Pinterest

Every day more and more of my friends are joining Pinterest. I was annoyed at having to get an invite, and still think that having to get an invite to join the website is silly, but I’m glad that I did. I annoy CP on a daily basis by showing him something I found on Pinterest…a new recipe, a piece of furniture for our sunroom, DIY crafts, etc.

Not everything that you find on Pinterest works. For instance, I showed CP a picture of a coffee table made out of two skids. His comment was, “That will never work. They use the crappiest wood for skids and even if you sanded them there would be all kinds of splinters and it would never hold anything.” Point taken. I’m glad that I have him around for some logical thinking because otherwise I was starting to get excited about the new coffee table I was going to make! Ha.

So far I have mainly made food off of Pinterest. Here are my comments in case you would like to pin these items.

Sock bun/ Curly Hair Without Heat

(Me with my sock bun)

I tried out this technique one night when bored (see picture above). The video at the end of the post was easy to follow and sure enough I had a sock bun (which I loved as a hairstyle- will definitely be doing it again). The next morning when I took the bun out though, my hair was nice and curly but too poofy. I blame this on the fact that the tutorial tells you to put it high on your head. I will try this again with it lower on my head.

Pepperoni Pizza Monkey Bread

I made this recipe for the Superbowl- but without pepperoni. The recipe was pretty good (I used Whole Foods pre-made pizza dough), but would have liked a little more flavor. The outside pieces of monkey bread were great because you brush the outside of the pan with garlic butter, but the inside were kind of dull (despite the fact that I brushed them with the garlic butter as well). I would probably not make this again.

Cinnamon Sugar Pull-Apart Bread

Delicious. I would definitely make this again. I took it to a party and everyone loved it!

Caramel Brownies

The overall brownie taste was good, but somehow my brownie texture was more like fudge than a brownie. I did use pre-made caramel sauce from Whole Foods so that might have been my issue. My coworkers LOVED these despite the not-quite-right texture.

Skinny Spinach Macaroni bites

The idea of putting healthier mac and cheese (with spinach to up the healthy factor) into a muffin tin is a good one…but the mac and cheese didn’t have a lot of flavor. I would not make this again.

2 Minute Salted Caramel Mug Cake

Last but certainly not least, the mug cake. One night CP declared that he wanted dessert. This doesn’t happen very often so I was shocked. He suggested going for ice cream; I suggested that he help me try out this fast recipe. I made sure that I had all of the ingredients and ended up making the salted caramel chocolate mug cake (I substituted white chocolate chips for the salted caramel pieces). OMG. I couldn’t believe that it worked but after two minutes in the microwave, there it was: a delicious, moist, and gooey chocolate cake that I whipped up in minutes. In hindsight finding this post was probably a bad idea because I know that I have the ingredients on hand and will make the cake again!

Have you pinned anything good recently? Leave the link in the comments so that I can check it out!

*All images taken from Pinterest (other than my hair picture)*

Almost time for some SUN

Next week by this time CP and I will have landed in Punta Cana, Dominican Republic. I can’t wait! This vacation has totally snuck up on me (like the Bahamas trip did). Maybe because I am getting older and time seems to be flying by?

The first weekend will be all wedding-related activities. This is our first destination wedding outside the US and I’m glad that we were able to swing it! We are looking forward to a welcome dinner, the wedding, a boat cruise, etc. But instead of leaving after all of the wedding activities are over, CP and I decided that we would stay for an entire week so that we had time to scuba dive and explore!

Overall this trip is probably going to be less expensive than the Bahamas because everything is included. We are going to be staying at the Majestic Elegance which according to their website is a 5-star resort. A bottle of champagne along with four bottles of liquor await us in our room. Last I looked the temperature will be 80 degrees.

I CAN'T WAIT.

*We are simply not going to think or talk about the fact that I have to meet some of CP's friends at a very, very bad weight. And that these same people are going to see me in a bathing suit. And most likely see my flabby, gross arms in my sleeveless wedding attire. *sigh*

Thank goodness for a random Monday holiday!

UGH. It’s already Wednesday, I don’t have anything planned after work this whole week and yet I am feeling exhausted and beat up. Boooo. And this is only my second day at work this week!

· Saturday morning I woke up to do a stair workout with a friend. We did 10 sets of an outside 87-stair amphitheatre. The race we have in late March is 688 stairs but we want to be ready! In other good news my friend and I have both raised over $500 (there is a $100 minimum) which means we will be invited to the VIP after party. Woo hoo!
· I then had a glorious hour in New York & Company shopping for myself. CP and I have ourselves on a strict clothing budget ($150/month) which we generally don’t use every month. But it had been a while since I went shopping and I needed a few work clothes. I found some really cute tops and the buy 1 get 1 free pants event is always great.

I bought this polka-dot shirt (I LOVE polka dots!) in black.

I got this shirt and a matching red cardigan. I'm wearing it today!

I got this shirt in blue to put under a couple of suit jackets.

· CP and I spent most of Saturday afternoon cooking/baking for each other. My new favorite cookbook is Cook’s Illustrated. We get the monthly magazine but last year they compiled 900+ pages of recipes into an amazing cookbook. It was a GREAT Christmas present for CP. That night we feasted on braised lamb shanks, creamy polenta, and broccoletti. For dessert I made a classic fresh fruit tart. The custard alone was to die for. I will definitely make it again (despite the fact that the actual tart shell took a long time to make).

Yes the raspberries are shaped like a heart. I am a dork.

· Sunday we spent time at the CT dog show with friends, then tired the dogs out at a local state park.
· Monday I had a glorious day off from work so Buster and I and met a friend and her dog for a hike. (Fuzzy Britches was a little sore and tired from her day on Sunday so she kept CP company while he worked.) Our 2+ hour hike was refreshing and Buster was beat afterwards because he was racing around the woods most of the time with his friend.

Buster on our hike

· Other than that….I’m stuck coming into work all this week and next week because my coworker is out having surgery on her knee. I'm crossing my fingers that I can go back to working from home two days a week after we get back from vacation. I am going to miss working in sweatpants. In addition, I am doing most of my coworkers work so it makes for very busy days and I’m forecasting some late nights.

....and I have no conclusion for this post. :-)

*I was not compensated for the products in this post. All opinions are mine.*

Am I being too sensitive?

After getting my period yesterday, I suddenly felt hopeful once again. Things are starting to get back on track with trying to conceive. I want to continue to hold on to that hope. I don’t want to have wild hopes of getting pregnant the first month back on the wagon, but positive thinking can’t hurt. Was the surgery all that we needed to get rid of our infertility obstacles? I’m not entirely convinced that it was, but who knows?

Our plan has changed slightly on the IUI. We are a little skittish in trying an IUI this month after it took so long for my period to come back. We only have three IUIs covered under our insurance plan so I don’t want to “waste” one when I may not even ovulate this month. So, I have started to track my temperatures once again and hopefully I will not only ovulate, but also have a normal luteal cycle (thanks to my trusty B6 pills), AND a regular 28 day cycle. Cross your fingers!! If all goes well and we don’t conceive naturally this month, late March will be our first IUI.

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While I have positive thinking and positive thoughts running through me again, something that I saw yesterday on Facebook stopped me in my tracks. A family friend of CP’s that comes to family functions posts a lot of articles on lactation, as she is a lactation consultant. CP has already warned me that if we get pregnant we should probably hide it from her because she is a little nuts (she cornered my friend at my bridal shower who just gave birth two weeks beforehand because she wasn’t breastfeeding). She is the same woman that posted the birthing video of a woman using dolphins as “aquatic midwives” (if you have been reading me that long).

Anyway, the article she posted is how c-sections may hurt premies. Her comment? Nature designed babies to be squeezed out, not pulled out. On the face of that, I completely agree. Natural births are how we were intended to have babies. I too have watched The Business of Being Born and think that the rise in c-sections in this country is scary. But maybe the rise in c-sections is not simply because women want to schedule their births and then get a tummy tuck afterwards. Maybe the rise is due to more people like me having to go to fertility doctors and have surgery to remove endo, cysts, or fibroids in order to get pregnant….then destined to have c-sections.

In general, why do women have premies? Usually because there is something wrong with the pregnancy- an infection, bleeding, etc. So I would think that while it would be nice to say you don’t want to have a c-section with a premie, if there is an emergency, wouldn’t you rather get the baby out and alive? I don’t know the answers as I am clearly not a doctor.

I guess I took offense to the fact that I assume that she is going to think that I am a bad person for having a c-section instead of a vaginal delivery, despite having a reason for it. Or maybe I took offense because I am still sad that I will never be able to have a natural childbirth. Either way- am I just being too sensitive?

Happy Valentine's Day

Happy Valentine’s Day everyone!

I got the best V-day present ever- MY PERIOD!!! Okay, so it’s not the best present ever and it makes for an unromantic evening, but still YAY!!!!!!!!!!! Double YAY to the fact that it seems to be back to what I consider my “normal” period- no seriously heavy flow days and no big clots. TMI? Sorry. Here’s hoping now that the endo and the fibroid are gone it stays that way! Actually, best case scenario is that I don’t get it again for at least another 10+ months, but that might be pushing my luck! :-)

So I finished my 10 days of Provera, the progesterone that was supposed to jump start my period. The prescription information said that I would likely start my period within 3-7 days of starting the medicine. When I finished the pills and saw nothing, I waited another day then called my doctor. I guess it depends on the woman, but it can take up to two weeks after finishing the 10 days of pills to get your period. Good to know.

In real V-day news, CP and I won’t be doing anything romantic tonight. I am hosting a fondue party tomorrow so we are going to tidy up the house and have a delicious, but unremarkable dinner. Saturday will be our celebration dinner. I’ll be making some sort of pie or tart for dessert and CP is going to make rack of lamb. Not sure of the sides or even how he is going to do the lamb (I did request no mint jelly-ewww), but that’s the plan. I’m looking forward to it!

What are you doing this Valentine’s day?

Word vomit

My life these days is full of non-baby making thoughts and events, but every time I sit down to write, it’s what I feel like fleshing out. Bleh.

Saturday was spent cleaning and trying to tire the dogs out before CP’s dad & wife, uncle & aunt came to visit. I really like to hang out with them because unlike CP’s mom and her husband, we have stuff in common. They also don’t tell the same stories over and over and over. I hate to say that I like them better, but I kind of do. They actually want to go out and do things (like go to a museum like we did that afternoon). They also like to partake in good food- so we took them to our favorite Peruvian restaurant for dinner. They LOVED it. And I loved my passion fruit pisco sour drink. How had I not tried that yet?? We even introduced his family to Archer once we got home (the third season is currently showing on FX but we have seasons 1 and 2 on DVD). They loved it- which is the reaction of everyone that we get to watch the show. Why are you not watching it yet????

Yesterday after the family left we met two friends and their dogs at a local state park and watched as all of the dogs played and generally got along. Score! Our dogs decided to wade into the river- I can only imagine how cold it was! The high yesterday was 27 so as soon as they came out icicles formed on their fur. They couldn’t have cared less. Both are STILL tired today from all of the running around. Unfortunately now both of them need a bath so we are off to the do-it-yourself dog wash tonight.

Whitney Houston’s death is tragic, but she hasn’t been all too relevant recently so I’m not broken up about it. I guess that’s pretty normal for me though. If a celebrity dies I feel bad for their family, but I don’t personally know them, so I’m not sad myself.

Instead of watching the Grammys, CP and I spent last night curled up on the couch in front of a fire reading. It was very relaxing and I hope to do it more. No electronics (not counting my Nook of course) or tv needed. It was nice.

A friend posted this link on Facebook showing Twitter and FB statuses of girls saying that they would let Chris Brown beat them up. It is horrifying (and so, so sad). Why did the Grammys let him perform again? I'm all for second chances, but when Hollywood applauds people like Chris Brown, Woody Allen (marrying the adopted daughter of your wife), and Roman Polanski (raping young girls), etc. what kind of message are you sending?

Enough word vomit from me. How was your weekend?

New doctor

STILL waiting on the Provera to do its job and start my period. I would really like to get this show on the road!!

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CP and I decided a few months ago that I was going to switch to a new GYN doctor because it would have been nice to know about my fibroid/surprise endo BEFORE wasting a year of trying to have kids with no success. I had told my old GYN that I was having tremendously heavy periods with large clots and that wasn’t my “normal” until a few years ago. She never did anything about it. Even when I had my HSG test she noted that my uterus was shaped a little funny, but didn’t think to have further tests run to make sure there wasn’t a reason for that (aka a fibroid pushing into the uterus). It would have been nice.

So yesterday I had my annual ladies exam with a doctor who was recommended to me by a close friend. She had three C-sections with the group and thought they were fantastic. They take my insurance and they are located five minutes from my house. Perfect.

My new GYN is really nice and made sure to go over the records sent over by my old doctor. Her comment? “I see you had a busy year last year.” Yep.

She told me a bit about the practice and how it works if I do get pregnant. When she mentioned how it would be fairly easy for me to plan ahead to have a specific doctor do my C-section, I couldn’t help myself and asked why I couldn’t do a VBAC (vaginal birth after cesarean- something friends of mine have had). I’m glad that I asked because although my fertility doctor told me about the recent studies and the risks, my new GYN told me exactly why it wasn’t a good idea.

When you have the surgery that I had to remove the fibroid, the doctor cuts into the side of your uterus. That is the best place to cut because it allows for faster healing….however, it is a weak section of your uterus. When you have a C-section the bottom part of the uterus is cut and that is actually the strongest part of your uterus. So women that have had C-sections can often go on to have a vaginal birth because their uterus won’t rupture in the middle of childbirth. Because a weak part of my uterus has been weakened further due to my surgery, it is not advisable for me to have a vaginal birth.

I left the office satisfied with that explanation….and satisfied with my new doctor. I told her my concerns with my previous doctor and she understood. Hopefully I’ll be back in her office again prior to my next annual visit because I will be pregnant! Trying to keep the hope alive.

Hair help needed

Ladies, I need some hair help. I have been using Garnier Fructis Mousse for years now on my curly hair. I started using the brand because I used Garnier Fructis shampoo and conditioner- they smelled so good! With my switch to more natural products that brand was taken out of my shower, but I never made a switch for my hair styling product.

Sometimes the mousse works great and my hair looks nice and natural. Other times my hair gets frizzy or the opposite occurs- it looks stiff or wet. No bueno. I’m getting to the end of my latest bottle and I’m wondering if anyone out there has a suggestion on another kind of mousse that keeps the frizz down, but keeps the hair looking natural (aka not wet or stiff).

If it helps, I have curly hair that is somewhat fine. The picture below is from my wedding day…I don’t normally curl my hair with a curling iron. Usually I get out of the shower, wrap my hair in a towel for a minute or two, and then scrunch mousse in my hair. A fairly simple routine.

Now that I am trying to wear my hair down to work more often, I would like to buy a product that is a bit more consistent. Bonus points if it is a more natural product!

Any help?

Ten for Tuesday

1. How do you feel about Groundhog’s Day? I don’t really pay attention to it because here in the Northeast, we are going to have weeks more of winter anyway.

2. What color are your fingernails right now? (Bonus points if you include a picture.) I don’t like to wear nail polish on my fingernails because it chips after a day, but I do have on a sparkly blue color on my toenails right now (it’s Sally Hansen HD Hi-Definition Nail Color in “Laser”).

3. Do you like riddles? Umm sure?

4. When you were 10, how old did you think “old” was? At your current age, how old do you think “old” is? Old was definitely someone over 30 when I was growing up. Now old is probably 60?

5. Do you wish on stars? No. I am too logical and boring to think about doing that.

6. Do you recycle? Of course! We also compost. Between the two we have drastically cut down on how much garbage gets hauled away each year.

7. On a scale from 1-10, how good of a cook are you? Oh I’m probably only a 5 while CP is definitely at least a 10. The boy is ridonkulous (and I LOVE IT!).

8. Do you color your hair? Professionally or at home? Hell yeah. Sadly I have had gray hairs since the age of 6. I remember in high school when I was bored in class I would look through my hair to find grays in order to pull them out (now thinking back to that- gross!). I now have a lovely skunk patch near the temple on the right side of my head and I HATE IT. I have to go every six weeks to get my hair colored, but at least I love my hair stylist (she truly is the best). I’m thinking about changing up my brown hair to add in a few red highlights next week!

9. On a scale from 1-10, how do you rate your manners? It definitely depends on where I am and whom I am with. If I am at home with CP, my elbows are on the table and manners are partially thrown out the door. If I am at a fancy restaurant with work folks or even my parents, I make sure to follow my manners. I do think that anyone that chews with their mouth open- no matter where they are- is nasty.

10. Who are the last 5 people you have texted? My sister, a friend from college (who saw my sister at a Super Bowl party), and then three local friends.

Monday bullets

I *might* have drank a bit too much this weekend….thus the bullet points.

• I got my blood test results back on Friday night. I am not pregnant (DUH) and I haven’t ovulated. The doctor decided to put me on Provera, a type of progesterone that should bring on my period in a few days. BRING.IT.ON.


• Saturday morning a friend and I found some outdoor stairs and proceeded to “train” for our stair race in late March. We couldn’t remember how many steps we will have to climb during the race (688), so we did the outdoor steps a total of 17 times. Turns out we did WAY more than needed for the race. Yay! However, we didn’t stretch afterwards and my calves are SO TIGHT. Walking down stairs is the hardest thing to do right now- I keep trying to stretch my calves any chance that I get….hopefully the soreness subsides by tomorrow morning.


• Saturday night CP and I headed over to a friend’s house for Game night. Since there were a bunch of people there we split up and played a few different games and then switched part of the way through the night. My favorite new game? Apples to Apples. That game was so much fun- I think we may buy it to play it at home!


• Yesterday CP and I hosted a Superbowl party. Buster made it his goal to furiously bark at everyone that came into the house…which is great for would-be burglars, but not so great for parties. Luckily he calmed down quickly. I saw on Jillian Michael’s Facebook status (yes, I am “friends” with her) that people eat an average of 4200 calories the day of the Superbowl. I ate a light breakfast and no lunch, but we had way too much food (as always), and although I drink light beer it still adds up. So yeah, gym time and healthy eating is quite necessary!


• I rooted for the Pats yesterday and was disappointed when the hated Giants won. Boooooo. Also? CP not happy.


• What did you think of the commercials? I liked the chocolate M&M commercial that played early on, the Matthew Broderick commercial made me want to watch Ferris Bueller’s Day Off someday soon, I wanted the St. Bernard dog-lookalike (albeit a little smaller) from the Volkswagen commercial, and I loved the Sketchers commercial with the pug beating the greyhounds on the track. What were your favorites?


• I thought Madonna wasn't too bad. Half the time she looked like she was phoning in the performance, then half the time she looked into it. I thought it was smart to have younger performers on stage with her, but thought that Cee Lo Green was pretty bad.

DIY wreath

Have I mentioned recently that I love Pinterest? Despite the annoyance of having to be "invited" to join the site, I have been having fun pinning! I pinned an awesome acorn wreath and used the idea to create my own!

Here is the final product:

It was so easy!

Buy one straw wreath from Michaels (this one is 12").

Pick up half a grocery store bag of mini pine cones from your yard (really you can use anything that has an interesting shape/color!)


Using a hot glue gun, start to glue the mini pine cones to your wreath. I started off moving straight across the wreath....but with different sized pine cones I changed my strategy and started shoving pine cones wherever I could fit them in.

Here is a closeup. At first I was worried about seeing the straw wreath behind the pine cones (should I spray paint the straw either brown or black?), but decided not to worry about it too much. Turns out it wasn't a big deal.

The whole project took me a few hours to complete but I think that the time was totally worth it! After finishing I tied a silver ribbon on the wreath and hung it on our front door.

Success!

Veteran DIY people- do I need to spray the wreath/pine cones with anything?

What have you pinned lately?

Natural running

Bloodwork was done yesterday morning to figure out what is going on in my body- results to come later today! Hopefully the doctor has some good news for me….

Meanwhile, yesterday I went to my local Fleet Feet Running store (where I did my half marathon training last year) for a Natural Running Clinic, put on by Newton Running Company. Last year I read Born to Run (my review is here), which made me want to start thinking about running in minimalist shoes. At the time though, I was training for my half marathon and wasn’t about to jump into a whole new running style.

But recently I got to thinking that maybe the only way I am going to get rid of my plantar fasciitis is by changing my running style, getting minimalist shoes, and continuing to stretch/wear my night braces. I also hope to get rid of the knee brace that I have to wear every time I lace up my sneakers for a run. So when I saw this clinic pop up I knew that I wanted to attend.

The Newton rep was friendly and very helpful. We all laced up demo shoes and headed out for a few drills. A lot of the drills I had seen my college track teammates do during practice and before meets so they were not foreign to me. We then took about a ½ mile jog out and back from the store to test out the shoes. I was focusing on my cadence (get tips on natural running here) because with natural running your foot should strike the road more often (ideally three times a second). However in focusing on my cadence, I started running on my toes instead of hitting flatfoot….which made my calves cramp. Thankfully I figured out that I was doing it wrong and corrected it on the way back.

Turning into a natural runner is going to be hard. The rep said that it would take at least a month to get to the point where you don’t have to think about it anymore after going out for a run. That’s probably if you run more often than I do…. But the clinic got me excited about pain-free running so I found the “beginner” Newton’s on sale and ordered them today. I can’t wait to take them out for a spin (hopefully this weekend but most likely they won’t arrive until next week)!

Have you tried barefoot/natural running? Have any tips for me?

In other exercise/fitness news, I found a great quote on Pinterest recently: “No matter how slow you go, you are still lapping everyone on the couch.” LOVE THIS. I swear I should put it up in every room of my house for motivation.

This post is not sponsored by Newton.

The State of NSC- January 2012

The State of NSC
A monthly take on my world.

Weight: Not sure because we need a new battery for our scale (but I'm sure the number ain't pretty).

Current Feeling: Bloated and fat. Frustrated by my reproductive system.

Running Stats
Total Miles Run: 11. Despite wanting to be more consistent with my runs, I only ran 4 times this month. Having to wake up the next morning after bootcamp AND an afternoon run was difficult so I didn't do it very often.
Time Spent Running: 2 hours, 31 minutes (I’m SLOW because I am in the beginning stages of C25K again).
Longest Single Run: 3.33 miles

Current aches and pains: Just my usual- plantar fasciitis.

Current Favorite Song: Rihanna- We Found Love

Looking forward to: NO MORE WAKING UP AT 5am!!! I was not a happy person waking up that early and I am impressed that my friends and I made it as long as we did. That being said, I wasn’t a huge fan of the boot camp that we did so I didn’t sign up to do it after our Groupon expired.

Annoyed about: Despite the tough boot camp workouts, I don’t think that I lost any weight this month.

Proud about: At least I have gained back some core and arm strength from boot camp. My surgery pretty much wrecked any ab strength I had.

Ummm HOW IS IT ALREADY FEBRUARY???

How are you feeling with the start of this new month?