it has been a while.

so here goes.

it has been crazy.

this past week, my husband was off from school, so i had some extra help around the house. this is excellent. i'm enjoying not having to do everything at once!

found out this week that my insurance doesn't cover regular doctor's visits. i'm not sick - i just need an appointment. and we don't have vision coverage. and i need new contacts. a new prescription, actually. insurance here in NY is super expensive, and ridiculous. people talk about affordable healthcare for everyone - um, when? and how in the world is that possible?

taking a moment for an attitude check:

i really do have everything i need
i am grateful for my job
i am loved
and it's sunny outside.

pms is such an annoying thing. trying to cope without crying, yelling, or overreacting. or being insanely silly, like i was at worship rehearsal last night. or overeating on sweets. i have kept up the walking-during-lunch-every-day thing at work. so that's a plus, right? it almost negates one piece of candy.

the in-laws are coming this weekend, and i'm excited. i've baked a cake to celebrate their birthdays - dad's on last Sunday, and mom's on this Sunday. it's amazing yellow cake - fluffy, perfectly vanilla-y sweet. i made a round 2-layer, and stuck strawberry jam between the two. the best part? the icing is Hershey's special-dark chocolate. you actually melt a whole stick of butter, add the baking cocoa, and then gradually the 3 cups of powdered sugar, alternating with the 1/3 cup of milk. vanilla goes in last, and voila - amazing. so smooth, so very chocolaty. and great for me being so overemotional and such. it came out perfectly when i iced the cake, so i topped it with heart shaped sprinkles (maybe a little too valentine-esque, but whatever. i like it.), and displayed it on my crystal cake stand...in the fridge, of course. i'm proud of myself!

last night, in addition to worship rehearsal after work (which was good), I managed to clean the entire shower (not fun) and the vinyl shower curtain liner. bleach is my friend. i don't like either of those tasks, but it's over. and stuff is clean.

want to hear about a laundry fiasco? i'm already frustrated that i have to pay for laundry, though i know that many other people do, but this was worse. our clothes went in the washer, with soap, for the right amount of time, on the cold cycle. i came back 23 minutes later to find that the machine didn't actually complete the final spin cycle. everything was absolutely soaked. and freezing. and it was raining outside.

so i squeezed most of the water out of most of the things and i hung them up to dry. here's the most annoying part: there was my lovely, thirsty cotton-loop bath mat in that load of wash. it was so heavily soaked that it was hard to carry, let alone hang. and there was no space. i put it in the dryer on high, alone. it came out still wet, but at least it was hang-able. i hung it up for three days to dry - and when i took it down, it had RUST SPOTS. three lovely lines of yellowish rust. this seems impossible, especially knowing that my metal drying rack is actually painted white. there are no chips in it. it's almost new. but, alas - there are the stains.

i know someone else has to have made a mistake like that.

at any rate, i've been very thankful for my husband's help this week - he has been really amazing.

love.