH has a blood pressure re-check next week and I'll make sure he gets his flu vaccine then.
I've messaged A's dr to see if she should get the new one now or wait a bit (she had her last one in Dec/Jan so a bit less than a year).
I'm taking my women's multi every breakfast & dinner.
We're all adding vitamin C (all of us already do D).

The exercise should also be a help this year. An overall healthier body should be less likely to get sick.


Seems like everything that comes through the school hits me and then spreads to DH. Last year the flu got us both and turned into pneumonia for him & bronchitis for me. He was within 12 hours of being hospitalized! (Dr said if fever not gone by morning he'd have to go in...)

Not sure what to do for me. A flu shot would probably be good, but you aren't supposed to get them while sick and I (still) have a sinus infection going on. Have to chat with my dr about that too...