Weathering the Storm

Last Friday, I was laid off from my job.

My 12 weeks of job protected FMLA (Family & Medical Leave Act) expired, and my employer chose to terminate my contract with them since I am still not well enough to return.

I was expecting this.

When I was first diagnosed with Ulcerative Colitis (a subset of IBD, or Inflammatory Bowel Disease) in late May, I never thought it would affect my life the way it has. I try my hardest not to complain about having a chronic illness, because I know it could be so much worse. In the grand scheme of things, this is nothing. I can handle this.

I just never thought it would get this far...it's made me rethink all of our plans - especially starting a family. Forget the job, forget the money, forget the health problems, this thing has taken away my choice to have a baby. And that emotional pain hurts far more than IBD.

I'm not quite ready to get back to blogging, as my husband and I weather this storm of financial instability and medical issues. I just wanted to get this off my chest. Thanks for listening.

Peace

Do not lose your inner peace for anything whatsoever, not even if your whole world seems upset. If you find that you have wandered away from the shelter of God, lead your heart back to Him quietly and simply.

 ~ St. Francis de Sales

Wordless Wednesday

The Bride-To-Be's Veil

7 Quick Takes

— 1 —

Our Wedding Day

We drove down to Seal Beach today and spent the day at Brian's mom's house. I took a LOVELY nap when we got here, and then we went out to dinner at Ruby's Diner. We had our first date at Ruby's Diner, and we went there on our wedding day to take photographs. It's always nice to take a walk down memory lane.

— 2 —

This is my nightmare.

Tomorrow I am going shopping for a bridesmaid dress. This is my first time being a bridesmaid and I take this job very seriously, haha! I'm a little nervous about meeting the other girls in the wedding, since none of us know each other. Jennifer (the bride-to-be) also informed me that not only am I the youngest (by at least 3 years), but I am also the only married girl. Isn't that weird? I'm hoping they are all sweet and nice, and that Jennifer doesn't dress me in pink.

— 3 —

Brian is also trying to sell his car this weekend. We have been a one car family for awhile in Santa Barbara. In fact, it's probably been a year and a half since we decided to leave Brian's car at his mom's house. We are tired of paying the insurance and registration on it since we never use it, and we don't want to keep it as it only has two doors and we will eventually purchase something more practical when we start a family. Plus, it would be nice to have the extra cash right now!

— 4 —

I made Shepherd's Pie in the crockpot on Wednesday. It was a bit of a process, more so than most slow cooker recipes, but I really wanted to try it since shepherd's pie is one of my most favorite meals. While it did end up tasting pretty good, the mashed potatoes were a little bit watery. I had to throw the stoneware in the oven to try and evaporate some of the water that was on top. I don't think we ended up eating until almost 7:45! But, although it wasn't the most beautiful dish (hence no picture), Brian really enjoyed it and ate a lot of it. I think I will try it again with a few tweaks.

— 5 —

Finally watched The Help tonight - I read the book about a month ago. I have a policy about reading books before I see the movie, so I'd put it off until now. Anyway, am I the only person who thinks the book and movie were GROSSLY overrated? Actually, the movie was good. I'd probably give it three stars. I wouldn't have been that generous with the book. Someday I might actually sit down and do a book review of it, there were so many things wrong. For example, from the Huffington Post article:

Writing for Ms. Magazine, Erin Aubry Kaplan wonders, "Why must blacks speak dialect to be authentic? Why are Stockett's white characters free of the linguistic quirks that white Southerners certainly have?" The Christian Science Monitor notes the same problem, wondering about the "decision to convey only black voices in dialect, with nary a dropped 'g' among her generally less sympathetic Southern white characters."

For other critical reviews, see the NY Times article here and Cease and DaSista's review here.

— 6 —

On sale for $1? Do you have a wheelbarrow?

My crafting continues. My newest project is called "smashing". It's a bit like scrap-booking and journaling mixed together and I really enjoy it. I got my SMASH book from here, although some people make their own. They were at Michael's and I had a 40% off one item coupon, plus a 20% off entire order coupon. I also got my favorite yarn that was on sale for $1 each!

— 7 — 

Since #5 was so long, I'm taking this one off. Hope you all have a lovely weekend!

Zoo Visit

It's been two months since we visited the Zoo, so Brian and I decided to head down there on Monday since he had Martin Luther King day off from teaching. We had a good time!

We got two porcupines at the zoo now!

We got another giraffe! He's a big guy :)

New baby flamingo. So fluffy.

Husband and I on a nice day

Check out my boot socks - $4.99 at Payless

We've had such nice weather here. Too nice really. If we don't get enough rain, I'm afraid the brush will dry out too soon when the summer comes. We've had a lot of fires here in the past 3-4 years, some that were pretty devastating. I'm crossing my fingers for lots of rain -- and soon!