Today's task

Filing.

There's a HUGE pile of stuff to be filed, sitting on top of my filing cabinet (what? You mean getting in ONTO the file cabinet doesn't make it filed? Sheesh! Picky picky!). I'm about to set the timer for 15 minutes, during which time I will file, file, file. Have to find some receipts and a set of check carbons so I'm ready to go at tax time!

A new month...

A new budget. Our budget month runs on my pay schedule since hubby gets paid weekly and that has the potential to screw me all up.

December was a nightmare - I wasn't allowed to look at the bank account for about three weeks, so I wouldn't ruin any Christmas surprises (yeah, because everything was SUCH a surprise by the time hubby got done with it!). So I gave up, and we spent WAAAAAAAAY too much money.

So, in anticipation of having a really good budget month this time, I went out and spent what felt like a bazillion dollars at Winco on Saturday. At a regular grocery store, I'm sure it would have been an actual bazillion dollars! I love Winco...

Bugs me to no end that the only way I can keep on top of the budget is to update it every day. Or sometimes every other day, if I'm careful. You'd think we'd have "no spend" days, but for some reason it just doesn't happen. I have to track everything by category in an Excel spreadsheet. I don't even use Microsoft Money anymore, since just about everything goes on our Visa card and we pay it off every week. I just download the bank statements and save them in case there's ever a problem.

Tonight's task is to transfer all the monthly savings pots into their respective ING accounts (clothes, doctor bills, pets, home improvement).

I guess it's worth it in the long run, though, because, while we never stay exactly in budget (though we would I'm sure if I could just restrain myself at the grocery store and not be so freaking lazy when it comes to cooking), it does help us considerably in our quest to save a large chunk of change every month. With hubby's uncertain job situation, and all the projects we want to do around here (like actually putting some landscaping in the front yard, or fixing the Blazer YET AGAIN), it's a big goal of ours to sock away as much as we can. Hubby's raise should help with that, too - I'd like to up the savings amounts in certain categories, plus overall.

Another pay period, another budget! Happy payday!

Today's task

Seems like I'm better at doing big weekend chunks of housecleaning, rather than little daily chunks. I guess as long as it gets done it's ok, huh?

Today I cleaned the kitchen (we messed it up pretty bad yesterday, with my baking and hubby's ice cream making). And took down the Christmas stuff. Now hubby just needs to haul it all up to the attic!

In a bit (as soon as I can convince him to get off the computer!) we're going to go buy some kind of baskets or something to organize the freezer over the fridge better. stuff just slides all over the place in there so it's hard to keep it organized...

Ch-ch-changes, part deux

Well...apparently hubby's current employer has decided he's too valuable a temp to let get away. When they found out he'd been offered the other job, they gave him a serious pay increase (like, 23%), and so he's staying!

Of course, selfish witch that I am, allI could think was "damn! I still have to make sandwiches at 5 am!"

Some people are simply never satisfied... :-)

Ch-ch-changes

That song just popped into my head for no particular reason at all.

Hubby's former manager at his last temp job before this one called him out of the blue last night and offered him another year at his old job. We discussed it, and he accepted. The schedule sucks beyond sucky (I think it's 4 p.m. to 2:30 a.m., Wednesday through Saturday), but the money's better and he likes the work better. So, we'll be back to not seeing much of each other.

Of course, selfish witch that I am, my first thought was how the hell am I going to get pregnant if we don't see each other for half the week??? We basically won't see each other three days a week, and only for a brief time on Saturdays. But, we'll figure something out.

He'll call the temp agency when he gets home today (yes, this is the same temp agency that tried to screw him over for unemployment last time), and then we'll see what happens...

You know you've worked...

...in fundraising too long when you have dreams about gift processing.

That is all.

Finding a healthy me

I purposely decided not to set a weight loss resolution this year. They just frustrate me anyway. I did, however, set three goals for healthier living, which hopefully will result in my losing 25 pounds over the course of the year.

1. Drink a minimum of 12 8-ounce glasses of water a day (I already do this on 99% of weekdays, but weekends are a little trickier).

2. Eat at least five servings of fruits and/or veggies a day

3. Exercise at least 30 minutes, three days a week.

So there you go. In 2006 I did manage to lose 15 pounds (well, actually I lost 16 but I gained one of them back). So this year I just have to lose 10 more than that! Should be perfectly doable...

Today's task

Well...

Today I tackled the kitchen. I didn't take pictures, but let's just say it looked a little worse than it did when I took this - http://mamapicturethis.blogspot.com/2006/08/feeling-little-better.html

I think every pan I own was dirty, and most of the dishes too. Lots of cooking over the holidays with not a lot of cleanup time in between will do that to you! It's clean now (well, not the floors, and not one small section at the end of the counter that has all the stuff that needs to go elsewhere). The appliances are all lined up in a neat little row, the knives are hanging on their handy-dandy magnet strip that hubby just installed, and the kitchen is finally at peace.

Until I go start to make dinner tonight. New recipe - cheesy chicken crepes. Which will probably involve at least three pots! I guess the trick is to learn to clean up after myself...

Today's task

I know it's not the new year yet, but I might as well get off to a good start, right?

Today I tackled the bathroom closet. It's been bugging me for a while - can you see why?

Here's the "before" shot of the bottom half...


And the top half...



And, an hour later, the top half...




And the bottom half.


Ok, the bottom half could use a little more work. I'll restack the towels when I put the next load of them away. And, well, the very bottom could be better stacked, but at least the toilet paper is back in its place and stuff isn't flying out all over the place, right?

The two-week wait

For those of you wanting to keep up with my adventures in infertility...

I'm at the latter end of my first round on clomid. Clomid is this wonder drug that helps women who don't ovulate to do just that. It's been an interesting cycle. I was warned, told horror stories about hormonal torture, emotional outbursts, and general unhappiness while taking the drugs. But, I was also told that after lupron, clomid would be like a walk in the part. That pretty much was the way it happened for me. One day of extreme irritability (to that cashier at Joanne's, wherever you are, I'M SORRY). one day of extreme munchies. And one day of a face full of zits. Other than that, I was pretty much myself, and for that, I am grateful.

Until I got to day 18 or so. That was the day I called Kaiser to say I hadn't ovulated, and shouldn't I wait for my progesterone check until after I did? That's a blood test to confirm whether or not a woman ovulated.

Kaiser should really give their OB/GYN nurses special training in dealing with the infertile people. I think we're a special breed. We tend to get extremely annoyed when dealing with stupid people about items pertaining to our infertility.

I left a message on the advice nurse line, since it wasn't urgent. Many hours later (within two hours my butt!), a nurse called me back. "I got your message but I'm not sure I understand the question..."

So I patiently explained again that I hadn't ovulated yet and wanted to know if I should wait for the blood test till after I do. She said there was no way I could know that without a blood test. I told her about all the ways I knew - my temperature was down (goes up after ovulation), my saliva tests were negative, and I've never seen a whiter white than my ovulation predictor strips. Apparently to Kaiser, those all mean crap. She said they ALWAYS do it on day 21, and if it was negative, I'm either pregnant or I didn't ovulate.

Um, ok, how could I be pregnant if I didn't ovulate???

Try as I might, I absolutely couldn't get the nurse to acknowledge that not all women ovulate on a perfect cycle when on clomid. Apparently it's Kaiser's policy that if you're on clomid, you ovulate on day 14.

Too bad my body didn't read the Kaiser policies. I ovulated on day 23, the day AFTER my blood test (since day 21 was Christmas). How do I know? My temp was up, my saliva test was positive, and lo and behold, there was a second line on my ovulation predictor strips. I called yesterday to get my test results. They left a message when they called back, and the woman said emphatically, about six times, YOU DID NOT OVULATE. Duh, I could have told you that.

Oh, wait, I did tell you that!

Freaking morons.

So now I'm officially in the proverbial two-week weight. The time when women wanting to be pregnant cut back on caffeine, eliminate alcohol, and start eating more fruits and veggies in anticipation of the time when they can start peeing on sticks.

Wish me luck, because I really, really, really want to have the opportunity to see the look on the nurses' faces when I come in for a positive pregnancy test after officially not ovulating!