25 things

Once you've been tagged, you are supposed to write a note with 25 random things, facts, habits, or goals about you.

(moved this over from facebook where i did all the tagging, play along if you'd like)

1. i was born in taegu, korea and moved to (in order) fort bragg, nc; camp zama, japan; fort hood, tx; seoul, korea; pusan, korea; fort bragg, nc; berlin, germany; augsburg, germany; carbondale, il; springfield, il and boone, nc.

2. i went to four different high schools

3. most of my childhood memories are associated with trauma, not necessarily my own. the biggest, being electrocuted when i four. hair barrettes and electrical sockets don't mix. i got to fly in a helicopter though.

4. i have a swatch watch collection.

5. in the summer i don't wear socks and in the winter 90% of the socks i wear are knee highs.

6. i was a carnie. i sold tacos and wine coolers at fests in germany and italy.

7. tooth stories: when i was in 6th grade i had surgery to correct an upside-down tooth. it didn't live much longer afterwards. i chipped my front tooth the summer before my senior year. i got braces when i was 30.

8. i fell between a train and platform that put a dent in my shin, which i still have 15 years later and will have the rest of my life. luckily the backpack i was wearing kept me from falling down to the track.

9. i haven't taken out my tragus piercings since i got them 16 years ago.

10. i have a 6ft asian brother.

11. i was in a car that was hit by a streetcar on senior skip day. thanks aly!

12. the first time i kissed aaron i as standing on milk crate on his front porch. which were abundant (milk crates) at the time thanks to ben alexander.

13. i walked 2 miles to get my first tattoo at lady hawke ink in 1994. a flower band on my right arm. i've gotten 9 more since then.

14. i bungee jumped at a volksfest with a friend, kirsten, when i was 18.

15. i went to mardi gras with all my college roommates in a rented conversion van that we slept in down by the river...nah, it was a parking garage.

16. i dislike fruit flavored sodas and despise root beer.

17. my coworker and i applied for the amazing race season 6. our video was lame.

18. i'm crafty.

19. all my jewelry is silver in color

20. i'm a raging insomniac which is no longer a good thing.

21. i'll be starting my next round of IVF in march. hopefully, after a failed cycle in december, this one will stick.

22. i'm gonna be a first time aunt in august. yay!

23. i'm not a big fan of cats.

24. my late grandfather and i shared the same big toe trait

25. my first "official" concert/show i went to was red hot chili peppers with fishbone in 1992 in berlin, germany

shake your pom-pom

since we got the king size bed, it been looking a little barren with just a few pillows. so i decided making a few more throws was necessary. luckily, a couple of weeks ago i got the in stitches book by amy butler via ebay. and on monday the pom-pom pillow was born. unfortunately, the green is off in color. it's a little too neon to go along with the other bed linens. it'll probably go on a chair that'll eventually grace our bedroom. but i'm happy i made it. hopefully the dogs won't tear this one apart.

what wear you?

they've been sitting out on the back porch for a month now. stepped in a nice pile of poo and haven't had the desire to clean them off. so there they sit. maybe when the weather gets warmer they'll get a little love. hmmm, i'm doing laundry now. maybe i'll just toss them in.

remember the "butt hugging" jeans i bought a few years back? now they're referred to as my "bon jovi" jeans. the knees are blown out, the denim has become paper thin and a slight tug tends to cause a major rip. indeed, they are in a fragile state yet i continue to wear them. as long as the holes are in modest areas they are still functional. at least in my opinion. do you have an article of clothing you're unwilling to part with?

on the mend

i finally got behind the sewing machine today. i think it's been about 2 months since i had touched it. nothing too spectacular was done, just mended a few of aaron's clothes. thought i'd ease myself back into using it again.

awes: do you think you could sew all the crotch holes in my boxers shut?
sue: why?
awes: because they're unnecessary. i never use them.
sue: then why do they put them in there?
awes: i don't know. maybe if i pulled my pants down to my ankles when i peed, i can keep the boxers on to keep my butt warm. but i don't do that, so i don't need them.
sue: okay.

so now all his crotch holes are sealed shut. i also transformed one of his scrub shirts from what was obviously meant for a female into a male version. it had side slits, two huge pockets along the bottom and no pocket on the chest. now the slits are gone, pockets removed and a new chest pocket placed. it turned out great, you can't even tell it's been edited. hopefully now i'll get back into the crafting game. it's time to come out of winter hibernation.

snow day 2009

aaron got off work a little early today so we were able to enjoy the snow. i think some of us had way too much fun. :) we got some sledding in and built a mini-snowman. tomorrow we're going skiing in the a.m. i'm a little excited about it, it'll be our first time out this year. hopefully it won't be too painful. check out some more snow day 2009 photos.

shoot, dawg

i haven't done too much with the new camera. been a little preoccupied with life. i think the pups are getting wise to my picture taking. rarely, do i get them looking directly at the camera. it's like they know and intentionally shun the lens. with marley a little shake-shake of her toy will get her looking somewhat at me. and yes, the look is intense. bosco's a word man. rabbit, treat and walk gets me an inquisitive stare. i have to laugh, aaron and i are now spelling all of those words in his presence. and i'm pretty sure he's starting to pick that up too!

into the wild 2008

i'm currently in the process of uploading the pics from aaron's winter hike. he said the weather was pretty much perfect til the last two days when it begin to snow. here are a few choice pics. the rest can be viewed here: christmas hike 2008.




apparently there was some nakedness that wasn't captured by the cameras. lucky for us all! not sure if this would fall in the "hippie" category but i'll put it there anyways.

nate and fiance

nate and katie came out to see us this past weekend. (hence the lack of posts) the main reason for the visit...to show off katie's new ring! ;)

here are a few pics from their visit. we were able to get some drinking, good food, wii fitting, football, shopping, tubing and basketball in. yep, it was pretty jam packed.

doctor say what

yesterday we headed down to charlotte to meet with my RE for our follow-up visit. he pretty much told us what i expected. all my numbers were great throughout the process. well up until retrieval that is. he had expected to see more eggs retrieved, which i did too. he also said the quality of the embryos weren't as good as he had expected either. he said they fertilized great and were initially growing fine but if they slow down or stop growing after day 3 it usually means it's a male factor issue. so for my next cycle we're going to do pretty much the same thing we did last time but bump up the dosage of the stimulating meds. he is also adding another drug called ganirelix which prevents eggs from being released prematurely. not sure if that was the case with my last cycle but it would explain why the numbers were so low. he also suggested aaron start taking an antioxidant supplement called ConceptionXR. as for dates, we've decided to wait one more cycle and start the process in late february which means the ER (egg retrieval) and ET (egg transfer) will be in late march/early april. we have a trip planned for early march where the tickets and hotel are already paid for, so if we would have started with this next cycle it would have definitely fallen into that time frame. so that's the western medicine update.

as far as acupuncture goes. i had my diagnostic meeting last tuesday. the first 1.5 hours we spent talking about anything and everything that could be interfering with our ability to conceive. sleep, digestion, kidney function, stress. he was very detailed and thorough with his questions, which i find most other doctors are not. the first thing he suggested: we fix my sleep habits. so that's what we're concentrating on now. not sure if the needle session concentrated on that or the infertility aspect. i ended up with a needle in each hand, five in the stomach and three in each foot. did i feel any different after the session? no, not at all. do i feel any different today? no. i asked my RE what he thought about acupuncture and infertility yesterday and he pretty much told me the only thing it'll probably help with is stress relief. i'm pretty much thinking the same thing. if it helps with anything else, great. but i'm not expecting much. i have another appointment tomorrow and i set up one for aaron for next tuesday. i already know that the appointment will be aaron's first and last.

aaron: "how did your appointment go?"
sue: "good. (blah, blah, blah) then he asked me to stick out my tongue and told me my liver wasn't functioning properly cause it was pale along the sides."
aaron: "WHAT!?!"

and that was pretty much his reaction to everything i told him. i thought maybe i wasn't explaining it right (i'm the poor layman), cause it kinda made sense to me when the acupuncturist was explaining it. i just have a feeling that east isn't gonna meet west as far as aaron's concerned. we'll have to see. ;)

the secrets

finally! i can let the whole world know i'm going to be an aunt! brian and irina are expecting their bundle of joy august 2nd. we learned the news on thanksgiving but i've had to keep it under wraps til today. i'm not that great at keeping secrets so let me tell you this was EXTREMELY hard. congrats to you both!

another secret i had to keep were nate's plans on proposing to katie. i thought i'd share katie's version of the proposal with everyone. i thought it was super sweet on nate's part.

Friday, December 19, 2008

It was 5:30 at night and Nate was leaving work early to go "Christmas shopping". He told me to just lock up and come home after my 6pm appointment. Well, I was cutting Lauren's hair when I got a few text messages from Nate. One said "there's a surprise waiting for you there.." I thought okay... hes home already?!?! (totally thinking he got me a puppy or something) So, I had to stop and put air in my tire on the way home-I'm pulling into Murphysboro, when my phone rings...

Nate: "What are you doing?"
Me: "I had to stop and put air in my tire and now I am creeping through Murphy-I'll be home soon"
Nate: "well stop lollygaggin!"

I get home open the door-look around and don't see a puppy, still wondering what the surprise is. Jason Mraz "I'm Yours" is playing-Nate walks up to me, takes my hand and says "I recorded this song for you-I know how much you like it..." I thought, okay. "So this is my surprise, thanks honey, I love this song!"

He grabs my hand and says "Come here, I bought you a tree topper!!" I look to the top of the tree and see a little sparkle at the top. HOLY CRAP its a ring!! He grabs it, slides in on my finger and gets down on one knee and asks "Katie-will you marry me???" I am bawling outta control and say "YES!!!"

It was super intimate and romantic and shocking! I am still pinching myself to make sure its actually real!!! I am so excited to marry the love of my life!

so not only is the rich family expanding but so are the westphals. and what's good about having two families and two secrets? i can tell the westphals the rich secrets and the richs the westphals secrets. totally a win/win for me! congrats to nate and katie too!!

about you

sue: i blogged about you being a hippie today.
awes: huh? what are you talking about?
sue: how you're going green and whatnot. recycling, buying organic, unplugging everything.
awes: yep, i'm the conservative hippie! that reminds me, i was thinking about buying some power strips so we can just flip the switch and turn everything off at night.
sue: really? every night?
awes: yeah, i'll have to add that to my list.

i pick up the computer so i can write about this conversation. the cover of the new time magazine is glaring at me: "why we need to see the light about energy efficiency"

i married a hippie

or at least a closet one. aaron's become a little more earth conscience since we moved to boone. first it started with recycling. we currently recycle everything. paper, plastic, glass, aluminum, each now how it's own bin in the garage. since we don't have garbage/recycle pickup he has to take everything to the processing center himself. occasionally i'll find something i threw in the garbage in a recycling bin. yes, he picks through our trash to make sure i recycle everything that can be recycled. now i just ask before i throw it away. *bust out the hacky sack.

next we got reusable grocery bags. i decided to go ahead and purchase these while out shopping one day. they were on sale for $1 a piece and i ended up buying five. they're great when you remember to bring them. they're usually in the opposite car when we go shopping and we'll always have one of those "doh!" moments when we're checking out. right now we probably use them 1 out of 5 times. although yesterday aaron informed me he used them while out running errands on his own. *smelling some patchouli in the air.

buying organic. the milk in our fridge is now organic. most of our fruits and veggies are all stamped organic. he informed me we'll be frequenting the local farmer's market once it opens up again in the spring. this i don't mind, as long as he doesn't mind the few extra dollars it costs to buy the chemical and pesticide free products, i'm all for it. *sitting in a drum circle now

we are now unplugged. anything that is currently not in use is unplugged in our house. if we leave for a weekend, tvs, stereos, lamps, pretty much anything that uses electricity is unplugged. i'm not sure if this is earth conscience or money conscience on his part. all i know is that my flat iron is unplugged every time i go to use it. *we don't wear shoes anymore

why do i bring up this closet hippyness in aaron? this weekend we purchased an all natural bed. what, you may ask, is an all natural bed?

"There are no irritants such as sulfur or boric acid. These mattresses are manufactured without the use of plastics, foams or polyesters that emit toxic gases. In addition, there are no foams or polyesters to break down, or pack down, so your mattress will last longer. Natural mattresses "breathe", providing a more comfortable sleeping surface in hot weather."

in the end, it came down to two beds. they were close in price but the organic one was a bit more comfortable. probably from all the fresh air we were breathing while testing it out! ;)

and it doesn't end there. the next car we get. i'm 99% sure it's gonna be a hybrid. plus a compost pile is in the works this spring. and i'm sure there's about a dozen other earth-friendly changes happening at the westphal house in the upcoming months. check back and i'll let you know if we'll be able to pull aaron's dreads into a ponytail by the summer.

female retail therapy

the last few days i've been doing a little online retail therapy to get my mind off things. i haven't really found anything worth mentioning, a few hooks for the bathroom and other odds and ends. i did stumble upon this site: cribcandy. and on the first page was this vase. i thought it was kinda funny, given light of our current situation. of course, this gave me the idea find more tasteful reproductive art.

exalted beauty uterus medallions. 30 one-of-a-kind art jewelry pieces created by amy e. fraser.

a series of plates about fertility and sex by nina levett.

not to worry. you won't be seeing these at our next holiday function. although they would make for some great conversation pieces!