Busyness

Ack! How did an entire week go by without me posting? I need to get back in the habit of posting and commenting. Just as a warning, the next month or so's posts are going to be mainly soccer related. I tend to get a bit obsessive (at least that's what friends tell me) when I coach and with the break in TTC I don't really have anything else to write about.

Monday - Everything went great at practice. Except that I forgot my watch. I didn't forget it really, I just usually keep it in my car and then drove Kevin's car to practice. Wait! Crap, I did it again today. I think I need to buy another watch - one for each car. I don't normally wear a watch so I usually take it off first chance I get (in the car) and then don't usually remember about it till I'm on my way to a game/practice. So I leave it in the car. After practice I met briefly with the parents and got to meet my team manager. So far so good.

Tuesday - I use to play indoor at one place on Monday nights, but since I'm now practicing on Mondays, I had to switch to the other indoor place. They play on Tuesdays. This was the first time I was able to go and it turned out to be the last time they're doing Tuesday pick up games. Apparently not enough women are interested so they're trying to fold the girls into the co-ed league. Which is on Monday nights. But I did find out about an outdoor league that starts up next month. I might do that instead. Ooh, and I got to use my new toy - a Po.lar Hea.rt Ra.te Moni.tor (PHRM) - while playing.

Wednesday - Practice #2! It was stormy the whole drive (45 min. north of where I work!) up, but as I turned off the freeway, the storm let up. Turned into a real nice afternoon and a great practice. However I became confused when I was practicing and thought practice ended at 6:30 instead of 7. But because I'm me, I let the girls go at 6:45ish. Parents don't mind practice going 15 minutes late right? Even if it was actually 15 minutes early? I've warned most of them though that I very rarely end right at 6:30.

Thursday - I went to another game night. It was hosted by the same people as last time. We got to play a game called Last Word. It was awesome! It's like a mix of scattergories and something else but fun! You're shouting the whole time and sometimes you get caught up in arguing how an answer is not eligible and then someone else ends up with the point because you forgot to get the last word in.

Friday - I decided to play in the outdoor league but I had a few questions. Friday was the last day to register but the chick never called me back! I've also decided to actually start using my elliptical machine. I think Kevin and I are going to do a lot of walking on this cruise. When going through the excursions Kevin kept leaning towards the walking-tours-of-this-historical-city type of activities. I did a 45 minute workout and got to use my PHRM again. Also, Kevin and I have decided to do a kayak rolling class. But I can't register us till Monday!

Saturday - On Wednesday when I was finally cleaning out my soccer bag, I found a gift card to the local mall. And it was for $135! Yes! Sweet! It must have fallen out of the thank you card I got from my last team back in May 2008. However since it had been a year since it had been purchased it was only worth $127. Stupid monthly maintenance fees! Kevin and I went to DSG to pick up a few items. He got these shoes

and this bag. Of course for the cruise! :) I got some shirts and these ad.idas shorts (The new soccer club is adid.as and I've been coaching at ni.ke clubs for the past five-ish years). Plus I found this water bottle! I've been looking for this kind of water bottle for years! Anyways good shopping day. Of course we rounded it out with a trip to Targ.et and Ko.hl's.

Sunday - I had a very productive day! We watched the Form.ula 1 race and the first half of the WPS Championship game (not the second half, so no spoilers please!) while I did the weekly shopping list. Then after the shopping, we installed our rain barrel which we've had for MONTHS and never put in. But we got it in. Afterwards I did my 90 minute elliptical session (go PHRM!) while Kevin made this for dinner. Yum-O! We went to the Byrd to see Ter.minator: Salvati.on. And I got to squeeze in Tr.ueB.lood and De.sign S.tar before bed!

Today - It rained last night! RIC got 2-3" of rain! And Kevin said we'd go through a dry spell because we'd installed the rain barrel. I signed us up for the rolling class. We got the date we wanted. Also the girls soccer schedule came out. I knew I was going to miss two games because of the cruise but now they've scheduled a double header for that second weekend I'm gone! Come on! I don't know if I can reschedule (in the past they've been really rigid about rescheduling games), but I'll try.

Cycle News (finally!): I'm CD28 today and no signs of ovulation. My chart looks dismal. I'm thinking about taking some leftover Provera just so that I stay somewhat regular. Kevin and I are going to restart TTC when we get back, in October, so I might go in to see Dr. Grrr. I think I should do a u/s before taking the provera and also I want to have a game plan (and order any meds) for when we get back.

Adoption News: We have 2 references in! I talked to Chicken, Lylas and S and they all said that they were getting theirs in soon! So one of them did! We just need one more now. Also I called one local lawyer that had been referred to us, but when I called Kevin to confirm the appt he kind of freaked out about how fast everything was moving. So I cancelled the appt. Hopefully we'll talk about it soon and can get everything moving again. We also need to work on our profile book.

Well I think this post is long enough! I'll try to update sooner next time!

Oh, to answer some questions -

Beth - I'm coaching U-11 Girls.

A - I coach with a soccer club. I coach travel (select) soccer.

All Clear...Now

Today was the HSG (Hysterosalpingogram for those of you wondering). I was surprisingly not nervous about it. I showed up about 45 minutes early to get checked in. I got one of those cool patient bracelets. Once that was done I walked myself down to the radiology department. I was in the waiting room, just pulling out my book and they called me up. I then got moved to another waiting room. I settled down and pulled out my book and they called me again. This time I was in the actual x-ray room. I changed, got my book out again and about 5 minutes later, Dr. G walked in.

Once I actually laid down on the table, that's when I got nervous. But Dr. G was great, talking me though everything that he was doing. Even waving gauze at me telling me he was getting ready to use it. It hurt in the beginning, but pretty soon there wasn't really pain, just pressure. I got to see what was happening on a screen. I saw the dye go through the uterus and the fallopian tubes. The left one spilled out pretty fast. All Clear. The right one was a little blocked and Dr. G injected more dye and evenutally it spilled out. All Clear...Now. It was not lost on me that the right ovary has been the power player this whole time and the left ovary reluctant to do much of anything. I just love how my body keeps jinxing itself.

As I was leaving Dr. G made some comment about this cycle possibly working now that we've done this and cleared everything up. I kind of wish he didn't say anything because of course as soon as I got back to work I had to look it all up. According to this website:

There is some evidence that suggests that there is an uptick in fertility for the three cycles after the HSG.

I found some other websites that say the same thing.

The HMG injections started yesterday. They're not that bad. The worst part is the actual injecting the stuff in. It burns! Only three more days though!

In other Monday news: We won our indoor soccer game - 11-1. I scored two goals and had 2 or 3 assists. One assist off a corner I kicked in. Their lone goal came from a kick-off that caught our goalie too far from her line.
Also, we finally filed our taxes! We had to pay around $3,000 because Kevin messed up his withholdings during the year somehow. Did you know that if you owe more than $1000 you have to pay penalties on it? Yikes! This is the first year I've ever had to pay more than a couple hundred! I had my own business before so I got away with owing next to nothing and then with the deductions and write offs, I usually only had to pay a couple of hundred total for the year's taxes (since I was self employed, I didn't make regular payments through out the year like normal people do in their paychecks). Kevin has had the taxes done for ages, but always wants to double and triple check them before he sends them off.

HMG, HCG & HSG

Monday morning I got into work determined that I was gonna call R. as soon as possible and find out why she left me such a crappy message. I ended up getting sidetracked, but then R. called me. At first she was totally like "you left me a message on Friday?" and it took a while for her to remember that she called me first. Arg! I have a feeling I'm going to be feeling like that a lot with R. Anyways, she had my results: 0.8! WTF?!? That's like worse than worse. I was hoping for something positive. She said that she called in Provera to my pharmacy, we should order the HMG & HCG and come in that week with Kevin for an injecting lesson. I was like Woah! I told her that before I went and spent all that money on this stuff that I wanted an HSG done first. I figured that I've ovulated twice this year and that nothing has happened so that I wanted to know that all this plumbing worked before we took the plunge into the land of injectibles. She agreed with me and said she would talk to Dr. G.
About two hours later Dr. G called me himself and said that he agreed about the HSG and that once AF came, that I should call and we could schedule the procedure. He then said that he still wants me to do the injectibles. I agreed. About two hours after that, R. called me and wanted my credit card information so that she could order the HMG & HCG. But they only took visa, which Kevin and I don't have. She wanted to fax the Rx to me so that I could call them and arrange payment. My only fax machine is my computer and it's totally not set up to receive anything. I told her that I would be home around 5:35 and could set it up then. She said she would wait and then fax it to me. Well she calls me at 5:20 and says that she's gonna try sending it to me and she thought I would be home by now. Hello! Do you not listen? So I missed the fax. And because I was rushing to get home, I didn't stop by the pharmacy to pick up the provera.
That night was also the second Monday night BSC. I was totally unprepared for it but it was a good class with lots of great discussions. I'm determined to get all the coursework done this week. Also at 10pm I had my second soccer game of the season. It was okay, but we tied 5-5. I only scored once and I don't even think I had an assist. Although I did play a majority of the game which was weird cause we had 6 subs, so we each should have only played half. I guess D. really wanted to win. We were losing at half time and took the lead in the second half. But then with about 5 minutes to go, let them come back with a tying goal.

In A Family Way

Let me take you back in time. To 13 days ago - St. Patrick's Day. A friend, S, from my ISG is opening a new store and I went to the store opening. It's such a cute shop! I'm excited for her and her husband. Also while talking to S, she mentioned that she would like to join my bible study class(BSC) the following week. I was all sorts of excited and when I went to the BSC I told the organizer about it. Then they announced that the class originally scheduled for 3/24 would actually be the day before. Oh no! This meant I would miss the class because the family would be around, but also meant that I would miss S' first class. I was so upset. I emailed them to let them know I would be missing. They also moved the class that was suppose to be on 3/31 to today, but this one I can go to so I'm looking forward to going back - although I haven't done any of the weekly readings. Oops!
Two days later, Thursday, Wiki and I are out running errands when the "incident" occurs. I'll tell you more about this later though. I've still not wrapped my mind around it. We picked up my parents from the airport. Later we went to agility at the new agility place. The new building is huge and since it's a new place, very distracting. Les tried Kevin's patience, but we got some great pictures out of it. Dave was great for me. Ah, the benefits of having an older dog. :)
Friday we had a family shopping day. Kevin tried to get out of it, but I reminded him how he forces me to go on his family outings even though I have tried repeatedly to get out of them. I told him to think of these shopping trips as my family's version of going on big walks. So he came with us and was agreeable the whole day! We spent most of our time in Ko.hl's. I love that place. He even bought himself two shirts, a jumper, shorts & a hat! All I got was one shirt and some towels for the downstairs loo. Sheesh! Bonus though, we found a bathroom kit that we both liked right away, which is rare, so we're gonna go back and get it.
Saturday we went to Colonial Williamsburg for the day. Kevin and I had been wanting to go for a while, but everytime we had visitors, they always wanted to do other things. We got summer passes though, so we're hoping to go again during the summer. It is really a neat place and I'm itching to visit Jamestown now.
Sunday we had family portaits done. Last year, Kevin and I got them done with Dave & Les, but that place has closed down. Blast that economy! Anyways, this year we went to a place around the corner. No pets allowed! :(
Monday I went to work but everyone else went on a tour of battlefields near RVA. Then after work, I had my soccer game. D, the team manager, never got back to me to say it wasn't okay that Wiki played, so I took her anyway. It was a good thing though! As of game time, we only had 7 players ready to play. And we play 7v7! Eventually 4 other players showed up, so we had subs. The new players all seem to be good. We ended up winning 9-0. I was able to score twice and got 3 assists. Wiki didn't score but said she had some assists. Afterwards we went out to dinner.
Tuesday I got up at 4am to drive Wiki to the airport followed by Kevin with my parents in the car. Their flights out were at 6am! I then came back home and crawled back into bed until it was time to go to work.
So all in all a good time, very tiring, but lots of fun. And now you're only 6 days in the past.

Results

Dr. G called yesterday with results from Kevin's SA. Apparently it wasn't really an SA, it was a 24 hour motility test. Everything is fine though and Kevin is not the reason why it's taking us so long. He was happy.

I've been adding pictures to some previous posts that you might want to check out:

3/2/09 - Sticky - Snow in RVA!

2/12/09 - I Can't Get My Fix! - my thermometer AD (after Dave)

12/30/08 - A pleasant surprise - the flowers that Auntie L sent us

I've got more, which I'm determined to get up soon. I might as well have something for you all during this "break" of mine.

So remember how I was saying that one of the reasons why I joined the women's indoor team again was so that Wiki and I could play together? Yeah, well it turns out that it might be a problem now. I'm so annoyed. A doesn't think it will be really, but D (the team manager) wants to make sure that everyone is okay with this and won't get upset because they're losing playing time that they have paid for. Pffft. So she put it out to the team to decide. I guess this is the considerate thing to do.

Ooooh! Congrats to Kirke at Maybe I will have a glass for having two great betas! I tell you, this KU thing is catching (hopefully!)

AF, Agility and Soccer

Do you find that even though AF shows up, you somehow justify her presence as something other than another failed cycle. Lately, I try to find any excuse/cramp/twinge as a sign that this is just random and that I really am KU. Intellectually I know that it's over, but emotionally it always takes me like a week to get it. And it doesn't help that the past few cycles AF has been kinda flighty and barely even here. What happened to my nice normal visits?
In other news, Dave has completed Level 4 and now she and Les are back in the same classes. She'll only be going to one Level 5 class a week though because my bible study group is starting their next session next week. Actually we were suppose to start this week, but the snow has postponed everything. Anyways, it's on Tuesdays so Dave is just gonna have to work twice as hard on Thursday's Level 5. Our other class of the week is going to be Wednesday's Level 3 class. I'm bringing Dave down a level to work on some of those missing fundamentals that she doesn't have yet. I'm hoping in the long run it will benefit her.
I use to play on a co-ed and womens 30+ indoor soccer teams last year. I started in March with the co-ed team for the spring session. A co-worker of mine, A, wanted to put together her own team so she asked me to play as well as two other co-workers and the husband of another co-worker. It was a lot of fun and we did well, going undefeated during the season and even winning the EOS tournament.
The team decided to move up a division for the next session in June and then A asked me to be on a womens 30+ team she played on. I said okay and so over the summer, I played on both teams. Towards the end of the season, I noticed a shift in the attitudes and friendliness of the other players on my co-ed team. Towards me. Now I'm not the best player. The last time I played competitively I was about 75 lbs. lighter and even then, I was never a starter. However I am a damn good cherry picker. Give me the ball in the upper quarter and I'll get it in the back of the net. Now the team was still good, undefeated in regular season (and went on to win the EOS tournament again). About a week before the regular season ended, A told me that the team was disbanding. Several players were joining other teams or just taking a break. I said okay, sad that the team was not going to be any longer, but thankful to at least have my women's team.
Then a little birdie told me that actually the team wasn't disbanding, they just didn't want me on the team anymore. See they were planning on moving up a division again and pretty much thought of me as dead weight. I was devasted. And not because of being dropped. I could accept the choice they made both as a player and as a coach, what upset me so much was that A lied to me. To my face, a stupid and really bad lie. I had thought A and I were becoming friends, even going to lunch a few times a month and hanging out after work. At that point I could understand having to do what she did as the captain/manager, but she shouldn't have lied to me. Honestly if they had told me that they were moving up a division, I probably would have bowed out at that point. I knew in my heart of hearts that I would have never been able to keep up.
However by the time I found out what really happened, I had already signed up (and paid) to play again on the womens 30+ team and so I couldn't back out of it. I considered changing teams within the league, but really I didn't want to have to explain to that team captain/manager that I no longer wanted to play with her star player. So I played the Fall session. The team dynamic had also changed. I had issues with how certain players (not A) played the game and how vocal they got towards me and other players. I didn't really like playing with them and I didn't really want to play with A anymore. Things were a bit tense but I lived through it and at the end of the season I claimed some excuse for not playing in the holiday or winter session and said that if I did come back that it wouldn't be until the 2009 summer session.
Back in January, A approached me one day at work (we never talk anymore, only when we have to for work) and asked if I was able to come back to the womens team yet. She lamented that the team couldn't score anymore. I was noncommital and just shrugged it off. Then about a month ago she asked me again. I was missing playing at this point and had been considering signing up. My plan at that point was to sign up as a single player and then be assigned to another team. So I told her that I might and that to let me know when sign-ups were closer and I would probably do it. I figured she would "forget" and I could just say that I wanted to play again and since I never heard back from her, I joined another team.
Well last week she told me that our 30+ league was turning into a 25+ league. Also they were splitting the league up into two divisions, competitive and recreational. The team we played for was doing the recreational side. She also mentioned that players couldn't play in both divisions so that we were losing a few players because of that. The players mentioned were some of the players that I didn't like playing with. I started to reconsider. Yesterday she sent me an email asking if I was able to play on the team or not. The season starts in two weeks so they needed to build the roster. I went to talk to her and asked her if it was possible to put Wiki on the team so that she could play in the game while she was here and A said it would not be a problem. So I went ahead and signed up. Afterwards she said something about if the team does well, then they'll move up for the summer session, so I can use that as an excuse to move teams (if need be) claiming that I want to stay in rec. She also mentioned that one of our former co-ed teammates was also going to be on the team. I'm not looking foward to that, but hey at least I'll be playing again, and I've got a better exit strategy.