Trial #4

Sunday night Kevin, Dave, Les and I headed down to Cary/Raleigh, NC for our fourth agility trial. It was a three day trial but we decided to only compete on Monday. After the fiasco that was Day 2 at our last trial (too long to explain), we decided against a second (or third!) day. Les was signed up for her usual Standard, Jumpers and Snooker events as well as a Pairs course (first time without Dave!) and for the first time a Gamblers course. Dave did Standard, Jumpers and Snooker.

First up Snooker. Dave ran first, she wasn't too distracted so we managed to score 18 points but we didn't finish the closing so no qualification for us. She did finish 4th in the class, one place away from a ribbon! Les did well, scoring 45 points, but another team scored 46 points and a second team was slightly faster than Kevin and Les so she ended up in third. But she qualified and it was her third qualification, so she titled!

Les is now a Performance I Snooker dog! This means that she'll move up to Performance II Snooker courses in future trials. The courses will be a little more difficult and the time will be a little shorter for her to do it in.

Next up was Gamblers. This was a Les only event. Kevin and Les did well in the opening (and Kevin learned how long 25 seconds really isn't) but couldn't finish the gamble in the time allowed so while she was able to score 13 points, it wasn't enough to qualify or place.

Then we had Standard. Dave was the second dog to run and she did really well! She had a bit of a problem laying down on the "table" but her weave entry was really good and she did all 12 of them first time through! We finished strong but she was 3.08 seconds too slow so no qualification. She did place third though. Les went a little later and also had a good run. A little hiccup at the weave poles though but luckily she finished well in time and so she qualified again! This is her second qualification. Only one more to title!

Pairs was the fourth event of the day. We decided to retire Dave from Pairs competition because we thought it was taking too much out of her to do so many events. So Les paired up with a cute Chinese Crested dog we met at the trial. Les was first up and for some reason jumped off the teeter before it had hit the ground so she was marked off for that. The other dog ran well too, but since this course is scored by time + faults, they were over the qualification mark. They did come in first though! Of course that's because they were the only dogs in the class.

The last event of the day was Jumpers. Since Dave and Les were the only dogs in their class we thought for sure that we had locked up first and second. However half way through the course Dave got the zoomies and ran out of the ring. Luckily she stopped quickly and we were able to get her back on her leash. Next was Les. She ran it perfectly (could have been a little faster though) and so she qualified! Her third one too! So she's now a Performance I Jumpers dog!

Kevin is trying to figure out how to officially change her name to Les, PKI, PJI. We had to wait around half an hour after her run so that we could collect her ribbon and certificate, thus the empty arena behind her.

First in Jumpers!

On October 24th Kevin got up at 4:30 in the morning, packed the car with way too much stuff, grabbed Dave and Les (well they get themselves in the car really) and headed to Misty Mountain Campgrounds (1.5 hours west of us) to compete in their first agility competition. Me? I slept in till 7:00 then got up and ready for my soccer game (which we lost :( ), coached and then got in my car and headed out to meet them. By the time I finally got there, Dave & Les had run their first event, the Jumpers course. Les knocked a bar down at obstacle #14 so she didn't qualify, but Dave ran a perfect run (minus the sniffing stops) and not only qualified, but came in first place! Go Dave!
I got there around lunch time. The rest of the day was wet and drizzling but it cleared up right before their Standard course. Les was up first and had another awesome run, however when she got to the table she forgot to stop so Kevin had to get her back on the table. This is an automatic NQ. Dave was next and she ran well. Well not really. She stopped to sniff several times, she tried to go through the tire jump the wrong way and wouldn't lay down when she got to the table. This all culminated in a time that was 42.06 seconds over the qualifying time. Oops. However between Les' faults and Dave's super slow time, they managed to get 1st (Les) and 2nd (Dave)! Okay, there were only 3 dogs competing in their class and the third dog didn't even finish the course, but that's besides the point. My dogs locked up 1st and 2nd!
Now Kevin is totally hooked. The next trial is Thanksgiving weekend. At first when he was told about it he didn't want to do it. His parents would be here and they wouldn't want to trek out to somewhere to watch us and a bunch of other people running around with their dogs. This was his assumption, not that he actually asked them. Well after the trial, he started thinking that maybe we could go and do a half day - a standard course and another nonstandard course. Well he finally talked to Mum and she's all for spending a day watching so now he wants to do the whole shebang, a standard course plus jumpers, relay and snooker. Yeah, he's hooked.

Calmness

That's me, Mrs. Calm. Well with some minor moments of anxiety, but I just say a quick "Our Father" and it all goes away. Tuesday was just a particularily rough day for me. Not only was I dealing with all this preggo stuff but I got into three separate "discussions" about plans for soccer. Nothing major, just a difference of opinions that eventually got worked out. I just really don't like confrontation. For years, I coached with three other people so any parent/coach/club issues that came up, I knew I wasn't alone and that they would stand behind me. But since I moved away from them, it's just been me by myself. I know the club is behind me, but sometimes I forget. Anyways, like I said, it got all worked out by EOD Tuesday.

Tuesday night when I went to bed I really dedicated myself to praying. I say little prayers all the time, but this time I really wanted to release everything over to God. So I prayed. I prayed about a lot of things but the thing I stayed away from was praying for this pregnancy. That might sound weird but I reasoned it out in my head that asking for GV not to be a blighted ovum or miscarriage seemed somehow to doubt that God had given me this incredible gift and was moving me along His plan. So I prayed for my family, Kevin's, all of you. And I drifted off to sleep still praying.

Wednesday was the complete opposite to Tuesday. I just felt so much better, not as anxious and able to think about this pregnancy in a positive mood. I felt so much better that when Dr. Grrr called I didn't answer the phone. I was in such a good place that I didn't want to bring up the events/feelings of the day before. But of course I did call him back. He did a great job of reassuring me that I was normal (with normal minimal pg symptoms) and based on what he's seen so far I have nothing to worry about. And in the end he reminded me that nothing we do right now is going to change anything about GV. If somthing is wrong on Tuesday nothing I did, Kevin did or Dr. Grrr did could have changed that. Tuesday we'll know and take the steps necessary at that point. It really did make me feel better. He also reminded me that he was the doctor on call this weekend so if anything changed (spotting, cramping, bleeding) I could call and know that he would be the doctor answering.

Yesterday was also Chicklet's 3 month birthday! Wow! I can't believe she's been around that long. Chicken posted new pictures and she's so precious. myMom thinks she's looking more and more like Chicken.

Today has been relatively calm too. Kevin and I are preparing for this weekend. I have four(!) soccer games, one on Friday & Saturday and two on Sunday. One to watch, two to coach and one to play in. Plus this weekend we are going to Les and Dave's first agility competition. We were going to go to it on Sunday, but then my game (the one I coach) got rescheduled for Sunday so we had to switch to Saturday. This means I'll miss Dave's Jumpers run but I should make it for the Standard one. Gonna be busy this weekend, but I'll be sure to keep you all updated.

The Family's Back Together

We're all home from our vacation, safe and sound. Although Les seriously tried to make that untrue. But more on that later.

Kev and I have been back for almost a week. I am planning on updating my vacation posts with pictures and more text, hopefully this week. In the 13 days that we were on our vacation, we took 975 photos and 4 hours of video. We didn't take any photos/videos on 2 of those days (2nd day at sea and while we were in Athens). We took only 1 photo on our first day at sea, so taking the remaining days and the number of photos - we took 97.5 photos per day! In Egypt alone we took almost 300 though! So obviously, I'll have a few pictures to post.

Saturday after the girl's game (which we lost 4-1, bummer!) we headed down to Savannah to meet myParents. Oh, and Dave and Les! They got there about 20 minutes before we did. After checking in and as we were driving to the room, we actually saw myDad walking Dave and Les and so we stopped and just watched. Then we went into our room (we were right next door) and I called myDad and told him we were hiding so to bring the dogs over. Kevin hid in the closet and I hid in the shower. They found me first and of course got excited so they they started roughhousing. I kept trying to get them to look for Kevin but they were too distracted. Kevin starting inching his way out of the closet and finally Les saw him when he was already half out! I felt bad for Kev but I'm sure he understood. After catching up for a bit, we drove around Savannah determined to find a dog-friendly place to eat, but with traffic/parking/the crowd, we gave up and picked up pizza and ate it back in the room.

The next morning Kevin was downstairs loading the car when I suddenly need to ask him something so I opened the door. As I was walking out, myDad asked me a question and I turned around and came back into the room. I thought I had closed the door and as I was walking over to myDad, myMom shouted and I turned around to see Les sliding out the gap. I "walked" after her down the corridor as I didn't want to run, thus turning it into a game. I tried calling her name, saying "Come!" and "Touch!" but she just kept going. At the end of the corridor she could have turned right and circled around the second floor or turned left and gone down the stairs. She turned left. I panicked at this point because we were right next to a divided semi-major road and she was headed straight for it. So I started to run. And she did. Right across the street and onto the path of an oncoming Jeep. All I could do was just stand there and watch. She made it most of the way and at the very last second got hit by the car. She cried out, but didn't fall, just sort of spun. I crossed the street, but she ran away again and into the parking lot of the building next door to the hotel. Then she just stopped and I was able to catch up to her. I checked her out and felt all over but she didn't cry out. Kevin caught up to us by this point and carried her back to the room. myDad checked her again but nothing seemed to be wrong.

We spent the morning/afternoon walking along the riverfront and around Savannah and she never slowed down or limped. I figured if she was injured, after the initial adrenaline wore off she would start to feel the pain, but so far nothing. We're keeping watch for signs of internal bleeding (watching the color of the gums and eyelids) but hopefully she'll be okay.

We got home around 10:30 last night and after unloading went about like normal. So did the dogs! It was like they never left!

Labor Day Recall

The drive down wasn't that bad. Kevin had a meeting get pushed back and so he ended up not leaving the house till 12:00 so we were half an hour off. Usually we handle it in three hour shifts and did this time as well. We got to my parent's around 1am. myDad actually let Les and Dave sleep in our room which isn't normal, but starting Saturday morning, they became outside dogs.

After their swim lesson in the morning (where we learned Les doesn'tuse her back legs when swimming) we left for Chicken's house. J is college football obsessed so we watched that, ordered in some Chinese food (which J doesn't like but was willing to endure since it meant he didn't have to leave his TV) and just hung out. Chicklet was a little angel. I even held her after her second feeding. Kevin held her right away and then again when I was done. I think he's ready for fatherhood. We left before dinner and when we got home myDad was out grilling (he's got the mac daddy setup!). myDad and I stayed up to watch The Sou.nd of Mus.ic. That movie is seriously a long a$$ movie! It's like 4 hours! Okay, I looked it up on imd.b.com and it's only 3 hours long....that's still long for an old movie. It'd be like a 6 hour movie in today's time, right?

I got Kylee done in enough time but didn't redo Chloe's head. I realized after I made them that their little button eyes are probably not kid-safe so I told Chicken and J that they could cut them off and I would reattach them when Chicklet was older. When I gave the dolls to Chicklet, J was so awesome. He took them to Chicklet's room and put them in the crib! Most of her dolls are on a high shelf in her room and I know that that's where they'll prolly end up, but still, it was cute to see him do that.

Sunday we went to Bus.ch Garde.ns. My mom had free tickets for working a big event held in February. It was a nice day for it and I got a hat for our cruise! Afterwards we cooked out again and then played Phas.e 10. It took 3 rounds for me to get the first phase done, but then I caught up and was in even in the lead once. Then Kevin won.

Monday morning came too soon and we had a 12+ hour drive ahead of us. But myMom and I got some shopping done at my favorite teacher store and then Kevin and I said our final goodbyes to Les and Dave. It was so sad. Les was all excited (she can sense when we're going on a trip) when we came out that last time. But we managed to drive away. We got home about 11:30pm.

So now that my 3.5-day weekend is over, I can relax and rest.

Not-busy 4th

Another 4th of July at home. Sometimes Kevin and I can be really boring. We talk the big talk but we don't actually walk the big walk (actually walking out of the house!). We are such homebodies sometimes and I know we've got to break out of it.

The weekend started good. We went back to Colonial Williamsburg on Friday for their goings-on. It was interesting, the highlights being the reading of the Declaration of Independence and the Fifes & Drums playing. We got back around 7pm and even though we had planned on going climbing, by the time we unloaded and ate, we were both so tired that neither one of us put up a protest when it was suggested that we skip climbing.

Saturday we didn't do much. We worked with Les and Dave on agility stuff. Last Monday, Les was promoted to Level 7. Woo Hoo! She's entering the serious dog levels. A few weeks ago I had a talk with Kevin about his plans for Les. I told him that if he didn't want to compete with Les we were good. However if he did, then he needed to step up his game. Currently the dogs go to class twice a week, one of those times without me so Kevin has to split his time between the two. But outside of class we don't practice with the dogs (we've got jumps and weave poles in our backyard). So he started leaving Dave behind on the night I couldn't go. With Les moving up to Level 7, we talked again about the fact that if he wants to compete then he and Les need to practice every day and that he needs to get more consistent with her training and discipline. Also, he needs to train her to master new "tricks" to keep her brain engaged. So now she's got to "work" for every meal outside with Kevin. I get to watch through the bathroom window (I don't want to be outside since I could be a distraction) and just from his work over the weekend I can already see her being more intuned to his body movements (the type of agility training we do directs the dogs by your body language rather than actually yelling commands at them). Also now that Les has moved up, he can take Dave to the Level 6 class which is right after Les' Level 7 class.

We also watched the Women's Wimbledon final. I love watching matches between those sisters. I'm always reminded of me and Wiki when I see sisters who have a really strong bond but also can just as competitive with each other as they are with everyone else and at the end of the day still be good (and even compete with each other for the doubles championship).

We were going to go watch the fireworks in town, but it would have taken forever to get to, forever to find a parking space, and forever to get out of because of all the traffic. So we skipped it. Then in the Sunday morning paper learned that a park near us had a fireworks show. Bummer! We would have gone to that one!

Sunday we watched the Wimbledon final. It was great! I really wanted And.y Rodd.ick to win and felt so bad when it didn't happen. Four hours though! Whew!

My baby is 9!

I'll try to make this fast as I only have 20 minutes left of my lunch break.

Two and a half weeks ago, on May 12th, we celebrated Dave's 9th b-day! Usually Kevin and I split celebration/gift duties, I get stuff for Les and he does the same for Dave. However, I think Dave got the shorter end of the stick because usually Kevin doesn't do much, if he remembers. Anyways, this year I wasn't able to do anything "just-in-case" because I had been in Florida the weekend prior and I was at work/BSC the day of. But when I got home from BSC, there was a surprise for Dave and me.
While I was out Kevin got Dave a cake from 3 Dog Bakery!! He remembered and drove across town while I was at my BSC to pick it up. Below is Dave's 9th birthday photo with her cake. All I can say is all those agility and obedience lessons paid off! Only once did it look like she was going to break her "wait" and try to gobble down her whole cake.
Finally she gets to have her cake!
Of course she shared with Les (maybe not willingly).
Finishing up! All in all, I think a nice birthday treat!

Movin' On Up

Last night was Dave and Les' first Level 6 agility class. This is a big step because it's the first time that they do their agility stuff outdoors. Lots of new smells, new textures and new things. Who wants to do the same obstacles. I didn't get to go because of my soccer game so Kevin took them. He said they did really well.
While there, he sees a notice that the rates for agility are going up. Right now we pay about $60 per dog per month. 2 classes a week, so about $6-$7.5 per class. Really not that bad because I use to pay $10 per class when Dave was younger. But now they're only going to let us come to class once a week. That's $12-$15 a class. Which sucks! Oh, we can pay almost double of that and get to go to as many classes a week as wanted, but really, who needs more than two classes a week? I've already told Kevin to prepare himself for the fact that after the dogs get back from Florida that we might not pick back up again. We're paid up until right before they leave. I'm sorry, I love my dogs, but there's no way I'm paying 240 bucks a month for them to jump around and sniff.

So. Hilarious.

This morning at 3:30am, Kevin and I awoke to the sound of a thump-thump-thump. We look over and Les had fallen off the bed! She was sleeping on Kevin's side of the bed. She got up and looked at us like we were the culprits that caused her to fall. Dave, who sleeps on her bed on my side of the bed even got up and walked over to make sure Les was okay. Then she decided to jump on the bed. And then Les got back on the bed. So from 3:30am to 6:30am all of us were on the bed. It was a bit cramped.

R. called me this morning to get my temps from Tuesday, Wednesday and today(98.1°) and she seems to think that I have ovulated. She's not sure if it was on Friday or Tuesday though. She said it's rare though not unheard of for someone to ovulate that late after a shot. Whatever. So I'm either 6dpo or 2dpo. I'm going to go with the 6dpo cause then I'm nearly half done with my 2ww and also maybe I'll actually make it to a 14 day LP, even if I am cheating. 

Holy Tender Boops, Batman!

Seriously, they are hurting! I don't ever think they've been this sensitive before. It all started Tuesday afternoon. I noticed that the girls were responding to accidental bumps (I'm a D cup so accidental bumps happen all the time!). I thought maybe it was because of my soccer game on Monday and how much running I did in that game. And then on the way home last night from BSC I started cramping up and seriously was concerned that AF was coming. Which is totally awkward because I didn't even know that I ovulated! And then this morning my temp went way up to 98° which is weird. I'm not sure what the heck is going on but whatever, I'll take what I can get.
Last night Les and Dave got promoted to Level 6! They'll now be doing agility outdoors! They're still not 100% consistent but they get better all the time. I'm kinda afraid what's going to happen in September (they're spending the month with my parents down in Florida) but hopefully they won't slide backwards too much.

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.

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.

I'm a Saboteur!

Remember how I posted about Les possibly making it out of Level 4 before Dave did? Well it happened. On Tuesday. At the end of a horrible class on Tuesday (Dave and I are NOT returning to any classes taught by that woman again!) the instructor approached Kevin and said that Les was good to move on to Level 5 but that Dave was not. Did he want his card, or did he want to wait till Dave was ready? Kevin took the card but told her Les would stay in Level 4 till Dave was ready to move up too. This is what we had already decided before the class. Knowing what was going to happen, I asked Kevin last week what we would do if Les advanced out. We only have one "dog" car so it would mean all four of us hanging around for 2 hours while each dog had their turn. He decided that both dogs would just wait for each other to both advance out of the class. The instructor(a different one) last night said that Dave prolly only has one or two more weeks before she'll be ready.

Anyways, yesterday as we were loading into the car, I closed the door after the dogs had jumped into the back seat and immeadiately, Les turned to me with a look on her face like "You eeeeeee-diot! You've just shut the door on me!" I opened the door right away and tried to get her to come out of the car so I could figure out if I caught her foot or her tail but she didn't want to come out. I finally had to reach in and lift her out. As soon as I put her on the floor, she turned around and got back in the car. There was no way she was getting left behind just cause she got hurt! She reminded me of past soccer players that roll their ankle or take a bad fall but get up and keep going because there's no way they're giving anyone an excuse to pull them off the field. So we went to class. Les didn't have the best class. She was a little shaken up, favoring one of her back legs - I couldn't tell which - and not doing well. Dave on the other hand had a stupendous class! But I'm not sure if it's because she really was on par last night or if it was because Les was not her usual stellar self so Dave didn't pale in comparison. Afterwards Kevin accused me of sabotaging Les so that Dave would look good. He was only joking, but I still felt bad.

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Yesterday when I noticed my temps going down, I commented to Kevin that we were going to have to make sure that we cuddled and slept right next to each other so that my temperature would be nice and high in the morning. I was kidding because I know that cuddling and being hot doesn't stop the progesterone from petering out, only being pregnant does. However last night I woke up in the middle of the night super hot! Kevin was like right next to me! I scooted over on the bed and went back to sleep and like 5 minutes later, woke up again because Kevin has moved closer! Soon I was right on the edge of the bed, trying to keep the covers on me and not fall off. I eventually had to do a "cat stretch" which pushed Kevin away and re-established my bed space. I woke up to take my temp like normal and Kevin asked what it was. 98.23°! He had this huge grin on his face, proud of doing his part in keeping my temperatures high. I didn't have the heart to tell him the high temp was probably due to interupted sleep and moving around more than usual. But still a high temp is a high temp, one that can keep the hope alive for one more day. But still, for you chart stalkers out there, take no stock in the high temp this morning. I have managed to sabotage my own BBT chart.

******

btw, that "You eeeeeee-diot!" from earlier is totally to be read like Ren always tells Stimpy.

FF is wrong!

Whew! Yesterday was a busy day. First was the RE appt.
Dr. G is definitely what you would call a character. He was much more animated than Dr. T and also more thorough. He asked us all sorts of questions about our family histories and about what course of treatment I had been on before. It felt like what an RE appt should feel like. He was excited to learn that I've been doing bbt for the past four months and even wanted to see the charts. Of course I didn't actually bring them with me. I printed out all my charts when I went to go see Dr. T the first time and even updated my file on subsequent visits but Dr. T hardly even glanced at them during the first appt and then never even asked me to see them after that. I didn't bring them with me this time so of course Dr. G wanted to see them! Then he decided to show us a video of past surgeries he's done to show us various problems. While he was pointing stuff out, he suddenly looked at Kevin and asked him if the room was getting hot. I looked at Kevin and he was loosening his collar and rolling up his sleeves. Dr. T told him he could lie down on the floor if he needed to and Kevin actually did it! The video was making him queasy! I didn't believe it at first but then I looked at his face and could see it. This is the man who can watch countless scary movies with guts, blood and gore. He can play tons of assassin type video games but he couldn't watch a video of an abnormal uterus/fallopian tubes/ovaries! I so wanted to laugh but I held it in.
Next came the exam. Which was a novelty because Dr. T never even did one. And he didn't have my records from my regular OB/GYN because they didn't fax them in time. So WTF? I was telling Dr. G that because of my temp rises, FF thought I ovulated on Friday. He said he didn't think so because I still had really good CM. Next we did an u/s and Bam! Sitting right there on the right ovary was a big a$$ follicle waiting to pop! He found a few cysts on the left ovary but he didn't seem to be too concerned about them. He told me to take a OPK test yesterday, but with everything going on, I forgot. Then this morning when I put in my new temp, FF took away my ovulation.
Afterwards we came up with a plan of attack. Since he thinks I'm going to ovulate soon, he wants to try to get this cycle in. We're going to do a PCT today and if I need a trigger then I'll get that. Also he wants me to try to lose 40 lbs and go on Metformin. He mentioned doing another round of Clomid or possibly Femara. I'm feeling really positive now about the whole RE situation. I'm so glad I switched.
I found a bigger lasagna pan at the store so Kevin and I tried to figure out how to transfer the lasagna without destroying it. We couldn't do it so we just dropped the smaller overflowing pan into the bigger pan. When I arrived at the family's house, I got out of my car, walked over to the passenger side and the door was locked. I fished in my pockets for my keys and they weren't there! I looked inside the car and there are my keys sitting in my purse. Arg! I've only ever locked my keys in the car twice and one of those times wasn't my fault! So I had to go up to the house and call Kevin to come open the doors. Luckily he took a half day like me so he was available but I was so mad at myself. After about 25 minutes he arrived and we were able to rescue the items. I was so embarrassed. Hopefully the next family will go smoother.
We also had agility last night and I think Les might advance out of the class before Dave does. Even though Dave has been doing this longer, Les has an edge on her. Because she learned everything in the school, she knows certain basics like nose touches, focus forwards, driving the line, etc. So all we have to teach her is the weaves. Dave is having to learn how to do the weaves despite not knowing how to do those other things (and sometimes getting a crash course so that she can learn those things) so it's a bit harder for her. Also there's a five year age gap between the two which I'm sure factors into it. I'm hoping Dave will catch up soon. I like agility being a whole family affair.

I can't get my fix!

Yesterday Dave and Les kind of flipped out. During the summer months, we'll leave Dave and Les out in the yard during the day to run around and enjoy the nice day. During the winter months they stay inside. They're the ones who make the choice about staying in or going out in the morning.
Yesterday when Kevin was leaving, Les was outside and Dave inside. Les was busy interacting with Gracie (the weimaraner next door) so she ignored Kevin's calls of "I'm leaving now!" He left her outside. When I got home, Les greeted me at the gate whining and complaining. Usually Les doesn't whine. She'll bark and yip and cry out sharply but she's not a whiner. But she was doing some fine whining as I was walking to the front door. When I let her in she ran inside (unusual because normally she lets Dave run out and then chases her around the yard) and squeezed under our bed. She stayed up there till Kevin got home and then she only deigned to come down to look at him and then ran back upstairs. She sulked for the rest of the night. Yesterday was a really nice day in the mid 60s but it was also very very windy. Apparently Les does not like wind.
While in the house alone, Dave decided to poo in the office. Really weird. And when I got ready to go to bed I went to move my BBT thermometer from on the bed (next to the laptop) to the side of the bed only to find that it was in three pieces! I was so pissed! She chewed my thermometer. When I showed it to Kevin, his response was "I wondered why it took so long for her to chew that up." Arg! I think I might O any day now and I won't be able to see that rise!

Why would you do that?

I didn't mention what happened to me yesterday morning. Saturday night Dave was more than a little lethargic. I figured it was the 3 lbs of pork in her, so I wasn't that worried. We all went to sleep like normal. Now Dave sleeps on her dog bed which is set up next to my side of the bed. Yesterday morning as I was reaching over to pick up my BBT thermometer, all I could smell was some one's eggy farts! I eyed Dave and she just kept sleeping like normal. I couldn't stand it so I gave up finding my thermometer and went back to sleep. 

Later when I got up I went to go pee. Dave has learned that this is the optimal time to be petted so she always wants to be in the bathroom with me. If I shut her out then she's at the door scratching, head-butting the door and whining. Yesterday morning she walks into the room and burps! It was horrible! The most rancid, putrid rotting meat smell I have ever smelled ever! As soon as she burped, she sniffed, gave me a look like I was the culprit and then turned around and high tailed it out of the room. I was stuck with my pajamas around my ankles, mid stream and nauseous from the smell. I got out of there as fast as I could. And what did I find in the bedroom? Dave had jumped up and curled up on my side of the bed. Yesterday morning was the only time I have shoved her off the bed.

Teaching a "New-to-Dogs" an Old Trick

I have had dogs almost all my life. And I've had Dave almost all her life. I know her. I know what she's capable of and I know how smart and resourceful she is. This is the dog who has out-smarted me several times and at almost 9 years old, she is still as opportunistic as she was at 6 months. She can open doors both inwards and outwards if she sees a sliver of light coming through. She has multiple times opened her crate/kennel to pass through. Both from the inside and the outside. She's also very agile, aware of her back legs (I'll explain this later) and can jump really high in the air. As in I have a photo of her jumping 6 feet high to catch a ball I had tossed up.
Anyways, when we moved to Ohio in 2005, I convinced Kev to let Dave live with him in his apartment. I was going to live with my Tía and Uncle. They already had three dogs so I didn't want to bring one more into the mix. Also Dave isn't really a dog's dog. She plainly prefers the company of people, more specifically her people (me and Kevin). Kevin had never had a dog before. He'd been around my family's dogs for years, but really that doesn't count. So when she moved in, I gave Kev very clear instructions on what he could do and what he couldn't do. What she would get into and what she wouldn't get into. After a few days, I learned that Kevin doesn't like to defrost meat in the microwave. He'd rather let it sit on the counter during the day. When I realized this, I told him very specifically that he would need to put anything he was defrosting in the sink when we weren't around and Dave was allowed to roam around the apartment. Then about a week after they moved in together, he left a pound of ground beef for our spaghetti that evening out to defrost. We got home from running some errands to shredded butcher paper on the floor, red stains all over the carpet and Dave urgently needing to go outside. As we were cleaning, I commented on how weird it was that she was able to pull the meat out of the sink. I wondered if she had actually jumped up into the space between the counter and cupboards. Kev then confessed that he had left the meat on the counter, "but I pushed it all the way to the back!" I thought that Kev had learned his lesson. And then today...
Kev left the boneless pork shoulder for tomorrow's meal on the counter. Somehow, even though he now puts all defrosting items in the sink, he decided to leave 8lbs of pork sitting on the counter. When we got home I could have throttled him. Dave had pulled it off the counter, got all the wrapping off of it and transported it to the living room rug to eat. The pork shoulder now weighed 5 lbs. And I think the only reason that Dave didn't finish it off was because the center was still frozen. After cutting off all the dirty, Dave-chewed pieces off of it, it now weighs 4 lbs. And Kev's defense?

"But I pushed it all the way to the back!"

A Photo Study of Dave and Les

This is a photo study of Dave and Les' interaction with their world.

Dave loves plush toys. She keeps them in her special basket and when she feels like playing with one, will dig through her entire toybox to find that one item she's looking for. The following pictures were taken while we were living in Ohio. Dave is a Floridian. So one day we were at the pet store and found the perfect toy for Dave. She loved it, it quickly became her favorite.

Les loves plush toys too. But for different reasons...










After I took these pictures, I put all of the toy's filling back in him, sewed him shut and put him back in Dave's toybox. Dave was none the wiser.
And we now keep an eagle eye on Les whenever she's near the toybox.

I've made it!

Today is 7DPO. I've lasted longer than last time I ovulated. I'm now in my 1WW. Also today I've reached my "Less-than-1-month-till-I-see-my-new-RE" point. Wow! I'm hoping this week goes by fast. And it should as it's going to be pretty busy. Tomorrow night we have the next concert in our RVA Symphony series. Tuesday is our adoption orientation at JFS. I'm excited about this one because I've heard that they don't have a marriage length requirement. Most places make you wait till your third anniversary before they'll even let you apply. Wednesday I'm going to a Family Meals Ministry meeting at church. Yes, part of the ministry is cooking, which I don't usually do here at home, but the other part is actually going out to the parish families and delivering the food. I wouldn't mind that part, I love meeting new people. Especially people that I might see later at church. I was kind of disappointed that I never ran into any of the ladies from the BSC at church. I guess they all go to earlier masses than Kevin and I do. Thursday is Les and Dave's agility class and Friday we're suppose to go climbing again. By that point I will be 12dpo and the HCG shot should be out of my system so I can test and get a reliable result. I haven't decided when I'm going to test yet, but I guess I'll decide that if I make it to 14dpo. Saturday is also the next meeting of the Infertility Support Group so I'm looking forward to that. It's been almost 2 months since our last meeting.
I have decided to take a break from BBT. I told myself that if I made it through 6dpo just fine, then really, I didn't need a temp again till 10dpo. So this morning when the alarm went off at 6am (Kevin set it for some reason last night.) I just got up and turned it off. Then I went back to bed. It's just a 3 day break, but at least I'll have three nights of being able to thrash around if I want and sleeping until the alarm goes off.

Resolution Time!

I love New Year's resolutions. I know, it may sound weird, but I do. As soon as December starts, not only am I looking forward to my birthday, but also to putting together my New Year's Resolution List. I try to set some goals for myself that are attainable but not necessarily easy. I also have some ground rules.

Rule #1 is that I can't resolve to do anything that is going to cause an extra expense. For instance, I won't resolve to workout at a gym 3 times a week because then I'd have to buy a gym membership.

Rule #2 is that I can't resolve to lose weight. I think losing weight is a horrible NYR. So that's never on my list (even though I could afford to lose a pound or two - or 50).

And my last rule is that I can't resolve to do anything that will inconvience someone else without first talking to them about it. Usually this person is Kevin. For instance two years ago I resolved to stop eating fast food. No more McDonald's, Arby's or Burger King. I defined fast food as food establishments with a drive-thru window though, so I still go to Subway all the time. Because that resolution meant that Kevin would be affected we talked about it beforehand. He agreed and 2 years later we're still fast-food free. It was hard at first, but now I don't even get the urge anymore. Except when I see commercials claiming the McRib is back (AGAIN!). I love the McRib!
So with all those rules, here's my preliminary list of NYR for 2009:

1. Workout on the elliptical machine at least once every three days. We bought one last year and I was really good about getting on every other day for about a month. Now it just sits in Les' room folded up.
   
2. Stop snacking during the day. I use to never snack between meals. And then I moved in with Kevin and that boy eats ALL DAY LONG! So since I was having to buy him snacks to get through the day, I bought stuff I liked as well. At my desk now I have trail mix, saltines, chewy granola bars, fruit cups, yogurt (in the work fridge), clementines, apples, a banana, gum and salad dressing (for the mythological salads I have for lunch). So I'm cutting back. I'm keeping the gum, clementines and apples but everything else is going.
   
3. Only going out for lunch once a week. Yep, gotta keep my El Paso Thursdays. But I'm brown bagging it the other four days a week. Dave's agility class fees have to come from somewhere.
   
4. Volunteer at BARK once a month. I can give up one Saturday morning a month to walk/clean up after dogs that don't have a home.
   
5. Get to church every Sunday. And confession at least 4-5 times. I got really good about this earlier this year then in October we stopped going.
   
6. Vacuum at least twice a month, sweep twice a week. I'm really bad about this and I've got two very hairy dogs. I won't tell you how bad, but it's bad.
7. TBD
   

So that's all I've thought of so far. I'm sure I'll think of more soon.