SO! Because I posted this on Facebook, I felt like I should probably post it here too. Plus, mostly I'm all anxious and excited. ^_^ Tomorrow we ought to find out the gender of the baby, yay! In light of this, I started (several weeks ago) a 'pool' where people can guess that (and other things, but those are less important to my purposes).

We -are- planning on giving out a small gift to people who guess right (now, I'll admit I don't even know what the gift -is- yet, but, if you're willing to give out your address to me, or live close, you will get it!)

So, here's the pool: http://bebepool.com/go/?a=Shandriz&view=list

Feel free to vote your guess!

I know it's been a while since I last posted here. There've been reasons for it. Mostly, because almost everything I could think about to blog about, was information that wasn't ready yet for public consumption.

But now it is, so, yay! I am pregnant. 17 weeks along today (which is a little over four months, for those who don't measure in weeks because you're -not- pregnant, as I think only pregnant people do.)

It's weird, and exciting. I was surprised it worked so quickly-- first try on clomid and BAM. I seriously thought we'd have a lot more trouble. If -nothing- else, that we'd be trying for a couple of months on Clomid. Or, that we'd end up giving up and just adopting, which was our plan for if the Clomid didn't work (I don't believe in IVF-- it's just as expensive as adoption, without the guarantee of getting a baby at the end. Besides, Adoption rocks.) But yeah, so, it worked. Baby is wiggling around in there. IT FEELS WEIRD. xD

But good.

We're cloth diapering, and I think we're just about set for that. Well, okay, Shino still isn't sure about whether or not he can stomach it (he's really just adverse to the idea of poop going in the laundry machine. Which, as any parent or person who has been around little ones long enough knows, is going to happen whether we cloth diaper or not, but he's not a parent and has almost no experience with little ones, so he's not convinced on that yet). But, I am determined that it will work out and we will be able to do this. I really really really want to. It's better for the environment, and cloth diapers are better for your baby (no chemicals!) and also a bazillion times cuter.

...plus, people keep giving us skeptical looks, and I do so love to PROVE PEOPLE WRONG. xD

Um. Other than that, I also have a job. I work two-three hours a day on Monday and Tuesday teaching after-school drawing classes. No, I cannot draw-- but the kids don't know that! Really, it's pretty fun. It doesn't pay very well, though, and hubby is worried about that. I mean, not that I need to make a lot of money, but we need to make it worthwhile for me to be working, and making less than $80 a week really isn't much at all to boost our savings account with.

I've played around with the idea of getting a part-time job, but I don't know who'll hire me, what with the economy being crap and me being pregnant and only wanting it to be temporary (I'd be quitting when the baby comes). I applied at Babies R Us and picked up an application for JoAnn's. I might apply at Michaels or something too. We shall see.

Mostly, I'm just hoping that when Fall comes and the classes start up again, I'll have more. But then I also have to worry about childcare, so that becomes crazy. But whatever, we'll see how things work out.

So, my current obsession?

Chaos Awakened It's a MWPP-era AU that mostly sticks to canon with a few alterations. I play Hestia Jones, Alice Longbottom, and Bathsheba Babbling.

If you're into Harry Potter, or know anybody who is, you might want to check it out! ^_^ We're still looking for a lot of characters. Some of them pretty big name (*cough*Snape*cough*Deatheaters*cough*Weasleys*)

Currently still alive. Working on things and figuring things out and waiting on things and, just...yeah. Trying to get myself together despite being really really tired all the time and therefore uninspired to do very much.

I did manage to go upstairs and vacuum our bedroom for the first time, in, uh, years, so that was nice. But only because I've just been told I am developing an allergy to our dogs and I am going to do EVERYTHING POSSIBLE to prevent the allergy from getting worse (AKA noticeable, as I have no evidence of it currently in how I feel) before I can start taking allergy shots (which will not be until after we get pregnant/have a baby). So, yeah. XD

So, things on the jobfront are much the same. This Saturday will be my last day of the training class, then I have a week to finish up a project for it, and I'll find out at the end of the month whether or not I am for sure hired as a contractor. Then I just have to y'know, get jobs. But it shouldn't be too hard-- I'm always seeing requests for grant writers, and even though I personally have no experience, I'll be with a consulting firm working with a lady who has probably been doing this as long as I've been alive, so, yeah. That should help. Plus, she's already said she wants me to edit for her, which I would LOVE to do because editing is like catharsis for me-- something I do automatically, for fun, to relax. Yeah. Because I'm that lame.

Anyways, so, outside of that I've been dealing with hormones for the past ten days. No, literally-- I'm on progesterone so that I can 'cycle' and it's messing with my system big time. I sleep like eleven hours a day, and am still exhausted the rest of the day. Half the time I'm nauseous too, or dizzy/disoriented, or just restless the past couple of days. Oh, and irritable. But today is the last day I have to take them, then hopefully 'cycle' time (which will be me being depressed probably, as that's what usually happens during my cycle when I'm not on Yaz) and then I get to have my blood drawn so that my GYN can figure out if I have the potential for fertility. If all that checks out, then I get to start fertility drugs so my hubby and I can try in earnest to have a baby.

JUST ONE. I've already informed him that I am only going to do the biological thing -once-. If we end up with twins, that's fine. If not, we will adopt a second, but we know for sure we only want two. Hopefully one of each gender or two boys, but that doesn't mean I wouldn't love them if we had two girls. Just, boys are easier. >_<

Anyways, so that's pretty much The Plan for Life.

As far as other things go-- we're going to be going to a 311 concert on the Fourth of July which should be fun, we're going to go to California to visit my relatives in the SF area at the end of July, which should be even -more- fun, and I am going to go crazy in October when the people who drove me mad last month when we went to Wisconsin are going to come (PLUS OTHERS OF A SIMILAR VARIETY) and hang out and guest star on Interactive Distraction's 100th episode deal. At least here I can get away if I need to, though, and yell at people to STFU if they're in MY HOME. There will be no drinking all night and keeping me up all night in MY HOUSE, BUGGERS.

Yar.

I need a nap or something.

I am alive! I am done with Daycare. I have managed to get myself active again on Gaia and properly active in Forgotten Gods (based on Neil Gaiman's American Gods, loosely, on insanejournal, awesome rp). Will be working on getting myself active in Zenithia next. XD

Birthday was Tuesday, yay! I am now twenty-five! Will be celebrating properly tomorrow. <3 Shino got me Drizzt books and Speed Racer graphic novels (shuttup, yes I am obsessed). Got myself Sims3 for my birthday and am now officially ADDICTED.

Taking a course in Grant Writing wherein after completing the course I will be (most likely) doing contract work in grant writing. Very very very exciting, as this is one of the things I really wanted to break into for my Making Money kind of job, and it's a lot of fun (if a lot of work) so far. Plus, I can work from home for the most part. <3

Um. I think this is everything. Lots of love. Need sleep. T_T Didn't get much last night because I've been all achy for some reason. Ew. <3 Shino better get home soon!

Giving in my two weeks notice today. I just cannot do this anymore. Still looking for other job opportunities and I have a few leads, so hopefully something pans out in the remaining time I have left. Either way, though, I feel really relieved. Now I can make my dentist appointment and my allergist appointment and my ob/gyn appointment and not get guilt tripped over having to take time off (because that is what happens in daycare-- they don't want you to ever ever ever miss work because obviously being there is more important than anything else you might need to do, and besides they never hire enough people to cover for you when you're gone. Like hiring one person to stand in whatever room is missing someone would really detract that much from them, given people are paying about $800 a month per child to have their daycare in the system-- so every one child pretty much pays for two teachers' salaries. Yeah.)

Anyhow, so then I will be free again and actually have time and not be completely exhausted/stressed/frustrated/angry all the time, so I might actually be able to make a comeback in all the things I've been neglecting because I was too stressed/angry/tired to be bothered with them, even if I love them.

FOR THE LOVE OF ALL THAT IS HOLY GO SEE STAR TREK!!!

Shall return to normal onlineness if my allergies ever decide to let up again.

Contemplating finding a way to permanently affix tissues to my nose.


No, really. It'd just be easier that way.

So, I did end up going to the doctor again for my ultrasound and it turns out I have PCOS (AKA Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome). The way the doctor described it to me, the essential gist is that my ovaries do not communicate with each other, so, one will grow but not big enough, and they both grow sporadically, etc.

Which, in the end just means that sometimes I do not ovulate. So sometimes I do not have a period. It is incredibly likely that this was the situation before I went on birth control, which explains why I was so random then. So, now I know, and we know that it'll take a bit more time to get pregnant, so we're starting to actually try now, rather than just not-preventing. The doctor suggested that I take my temperature every morning and log it on a fertility chart so I'll have an idea when I'm ovulating (and thus, approximately when my period will begin when I have one). So, that's been interesting-ish (not really).

Work has been....crazy lately. I was incredibly stressed out last week because when I was not at work we came home and cleaned in preparation for our out-of-state guests. So, all I got to do during the week was chase after small children and clean (both of which involved me being on my feet...so I was up standing/walking/running all day long), and I had pretty much had it with that by Thursday when they were supposed to come in and broke down.

I broke down yesterday after a particularly difficult day at work (the kids were -crazy- and we had three bitings in the morning.) and then today I broke down because one of the children I was watching fell off the little plastic picnic tables they sit at for lunch and hit his head. This normally would not cause a break down, of course, except that he managed to hit the root of a tree and crack open the back of his head. He's fine, but it bled quite a bit and it was my first real accident with a child I was actively watching, particularly of this degree, so I was shaken and ended up spending half the afternoon on the verge of tears.

I seriously need a new job. I don't think I can handle this one much longer-- I'm just not cut out for this level of stress no matter how much I enjoy being around the children and teaching them and doing things with them. One or two I can handle, but I guess eleven is just too many.

There's at least one potential job that I'm looking into, but it wouldn't start until after May so I'm still kinda hoping I can find something else sooner even though this one would be perfect (work-from-home grant writing). It's just that I'm not even sure the company is legitimate (can't find anything from my research online) and even if it -is- legitimate I have to do a training class and -then- maybe find out if they'll hire me -after- I do the class which costs just over $100. AND signups for said class are on the 15th and the class doesn't start until the end of May. So, yeah. But, hopefully either that pans out or I find something else soon, because otherwise I may just lose it.

So freaking tired. Sorry for not being around a whole lot when I should be, guys. I just started working in daycare again (WTF is wrong with me that this is the only job I can get?) and I'm just...wiped out. The kids aren't bad, or anything, but I'm on my feet just about all day, chasing after kids, and out in the sun half the time too, so I'm still adjusting. I should be able to be online again soon, but as it is right now I pretty much get home, eat dinner, and lie on the couch until I go up to bed because I'm too freaking tired to do anything else.

Allergies are not helping, especially when they mow the lawn so there's grass clippings all over the place and since grass is my -worst- allergy I'm just..miserable a lot. xD


Also, went to the OB/GYN yesterday and found out I have an enlarged ovary. The doctor said it might be a cyst or it might be nothing or something, but it'd be best to get an ultrasound done, so that's what we're doing. I've been at work less than a week and already I'm going to have to ask off again. >_< At least they know me and know that this is not at ALL usual for me, so I don't seem like a complete dumbass bitch. And hey, at least I WORK when I'm at work, which is more than I can say for some of my coworkers, who prefer to sit around and socialize and let the kids do WTFever they want even if it might mean them getting hurt or something. Yeah. I hate working in daycare more for the adults than the kids. >_< Especially since I have a pretty good class right now.

http://www.cnn.com/2009/HEALTH/04/08/oral.allergy.syndrome/index.html


OMFG. If life is even slightly fair, I have this and once I start getting allergy shots, I may be able to eat raw fruit again. *hyperventilates from happy*

So! I finally have pictures uploaded for everybody's viewing pleasure. <3 I'll link ya to the photobucket here: http://s588.photobucket.com/albums/ss321/krystalchriswedding/ and if you click on 'photographer' off to the left and a bit down, you'll see all the professional photographer photos-- the ones in the general area are those taken by family and friends (except the ones on Facebook which I haven't saved/transferred yet. xD)

Here are a few sneak peaks for those who don't want to click the link:

( To save your friendslists )

Anyhow, here's the story (yeah, this'll be long. Get comfy. XD). Most of it was fantastic and awesome. Sure, there were a few minor things and a lot of people asking me where things went and what was right and me letting things go and such, but...well, the DJ was awful. Seriously awful. It wasn't soooo bad when he messed up with the wedding music and started playing the wrong song for our recessional. It wasn't too bad when he screwed up our carefully planned introduction (we were supposed to fight over the music, which happened, but then when the last guy came in he was supposed to switch to Indiana Jones because that's his theme song and we thought it'd be funny. This did not happen). It was pretty bad that he listened to some random girl who told him to go ahead and announce dinner even though we had JUST TOLD HIM TO DO THE INTRODUCTION FIRST so that the entire wedding party had to wait until EVERYONE ELSE WAS DONE EATING in order to get their dinner when they were supposed to be y'know, first. And so that my husband and I had to eat our dinner cold because we had grabbed it before the intro was supposed to happen and put it on our table thinking this way we could eat and then mingle while everyone was still getting their food and eating.

But then he completely ignored the songbook we'd sent in saying which songs we wanted and did not want to hear. AND he did not have OUR song, which we circled multiple times and starred and wrote down "HAVE THIS SONG" next to so that we could use it as our last dance. This, for my husband, was the LAST STRAW and while our friend who served as Day Of Coordinator had already chewed the DJ out, Chris was in -such- a bad mood and I was afraid that the wedding was going to end with that sour note.

But it was not to be. Our amazing, wonderful friends did EVERYTHING they could in order to make sure that it was not. As we were leaving (after the DJ made a very FAST exit) our friend had found our song on her ipod and pulled her car around to the front, doors open, and had it blasting out full as soon as we stepped out the door.

This is where that last picture comes into play. I had not cried a single tear during the rest of the wedding (though, I got a little choked up over Chris' vows, I'd managed not to actually cry). I SOBBED LIKE A LITTLE GIRL. Because we have such amazing wonderful friends that they managed to completely SAVE our wedding. Because there was so much love and support for us bursting out of the people we cared for most in the world. Because I couldn't imagine how I'd been worried about losing touch with friends and having no one behind me when there were so many who stayed and made this possible for us. I sobbed so hard.

We went down the stairs, danced in the parking lot, hugged as many of them as we could reach before we just had to LEAVE (or else they'd be stuck at the place forever and they still had to do cleanup) and just..I cried and cried. So happy. <3 It really was beautiful, and even with the DJ being such a fuckup (we will be calling to complain for certain) everything worked out so much better in the end for it. We could not have PLANNED a better ending.

And so, for all of you who have not yet had your weddings, I leave you with the immortal words of Mr. Rob Thomas (in the song we danced with our parents to, no less!) Let it go. Let it roll right off your shoulders...in the end we will only just remember how it feels.

Crossposted to Weddingplans.

My life right now has been amazingly awesome.

More details will come later on. XD Right now I must return to the real world...which means a -lot- of cleaning up. xD

IT WAS TOTALLY AWESOME AND I AM MARRIED NOW AND ALSO HUNGRY AND TIRED. <3 I LOVE YOU ASA!!!!!!

Awesome time last night. Karaoke is frickin' awesome even if you -do- have a rather nasty cough! ^___^

Also, I HAS AN ASA! AND NONE OF YOU DO! HAHAHAHAHAA! MINE! ^____^

OMG hyper. <3 This time tomorrow I'll be preparing to get married. Whoo!

I...am sick. XD On Friday I managed a respectable fever of 101.4. Was...quite miserable, really. The last time I remember having a fever was when I was like ten and had the flu right before my uncle's wedding. I guess my body just has a thing against weddings or something? xD Anyhow, I broke the fever somewhere around 1:00 Saturday morning (at least, that's when I woke up and it was broken, and the last time I'd checked the time it was around eleven-ish, so, there's only a couple hours in there in which it could have broken). So, was able to go to the tea-party bridal shower a couple of awesome amazing friends were throwing for me. Good stuff. The horseback riding had to be canceled because of rain, but the plan was to do it Sunday instead as it wasn't supposed to rain (it did. We had to cancel again, and are rescheduling sometime after the honeymoon). Anyhow, that night I was recording something with a couple of friend and was talking, hoarsely, for about four hours. Sunday I woke up and couldn't talk. Today I woke up and couldn't talk.

...Yeah. XD If it doesn't clear up by Wednesday I'll be going to a doctor, because it is hard enough having no voice on a -normal- weekend, let alone during the -wedding-! I never realized how much I relied on it until it's gone! (I don't think I've ever lost my voice before). Stupid virus. The funny thing is, though, that this is the only real symptom other than a tiny bit of stuffiness, almost all of which is settled in my throat. And, y'know, the tiniest bit of nausea related to that.

But yeah, fun stuff! XD

On the positive side, I actually slept really well last night! I only woke up when Chris was shaving and when I was ready to get up, and I slept well and felt good when I woke up. Yay!

On the negative side, my lovely niece was nice enough to share her cold with me when I had to pick her up from Daycare on Tuesday. So, I will probably be sick for my wedding and honeymoon, as when I get a cold it inevitably lasts two weeks rather than the one week everyone else seems to suffer. Boo. >_

zenithia_rpg is now open for all video games! So, if you have a video game character you'd like to steampunkify, here's the place to do it!

My 1000th journal post~! Yay! Also, now in single digits leading up to the wedding. Holy cow. XD

Am going to have to flash learn how to crochet, as I want to make these absolutely adorable little crochet dolls for the ladies that are throwing me a bridal shower and bachelorette party. Only, I don't actually know how to crochet (don't worry, the pattern is for beginners. I just need, y'know, instructions. xD). I did knit at one point, though, so maybe crocheting isn't much more complicated? I'll have to look for a few tutorials before I go to get the supplies for the dolls. xD


Went to look for stress relieving stuff yesterday. I think that I was mostly successful. I got some sample size thingies from Bath and Body Works of their sleep aromatherapy stuff, and I did sleep better last night after using a couple of them. Sort've. I still woke up a few times, but I also slept a lot harder than I have been sleeping, so that's good. And I feel a lot better this morning than I've been feeling, like I really got enough sleep.

I went to Waldenbooks to look at Thirteen Orphans, Laura, but I totally cannot afford to buy a $25 hardcover book right now. When it comes out in paperback I'll get it.

Actually, I was pretty unsuccessful in finding pretty much -everything- I was looking for yesterday (all the other books I've been wanting they did not have) except for the B&BW stuff. The lady there was soooo nice, too. Not pushy at all, and in fact she encouraged me to use the little sample bottles instead of getting the big one, which I really appreciated. No pressure at all. I'll definitely be going back there to get stuff as I need it. ^^

So yes, things are falling into place. Still a few other things to accomplish, of course, but we're getting there. I'm hoping by next week we'll have nothing left to do but pay people. XD