Sprinkles!

A giant box of assorted sprinkles. It comes with a small wooden scoop. It makes me very happy.  

Sprinkles!

Officially I bought them for the wedding reception in July, to go on top of the doughnut holes... they might not last that long.  I might have eaten more than one scoopful dumped directly into my mouth.

Sprinkles cheer up sunflower-butter waffles. 

Wedding Deals - We're Not Melons

We've made out like bandits with all the deals we've found with our wedding. Thirty bucks a night for a room with attached private bathroom in Portland. 

(Picture from their airbnb listing)

Less than ten bucks each for our rings on Amazon. 

My dress was custom fitted from eshakti.com. After a first-timer coupon the total came to less than thirty bucks including shipping and custom fitting.

I scrounged Groupon for the last month looking for interesting places in Portland. I found an almost all night gyro food truck, a doughnut shop (because we'll totally need more doughnuts after the wedding at a completely different doughnut shop), and a cider tasting for two with eight 3oz glasses of cider each and an empty take home growler. I could easily have planned all the food we'd need for the four days we'll be in town, but there were specific places we want to try and are willing to pay full price for.

If you have the time to plan in advance, and are flexible about what you're looking for, there's a TON of ways to save money on the things you want for a wedding.

"I Go Up The Hill, And Come Back Down"

We have a big hill near our house that's perfect for exercise. It's almost exactly one mile from our front door to the top. Due to my health issues I can't always make it to the top, or anywhere near it.  Consistency is really important if I want to get anywhere. So sometimes just walking out the door, across the street, ten yards up, and then back down again is all I can muster. I don't feel badly about this, it's the best I can do,  and it's much better than doing nothing at all. But I can't help replaying this commercial for Planet Fitness every time I go. "I go up the hill and come back down..."

Victory Over Death

Hearthstone matches you randomly with another player at or near your level of expertise. This match was between me and a player named "Death" (You can see their name in the upper left corner.) I have now beaten Death, and so assume I am now immortal.

Wedding Reception Invites - We're Not Melons

I bought a ten pack of blank brown folded cards and practiced in window's paint with fonts until I found a layout I liked. Then I hand drew them out in pencil, and went over them with marker. I used a dry-erase marker because it didn't bleed through the paper.

I used a metallic sharpie on the back, for the shiney-ness and because they don't bleed through the paper either.

Wedding Zines - We're Not Melons

(I'm getting a lot of mileage out of the cantaloupe joke)

Our wedding and honeymoon are both in Portland next month. We researched the restaurants we want to try, and squeezed as many as we could into the three and a half days we'll be in town. In an attempt to keep everything organized and clear, I made wedding programs in a "zine" style for everyone to match Portland.

(Me as a Selkie riding Greg as a cow)

They also feature pictures from the advent calendar Greg made for me last Christmas.

(Selkie me, and Cow Greg)

Flare-ups, Episodes, and Crashes

Chronic fatigue tends to go in cycles. You get "better" for a while, try to live normally, maybe forget you're sick for a little while, push yourself too hard, maybe catch a cold, something stressful happens, annnnnd.... you're back to bed for months. It's different for everyone I'm sure.
  I tend to get worse when the weather changes, either too hot or too little sunshine and I hit the deck. When I'm sick I know what to do, drink lots of fluids, drastically cut my sugar intake, queue up new shows on netflix. But when I'm "better"? No idea. I know that if I push myself too far too fast I'll be right back in bed, but I'm so dang ansty. I want to go hiking. I want to rummage at the flee markets. I want to WORK. I'm done watching tv all day and playing video games when I have the mental energy to focus. I want to go OUT.

Right now I'm on my last few days of an extended medical leave. I haven't been able to work consistently since December. The hardest part for me is the guessing. "Am I better enough to go back to work?" "Should I stay home and rest?" It's always a gamble. If I guess wrong and try to push through I could end up making myself worse, and having to stay home for another week.