quick question

We are going to a family halloween party tonight.  I have two potential costumes, and I can't decide!

Witch or Pirate??

Ideas?  Suggestions?

Also, I have ways to make the pirate costume family friendly.

Our Love Story

Ok, before I get into the story, I want to ask forgiveness.  You see, I was really bored at work a few months ago, and decided to write our story as a fairy tale.  I was going to make it into one of those cute photo books and give it to my husband for our anniversary.  But then I thought it might be to cheesy to give a man.  I let him read the story, and he loved it.  Who knows, I may make it for Christmas!

Anyway, here's our story.  Please don't laugh to hard at my writing attempts!
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This story begins like any other

Once upon a time, in a land far far away. . . .

There lived a prince and a princess.

Both the prince and princess were loved greatly by their families, even during times of great mischief.  They grew up, attended schooling, and after many years of hard work, the prince and princess were awarded degrees. 

This however, is where the story changes.

The princess, who lived in the land of Sandy, grew restless.  She desired to have her own kingdom and set about to meet her prince.

At the same time the prince, who lived in the land of Harrisville, decided to find his princess.

Both the prince and princess were good children, and loved to listen to their mothers.  Both queens had heard of a magical sorcerer who could match the princes and princesses of the world using only a “wink”! 

The prince and princess were skeptical, but decided to give it a try.  The sorcerer was a busy man, who worked with many princes and princesses.  The only way to contact him was through a magical picture screen. 

The prince began working with the sorcerer, and sent out a few winks, hoping the sorcerer would turn them into magic.

The princess got a few winks, but none were magical, and the sorcerer claimed he had a few frogs in the system.   The princess began to despair that there were only frogs, and no princes.

The princess talked to the sorcerer, determined to tell him to stop.  The sorcerer would not give up however, and sent another wink, and this one was magic.  A prince appeared in the magic picture screen; the prince was very handsome, and the princess had the sorcerer send one of his magical winks back to the prince.

After a long night, and a longer day, the prince and princess were able to talk using the magical picture screen.  They decided to meet, in the land of Salt Lake City, at a drinking house that was highly recommended by one of the princesses friends.

On the day of the meeting the prince and princess were both very nervous.  The princess arrived early and drove her carriage around the block a few times.  She didn’t want to appear too anxious by being there first.  The prince got lost in the mysterious roads of this new land, but finally the prince and princess met.

The drinking house held little promise; the drinks were not good!  The prince and princess drank them anyway.  There were so happy to finally be together.  They finally decided to go shopping at a city market called The Gateway.  They enjoyed looking in all the stalls, and marveling over the different things for sale.

The prince and princess decided to attend a magical play called Employee of the Month.  But first, they needed to eat.  They found a nice place to feast called Applebees, where they ate and talked.  By then it was time to see the magical play, which the prince and princess both enjoyed.

The prince then walked the princess to her carriage, and for his bravery was awarded a kiss.  The princess drove home thinking that this was a prince she could marry.  The prince spent many minutes in the carriage parking lot looking for his carriage, impressed by his date with the princess.

The prince and princess spent a great deal of time together after their first meeting.  They were able to meet each other’s families. 

The prince and princess were both adventurous at heart and explored many different lands together including Wendover, Boise, The Great Salt Lake, Cove Fort, and both the Uinta and Topaz mountains.

Soon the prince and princess decided that they wanted to start their own kingdom.  The prince gave the princess a beautiful ring, centered by a stone of the princesses own grandmothers.

The prince and princess planned a beautiful wedding.  On the day of the wedding however, it was raining.  But they would not be deterred.  Many friends and family attended the wedding and the party afterward.  The prince and princess felt loved by all who attended, and were grateful to the sorcerer who brought them together.  To thank him (he was, of course, busy matching other prince and princesses and could not attend the wedding) they danced to the song “A Wink and a Smile”.

The prince and princess then went to the far off land of Las Vegas to celebrate their new life together.

And they continue to live happily ever after!

Cleaning house

Ok, I knew I had a book problem.  My husband is always telling me I have to many books, but I didn't beleive him.  That is, until I started cleaning the house.  And put all of my books in one place.

So, here's my question for the Interwebs:  Anyone up for a book share?  I'll mail books to you if you in turn mail books to me!  Win win, right?  It gives me new things to read, gets rid of the books that I haven't read in forever.  Send me an email if your interested.  lifechatsandrants at gmail dot com.

Away for the weekend

Yeah, I know I promised a post about our wedding, and how we met and all that.  But let's be honest here. . . .did you really think I was going to get to it before I left?

I'm off to Vegas!  If you should happen to see me there, and I'm doing something stupid, then that wasn't me.  And any photographic proof to the contrary must have been photo shopped.

Talk to you ladies on Monday when I get back!

Did ya miss me? (and a question)

And quite honestly, if you didn't miss me, I don't want to know!

Here's the scoop on why I've been absent blogland for awhile.  Wait, I don't actually have a good reason, so I'll give you a bunch of lame reasons instead.

Work.  Work was really evil and busy and time consuming, and when I got home from work, I just wanted to jump into bed and fall asleep.  Work also had Dingbat, so most night I came home incredibly frustrated and annoyed.

Dingbat.  I've been meaning to blog about her again, and update you on her new level of annoyingness, but I was afraid that if I blogged during the heat of the moment, I'd say something I *might* regret later.  Might.  Probably not.  Anyway, here are Dingbat updates, in no particular order.

• Dingbat update #1 - Dingbat gave me a long lesson yesterday on why the Second Coming is going to happen SOON.  Her proof?  Cancer and gay people.  I don't know if the news story about Latter Day Saint Apostle Boyd Packer has made it national or not, but it's blown up huge here in Utah.  And Dingbat was using his talk about gays as proof that the world we live in is deteriorating.  Luckily, I let Dingbat live, because although I don't believe in a lot of the things organized religion talks about, I know that other people do, and I'm not going to change their believes anymore than they will change mine.
• Oh, and cancer.  Yeah, she says that is the incurable disease that bodes "the end of time but not eternity".  Actual quote, btw.  She said "I used to think it was AIDS, but you don't hear about that anymore, so they must have found a cure."  Yeah.
• I've decided Dingbat has a hearing problem.  Either that, or she has no shame.  She has been walking around and farting for the past week.  Loud ones.  And she doesn't seem fazed by it in the least. 
• And to tie in the farts to something else. . . .I got back from lunch a few weeks ago and Dingbat wasn't here.  In fact she didn't come back until I'd been back from lunch for two hours.  I welcomed her back when she arrived and tried to go back to work.  But no, she had to tell me where she'd been.  Which was at home.  Changing her clothes.  Because she (and I'm going to quote her again here) "had explosive diarrhea that got all over her pants and shirt" and she'd had to go home and change and shower to come back to work.  I sent a quiet text to my husband to tell him what she told me, and he responded "don't sit in her chair"  Love my hubby!

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Another reason for not writing?  I went to a party.  A pirate party.  And everyone had to dress up like pirates or pay the consequences.  The party is an annual tradition for one of our friends.  He does it every year for his birthday, and every year it gets bigger and more fun.  I even went and got one of those slutty grown up pirate costumes for the party.  It was a great party!  I'll post pictures when I get them on my computer.
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I've got even more reasons.  Like getting ready to celebrate my anniversary in Las Vegas!  Today is our three year anniversary!  I can't begin to imagine what we've been through in three years, and everything that's changed in our life since we met four years ago.  But that is a post in and of itself, and I'll try to write it before we leave.
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Finally, I've got a question for you (and if you've read this far, bravo you!)

I took my last provera pill on September 24.  I got some spotting on September 29, and AF showed up big time on October 5th.  Honestly, this is my worst period ever.  Or at least since the one I had in middle school that lasted 3 whole months.  It's not going away.  It has slowed down, and it sometimes looks like its stopping, but I've had 8 days of bleeding now, not counting the spotting, and I'm really sick of it.  Our anniversary trip?  At least we'll be in Vegas so we can keep ourselves entertained in other ways!

So here's the question.  Has anyone else who used provera to start a cycle had a heavy period afterwards?  My doc said it's normal, but well, I wanted to hear it from someone else too.

Versatile Blogger Award

Wow, Interwebs, I got an award!  Samantha at And Baby Will Make 3! gave me the Versatile Blogger Award.  Samantha is my light of hope.  She also has the nastiness that is PCOS, and yet, she is pregnant!  Not only pregnant, but at 27 weeks!  She's such a happy person, and always leaves the sweetest comments on my posts.  She really has made a huge difference in my life from her support.  This IF journey may suck, but at least I'm not traveling the road by myself anymore!  Thanks Samantha, for the award, and more importantly, all your support!

The Rules of the Award:

• Thank and link back to the person nice enough to give you the award
• Share seven things about yourself
• Pass along the award to seven other bloggers who you think are fabulous, and let them know they got the award

Seven Things About Me:

1. I am an only child, but I have three half sisters.  The reason I still call myself an only?  The three sisters don't really talk to me because they hate our father.  Which is crap, because my dad is awesome!  It really bugged me as a kid, but I'm getting more used to it as I get older.  Their loss, right?
2. I am a bibliophile.  No, its not as dirty as it sounds.  I love books.  I love the way they can transform an otherwise uneventful car ride into a magical place.  I love the way books feel, and love the smell of bookstores and libraries.  Yeah, I'm a nerd, but I'm a happy one!
3. And speaking of the nerd thing, I might as well confess now that I play computer games.  My favorite one right now is Civilizations V, which came out a couple of weeks ago.  It's a turn based game where you control your civilization from beginning (huts and villages) to end (glorious victory and world domination!).
4. Another nerd thing: I was in the FBLA in high school.  Not only in FBLA, but I was actually in the presidency my senior year.  I went to state competition every year, and placed in the top five each time. 
5. I am hugely competitive.  This makes me a sore loser.  Friendly game of cards?  I will ruthlessly try to take you down.  If I lose, don't expect me to forget either.  I'll remember and get you back when you least expect it!
6. I create little animals out of oven bake clay.  It's really soothing to me to take a block of something, and create something cute out of it.  They aren't masterpieces by any means, but I love doing it.  It's also fun to break out the clay when friends bring over their kids.  It instantly turns me into the cool one because I'll sit on the floor and create with them.
7. Along with number 6, I might as well confess that I prefer being around kids to most adults.  They have such a beautiful easy take on life that makes me smile.  I may not be able to be around newborns, or pregnant friends, but once the kids hit the age of two and up, they are my best friends.  I regularly have neighbor kids come up to my house to see if I can play, or just to tell me about their days at school.  I keep a freezer stocked with popsicles for them as well.

Now for my 7 nominations!  I'm sure I'm going to be giving the award to some people who've already recieved it, but tough cookies!

Robin at Looking for My Keys
Marla at Marla's Austin Chronicles
Jenny at Among the Blossoms
Stickles McQueen at Overcoming Obstickles
Lauren at Lauren Vs. The World
Kakunaa at Spermination Station
Toni at The fertility-challenged black sheep

Survival

Did you know October is Domestic Violence Awareness Month?  Maybe you do, maybe you don't.  I'm guessing however, that you know a domestic violence victim.  You might now know for sure, but maybe you suspect something.  maybe you have a friend who used to be so outgoing, but now says she prefers to stay home.  She may have stopped wearing her "cute" clothes in favor of jeans and long tees.  She might flinch at loud sounds, or jump when surprised.  Does she have new habits, like making sure the house is clean by obsessively checking that everything is in it's correct place?  I bet she also defends the abuser and tells you that "You don't understand.  He loves me"

I can also promise you that her self esteem has nose dived.  She is convinced no one will ever lover her as much as the abuser does.  In face, she feels she's lucky he tolerates her.  She doesn't even feel worthy of the "love" he gives, and has no hope of finding love again someplace else.

There are times when you'll see her come to her senses, and threaten to leave him.  She might even follow through.  Don't be shocked when she goes back.  After the high of standing up for herself wears off, she'll fall back into believing she's worthless, and "Besides," she'll say, "he's changed."

How do I know all this?  I'm sure you've guessed, but I know because that was my life, my world for almost four years.

Don't give up on the friends you see this happening to.  They need your friendship now more then ever before.  It was my friendships that finally convinced me that I was worth enough to not have to stay with him.  Even then, once I left for the final time, I NEVER  thought I'd find someone else to love me.

I'm still not healed fully from the effects he had on me.  I still startle easy, I hate when people sneak up behind me.  there are still times when I feel that I don't deserve my husbands love.  I fear that one day he'll find out he married the wrong woman and I'll be without love again.

But you know what?  I am healing.  I am strong.  I survived.

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If this sounds like anything you are going through, think hard.  Has it really changed?  Has he?

Help is available.