waging a war

Readers, it's been a full-out war over here. It's nature versus the Wilsons. And nature has been winning.

My allergies have been hellish--think puffy, itchy eyes; runny, itchy nose; and itchy itchy throat hell. It's been awful. And then when I tried to pick up some Alavert-D at the pharmacy counter, Oregon denies me saying that in Oregon I need a prescription. I may or may not have teared up at the pharmacy counter and then proceeded to vilify this hippee-dippee state throughout the weekend.

And Asher fought an on-again-off-again fever for a week, finishing up with snot and coughing. And then on top of my allergies, I just picked up Asher's bug. So now that my allergies are finally under control (because you can bet your daily fountain drink that I got that damn prescription) I have sinuses full of never-ending snot. (TMI? Maybe? Nah.)

This whole past week has been full of children's TV programs, Cars, and too many tissues. (And does anyone else choke up when almost all of Radiator Springs shows up as Lightning McQueen's pit crew? And then when Lightning pushes the King to the finish line? Anyone? No? Well.)

And no one tells you that when your kid is sick for a week that you'll end up spending the next week reteaching all of those things you had previously conquered. Like falling asleep on your own. And not watching TV all day. And keeping the pacifier and blanket in your room. So pretty much your toddler's whole world falls apart once he's not sick enough to transcend Mom's house rules.

So.

What wars have you been fighting lately? Are you winning? Because I'm not sure I am.

*face palm*

usage query

Would I say, "I am continually sleep deprived," or "I am continuously sleep deprived"? I'm too tired to make a sound decision.

But let's go with the latter.

I am continuously sleep deprived.

meal planning

This week Asher worked on redefining the nap. Redefining is really code for eliminating.

While he's succeeded in not napping, he has not succeeded in staying happy about it.

We're working on it.

In the meantime, I made chocolate chip cookies for dinner.

Yes, dinner.

Thick and Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies a.k.a. No-Nap Survival
Taken from Baking Illustrated

2 cups plus 2 tablespoons unbleached all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
12 tablespoons unsalted butter [though I like these better with salted butter], melted and cooled until warm
1 cup packed light or dark brown sugar
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 large egg plus 1 egg yolk
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
chocolate chips [I prefer Ghiradelli 60% cocoa chips and lots of them]

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees and line baking sheets with parchment paper.
2. Whisk flour, baking soda, and salt together in medium bowl. Set aside.
3. Mix the butter and sugars until thoroughly blended. Beat in the egg, yolk, and vanilla until combined. Add the dry ingredients, and beat at low speed just until combined. Stir in chips to taste. [Remember, these are best with lots of chocolate chips.]
4. Roll a scant 1/4 cup of dough into a ball. Hold the dough ball with the fingertips of both hands and pull into 2 equal halves. With the jagged surfaces facing up, join the halves together at their base, again forming a single ball, being careful not to smooth the dough's uneven surface. Place on baking sheets about 2 1/2 inches apart. [I can usually fit six cookies on a cookie sheet.]
5. Bake until the cookies are light golden grown and the outer edges start to harden yet the centers are still soft and puffy, about 15 to 18 minutes. [I bake mine for 13 minutes.] Cool the cookies on the sheets.
6. Eat for dinner.

options

Motherhood presents choices to me that I didn't usually have before.

Shower or eat? Eat or sleep?

Let's appreciate the simple things this weekend, like eating, yeah?

memorial weekend parties

I spent my weekend in Denver with the family (Josh couldn't come--no vacation time and expensive plane tickets). My weekend was wonderful and busy. We were going from the time I got there to the time I left.

:: The little brother graduated high school (though little is poor word choice--John is a full foot taller than I am).

{Taking self-portraits with this graduate is just about impossible given his incredible height}

:: We celebrated graduation with a big family dinner, complete with marinated flank steak and grilled salmon. Plus two cakes. Obviously.

:: Emily went through the temple on Saturday. (This was the ultimate reason I came to Colorado for the weekend.)

{Super windy day}

:: My close friends threw me a delightful baby shower. Those newborn onesies just about kill me with cuteness.

:: Sunday night Mom made homemade donuts for John and some of his friends for another graduation celebration.

{Because who doesn't love a picture of a newborn onesie?}

I returned to Oregon yesterday and crashed on the couch in complete exhaustion--it was a great weekend, but right now, this girl is all partied out.

recuperation

Here's a prescription from me to you in case you end up working until 10:00 one night and have to go back into work at 6:00 the next morning for store inventory, like I did:

:: Do everything in stretchy pants
:: Treat yourself to lunch at your favorite sandwich shop
:: Rent a chick-flick at RedBox
:: Catch up on your TV shows
:: Talk to your mom and sister on the phone
:: Spend an hour online looking up Hey, Girl memes
:: Make an easy dinner that your man incidentally loves, like meatloaf
:: Book a room in an oceanfront hotel for not this weekend, but the next weekend, thereby satisfying your desperate need for some coast time

{via}

If you do even some of those things, I promise your recuperation will be well underway--especially if you book the room at the coast.

I'm back!

Oh, readers, I feel like it's been forever. The past two weeks have had me in a whirlwind of happenings, leaving me in a current state of exhaustion and home-messiness, not to mention the 700 unread blog posts in my Google Reader (can you see that some blog-reading simplification is needed here?).

I have so much to tell you. I want to tell you about Rachelle's week-long visit, the perfect weather for a day-trip to the coast, Cupcake Jones, my part-time bookstore job, the beautiful autumn we've been having, my first truly aesthetically pleasing cake, Dracula being the perfect October book, and our first wedding anniversary.

For now I'll satiate your reader thirst (because I know you've been compulsively checking for a new post on this blog--right? Right?) with this month's 12-on-12. The pictures really were taken on the 12th; I honestly just didn't have time for putting the grid together and blogging it until today.

01. A clean stovetop and kitchen
02. An organized magazine basket
03. Cute flower panels hung above the laundry closet (I've had those plaques for almost a year and hadn't hung them up till now)
04. Some freelance writing research
05. A trimmed pattern for a fall dress
06. The cute wall-art I bought at Homegoods using Shoppers' Math
07. The fall dress pattern all cut out, ready to be sewn
08. Changing leaves by Costco
09. Work--does anyone else find the Twilight-esque covers for works of classic literature a little off-putting? I mean, we talking Jane Austen here. Come on.
10. A mint truffle with some Dracula in the airport waiting area
11. The inside of my trunk (this deserves its own blog post entirely and involves a resourceful Nancy-Drew-like break-in into my car while wearing a skirt)
12. I thought I had 12 photos at this point in the evening and didn't--obviously.

I've had a fun few weeks, but honestly, I can't wait to find normalcy again. Tomorrow my priority plans involve cleaning the bathroom and folding laundry, and I'm positively giddy about it.

moving out: the packing

I'm moved out of Provo and Utah forever. It started with something like this

and this.

So naturally I had to take breaks for things like this

and this.

I often felt like this (i.e. completely exasperated).

But, after everything (well, almost everything--I was forced to give away to friends and/or take to DI several items) was shoe-horned into the Trailblazer, I was left with this

And when I left Provo, Utah, at 5:00 on Saturday morning, I wasn't really.that sad. I was relieved, excited, and very slightly nostalgic. I saw the first hints of the sunrise over the tips of the mountains and smiled. I was leaving to start the rest of my life.

English major's nightmare

I was ready for a few hours at the library. I had my smuggled 32 oz. of Big Gulp Pepsi and was pumped to get some quality work done on my critical theory research paper. I put my flash drive into my computer and clicked on the folder that housed my document. And I was consequently informed that the file or document was corrupted and unreadable. It wasn't saved on my computer, because I'd been working on the school computers all week. My paper was gone, kaput, corrupted.

. . .

I sat at the desk and cried for at least fifteen minutes--tears literally streaming down my face. Seriously. My whole heart sank at the reality that I had to rewrite the first four pages of my research paper. Having to rewrite four pages of a paper would be a bummer anyway, but rewriting four pages of a critical theory paper?? You've got to be kidding.

After I grieved, I bit the bullet and dived back into my paper. I buckled down and was able to rewrite what I'd lost and then continue to write a bit more, reaching a good stopping point for the night around midnight. The rewrite isn't as good as what I had the first time, but oh well; it's rewritten, and now I just have to make sure I can finish this fifteen-page paper by next Thursday at five. Dad was trying to find some application that could restore my files from my flash drive, but I decided to just start rewriting anyway; if there wasn't a way to restore the file, then I would have lost even more time to write.


It turned out okay, though (especially with the Caramello bar Katie gave to me earlier this week). Emily posted a shout-out to my dire situation on her blog, and I definitely felt the Lord's strength in getting me through the evening. Something was a little off, because I found I kept leaving out words in my sentences, and I didn't always agree my subjects with my verbs (it was bizarre--I don't know what misfired in my brain), but it got done.

And last night, I felt the true power of solidarity and tender mercies: I was texting my parents, who we giving me cheers and encouragement, and honestly the blog comments were so bolstering. Emily left me a spirit-lifting Post-It on the car for me to see when I finally left campus, and I ran into my friend Emily (different from my sister :) ), who gave me a conciliatory hug, and I saw my rooommate Katie in the LRC. Even though I suffered a significant academic misfortune, things turned out okay. I felt loved last night, and even more than needing my paper to magically reappear, I needed to feel loved. Thanks :)

i think i'll quit now

My USB drive corrupted my critical theory research paper. Hours of writing gone.

what the heck it's wednesday

So, believe it or not, it's Wednesday already. I've actually had a pretty good (but way busy) week, and I've wanted to blog about it; alas, the library has claim on my existence for the next two weeks. Ew. I'll try to escape for a few minutes sometime and do some real blogging.

new landlord

I think I should start making out my rent checks to the library instead of to the Colony. My new roommates are Dorothea Brooke, Jude Hawley, and universal healthcare.

clean sheets=small link to sanity

I just put clean sheets on my bed and replaced my towels with clean ones. And in the middle of an insane week like this one,


clean sheets sure are nice.

the only place I could go

The other night Caitlin was talking really loud with a friend upstairs, and Katie went to bed, needing to get as much sleep as possible before she takes the GRE this weekend. I still had Middlemarch reading to do no place to do it.

Solution: transform walk-in closet into study room. Yes, I read Middlemarch in my closet.

my week thus far

I have read 300 pages in two days. Oh the life of an English major.

crazy, crazy, crazy week take 2 and recap edition

I'm in for another crazy week, though hopefully not so crazy as last week. I wanted to do several posts about my week and everything that's been going on, but it's just not going to happen.

• Dinner at the Olive Garden and watching "P. S. I Love You" with Katelyn on Friday night. It made me just happy to be her friend
• Lunch with Brooke and a few of our friends on Saturday
• RS Broadcast--I wasn't up for going, but really glad I did
• Emily and her roommate Jessica over for Kraft Mac 'n' Cheese and a movie on Sunday--I love having Em out here with me
  
• Still feeling overwhelmed with my job. My boss said give it a month and I'll have a groove, but right now, a month is seeming like a very long time. Editing is a bit different from the exercises I do in class.
• "Chuck" season premier=awesome
• Great roommates, still
• Still a dishwasher that never gets loaded or unloaded
• Not nearly as much sleep as I'd like. I could have gone to bed at 8:00 tonight and been completely, 100 percent happy with that
• A great family cheer that made me feel like I could do it--thanks :)

Here's to Tuesday. . . .