1. I mentioned briefly that we went to DC. It was really fun. I got to meet up with several blog friends, navigate the city like a pro (Gabe’s favorite part was riding the “train,” as per usual), and explore tons of museums. It was really nice to take a trip together. Traveling is absolutely my favorite way to spend money. I especially love to have those adventures with Gabe and Mike. I know a lot of people prefer to leave their kids at home when they travel, but I’d always be thinking, “Oh! Gabe would love that!” This way, we get to all experience it together. Highlights: Getting a flat white at Filter, mimosas with Kyla & Becky, ice cream with Stephanie, learning about mail bombs at the National Postal Museum, being super inspired by Anne Lindbergh at the Air & Space Museum (my new hero), and reading about vegetarianism and fast food at the Museum of American History.
(Natural History, our daily coffee delivered to our room, Giant Panda (!!), American History, and sharing a bed with Gabe)
2. We got home from DC and 72 hours later, my sisters started arriving to stay at my apartment for my mom’s surprise 50th birthday party. It was like a sleepover for a few nights up in here. Since we only have two bedrooms, we don’t often have house guests so it was super fun to have everyone together and have so much hangout time. And my mom’s party? A total success. This has been in the works for nearly a year, so it was bizarre when it finally got here. I was shaking with nerves when I went to bring my mom in (the party was on the top floor of our apartment building.)
3. After the surprise party, I went into wedding preparation mode since we were driving to Chicago to photograph a wedding. I’ll blog about that next week (hopefully), but it was a really fantastic weekend with my sister and her boyfriend (and their dog!), in addition to meeting Nilsa and an awesome wedding. It’s been a crazy couple of weeks. Needless to say, I am ready to NOT travel nonstop now.
4. On the way home from Chicago, we discovered our car’s transmission is dying. Still in the early stages, but we have to start thinking about replacing it sooner than I’d hoped. (It’s got 180,000 miles and I really wanted to make it to 200,000! I have weird goals.) We’d love (love!) to be able to go carless, but we would never see our friends and family if we did. Grocery shopping and a farmers market, work, banking, the library, restaurants, and regular shopping (Target) are all either within walking distance or a short bus ride away, but everyone we know requires a car to visit them. Alas. Instead of trading it in while it still has a bit of value, we decided to just limit our driving to a one-hour radius. We’ll see how that goes.
5. In other sucky money news, I’ve gotten all the bills from the miscarriage. I was doing really well with everything, but several things collided together and the last few days I have been…not gracious. I keep thinking about how if I was still pregnant, I’d be starting to feel baby kicks and finding out the gender and it just sucks to have spent this whole year either trying to get pregnant or being pregnant but being absolutely not pregnant at all after half the year has gone by. Plus, I am frustrated to be paying so much money for something I didn’t even want to happen. And now I’m nervous about it happening again not because of the heartache, but because of the cost. And that is so messed up. I can’t afford to have another miscarriage. (Though all of my maternity visits were covered thanks to health care reform. So. That was nice. Gotta take the perks you can get when you’re paying for your own insurance policy and it doesn’t cover maternity.It’s not all bad, though. I had a really great dinner this week with an old friend who’s experienced both infertility and pregnancy loss, and it was cathartic and wonderful to be able to share openly about how I’m feeling without fear of her judging me. Friends are good, you know?
6. I read the Silver Linings Playbook because a friend lent it to me. Mike read it, too. We hadn’t seen the movie yet, so we got it last night. It was good, but I am so glad I read the book first. The characters were really different and the whole internal monologue of Pat was lost in the movie. I really loved the book and was only lukewarm on the movie.
7. Nail polish makes my nails brittle and weak. I stopped painting them for four months and my nails were awesome and strong. But a pretty bottle of polish made me wonder if things would be different this time. They aren’t. My nails suck again. I either have to have nail polish on or my nails crack and split. Oh, nail polish, you finicky friend.
It was so fun meeting you! Boo to sucky cars (we’re not quite at that stage but looking at replacing one of ours by the end of the summer), and I can’t wait to see wedding pictures! Fingers crossed for some relaxing time at home for awhile though!
Um, dude. Let me tell you about nail polish. You need a protein base coat – helps your nails stay healthy and helps the polish stay on – I swear by Essie’s protein base coat. It looks milky white but you don’t have to use a lot of it and it really makes a difference!
I’m so sorry that you’re hurting right now – and I absolutely count financial stress/bills as hurting especially when it was like you said for something you didn’t want to happen. I haven’t experienced a loss and I’m so sorry you did – you know you can always email me ANYTHING though. Seriously. xoxo
I’m glad you guys had fun in DC :) Traveling is definitely my favorite way to spend money as well! I’m so sorry about the absurd medical costs you are dealing with right now. It sucks more than anything to deal with medical costs because most of the time they are not at ALL something we want… unlike a trip!
I just returned from 6 days in Chicago with my 12 year old daughter. It was AWESOME, just the 2 of us. Was my 1st trip to Chicago and I loved it but could NEVER live in a place that cold and windy. I could have spent days in the Field Museum.
I am so sorry about the associated costs of your miscarriage. I totally agree – that makes the whole thing even worse, because you must shell out money for a treatment that leaves you with nothing :( This really makes me so mad about the healthcare system here. I am glad you can try to look at the bright side of things though and that you had a friend to talk to.
Oh, I am so glad you brought up the “Silver Lining Playbook” book, because now I am really intrigued to read it… I saw the movie first (because someone recommended it to me) and was only lukewarm to it as well. I am hoping that the book will impress me much more!
Yes! You know we’re on the same page with healthcare stuff. So frustrating.
The funny this is, I didn’t even know the book existed – just the movie – until a friend lent it to me. I hope it’s as good if you’ve already seen the movie!
the bills from the miscarriage just seem to twist the knife a little. i’m sorry.
I have the same problem with nail polish. I love to paint my nails, but nail polish just ruins them. I am thinking about trying a more natural polish like Piggy Paint.
I’m sorry the miscarriage is still haunting you. I swear the bills are like adding insult to injury :(
As for the car, do you guys have zip car near you? It’s a great thing where you rent a car (w/lower prices than your avg. car rental) when you need it-pretty nifty!
The bills are the worst insult to the injury of loss or infertility. It’s hard enough without the mound of (mostly or totally) uncovered healthcare expenses, because it comes in the shape of opportunity costs (like the vacation you’d otherwise take to distract you from the suck). Hugs!
I recently embraced “bicycle as a possible alternative transportation”. I am working on comfort and setting up the bike and endurance over the summer and hope to be riding to work regularly (1x week or more) by late summer/early fall (STL summers can be brutal temp-wise). I am already riding to church on Sundays. I love that it trades fuel consumption for fat consumption without needing to designate specific workout times in my schedule. My commute, at 6mi, will take a little over twice as long by bike as by car (one hour vs 25 minutes), but that’s time for my brain to wander and for me to transition from home to office and office to home, and there’s no way I could squeeze a similar workout (round trip burns about 500 calories) into the hour I’d have available if I were driving instead (I only burn about 350 cals running for 60-70 minutes).
Ditto the nail polish, but since I’m a nail-biter when I’m anxious, sometimes polish is the only way my nails will grow. Love/hate!
That is awesome about the biking! Good for you.
And I am the same way – I bite my nails and don’t when they have polish on them! But then they break instead. Sigh.
It would be kind of awesome if there was some sort of service that could intercept the bad bills for you, and then you just have them pay it on your behalf, rather than you seeing with and dealing with them. Bonus if the service would be free. It wouldn’t make all the pain go away but at least you wouldn’t have to look at them. (Totally different situation but anytime we received court or lawyer bills or updates when we were going through our custody battle last year it made my stomach churn, turn and I felt sick. I hated having that kind of poison stuff in the house.)
I am so glad to know I’m not the only one who can’t paint her fingernails that much. My toes seem much more resilient but my poor nails, they just don’t love being painted. I did the gel nail thing about six weeks ago and they are still recovering from it. Sigh.
Check out Julep nail polish. It is supposed to not be filled with harsh chemicals. I use it, and I would be glad to give you a bottle to try! :) Sorry to hear about the medical bills! That really does suck. Don’t lose heart though. I know plenty of women who had a miscarriage and were pregnant within the following year.