5.25.2013

The Gift

I figured I'd do an updated post on my ring situation. To refresh your memory, I lost my engagement ring several weeks ago. I filed a police report so that if anyone tried to pawn it, the police would be able to get it. I placed an ad in the local paper that ran for a week. And nothing worked out. Its still possible that someone will try to pawn it, but I'm betting that it was never found.

I'm still kicking myself for losing my ring. I mean, really, how irresponsible was that move? :( But what's done is done, and there's no sense in dwelling on it. My dear husband wasn't nearly as mad as I thought he'd be, bless his soul. He said at first that I wouldn't be getting a new ring, and I totally understood and told him that I agreed. I didn't want just any ring; I wanted my ring! Yes, my ring was pretty, but it wasn't just the diamond that I cherished. That ring reminded me every time I looked at it of our love, of the night he proposed to me, and of how much we've been through together.

But you know what? I realized I didn't need a piece of jewelry to remind me of those things. The memories are still there. In fact, one of our favorite things to talk about as a couple is the story of how we met and got together, and then I love to tell about the night he proposed.

The point is, even though I was (and am) still upset about losing my ring, I was totally okay with not having a new one. I mean, I still had my wedding band, and that's really the important one, right? Since it shows the world that you are married/taken.

Well, that wasn't good enough for my husband! I think I've said before that he's a great gift-giver. In fact, gift-giving is part of his love language, I've learned; he doesn't like to receive gifts much but he loves to give them as an expression of his love. Gift-giving is not in my love language at all, and I am not one to demand expensive jewelry from my man, but I know how to appreciate beautiful jewelry! And I know how to be thankful for anything he gives me, since I know his motivation. Luckily for me, he makes it easy to love his gifts. I don't think he's ever given me anything that I didn't love. Lately, he's been on a jewelry kick. For the past several holidays, he's really piled the bling on me, haha.

So this year, my birthday and Mother's Day fell on the same day. Everyone told me DH probably had bought me a new ring, but I had told him several times not to do that. I honestly thought he listened to me. I had asked for some smaller (and less expensive) things for him to get me, so that's what I expected. He fooled me! The night before my birthday, I could tell he couldn't stand it any longer. He'd been trying for several days to make me open my present, but I kept saying no. I finally gave in and told him to let me have it.

I was pretty surprised to see a gorgeous new ring in that box! The new ring looks exactly like my old one, except its bigger. The old one was 3/4 karat and the new one is a whole karat. I've been wearing it since then and it still feels huge on my finger, haha.


Ain't it pretty? Its the same size as my wedding band, which is too big for my ring finger. I'm actually gonna try to go today and get it sized down a little.

My husband is too good to me, for real. I've been joking since my birthday that I wonder what other diamond I could lose to get a bigger one! But of course I would never intentionally "lose" any of my jewelry.

That whole weekend was just great. I wondered how I'd feel about turning 30. But as I suspected, it didn't bother me at all. I don't feel any older, and I'm not sad to not be a 20-something anymore. I'm truly happy with myself and my life right now, so why should I mourn getting older? Especially when so many people will never see 30. I'm grateful and happy. ( :

However, this does remind me! I am not happy with a certain Amazon seller right now. I had picked out a tripod kit for my camera on Amazon back in April, and asked DH to get it for my birthday/Mother's Day. It was around $30 and he said for me to order it since he doesn't have an Amazon account. I placed the order and had it shipped to his work so I wouldn't be tempted to open the box when it came in. Well, I tracked the package every day and on the delivery say, UPS updated the page to say it was being returned to the sender due to an incorrect address. What?! I used the address on the USPS website. I contacted the seller and he/she assured me that it would be sent again as soon as they got it back (in California). Well, its been almost a month and supposedly the seller doesn't have the package yet. I don't quite believe this, but I'm not sure what to do. My credit card has been charged and I have demanded a refund, though I haven't been issued one yet. I'm gonna contact the seller again today and see what happens. I guess my next step is to report it to Amazon? I'm not sure. I've never had this happen before. But this is exactly why I'm always hesitant to purchase anything online. :/

Anyway, I'm at the start of a 3 day weekend and I am ecstatic to have an extra day off work. I desperately need a vacation. We're not going anywhere this weekend, but it'll still feel like a mini-vacation just being able to stay home so long. Every weekend for a while now we've had a zillion things to go and places to be, so I am really gonna enjoy not having to leave the house unless I just want to. ( :

One of my college friends is on her way to spend the day with me and C, actually. I'm lookin forward to spending some time with her. I was her matron of honor when she got married and I was 7 months pregnant, and I've only seen her once since then! After she got married and finished dental school, she moved a few hours away, so its been hard for us to get together, though we've stayed in touch. I'm not sure what we'll do today, but if I can get someone to watch C I bet we'll hop on the horses for a bit! Here's to a relaxing, enjoyable weekend!! ( :

5.24.2013

Changes

I have intentionally not blogged most of this month. If you've been reading my blog since I started it last summer, then you know I go back and forth on my feelings of blogging - mainly who am I to think my life is interesting enough to blog about? and I definitely don't have everything together, why should I be blogging like I do?? And so forth. So when I started this thing I anticipated that occasionally I'd get upset with it and take a break. I felt like I was being a little too negative in my last few posts. But when I went back and read some older posts, I go the impression that my life is absolutely perfect, and that is certainly not the case! I guess I have a hard time finding a happy medium.

These past few weeks of no blogging have allowed me to think about if I really want to continue or not. And the answer is yes. Although I have decided to shift my way of thinking about this blog. At first, I was trying to be like bloggers that I admire and only post about upbeat, happy things, and my successes in the kitchen and around the house (though I have included some kitchen failures!). I realized, though, that that way of blogging is way too stressful for me. Maybe if this was my full-time job it would be different. I placed a lot of pressure on myself to blog regularly and make sure the content was interesting and positive and wouldn't step on anyone's toes (though my posts on NFP might do just that, haha). I still can't figure out why I placed all that pressure on myself. Its not like I have a ton of readers/followers. It was all me! And I realized that I wasn't enjoying my blog as much as I did.

So I'm getting back to the basics, so to speak. This blog is for me and my enjoyment. I want it to document my life - the good and the bad - so I can look back years from now and remember things, little details that are so precious to life. So I am going to stop thinking so much about what everyone else wants to read and focus on what I want to record. I understand that may mean I'll never have a huge following - that's okay. I actually considered making this blog totally private, so it would become an online journal for me. But I decided against doing that at this time. I enjoy the few comments I get too much. ( :

If you're still sticking around after my proclamation of being utterly selfish on my blog (lol), thanks! Maybe you will find a little enjoyment through reading things that are important to me. And if you've decided to never darken the doorway to this blog (so to speak) again, sorry. The older I get the more I learn that I simply cannot please everyone. And while I don't think I have a right to be happier than anyone else, I have learned that I have to make sure I'm happy, too. Does that even make sense? I turned 30 recently and while I don't feel any different at all, I have been tending to be more philosophical lately, and I've really been reflecting on what's important to me, and adjusting my life accordingly. Stay tuned (if you want! haha). ( :

me on my 30th birthday ( :

5.01.2013

Love {Not} Lost

In Monday's post I talked about how I lost my engagement ring. I'm still kicking myself over that one. So far, no one has responded to my newspaper ad. And no one has tried to sell my ring at any of the local pawn shops. I haven't exactly given up hope yet, but I'm pretty close.

Last summer I took some pictures of our rings - its the only clear picture I have of my engagement ring!

Not long after I published Monday's post, I received a call from the newspaper. Someone had called to place an ad for a found ring!! The woman at the newspaper was so excited. She said the description of the ring matched mine. For some reason, she didn't get the caller's name or phone number. That person was supposed to call me. I was so excited I didn't even care. I waited for almost an hour for that person to call me.

Finally, the call came. The woman didn't tell me her name, just that she had found a ring at the festival where I had lost mine. She asked me to describe my ring. Then she told me that the ring she found had only 1 diamond in it. I asked her several questions to make sure she was correct. She also said this ring had someone's initials in it. Mine wasn't engraved. I was so disappointed that I never thought to ask her name or anything else. Her phone number came up as Blocked on my cell phone.

I did think to ask the woman if she described the ring to the people at the newspaper, and she said no. I told her the newspaper told me she had, but she denied it. I asked her to please call and place the ad because I know how the owner of that ring feels!

Then I called the newspaper back to give them an update. The woman there couldn't believe it. She said the caller had the found ring appraised to make sure it was real, and was told it was a past, present, and future ring - 3 diamonds. I told her to please let me know if the mystery woman called back to place an ad, but at that point we all figured she didn't have any intentions of giving that ring back to anyone.

So for about an hour I was ecstatic, jumping up and down at work thinking someone had found my ring and I was getting it back. And then when I realized that wasn't happening, it was like I lost the ring all over again. Such a let down. I keep reminding myself that its just a ring, in the big scheme of things it won't matter. But its hard. I didn't realize how much the ring meant to me until it was gone. :*(

On the bright side, I have really been feeling the love from DH these past few days. Clearly, we don't need a ring for that. I miss seeing my beautiful sparkly ring on my finger, but our love has not been lost like the ring was. And for that I am grateful. ( :