Category Archives: Fun for Couples

Sep 13 2013
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Friends and Family, Fun for Couples, Guilty Pleasures, Solitary Fun

Day 354: FNL

Confession: I watched Friday Night Lights on Friday night until about 3am Saturday morning. What?

I started watching this show almost a year ago with the hubs. We have so many friends who are so into it but we just did not understand the hype. We gave up. Then, last week, I started watching again. I got through a few more “rough” episodes until a very particular Smash episode totally hooked me. I’ve been watching frequently, but Day 354 took the cake. I just couldn’t stop. If you aren’t watching it, give it 10 episodes before you make your final decision. You will not regret it!

Smash, Jason, Lyla, Tyra, Matt, Julie, Landry, Coach Taylor, Buddy, Tim Riggins and that little kids who worships Tim Riggins are all great, but Tammy Taylor is my everything. Love. Her.

Sep 11 2013
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Fun for Couples, Reader Suggested Fun

Day 352: I’m Having Their Baby

My sister has turned me on to a show that could be difficult down the road, but for now, I am addicted. It’s called I’m Having Their Baby. You may have heard of it. I had but thought that it was about surrogacy from the title. Actually it’s about adoption.

Each episode follows two to three couples/birth mothers as they struggle to decide what to do with their babies. Many are already matched with adoptive parents, many are not. Most stories go through the birth to two months after birth. The show gives me an insight into how hard the decision is for birth patents, which is invaluable. Not only the struggle with placing their child for adoption but also the struggle with family and friends who do not agree with the decision.

It also will hopefully help me be cautious with my heart. Many of the matched birth mothers/couples end up deciding to parent right after birth or within a few days of birth. For adoptive parents, this means they have not only been off the adoption market while matched but also grown to love and expect a child at the end. Many are present for the birth, even hold and bond with the baby before being told they will not be taking the child home. I cannot even fathom what that is like, but our agency says 1 in 5 matched birth mothers/parents end up deciding to parent themselves.

It’s a hard road ahead and, for now, this show provides some insight and comfort. I think it is probably interesting for anyone, not just those of us hoping to start a family this way 🙂

Sep 09 2013
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Around the House/DIY, Food/Drink Fun, Fun for Couples

Day 350: Chopped Challenge

The hubs loves him some Chopped. It’s on for like four hours every weeknight and I swear he could watch every episode every night. (If you don’t know the show, four chefs are presented with a mystery basket of ingredients. In the appetizer round, they are given 20 minutes to use all ingredients in one dish. One chef is chopped and they move on to the main course, and then dessert, leaving one champion. Each round had a new mystery basket. Simple yet satisfying). Also we are trying to do a better job of grocery shopping and cooking so we don’t spend all our money eating out every night.

Today I got home first, realized we had no food and gave myself a challenge. Rather than go to a grocery store, I would go right next door to the store that is more like the Kwik E Mart than a store and see if I could find enough ingredients to make a dinner. I was pleasantly surprised by the fresh jalapeno peppers, avocados and tomatoes-jackpot! I also grabbed some thin noodles and $3 later (yes $3!) I had an opaque bag of fresh veggies and noodles.

The opaque bag is important because it gave me the idea to present the hubs with the chopped challenge. Once home, I added Greek yogurt and our new favorite hot sauce-Cholula-to the bag.

When the hubs came home, he was excited about trying it. He was confused and challenged by my ingredients. (In fact he ended up cheating and not using the Greek yogurt that I had thrown in as both a challenge and a potential sauce base). He started with the noodles, boiling them, and chopping up the veggies. From here he started to heat and reduce the tomatoes to a sauce with Cholula and peppers. Where things go downhill is his treatment of the peppers. Including them in the sauce-great. Leaving a bunch of seeds in-no thank you.

He mixed everything together and put it right in the fridge, envisioning a sort of cold, spicy noodle “salad.” We gave it a few minutes then tasted it with the avocado. It would have been delicious if it wasn’t also burning our mouths. Take all the seeds out people. We don’t need em!

Really both challenges (corner store shopping and Chopped) were fun. A definite retry to (hopefully) better results.

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Sep 07 2013
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Friends and Family, Fun for Couples, Rheumatoid Arthritis

Day 348: More Big News!

The hubs and I have an announcement: we have decided to grow our family through adoption.

We have many reasons for this and some of them have to do with RA. First, though I want to say this path has called to me. From a young age, I have felt passionate about adoption as a way to help women and children in need. It also happens that having RA can cause difficulties getting pregnant, staying pregnant and, more commonly, staying healthy and pain-free throughout and following pregnancy.

The hubs and I went through the process of going off of methotrexate and waiting until it was safe to try (3 cycles methotrexate free). However after just a few months more, we reached a point where I felt like I was heading back to the bad physical place of last summer. We made the decision to go back on methotrexate.

During this period, we also went to an info session at an adoption agency and consulted friends who have adopted. We talked at length about why we want children and if those reasons had anything to do with genetics. We found that while we were naturally interested to see what a child that is the biological product of the two of us looks like, many of the other reasons had nothing to do with biology. After our August roadtrip, we reached out to the agency to begin the process.

I thought a lot about blogging about the pregnancy process with RA as we experienced it, however I also wanted to keep it private so as not to put too much pressure. It is an important issue for young women with RA and one that I am open to discussing now. I just couldn’t let myself get back to what I call “the bad place.” It’s where the motivation to run came from, the motivation to eat well, and the initial motivation to open up on this blog. And it was enough motivation to last a lifetime-no need to experience it again.

Now I am excited to share our adoption journey. Much much more on this to come!

Sep 01 2013
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Fitness, Friends and Family, Fun for Couples, Games, Outdoor Fun

Day 342: Tennis

Labor Day weekend continues to bring new experiences. Today I played tennis for the first time in a looooooong time.

I took lessons as a youngin (all summer, right after golf) but considering the changes in my physical ability, if anything stuck, it was not obvious. The hubs and I volleyed with our friends for a while. I really enjoyed trying to predict where the ball would go, where I should stand and where (on the racket) to hit the ball. I even enjoyed the small amount of running involved, though I also appreciated playing as doubles. I don’t think I would be able to sprint around as much as one does in a singles game. Here I am looking all sporty.

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After our volleys, the hubs and one of our friends played a set. These two dudes have been pretty in to tennis for a few months now and are getting good. I think I could help the hubs continue to train, if only as someone to hit wild, unpredictable balls for him to chase.

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