Halfway Hip

The week in review

Swiped from my good internet buddy, Sassymama.

1. What was your biggest challenge this past week? Now that Evan is totally night weaned (knock wood), he has replaced night nursing with sticking himself to my face like a barnacle, or like that thing on "Alien" that laid an egg in that guy's mouth. Consequently, I haven't been sleeping too well at night. We moved Evan's toddler bed over so that he's more on his own, but he protested so violently when he woke up at 10:30 last night, we put him back in bed with us. Baby steps, I guess.

2. What was your biggest accomplishment this past week? Little things...I fixed two necklaces, made a pair of earrings, made a new necklace. We started a babysitting trade-off with a good friend of mine, which will save us the $40 a week I was paying for Evan's weekly babysitting back in the fall. While Evan was happily playing at Stephanie's on Monday, and while Aidan was at school, Matt and I had lunch at Thai Raja and then spent a few hours cleaning up our upstairs disaster zone. Filing, box-shifting, finding stuff to give away, discovering more storage in the crawl space. We also discovered more stuff that the workmen left here from the renovation...a sharp circular saw piece, two nasty couch pillows from the previous owners, and a whole lot of dust. Now, we're working on emptying our rental storage unit, which will save us another $50 a month w/out causing too much pain.

3. What was the most exciting thing that happened in your life this past week? It was a little over a week ago, but I'll write about it anyway. Last Friday, we went out to celebrate Matt's birthday with our friends Derek and Melissa. Dinner at Abuelo's was fresh and delicious, as was the pitcher of margaritas that Matt and I shared. We then went on to Nonna's upstairs bar for desserts, where I had a drinkable Tiramasu cocktail. We probably should have tried harder to find a more suitable spot to hang out next, but it was freezing outside, so we didn't feel like walking around. We ended up at the SKYY Bar, a meat market-like dance club. The music was pretty fun, with lots of 90s R&B/pop hits. I had a few too many Citron and sodas and kept repeating that I was "dancing ironically." Matt had a blast watching me get drunker than I've been in a whole lot of years. See pics at my Flickr. It took all day Saturday to recover, but it was worth it. Don't want to do it again anytime soon, though. Will have to research more age-appropriate nightlife options in this area. I also got to go to my book club, as well as to dinner out with two of my friends last night.

4. What one thing made you the happiest this past week? Not really any one thing. Despite lots of anxiety about our future, I've felt basically happy and contented. Matt and I have been communicating brilliantly. I'm really enjoying my SAHM status a lot more these days, knowing that it will all come to an end soon. I've had time to work out more lately. I got in 4 workouts this past week with NO resulting injuries. The weight I've put on due to holidays and weaning Evan is slowly starting to come off. I got a chance to get some minor errands done, such as getting my OU transcript to send in to get a new teaching certificate and taking two pairs of jeans to the tailor. Oh, and I also had time to go to Cindy's Resale by myself. I had $50 in credit, and spent exactly that on a nice pair of black work-type pants, a cream short sleeved sweater shrug/jacket thing, a knit top, a work skirt, a pair of almost-new Indigo by Clarks black ballet flats, and three $1 bracelets (two of which I used to make that cool necklace.)

what's happening

1. I'm still trying to get over the fact that I'm so lame, I blogged about our toilet seat. The bathroom mini-ren is coming along nicely, though. Matt repainted the trim yesterday, and we have a new mirror to go over the vanity.
2. I'm all caught up with The Office, so now I can watch weekly. Thanks to the free sub to Entertainment Weekly from Jean, I got to feast my eyes on the yummy 4-part cover featuring all of the main Office actors. I love how all of the women are dressed in the latest sexetary fashions.
3. Trying to eat mostly vegetarian, and mostly succeeding. The new rules I have for myself are that I won't eat any meat other than what I can get from local, sustainable farms here in OK. Luckily, there are lots of good beef and pork producers in this state. Chicken is a little harder to come by, thanks to ridiculous processing laws. I'll still eat seafood, but I'll try to avoid that, as well. I'll probably still eat meat when visiting people's homes, traveling, etc, but if I don't need to, I won't. It's a little more adventurous visiting the same old restaurants around town, but trying to eat in a new way. At some places, like Thai Raja, it isn't hard. Their veggie buffet has always tasted better to me than their meat dishes. I thought Misal, the Indian buffet, would be really hard b/c I love their Tandoori chicken and beef korma. I just passed them by and filled up on mushroom curry, red beans, and spinach paneer, which were all excellent choices. Now I've just got to figure out a way to keep full w/out having to eat *all the time.*
4. I have a teaching gig coming up on Nov. 1st. I'll be leading two 75 minute workshops for middle and high school writers. I'm supposed to be helping them get ideas for an Oklahoma Centennial writing competition, so my workshop is titled "Inspired by Oklahoma." We'll be using picture books, photos, songs, news stories, etc. to create found poetry. I have a lot of prep to do, but it's exciting to be able to teach even a little bit again. I'm a little stumped by how to incorporate the Oklahoma Centennial into writing ideas, but things are coming along.
5. Matt and I are going to The Girlie Show in Oklahoma City this Friday. I'm so excited, but a little worried that I'll want to spend too much $$$$. I'm going to concentrate on getting ideas for my own crafts and for possibly starting some kind of craft group here in Norman.
6. Matt's job search is about to get started in earnest. Lots of new regional air travel companies are opening shop, so it's exciting to consider all of the various possibilities. I'm trying to encourage Matt only to apply to companies located in places we are actually willing to live for the next 20 + years. I'm reluctant to start all over again, for a lot of different reasons, but I think I'll be okay if it's a really good offer. The fact that we live in such a low-cost housing market scares me badly, esp. considering that houses aren't selling or even renting very well in Norman right now.

December Catch-Up

It's 1:30 am on Christmas morning. After two hours of lying awake between two snoring guys, my mind absolutely racing, I decided to get up and post some pics, etc. that I've been meaning to for weeks. The above Santa pic was from the base children's Christmas party, a really cool event. This year, it was especially well-organized. Each child got a bag and a number upon arriving, and the number was for the line to see Santa. A few minutes into the party, they opened the huge hanger doors and let the kids run out to see Santa coming off of the AWACS plane sitting on the runway. (AWACS is the plane Matt flies.) We were around #40 to see the big guy, and it still took quite a while, but it was nice not having to spend the whole party waiting in line. (We didn't do that last year, and we were the very last to see Santa, out of about 300 kids.) There were lots of little crafts, games, and activities, free Starbucks coffee/hot chocolate, a buffet, and a bounce house. Aidan loved the face-painting, as usual, and he also adored the Santa obstacle course.

This is what our tree looks like this year. Pretty pathetic, but the table-top set-up is a must when you have a newly-walking curious toddler around. We got this live tree from Albertson's for 20 bucks. I only got out a few ornaments and decorations. Now, three weeks later, the tree is even more pathetic. It's too weighed down, and we can't really water it well b/c it's tied to the curtain rod above it with fishing line. I do love the Battenberg lace tree skirt my MIL gave me when we first got married; it's so classic.

This sock garland was an idea that I got from Family Fun magazine. In the socks were candy, Christmas temporary tattoos, little ornament-making kits, punch-ball balloons, a cookie cutter for the day we were to make cookies, a little brush and mirror set, etc. Aidan LOVED this and asked to open his "stocking" first thing every morning. Most of the socks are new. I looked for colorful and just a few Christmas socks on sale for a few weeks before hanging it up. I do wish I had a mantel like the one pictured in the magazine. Christmas is a great time for mantel envy, esp. when you visit the blogs and Flickr sites of some mightily talented, crafty ladies.

Speaking of mantel envy, I made do with hanging our stockings on our coat rack (upon which we only hang the kids' coats and the dog's leash b/c it's too shaky otherwise.) I made stockings for Evan, Grandma, and Grandpa after this pic was taken. I was really lucky to find more of these simple felt, blanket-stiched stockings at Michael's.

The only wreath I had was a Victorian-looking maroon and gold monstrosity, circa 1996. Very much inspired by the blue-red-white decorations at Target this year (by way of blogs like this one), I decided that a refurb was needed. My friend Tanya helped me. All it took was one garland (it has little light-blue designs on each card that you can't see in this pic) and three new ornaments. Love!! After that, I went crazy with buying other stuff in that color scheme. I want to make a big garland for the window on our front porch for next year, since more pressing matters than decorating have come up around here. I feel like it might be too hard to do the whole light blue/red color scheme too much in my house b/c of the bright yellow walls and modern look.