Year 2 - Day 89 - March 31

Everytime I think I'm starting to get (mentally) better, something happens that kicks me in the stomach and knocks me back down.  With my insurance, every couple weeks they send an "Explaination of Benefits" that just breaks down the appointments, labs, etc.  I guess with other people they come less frequently, but it seems like that's how often I get mine. :)  Then I also get the little bills for the mini copays that go with tests. 

I had already received my EOB for the month of maternity visits and the first ultrasound.  But today, I got the EOB for all of the sad appointments.  Between two u/s and the surgery, my insurance paid out a big chunk of change that week.

The other paper was a bill from the hospital.  I figured it'd be the copay something that weekend, but no, it's for the copay for my very first appointment.  That means that months from now, I'll still be getting paperwork having to do with this.  I am so tired of being reminded of it every day.  It makes it a lot harder to move on mentally!

Year 2 - Day 88 - March 30

We are lucky enough to live moments from Broom's Bloom Dairy & ice cream.  Last year we went for ice cream right around when we bought the house and the place STUNK.  It is a working farm, after all, and they were spreading the manure.  But the plus side of the smell was the "Stink Sale" and Mike found some of his favorite flavor in a discount priced pre packed quart.  When we saw this year's stink sale advertised on Facebook, we hurried right over.  There weren't any great flavors packed and cheap, but we did get to try Irish Cream for the first time.  Oh my goodness.  It's on my new favorite flavors list!

Year 2 - Day 87 - March 29

I snapped this in the first grade hallway today - it's their descriptive writing project.  If you look closely at the pictures, they all have a squiggle.  More specifically, the same squiggle.  The kids had to turn their squiggle into a picture and write a descriptive paragraph about it.  I see a red chicken, a person with big lips, and a colorful bowling pin all created from that same squiggle!

Year 2 - Day 86 - March 28

My lovely husband had lunch at Wegmans on Friday and picked these up for me while he was there.  I love Wegmans roses!  They stay pretty for a really long time and they come in a bunch of different colors.

Year 2 - Day 85 - March 27

I spent a lovely time today with 2 of my good friends from high school.  Well, one was my good friend from high school and the other was someone I talk to every day, but she was my friend in high school, too! :)

We splurged and had dessert.  This is their newest dessert - basically a chocolate lava cake, but with PEANUT BUTTER!  This is huge.  HUGE.  The plate in the picture is a dinner plate!  It was fantastic, but I didn't completely finish it. 

It was a lovely relaxing afternoon - I wish there were more of those in the world...

Year 2 - Day 84 - March 26

Tonight was roller derby!  We only made it through 3/4 of the night, but were still there for hours.  We introduced 2 sets of Mike's friends to the insanity, and they had fun too.  At intermission, a local Irish Dance troupe did an exhibition.  They were pretty amazing, especially considering they are kids!  This snapshot is from the first number that was just a small group of girls, but there was a duet and then a huge group number as well. 

Year 2 - Day 83 - March 25

The next time you hear my darling husband talking about how much he does not want a cat or like my cat - remember this picture!!!!

Year 2 - Day 82 - March 24

Reese's Eggs.  Yum.  I bought a bag of these the same night I bought my hair dryer at Target.  These are the last 4...

Year 2 - Day 81 - March 23

It's hard to see on the cell-phone-through-the-window picture, but we are having a serious hail storm right now.  This is the second one this week!!!  And this weekend it is supposed to snow.  Whatever happened to March going "out like a lamb?" 

Year 2 - Day 80 - March 22

For most of my life, I have resisted hair dryers.  I *hate* drying my hair.  For a long time, my hair was curly and that freed me from the hair dryer because I could just scrunch it every day.  However, for the last several years I've been stuck drying it almost daily.

This morning mine went kaput when my hair was just about dry.  (At least it happened then and not 5 minutes sooner!) So, my terribly exciting picture is that of my brand new hair dryer.  Woohoo? :)

Year 2 - Day 80 - March 21

I know the cell phone picture does it no justice ... but there are tiny green buds all over this tree outside my classroom windows!!!!!!

Year 2 - Day 79 - March 20

Today, after all this time, I read a whole book on my iPad.  Computer screens don't seem to give me headaches, so when I received both an iPad & Nook for Christmas, I decided to not keep the Nook & give the Overdrive app on the iPad a shot.  It took awhile for the app to update to full screen rather than an iPhone app, and then it took time before I had time to sit down and read a book.  The stars aligned today and I downloaded the new Pioneer Woman book that I've been looking forward to.  I found reading on the iPad to be quite easy.  The app claims the book was 406 pages, but lots of that was recipes, etc at the end so I probably only read 370 some pages.  To turn the page forward, you just tap anywhere on the right side of the screen. (Left taps go backwards.) It was nice to read and just nonchalantly use my thumb every once in awhile to move the text.  It was instant, no screen refresh.  Perhaps for some people whose eyes tire from screens, it'd be a pain, but I've been lucky in that department so far.  (Perhaps all the years of attempting to find the end of the Internet have built up those muscles?) ;)

I do have the Nook & Kindle app downloaded, and I download free titles from time to time just to have for someday when reading time appears in my world.  I haven't purchased anything for those apps yet.

Year 2 - Day 78 - March 19

Tonight was our friends' annual St. Patrick's Day celebration.  While we enjoy the desserts at the party every year, neither of us is a huge fan of Irish food.  Therefore, we took advantage of being in White Marsh and ownership of a PF Changs gift card to try out their dinner for two special.  It's a pretty good deal, but if you're not starving then you could get out of there for cheaper than the $40 menu.  It's 4 courses - each person chooses a soup (He had Hot & sour, I had egg drop), you get an appetizer to share (We had chicken lettuce wraps), both people choose an entree (He had shrimp something or other, I had chicken), and then you each get a shot glass dessert. (His was lemon, mine chocolate.) We both ate only half our entree & we'll just have them for lunch tomorrow.  I was impressed that when they packed our entrees they gave us additional rice in the containers to fill them up.  I know that rice is practically free, but it was a nice gesture.  The party was fun too!! :) It was nice to relax & to see people we don't see often.

Year 2 - Day 77 - March 18

I just started this book.  I saw it on the shelf at B&N recently and decided to borrow it from the library instead of paying for it.  So far, it's kind of interesting.  It alternates between personal details/anecdotes and information about the secret service in general.  We've started in the past with LBJ and Kennedy (confirming the Marilyn Monroe story!) so I imagine we'll move into the present as the book goes on.  Not a terribly well written book, but interesting subject matter.

Year 2 - Day 76 - March 17

Giving the local cupcakery another try tonight.  I saw they had St. Patrick's Day flavors so I went over to get some.  Circular from top left - Peppermint Patty, chocolate peanut butter, irish car bomb, and cookies & cream.  We had cookies & cream last time, but the other 3 are all new to us.
Seriously - starting soon, I'll eat better again.  I'm just not there yet!

Year 2 - Day 75 - March 16

To celebrate my ability to drive today, I was useful and brought Mike's car in to be looked at.  It's been making a squealing sound for the last several days, but of course it wouldn't make it once I got there.  They hunted around and think they solved the problem, so that was good.  This is the picture that hangs in our shop.  It's an old old ad for the station when it first opened.  Even though it's been a long time and different people own it now, you can see the basic original building in the shop.  The current owner found this poster somewhere and decided he had to have it. It's hard to see in the cell phone picture, but there is a family standing next to the car on the left.  One day, the current owner met the little girl (Now a grown up) that is standing in the picture in the family, so he had the picture framed and put in the shop so that he could tell the cool story. 

Year 2 - Day 74 - March 15

When Mike got home from work today, I begged him to take me to Target.  I still can't drive because I'm on pain meds, so even though he went to work and was tired, he took me out of the house.  It's the small things in life sometimes.  It's probably a good thing he was there anyway, because I had a big ole case of the "I wants" going on tonight.  I would have spent a lot of money on a lot of junk we completely don't need. Of course we forgot the most important thing, and that was the soda for the party on Saturday.  That just means we get to leave the house again soon.

Year 2 - Day 73 - March 14

Spotted in our flower bed this afternoon.  A very tiny but very welcome sign of spring.

Year 2 - Day 72 - March 13

It's 6:45pm!!!!! Look how light it is!!!!!!!!

(Edit: I ate dinner, so it took an hour to get this post up.  Now it's 7:45, and it's still just the tiniest bit light out there!)

Year 2 - Day 71 - March 12

Today, my school sent us flowers. It was an unexpected, lovely surprise.  They've been more than supportive.  My principal called & asked if it was ok to tell, and we got a ton of really nice emails.  Some just saying nice things, and some sharing their stories. It's been nice to get the support.  At the hospital before the procedure, a nurse came in to talk to us and prepare us to get no support at all, so how lovely that I work somewhere that breaks the mold in that way!

Year 2 - Day 70 - March 11

My parents sent flowers today ... bright happy and cheerful! :)

Year 2 - Day 69 - March 10

On January 30th, we found out I was pregnant.

On February 24, it looked like a jellybean.

Tonight I lost the baby.  It's odd - we didn't spread the word "just in case something happened."  But it happened, so I'm telling.  I know it makes no sense, but it is what it is.  I spent 15 years wondering if it would be possible for me to even get pregnant.  Then I spent 5 and a half weeks halfway not believing that it really happened.  Hopefully, after the recommended waiting time, it'll happen again.

Year 2 - Day 68 - March 9

I'm pretty sure that the a picture of my favorite brisket sandwich at Duclaw has been my picture of the day before, but it's so good it deserves another day.

Year 2 - Day 67 - March 8

It's MSA state testing week.  My schedule is all flip flopped.  This is what my desk looks like after 6 hours of not knowing if I'm coming or going....

Year 2 - Day 66 - March 7

No, that's not your eyes - all those things really are gold.  These are the golden sneakers, paintbrushes, triangles, and the golden book.  The kids are supposed to earn them in their specials classes each week by doing everything they're supposed to do.  They worked really well back in the fall, but I worry that they're losing their luster ..... The 3rd marking period is really hard because it's winter, it's always indoor recess, the novelty of everything has worn off, and summer is still forever away...

Year 2 - Day 65 - March 6

Another day where I don't have a good picture of the best part of the day, but our giant Sonic cups will have to do.  We drove up to PA to celebrate baptisms today and spend some time with my husband's family.  My phone died, so I didn't get any family pictures.  I charged it while we were at the party and got a shot of our almost 80 ounces of Sonic Cherry Limeade that we got for the ride home!!!  We got to Sonic during happy hour, his 32 ouncer was only a buck, and my 44 ouncer was $1.10 and came with a token for a free drink on our next visit.  Excellent! :)

Year 2 - Day 64 - March 5

Another zombie book?!? I almost bought this for Mike today because it's by the same person that wrote the zombie book he read this week.  I decided not to which was good because he already read it when he bought it for a friend.  With the Walking Dead TV show getting press & zombie books showing up - will Zombies be the new Vampires????

Instead of buying this, I spent money at lots of crafting and clothing stores today.  Totally the better move. ;)

Additionally, I had a fantastic dessert tonight.  (I forgot my phone & therefore had no camera!)  When we were in White Marsh shopping today, I noticed signs up at Coldstone advertising a bunch of new sundaes.  We took a gift card to the nearby store tonight and split a Caramel Churro sundae.  4 mini churros, a big glob of ice cream, drizzled with caramel & chocolate.  It was delicious, and I'm sad I don't have a picture.

Year 2 - Day 63 - March 4

UPDATE: I wrote this right when I finished the book.  Now it's a week later & I'm still thinking about it.  I think I didn't hate the book, I just hated the horrible closed mindedness of certain characters. I couldn't have really hated the book if I am still thinking about it this much. :) I tweeted Jodi those things, and she responded with thanks. :)

Original Posting:

I usually really enjoy Jodi Picoult books.  I'm not as surprised by the twists anymore, but mostly because I am just expecting a twist so I'm looking for it.  But I always have the release date on my calendar, I'm on the hold list at the library for months, and because my library is awesome, I get the book within a day or so of the release.  So even if I don't like them as much as I liked My Sisters Keeper the first time I read it, they're still something I look forward to.

However, I would go so far as to say I hated this book. (Sorry if you are googling me, Jodi.)  I won't give away any spoilers, so this entry is safe to read if you're planning on reading the book.

As with all the others, the story is told from multiple perspectives.  This time, it's a woman, her ex-husband who joined an insane church after their divorce, and her new girlfriend/partner.  The legal battle is between the ladies and the ex over who will have a baby with the frozen embryos left over from the couple's last cycle of IVF pre-divorce.

Now, politically and religiously, I am completely 100000% on the side of people being allowed to marry who they want, and 2 happy adults raising children, regardless of sexual orientation.  So, I think the closed minded-ness of half the characters is what ticked me off so much.  I also felt like the author rushed the endings & beginnings of relationships & other incidents in the book to make it all happen in a small time frame.  While I am supportive of a happy couple having kids, it seemed like they went from barely knowing each other to the lifetime committment & "lets have a family" pretty quickly. 

I did finish the book tonight after just reading a little bit last night, but I'll admit to skimming some just to get to the end.

A book I *would* like to read is everything that happened between the last chapter & the epilogue.  I felt like this whole book could have been a prologue.

Year 2 - Day 62 - March 3

Look how spectacularly sunny it is at 6:59 am!!  As lovely as it is, it'll be even better in a week & a half when it's sunny after dinner!!!!!!!!!! :)

Year 2 - Day 61 - March 2

I love Gatorade.  That is all.

Year 2 - Day 60 - March 1

Today, I shadowed my media supervisor as part of a leadership class I'm taking.  (Photo of a PBS video collection in central media.)  I had so much fun.  I don't really want to move into an admin position at this point in my life, but it's definitely something I'd be interested in down the road.  I don't have my admin degree yet, so that's one thing.  I'd also be working year round and driving all over the place-  so living so far from the county I work in would be an added difficulty.  But I loved having conversations at the more global level rather than the classroom level.