Back with more cheer.

As promised, I'm back with more cheer. I've felt so awful all week and finally feel like I'm on the mend.

But first, a quick breakdown of the 4 days of awfulness to purge it from my system:
Day 1:
Had an awful sore throat and tongue/fever/headache/body aches.
Went on antibiotics.
Had a crappy family crisis.
Day 2:
Antibiotics caused major body rash/face hives/dizziness/stomach cramps.
Stayed in bed. Cried a lot.
Day 3:
Stopped taking antibiotics and took benadryl.
Felt worse.
Fever/hives/disorientation (got lost going the 15 feet from my bed to the bathroom)/hallucination (for the record there is not a cricket or anything else in my womb).
Stayed in bed. Cried a lot.
Day 4:
Took no more benadryl or antibiotics.
Dizziness and disorientation lessened/hives began to subside.
My period arrived with a bang!
Excruciating cramps/back pain/nausea.
Family crisis is being handled better.

Officially, 4 days of hell. There's got to be a whole lot of happy on the other side of this for me.

I am now off the crazy-making meds and trying not to o.d. on ibuprofen for the cramps. Hubs cleaned the house, grocery shopping is done, laundry is going. And I finally started decorating my Christmas tree.

Without much further ado - here's some happy:

Since it's our first Christmas, we don't really have any ornaments or Christmas decor. Since I really like the idea of crafts but never have the time or the talent to pull most of them off, I nearly went out and bought a bunch of ornaments. The problem is, I don't like most ornaments. Glass balls hold no meaning for me. I think tinsel is the worst substance on the planet. I live in the desert and grew up in Florida so snow and snow related things don't hold any special place in my heart. When discussing the traditions we want to create, Grit and I agreed that we want to try to make everything we do around Christmas time mean something - tree ornaments included. The tree we had growing up was always a wild amalgamation of old and new, handmade and purchased. We all had special feelings about the things we'd made and hung on the tree. Stars made from popsicle sticks and yarn, snowflakes fashioned from glue and glitter, the carefully packaged fragile keepsakes that my mother hung up high. Since decorating the tree was a wonderfully chaotic group effort, the decorations were probably mostly clustered in clumps near the bottom and my wise parents always secured our tree to the wall using fishing line. When I saw the perfectly coordinated trees that others had, I thought they were pretty but felt no connection to them. I was always in awe of our tree each year. It was always perfect to me. We'd turn off all of the lights except those on the tree and sit together singing carols or just contemplating. My husband told me he never much cared for decorating the tree because he knew his mother was just going to change everything they'd done anyway. Her tree was coordinated and had to look "just so." He doesn't want to carry on that tradition. Me either.

We really wanted to do something with our tree that represented our year. I thought about knitting some wedding themed ornament but couldn't find anything that didn't look like super cheesy crap. (Side note: Why do people act like crap is a swear word? Honestly? That's weird.)

Any-who, After looking around our little place, I decided that I really wanted to use some of the seashells left over from our wedding decorations to hang on the tree. I was sure they'd have a lot of natural holes since the ones I collected at the beach always did. No such luck. I decided to try Grit's drill with the smallest bit he had. We found that by going slowly, we could get through most of the shells. After some trial and error, a couple of broken shells and one broken drill bit (sorry babe), we have a nice collection of seashells hanging on our tree. So far it's just lights and shells until we come up with something more. We're also going to wrap the base of our tree with some of the turquoise burlap we used as table runners at the wedding since most tree skirts make me gag. So we actually do have a themed tree, but WE are the theme. It's not perfect and it doesn't need to be. It's perfect for us!

Photos to come.

Another haircut and good news!

I'm loving having short hair again, it's so much fun. These are from an impromptu photo shoot in my bathroom. They aren't the best quality, but I like 'em. Thanksgiving was great. Grit and I spent it with my mom and siblings at my mom's house. I really love my family. Everyone is so chill - most of the time. Since it's going to be our first Christmas married, we're making plans to do our own thing and have been talking a lot about the traditions we want to start as a family. The one tradition we want to carry on from both of our families is to spend part of the day outdoors. My family always went to the beach for the afternoon and his went snow skiing. Here in the desert, we're going to go for a hike. I'm really looking forward to it!

In even better news: I finally got a new job. After putting up with a lot of crap from my former employer for nearly 2 years, I'm going back into social services. I started last week and I love it so far. I have a lot to learn since my social service experience has been working with the homeless population and victims of crime. My new position is working with foster families. I'll be helping families through the process of getting licensed and acting as a support and advocate. I was beginning to get really discouraged since I have been actively applying and interviewing for jobs for 2 years and nothing worked out. I even had an interview where they told me I was their favorite candidate and that they'd get back to me ASAP and I still didn't get it. When I found this job, I nearly didn't apply because it had been on a job board for more than a month and in this economy that usually means it's already been filled. I kept going back to it though and they called me 45 minutes after I emailed them my resume. I interviewed a week later and although it went really well, they said they had more interviews to do and would get back to me the week after Thanksgiving. They called me 3 hours later! and asked me to come back the next day (Thursday) for a second interview. The second interview went better than the first and after it was over I stayed for about 20 more minutes just laughing and joking with the team that interviewed me. Again, they said they'd get back to me after Thanksgiving. The next day (Friday) I sent a thank you email for the opportunity to interview with them and they called me 20 minutes later to offer me the job. I was over the moon! I started the following Monday and tomorrow will be my second week with them. As I was leaving the second interview, I understood why God took a little while to answer this particular prayer. I'd been praying for the very specific things I needed in a job. A regular 9-5, no weekends, full benefits, good pay, respectful of family time, respectful and appreciative of my abilities, wonderful work atmosphere, awesome co-workers, no more than 10 miles from home, working in a field a can feel good about. When you get specific, sometimes you have to wait, but let me tell you, God answers prayers. I feel as though this job was made for me. He knows me, knows not only my needs, but my wants and has truly blessed us.

Halloween 2010

I'm so proud of myself for posting these before next year! My family LOVES Halloween and although Grit has hated it his whole life, he's warming up to it. The family gathered at my sister's house to party. I couldn't decide on a costume and was planning on going without but decided last minute to use the extra wedding dress (that's a whole other story!) and to make my makeup dark and creepy. It worked great. Grit was going to be a viking but decided he wanted to throw on the vest he wore for our wedding and try to match me. It was too hot for the whole suit. My nephews kept telling him he looked like a hippie. My 2 year old niece was a little bit scared of us at first, but she got used to us!

Better Late than Never!

Halloween 2009. Hee hee.
Featuring: Me as Medusa, Grit as Zeus, Peaches as some kind of Sparkly Princess and as Herself with Wig, Boodj as a Mummy, Cheeks as a Police Officer/Spider Man, Ritz as Hermione, Mika the dog as Herself, Shiny as Himself and as Himself with Wig, Spanky aka Dewey also as Himself and Himself with Wig.

Forgive me for the awful photo formatting - blogger changed it and I haven't got it wrangled yet!

Change is in the Air!

I loved my old blog template, but I needed a change. The air and the light are different here now. It's still crazy hot (108+ today), but at least the breezes are cooler. It's actually nice at night too. I can hardly wait for Fall 'cuz it's my favorite! I realize now that I never posted any Halloween photos from last year and it's almost that time again! I'm planning on throwing a costume party again this year. Grit is going to be a Viking and is growing out his very red beard to be ready for it. I haven't decided on a costume yet. Any suggestions?