Pits & Peaks Of the Week

It’s been a semi-eventful week. 

PEAKS:

/ / On Tuesday we attended the last movie in the park which was combined with National Night Out. They showed the Lego Movie which, apparently, is Jonathan’s favorite movie. As I’ve mentioned in the past the event is free and it includes free dinner, popcorn, and face painting. Since this time it was combined with NNO (I made the abbreviation up) they had booths from around town (the Valley) as well as LAPD and Target. Yes, Target! 

Target gave away some notebooks, colored pencils, pens, and crayons in addition to some blow up beach balls and Frisbees. They held raffles for some backpacks, too. The best part, though, was that they had 3 different stores represented. Each one had some butcher paper and they gave the kids the opportunity to put their handprints on the paper. I haven’t gone to our Target to see it yet but I’ll post a picture when I do. 

/ / Wednesday night I abandoned Thomas again (he didn’t go to the movie in the park) and went shopping with my mom. We didn’t buy anything, but we got out of the house and Jonathan got to play in the mall playground which he enjoyed. I also scheduled Nikki and appointment to get her hair cut at JC Penney ($10 back to school special!) for Sunday morning. 

/ / Thursday I was able to spend (finally) some time with Thomas and make some yummy pork dinner. I’ve discovered that I really like pork and it’s really low in calories, which fits into my calorie counting diet. I don’t know how much Thomas actually likes pork, but until he complains I’ll keep making it. I make him mashed potatoes or rice with the pork along with a veggie for him to enjoy. 

/ / My supervisor came back from her vacation on Tuesday. I adore my supervisor and she definitely makes my life at work easier. 

/ / On Thursday we received Cards Against Humanity in the mail! I cannot wait to play it! 

PITS:

/ /  I really can't think of any pits for this week. 

Pit & Peak Friday! 7/18/14

This week was not too eventful but let’s go for it!

PITS: 

Thomas was out of town this week (and won’t be home until tonight). 

Argentina lost the world cup by a last minute goal by Germany. We did an excellent job and I’m proud of the team and our country. 

I seem to be getting fatter and fatter. I need to buy a new battery for my food scale. Not having one has been my excuse for not counting calories and re-starting my diet. With no holiday’s or birthday’s for a couple of months ahead of me I really need to get back on and lose my honeymoon weight. 

My rib/nerve pain has been growing – oh wait, I already made this a pit last week. 

My best friend from work was out three days this week and that made me sad. Her son was sick, but luckily he is feeling better.

PEAKS: 

I had some time alone! Although I do miss having my husband around, I did get to have a night on my own. Nikki spent the other nights with me, but I enjoyed my one night on my own. 

I invited my dad over for one night and made him some bacon wrapped chicken. Delicious I believe! 

I got a new washer and dryer! They were delivered on Thursday afternoon. Luckily my mommy and daddy were able to go to my house and wait for them to be delivered and accept them. I did a load last night and I love them! 

With the help of my mom I was able to clean up my condo a bit more. I still have a very long way to go, but I got a bit more organized. Mommies are good like that. I’m hoping that a free weekend will help me in getting things organized. I’m hoping that is this weekend! 

That's it for this week!

I’ll let you guys know how the organizing went. I really want to be able to set myself up in the office, but so far I don’t have a monitor (and I still really want an iMac, I’m waiting for my birthday, though). I need to set up the filing cabinet and decide where decorations are going to go. I also need to start putting things up!

Pit & Peak Friday!

I started doing this Link Up when I first started this blog early this year. Then I got married and went on my honeymoon and all of a sudden it disappeared!

I started asking about it recently and I discovered that it will be returning! I sent a Tweet to Jen over at That's What She Read and she said it was a go, at least for today. :)

This link up and talking about the pits and peaks of my week really helped me to get through the week. It also helped to make me really look at the type of things I was doing and how it was affecting whether I had a "good" or "bad" week. 

So here we go...

PITS:

/ / My side/rib pain has been acting up in the last few weeks. It hasn't gotten any better this week. 

/ / I run hot. I'm ALWAYS hot. The AC is on, the fan is blowing and I'm still sweating. Until recently I was only taking Tramadol every now and then for pain. Starting in January I started taking it twice a day, every day. After suffering from this heat and reading a post about medicine I thought that maybe the change in medication would be the cause. I Googled the side effects to this medicine, and although not a very common side effect, feeling hot and hot flashes are a side effect. I guess maybe this is a peak?

PEAKS:

/ / We got our marriage license! It took a long time to get to us, but I can finally start to change my name. It's a lot of work, though. I'm sort of thinking of paying to have someone do it for me. I filled out all the forms already, but I need to send them but I'm unsure where to. I'll have to figure our where to send it all out to. 

/ / I started training someone at work this week and I LOVE IT! It's someone new in our unit and she's very sweet. She just had a baby in May who is very cute. 

/ / I've found a couple of awesome recipes to make for dinner. I can't say I've done well at making them, but I'm working on it. Learning how Thomas likes food cooked is a work in progress. I'm working on meal planning. Does anyone have any suggestions for apps or other ideas for meal planning? 

/ / I've decided to hire someone to clean the bathrooms and kitchen once a month. After our toilets getting clogged 3 times in the past 3 months I've decided that since we can afford it at the moment, I'll go for it. BUT I need to find someone.  

Pit & Peak Friday

It’s been a non-exciting week. I guess that’s a peak?

PEAKS / /

/ / We bought new TV’s on Sunday and they look amazing in our bedroom and in the living room.

/ / I have been able to get things organized and put away in our bedroom. We hung some curtains in the bedroom and dining room –although I think I might need to change the dining room ones.

/ / I unclogged our toilet! We almost had a plumber do it. Close as in he was in the condo but wanted to charge us $125 and we refused to pay more than $100. After he left we went to Lowe’s, bought a snake, and back home I put it down in the toilet and pushed the excess toilet papers down the drain. This was after we tried every other method known to unclog it. High five for me!

/ / I have cooked dinner for my man this week. On Wednesday night I made him some steak, rice, and asparagus. It was pretty darn good.

/ / I found the hamper I was looking for in the last place I thought would have it. I searched everywhere – Target, Bed, Bath & Beyond, Wal*Mart, Ross – no one had one that I needed. I went to JC Penney one night and it was there! Plus, from $36 it was on sale for $26, and I had a $10 off coupon! Also? I had a gift card!

/ / BIG PEAK! I was able to find a travel agency which reserved my flights inside of Argentina for the honeymoon. I am also super grateful for my aunt Stella who did me the HUGE favor of picking up the money for the flights with my parents’ management company there and then take the money to the travel agency. She let me know on Thursday morning that she even got the tickets so that I don’t even have to go to the agency myself when I get there – saving me a ton of time!  My brother is also working on hotel reservations.

PITS / /

/ / My sister continues to not do too well. On Wednesday night (nearly 11pm) after I had gone to sleep I got a call from Anna (our favorite nurse in the ICU) asking for me to authorize them to begin dialysis and put an arterial line in her. This dialysis is temporary and due exclusively due to the infection in her abdomen. IF her kidney fails and she needs dialysis for that she is refusing it. She made us promise her that we would not allow them to put her on long-term dialysis.

/ / I had some pretty nasty allergies at the beginning of the week which interfered with breathing, sleeping, and being comfortable. Also I ran out of tissue. It’s on my ever expanding shopping list

Peak & Pit Friday

I would say that I have no pits this week… only peaks (but I found a few)!

PEAKS

/ / I got MARRIED on Saturday. That’s a peak, right?

/ / Thomas and I were able to spend Monday together and get stuff done!

/ / I got to see some great pictures of the wedding.

/ / I get to sleep every night with my husband!

/ / I got to open some amazing presents! I did some returns, but I’m loving all the store credit/gift cards/cash we received.

/ / I started cleaning up the house a little bit, but I’ve also come home late so not too much has been done. Furniture comes tomorrow so I need  to have everything organized somewhat, or at least out of the way before then!

/ / Thomas and I opened a bank account together! Love Chase!

/ / My mommy has been staying home, so I’ve gotten to see her. But she’s going to the hospital for the weekend, so I’ll miss her.

/ / One of my co-workers announced during our general staff meeting that I had gotten married on Saturdayand I got a round of applause!

/ / Leftover wedding cake!! (need I say more?)

PITS

Okay, a couple of pits…

/ / The wedding is over!  I want to do it again! It was so much fun and I felt so beautiful!

/ /  Thomas and I had some teriyaki chicken that we bought at Costco on Wednesday night and I ended up in the bathroom throughout the day at work on Thursday. Eww.

/ / Not such great news when it comes to my sister – she isn’t healing and things aren’t progressing as they would want. They aren’t giving up yet. But she is caught in a Catch-22. She isn’t healing because of the immunosuppressant’s she takes, but if she is taken off those medications she will lose her kidney and If that happens it is a death sentence. They are hoping what they are doing will help, even if it takes weeks or months. She’s been in the hospital coming up on a Month on Tuesday. Slightly good news is that they put did a tracheotomy, which we wanted. This allows her to be able to speak and not have to be intubated/extubated/intubated etc.   

Pit & Peak

This week ended up being… okay, I guess.

PIT / /

/ / My sister is still in the hospital and in the ICU and there really doesn’t seem to be any progress – things are just the same.

/ / I broke my thumbnail! Usually this isn’t a big deal but since I’m getting married in 8 days…well, sort of a big deal! They’ll have to put an acrylic on it and I really didn’t want to. Oh well. Oh, and I have 2 pretty nasty hangnails.

/ / I’m still home alone. My mom has been at the hospital since Monday and I miss her. I know it is selfish, but I want my mommy with me. My last few days as a single woman living at home… well I’m living by myself. My brother and family come home tonight (I’ll be picking them up from LAX) so it won’t be so quiet anymore, but it is still not the same.

/ / With the stress and lack of sleeping well this past week, my ribs have been aching more than usual and there is no fix to that.

PEAKS / /

/ / I had an amazing bridal shower thrown for me at work! I’ll be posting about that in detail, but here is a preview:

/ / We were able to start moving things into our condo. Basically it’s very slow. We bought a used kitchen table for $150 off Craigslist and a couch, dining room table, and coffee table at Ashely’s Furniture.

/ / I was very excited to be able to start putting things around the house, even though it was just toilet paper and soap. It’s mine! (Okay, ours…)

/ / I got a lot done for the wedding this week: confirmed with the caterers, the make-up/hair people, sending off the check for the church, figuring out a final seating chart, and probably a lot more.

/ / We got windows! Actually, we met with one company on Tuesday and another on Wednesday and made a final decision. We should have windows installed before summer starts! Also… I think we got a pretty decent deal ($5k for 3 windows and a patio sliding door).

/ / I sent out my Thank You’s for my 1^st bridal shower! Only a couple of weeks later. That’s good, right? Hopefully I can do the same for my wedding, but I’m thinking that’ll wait until after the honeymoon. That’s okay, I think?

/ / It’s FRIDAY! My niece and nephew come home and get to check out my place!

Have a great weekend!

Once again again linking up with... 

and..

Pit & Peak Friday

If you read my Twitter feed and Instagram you know that I had a pretty bad week. But There are some peaks I could find:

PITS:

/ /  ONE – On Monday morning (read: way before the sun comes up) my parents had to rush my sister to the ER because of extreme abdominal pain. We found out later that this is due to a hole in the intestines where she had the surgery (possible negligence from that surgeon?). The hold caused fecal matter to enter her abdomen and gave her an infection.

/ / TWO – The hospital my sister was at was not up to doing the surgery she needed and decided to transfer her to Cedars Sinai Medical Center (aka Celebrity and Rich People hospital) – which is where she had her kidney transplant nearly 8 years ago. The transfer was not easy and took nearly 2 days. My dad had to go to Cedars and threaten legal action for things to start moving.

/ / THREE – Because she had just had surgery on 3/28/14 when they went back into see what was going on,on Tuesday night (about 10pm) they were only able to clean out the fecal matter that had accumulated in her abdomen and actually locate the hole it was coming from. They were not able to fix it and had to put a tube in it to drain anything else.

/ / FOUR – She now has a fairly large infection caused by all the bacteria that spread in her abdomen. She is immunosuppressed because of her kidney transplant so this is pretty severe and hard to handle. She is on antibiotics but her white blood cell count is high.

/ / FIVE – She had to have a blood transfusion because of the blood loss from surgery and because they have kept her abdomen open because they will have to go back in for a third time (the 2^nd attempt on Thursdaymorning showed she is still too sensitive to try and fix the problem)

/ / SIX – My mom and I were at the hospital all night Tuesday and didn’t get any sleep until 6am on Wednesday. I then napped only a tiny bit until I went to sleep past 10pm on Wednesday night. I have pretty bad bags under my eyes. I hope they either leave or make up can fix them for the wedding.

/ / SEVEN – Speaking of the wedding, 99% chance that she will not be at the wedding. The way it is looking now she will probably still be in the hospital.

PEAKS

/ / ONE – Skype rocks, so even if my sister is unable to come to the wedding we can do a Skype call so she can witness it.

/ / TWO – Since she is intubated and will remain so until they close her abdomen, they are keeping her on strong pain medication that keeps her asleep and calm. This in turn allows my parents to go sleep in a bed at night. We got a hotel for my dad to go to close to the hospital. Although we only live 30 miles from the hospital, we live in LA, so traffic makes that over an hour commute (maybe even two!)

/ / THREE -  She is at the best hospital she could ever be at. They are a transplant center and so if anything goes wrong with the kidney she will be in the best of hands. The care that the nurses and doctors there provide is top notch. They explain everything to us and listen to our questions. They treat us as friends and family not as patients. AMAZING. The facility is also great. The cafeteria is big, serves good food, and is open until midnight. There is a Starbucks that is open from 4am until about 11pm.

/ / FOUR – I was able to finish my name tags for the wedding this week! So excited about this!

/ / FIVE -  I am almost done with the pew bows and just have to buy more tulle to make 7 more.

/ / SIX – Thomas and I got our marriage certificate/license on Wednesday! We are half married, I guess?

/ / SEVEN – At 12:30pm pacific time TODAY I will be picking up the keys to our condo! It got funded on Thursday and it is ours!!

/ / EIGHT – Because my sister is comfortable and sedated my mom is able to help me with my wedding and the new house (I know this may sound selfish, but it is a relief for us. My mom would want to be with her if she were awake, but she also wants to help me and be with me through this).

Linking up as always....

Pit & Peak!

It hasn’t been too much of an eventful week, but I have had a few things to share.

PITS / /

• My mom had to spend her birthday, Monday, in the hospital with my sister.
• My sister spent most of her birthday, Tuesday, in it as well. She was released that afternoon, thought.
• We found out that although we tried to avoid a bogus fee our realtor has attempted to charge us she went behind our backs to make sure we pay it ($325). I am very pissed off about this.
• The appraisal for our condo came in LOW. Initially it came in at $17k under what we are paying for the home. They had made some mistakes so they re-calculated it and brought it up, but it’s still $10k under what the original purchase price was (see peaks!)
• I think I’m getting sick. This is not a good time to get sick. I have the itchies on my throat and I have the very beginning of  a cough. Lots of Vitamin C for me.

PEAKS / /

• My mom was happy with the cheesecake and flowers I took to the hospital for her birthday. I didn’t want her to not have something on her day! She turned 70!
• We got a discount of $2k off the purchase price of our home because of the appraisal. We still have to pay an additional $8k in the down payment, but on the bright side that means that we will be paying about $50 less each month in our mortgage payment. So yay for silver linings!
• We are that much closer to closing on the property! We should get the loan documents in on Monday and have the keys by mid-week. Which is good because I already scheduled our bed to be delivered on the 12^th and our new fridge on the 11^th!
• My niece and nephew were both accepted into the magnet school program for LAUSD. I went to a magnet school for middle and high school and am happy they got in!
• I went to lunch at one of my favorite restaurants on Monday with my co-workers. (The pit to this is that I ate way too much!)
• 22 days until my wedding! We are almost in the teens! OMG!
• I started working on my party favors this week. They are looking super cute! That will be a post one day.
• I also started working on my seating chart. It’s very rough at this point and I’m planning on working on it with Thomas this weekend. So far it is on the computer but I’m going to use sticky notes and a poster board to look at it and make decisions.
• Sunday is the date I put to have RSVPs back. I’m only missing 7 RSVPs which should be for a total of 12-13 people. This will bring my total to 65 people, 10 below where I thought we would be which is good because of space problems. However it also means I might add someone to my list. This isn’t really a PEAK per se, but I wanted to write it.

Linking up with....

and...

Pit & Peak

I usually write this post up at work but it was a hectic week and I concentrated on some other work. Instead it's Thursday night and I'm watching Hell's Kitchen and bending the hell out of my back to sit in front of my computer. I digress.

Linking up, as always, with...

PITS - 

// O N E  - Okay, I sat here for a while trying to think of a pit and couldn't. I wrote out all my peaks and still couldn't think of one. The closest thing to a put this week is that they did the appraisal on Tuesday at 4pm but as of this writing have not heard back. We are supposed to close Escrow on April 5th.

PEAKS - 

// O N E - I changed my mood around. Although I did start off rough on Monday, I mentally have been making myself change to be positive and it has been working! 

// T W O - I got to eat some yummy beef this week. My dad surprised me on Tuesday with some "asado" and on Wednesday I had similar meal from Flame Broiler with Thomas. 

// T H R E E - When I walked into work on Monday there were two old people sitting in my cubicle. After some coyness my best friend at work admitted she bought them for me over the weekend. She said they reminded her of Thomas and I in 40 years. Look:

// F O U R - I began writing out my name cards for the wedding. This was exciting and made me feel that one step closer to the wedding! 

// F I V E - A co-worker made me some streamers for the wedding (only a tiny bit tacky, but it'll look good - I promise!) and she finished them this week. I'm looking forward to them! 

// S I X - We did a fundraiser at work on Tuesday by selling quesadillas which made me crave quesadillas so I made those Thursday night. Delicious. Oh, and Friday? On Friday we are selling Churros! 

This week I am also linking up with...

And...

Pit & Peak

I'm linking up with Allie & Jen today for Pit & Peak! 

I feel that by Friday all I have to say is “what a week!” or “it’s been a week!”. I guess with everything going on in my life at the moment they are expected thoughts, right?

Let’s start with the bad stuff before I get into the good things, okay?

PITS:

O N E – More drama with our realtor. She just cannot get her story straight and it is really driving me insane.

T W O – Thomas had to be up at midnight a couple of nights which meant his sleep schedule was off which meant we didn’t get to talk to each other before bed. L

T H R E E – Because of side jobs that he is getting done I actually haven’t seen Thomas since last Saturday. I don’t like that.

F O U R – I’ve been searching for Pillsbury pie crust so my mommy will make apple pie but it has eluded me! Are they out everywhere?

F I V E – More than usual someone has been getting on my nerves. This is a coworker, so I’ll leave it at that.

S I X – My ribs have been very painful and I have not been doing any lifting so I don’t know why. This is scary since I’m already on the strongest medicine for it.

PEAKS!

O N E – I donated blood on Wednesday! Did you know that 1 donation = 1 pint of blood = 3 saved lives? (Also it meant I could eat cookies without feeling guilty!)

T W O – I got some things done for the wedding! The rentals/taco truck will be paid for today and the silverware was purchased. I also got some awesome pintable’s for a couple of games as well as the church.

T H R E E – Those printable’s? They came from an AMAZING blogger that I’ve gotten to know lately – Kerri from http://kerriwaller.com/

F O U R – I was able to get more things packed! My mom is chugging away at this… I think she’s giving me a hint!

F I V E – I got a GREAT review/evaluation at work!

S I X – I guess this was last week – but we got a raise! It was only 2%, but it’s a bit more money, right?

S E V E N – My doctor e-mailed me back and I now have a plan for my wedding night – honeymoon (a few weeks later). My fiancée likes this one!

E I G H T – I got to join Nora and Tausha for a great raffle! If you haven’t already please go here and join!

More Peaks than Pits! That’s the way it should be! I would have also added as a Peak that Spring began, but it has been spring since November here, so that’s not a fair Peak.

I am also linking up with The Grits Blog for...

Pit & Peak Friday

(I have to start this by saying that I start so many things at work with the words ‘PT called…’ that I know start EVERYTHING with that, including this post!)

 

Go on over to their blogs because they ROCK!!!

I think everyone always says “it’s a long week”, but really it’s gone pretty fast, it’s already Friday!!!

Let’s get the Pits out of the way…

1) My mom got VERY upset when my niece tore the arm/heads off some Barbie’s on Saturday night. It cause quite the ruckus and it made everyone unhappy.

2) I found out on Tuesday that our realtor didn’t sent the information in a timely manner to our loan officer causing our loan to be delayed up to 6 days!

(I mean, seriously, do you know how to do your job?)

3) My ribs/nerves have been very painful, even under the strong drugs I’m taking. Worse, I don’t think there is anything that can be done to make me feel better.

There might be one or more pits, but it’s time to be happy! Peaks:

1)  I got to visit with my nieces, sister and brother-in-law. I had a great time watching movies, shopping, eating Coldstone’s, and going to look at the stars.

2) We got our loan process started on Wednesday and submitted today! One step closer to having those keys in our hands!

3)  Thomas and I celebrated his parent’s 36^th wedding anniversary on Tuesday night.

4)  I’ve been able to watch my favorite TV shows which include some hot looking guys (Chicago Fire!)

(he is so delicious to look at!)

5)  I really want to succeed at blogging this time around. I don’t think I want make my blog into a money-making blog (mostly because it is beyond what I know how to do) but I want to have a stable readership and be able to continue making posts and having ideas for those posts. I’ve worked out some sort of plan (involving sticky notes in my cubicle at work) and I’m very excited for Him & Her!

Special Request: Is anyone who is good with graphics/creating willing to help me out with a simple request for my wedding? Please let me know!

I hope everyone has a GREAT Friday and I can’t wait to read your Pits & Peaks!

(PS, how am I doing with the GIFs?)