What's happening right now

I think this might be what they call nesting.  With the pending arrival of baby girl, and the fact that we have some guests coming into town next weekend to stay with us, I have been a cleaning maniac.  Like, down on my hands and knees scrubbing the floor maniac.  Tessa's shedding is driving me more bananas than it normally does to the point that when I'm vacuuming, I kind of get the urge to vacuum her (don't worry, I haven't traumatized her like that...yet).  I have the urge to throw anything that we don't use often into the trash, even if it is useful to have once in awhile.

Right now, I'm taking a break from scrubbing our full bath.  I've already spent an hour in there.  And I'm going back in to scrub the floor once I post this.  Thank God I'm not working right now - I wouldn't have the energy to do this shit after a full day of work.

Also, today marks the start of the World Cup.  Ian and I are both soccer lovers (he is a fanatic - he is from England afterall).  What this means?  The TV will permanently be on the soccer channels so we can get in as many games as possible.  And tomorrow, England v. U.S.  We've been invited to a couple gatherings to watch the game - one is all England folks, the other is all U.S. folks.  We've opted to skip both since we both will likely be tense, supporting our respective teams.  So it'll just be the two of us watching it here - but I had to remind Ian that it's really 2 against 1.  Baby girl and I v. Ian.  She will be American afterall. 

4 years ago during the last world cup, Ian had a pool going at work and I decided I wanted in on it.  Guess who won?  Me!  This time around, he was hesitant to tell me that they are doing another pool.  Well, I pushed my way into this one and I'm hoping that even if I don't win, I at least beat Ian.  He'll never hear the end of it :)

Now, back to the scrubbing the bathroom.

Acupuncture

I've heard amazing things about acupuncture over the past several years.  Little by little, I am hearing about more people who have tried it and loved it, people who now swear by it.  I tried it once about 5 years ago and did not have the best experience.  It made me feel lightheaded and kind of nauseous.  But I've also heard that it really depends on the person who is doing the acupuncture. 

I'd love to give it a try again because I've heard it can do amazing things for pregnant women.  I'd love to do it for anxiety, back pain, and heartburn.  I also just read that it can do work wonders for those with allergies, so I am throwing that in there too.  Oh and asthma.  Actually, can it just work on all of these things?

I even have a friend who wants to try it with me - score!  I don't like doing these things alone so I'm thrilled.

What has your experience been with acupuncture?  If you live in the Baltimore area, do you recommend someone in particular?

                                

Our weekend plans are pretty non-existent.  I may have a girls night with some law school friends tonight but it really depends because of the following little story. 

My darling husband seems to have either gotten a stomach bug or food poisoning during his night out last night.  Let's hope for the latter of the two options since you know I am a major germaphobe.  Actually, my biggest fear is throwing up.  Crazy I know.  But I will do ANYTHING to not vomit.  When I do feel that sick, I pace, I fight it, I take meds to settle my stomach, I count (I'm crazy, I know), I burp, I put cold compresses on my forehead, I even pray.  And if I know someone who has a stomach bug, I normally avoid being around the person for several days, and will not go to their house/apartment for at least a couple weeks.  I'm paranoid.  It's clearly a phobia. 

So having the hubby sick in the house makes for a very paranoid person.  I force him to carry clorox wipes so that he doesn't touch anything and that he can disinfect everything as he goes.  Thank goodness he's not bothered by these things.  I try to take care of him from a distance - setting out the appropriate things like medicine, water, ginger ale and he can come take them as he needs to.

We're thinking it's food poisoning because he has eaten at this place a few other times, and a few of the people who were there one of the previous times got sick.  I don't think he'll be going back to this place ever again.

Other things to do this weekend - decide on a birth class, put the crib together, run errands, clear more stuff to make room for baby stuff, and I'm sure more baby related stuff.

Oh, and according to my countdown over there to the right, on Sunday will mark the 100 day countdown to baby girl's debut.  100 FREAKING DAYS!

I Didn't Have Time

This weekend felt truly amazing. I had time to surprise Ian with a romantic dinner on Friday - I pulled out the candles, made brownies from scratch, and made braised shortribs (not using a recipe!!) for dinner. I even did the dishes! Ah, the things that bring me joy now that I have time on my hands.

Saturday was jam-packed but we had a blast. We started off by losing our last kickball game then went to a bbq with those folks. Then, we headed to a law school bbq and ate some more there. Then, the 1st bbq was still going on so we headed back there for some more fun and games. After all of that, we had to quickly change and get ready to go out with both families to celebrate with them at The Brewers Art. We finally made it home at 11:30 and were asleep before we could even say good-night to eachother.

Then we spent mother's day with both moms - brunch then games at our house afterwards.

So I spent the weekend doing a lot of fun things! I know awhile back I let you in on my little anxiety issues. I was surprised throughout my first year of law school that I didn't have a whole lot of anxiety issues - I wasn't short of breath or feeling out of control. Since being finished as of last Tuesday, my anxiety has come up full force. I am somewhat confused by it, as it hits me about midday and for no apparent reason, especially considering that I do not feel particularly stressed about anything! But I think it comes down to the fact that during school, I simply did not have the time for my body to be stressed, or to even accept that I might be facing anxiety. So now that I have the time, I feel like my body is bringing up all of that anxiety that had been bottled up inside of me for the year. So I guess it's just giving me even more of an excuse to enjoy my days - I have to continue to do relaxing things to help, like workout, take walks, take baths, read, watch movies, etc. And all in all, that ain't so bad!

After brunch and games with our moms, Ian and I took Tessa for a long walk at a park nearby. It was absolutely beautiful and I was able to snag this photo before Tessa began venturing into the water!

I am a Planner

This won't surprise anyone that truly knows me. As I've gotten older, my urge to plan things has become even more fine tuned. You see, when I make dinner plans with someone, or plans to go do something with a friend, or am going to meet up with friends for happy hour, I put it in my calendar. That's just the way I work.

I didn't used to be quite like this - but then I graduated college and started working in the "real world" and realized that time away from work is truly precious time. If I make plans with someone, I am taking time away from my husband and time that could be used for "me time". So when people cancel without truly having an excuse, it is mind-boggling to me, and leads to something much more than just disappointment.

Of course, if a friend calls and says "I'm so sorry" and that such and such has come up and it's just looking like it's not going to work, I would be nothing other than understanding because stuff does come up! But when a friend cancels with me or is wishy-washy about making it because something else has come up, in the name of "better plans", I get pissed. I think it is incredibly disrespectful. I'd prefer to not have made plans in the first place. Because when someone invites me to do something one night, I block that night out for my friend - I feel they deserve that! Don't I deserve the same?

Recently I've realized people don't handle these situations the same way. Still - I don't get it! At the end of the day, I get sad and upset and feel super hurt that this person didn't treat me with respect. So for those non-planners out there - give a planner a little courtesy, because when we put things in pen in our calendars, it means we are looking forward to those plans from the day we write it on there. All of that built up excitement can be wiped away and replaced with feelings of hurt. I am courteous in blocking off time for you, because I want to spend time catching up and seeing you, so it'd be nice for you to do the same. And when you don't - don't be surprised when I want to kick your ass. Thanks!

And yes - 2 sets of plans changed this week because of non-planners. Assholes - so much for celebrating!

One Down - 3 To Go!

I realize my posts recently have been less than interesting considering most of them have been about work! But sadly - that's just what's occupying my life at the moment. I had my first exam today for Property. It was not fun studying for it as it's the only exam that you have to memorize - about 50 single-spaced typed pages full of rules and information I had to memorize. I have NO idea how I did - I'm just glad it's over.

I think all people deal with stress differently. Some aren't as affected by it as others. Others are highly affected. Whether people isolate themselves, lash out, or carry stress in some other way (pass gas, stop eating, whatever). I personally carry stress in various ways. Since I was little, I've always had anxiety problems. I think it probably started when my grandmother died when I was 5 years old. She lived with us some of the time and watched my brother and I - so she was extremely close with us. Soon afterwards, I faced my first set of anxieties, even if I couldn't recognize it as that at the time. I was scared...of people close to me dying. I still to this day have fears about that - and not the normal you don't want something bad to happen to anyone fears, fears that could eat up time and lead me to crying.

Over the years, different events have happened in my life that have sparked similar anxiety issues. I was fortunate enough to learn how to deal with it without medication - I learned breathing exercises, write in a journal, and read a little meditation book each day that gives me a simple thing to focus on for the day.

But the one thing that I have not been able to control through techniques is that I carry a lot of my anxiety in my...stomach. This will probably be way TMI, but my stomach gets ridiculously upset when I'm anxious or nervous. Enter exams into my life - and it seems as if my stomach is constantly gurgling and doing weird things. So what to do? I've learned that if it's really bad, I take Immodium and just doing that normally puts me at ease to stop my stomach from feeling weird. Ahhh - thank god Ian is understanding of my sensitive stomach. I'm always amazed at how understanding he is because he's the complete opposite - he rarely gets any form of anxiety or nervousness and his stomach is rock solid.

I only share these things because I've learned that I am far from being the only one with anxiety problems. Through opening up and sharing these things, I've learned it's okay to have our own little issues. Hopefully through sharing, it may ease our little fears just a tad, knowing we aren't alone.

Interruption

I'm taking a quick break in between the wedding recap before going into the honeymoon recap. Since we've been home from Greece, I am seriously loving being married. I didn't think it would feel different since we lived together before getting married, but it does in some ways. I have a feeling it's just because it's new, but I don't care - I'm loving it!

We've been super busy getting our house organized. The hubby doesn't think we need to start packing until about a week before we move. Umm - yeah not so much. I've been trying to get rid of things - and am now realizing how much crap we've accumulated since living here - and we've only been here 2 years! It feels good to get rid of stuff!

We went and visited three places in Baltimore this past weekend. One was extremely cute, but in a sketchy area, one was in a great area but not worth the price and had a very bizarre layout (as well as not having updated anything), and our favorite of the three is in an okay area and is absolutely beautiful. We have a few questions to be answered from the owners and then we're ready to move forward. I'm hoping this falls into place - although somehow knowing our luck, it won't be that easy. If you live in the Baltimore area (Canton, Federal Hill or Fells Point) and know of any places available for rent, send them my way! We are working with a realtor, plus checking craigslist, and have only come across a handful of options.

We also are busy getting our place ready so that the owners can come in and show it. This is creating quite an issue because we don't want random people coming in our house while we're not home because Tessa's anxiety will go through the roof. She already can sense that something's going on because we have tons of stuff boxed up and we're constantly bringing in boxes and moving stuff around and we're in and out of the house. But somehow my landlord doesn't really understand how things work when you have a pet. So our solution is to have our dogwalker take Tessa out of the house for a few hours every MWF, and then on Tuesdays and Thursdays, Ian will take Tessa to and from my mom's house to spend the day there. Oh Mom - if you're reading this, yep Tessa will be staying at your house two days per week. I swear - one of the first few people to look at the place better freaking like it - this is a pain in my butt!

Our move to Baltimore is getting me very excited. Excited for new restaurants, being close enough to walk to go get food/coffee/bagels, new neighborhoods, a bigger house, new adventures, being closer to some of our friends (mostly Ian's close friends), and new adventures. I can't wait!

It's a Blur

I feel like as we get closer, my weekend recaps become longer and even more all over the place than before. Our weekends in some ways feel extremely long because of how much we get done, but in other ways feels super short because we don't have a lot of quality time together nor do we have just relaxing time. I also start panicking every weekend fearing that I'm going to forget to do something that is important.

Weekends are full of minute details that tend to be tedious and somehow exhausting. Wrapping 7 bridesmaid gifts had me wanting a nap. After doing a load of laundry I feel I need to lay down for a few minutes. Who have I turned into? An 80 year old woman - maybe so.

Also, any sense of keeping up with housework has gone down the tubes. We barely manage to clean up about once a week and by the end of the week when we need to clean again, our house looks like a tornado has hit it. For the life of me, I cannot gather the energy to hang up my clothes I wore to work, so throughout the week, the pile of work clothes piles all over the bedroom leaving paths for us to walk through. The mail amounts during the week until finally we can take it no more and we HAVE to clean for about 2 hours. I will be slightly relieved when all this wedding craziness is over and I can relax and thoroughly clean. Wow - I'm a loser.

So here's a little breakdown of our weekend:

• Saturday was a big craze. Ian was up an running by 7:30 for his usual long Saturday run - this week was 7 miles. I got Tessa up at 8 am took her for a walk to greet Ian and cheer him on during the last mile. Tessa thought him running was a game and proceeded to bit his shorts as he ran by. We then took her to the vet where we got medicine for her pink eye, and the doctor performed the lovely procedure of expressing Tessa's anal glands. Tessa was mad at us after that - can you blame her? We then went to Ian's bank to close out his savings account, went to my bank to open a joint account, as well as Ian open up a regular account. Then - off to grab bagels and go to get a card for Chris and Chrissy. Ian dropped me off at home and off he headed to get a haircut. It didn't turn out so well so we know he'll be styling his own hair for the wedding. Off to Baltimore we went for Chris and Chrissy's wedding at my college chapel, and their reception was at a nearby golf club. It was very lovely and I was taking notes the entire time to remind myself of things I'm missing. I had far too much to drink and danced the entire night - good times.
• Sunday I woke up with a killer headache but worked through it in time to go see my goddaughter, who also is our flower girl, in her dance recital. She's 6 years old and is so freaking cute I can't stand it. On our way home, we did our grocery shopping. We then cleaned up our house and did lots of laundry. Made a yummy dinner. Emailed tons of people that haven't sent in their response cards (we've received about 50 of the 100 response cards - eek!). Stayed up to wrap the bridesmaids presents. Wrote thank you cards for the gifts we've received thus far.

It was a busy busy weekend. Tonight, I have my 2nd dress fitting. Hopefully I'll come away in a better mood than my last fitting!

Rain Rain Go Away

No - it's not raining today (finally!). But, I looked at the Farmer's Almanac and here's what I found:

June 2008
1st-3rd Clearing skies in Maine, pleasant rest of region. 4th-7th Wet weather for much of Northeast. Big thunderstorms for Mid-Atlantic states. Rainy skies for the Belmont Stakes. 8th-11th Mostly fair. 12th-15th Showers for much of the Northeast, then fair. 16th-19th A spell of pleasant weather. 20th-23rd Heavy rains, then turning fair. 24th-27th Hot and dry, followed by thunderstorms, especially Maryland, Pennsylvania. 28th-30th Mostly fair and hot.

We're meeting with the priest tonight and I think he needs to work some magic to make sure the above does not happen! Ahhh - the things I wish we could control. I'm hoping the prediction is wrong! And yeah yeah, I've heard that rain is supposed to be good luck. I don't care - I don't want the rain!

Anyways - I didn't post yesterday after leaving work yesterday around lunch time with my stomach making odd gurgling noises and feeling quite ill - that's always a lot of fun!

Weekend recap:

• Got a headpiece and some hair jewelry. I had been looking and looking...tried on tiaras (looked like poo on me), tried on combs with some sparkle (looked like poo on me), or the ones I did find that didn't look like poo on me were too much money to be spending on jewelry for my hair that I will never be wearing again. So, we went to I Do, I Do and found a headpiece that actually adds just a touch, but isn't overwhelming and looks quite tasteful. I found some clips to match and the whole things was less than $200 which I think is a good deal considering that most of the headpieces I tried on were about $250 alone without the 3 clips to match.
• Finalized our music selections.
• Bought materials to wrap the bridesmaids gifts.
• Wrote out all of our ceremony selections for our priest.
• Had a quick trial run to change the lipstick color with the makeup artist.
• Took both Moms out to a restaurant in Fulton for Mother's Day brunch.
• Cleaned our 2nd bedroom to get rid of stuff since the wedding items are starting to accumulate - and by accumulate, I mean that if you're staying at our house anytime in the next several weeks, you might have to use one of the boxes full of stuff as your pillow.

It was quite a successful weekend. I had a mini breakdown and Ian insisted I take a break from everything, curl up on the couch and read some of my book. I did that and drank a glass of wine long enough to get over my stress and regroup to get more completed.

Tonight, we meet with our priest to finalize everything for the ceremony.

1 week until we get to start working with Erin, our coordinator - can't wait! It seems like everything is falling into place...now, about that weather forecast??

I Hate Going to the Movies

Last night's game was a lot of fun. We had tickets in one of the suites so we were able to booze (okay - I had one beer - I'm not sure if I can really call that "boozing") and have free food (yummy hot dogs). I hadn't been to a baseball game this season, nor had I ever been to see the Nats, so all in all, it was a great time. And the Nats won - yay!

Earlier in the week, I asked Ian if I could take him on a date Friday night. So, I'm taking him on a date. He tries to get me to go to the movies about every few weeks but for some reason, getting me to the movies is like pulling teeth! I haven't been to the movie theater in probably over a year. Once I'm there, I enjoy myself and love seeing the movie. I LOVE MOVIES. But getting me to agree to go to the movie theater is where the trouble is. For some reason, I just think to myself, would I prefer to be in a seat where 54789047 other people have been, and their germs are lingering on the seat, or would I prefer to be sitting in my comfy couch in my pajamas snuggling (aww how cheesy) without thinking about all those germs? CHOOSE B! Obviously! Okay, I think I might have a bit of a germ issue - clearly.

Back to the date night - you guessed it, we're going to the movies. This is all a surprise to him. First, we're going to dinner in Bethesda and then going to the movies. I better get lots of loving after treating him to dinner AND me sitting in a nasty seat to watch a movie!

Tomorrow, we have to go pick up a package from Fedex since they couldn't leave it at the house without an in-person siganture. My hanky pankies are waiting for me at Fedex!

Other than those few things this weekend - we're spending the weekend inside doing wedding projects. Oh joy!

Have a good weekend!

**Update** - The movie theaters we go to are perfectly fine and the majority of people I guess wouldn't think of the germs- I am just a complete germaphobe (same reason I hate malls). I just can't stand being around that many people when I know they've been eating in those chairs and putting their popcorn buttery fingers all over the seats.

Italian food makes me happy

Weekend Recap:

Friday night I went to Fiore for a consult. What I liked: how b-e-a-utiful the flowers were. I went through pictures of bouquets and found a bouquet I absolutely love! I'm even making an exception because this bouquest has calla lillies in it and I was really hoping to not use any calla lillies. But I like the bouquet so much that I'm willing to have them in it. Here's the picture:

My one negative about this florist was that the woman didn't seem very knowledgeable. My mom used to work in a florist shop so she knows her flowers, and after we went through the vision we have for the wedding and showed pictures of certain things I like and dislike, the woman was having trouble naming off flowers she could use - it was more like my mom was suggesting them and the woman was agreeing. Once the flowers were named off, then she was great in showing me samples of each type. She was so sweet but just seemed like she was a new worker there who might not have had a ton of consults before. We'll have to see what her proposal comes in at and then make a decision.

After the florist, I raced home to meet the boy and his best man, James to go to Men's Warehouse to pick the tuxes, have the boy try on the tuxes, get James measured and get everything ordered. Here is the tux:

It's a three-button tux but his will be without a vest, only with a tie and black suspenders! He will be wearing a light silver tie and the groomsmen will be wearing black ties.

We basically ate Italian food the entire weekend. I think the cold makes me crave some hearty italian food, especially pasta. After picking tuxes, we went to Olazzo for dinner. It was quite yummy!

Saturday, we had dinner with my future in-laws at Cesco Trattoria in Bethesda (they don't have a website) and I had a fantastic entree - whole grilled turbo in sea salt. I wish I had a picture of it - it was amazing. Here's a couple pictures of us at dinner:

Yesterday, we spent the day at the Bridal Showcase at the Dulles Expo Center. And I mean "we" as in my mom, me and the boy! Once he heard that there would be food and cake samples he was all about joining us. But let me tell you, it was INSANE! I don't do well in malls because of getting quite claustrophobic, hot, overwhelmed by the people (and thinking about the germs), and it was like 100 times worse there. But I sucked it up and hurried through and tried to enjoy the fun things like trying cakes! I walked away with what I think I will be ordering for my invitations, and a cake that the boy, my mom and I all LOVED! I have to look up the name to post it and find the invitation picture to post it. I was exhausted by the end of the show but was thrilled to have possibly found these two vendors and be able to cross these things off my list! The boy did very well until about the last 1/2 hour. We were there for a total of 3 hours so I think he did quite well. The last 45 minutes his eyes were glazed over and when I'd turn and look for him and call his name, he'd kind of look at me slowly and then walk over to me in a daze. It was good husband-training for him I think - he even carried the bag of goodies we collected along the way and my purse after awhile!

Last night we watched Harry Potter and the Order of Phoenix. I am a huge Harry Potter fan (more so of the books) but have to admit that this movie was not as good as the other ones. How did you feel about it?

I am sad to say it's Monday and I'm back at work, already looking forward to the next weekend!

Phone Phobia and DJ Done!

We met with the DJ from Chris Laich's company and Chris himself on Saturday. They both are really nice and what we love about them is their forwardness about price (as some other companies had some hidden costs) and the fact that they were so professional. You'd never guess these two guys were DJs. One of them looks like a dorky businessman and our DJ looks a little like a body guard or something.

I had only one compaint about them (which is better than how many complaints I had about other DJs we met with). They charge extra for extra speakers our location needs - $100 PER speaker. After discussing this we went onto talking about other stuff, but I interrupted and asked "I hope you don't mind, but why $100 per speaker?". I honestly don't think he had ever been asked this question. If he had, he should come up with a better answer. His answer was that it's more work for the DJ because it takes an extra 15 minutes per speaker to set up and take down. But meanwhile, earlier in the meeting he had said that one thing that sets them apart from some other companies is that they do not charge for their drive time, set-up or take-down time. I could understand that adding 2-3 more speakers would add more work and they are nicer speakers because they're wireless. But I think his explanation was not very well thought-through. My feeling is that they should charge an overall extra fee (like $100 total - not PER speaker). I shouldn't be paying $100 per 15 minutes that it takes our DJ to set up the 2-3 extra speakers!!

Despite our one complaint, I am happy to say that I've emailed him this morning to get the contract signed. DJ DONE:) I also was excited to see that in the new Washingtonian, Chris was voted the #1 DJ in the DC area.

Onto the title of my post. On several occasions, I've asked Ian to call someone (dogwalker, cable company, or more recently, possible wedding vendors and calling certain friends to get their mailing addresses). He inevitably takes his sweet precious time making these phone calls. After asking for about 3 weeks for him to call people for their mailing addresses, I finally got a tad frustrated with the procrastination. He won't even call his own hair place to make an appointment for a haircut (I have taken this over for him).

I finally talked to him about it last night to see what the deal is. He has a serious case of Phone Phobia. I looked up some information on it and it's not terribly uncommon. There are various causes of this phobia, but in Ian's case, he gets very anxious about calling all people except me, his parents and his brother. Otherwise, he must prepare for the call mentally by thinking of EXACTLY what he wants to say, questions he wants to ask, and prepare for questions that might be asked of him, or comments that are said to him. He said it's an issue for him because he's afraid people can't understand him, or that on several occasions, he has trouble understanding people over the phone because of the accent difference. His accent is not THAT different, but I am guessing his accent was much more accentuated when he first moved to the states, and that he probably developed this phobia when he first moved here (12 years ago). He mentioned that Kim has this phobia, but anyone else hate making phone calls or answering unknown numbers? Sorry to call you out Kim, but what is yours like? I am trying to find out information about it because I find it so ODD!! And the selfish part of me would love to find a solution so that I don't have to make his phone calls or call all these vendors!