My last post of 2008

I can hardly believe that 2008 is almost over. This was a fairly good year-I got married, got a small inheritance left to me by my grandfather, and started my life as a lab tech (rather than a student). I have high hopes for next year: I'd like to have a baby in 2009. I'd like to survive another year in my job (and hopefully outlast a few co-irkers). It'd be really nice if DH got an EMT job-he is taking the national registry test next Tuesday. He's not a good test taker despite knowing the material, so I have everything crossable crossed that he passes. I'd like to knit a whole lot more, and I have specific goals in that dept:

• Finish my central park hoodie without mangling it more than what's been done
• Learn to knit socks
• Possibly start making DPN-holders
• Maybe open an etsy store? I gotta pay for my yarn habit somehow lol.
• Start making baby stuff

I've been trying to convince DH that we need to make some kind of life plan, and even if we don't adhere to it, a general plan would be great. Here are some of the things I'd like to map out:

• We're already TTC, but I'd like to have a goal in place for kids, spacing between them, etc.
• We need to buy a house
• We want to move somewhere that has snow in the winter (I'm thinking PA or CO, he's thinking Alaska lol. I better win that fight).

Those are the big things that I can think of. I'm sure there's more, but I'm not far enough into marriage I guess to think of them yet.

I need to decide if I'm going to go back to school or not. There are so many options, and that's the problem. I'm 99.5% certain that I do not want a PhD. I'm currently flirting with the idea of getting a master's degree in genetic counseling or forensic DNA analysis. I doubt seriously that I'll stay as a lab tech, because I'm only about $6K away from the top of the pay-scale (and that's with only 3 yrs total experience). I could always get a master's degree in biology I guess. Or I could do something totally different (which would unfortunately involve another bachelor's degree). How can I be 25 years old and not know what I want to do with my life? Geez, I need to get my shit together already lol.

So, I made it through 2008 relatively unscathed. No major work problems, no family deaths (thank God), no broken bones (although we have had an ER visit, but that was for DH. He's fine.). I've picked up a new habit (knitting) and learned more about my body (charting and TTC). I've seen Sadie grow up into a slightly psychotic yet lovable schnauzer, and watched Jake exhibit every single sign of sibling jealousy. I've finally married the guy I've been with since 2003 (and can now jump him guilt-free lol). I've made several new online friends, and I'm thankful for all of them (even the one who doesn't read my blog!). I wonder what 2009 will hold in store for us? Oh, and did I mention that odd numbers make me nervous?

Happy New Year 2009!!!

Random dog pic post

Here's my dog's version of the sideeye; normally he has his head facing down with his eyes upward. This is the closest I have come to capturing it:

The fun thing about schnauzers is that when they sleep, their beards stay in whatever position their head was in. Case in point:

Wanna see a cute pouty face? Here's the one I saw both on the entire car ride to my Mom's house for Christmas, as well as the entire ride back. We still haven't figured out why he was pouty, but he sure was cute while he was doing it. Ignore the sheet-my car has leather seats, so I put a wool blanket covered by a sheet over the seats when the dogs are in the car.

We got a new chair!

When I was a kid, my grandpa had the most comfortable round chair in the world! I honestly did not know that they still made them. I wandered into Pier1 last night, and look what I found:
Too bad this is what the chair has looked like since we got it:


Anyway, I'm really excited about the chair, despite the fact that it is apparently a very expensive doggie bed lol.

2008 Stolen from the magnificent Alliebooberz!

1. What did you do in 2008 that you had never done before?
I got married

2. Did you keep your New Year's resolutions, and will you make more for next year?
I probably didn't, since I can't remember if I made a new years resolution. 

3. Did anyone close to you give birth?
Define close; IRL, no. Nesties, yes.

4. Did anyone close to you die?
No, but DH lost 2 family members (I didn't know them)

5. What countries did you visit?
Didn't leave the country. Got to see the grand canyon though.

6. What would you like to have in 2009 that you lacked in 2008?
that's easy: a child and a house of our own (not sure the second one will happen)

7. What dates from 2008 will remain etched upon your memory, and why?
Feb. 29, 2008: FINALLY got married.

8. What was your biggest achievement of the year?
Its a toss-up between planning my entire wedding on less than $3000 or getting a big-girl job in the lab.

9. What was your biggest failure?
I try not to consider my lack of being pg as failure, but its the first thing that popped into my mind.

10. Did you suffer illness or injury?
Um not really that I can remember.

11. What was the best thing you bought?
Our late honeymoon to the Grand Canyon?

12. Whose behavior merited celebration?
I don't have an answer for that one lol.

13. Whose behavior made you appalled and depressed?
Mine actually. 

14. Where did most of your money go?
Lately the yarn stores have been sucking it out of me.

15. What did you get really, really, really excited about?
Getting married, starting TTC, being off for a week for Christmas...

16. What song will always remind you of 2008?
I guess "You're the one that I want" from Grease-we walked down the aisle to it after getting married.

17. Compared to this time last year, are you:
a) happier or sadder? happier overall
b) thinner or fatter? about the same
c) richer or poorer? richer

18. What do you wish you'd done more of?
relaxing

19. What do you wish you'd done less of?
stressing

20. How did you spend Christmas?
Went to the ILs as normal. Went to my Mom's on the 26th.

22. Did you fall in love in 2008?
I've fallen more in love with him

23. What concerts did you attend this year?
Tuskahoma: a few country ones that I dont' really remember, and Third Day

24. What was your favorite TV program?
Dexter

25. Do you dislike anyone now that you didn't dislike this time last year?
I dislike the same people I disliked then more now.

26. What was the best book you read?
Knitting books! Stitch N Bitch, and a few books by the yarn harlot (all hilarious)

27. What was your greatest musical discovery?
that I miss playing the drums and that I should have tried harder to become a pro musician

28. What did you want and get?
I wanted to get married and start TTC, and I got both. I also wanted more friends, and got those too. I also got contact with my Dad's family.

29. What did you want and not get?
a pregnancy

30. What was your favorite film of this year?
IDK

31. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you?
I turned 25 on Oct 14. Had to work. I don't think we did much of anything.

32. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying?
More time with mike, a less stressful job, and getting pregnant

33. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2008?
a few efforts to look better; all have failed miserably except for the haircut I got yesterday. I can honestly say its the first one I've ever really liked.

34. What kept you sane?
My husband, my best friend, and talking with my online friends.

35. Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most?
I'm a huge fan of Julia Stiles, but I didn't see her much. :(

36. What political issue stirred you the most?
That would be the election.

37. Who did you miss?
My husband for the summer, and I wish my best friend lived closer. I missed my dog a lot too-she died in Oct. 07 at the age of 12. I still dream about her all the time.

38. Who was the best new person you met?
My knitting friends IRL; there are a few nesties that stick out in my mind too.

39. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2008.
Although I'm not an active Christian, its becoming more and more apparent that God is watching over me despite my best efforts to hide. 

40. Quote a song lyric that sums up your year.
Of course, now would be the time when I can't think of any songs.

The scarf is finished!

I finished my first scarf (the pattern is called My So-Called Scarf) last night! The yarn I used is Paton's SWS in Natural Pink. It's 70% wool, 30% soy. I added a fringe to it, and did not block it. Here is the finished product:

I gave it to my best friend as a birthday/graduation/Christmas present. I'm quite proud to say she loved it!

I'm stalking myself lol

If you look down the page at that thing that shows where the site hits come from, you may notice that almost all of them say Oklahoma City, OK. That would be me looking at my own site lol. I'm stalking myself!

I am now organized!!

I went to Target tonight (thanks Fred) and bought an It So organization setup for my rapidly growing yarn stash. If I'm going to stay with knitting, I need to make sure I stay organized and can find all of my yarn/needles/patterns. So, here is what I bought:


While I was setting up my organization system, Sadie was otherwise occupied. This is why she is not allowed in the second bedroom alone:


Imagine how much fun she would have if mommy wasn't nearby to make sure Sadie doesn't take a flying leap at the cage?

Jack is singing again!

Jack has been pretty down since Jill died. Even the addition of Will didn't cheer him up. Now he's singing and ruffling his feathers at me again! He's probably just threatening me or challenging me LOL, but choose to see it as love.

Stitch N Bitch

I discovered a local yarn store this weekend, and they have a weekly stitch n bitch on wednesday nights. A Stitch N Bitch is basically a get together for women who want to knit or crochet, and you can talk/bitch about whatever you want. Anyhoo, I LOVED the SNB! I was a little apprehensive about going since I can be painfully shy sometimes and I've never been the coolest person to hang with. Those ladies are so much fun!  They're funny and non-judgmental. One of the girls has BOTB just like me and also knits and cross-stitches. Another girl is engaged to a Native American (and is white like me too), so I think we'll be able to joke about the issues of being in an interracial relationship based on some of the comments she made tonight. I think I may be on my way to making some IRL friends. As a girl with few friends throughout life (but the ones I have are great!), I'd like to have a few more.

I wish the SNB was held every other night instead of once per week. I can hardly wait until next Wednesday. One of the girls goes to another SNB on Saturdays-I might go to that one too! I usually go to my mom's house on the weekends though, so I'm going to have to figure out what to do lol. Haha-I feel like such an adult! I can go out on my own without my shyness taking over! (they say its the little victories...)

Some pics

Unfortunately, we have to go home tomorrow. Here are some pics from our trip to the Grand Canyon today. I took ~400 pics, and a lot of them are really pretty. Too bad my iPhoto program isn't rotating them correctly, so some look sideways. I'll just post a few of the cute, non-sideways ones.

We're here

We finally got to Flagstaff, AZ, at about 6:00. It was snowing when we got here. It took us longer to get here than expected because we decided to stop off at the Petrified National Forest/Painted Desert.

I took over 450 pictures between our hotel in Tucumcari, NM, and the hotel in Flagstaff, AZ. Unfortunately, I am exhausted, so the pics will have to wait until tomorrow. I have to go through them and figure out which ones I want to post-there are soooo many that I like, and I can't make a post with 400 pictures in it.

Goodnight!

We have arrived in New Mexico!

We left OKC at 4:30pm today on our honeymoon trip to the Grand Canyon (nine months after the wedding haha). It got dark pretty quickly, so my photo opportunities were limited. Here is the sunset, somewhere in Western Oklahoma:


I got incredibly excited (due to a mountain dew overdose) when I saw wind generators (still in OK), so I took some pictures of those too:


It was dark by the time we got to Amarillo, so I don't have any pics of Texas or New Mexico right now. We decided to stay overnight in Tucumcari, New Mexico. The only problem we've had on the trip so far is an inability to find ethanol-free gas. My car doesn't really like the gas with EtOH in it, so we avoid it. We had to fill up the blended gas in Amarillo though or risk running out.

I thought our general plan was to switch off driving. Mike drove the entire way here, while I texted and messaged a friend on yahoo messanger (when I had service). One of the radio stations in OKC is giving away an all-expenses-paid trip to watch the OKC Thunder play the Spurs in San Antonio on Dec. 14. You win by texting "thunder" to their number, and whoever texts the most wins. I counted them, and from 4:30 to about 7 I sent over 600 texts to them. Thank god for unlimited messaging! Maybe I'll win.

I'm off to bed now. I will definitely update tomorrow. There should be a boatload of pictures since I'm a camera whore and it'll be daylight. We should get to Williams, AZ, around 4 or 5pm, depending on when we can get out of bed. It's supposed to snow there tonight!!

New additions to my family

On Monday, I bought 2 zebra finches. They are a boy and a girl, and we (not so) creatively named them Jack and Jill. Jack is on the right, and Jill is the blur on the left lol. I'll try to get a better pic of her some other time.


Jack is pretty photogenic, so here's another:

Just a quick note

We are leaving for the Grand Canyon this afternoon. I'm at work right now, but hope to leave early so that I can do important things (like pack lol). We are driving to Tucumcari, NM, and staying the night. I made sure the hotel has free internet, so I'll be able to update anyone who happens to read this. We will leave NM in the morning and should arrive in Williams, AZ, sometime tomorrow afternoon. We're playing it by ear as to whether we go to the GC both tomorrow afternoon and Friday. We intend to drive straight back on Sat (~13hrs).

We didn't take a honeymoon trip after the wedding in Feb, so this is our late honeymoon. Hopefully I won't kill him lol. I'll be sure to take gazillions of pics and will post some of them here. :)

Link for the pattern to the scarf

There have been a few questions about what the stitch is on the scarf. I am a novice knitter and don't know how to explain it. So, I thought I'd provide you guys with a handy-dandy link to the pattern. Here it is:

My So-Called Scarf

Quick update on my scarf

It seems like I started knitting that scarf forever ago-here is an update. I decided to give it to my best friend for her birthday. Since her birthday is next week, she'll be getting it for Christmas instead. Here ya go:


I admit I got a little bored with doing the same 2 rows over and over, so I cast on a cabled hobo bag today. I'm only on row 2, but its going well so far.

I was tagged!

I was tagged by Alliebooberz.

Here are the rules:

1. Link to the person who tagged you. (I tried-hope it works!)

2. Share 7 random and/or weird facts about yourself.

3. Tag 7 random people at the end, and include links to their blogs.

4. Let each person know they've been tagged by leaving a comment on their blogs.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

1. I'm only 4'11" and I've *heard* that being under 5 feet and over age 18 makes me legally a midget. 

2. I'm very very gullible, so I think the 2nd part of #1 was just a joke to see if I'd believe it. DH once told me that Dwight Yokum and Rob Zombie were brothers, and I believed him (and repeated it) until about 3 months ago.

3. I am currently in a holding pattern in my career: I work in a shitty biomedical research lab with crazy co-irkers, but grant-funded lab jobs are nearly recession-proof. I'm toying with getting a master's degree in genetic counseling or forensic DNA analysis. Or prostitution.

4. I moved to OK from PA when I was nearly 9. In order to convince me to move away from my friends quietly, my mother told me that we would be living in teepees with indians. And I believed her (see #2 for the reason why).

5. My dad was 30 years older than my mom (they weren't married), and committed suicide when I was 2. He had 2 children from his wife, and I've never had contact with them. I managed to find my half-brother's son on Myspace last year, and I'm very excited! He is the only contact I have with that side of the family because of the obvious break between my half-brother and half-sister and my mom.

6. I like to knit, crochet, and cross-stitch. Sewing is on the to-learn list as well.

7. I love to read, and my favorite tv shows are life, dexter, and biggest loser.

I doubt I found anyone who hasn't been previously tagged (sorry!), but I tag:

BrookeNicole

Sulfa

Easjer

Katieann

SandyJM

Tri

BIC

Whoo-hoo!

DH and I bought iPhones tonight! I've had an iPod Touch for about a year now, so I am familiar with the format of the phone; poor DH is completely lost lol. Anyway, I'm very excited about the new phone. :)

Election Day 2008

I'm one of those dorks who likes to document historical events. I'll be rushing out to buy the newspaper in the morning if it says "____ Wins!" just so I can add it to my collection of newspapers. I have the papers from the last 2 elections, 9/11, the start of the war in Afghanistan, the capture of Saddam, etc. I guess this blog is my newest way to document the historical events of my life, so I'm going to write a bit about the election. Here goes nothing.

I had it all planned out that I would vote this afternoon so that I could leave work at 3pm. OK has a law that you are guaranteed 2 paid hours to vote. For some reason, Mike had to wake up when I temped at 7am and decided to go vote, so I tagged along. We were only in line for about an hour. I had to explain to Mike how to vote because this was his first time. I was amazed that the little old ladies manning the voting station didn't bother to check my ID (I thought that was illegal?). For the record, I'm a Republican who voted for Obama.

Fast forward to the fun part: the night-time election coverage. This is the time when they decide to "call" states for a candidate when there are 0% of the precincts reporting. Its very frustrating! It looks like Obama is going to win, although its not over until the fat lady sings lol. I'll edit this post later on with further info. :)

Edit: 10:30pm CST. Obama is the next President! I'm headed to bed now lol.

Cast on!

I'm starting a scarf at the advice of Alliebooberz and my mom, rather than the awesome hoodie I had planned. Here's what its supposed to look like when finished:

And here's what I have so far:

I'm using a different yarn than what the other pic shows. Its more of a pastel pink to brown to green variegation. The pattern only has 2 rows, but I've had to cast it on 4 times before I figured out how to do the stitches.

Finished!

I have officially finished my first knitting project: a variegated pink dishcloth. Its not much to look at, but I'm proud of it anyway.

Now I need to figure out what I'm going to make next. Someone suggested I should make a scarf, but I need something entertaining, and I'm just not sure that a scarf fits the bill. I have a wonderful pattern for an awesome knitted hoodie, but I'm not sure I have the mad skillz yet to complete it. Socks, maybe? IDK.

New sewing machine table

I've been searching for a sewing machine table on craiglist and at local thrift stores. Today, I finally found one for $15 at a Goodwill store. I don't plan on using the attached machine since I bought a new one in Feb., but I found out from Singer's website that the machine was made in March 1955. Here are some pics:


Hopefully, this table will help me complete projects for once, instead of just starting them and never finishing.

Getting old?

I distinctly remember thinking at work today that I needed to post on my blog. I thought it all out and had some pretty good stuff to post (IMO). Its 9pm-think I can remember any of whatever monumental crap I intended to post? Not a chance. I can't even remember the topic. Good lord, I feel old now. At least its comforting to know that however old I feel, DH will always be older. Ha!

Happy birthday to me!

Today is my 25th birthday. Boy, do I feel old. Anyway, on to the important stuff. I bought a car!!! It is a blue 2004 Chevy Malibu Maxx. It has 41K miles, heated leather seats, a sunroof, a built-in DVD player, and remote start! We needed a second car, and now we have one!

followers!

I just realized I have 2 followers! Yay!

We're moving!

We decided a month or so ago that we would be interested in a bigger apartment. So, we went with the landlady to look at 2 bedroom apartments at our apartment complex today. We are moving! The bedrooms are the same size as ours, but there's two of them! The kitchen is bigger and has an island with storage space underneath. There's more room in the bathroom too. The new apartment will be ready Oct. 1 and we will have about a week to get all of our stuff moved. DH's family are coming up on the 4th (a Saturday), and my best friend and possibly one of my co-workers are also coming to help.

I am soooooo excited! I'll have a chance to decorate so that my apartment actually looks nice. We'll have room for a couch, the appliances will all fit on the counters, and we'll have more storage space. 

Blog list

In case you haven't noticed, I am currently trying to assemble the largest list of blogs on the planet! Ok, well it just looks that way. Once I figure out which ones I'm really going to read regularly, I'll start paring the list down. Until then, it's add add add!

On a side note, for once, I was so busy at work today that it went by quickly! The last time I remember looking at the clock, it was ~2pm. Next thing I knew, the grad student was asking me if I could email him the excel spreadsheet I was working on before I went home. It was 4:30!!!! That was a happy moment.

Oops...

I just nearly burned my kitchen down trying to make frybread. The whole apartment is smoky now. :(

Will interestingness follow?

I guess now that I'm done playing with the elements of my blog, its time to add a real post. As of right now, only 1 person even has the link for this blog (and I hope he never looks at it!). That means I'm still technically talking to myself, right? lol. I'll add it to my BOTB siggy eventually-I'm just not sure anything I have to say is interesting enough for others to want to read, you know?

Whoo-hoo!

I figured it out! Apparently, you add the template stuff to a gadget. There's now 2 of those damn boxes on the left, but at least they're from the right website now. Yay!

Grrr

I'm still trying to get the stinking background of this blog straight. I can't seem to get any of the templates to work from cutestblogontheblock to work, and I can't get rid of the box to the left that advertises thecutestblogontheblock.com. This is very frustrating!

Hello!

Hello! I am redoing my blog in an effort to get a new template. I may add the two posts from my other blog later if I want to. Who knows? I'll probably delete this post anyway because I just needed a post so I could preview my template. So there!