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:

San Francisco- Fisherman's Wharf and Cablecar Tour

Tom did a great job organizing our day at San Francisco, so I thought I'd commemorate his planning expertise with a blog post. Email me if you're looking for someone to plan our trip through San Francisco.

Fishermans Wharf & Sea Lions

The first thing I would recommend you do (whether you arrive by cruise ship or other means) would be to walk over to Pier 39 and visit the sea lions. We went at 8am, before the crowds arrived. We spent a bit of time barking back at the sea lions and planning the rest of our day.

According to pier39.com:

The sea lions camped out in PIER 39′s West Marina have been endearingly coined The PIER’s “Sea Lebrities.” The boisterous pinnipeds started arriving in droves in January 1990, shortly after the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake. At first they numbered from 10-50, but due to a plentiful herring supply, available dock space and the marina’s protected environment, the population grew to more than 300 within a few months.

Each winter, the population can increase up to 900 sea lions, most of which are male. During the summer months, the sea lions migrate south to the Channel Islands for breeding season, but in recent years a small group stays year-round at PIER 39′s K-Dock.

How to Make Homemade Bread

This is the story about how I fulfilled my greatest goal.

When I was little, I loved laying in my 'fort' under the dining room table. I would sit there, in the sun and smell the bread that was rising on top of the table. Now as an adult, I would occasionally get those fond memories of baked bread, especially whenever walking past the bread factory in our neighborhood. Jump forward to just this last November, when I called my mother to tell her my grand plans for baking my own bread from scratch. You know, just like she used to do.

She then burst my happy bubble right there, and told me it was actually store-bought freezer bread she just threw in a pan to bake. Turns out, that heavenly smell that I remember was because they were put on the table to cool after having been baked.

Of course, being the girl who has finally mastered the recipe for Ice Cubes, I was discouraged. If my mother who made everything from scratch never bothered with baking her own bread, how could I even try? I tried to forget about baking bread, but this last week I got restless and thought 'I can do this'. And I did it. This may be my greatest achievement to date.

Ingredients:

1 packet of Active Dry Yeast (I used Fleischmann's Yeast)
3 cups white flour, additional as needed
1/4 cup Milk
5 tsp. Sugar
5 tsp. Butter
1 tsp Salt
Cooking Spray for loaf pan

Visiting the Redwoods at Muir Woods, California

When booking our cruise in January, we already knew we'd be doing our own thing and not purchasing any of the ship excursions. In general, cruise ship excursion prices are double what you could get if you did the research on your own. Plus, besides driving, attempting to get the best deal or haggling is a big plus for Tom. But when we booked in January, and clicked over to the excursion page (to steal some ideas for us to book on our own), and we saw Muir Woods.

YES! A resounding yes (yes, yes, yes) it was worth it.

Friday Five: Five Inspiring Bloggers

Good Morning!

Today I thought I'd share some of my favorite bloggers for those who are looking for some new reads. I know I regularly update my RSS feeds, so here's a list of some bloggers who I've found to be inspiring lately.