Have yourself a merry little christmas.

The day after Christmas is kind of the pits. Christmas is just about my favorite thing about life, and I hate when it's over! I always leave the tree up and keep trying to be Christmas-y until New Years, but there's no Christmas music on the radio, and everyone is going back to normal life. I am not a fan.

This day after Christmas was especially a major downer. This is my first Christmas of my memory that I haven't spend at Snowbird, UT with my family. Cary had to work and is flying early into the morning, so I've been all by my onesie today. I decided to take myself on a pity date and go see Les Miserables by myself. I  was actually pretty excited about my date with myself. I don't have to share my soda and I can cry if I want to and no one will make fun of me. So I drove myself all the way over to the theater, parked in the insanely crowded parking lot, walked into the ridiculously packed theater... and Les Mis was sold out until late tonight. Blargh. Solo movies only sound fun during the day time, so I pouted my way back home. Oh, worst part of the story, how could I forget this? I dinged Cary's car trying to back out of the garage. It was in their in kind of a weird angle, and I'm not used to driving his car, and I clipped the front bumper. Darn it. Now I REALLY wish I was at Snowbird.

Aside from all of my woes, our holidays were actually lovely, albeit a bit lonely. Just ask my iPhone.

Decorating the tree! This is my most favorite ornament. It's a baby Diet Coke! Wearing earmuffs! For the love!

 My second favorite ornament. When I was little, pickles were my favorite food. My family has a pickle ornament to hang on the tree, which it turns out is actually a German tradition to hide the pickle ornament on the tree. Regardless of tradition, I love the ornament, so I don't ever hide it. And when I got all grown up with my own Christmas tree, my sister got me by very own pickle ornament! And that's when I knew I'd made it.

I motion that we all leave Christmas trees up all year long. The glow of the tree every night just makes me so darn happy.

 I made stockings! It was pretty exciting. I still need to figure out how to put names on them, but that greatly exceeded my crafting abilities.

Brent got married! It was such a delight. Cary was a groomsmen, and his tuxedo was more than just a little bit amusing to me. The Los Angeles Temple was so beautiful, and the weather was gorgeous while we were there. But I learned that I could never live in Los Angeles, because the traffic would give me high blood pressure and extreme rage disorder.

Everyone loves a super squinty picture.

 My baby!!! Or rather, Katie's baby. But I love her a whole lot.

 She kills me. She's has our whole goofy family wrapped around her usually slobbery finger.

 They're married! Goodness, they are just the cutest couple. They are SO in love, and it is really nauseating adorable. Seriously, they make my heart happy. Their sealing was beautiful.

 Caaaaaaan you feel the looooooove tonight? Those love birds.

 Angela looked so beautiful! I'm so happy she's in my family now! I love those two so much.

 The reception was so gorgeous! And the food was delicious. The first wedding cake I've had that was actually very tasty! And I ate about 13 million shrimps.

 Cute pregs sister.

 Since Cary was a groomsmen, we sat at the head table, all important like. Also, Cary had to walk in with the bridal party and the bridesmaid he was partnered with was like 6 foot tall. It was quite humorous. And my parents missed their entrance, and the announcer had to call them twice. Also humorous. Us Reichman folk aren't used to such fancy affairs.

 The options with these pictures are: Dark and Cary looking normal, or bright and Cary looking like he has no neck. Meh.

 Ellie dancing with grandpa. Cue heart melting.

 The next day we went to Santa Monica Pier and poked around. It was groovy. And I ate the best breakfast burrito of my life. And we drove the Pacific Coast Highway, which was beautiful. And then we spent a reeeeeeaaaalllly long time at the airport, as our flights kept getting delayed. We went to the USO at one airport, and it was the bomb dot com. We ate and lounged and played Connect 4. It was radical. But then we almost missed our flight and had to literally sprint across the entire airport which was like 10 miles and that was slightly less radical. 

Also, I met soooo many weirdos during our many flights. My most recent seat mate was a rather large fellow who has 3 cats and loves comic books, and told me about these things extensively. Another notable passenger sang Inn A Gadda Da Vida and other great jams very loudly throughout the flight, and then at the end yelled to no one in particular, "I don't drink a lot of milk. But I DO drink a looooot of beer!" Really? I never would have guessed. Yet ANOTHER crazy appeared in the form of a lady who talked very loudly and enthusiastically to Cary and I in the airport, and then proceeded to introduce us to random people in the airport as her "close friends". When she left, she gave Cary a very enthusiastic and very one-sided hug. Just smelling her breath made me feel tipsy. I seem to be a magnet for bizarre flight companions, such as this memorable dude.

 It's Christmas time! Ugh, I miss Christmas already. Cary got jammies and dinero to Home Depot from his parents! Thanks, guys!

I got super awesome socks, gift cards to Pottery Barn and a little cook book about making single-serving cakes in the microwave! That could be trouble... Thanks Mom and Dad Reeves!

 Cary wouldn't stop taking pictures, but this got him to stop. So many chins...

 Wooooo Ticket to Ride! We love this game. Even though I have never won in the many, many times we've played it with our friends, I do still mostly enjoy it. And now I enjoy it even more, because this is the US version instead of the Europe version, so I actually know where the cities are!

 Cary got me an awesome new scarf, and Abby couldn't wait to try it out.

 Our new Christmas Eve tradition: Peppermint ice cream and watching Christmas movies! Doing all of my family's traditions makes me all homesick, so we decided to try to think up some new ones for us.

Blockus! This game is especially great, because you can play it with two people! And also because I spanked Cary's behind when we played it.

My awesome Mama sent me a stocking! She's so cute. And I got monies and earrings and candy galore! Today I've eaten candy, popcorn, and yogurt. Perhaps I should change that.

Sleepy Cary with his stocking. He's so precious.

Cary got me this great t-shirt! Read the caption- it makes me giggle.

Look at all the candy!!! I am a five year old. I love candy so much.

New ski coat! Yahoo! And yes those are TWO layers of coat you see! Cary got a new ski coat last year, and he will not stop talking about his dang Columbia Interchange Omniheat Jacket. It's like his girlfriend. He loves his jacket more than any person has ever loved an inanimate object before. So naturally, I got one too this year. And I do love it! And I get to try it out next Monday on our ski trip! Cary and I are going skiing Monday and Tuesday next week and I CAN'T WAIT! I AM SO EXCITED I HAVE TO TYPE IN ALL CAPS! Sorry for yelling at you.

Look at all of my loot! I'm a spoiled brat.

My dad always buys all of the girls some sort of matching clothing and all of the boys something matchy. This year the girls got fleeces and the guys got hilariously tacky golf shorts. Cary was being a weenie and wouldn't model them to take a picture for my parents, so I did the honors. I think they look great on me. Especially over my jeans.

And then I made an apple pie! It was so tasty. And it's supposed to look like that. It was scrumptious. But looking at it right now is making me feel pretty gross, considering the amount of candy I consumed today.

Look at that little nugget. My sister sent me this picture, and I about fell over dead. Just the cutest.

And that's a wrap, folks! I was a major baby about missing Snowbird this year, but my sweet husband took care of me and we managed to have a cozy Christmas, just the two of us. And he even humored me and sang Christmas carols at the piano for a very long time on Christmas eve. It made me cry. I obviously love the lights and presents and food of Christmas, but it would be nothing without celebrating the gift of our Savior. And we got to spend our Christmas remembering that precious gift, so our Christmas was a success.

My heart still aches for condo 721 and Big Emma and the big hot tub and creamies (all Snowbird staples) and I hope so bad that we make it out there next year! I love all you crazy Reichman! And now I'm off to consider all of the things that I like about being a grown up, so I won't be tempted to drive back home to my Mommy forever... Just kidding. Kind of. 

Titles are for squares

Thank you all SO much for your kind words on my last post. From the bottom of my heart, I am so grateful for all of your prayers and sweet comments. It meant the world to me, and I could honestly feel comfort from your prayers. We are already starting to feel much better. Every now and then random things like spying my prenatal vitamins under the bathroom sink, or that fact that every single ad on the internet is now about babies (how do they know???) still hit me with a little stab of sadness, but it gets better every day. It feels strangely morbid to look on the bright side, but you just kind have to. So for now, I'm enjoying drinking caffeinated beverages, doing hard work outs, and we planned a little ski trip for the weekend of New Years. That's one thing I've learned in the last few years- no matter what happens, time continues to tick along. And you do your best to just pick up and keep going along with it.

Now. Moving on from serious and sad topics, and back our regularly scheduled programming of really riveting repartee (now featuring: alliteration!).

 I am currently in the throes of a massive Goldfish (the cracker, not the actual fish) addiction. I'm not sure a stranger addiction exists. In a fit of insanity, I decided it would be reasonable to purchase a gigantic container of the cheesy little guys at Costco, and now I can't stop eating them! I don't even know anyone above the age of 5 who still likes Goldfish crackers. But I love them so. Someone help.

Hey, speaking of weird foods I love, who else has tried these chocolate covered peppermint peeps? They are so freakin good. I died and went to heaven. I know I am about the only person on earth who loves peeps, but it is time to open your minds, friends. These peeps are totally different than the usual peep (which is also delicious) and even the most staunch confectionery chicken hater will like them. Hearken, o ye despisers of marshmallow chickens. Give peeps a chance. Heh heh. Like give peace a chance, get it? But seriously, try them and immediately alert me that you have changed your ways and are now converted to the sugary and fluffy side of life.

I just did a google image search for "gift for husband" and this is one of the pictures that came up. I can't even tell you how THRILLED Cary would be to receive such a gift. The man loves his sentimental hangers...? There needs to be a font that designates when things should be read in a sarcastic tone of voice. Why are husbands so hard to shop for? Plus, double lame town, my husband's birthday and Christmas are 4 days apart. For the love! He is getting some weird presents, because I just pick stuff out while I'm already out shopping. "Oh, Cary loves stapling things... I'll get him a stapler. Everyone loves a Christmas stapler in their stocking." Does anyone have any genius ideas of what to get for husbands?

Of all of my recent addictions and guilty pleasures, this has got to be the most shameful. I started watching Grey's Anatomy to entertain myself when Cary's not around, because I knew it was a show he would absolutely hate. What I didn't know is that I would get sucked into this ridiculous drama fest of a show, and have dreams about strange medical problems and being in the hospital and being friends with Meridith Grey. Also, on two separate occasions, I started to tell a story about someone I heard of who had such-and-such thing happen to them, only to realize half way through my story that it was from an episode of Grey's Anatomy. I am so ashamed.

To end this blog entry in a bizarre and arbitrary fashion, as I am wont to do, here is a recent video that I really enjoyed:

Michael Buble is so dreamy, and Jimmy Fallon is hilarious.

Empty.

I know some people wouldn't talk about this, and would just move on like nothing happened, but as you all know at this point, I am an oversharer. And when things happen to me, I talk about them. So.

Over Thanksgiving break, I noticed that my period was late. And it kept getting later. I started noticing the tell-tale signs of pregnancy, but continued to dismiss them and not get my hopes up. But eventually I couldn't handle the wondering anymore. On Thanksgiving day, Cary and I went to the store to buy a pregnancy test. With everyone milling about at our homes, I didn't trust my acting abilities enough to not to blow it that something was up. So, like a nervous teenage girl, I took the pregnancy test in the stall of the grocery store bathroom. 2 minutes tortuously ticked by and I nearly swallowed my tongue when I saw the word "Pregnant" staring back at me. I rushed outside, shaking and holding the stick towards Cary like I was worried it would explode. Cary hugged me and held me so tight and I kept saying over and over again, "I'm pregnant. I'm. Pregnant. I'm PREGNANT!" I was so terrified and excited and shocked and amazed and scared and thrilled. I filled the entire emotional spectrum. We told our parents that day, but decided to keep it under wraps until after I'd seen the doctor and the pregnancy had progressed a little further.

That night, I decided to take another test, just to confirm. It came out negative. Strange. But I knew that the hormone concentration could be lower at night, so I didn't worry too much. I took another test in the morning. Also negative. Very strange. At this point I was getting a little freaked out. Over the next week, I took almost a dozen pregnancy tests. 4 positives, 4 with very faint second lines, and 3 negatives. To say I was confused would be an understatement. When I finally got back from our wonderful thanksgiving vacation, I went and got a blood test. The blood test came back positive! Finally, the drama was over! We called our parents and told them and finally allowed ourselves to celebrate the joyful news! I thought the roller coaster of emotions was over.

This morning I woke up at 4 in the morning to pain and bleeding. We went to the emergency room and after tests and ultrasounds, we found out that we lost the baby. I was supposed to be 7 weeks tomorrow. I feel very fortunate to have had such kind and compassionate doctors and nurses. They took care of me and made me feel normal for mourning the loss of our baby. We've only known about this pregnancy for a few weeks, but a few weeks is long enough to get attached to the idea of bringing a baby home. To (happily) put educational and career plans on hold. To imagine rearranging the guest room to be a baby's room. To picture my belly growing and feeling our baby kick. To stock my purse with gum and crackers to help relieve the new nausea I was feeling. To long to meet the baby that would have made us a family of 3.

I know that this isn't really the tragic stuff that Lifetime movies are made from. And I know that many pregnancies end in miscarriage, and that most women go on to have healthy babies afterwards. And I know we'll be okay. But right now we're really sad. And that's okay too.

True Life

It has been a while since I went ahead and laid it all out on the table on the ol' blog. I find sharing my little quirks and guilty pleasures to be strangely cathartic. Perhaps it is because I realize that I'm not alone in my weirdness, or maybe it's just because once I write all out, I realize that even though I count chewing gum as brushing my teeth sometimes, at least I don't eat rocks or anything.

1. Sometimes when Cary is taking a nap, I put dog treats on him so Abby will eat them and wake him up. I start subtle- next to his leg or on his chest. And then I progress to more difficult locations. The ultimate objective is to keep him asleep long enough that I can put one on his face and he will be suddenly awoken by a giant dog jumping on his lap and trying to french kiss him. He usually wakes up before this, because I am giggling myself silly. In fact, I just engaged in this very activity moments ago and I am still chortling about it. I got to his neck before he groaned something unintelligible and whimpered a bit and covered himself in the blanket. I've been doing this for weeks, and I'm not sure he's fully aware of what's happening yet.

2. As previously stated, when I am running late or feeling especially lazy, I occasionally count chewing gum as brushing my teeth. The good news is that usually the feeling that my teeth are wearing fuzzy sweaters becomes too much to bear and I end up brushing my teeth sometime later that morning. So, it evens out. Plus the dentist told me my teeth are awesome, so stop judging me right this instant.

3. On more than one occasion this week, I skipped dinner so I could eat popcorn and ice cream instead. I don't regret it.

4. I spent a truly appalling amount of time facebook stalking myself just now- reading old posts from friends, old status updates, old pictures... It made me all nostalgic. I miss my high school and college friends. Especially all of my guy friends who apparently became repulsed by me in instant I got married. What gives? Also, I laugh at my own jokes. What can I say. I make me laugh sometimes.

5. I have only worn pants with a zipper and button three times this week. Being sick + having no job = sweatpants city. Let's not discuss how many times I showered this week. Okay fine, I'll tell you: 3.

6. I wasn't going to talk about this, because it's still hard for me to think about, but I really feel I need to share this: My entire life is a sham. You may or may not know this, but I have built my life around the glorious fact that I have never had a cavity. It was my pride and joy.  I went to the dentist this week. It was all going great. The hygienist gave me tons of compliments on my pristine pearly whites, and even believed me when I said I floss everyday. As if. Plus, they had TVs on the ceiling and headphones and I got to watch Boy Meets World. And then the dentist came in... And he says all casual like, "Oh, it looks like your filling is chipped, we're going to have to replace it."Suddenly the room became dim and the mood ominous. "But Doctor... I've never had a cavity... I've never had a filling! Why would I have a filling??? Are you sure it's not a sealant?" I said, entirely nonplussed. The dentist was unwavering. "Well, you DO have a filling, and it's cracked, so we're going to fix it." He also made a dentist-y joke about why it wasn't a sealant and all of the dentist ladies laughed, but I didn't understand the joke and also my existence was crumbling before me, so I didn't laugh. My entire world came crashing down around me. When suddenly, a buried memory resurfaced... Several years ago, I went to the dentist and the dentist was worried that I might have a cavity. But when I returned, he told me that I did NOT have a cavity, but they were going to put a sealant on my tooth to make sure I don't get one. A sealant, my fanny! That double-dealing dentist of mine pulled the wool over my eyes and gave me a filling when I didn't even know about it! The horror! The indignity! The shame! I'll have to update my resume at once. No longer "The Girl With No Cavities..." I am so ashamed.

7. Sometimes I write really long and dramatic paragraphs about going to the dentist. But guys.... I'm seriously dying over this. Plus I gotta pay 60 bones to get my traitorous filling fixed. AND I have to get a shot in my mouth which is the worst thing on earth.




Phew. I feel better now. 

The Spokane Word

Get it? Spokane word? Spoken word? Eh? Eh? Alright fine, I didn't make it up- my very clever and hilarious brother Matt told me I should re-name my blog that. And I think it is awesome.

Anywho! We've been in our house for almost 4 weeks now! It's really starting to feel like home. We love the area that we live, I only get lost half of the time I leave the house, and I even already broke something. Door hinges are overrated. Most of our time has been spent running errands, Cary getting up to speed at work, and other such tomfoolery. But we've managed to squeeze in some fun times. I've often thought to myself, "Oh, this is fun/amusing/interesting! I should blog about this!" But then I don't, and here I am trying to blog and the only anecdote I can think of is the time Cary snuck into our house all quiet-like and scared me while I was in the shower, and henceforth I get freaked out whenever I shower when I'm home alone. Thanks a lot, Care Bear. Only slightly related; I also got my concealed carry permit. So watch out creepy internet weirdos thinking of trying to abduct me. You never know when I'm gonna be packing. Spoiler alert: Always.

So hey, time for pictures.

We were Mr. And Mrs. Pacman for Halloween, which was a smashing success. I made the whole thing, and I was a bit proud of myself. I also ate a lot of candy, which I was a bit less proud of. Some people buy candy they don't like so they won't be tempted to eat it, but I remember being a little trick or treater and receiving way too many Smarties and those nasty orange and black wrapped taffees, so I got the good stuff. We're talking mini-heath bars, twix, kit-kat... I wish it wasn't all gone. And I didn't even have any cavities when I went to the dentist today. Success.

Tis the season for my most favorite decoration of all time. Well if you insist, little wobbly turkey guy.

This Monday Cary and I decided to have Family Night, in keeping with our once-a-year since we've been married tradition, and I made him make this grateful tree with me. And every night since we've written something we're grateful for. Best entries so far include: Bacon, airplanes, Mexican food, and Cary's smokin' hot wife. (He wrote that) (It would be very strange if I wrote that) (But it is true, amiright??)

It has been raining like crazy lately, and Abby is not down with this. She sits by the front door all day long and whines, wanting to go on a walk. Sorry, pooch! I can't help it that I hate getting my jeans all wet on the bottom. It's the worst.

Out of context, this picture does not make a whole lot of sense. Even in context, it's pretty weird. All of us spouses got to go for a ride on the KC-135! And before hand, we got to try on these little emergency oxygen popcorn hats. You basically pull it over your head and pull a string that releases the oxygen tank and the you chill out and breath oxygen inside of your sexy Jiffy Pop headgear. Thankfully we just tried them out for funsies and didn't actually need them.

Inside the plane! Those little cargo net seats would not be very comfortable for a long flight. Sitting sideways is kind of strange on an airplane. You feel a bit like you're going to fall over when taking off and landing. And as always, it boggles my mind that Cary flies planes. Have any of you been in a car with him??? If so, you know what I'm talking about. Just kidding. A little.

Looking out the window. So high!

More window. This picture would probably be more interesting if you could see the sky or ground or something. Use your imagination.

This is at the back of the plane, looking down at the boom pod. If you are unfamiliar with how a KC-135 works, there is a guy back there controlling what they call a flying boom, and he flies it into a receptacle on top of the receiving plane. And then they pump tons o' gas through that bad boy. And yet nobody makes any jokes about this process, and this I do not understand.

Looking at one of many gigantic engines out the window.

Just chillaxin all cool in the cock pit. I wanted to press every button and flip every switch. I can think of nothing more satisfying.

Just hanging out in the boom pod. That's my friend Ann. She's awesome. And lives like 5 blocks away from us. Which is also awesome.

Being a boom operator would be awesome for several reasons, not the least of which would be that you perform your job while lying down.

Kind of hard to take pictures of how the boom pod is oriented... But I'm next to the real boom operator who is looking out a big window, as show in the next picture-

Here's a bad picture of the view. The only way I would have been able to take a good picture would be to sit on top of the boom operator and he said no that would be inappropriate.

So what you're seeing here is the boom- the big gray thing with little wings coming off of it- that is being flown by the boom. He changes the pitch of the wings and steers it into the receiver, which is the bigger gray thing below. Again, how are no jokes made about this?

It was quite literally the coolest thing I've ever seen in my life. As the plane was being refueled, it felt like I could reach out and high five the receiving pilots. But they looked awfully focused.

Plus it kind of felt like a roller coaster as we pulled towards/away from the receiver.

After the whole refueling thing, we were just flying around forever, and I tried on this awesome mask. It did not smell awesome.

And then we took pictures by the giant engines after we landed. This is the typical pilot pose, and I think I pulled it off pretty well. I think being a pilot would be worth it just to wear the flight suit. Those bad boys are super comf. (Comf= hip way to say comfortable. Get with it.)

My foxy friend Ann posing like a pin-up in the engine.

 ...And then there's me... Everyone was looking at me and I was feeling awkward and a lot of pressure to do something sexy and/or funny, so I just decided to go with boring and uncomfortable and stick with this pose. Let's also laugh at how Cary's flight suit was too short for me in the legs and it looked like I was wearing flood pants. With hot pink Vans that you can't see. It was way hot.

If you scrolled through the pictures and didn't read any of the words, here's the summary: Spokane is totally radical, my husband has a cool job and I also really like him, and I really enjoy run on sentences.