Happily Distracted

I have about 5 blog posts just sitting in my drafts right now. Random thoughts that are unfinished lay waiting for me to write more, or as I often do, delete. Sometimes I just need to get what I'm thinking in writing, but what I am thinking is not necessarily appropriate or not formulated into enough of a thought that is worth sharing. Many people read this and I have some face to save since this was a Wilson blog before a Baby Loss blog.

I wrote a lot today. I finished reading one book and ordered two books based entirely from BLM recommendations and reviews. Brooke alone sold me on Resilience by Elizabeth Edwards and so many of you women have now encouraged me to purchase An Exact Replica of a Figment of My Imagination. In true frugal-Brandy style, I purchased both through ShopAtHome (5% back-- so what if it's only about 50 cents!) and from half.com for around 11 bucks, shipped.

This post is a complete brain drain. It's all kinds of random and partly made out of feeling at peace during a week I thought would be very difficult. Many of you know from my former blog posts that my husband is out of town. He flew far, far away to Germany for business and is over halfway through his visit there. Or as we like to say, only three sleeps until he's home! He left last Saturday and will be arriving back home this Saturday. I cannot wait. Since this is the first time he has left the country without me since we began dating in 2006, I was nervous. You all know the whole hyperventilating bit I posted in my last entry. And on the wings of "losing" our son (hate that term, but have a hard time finding anything synonymous), I was downright terrified. The fear hasn't left because he still has to fly back home over that very large ocean on Saturday. And the month isn't over-- he has about 16 total days out of town this month on FOUR round trip airplane flights. Oy vey.

When he's gone, I have learned that in order to function on any level outside of sleeping and sulking all day, I need to be kept busy. Luckily, I have some local friends who know this. I remember telling them in the hospital when they all came to visit just 24 hours after we delivered Andrew that I needed them to keep us busy. This week has proven just that. In time of need, my friends rally! I'm exhausted and feeling content despite missing my husband. I'm not nervous right now because he is on soil. Maybe it's not the same soil I'm on, but at least he's not suspended in the air. Yet.

Here's my schedule while he's gone:

Saturday 4/2: cry hysterically, fondue/face mask/girl fun with 7 friends at my house followed by a few wonderful friends spending the night (in guest beds--needed to clarify so you'd see it was all class, no trash. Haha).
Sunday 4/3: zumba, shopping with a friend, dinner with friends
Monday 4/4: sub w/ booger-pickers (aka pre-k through 1st grade), dinner & Bible study with friends
Tuesday 4/5: another day with the booger-pickers, zumba
Wednesday 4/6: sub middle school, spin class, dinner with a friend at this awesome place (anyone a yelper out there besides me?)
Thursday 4/7: sub 4th grade, zumba, TV night with a friend
Friday 4/8: sub 2nd grade, dinner with friends, watching a sleeping 2-yo (can't use the word babysitting for some reason... argh) for some friends-- aka: date with my laptop.
Saturday 4/9: zumba, probably a Target date with myself (if I could be in love with a store....), pick up my most amazing husband at the airport and squeeze him sooooo tight!

Love the busy schedule, especially when I need it most. I think exercising has no doubt helped my mood and given me a nice release for all the frustrations and sadness I've been feeling... but our zumba membership is almost over. I don't want to grow tired of it, so I won't be signing up for another session. I think it's the perfect winter workout when living in the Arctic like we do here in Chicago. I won't commit to a gym membership but I enjoy the class atmosphere as it gives me something to look forward to as a scheduled event. Anyone in a class they particularly love? I thought about yoga but a friend mentioned that the BLM brain may click on full blast during the slow movement and time for deep thought. Could be more detrimental than beneficial, no?

...In the Summer of '69 ... I mean... twenty-ten.

Over the past couple weekends, we've explored the land and listened to some great music. Those of you who know me personally may know that I love Bon Jovi. So do all the middle-aged, single women in America, it turns out. But I already knew that. You should've seen the train we took downtown. Cougar town.

When my awesome husband saw tickets on groupon for $30-- gasp -- I couldn't believe it. That price included the ticket fees and everything. So for not nosebleed seats, we got to see a concert that people pay hundreds for! (If you haven't joined that website, it's basically a site that tells you great deals in your area for each day. Sometimes you can buy a gift card to a restaurant for 60% off, concert tickets, comedy club tickets, hotel stays, entertainment, baseball game tickets, broadway and off-broadway shows, spa visits... it's basically everything entertainment/experience based and you get a huge discount. But, once the deal for the day sells out, it sells out. And they always do...)

...while I'm on topic, I should mention Shop At Home again. I love this website because all you have to do is go to it, enter the store you want to shop for, and it automatically takes a percentage off the purchase and refunds you. Once you bank $20, they send you a check. I've been a member for 6 months and I've received two checks, totaling $60 on items I already shop for online. It's just a nice kickback for items you're already going to buy online. If you're anything like me, packages come weekly to our house. Especially with a baby coming, the crib and all things related have given us some nice extra cashflow. That 5% of $25 can add up quite nicely. Okay, done with rant. I love craigslist, restaurant.com and swagbucks, too.

Here's the man himself doing his thing.

Here's where we saw the concert... Soldier Field! I've never ever seen a pro football (or college football) game live, so this was as close as I've been-- in the Bears stadium! It was pretty sweet. Oh, and those people on the floor paid approximately 90% more than we did for our tickets. Hehe.

Kid Rock opened for Bon Jovi and during this opening... the Stanley Cup was presented for some reason. There was a big Blackhawks festival going on downtown that day and we're assuming that the Stanley Cup made its rounds to the stadium for publicity. You can't see it, but the guy in the middle is holding it. Sucks to have a crappy camera sometimes. Anyone have camera recommendations? We're going to be in the market for a new one soon... and please don't say Canon.

Bon Jovi and Kid Rock did a duet at one point (saw that coming, right?) and it was pretty cool... and also the clearest picture my camera could handle taking.

 Here's the man who makes my whole world a whole lot more exciting. <3

That was a fun night. We took the train downtown, walked to the stadium, had dinner, saw a concert, and walked swiftly back (sadly missing Livin' on a Prayer during the encore though hearing it outside the stadium and singing it loudly) to the train-- making it by 5 minutes! It was the last train of the evening, so we're sure glad we made it.

Somewhere in between concert going, we headed about 4 miles from our house for the "largest, free vegetarian festival in the state" or something like that. Basically, we think it was an outreach for some spiritual organization. We received the flier for the fest at an Indian restaurant we visited. Best sighting in our hour there was seeing a strange hemp lady in a turban and white yoga pants sitting in a tree. In a tree. Yeah. Reasons I don't like being associated with vegetarians out there... they are a bit on the "interesting" side and I don't know we have much in common aside from what goes on our plates during meal time.

After the Veggie Fest this past weekend, we headed to another stadium, the First Midwest Bank Ampitheatre in Tinley Park (read: middle'o'nowhere). Two weeks ago I was reading one of the many deal blogger's blogs that I read daily and they mentioned that Live Nation (formerly ticketmaster) was doing a $10 ticket promotion in many states for many shows. I had looked once before and nothing interesting was found in our area. Until, I looked again. Not only is this Brooks & Dunn's last tour ever, but they're awesome... and the tickets were $10! Sure, they were lawn seats, but the lawn is not nosebleed at this stadium like it is at the Irvine Ampitheatre in California. We were sitting maybe 30 feet higher than the people in seats on the ground level. It was awesome! Including ticket fees and shipping of the tickets to our house, we paid $20 for two people to see the concert! And... even better... parking at the FMBA is free! We immediately called our friends, Derrick & Liz, as they are also country fans. They bought 2 tickets and we had a great night. On that note... it appears that country fans are sparse here in the Midwest! Who would've thought? We have few friends who would actually enjoy this kind of concert. I guess the cool cats still think country isn't cool? Maybe that's why we were able to get $10 tickets! I'm not complaining about their hating. :)

Here we are listening to Gary Allen (I know, $10 tickets!) play before Brooks & Dunn came on stage.

...as if I could post anything about a weekend without a post about home improvement! Aside from Ray painting and staining the molding in our baby's room, he also tended to the walls downstairs, again.

We thought this wall of our new formal living room looked a bit funny with just the center photo. We love the photo, but it seemed to get lost in the room. We decided to print off two more photos we took from our Europe escapades (left: Venice taken from our hotel room; right: Gaudi Park in Barcelona-- both taken with our former Canon camera. Such great photos, not the longest lasting camera at 1.5 years of life) and get them framed. By get them framed... you should know by now that I'm all about the deals... so we found two frames last night at Target with matting that matched for $16.99 each. Score! All is complete.

By the way... I have been linking a lot more lately just because I think it's fun to compare former blog posts (since I have posted nearly a hundred) to what is going on with us now. It's fun for me to flashback.

A Few of MY Favorite Websites

I read A LOT of blogs. Ever since we moved to Germany for 6 months (that time flew by!), I have been reading a lot of blogs to stay connected to the world, learn how other expats cope, etc. I found a lot of really great people with really interesting stories. Some of those people are listed on the right of this page. Others, I follow in blogger just to get their updates. I am following a cool teacher in Germany, teachers in Illinois, people in our new neighborhood, and all kinds of good stuff--in addition to my real-life friends. It's honestly more interesting than television. There are also crazy coupon cutter (most stay at home moms) ladies who teach me a whole lot about saving money. Since we're in the process of {trying to} buy a house, it's nice to be in-the-know. Though, I don't think I can ever be as devoted as these ladies.

Aside from learning a ton about saving money--something I'm already fairly good at--I learned about some new websites that I now used daily or as time allows. Here are a couple of those:

ShopAtHome - This site is awesome. I buy stuff online ALL the time and actually prefer it to shopping in stores. I usually get free shipping codes and things end up being cheaper. I have recently gone to this website and typed in the store I want (recent purchases made from The Body Shop, Macy's, Godiva, Barnes & Noble) and they give you a percentage back from your purchase. For example, we bought chocolate for my wonderful sister-in-law and got $1.92 back. I am up to $14.04 just for using the link to any website on Shop at Home. It takes zero minutes extra and it's totally great.

Swagbucks - This one is more work and I'm still not sure it's worth it... but since I just earned a $10 Amazon card just for using their search engine (which is a little annoying, but if you use it once a day, you'll have about a $10 gift card ready for redemption in a maximum of 3 months since usually it will award you 10 free "bucks" per day). I like that I'm getting a free $10 Amazon card, though, I'm not going to lie. Some people get really into it and have purchased like a Wii and other expensive items just on free Amazon cards... so if you're dedicated, you can make some dough. I'm just a lazy user... so it took me a couple months.

Redfin - What a great website for home buyers who are prepared. If you are on a time crunch, want to save money, want to make your own decisions, or just plain hate the idea of a real estate agent running your home-buying show, this site is the best for you. I am not advertising or getting any compensation. We are buying through them and they've been incredible, quick, accomodating (buying a house and dealing with logistics while 7 hours ahead and a big ocean in between is tough!), and professional. If you think of buying a house now or even in the future, it's nice to watch the market and the options for awhile. We did this for over a year before placing our offer and I am happy to say we are pleased with all of the people who have helped us in the process.Though, I think Redfin only works in big cities, for now.

Swagbucks & ShopAtHome give you a kickback if you promote them and your friends use them. I hate spamming friends on facebook, twitter, or email... so I figured if you cared, you'd read this blog post. And, since I actually use them and like them, I don't mind promoting them anyway. I won't post it again... but this are some things I've learned lately about stretching a buck (aside from my uber-excellent economics teacher in high school who taught me to use a credit card for every purchase, but pay it off in full every month). Of course, with that, we also get cash back and free flights, pay no interest, and have a list of all our spending to boot!