Thankful on Thursday

Today I am most thankful for good friends and family. I am so lucky to have amazing and supportive people in my life. We have been pretty open about our inability to have children and everyone has been fabulous over the 2.5 years we've been dealing with it. Two people/couples are specifically standing out to me today.

I'm thankful for my sister and brother-in-law who allow us to tag along to almost everything they do with their son. O is the closest thing I'll have to a child of my own and I cherish every moment I have with him. I'm thankful they are our "besties" and that they invited us to Cavalia last night. It was such an amazing show and I'm glad we got to experience it with them!

I'm thankful for my friend K. She always thinks to ask how I'm feeing about things as we continue on in this journey. She lives in another state and I was so excited to get a card from her this week. Just a little something to say she is thinking of us and she sent 2 pictures of her gorgeous daughter A. It is framed in my office next to my picture of O! I can't wait until they are living in CO again so we can see them as much as we want!

What are you thankful for today?

Do you know?

How dark it is this time of year at 6AM? I'm sure most of you do but I had forgotten since I'm not usually up that early! I'm not a morning person, I don't start work super early like I know some do. I prefer to start my day about 7AM...

In the Summer I usually get up once or twice a week at 6:30 to run outside with our Ridgey. She loves it and I love it too - once I'm up and finally awake that is. The sun was always shining brightly and it felt so good to be out in the warm, quiet morning. I try to work out 5 days a week and normally do so in the evenings (not a morning person, remember?). So when things come up after work and I plan ahead I workout in the morning.

Very different getting up to workout in the Fall/Winter! It's hard!

This morning my alarm went off at 6. I was confused - it was still dark as night, the heat hadn't kicked on yet and I was so comfy under the comforter and blankets! So I hit snooze and vowed I would be up in 10 minutes. And you know what? I was. I put on my sports bra, sweats and a t-shirt. I let out the dogs and got in the car to go to the gym. It was miserable out, I can't lie - dark, cold and SO windy (as it has been for the last 3 days here in CO...). There were a few other people at the gym and I actually got in a great workout! It was nice to watch the sun rise along with the other gym rats. I was there almost an hour and felt really refreshed when I got home and got ready for work.

Now I can enjoy my evening out. My sister got free tickets to a cirque du soleil-type show downtown and invited MrHoppy and I to join them for a double date night. We're going to meet at my parents house for dinner (they are watching the nephew) and head down together for the show. It starts at 8 so I know it will be a late-ish night but I am excited. The 6AM wake up call was worth it - work out is done, I feel good and I'm going to spend time with my 3 favorite people tonight!

Happy hump day!

Weekend Recap - Pumpkins and Fall Fun!

While the hubby was away this weekend I was busy! Friday night ended up being super fun. I went out downtown with my friend M and we got pretty drunk at "her" bar. We gossiped, stayed up late and just hung out. I was in desperate need of some girl time! Even with the late night I got up early Saturday morning (starving and with a pounding head) and made the trek home. My Mom came over and we did some painting in our house. I love the way the guest room turned out! The color is called "Tony Taupe" and it goes so well with the furniture and bedding in that room. I love the contrast with our bright white baseboards and doors. I ended up doing a few other little projects too. I found some sale Halloween/Fall decorations and put them up. Damn I'm productive when MrHoppy is gone! The rest of my night was spent lounging with a movie at home by myself. Sometimes you just need some alone time!

On Sunday my awesome sister and brother-in-law invited me to join them at the pumpkin patch! I am so happy to be included in these outings since we don't have children of our own to have these experiences with. It was so fun. A little windy (annoying), but fun.

This place is just a little family run patch, they had dogs running around, 2 donkeys, rabbits, a corn maze, a big blow up slide and of course the pumpkin patch itself. Since O is so little she didn't charge any of us the $10 fee and said we could do everything and she would just charge us for the pumpkins. Score! So we walked around, K took O down the slide a couple times while my sister and I watched and took pictures. I was SO mad we don't have a new camera yet. I used my iPhone as usual and got some cute pictures. They brought his Halloween costume for the pictures and I almost died from the cuteness...

 When we were done at the pumpkin patch we headed back to their house to carve our giant pumpkins. Did I mention that the owner only charged us $5/pumpkin? And they are SO big! I had printed some patterns on Friday at work and decided right away I would do an owl. I LOVE owls so it was fitting. I think he turned out pretty cute! This picture sucks because again, only have my iPhone and it was dark and lit up but the flash goes off no matter what I do in that light. But it gives you an idea of how cute it is. :)

This random picture was snapped last night as I was getting into bed. What is it you ask?

Oh that's my 85lb Ridgeback wrapped up in a blanket. She spends a few minutes every night getting her blanket arranged on her bed and crawling under it. Then we usually cover her up the rest of the way when we get into bed. Ridiculous right?! She curls up into the tiniest ball you have ever seen and stays that way all night. She is a silly girl... And that bed is not that big, I swear...

Prostitution

Hello, my name is MrsHoppy and I'm a prostitute.

Seriously, this is what MrHoppy said last night. It's all in good fun really but I guess I should explain myself...

Sometimes I'm not in the mood. At all. You know what I mean ladies. Not to mention I am on my period and oral sex is THE last thing on my mind. But MrHoppy was feeling frisky and going out of town and all... So I was pretty sure I could get something in return for his pleasure... I am so bad.

I am a bargaining type of gal, we've traded things for sexual favors in the past. But hey, it's OK, we're married for God's sake! Shoes, clothes, etc. There are things in my closet that have been the result of MrHoppy really "needing" something when I'm not in the mood. And let me just say that he gets laid all the time. It's not something lacking in our marriage and I swear, he will agree with this statement! These are rare occasions.

Last night was a perfect example of this. He came downstairs and asked what the chances were of him getting any "sexy time" before he left. A bloated, crampy and irritable MrsHoppy said "slim to none" and went back to my wine and the TV. Here is how the the conversation went after that:

MrHoppy sits down next to me and says: "how much will it cost me?"

MrsHoppy: "I'm a bargaining type of woman, what is the offer?"

MrHoppy: "how about a nice dinner with me?"

MrsHoppy: "nah, we always do that."

MrHoppy: "how about the money I left on your nightstand for paint for the guest room and going out Friday night?"

MrsHoppy: "that doesn't count, I was going to get it anyway. My manual labor in our house DEFINITELY doesn't count."

MrHoppy (getting flustered and desperate): "how about the jeggings you want from Express?"

MrsHoppy (totally amused at this point): "you already owe me those from a bet we made about Dexter 3 weeks ago and you still haven't paid up!"

MrHoppy (getting very desperate): "fine, how about a new dress for the wedding next month. $50 max though"

MrsHoppy: "SOLD!"

And you can use your imagination as to what happened after that. :)

$50 isn't a lot for a dress but I don't like to spend much on dresses anyway. I don't wear them often and I'm fine with going to Forever 21 or something for a dress I'll likely only wear one time. I'm hoping to get a day or afternoon off next week (since I've been covering work for TWO weeks by myself!) to go shopping. I'll get my dress and my jeggings and call 'er good!

Happy Friday everyone! Hope you have a fabulous weekend!

DisneyWorld!

I can't even tell you how ready I am for a vacation from work! And we confirmed all our details for our trip yesterday afternoon so I'm pretty excited!

We are going to Florida next month for one of MrHoppy's college roommates wedding. MrHoppy is in it (of course!) and we haven't seen "M" since 2007 so I'm really excited. We'll stay with them for 4 nights (along with another couple from college that I haven't met yet) and do all the fun wedding stuff with them. I haven't met his fiance yet and it sounds like she's pretty awesome. Likes to have a good time so we should get along great!

The day after the wedding we'll head North to spend the day and night with my Grandparents in Daytona Beach. One night is about all we can do - they have really become home-bodies (which is fine!) but we get bored there pretty quickly. We'll probably take them out to dinner and hang out. We'll spend the next day with them and then that afternoon head to DisneyWorld for 2 nights!!

With Grandparents that live in Florida I have gone to all the attractions there over the years. Magic Kingdom, Epcot, etc. But MrHoppy has never been! He's been to DisneyLand but I am kind of partial to DisneyWorld myself. :) We are staying at the Port Orleans Hotel and I'm pretty excited about it. I've never actually stayed at Disney so this is a first for me. We're planning to hang out Monday night, probably check out downtown Disney and the Boardwalk. We heard the House of Blues bar there is pretty fun so I'm sure we'll go there. Hit up some nightlife and then we'll spend all day the next day in the park. My personal favorite is Magic Kingdom so that's where I'd like to go. We'll see. Our flight leaves the very next afternoon so we'll have to fit in as much as possible for those 2 nights!

I just keep telling myself it will be here soon. It's getting me through work and all that we have going on until then. I really am excited - it will fly by but I can't wait!

Decorating - My New Obsession

I have had home decor on the mind the last few weeks. Like, seriously on my mind. Like, I lay in bed thinking about all the changes I want to make in our house! Funds are tight right now with a week-long vacation planned next month so I am just waiting. Waiting and obsessing about it!

I think what I'll end up doing is change one room at a time. Slowly.

Step one will be this weekend. I'm going to paint one of our guest rooms. It's a light green and I haven't liked it from day one. The hubby painted it when we moved in and when I saw it - I hated it. But he had put so much time and work into it I haven't changed it. But this weekend my Mom is coming over and we are finally getting rid of the green! I haven't bought the paint yet but I think it's going to be a very neutral brown. I might take a picture down in there too. I like the bedding so that's a plus... Then that room should be OK.

Step two will be in the living room. Next month I want to get new curtains and new end tables that match the new furniture we bought in September. We also have a large open area over our fireplace. It's hard to fill and right now I have a large potted plant there with some candles and framed pictures. There isn't anywhere to hang anything - it's just like a huge open shelf. I'd like to rearrange that - any suggestions anyone?? I'll try to take a picture of it and post it here so you know what I'm talking about.

Don't even get me started on our bedroom. I love the paint and bedding but the decor needs some serious help... And I have a serious budget. Daddy Warbucks is strict when it comes to this type of thing! :) So I'll just research and look at ideas online for now... More to come on this topic I'm sure!

We're trying to sell our big desk in our office as well. I have a table in there with my sewing machine so I want it to be more of an area for me. That will be one of the last rooms that I work on so I haven't thought too much about it yet...

Whew!

So glad the last 4 days are finally over with! We moved our office to a new location and I knew things would either go smoothly or be a disaster. Guess which it was...? Of course it was the latter of the two!

Let me just start by explaining that our new lease was signed in June. June people. The construction in the new office was supposed to be done in July so we would move in August 1st. To say this contractor sucked is an understatement. August 1st quickly turned to September 1st, which turned into October 1st. And then after all the errors made in the construction were found it was changed to October 15th. Guess who had a 2 week motorcycle trip planned for these dates? My boss/Dad. So guess who was left alone to over-see the move and get everything set up in the new location? Yours truly!

So let's start with Friday. We share an office with 2 other people. J was off for the day (convenient) and T was at the new location while a new desk was delivered and the phone lines were switched. I was left to move everything I could carry from the old location to the new location alone for the morning. I only cried once after smashing my fingers multiple times and then dropping a laptop holder-thingy on my toe. Lunch rolled around and after eating I felt better. T was even able to come help load in the afternoon. I was out of there by 5.

Saturday morning we got up at the crack of dawn to move the big items into the new location. I showed up with my Dad's truck and guess what? The new location didn't pass code so everything that had been placed in our offices Friday by ME had to be moved BACK out and into the empty space next door. Are you freaking kidding me?? At least this douche-tastic contractor paid movers to do this part of the job. But all my sweat and tears on Friday were for nothing.

So... We weren't able to get set up over the weekend as planned. Monday would not go smoothly either and I was about to find that out!

The inspector didn't come back until late Monday morning. So after lunch we started moving everything from the empty space next door into our new offices. Except now it's not orgainzied. We have to figure our where everything goes. And nothing can be put away or set up yet because we're still waiting for another inspector to clear the electrical part of the office. So about 4PM this guy shows up for about 3 minutes and says it's fine.

It's Tuesday at 11AM and I am somewhat set up to do business. Do you know how much my boss/Dad owes me? A lot. Monetary and favors. And believe me - when I go pick decor and plants and whatever else I decide I want for this place... He is going to pay for every cent!

So that was my weekend disaster. I'm glad it's over and I NEVER say that about a weekend!