Big Ben, Parliament

Y'ALL!!! I can't even begin to express how overwhelmed I'm feeling right now! I just logged into my blog and about peed my pants when I saw the statistics. For those of you blog-illiterates, blogger.com keeps stats of your blog views from every post you...post. It breaks down the numbers daily so you can see how many people are viewing your posts and even gives you fancy-smancy colored charts and graphs for you math people to analyze your data. When I was a fresh blog virgin back in 2010, none of this interested me. However, with real-life book/publishing ideas floating in my head, I've been keeping track. Basically, the more people that follow me or read my posts, the better. This way, maybe people will actually PAY to read what I write. Well, I posted on Tuesday night and my data says that I have just about DOUBLED my viewing from my last post--and that's almost in less than 48 hours! My numbers are steadily increasing, which makes me giddy :) (Unless my numbers are just from the same person stalking my page over and over and over again. Which is totally a possibility. Because I'm completely guilty of creeper-stalking pages and running the viewing numbers up. My apologies to Taylor Kinney's Google Image search result page)  I can't thank each of you enough for your support, encouragement, and most importantly, your stories that you've shared with me about your own similar experiences. This tiny seed started as therapy for me and it has grown into a full-blown, blossoming flower! I'm truly appreciative of ALL of you! From the bottom of my heart!

 

While I've got you here, I have a story that I must share! Tomorrow is field trip day for my class! Whenever 'field trip' comes into talks, my thoughts immediately go as follows:

 

#1. OMG I'm going to be semi-bus pukey all day.

#2. Ugh. I hate taking 20 other people's kids into public. We all know I'm not responsible--i.e. Redskins tickets. (For those of you who do not know of this story, you will. Eventually.)

And #3. My mind travels to every school trip I ever went on.

 

Which leads me to this jewel of a story that convinced me of real-life soul mates.

 

In 9th (Or 10th--my mind is foggy about this detail) grade, we traveled on charter buses to Washington D.C. for the hundredth time to view stuff no self-respecting 15 year-old gave a shit about. At this point in time, I was recognizing that I had evolved into the "girl who was always the guy's best friend, not girlfriend". All my best friends were boys and had been since pre-pre-K. This was getting old. Especially to a hopeless romantic like myself who spent weekends watching movies like Pretty in Pink and Grease II and secretly prayed that I'd find my soul-mate in high school and yada yada yada. I decided that I had a crush on one of my BFFs. However, our science teacher brought her dang daughter with us on the trip (she went to another school but her mom taught at ours) and guess who fell all over her with her stupid, super cute, orangey-dyed hair. My crush. I'd started out sitting right in front of them on the bus but on the way from one stupid museum to the next, we'd gotten scrambled together. I was sitting mid-bus and THEY were in a little group in the back. MY friends (the boys) and HER friends. Oh yes, she brought back-up. And they were the cheer-leading, stereotypical, dumb blonde types that make you want to hurl. We were in the middle of downtown D.C. and all I could hear was "hahahaha stop it! hahahaha you're so funny! hahahaha!" and other sorts of flirty, teenage nonsense. I was seething with anger. I refused to take a glance behind me because I could have vomited all over the scene. I was completely forgotten and totally self-conscious that I had on jeans and tennis shoes while those bitches had on cute, open-toed, high-heeled sandals. I mean really? We were touring WASHINGTON FREAKING D.C. And it was RAINING! I had the window seat and noticed that our bus was in a roundabout...for a second time. I could hear the bus driver talking loudly on the radio and noticed that the teachers were all aflutter, in the midst of all the ha-freaking-larious comedy coming from the kissy-kissy lovefest that had developed in the back of the bus.

 

As we passed the same street sign pointing to the Holocaust Museum a third time, I perked up. I realized that our driver had either no idea where he was going or we were stuck. In a roundabout. In Washington D.C. On a charter bus. In that instance, all I could think of was Chevy Chase in European Vacation when he was stuck in the roundabout in London. A classic. I knew my guy friends would appreciate a Chevy comment so I sat up, turned in my seat and said, "Hey y'all! 'BIG BEN, PARLIAMENT'!" One of the enemy girls said, "what did she say?" and started giggling like she'd heard the word "penis" or something. My crush was too enthralled with the face of HER that he didn't even realize I was 3 seats ahead of him, turned around, and all but hanging myself over the back of my seat. One of our douchebag friends said, "WHAT?" and looked at me disgustingly, so I said, "We're stuck in a roundabout. You know, 'BIG BEN? PARLIAMENT'?"

 

I can still hear the crickets chirping and the see the blank stares to this day. Unappreciative tools.

 

Anyway, I turned back into my seat and stared out the window. I remember thinking, "Is this it for me? Will I always be the girl by herself who says stuff at inappropriate times that nobody gets?" We were literally stuck in that roundabout for 20 minutes or so, unbeknownst to the Breakfast Club in the back. (Sidenote: Unbeknownst is a kick-ass word. We should use it more often in everyday language.) As of today, my "crush" and our science teacher's daughter are STILL together! I quickly got over what I thought was 'more-than-friends' feelings and accepted that I would forever be the girl that had guy best friends instead of girls. It probably had to do with the fact that I flippin' LOVE my science teacher's daughter now and find it ridiculous to have even had a negative thought about her in my head.

 

Now to the actual point of this story. Fast forward 8 years. Mike and I were on our honeymoon at Clearwater Beach, Florida. In the middle of the little town, there is a roundabout. On our way to our hotel, traffic was backed up because of the Friday afternoon commute. We were both quiet in my little Honda Civic as we'd been stuck in it for a thousand hours and were ill of traffic. While we inched our way around the roundabout, Mike opens the windows, turns down the radio, and says loudly, "BIG BEN, PARLIAMENT!"

 

I stared out the window, in complete shock. But with a grin on my face for my 15 year-old self.

 

 

 

 



Book list!

For those of you who don't know, I am a total geek when it comes to books. I have read an embarrasing amount of books since acquiring my Kindle at Christmas and there's no telling how many I've read in the past year. I have a library upstairs. A. LIBRARY. I love to write and I think that is a direct link to my love of reading. I come from a long line of readers. My grandma, mom, and aunt have always been hard-core readers. I like to think this is a fabulous gene that's been passed to me! While many of you have asked and given me encouraging words, I am pleased to announce that I am working on a BOOK (gasp!) to be PUBLISHED (gasp!) hopefully by the end of summer. I started it several years ago after a long, crappy relationship and I have to get the story out of my head! My plan is to finish it during my spring break and have it published by August. My first book will be fiction and of the genre found below in the list of books that I've posted. I have an idea for a humourous, non-fiction that keeps bouncing around in my brain that I know will want to escape, pending on the first one. This is a very exciting process--bear with me through it! My ultimate goal is to be successful enough for this to be a full-time job, however, I'm realistic and know this may not happen for years to come!

Below, please find a list of books that I LOVE since their release over the past year. The genre isn't for everyone, so please be aware they are mostly NA (New adult) romance. **These are just a few of my favorites, in no particular order!

1. Beautiful Disaster-Jamie McGuire
2. Thoughtless-S.C. Stephens
3. Effortless-S.C. Stephens
4. Reckless-S.C. Stephens
5. The Opportunist-Tarryn Fisher
6. Dirty Red-Tarryn Fisher
7. Hopeless-Colleen Hoover
8. While It Lasts-Abbi Glines
9. Avoiding Commitment-K.A. Linde
10. Avoiding Responsibility-K.A. Linde
11. The Edge of Never-J.A. Redmerski
12. The Coincidence of Callie & Kayden-Jessica Sorenson
13. The Secret of Ella & Micha-Jessica Sorenson
14. The Perfect Game-J. Sterling
15. Clash-Nicole Williams
16. Crash-Nicole Williams
17. Ten Tiny Breaths-K.A. Tucker
18. Motorcycle Man-Kristen Ashley
19. This Man-Jodi Ellen Malpas
20. Beneath This Man-Jodi Ellen Malpas
21. Collide-Gail Hugh
22. Through Smoke-J.R. Tate
23. Rush-Maya Banks
24. Find You in the Dark-A. Meredith Walters
25. The Vincent Boys-Abbi Glines
26. Up In Flames-Nicole Williams
27. Fallen Too Far-Abbi Glines
28. Never Too Far-Abbi Glines
29. The Boy Who Sneaks In My Bedroom Window-Kirsty Moseley
30. Rock Me-Cherrie Lynn

**My FAVORITE 2 books of all time:
1. It Had to Be You-Susan Elizabeth Phillips
2. This Heart of Mine-Susan Elizabeth Phillips

Egg Whites

Holy procrastination, it's March!! Surprisingly (or not so surprising, if you know me ;), it's been 2 months since my last post. This is not for a lack of wanting to, mind you. I've been in the same situation in the last few weeks--either hog-crazy or bummed out with anxiousness. Yes, I just said "hog crazy". No, I do not know where that came from or what it means.

To catch you up and to get all up in yo face with TMI, I've had 2 spectacularly normal periods since December. As soon as my next period starts, I have to call the doc and schedule an appointment for re-evaluation. This will include him analyzing my temperature charts and sex/ovulation schedules. Since I am a seasoned expert in both of these things, I could easily give any OB-GYN a run for his or her money. However, I do have some complaints for the person who invented, created, or just imagined up these truly craptastic inventions or "conception theories". First, basal temperature charting is ridiculous and a complete a waste of time for the not-so math inclined. My charts look like the veins in the legs of my old music teacher from elementary school. If you had Mrs. Gee, YOU KNOW. You KNOW! There is no consistency. One n-th degree change makes my chart look like a map for the floor of the ocean with its hills, trenches, and flat plains. On top of that, the "jump" you are supposed to wait for happens only AFTER ovulation has occured!!! OMG. I need an inner GPS voice that tells me throughout the day in a crisp, clear British voice: "Ovulation occuring" or "Have sex in 1.5 to 24 hours" I'll even take a "Recalculating"--anything to be more clear than what I've been dealing with.

The method that has been the most accurate for me is mucus testing. (BEWARE-This is the "all up in yo face TMI" I was speaking of). Most community posts that I've been stalking since my first mc say that as soon as you see "clear, egg-white discharge", it's GO-TIME. Unfortunately, sometimes you can't get a clear check of this when you wipe, so I've been having to get really creative while taking a potty break. Hence, the old-fashioned, 'stick your finger up there' version. Oh yes. This is happening, people. Let me give you a little background information on me and situations such as this.

In 2005 after my ovarian cyst removal, I become horrendously nauseous from the pain pills. The only way they could stop the nausea is...you guessed it...stick one of those things up your rear. After the initial immature laughter that occured after my Daddy brought home the whatever it is called from the drug store, I escaped to the bathroom to...insert. I couldn't bend over because of my cuts, so I had to awkwardly cock my leg up on the bathroom counter and hold a cosmetic mirror under the cookah area to figure out where to place it. Because I can't do anything seriously, this lasted all of 30 seconds. Mama and Mammaw were outside the bathroom door. Mama and I had the giggles, so nothing was getting accomplished. Finally, Mammaw said "ALRIGHT. I'll do it." And into the bathroom we went. Let me tell you, you never fully appreciate somebody until they are (voluntarily) face-to-face, shoving a piece of medicine up your 20 year old behind all in the name of making you feel better. And yes, I am still giggling over this 7 years later, yet it is a forbidden conversation with Mammaw.

I'm unsure how I feel about going on fertility drugs. If you didn't already know, I'm a high-risk case for twins. My mom is a twin and my maternal grandmother's father had twin siblings. Mike's family has twins as well, but if my research is correct, he really doesn't count. In addition to this, the percentage of twins increased after each miscarriage. The math is something like, after 1 miscarriage, I had a 70% chance of twins the next pregnancy. After the 2nd, it went up to 80%. However, it drops after a 3rd MC. The thought of this is hella-scary. Exciting, but frightening. Hopefully, drugs won't be needed since getting pregnant isn't really an issue. I'd just like to have 1 kid before 30, if possible. My aforementioned, enema-shoving grandma stopped having periods at 35, which really puts a damper on my plan...which is currently POP ONE OUT, THEN IMMEDIATELY TAKE MY GIRLY PARTS AWAY. My plan was always 3 kids, but heck, sometimes you just gotta take what you can get in life.

When my period started last week, I crazy-ladied it and burst into tears. We were ON POINT with the sex schedule last month and even did the "stick-it and flip-it" version. (For those of you who need a visual, it means guy on top missionary, then girl flips around and throws her legs up on the head board for 20 minutes to let gravity work its wonders.) I've been handling things really well but everybody gets worn down about things over time. Most of my emotions over this whole fiasco should be channeled into pure frustration, because in reality, that's all it is. This adventure started in August of 2011 and here it is, almost 2 years later, and the Peebles' are kidless. I have a list of names and I must have a child before somebody takes one and then I won't be able to use it! For example, PEYTON! CARTER! TRIPP! Ugh. We can't use a name that's already been used. I guess it comes from being named KRISTIN. Or MIKE.

Anyway, March is hopeful. We are trying til we get it right, and damn it, it WILL get right! I haven't lost much weight and I REFUSE to be fat the the beach this year unless I'm pregnant. Then, I can be fat and lazy and have a legit reason ;)