Just Get Me The Mixer

I love Kitchen Aid Stand Mixers. Love them. Especially in red. When Scott and I were wandering around the mall, he found out just how much I love them.

I mean, seriously, have you ever seen a kitchen appliance make anyone look so happy?

Wouldn’t you say that this would be a wonderful gift for me? My birthday is coming up on December 8th. Christmas is December 25th. Maybe you should get me one for my wedding!

 Um, hi Scott! Don’t worry, I will let you decide if there is a wedding or not. Cause seriously, after finding out what a crazy woman I am, I wouldn’t blame you if you decided against attaching yourself to me for the rest of our lives.

Two Down On The List of Seven

So, yesterday Emily Ann and I went to Wal-mart. and I was able to procure two things from my list.

Lightbulbs? Check! Crockpot? Double-check!

It's small, but it will do.

The crockpot isn’t very big, but it will be nice to have a larger and a small one depending on what I cook, yes?

I did hunt for baskets while at Wall World, but I didn’t find any that were to my satisfaction. I also forgot hangers. I will go basket and hanger hunting tonight at the dollar store and Big Lots that are both close to my work.

You might be thinking, “What? She already has done two things on that list? is she going to have anything to do all seven days?” One item on that list involves several elements and is more like a list of fifty all by itself. So to have two small things done yesterday was very empowering! (Yes, I am motivated by small things. Sad, huh?)

Now, here is an updated version of my list:

7 Things in 7 Days

1. Buy a new crock pot so I can make potato bacon soup. (My old on bit the dust in my last move. ) Task completed 10/5
2. Buy baskets for my room and hangers for my closet. So you know that shelf I bought for my books? Well, as gorgeous as it is, it is a shelving fail. Since I don’t have dresser, I decided to by large baskets to put in the shelf that I could put non-hanging clothes in and use my tubs for a different kind of storage. I also need more hangers for my closet since all my winter clothing has been taken out of storage. (I forgot I had so many sweaters…)
3. Buy lightbulbs. I swear, the lights in my apartment are going out right and left. A couple of days ago my bedroom light blew, and today it was my bathroom lights. I figure I should get a stockpile started, cause it is not fun to walk around my apartment in the dark. Completed 10/5
4. Price rental cars. I don’t have wheels of my own, and if Scott and I decide to take a trip to Park City, this might be the only way to do it.
5. Clean, vacuum, reorganize my room. I will spare you the details… but this really, really needs to be done. Really. Also, I want to move my bed.
6. Finish grocery shopping. I don’t want him to starve to death. (By the way Scott, what do you like to eat? Irene wants to know.)
7. Pick Scott up from the airport. Cause after all that work, I deserve a reward!

A List Of Seven

So, the last time I saw Scott was the middle of August. I was in Sioux Falls, South Dakota and was able to see Scott’s home and visit his church. I also was able see his tiny hometown of Avon, SD and meet his delightful family.  In some ways it seems like a long time ago, but in other ways it doesn’t. The “long time” is going two months without seeing someone you love.

Miss you....

Well, the time is going by, and Scott is set to visit me this time on October 12… that is just Seven More Days Away. That’s right, only! seven!! days!!!

Now, I could do a couple of things during these seven days. I could go ape-crazy for several days and then tie up all the loose ends of stuff I need to get done at the last minute, cause procrastination: that’s how I roll.  Or, I could constructively use my natural enthusiasm and energy (aka hyperactivity) by channeling into a productive mindframe. So, here friends, I will bring you a list. A List o Seven Things To Do In Seven Days.

7 Things in 7 Days

1. Buy a new crock pot so I can make potato bacon soup. (My old on bit the dust in my last move. )
2. Buy baskets for my room and hangers for my closet. So you know that shelf I bought for my books? Well, as gorgeous as it is, it is a shelving fail. Since I don’t have dresser, I decided to by large baskets to put in the shelf that I could put non-hanging clothes in and use my tubs for a different kind of storage. I also need more hangers for my closet since all my winter clothing has been taken out of storage. (I forgot I had so many sweaters…)
3. Buy lightbulbs. I swear, the lights in my apartment are going out right and left. A couple of days ago my bedroom light blew, and today it was my bathroom lights. I figure I should get a stockpile started, cause it is not fun to walk around my apartment in the dark.
4. Price rental cars. I don’t have wheels of my own, and if Scott and I decide to take a trip to Park City, this might be the only way to do it.
5. Clean, vacuum, reorganize my room. I will spare you the details… but this really, really needs to be done. Really. Also, I want to move my bed.
6. Finish grocery shopping. I don’t want him to starve to death. (By the way Scott, what do you like to eat? Irene wants to know.)
7. Pick Scott up from the airport. Cause after all that work, I deserve a reward!

There you have it, my list of seven things to do to keep me accountable with my remaining time. Now that I have a Sweet Camera I can chronicle my progress and you all can keep me accountable… because we all know the purpose of a blog is to keep other people accountable to mediocre goals.  Let the mediocrity preparation begin!

More Redecorating Tales

I am exhausted. Jessica(my old roommate and one of my favorite people out here in SLC) and I went out together to run some errands. After grocery shopping we deicded to see if we could track down a bookself for me and chairs for her. We went to an antique shop called 9th Ave Gallery and I bought this fabulous oak piece:

 

It was a bargain at $30.00. I must say, I am rather proud of myself.

I also fell in love with this chest of drawers and sincerely hope it is still around in a couple of weeks:

 

I am waiting a couple of weeks to see if it is still there. It is gorgeous and a bargain at $75, but I don’t want to break my budget just yet.

In other news, I also just bought a plane ticket. I am flying into Des Moines on July 2nd really late and staying until July 6. I plan to try to spend most of my time in Waterloo. If you would love to see me the 4th of July weekend and are going to be in the area, let me know!

The Igor Part 2 blog may have to wait until tomorrow. I am going to take a nap now, since I am supposed to go out tonight. I need to recover from my shopping first. I’m glad I went, though. It is nice to finally have furniture!

Call Me Blue

I love blue. I am obsessed. I naturally gravitate towards anything tha is blue. Clothing, home decor, packaging… especially anything cerulean blue. It is this amazing vibrant shade that encompasses both light and dark… and just seems to fit me. My love for Cerulean blue almost eclipses my love for coffee.

That? Is nearly impossible.

Thursday night, my friend Eric asked me if I wanted to hang out. He hadn’t had dinner yet, and asked me if I wanted to come along. I agreed, but decided to have dessert instead. As we sat across the booth, he observed I was wearing a blue sweater.

“You say blue is your favorite color, but you never wear it. The only blue I see you wear is this sweater,” he commented as he took a bite of his steak.

I considered his words. A good deal of my wardrobe is pink, red, brown, and black. Those are all nice colors on me, but blue is my color. I used to buy blue clothing exclusively. I realized I needed more color, so I followed that thought. Eventually, my blue clothes became worn out, and when I aimed to buy more blue clothing, I had a hard time finding it. As I voiced these thoughts to Eric, he agreed. Most of the stuff in department stores in the last two years have been some equivalent of brown.

Saturday morning, I decided to go shopping. I’d done my budget and decided it would be a good time to find some spring clothes. I decided to hit Old Navy so I could find some tank tops to wear underneath my V-neck shirts. (By the way, ladies, these are selling 2 for $10 right now)
When I walked in I found…
Blue.
Not just any blue… cerulean blue. The best shade of blue, ever.
I went crazy.
Unsure of where to start, I almost bought blue t-shirts. Then I found this…

It was that perfect shade of blue. It was casual. It would be warm enough to wear the duration of the winter, and through the spring.

It was mine!

After a mulling over things a bit, I settled on  an aqua blue tank top and a white one. I poked through the jeans and found nothing that caught my eye. I made my way over to socks and bought a pair that were aqua and blue. I found a blue and white plaid hat on clearance for $2.50. Then I found… the bag.

An interal war waged within. To take home or not to take home? I replaced it back on its hook twice.

Of course I took it home. It was $12.

Lastly, I fell in love with a pair of rockin’ ballet flats:

They stayed at the store though. I am going to wait until they go on sale.

The JA Bowl-A-Thon was on Saturday, and I won my new blue getup: blue shirts, blue jeans, blue hat, blue socks, and them, um, one other blue item. Complete with my gray purse, I felt like spring.

Saturday night, Eric called me and asked me if I wanted dinner with Tommee and his girlfriend, Bonny. When he picked me up, he laughed. I was dressed all in blue. He asked if his comments made me go shopping. I guess they did. They inspired me. It feels nice to wear my favorite color again.

Now, if spring would just hurry up and be here, that would be great, too.

Shopping With the Preggo

Is it just me, or are women more picky when they are pregnant?

I didn’t make it to Waterloo Saturday night: bad weather.
Sunday morning, I went to Willow Creek, and saw my former associate pastor from Waterloo, and ran into my friend Bob, among other people I went to college with. It was slightly weird to be surrounded with a miniature Faith reunion.

I was planning to go straight to Waterloo after church, but I began to experience migrane symptoms shortly after church. I decided to lie down for a short nap, and ended up sleeping until six and waking up feeling as if someone was repeatedly knocking me upside the head with a two by four board. In that condition, I was going nowhere, so I called my mom and let her know that I was in DSM one more day, and I continued to writhe in fetal position on the couch, drifting in and out of consciousness. Around 7 pm, Jen asked me if I wanted to take a shopping trip and get some dinner. Dinner was attractive to me, so I went.

We pull into Hy-Vee, and Jen first notices the sign for pregnancy parking is missing and someone was in a pregnancy parking spot. The person climbing into the car was decidedly male. We saw the sign had been moved next to the other sign for the other pregnancy parking on the opposite side. Jen became extremely upset that some guy was in her spot and how she needed that parking spot because she was pregnant and how wrong it was to move the sign, how dare they do that to a pregnant woman…
Finally the guy pulled out, we pulled in, and Jen asked me to move the sign. I looked at this big metal sign which was about five inches taller than me, frozen into the ground from a recent ice storm, and yanked once.

She got the idea, no budgie. We went to customer service, where she spent about five minutes asking them to move sign and how we couldn’t do it because she was pregnant, and could you please find a big strong man to do it for us? The customer service cashier reassured us it would be done.

We wandered over to produce where we scrutinized carrots, complained about the price of apples and how they were just on sale, accosted another employee for a coupon for the carrots, and a minute later rifled through the box of bananas a worker was putting out to find a batch ripe enough for her. We continued to amble through the store, discussing the different attributes of the milk brands available, comparison priced on soups, and discussed why Campbell’s is so much more expensive than the generic store brand. We walked through isles and I listened to how frustrating it was not to find anything she normally purchased on sale. All I could think of was my pounding head and my need for food.

As we walked out to the car, Jen apologized for her finickiness. “I am extremely particular about what about what I buy.”

That was true. I had gone grocery shopping with my best friend and former college roommate in the past and heard a soliloquy over different types of produce, but never an hour long one-woman show titled, “What Hy-Vee Needs To Fix.”

I told her I thought it was her nine months pregnant belly and her hormones talking. Isn’t everything a crisis when you feel as if you want to explode and all you want is to be done, and for Pete’s sake, kid why aren’t you out yet?

I’ll stick with my pregnancy theory. And I still love Jen.