Neighborly News

So remember last year when we had our annual snow storm? While having a good time with my neighbors I found out that 3 of them were pregnant and due in the next couple of months? Well yesterday I went to go talk to #27 (who had a boy last April) to find out pediatrician recommendations (and to let them know we were expecting). While we were talking #36 stopped to chat, so I let them know as well. They let us know that while #42 (who had a girl last May) were going to wait another year before trying for kid #2, #43 were pregnant again! With twins! They had a girl in late May/early June. Wow! So three new kids last year and three new kids this year. GV is gonna be right in the middle of the pack. And I was figuring he was gonna be the little one always tagging along with the older kids.

Sleep Woes

Last night I was absolutely miserable. Sleeping has become a chore. I use to be a good sleeper, I've always been a good sleeper. I started sleeping through the night really quickly. myMom was worried about me so one night she stayed up watching me in the room and realized that I was waking up, but then going back to sleep all on my own. As a toddler, I would rearrange my covers and then fall back asleep. When I got to first grade I was absolutely devastated when told there was no nap time. Even the mockery of my classmates didn't stop me from campaigning to have it. I could fall asleep anywhere (and have!) and at any time of day. Sunshine? No problem. Lights on? Pfft! Alarm clock blaring? Annoying "car alarm" in my dream, but nothing to wake up over. I love sleep and sleep loved me.
But it doesn't love me anymore. I wake up so many times during the night. Not to pee, not for leg cramps or heartburn or indigestion, nothing pregnancy related. I wake up and most times it takes me a while to fall back asleep.
My new sleeping position doesn't help. I use to fall asleep on my tummy. If I didn't then during the night I'd move onto my tummy. My next favorite position is my back. The one position I don't like? My side. Sleeping on my side hurts. I wake up with my hips hurting. The hip on the bottom hurts from all the weight pinned on it and the hip on the top hurts from the "awkward" angle my leg is being kept at. My knee on my upper leg hurts because of the same thing. Unless I put a pillow between my legs. Which is another reason I wake up. Not being able to switch from side to side with minimal barely-waking effort. It becomes something I must wake up to do. Also my bottom arm either falls asleep or if I extend it straight out, aches from hanging off the bed.
Also Dave has decided that she's gonna start sleeping on the bed. Which is very different from Les sleeping on the bed. Les is 10lbs lighter and so she is easy to move if she's in an inconvenient spot. Also if you move too much near her she gets up and jumps off the bed. Les wakes up a lot and moves to different spots on the bed so while I might wake up once and she's below my legs, an hour later she might be between Kevin and I. Dave sleeps like her "Mom." Once she falls asleep, she's not moving till morning. If you kick and move your legs she's less likely to move or get off the bed. Since she's heavier, she really weighs down the covers and it can be impossible to adjust them in a sleep induced state.
So what does this all mean? I sleep less and less comfortably. I can't do anything to make sleeping better. And it's likely never going to go back to how it use to be.

Run Baby Run

Kevin has decided that he wants to run a 10K the last weekend in March. He has 11 weeks to train. This past weekend, we went to the mall to get him new running shoes. He just started on Tuesday. As a former long distance runner, I've been offering lots of tips and tricks. I've warned him that even if he doesn't want them, he's gonna get them. And not just from me, but from myDad and Wiki too. See, myDad was a long distance runner. In high school he was the best long distance runner at school. He won races all the time. He won city races, county race, tri-county races. Had he not given up his running career because he got married and had a kid, who knows what he would have done in his Junior and Senior years of high school. Wiki was a long distance runner. She ran road races with myDad from a very young age. In high school she was the 2-mile state champion in track her Sophomore and Junior years. Her senior year, an injury kept her off the team. Wiki is also very small. She'd be around 4-6 inches shorter than her competitors but none of them could keep up with her.

And then there was me. I was a long distance runner. I ran my first race when I was 7 years old. My PE coach, who was also Wiki's PE coach, realized that I might be a runner after she saw Wiki win a race. So she recruited me to the track team. A track team made up of 4th-6th graders. I was in the 2nd grade. But I could keep up with them. Then when I got to the 4th grade, I was placed on the middle school team (then 7th & 8th). Every year I competed in 1500m races as part of a school team. In high school I was a miler. And a pretty good one. I wasn't state champion level but I was always the best on the team. Then I got recruited to the cross country team. That's when I really started running. Some days I'd clock between 8-10 miles a day. I went running in the morning before school, went running after school at practice and then when my dad got home around 8pm, went running again. Always with my dad right next to me. The bane of my dad's existence at that time was that I ran just to run. I wasn't focused on being the best. After years of training Wiki he had me to deal with (polar opposites). Finally after a year in college I retired. I've gone running occasionally since then, but I haven't run a race in over 13 years. Which shows. Since I quit running I have gained 80 lbs, most of it in the 3 years after I quit. Yeah, I still ate like a runner.

So add this all up and Kevin has joined a family of runners and then decided to run. Oh, and have I mentioned that we're all coaches as well? Good luck Kevin.

It's Cold Outside

Very cold! Yesterday around 4:30pm it started snowing and didn't stop until sometime in the early hours of the morning. When we went to bed there was deffo 8 or 9 inches already. Today we didn't get to do much because of all the snow. The Liv.erpool game was a on early in the morning so Kevin was watching that. Then some neighborhood kids came over to find out if they could use our hill/driveway to sled down. Les came down later and you could clearly tell that she wanted to go outside. But not on her own. With Kevin. So she kept bugging him and then bugging me. I eventually guilted him into taking her outside. They played outside for about 20 minutes and then she was ready to come back inside to warm up. Then about an hour later Kevin wanted to clear a path in front of his car so we all suited up and went out front. Different kids were going down our driveway. After a while we went for a walk and hung out some more and then came inside. Other than that it's been watching TV and watching kids sledding. Even now I can hear the kids outside.

Body Says: It's Time for a Break!

It seems that AF found me after all. Sunday morning there she was, ready to greet me as I greeted the new day. It's official now, I had an 14 day LP. Go me. I was actually alright with it and went about the morning activities like normal. Then at breakfast myMom asked me about it. Last year when I started going to the doc more often, I told her about my having PCOS and that if I wanted to get pregnant that we would have to get it under control. We talked about it a bit and since then she's asked a few times if the medicine was working yet. Well Sunday morning when she asked me, I just burst into tears and told them everything, the medication, injections, and results. The fact that we were now pursuing adoption. They were upset, but I'm sure more concerned about me. I didn't really mean to tell them like that or right then, but when they asked it just all sort of came out. As I was leaving for the airport, myMom gave me a nice long bear hug and myDad reminded me that none of this is my fault and that I shouldn't blame myself.
Yesterday I had an appt with Dr. Grrr. Even though I was done, I wanted to go in and see about medications (BCP/Provera) I should take just to keep me regular. He wanted to do an u/s though and when we did, we found a 15mm cyst on the left ovary. So even if I wanted to keep going, I have to take a break. After the u/s we had a meeting in his office. He told me that he has no idea what's up with me. He doesn't think I have PCOS. He thinks the GYN just told me that because I'm overweight and I have irregular periods. But from what he's seen, he's pretty sure I don't. He said that for a 31 year old, taking as much of the HMG that I'm taking for as long as I take it, I should be producing lots and lots of follicles. In normal patients when this happens it's usually some form of poor ovarian reserve, premature ovarian failure or early onset menopause. However my FSH levels are normal, not even slightly disturbing. Right before ovulation, my E2 levels are within normal range as well. So he's stumped. He now wants to give me Lupron. Lupron - as in what they give to IVF candidates. Lupron combined with HMG or FSH. He said I had time to decide (because of the cyst).
When I got home, I told Kevin what happened and what Dr. Grrr said. I mentioned that we would have to take a break no matter what. And then he looked slightly crest fallen. Which surprises me as I thought he was onboard with the adoption track. Guess I'm going to have a talk with him. Which is annoying only because Kevin's stock answer to any life questions like this usually is "whatever you want" (or some variation). It's like pulling teeth to get him to admit what he actually wants.

Going for a record!

Last night when I got home I was in a weird mood. All day I had been having twinges and even though I'd been to the bathroom numerous times, there was still nothing. Kevin and I talked a bit and one of my last statements was "We should go out for dinner." He vetoed that idea, so we went downstairs and started cooking Rach-aroni-Paella (minus the shrimp cause Kevin doesn't like them). We had just started simmering the rice when all of a sudden the power went out. It flickered back on for a few seconds and then went out again. This was about 7. Outside it had been lightning and thundering, but now the wind was howling and raining and there was even hail! We waited for the power to come back on and nothing. Finally around 8 we gave up and ordered pizza. Thirty-five minutes later we had our pizza. Right as we were sitting down to eat, the power came back on. We just smiled at each other and dug in.

So it seems that I've made it to 12DPO. I'm a little nervous and a little excited. Yesterday's bad habit of going to the bathroom every hour to check has continued. So far so good. I want to be optimistic, but not over do it. Almost like if I wish too much for it, there's no way it will actually happen. Twinges continue today. Kevin talked about testing tomorrow, but I don't know. We have one test left that I could use, so we could. It's just whether I can put myself through that.

Ohio, not Florida

Six months ago I thought I would be in Ohio this weekend instead of Florida. MyMom has one sister, B. Tía B has two sons D & lil G. D is 11 months older than me, lil G about 3 years younger. Growing up, D & lil G spent most of their years in Germany. They finally moved back to the states, to Georgia, when I was in the 8th grade. The following year myMom, myDad, Wiki, Grandma, Grandpa and I moved to Florida. My grandparents were always wanting to go visit D & lil G (they never got to see them while they were in Germany) so Wiki and I often tagged along. Right before Senior year of HS, they moved again and then kept moving every year or so (Uncle G was in the Ai.r F.orce). They finally settled down in Ohio.
Anyways, back in 2004, Tía B called and said that lil G was getting married. Then a few months later she called to say that he wasn't getting married anymore. A few months after that, she called to say that lil G had gotten his new girlfriend pregnant and the first grandchild was going to be born in February of 2005. J was born and plans for marriage were put in place, but nothing really materialized. They had an off and on relationship that finally collapsed right around the time that I got married. Wait, there's more!
In the summer of 2008, Tía B called and said that lil G was getting married. His new fiancée wanted to get married in the church and so they wouldn't be getting married until the first weekend in May 2009. Well fast forward to January and myMom calls Tía B to check on some things before booking her flights and Tía B tells her that there isn't going to be a wedding in May. Not because they've broken up, but because lil G's fiancée is pregnant. She's due in August 2009 and so wants to have the wedding after the pregnancy & birth.
My mom sends me an email to let me (and the rest of the family) know. When I got this email, I was like "Wow!" I was in the beginning of a new cycle, just having come off an anovulatory 45CD cycle. Also, I had just learned that Chicken was pregnant (obviously you can tell which affected me more).
These were the first pregnancy announcements that came with a stab of pain since now I was dealing with infertility. Since then, I've been trying to figure out how I should deal. This is my conclusion.
I believe that God has a plan for me. It is His plan and the best plan. I trust in His plan. I believe that God wants me to be a mother, but how He will make me a mother, I have no clue. All those women who get pregnant, whether by choice or by accident, are just women who happened to get pregnant. Just because they got pregnant doesn't mean that I will not have kids one day. Those lives/souls were never meant for me, so how can I mourn the lost "opportunity" when it was never mine to begin with? Does it hurt when I find out about it? Yes. Does the start of each new cycle cause pain. Yep, but it's okay. Because I trust in His plan for me. I trust that I will be a mother one day.

⁸"For My thoughts are not your thoughts,
Nor are your ways My ways," declares the LORD.
⁹"For as the heavens are higher than the earth,
So are My ways higher than your ways
And My thoughts than your thoughts.
¹⁰"For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven,
And do not return there without watering the earth
And making it bear and sprout,
And furnishing seed to the sower and bread to the eater;
¹¹So will My word be which goes forth from My mouth;
It will not return to Me empty,
Without accomplishing what I desire,
And without succeeding in the matter for which I sent it.
                Isaiah 55:8-11

Early Week Update

Monday I went back into Dr. G's office. I was kind of apprehensive about going in because all weekend I'd been having ovary pains. But on the right side where the wimpy follicle was not on the left side where the two super follicles were. At the u/s we looked at the left side first and Dr. G was not impressed. The follicles had barely grown and in fact more follicles were getting bigger but the two big ones from Friday had pretty much stayed the same size. Then he looked on the right side and that 7mm follicle had jumped to be 12mm! Great growth, but still on the small side considering I was on CD14. Course of action: up my daily injection from 150iu to 225iu and come back on Wednesday for another u/s. Dude! I have a job! I can't keep taking time off to come in for an u/s! But whatever, of course I'm going in today.
So baby news: Last wednesday #25 had their baby. A little boy. They came home on Saturday and put a big stork in their yard. I've already talked to them and mentioned I would like to cook them a meal so I'm waiting for them to tell me when is a good night. Tuesday my co-worker's wife was induced. They're having a little girl. I haven't heard the details yet, but I'm sure pictures of her/them will be posted on the board in the break room (this is what happened last year when two other co-worker's wives had their kiddos).
This spring, the BSC I go to has been working through Beth Moore's Breaking Free: Making Liberty in Christ a Reality in Life. I've been having issues with this study for various reasons but this past week was Week 6 which I had a problem with nearly every day. First off, in the second day in she makes a sweeping declaration that "practically every little girl has at least four dreams: 1) to be a bride, 2) to be beautiful, 3) to be fruitful (which we usually define as having children), and 4) to live happily ever after." As someone who didn't grow up wanting to be a bride or have my own kids, it really rubbed me the wrong way. And yes, I know she said "practically" but it didn't read that way when I first came across it. I know I've changed my mind and I did do the first and am trying to do the third, but it just bothered me. Anyways, I was really interested in what the day that covered topic three was going to be like and it was a mixed bag. There were some great parts, "Infertility offers fertile soil for shame." and accordingly "Remember, shame is Sa.tan's game." Which confirmed decisions I had made for myself about dealing with this whole struggle. But the rest of the daily just seemed dismissive, that while we might not be able to have physical children, we'll be blessed with spiritual children (based on Isaiah 54:1-3). Children who are not our own but who we've been able to help guide and shape spiritually. I've coached, I've taught, mentored and just befriended lot of kids who still keep in touch now that they've become teenagers and young adults. And you know what? It's not the same. Maybe it's just little of me and maybe I'm not opening myself up to what God might have intended for me but I in no way believe that I'm going to be fine with that if Kevin and I go through life being a family of two.

I'm not sure if you've noticed...

But this weekend saw a slew of posts going up. I'm developing this habit of starting a post and then getting really busy so I figure I'll finish it later. Then I think of something else to write and so I start another post the next day and then all of a sudden it's three days later, I've got three unposted unfinished entries and I need to get them out for today's post to make any sense. So yes, they are backdated, but it's the only way I can keep everything organized.
My temp today was not in the optimal area. Lower than I would have liked, but higher than pre-ovulation. So much so that if I do get that rise on Monday, Tuesday & Wednesday, FF will likely decide that I ovulated Sunday instead of Saturday. Then again, if I don't see a rise by tomorrow then I think I'm going to just give up on this one and move on to Cycle #7.
This weekend has been pretty boring for us. A lot of relaxing and watching TV, although I've still not finished watching the finale of ER. I did catch the WPS game and it was pretty good. I didn't realize that Heather M.itts and Kelly Sm.ith were both on the Breakers team. They are both ex-Charge players so I might have to switch my allegiance. We'll see.

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.

Return of the KMO!

Yes I'm back. It's been almost 2 weeks since my last post, and it's not cause I don't have anything to tell you all. Things have been crazy with the visiting family and then I spent the rest of that time just catching up - laundry, yardwork, sleep! Yikes! But I'm back and I've got a few things to share with. I won't launch into them all now, cause it's late and I don't want to bore you with a long rambling post, but I will share in the coming days.
In my absence, I've done a poor job of keeping up with you all as well. I'm sorry! Work has been crazy busy lately as we're getting ready to launch a new product so very little free time on the internets. I'm still catching up with most of you, but I should be back on track by the end of the week. I hope!
Have a good week!

500 Days of Wedded Bliss!

Kevin and I have our own website. I created one for our wedding. On there, I built a little widget that counted down to our wedding and then once the wedding took place, started counting up. I kept the website up because I keep saying I'm going to update it or turn it into a blog, however I've still not done it yet. Anyways this morning when I got on the internets (it's set as our homepage) I saw that our ticker said "500 days of wedded bliss!" Even Kevin was a little amazed when I showed him.

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!"

The Hassle of Getting to Work

This morning on the news they warned about "black ice" on the roads. These are apparently puddles of water on the road that freeze over especially on bridges and overpasses that can send your car careening down the road. So I've had to slow down my usual commuting speed. Then when I finally get to work - only 2 or 3 minutes late, there is like NO ONE in the parking lot. There were about 3-4 cars parked right in front of the building but no others. So I start freaking out that maybe something happened in the building and they called to say not to come into work, but since I didn't check my phone before I left the house, I just came all the way down for nothing. No messages on the phone. So I just grabbed my stuff and went in. Everything was dark - like it is when I show up 10-15 minutes early - but there were production people around. Then about 5 minutes after I got to my cubicle everyone else in the office showed up. Apparently the whole office was running late today.
On my way in I noticed two utility trucks pulled over right before my turn into our building. Today I had to go out to St.aples to pick some stuff up. I pass by the utility trucks and they've put a huge hole in the road. I pick up what I need and I'm almost back, turning the last corner to our road and there's a motorist assistance guy standing there forcing everyone to turn around. I look down the road and there's a bunch of flashing lights where those utility trucks are. I explain to the guy that I work down this road and he just says nope. I ask if I can come up the back way and he says he doesn't know. So I had to take a long detour around the freeway and come in from the other side. I get about three buildings down from mine and they've coned off the road. Two police standing there, refusing to let anyone pass. I drive around for a bit and then stop at the closest parking lot to the office and have to walk in the rest of the way. Apparently a couple of people called into work by then to say they couldn't get in so everyone was panicking because it was near lunch time and they didn't know how they were going to get out. Luckily since I had to park outside the barricade, Cupcake (my co-worker) and I were able to go out. We had to go the long way around since all the food places are back on that first road. When we got back after lunch, they let us get as close as the entrance to the office complex on the other side of the road, so we were able to park across the street.
I've put up a map so you can see how silly this whole thing was. (A) is where I was trying to get. The green arrow was where the Utility Trucks (and people) were. The blue route is the way I normally come and the red route is the detour.

Yes, I am a bit bored at work today.

4 days past...

I'm feeling better today, a bit more upbeat. Les is still doing a great job at being a blanket weight. Although last night I *made* sure I had enough blanket before I fell asleep. I'm keeping up my annoying habit of waking up some time during the 5 o'clock hour. It's beyond annoying actually cause I quite like my sleep.
I've been trying so hard not to plan this cycle. You know what it's like, thinking "If I get pregnant then it will be due on this day; we'll tell my parents on this day like this; we'll send out these cute cards." It's not that I'm not hoping those things will happen, but I'm trying to be more "in the now" kind of person. Live and enjoy what's going on now and stop focusing on how life will be if or when I get pregnant and have a kid.
At work we've been working on building a fa.cebook app. Can I just tell you that the instructions are a bit more complicated than they need to be? They're also out of date since the new interface. But I think we'll have something working soon. Hopefully. Well better get back to it.

How did that get there?

So I forgot to mention that while I was on the phone with Chicken Tuesday night, I kind of got into a car accident.  Yeah, I was driving on the freeway, at night, during rain and talking on my phone.  I would have been fine if the huge truck in front of me didn't suddenly stop. But it did and I tried to stop but I hydroplaned so I tried to go around the car but the shoulder was skinny and I didn't want to go on the grass.  Well the right front of my car hit the back left of his truck.  We pulled over and of course there was no damage to his vehicle.  And we couldn't see any damage to my car so we just left.  Then when I got to the store I parked under a huge light and took a second look.  Turns out the that truck's trailer hitch made a perfect square impression in my car!

Yeah and I haven't told Kevin about it.  I know, I know, I need to but I'm not looking forward to it.  And besides it's not like it's going to show up on any police/insurance reports. He hasn't even noticed it yet and he's been driving my car around for the past three days! Maybe if and when he finally asks I'll just say "How did that get there?" It could work?!?

So Productive!

I feel so productive today! I managed to clear off the dining room table and the coffee table. It looked worse than this before picture. Plus I swept, put away the clean dishes, scrubbed the tub and went for a bike ride at a local trail. It was a bit harrowing at times considering that I have a road bike and I was struggling to get it over roots, logs and through the mud! Kevin has a proper mountain bike so he was just flying through everything. Eventually I gave up and just biked along the paved trails while Kevin was thrashing his way through the trails. We're gonna try to go out on the bikes twice a month or so. He says my bike looks used now (courtesy of the mud stains) rather than living it's life in a garage.

So I've come up with a "Honey Do" list for myself - 12 projects in 12 months. I figure if I have a set item each month, they'll actually get done. My January project is:

Decorate bedroom including:

1. Finish painting other two walls,
2. get pictures framed and hung,
3. buy a hamper &
4. get a bench for foot of bed.
5. buy/make nice window dressings.

I'll let you know how successful I am for this month.

Happy Crimbo!

Hope you and your families are having a fantastic Christmas with lots of pressies and plenty of good cheer! Every time I visit I tend to pick up a new piece of slang and this year it's "Happy Crimbo!" Kevin's family is located near Liverpool (yes Kev's been accused of sounding like one of the Beatles) and did you know that Liverpudlians have their own accent and dialect? Five points if you can guess the name of it.