Pet Peeves.

Everybody has them. I just really feel like a lot of these should be common sense, "no duh" kinds of things. Maybe I'm wrong?

Planning "private" events over social medias such as facebook (and not making it "private") or Twitter. Seriously? You're begging for someone to get hurt/offended/angry. Just don't.

Hypocrites. Need I say more?

Not following through with things you say you're going to. Don't say you're going to if you're not. It's that easy.

People who like being a dick, just to be a dick. It's a wonder people like you even have friends.

Those who involve themselves in other peoples business when it is clearly not wanted or needed. Get a life. Please.

The assumption that your view is right whether anyone else likes it or not. And if someone disagrees, they're just stupid. And wrong, obviously.

Those who assume that because someone takes a step back from a situation, they're immediately running from said situation. People, that's not how it works. It's called stepping back to cool off and get a better head on. Perhaps more of you should do this.

Judging a situation that you know nothing about. Honestly, if you don't know every side, why are you even taking sides? Stop being a biased prick. At least only base your opinion on the parts you know.

And most importantly, don't do to other people things that you don't want them to do to you. If you're afraid of your friends sneaking around your back and hanging out together without you, you probably shouldn't be doing that yourself.

Nails

So a few months ago I became obsessed with doing my nails. But then I stopped doing them once it started getting cold. My toenails, for instance, still have jackolanterns on them from Halloween.

Last night though, I finally did my nails again. Mainly because pregnancy has made me feel ugly and gross and anything but cute.

I think they turned out fantastically. And here's to hoping I keep it up.

Write.

I lucked out.

Last March I went to a writing conference at Provo Library and it was amazing. I got to meet and talk with a number of my favorite authors, namely Tracy Hickman (who helped me fall in love with reading and want to be a writer), Shannon Hale and last, but not least, Brandon Sanderson. Brandon has written some of the most epic books I've ever read; literally my mind was blown by the end of the Mistborn trilogy. And listening to these authors speak about writing has been the most helpful in improving my writing.

Before I even went the the conference, I wanted to take a final writing class at BYU. I've been talking about taking the one from Brandon Sanderson for about 2 years now, wishing I'd have a chance to write under his wing. I never thought in a million years that I'd actually get that chance. Hundreds of kids try to get in every semester, and this semester was no different. I was on a waitlist of over 30 people. But somehow, I got in.

I'm taking Writing Fiction from Brandon Sanderson, and it's going to be epic. I'm so excited, words cannot even begin to describe. It will be an interesting semester to be sure. But an amazing one.

Stomach of Steel

So here's the thing about being pregnant. I don't understand those who enjoy it. Maybe that's because I'm still in the sick like a dog all the time stage. But I can't imagine it getting better.

I've been nauseous for a month straight. It's awful, to say the least. I don't understand how there are women who have 19 kids. My mother clearly has a stomach of steel because there is no way I could ever possibly have 8 children, with no twins or triplets etc. 8 pregnancies sounds awful.

I was so excited to get pregnant. I'm still excited. I want this baby so very much, even though it's only an inch or so long right now. But I just wish I understood why in the world being pregnant makes you sick. I've researched this and everything I find just says it's impossible to know and it's probably a combination of hCg and estrogen along with all the other hormones and other fun things going on with my body right now. But that isn't very helpful. And doesn't get rid of the sickness...

So by all means, if any of you have some tips, lay them on me. And please, don't mention black licorice... thinking about having to eat that stuff may actually make me hurl again. 

Things To Look Forward To

Doug and I have been feeling awful for weeks. 

As stated in my previous post, Doug and I were sick for our 1 year anniversary. It's now been almost 2 weeks of sickness for us. Colds, flues, he even got an ear infection. Last week, Doug was even hallucinating in the middle of the night, saying that little people were running to his throat to help make it feel better... It got that bad. Yesterday it was the worst for me.

I started to become super nauseous and even got the joy of dry heaving for a solid 10 minutes in the morning. I ended up not even going to work because I felt awful, worn out and in lots of pain. I decided I'd try going to my niece's birthday party last night though because they fly back to DC tomorrow and I hadn't seen them in 2 years until they came to town a couple weeks ago. My mom was making dinner for the entire family and made one of my favorites; Clam Chowder! I was thrilled and scarfed down a huge bowl full. That was a mistake. After spending hours chasing around this cute little guy:

I was worn down even worse than I had been in the morning. We got home a couple hours later and I felt awful, again. Only this time, I actually threw up, and dry heaved some more. So many stomach pains; seriously my diaphragm wants to shut off from the pain. The awful part about this is that it will never matter how many times I throw up when I feel nauseous for the next long, long while. Because it will never go away.

Simply stated, I'm pregnant.

We're expecting.

There's a bun in the oven.

I'm Prego.

Whatever you'd like to call it. 

You should all look forward to the day you or your loved one joins me in this beautiful adventure of dehydration and continual nausea. I cannot wait until this feeling goes away (definitely one of the things I'm looking forward to most!). Though, we really are excited for the little one to join the family. I promise, we want the baby, are excited for it and are looking forward to the new adventure! I'm simply just as excited for the sickness to leave me alone as I am to find out the gender and have it arrive :)

First Year. Happy Christmas.

Doug and I have spent an awesome year together doing all sorts of wonderful things. We celebrated our first anniversary over this holiday break, on December 27th! Sadly, we celebrated by being sick with the flu mixed with colds and an ear infection; not fun at all! Though, we did also spend the night up in Salt Lake City and got some pictures taken by the lovely Rebecca Mabey at effervescentmediaworks! :) I'll post those when they become available to me.

It's been an amazing year for us, with plenty of fun and struggles as well. We got to go to Disneyland with lots of our friends in May and were able to head to Europe with Doug's parents in August. It was fantastic to go back to Kyiv where I lived for 5 months and to see all the areas Doug served. We passed all our classes and we're well on our way to graduating! Me much sooner than him, but that's not the point really. We got to spend our first real Christmas together, which was blissful to say the least! Waking up at whatever time we felt like was great, and it was fun to see the excitement on Doug's face when he received his gifts :)

I had a lot of experience working with teenage/young adult girls with a plethora of problems ranging from mental disorders such as depression to borderline, sexual promiscuity to drug abuse. It opened my eyes to see all of the problems many people face, especially when they aren't given the support they nee in the ways that they need it. While I learned a lot from my time working in a group home and thensome, I had some interesting experiences as well, such as being attacked by one of my girls. It was a rough decision for me, but in the end I felt I needed to pursue other options and working experiences. Although I still enjoy helping those who I can with their disabilities and problems whenever I can.

My shop, The Nerd Niche, went crazy during the holiday season and I was able to pay for Christmas with the money I made and put a fair amount into savings; starting my Etsy shop has truly been a blessing that I hope to continue being able to do for years to come. I hope to expand in the coming months, and I'll be asking my friends and family member's help to get there! I'm praying you'll all be more than willing to help in even the smallest of ways. I have already started a facebook page, have plans for a Twitter account and have begun to design a blog as well in hopes of reaching people in other cyber spheres! I have over 50 item ideas waiting for me to churn out and bring to the public in the coming months. If you have ideas or wants, please let me know! I love finding new things and ways to create nerd like items for my geeky friends all across the globe!

I'm excited for what the new year will hold for us! I'll be graduating in April and I'm hoping that by the end of the year, I will be able to just work from home doing my business and continually expanding to newer and exciting things! It may be a long shot, but I think I can do it with the help of family and friends!

Happy Christmas and New Year everyone! May your celebrations me merry and bright.

Liebster Award...? Or Something.

My lovely friend Megan (Meghan? I just don't know how to spell her name anymore) tagged me in this. It was a flashback to Jr. High when we lived on MSN and emailed on Sunday's. The number of these personal question fill-er-outer things we did were ridiculous. Those 100 Reasons You're My Best Friend forwards? Yes, we did those. I see we're both still the same with our narcissism and it shall forever live on. Also, I love procrastinating, and I should really be doing homework, but I'm so stressed I simply don't care right now.

This is supposed to be for bloggers with less than 200 followers.  I have nine... so uh, you do the math!

Rules:

Each person must post 11 things about themselves.  

Answer the questions the nominator asked, 

and create 11 questions for your nominees to answer. 

Choose 11 people and link them in your post. 

Go to their page and tell them. 

No tag-backs.

(I'll be honest, I'm not going to nominate people, simply because most blogs I follow are well over 200 or they've already done this, and as it says, no tag-backs. But hey, why not answer the questions myself?)

11 Things About Me

1. I don't actually want to graduate in Family Studies next April. I didn't realize that until this last month or so that I definitely picked the wrong major and should have gone in the arts. Unfortunately that's not really an option any longer as I only have 11 credits left to graduate, only 6 of which are major credits...

2. I play a few instruments; piano, cello and violin. I'm not amazing at any of them, but I can definitely play a thing or two. Sadly I only own a violin, even though I prefer the other two. I miss the cello most.

3. I enjoy writing. A lot. I don't, however, enjoy being forced to write. College is the worst for that. And NaNoWriMo is killing me.

4. I am kind of obsessed with NCIS. I blame my mom, who introduced me to the show.

5. My dream job would be a writer, doing the art for the cover of my own book, and creating all of the trinkets/charms from said books to sell to the fans while dressed up in the costumes of how I pictured my "favorite" or more personable characters. Maybe one day.

6. I would love to do a Cosplay for Legend of Zelda, Avatar: The Last Airbender/Legend of Korra, Pokemon and Mistborn (half-check!). There are probably more, but I'm half asleep right now and can't think straight. Really, I aspire to be like Li, aka PikminLink. Her main site is pikminlink.com, but my favorite cosplay is this: 

So epic. This is cosplay at its finest.

7. If you couldn't tell, I'm a nerd at heart. Books, video games, TV shows etc. There's a reason I have a shop, called The Nerd Niche, over on Etsy. By the way, you should go check it out: http://www.etsy.com/shop/TheNerdNiche

8. I am a people pleaser. I don't like disappointing people who expect so much from me. But I'm ridiculously insecure and think I'm always disappointing someone. I'm pretty sure I always am. Let's just say there's a reason I'm graduating in Family Studies and not something else which is much more appealing to me. I would rather please others so much so that I'm doing that instead of following my dreams. Go figure.

8. I love doing my nails. Had you told me that 7 years ago I would have told you you're nuts. But it's become quite the hobby for me.

9. While I generally enjoy socializing with people, I really enjoy being alone more, most of the time. I like being able to do my own thing, snuggling up with my adorable husband, reading a good book or making new crafty and artistic things. Winter is great for these things. It's probably the only reason I "like" winter.

10. I have found recently that I get frustrated with others very easily. I get tired of people who get defensive quickly for things that aren't a big deal and attack others unnecessarily and like being trolls.

11. I get hurt very easily. Contrary to a lot people's thoughts about me, I'm not actually strong-willed at all. I just don't like blowing up on people if I can help it. Little (even slightly) negative comments stick with me for a very long time and I let it fester and grow and destroy me. It's a problem. I'm working on it. 

Meg's Questions:

Do you ever wear socks to sleep? 

Sometimes. Frequently in winter. Every other season? Never.

If you could do anything right now, what would it be?

Drop out of school, become more active on Etsy and business savvy, do cosplay's and be a mom.

What is your most irrational fear?

Spiders. And heights. Neither are completely irrational though, right?

What do you wish you could make money doing?

Writing , arts and crafts.

What truly seduces you?  (eg: poetry, a man playing guitar, gifts, etc.)

A genuinely happy and nice man.

What color of nail polish do you always come back to?

I don't really have a color. Design though, would be galaxy nails. So I guess black.

If you could spend the day with any famous individual, who would it be?

Mark Harmon, aka Leroy Jethro Gibbs from NCIS. Or the Hemsworth brothers.

What is the story of your biggest heart break?

My boyfriend broke up with me because his best friend didn't like me in high school. He ended up dating me again 6 months later and eventually marrying me anyway. Gratefully. His best friend also doesn't hate me anymore (bonus!).

What is your guilty pleasure T.V. show?

One Tree Hill. I hate you and love you all at the same time. 

What do you hope your life will be like in ten years?

I'll be a mom of some wonderful kids, working from home doing nerdy things and living at least some of my dreams.

Do you eat fast or slow?

Medium? I don't think I'm either really. Depends on who I'm with.

That's all I got. I guess I should post my own questions for the random people who decide to follow my lead.

What's your favorite band?

What is the best gift you ever received?

What is your most embarrassing moment?

What are the 5 most played songs on your iPod?

What is your biggest pet peeve?

When was the last time you just meditated?

Who is your favorite author?

What is the first thing you do when you wake up?

If you could do anything, knowing you wouldn't fail, what would it be?

What's your favorite sugary substance?

What social media do you prefer most?

That's all I got. I really need to go to bed now.