Friday Things

Yesterday felt like Friday so bad it made my head hurt. Thank goodness we made it to today. It was a close call.

I’ve worn skirts twice this week! That’s a 100% increase over the past several weeks. Warmer weather, can you please stick around? PS- we are still totally sure that the first “crazy hot” weekend of the year will be our moving weekend.
Speaking of the move, I’ve had to (sometimes literally) sit on my hands to avoid getting ready. It’s really too early to begin doing anything (when you live in a one bedroom apartment, you use most of what you own on a daily basis so packing more than a couple days in advance is problematic) but I’m absolutely itching to get started. I have this belief that if I can just start early enough, maybe instead of being stressful this move will be all unicorns and rainbows. I think I might just have to come to terms with the fact that all moves are stressful. Always.
On the upside, I’ve been really into weight workouts lately, and considering it’s been like 3 weeks since I started doing them regularly, I’m probably totally jacked right now. I might not have to hire movers after all.

I’ve been loving these three in particular:

We went to my littlest sister’s dance recital Wednesday night, and I was blown away. First of all, how did this tiny baby manage to turn into an almost teenager overnight? Seriously? Secondly, how is it even possible that she has more grace in her little finger than I have in my whole body? I mean, really.
I want to go to the zoo. This has nothing to do with anything except I saw a picture of a giraffe the other day, and I realized it’s been way too long since I saw some genuine, non-feline wildlife.
I ordered these awesome housewarming invitations off Etsy weeks ago and finally got them printed and shipped yesterday. They are so, so great. I cannot wait to send them out!
We going to a post-marriage wedding in a baseball stadium this weekend. We’ve been to quite a few weddings in the last couple years and no two have even been remotely alike. It’s been so interesting to see everyone’s unique personalities shine through in the way they get married. It’s been a reminder that there is no right way or wrong way. If it makes you happy, just do it.

Happy trails!

Mehndi, Nikkah, Mamas

Wow! What a weekend! There’s lots to say, so I’m just going to dive right in.
Friday night, Chris and I hurried home from work and, after a quick change (and only 3 NJDOT construction detours), headed down to Central Jersey to celebrate Umair and Steph’s Mehndi. Since they’d be celebrating their Nikkah the next day, they had a bunch of friends and family over for some henna, dancing and, of course, food.

We met up with Steve and Lindsey and got to celebrating. Steph, along with some of her friends and family (Lindsey too!) got some beautiful henna on their hands and feet from Umair’s very talented cousins. I was busy eating, as usual, so I didn’t get a chance to get henna’ed, but I’ve got quite enough ink already (according to my mom at least).

There were a few ceremonies that took place and a whole lot of dancing which I loved! Any chance to learn some new moves is seriously appreciated. We hung out for a while before heading back up to Jersey City for the night.

The next morning, I had grand plans of running to the finish line of the Newport 10k to meet up with some friends who were racing, but it was raining, and I was exhausted from the night before, so I figured I’d just drive over once the race ended. No sooner had I poured myself a bowl of cereal (note: this is how exhausted I was this weekend… I hate cereal for breakfast, but I ate it both days!) than I heard sirens and realized that the race actually runs right by our building!

I abandoned breakfast (and Chris, sorry!) and quickly threw on some pants before running downstairs to cheer. I was actually able to spot all my friends, which was just awesome!!

Chris and I did eventually get a 3 mile run in, but we didn’t get a snazzy police escort. Oh well.

After a run (and a shower and a nap) we got dolled up to head back down to Central Jersey for the Nikkah. The ceremony was lovely. The moments between Umair and his mom were really touching, and Steph looked so absolutely beautiful! Her gown and veil were so ornate and spectacular.

We had a chance to give the happy couple our blessings and get a few pictures before they were escorted away to greet the rest of the well-wishers. We spent the rest of the night eating and dancing, and I even got to bust out some Gangnam Style. Sweet.

Sunday morning we were up with the sun for an early breakfast with my mom and Molly. We met them in North Jersey for eggs and pancakes then walked around debating if the weather was nice or not nice. It seemed like nature just couldn’t make up her mind.

http://instagram.com/p/ZNvELakRf5/

After parting ways with them, we hit the road to travel back to… you guessed it, Central Jersey! We both wished we had clocked our mileage for this weekend, as it might be a record for the year, but I’m gonna guess it was 12,000 miles. That sounds about right, no? Can you tell how good I am at estimates? Needless to say, we (and our car) are excited to move to the literal center of our little universe.

We stopped at Lowe’s to pick up paint chips to sample at the new house (!!) and price push mowers. It was super glamorous and sexy.

Actually, it was pretty fun, and I’m not sure why that place has a reputation for boring women to death. Everyone I know loves it! From there, we headed to David’s Bridal to pick up my wedding gown (because how often do you get to use the word “gown”?)! It was so much more exciting than I thought it would be. Just seeing it gave me butterflies, and I am at least 104% more excited for the wedding than I was prior to this.

I’m still so much further along in planning than I need to be (remind me of this smugness when we are two weeks out and I’m in tears. actually, don’t) so it made me laugh when we scheduled my alternations appointments for NEXT YEAR. That’s right. My beautiful gown will not even see the light of day for a year. I tried selling Chris on the idea of Wedding Wednesdays where I wear my dress every Wednesday from now until next July, but he didn’t think it was a good idea. Lame.

Thankfully, my wonderful mother-in-law-to-be (hyphen city!) is storing the dress for me, so we had a lot of fun ogling it before packing it away. It’s currently living in Chris’ childhood closet. That makes my heart happy.

As a thank you for storing my dress (oh and creating two wonderful children) we took mama out for dinner to celebrate. We actually took a few cute pictures, but none of them were on my camera, so you’ll just have to imagine our smiling (cold, because the weather was in fact, “not nice”) faces.

After a very minor car accident (we got rear-ended but were fine and the car has minor damage), we headed back up to Jersey City and promptly fell asleep at 9. No joke.

I hope your weekend was the right kind of exhausting too!

Friday Things

I’ve got a head full of thoughts today, so you get a block full of text. Lucky you

I keep having this irresistible urge to stop time. I know this is going to be one of the best years of my life, and I want to remember EVERYTHING. It’s hard though because right alongside these huge, monumental events are these mundane everyday events like remembering to pack lunch and going through my pre-bedtime routine of putting everything away and refilling the humidifier. On the one hand, I’ve always praised myself on cultivating and maintaining such a structured and efficient day to day schedule, but on the other hand, I wish I could take back some of that brain power and use it instead on remembering exactly what it felt like to celebrate my second anniversary with my best friend knowing I get to MARRY him this year! I’d rather forget my lunch than forget what it felt like to try on 12 dresses with the most important women in my life.
We celebrated Chris’ birthday on Wednesday, and it was so much fun. I was giddy all day planning and scheming. I like other people’s birthdays so much more than my own.
My wedding dress is ready for pick up! I am absolutely itching to start doing wedding things. I’m holding myself back because it’s too early, and I want to save my energy for those fabled frenzied last two weeks, but I’d be lying if I said I hadn’t drafted a toast for the rehearsal dinner and mentally pinned items to include in the guest bags. Contrast this desire to speed up time with bullet #1′s urge and you’ll be privy to my internal conflict of late.
Pet ownership is a funny thing. In the same week I’ve found myself both googling “How much could I sell my rotten cat for?” and taking 100 instagram pictures of said rotten cat because he’s so damn cute.
Eyebrows are another funny thing. After years of overplucking, I’m trying to “grow mine out” for the wedding. I feel like I need to tell everyone I meet that this is what I’m doing, and I’m not just some unkempt sasquatch. Generally I refrain. This is not one of those times
I think if you have more people you love than time to spend with them you are both cursed and blessed. Though, mostly blessed. We are embarking on a busy season. It starts with our birthdays and ends with, I don’t know, Christmas? There are weddings and big moves and little moves and BBQs and day trips and weekend trips and beach trips and just general summer-ness. We find ourselves so busy most weekends that pretty much every Sunday night ends with, “Seriously, how is it 11:30 on Sunday night? Did you pick up any food for next week?” (Who am I kidding? I’m asleep at 10 on Sunday nights, but you get the idea). We are simultaneously thankful for all the people we get to spend time with and remorseful that we don’t get to spend more time with them. Like I said, it’s really more blessing than curse.

So, I guess time (and eyebrows and cats and cats with eyebrows) is on my mind (yes it is). Happy Friday! Have an amazing weekend! Enjoy every (fleeting) second of it.

Stomach Follow-Up

So, a few weeks ago, I posted my strategy for dealing with my still un-diagnosed stomach issues. I figured it was only fair that I check back in on the progress. Here we go…

Be really good about keeping a food diary.

Meh. I haven’t been too good about this. I think maybe I need to do a bit more research on it because I don’t find it really useful when I eat a meal with 7 ingredients and then get sick. It’s too hard to tell what caused the problem, and it makes me scared of all the foods. I’ll do the research and get back to ya.

Ease up on the restrictions so I don’t lose my mind, but monitor my intake of “trigger foods.”

See above. I’ve been eating more gluten, and there’s no obvious link to stomach issues. Still, I’m not ready to fully rule it out as a trigger. Maybe I’ll abstain for a few days then eat some gluten and see what happens. I’ve been really careful about lactose, spicy foods, and, unfortunately, chocolate. Again, it’s hard to tell if these things are really helping because some days are good and others are not.

Stick to “safe foods” in a flare situation.

This has been a biggie for me. I’ve made a couple significant diet changes that have really seemed to help. I find I always have problems with my stomach in the morning and afternoon. I have this theory that it takes my stomach a long time to “wake up” so even though I’m hungry first thing in the morning, anything I eat before 10am makes me sick. Also, I feel like sitting all day at work really irritates my digestion.

Because starting my day at 10 and walking around all afternoon is not an option I’ve been sticking to really bland food before dinner. I eat low fiber cereal or toast with butter or avocado most mornings with the occasional egg when I have the time. Lunch used to always be a huge salad or something else veggie based because I love that, but it was wreaking havoc on my guts (gross, sorry) so I switched to simple sandwiches, wraps or leftover dinner (minus the veg). Basically, I eat another low fiber meal.

I felt kind of crummy about this because there’s not a whole lot of nutrients to be found in white foods, but I think I found a solution. I starting “juicing” (I say “juicing” because I don’t have a juicer so it’s really just blending to a fairly fine consistency) 2-3 cups of spinach or kale with pineapple and orange juice. It tastes great, and it seems to be a lot easier on my digestive system than straight up raw veggies. I try to drink one a day in order to keep getting those vitamins. I also load up on veggies at dinner time. It’s not a perfect system, but it does seem to help.

Learn to manage my stress and anxiety effectively.

Meh. No huge progress in this area. There’s a lot going on these days with the house and the wedding. I’d love to start doing more yoga because I find that really effective. Yoga in a class setting is super relaxing for me. Yoga DVDs? Not so much. I just can’t get as into it, so I’m waiting until we get settled in our new town to find a new place to get my ohm on. Otherwise, I’ve been trying a few little things here and there. When I feel stress coming on, I do a “full body evaluation” and try to release any tension I’m holding on to (usually in my jaw, shoulders and stomach). I also try and practice my deep breathing every few days.

Explore alternatives.

None so far. Again, I’m waiting to find an acupuncturist in our new locale. It didn’t make sense to me to try and find someone in Jersey City if I won’t be here much longer. I’m still totally on board with the idea though. I’m also taking 1-2 probiotics daily, and I can definitely notice a difference on days I forget to take any. Those expensive little pills are wonderful!

Maintain a regular exercise schedule.

I’m doing great in this area! Since choosing not to do the half marathon, I’ve felt so much more enthusiastic about working out. I don’t worry as much about being too sore to do a long run or getting injured, so I’ve been running, lifting or biking pretty much every day. I do think it helps. At the very least, it makes me tired enough to get a good night’s sleep which is always good.

So that’s where we stand. Since the colonoscopy I’ve had more good days than bad, and I’m so thankful for that. I’m beginning to trust my body again, and it’s giving me enormous peace of mind. That being said, I’m still sick more often than I’d like, and it’s still discouraging. I’ll have a week of good days then find myself sidelined for a weekend. It doesn’t make sense, and it’s frustrating, but I’m forging ahead and hoping for the best.

Happy Birthday Chris!

Today the love of my life turns 28. I’m so glad he came along. The whole world is a little brighter with him in it.

Chris, you are so kind and wonderful. You make so many people smile every day. I hope today is perfect for you because you deserve it. Happy Birthday!!

The weekend and what’s next

What a fun weekend. It started with an after work happy hour with some coworkers and former coworkers who crack me up and continued on in sunshiney glory.

Saturday we had our much anticipated and not at all sexy oil tank inspection at the house. We passed! Hurrah! One more obstacle cleared on the way to home ownership.

After that, we celebrated this cute guy’s birthday at… Barcade! I wonder if he planned on wearing that shirt.

He even got a high score!

Sunday was spent mostly recovering followed by a huge birthday dinner at Chris’ parents house.

We’ve got a lot coming up, so it was nice to spend some time just being silly. On the horizon we have:

Chris’ birthday!!
two non-traditional weddings on back to back weekends (wedding season has started!! yay!!)
double the Mother’s Day
MOVE IN DAY!!

I feel like maybe I’m forgetting something, but I’m sure it will come to me.

Friday Five

Oh hello. I don’t have too much to say, but I wanted to say something, you know?

ONE. The final pieces of the spire are going up on One WTC. It’s been a fun week at work, and I have to admit, I got a little choked up when I caught a glimpse of the skyline yesterday.

TWO. I have zero regrets about deciding to skip the half. My feelings may change this weekend when I see a zillion facebook posts about the perfect race weather, but so far, I feel so much more relaxed having opted out.
THREE. On a similar note, my workouts have been really good this week. I feel free to do whatever I want, and that’s resulted in two great runs and two weight sessions. I also woke up early for two of those workouts, which hasn’t happened in FOREVER.
FOUR. I had my first bit of wedding drama yesterday. I saw something I shouldn’t have seen, and it sent me into a panic where I contemplated (am still contemplating) buying a different dress. Thankfully, I have wonderful friends and family, so the crisis was mostly adverted.
FIVE. Buying a house is so surreal. It’s such a long process with so many ups and downs and unknowns, that there’s never really a good time to get excited. People laugh at how nonchalantly we say, “oh we bought a place,” but really you have to maintain a flat affect throughout because it’s all just so tenuous. We are *hopefully* in the home stretch, and I will be drinking a bottle of champagne once those keys are in hand.
FIVE point FIVE. These surprise anniversary flowers are so beautiful, and they make the entire room smell like heaven. I am a lucky lady.

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i broke my umbrella

a girl sets out to weather the storm

Friday Things

Mehndi, Nikkah, Mamas

Friday Things

Stomach Follow-Up

Happy Birthday Chris!

The weekend and what’s next

Friday Five

Follow “i broke my umbrella”