Never Say Never.

This is my "real" Monday post.... I started it early this AM and was sidetracked with that awesome photography contest :)

Anyways, I thought I'd make a list of things I'd never do.  Why, you ask?

I was driving down the road the other day, saw a truck with a giant decal sticker that said "I <3 My Stripper!" , and I thought to myself, "who would ever do that?"  Which then led me to the thought what would I never do.... interesting train of thought, I know.

Without further ado, here's a list of things I would never do...:

(AND a forewarning- 100% of the reasons I'd neglect to partake in something, has nothing to do with my opinions on it- but rather my fear, quirks and OCD...)

• I would never get a dermal anchor.
• I would never eat something off the ground.
• I would never pick up a hitch hiker
• I would never go a day without washing my hands
• I would never buy an outfit at Gymboree, full price
• I would never sleep without a carbon monoxide detector
• I would never lick the floor of the ER... haha or any floor, I guess... (well, maybe Leslie's :)
• I would never  turn down an epidural
• I would never fly with children under the age of 3 to Hawaii
• I would never stand on the roof of a building
• I would never hold hands with a stranger  (unless said stranger had just washed and sanitized their hands :)
• I would never throw away my crockpot
• I would never want to see my OB at Toys 'R Us (or anywhere outside of the delivery room) again.
• I would never fall asleep without telling Ryan and my kids, they're my world and I love 'em.
• I would never choose to eat steak.
• I would never wear  these for the obvious reason that I'd look like a stuffed sausage.
• I would never eat a circus peanut
• I would never (consciously) let a nurse or whoever, put a needle in me without confirming 700000 times that it hasn't been used.
• I would never.......

What would you never do?  Do you have a weird OCD thing?  Or a fear of something?  Share!  And you never know.... a commentator might just get a little somethin' somethin'.  :)

Randomness COMING YOUR WAY!

I am too tired to compile a neat, nicely written post. BUT I do have things to say... nothing important... just things to document I guess.

-I am in love with my garden. It's a small garden. No- like, REALLY small. The size of a bathroom stall- no joke. BUT I am growing some beautiful things in there (and in pots/planters around the house). Yellow & butternut squash is growing GREAT. Zucchini is forming as I type... we pick about 3 strawberries a day (although I have to say that plant isn't looking too hot...) we have one teeny tomato starting to form. Yellow peppers are getting HUGE... Cucumbers, eggplant, broccoli and green beans are all planted... nothing major to report yet- just leaves :) The pumpkins and cantelope are blooming as well. WOW :) You have no idea how accomplished I feel! :)

-losing weight is a losing battle. While out for dinner the other night with friends, I told them "I cut out alcohol because its wasted calories." I then ordered a "skinny" margarita and boneless buffalo wings. Nice.

-Maeve was showing a LOT of interest in the potty and even used it a few times but has since completely backed off. I am seriously not pushing it. I'm knee deep in Henry's diapers... not much of a difference being elbow deep in Maeves as well.

-we got a new laptop today :) a Toshiba. It's big & nice. I like it. Although I'm waiting for an external hard drive until I boot the new one all up.

-Have I ever mentioned my obsession with bedding? I can't stop buying it. We seriously have about 5 complete bedsets. I love new sheets and comforters. Anyways... I found a "Dwell Studio" set at Target on clearance for 22 bucks- its beautiful and I just couldn't resist. I am snuggled in it right now. It feels heavenly.

-Henry doesn't sleep. Well- he cat naps- but that's it. And its kind of driving me nuts. I'm sure this is the 1000 time I've posted that same exact sentence. But JEEZ OH PETES. I am about to pull my hair out. I can't get a dang thing done around the house because every time I lay him down he's up 10 minutes later. It's nuts. Sleep kid! Sleep!

-We're trying to teach Maeve to say "no sir; yes sir; no mam; yes mam" It comes out sounding like "no shirr" and "no man." haha :)

-you should all go out and buy a box of skinny cow mint chocolate truffle bars. They're 100 calories and pure bliss. Do it. Go now.

-I watched "Shutter Island" by myself the other night and am STILL wondering about it. Stupid movie... I can't figure out what I really think of the ending... hmmm.. any input on that???

-I have been SWAMPED with photography! WOAH BABY :) It's been awesome getting all the experience but I've been spending my nights editing... and my eyes burn in the morning. Still though, I have the passion to learn... therefore I will trudge on :) ...not really trudging because I love it so much... but I am a perfectionist and I can point out a zillion things in every single picture I take that irritate me.

-I've been thinking of Maeve's 3rd birthday (already...I know) and I think I want to do "Alice & Wonderland." I'm hoping to leave the trippy drug theme out of it though... just sticking with the colors & white rabbit stuff :)

-My next acupuncture appt. can't come soon enough. I slept amazingly the first few nights after I got it done. I want to sleep like that again!!! :)

-I have moldy strawberries in my fridge that I refuse to touch... therefore they sit. And at 11:30 PM I am thinking about them, rotting and contaminating the rest of the veggies & fruit... thinking of waking Ryan up to dispose of them... :)

-gymboree is having its semi annual sale and that just spells "TROUBLE" for me. I won't throw out numbers, but ummm... I've earned a lot of gymbucks. The PLUS side is that both of my kids are set for fall and winter. :)

-Does it bug you when your toe nails catch on the sheets? It drives me bonkers. Like I have to get out of bed, clip them, file them down so they're all smooth. Hmmm...

*****told you this would be super random!******

-I finally cracked and spent 20 bucks on "The Lion King." Not a big deal- 20 bucks- but normally I would wait for a sale or a coupon or something... however, Disney is brilliant and they only release their movies a few at a time. Who knows when the next time they'll release "The Lion King." I found it used on Amazon for 20... and I think I'm more excited to watch it than Maeve is ;)

-I want to go strawberry picking... and I think we're going to next week. just gotta set a date.



I think I'm out of random thoughts... it felt good to write them all down :)

everyone should do a "random rambling" post!

Memorial Weekend 2010!

"The best laid plans" should be the real title of this post. It's amazing with even my superb planning skills (more like OCD/controlling skills) how things still can go completely awry. (love the word "awry.")

Lo and behold, Ryan had Saturday off- this does NOT happen people. Normally when there is a holiday, everyone else at Culligan is home but RYAN is the one they send in to do some grunt work. You can imagine my excitement and PURE JOY when he told me he was off on Saturday :)

Saturday was spent cleaning and doing yard work. I planted a mini-garden. It's MINI MINI. Ryan kind of refused to dig up a patch of grass larger than a beach towel... (yeah that's about the size of my little garden... one of those over sized beach towels). We got this wiggle worm hose thingy for Maeve to play in while I concentrated (intensely) on planting my squash (that's all I really have growing in there at the moment... BUT along w/ my scattering of melon plants- which are coming along VERY nicely & my 3 topsy turvy's I am hoping to have some luck!)

Saturday night we rented "Dear John." I was disappointed. I was waiting for her to write "I'm pregnant" or "I have cancer" or SOMETHING really dramatic. Instead it was just a bunch of "blah blah blah." Ryan joked that in order for me to deem a movie "really good" there has to be either a pregnancy or a death. Not true, not true... :)

Sunday we woke up bright and early- I had to be at church at 10:30 to photograph a dedication. We were taking the kids (the dedication was at the church we go to anyway) but I didn't want to try and focus on taking pictures with Maeve tugging on me. So I left early and went by myself & the kids followed with my parents. The service was great... somehow that pastor speaks to my heart each and every time. I honestly start looking around like "are there cameras somewhere recording my reactions???" Because the messages always hit home (sometimes too close to home).

Now, I've expressed my desire to someday be a "photographer"- I am hoping to take a post-production class at some point... anyways, I would love to continue to photograph children, babies, couples, seniors, etc. BUT I have absolutely NO DESIRE, WHATSOEVER to photograph a wedding. The stress combined with church lighting... ummm no thanks. So yeah- that church lighting- this is my 2nd time photographing a baptism/dedication and this one was tougher than the first. This church had stage lighting so it was pretty shadowy. Fortunately the parents saved me a great seat RIGHT in front of where the pastor dedicated Lottie. I was grateful I didn't have to run all over the place :) And believe it or not, even with the crappy lighting, there are some pretty cool pictures. Still editing...still editing...



After the dedication we headed up to Detroit. It was WEDDING time. Our (my family's- not OURS) old foreign exchange student, Martina, was getting married. We totally missed the wedding. I mean, the wedding party was marching out as we were running in. Whoops. We met up with my family & thus began the waiting. And waiting. And waiting.

First we waited outside (for about an hour & a half) for the wedding party to get to the limo & do bubbles... during this time, I made my sister and her boyfriend, Cody, pose for pictures. We joked everyone was going to think they were engaged :) ... they're not. Just for the record. But they do make a cute couple...

We made our way over to the reception which was in Greektown- the only part of Detroit I'm semi-familiar with. Greektown 5 years ago (pre-kids/marriage) was fun... but Greektown with 2 babies, uhhhh not so much. We went to the reception (which was in the upstairs of this really good pizza place) and let Maeve dance and dance and dance. No joke- about 2 hours later (by this time it was 8:30 or so?) dinner still had not been served and my kids were losing it. Well... Henry was okay- he just wanted to sleep but was having a hard time because of the noise and lights. Maeve was a second away from a meltdown. This was really not very "mom" of me- but we were IN Greektown- like a step away from the casino... so I asked my mom if she could watch Maeve for 20 minutes while Ryan and I spent 10 bucks in the casino. We ended up winning 50 bucks. We're lucky like that :)

We ran back up to the reception and dinner was STILL not being served. Now it was around 9 or so. It was time to pack up and leave. Maeve actually fell asleep like a sack of potatoes and Henry followed suit. Luckily we only had a 10 minute drive back to our hotel in Southfield.

We got there, checked in, got the crib set up and ordered room service ASAP. I felt HORRIBLE- Maeve kept saying "I SO HUNGRY!" The food got there semi-fast and Maeve was in heaven :) We spread the food out on the bed and she picked away. I think it was 11:30 or so by the time we fell asleep. It was a LONG DAY.


The next morning started out promising- a great breakfast, followed by a HUGE DOWNPOUR. No Detroit zoo :( We drove home early- around 9 or so, and I was deterrrrrmined to do SOMETHING for Memorial day. Unfortunately the rain hit Jackson as well, and the parades were canceled. Ahhhhh well. The best laid plans, right?

We didn't get to swim at the Westin. We didn't get to the zoo. We didn't see any parades. We even missed the fireworks on Saturday night. BUT it was a good weekend. Even though our plans were kind of all over the place...

Phew!

OFF THE HOOK AGAIN! "There will be no jury selection in process for Tuesday Dec. 8th, therefore no jurors need to report." YEA! That was the message waiting for me when we got home tonight!!!

My appointment went really well! I am quite the talker- I find it pretty therapeutic to talk about my OCD habits of washing my hands and cleaning the counters a hundred times a day :)

The roads were fine- we were expecting to be driving through some really horrible stuff- but they were clear- except for a little rain. Unfortunately though on the way home there was a horrible accident- one of the worst ones I've ever seen. It was one of those things where you didn't want to look but you had to.. you know? Anyways it had JUST happened- there was only 1 ambulance there and 1 fire truck- one car on the West bound high way lost control and went over into the oncoming traffic of the East bound high way. It involved about 6 cars that we could count. And the car that I think got it the worst was the car that lost control- it was in the middle of the median and the entire side of it was ripped off. There were about 5 fire fighters trying to get someone out... how sad- I can't help but to always think about my family and friends that may be driving when I see accidents. We said a quick prayer for the families and sat in silence the rest of the way home... let me tell you- accidents- especially horrific ones like that DON'T help my anxiety. On the way back we saw probably 6 or 7 ambulances speeding towards the wreck. I have no clue how many people were hurt, but by the number of cars spread out all over the highway I'd guess a lot.

Suddenly my jury duty issues seem pretty petty huh? Yeah they are... hmmm... well if you're thinking of it, send up a quick prayer for the many families that I'm sure are going to be effected by that horrible accident.

I am going to try and get some sleep- Maeve is sick again- breathing horribly which frightens me... so we slather on the vicks and usually have her sleep with me. For some reason I feel like she's more comfortable next to her momma. I remember when I was sick as a kid always wanting my mom to sleep with me... okay now I'm rambling.. that means I'm super tired.

Good night & sweet dreams!

P.S. Ang- I will be having some SWEEEEEEET dreams because I tivod "Happy Gilmore" SCORE FOR ME!! HAHAHAHAHAHA Ryan can't stop me from watching this one!!! :)

OCD Overload

For all of you who don't know, I have OCD... I was formally diagnosed with it this past fall, but I know I've had it for a loooong time. I am blogging about it because right now its SO bad... the funny thing is, its about obtaining control but really it just makes me feel out of control. Its driving me crazy!!! I have tons of obsessive tendencies, but my main triggers are cleanliness and food. For example, about a week ago I cooked some noodles (not the noodles we had for dinner Allison!! This was another night! :) and the sink water touched them (the sink was backed up and a little bit splashed onto the noodles) I freaked out and Ryan found me crying in the computer room, refusing to eat dinner because of it. Yesterday was when I realized it was getting really bad again- I took Maeve on a walk and I noticed our flowers were wilted and dying in their hanging baskets. Again I flipped and called up Ryan telling him my entire life was out of control. I have no clue why its veered its ugly head so bad again right now- I have one of two theories- A. Its because of the never ending medication HELL that I've been going through for months now (trying different, new meds. getting off meds. getting on meds. BLAH) or B. I'm not OCD, I'm just incredibly emotional... the problem I have with that theory is the last time I was this emotional was when I was preggo... Of course I've told Ryan a hundred times "I think I'm pregnant!!!" But he refers to me as the "girl who cried baby." Because whatever symptoms I have (a headache, stomach ache, sleepiness, etc.) I always say "Shoot- I'm probably pregnant!"

I'm really hoping this flare up has something to do with coming off of all that anxiety medication I was on- oh by the way, the soonest appointment I could get with my doc. to get back ON some of my anxiety meds. was JULY 10th!!!!! So I've been patiently waiting...

In the meantime, you can probably catch me washing my hands raw, scrubbing out stains in clothes (I will wash things over and over and over), sanitizing my kitchen or planting some new flowers.

Just a side note- it totally ruins my whole "go green" plan because I feel like I constantly have the water running to wash something! Or when it gets really, really bad I won't eat out of dishes- I use paper and plastic utensils (which is soooo wasteful!) because of the "dirtiness of the glasses..." like when glasses or forks/spoons have spots on them? AHHH!! Drives me nuts!!! So sometimes I just opt for plastic, never been used stuff.