Zoinkers.

Things have been pretty good. Here are some reasons:

|| I most likely have a new awesome second job next semester! In addition to working at the place I work now selling' Pin the Penis on the Man' games, funny t-shirts, and 'Coffee Makes Me Poop' mugs, I will also be a Biology Lab Tech at my college. It still pays crap, but it'll be good experience and something fun to do.

|| I've been eating WAY too much good food.

What, how did that In-N-Out receipt get there?! And yes, that is a peanut butter, banana, and bacon sandwich on homemade grain free bread.
I've been thinking of having some kind of 'healthy food for dummies' thing here on the blog. There are SO many people who comment/text/message me saying that the food I cook is so healthy and they can never do it because they don't cook, when really it takes fifteen minutes and is super easy. Would you be interested? Over the past couple years I've really grown to love good and healthy food and could talk about it for lifetimes, so I want to share it with people! For shits and giggles, here is a poll. Also, if there is anything you specifically want to learn about/how to do, leave a comment or message me!

|| This link about assumptions that reminds me of an old post. That a weird garbage bag on the side of the road contains either the whole body of a child or assorted body parts of an adult.

|| I'm reading a book that Sara recommended, Diary of a Mad Mom-To-Be. It is SO funny. It's diary style (obviously) so it's a quick read. 

|| I'll only be taking 12 credits next semester. It seems like SUCH a small amount since I've been doing 16 or 17 credits the past couple semesters. I'll have so much more time even though I'll also be working two part time jobs! I'm only taking 12 credits because this will be my last semester at the community college and I'll have the maximum amount of credits I can have that will transfer to Northern Arizona University. Woohoo!

|| I've been crafting again with the aid of my trusty side-kick who messes things up. I'm making a cute little quilt, finishing the Christmas table runner (how the heck is Christmas already so close) and some Christmas presents. 

|| Listening to this song. It just makes me want to go on a road trip with friends I grew up with and sing on repeat, even though it's not a happy song. Because hello, we all know the words to this song.

|| Family pictures with my sister, her boy, and baby girl. My niece was refusing to take pictures and kept hiding her face or pointing at the camera and shouting, 'NO!' I was so worried I didn't get any good ones of her! Fortunately, I got plenty and my sister loved them.

|| Happiness, it's all around me. Friends are happy, family is happy, things are good. Real good.

Happenings

First off: I know I wrote a dramatic post about destroying my thyroid with radiation, but Vince and I have nixed that idea. After further research, we decided we're not comfortable with it and it can take years to balance out thyroid levels after, which means years before a baby! No thanks. A lot of people also don't ever feel 'normal' again after RAI, and I'm usually one of those people with the weird symptoms, so I'd rather not risk it. I'm not sure what's going on baby-wise, but we know we're not doing RAI so a healthy baby will come sooner rather than later. Thanks to everyone for your kind comments and emails! Much appreciated. ♥

Now that that's out of the way, here are some happenings lately.

|| I've made so many fancy quesadillas recently it's been wonderful.

I use a teensy amount of cheese (I don't actually like cheese since the last time I had the flu) to hold everything together and a bunch of veggies. One of my favorites has red onion, spinach, green onion, green chilies (we usually get a case of them from the farmers market when they do their yearly chili roast and freeze them) and mushrooms on corn tortillas. SO GOOD.

|| Speaking of green onions, I'm now growing some in my window!

They're only like 75 cents a bunch, but we use them so often (over 1 bunch a week) that it's nice to always have them around. Here's how I did it: buy a bunch from the store(I started with organic...might as well!), and use all of it except the bottom inch or two(the white parts). Put those bottoms in some water, with the water coming halfway up the bottom. Let sit for a week or so until roots start to form. Change the water on the 3rd day or so if it gets cloudy. Once roots have started, plant it in some soil. It grows about a foot a week! It's nuts. Just use scissors to cut off what you need. I potted mine in a cute little pencil holder that the wonderful Sara sent me. I poked holes in the bottom with a hammer and nails and use a teacup lid to catch the water. They grow best next to a plastic horse and lizard, fyi.

|| My husband was the cutest baby. I'm now convince we'll have the cutest kids ever.

|| Fall is here, and with it, Halloween decorations. I didn't want to mess with the fake webs and whatnot, but I got a few things from the dollar store and thrift store!

|| Oh, these pants happened. Aren't they lovely?

|| The last little harvest of the season from the garden.

Some of the mint I made into a tincture and the rest I dried for mint tea throughout the winter.

|| I saw one of my top five favorite bands ever, Rise Against.

And dear god, how I cried. For the past few years, whenever I listen to them I always think, "I'd kill to see them live!" Then for the past few months, while I've been waiting for the show itself, I'd still think that then catch myself and say OH MY GOD I'M GOING TO SEE THEM LIVE AND I DIDN'T HAVE TO KILL ANYONE! It was amazing you guys, just amazing. Oh and they're on tour for the Florence Project. Go check it out, they're doing some great stuff!

CSA Goodies and Update

Sometimes when I don't blog in a long time, I shy away from coming back. It's like I've done a bad thing! But I'm here. Kind of. I've been out of the blogging groove so I'm at the point where I don't even know how to write anymore or know what to write about. So, I'm just writing to write, and hopefully this will turn into something coherent. And if not? Oh well. Maybe I'll just make this into a list post. Things are so much easier when they are lists!

Vince and I went to California. We drove out and stayed at his mom and aunts for a night. The next day we hangout in downtown Santa Barbara before Vince and I went to our campsite. We camped for a couple nights and then went to his dad and step moms to stay for the night. We played golf and went bowling, as well as a quick hike! Though it was cloudy most of the time, it was nice to take a little vacation and eat some good food. I'll post some more pictures and stories from our trip later.

 

The stairs at our campsite. 

A park where I waited for Vince after his bike ride. Isn't this a dreamy picture?!


I signed up for the CSA! Woohoo! It was on my goal list for the year and I'm excited about it. I signed up in the nick of time yesterday, which was the last day to sign up for the spring share! I don't know what urged me to go yesterday, but I'm glad I finally did. We got the first share today.

It's not what I was expecting, but at the same time I don't know what I expected! I was thinking I'd get more fruit than just grapefruit, especially after the large amount of food from Bountiful Baskets last summer. I reminded myself that it's still winter though, and that more will come later!
We signed up for the full spring share, which is pickup once a week from March 15-May 31. It was pretty pricey compared to Bounitful Baskets, BUT I get it every week and it is supporting a truly local farm! I just love that. They have 'farm days' where supporters can go check out the farm and get a tour and harvest some food. I can't wait to do one of those and see where my food comes from. It's kind of an invigorating and inspiring thing to know that I can see the farm where my food came from whenever I want!

I also bought some chocolate form the CSA so I can make some real Mexican hot cocoa...my favorite!

I bought a juicer after wanting one for so long, and I'm dying for it to get here. The 2 that I wanted that were available online weren't available in stores, so I ordered one online. Luckily I had some reward money for Best Buy so it ended up sooting me almost nothing! I bought a big 5lb bag of organic carrots that are just waiting to be juiced!

I got a job at Black Hound Gallerie. I've done a couple days of orientation and have my first real day tomorrow night! I've been a customer of BHG for years and have always loved the place, so I'm happy to be part of the team now. I'm also stoked that I get to 'dress up' for work now! I've been interested in wearing fun clothes recently, but have had nowhere to wear them. I couldn't wear stuff to the library because of all the creeps and it's just not the same dressing up for class! Now I'll be able to look cute at work and wear fun things like yellow pants and pink shoes!

Lastly, this speaks to my soul. I love everything about this girl! Her spunk, her music, her moves!

Thanks, Music

One thing that would be terrible to lose in my life is music. Everyone loves music! It's so enjoyable to go home and pick one of millions of songs to match your mood. It's such a simple fix to a bad day and a great background to a great day! These are two songs that I love love love and everytime they come on my iPod I can't help but to turn them up and belt them out. Vince loves to hate me in those situations!

The Capricorns - The New Sound
I  first heard this song in middle school or early high school and everytime I hear it I want to dance like a complete weirdo. I usually do!


Mika - Relax, Take It Easy
I feel like I've posted about this before, but everytime I hear this song I get shaky because I'm so excited to sing it! I feel like such a goof. If I could listen to this loudly every morning, I swear I would have so many more 'good' days!


Most of my music isn't so techno-ey (I like ska a whole lot more!) but I guess I've been in this kind of mood the past few days.

Run your little heart out.

I started running again a while ago, and I think this is the longest I have consistently ran! I have been doing at least 3 runs in a week, but try for more, which doesn't always happen. I've noticed that the more stressed I've been getting these past few weeks with school and work, I've found more time to get running! How strange is that? I think it's because I have a routine down and I know exactly how long it takes me to warm up, run, and cool down, so I know I have time for it.

Now that I am in my routine though, it's getting a little too easy which is CRAZY. That means I actually have to push myself even more and go even more distance which is just baffling to me because I am not a runner. Maybe I'm just in denial though because I'm actually stoked when I find time to run.

Can you believe I'm stoked about my EYEBALLS sweating?
(Ha. I know my eyeballs can't really sweat...)

So here are some tips that have helped me not die:
(I'm not a professional, so don't blame me if you don't tie your shoe and you hurt yourself. Or if you follow my 'advice' and die.)

Warm up. In the past when I've ran, I never warmed up. Despite what everyone says, I didn't see the point and would just start running, make it about one block, and then feel like I was completely dying. Now I do a warm-up that's between 5 and 10 minutes and it makes it SO much easier to run. (I think I'll post my warm-up session soon if you're interested!)

Push yourself because you are most likely not going to die from running too hard. I know I'm pushing myself pretty hard when my ears are sweating so much that my headphones won't stay in them. Gross but AWESOME. The first day that happened I was pretty disgusted, but now when that happens I just get pumped and I run even harder!

Pay attention to how you run when you listen to certain music. When I started running I figured I should listen to super fast and super upbeat tempos really loudly but oh, how wrong I was. All it did was make me super stressed out and it felt like my feet were always tripping up because they were trying to keep up with the music which was IMPOSSIBLE. Now I listen to pretty low-key stuff and occasionally I'll get in the mood to crank up my iPod with some Streetlight Manifesto.

If you put you iPod in your sports bra, make sure the side without the buttons is what's touching your skin so you don't break it. I clearly didn't, because my iPod got all sweaty and sometimes won't let me flip through songs. Laaame.

Know your limits. Obviously right off the bat you aren't going to run five miles, if even one mile! I know I couldn't even run 2 full blocks when I started running and it was pretty depressing. The last time I had ran was in 9th grade and I had like a 12 minute mile. Pathetic, I know, so I don't know why I expected I could run fast and far just starting out! I had to learn that NO, I couldn't run non-stop or I would burn myself out for the next week. Take it easy starting out, but still push yourself!

Make small goals. Even now, I'll tell myself, 'Ok, I just have to make it to that tree and then I can walk for 10 seconds.' It's the small goals that get me through my runs, and usually by the time I make it to that tree I realize I don't even need a break and I tell myself I can make it a little further to that house, then that mailbox, then the end of the street, etc.

Wear good shoes even if they cost a lot of money. Seriously. I cannot tell you how amazing it is to have shoes that work for me. I used to go to the mall to get my shoes but I had no idea what I needed, and neither did any of the sales associates, despite what they say. Trust me, I worked at Lady Foot Locker and we would say anything to make a sale! If you're local, I HIGHLY recommend going to see Vince at Run Flagstaff downtown next to Absolute Bikes. He knows his shit, and he knows it very well. I've bought 2 pairs of shoes from him and they are great! I just got a new pair last month and my legs, back and ankles have never felt better after a run.

Pay attention to how your body changes. One thing that I've loved about running is seeing the transformation of my body and it's really encouraged me to continue running. When Vince and I were at a hotel in Colorado I looked at myself naked (hehe) in a full length mirror for the first time in forever and was SHOCKED at how my body looked. I wasn't toned at all! Since running, I can't believe how fast my legs got muscles, how great my ass looks, and what an amazing difference I feel energy wise. It's also changed my body in ways I didn't think it would, like giving me a stronger neck and abs.

So, that's all I've got. I'm taking running one day at a time, slowly but surely.  I'm going to be signing up for a 5k in November which I'm excited about! I'll be a running buddy to a teenage girl so I won't be timed or anything, but it will still be fun to participate in a 'race'. Maybe after that I'll sign up for a real one...

Thank you, thank you very much.

Every Wednesday I participate in the Indie Ink Writing Challenge. This week I challenged K. Syrah, and Carrie challenged me with: 'Pick your favorite Elvis song and write a 500 word story using the lyrics as inspiration.' 

As an awkward kid who hadn't yet figured out how to handle his body, I was capable of doing two things really well: the Elvis lip curl and his well-known phrase of, ‘Thank you, thank you very much.’ You know the one that the ladies supposedly would swoon over and that only a select few can pull off? Granted, I could only achieve it when I was alone and in my bathroom in front of the mirror, but hey, to me that still counted.

Even though most of my friends never actually listened to Elvis, it was the cool thing to try and do at recess. We would all sit in a circle in the large grassy field, looking at each other and screwing our faces up, hoping that maybe, just maybe, one of us would pull it off in front of someone so we could be considered the coolest kid ever.

One day, after sitting in front of the mirror for hours the previous night, I decided at recess that I would tell everyone that I had perfected it: I was totally capable of doing the Elvis lip curl and sounding exactly like him.

Everyone stopped scrunching up their faces and focused completely on me, and me alone. No one was practicing their lip curl, no one was trying to perfect the tone of their voice; all eyes were on me and this was going to be the best glory moment of my young life.

Not one of us in the group had ever made such a big deal as I. Most of the time the other kids would say, ‘I’m getting a little closer! Can you tell? Can you?’ But me, being the cocky person that I am, straight up said, ‘Hey guys, I can totally do the lip curl and sound like Elvis, it’s like the easiest thing in the world. You seriously can’t? Ha!’

And honestly, in front of the mirror I could! I would reach into the little throat of mine and out would come the growly voice of the King himself and my lip would curl in the most perfect of ways that, had the King still been alive, would have made him jealous.

But in front of a group of friends where I was already the ‘loser’ of the group? Ya, it was a little harder.

So I sat there, with my butt getting damp from the green grass, with all eyes on me. I tried to block everyone from my view. I tried to imagine them naked or in their underwear. Heck, I even tried to imagine them in granny panties complete with a wig! But it didn’t work. I attempted the lip curl and my face completely froze up. NOTHING. And that deep growly voice that was supposed to come out didn’t show itself. Instead, a tiny squeak emitted from my throat. My glory moment was officially ruined and after that day I never tried to channel my inner Elvis again.

So, funny story: When Vince and I were talking about music for our wedding last week, I said that my only rule would be NO ELVIS. I don't know why I don't really like his music, but I just don't. I know, I'm probably the only person in the world, but I can't help it! So imagine my surprise when my prompt was about none other than Elvis himself. And it had to be 500 words. (Which I got exactly right!) I was a little worried that my writing would be crap, and I was actually dreading it! I guess that's where the word 'challenge' comes in...

I know I didn't follow the prompt to a 'T' because I was supposed to choose a song as inspiration, and I instead chose to use the phrase after his songs, but I had a lot of fun writing this. It isn't exactly a story from my childhood, but as a kid I did always try to perfect that little trademarks of Elvis'!

Flogging Molly / The Drowning Men

I PROMISE I will post about my California trip soon, but this post is about the Flogging Molly show last night.

Flogging Molly is in my Top 5 Favorite Bands 'list' {along with Red Hot Chili Peppers, Rise Against, Streetlight Manifesto, and Mad Caddies} and I freaked out when I found out they were in town! I bought my brother a ticket about 3 weeks ago, but didn't have enough money for my own since we were going to CA. If I had enough money when we got back, I would buy a ticket, but guess what? 

THEY SOLD OUT. It was to be expected, though. 

So I was bummed that I couldn't go, but after hearing their new single, I was worried the show would suck anyways. I first heard their new song on the radio at work and unfortunately, it totally blew! I went home and made Vince listen to it and we both were like, 'Um, did they change bandmates or something?!'  We even googled them to see if they had changed things up and if there was a new singer...I mean, Dave King has NO accent! What the hell. And it's not really Celtic or Irish sounding like a lot of there other stuff, which I really love. I respect that it's their band and they will obviously do what they want, but that song seems like it's from another band!

So needless to say, Vince and I weren't extremely sad about not going, like we would have been if we didn't hear that song. Then, Vince called me at work one day and said we got a hook up and could get in for free! So I was stoked.

Last night we went to the show and it was fucking awesome. Seriously. They played some of the stuff on their album that isn't released yet and it was just like their old stuff, super kick ass! It sounded NOTHING like their new single, so I was happy about it. Maybe it was just a fluke?

I have never seen so many people at The Orpheum and it was so cool to see SO many people in there. You could tell the band was stoked about having such a full house because we were all super crammed in there. 

It was also rad to have so many people singing along with them. I was smiling and dancing the whole time!

It was fun to hangout with my brother for most of the show, too. 

{I swear, it's like my brother (on the left) tries to look wasted in every picture I take of him...}

Near the end of the show this HUGE huge guy was making his way through the crowd with 5 or 6 girls and stopped right in front of me and I was so pissed. He was like 6'5'' and was solid muscle. I am not exaggerating when I say his bicep was the size of my head. He was truly HUGE. So why did he think he should stand right in front of me and block my entire view? I don't know. So at that point I moved over and got separated from Connor. 

When I moved over, though, I happened to be standing right behind one of the girls who was with the huge guy, and she was so annoying. She kept having the flash on her phone go off and had a high pitched voice. Needless to say, I allowed my clunky purse to smack her in the back every time I moved while dancing. She got out from in front of me pretty quickly!

All in all, it was a rad show. The lead singer Dave King was hilarious and made fun of people in the crowd, and the whole band in general was really great at interacting with the crowd. When I got home I was so strung out on adrenaline that I felt drunk!

I was also really happy with the band that opened for them, The Drowning Men. I bought their CD Beheading of the Songbird and am in love with it! Go buy it on iTunes and listen to the song Courageous Man. It's my favorite and I'm pretty sure I'm going to listen to it 5,000 times in the next few weeks. {You can also listen to it on their website for free!}

Oh, there was also a guy who managed to sleep for the entire time The Drowning Men was playing: 

Who pays $40 to see a show and sleeps? And who can even sleep with such loud music! 

And now, the obligatory super-crappy-no-flash-concert-picture:

Good Ending to an 'Eh' Day.

First, I have an excited face to show you:

Do you know why I'm excited? Because Kinch sent me this free t-shirt, and it's RAD. It's so soft and cozy and of course, cute. I love it.

Oh, what's Kinch? Well, an awesome band. When Against Me came into town a few months ago, Kinch opened for them and it was love at first sight. I'm kind of head over heels for the keyboardest. He's adorable. {I think this is the part where I also say I'm still in love with the man I'm going to spend the rest of my life with...}

But seriously, isn't this shirt awesome?

And here's something random. I've shared this on my Facebook, but I had to share with the people that aren't on my Facebook, too. This is the cutest video I have ever seen, by far, and it's one of like the 3 videos that I can watch over and over and OVER again. I want this on my iPod so I can listen to it every morning. It brings tears to my eyes every time because I'm laughing so hard and I always lose my breath! OH MY GOD: UPDATE: YOU CAN BUY THE FREAKING RINGTONE. Sold.

So enjoy. And if you've already seen it, WATCH IT AGAIN GOD DAMNIT.

{Once I get to 24 seconds is when I LOSE it. And then once I get to 50 seconds, I usually forward it to 1:20 and then the baby loses it and it gets so cute even Vince is dying. If you don't want to watch the whole thing, just skip straight to 1:20!}

Doesn't this make you want to have 27 babies?

SO profound.

There are a lot of songs that have swear words in them, and I think to myself, "Why did they even throw that in there, it was unneccasary!" It drives me crazy when swear words are thrown in to make it 'cool' or whatever. For some reason I think it's just tacky. {I know, my logic is weird.}

There are, however, some songs that I think are perfect with swear words, and it makes that much of an impact. When I heard the Pink song, Perfect, on MTV, I liked it so I looked it up on Napster. After I bought it, I realized it was really 'Fuckin' Perfect', it was just edited for TV. After listening to it again, I LOVED it. It is so much more...profound? It's so hard to put this into words. It's just a wonderful song, so listen to it yourself.

I don't know how much I like the video, though. I absolutely love the parts that show Pink; she's so sincere and her songs are so emotional to her, you can tell.

{And do I have to warn that there's swear words?}

Playlist Time

{Gluten free bread cut out with a cookie cutter}

Random way to start a post, but I LOVE this bread. It's Rudi's Gluten/Wheat Free Cinnamon Raisin Bread. I've eaten the same bread since I went gluten free, but the other day I was looking for bread at a local grocery store and they didn't have my bread, only Rudi's and Udi's. {How weird is that that 2 different GF companies have such similar names...?} So I got the multigrain bread, which is awesome because it has seeds and other delicious stuff in it, and this ^ bread. I'm in love. I'm never buying my old stuff again! 

Anyways, on with the original post. 

I wanted to create a playlist of some of the songs I LOVE, so I started going through my iTunes. As I was going through it, I would listen to some songs. I was doing great about focusing on what I was doing and adding songs to the list until I got to the Red Hot Chili Peppers. Once I listened to one song I wanted to listen to them all and add all of them to my playlist. I tried to keep going through my playlist, but again, once I got to Rise Against, I wanted to add every song!

So I have a good playlist for bands/atists that are A-R, but after that I don't have anything because I gave up. Oh well, I'll make another one later.

I was also bummed to see that playlist.com doesn't have a LOT of my favorite songs! I wish there was some way that I could just drag my songs from iTunes onto a playlist and share that. =[

Anyways, here's some of my favorite songs. {And the NoFX and Dropkick Murphy's songs aren't 'appropriate' by the way, but the rest should be!}

Also, I had the songs in a specific order, with my absolute favorite ones first, but then it rearranged it. What the hellll...

Groin Pain.

For the past three days, I've had a really bad pain in my groin. It's like 2 inches below my hip bone, but not totally on my leg. It's progressively gotten worse, but I had no idea where it came from. It came on suddenly while sitting on the couch, so I'm pretty sure it isn't a strained muscle. The only thing that's changed in the past few weeks is that I started taking the birth control NuvaRing. So I googled NuvaRing + groin pain and it came up as a serious symptom and a possible blood clot.

I totally freaked out and called my dad who used to be an EMT/Paramedic. He said to call the 24/7 nurse on call through my insurance company. After asking me 150 questions, and saying stupid thing like, "Do you think symptoms from Celiac Disease could be causing this pain?" Ummm...she's the nurse and she didn't even KNOW what celiac disease was. I laughed at her and told her that no, I'm pretty damn sure I'm not having GROIN PAIN, swelling, and discoloration from eating gluten. It was scary how much she was relying on the computer to tell me what may or may not be wrong with me. I wanted to yell at her to use her brain! She went and got her nursing degree for a reason!

She ended up telling me that it could very well be a blood clot and since there was nothing that I could think of to cause this, to go to the ER and be seen within the hour. So I picked up Vince from work and we were off.

We sat there for about 20 minutes with my dad, and then I got called back. He had to finish homework, so it was just Vince and I. I got undressed and put out those wonderful gowns that show off my fine ass, and was FREEZING. I asked Vince to put my sweater over my legs, which he did. A nurse passing by saw this and asked if I wanted a blanket but I told her that I was fine, my sweater was warm enough. She looked at Vince in a questioning way, and he said, "It's ok, I have my flashlight," and pulled it out of his pocket. She looked at him and smiled and left. I burst out laughing because clearly he was nervous if he just told the nurse he had a flashlight to keep me warm. It did make me laugh on and off for like 5 minutes, so I liked it.

A nurse and a doctor came in to look and me and the doctor was almost creepy. He kept winking constantly at Vince and Vince HATES winkers. It drives him crazy. They soon left, because they wanted to consult with another doctor because they had no idea what was wrong. The next doctor came in and felt around, but he couldn't figure it out either. They knew it was not a blood clot, but they also didn't think it was a hernia or a lymphnode because they didn't feel a knot. So in came the surgeon.

Vince liked this guy because he was professional and thorough. I thought he was a little strange. He washed his hands when he first came in, so he didn't use gloves when touching my groin area. {Sorry, I love saying groin.} In the middle of stretching my leg behind me {while I was naked} his phone rang and he asked if he could answer it because he had paged a doctor earlier. So he answered the phone WITH THE HAND HE WAS JUST TOUCHING MY GROIN WITH. I totally laughed and though, "Dude, my groin is all over you phone now, and it's touching your face. What. An. Idiot." He finished up a phone call, which was talking about one patient with gallbladder disease and another that is 31 and pregnant and just had a CT done, which means that the chance of there being a problem with the fetus raises to 1 in 4o. I didn't know that, but now I know to NEVER get a CT done when I'm pregnant!

When he was finished with the phone call, he had me stand up and move my leg around to see if it was a muscular problem. He was moving it in some funky positions, but none of them hurt like they were supposed to. He too said that he had no idea what was wrong with me since it wasn't muscular. Freaking awesome.

So they sent me home with some instructions on how to try to ease the pain, none of which worked. The last doctor, a surgeon, wanted me to come see him at his office today so he could see if he could figure out what was wrong with me. I told my dad what all the doctors said and he told me not to see the surgeon, because that specific one was and idiot {like I said!} and he's seen him do a bunch of stupid things and has heard stories from other people. I'm definitely glad my dad knows people that work at the hospital!

So I scheduled an appointment with my regular doctor and we're going to try and figure things out. Hopefully this goes away soon because I can barely even walk and I have to move in two weeks. Aggh!

At least I'm going to get a free back rub out of it from Vince!

And I get to stay home from work and listen to an amazing song called Wax and Wire by Loch Lomond on repeat all day. {It's the first song in this video. I tried to find the song on YouTube but they're all live! You can also find the song on iTunes, and for only $.99, this too could be yours.}

The video is also totally badass in general.

Not a Service We Provide

Tonight as I was sitting at a red light, the rain/sleet was pouring down onto my car. I was so in the moment and totally enjoying the calm pitter patter while cars flew past me. Vince and I might be moving to a new house on December 1, so I was thinking about how I hope it's not snowing when we move. I jokingly wondered if the weather report has the forcast for the next month. Of course I knew they didn't, but I thought it would be cool if they did. Then I burst out laughing as I remembered something that happened a few months ago.

It was a super stormy day and I was at work at the library; it had been raining on and off for a couple of days. This guy came up to the front desk and asked a co-worker of mine when it was supposed to stop raining. She said she wasn't sure, and she asked me. I said, "Hold on one sec, I'll check on NOAA for you." So I type it in and it said something like a 60% chance of rain for the next few days, so I told him. He looked at me like I was totally stupid. He then proceeded to ask, "Well, no. Like do you know how long it's supposed to rain for? Like 10 more minutes, or an hour?" I just sat there and tried SO HARD not to cry laughing. If I knew the weather that well, I sure as hell would not be working in a library! I told him that no, I had no idea when it was supposed to stop, and that there was not a weather report like that. It totally made my day, though, because it was SO funny. {I really wanted to say, "That is not a service we provide."}

I know that Roxi can't wait for there to be tons of snow again whether we're moving or not!

I'm going to leave you with my all time favorite winter season band, Paper Birds. I usually associate memories with music, and when I started snowboarding again a few seasons ago, I listened to this band pretty much all day every day as I rode the chair lift. Because of this, anytime it gets cold outside/snowy, I crave them. Weird, I know.

I could only find a live version of them singing, which isn't horrible, but you should check out their stuff on iTunes. My favorite album is Anything Nameless and Joymaking. These ladies have incredible voices and the strings and horns are funky good. Every single time I listen to any of their songs I ALWAYS get the goose bumps. Even though I've listened to this album literally hundreds of times.

I think the first time I heard them, I thought they were slow moving. I don't know why I thought that, but if you think that, give them another try!

Saturday Love

1. PORK.

2. Train Tracks

3. My cutter tool for cooking. {What's it called?}

4. Everclear. {You know you like them, too.}

5. Grapefruit

6. Grey's Anatomy

7. This color/design from Print & Pattern.

8. House Rules by Jodi Picoult

9. The poem Don't Quit that I read on the bathroom wall for years at my moms house.

{{Dont Quit!}}

When things go wrong, 
as they sometimes will,
when the road youre trudging seems all uphill,
When the funds are low and the debts are high, 
And you want to smile, but you have to sigh,
When care is pressing you down a bit,
Rest, if you must, but do not quit.
Life is queer with its twists and turns,
As every one of us sometimes learns,
And many a failure turns about,
When he might have won had he stuck it out;
Dont give up though the pace seems slow
You may succeed with another blow.
Often the goal is nearer than
It seems to a faint and faltering man,
Often the struggler has given up,
When he might have captured the victors cup,
And he learned too late when
the night slipped down,
How close he was to the golden crown.
Success is failure turned inside out
The silver tint of the clouds of doubt,
And you never can tell how close you are,
It may be near when it seems so far,
So stick to the fight when youre hardest hit
Its when things seem worst that you must not quit.

10. Sunsets in my town.

11. Vince's silly tattoo. That has meaning behind it.