May Update
There are two big events that will be getting their own posts: the Percussion Studio 10 Year Reunion, the Memorial Day Weekend Engineers Vacation in Durango.
Mistaken Identity
This month’s case of mistaken identity really bothers me.
I got a call on a Thursday reminding me about an appointment the next day. Hmm, I thought, I must have done a good job of scheduling my Well Woman’s exam ahead of time. It’s my Friday off and everything. It wasn’t on my wall calendar, but that doesn’t mean anything. But it was the same Dr.s office that I’ve been to before. I confirmed that I would show up in the afternoon.
Friday afternoon, I arrive, sign in, fill out some additional paperwork, get weighed, provide a urine sample and then wait in the little room. The nurse comes in and takes my blood pressure and asks: “Have you felt your baby move yet?” “No, I’m not pregnant!”
It seems that there is another Kristen Brown - one who is pregnant, who goes to the same Dr.s Office. They had her chart pulled. Since I was already there under these strange circumstances, they were just going to do my annual exam. Except they couldn’t find my chart. Anywhere. They couldn’t even find records of me being a patient. How in the world did they get my phone number to call me? I have no idea.
I believe that God is having a hilariously fun time of mixing my name and contact information around.
To clarify: I’m not pregnant.
Aggie Nostalgia: Beautal Health Center: “Are you pregnant?” “no!”
Svatek Family Camp Out
There was no camping involved this year for us. We've learned our lesson. If we sleep in a tent, it will rain. We drove up early Saturday morning. there was not a big turnout, but we had a great time eating and playing games.
In the afternoon, we took a walk down the driveway, and I took the opportunity to take pictures of peepy chickens.
Random Hodgepodgery
A Wedding
Justin’s cousin Daniel got married on a lovely Sunday afternoon. It was held on the lawn of a beautiful country club on the north side of Dallas. The colors were hot pink (bridesmaid dresses), sherbert orange (groomsman shirt) and chocolate brown (groomsman tie). It was actually very pretty. The reception was inside. There was snacks and beautiful decorations. The wedding party treated us to some rehearsed dances. There was a candy table. All of the candies matched the wedding colors. There were peach rings, laffy taffy, pink M&Ms, and Reices Pieces. It was fantastic! There was a photo booth set up in the entrance hall with a box of goofy hats. Guests were encouraged to take goofy pictures as many times as we liked. We got a print out of the four frames (and the bride & groom got digital copies of all of it, I’m sure). There was a huge wedding cake. And it was PINK and ORANGE. It was the most striking wedding cake I’d ever seen in person. We left before the cake was served, so I can’t tell you how it was. But I got to eat reices pieces, so I was ok without cake ; p
We are sharing the photo booth with Justin's sister and her husband. With the cake are the parents of the groom: Justin's aunt and uncle. PINK CAKE!
Movies
This month we saw Star Trek and the Wolverine movie. I liked both of them. I’m sure that if I had been a die-hard fan I would have felt differently. But they were both fun action movies and Star Trek was a little better than the previews led me to believe.
House Hunt
June began the house hunting for serious. The first time we went out, we looked at 4 or 5 houses. We saw some older ones, some newer ones, big and small, different neighborhoods. It was a little overwhelming. Justin liked the second house that we saw, but I wasn’t ready to choose it. I needed to see more options! The second outing, we saw a dozen houses. Newer houses, different sizes, interesting features… One house had a butler’s pantry between the kitchen and dining room. I really like that, but Justin did not, since there weren’t as many overhead cabinets in the actual kitchen. By the end of the day, We’d sort of narrowed it down to two. The front runner was that 2nd house we had ever seen. Now that I had some other floor plans to compare to, and we had seen most of what the area had to offer, I had warmed up to it. It is such a big house, though. I kept thinking about all the room and what we would do with it.. we don’t have enough furniture! I know this is not a big deal, as we will use more room as we get more stuff and eventually have children and all the room that becomes devoted to them… but I really want to have a home: warm, welcoming, decorated. Empty rooms sort of ruin that.
Regardless of my anxiety of filling the house, we picked that one. On May 18th we signed a contract with an offer and let our Realtor take over. Negotiations took place, going back and forth a few times before we settled on the exact middle between our original offer and their listing price. The contract set the closing date at June 18th. Within 10 days of signing, the house needed to get inspected. This is also the time to discuss repairs we request of the seller. It is also the time frame where we can back out completely without any legal obligation (ex: we found a different house we liked more, wouldn’t be able to get a loan, our psychic told us it was haunted, whatever reason). Right in the middle of that 10 day window, we went out of town for Memorial Day. For five days we were not in the state. We weren’t sure if the inspection would occur before we left. I was very anxious about this. How are we supposed to finish making this big decision if we weren’t even going to be there!??! Luckily, the inspection happened in the morning of the day we flew out to Colorado. Thankfully, there weren’t any big discoveries about the house. We requested that they service the AC system, fix some insulation and shampoo the carpet (they have a dog.) The seller agreed. We are set! As of the end of May, everything was moving according to plan. By June we should have a house! (“But Kristen, June 18th is coming up rapidly! TELL ME MORE!” nope! You’ll have to wait some. But don’t worry, I’m sure that I’ll exclaim about it in (1) a standalone LJ post, (2) QotD?, (3) facebook.
Fitness Class
May was the last month of the spring classes. Nothing really different to talk about from last month. I have really liked this instructor. She makes sure we know which muscle group we are working on and how it should feel. There are still some times when I would be so sore in a particular muscle group, but I know it’s been worth it.
Healthy Eating (Weight Watchers)
I really am lucky to have Justin. I don’t know that I’d be eating such a variety of tastey foods if I had to be in charge of my own meals. I’d probably have picked a few dinners that fit within the points range and just re-used them over and over. But I’m eating fantastic things! We’ve even had frozen pizza. Don’t get Kashi pizza. We got a something and mushrooms one, but the overall flavor and texture was watery. Bizzare. California Pizza kitchen thin crust chicken something was very good. It had a crispy crust and a wonderful flavor. Please check it out. I do enjoy the granola and ‘cereal’ bars by Kashi. I get very smug when I see the Weight Watchers products at our meeting that are the same point value as regular food from the grocery store, and for cheaper.
Sweet potatoes are good in almost anything. Put some cubes in your next stir fry.
In the month of May, I lost 2.8 pounds, for a total of 16 pounds since February. Weight Watcher reward for losing 10%: a 10% keychain. WW Reward for reaching ‘goal’ weight: a star dongle to go on the keychain. Personal reward for 15 pound loss: NERD SHIRT!
Overall Progress
Green shoes still not located. I’ve officially given up, but still make Justin stop when I see a Shoe Carnival. Also, if you see some, BUY THEM FOR ME. I WILL PAY YOU BACK, DOUBLE!
One of the planned activities for the Memorial Day Weekend vacation was Hot Springs! This sort of thing requires a swim suit. I’m not to the point where I think my body is awesome. I also don’t know if I’ll ever feel comfortable with bakinis or regular 2-piece swim suits. That’s just a lot of skin, regardless of condition. I decided that I would find a top that was more of a sports-bra style and support. There’s absolutely no risk of boobies falling out of something like that. I ordered a top and a bottom from Speedo.com and am pleased! I still planned on wearing board shorts though. I’ve got two pairs. The skinny pair and the fat pair. I got them both out to see which I should pack. The fat pair was too big! And the skinny pair, which was a little tight when I bought them, fit great! Now about those cut-offs denim shortpants. These were the shorts that I wore on the Tennessee Memorial Day weekend vacation. These were the shorts that had gotten too tight to wear just a few months later. These were the shorts that motivated me to pay attention to my food and activity level so I could wear them again… These shorts fit! THEY FIT! This is serious progress, people!!! This is something to get excited about!
I was so excited by this discovery that I started trying on all the pants that I had left in the back of the closet or in a box of clothes. Old things fit! I could wear that pair of khakis I mentioned last month. Pleather pants that I had purchased for a costume party (I was Trinity) fit better than they did when I was in college! I went shopping, because jeans currently in rotation were too big. I don’t like saggy bottom pants, especially when I can do better. I bought 3 things. Let me tell you them
1) Misses jeans. Size 6. Hello. My name is Kristen and I wear a size 6.
2) Junior size 9 low cut flares (NSFW, but damn, I love flared jeans)
3) Green capris. I took a size 8 and 6 to the dressing room. The 8 was too big. The 6 fit ok. Kristen, if this 6 fits ok, how about you try the size four? It can’t hurt!
People, I tried on the size four. Not only could I get them over my hips, but they fit better than the size 6. I know the fabric and cut contributes to the variance in actual size to what the official size is, but I own a pair of size 4 something. I’ve never worn a size four anything. I went straight from Junior size 13 to Misses size 6. This is amazing to me. AMAZING.
Let’s do the numbers: May resulted in a weight loss of 5 pounds (20 YTD) and 3.2 inches from various measured circumferences (10” YTD). Success Achieved! Now, I must keep it up in June.
The 'fat' pair of board shorts:
the Saggy Bottom Jeans:
Crazy Brain Update
No big updates. I haven’t had many bad headaches, but I have had more small headaches. I’ve been taking more ‘as needed’ medication to stop these from becoming bad. It still seems strange to be “on medication.”