High Five for Friday!

I've had a pretty monumental week, and here's why:

1. I got the green light to get pregnant!

Of course, the problem wasn't if I could get pregnant, but if I should. We had been holding out since February for a 'confirming' test that my new gynecologist said wasn't needed. My bloodwork proves I have Lupus APS, the numbers aren't exactly low, and he doesn't see any need for me to take more tests. Good to hear!

And, while the prospect of taking daily shots in the stomach (that rumor says, burn like crazy) isn't exciting, we're happy with the answer. It could be much worse, and this is a blessing. All we need to do is call the day we find out, come in and get the shots.

Roadtrip to Creation Museum

A few weeks ago we drove from New York to Indiana (and back) in 3 days. And normally, I would NEVER consider such a hard trip, since I'm a wuss and hate being in a car for 15 hour stretches. But, we wanted to visit the Creation Museum for a while, and also to see a part of the country we've never seen before.

Remember how I said I wanted to take a roadtrip? Well mission accomplished. New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Kentucky. And a few minutes in West Virginia and Indiana. Driving though still counts in my book :) Looks like I can knock one more item off my 30 by 30 list!

Our hotel was in Kentucky near the museum so we drove straight there. There were about 50 unscheduled bathroom/coffee/snack/leg-stretch breaks. So, despite Google's 10 hour prediction, we tacked on an additional 5 hours. Somehow. I'm still a little fuzzy on how that all happened.

We left NYC at 3 in the morning on July 4th (you know, to beat traffic) with a full car including Tom, Tom's parents, sister, grandmother, aunt and I. So, a 15-hour drive with a car full of my in-laws. Although I might love them, it is draining. It's hard to keep up with them. They talk fast, often in Spanish (because of Grandma), and since everyone has differences and quirks I often found myself stressed out.

If you are local, the Museum was incredibly easy to get to. If Tom and I were more local, we'd be season pass holders since it was that good. So, once you arrive and park you'll be greeted by a massive building and a large dinosaur.

Once inside you see that they really stuck with the general "dinosaur" theme in their lobby and cafe areas. Which could be confusing at first since dinosaurs are thought of when people speak against Creationism.

And one year later..... I'm Hitting Reset

This year has been amazing and hard.

Amazing, learning how to be married (not that I'll ever finish that process, right?) and settling into a comfortable day-to-day.

Hard, because one year ago this week, we found out we were pregnant. Today I'm going to the lady doctor in an attempt to figure out precisely what went wrong those first two times, it does feel like hitting reset.

And since I want to give my new doc a rundown of what's happened this last year, I figured that I'd write it here as well. Because if this fertility process ever turns into a whole big thing (more than "yup, you have APS, here's some meds, there's your baby) I'd like to make the information available to anyone searching. Because I was coming up empty online, and that just sucked a lot.

Plaster over Lath

I consider myself pretty handy.

When all our furniture needed to be assembled, I was the one helping my new father-in-law assemble while Tom got coffee. We recently removed the bathroom shower doors (oh yeah, I never did show you that fiasco) and I was the one who headed that project.

But I loathe "plaster over lath" walls. I hate them. Smash em all, I say.

5 Essential TED Talks for Bloggers

I love TED talks. Essentially, TED (Technology, Entertainment and Design) talks are videos that allow experts- on a variety of topics- to get their ideas to a large audience. These talks range from "the smelly mystery of the human pheromone" and "how to separate fact and fiction online" to classics such as "my journey to yo-yo mastery".

And since the TED app allows me to save these 'talks' for offline viewing during my commute, I am able to keep myself entertained by a large amount of information. And oftentimes I am watching something and I think "I know someone who could use this information". And, so I've been keeping a list to share with you.


5 TED Talks That Bloggers Need to Watch.

1 Year Blogiversary

1 year (and oddly enough, 100 posts) ago, I decided to document all the major life changes that were happening. On July 1st last year, my husband and I moved our of my tiny apartment into our new place together and officially started learning how to be married.

In this past year, I've written about: