Things haven’t been much better. I’m not worried, though. I cut my dad out of my life completely that day, and the only way I’d let my mom back in is if she stops drinking and divorces my dad. (Both of which are highly unlikely.) My sister has had more contact with either of them than me, but she owes them more money than I do. A couple of years ago, my parents put a down payment on a lawyer so my sister could finally start the adoption process with my nephew. (We were also battling his bio-mom for custody, but she went back to jail.)

When all this went down, my sister said she wasn’t paying them another dime, and I don’t blame her at all.

Let’s visit the department of back story for a moment, shall we?

When I was in elementary school (third or fourth grade) my great grandpa sent a check to each family member on my dads side. So every one of my aunts, uncles and cousins got a check for $10,000. He even sent one to my sister, even though most of my dads side of the family chooses to ignore her existence. So what’s a third grade kid supposed to do with $10k? Apparently nothing, if you ask my parents. that check was written in MY name. If nothing else, it should have been stuck in a savings account until I graduated to help me pay for school. (That didn’t happen, just so you know. I’m almost $14k in debt over school.)

I was allowed to spend $100, and so was my sister. The $19,800 left over, that went to whatever my parents decided to spend it on. They didn’t pay off our house, I know this because when we moved out of it my senior year of high school, they were having trouble making both the old house payment and the new one. They didn’t pay off their cars, because my dad has an obsession with leasing new cars, and my mom always gets his leftovers.

So when my dad texted me today to tell me I still owe them $800 for helping me buy my camera… It took everything I had not to tell him he owed me $9000.

I figured I’d show off some of my most recent layouts. I’m not that great yet, but I’m getting inspiration from other scrappers. :D

One of the bad things about digi scrapping is realizing that I haven’t been taking nearly as many pictures as I used to. I guess it’s time to really pull out my camera again and start taking it everywhere with me like before.

This is what I looked like when I rolled out of bed. I went pee, then washed my face.

Time to brush the teefers.

I clearly look super sexy when brushing my teeth.

Took my hair down, brushed it, and applied dry shampoo. It was a no-wash day, so I was lookin’ a bit greasy. Dry shampoo helps me last a whole day between washes. :)

My laundry hamper was full, so it was time to wash some clothes! My husband does his own laundry, so this is all my clothes.

Soap.

Softener.

Cold wash, one rinse! My stupid washer locks the lid, and there’s no way to turn that feature off. Annoying!

Before… this mountain of a mess has been there for a while!

After. MUCH better!

Cleaned cat boxes. There’s a third one in another room. :)

Restocked our mini fridge w/ drinks.

Breakfast for me! 12oz skim milk, and one scoop each Nectar Chocolate Truffle and Nectar Strawberry. 46 g protein and only ~300 calories. Minimal fat and carbs.

Computer time while I drink my shake.

Switch the laundry over and start a load of whites in the washer.

Hung this frame up above the washer and dryer, temporarily. Just to get it out of the way. I want to change out the background and put it in the living room eventually.

Listen to some music while I clean up the kitchen. (Spotify on my iPad. It doesn’t go landscape, apparently. lol)

Table clear!

Counter as clear as it can get for now. Need to empty the oil from the fryer so it can be cleaned.

Vacuum the living room.

Doing webby things while cuddling with Sylas.

Hubby is home from work! He brought me a treat. :)

Hubby goes on Xbox Live to play Mass Effect with his work buddies.

Catch up on Draw Something.

It’s after midnight now, so I try to play an April Fool’s prank on the hubby. This was suggested by Nimil, but he didn’t fall for it. :(

Watch TV while eating our dinner. (Tacos!)

Watching Charmed while spinning some yarn. :)

Finished spinning and Mr. Barlow came up for a cuddle.

Time for a shower!

I got out of the shower and Gohan had opened the bathroom door (it doesn’t latch very well. Old house). He licked the water out of the bath tub (gross) and then moved on to the sink while I brushed my teeth again.

Bedtime cuddles with Sylas. :)

Bedtime reading! (For the second time. lol)

Hubby and Sy share some lovin’. lol

Then we watched a little bit of Futurama together before falling asleep! This is a pretty typical Saturday for us. Unless B has the day off, we don’t do much.

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My stats clearly show the number of people who still check my blog every day (hi to the 10 of you who still believe I’ll be back, lol.) and I’m surprised that anyone still bothers checking, to be honest.

I think maybe I’m a bit depressed. I’ve been working on losing weight and to be honest it’s going better than I thought it would. (15lb down so far.) But I know I still have a very long way to go and that gets me. I hate that I let myself get to this point, and I hate that I still have a severe lack of motivation to do anything about it. A lot of it has to do with the pain I’m in with my back, and I still have no idea whats wrong with it. It’s not as bad as it was, but any sort of movement has the potential to lay me out for days, and it fucking sucks. I want to get up and exercise, but because I know it’s probably going to hurt, there’s no motivation to actually do it.

And I haven’t had any luck conceiving. And I know it hasn’t been that long, but when you factor in that I’ve been wanting to try for a baby for the last two years, it’s been a long time for me. I feel like everyone is having babies or getting pregnant recently, which totally is not helping. I had an offline friend message me a couple of days ago and tell me she’s expecting #2. I want to be happy for her, but at the same time I’m so fucking jealous that it’s ridiculous.

I don’t want to be all why me? And that’s exactly how this post is sounding, so I’m sorry. I’m just frustrated. Frustrated that our insurance doesn’t cover fertility treatments. Frustrated that I have to deal with that in the first place. Frustrated that my body is so fucked up. Just fucking frustrated. sigh.

I’ll just go back to being neglectful of my blog now.

Branden and I celebrated two whole years of wedded awesomeness on the 31st. Well, actually on the 30th, since he had to work on Monday. We went to Outback for dinner and had super yummy steaks and baked potatoes. And we also went to see Paranormal Activity 3. It’s sort of our anniversary tradition to see a PA movie. haha. We saw the first one the night we got married. We went with our wedding party and some friends and got the pants scared off of us. Then on our first anniversary we went to see PA2. I’m actually kind of hoping they make a fourth one so we have something to see next year. (And because I LOVE these movies. It’s one of the only series that I find genuinely scary, mostly because it seems SO real.)

News on the baby front, we’ve decided to see a reproductive endocrinologist. If everything is fine, AWESOME. If not, I’d rather find out sooner than later so we can work to fix it. I’ve got my fingers crossed that she’s a nice lady who is understanding so I don’t have to search around even more for another RE. As it is I have to drive an hour to get there. I’d like to not have to drive further!

I’ve been working on clearing out our front spare bedroom to make it into the future babies room. I’m about halfway done, but until we get some more storage space there’s not a whole lot left I can do. I’ve got to get some shelving for the garage to store our totes of out of season clothing and other misc. items. We have cabinets in there but they don’t fit our totes inside them. I’d like to ditch the lower ones completely so we can put a freezer out there. Right now there’s no way we can fit a freezer and a car in there, and we can’t have both cars in the driveway all winter due to the extreme slope it’s on. Any hint of ice and even with the e-brake we could have one of our cars sliding down the hill. NOT GOOD.

Speaking of cars… we’re thinking about buying a newer one. Nothing brand new, since there’s no way we could afford that. But something a few years newer than my ’01 or Branden’s ’96. (We’d be trading in his car, not mine!) We’re looking at a mini van. We figured that even if we don’t have a large family, a van is still a good investment for road trips and vacations. Or even hauling stuff around. We don’t want a truck because of our small driveway and also because neither of us like very large vehicles.  An SUV wouldn’t be awful, but they’re still bigger than what we’re used to. A van will drive pretty much exactly like my Malibu does, just a bit bigger. This might not happen for a while, but it’s definitely going to happen eventually. We found an ’06 Dodge caravan at a local car lot that looks perfect on the outside. They were closed so we haven’t seen the inside up close, but just looking through the windows it looks nice too. If it runs well/is a good price, it might be the one we go with. (Which is funny because my sister just got an ’06 caravan as well, the same color. haha.) The good thing about a van is that we’ll be able to park it in the garage even though it’s a bit wide. We can always climb through the van to exit via the sliding side door if the front doors won’t open all the way. (We have a very narrow garage.)

If you’ve been missing me, I do blog several times a week at NaturallyMamas. Sometimes I just can’t think of other things to blog about aside from the mommy/living green type stuff. I’m going to try to do more personal blogging, though! <3

]]> http://catielove.org/i-do-this-a-lot-life-update/feed/ 4 http://catielove.org/october-really/ http://catielove.org/october-really/#comments Sun, 02 Oct 2011 04:22:00 +0000 Catie http://catielove.org/?p=1227 Hi guys! So this is the part where I tell you I’m sorry for not blogging enough, even though I have been blogging, just not here. It’s been over here. So, I’m sorry I’ve not been blogging about my personal life, but the reality of things is that- I’m just not that interesting! Ok, maybe I am, I don’t know. But lately all that’s been running through my head is “time to try for a baby- for real!” and “holy crap, wii fit is amazing!” or “what do I cook for dinner tonight?”

So, in my last post, I told you guys how I was going back to school. Well, that’s not actually gonna happen. I had a meeting with financial aid, and it turns out that private universities are FUCKING EXPENSIVE. *insert string of other expletives here* Like, really fucking expensive. I was approved for a $9500 unsubsidized stafford loan. I did not get approved for a pell grant. I also did not get approved for ANY private loan, even with a cosigner. So my total out of pocket expense for one academic year at this school? OVER TEN THOUSAND DOLLARS.

Yes. I nearly had a heart attack too!

And the sad thing is, that didn’t include my books. *head desk* So, school is on hold indefinitely. But it’s really ok. I can still work the way I’ve been working, and it will all be fine. And, the best part is… we can finally really start trying for that baby! I wanted that more than school anyhow!

We’re hoping for a 2012 baby, but hey, if it takes longer than that I’ll be ok. For now we’re going the natural route, and if we need to we’ll speak to a doctor about conception assistance. SO. That’s my life right now. Oh, I forgot to mention… IT’S FREAKING OCTOBER! Branden and I have been married for almost 2 years already! Holy cow! Time flies, right? :D

I’m also officially applying to school on Tuesday. I’m going to meet with admissions and financial aid and everything. :D I’m excited and nervous at the same time. Excited to finally get started, but nervous because … what if I’m not good at it?! lol Which is stupid, I know I’m good at photography. Not in a conceited way, just in a… that’s what people tell me way. haha. I don’t know. I just have stayed at home for the past year and a half and I think I’m out of practice with people in general. I’ll get over it.

Branden is making me dinner right now. Such a good hubby. He’s making a variation of one of his only recipes- steak fajitas. He usually makes steak, but tonight he’s cut it into strips, marinated it, and is going to cook it with peppers and onions. And we’re going to serve it with refried beans, cheese, and some sour cream. :) I love not having to make dinner, since I’m usually the one doing it.

I think I’m going to go keep B company while he cooks. He does that for me sometimes. Makes it less boring. Please take a minute and check out my new project, I would REALLY appreciate it. <3

So why must we wait until Friday to have two working cars again? Well, because yesterday on his way to work in MY car, Branden had a tire blow out! Luckily he was going very slowly at the time, so he wasn’t in an accident. But he was late to work because he had to stop and put the spare on, and then because that was flat, he had to drive on the interstate going like 20 miles an hour. Poor guy!  He stopped on his way home and filled up the spare tire, and on Friday afternoon I’m going to go have the tire replaced. Luckily there’s a place in town that has EXTREMELY inexpensive tires. (Tire Barn, y’all!) We were able to get Branden’s tire replaced last year for about $50 with installation. That’s pretty good, in my opinion. We’re also probably going to need to replace the rest of my tires before winter comes, but we shall see.

I’ve been thinking about making cooking videos to post up here, but I don’t know if anyone would actually be interested in seeing them. lol. I am going to be trying a bunch of new recipes soon, to see if we like them. And if we do like them, they’ll be going into my quick and easy or freezer meals categories. We want to get a freezer to put in our garage here soon, so that we can start doing once a month cooking. (Or close to it.) There are days that I just don’t feel like cooking anything, so having an arsenal of freezer food is going to be nice. :P

It’s time to go start dinner, since the hubs is on his way home from work. Fun times.

• We have come to an agreeable conclusion on the insurance front. While it’s not exactly what we wanted (deferred down payment) it does work for us. Our mortgage company has agreed to make a lump-sum payment to State Farm to cover the whole first year of insurance. Then, for the next eight months or so, our mortgage payment will go up roughly $85. After we pay back Chase for the advance, our payment will go back to normal, and escrow should kick in as planned next March. Yeah, it sucks to have to pay $85 more than we were expecting per month, but at least we’ve got insurance again. Or, we will, when I can call Chase and have them make the payment. They refuse to let me do it since my name isn’t on the loan, even though my husband is. And of course, they’re not open 24 hours a day, so having Branden call is a huge hassle.
• I have started drinking a meal replacement shake in the morning. Well, MY morning. (Between 3:30 and 5:30pm lol) I used to just crack open a can of coke first thing after waking up, but that’s not really healthy. And I figured since I never really eat anything good for me until about lunch time (8:45ish), I might as well make my morning ‘meal’ somewhat healthy. I’ve been using the slimfast 3-2-1 powder, since it was inexpensive and tastes relatively good. Though I mix it with 12 ounces of milk instead of 8. It helps the powder dissolve better. I still only use one scoop, though. As soon as Branden gets paid next week, I’m ordering a different type of shake powder. I’ve decided on IdealShape. It was the highest rated protein shake out of all the ones I found, and also fairly inexpensive. Hopefully it’s just as tasty. :)
• It is hot as balls lately. I haven’t been outside in like two days. Our air conditioner seems like it’s running non-stop, even though it’s set between 72 and 75 most of the time. In the early morning, our windows are fogged up because it’s so hot and humid outside, but cool and nice inside. I’ve been dreading turning the oven on for any reason because it makes the house SO HOT. Poor Branden doesn’t get a break from the heat while he’s at work. It’s an air conditioned plant, but due to certain factors, the temperature inside can not go below 77 degrees. Usually it’s MUCH hotter. He’s been drinking water like crazy, and I wouldn’t be surprised if he lost a few pounds just from sweat this week.
• I have a wedding shoot coming up on the 10th of September. As soon as I get paid (the week before the wedding) I’m applying to school. There’s a start date at the beginning of October, and I want to start then. I wish we had the money for me to apply now, because there’s a mid-start in August and I could take 2 online classes to get them out of the way. (Usually math and english.) But between everything going on, and Branden not getting as many hours as we’ve been used to (stopped overtime because of the earthquakes/tsunamis in Japan, they couldn’t get parts.) his checks aren’t quite as big. Which means they don’t stretch as far as they used to. Luckily overtime should start again soon, and he’s getting a raise in August as well. I can’t tell you how awesome it will be once he’s maxed out his pay. Almost $26 an hour at that time. We might actually get to SAVE money!
• Speaking of that wedding, I have yet to meet with the bride and go over the contract. Her future mother-in-law was the one who contacted me and booked my services. Aren’t brides usually more hands-on? I’m going to email her today to see when she’d like to meet to discuss the contract, and I hope it’s soon. I can’t put myself in a situation where I go into the wedding day NOT knowing anything about the wedding. lol As of right now, I don’t even know the location of the ceremony. Not good!

That’s all for now.