so thankful

It has been a wonderful, wonderful Thanksgiving. A truly fabulous time of rest and conversation and food and laughter and family. And did I mention food?? Trust me, no one was in any danger of starvation.

I'll try to avoid waxing poetic. I was going to have a ton of great pictures of food and family and what-not, but doesn't it figure that my camera battery died after my first picture yesterday??


Yes, yes it does. Anyway, this picture does a pretty good job of capturing a lot of what's been going on. A lot of people gathered in the living room, engaged in eating, reading, chatting, playing games, and watching football (or a movie). It's been a lot of fun. This picture was yesterday (pre-Meal)...see us planning out our shopping?? It was pretty hardcore.

So was the time when we headed out to Kohl's this morning. Check out the clock in my car!!

Yup, we were those crazy folks. At least we weren't alone, though. Here we are lining up with 800 of our closest friends!

The lines wrapped all the way around the building! It was surprisingly not-chaotic, though. No stampeding and everyone was pretty well-behaved. Way to go, Athens.

We came prepared. Don't worry, one of those coffees is mine. I don't let Mattie double-fist his caffeine.

We shopped from 3 til 7am. We got quite a few good bargains...although I must admit most of them were not gifts...they were stuff we "needed." Haha. Then we grabbed a biscuit, went home, and crashed til 9:30. Since then it's been an odd day of resting, eating, going re-shopping, and hanging out. I feel very out of touch with the time of day, though. I'm exhausted and it feels like the day is lasting forever!! (But not in a bad way. Not like when the work day seems to last forever.)

I did take a little time to pull out a few Christmas decorations, though. Due to the rain, we didn't get a tree today...guess it will have to wait til next week. But I grabbed a few decorations from the top of my "Christmas box" and holiday-fied the mantle!!
I'm not sure if it will stay exactly like that, but it was enough to make me feel festive. You may notice my spray-painted sticks/pine cones in the red vase on the right...they're really pretty in person (the flash makes them look weird here)!

Well that's about all I've got to share. I think I'm going to go be really exciting and pay some bills. I know, try not to be jealous. I guess I should be thankful I have a house to be paying for, right?? Right, that's the spirit...

wahoo!!

I tried to think of a deeper, more thought-provoking title. Unfortunately, all my brain can think of is WAHOOOOO--- and other unwriteable noises of excitement. You know, squeals and all that.

NO WORK FOR FIVE DAYS!!!!

I've never had off the day before Thanksgiving. This is new and uncharted territory and I am excited to experience it! Matt took the day off, too, so as soon as he gets home...it's weekend! And yet it's only Tuesday afternoon. It's surreal I tell you. Surreal.

We had a great weekend hanging out with our friends James & Kristina and just laying low. Got a lot of cleaning and organizing done on Saturday. Ate a lot of delicious food all weekend. You know...the good things in life. It was a good weekend. Work barely even interrupted my fun these past 2 days!

So now it's almost Thanksgiving...still need to make a last minute grocery-run in order to prepare my famously delicious sweet potato casserole. Oh, speaking of delicious...have you guys caught Bobby Flay's Thanksgiving Throwdown?? Featuring none other than my most beloved PIONEER WOMAN?!!! Yes, P-Dub takes on Bobby and YES there is some magical food-preparing and YES there are cowboys and chaps and all the other things you would expect out of a PW-centric episode. It was awesome. Both times I watched it. If you're not in the Thanksgiving Spirit yet...check it out on Food Network (I think they play it about 10 times a day) and I promise you will not be disappointed. Only you might be slightly disappointed at your own actual Thanksgiving meal when it turns out to be not cooked by PW & Bobby. But don't worry-- it will still be delish.

And not to rush things...because I fully love and appreciate Thanksgiving for all its inherent greatness...but holla-- Christmas is right around the corner!! Since we might not be around this weekend, I thought I wouldn't decorate til next week. But then it occured to me that I could decorate now! Since I have all these great days off...why not?? So I just may bust out my Christmas decor and have myself a merry little time decorating.

Which leads me to my final and most probing thought. Well, 2 thoughts. That will require you to probe your own heart and soul and help me out. Get ready.

1. Any easy cheap & crafty decorating ideas?? I love making and re-purposing things into fun holiday decor. I'm currently having a love affair with some pretty sticks and pinecones and my beloved silver spraypaint. If it turns out well, I'll let yall take a peek at the results. Any ideas you want to share with me??

2. What Christmas movies should I watch this year? I feel like I really slacked on the Christmas-movie-watching last year, and I don't want that to happen again. I feel like I need to mix up all my trashy reality-TV-watching with a little holiday goodness. Help a sister out. And I already have Love Actually on DVD because I already know it's the best movie ever, so help me think outside the box and don't recommend that one...I already watch it like once a week. :)

After you have answered these questions, you are free to go and enjoy your wonderful holiday with your family!! Happy Thanksgiving!

library haiku

Downtown library
I sit in your parking lot
Loving your wireless

It's not deep, but it's true. Because if it weren't for this here sweet little library, yall would be thinking I fell off a cliff or something.

It's been a lonnnnng week. I've been sick sick sick. Although I've had no more cysts rupture since Monday, I have had a cold/allergies get progressively worse and worse. I did go back to work Wednesday (and the rest of the week), but I lost my voice (where does it go?) so I was fairly useless in a class of four-year-olds all week. I also felt like crap most of the time. It was awesome.

However, yesterday afternoon I did decide to deviate from my standing after-work date with my couch and enjoy a girl's night with Mollyanne. We went to Christmas Marketplace (sponsored by the Junior League) via some free tickets her husband scored. Neither of us has ever been to Marketplace before but we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves and also enjoyed getting started buying some sweet gifts (for others AND ourselves-- even better!). However, I must admit that seeing all of the neat homemade things that (primarily) women were selling has further convinced me that I need to be really crafty and invent something awesome and then I can quit this whole9-5 charade in favor of selling my craft at parties and fun events and cute shops and stuff. Now I just have to find my crafty niche...that should be a piece of cake, right?

Maybe I will show yall some of the things I bought, but maybe it will have to be after Christmas...wouldn't want to spoil any gifts, would I?!!

I am super excited about Thanksgiving. Our holiday week is really starting today, I suppose. The Boothes are coming to visit us this afternoon and will be staying til Tuesday. In addition to enjoying their company (and a cute baby), we will be enjoying our annual decadent Thanksgiving dinner at church tomorrow night-- I can't WAIT for my first taste of T-day deliciousness! Then it's two short days of work (I will get off at 3:30 instead of 4:45 which feels like a WORLD of difference) and then a nice five-day weekend! We're spending this Thanksgiving with Matt's family, but will probably make a quick trip to Augusta over the weekend to say hey to mine as well. I'm so looking forward to spending lots of time with our families and LOTS of quality time eating. Haha. And I'm trying to forget that this sickness has already taken me away from the gym for an entire week. I had thought we'd be able to go back today, but I can't stop hacking coughing for long enough to change into my gym clothes. Which makes me feel like I won't be very successful with trying to run, so I think it'll be another day until we try.

Sorry for the complaining. It's just that I don't really feel like myself unless I'm whining about something.

Well I think that's about it. We're about to take Lola to the park. This weekend will be her first extended experience with a baby...I'm hoping it goes well! Hopefully if she burns off a lot of energy this afternoon she will have less energy for jumping on people holding babies...which is pretty much all she's ever done around babies in the past...yikes! But then, there has never been a baby in our house for more than like 3 minutes, so she's never had a chance to get acclimated...so I think she'll be fine once she gets over her initial excitement...right??

Have a wonderful pre-Thanksgiving weekend! Run an extra mile for me!!

ow ow ow

Hello and welcome to my life of laying on the couch (with periods of getting up, driving to the library, and using the internet).

In the last 36 hours I have had TWO ovarian cysts rupture.

Ow ow ow ow ow ow ow.

For comparison's sake...in the last 3 years, prior to Sunday, I have had two rupture. So in 36 hours I've doubled my numbers. Not too shabby, eh?

We can thank the Clomid for this fun-fest. Lots of ovulation means lots of cysts, and sometimes those puppies just wanna burst and make me feel like I'm dying!! Yay!!

Let me tell you. If you have never gotten to experience the joy of rupturing cysts, it is hard to describe exactly how delightful it is. The best part is how you have NO IDEA it's coming. Seriously. Sunday night we drove to the gym. As I got out of the car, I noticed a tiny cramp in my tummy. Felt like a gas pain or something. Went to the restroom...nada. Okay, so I got on the treadmill. The pain is getting stronger. Seven minutes later, I practically collapse off the treadmill and can't stand up straight. Matt quickly wipes down our machines and gets our stuff. In the car I'm in so much pain I'm crying as I'm curled into the fetal position, pulling my workout tights off because they're suddenly way too tight for my distended stomach. Once the excruciating car ride is over, I get to enjoy the exact same feelings for the next several hours on the couch. Pain meds and heating pads help out a little bit. The lingering pain of the aftermath, however, is pretty miserable in itself. It's like your stomach is all stuck out and tender (from the liquid that was in the cyst) and it's hard to walk or sit. And you feel nauseous.

And then it happened again at 2pm yesterday. And today I live in fear that there could be more. Since I didn't go for a follicle monitoring (ultrasound) this month, I don't know how many cysts there were. I'm praying there are no more because I think I may amputate my own stomach if I have to go through this again today.

Matt says "maybe we shouldn't do Clomid anymore...it's causing you a lot of pain." And to that I say...if I ever get pregnant, it will be worth it. Bring on the Clomid. You can't take me down this easy.