It's Monday

Swazzle

Morning! How was your weekend?

On Friday, H and I went to dinner and then had a Devils game. I drank a little too much and was mildly hungover when I woke up the next day. 

Saturday, I went into the city and had brunch with two of my girlfriends. The place we went to had amazing bloody marys and I'm drooling thinking about it. That night I had another Devils game and they actually won for once! There were a lot of fights and Yagr became the oldest player to score a hat trick so that was fun. H and I went out with his friends for a little bit after the game. 

Yesterday, I went shopping with H, my aunt, and my cousin. I got a ton of stuff for so cheap at Old Navy and I picked up a couple of bras at Nordstrom. H and I watched the first half of the Lions/Cowboys game (booooooo) and then a couple episodes of SOA. I had a hard time getting to sleep last night and I am TIRED today. 

Tonight I'm getting a mani/pedi for vacation and then going to Nobu with H, my aunt, and my cousin! In 48 hours, I'll be on my way to Aruba and in 1 week, I close on my house! LIFE IS GOOD.

[Deleted User]

@swazzle UGH I want to go to Aruba! It's going to be such a nice getaway

DH and I were super against waking up this morning for work. Our realtor sent us some homes to look at last night and we liked a lot of them so we are feeling a bit more confident about finding a home sooner rather than later in the next few months.

It has officially been a week since Maddux got neutered so this weekend we will take him back to the vet to get his stitches removed. He hasn't been terrible about licking them but every now and then I'll catch him going for it so we still have to use the cone of shame on occasion.

Tonight I'm going to crossfit and afterwards making meatloaf and watch The Bachelor. A girl I went to middle school with is actually on the show so this should be interesting watching her. We cheered together and she was actually a really nice girl. We weren't super close but I'm glad that she made it on the show.

Hummingbird125

@southernpeach89 - which girl is it? I'll watch for her!

I'm EXHAUSTED today and have no interest in being at work. My boss has been gone for the past two weeks, but he's supposed to be back today. My body is sore all over because I started a workout plan that @GoldenPenguin sent me - it doesn't look that hard, but it works all the muscles I usually ignore, and I'm aching.

I had a nice weekend. Friday night FI and I stayed in. Saturday I took my friend to the stables for her horseback riding lesson, and took pictures of her. After that, I took a nap, and then FI and I went to my friend and her BF's apartment, about 20 minutes north of us, for a game night. For what might be the first time ever, I told FI he could drink whatever he wanted and I would DD, We played "Brewopoly" in which FI dominated, and then played some strange French card game that I won. I became friends with this girl at the job I worked at last year (Wait... in 2013!) for just three months before quitting, and I'm really happy we've stayed friends. FI and her BF get along REALLY well, so they've become a good "couple friend" of ours, and I'm sad that they're trying to move down to NC :-(

On Sunday, FI went into the city to play basketball, and I went to BBB to add more things to our registry and then went food shopping at Trader Joe's.

Tonight, I'm going to the gym after work, stopping at the regular grocery store, and then destroying my diet to make BBQ wings for The Bachelor tonight. Starting a few seasons ago, I would make wings once every couple of weeks in order to entice FI to watch The Bachelor(ette) with me, and my plan has worked - he now looks forward to it. Diet-wise, I probably should't make them more than once a month, but I figure that the premiere requires them.

Dignity100

@Swazzle - sounds like you had a great weekend - so jealous of Aruba!!  I'm sitting here with a heater under my desk and looking that it's not even going to get above 25F all week!  YAY for the house - so exciting!!

@SouthernPeach89 - Hope you find your dream house!!  The closest I had to meeting a reality star was one of the guys who was on Biggest Loser worked out at my old gym.  One time he was on a treadmill next to me running (and holding the railing) and I almost told him that Jillian would not let him get away with that, but I behaved myself.  I quit that gym a long time ago - it's one of the nicest gym's around but so far to travel to.



I'm in a crummy mood and just want to go back and hide in bed for the next week.  On Saturday I woke up with not 1 but 2 cold sores.  I've gotten them my whole life and just get so sad/depressed when I have one - I feel that everybody is staring at them and that they have such a negative connotation to them and on top of that they hurt.  I think I got them because I'm just feeling tired and run down.  I'm really missing being a kid and getting so much time off - I know in the past month I've had 7 days off (not including weekends) but I'm just burnt out.  I know I have a few days at Disney at the end of the month, but it's just after that my next break won't be until like May and then Sept/Oct and then December (assuming I have time off left for Christmas/New Years - since I had Christmas off this year, I'll probably take New Years week off and let somebody else have Christmas).

This weekend - Friday we went out with H's Bro (BIL) and his GF.  Everywhere had such a long wait, we went to a HUGE candy store and then to dinner.  Saturday H and I just relaxed during the day and in the evening went for 'game night' with BIL and GF which turned out to be a disaster.  I cooked for all of us (which turned you great - I made chicken and dumplings).  Then we played monopoly and everybody got mad at each other.  Sunday we pretty much watched TV all day. 

[Deleted User]

@hummingbird125 -Her name is Ashley. Hopefully this link works to her page on The Bachelor page:

https://www.facebook.com/TheBachelor/photos/a.10152481191368053.1073741827.34951293052/10152481191483053/?type=3&theater

Swazzle

@southernpeach89 - Aww Maddux! Brody is getting neutered on Wednesday. I'm praying it helps calm him down a bit because he is a psychopath.

@hummingbird125 - Did you get cookie butter?

@Dignity100 - I'm sorry you're feeling so run down. What did you fight about with your BIL and his GF?

[Deleted User]

good morning!

I can't believe it's already Monday.  we had a great time in CA.  we were ready to come home, but not ready to leave the warmer weather and sunshine.  and the delicious seafood!

H and I started the Whole30 yesterday (I did NOT get enough groceries, yeesh!) and we're both restarting PiYo from the beginning.

I have a lot to do to catch up on being gone since Wednesday, but all I want to do is NAP.

@southernpeach89 - I love the gif!

Dignity100

@Swazzle - The big fight was just Monopoly.  Nobody could build anything but H, so H's brother got mad and started making stupid trades and then went bankrupt on purpose so anybody but H would win.  I think BIL was mad about other things; he kept making snarky remarks to his GF - so I think something else is going on; it's his relationship though so I don't want to get into it.

@CocoBellaF - Look at you getting back into a healthy plan!!

500days

Good morning!

I am sooo tired. I am officially back to work and I feel so disconnected from what I'm supposed to be doing! My weekend was very relaxing- I did absolutely except watch some football yesterday. 

Lots to do this week though. I have parent teacher conferences on Wednesday, so I'll be here all day and night. I also have cake/cupcake tasting on Thursday immediately after school and then my first dress fitting at 6 that same day. I'm very nervous to try my dress on for the first time! I hope I still love it as much as I did in October. Now that it's 2015, I feel like wedding planning will have to be ramped up...scary!

Peaseblossom55

@swazzle 1 week until the house is yours yay! So jealous have fun in Aruba!

@Southernpeach89 yay good luck on the house hunt!

Friday I had to work, but I worked from home, we just stayed in and  relaxed played board games. Saturday I had an audition for another show, it went well I should hear soon if I got the role I wanted.  Yesterday began tech rehearsal for Doubt which opens on Friday I am so excited for it!!! I just feel tired and would really like some more sleep. I even napped this weekend, and I'm not really a napper.

Hummingbird125

@Swazzle - Nope. I saw it, and I waved at it from a distance though :-(

KeptInStitches

Morning!

FI and I are both exhausted because Ellie-cat decided to train for the Olympics all night. Across both of us. With noisy toys.

The big highlight of the weekend was I added 50 pages to my dissertation! It's about time I got into the swing of writing anyway, and this will keep my committee happy.

labro

I would've had a lot more to say about this weekend if yesterday hadn't be so disastrous. We had moderate rain from Friday through Sunday morning. That morning I got up and used the bathroom like I normally would and flushed the toilet. H was downstairs feeding the dog and he heard rushing water in our basement. Basically...our septic has overflowed. I'm so angry and upset. Less than a year ago (like Jan/Feb of 2014) we had to make an emergency septic call because the same thing happened when I did laundry during a rainstorm (I've never lived with a septic tank before and didn't realize this was a no no). The tank started backflowing into the laundry machine because it's the lowest point in the house  and we had to make an emergency call to get the tank emptied. It took them two truckloads to get it emptied because water from our super saturated yard kept backflowing into the tank. So anyway, that disaster cost us around $3k...but we've since found out the company who did it way overcharged us. Our mistake...

So anyway, that's last years story and basically the same thing happened yesterday morning. The tank was full, probably from rainwater from the yard, and started backflowing in to the house when I flushed the toilet. Luckily H was able to get the valve shut off in the house to stop the water but now we're stuck at my mom and dad's while we wait for the water to drain away. In the meantime we're calling a new septic company recommended by H's boss to discuss replacing the system. It's going to cost us at least $10k...but probably more like around $15k when everything is said and done. H and I both believe the leach field (where all the clean water goes from the septic to slowly drain into the ground) is compromised because of its age and needs to be replaced. It just really sucks. I didn't want to buy a house that was on septic but I compromised because H said it would be fine, that being on septic was barely different from being on city sewer. I told him yesterday that our next home would absolutely be on sewer...I refuse to ever deal with this literal shit ever again.

Swazzle

@dignity100 - Ahh gotcha. BIL sounds like he was cranky. Who fights over Monopoly?!

@500days - WOW you're almost at 6 months! Take pics at your fitting!

@peaseblossom55 - I can't believe it's finally (hopefully) almost here! 

@hummingbird125 - Lame. What do you have against cookie butter?

@lapeanut1018 - I'm sending big hugs your way. That's so frustrating. 

Peaseblossom55

@lapeanut1018 wow that really sucks. I'm so sorry you have to deal with that.  When we were house hunting we found a home we liked but it had a septic tank, we didn't want to deal with that.  Hopefully the new company you deal with won't overcharge and will give you a good deal. Hugs meanwhile.

[Deleted User]

@LaPeanut1018 - that sucks.  I'm really sorry. 

GoldenPenguin

Hi ladies!! I've been fairly MIA from TK over my lovely holiday break, but I missed you all! It's Monday, and I have NO DESIRE to be back at work. I also woke up at 530 am to pee, and couldn't fall back asleep - until the alarm went off, of course. 

I had to work Friday & Saturday because we had games, but that's different than being in the actual office. Blah.

Yesterday, FI & I went and started our registries! We did like 90% of everything at Bed Bath & Beyond, and then did some "love to have" stuff at Pottery Barn. I was surprised that I got through the majority of the store at BBB before I got too overwhelmed, but by the time we got to bedding, I was done. We're going back next Sunday to finish up, and we'll probably add some things online as well. 

This is probably my most favorite thing that we registered for, at PB:

Dignity100

@LaPeanut1018 - Wow, I never knew septic tanks were such a pain!  We had one growing up and it NEVER gave us trouble.

Blue & White

Hi!  I'm working from home today and have actually been productive, so that's a plus.

These holidays were a bit insane.  H's grandma fell and broke a hip on Christmas - after we had dropped her off.  Things went south pretty quickly and she died on NYE.  We actually came back here a few days after Christmas because she was doing well and they were waiting till a weekday to do surgery, but were able to return home to see her again before she died (this situation has both H and I in support of assisted suicide...it was rough.  She was terrified, in pain, all the bad things you don't want to happen when you die).  However, we did get to get a lot of good quality family time so I think most of the family is healing decently.  Obviously it has been less than a week so nothing's perfect yet.

On the way home yesterday, we got hit in the windshield by a rock.  Due to Florida's weird windshield laws, I will be having the windshield repaired or replaced in a few minutes for free.  Needless to say, I'm glad to have the option of working from home today so I could get that taken care of.

I cannot wait for the Bachelor tonight but currently have Sleeping Hollow AND NCIS: LA taping during it and have no idea how to rectify this situation (despite the fact that I don't even LIKE sleepy hollow...) but I'm pretty sure I can watch the Bachelor on my ipad.  We will see.

@lapeanut1018 um we are on septic and I have done laundry in the rain without the septic overflowing.  Is it possible the tank isn't big enough for the house or something weird?  That doesn't sound right.  Also, I did the research and it is approximately the same amount of money to connect to sewer (if available) as it is to replace the septic tank (whenever that time comes.)  So many hugs.  Shit stinks, literally...

[Deleted User]

@GoldenPenguin - That wine rack is AMAZING.

@KeptInStitches - 50 pages, wow!  How long are you aiming for?  I'm hoping to get some actual writing done this week...aiming for 25-30 pages.

My weekend was...blah.  Mr. Historian was here over the holidays, but he left on NYE, so I've sort of moped around since then.  Probably the biggest highlight was getting all of the research photos I've taken so far catalogued (2,435 of them!).  I stayed up late last night to finish them, so I'm getting a bit of a late start on today.  I leave for Philadelphia tomorrow on another research trip, so today is cleaning and packing.  I have ballet tonight, though, for the first time since before I left on my big trip at the beginning of December, so I'm really looking forward to that.  Although I definitely gained weight over the holidays so I am not looking forward to the whole "leotard" thing.  :-(

[Deleted User]

@Blue&White I'm so sorry to hear about your grandmother. That's a really tough situation to go through in such a short period of time.

When our grandmother died a couple years ago she had been sick for a very long time (at least a few years) with a few scary episodes in between those. When she had her last episode, she went into a vegetable state and told my mom that she didn't want to remain in that state and to have the doctor's remove all ventilation systems and let her pass on. My mom's brothers were not included in this conversation so it was extremely hard for them to watch as my mom had to take authority over the situation and give the doctor's permission to take her off of the machines. It's so sad and never an easy thing to deal with especially when it's a sudden occurrence.

[Deleted User]

@Blue & White - I am so, so sorry.  all the *hugs*.

Blue & White

@southernpeach89 yea, it was definitely a tough time but I'm glad that all of us could be that together.  I know H's dad and brother especially needed a few extra supports.

Ollie08

I can't believe it's already Monday and back to reality. We had a busy weekend. We took the girls to see Into the Woods on Friday. It was cute, but too long. Especially for kids. They were done after 90 minutes, but it went on for another 30.

Saturday DD1 had a birthday party, so we dropped her off and went out to Ikea to get a new desk. The wonderful idea I had to upcycle a sofa table never really happened and it's killing my wrists so we decided to just buy one. We came home and snuggled with DD2 and watched Soul Surfer (her choice).

Sunday we had church and shot a lot of video for them. We're creating the intro/outro for their web sermons, and a mock intro for their TV spots. I wanted so badly to be productive after church yesterday, but I ended up coming home and taking almost a 2 hour nap. :-(  

speakeasy14

@lapeanut1018 That is really frustrating.  I've had a septic most of my life and never had any issues until recently (the house is 20 years old so it was time to get parts replaced).  I've never heard of not being able to shower or do laundry during a rainstorm, unless you live in a watershed area?   Make sure you are using septic safe toilet paper and that you don't pour any kind of food grease down the sink. 

@swazzle soak up all the sun rays!!! 

@500days cake and cupcake tasting sounds even better than just cake tasting! 

@dignity100 Monopoly tears families apart!  Someone always flips the board when we play.  But seriously, sounds like there was definitely something going on with your BIL and his gf, and good idea to just stay out.  

This weekend was busy.   Saturday I helped my best friend set up for my niece's birthday party.  It was nice, but there were so many little kids (my niece is 3), and being the childless aunt it was a bit overwhelming.  I think next year I will be that aunt who sits in the corner and drinks wine.

They're still trying to prep the house for baby #2 and all everyone got my niece was toys, so I volunteered to visit each weekend the rest of the month to help them organize and get everything ready for the baby.  My niece has been excited to be a big sister, but we think she's starting to realize she's not the baby anymore because she keeps having moments where she tries to act like a baby.  

Yesterday was my bf's family holiday party.  It was so nice to see all of his family, but we were both exhausted and ended up falling asleep on the couch before everyone left.  I have no idea what time I woke up, but the whole house was dark and no one was around.  Coffee is my friend today.

labro

@speakeasy14 and @Blue & White I think our majors issues are this:

Our soil is mostly clay...it's not exactly the best draining soil ever.

Our septic system is 26 years old. In 2009 they had an issue with some tree roots that was supposedly resolved...but I think the leech field is compromised by other roots and detritus in the pipes that block the flow of water. We also don't have a complicated pipe, it's just a single pipe running from the tank that weaves back and forth. I think most good septics have a branch of pipes? The tank is certified large enough for our house/up to 5 people and we still have these problems.

We have a large neighborhood behind us. H and I suspect we're getting their run-off. Before that neighborhood was built there was probably just a large field behind the house and the former owners probably never had drainage issues.

Anyway, the day of the laundry disaster we had had 6 inches of rain plus days of rain before that PLUS our septic system had apparently not been emptied out in more than 5 years (we had been living in the house 6 months at the time). So a lot of things happened that made doing the laundry a terrible idea but I just didn't know any better. We had the entire thing emptied it out, plus they took away whatever water GUSHED into the tank from the yard while they were draining it. We take all of the precautions, I can't dump tampons down the toilet (ugh), our TP is septic safe, we have little things in our drains that we regularly empty to catch food particles and hair and don't drain grease, we don't use the hand soap with the little plastic beads in it, and ever since last January I'm careful to never do more than one or two loads of laundry in a day, or to spread out jobs that require lots of water like laundry/running the dishwasher/etc. We've taken SO MANY over the top and ridiculous precautions so it just really sucks to have this happen again because I freaking flushed a stupid toilet.

I wish getting on public sewer was a better option. We can only get hooked up if we get 50% of the other homeowners in our neighborhood to also sign on because there's no existing sewer system on our street, everyone is on septic. The permit itself is only $5k but there's a lot of other costs we don't know the true amount of right now. We've already inquired in the past with our city about it but it just doesn't seem feasible if we'd have to petition our neighborhood.

Swazzle

@blue - I'm so sorry. Big hugs headed your way.

@futuremrshistorian - How long will you be in Philly? I grew up there

@Ollie08 - I nearly fell asleep when I went to see Into the Woods. 

speakeasy14

@lapeanut1018 oh jeez, that is just an all around bad situation.  Hopefully this new company can figure out the issues so that it doesn't happen anymore. 

KeptInStitches

@futuremrshistorian, I think perhaps 350-400 pages long? I'm not entirely sure. I know this is chapter 7 of 8 (I started with easy writing) and I don't really know how long it will be. It'll be a darn book, though.

AlPacina

Happy monday everyone! I weighed in at the lowest I've been since high school this morning! Unfortunately, it is mostly due to the stomach bug. I am dehydrated and lacking muscle since I haven't ran in a week.

I used my down time to read Wild again, because I loved it. BF and I also got a bunch of Christmas presents put away. I got a new set of shelves for my kitchen, so it took about 15 minutes to find enough crap to fill those with.

Tonight my BF is going to a Trailblazers game, so I may go see Into The Woods by myself. I'm pretty excited since it's one of my favorite broadway soundtracks. Then again, I was really excited for Les Mis too and really didn't enjoy that one. So, fingers crossed! I'm hoping they don't lose too many of the adult themes because it's Disney.

-------------------------------------------------

@Swazzle - Sounds like a good hockey game! The best part of watching hockey is the fights, IMO.

@southernpeach89 - I grew up in the same small town that a father/daughter pair was from on Survivor: Blood v. Water....... That chick was a terrible person. At least you're excited for the girl you went to middle school with! Haha.

@Hummingbird125 - I really don't think there is a food option I could make to get BF to watch Glee with me. Filet mignon, with a side of lobster perhaps?

@LaPeanut1018 - We're on septic too. I get super freaked out by it! They told us we should have another 2-3 years the last time we had ours checked, but I was still trying to convince BF we wanted to have it emptied.

@GoldenPenguin - I love that wine rack! I wish we had room for a larger one in our house.

@Blue - I am so sorry to hear about your loss.

@Ollie08 - Did you know that movie is based off of a play? An adult-themed play? I wish Disney made it more apparent that maaaaybe it isn't geared towards kids. But yea, as far as the length, they probably just didn't want to cut out too much that was in the original show. At least they didn't make it as long as Les Mis!

Peaseblossom55

@Blue&White so sorry about your grandmother, sending hugs

@Alpacina I hope you enjoy Into The Woods, I really don't want to see it. I'm a huge Sondheim fan and I'm not thrilled about some of the changes they've made to the movie.  I'll wait for Netflix but let me know how it is!