A New Year

Hi all! Sorry to have dropped off the face of the planet, but since my last post I have basically done nothing but work, sleep and eat. I was off for Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, and the day after Christmas, but we were traveling all over to visit with family which was awesome.

Anyway, it's weird to think this year is almost over. I mean I got married this year, graduated college, moved to a new city, expanded our family, quit a job, and started two new jobs. It's been a big year for us. I'm hoping that 2011 is a little calmer, but I doubt it will for us. Although we've had a lot of positive going on this year there are some scars of negativity that I recall. The first six months of this year were a certain kind of hell (minus our wedding and honeymoon) losing a "friend", my job search, and some various health issues. It hasn't all been easy, but it's been manageable because I have a great partner on my side. So when it came time about a month ago to decide how to end 2010 and who with, we went through the list of usual friends and family and called around to see what was happening. Then I remembered, it all came flooding back to me.

I remembered last New Year's Eve when we tried to have a party and only 3 (very dedicated and awesome friends) showed up, not in that group a supposed best friend that said she'd show but didn't, and I had to take Pepper Anne to the emergency vet after getting hit in the eye with a ball (accident). Then the year before we tried to do a couples thing. Plan was for us and my "friend" and her boyfriend to head out to the bars for a bit, go to a party and have an awesome time. Until friend's idiot boyfriend called breaking up with her an hour before we were suppose to go out. Yeah, that was a great night. The only New Year's Eve that we haven't had a fiasco was the first one we spent together. I think we had planned to go out to a party, but Andy had been traveling a lot recently so we stayed at his apartment. We drank a lot, talked a lot, snuggled a lot, and had one of the best New Year's ever. I had so much fun that I drunkenly proposed. That was an AWESOME night. So that's what we're doing this year. This year we are not hosting or attending any party. We are going to have a nice dinner out, go to the Wildlights at the zoo and then home to drink into the wee hours of the night. I'm excited and crossing my fingers that it is drama-free.

What are your plans for tonight?

Opposites attract

I have an unexpected morning off so I thought what better thing to occupy my time than to blog! So Andy and I obviously have a lot in common, we love to read, we have common goals and values, and family is our number one priority. However, we have opposite views on a few things. Like Christmas, he is all about the practical gifts, examples? Stuff Andy has asked for this year: Long underwear, sweaters, wool socks. I on the other hand, think that Christmas is a time when I get to be a tiny bit frivolous, I get to give some fun stuff, some useless stuff, or something I would never buy for myself. Examples? A kindle, video games, an mp3 player. I rest my case. This is how I roll with Christmas, I want it to be fun. However, this year I'm having a really hard time.

I don't know if it's the insanely strict budget we have been on or the fact that I am actually becoming a (gulp) grownup but I'm having a really hard time shopping for fun things this year. Every gift I think about buying for Andy goes through a rigorous mind test "How much will he use it? What purpose does it serve? How much space will it take up? Does he really need this?" and usually the answer comes up short. I mean seriously, I'm not even halfway done shopping for him. Usually I'm done in November, but this year it. is. hard. I mean in past years I've done a kick ass job if I do say so myself. Some examples: Red Wings Jersey, Califone Record player, Hans Solo Mr. Potato Head. Maybe my creativity is just spent? My best friend since elementary school is going to be in town this week and we're meeting up tomorrow so I am hoping some creative juices get flowing or she can push me along so maybe I can get something great for my husband our first married Christmas together.

Cross fingers for me please!

Frustrated to fantastic

I try not to be too much of a downer, being positive is much more productive in my personal opinion, but the last couple of days has really tested my positivity. I've been working for 13 days straight, I'm tired, and I really have been missing people, my friends, family, and my husband. I don't have a day off from both of my jobs until next Wednesday so I'm a little frustrated. With my working so much and working primarily at night I don't get nearly as much time to do the things I would like to do or spend my time with the people I love. This was the plan, Andy and I knew this was the plan and we knew it would be hard. We understood, that we would be working our butts off for a year to get our stuff in a pile and be able to do the things we want to do. I know this. It's just a lot harder than I imagined it to be. Not only that but I haven't made many friends in our new hometown and we have been here for nearly 5 months. I miss having friends to hang out with, a friend I could call randomly and see if they wanted to catch a movie. I have been a little whiney and crabby the past few days about all this stuff, but my fantastic husband turned it all around last night.

Last night I arrived home and he got me something to eat, got a fire going, made some chocolate fondue with strawberries and had some sparkling wine for us to drink. He took a nap after he got home from work so we could hang out together later and spend some quality time together. As if that wasn't enough, we found a meet-up group for young couples that we are going to check out and hopefully meet some peeps we would enjoy hanging out with! Honestly, he is such an amazing guy, I don't know how I got so lucky. Last night really enforced my belief that being positive is a lot more productive than being negative. I need to appreciate the time I do get with Andy and look forward to the time I will get to spend with a great friend (who will be in town next Wednesday!). Instead of being sad and mopey about something I need to look for ways to improve it.

NaBloPoMo Fail

I failed. I'm a tiny bit upset at this but not really. I had the worst sinus infection/cold ever hit me Wednesday morning and take me out for 3 days. Awful. I hate winter. In other news Turkey Day is approaching and we have lots of family to see and catch up with. It should be a fun time. By the way, my two part-time jobs have become more demanding than one full time job, my schedule is way full right now. I shall try to post more on Wednesday (my next day off) but I wanted to write a little something to let you know I didn't die.

Currently on our DVR

Andy and I have never been huge TV people. Well Andy hasn't, if it wasn't hockey, he wasn't generally interested, I like TV, it helps pass the time and it's cheap entertainment. Currently with our "Reduce the Deficit" plan in effect (which is going smashingly, we haven't eaten out in two weeks!!!) we've been watching a lot more TV because we pay to have cable and a DVR (well I do because I work at night and miss some of my favorite shows). Plus it seems a tad ridiculous to pay $20+ to see a movie when we can rent one out of a machine for a dollar or watch our favorite shows together.

Anyway, currently there are a lot of good shows that we are in to, plus there is the added bonus of the "On Demand" feature which allows you to watch some of the popular shows when you want without having to record them. So what are we currently in to? Quite a few things actually. Wednesday nights on ABC are probably the best shows that we watch jointly, "The Middle", "Better with You", "Modern Family",  and "Cougar Town" never fail to have us laughing. Thursday night is my night with "Grey's Anatomy" and "Private Practice" giving me my chick show fix. Friday nights have "Supernatural" set to record on our DVR. Other than that, I have a few on my own that I've gotten kind of obsessed with "The Event" and "Parenthood" but those I only watch during the day when Andy isn't around and usually because I am bored and have all my work around the house done.

What's currently on your DVR or must watch list?

My favorite things: Gadgets

This is a continuation of "my favorite things series." For this one Andy and I both put our heads together and thought of the most used gadgets around the house.

1. iRobot Roomba 560 Series

• What it is: This is our daily vacuum, with just the push of a button (or not, see below) it will vacuum the whole living room.
• Why we love it: Hello! It's a vacuum that runs by itself! It's seriously amazingly fun just to watch but it does a great job at picking up animal hair. Bonus is that I can program it to run at a certain time of the day for each day of the week. Example: Monday schedule to run at 10AM, Tuesday to run at 9AM.

2. HoMedics SoundSpa Premier AM/FM Clock Radio

• What it is: It is an alarm clock with a built it sound machine.
• Why we love it: I have such issues with sleep. I grew up down the street from train tracks so I am use to falling asleep with a lot of noise. Before we got this alarm clock we would have to sleep with a heater or fan on all night just so I could fall asleep. Andy wasn't exactly thrilled with that scenario. Now I just push a button and fall asleep to my choice of sound. It's marvelous.

3.  Nintendo Wii

• What it is: I'm going out on a limb here and assume you don't live under a rock and you know what a Wii is.
• Why we love it: It's one of our favorite things to do together and a great way to pass the time. We have used it quite a few times when we have had people over as well.  Plus it doubles as a work out system for me!

4. HTC Evo (My phone) iPhone 3g (Andy's Phone)

• What they are: Our main means of communication with the outside world.
• Why we love them: Our phones are crazy awesome. Navigation, social networking, web, and of course the actual phones. These get the most use our of any gadget in our house. 

5. Califone 1005 Record Player with built in speaker for Education and Instruction

• What it is: Does anyone remember those large, black, circular disks with grooves (call records) that when a needle glides over the surface it plays music? Yeah, this thing plays those.
• Why we love it: This is more Andy's thing so I'm turning over to him. ... You really can't get much better than vinyl when it comes to music. The scratchiness adds a whole new level to the music. Elvis knew it; that's why his music sounded so much better on Sun than RCA. But anyhow, I love the vinyl, and this record player is REALLY good quality. Guess that's what you get for it being specifically for speech and auditory therapy. 

So there you have it, the most used gadgets in the SalTal household. More favorite things to come in the future. See you again tomorrow...I hope!

Comfort Food Sunday!

I think Andy and I have decided on a new Sunday tradition. See last Sunday, after we got the news about Maddie's passing, I spent most of the day crying off and on and all I wanted for dinner was comfort food. We ended up making pot roast, mashed potatoes, peas and biscuits. Talk about delish! It was a huge, lethargy-inducing meal combined with a nice fire and some good TV, it was the perfect way to end an evening. Anyway, I had to work today and Andy was kind enough to drive me and pick me up, (I had a long night of driving for a family event last night) so on the way home I ran the idea of another big Sunday dinner by him and he went for it. Tonight we decided on roast chicken, mac and cheese, broccoli and biscuits. I'm thinking about making this our own little family's tradition. Andy and I both thing that it could be a nice thing that we get to do together and it's also relaxing.

What do you think? What kind of traditions have you and your significant other come up with?