Month: September 2011

Categories
Everything Else Trying To Conceive

IF Fatty Dress Help

My brother’s wedding is 10/22. Like three weeks away. I can’t wait to witness the wedding of such a great couple. I know it’ll be a great time celebrating with family & friends for that whole long weekend. I’m honestly so excited!

When I think of weddings, one of my first thought is outfit ~ particularly dresses. I purchased this Adrianna Papell dress {in a latte brown color} a couple month ago as my bridesmaids dress. Love it & it’s happily checked off my to-do list.

What I’m worried a little about though is a rehearsal dinner dress. What do I wear?!

A combination of stress, laziness, work travel & summer weather has me feeling chubbier than ever. I know there are some people who react & combat stress like infertility by losing their appetite or working out. Not me ~ not even a little. I find solace in comfort food & desserts & alcohol. True story. Need a happy hour friend? A buddy to grab fro-yo with? Call/text/tweet me. I had a great walking buddy in A before she moved {miss you friend} & have been chatting about walking with other friends {but we haven’t, yet}.

Back to the dresses, the rehearsal will take place at the hotel where ceremony & reception are being held. The rehearsal dinner is at the historic & kinda funky The Old City Bar. I’ve purchased three dresses as options for this night. Since it’s late in October, I want 3/4-long sleeves, but since it’s not a super dressy crowd & location, I’m thinking shorter dress & probably no tights. Not sure shoes yet. I’d love your honest opinions. {Some times I really miss living with 40 girls in my Chi O sorority house. It made getting ready so easy & fun!}

Option one: Lilly Pulitzer Shauna Tunic in Turquoise Optical Confusion. My good buddy B picked this up for me at this spring’s Warehouse Sale. It’s a little tight in the tummy/hips, but with shape-wear, I think it would look ok. {I might be a little uncomfortable/not able to pee though.} I think it’s dressy enough but not overly dressy. I wonder if it’s too wild, but I do like bright & my other choices are also busy prints.

Option two: Boden Brighton Dress in Navy Eclipse. I purchased this one during their mid-season sale this week & it will hopefully arrive early next week. I think this cut will be very flattering for me, but I’m hoping it’s not too boobalious. I’m kinda in-between sizes for Boden. The last dress I bought from there I went up in size & it’s kinda big {I was being optimistic that’d I’d be knocked up wearing it last winter, not so much}.

Option three: Boden Ruched Waist Jersey Dress in Blues Dizzy Spot. This one was also purchased during the sale & on it’s way to me. I went up in size for this one since the reviews mentioned it fitting a little small. I love the details on the neckline & empired-waist. I think the 3/4 sleeves will work well in whatever’s the weather inside or out. Word on the street is that we’ll be hitting up a few Richmond bars after the rehearsal dinner so that comes into play with my dress decision too.

I bought the two dress from Boden planning to return one, but there is also a cocktail party Thursday night given by my soon-to-be SIL’s aunt & uncle. So, if both Boden dresses work for me, I could definitely wear one of them to that pre-pre-wedding party.

Which one is your favorite? What would you suggest for shoes & jewelry for each dress? Too late for open toed shoes in Oct in VA? Too early for boots?

{fatty update} I remembered this week that I’d purchased 4 Pure Barre classes with a living social deal in July, & I sweated & jiggled through the first class tonight. I really enjoyed it even though it made me realize all the flexibility I’ve lost since last time I was at a barre 11 years ago. I plan to go back a few times next week & maybe even purchase a few more sessions.

Not affiliate links. Sadly, Boden & Lilly Pulitzer don’t know who I am.

Categories
Everything Else Reading

BlogHer Book Club: Lunch Wars

This book nerd jumped on the chance of a new book when I heard the ding of a BlogHer Book Club email from my phone. This time, I received & read Lunch Wars by Amy Kalafa. Amy is one of the ladies behind the documentary Two Angry Moms {I hope to watch it soon} & all the viewers questions actually led to this book.

As a loyal fan of Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution, I was hoping Lunch Wars would be similar ~ some behind the scenes food background & facts as well as some putting-all-this-talk-into-action plans. And honestly, that’s a great way to describe the book.

As a non-mom, & thus a non-mom of school age child{ren}, Lunch Wars doesn’t yet quite apply to me. I don’t plan to storm into a local school to check out the cafeteria & ask/hope/demand change tomorrow. But what I liked & appreciated about Lunch Wars was that it was a great way for me {or anyone} to prepare. Lunch Wars gave me the all the background information {plus more} I’d need in order to {when the time comes} confidently be able to know who & what to look for as well as to be able ask the right questions.

Lunch Wars already has me rethinking our current food purchases. I actually leaped off the couch to verify that the milk  in our frig at the time was rBGH-free. I was so glad to know what that is & that our local stores already sell milk that way!

If this book sounds interesting, if you want to learn more, or even join in on our discussion, check out the Lunch Wars BlogHer Book Club page. You can also learn more about the author who I just realized was speaking about Lunch Wars locally last night.

This was a paid review for BlogHer Book Club, but the opinions expressed are all my own.

Categories
Everything Else

Scotch-Brite Disinfecting Wipes {giveaway}

You’ve probably gathered that I’m not much of a cleaner. I know there are those who relax & unwind by cleaning. That’s not me. {I’m friends with some of those girls & still do.not.get.it.}. After being gone for two weeks, I came home to a mess. I ignored it Sunday & Monday, but I could no longer avoid the filth tonight.

So cleaning is just something that has to be done in my household, but I love when I find things that simplify the dreaded task. When it comes to cleaning products I also struggle with is balancing price & making sure it’s safe for Moekitty & the environment.

I love disinfecting wipes. They make cleaning kitchen & bathroom counter tops so much easier. I’d kinda guessed the ones I’d been using weren’t so environmentally or pet-friendly. So I’d switched to greener bottled cleaners but missed the ease of the wipes.

Welcome to my life Scotch-Brite’s new Botanical Disinfecting Wipes. They’re priced so they’re easy on the wallet {less than $2.50 for 35 at Walmart}. I love that they’re Moekitty safe & I know they’re kid-friendly as well. That they smell all fresh & clean {mine are lemongrass scented} & don’t require after-use rinsing, makes them all the better. Seriously y’all, my kitchen & bathrooms thanked me for the attention. I thought about posting before & after shots but the befores were too embarrassing!

Hello box of cleaning & organizing fun!

Scotch-Brite wants one of you to try their new Disinfecting Wipes too & will send what they’re calling a “Celebrate the New School Year” gift basket to one of my lucky readers! The box will be just like mine above~ filled not only with the Wipes but also a Post-it block, Post-it durable tabs, Post-it flag highlights, & Post-it flag pens.

To enter, leave a comment letting me know when/where is your favorite place to clean.

For an extra entry, follow @suzstreats & @scotchbrite_3M & tweet “Enter to win a back-to-school basket #giveaway from @scotchbrite_3M & @suzstreats at http://tinyurl.com/67juj6g.”

I will draw the winner using random.org next Wednesday morning at 8am EST. I will contact the winner via email & twitter so that Scotch-Brite can send the winner the basket directly. If no reply within 48 hours, I will pick a new winner.

You can always follow Suz’s Treats &/or Scotch-Brite on Facebook. I found that Scotch-Brite is currently offering a $.50 off coupon & you can also learn more about the Disinfecting Wipes on their site. Thanks for entering & good luck. Happy cleaning!

Scotch-Brite sent me the same back-to-school basket as the winner will receive, so I could try & review their new disinfecting wipes. My thoughts, opinions & crappy photos are all my own.

Categories
Everything Else Food

Winners, Winners

I just used random.org to generate the five YoCrunch yogurt coupon winners. And the lucky five are…

Diana, Nicci, Rusty, Sue M, and Erin!

Congrats y’all! I will email each of you in a few minutes for your address so I can send you the coupon.

Thanks to all who entered & remember, there’s a $1 coupon on YoCrunch’s facebook page.

Categories
Everything Else Reading

The Eternal Life of Henrietta Lacks, Same Kind of Different as Me, & Waiting for Daisy

I finished these three books over the summer & just realized I had yet to post about them. All three were non-fiction or memoirs. I read Henrietta Lacks & Same Kind of Different as Me for book clubs & Waiting for Daisy for my personal sanity.

I remember hearing about HeLa in high school science classes & again in genetics class at NCSU. I love that Rebecca Skloot heard some of the same information about the HeLa cells I had & ran with it. She turned biology class cells into a large book about the history & family of Henreitta Lacks, the real life woman who’s cells became HeLa.

I read this book mostly on the plane to & from CA, but I was too exhausted after BlogHer to make it to the book club meeting. I’d  have been interested to hear my group’s thoughts on the racial, socioeconomic, regional discussion this book produced. The Eternal Life of Henrietta Lacks also brings up debate about how cells are taken & used without much patient thought or consent. Some of the medical information was over my head/boring, but I think you would especially enjoy it if you worked or had interest in the medical field. I can only imagine how cool it would be to learn the story behind the cells you work with all day. Let me know if you’ve read this, especially if you work with or had heard more details of HeLa before reading it.

Same Kind of Different as Me

My good friend Kelly, who’s also one of the leaders of my small group Bible study, read Same Kind of Different as Me by Ron Hall & Denver Moore at the beginning of the summer. Shortly afterwards, she emailed us to see if we would like to read SKoDaM as a small discussion group. We read it in three 80 page chunks where we munched on yummy snacks while sharing our faith, thoughts on family, southern social history, & homelessness. We were challenged by the faith, strength, kindness & love shown in Same Kind of Different & even called to ask what we can do as a group in our own church & community.

I was reading both these two books at the same time. I went back & forth in order to try to finish both before the respective book club meetings. I actually saw some parallels in regards to how African Americans were {not that long ago} treated & grew up in the South and the consequences to that way of life. The stories told in both these non-fiction books have stuck with me even two months later. I have & do recommend both to family & friends.

While on Amazon buying SKoDaM, I did a quick search for faith-based infertility books. That resulted in discovering Hope for Hannah {in my current TBR pile} as well as Waiting for Daisy by Peggy Orenstein. I purchased Hope since I couldn’t find it at the library & requested Waiting for Daisy that same night. This was a quick read for me {so quick I didn’t take a photo before returning it to the library}.

As I mentioned in my Talking about Infertility post, knowing I’m not alone or the only one who has or is struggling with infertility is a comfort. While we haven’t had to experience IVF or miscarriages {yet}, so many times while reading, I was nodding or even reciting passages aloud to Jason. I hate that others have to deal with IF too but there is something to be said about strength & comfort in numbers banning together.

Peggy is very openly candid about their experience & it comes across in a witty way. I’d recommend Waiting for Daisy to anyone who is or has gone through infertility or who’s family & friends want to know more about what infertility is like for a woman/couple.