Yes, I'm two days late, but we moved on Saturday and I'm currently recovering from mild fever-like symptoms that came after taking the gestational diabetes test. Plus the link-up is still active. So there.
1. What's your favorite grocery store splurge?
I'm going to go with fresh seafood. We normally buy the frozen cheap white fish fillets for use on our meatless Fridays, but once in a while my husband will surprise me and get fresh shrimp, or salmon, or lobster tails. (I refuse to actually kill something in my kitchen. Even something that is basically a giant bug.)
For example: homemade restaurant-style shrimp scampi with penne and lobster tail.
He made this as a surprise to celebrate the fact we've been married for six months.
2. How's your penmanship?
...It could be worse? Actually it used to be a lot worse than it is. When I was 15 or so, my mom picked up a couple of calligraphy books from Hobby Lobby since they were on sale and I was supposed to be studying calligraphy in my upcoming school year. I immediately was hooked with the gorgeous lettering and fancy pens, so I talked her into getting me a fountain pen and I taught myself. I don't do it much anymore, but I still remember a couple of the styles and my handwriting has been better ever since.
3. Do you have a "Summer Bucket List?"
Not really. Maybe go swimming? And have a housewarming party (or several because family).
4. What's the best thing on the radio right now?
I don't listen to the radio. I'm not a fan of most pop music, so I don't pay attention to it. I like this song, though. It came out in March, but I don't really care.
So. Catchy. I love the fact it has Tom Hanks in the video. Although I'm not really fond of the fact that Justin Bieber is in the crowd scene at the end.
5. Ice cream or frozen yogurt?
I like both, but my absolute favorite is vanilla ice cream with fresh peaches and chocolate sauce. Mmmm.
6. Have you had that baby NOW?
I sincerely hope not, since I'm not due until early November. I have another ultrasound next week though, and the screening for gestational diabetes and anemia was this morning.
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So, my question is just this: should I keep doing this? This is the last link-up for the summer over at Catholic All Year (you should go read the other posts btw), but I'm really enjoying the whole "ask random questions and get a bunch of people to answer them" thing. Should I keep answering random questions every week? I don't want to steal Kendra's link-up, but I don't want the fun to end! Also it helps me blog regularly when my life is mostly pregnancy and my dreams aren't weird enough to make good blog posts.
So we were on vacation last week. Saturday-Tuesday we were in Illinois, visiting my family, and Wednesday-Sunday we...well, apartment-hunted, went to Maine for an afternoon, signed a lease, and created a baby registry. So totally relaxing, right?
Anyway, the "look at apartment, sign lease, move a week later" is why I haven't been posting. We've been packing madly and my lunch hours have been spent transferring silly, unnecessary services like electricity and Internet.
Since moving is pretty much the only thing I can think about right now, here are seven quick takes on what happens when you move seven days after signing a piece of paper saying you can have a place.
We totally look like this.
1. It's a good thing we have friends who are willing to help.
Because otherwise this would literally be impossible. I think my doctor would freak out if I was moving couches and the bed and dressers and a kitchen hutch.
2. This undertaking is not for the faint of heart.
We did not decide that we were going to be moving tomorrow until...Monday or Tuesday. Of this week. This means that nothing was packed, etc. No boxes. NOTHING ready to go as of Monday.
3. Comcast is terrible.
Everyone knows this, but I just thought I would mention it. It took me 45 minutes to get them to disconnect at our current apartment, and find out that we can hook it up at the new place once we move in. FORTY-FIVE MINUTES. It could have been ten.
4. It's a good thing I work next to a warehouse.
About twenty feet away from my office is the shipping for the publishing house. I've been taking empty boxes all week, and yesterday was able to sweet-talk some of the sisters into bringing boxes straight to my office.
5. Grocery stores are another great source for free moving boxes.
I have never in my life paid for a box when I've moved. And I never intend to. Even if I don't live near the Daughters of St. Paul, grocery stores are always getting rid of boxes. Banana boxes are really great for extended storage. My parents always put the Christmas decorations in them. They're sized well for anything (except books) to have a decent amount, yet still be easy to lift. (Mostly.)
6. Not moving Labor Day weekend is great.
Partially because we can get friends to help — last year when I moved that weekend, literally all of my friends were out of town and couldn't help. And it made it much easier to get a truck — last year when I attempted to reserve a truck online a MONTH before, all of the trucks were already taken. At every U-Haul nearby.
Maybe we'll get one with a dinosaur.
7. My husband is wonderful.
He's had to do 95% of the packing by himself. I can't lift anything much heavier than a stack of board games, but he's moved all of our books, boxed up most of the stuff, and continues to do so without complaining. Meanwhile, I go to work (teacher = off for the summer), come home, eat dinner, can help with about three things, and then have to go to bed so I can actually go to work the next day.
1. At what temperature do you keep the thermostat set? Summer, winter, day, night?
Um, we can't. Our heat is included in our rent, so we don't control the thermostat. We spent the winter wearing shorts and tshirts because it was so warm. And this is Massachusetts, we don't really need air conditioning. (I think we've had all of two days in the two YEARS I've lived here that air conditioning would have been necessary.)
2. What is your favorite frozen beverage?
Mmmm. Strawberry or peach daquiris. (Yes they're froofy girly drinks, now shut up and hand me one.) Or a mudslide. (Lots of chocolate + rum (depends on the recipe, everything I've seen is rum) + whipped cream.) And my husband introduced me to lemon margaritas, which taste like lemonade with a kick, right before I got pregnant. So I won't actually drink any of this stuff. Kendra, I know that you will have some wine while pregnant, but call me super paranoid. I was classified as high-risk within three days of telling my doctor I was pregnant, so...super careful is how I take life. Unless they tell me to stay out of the lazy river, which is goofy.
3. Where do you keep your keys?
In my purse. If they aren't there, then I can't find them ever. I seriously lost my keys and wallet in college several times because I didn't use a purse on campus or even the same bag every time I left my room. And I'm a scatterbrain, so things get lost super fast.
4. Have you ever really been lost?
Do I really have to answer this? It's extremely embarrassing.
Fine. So I was in Milwaukee, WI with my dad. He was dropping me off at a college friend's in Chicago to carpool back to school after a meeting with a Catholic men's group. The meeting was several hours long in a church hall, so he gave me directions back to the main road. I intended to just drive ONLY ON THAT ROAD until I came across a McDonald's or Starbucks or somewhere with Internet to chill. So that went fine. Then I had to get back.
In Milwaukee, the streets look like this:
Of course I got lost. I literally drove around for almost an hour before I called my dad. (No smartphone or GPS.) They lived in Milwaukee for four years before I was born, so he should be able to get me back to the main road! I was right, but I have never been allowed to live down the fact that I called my father — who didn't know exactly where I was — to find out how to get back.
Then I moved to Boston as an adult, where the streets look like this:
Because 18th century cows totally knew the most about logical road placement.
That's my actual neighborhood, by the way. The grocery store was a quarter of a mile from my apartment, and somehow on my way home I ended up a mile and a half away from either place and no clue how I got there. I had to call a friend to figure out how to get home. I haven't lived that down yet either.
5. What is the last movie you saw in the theaters?
Inside Out. It was fine, but I was disappointed in the movie. The emotions were all very flat, Riley seemed to have no handle on rational thinking, and the funniest bit was the cat's emotions at the end. It just seemed to be a lackluster effort from Pixar, who seemed to coast on the way they created the inside of the mind instead of making an effort to flesh out characters.
So, I've mentioned that I recently got married a handful of times. Exactly six months ago today. So I totally have all kinds of wisdom and stuff on marriage.
OK, not really, but I thought that for today's quick takes, I'd share a few things that I'm grateful for from the actual day of the wedding. There's not really anything I'd change (except the time of the alarm) if I could go back.
Let's start with some music. Hmm...how about our first dance song? An oldie but goodie. (Although we cheated and used Michael Buble's version since it was what we found on Spotify.)
And now without further ado...
1. I didn't hire a makeup artist or fancy hair stylist.
Mom putting my makeup on. I apparently can't avoid making strange faces
even when someone else is doing my hair.
This is normally the kind of thing that brides say that they wish they HAD done, but I don't really care about normal. My sister Mary did my hair, and my mom did my makeup and helped me get the dress on. My other sisters (bridesmaids and junior bridesmaids) were in and out of the room, my maid of honor was involved, and my photographer was my cousin. Plus one of my uncles drove me to the church. It was a wonderful morning with my family that was both slightly hectic and incredibly wonderful.
2. We did most of our pictures with the bridal party before the actual wedding.
They weren't particularly thrilled with having to be at the church early enough for pictures before a 10 AM wedding, but they had coffee.
Except these two adorable stinkers. This is one of our favorites.
We got to spend some time with each other, and with the bridal party before things picked up with the rest of the guests. It was still peaceful in the church, and we had time to pray together before the wedding.
3. We had the Passion of St. John as our Gospel reading.
Fine, this was taken during the homily, but it's a much better picture. Plus, Fr. Tom talked about Gollum.
It really fit with Ephesians 5 (our second reading) and made the most sense to us. We are supposed to encourage each other to be Christ, and to have that kind of sacrificial love for each other. It's not normal, but it really seemed fitting.
4. We memorized our vows.
And miraculously didn't sob through them.
"I, Natalie, take you, Shane, to be my husband. I promise to be true to you in good times and in bad, in sickness and in health. I will love you and honor you all the days of my life.
"Take this ring as a sign of my love and fidelity, in the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit."
This was one of my favorite parts of preparing for the wedding, memorizing the vows. It's only three sentences, so it really wasn't hard. And seeing as we were making a lifelong commitment to each other, we could make the effort to memorize three little lines.
5. We didn't use the Ave Maria that everyone uses.
"Wait, you don't have to sing the Ave Maria during the Marian dedication?"
No, you don't. It doesn't really fit anyway, seeing as it's almost five minutes long. That's a long time for everyone to be watching you pray. I like praying and have obviously prayed for more than five minutes at a time before, but it's kind of boring to watch. So we had a chant setting of Alma Redemptoris Mater (seasonally appropriate to boot!).
6. Father didn't say to kiss the bride.
Also, how cool is this shot?
Instead, right after he announced us and people started clapping, Shane just leaned over and kissed me. I like that a lot better than being told to kiss — it was genuine instead of forced.
7. We didn't make everyone wait hours after the Mass for the reception.
It was fun watching his family be completely shocked that Shane knew how to dance.
(My parents taught him while we were visiting for Christmas, a whole two weeks before.)
The hall was open as of noon, and we got there around one. Doing most of the bridal party pictures before the wedding meant that we just had to do family pictures, and no one had to find ways to occupy themselves between the two on a 24 degree day. (January weddings: easy to get spaces, really cold to get between the spaces.) It was very streamlined, and while it did make some things slightly hectic, it really made it all work out really well. Pictures were split up, so we didn't have to stare at a camera for a long stretch of time, and we were able to spend more time with the people who braved the snow and cold to come to Boston for a January wedding.
Bonus: At the end of the day, we were married.
I get to spend the rest of my life with him, and I wouldn't have it any other way. Six months later, the trappings of the day are long gone, I can't wear the dress anymore, we're four months away from a baby, and it's been the best six months of our lives.
Has it been easy? No. Will it always be easy? No. Will it even always be good? No. I know all of this, and am extremely grateful for every day, be it good or bad, easy or hard. He makes me better, and he helps me seek Christ. In the end, that's what's most important.
It's time for another episode of Answer Me This with Kendra from Catholic All Year!
1. How did you celebrate the 4th of July?
We went to my husband's family's cookout and I took the weight of gravity off my ever-growing midsection in the pool. Oh it was so nice. And I tried to dunk my husband. (I failed, mostly because he's a lot bigger than I am and it's hard to dunk someone when you can't touch the bottom.)
2. Do you sunburn easily?
Nope. My face will burn once, and my shoulders might, but I don't really burn. Unless I happen to be an idiot and just don't put sunscreen on (cloudy!) and then stand in the water for over three hours. Then I get blisters. (That may have happened in high school. Shirts hurt for a week, which made life interesting. I mostly sat in front of a fan in my bedroom with aloe slathered an inch thick and sans shirt.) I mostly just get darker though. Yay for Mexican and Italian heritage!
3. Hot dogs. Yay or nay?
Eh. If you grill and/or char them. Or cook them over the bonfire. Any other way, they really just aren't appetizing. And if hot dogs are sitting next to bratwursts or hamburgers, the brat or hamburger is what will end up in my belly.
4. Have you ever personally set off fireworks?
No. I like my hands intact, and it's illegal in Massachusetts anyway. (Illinois just to sell them, but who wants to drive three hours just to buy fireworks? I'll just watch other people's, thanks.)
5. Have you ever jumped off the high dive?
I HATE heights. So no. Regular diving boards kind of freak me out now too. I spent 7 years diving off a stationary block that didn't bounce and was only three feet up, and on the edge of the pool. Now you want a thing that's slippery and bounces? And you wonder why I belly flop or shallow dive? It's because the thing under my feet is MOVING.
6. Do you do anything weird in your sleep?
I apparently sometimes have conversations with my husband. Not just talking, I'll respond to him with appropriate answers and everything with my eyes shut and wake up completely clueless. I also can't turn over without waking up right now, but that's just because pregnant.
