What Does?

I'm interrupting my normal happy shopping tips because quite frankly I'm just not in the mood.  Crazy since this is such a fun time to shop.  One of my favorite things to do is go out when all the stores are open till midnight.

What Does it feel like to be punched in the gut?  Over and Over and Over again??

So, ever been punched in the gut so hard you are speechless?  I haven't, but I have been told that my 29 year old husband has cancer.  I assume they feel pretty much the same.  Both suck, both make you say WTF, is this really happening to me?  I'm so sick of all this shit happening to me I really can't take it anymore.  I want the pain in my gut to go away and I want to put this whole piece of crap situation behind me and Paul.  Hopefully I won't get the 1-2 punch tomorrow when we go back for his follow up exam.  We go tomorrow to make sure everything went well with his operation and that no other problems were found in the extracted piece of colon and lymphnodes. 

What does it feel like to be punched in the stomach twice in a week?  Well that feels like finding out your high school sweetheart turned spouse has cancer the same day you find out you are finally pregnant after 7 months of trying to conceive.  First the Dr. tells you no you aren't pregnant, then they tell you to relax because of course women who relax are fertile myrtles, you even try to explain that you aren't stressed about getting pregnant, you are stressed because your husband has cancer.  The nurse cries and hugs you then leaves you.  Then after they have left you wallowing in your sorrow for 10 minutes, they come back to tell you oh never mind, my bad, you are pregnant.  Then you ball because you can't believe God loves you so much that he gave you what you had been praying for, and hoping for, for more years than you want to count.  How exciting, that we will hear our babies heart beat on my birthday, an awesome coincidence by the scheduler at the Dr.'s office.  We can tell our family the way we wanted to during Christmas, we can finally celebrate with my husbands siblings who are pregnant.  So, why did I get punched in the stomach twice?  Well because the day after your favorite drinking night of the year (our annual Christmas party), a day I didn't drink my special mimitini's because I was finally with a bambino, I miscarried.  SERIOUSLY WTF!  No baby and this isn't really that funny, but no fucking martini's either.  This precious baby, was supposed to be what got us through the first stomach punch.  Our little Noah or Addison, isn't going to happen for us anytime soon.  So now what?!

Well, what does it feel like to be punched in the stomach three times?  Well that would be getting the results of your husbands Semen Analysis that you had taken in case he needed to have chemo, and being told that it's not looking good but since you are young and conceived somehow miraculously on your own that you should try until you are ready to do IVF/ICSI, IUI isn't an option for you.  Bank Account = major panic attack, there are no coupons or guarantees for this.  Seriously?!!! WTF!! Why oh why is this shit happening?  2011 CAN NOT come soon enough.  Please God let 2011 just be a happy year of health and prosperity.  No more death, no more cancer, no more bad news. 

Please pray that tomorrow won't be the 1-2-3 4th punch.  It would be a wonderful birthday present to find out my husband is cancer free.  I can already feel the grey hairs quadrupling on my head from all this stress.  Maybe I should just go to the OB/GYN so they can tell me to relax again.  Throat punching them will feel great.

Loving my Yard Sale Finds

DISCLAIMER:
This is a post a meant to finish a few weeks ago, but I just now got around to getting some pics downladed

As fall sets in, yard sale season wraps up for the year in the DC area.  I used to go to yard sales all the time with my Mom when I was a kid.  I loved it, loved the bargaining and the bargains!  Until this summer it had been a really long time since I hit up any good yard sales.  Somehow though the yard sale gods were with me this summer.

It started with the mammoth of all yard sales in our neighborhood at the end of August.  Remember the $2 cashmere sweater my sister and I missed by a millisecond, and the carful of slightly used baby paraphernalia for Paul's expectant sister and the cute little bird house I originally bought for Paul's Mom that I kept for myself (haha). 

Following the neighborhood yardsale, my neighbor was so cool.  She didn't end up selling her brand new Lucky Jeans, so she brought them to my house and GAVE me her $80 brand new jeans!  I love simple acts of kindness and repayed her by a very anonymous BOO on her doorstep a few weeks later.

In early September, I started work on a church retreat in Vienna every Saturday morning and got to go past yard sales in a very affluent neighborhood.  This was awesome.  The first saturday I stopped at a yard sale at this beautiful reconstructed old home where the woman was a buyer for BareMinerals (my makeup of choice) and Spanx (my fat ass loves spanx).  I got close to $70 worth of brand new makeup and brushes for $3, a $30 pair of brand new Spanx for $2.  The makeup find was so amazing it was like I dreamt it!

To finish up my yardsale finds is a quick and easy DIY tip for tired light fixtures.  I was just about to leave a yardsale hands empty when I spotted out of the corner of my eye the glass lamp shades that cover the bulbs on bathroom lights and/or ceiling fans.  I knew about these little gems because the builder grade lights in our home came with terrible glass covers.  I had bought four shades for the bathrooms when we moved into the townhouse from Home Depot for $7 a piece.  Even for that price it was an awesome very fast upgrade.  The yardsale though had $4 shades for $2!!!  I've been looking to replace this ugly ceiling fan for 3 years now.  I honestly can't seem to find one I like better.  In the meanwhile my $2 upgrade helps this tired looking fan look just a wee bit better.

Before Yardsale:

 After Yardsale:

Did you find any yardsale gems this year?