TGIF...Wait! Already?!?

I cannot believe it's Friday already. Yesterday when Cupcake reminded me it was Thursday I was shocked. But it's Friday. It's also CD4.
Tuesday after lunch I found out that Cycle #9 was a bust. I was upset, cried a few tears in the bathrooom, but then got back to work. The hardest part was going to agility after work because I knew, but Kevin didn't. I was more upset about having to tell Kevin that it didn't work than I was about it actually not working. He was so vocal and optimistic this cycle. When I did tell him once we got home he admitted to me that he was hoping for a BFP for his birthday. It broke my heart.
We have decided to take a break from TTC. We might start again in October, but for now, we're going to focus on adoption. Our homestudy appt on Wednesday went well. My individual interview went really long because our SW realized that morning that she hadn't gotten my autobiography. So it ended up being about an hour long. The couples interview was next and it was pretty short so I got out of there around 10am. Kevin's individual interview was about 20 minutes. The SW said that all our paperwork and clearances are in and everything cleared. So now we're waiting on our reference letters to come in. My friends tend to be procrastinators (like me) so I sent them all a text message reminding them that we had our appt and that the letters would be the last thing. I'll email them next week again. I don't want to be THAT friend that nags you when she's asked you for a favor but seriously, it's all our approval is contingent on. Get it in people!
About an hour after I found out about the failure of cycle #9, that lawyer I mentioned before called me. About a week after getting in touch with him, I called him again and told him that we were probably going to go with someone local but that we would keep him in mind in case we changed our mind. Well Tuesday he called to say that he's got a couple of birthmothers that he's getting ready to match up and wanted to give us a chance to be considered. Of course to be considered we'd have to pay him a retainer ($6,000) and that doesn't even guarantee that we'd get picked. It seems a bit much to me but our SW told us that's the norm when dealing with adoption attorneys. Kevin is still hesitant to use him because of what we learned on the internet about him (not good stuff). But then my Tia's co-worker swears by him and even went back a second time because she was so happy with the first. I'm going to try to call her again this weekend. Last time I never actually got a hold of her.
J's special mass is this weekend so it's off to exciting, exotic Trenton. But I'm really looking forward to seeing my cousin T. About a year or so ago, she had brain surgery to remove a tumor. J shaved his head bald when she did to show his support of her. RR told me that she's doing a lot better but I'm glad to be able to see her.

And now for a pick me up. Kevin was working from home on Wednesday and so he got to observe Dave & Les doing what they do when we're not there.

Happy Happy New Year!

I hope everyone had a great time last night and good day today. Hopefully not a lot of hangovers! Although since most of my readers are TTC, I doubt that's an issue. Kevin and I went on our traditional New Year's Day hike with the dogs. We usually take a photo as well but I left the memory card in my computer at work and so the photo we took this year isn't really that good. Also we went later in the day so Kevin was anxious to get back because the sun was setting.

Great news today! Andrea got a New Year's BFP! I'm so excited for her as she's been waiting a long time for this. Please keep her in your prayers and congratulations again Andrea!

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.

Let's talk about Dave, baby!

So cool thing that happened this week (which I didn't blog about because the whole RE thing took all my blog posts) was that the trainer at Les' agility class thinks that Les is 1 class away from being promoted to the next level.  I'm excited because this means that Dave can start back up again.

I noticed that I haven't mentioned much about Dave in this blog.  It's not because she's the ugly stepchild.  Just because she's been pretty boring lately. Well except for the whole macadamia nut episode.  Anyways, for the first 5 years of Dave's life, she participated regularly in agility.  She wasn't that good (wandering nose and not food-driven), but enough that we could have fun. When we moved to Ohio we did flyball for a little while but that really never took off.  Finally early this summer since I was taking a break from soccer, I wanted to pick up agility with both dogs.  Les had never done it before so to make things easier on myself, I planned to start Les only and when she reached the level I thought Dave was at I would then get Dave going again.  That way I would only be going to classes once a week instead of 2-3 times a week.  Well, Les is finally at that point, so in the new year, Dave starts her classes. 

A couple of months ago I had to do a project in PremierePro for a training class I was taking and of course I did it of the dog! So for your enjoyment, presenting Dave. Oh, and as the Wizard of Oz says "Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain."