come on ride the train

it's the choo-choo! IVF #2 is officially underway. the rough schedule i just got: start birth control today, start lupron on the 11th, blood work and ultrasound on the 20th, start stims the 21st, retrieval the 1st of april, transfer 3-5 days later.

rockin' the suburbs

so i actually have to write a ben folds blog rather than post pics. i hate going to concerts where all photography is prohibited. and yes, i tried to sneak a few camera phone pics and was reprimanded almost immediately. if they saw the quality of my photos they probably wouldn't have cared. a few weeks ago i was bored and changed the settings on my camera to solarize. i didn't realize it was still on that setting when i was taking pics monday night. no wonder they looked so crappy.

i'm gonna do a quick summary of the evening. got to asheville about 6:30 and headed downtown to grab a bite to eat at salsa's before the show. i'd eaten there last time i was in town and thought aaron would enjoy the food too which he did. afterwards we walked around the corner and stopped in the chocolate lounge (which seems to being doing great despite the economy) for some dessert. had a few truffles and a glass of wine before we headed over to the orange peel.

this was the first time either one of us had been to this particular venue. nothing too spectacular about it, reminded me of the galaxy in st. louis. got there about half hour before the opening band miniature tigers began. i could definitely see them playing on a wes anderson soundtrack or any movie with jason schwartzman in it. which is basically any wes anderson movie. ;) the second group hails from greensboro, nc the spartones. they only sang three songs but absolutely rocked it out. even did a cover of "not the same." they were great.

and then came ben. i always worry a singer/band is gonna sound worse live. but ben delivered. he delivered for 2 hours straight. (minds out of gutters please!) rocked out to some old tunes as well as some new ones. it was an awesome show and well worth the trip!

(man, i started this post two days ago and it's still lame two days later. oh well. i do realize i have A.D.D. when it comes to writing longer posts. i'll try to keep them few and far between for everyones benefit.)

all choked up

saturday we decided to do dinner and a movie once again. the weekend prior we saw revolutionary road and this past weekend we saw doubt at the dragonfly theater. both were great movies and i love that you can enjoy a beer or in my case a glass of wine while watching.

anyways, for dinner we headed over to outback steakhouse in blowing rock. there was a 20 minute wait so we decided to sit and eat at the bar. the carolina/maryland game had just gone into overtime, so it was a perfect choice for us. eat, drink and watch. after we had gotten our food there was a little bit of commotion on the other side of aaron. one of the teenage boys also eating at the bar had apparently inhaled a piece of steak. he wasn't choking, but could feel it lodged in his throat. him and his dad went to the bathroom to see if they could dislodge it. 10 minutes went by and aaron decided to check in on them. he came back and said the boy was trying to make himself throw up, thinking that would move the meat. he's talking and breathing fine, just uncomfortable. another 10 minutes go by and our waitress sends a co-worker in to check on them. aaron goes back with him. a few minutes later aaron reports back to us saying he's still trying to vomit, breathing and talking fine but his dad just asked the employee how long it would take an ambulance to get there. which aaron doesn't think is necessary. if the dad is overly-concerned he can easily drive the kid to the emergency room which is pretty much around the corner. a few minutes later a fire truck, ambulance and another medical vehicle pull up in the parking lot, lights blazing and sirens roaring. four technicians head for the bathroom.

"this is a gross misuse of emergency personal and totally unnecessary." aaron tells me. with the situation now under control we decide to pay and head out. when we get our bill our waitress says for being a good samaritan our entire meal was comped. it totally caught us off-guard. we thanked her and told her she didn't need to do that. she insisted. we thanked her and she thanked aaron again for his help.

so there's a fire truck, ambulance and another emergency vehicle sitting in the parking lot and there are about five cars trolling the lot for a parking space. which i thought was odd. if i saw a fire truck with the lights on sitting in front of a restaurant, i'd probably find another place to eat. i just thought that was weird. well when we pulled out of the parking lot, i saw all the technicians leaving the restaurant sans kid. he must have dislodged the food on his own, which aaron predicted would happen.

found foto

"hold on a sec. i saw something i need to get." we wait for the girls that pulled in ahead of us to get out of their car. "is it money?" he asks. "no, even better!" i hop out of the car and grab the polaroid next to the girl's car door. i had spotted it on our way back to the car after eating dinner monday night. it was upside-down, but the instant i saw it, i knew what it was.

"why do you want this?" looking at the photo.

"haven't you ever seen those websites dedicated to found photos?"

"no."

i knew once i saw what was actually in the photograph, it wasn't worthy of submitting. blogworthy, maybe. but it was funny how excited i got when i spotted it. check out these sites and you'll see why. i found your camera, found photos on flickr, and found magazine.

living with dictators

yesterday, we headed down to the hickory furniture mart for their "presidents day sale." yeah, right. the only things "on sale" were home accessories. you'd think with 4 levels of furniture stores, we'd have a lot to choose from. it sure wasn't the case here. half the stores we didn't even bother to walk in. when you have a lion standing guard at your store front, i'm pretty sure you're not going to carry anything i like. we did manage to find a few items amongst the overstuffed and gawdy. behold. our new couch. we got to pick out the accent pillows and imagine my surprise when i found my roman shade fabric amongst the choices. we opted for a more subdued fabric. since we went with the chair fabric below.

yes, we got some bold print chairs. if you didn't notice from my previous post, i'm a bold print kinda girl. i made a beeline towards them the instant i saw them. aaron laughed, "i knew that's why you wanted to come in here." he knows me too well. i knew i wanted that particular print, but they had it in two different colors. one with blue and green leaves and a lighter background and the one you see here. with the dogs we opted for this one. (funny how your animals and children start to dictate your furniture purchases.) so in 4-6 weeks we'll have a new living room which has been empty since we moved the sectional to the basement. yay for progress.

sofa king cool

the past few months we've been on a quest to furnish our house. it's actually been an ongoing process since we've moved in, but a serious consideration the past few weeks. we made a special trip to charlotte to look for a bed frame and some new living room furniture. we pretty much came back empty-handed. our main problem: delivery. most places do not deliver to the high country or if they do, it almost costs more than the actual furniture. we considered renting a uhaul and picking things up ourselves, but we have to have everything ordered or in stock for it to be worthwhile.

the other problem: i can't find anything i like. i'm extremely picky. don't want anything overstuffed, leather or wood-colored. and that seems to be what's popular and in abundance. i really don't want to settle. so it's been a very slow process. aaron's pretty much given up and has left all the decision-making to me. although i'm happy about this, i know it's going to be extremely tedious task. there's a reason why the only rooms painted in our house are bathrooms!

so i've been scouring the internet, trying to find home decor. hopefully there's gonna be some changes in the westphal house soon. how soon is the real question.

baby blues

yesterday i finished my first quilt. it's small and uncomplicated. measures about 30" square. about the size of a stroller blanket. i guess it's considered a quilt when there's batting between two layers of fabric. so ta-da here it is! the only thing i went out and bought was the batting. the rest was from my fabric and felt stash. not too shabby for my first try.

anti-

in honor of the upcoming holiday, i thought i'd share some great gifts i found on etsy.

pair of lovebird bowls

open wounds from the cutting edge

heart attack screenprinted necktie

poisoned heart collaged necklace

yes, there's a anti-progression. ;)

no artificial colors added

me just messing with the camera.

recycled butterfly

the frame i was carrying down a few days ago when i found a flooded basement was for this project. trying to find another project to use recycled christmas cards i came across this one a few weeks ago. i had planned on using a heart punch that i already had, but am having a difficult time finding it. (a overhaul of the craft room is in order this week) well, while i was at walmart last week i picked up the butterfly punch. i also picked up the frame, which looks remarkably like the one in the original. needed one with at least a double mat. i already had the photo dots. i mixed in some scrapbook paper but a majority of it is made with this year's batch of christmas cards. yep, i even used some of the photo cards that seem to be the norm nowadays. can you spot lily?

my muse

busted

friday afternoon i heard a big bang that shook the entire house around 12:30p. i stood there and listened intently, nothing. i shrugged it off thinking it was a gust of wind. a few hours later i grab a picture frame and head down to the basement. when i hit the bottom step i hear a buzzing noise. sounds like a generator pumping. i look towards the noise and then down. WTF!! it's water! i step down and i'm standing in half an inch of water. i turn to my left, my right, where the hell is this water coming from? i run upstairs and call aaron's office. "this is dr. westphal's wife, i have an emergency, i need to talk to him!" he answers and i start talking non-stop.

"the basement is flooding, i have no idea where the water is coming from, what do i do?!"
"did a pipe burst?" he asks.
"i don't know, i hear a gushing/buzzing noise, i guess that could be water." holding the phone up to the noise. "hear it?"
"yeah, turn off the water line."

i turn off the water and the noise starts to dissipate. thank goodness. i tell him i tried calling todd and jerome and can't get a hold of either one. i ask him if i should go to their job site, since maybe they're not getting phone reception. that's probably a good idea he tells me, he'll be home as soon as he's done seeing his patients.

i corral the dogs into the car and head over the job site. i get there and it's empty. i start to panic. i head back home and call my brother. "who do i call about a busted water line?" a plumber he tells me. i get home and thumb through all my basement construction papers, looking for the plumber todd hired to do all the plumbing in the basement. my phone rings. it's jerome. "i'm on my way." he tells me. a wave of relief gushes over me.

he gets there and i show him where the noise was coming from. he tells me it looks like's it could be the line to the outside spicket. he cuts a 10x12 hole into the drywall and sure enough there's a crack running down the length of the pipe. he said he'll cap off the line for now, so we can have water to the rest of the house but we'll have to replace the line in the upcoming weeks. i ask him if the carpet is ruined. he tells me as long as we get all the water out, it should be fine.

so we've spent a majority of the weekend sucking the water out of the carpet using a shopvac and my "pee-pee" vac. luckily the carpet pad we opted for is supposed to be moisture resistant. and so far the carpet is still damp but no longer squishes when you walk on it. i think the only damage done is to some of the molding which is easily replaceable. thank god! most of the storage boxes we have are those five gallon plastic tubs. all-in-all the damage has been minimized.

i'm so glad and thankful we have todd and jerome when it comes to home "problems." having someone we can trust and is so knowledgeable when it comes to home repair is such a blessing. i'm almost positive if i'd have called someone else the whole wall would be ripped out right now.

the first pic is what my pants looked like after working for two hours. damn, those knee holes are a lot larger than i realized. i think the end is near for them.

hamburrrrrger

i made these little sliders for a super bowl party we went to on sunday. yep, they're cupcakes. i saw them on a crafting site and thought they'd be perfect for the party. after screwing up the first batch (forgot to add water to the mix) they were indeed quite simple to make. one batch of yellow cupcakes, one batch of chocolate, icing, food coloring, a little cutting and assembly and presto you have burgers! they were a hit at the party and a lot of people liked them cause the weren't drowning in icing. i've even eaten a few. here's a little tutorial if you'd like detailed instructions on making them.