Five Things on Friday

1. I have discovered Pick Your Plum. It's kind of a bad thing because I'm a sucker for a good deal and all of their stuff is so cute. (My natural financial tendency is to be very very frugal but when you see something on sale - snatch it up! Which is a problem when you find a site like this that always has a good deal.) Most of the time I am able to refrain. However, I saw these flowers and couldn't resist! Soon after, the elastic came up and I had to get that too. It all just arrived and I can't wait to make lots of pretty headbands (can't really say hairbows... not with the amount of hair we have to work with) for Lydia. (The flowers that are still in the packages are my sweet friend Ashley's. She went in on it with me and split shipping. I did show some restraint.

2. This weird bump appeared on my ankle several weeks ago. It didn't hurt so I didn't think too much about it. But then last weekend, something happened and it swelled up and started killing me. I didn't twist my ankle or do anything to aggravate it but I could barely walk sometimes and it was hard to get it comfortable at night. After much demanding urging from both my parents and David - I went to see the doctor. Lydia was a champ and was content to sit in her carseat for the whole 50 minute wait to get into the office, the initial consult, the x-ray, and the ultrasound. I couldn't be more grateful for such an amazing baby girl. This was such a tender mercy from Heavenly Father, because Lydia usually won't stay in her carseat through the sacrament at church let alone for almost two hours. In the end, the doctor told me that I have either a malleolar bursitis or a ganglion cyst. Either way, there is a pocket of fluid between my ankle bone and my tendon. The pain went away the night before I had my appointment (typical right?) but he said that if it continues to bother me that they will drain it and inject it with steroids  (When I texted David to tell him about the treatment he replied "You poor thing. I love you. Although, I think if you start using steroids they might ban your DWTS debut." I laughed for a good five minutes.) In the picture below, the small bump on the left is my ankle bone and the goose egg looking bump on the right is the cyst/bursa. Crazy, eh?

3. Speaking of Dancing with the Stars. Once upon a time we didn't watch Dancing with the Stars... but then it just happened to be on after a presidental debate and so David and I left it on to see what all the fuss was about. We were immediately sucked in and watched for the rest of the season so we could see who would win the Mirrorball Trophy. The next season has started up again, and you better bet David and I either watch it on Monday night or catch it the next day on abc.com. We are loving it. It seems kind of dorky. But it's really fun. We like it. (For the rest of you DWTS-ers, we love Tony and were sad to see Wynona leave. Our favorites are Zendaya, Ali, and Victor. We do not like D.L. at all.  Oh, and I also love Sean.) Haha. So dorky - but it's easy to become emotionally invested. Last night we were watching the results show (a few days late) and we were so concerned! David told me that from now on we are going to have to start voting. I'm also seriously considering getting a twitter account just so I can tweet about DWTS. Yeah. We are awesome.

4. David, being the amazing person and hard worker that he is, recently earned an awesome line to put in his resume. David is now published in his field! He co-wrote/worked on an article called "Old Main Manufacturing: The Case of Unrecorded Sales Discounts." and it was published in the Issues in Accounting Education, Volume 28: No 1 - February 2013. I can't tell you how proud I am of him. He has worked SO hard and this is a really big achievement for someone so new to his profession. It's also a really great thing for HBM, because in his little title it mentions that he works for them. I was going to do a whole blog post about how amazing David is and how cool it is to be published, but I'm super behind and want to make sure that I don't forget something so amazing!

5. Since the Bridal Fair for Red Ladder Design we have been fairly busy wedding announcement wise. The first of the orders are starting to be done. I delivered a set of pretty and elegant matte announcements on Tuesday and I have these glossy beauties ready for delivery today. I really love them. I have this emotional attachment to the wedding announcements that I make. There is just something incredible about seeing something that you came up with in your head, then created on the computer, sitting in front of you in all of its printed beauty. It's really amazing.

We have had an incredibly busy week. David has worked SO long and SO hard all week, and we are just glad to have almost made it through busy season. I'm so grateful for how much David does to provide for our little family and for how much he loves both Lydia and I.

Happy Friday!

Friday

Goodness gracious- I love Fridays. In fact, once I wrote a song about Friday and would sing it to David every Friday morning. Then some girl named Rebecca Black wrote a song about Friday that was strangely similar to my song (Lots of repeating of the word Friday) and my song wasn't as cool anymore. Oh well. This week has been wonderful. And here are five things that prove it:

#1- Halloween week. Hooray! I love Halloween. 

#2- My little brother, Matthew, who is on a mission in New Jersey made it safely through Hurricane/Super Storm Sandy. We were a little concerned for him, because the heart of the storm basically passed right over him - but he made it through great. Now he is hard at work helping others clean up the devastation that is so widespread back there. I'm so grateful for him and his willingness to work hard and help others. His letter this week was short - but it was upbeat. I just know he is doing wonderful things out in the mission field. 

#3- I made a new blog header with our awesome new pictures. Isn't it cute? (We had our previous header up for over a year. I finally changed it for a picture with a picture of us and newborn Lydia but she was already like 4 months old at the time. I like this one much better!)

Old header that I loved, so it stayed on the blog for over a year. 

New header with Lydia. Isn't it cute?

#4- Psych Season 6 is on Netflix! We have been anxiously waiting for the new season to arrive for months and months. Each week would bring a new google search into the release date or a checking of the show on Netflix to see if any new episodes had been added. (To the extent that as soon as we opened Psych up on the TV and David saw the number of episodes he commented "Great, 16 new episodes", because he knew exactly how many episodes were in the first 5 seasons. We watched the first episode and loved it! Yay. 

#5- Lydia and I have spend the last half of the week hanging out in Morgan with my parents. On Monday this week my dad went in for surgery to have his knee replaced. He's had a bad knee for as long as I can remember from an old high school football/wrestling injury. His doctors been telling him that he should probably have it replaced for years and years. Last month, he hurt it pretty badly at work and it finally pushed him over the edge to getting it replaced. My mom took a couple of days off work, but couldn't take the whole week off, so Lydia and I came up to make sure that he was taken care of. My sweet dad thought that he would be back to work by Wednesday (ha!) but I think he was taken by surprise at how much recovery he really has ahead of him. I'm grateful that his surgery went well and that he is well on the way to feeling better than he has in years. (Even if it is really hard right now.) Beside the obvious unfortunate issue of my dad's knee, we've had a really great time hanging out with him and my mom. 

p.s. #6 My hair has started to slow down in the shedding process. Instead of loosing handfuls and handfuls of hair each day, it's slowed down to about one good handful. (TMI?) I realize this is kind of weird. But it's kind of a big deal around our house. It will be so nice not to have hair everywhere anymore. Also, in the spirit of hair - I really want to get my hair cut. Any suggestions?

Dear Netflix,

Many of you may have heard the news that Netflix is raising their rates. Although this news doesn't really come as a shock to me, it certainly is unwelcome.  There is a part of me that wants to join the 77,000 people who have commented on Netflix's facebook page swearing that they will discontinue their service. I definitely believe in the "dollar vote" and will pay for something simply to support a company - or not pay for something, even if I want it, to make a statement to a company I don't like. I'm kind of an extremist that way. However, the big question is: "Is it worth it?" 

For those of you who aren't sure what is going on, and you do care, you can check out the price restructuring here. But basically, to get the same services we are getting now - prices will increase by 60%. I think that Netflix is trying to push it's customers away from DVD's and trying to focus them on streaming movies instead. However, it is probably going to push us the other way - and all because of this baby. (Which we totally recommend by the way.) 

With our Clear Play, we are able to watch whatever we want without fear of something inappropriate in the movie. (This is a great example of our dollar vote, we pay for this service every month, because we think it is important for them to stay in business.) Unfortunately, you have to have a DVD in order to use clear play. It won't work on streaming videos.

As much as we love to watch movies together on our clear play - it will be a sad day in the Peaden Home if we are no longer able to stream TV shows. It's nice to be able to watch a little show while I am designing wedding announcements, or working on lesson plans. Some of my favorite TV shows that Netflix has so kindly provided for our/my entertainment (in no particular order): 

*sigh* Such great entertainment -  I am really torn. Sixteen dollars a month just might be worth it! (Especially because we don't have TV, right?)

However, here is my question for you. Do any of you have any other websites or places you like to rent/stream movies that might be a good alternative to Netflix? Any good experiences with Hulu (I've never really used it, i've just heard about it.) Any comments would be helpful! Thanks.

To conclude, I will join the mass of Facebook/Twitter statuses by writing my own "Dear Netflix" letter.

Dear Netflix, 

I think that we need to take a break. We had such a good thing going - but now things are changing. (Like, 60% rate increase type changing.) I need to start looking into my other options. I know we used to scoff at Redbox and Blockbuster, but I can't be tied down to you right now. We have been through a lot together, and I will treasure that time. You gave me Psych, and Lois, and Murder She Wrote (not to mention the many movies you have sent directly to my mailbox, week after week). I love to think back to the excitement of the transition between the casual relationship with my 13" Macbook screen to the much more serious relationship with my 24" television set. You kept me company (and helped me keep my sanity) as I stayed at my school until 7 or 8 writing lesson plans during my first year of teaching - and I will always be grateful. 

This breakup is going to be hard for both of us. (Especially because of the 125 DVDs left in my Queue and the 65 items waiting for me to stream.) However, I think it is probably for the best. I've been so attached to you, so loyal, that I haven't really been looking for any other options. I hope that you understand.  Don't worry though, we can still be friends.

Shantel