Thursday!

Heffalump · January 2017

Hey y'all! We're officially under a winter storm watch starting tomorrow afternoon.

You know how I said the five day work week was going to kill me next week? My mom's surgery has been scheduled for next Wednesday, so it looks like I'll be OOO Wed.-Fri. next week. Be careful what you wish for, right?

She's opted for the single mastectomy over the double. After talking with her surgeon and her oncologist, they could take both as a precaution against future recurrence, but then it's that much harder to recover from. And there is actually no difference in survival rates for single vs. double with her type of breast cancer. And once you've had breast cancer, you're monitored more closely, so in the event that something does pop up on the other side, it's very likely that it will be caught early. So she decided on the single. Between WW and me, that's what I would have done, too.

In other news, I'm making progress toward finding a dress for my brother's wedding (I know y'all were worried!

) AND the bride just asked Wooz to be a flower girl! I am way more excited about this than I should be, but there it is.

What's going on today?

DrillSergeantCat · January 2017

I got my first pair of Lularoe leggings yesterday. I now understand the fuss and hullabaloo. I don't think I'll be one of the die hard fans with 10+ pairs though.

Feeling marginally better than yesterday. The OB gave me permission to take the good "behind-the-counter" Sudafed and it's helped so much.

It's looking like work will be pretty slow today so I'll be working on baby girl's blanket. That's about it.

mrsconn23 · January 2017

I'm hitting the wall on this week and I have so much farther to go. I work all weekend. The checks will be nice.

DH made some eggs this morning and used way too heavy a hand with the red pepper flakes. Now my stomach hurts a bit.

We're still struggling to keep the house heated. We had the guy out last month and he didn't see anything obvious wrong with our system, so...IDK? I asked DH to talk to his 'trusted advisors' (FIL, his uncle, BIL) to see if they have any ideas or suggestions. I'm afraid we're going to end up with a $600 (or worse) electric bill because our auxiliary heat keeps kicking on. Of course DH was all, "Why would I ask them?! The guy came out last month and said nothing is wrong." But then I turned the heat down so that the auxiliary heat would stop kicking in and he said he turned it back up because "I'm not turning it down that far." ::eyeroll:: OK, dude. Don't cry to me when we're broke because you had to have those extra 2 degrees.

I think he's at least doing dishes. If he makes a BFD out of it when I go refill my coffee cup, I may stab him.

I love my husband very much. I just don't like him this week.

OHHHHHH! We get to meet the kiddo's gf tonight. She's coming over for dinner. She's also coming to hang out Saturday night. We're having a few friends over for the NFL playoffs.

bleve0821 · January 2017

I'm stoked for actual winter weather. I haven't looked at what the forecast is calling for (besides cold weather) because I don't want to be disappointed (since I haven't seen snow in two years and the five-year-old inside me is bursting to build a snowman). Whatever happens, it sounds like a perfect weekend to build the biggest fire, sip hot cocoa, and not leave the couch.

Screw adulting. The floors will never be clean again, anyway.

Also: I am wearing magic socks today. My feet are so warm and happy. I can't remember the last time I felt like this.

Heffalump · January 2017

@mrsconn23, I still can't believe the kiddo has a GF. Not because of him (LOL), just because all of these kids are getting so grown.

Do you have a furnace? Living where you do, I would assume so. When we moved down here, our first house had a heat pump and we were like "Okay, whatever." That thing could NOT keep up when it got below about 20 degrees or so. We had a guy out and he explained to us how heat pumps work and how basically it was normal for them to struggle when it got that cold. So obviously, we learned our lesson and this house has an actual furnace. (Maybe two? IDK, I'm afraid of the attic, so I never go up there. I know we have two AC for the dual-zone thing, so I don't know if the furnace works the same way. I just know that sometimes it's on upstairs and sometimes it's on downstairs.)

S/O winter weather, I'm trying not to be annoyed at New Neighbor. She's posting on FB about "LOL everyone is freaking out about [spoiler @AtomicBlonde, you might want to skip this] 1-3", that's nothing, bring it on."

Yes, we know you moved from up north. Yes, we know it snows a lot more there. But y'all also had the infrastructure to support it. Here, they don't really salt the roads--they'll brine beforehand (I'm expecting to see the brine trucks out on my commute home tonight, because they love to drive 40 mph on the interstate during rush hour), but that's it. There are a handful of plow trucks, so they might clear a lane or two on the major highways. Or not. But that's it. No one knows how to drive in snow here, and even if they could, the roads will still be a mess. Also, it's hilly, and not uncommon for people lose traction trying to make it up and get themselves stuck. She's not a bad person, but she doesn't know as much as she thinks she does, so the less awesome part of me is hoping for a tiny bit of comeuppance.

Random:

Remember that Stitch Fix blouse I was so excited about it? I loved it when I tried it on, and I am wearing it for-real today and it is gorgeous. I want a whole closet full of them. The rest of my shipment was not bad but nothing special, but this blouse and I are having a full-on love affair.

Tonight is Chick-fil-A fundraiser night for Wooz's school, and I know she'll want to go. But it's always such a fucking zoo there on fundraiser nights--line out the door, drive thru line out into the street. I would rather just throw a couple of bucks at the PTA and go on a normal night, but Wooz, of course, does not see it that way. We'll see.

I have lost 2 lbs since I started the other WW again. (2.3, but who's counting?) So Chick-fil-A probably isn't a great idea anyway.

DH got me a calendar from my favorite photographer for Christmas, and I can't find it anywhere. So I probably recycled it accidentally, which makes me pissed at myself.

DrillSergeantCat · January 2017

@Heffalump congrats on the weight loss! The grilled chicken sandwich at CFA is really good and is only 6 points if I remember correctly.

drglitter · January 2017

I'm off work today, so I'm going to turn on the fireplace, curl up on the couch wrapped in the Slanket I got for Christmas, drink hot chocolate, cuddle with the dogs and watch it snow. Please don't hate me.

charlotte989875 · January 2017

I had to come in to the office today, which means I had to put on real pants. Adulting sucks.

Ro041 · January 2017

I weighed myself for the first time since we went on vacation in August. Ugh. No good.

OliveOilsMom · January 2017

I was so busy at work yesterday I didn't really get to post. I was able to lurk a bit though.

It was announced yesterday that Macy's is closing my favorite location Its in a smaller, off the beaten path mall and there is never anyone there (shocked their closing it, right?). Now I will have to go to the two other busier locations. It was my favorite Black Friday place to go, as never really had to wait in lines that were very long.

Yesterday morning was very interesting! Betsey got off the couch around 6 AM and woke H up with her nails clicking on the hardwood as she walked around the first floor. So he went down there and she runs to the side door, so he lets her out and she goes very quickly, but then started wandering to the back part of the yard. He ends up going out there in his boxers to get her back in the house. He put her back up on the couch repeatedly, but she just kept jumping back off when he would go to leave. I think she was ready for breakfast!

So H comes back up and goes into the bathroom. I hear Betsey pacing at the bottom of the steps, so when my H gets out of the bathroom, I tell him to just close the bedroom door, to block the clicking, so we can get our remaining 45 minutes of sleep before the alarm. I don't know how he did it, but he ended up walking right into the side of the door with his head! I wanted to laugh so hard, but I held it in! So it wasn't a very good start to yesterday!

With the bad start to the morning and H & I both being very busy at work, I suggested we go to Longhorn's for dinner. So we did and it was so delicious! While we were out, H's school district had their monthly board meeting. His Super decided my H was ready for the full step up to Tech Coordinator since he got his cert (plus the added salary!) and the board approved it! The Super was even nice enough to keep his salary $1 under what he had told H he was going to ask for, so that H didn't have to put in an extra 2% towards his medical benefits! They scale the benefit contribution percentage according to salary, so that extra dollar would have put H into the next bracket. That will save us a bunch once Baby arrives as his benefits are $$$$$$. So the bad day ended on a huge plus note!

Not sure what is up this evening. My sister is having a painting party. So I am going to make cupcakes for it. Will probably bake the cupcakes tonight and then ice them tomorrow before going over. I may head over to Macy's to exchange my niece's jeans that I gave her for Christmas. I also need to have an ink tag removed from a shirt that we bought for H on Monday.

short+sassy · January 2017

@OliveOilsMom, congrats on the pay raise for your H and that he has a savvy Super .

One of the Macy's in my area closed yesterday. I wish I'd had more forewarning. Maybe they had a clearance sale. Though, generally speaking, I'm not much of a Macy's fan anyway. I think they're prices are too high for most of what they sell.

OliveOilsMom · January 2017

S+S - I do agree that Macy's can be expensive, but when you can utilize the coupons and sale days - you can find some good bargains. That is usually when I will shop!

charlotte989875 · January 2017

Did I miss some big bankruptcy or change with Macy's? What's with all of them closing?

I did accomplish something in my office today; I finally unpacked the remaining boxes that have been sitting here judging me for the last 16 weeks.

short+sassy · January 2017

charlotte989875 said:

Did I miss some big bankruptcy or change with Macy's? What's with all of them closing?

I did accomplish something in my office today; I finally unpacked the remaining boxes that have been sitting here judging me for the last 16 weeks.

They announced this week that they are closing 68 stores. I think they are still a solid company, financially speaking. But, like many of those "dinosaur" department stores, have seen decreasing sales over the years and needed to cull some dead weight.

I'm surprised JC Penney is still around. They were forecasted to go out of business a few years ago, but they've still been hanging on.

drglitter · January 2017

I forgot to add last night's excitement.

We bought our big dog a (large, expensive) orthopedic dog bed for Christmas because her old one was so used it was basically flat, and she has arthritis in one shoulder. The closest she came to it until last night was sniffing it then ignoring it while she lays on the hardwood in front of the door.

Last night she laid down in her usual spot when we went to bed, and about 10 minutes later I heard her get up and creep over to the bed and lay down on it! I poked H (who was already half asleep) and whispered that she was FINALLY USING HER BED.

He told me I was ridiculous and went back to sleep. Apparently I'm easily excitable.

CharmedPam · January 2017

I'm an online shopper to begine with, but Macy's is one of my faves! I hope the ones near me aren't closing. I never liked JC Penny until I needed shirts for my groomsmen. They had the perfect shirts at a great price. Otherwise, I would never shop JC Penny.

I have a cold still and I have a plane to take tomorrow for our vacation/honeymoon. I'm hoping for an overnight miracle tonight.

levioosa · January 2017

I hate JC Penny. The store near us is so disgusting, I hate even walking through it. Today I have to clean the house because I have been slacking for sure. I also will probably apply to another couple of jobs. It's raining here, which I'm happy about, but I'm bummed that the forecast changed and now it will be raining when we go wine tasting on Saturday.

Heffalump · January 2017

Did you all know that marshmallow comes in sheets? Because I did not. I spotted one lone sheet of marshmallow at Michael's on the clearance rack and was like "Whaaaaaat?" So if we are snowed/iced in Saturday, the kids and I are busting out the mini cookie cutters and making our own marshmallows for our cocoa. It will be fun, and it will also be good for DS, who needs to strengthen his hand muscles--his preschool teacher thinks he has a weak pencil grasp, so we've been giving him stuff to do to work those muscles. (Yesterday was a spray bottle in the bathtub. He cried when it was time to get out, even though the water was beyond tepid into downright cool by then.)

S/O DS, he is more and more future engineer every day. The same eval that mentioned his pencil grasp also noted that while he is not terribly interested in art (which is a big change after Wooz, who will doodle on any scrap of paper that crosses her path), he absolutely loves the block, science, and math centers. He's like the STEM poster child.

And S/O Michael's, and being snowed in, I got wooden bird houses and new paintbrushes while I was there (since ours have had all manner of paint, glitter, glue, and other inedibles on them), and tomorrow I'm going to hit up the crunchy store for nuts, seeds, and dried fruit. And then when we're stuck inside, we're totally doing this project:

https://www.pinterest.com/pin/162481499036688711/

Edited because the image was showing up twice. And now it's now showing up at all. Oh well, scroll down.

DrillSergeantCat · January 2017

Heffalump said:

Did you all know that marshmallow comes in sheets? Because I did not. I spotted one lone sheet of marshmallow at Michael's on the clearance rack and was like "Whaaaaaat?" So if we are snowed/iced in Saturday, the kids and I are busting out the mini cookie cutters and making our own marshmallows for our cocoa. It will be fun, and it will also be good for DS, who needs to strengthen his hand muscles--his preschool teacher thinks he has a weak pencil grasp, so we've been giving him stuff to do to work those muscles. (Yesterday was a spray bottle in the bathtub. He cried when it was time to get out, even though the water was beyond tepid into downright cool by then.)

S/O DS, he is more and more future engineer every day. The same eval that mentioned his pencil grasp also noted that while he is not terribly interested in art (which is a big change after Wooz, who will doodle on any scrap of paper that crosses her path), he absolutely loves the block, science, and math centers. He's like the STEM poster child.

And S/O Michael's, and being snowed in, I got wooden bird houses and new paintbrushes while I was there (since ours have had all manner of paint, glitter, glue, and other inedibles on them), and tomorrow I'm going to hit up the crunchy store for nuts, seeds, and dried fruit. And then when we're stuck inside, we're totally doing this project:

https://www.pinterest.com/pin/162481499036688711/

If you're interested, you can make marshmallows at home. http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/alton-brown/homemade-marshmallows-recipe.html

GBCK · January 2017

I love the birdhouse.
We have a fancypants birdhouse for Christmas that is becoming a fairy house...we shall see what becomes of that.

I am ejoying doing some nothing. I feel like I have been 'go go go" (I haven't but, feels like it), and the Mr. and I have mornings off together until next week...I'm checking out until next monday.

Except girscout cookie meeting tonight.

short+sassy · January 2017

short+sassy said:

charlotte989875 said:

Did I miss some big bankruptcy or change with Macy's? What's with all of them closing?

I did accomplish something in my office today; I finally unpacked the remaining boxes that have been sitting here judging me for the last 16 weeks.

They announced this week that they are closing 68 stores. I think they are still a solid company, financially speaking. But, like many of those "dinosaur" department stores, have seen decreasing sales over the years and needed to cull some dead weight.
I'm surprised JC Penney is still around. They were forecasted to go out of business a few years ago, but they've still been hanging on.

Whoa! Retail update!

It's been announced that Sears is closing 38 stores and K-Mart is closing 105 stores. After the most current Sears closings, they will have 60% fewer stores than they did 5 years ago.

For my area, one Sears is closing (which leaves one) and one K-Mart is closing (which leaves two).

And clearance sales start tomorrow for those two locations .

Heffalump · January 2017

ZOMG, y'all. I only thought that Diane von Furstenberg wrap dress was spendy. Next to these fancy Pakistani occasions dresses, it looks like freaking H&M.

ETA: some of these cost more than my actual wedding dress. But so pretty.

http://www.dressrepublic.com/women/dresses.html/special-occasion-dresses-pakistani-2015-by-shazia-kiyani.html

http://www.dressrepublic.com/women/dresses/blue-pakistani-special-occasion-dresses-pbcw-2014-6883.html

Also, my coloring is about as far as you can get from South Asian (super fair with pink undertones), so a lot of these palettes are not working for me. The nude-ish ones are pretty, but I would look completely washed out.

short+sassy · January 2017

Heffalump said:

ZOMG, y'all. I only thought that Diane von Furstenberg wrap dress was spendy. Next to these fancy Pakistani occasions dresses, it looks like freaking H&M.

ETA: some of these cost more than my actual wedding dress. But so pretty.

http://www.dressrepublic.com/women/dresses.html/special-occasion-dresses-pakistani-2015-by-shazia-kiyani.html

http://www.dressrepublic.com/women/dresses/blue-pakistani-special-occasion-dresses-pbcw-2014-6883.html

Also, my coloring is about as far as you can get from South Asian (super fair with pink undertones), so a lot of these palettes are not working for me. The nude-ish ones are pretty, but I would look completely washed out.

My favorite is actually the background one in the first link. It's gorgeous and I love the violet color, which is a great color for me and I'm fair-skinned. Though with yellow undertones. Maybe its just the angle, but the bottom of it seems to have a little more "flounce" than the one in the foreground. Both are lovely! But, yeah, spendy.

Heffalump · January 2017

short+sassy said:

Heffalump said:

ZOMG, y'all. I only thought that Diane von Furstenberg wrap dress was spendy. Next to these fancy Pakistani occasions dresses, it looks like freaking H&M.

ETA: some of these cost more than my actual wedding dress. But so pretty.

http://www.dressrepublic.com/women/dresses.html/special-occasion-dresses-pakistani-2015-by-shazia-kiyani.html

http://www.dressrepublic.com/women/dresses/blue-pakistani-special-occasion-dresses-pbcw-2014-6883.html

Also, my coloring is about as far as you can get from South Asian (super fair with pink undertones), so a lot of these palettes are not working for me. The nude-ish ones are pretty, but I would look completely washed out.

My favorite is actually the background one in the first link. It's gorgeous and I love the violet color, which is a great color for me and I'm fair-skinned. Though with yellow undertones. Maybe its just the angle, but the bottom of it seems to have a little more "flounce" than the one in the foreground. Both are lovely! But, yeah, spendy.

I liked that one too! I was trying to find it elsewhere on that site, but no luck.

My FSIL sent me like 3 dozen inspiration pics, so that's helpful, anyway.

kimmiinthemitten · January 2017

@Heffalump I love the second one actually - but dayum!

@charlotte989875 interview tomorrow for H?

@AtomicBlonde glad you're finally having a better day!

I went to bed at 10 last night, woke up at 6, responded to an email from my BFF about going to NY next month, then fell back asleep for much longer than I should have. But today's the first day this week I haven't fallen asleep on the couch right away, so I needed it.

After that, work was crazy busy since I missed a bunch of emails in my slumber. My year's forecast is not looking very strong - at no fault of my own - but this month has started strong so hopefully I'm wrong.

I'm so happy it's Thursday! Except that I promised H we'd go back to the gym next week and I'm not sure I want to exchange my fat life on the couch for my skinny life at the gym just yet.

charlotte989875 · January 2017

Yes, @kimmiinthemitten! Tomorrow at 1pm. He's nervous since it wasn't a lot of prep time. Also, it's his first non-academic interview so he doesn't really know what to expect. Keeping all the fingers and toes crossed it goes all right.

OurWildKingdom · January 2017

Fingers crossed for your H, @charlotte989875!

@kimmiinthemitten, whatever happened with the parking ticket?

kimmiinthemitten · January 2017

OurWildKingdom said:

Fingers crossed for your H, @charlotte989875!

@kimmiinthemitten, whatever happened with the parking ticket?

I appealed online and am still waiting to hear back.

OurWildKingdom · January 2017

Hope it works out in your favor!

We got snow today. Not much, just a dusting. Traffic was slow going home, but NBD otherwise.

My boss's boss is retiring tomorrow, and my boss is hosting a coffee hour for her. I've got oatmeal cookies and Irish soda bread cooling in the kitchen for tomorrow morning.

kimmiinthemitten · January 2017

Thanks OWK!

And that sounds delicious. I want to work with you!

kimmiinthemitten · January 2017

OurWildKingdom said:

Fingers crossed for your H, @charlotte989875!

@kimmiinthemitten, whatever happened with the parking ticket?

Apparently, you're the trigger the universe needs....just received an email that the ticket was dismissed! Woohoo!

Thursday!

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