Baltimore: Day 1

A few weekends back, Mr. Perfect and I ventured on up to see my parents in Maryland. My parents moved up there a few years back for their jobs and are still currently up there. They moved after I'd already left for college and most of my family is still down here in the South, so honestly, I don't make it up there too often to visit. Which makes me a very bad daughter but...

Plus, if you think this girl in a car for 10 hours is a good idea then you are insane.

I cannot sit still for 10 minutes. 10 hours?!? Like having my fingernails pulled off.

But Mr. Perfect and I both managed to somehow score 4 day weekends over St. Patty's Day so we figured we would head on up there.

I almost changed my mind when I checked the weather from my nice 70 degree hometown and saw a chance of snow in the DC area. I don't think I even own a coat!!

So after work on Friday the 13th (cue scary music), Mr. Perfect and I loaded up the kids, took them to the kennel (no tears were shed this time!), and then hit the road.
I managed to keep myself entertained for the first 3 hours of the trip with a couple of books. I read my fertility book cover to cover (which is a story in itself in that in 3 hours time I managed to convince myself that I had everything wrong possible with my reproductive system!) and then some Nicholas Sparks book. By that time we had reached Florence, SC, home of Mr. Perfects parents, and place of our first break.

Yes. Mr. Perfect hates to stop so he tries to "schedule" breaks for us. I usually break this idea about an hour into the trip. I always seem to need want something!

We had a quick little visit with the inlaws then got back on the road.

At this point, Mr. Perfect decides he's too tired to drive.

Huh?!

Apparently I talked in my sleep all nite the nite before and he got no sleep. Blah. So I figure I'll be nice and let him nap a bit.

7 hours, bunches of coffee, and way too many Full Throttles later, Mr. Perfect is still asleep and we're pulling up in St. Leonard, MD. Are you kidding me?!?

We go straight to bed with plans to sleep in in the morning. This girl is up at 8.30 am. Sure... Can't get up for work to save my life, but let me drive all nite and I'll be bright eyed and bushy tailed in the morning! I loved it though because when I got up only my Dad was awake so far, so I got to spend some quality time with him. My Dad is the person most like me on the planet. Which is weird, because we're total opposites. But the important stuff; we're on the same page. I got to hang out with my Dad in the quiet, both drinking our black coffee (I swear I drink it this way just because he does!), reading (the news for him, y'alls blogs for me!), and occasionally making idle chit chat. My Dad is one of the only people in the world I feel truly comfortable with. He and I both understand our need for "me" time, we're both really bad at talking about our feelings, and we both have horrible tempers! I love my time with him!

About an hour later my Mom and the Hubs make their way downstairs. We piddle, talk, play with the dogs, consume another 5 cups of coffee... Wait. That was just me. We decided not to do DC this trip since we always visit there and we got on the road to Baltimore.

I We suggested we should eat first so we headed to some seafood restaurant right on Baltimore's inner harbor. Not bad food. I had the oyster poboy. Actually quite good, and the view was spectacular.

Mom and Dad at lunch:


Even though it was starting to rain and I felt like it was subarctic weather outside, we decided after lunch we should walk around the Harbor. So we did. We walked all the way to the shopping mall and then we stayed inside for awhile!

Mr. Perfect and I by the Harbor:


And no, that's not my coat. I wasn't lying when I told you I didn't have one! I had to borrow one from my Mom! Thankfully she's lived up North long enough that she seems to have a nice collection!!

My cutie little parents on the Harbor:



We didn't do too much else that day. We decided to head on back to St. Leonard and come back the next day and do some more things that we thought sounded interesting. When we got back home, I laced up for a quick little run and my Dad decided to go with me. My Dad is actually the runner in the family, but I managed to actually push him a bit this time! We did a 3 mile run with hills. Kudos to those of you who run hills. I almost died. Seriously, saw lights and everything. My version of a hill in Savannah is the slope of a ditch. Kid you not. My quads were on fire. But it was easier to breathe up there so I knocked out the 3 miles in less than 32 minutes. I thought that was pretty good. Oh yea.. it was in the rain too. Makes that 32 minutes a bit better, maybe?

We had another 2 days there, but I'll save that for another post. Don't want to bombard you with too much in one day!

Oh yea. I put this out on Twitter, but I spoke with my doctor about our next step in our journey to our family. As most of you know, we've had quite a time in the past with multiple miscarriages and we're doing some different therapy before we try to conceive again. At our last appointment, about 2 months ago, I was told to begin charting my temperatures. Basically he was looking to see if my uterus was healthy enough after the D&C on New Years to sustain another surgery. Apparently it is. So right after my next cycle (around the middle of April ), I will be having surgery to remove the septum in my uterus. It's supposed to be a day surgery and should be pretty "simple", but there's all kinds of thing that can complicate this surgery so.. Of course I'm a little freaked out. So just keep us in your prayers if you don't mind in this next month. Hopefully this will get the outcome he wants and maybe (hopefully!!) will make it possible to sustain a pregnancy. We shall see.

I can almost breathe again. Thank you ridiculously high pollen count for taking away my enjoyment of spring.

I can't watch Idol til the hubs gets home. He better hurry. I'm dying!!

Not Quite A Recap

American Idol just rocked my socks off.

I knew Matt would do good because this was right up his alley. I was so right.

Amazingly I really liked Adam tonite. A-M-A-Zing. Seriously. Did you see what he did?!?!

Liked Kris, but not as much as last week. However, I still think he is just adorable and I want to put him in my pocket so he can strum his guitar for me all day...

Ahem.. I digress.

Danny's always good. Little cheesy tonite, but always good.

I'm over the girls. They need to go. And if I have to watch Megan do her little "robot dance" one more time, I might throw away my tv.

But that would be stupid. So let's just vote her off for the sake of my flat screen. =)

Mr. Perfect had the day off today. I came home to completely painted furniture and a clean house. Oh! And dinner! I do love that man.

I have some bad allergy problems kicking my butt right now. I still managed to play soccer Sunday and today, and run on Monday and Tuesday. Not going to lie though.. Had 3.6 miles down for Monday. Did 3.1. If I'd had my cell on me I would have stopped and had Mr. Perfect come get me. I. Was. Exhausted. And sore. My soccer game on Sunday almost killed me. I'm still sore!

Oh age 26.. you are not being kind to me.

The new girl at work had almost the same scrubs on today as me. Not cool. We're going to have to talk about that.

I'm kidding. .::kinda::.

More American Idol tomorrow..... yay!

Before... And After (Well Middle!)

I mentioned that we were undertaking a little home improvement project. It's actually going amazingly well. Probably because my involvement in the tiling of the floor has been minimal at best.

Not my cup of tea. And apparently Mr. Perfect has this "system" that I don't work very well with.

Whatever.

Here's how our room looked before. Keep in mind that we did not vacuum before ripping up the carpet and that this girl walked around dragging up the hair on the carpet to make a really disgusting looking ball. I took a picture of that ball but Mr. Perfect made me delete it. I think he called it something really disgusting first though. =)

This is the room before:


Hi there Mr. Nasty Hairball of Dog/Cat Hair.

A view of my closet from in the room:

I was supposed to move all of my clothes out of there. I lost interest in that chore about halfway through.

The pups checking out the process:


And then after we got the tile down (but before the grout):



I am in love!

It is so nice! My little tile layer did such a great job! I need to get a photo now. We replaced the blinds. You may have noticed that nice cat sized hole; it now ceases to exist. We stripped down the furniture and painted it and got a new bedspread. We are almost done doing the dressers. As soon as that comes I'll put it on here. I am so excited! It honestly exceeded my expectations by far.

My only complaint: It is so cold on my feet.

Oh well. I guess I can go buy socks.

Sick Day.

Yup. I'm playing hooky and I love it. =)

I couldn't do it. I could barely get out of bed this morning. I've got hay fever ridiculous style and am so sore I can barely walk. So no work for this girl this am.

I have been super productive though.

Remember this comforter? Well it survived said skirmish with just a small stain. Like so small you can barely see it. Now it's been thrown up on. What?!? I don't understand how of all the easy to wipe up surfaces in our house, our dog gets sick on my white comforter!! And she's not even allowed on the bed!!

Needless to say I spent a good portion of the am at the cleaners. Grrr... Small stain, just got a bit bigger. I. Am. Not. Happy.

Then I headed over to WalMart. Oh help me.

Disclaimer: I HATE WalMart. If you are a fan, that is fine. I am not. I usually would rather drag myself through the pits of Hell than step into a WalMart. But I needed my oil changed and wanted to buy pillows so, multi purpose store was a must.

I had the best WalMart experience ever. No joke.

It started when I got to the Tire & Lube section. I pull in, turn my car off, and there's an attendant waiting to help me. Super friendly and quick and I was in the store in 5 minutes. Every customer was in a good mood, store clerks asked if I needed anything. Not going to lie, I seriously thought I was high off my allergy meds. I got my pillows and headed to the cashier. I got stuck in a line but it was still so quick. My cashier was uber-friendly. Greeter at the door said good-bye with a smile and got my cart for me. Got back to the oil counter and sat down. Was there for 2 minutes when one of the mechanics came and got me to tell me my car was done. Checked out. Another super friendly cashier. She did get onto me for drinking my Full Throttle (I know they're bad for me, but I don't care!) but at least she was nice about it. And mechanic guy even carried my bags to the car!!

Spring must be making everyone chipper. That lack of Vitamin D was starting to get to us, but.. looks like we pulled through! I was so pleasantly surprised I still am not sure it was a real WalMart!!

On another note.. Keep up your prayers for Stellan. As far as I can tell from Mckmamma's updates, he's still having a pretty hard time. Keep praying ladies!

I'm going to lay on the couch for a while and revel in my sick day. I promise you I really do feel bad!

Is this right?

There's a weird vibe in my house.

At work we firmly believe that animals are a reflection of their owners. We see so many neurotic pets that you just know were not like that in the wild. If they were I'm sure they would have been eaten. Because it's just plain annoying.

So what does this say about the "energy" Mr. Perfect and I are giving off?

Our 6 lb. cat runs our house. Over 3, 35 pound + pups. He can get them off their beds, food bowl, water bowl, anything. It's ridiculous.

Today I look over the fish tank. Ace (the cat) likes to drink out of there even though there is fresh "animal" water 2 feet away. Like I said; rules the house. But I notice while I'm watching this that the fish is pecking at the cats tongue as he drinks. And the cat allows this?!?

Mr. Perfect says we put off a super laid back, love everyone vibe and that's why they all coexist so well.

I think it might just be crazier than that...